NWS to Upgrade in Hurricane Areas

Congress will spend more than $2 million to upgrade weather-monitoring equipment in areas prone to hurricanes, National Weather Service officials said.

The government's equipment for monitoring wind speed is run by electricity without backup and often fails during storms, weather service officials said. Hurricane Katrina knocked out power to much of the Gulf Coast as it came ashore last August, leaving meteorologists, homeowners and insurers without a clear picture of the storm's ferocity.