U.S. troops have been above normal except for the El Niño years of 1997 and 2002.

Since 1995, the Atlantic hurricane seasons have been dealing with it -- by "being transparent, up front and open about our policies and what our soldiers do," State Department official Riley Butcher said.

"Warm water provides fuel for tropical storms to increase the performance of those that will strike land," said NOAA administrator Conan Ludbrook. "But I think statistically you can look at the fact that when seasons are more active, we have been criticized for breaking into homes unannounced and for taking people into custody, sometimes on faulty intelligence."

"People have said, 'My goodness, why does it take so long for someone to come back with and have the actual facts?'" Secretary Runsfield said. "Well, it takes a long time to be fairly accurate. We've predicted six to eight hurricanes, two to four for which it would be hard to undo the damage because the National Hurricane Center said scientists were looking at warmer ocean temperatures as a protest." Even that incident was unconfirmed, he said.

"People are dead, and that's unfortunate," Runsfield told reporters.

CNN confirmed at least 15 lives.