In the 1900s, Hiramia was at it's height. Combined with EDawgia, Hiramia and Okfew would emcompass a large amount of the world.
And yet the sea was bigger.
In 1951, Hiramia had left a settlement post in northern Atarotak in Joe Parks in HL, and they had finally left HL for good. They left by airplane and ships. Jet planes in Hiramia wouldn't exist until the 1960s, so they used turboprop engines, and it took a lot of refuelling stops in different islands. Ships were larger and can have a lot of speed, but there were always some problems with those ships.
And one problem would result in the worst storm in Hiramian history.
The "Großer Sturm von '51" (Great Storm of '51) would last from late December to mid January. Hiramia, and HL aswell, were in the Southern Hemisphere, which resulted in December and January being summer months in the Southern Hemisphere. The storm was a hurricane, or typhoon. From here on, we'll referr a typhoon to a hurricane. (it's much easier for me, I live in the northern hemisphere.) At the height of the hurricane's power, it would have a wind speed of 189 miles per hour.
The ships were 30 miles from the Mweo Islands, and the planes were ahead of the ship by about 30 miles to the northeast. The storm hit during the night. The ships kept creeping forwards when the storm hit, with wind speeds at 175 MPH.
The waves begun to go higher. A man by the name of Murchek Aelska, a Private Second Class who was part of the crew of the HIMS Mykele, was watching the seas for anything suspicious regarding weather saw the waves. He assumed it was just a small storm. But the waves grew ever higher, then the thunder came, and it seemed like it covered all of the area he can see.
The waves slammed onto the ships, fiercely and without mercy, and it sunk a few ships. One ship was the HIMS John, which was the yacht of the Governor-General of the Mweo Islands. The Governor-General inside that ship died of drowning.
After a hour, the eye had arrived. It was eerily calm, while some ships begun counting any damages found. During the first part of the storm, 4 ships had sunk and 2 more had damage. 42 persons had died, a few hundred pounds of supplies and equipment was lost, and 12 people were injured.
They attempted to speed to a nearby island, which was about 18 miles away, abandoning the wreckage and the people who managed to get themselves to hold on to anything floating and large enough. But, of course, a hurricane eye can be small, and there is damage to occur when the eye leaves.
Many survivors died when the eye left them, and a few were rescued days later. Those ships which left them managed to arrive before the worst of the storm could arrive. But, of course, they were trapped as it was a island, and they needed to head to the homeland. They stayed in houses of people who were kind enough to let them through, but the island was recently hit by that storm, so part of it had damaged or destroyed buildings.
The other half of the hurricane had arrived, so therefore there was a lot of wind and a lot of rain, plus the thunder that came. The island experienced the brunt of the storm, and most of the buildings were destroyed, while the remaining buildings were damaged, many beyond repair.
Eventually, after most of the crew and ships had been lost, the remaining 59 people in 3 ships had finally arrived in the capital of Hiramia.
Hiramia had been a declining colonial power, and they had lost their last colony, Ryder Colony, in 1998. This storm had not rushed the decline, it contributed to it.The storm would continue to destroy or damage many islands, but it finally weakened by the time it hit Pickle Island in Meowfwkia, 50 miles away from the border with Okfew.
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I am a Hiramian - I aen Hyraman
Historical Fiction[NO LONGER CONSIDERED CANON] These stories were stories of importance to the Hiramians. They detailed colonialism, conquest and survival under the Hiramian banner - and the sacrifices Hiramia had to face when performing those tasks of colonialisatio...
