Better safe than sorry
Preparing for a hurricane is a lot of work. When it doesn't come, we have mixed feelings. We're relieved we've been spared, but we're also a little ticked that all that work went for naught.
An online vote by readers suggests that most people recognize this as the price we pay for living in South Florida. Better safe than sorry, we say.
But there are plenty of others who claim that the safety efforts earlier this week were much ado about nothing. One person told me that he thinks the media -- TV especially -- is hyping up the storms just to get jittery people to watch. Ratings, he says.
I don't think he's right, but I have noticed that any tropical disturbance, no matter how minor or far away it is from landfall, is often played up on TV, leading the newscast or becoming the teaser for a segment.
An online vote by readers suggests that most people recognize this as the price we pay for living in South Florida. Better safe than sorry, we say.
But there are plenty of others who claim that the safety efforts earlier this week were much ado about nothing. One person told me that he thinks the media -- TV especially -- is hyping up the storms just to get jittery people to watch. Ratings, he says.
I don't think he's right, but I have noticed that any tropical disturbance, no matter how minor or far away it is from landfall, is often played up on TV, leading the newscast or becoming the teaser for a segment.
posted by Ana Veciana-Suarez at 9:00 AM
Get our feeds
2 Comments:
I don't really agree - we have to learn how to listen to what the news folk are saying. This week, all of the weather professionals made it clear that it could go either way. They stated, in no uncertain terms, that what we wished for - for the storm to be destroyed by going over the mountains of Cuba - was a possibility. But, also possible was that the storm would regain strength, once it hit warm water, and we would have been hit by a strong storm or a small hurricane.
I am glad that we prepared. Nothing lost - but it was the bet we won. We dodged a bullet.
The news can use the weather as a "teaser" but when they report - they report the truth. I have never seem any station trying to get more viewership by using scare tactics.
The Medias is just hyping that to the extreme.
People in Haiti, Cuba, Dominican Republic or other Caribbean Islands get the same hurricanes, and they just deal with it.
So let's stop the madness, and don't give to this media's organized crazyness.
I've just checked that I still had enough gas in my car. It was half-full, more than enough. And I've checked my windows to be sure they were properly closed. Nothing more.
YOU NEED TO USE YOUR BRAIN PEOPLE. You have one too, you know.
Regards.
FD
Post a Comment
<< Home