Long term Floridians (25+ years) are old hats when it comes to Hurricanes. I have been here for 30 years (Cupcake 25 years) and we have had to “prepare” for maybe 20 hurricanes headed our way. We have been fortunate that they all opted for a path different than the forecast, but that is not what this blog is about. Nope. It is about….
Exaggerated journalism.
Hurricanes attract a lot of viewership. Almost 24/7 increased ratings. Because of that, they sensationalize. I get that. If they did not, people would become complacent. Thing is, if they sensationalize too long, they create a jaded viewing audience who will take the next Hurricane lightly. They turn a firecracker situation into a thermal nuclear explosion situation so as to keep the audience glued to the telecast.
Here is some major advice to the meteorologist crews: We know more about preparedness than you do. All we need you to do is plot the expected path, the probably landing point, and the potential strength at landfall. We can take it from there.
We know when to evacuate, we know the cone will shift, we know the landing point has a margin of error of +/- 100 miles. We know the damage expected of each level, 1 through 5. We know what a storm surge is, and the damage based on each level of surge. We have our own hydrometers to measure rainfall, vanes for wind direction, and trees to gauge the wind speed.
We know to gas up our cars, have spare gas for generators, clear our lawns of potential flying debris, and to expect power outages. We know to board windows, sandbag water entrance points, and latch down boats and grills.
We know where shelters are, what to do with our pets, and safe points in our house. We can predict to the minute when bridges will close, schools will announce closures, and when local grocery stores will close (and when the bottled water will be gone).
Stop broadcasting this information ALL DAY LONG! All that tells us is that you really have nothing important to say or update. If we were REALLY in danger, you would not need to repeat the same crap all day long. ALL DAY LONG!
The Earth Spins 
Same with our present political situation. We all , or a lot of us know, and it is time to move them out and get the new show on the road. There is always the possibility of things will back fire.
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At this point in the political arena, a backfire would be an improvement.
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Hmmm…not sure about that.
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Ok, the good news is from this post, you and Cupcake are doing well. Agree, Journalism and the “same old stuff” over and over is ALL they do.
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Same thing here with cyclones. The media whip up a frenzy about the coming cyclone months with nary a one crossing the coast. It’s becoming very much a “little boy who cried wolf” scenario. Keep us up to date with your situation, TES. Thinking of you both..
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We were able to avoid structural damage, but cleanup will be a long term project. We were one of the few that actually kept electrical service. It got bad, but created no fear. We have been to this rodeo so many times they named a bull after us.
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Glad you are OK. Cupcake, too. I follow several Floridians.
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Must have underground powerlines. They do help.
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Yes, underground fiber optic, but we did not lose power either. One of the very few zones that kept it on.
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Eventually, we will have to put most power lines underground. Fiber is already mostly underground, I think. Safer in most natural disasters.
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I am on board with that. Gets power poles off the landscape and reduces chances of accidently getting zapped by a rogue downed power line.
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You might like this Floridian…
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/c-and-c-news-thursday-september-29
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One of the ways I learned to be skeptical of the news media was seeing how they reported on hurricanes. The Dan Rather stunt of standing in the wind and rain and giving a hurricane report is just dumb. It is not possible to stand in hurricane force winds, and nobody is going to hear a word you say. It is fakery.
That said, Ian was a big storm. Without the heads up from the weather service, lots of people would have died. I use to live in the Galveston, Texas area. 6,000 people died in the Great Galveston Hurricane. Not sure what percent of the population died. I just know that after the storm they built a seawall. Not much else they could do, and that is where they wanted to live.
Look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bangladesh_tropical_cyclones. It is shocking how many people can die from a cyclone when people don’t have the resources to prepare.
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I am all for the warning. That is what helps…but they overplay their hand with all day “newscasts” that just repeat the same old preparedness dribble. Showing the map of shelters 13 times an hour is a redundancy people do not need. We need to know where, when, and how strong, and those update every 4 hours.
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Agreed!
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