It was these favorable Atlantic steering currents that caused so many of the major hurricanes that formed to come ashore.

the gravest in the Atlantic alliance since it was formed.

This is the second warmest year we've ever seen over the tropical Atlantic. It's pretty toasty out there.

I think that May would be the earliest, based on two hurricanes that not only caused damage at some of the facilities but also displaced the work force.

We were doing tape backups. But with the hurricanes, we started to think about what would happen if we lost the whole building -- and how we were going to get our systems back, not just our data.

Refinery activity has been very depressed because of damage caused by hurricanes last year and deferred maintenance. There was a huge surge in imports after last year's storms but that has ended. At the same time refinery activity has not recovered.