Every time a big hurricane comes ashore and knocks out electric service for a few days or weeks, lots of smart, prepared residents break out (or buy) generators, crank them up and switch their juice back on.

Good for them. The trouble is, every time that happens, a few people place the generators in their basements or their garages. And then someone gets sick or dies from carbon monoxide poisoning. 

I've been covering storms for many years, and before every one, public health authorities issue statements and warnings and reminders about this hazard. And every time somebody gets sick or dies.

The same warnings went out before Hurricane Ike struck the Texas Gulf Coast last September. In two languages. And still seven people died, and dozens were treated for CO poisoning, according to a report today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 80 percent of those injuries were attributed to improper residential use of electric generators. Young people and women seem the most vulnerable, according to the CDC study.

A check of Poison Center calls after Ike found 54 storm-related CO exposure cases. The median age of the victims was 24 years. Nearly two-thirds were female. More than 90 percent were exposed in their homes.

Hyperbaric oxygen chambers were used to treat 15 people. Their median age was 49, and eight were women. Seven people were hospitalized. Thirteen were exposed in their homes, and generators were the source in 13 cases.

Among the dead, the median age was 32 years, with ages ranging from 4 to 76 years. Six were male, and six died due to exposure from a generator placed inside the home or garage. All died within four days of Ike's landfall, the study found.

CDC editors noted that 51 people died from CO exposure after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. All but one of those involved generators. Why can't we learn this lesson? 

When hurricanes threaten, everyone worries about high winds and storms surges. And those things do cause a lot of property damage. But when it comes to killing people, it's the freshwater flooding from heavy rains, and CO poisoning, that kill the most people.

The study's findings, the CDC said, "emphasize the need for effective, storm-related prevention messages concerning proper generator use, and underscore the need for ongoing prevention messages regarding the installation and maintenance of battery-powered CO detectors in homes."

(SUN-SENTINEL PHOTO/2008)