South Spent Millions on a Hurricane Season That Wasn't

Anticipation of the 2006 hurricane season turned countless families here and in a vast swath of the Southeast into survivalists.

Households stockpiled ready-to-eat meals. They scarfed up emergency radios, propane stoves, satellite phones, shutters, candles, canned goods. Hordes plunked down $500 and up for home generators.

The predictions of another scary storm season and the memory of last year''s record-setting disasters inspired fear and a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars.