Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center and ubiquitous media presence at times like this, offered dire predictions to Congress yesterday about more severe hurricanes for the U.S. in the next 10 to 20 years.
Mayfield predicted several more named tropical storms this year. The latest, Hurricane Rita, is the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June through November. Since record-keeping started in 1851, the record is 21 tropical storms, in 1933.
Mayfield also listed a number of cities and regions in addition to New Orleans he believes are “especially vulnerable” to damage from a major hurricane: Houston and Galveston, Texas; Tampa; southern Florida and the Florida Keys; New York City and Long Island; and New England.
“Katrina will not be the last major hurricane to hit a vulnerable area,” he said.
And of course he answered the question of the day:
…he shrugged off the notion that global warming played a role, saying instead it was a natural cycle in the Atlantic Ocean that fluctuates every 25 to 40 years.
