Forecasters worried about hurricanes

MIAMI, April 8 (UPI) -- Hurricane forecasters and many others at a meeting near Orlando, Fla., are more worried than ever that a disaster of epic proportions is on the horizon.

Max Mayfield, director of Miami's National Hurricane Center, said 50 million Americans live along the coast from Texas to Maine, double the number in 1950 -- and that puts them all at risk.

"Please listen to me. The United States of America is more vulnerable to hurricanes today than it has ever been. As we continue to develop the coastline, the potential for damage from storms will increase," Mayfield told the five-day meeting at Walt Disney World.

"Please remember that we have been lucky," he said.

This is an old theme, and Mayfield and other hurricane center directors have been hammering at it for years.

"As the hurricane season opens, it's like a national lottery of fear, and it's a lottery nobody wants to win," said James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.