100px|Flooding from the storm in Ocean City, New Jersey

The 1991 Perfect Storm was a powerful storm that lashed the East Coast of the United States for several days with 30 ft (9.1 m) waves. The initial area of low pressure developed off Atlantic Canada on October 28 and moved westward toward New England. It absorbed Hurricane Grace to its south and intensified significantly. The center remained offshore, although the high waves caused over $200 million in damage (1991 USD) and 13 deaths. More than 38,000 people were left without power, and along the coast high waves inundated roads and buildings. In portions of New England, damage was worse than Hurricane Bob had caused two months prior. Aside from tidal flooding along rivers, the storm's effects were primarily concentrated along the coast. In the middle of the storm, the Andrea Gail sank, killing its crew of six and inspiring a book and later a movie. It later received the name "the Perfect Storm" after a conversation between Boston National Weather Service forecaster Robert Case and author Sebastian Junger. After moving over the Gulf Stream, the system evolved into a small hurricane that dissipated after striking Nova Scotia. (more...)

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Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Perfect_Storm

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

996:

Holy Roman Emperor Otto III issued a document that contained the earliest known use of "Osterrîchi" the Old High German name of Austria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/name_of_Austria

1611:

The first recorded performance of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest was held at the Palace of Whitehall in London, exactly seven years to the day after the first certainly known performance of his tragedy Othello was held in the same building. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest

1755:

A 9.0 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami destroyed Lisbon, an event which led to the birth of modern seismology and earthquake engineering. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake

1928:

Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk introduced the current 29-letter Turkish alphabet to replace the Ottoman Turkish alphabet as the official writing system of the Turkish language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_alphabet

1998:

The European Court of Human Rights was instituted as a permanent court with full-time judges to monitor compliance by the signatory parties of the European Convention on Human Rights. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Court_of_Human_Rights

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

send-up (n): A satirical imitation of a work of art or a genre. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/send-up

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

It's not too near for me

Like a flower I need the rain Though it's not clear to me Every season has it's change

And I will see you When the sun comes out again. --Sophie B. Hawkins http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sophie_B._Hawkins