Storm Surge

Was Isabel the first of a new wave of big, bad Atlantic hurricanes?

As the tattered remains of Hurricane Isabel blew off over Canada last week, the once formidable Category 5 storm left in its wake not only flooded streets, downed power lines and grieving families but also a sense of rising menace. That's because a growing number of scientists believe that conditions favorable for brewing more and even bigger hurricanes in the Atlantic locked into place about eight years ago and will probably persist for at least a decade and maybe longer. "We're not talking about a minor little increase," says Stanley Goldenberg, a hurricane expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,...

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