Dear Art,

Oh, I get it! The ability to "bounce back" would explain why the Gulf Coast
keeps getting lined with a new set of beach houses and condos after each
major hurricane. In Mississippi, Camille (1969) raised an even higher storm
surge than Katrina (2005) and caused incredible devastation, but the coastal
cities were rebuilt. In Alabama, Frederick (1979) handed realtors a similar
opportunity that was repeated by Ivan (2004). I don't have to go on, do I?
There has to be a better way.

But getting back to Ross's topic...

Hurricanes can add species as well as subtract them. Crop diseases were
spread along hurricane tracks in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and
elsewhere in 2004-05, and if fungal spores can be moved by the winds, so too
could seeds and insects and spiders. Hurricane Claudette (1993) seems to
have trapped quantities of the large "Black Witch" moth in its eye as it
traveled across the Gulf and through Texas
(http://www.texasento.net/witch.htm). Seabirds often travel ahead of the
storm.

The effects of hurricanes on living organisms can be difficult to study,
especially while they are happening. Researchers tend to have other things
on their minds after these big storms. Even when evidence is collected after
a storm, there may not be any pre-storm data to compare it to. However,
areas that have already been studied repeatedly, such as Peanut Island and
the various marine research stations, are likely sites for post-hurricane
studies.

Rains of frogs, fishes, and other unlikely organisms have been ascribed to
tornadoes but I am not aware of any hard data in regard to this. However, if
frogs can be transported by tornadoes, then maybe land and freshwater snails
can too. Almost always, they would be dead on arrival or soon thereafter,
but one must keep in mind that a one-in-a-million chance means that
something is rather likely to happen once in a million years, and the Earth
has been here for rather a lot of millions of years.

Andy

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama

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