Less predictable and more extreme

Ernesto became the first storm of the 2006 tropical storm season to claim a life earlier this week, killing at least one person on its journey through Haiti. A report released this week highlights the dangers facing the regions exposed to hurricanes on route to the US, and finds that weather in Latin America and the Caribbean is becoming less predictable and more extreme. SCOTT VINCENT reports on some of the less publicised impacts of climate change and intense hurricanes

THE impact of the changing climate on the US has been well documented, but lives lost as storms pass through the Caribbean on their way to the Gulf tend to be less publicised.