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Article: Warm-water ``rings' may boost strength of hurricanes, scientists say.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- June 3, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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VIRGINIA KEY, Fla. _ By tropical standards, it was a feeble little thing.
In October 1995, Hurricane Opal was lumbering through the Gulf of Mexico, carrying winds that barely qualified as hurricane-strength. Suddenly, just 14 hours before it struck the Florida Panhandle, it morphed into a 135-mph storm, churning up a tidal thrust that swamped two-story buildings, leveled sugar-sand dunes and caused $1.9 billion in damage.
It was not the first fickle storm. Several of the worst hurricanes to punish Florida and the southeastern United States, including Camille in 1969 and Allen in 1980, rallied in their final hours and became far deadlier than forecasters ...