The Christmas Winter Wonderland of The Hurricane is a colossal, cultured nation, ruled by Santa Claus with an even hand, and renowned for its keen interest in outer space, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, hard-working, humorless population of 5.65 billion Hurricaneans have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The relatively small, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of North Pole. The average income tax rate is 77.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Hurricanean economy, worth a remarkable 2,321 trillion Candy Canes a year, is broadly diversified and mostly comprised of black market activity, especially in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Retail, and Soda Sales. Average income is an amazing 410,916 Candy Canes, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.1 times as much as the poorest.

NationStates is now a popular brand of laxatives despite Max Barry's protests, a weakened police force struggles to maintain law and order, a rolling news ticker tape of disclaimers runs across the bottom of the screen on all TV shows, and welfare recipients are milking the government for all they've got. Crime, especially youth-related, is all-pervasive, perhaps because of the country's complete lack of prisons. The Hurricane's national animal is the Reindeer, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Hurricaneanism.

The Hurricane is ranked 79,733^rd in the world and 4^th in The Great Storm for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 2,899.17 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.