With four hurricanes hitting Florida in 2005 — Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma — on top of three in 2004, that attitude has been shaken. Last year was the worst ever for Atlantic storms. A prominent forecasting team at Colorado State University predicts another bad year with 17 named hurricanes, twice the recent average. “I’m not sure hurricanes are unusual events anymore,” says Paul Patterson, a principal at Glenrock Associates, a New York firm that analyzes utility stocks.

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