Word: gulf
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the response was the Carter Doctrine -- a threat to oppose, with U.S. troops, Soviet encroachments on the Persian Gulf. Carter's successor had a better idea: he would provide arms to guerrillas battling pro-Soviet regimes. "Support for freedom fighters is self-defense," the President declared in his 1985 State of the Union address. The Reagan Doctrine was born...
...across the length of Jamaica, leaving 500,000 people homeless, and virtually destroying the island's economy. It slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, shattering the glassy facades of tourist hotels and destroying the homes of 30,000 residents. By the time Gilbert touched the trembling but well-prepared Gulf coast, its epic force had been muted. Still, flooding and high tides swamped beaches and highways and forced more than 100,000 people in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to flee in anticipation of its virulence...
...Gilbert's freakiest turns came when its winds caught up a 300-ft.- long Cuban freighter five miles out in the Gulf. Mountainous waves heaved the ship all the way onto the shore at Cancun beach, where it smashed into a structure and came to rest on the sand...
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the storm shut down hundreds of offshore oil platforms, forced 5,000 workers to evacuate and halted the daily flow of 1.7 million barrels of oil. Partly as a result, the price of oil jumped 75 cents a bbl. on world markets before declining 33 cents at week...
...entire Gulf Coast of Texas had been put on alert as Gilbert headed toward landfall. From Brownsville to Biloxi, Miss., people sought shelter from the storm, in many places clogging highways and emptying supermarket shelves. Houston, 50 miles inland, shuddered at the prospect of its glimmering skyscrapers swaying in the gale-force winds. About a quarter of the 60,000 residents of Galveston Island headed for higher ground, leaving boarded-up windows and fortified houses. In Brownsville, a dirt-poor border town of 110,000, those who could afford to fled inland. But since half the residents are below...