Forecasters: Brace for another 30 years of bad weather.

By Joseph B. Verrengia | Associated Press
Published on Friday, September 17, 2004
URL: »www.examiner.com/article/index.c···rricane

Ivan, Frances and Charley delivered three staggering blows to the Gulf Coast and Florida, as well as Caribbean island nations, all in just five weeks.

Now here comes Jeanne, which could be lashing north Florida and Georgia by Monday.

Homeowners ritualistically re-hammering the same plywood over their windows figure it can't get much worse, right?

Brace yourselves: Scientists say 65 million Americans living on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts should expect weather like this for another 30 years. Maybe more.

Sure, it's hurricane season and storms happen. But counting Alex, which swamped the Carolinas in August, that's five in six weeks. And that doesn't include tropical storms Bonnie, Gaston, Earl and Hermine.

"I don't remember this happening before in such a short period of time," National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield told reporters, "and the season is only half-over."

It might be a generation before hurricane weather slips back into a quiet phase, he and other experts say.