Hurricanes
Team Name __________________________________________
ROUND 1
1. Other than “time to get off the beach,” what do you call a dome of seawater, often 50 miles across, which sweeps across the coastline inundating the land with water well above normal high tide?
2. How likely is a flood in your neighborhood? Scientists use a recurrence interval to describe the probability of flooding. If a “100-year flood” has a 1% chance of happening in any given year, what’s the recurrence interval for a flood that has a 4% chance of happening in any year?
3. Downstream from disaster: approximately how many significant hazard dams are within one mile of a downstream city?
a) 500
b) 1000
c) 1500
d) 2000
4. The National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service are both part of NOAA. What does the acronym “NOAA” stand for?
5. Who played Rubin “Hurricane” Carter in the 1999 movie about the boxer who is wrongly accused of murder? (Extra credit: name the singer-songwriter who wrote a song about Carter to raise awareness about him.)
6. Don’t mess with Texas—especially during hurricane season. What town in the Lone Star state endured the deadliest hurricane in recorded history?
7. What kind of flood is usually caused by high rainfall intensity and often found in mountainous regions (and action/adventure movies)?
8. You all are very bright people. In times of crisis, people are going to ask you, “How much drinking water should we have in our survival kit?” What would you say?
9. What product did Wal-Mart say it sold at seven times the usual rate during Hurricane Charley in 2004?
10. Death by natural causes: what’s the most common cause of earthen dam or levee failure?
a) storm surging
b) coastal submergence
c) erosion
d) heavy rainfall
11. It’s not all about floods. Which of the following does not cause floods?
a) earthquakes
b) rainstorms
c) tsunamis
d) high pressure zones
12. Death by unnatural causes: earthen dams or levees can fail because of:
a) poor engineering and construction
b) avalanches
c) internal erosion
d) all of the above
13. What country still uses two irrigation dams built by Roman engineers in the 2nd century AD?
Team Name __________________________________________
ROUND 2
1. What did the fish say when it ran into the wall?
2. Imagine you’re making one of those action/adventure movies. In which actual circumstance would an extraordinarily severe flood occur in a major old river basin?
a) in a lower basin after heavy rains in late spring and early summer
b) in an upper basin after very heavy sustained rainfall in the late spring and early summer
c) in a lower basin after very heavy late-summer rains associated with a severe hurricane
d) in an upper basin after rapid melting of an unusually deep snow pack in early spring
4. What 2004 disaster movie featured a “global superstorm” including three gigantic hurricanes, which result in an ice age within days for the northern hemisphere?
3. Engineers are probably more likely to make a dam than a movie. If a dam and reservoir are constructed on a graded river, which of the following is likely to happen?
a) deposition upstream and downstream from the dam
b) channel downcutting upstream from the dam and deposition below the dam
c) deposition upstream from the dam and channel downcutting below the dam
d) channel downcutting upstream and downstream from the dam
e) channel downcutting upstream and downstream from the dam
7. Besides engineers, beavers are well-known for building dams. What are baby beavers called?
8. Whole lot of damming going on: Approximately how many dams are listed in the national inventory?
a) 26,000
b) 51,000
c) 77,000
d) 103,000
9. Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA, took a lot of heat after Hurricane Katrina. What does the acronym “FEMA” stand for?
10. If you happen to be in the path of a major hurricane, you may be advised to seek “In-Place Shelter”—what does that mean?
11. What’s the origin of the word “levee?”
12. Engineers don’t just build dams. Sometimes, they alter a stream to speed up water flow, preventing the water from reaching flood height. What is that process called?
13. How do we get into this mess, anyway? Floods are caused by:
- slow water run-off
- high pressure areas
- rising air
- high temperatures
- all of the above
14. Don’t you wish you could fix it and forget it? Unfortunately, dams often change rivers over time. The construction of a dam across a river is likely to cause ______ upstream of the dam, and _______ downstream.
- erosion; aggradation
- erosion; erosion
- aggradation; erosion
- aggradation; aggradation
15. People also use the word levee to talk about taxes—to levee a tax. According to Benjamin Franklin the only two things in life that are certain are:
_______________________________ and taxes
Answer Key
Team Name __________________________________________
Round 1
1. Other than “time to get off the beach,” what do you call a dome of seawater, often 50 miles across, which sweeps across the coastline inundating the land with water well above normal high tide? Storm surge—the ocean level rises as a hurricane approaches, peaking where the eye strikes land, and gradually subsiding after the hurricane passes.
2. How likely is a flood in your neighborhood? Scientists use a recurrence interval to describe the probability of flooding. If a “100-year flood” has a 1% chance of happening in any given year, what’s the recurrence interval for a flood that has a 4% chance of happening in any year? 25-year flood
3. Downstream from disaster: approximately how many significant hazard dams are within one mile of a downstream city? 1500
4. The National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service are both part of NOAA. What does the acronym “NOAA” stand for? National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. NOAA also flies aircraft into hurricanes to aid scientists in better understanding and forecasting storms.
5. Who played Rubin “Hurricane” Carter in the 1999 movie about the boxer who is wrongly accused of murder? Denzel Washington (Extra credit: Bob Dylan)
6. Don’t mess with Texas—especially during hurricane season. What town in the Lone Star state endured the deadliest hurricane in recorded history? Galveston—over 6,000 people were killed by the storm surge by a hurricane there in 1900.
7. What kind of flood is usually caused by high rainfall intensity and often found in mountainous regions (and action/adventure movies)? Flash flood
8. You all are very bright people. In times of crisis, people are going to look at you and ask, “How much drinking water should we have in our survival kit?” What would you say? You should have at least one half gallon per person per day of drinking water. For a two-week period this means 7 gallons of water per person. For a family of four this is 28 gallons of drinking water. You can never have too much water. Additional water should be stored for cleaning and flushing.
9. What product did Wal-Mart say it sold at seven times the usual rate during Hurricane Charley in 2004? Strawberry Pop-Tarts
10. Death by natural causes: what’s the most common cause of earthen dam or levee failure?
a) storm surging
b) coastal submergence
c) erosion
d) heavy rainfall
11. It’s not all about floods. Which of the following does not cause floods? <ANSWER?>
1. earthquakes
2. rainstorms
3. tsunamis
4. high pressure zones
12. Death by unnatural causes: earthen dams or levees can fail because of:
a) poor engineering and construction
b) avalanches
c) internal erosion
d) all of the above
13. What country still uses two irrigation dams built by Roman engineers in the 2nd century AD? Spain (city of Merida). The only major maintenance work they have needed in the past 1,800 years has been the renewal of their stone facings, carried out in the 1930's.
Answer Key
Team Name __________________________________________
Round 2
1. What did the fish say when it ran into the wall? Dam
2. Imagine you’re making one of those action/adventure movies. In which actual circumstance would an extraordinarily severe flood occur in a major old river basin? <ANSWER?>
a) in a lower basin after heavy rains in late spring and early summer
b) in an upper basin after very heavy sustained rainfall in the late spring and early summer
c) in a lower basin after very heavy late-summer rains associated with a severe hurricane
d) in an upper basin after rapid melting of an unusually deep snow pack in early spring
4. What 2004 disaster movie featured a “global superstorm” including three gigantic hurricanes, which result in an ice age within days for the northern hemisphere? The Day After Tomorrow
3. Engineers are probably more likely to make a dam than a movie. If a dam and reservoir are constructed on a graded river, which of the following is likely to happen? <ANSWER?>
a) deposition upstream and downstream from the dam
b) channel downcutting upstream from the dam and deposition below the dam
c) deposition upstream from the dam and channel downcutting below the dam
d) channel downcutting upstream and downstream from the dam
e) channel downcutting upstream and downstream from the dam
7. Besides engineers, beavers are well-known for building dams. What are baby beavers called? Kits
8. Whole lot of damming going on: Approximately how many dams are listed in the national inventory? 77,000
9. Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA, took a lot of heat after Hurricane Katrina. What does the acronym “FEMA” stand for? Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—the lead agency for federal emergency management planning and response.
10. If you happen to be in the path of a major hurricane, you may be advised to seek “In-Place Shelter”—what does that mean? It means that residents will be advised to remain in their homes with the windows closed and all open-air circulation systems turned off. In-place sheltering should not be implemented when the sheltering duration is expected to exceed two hours.
11. What’s the origin of the word levee? Levee comes from the French word “lever,” which means “to raise.” The word came into English through its usage in Colonial Lousiana.
13. Engineers don’t just build dams. Sometimes, they alter a stream to speed up water flow, preventing the water from reaching flood height. What is that process called? Channelization
14. Don’t you wish you could fix it and forget it? Unfortunately, dams often change rivers over time. The construction of a dam across a river is likely to cause ______ upstream of the dam, and _______ downstream.
a) erosion; aggradation
b) erosion; erosion
c) aggradation; erosion
d) aggradation; aggradation
15. How do we get into this mess, anyway? Floods are caused by:
a) slow water run-off
b) high pressure areas
c) rising air
d) high temperatures
e) all of the above
12. People also use the word levee to talk about taxes—to levee a tax. According to Benjamin Franklin the only two things in life that are certain are: death and taxes