letter from the editor

A Reason to Remember

TIt’s hard to imagine now, but state and local officials in Southeast United States, including Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, meteorologists and hurricane specialists such as the National Hurricane Center’s Max Mayfield, once worried about “hurricane amnesia.” It’s a very real phenomenon. It happens when people forget what hurricanes are like and what they can do. If you don’t experience one for a few years you tend to forget how serious a hurricane is.

Year after year, hurricane amnesia made it difficult for public officials to keep citizens prepared and alert during cyclone season. It certainly had an effect on the hurricane protection industry. All through 2001 and 2002 things were pretty slow before new building codes in Florida forced new construction to include ways of protecting homeowners and their property. That’s all changed now. The 2004 hurricane season will not soon be forgotten. People will be talking about it for years—that is, unless the 2005 season somehow surpasses it (see page 20).

There’s another phenomenon in play now that might not have a name. It has to do with the millions of Americans who, over the past several years, have been moving to coastal communities and the amount of new construction going on in those areas. There simply are so many more people to be threatened, harmed, killed or left homeless and far more buildings and homes to be destroyed by winds and debris than ever before. By one estimate, in the 1960s there were 45 million people living in hurricane-prone areas of the Southeast. Since then that population has grown more than three times faster than the rest of the country and by 2010 there could be more than 75 million people living in high-risk zones. In many cases, these are people who have moved from areas that have never seen or been threatened by a hurricane. They have no experience to forget.

The situation is this: Demand for hurricane protection products is very high right now. For those dealers, installers and suppliers in the industry looking for the newest and best products and the information that can help them understand what they face there is the World of Hurricane Protection Trade Show & Conference May 5 to 6 in Orlando, FL (see page 9). But it’s also this: The need to educate homeowners is very high right now. They are frustrated, confused and want to protect their families and property. For them there is the Hurricane Exhibition for Learning, Preparation and Safety (HELPS) June 24 to 26 also in Orlando (see page 24). It’s important for the industry to be involved in both of these efforts. One supports the supply side, the other the demand side. Together, they could lead to a future where devastation caused by hurricanes is only a memory.

Howard and Kerri