# data[].attributes.body
Have you ever experienced severe weather or a natural disaster? What happened?

# data[].attributes.body
How can natural disasters affect tourism?

# data[].attributes.body
Why the natural disaster occurred

What geographical processes were involved

Where in the world the disaster occurred

Who was affected by the event

What happened as a result of the disaster

How tourism was affected by the event

# data[].attributes.body
Why the natural disaster occurred

What geographical processes were involved

Where in the world the disaster occurred

Who was affected by the event

What happened as a result of the disaster

How tourism was affected by the event

# data[].attributes.body
Why the natural disaster occurred

What geographical processes were involved

Where in the world the disaster occurred

Who was affected by the event

What happened as a result of the disaster

How tourism was affected by the event

# data[].attributes.body
Why the natural disaster occurred

What geographical processes were involved

Where in the world the disaster occurred

Who was affected by the event

What happened as a result of the disaster

How tourism was affected by the event

# data[].attributes.body
Why the natural disaster occurred

What geographical processes were involved

Where in the world the disaster occurred

Who was affected by the event

What happened as a result of the disaster

How tourism was affected by the event

# data[].attributes.body
Why the natural disaster occurred

What geographical processes were involved

Where in the world the disaster occurred

Who was affected by the event

What happened as a result of the disaster

How tourism was affected by the event

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Natural Disasters - Geography Games and Videos for Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Natural Disasters - Interesting videos, lessons, quiz games, interactive diagrams, presentations and activities on natural disasters.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hurricane Isaac lashed New Orleans as it approached the storied city on Aug. 29, 2012, exactly seven years after the devastating Katrina

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The devastating effects of Hurricane Irma have become clear as a massive clean-up begins in the southwest of America.

Large areas are underwater, power is out, streets are blocked by grounded boats, fallen trees and damaged cars after the deadly tropical storm this week.

Last night more than 6.2 million homes and businesses remained without power, and 220,000 people huddled* in shelters.

Florida Governor Rick Scott warned locals to expect "devastation" and said the path to recovery would be long and hard, particularly for the worst-hit Keys island chain that bore the brunt of the storm's destructive force.

"There's devastation," Governor Scott said. "I just hope everybody survived. It's horrible what we saw. Especially for the Keys, it's going to be a long road."

Millions of Floridians* who lost power were told they could be waiting weeks for power to be restored.

Orlando Utilities Commission spokesman Roseann Harrington said: "We ask for everybody's patience.

"This will probably be the largest utility restoration and rebuild project in the history of the United States," Ms Harrington said.

The city of Jacksonville in northeast Florida ordered urgent evacuations on Monday with record floods from Irma set to rise even higher with the oncoming high tide.

"Historic flood levels already. Levels will continue to rise. Expect 4-6 feet (1.2-1.8 metres) above normal high tide levels," the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said on its Facebook page.

Residents who needed help getting out were urged to put a white flag, T-shirt, or other white object in front of their home to grab the attention of search and rescue teams.

"In the event of rising water, go up, not out," the sheriff's department added.

Before the hurricane hit US President Donald Trump called it "some big monster", and said he wanted to go to the state "very soon".

"Right now, we are worried about lives, not cost," the President said, after meeting with his Cabinet and offering disaster funding to affected areas.

The storm engulfed nearly the entire Florida peninsula, wreaking havoc* from the state's southernmost point up to the Georgia line, from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf side. It swamped homes, uprooted massive trees, flooded streets, cast boats ashore, snapped kilometres of power lines and toppled* construction cranes.

The National Hurricane Centre said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 210km/h.

Irma eased into a tropical storm yesterday and moved north to South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia.

So far the storm has claimed at least nine lives in the US and 34 in the Caribbean.

Irma came hot on the heels of Hurricane Harvey that devastated Texas and Louisiana last month.

WHAT IS A HURRICANE AND DO THEY HAPPEN HERE?
Hurricanes are a type of rotating tropical storm that can bring winds of more than 257km/h and nine trillion litres of rain in a day.

But a hurricane is almost the exact same thing as a typhoon or a cyclone and they are all types of tropical storms.

They all build in the tropics, near the equator, and then either rotate clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, where Australia is, or anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, where America is.

Hurricanes are tropical storms that build in the Atlantic Ocean and northern Pacific Ocean. They affect the East coast of the US, the Caribbean and, less frequently, the US mainland and Mexico.

Typhoons are tropical cyclones formed in the western Pacific Ocean. These affect Japan, China, the Philippines and other counties in the region.

Tropical cyclones in the southeast Indian Ocean or the southwest Pacific Ocean spin clockwise and affect Australia, India and Bangladesh.

This year Queensland and NSW were hit by Cyclone Debbie.

So while we don't get hurricanes in Australia, we get similar events with a different name.

huddled: close together Floridians: people from Florida
wreaking havoc: making a mess brought down

LISTEN TO TODAY'S STORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The devastating effects of Hurricane Irma have become clear as a massive clean-up begins in the southwest of America. Large areas are underwater, power is out, streets are blocked by grounded boats, fallen trees and damaged cars after the deadly tropical storm this week.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
All About Volcanoes: How They Form, Eruptions & More!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Why is snow white?
Bright snow blinds us with its gleaming white color because it reflects beams of white light. Instead of absorbing light, snow's complex structure prevents the light from shining through its lattice formation. A beam of white sunlight entering a snow bank is so quickly scattered by a zillion ice crystals and air pockets that most of the light comes bouncing right back out of the snow bank. What little sunlight is absorbed by snow is absorbed equally over the wavelengths of visible light thus giving snow its white appearance. So while many natural objects get their blue, red, and yellow colors from absorbing light, snow is stuck with its white color because it reflects light.

Click here to learn more about the Snow!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Why is snow white? Bright snow blinds us with its gleaming white color because it reflects beams of white light. Instead of absorbing light, snow's complex structure prevents the light from shining through its lattice formation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What's a Hurricane? | Weather Science | SciShow Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nature's Fury: The Science of Natural Disasters