Factoid:
According to the Worldwatch Institute, weather-related damage worldwide totaled $92 billion in 1998, up 53 percent from the previous record of $60 billion in 1996. Storms and floods drove 300 million people from their homes in 1998.
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Factoid:
Hurricane Mitch in 1998 was one of the most destructive storms in history, killing over 12,000 people in Central America and doing an estimated 7 to 10 billion dollars of damage.
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Forecasters See Severe Hurricane Season Ahead
Meteorologists say the La Nina cold water condition in the Pacific is likely to produce higher than average hurricane activity in the Atlantic and Caribbean this year.
Start Date: 5/25/99
Meteorologists say that the 1999 hurricane season, which officially begins on June 1, is likely to have well above the average number of severe storms. They are warning residents of the Caribbean, Central America and southern U.S. coastal areas to prepare now for what may be coming.
The expected greater number and intensity of hurricanes is seen as an effect of La Nina, the cold-water condition now prevailing in the central Pacific Ocean. La Nina is also considered a key factor in the large number of severe tornadoes that have struck the central United States in recent weeks, including a May 3 tornado in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that was said to be the most powerful ever recorded, with winds of 318 miles per hour.
Last year's Hurricane Mitch was one of the most destructive storms in history. Mitch killed over 12,000 people in Central America and did an estimated 7 to 10 billion dollars of damage. Over 2 million people were displaced from their homes. The nations of Honduras and Nicaragua were particularly hard-hit and are still struggling to recover. If a similar storm were to hit that region again this year, officials fear the death toll could be even higher.
Though such devastating storms are not common, this year's conditions have prompted hurricane watchers to sound the alarm early. "We need to be on guard this year. That's the bottom line," says Eric Willingford, research meteorologist at Florida State University in Tallahasee. "We do need to take these storms very seriously in terms of evacuation plans, and building stronger buildings," he said.
"We want everyone in hurricane-prone areas to be prepared and have a plan -- every individual, business and community," says Max Mayfield, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Some experts predict that this year's hurricane season will get off to a slow start, because water temperatures in the mid-Atlantic Ocean are somewhat cooler than normal. But they also say that storms later in the year could be very severe.
 Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security.
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