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- RIVIERA BEACH - Imagine
a ferocious hurricane reduced to a summer squall. Think Hurricane Andrew
on Prozac.
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- Peter Cordani says he can make it happen.
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- The Palm Beach Gardens resident insists a simple soil
moistener will disrupt, if not destroy, hurricanes. Laugh if you want,
but Cordani, 39, says his idea can save your life or your house.
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- "This is a very serious thing," he said from
his office in a Riviera Beach warehouse that serves as the headquarters
for his privately held Dyn-O-Mat Inc. "This could change the world."
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- His attorney, Wayne T. Crowder of Greenberg Traurig in
West Palm Beach, is more cautious, but no less excited.
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- "When a hurricane threatens, people begin to wonder
what it's going to mean to them," Crowder said. " `What about
my wedding or my picnic or my business?'
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- "Like any good science experiment, we have to take
this to the next step. Will this be commercially exploitable? I doubt it
very much. But what a great gift to society."
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- Cordani demonstrates the process in his office using
11/2 gallons of water and two tablespoons of Soil Moist, polyacrylamide
granules that are spread around plant roots to keep them from drying out.
Most local lawn and garden stores carry 3-ounce bags of the moistener
for about $3.
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- Cordani has piqued the interest of a prominent hurricane
expert, who is used to hearing such ideas as placing giant windmills along
the coast to blow away hurricanes or firing liquid nitrogen torpedoes
into storms.
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- "I get a lot of this stuff from people who are just
plain loony," said Hugh Willoughby, director of the hurricane research
division at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office
in Miami. "But he's really thinking. He's hit upon something that's
within the realm of physical possibility."
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- Here's what Cordani envisions: spraying or dropping a
large quantity of Soil Moist from airplanes into a hurricane while it's
over open water.
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- Cordani says Soil Moist will absorb at least 250 times
its weight, turning the storm's moisture into a gel that falls into the
ocean. Once it hits the salt water, the gel returns to a liquid state
and dissipates.
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- The company that makes Soil Moist, Cleveland-based JRM
Chemical Inc., says it won't hurt the environment. Other brands of soil
moistener could prove to be as effective, Cordani said.
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- Cordani has applied for a patent on the hurricane application
of Soil Moist and eventually hopes to license it to the government, which,
in turn, would be responsible for determining when to use it.
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- Willoughby said the idea sounds promising, but scientists
must conduct research and experiments to determine how practical it is.
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- For instance, Willoughby said, scientists might need
to dump at least 1,000 tons of Soil Moist an hour into a hurricane to
significantly reduce its effects.
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- "If this worked, it probably would be worthwhile
only in the most intense hurricanes," said Willoughby, who has flown
into nearly 400 typhoons and hurricanes. "If you have a hurricane
like Andrew, that may be the only time it would really pay off."
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- Other hurricane experts have similar concerns.
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- "It's an interesting hypothesis," said Chris
Landsea, a research meteorologist with NOAA. Landsea previously worked
with William Gray, the Colorado State University professor renowned for
predicting the number of named storms each hurricane season, which stretches
from June 1 to Nov. 30.
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- But while Landsea believes Cordani's theories have merit,
he points out that hurricanes are incredible forces of nature that generate
new moisture quickly.
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- "My offhand guess," Landsea said, "is
that if you did remove all the moisture from a storm -- which would be
a huge task -- it would be replaced in a matter of a few hours again."
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- Bob Sheets, former director of the National Hurricane
Center in Coral Gables, agrees that it would be difficult to disrupt a
storm that spans 1 million cubic miles of atmosphere.
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- "A major problem that most people with ideas about
how to modify a hurricane (have) is that they do not comprehend the size
of the storm," Sheets said in an e-mail message. "Also, exactly
how the introduction of (Soil Moist) might modify clouds in a hurricane
or even in simply a single tropical cloud or thunderstorm would require
considerable research."
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- In the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviets claimed they could
use standard cement powder to make clouds collapse. U.S. scientists, including
Sheets, began testing the theory by dropping cement powder into the upper
parts of growing clouds over tropical waters.
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- The experiment ended when there was no noticeable effect
on the clouds.
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- Other hurricane-modification efforts -- including cloud
seeding, which involved forming a second hurricane eyewall that could strangle
the first -- also have failed. In 1998, the American Meteorological Society
said "there is no sound physical hypothesis for the modification
of hurricanes, tornadoes or damaging winds in general."
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- But Cordani, who used to install underground pipes for
country club homes, is far from discouraged by the lack of historical
precedent. He insists he's not trying to take on the entire hurricane
-- just the all-important eye.
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- "Once you do that, you kill the heart of the storm,"
he said. "I don't expect to shut down the whole storm, and then 20
minutes later it's sunny again. But this stuff will reduce the impact
considerably so that all we're dealing with is a thunderstorm."
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- In 1994, Cordani started Dyn-O-Mat, a 24-employee company
that manufactures and distributes environmentally safe cleaning products,
including bilge balls, which absorb hazardous fluids including gas and
oil from the bilges of pleasure boats. The business is named for its first
product -- a thick black rug made of polypropylene that absorbs anything
that drips on it.
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- He said he worked with Soil Moist for about two years
before he realized the possible effect it could have on hurricanes.
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- In 1998, he was gardening at his parents' house and used
the granules around the plants' roots. At the same time, he was working
on a water scooter, and he noticed that his hand, which was oily from
applying Soil Moist, became clean when he touched the salt water in the
scooter.
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- Two weeks later, as he was watching television footage
of a hurricane hitting land, he wondered whether a large amount of Soil
Moist could disrupt a storm. So he and his wife, Lisa, conducted a test
in their garage using Soil Moist, bottles of salt water and fresh water
and a blender to simulate high winds.
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- It worked exactly as he thought.
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- "Believe me, we freaked out," he said.
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- Officials with JRM Chemical, Soil Moist's owner, said
they never knew their product might be used so creatively. They have discussed
its application during the past two years with Cordani and wish him well.
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- "God bless him," JRM Vice President Scott Wiesler
said.
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- Cordani has kept his theory under wraps while he and
his attorneys applied for a patent, which is pending, and discussed their
next move. NOAA's Willoughby has put Cordani in touch with officials who
will test the theory with storm clouds. That's expected to take place
this month in Colorado.
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- Critics might point out that it's risky to fool with
Mother Nature. But except for providing rainfall, hurricanes have little
redeeming value, said Landsea, the NOAA meteorologist.
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- "I hate to say that science can be that simple,"
said attorney Crowder. "But I think it can be that simple."
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