MIAMI (AFP) - Americans still shaken by the devastation of last year's Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,300 people and displaced tens of thousands, wearily braced for a new Atlantic hurricane season as forecasters predicted more fierce storms.
US climatologists said Wednesday that Caribbean and US coastlines were under greater threat in this year's Atlantic tropical storm season, with five out of nine projected hurricanes expected to rank as intense storms. The hurricane season offically began on Thursday.
"There's a little bit of anticipation and a little bit of nerves," Melissa Holt, of Coconut Creek, Florida told The Miami Herald. "But it's also motivating because we're getting our supplies early this year."
University of Colorado climate experts Philip Klotzbach and William Gray said there was an above-average risk of a major hurricane landfall in the Caribbean Sea, and that the US east coast was under a much higher-than-average risk of being struck.
Klotzbach and Gray said they expected in all 17 tropical storms to be generated during the Atlantic season, including nine hurricanes.
The researchers said five hurricanes are likely to become "intense" storms, those classified as Class 3 or higher on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale. Level three storms on the scale have driving winds of at least 111 miles (178 kilometers) per hour, capable of knocking down large trees and destroying mobile homes.
Their forecast falls roughly within the median of the 1950-2000 period and is line with a prediction of four to six major hurricanes by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The forecast, if correct, would represent a sharp downturn too from last year's 28 storms, 15 of which became hurricanes, including the super-storms Katrina and Rita which devastated the US Gulf of Mexico coastline.
The two said the possibility of a hurricane strike on the US east coast, including Florida, was 69 percent, more than double the historical average of 31 percent.
For the US Gulf coast, which felt the brunt of last year's storms, the risk of landfall was 38 percent, only slightly higher that the historical average of 30 percent.
Katrina ranked as category three on the five-point scale when it slammed ashore near New Orleans, causing the deaths of more than 1,300 people.
Some 100,000 people whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged are still living in mobile homes or trailers, which offer little protection from a hurricane's destructive fury.
And authorities admit they have not finished strengthening the levees that broke after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf coast on August 29, 2005, flooding large parts of New Orleans.
In New Orleans, where thousands of people were trapped in the flooded city after failing to follow evacuation orders, authorities plan to use planes, trains and buses to get residents out should a hurricane threaten.
In all, 2005 saw a record 15 hurricanes, among an unprecedented 28 named storms that formed in the Atlantic. For the first time on record, seven of the hurricanes were considered major, meaning they hit category three or higher.
It was also the costliest hurricane season, with damage estimated at more than 100 billion dollars.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2006060...a2Cbpwv;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
US climatologists said Wednesday that Caribbean and US coastlines were under greater threat in this year's Atlantic tropical storm season, with five out of nine projected hurricanes expected to rank as intense storms. The hurricane season offically began on Thursday.
"There's a little bit of anticipation and a little bit of nerves," Melissa Holt, of Coconut Creek, Florida told The Miami Herald. "But it's also motivating because we're getting our supplies early this year."
University of Colorado climate experts Philip Klotzbach and William Gray said there was an above-average risk of a major hurricane landfall in the Caribbean Sea, and that the US east coast was under a much higher-than-average risk of being struck.
Klotzbach and Gray said they expected in all 17 tropical storms to be generated during the Atlantic season, including nine hurricanes.
The researchers said five hurricanes are likely to become "intense" storms, those classified as Class 3 or higher on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale. Level three storms on the scale have driving winds of at least 111 miles (178 kilometers) per hour, capable of knocking down large trees and destroying mobile homes.
Their forecast falls roughly within the median of the 1950-2000 period and is line with a prediction of four to six major hurricanes by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The forecast, if correct, would represent a sharp downturn too from last year's 28 storms, 15 of which became hurricanes, including the super-storms Katrina and Rita which devastated the US Gulf of Mexico coastline.
The two said the possibility of a hurricane strike on the US east coast, including Florida, was 69 percent, more than double the historical average of 31 percent.
For the US Gulf coast, which felt the brunt of last year's storms, the risk of landfall was 38 percent, only slightly higher that the historical average of 30 percent.
Katrina ranked as category three on the five-point scale when it slammed ashore near New Orleans, causing the deaths of more than 1,300 people.
Some 100,000 people whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged are still living in mobile homes or trailers, which offer little protection from a hurricane's destructive fury.
And authorities admit they have not finished strengthening the levees that broke after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf coast on August 29, 2005, flooding large parts of New Orleans.
In New Orleans, where thousands of people were trapped in the flooded city after failing to follow evacuation orders, authorities plan to use planes, trains and buses to get residents out should a hurricane threaten.
In all, 2005 saw a record 15 hurricanes, among an unprecedented 28 named storms that formed in the Atlantic. For the first time on record, seven of the hurricanes were considered major, meaning they hit category three or higher.
It was also the costliest hurricane season, with damage estimated at more than 100 billion dollars.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2006060...a2Cbpwv;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
I pray that these storms wont devastate these already devastated areas.
