Hurricane Gustav has struck Cuba

[Stealth Hunter]

Approximately one hour ago, the Cuban government broadcasted that the eye of the hurricane is passing over the land itself. Havana is being battered, and winds are gusting at over 150 miles per hour. It's a Category 4, as of this moment. She's moving quickly towards the Northwest. In effect, this might not only hit Louisiana, but it might also turn, according to news reports, and hit Texas (the coastal areas). Over 80 people are dead.

Looks like this is going to be an interesting week.:hmm:

[Task Force]

I hope that other one dosent come up north.:yep: All I can say, Im glad I didnt take a vacation there.

[XabbaRus]

Tack it using Google Earth looks like it is heading for NO.

[VipertheSniper]

Approximately one hour ago, the Cuban government broadcasted that the eye of the hurricane is passing over the land itself. Havana is being battered, and winds are gusting at over 150 miles per hour. It's a Category 4, as of this moment. She's moving quickly towards the Northwest. In effect, this might not only hit Louisiana, but it might also turn, according to news reports, and hit Texas (the coastal areas). Over 80 people are dead.

Looks like this is going to be an interesting week.:hmm:

Not that it matters but Gustav is a male name, and I think a hurricane is also a masculine word, so what's with the "She"?

[antikristuseke]

Maybe Gustav is confused with his/her sexuality

[Stealth Hunter]

Approximately one hour ago, the Cuban government broadcasted that the eye of the hurricane is passing over the land itself. Havana is being battered, and winds are gusting at over 150 miles per hour. It's a Category 4, as of this moment. She's moving quickly towards the Northwest. In effect, this might not only hit Louisiana, but it might also turn, according to news reports, and hit Texas (the coastal areas). Over 80 people are dead.

Looks like this is going to be an interesting week.:hmm:

Not that it matters but Gustav is a male name, and I think a hurricane is also a masculine word, so what's with the "She"?

I've asked that very same question about ships like the TITANIC, BRITANNIC, and OLYMPIC... and the BISMARCK, and the HOOD, and the GRAF ZEPPELIN.

[VipertheSniper]

Well it doesn't make much sense for ships does it? But while you can certainly say "the Bismarck" and almost everyone will understand you, I'm not so sure if anyone knew what you're talking about if you talk about "the Gustav". Without the word hurricane it just doesn't make too much sense, and since that is masculine I'd say Gustav is a "he". Even Katrina was a "he" here.

Most of the words for a ship I can think of are neutral, but probably "the ark" is the reason why ships are spoken of in a feminine way?

[AntEater]

Re the original topic, I've always wondered why there are so few casualties in Cuba due to Hurricanes.
They suffer economic damage, but you hardly hear of human losses in the scale of Katrina.

Re the ship damage, the Battleship Bismarck was officially "he", by order of Kapt. z. S. Lindemann.
But this was not consistently used and even the XO used the "she" form during the battle of Denmark strait "ein dreifaches Hurra auf unsere geliebte Bismarck!"
Other german ships were officially male too, like Admiral Scheer.
Tirpitz, despite being named after a man as well, was always female, though.

[Digital_Trucker]

Re the original topic, I've always wondered why there are so few casualties in Cuba due to Hurricanes.
They suffer economic damage, but you hardly hear of human losses in the scale of Katrina.
I saw something on that a long time ago, and basically they are prepared better than we are with shelters and warning systems. When the people are ordered to go to the shelters, you don't hear "Nah, we wanna ride it out" like you do here. They do what they are told and have plans that involve everyone down to the local townships levels and they execute those plans.

In thinking about it, they really don't have a choice but to be prepared. They get slammed with the big storms all the time.

[OneToughHerring]

Looks like Cuba took the brunt of Gustav's fury and it kinda fizzled out by the time it reached NO. Although some economic damage is sure to come in the form of disruptions to oil production etc.

[headcase]

The oil rigs will take a bit of a hit, but Big G plowed right through a big chunk of LA's rice, cotton and soybean fields. A whole bunch of not good either.

[The Bandit]

just wondering, after reading an article on Gustav hitting New Orleans, does anyone know the two navy ships they are talking about. I'd have to go aand find the link but it mentions two navy ships that were there for scrapping which broke loose and were up against a wharf and may take out a leeve. says they are 350 feet long, but I am not sure which ships they could be talking about.

[Frame57]

English does not have a built in grammatical structure that employs gender in noun usage as does greek, spanish, latin, hebrew, etc... In spanish nouns ending with an 'o' would be masculine and female would end with an 'a'. Even things inanimate lets say like a 'table' or a 'book' in spanish this would be in feminine tense. English does not have this structure. Generally inanimate things are described neutrally by calling them "it". But some things are referred to as "she" like storms or ships or sometimes cities etc... For example when I purchased a shotgun the store owner said to me, "Boy, she sure is a beut..." This is why english is sometimes a difficult language for people to learn because of how grammatical gender is used.