評論
打印
20. Scourge of the Plains: Tornadoes
平原之禍：龍卷風
Ellen Mae stepped out of her two-story home in central Illinois.
梅艾倫步出她位于伊利諾伊州中部兩層樓的家，
"Fine morning," she said to herself after checking the weather, and then went back inside.
察看過天氣之后，她自言自語說：“美麗的早晨。”然后回到屋里。
The radio had mentioned a severe storm advisory, but the sky was clear, and it was rather calm.
收音機提到一則有關強烈暴風雨的警訊，但天空清朗無云，一切都相當平靜。
Still, she decided to be safe and kept her radio on.
盡管如此，為了安全起見她還是決定讓收音機開著。
About noon she felt a strange kind of pressure.
大約中午時分，她感覺到一股奇怪的氣壓。
Looking out her window, she noticed the sky had become overcast. Low, rounded, oddly colored clouds were forming. It was still and oppressive.
從窗口望出去，她看到天空烏云密布，而且一團團顏色怪異的云正在低空形成，空氣靜止而且沈悶。
"Maybe I'd better listen to the weather report again," she murmured to herself.
“也許我最好再收聽一下氣象報告，”她喃喃自語著。
Again the radio forecast severe weather, warning citizens to listen for the siren and seek shelter should a twister, scourge of the plains, come down from the heavens like a "Devil's tail."
收音機里再度傳來惡劣天氣的預報，警告市民注意收聽警報，萬一龍卷風這平原禍害突然像“惡魔的尾巴”一樣從天而降時要尋找掩護。
"I doubt it'll happen over Crossville," she comforted herself. "It always happens in other towns."
“我想不會發生在克羅斯鎮吧，”她自我安慰道，“因為每次都是發生在其它鎮上。”
By two o'clock it started to rain, and the wind picked up, too.
到了下午兩點開始下起雨來，風也變強了。
The apple tree in front of Ellen Mae's house started to pitch back and forth violently.
梅艾倫屋前的蘋果樹開始劇烈地左右搖晃，
Her dogs started to bark and howl, and that was when she heard that awful sound.
她的幾只狗開始狂吠嚎叫。就在這時，她聽到了那個可怕的聲音。
At first she thought it was a locomotive, but she quickly remembered that there was no railroad within 20 miles of her home.
起初她以為是火車頭，但她很快就想到她家附近方圓30多公里內并沒有鐵路。
She looked into the sky and then noticed it,
她向天空一望，然后看到了它——
a dark, swirling mass of black cloud sucking up everything it touched and hurling objects at horrific speeds straight up or straight to the side.
一大團黑壓壓旋轉的烏云將所有碰到的東西都吸了進去，并且以駭人的速度將各種物體直接甩到空中或旁邊。
Ellen Mae ran as fast as she could down into her storm cellar, a special room which had been prepared by her father when he was still alive.
梅艾倫飛快地跑進躲暴風雨的地窖，那是她父親生前設置的一間特殊房間。
This room was located in the southwestern corner of the basement and had a door with a strong bolt.
這個房間位于地下室的西南角落，有一道門閂很堅固的門。
Ellen Mae ran in, locked the door behind her, and waited.
梅艾倫跑進去、鎖上身后的門然后等待。
She didn't have long to wait. With shrieking and swooshing sounds right out of hell, the funnel cloud passed directly over her house.
沒等多久，那夾帶著尖銳刺耳呼嘯聲的漏斗云就直接掃過她的房子。
An enormous vacuum cleaner, the twister blew the house apart,
龍卷風就像支巨大的吸塵器一樣把梅艾倫的房屋吹散，
scattering five generations of Ellen Mae's family belongings over half the rural county she lived in.
并將她家中傳了五代的家產撒落在半個她所居住的鄉村小鎮上。
Within minutes, the winds had stopped, and an eerie silence replaced the cacophony of moments earlier.
幾分鐘之后風停了，一片詭異的寧靜代替了片刻之前的喧囂聲。
Feeling it was now safe to venture out, Ellen Mae unbolted the door, peered out, and started to cry.
心想現在出去很安全了，梅艾倫打開門閂往外一瞧，然后就開始哭了起來，
She could look straight up into the sky.
她抬頭就可以直接看到天空。
Even though she had lost her house and everything in it, she felt lucky.
即使失去房子和里面所有的一切，她仍覺得很幸運。
She knew that every year, hundreds of people could perish in tornadoes.
她知道每年都可能會有好幾百人在龍卷風中喪生。
Just what are these "devil storms"?
這些“魔鬼暴風”到底是什么呢？
They go by many names across the Great Plains of the United States and Canada, not to mention many other countries around the world,
它們在美、加大平原中就有許多種名稱，更不用說全世界其它許多國家了，
but tornadoes are perennial plagues in central North America.
只不過在北美中部龍卷風是長期性的禍害。
The conditions there —— flat land and proximity to cold air masses (from the Rocky Mountains to the west) and warm and humid air masses (from the Gulf of Mexico to the south) provide the optimum breeding ground for tornadoes.
那兒的情況——地勢平坦而且又靠近冷氣團（來自西邊的落基山脈）和濕暖氣團（來自南邊的墨西哥灣）——提供了龍卷風絕佳的滋生地。
According to the U.S. National Weather Service, tornadoes form from thunderclouds and can reach swirling speeds in excess of 600 kilometers per hour.
根據美國國家氣象局的資料，龍卷風是由雷雨云所形成，旋轉速度每小時可高達600公里以上。
They last from minutes to an hour or more and can blast their way across as much as 150 kilometers of terrain at about 50 kilometers per hour.
它們持續的時間從幾分鐘到1小時或更久不等，并且能以50公里左右的時速橫掃過150公里之地。
They vary in width from a few meters to 1,500 meters (average 200 meters).
它們的寬度從幾公尺到1500米都有（平均200米），
And they strike fear into the hearts of everyone.
并將恐懼深植在每個人的心中。
The safest place to be when a tornado is in one's area is a basement, preferably the southwest corner (where the tornado normally comes from).
龍卷風來襲時最安全的去處是地下室，最好位于西南角落（龍卷風通常從這個方向過來）。
If driving, track due north or south, as tornadoes usually move from west to east.
如果正在開車，就往正北或正南方向走，因為龍卷風通常由西向東移動。
Weather prediction and tracking these days is far superior to earlier years, but tornadoes can appear without any warning at all,
現今的氣象預測和追蹤遠比早期先進，但龍卷風會毫無預警地出現，
as a large one did right in the heart of Salt Lake City in 1999, leaving a trail of shocked, wounded, and dead as well as pulverized property.
就像1999年出現在鹽湖城市中心的大龍卷風一樣，留下一路的驚魂者、傷者和死者以及支離破碎的房屋。
Though relatively few people have ever seen a tornado, those who have wish they hadn't.
雖然曾經見過龍卷風的人相當少，但看過的人都希望他們從未看過。
The "Finger of God" is nature's atmospheric fury at its worst.
這只“上帝的手指”是自然界大氣之怒的終極展現。
