"Former NOAA Director Hugh Willoughby Just Says 'No' to Anti-Hurricane Technology
PALM BEACH, Fla., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The followingstatement is being issued by Peter Cordani of GelTech Solutions Inc.
(Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080923/NETU049 )
First New Orleans. Now Houston. Where next?
Hurricanes Ike and Gustav yet again have inflicted varying levels of devastation to two major Gulf Coast cities and their environs. Must we always respond to hurricanes by evacuating millions, then expending billions torestore shattered lives and replace battered property? Instead, why not use Yankee ingenuity to tame Mother Nature, as man has done since he cobbled together the first dam?
I have wondered this since I created my weather-modification project nine years ago. My simple idea has appeared on virtually every major American newschannel. I would air-drop my environmentally friendly, super-absorbent powder on an isolated section of a hurricane's eye-wall. This would soak up huge amounts of moisture on contact and simultaneously cool the storm's coretemperature. This potentially would drain some of its energy and sufficiently disrupt it to lessen its destructive force. Decreasing a hurricane's power byeven one category would save lives and property.
Dr. Hugh Willoughby, former director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Research Division, initially welcomed my idea.
'It has a chance,' Willoughby said on CBS' 'Early Show' on July 7, 2000. 'This one actually is something that we'll take a look at.'
On Willoughby's suggestion, my team and I used an airplane on July 19, 2001 to drop $40,000 worth of my patented powder into a threatening thunderstorm off Florida's east coast. The cloud formation soon vanished. "The people in the tower visually confirmed that there was a tall buildup, and the next moment it was gone" from Doppler radar, Kevin Sullivan, the Palm Beach International Airport's control tower supervisor, told the Associated Press.
Despite this successful demonstration, Willoughby now has become a critic of the very idea that he previously welcomed. Journalists have quoted him invirtually every interview I have given to promote hurricane mitigation.
Willoughby never has visited my laboratory nor seen this idea in action, but has voiced his opinion about it anyway. This has prevented the public from recognizing that there is an alternative to today's policy of pre-emptive surrender to hurricanes.
For instance, Willoughby has told interviewers that slowing a hurricane required 10 aircraft. Then he said 300 planes were necessary. Most recently, he told NBC's Palm Beach affiliate, WPTV: "Basically, it would take more C5As - the military heavy-lift aircraft - than exist in the world by a hugefactor."
Weather modification expert Waylon "Ben" Livingston, a former NOAA projectdirector with a degree in cloud physics, finds this laughable. He believes "seeding" a hurricane requires as few as two small aircraft to drop material into it and decelerate its devastating winds.
My own belief is that eight to 10 powder-filled Boeing 747s would get the job done.
What is the correct answer? No one knows. The way to figure this out isnot with endless debate, but actual field testing. Hurricane reduction should involve NOAA's scientists, military or FEMA pilots, and my hurricane-calmingpowder dropping from those planes into storms. Everybody wins!
Here is what I find most perplexing: Asked the question, 'What do you think of Peter Cordani's idea?' a normal person would reply: 'It may or may not work. But good luck to him. If he succeeds, imagine the benefits to humanity."
Renewed federal interest in this matter suggests that the idea I have pushed since 2001 no longer seems far fetched. Senator Kaye Bailey Hutchison (R- Texas) is seeking $100 million for hurricane-reduction research. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is considering a $1.6 million proposal by University of Colorado professor Joe Golden and his colleagues for hurricane-related lab studies.
Uncle Sam's anti-hurricane efforts remain theoretical. Conversely, WeatherTech is ready to go. Had my team and I received a call, we could have launched planes over the Gulf of Mexico to try to soothe Ike. Think how Galveston might look today with a few trees down and some shutters blown tothe ground, rather than a city reduced to splinters.
Palm Beach inventor and entrepreneur Peter Cordani designed the WeatherTech hurricane-mitigation system (U.S. Patent 6,315,213).
For further information, contact Tom Strenta at 561-531-1085
SOURCE GelTech Solutions Inc."
http://www.wlox.com/story/9057740/f...ust-says-no-to-anti-hurricane-technology
