Duane 3NE 2NR wrote:Habit7 wrote:If God was a Trini, Guyanese, Jamaican or any other nationality he won't be God, he would just be a citizen of a country.
OP stop propagating this nonsense that God is a trini. God is holy, which means he is not like us. Lack of recently receiving one type natural disaster doesn't mean we as a nation are any closer to God.
Will praying help to divert a natural disaster?
Actually, yes. It has happened before. Tropical Storm Bret in 1993. Tropical Storm Alma in 1973.
Alma, the strange tropical storm
Sunday, September 29 2013
THE EDITOR: I read Renelle McLean’s sad recall of the demise of her grandmother during the passage of “Hurricane Alma” on August 14, 1974. I am sad, as I am certain everyone is, about her loss. But her letter of September 19, is addressed to Whom It May Concern, and I feel that I am among those addressed.
Tropical Storm Alma took the lives of 51 persons in the region, 49 of which were due to an airplane crash on Isla Margarita, when wind gusts reached 88 mph as an aircraft (Linea Aeropostal Venezolana Vickers Viscount 749 turboprop airliner) was landing, and the craft was pushed into the side of the mountain La Gloria. There were two lives lost in Trinidad, one likely being Renelle’s grandma.
At the time of Alma’s passage, I was a duty Meteorologist at the Piarco Meteorological Service. I can vouch for the following information, since in addition to being on duty during Alma, I also researched the event, taking several trips in the field to collate and write facts as I found them, eventually exchanging the information with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.
Firstly, Alma was not a Hurricane when it traversed Trinidad. It was a moderately strong Tropical storm when it was named on August 13, following US Navy flights into it, but importantly, a facility in Point Lisas reported wind gusts reaching hurricane strength. Renelle correctly identifies the location of some strong winds in the northern quadrant of Alma when it passed through, causing the fatality she referred to, plus at least one more.
Secondly, Alma was a very strange tropical storm. It developed from a disturbance that left the African coast on August 9, becoming a tropical depression by August 11.
The system was named Tropical Storm Alma on August 13 when 375 miles east of Trinidad, with the hint of an eye, suggesting a very strong cyclone at that time. Usually, from that location the storm systems move west-northwestward, but Alma persisted in a westerly course heading inexorably straight to Trinidad.
When it was developing miles away from TT the public was alerted via all media, including by myself, on Trinidad and Tobago Television, to the possibility of a strike.
That is, there was a public alert three days before the anticipated storm passage.
Watches and warnings were promptly issued by the Met Service as the threat became imminent, and the public information led to most of the nation anticipating Alma’s visit.
Thirdly, to the surprise of all meteorologists at Piarco, and the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Alma turned out to be one of the smallest storms (less than 80 miles in diameter, as seen on satellite pictures) ever to threaten the area. But there was still another surprise in store. Instead of striking the developed E-W Corridor, Crown Point Weather Radar showed that it dipped a bit southwards on final approach, with the centre eventually landfalling at Mayaro, passing through Barrackpore, Fyzabad, Palo Seco and weakening as it tracked toward La Brea. Circulating winds were weak in the southern quadrants and most of the strong winds (reported between 35 to 53 mph) and torrential rains were in the northern sectors of the storm. It took three hours for the entire storm to traverse Trinidad, and it then crossed the Gulf of Paria, moving west-northward before making a second landfall, entering Venezuela in the Paria Peninsula. Even though it was shredded by the high mountains in Venezuela, the remnants persisted as a major rain system and were tracked into Colombia on August 15.
Finally, in addition to being one of the faster moving (between 20-25 mph forward speed) tropical storms in the region, Alma stamped its uniqueness when its remnants pushed westward through Colombia and reached the Pacific Ocean. There, re-intensification took place and the system became Hurricane Joyce. In that sense, Tropical Storm Alma provided the seedling that became Hurricane Joyce, but was not in itself a hurricane.
Robin Maharaj
(Retired Meteorologist)
Minnesota, USA
