Hurrican Irene, Eastern Seaboard, BE READY!!

People die everyday from freak accidents or random happenstance. These seven occurrences typically happen everyday regardless of the weather. I wouldn't be pinning the wrap for these on Irene.

 

In PA where I live the effects were hardly life altering. Some rain, some wind no big deal.

I imagine the Jersey coast got a little action but I feel for the most part it was a big hulabaloo by the news media. I realize the governors want to be eligible for federal funding so they all declared states of emergencies. The politicians are taking extra precaution to CYA in light of the Katrina debacle, but when it comes down to it, Irene has been a Cat 1 system and had no real mitigating factors that would lead anyone to expect it to strengthen into anything more destructive.

Common sense, a little healthy precaution is all that was called for. Rather safe and sorry I get that but c'mon Irene pales in comparison to Agnes, Andrew, Floyd and many of the hurricanes and himicanes that have hit us over the past 30 years.

Back to talking about the NFL, MLB and how politicians and taxes are ruining our lives....

 

We had gusts up to 12 MPH down here !!!!!

No damage to report.

Phewwwww !!!!!

 

This was a classic example of kneejerk overreaction. I guarantee you the river flooding over the next 4 days will do more damage than the winds will. I have gone through every storm to hit the Florida panhandle since Kate in 85. There is being cautious then there is taking advantage of. It looks like every state along the path declared a State of Emergency. NC and VA were IMO correct in doing this, they expected a Category 2 or 3 hurricane. But based on bad theories, DE, PA, NJ, and NY declared them. The Weather Channel nor any of the other "News" outlets listened to the NWS-NHC when they pointed out that 1. the seas surface temps north of Chesapeake Inlet were too cool to sustain anything more than a weak Category 1 storm and 2. There would be a massive influx of dry air into the storms core.

None of this was presented in the media. All they wanted to report was the worst case scenarios, panicking nearly everyone for no good reason other than ratings.

Yes I understand the unusual nature of this storm and the novelty of it. But this type of reporting and sensationalism will cause most people to NOT evacuate when the next one comes along, and it is still 2 weeks until the peak of the hurricane season. That one will kill hundreds.

 

Well after listening to the news almost the whole time except for short naps I heard them constantly saying that the loss of electricity and the flooding were going to be the things that hurt the area the most. And they were concerned about the high tides. And yes they knew and talked about the cooler sea temps and the dry air coming into the storm.

It is better to be safe then sorry.

Btw... I am from S.E. Louisiana and have been going through hurricanes as long as I can remember and I am now 66 yrs old.

 

The problem I was referring to is the "cry Wolf" issue. Most will assume the next storm will be like this one. So they will stay and most likely die.

 

DE, PA, NJ, and NY declared a State of Emergency, as I understand it, to get help for power outages and flooding. It of course, costs lots to evacuate people from low lying areas and to move hospital bound people to safer locations in case on loss of power.

As far as the media coverage goes... well they are going to get complaints no matter what they do and I am sure they are used to that.

 

Other than a lot of rain, the Boston area wasn't bad at all - it's barely raining now. Though, 99% of the time, when the hurricane reaches this area it is nothing more than a weak tropical storm.

 

One thing I was glad to hear about was that they had shelters you could go to and bring your pet! After Katrina, Kittyfoot and I worked to help care for so many rescued pets and it was very sad. The poor animals had no clue what was going on. In fact we ended up adopting 4 kitties that we could not find the people they belonged to.

 

Would you believe anything a "News" person had to say, if they don't have enough sense to come in out of the rain?
Always amazes me when they go out and stand in the rain or high winds to do the story, when the story could be done just as well from the studio.