![]() The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. With a population of more than 331 million people, it is the third most populous country in the world. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, 326 Indian reservations, and some minor possessions.At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million square kilometers), it is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area.The United States shares significant land borders with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south as well as limited maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, and Russia. or USA) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. ![]() or US), officially the United States of America (U.S.A. The homes are being built to withstand winds of up to 130 mph (209 kph).The United States (U.S. A hurricane-resistant garage door adds another $1,600. It’s all a lot, but “people still see that as more of something they can deal with as opposed to the prospect of their house blowing away,” Mandapat said.Ĭoncrete homes are rare in Hawaii, but new homes are being built with pricey hurricane-resistant features.ĭaryl Takamiya, a past president of the Building Industry Association of Hawaii, said the hurricane-resistant windows his company is installing at a suburban Honolulu development add $25,000 to $30,000 to the cost of each new home. More concrete leads to more air conditioning, which can also be expensive. Mandapat has even heard of people installing rooftop sprinklers and using drains to catch the water to irrigate their gardens. To cool their homes, many people on Guam paint their roofs white to deflect the sun or plant rooftop gardens, said Kyle Mandapat, a spokesperson for University of Guam Sea Grant. The storm destroyed some older homes, but the concrete ones generally emerged unscathed. In May, a Category 4 typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) slammed into the island. territory of Guam, where stronger building codes and years of rebuilding after powerful storms means most homes are now made of sturdy concrete. Hawaii’s experience stands in contrast to the U.S. On top of that, warming oceans heated by climate change could strengthen tropical storms and nudge them farther north, potentially putting them on a collision course with Hawaii. Already this year, Hawaii has felt its wrath as a tropical storm passed south of the Big Island last month. That lack of preparedness is unnerving residents this hurricane season as the islands prepare for the possibility of a one-two weather punch: the increased odds of a tropical cyclone that come with any El Nino year combined with climate-fueled ocean warming that could mean bigger and more frequent tropical storms around the islands overall.Įl Nino, a naturally occurring warming of equatorial waters in the central and eastern Pacific, affects weather worldwide. Two-thirds of the single-family homes on Oahu, an island of 1 million people that’s home to Honolulu, have no hurricane protections. ![]() Many of Hawaii’s homes are even more vulnerable than theirs. “How are we to expect that it’s not going to happen here to us?” “It’s happening right now, every place in the world,” said Pappas, who installed the so-called hurricane clips after watching extreme weather in other parts of the world. ![]() ![]() Their motivation? Global warming fueling natural disasters around the planet. HONOLULU (AP) - Jan Pappas and Ronald Yasuda hired a contractor to fasten the roof of their 1960s-era home to their walls with metal plates and nails so high winds of a potential hurricane wouldn’t blow it away. ![]()
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