HAVANA: Small Caribbean and Central American countries have suffered devastation and thousands of deaths from increasingly frequent hurricanes, and forecasters predict another rough season this year for the region and its tourist resorts.

International relief agencies warn poor countries are not prepared to cope with the disasters and say deaths will continue to rise.

A record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season brought 28 tropical storms, 15 of which became full-blown hurricanes.

Cuba’s National Weather Institute has predicted there will be an above-average 15 tropical storms this year, and at least nine are expected to become hurricanes.

That’s because water temperatures in the Atlantic-Caribbean basin remain warm and there is no sign of a counteracting El Nino phenomenon in the Pacific, said Cuban forecaster Maritza Ballester. The first storm will form in late June or early July, she predicted, with three arising in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Everything points to an active season,” said Ballester, developer of a mathematical model for predicting hurricanes.

Hurricane Katrina, which wrecked New Orleans and killed about 1,300 people in August, brought home to Americans a scenario of devastation familiar to inhabitants of the Caribbean and Central America.

Mudslides buried entire villages and floods washed away homes and roads in Central America when Hurricane Stan drenched the region for a week in October. More than 2,000 people died, mainly in Guatemala.—Reuters