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A hurricane is an intense tropical cyclone with a well-defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds of seventy-four miles per hour or higher. The ingredients for a hurricane include a pre-existing weather disturbance, warm tropical oceans, moisture, and relatively light winds aloft (Elsner 7). If the right conditions persist long enough, they can combine to produce the violent winds, incredible waves, torrential rains, and floods associated with this phenomenon. A hurricane develops over the oceans and between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Tropical storms can also develop over the South Atlantic Ocean and the eastern South Pacific Ocean. Each year, an average of ten tropical storms develop over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico (Fitzpatrick 15). Hurricanes are known by different names in different parts of the world: typhoons (in the Western Pacific) and cyclones (in the Indian Ocean) are two examples (Danielson 382). The "Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Sc