Quote:
Originally Posted by Shimpy
The media love these storms. While living in S. Fla. channel 7 was renown for over stating everything. As soon as a storm moved off Africa they were alerting people that the threat it could imposed.
I guess they could be libel if they understated the potential threat so they over prepare people. The weather people have admitted that while they do a decent job of predicting the path of a storm they are extremely deficient predicting the intensity. Hurricane Andrew was predicted to be only a cat 1 and hit Ft. Lauderdale. It quickly intensified to a cat 5 and moved further south and hit S. Miami and Homestead with winds approaching 200 MPH. I remember staying up at night while the storm was hitting and hearing on the radio it blew their wind speed anemometer away.
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I agree with all the posters who have been kind enough to answer my original post.........it is better to err on the side of caution; also that it is difficult for the weather people to predict exactly.
What you say is true....if they understated the "potential" danger, people would just ignore the warnings to prepare and / or evacuate.
We remember Andrew only because the couple who bought one of our Vermont homes had survived that storm. The roof totally blew off their home in the Miami area..........she was so traumatized she wanted to move as far north as she could........they bought our home, stayed for about ten years and then relocated back to the south to South Carolina.
I even recall the t.v. pics of the people standing in long lines waiting for bottled water under the hot blazing sun.............that's the only thing about living in Florida full time that scares me.........power outages in the heat of summer and no water to drink. We even stock up on water up here and hubby says that they all have enough TIME to fill up bottles from the tap if they can't afford to buy cases of bottled water. He said he would get a portable generator for the garage (to use in emergencies). However, with the lack of hurricanes in the recent past, we tend to forget what could happen.........
Everyone seems well prepared and staying on top of the weather situation..........but stay safe.
When we lived in Florida back in the early '70s there was a hurricane threat to the east coast.......and we both recall the water steadily rising in the canal in our back yard.......(it went out to the intracoastal waterway). We knew that if it got any higher, we'd have to evacuate with our two year old son and five year old daughter........but didn't have a clue about where that location would be.......... luckily, nothing happened.
Seven years ago we were in Colorado when the potential for Katrina striking New Orleans was discussed on t.v. one morning........our son felt they were exaggerating.......while my gut feeling thought it truly would happen..........and it did. A horrible horrible outcome to that storm......so I agree with everyone........better safe than sorry. It would now be the seven year anniversary. I can still recall some of those visions of people on the roofs, on the highways, all the damage.......and lives lost.....the people in hospitals and the brave medical staff who stayed with them.
Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Vermont's "Irene" which wreaked havoc up here and in New York State.