This past weekend, my son and I were headed to Atlanta, GA for a soccer tournament. We rented a car because there were only two of us traveling and we didnt want to take the gas guzzler. As I picked up the car, the agent cheerfully told me that I was getting complimentary XM radio on the car. Well... that wasnt exactly true. We had ONE station - The Weather Channel. My son had his Ipod so I just left it on so I wouldnt have to keep searching for local radio stations as we traveled. I was interested in learning more about Hurricane Irene anyway so it passed the time. In the two and a half hour drive, the anchors and correspondents on the Weather Channel had me convinced that the mother of all hurricanes was headed up the coast of the United States and that we were in for mass destruction! I recognize that the professionals in the weather profession are in a catch-22 situation. They are criticized if the give too much information and criticized for making too light of the situation. However, am I the only one who thinks that Hurricane Irene was oversold to the public and, if I were a cynical person, I would say it could be because of the potential financial gain from advertising dollars? I mean, you do have a huge percentage of the country tuned in with a potential personal stake in every bit of information that is being conveyed--waiting patiently through the Allstate commercials in order to be on top of this life-changing event.
I dont know a lot about hurricanes but I do know that they tend to weaken as they leave warm tropical waters. So I have to be a bit skeptical when the weather personalities keep saying "This is a Category Two storm with winds of blah blah blah.." and " A Category Two storm could do tremendous damage to New York City and all of the Eastern Seaboard!" What were the chances that the storm, after hitting North Carolina, skimming the east coast (landfall does weaken hurricanes) and then heading to the colder waters of the North Atlantic, would still be a Category Two storm that would hit New York City? These guys were even telling people what the wind speeds would be against buildings over twenty stories tall.
There were affects of Hurricane Irene all the way up the coast, mainly in the form of flooding lower lying areas. But even as the hurricane was reduced to a tropical storm, huge warnings were going out about mild beach erosion, flash flooding and how the winds could always start up again. I do feel for those people who were affected by high winds and flooding. The people affected are mostly heaving a big sigh of relief because it was so much milder than it could have been. An attitude of "Whew, we dodged a bullet!" permeated all of the people who were interviewed by TWC. "Thank you Weather Channel, for keeping us informed of the impending doom! Thank goodness it wasnt as bad as it could have been"
Does anyone else have a slightly "icky" feeling about all of this? I compare this to a doctor who examines you and says "Gee, it could be terminal cancer! You might not make it!" When the tests are done and the issue was not terminal cancer, but a case of indigestion, why would you be grateful to your doctor for scaring you to death for nothing?? The Weather Channel encouraged the belief that some huge disaster was looming and I just dont think that they believed that even for a moment! Whether they were trying to keep the public tuned in for ratings or exaggerating the risk in order to make people pay more attention, The Weather Channel should be ashamed of themselves.
As we headed home from the soccer tournament on Sunday afternoon, the masses of Weather Channel employees that had been dispatched across the Northeastern U.S., were hard-pressed to find something to report. The only people they could find to interview talked about how mild this storm was compared to a Noreaster, which these folks face almost annually. It was almost humorous to hear these newsmen say things like "Look at this! Here is a boat that was in the HARBOR and is now on dry land!! Can you believe it? Wow, I am sure glad that no one was aboard this vessel! They took our warnings and left town! Oh and here is some beach erosion! Gee, the sand that is over there, was once over HERE! Unbelievable!" It was kind of sad, really.
The really sad thing is that they are particular about which weather catastrophes they choose to report on extensively. I am hearing that there were fourteen deaths due to the hurricane and a couple of hundred people might be displaced, yet I predict that the Weather Channel vans will be there for weeks! When the Deep South and Midwest lost over four hundred people and thousands of people were left homeless, the Weather Channel devoted about three days to the disaster. It will be interesting to see how this plays out! I mean, we will see if this is about numbers of people affected and severity of outcome,
One of my friends made a remark that rang true with me, convincing me that she would never get a job at TWC!! She said "Gee a Category One storm in the Gulf, would basically be a free pressure wash for the condos!" Amen!
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