A very dangerous Category 5 hurricane is making it's way across the Pacific and will slam into Wake Island by tonight.
Super Typhoon Ioke is continuing on it's westerly course in the Pacific Ocean and is expected to completely submerge Wake Island under the storm surge, which is expected to be 18 feet high. The island itself rests 8 feet above sea level. Wave heights are expected to be in excess of 40 feet. As a result, the U.S. Air Force completely evacuated the island of it's 200 workers and as much equipment as they could in two C-17 Globemaster III's.
They're saying that everything not made of concrete on the island will be utterly destroyed as this is the most powerful Pacific hurricane ever recorded. It's a stark reminder of the power of these storms and what they can do to man-made structures as well as the natural environment.
If Hurricane Katrina had been as powerful as this super-typhoon is, the damage sustained by our Gulf Coast would have been much more extreme than it was. The storm surge and giant waves would have pushed right over the top of the levees. They would have been the equivilent of speed bumps for the monster waves. And the breaches would have been bigger, too.
As bad as Katrina was, it could have been much, much worse.
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