Hurricane Outlook: Scientists forecast for possible above-normal season in 2018

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Hurricane season in the Atlantic begins next month -- and forecasters are warning - it may be another rough one. CGTN's Nitza Soledad Perez has our report from Florida - where US scientists released their predictions.

The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season was merciless, destructive and the costliest on record.

And the outlook for 2018 is not any brighter. Scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- known as NOAA -- presented their forecast on Thursday for the upcoming hurricane season that begins on June first.

NEIL JACOBS US NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION "We expect 10 to 16 storms with sustained winds of at least 39 miles an hour. Of those, 5 to 9 will become hurricanes with winds of 74 miles an hour, including 1 to 4 major hurricanes, reaching category strength 3 or higher."

The challenge for residents of hurricane alley - those areas of the Caribbean and U.S. Atlantic Gulf coasts so prone to storms -- is that areas that were ravaged in 2017 are still reeling from THAT devastation. Getting hit again could be catastrophic.

Hurricane Maria was the most intense storm to ever hit US territories. Scores were killed in Puerto Rico - where today the electrical grid remains hobbled - with thousands still in the dark.

MIGUEL MOLINA MARINA PUERTO RICO RESIDENT "Well look at that. Eight months and we still don't have power in the countryside. What's going to happen when the next storm comes."

Hurricane Irma had the highest sustained winds for the longest period of time again, on record. Nearly 300 kilometers-per-hour - for 37 hours. It destroyed parts of the Florida Keys and the Caribbean. Dozens of residents of the island of Saint Martin are still living in shelters.

CILIENNE ALCE SAINT MARTIN RESIDENT "We try to organize ourselves as we can. For instance, this is where my two children sleep. It's not great. I have a boy and a girl. They sleep on this bed here. And I sleep on the floor with my boyfriend. We were offered some mattresses, which we bought, and we try to live with those. Over there is a family of four, a mother and her three daughters."

In Houston, Texas, authorities are still trying to figure out how to prevent a repeat of the catastrophic flooding left by Hurricane Harvey.

NITZA SOLEDAD PEREZ LAKELAND, FLORIDA Government scientists say they have better systems to forecast future storms and shrink the cone of uncertainty of where a storm might make landfall. But with warmer ocean waters in the Atlantic, these intense hurricanes still have the power to confound even the latest technology. NSP CGTN Lakeland FL.