Word: gulf
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Convincing residents of New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana not to move away after Hurricane Katrina was hard enough. But now the deep-rooted fear left over from that catastrophe may end up giving locals who stayed another reason to permanently depart the Gulf Coast. Even if this storm season doesn't leave as much damage behind, many people are growing tired of hysterical official warnings, cumbersome evacuations and delayed, badly managed returns. Three years later, the area is still haunted by memories of Katrina, and many are starting to wonder how much longer they can take the annual...
...such forecasts can be terribly wrong. "Right now, anyone who lives along the Texas-Louisiana coast needs to be prepared for the potential of a major hurricane," warns Walt Zaleski, meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Fort Worth, Texas, office. Ike is expected to gain strength from the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters, and eventually become at least a Category 3 storm - meaning it will carry winds at speeds about 130 m.p.h. (See photos of Hurricane Ike here...
...more super storms, we know that hurricanes will happen, and we know that they will strike human populations. The difference, as my colleague Amanda Ripley recently pointed out is whether or not we're prepared for them. As population numbers and property development grow in vulnerable areas like the Gulf Coast, natural disasters will get worse even without the effect of warming. Think of the damage that hurricans have caused even without the possible effect of warming: Hurricane Camille in 1969, which caused over $9 billion in damages, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which caused $38 billion in damages...
Dangling into the Gulf like a continental afterthought, Florida has always been Mother Nature's favorite American target, absorbing eight named storms in 2004 and 2005 alone. The state has gotten better at preparing for hurricanes, with stricter building codes and well-rehearsed evacuation plans. But it's still dangerously exposed - not only to the elements, but to financial ruin. It's got the nation's most dysfunctional property insurance market, a byproduct of life in harm's way. Fitch's ratings agency concluded in March that if a big storm hits Florida, "the fragile market could effectively collapse...
...Whereas Chirac had relied on Saudi Arabia as his primary Arab interlocutor, Sarkozy appears to have turned to Qatar as the key intermediary to re-establish contacts and prepare visits and exchanges between Paris and Damascus. Evidence of Qatar's mediating role is clear in the fact that the Gulf State will participate, along with Turkey, in a four-nation summit Thursday during the second day of Sarkozy's Syria visit...