Mayor Nagin called it the "mother of all storms."
People wouldn't be hauling ass out of N.O. if he'd called it a "potentially bad storm."
News reports are also using monster terminology. (Though the word devastating has only yet appeared in reference to Katrina.)
I told my friend Christina about my new weather map obsession. "I'm an engineer, I can tell you they're just using a model," she tells me.
The news reports are freaking me out, to say the least, especially when the Katrina/ Gustav parallels are drawn.
But what channel wouldn't draw them? This is their business boom and they milk it expertly, with raw hurricane hunter footage and video bloggers making "eerie" Katrina comparisons from the French Quarter. (I've visited the Weather Channel's site 15 times in the last 24 hours.)
So this is all just caution from a lesson hard learned and good ol' media opportunism. No potential disaster here.
Per the Washington Post: "Gustav is projected to hit the Gulf Coast region near Louisiana Monday or Tuesday, though forecasters cautioned that the track could vary."
I can stomach that. ... Time to check the satellite image.
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1 comment:
Here's the deal. With global warming effecting us it has already been established that the frequency of hurricanes has been and will continue to increase. So does that mean residents of affected areas will need to pack up and go to crowded shelters with minimum amenities EVERY SINGLE TIME?? Nah, I would just hang around at home and do the best I can do to survive and protect my assets.
News casts and weather warning should be very responsible when they report danger instead of painting doom and gloom. The biggest danger will be when their forecasts take on 'boy who cried wolf' quality and a real disaster alert goes unheeded.
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