Insured homeowners throughout the Gulf and Atlantic coast areas have taken only half the steps necessary to adequately prepare for recovery following a hurricane, according to the Hurricane Readiness Index released Thursday.

"Following 2005 there is a high level of awareness but the next step of preparedness is not being taken," said Jason Miner, Industry representative of the Glover Park Group.

Jeanne M. Salvatore, senior vice president for Public Affairs at the Insurance Information Institute and Bob Sheets, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami from 1987 to 1995, also expressed their concerns.

Improvements have been made and better tools have been created to detect hurricanes, the experts said.

According to Sheets, forecasts have improved markedly in the last 15 years; error has been cut in half, he said. But despite these improvements, the experts warned that much more needed to be done.

There were times during Katrina when mathematical models did not work, Sheets said. Not a single mathematical model at the time successfully predicted which direction the hurricane would go three or four days days in advance, he said.

"There is an element of concern in the forecast itself," Sheets said.

Although hurricanes are a widely recognized danger in the southeast United States, the hurricane problem exists along the entire Eastern Seaboard as far north as Maine and into the Southwest as far as Texas, Sheets said.

However, there remains a lack of concern in the New England area, he said.

Miner said he found the lack of preparedness in the New England area disconcerting considering the increased warnings about possible hurricanes there. Salvatore said the risks in New England were higher than realized but the state of preparedness in the region remained very low.

"Most people think since it has not happened in [their] lifetime, it's not going to happen," said Sheets.

Salvatore said this was typical of human nature; no one wanted to believe anything would happen to them.

The Hurricane Readiness Index revealed that Louisiana was the most prepared for a hurricane but was still only at a 60 percent rating. As the poll was only conducted on insured homeowners, the scores were misleading optimistic, Sheets said.

"If anyone should be prepared its Louisiana," he said. "Yet they're only at 60 percent."

Sheets said coastal homeowners needed to do more to protect themselves. People were not improving their homes to mitigate the damage, he said. He described houses in coastal areas as "big sails ready to be knocked down."

According to Sheets, there was $7.2 trillion of insured property at risk.

The U.S. coastal population in regions vulnerable to hurricanes had sky rocketed and along with people came property, he said. Yet less than one third of homeowners had taken the necessary steps to protect themselves and improve their homes to mitigate damage.

In order for people to properly protect their homes and to rapidly recover from hurricanes, they had to do four things, Santore said. These were: take a home inventory, update their insurance, secure their homes, and have their important papers organized together, he said.

"In the end it's not just about knowing what to do, it's about doing it," Santore said.

She focused on the need for people to seek out federal flood insurance. The U.S. Eastern and Southeastern coasts are a large geographical area and insurance companies can only take as much risk as they can afford, she said. Therefore the best thing homeowners could do was to shop around to find the best insurance company that could insure them.

Sheets said insurance companies needed to be offered incentives to be more active in coastal areas in order to reduce damage and protect people.

People needed " they can live in safely before, during and after a hurricane," he said

Hurricane resistant structures do exist but they are not being sufficiently utilized, Sheets said.

People in threatened areas could not rely on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to do everything for them to prepare for hurricanes, Sheets said. They had to do their own part in working to maximize the safety of their families and homes, he said.

Sheets said that people needed to take action early. The responsibility for this lay with individual homeowners, he said.

"FEMA is not the answer," said Sheets. "If you look at the numbers. we've got a long way to go."

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