Katrina Coverage

Yahoo prints a long Space.com article on weather modification here.
...But some blue sky thinkers have already looked into these and other scenarios in "Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025" - a research paper written by a seven person team of military officers and presented in 1996 as part of a larger study dubbed Air Force 2025.
That report came with requisite disclaimers, such as the views expressed were those of the authors and didn't reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force,
Department of Defense, or the United States government. Furthermore, the report was flagged as containing fictional representations of future situations and scenarios.
On the other hand, Air Force 2025 was a study that complied with a directive from the chief of staff of the Air Force "to examine the concepts, capabilities, and technologies the United States will require to remain the dominant air and space force in the future."
...Eastlund pointed to the High frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). This is a major Arctic facility for upper atmospheric and solar-terrestrial research, being built on a Department of Defense-owned site near Gakona, Alaska.
Eastlund wonders if HAARP does, in fact, generate gravity waves. If so, can those waves in turn influence severe weather systems?
Started in 1990, the unclassified HAARP program is jointly managed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the Office of Naval Research. Researchers at the site make use of a high-power ionospheric research instrument to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere for scientific study, observing and measuring the excited region using a suite of devices...
...The last large hurricane modification experiments -- under Project Stormfury -- were carried out by the U.S. Air Force, Eastlund said. "It is likely the Department of Defense would be the lead agency in any new efforts in severe storm modification."
Additionally, federal laboratories with their extensive computational modeling skills would also play a lead role in the development of a science of weather modification.
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would find their respective niches too. The satellite diagnostic capabilities in those agencies would play a strong role, Eastlund suggested.
It appears that only modest amounts of government dollars have been spent on weather modification over the last five years.
"Hurricane Katrina could cost $300 billion by itself," Eastlund said. "In my opinion, it is time for a serious scientific effort in weather modification."
Oddly enough, they don't mention the proposed "Weather Modification Operations and Research Board".