The last few weeks I've been spending the lovely spring weekends in the yard replanting, fixing and resuscitating plants that died during the several freezes we had this year. I was in awe at the amount of times I had to cover the yard with numerous sheets and blankets (I have flowers, herbs, fruits, and plants all over the house). Most of the plants, flowers and food came back so right now the house looks lovely and it looks like my work has paid off. That until I saw the article "Atlantic may see above-average hurricane season" on CNN's Web site. The article states, "University forecasters predict the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be above average, with 15 named storms and eight of those becoming hurricanes." According to the Colorado State University report, the forecasters expect eight hurricanes and predict that four will strengthen to major hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale of strength. Category 3 storms have sustained winds of at least 111 mph. I understand a kind reminder of pending disasters is never too early, but I'm not ready for hurricane season. I just put in all this work on the yard and I'm still paying off debt from recovering from Hurricane Ike! However, my personal debt and pending foliage doom is nothing compared to the havoc hurricanes cause on offshore rigs and platforms. During the 2005 hurricane season, which included Katrina and Rita, few have forgotten the image of the Chevron's Typhoon floating upside-down in Eugene Island Block 273 some 80 miles from its original location caused during Rita's Gulf of Mexico (GoM) trek as a Category 5 hurricane. Katrina, which came through about a month before Rita, caused notable damage to 18 drilling rigs. According to the MMS, Ivan destroyed seven offshore platforms and did damage to 100 underwater pipelines the previous year. That hurricane also damaged a total of seven offshore rigs and completely destroyed two rigs. Not to mention the HUGE amounts of damage these storms also caused onshore. New Orleans is still recovering from Katrina and blue roofs still adorn houses in the Houston Metropolitan and Beaumont areas from Ike and Rita, respectively. No one is ever ready for disasters, but it is definitely time to start preparing for the worst. According to the report, forecasters William Gray and Phil Klotzbach said precursors to this year's hurricane season are similar to early April conditions ahead of the 1958, 1966, 1969, 1998, and 2005 seasons. Just seeing the year 2005 in there brought chills up and down my spine. With most of my family living in Puerto Rico, my parents living in New Orleans and me living about 45 minutes away from the Galveston border, we do not have the luxury to take hurricanes lightly, even tropical storms (Houston, remember Tropical Storm Allison?). We can only hope this year will resemble last year more so than 2005. To keep abreast of changing conditions in the GoM, access real-time weather reports on the E&P home page www.epmag.com. To read CNN's article, click here.