History’s worst hurricane season over at last

MIAMI — U. S. victims of the busiest and costliest Atlantic hurricane season on record may find some comfort when it officially ends today: no hurricane has been known to hit the country from December to May.

But as the deadly six-month season closes, tens of thousands of Americans are still dealing with the devastation from hurricanes Wilma, Rita and Katrina, the country’s worst natural disaster in modern times.

Thousands remain homeless along the Gulf Coast, where Katrina hit three months ago and plunged New Orleans into chaos. The hurricane exposed the gap between the rich and the poor. Doubts still exist about the country’s preparedness for another catastrophe, caused by man or nature.

“ Hurricane season is coming back around again. It will be here before you know it. You’re happy now, but down the line it could be something more drastic,” said Catrell Leashore, 31, who stood on a debris- littered street near his flooded New Orleans home.

He could be right: Forecasters warn that brutal seasons like this one and last year’s may be common as the Atlantic is in a period of frenzied hurricane activity that began in 1995 and could last at least another decade. Government hurricane experts say the increase is due to a natural cycle of higher sea temperatures, lower wind shear and other factors, although some scientists blame global warming.

Also, steering currents that have sent more hurricanes toward the U.S. recently could be in place for years, said Stan Goldenberg, a meteorologist with the federal Hurricane Research Division.

“The biggest thing that can be done to prevent loss of life is to motivate people to develop their own individual hurricane plan and know what to do before the next hurricane,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center. “Some of these folks, take Mississippi in Katrina, they died because they didn’t have a hurricane plan.” Associated Press