Recent hurricane history provides diverging interpretations on future of hurricane activity

Seven years after Sept. 11, and in the wake of many major natural disasters such as forest fires, hurricanes and flooding, nearly half of U.S. states either have no state-level emergency plan or do not provide it readily to the public, reveals a new study by George Mason University Communication Professor Carl Botan.

More than 1,800 people perished in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005—the largest hurricane death toll in the United States since 1928. For the most vulnerable—the urban poor with little money, no transportation and limited resources—Katrina threatened to take everything.