Despite the hype, a weakening Hurricane Ernesto may not have much of an impact on the U.S. after all. Although one would not know that listening to the foreboding utterances of weather forecasters and news anchors as they do their best to manufacture ratings-generating fear about Ernesto’s allusive wrath…
Therefore, in this spirit and given the deluge they’re forecasting for The Bahamas, I urge my fellow Bahamians to begin building your dinghies now! Because we don’t want any of you to be left stranded like those poor black folks in New Orleans were last year…
ADVISORY: After delivering a glancing blow at Cuba, Hurricane Ernesto – with sustained (category 1) winds between 74-95mph – is headed for South Florida today. Yet he’s generating even more media hysteria than Hurricane Katrina did – with sustained (category 5) winds above 155 mph – when she was making her way to New Orleans a year ago today. Of course, Katrina has everything to do with the way Ernesto and every hurricane will be covered from here to eternity (as if every one is the next Katrina…).
Nonetheless, since I’m obliged to comment on this dubious anniversary, I shall suffice to republish the article I wrote as Katrina was looming off the Gulf Coast last year. Because the calming perspective I offered then – for that certifiably monster storm – is even more fitting for this and, indeed, every hurricane from here to eternity.
In hindsight, many people were offended by my flippant take on the sky-is-falling media coverage. Therefore, I am constrained to point out that nothing I wrote in this article was rendered moot or false by the subsequent devastation of New Orleans. However, I see no point in rehashing all that went so horribly wrong – especially since this has been (and today will be) covered ad nauseam in the media.
(But, if you’re a glutton for Katrina handwringing, click here, here and here for my observations on what went wrong. I assure you that these articles will prove far more insightful and constructive than the flatulence coming out of the mouths of President Bush and his adversaries – adding insult to Katrina’s winds – who are just trying to score political points down in New Orleans today.)
Meanwhile, I hope those in Ernesto’s path and more responsible members of the media will read and take heed:
August 29, 2005
Run For Your Lives, Katrina’s Coming, Katrina’s Coming!
TV stations cover natural disasters purportedly as a public service. But there’s no denying that such coverage is a ratings boon for their bottom line – catering as it does to the perverse thrill of suspense that keeps us fixated on the hype of impending doom….
Therefore, it was no surprise yesterday that programming on almost every channel in America was interrupted, continually, for “breaking news” on Katrina’s location and to warn people in her path that – as Fred Sanford would always say – “[New Orleans], dis is da BIG ONE!”
Alas, just as Fred’s false alarms became a big joke, so too have annual weather forecasts of the big one become far less foreboding. After all, despite doomsday predictions each year, only 3 out of 22 monster hurricanes (category 5) actually hit America in the 20th Century. And, the last one that was, in fact, worthy of this seasonal hysteria was Hurricane Andrew 13 years ago. (Triskaidekaphobes will no doubt bet their lives that the real reason to be worried this time is because Katrina comes in the 13th year since Andrew. But I digress…)
Indeed, as of this posting, Katrina is a bona-fide category 5 hurricane making a beeline for Louisiana from 50 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. But, as far as natural disasters go, a hurricane passing through America today should not leave the magnitude of devastation in its wake that drought inflicts upon people in Africa every month, or that the Tsunami washed over the unsuspecting people of Indonesia just last year or, indeed, that hurricanes cause for my people in the Caribbean every year (as Hurricane Ivan’s decimation of Grenada demonstrated so poignantly last season).
Americans are blessed with the technology, escape routes to inland shelters and other emergency management resources to gauge and withstand hurricanes with virtually no loss of life. Nevertheless, how well local authorities enforce evacuation orders and how many daring fools ignore them (and go sight seeing in the eye of the storm) shall determine Katrina’s human casualties.
On the other hand, wind gusts and biblical floods will probably cause catastrophic damage to property. But, as the building boom following Andrew proved, even such damage presents economic opportunities that some see as the silver lining in the dark clouds on the horizon. (Hurricane season for Home Depot is like Christmas season for Toys R Us. And, if you think I’m being too cynical, please note how often the damage from this hurricane is expressed in terms of dollars as opposed to lives lost….)
Floridians show Louisianans what to expect the day after Katrina…
So, notwithstanding the TV coverage, we should maintain some perspective here: A watery Pompeii New Orleans shall not become…for too long at any rate. The waters will recede and clean-up will be a bitch; but thank God for insurance…”ya’ll do have insurance, don’t ya?”
NOTE: Let’s hope Katrina’s
winds are strong enough to finally blow away one of those wannabe Dan Rather reporters (Anderson Cooper) who seem to think it’s necessary (and heroic) to go out in the hurricane to report the obvious whilst holding on to a pole for dear life….
Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ernesto
WeblogBahamas.com says
Boy the TV news (local and national) was enough to have people in a panic.
It will not surprise me if people stop listening as a result and that will be worse.