MIAMI, June 1 (UPI) -- There were no tropical systems moving off Africa toward the Americas Thursday, the first day of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season.
Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, has been campaigning for weeks for the more than 34 million people who live in storm-prone coastal areas to begin preparations, USA Today reported.
He's concerned with a survey of 1,100 people by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research that found more than half don't feel vulnerable to hurricanes, and 3-in-5 have no family disaster plan.
Referring to last year's devastating strike by Hurricane Katrina that struck the Gulf coast, Mayfield said he hopes lessons were learned.
"The folks there in Mississippi and Louisiana who made a conscious decision not to evacuate were not just tempting fate, they were playing Russian roulette," Mayfield told the newspaper.
The peak of hurricane season normally is mid-August through October, and storms in June and July occur once every other year, records dating back to 1886 show.
Forecasters predict up to 16 tropical storms this year, eight to 10 of them hurricanes and as many as six of them major, meaning a Category 3 or higher with winds of at least 111 mph.
