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little damage, said Farrell, whose study's findings were made available to The Associated Press.
• "It really, really works," Farrell said. "Where there was a federal beach fill in place, there was no major damage -- no homes destroyed, no sand piles in the streets. Where there was no beach fill, water broke through the dunes."
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's a new push to make testing for the AIDS virus as common as cholesterol checks.
• Americans ages 15 to 64 should get an HIV test at least once -- not just people considered at high risk for the virus, an independent panel that sets screening guidelines proposed Monday.
• The draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the latest recommendations that aim to make HIV screening simply a routine part of a check-up, something a doctor can order with as little fuss as a cholesterol test or a mammogram. Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has pushed for widespread, routine HIV screening.
• Yet not nearly enough people have heeded that call: Of the more than 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, nearly 1 in 5 -- almost 240,000 people -- don't know it. Not only is their own health at risk without treatment, they could unwittingly be spreading the virus to others.
• The updated guidelines will bring this long-simmering issue before doctors and their patients again -- emphasizing that public health experts agree on how important it is to test even people who don't think they're at risk, because they could be.
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