One thing is assured when it comes to hurricanes, and that is they bring plenty of moisture. Born deep in the tropics as fledgling tropical waves or disturbances, tropical storms and hurricanes take in the warm moist air of the tropical regions as well as the warm ocean waters that surround these areas, and intensify to in some cases monumental proportions. These vertically stacked systems are called that since a maturing storm or hurricane can have thunderstorm tops tower thousands of feet into the air as long as no wind shear gets in the way. Some may even reach the levels of the stratosphere.

These thunderstorms contain copious amounts of rainfall. Tropical Storm Fay last week proved that to be true by dumping up to three feet of water over parts of Florida and the Southeast. Hurricane Mitch also made a point by deluging Honduras and Nicaragua with some 75 inches of rain that led to the deaths of 11,000 people, and ruined the economies of those two Central American nations for many years. Tropical Storm Allison, the costliest tropical storm in United States History, was another example of how you don’t need to have an intense hurricane to cause a lot of damage as long as you can bring a lot of rain.

When you combine the abundant moisture of a tropical system with a mountainous land mass such as the islands of Hispanola and Cuba in the Central and Western Caribbean, you have a recipe for a great loss of life. Take for instance back in 2004 when Hurricane Jeanne got going in September, and ultimately became the fourth and final storm to hit Florida in a six week period that year. Prior to coming ashore in the Sunshine State, Jeanne was responsible for some 1,500 deaths in Haiti. The following year, in 2005, Hurricane Stan became the second deadliest storm that season behind Hurricane Katrina when its torrential rains spawned flooding and mudslides that left some 1,662 people dead in Central America.

The same thing happened again this week as Gustav, a one time strong Category One Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale squeezed out a ton of moisture over the Dominican Republic and Haiti as its tropical moisture collided head on with the rugged mountains of Hispanola that tower some 11,000 feet into the air. According to reports given in advisories by the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, Gustav spread torrential rains over the Haitian side of the island. General amounts were forecast in the 4 to 8 inch range initially, but then increased to 6 to 12 inches. Isolated areas received as much as 20 to 25 inches of rain from late Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday evening.

Another ingredient that fed this deadly deluge was the fact that Gustav slowed down in its forward motion, and even moved erratically. This was also similar in the previously listed instances of Fay, Allison, and Mitch. All three storms either moved erratically, made several different landfalls in the same general area, or were stationary. Consequently, lives were lost as 51 people were lost in Haiti including 25 in the town of Jacmel alone. Overall, 67 people have lost their lives in the Caribbean from the effects of Gustav according to a report from MSNBC on Thursday. The storm has since moved through the island of Jamaica, which is quite mountainous as well, and is now headed for the Cayman Islands, which suffered tremendous damage from powerful Hurricane Ivan back in 2004.

Residents along the Gulf Coast, which are commemorating the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on Friday, are now getting ready for perhaps a repeat performance as Gustav is forecast to be somewhere in the Gulf by Labor Day.