Folks in the communities along the U.S. Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida are getting prepared for their yearly dose of dread.

Hurricane season enters June 1, and residents of coastal areas will switch on the evening news each night wondering if there will be a small swirl off the coast of Africa that could grow a few weeks later into their worst nightmare.

This year, Gulf Coast residents may want to omit the weather report and pray instead.If a hurricane batters the region in 2010, it could slit into some communities already hanging by a thread.The massive oil polished from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig catastrophe is threatening the livelihood of shrimpers, fishermen and businesses along the hurricane-exposed coast in Louisiana and Alabama.