If you were planning on an uneventful hurricane season, think again.
It was only two weeks ago that Invest 97L was a mere tropical wave off the coast of Cape Verde. Now, Hurricane Matthew, as the wave would later be named, has made a habit out of terrorizing every landmass that it encounters.
Matthew traveled over 3,000 miles since its inception and left a wake of destruction in its path.
The storm reached hurricane status on Sept. 29. Within 24 hours, it had climbed to the rarely seen Category 5 strength on the Safir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, with winds at 160 mph.
This storm has been anything but ordinary.
According to The Washington Post, Hurricane Matthew marked the third most rapid intensification for any Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. Matthew also set records for being the longest-lived major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) formed after Sept. 25, and for being the longest lived Category 4-5 in the month of October.
In addition, this was the first Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic basin since Felix in 2007.
On Tuesday, Oct. 4, Matthew rammed into the southwestern coast of Haiti, bringing with it a swath of heavy rain and unforgiving winds. It made landfall around 7 a.m.
The death toll was staggering. Nearly 900 people would ultimately succumb to the extreme weather conditions presented by the record-breaking storm.
On Sunday Oct. 9, Delta Sigma Pi held a fundraiser event in the Coquina Club. It was originally set to give the half of the raised funds to the Kids Need Foundation. However, the situation in Haiti led the coed fraternity to donate money to a relief charity instead.
DSP charged attendants $10 to play volleyball pool, $3 to play FIFA video games and $2 to swim in the pool.
Richard Peters, the director of fundraising for DSP, has family in Haiti. He says that he will work with his family to find a charity organization that will actually put the earned money to good use.
The destructive trail carved out by the storm would pass through Cuba and the Bahamas on its way to the U.S.
Matthew teased the east coast of Florida over the course of two days, keeping residents questioning whether or not it was going to make landfall, and if so, where.
Luckily for Floridians, the storm never did make landfall in the state, instead opting to skirt along the coast. Even so, over 1 million people were left without power and at least six people were killed in the state.
Matthew would go on to hit Georgia and the Carolinas, continuing its destructive trend.
While many trajectories over the last several days had the storm looping back around for a potential collision with Hurricane Nicole and a second strike at Florida, the latest updates as of Sunday afternoon show it aborting that path and instead dissipating into the northeast.
Hurricanes have collided in the past. These rare binary interactions among cyclones are called the Fujiwhara effect. Back in 2005 Hurricane Wilma absorbed Tropical Storm Alpha in an example of the strange occurrence.
Overall the storm has left more than 2 million without power in the U.S. and has killed at least 16 people.
© Photo By Tamiracle Williams | TCN
