"Katrina was quite a national wake-up call, yet it seems too many residents are still asleep," said Max Mayfield who heads the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Mayfield said a Mason-Dixon opinion poll conducted for the NHC showed that 56 percent of the people in areas at risk along the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts do not feel vulnerable to a hurricane, and 83 percent have not strengthened their homes to resist the dangerous storms.

"The most disturbing, is that 13 percent say they would not evacuate even if ordered to leave," said Mayfield.

Hurricane Katrina killed over 1,500 people along the US Gulf coast last year, many of them New Orleans residents who had not followed evacuation orders.

Forecasters believe 17 tropical storms, including nine hurricanes, could form during the six-month Atlantic cyclonic season that starts on June 1.

"We're facing another active and potentially deadly season in just a few weeks," said Mayfield, urging residents in vulnerable areas to "take the threat seriously and get prepared."

He warned that evacuating a threatened area only 12 to 24 hours before a hurricane hits was particularly dangerous as motorists could be stuck in gridlock as the storm makes landfall.

Last year, about 2.5 million people evacuated Houston as Hurricane Rita approached, causing massive traffic jams as motorists ran out of gas on the highways. The storm eventually moved further north and spared the Texan city.

Adding to the concerns, 100,000 people displaced by last year's hurricanes are still living in temporary shelters, mostly trailers and mobile homes that offer little protection from the killer storms.

In addition, thousands of home owners have yet to fix damage caused by last year's hurricanes. Mayfield said there were "way too many" roofs that still need to be fixed.

The Mason-Dixon survey was conducted between the end of April and the beginning of May among 1,100 residents of the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts and has a three percent margin of error.

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