Hurricanes and disaster relief.

[Coconut Kid]

The "grace period" is the time it takes for Tropicans to exhaust their personal reserves. On a well-stocked island, Tropicans tend to keep about a three years' supply of food. After that, if adequate food is not being grown, food quality drops rapidly and starvation begins. ...

My memory (faulty) is that the last patch made that reserve larger. It may have to do with the "mana" thing that "Weeds" discovered in the 'debug' program.

The adjustment also covers happiness so political disruption is lessened.

[Coconut Kid]

I likewise doubt that building location influences hurricane damage.
However, a while back I did take a peek at the fresh rainfall overlay immediately following a hurricane. Most of the associated rain fell on the upwind side of the island, with a few waterlogged streaks across the entire width. This is not something I've systematically verified however.
Corn will grow almost anywhere, but you may want to keep your farms out of really waterlogged areas when you rebuild.

I too opine that location has little to do with "selection for destruction". I suggest that there is an algorithm relating the total hammer-blows required for construction of the subject buildings with the level of the storm. The storm's total negative hammer-blows is randomly distributed ; when the negative equals or exceeds the positive -- the building is destroyed.

[Coconut Kid]

... So now I know that hurricanes are major rain events that substantially change the soil moisture, and thus affect agriculture. A good argument for building a ranch or two if you are playing with Random Events set high enough to get hurricanes. If the ranch survives, grazing will be very good after the storm.

Do hurricanes do anything else that I haven't noticed? Change the fishing quality? Crank up or damage vegetation levels? ...

I don't think there is a "definitive hurricane thread". Too many players just shut-off the Random Events.

I think there is no off-shore effect. Trees/forests are damaged for sure. Your coffee plantations will suffer. Ranch buildings and stock will suffer -- so the grass growth may not help much.

The last patch protects the Port/Dock unless the international aid is sufficient to replace it.

[Coconut Kid]

...  I've started writing about it in AAR under Red Storm. ...

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=9531.0

Scenario: Fairly Large island, only two or three notches high, can't remember vegetation or minerals. Difficulty moderate (politcal & economic), regular random events and 50 year reign. 30 people.

Dictator: Ricardo Fernandez. Leftist Author, elected as socialist, cowardly, womaniser, hardworking, charismatic.

[Coconut Kid]

Hurricanes
Defined, Discussed, with Strategies.

Perhaps this thread has grown into the "definitive" hurricane thread with side-lights on the other random events.

First: If you wish to get the full benefit of the gameplay that Tropico offers, you need to use the Random Events. Simply do not go for the mid-level to learn about them; start with the "seldom" level.

Second: One of the effects of random events is to make you think ahead about something other than mico-managing your people.  That is, try playing the oppressive tyrant with big military through a hurricane or an epidemic. That will test your evil skills in pulling the wings off of flies.

Third: The exploit of 'under construction' buildings in stopped status. If your fear of being in 'Hurricane Alley' is sufficient, you can lay some key reserve buildings and place them in 'stop' status. It costs you money, but the storm will not touch them. You can restart construction immediately after the storm. Yes, it's an exploit of the game world, and it comes near to a cheat. But who cares if you wear both a belt and suspenders (braces).

The "strategy" for hurricane prone island has to be elaborated and developed. Perhaps I can collect some useful reports.