Before you Have you ever experienced a very bad storm? Tell a friend about it. A HURRICANE is a huge storm! It can be up to 600 miles spiralling inward and upwards long and have strong winds at speeds of 75 to 200 mph. Each hurricane moves 10-20 miles per hour over the open ocean. Hurricanes gather heat and energy through contact with warm ocean waters. Evaporation from the seawater increases their power. Hurricanes rotate in a counter-clockwise direction PD THE EYE next day. h Hemisphere. The centre of the storm or "eye" is the calmest part. It has only light around an "eye " in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise direction in the Southern winds and fair weather. When they come onto land, the heavy rain, strong winds and large waves can damage buildings, trees and cars . was "I was only ten years old when a storm began to form in the ocean near us. My parents said they had heard on the radio that it was a Category 5 hurricane which sforming. I felt scared because we had just learned about hurricanes at school that morning. In my town, we lived in small homes with ditches to collect storm water which ran down the side of the streets. We didn't evacuate our houses or flee the storms. We always just stayed there and hoped for the best . My brothers and I carried on playing outside that Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful summer morning but after a while I noticed the clouds getting very dark and swirly. Soon it felt like it was nearly night time although it was early in the afternoon. It was an eerie feeling. It began to rain and the wind began to howl. My brothers and I wandered about in the ditches not worrying about the rain. Then the lightning started to flash and the thunder clapped so we rushed home, drenched. After changing into dry clothes, I sat at the window, watching the storm. The wind www.e-classroom.co.z​