Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 16, 2006



Hurricane Mitch was one of the most powerful and deadliest hurricanes ever observed, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (290 km/h). The storm was the ninth hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season. At the time, Mitch was the strongest hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic Ocean in the month of October, though it has since been surpassed by Hurricane Wilma. Mitch formed in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22, and after drifting through extremely favorable conditions, it rapidly strengthened to peak as a Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. After drifting southwestward and weakening, the hurricane hit Honduras as a minimal hurricane. It drifted through Central America, reformed in the Bay of Campeche, and ultimately struck Florida as a strong tropical storm. Due to its slow motion, Hurricane Mitch dropped historic amounts of rainfall from October 29 to November 3, with unofficial reports of up to 75 inches (1,900 mm). Deaths due to catastrophic flooding made it the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, killing between 11,000 and 18,000 people. The flooding caused extreme damage, amounting to around $7 billion (2005 USD). (more...)

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