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CNN Live Today

More Hurricanes Ahead

Aired July 20, 2001 - 13:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN,CNN ANCHOR: Weather researchers think the evidence is now clear, a major shift in the climate will bring more frequent and severe hurricanes to the Eastern seaboard and the scientists say this increased activity could last for decades.

Joining us with more on this is Dr. Chris Lance the research meteorologist from NOAA hurricane research division. We thank you for being with us -- decades? Is that correct?

CHRIS LANDSEA, NOAA HURRICANE RESEARCH: Yes, unfortunately what we see is a cycle of hurricane activity and we have entered a busy period starting about 1995. So we are expecting 20, 30, maybe 40 more years of increased hurricane activity for the Caribbean and the United States.

ALLEN: And what's causing it?

LANDSEA: Well it's a natural fluctuation forced by the Atlantic Ocean. It warms up by a little bit, we get more Atlantic hurricanes. As it cools off when it was in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s we see reduced hurricane activity.

ALLEN: And when we say increased hurricane activity are we talking about more hurricanes or just stronger hurricanes, or both?

LANDSEA: Well, for the total number of storms, that doesn't seem to change on a decade to decade basis, but what we do see is those storms become much stronger. So we see a doubling of the number of major hurricanes out in the Atlantic every year.

ALLEN: I was reading that these conditions were similar from the 1920s through the 1960s, but the coasts were more sparsely populated and now we know that they are packed with people. How could this affect how the National Hurricane Center handles evacuations? Will we see more required evacuations rather than just requests?

LANDSEA: Well it is going to make it a lot more complicated. The last active hurricane period we had was from the late '20s to the late 1960s and the coasts for the United States were much more sparsely populated. So, when hurricane warnings have to be issued for the major storms now, evacuation is much more difficult and it's timely and it's very expensive. So, yes, it will be issues the National Hurricane Center and other and people are going to have to deal with. ALLEN: Any way to tell what parts of the coast could be affected by this?

LANDSEA: Right. The cycle that appeared affect the United States Atlantic Coast more, from the -- from Florida up to New England, but we also see a dramatic change in the number of hurricanes that affect the Caribbean as well. The one region that doesn't get the big impact is along the Gulf Coast of the United States.

ALLEN: And what about, as far as could this affect the rest of the country? We saw El Nino start way out in the Pacific and affect the East Coast of the United States. Will this happen in reverse now?

LANDSEA: Well, we tend to see, when the Atlantic is warm Florida tends to be a bit wetter in the summertime but the Midwest is a little bit drier. So that might be a long-term effect to have to deal with as well.

ALLEN: All right Dr. Landsea. Stay with us because we want you to react to an idea someone had to combat hurricanes and we will let Stephen tackle that one.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Natalie. More on this now because while there may be some harsh storms brewing on the horizon, one entrepreneur says he may have created a product now to tame the harshest of the storms. That product called Dyn-O-Gel. Here are some scenes of being spread out over the sky. Its creator says it tames the storm by taking moisture out of the storm clouds.

Joining us is Peter Cordani, CEO of Dyn-O-Mat, the parent company that manufacturers Dyn-O-Gel. Mr. Cordane, thank you for joining us. It sounds like in effect you are doing the reverse of seeding the clouds as we all grew up hearing about during drought conditions.

PETER CORDANI, CEO, DYN-O-GEL: Exactly.

FRAZIER: And how do you do that? Is this sort of a granulated powder that you spread out over a cloud?

CORDANI: Yes it is. It's a polymer that we developed and modified and by dumping it into a storm cloud it has ability to absorb the moisture out of the storm.

FRAZIER: We saw some video as I was talking, of a crop duster plane over a cloud. It's hard to tell though because the pictures were made from the ground, how that material dispersed then. Does it go out in a straight line, or does it immediately fan out into a cloud of its own making?

CORDANI: It immediately fans out and we have been modifying and changing the dispersal systems of the aircraft and yesterday we had the opportunity to use jets. We got off the crop dusters and now we moved to the next level and we used jets.

FRAZIER: And when you spread this out into a cloud, then what happens?

CORDANI: The powder goes into the cloud, then it will absorb all of the moisture, it turns into to a gel-like substance and then falls harmlessly into our ocean.

FRAZIER: And is the gel harmful to the ocean at all? Is it is a chemical product that we need to worry about a residue?

CORDANI: Absolutely not. It's environmentally friendly and that is what allowed me to move forward.

FRAZIER: Some of us were asking if this is this similar to related products you can buy in a garden store now, the sort of things that you put -- they look like little grains of rice. You put it in a potted plant and they absorb water become huge cubes of like a Jell-O, is the same idea?

CORDANI: It's in the family of the product, yes it is. But as you see or as you have seen in the past, mine works instantly by the modifications that we did. I can make it work in one second or 10 seconds or what have you. The stuff that you can buy known in the common gardening departments, that takes, you know, 20 minutes to absorb and gel and this is that. That's made for gardening products.

FRAZIER: Let's bring in Mr. Landsea who has been standing by listening to your comments. Now Mr. Landsea the idea is to spread this material from the outer rim of the hurricane in toward the eye in a straight line.

Do you think it would have the affect that we are saying it would?

CORDANI: Well it's a wonderful concept to try to reduce hurricane intensity. But I'm pretty skeptical. A hurricane by nature brings in new moisture continuously to refuel itself. So even if you could rein out a hurricane completely it would immediately bring back more moisture immediately to refuel itself. So, I am skeptical that it would have any long-term help to reduce hurricanes.

CORDANI: Mr. Cordoni is this product intended -- is the energy the rain, and are you trying to take the rain n out to stop the hurricane? Or are you trying -- could you move rain, let's think of this other alternate uses -- could you move rain where it's needed with this?

CORDANI: Absolutely. We did that about eight months ago off the coast of Jupiter. We went up with some aircraft and we removed the clouds entirely, and we felt this like light mist that was evaporating as it was coming down and we were really working on some tough clouds at the time.

The didn't have the right moisture count in them that we were looking for on that day.

FRAZIER: Well it is a tantalizing concept and it's kind of a bracing report we have now from NOAA. Thank you both, Mr. Cordani, Mr. Landsea. Thank you for joining us this afternoon.

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