By Ed Stoddard SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Memories of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, are fading and the message that the federal government cannot and will not help everyone has not soaked in, the new director of the National Hurricane Center said. Only about half of the people living in hurricane-prone areas are ready for such a storm, and the problem will only worsen as more people unfamiliar with hurricanes move to the region, Bill Proenza added. Disaster officials have stressed that individuals and communities must prepare themselves for dangerous weather. But not everyone has done so, said Proenza, who became director of the National Hurricane Center this month. "About 50 percent of the people along the coastal areas normally threatened by hurricanes and tropical storms are ready or have a readiness plan," Proenza told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. He said this estimate was based on experiences from storms over the past few years, as well as surveys. But he said that without public awareness campaigns, the center worries that this percentage would fall as Americans continue their migration to the coast. "There is a major demographic shift and continual movement to the coastal areas and therein lies our concern: that many people who have had no experience with hurricanes or tropical storms are finding themselves in (this) arena," Proenza said on the sidelines of the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting. A further concern was that complacency could be setting in after last year's mild hurricane season, he said. "We've got to make sure that people are ready, that they understand what we are talking about, they understand what their responsibilities are," Proenza said. "They have got to have readiness plans in place to protect themselves, their families, their businesses," he added. He also said forecasters needed to work on better predicting the intensity of storms to assist local authorities with disaster management plans. "We need to work on forecasting intensity changes in the storm. Not just the tracking -- we need to determine whether a storm is going to be intensifying or weakening," he said. "This is a vital, vital question for those who are making decisions as to the extent of their evacuation. We don't want to have greater numbers evacuated than is necessary, we want to have just what is necessary," Proenza said. "To make that assessment local officials need to know what is going to be the intensity of the storm two days from now."
