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'Very Active' Hurricane Season Predicted
Joe Farmer of the South Carolina Emergency Management Division said the state tries to keep residents alert and ready, regardless of the severity of the predictions by Gray and others.
"We really don't know which year is going to be the South Carolina year," Farmer said. "It only takes one storm."
  Men work to put down plastic on the roof of a home damaged by a tornado from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan, Sept. 17, 2004, in Westminster, S.C. The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should be "very active," with nine hurricanes and a good chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coast, a top researcher said Tuesday, April 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain, File) (Mary Ann Chastain - AP) 
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Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said Gray's year-to-year forecasts are closely watched, but more important is the underlying research that shows hurricane activity rises and falls in long, multiyear cycles. Coastal states may enjoy long periods of calm, he said, but "we can't drop our guard and relax our planning and building codes, because it's going happen again."
Gray has spent more than 40 years in tropical weather research. He heads the Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State.
Federal government forecasters plan to release their prediction in late May.
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Associated Press Writer Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C., contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
CSU forecast: http:/
National Hurricane Center: http:/
