Is the Hurricane Threat Being Exagerated? If So, Why?

August 27th, 2011 (15) Posted By Toro520.

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By Toro520

People appear to be riveted to their televisions as the “looming threat” of Hurricane Irene approaches New York City. Early estimates insisted that it would increase in speed and ferocity, approaching wind speeds upward of 130 miles per hour; claims that entire blocks throughout the boroughs could be flooded out, including the West Village, Battery Park, The World Trade Center Site, The Holland Tunnel, Jamaica, Sheep’s Head Bay, and areas near JFK Airport, including Coney island and Rockaway. News stations have established constant feeds to update viewers, which even run during commercials.

Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, has gone so far as to proclaim that it will be deemed “criminal” to not abide by evacuation instructions.

Warehouse stores are being stripped of supplies; Home Depot, Walmart, and others are reporting empty shelves…and spiking stock values.

However, I ask you to take time to reflect on the footage you may have seen on any news channel…perhaps take a moment to surf through the coverage.

Now, tell me: how many reporters are you seen covering the storm live from its epicenter?

The estimates of this storm’s rage seem to be falling rather short. The storm is rapidly losing energy. Weather models now show the wind speeds dropping to 70-80 miles per hour by Saturday night, and as low as 50 miles per hour by Sunday morning. However, what is even more telling is what has actually been recorded, but isn’t being said.

Upon hitting land, Weather Underground Stations throughout the Carolinas haven’t reported any gusts higher than 33 miles per hour, which can hardly be classified as even a tropical storm. A resident who rode the storm out called in to Fox New to report that most damage inflicted was broken and uprooted trees.

As can be seen below, some residents found it to be perfect surfing weather:

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But you can’t see any of this reported on the mainstream media.

Federal emergency workers are scurrying about like ants with a purpose, gobbling up resources, touting their importance, and spreading worry…and reliance on government intervention…like a virus.

I fully agree that it is better to be safe, rather than sorry, but not if it is the result of fear-mongering and dishonesty; many people are still on edge from the minor earthquake earlier in the week…yet another “natural disaster” that seemed to achieve much undeserving attention.

Why is there such an apparent discrepancy in reporting and what is actually occurring?

Is it genuine anxiety?

Do east-coast urbanites just have a nasty habit of over-exaggerating threats to their cities as much as they seem to exaggerate their supposed ‘toughness’ and pretentious significance?

Or is there a more dubious motive?

“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

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  • Jarhead68

    It’s called “Prepare for the worst but hope for the best.”  Like a good Boy Scout, one should be prepared.  Some people NEED to be hyped to get ready.  Look at Nawlins and Katrina…with all the dire warnings, the mayor and the governor of the state basically did nothing constructive.  People died and they blamed Bush.  No one wants to be criticized, so they hype it up so we can’t point fingers later.  It’s a game to these politicians.  

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VPZXYCU6GM2A2JSG5S66SPYC3U TyS

      doesn’t explain why they seem to be blatantly lying about the actual conditions of the storm.

    • Anonymous

      Personally I would be interested in knowing what the WH is doing behind the back of this storm.  Always watch the other hand.  Who knows what kind of bills and executive orders are being signed? 

    • Anonymous

      well, we already know FEMA and NOAA will receive spikes in funding – they are already blaming the republicans for cutting their budgets.
       
      You also know that there will be massive calls for infrastructre work…telecomm, flood systems, emergnecy systems…essentially, Federal work plans; they have been calling for a New ‘New Deal’ for months now, and this is an excuse to make it so.
       
      Remember that Krugman and his cronies said that it was unfortunate that the quake wasn’t worse, because it would have enacted (federal) economic stimulus to rebuild.

    • Anonymous

      Part of it is to save face.  After all the hype they do not want to go back and say they had it wrong. As Jarhead stated it’s better to safe than sorry. 

    • Anonymous

      Part of it is to save face.  After all the hype they do not want to go back and say they had it wrong. As Jarhead stated it’s better to safe than sorry. 

    • Anonymous

      Part of it is to save face.  After all the hype they do not want to go back and say they had it wrong. As Jarhead stated it’s better to safe than sorry. 

    • Anonymous

      Part of it is to save face.  After all the hype they do not want to go back and say they had it wrong. As Jarhead stated it’s better to safe than sorry. 

    • Notlurking

      Exactly. If folks followed the National Hurricane Center reports you will realize that there is a lot of nonsense being spewed by the mainstream media.

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    The problem w/evacuating is that it is a pain in the ass and expensive. Especially if you go through all that work and the storm turns out to be nothing.  For me, I would rather die than be stuck in a shelter w/all of humanity. I would have to be heavily sedated and put in a storage closet to survive such at thing.  I would lose my mind.  And I refuse to leave pets. If you have some good friends willing to put you up for a few days that is cool, but it still can be taxing and stressful.  People don’t want to leave their stuff.  The bitch is the power outages.  It is good to be prepared.  Fill the tub w/water, have batteries, food etc.

    I lost two friends in Isabelle, it was the first double funeral for me.  I had my roofed destroyed and multiple trees downed so these storms are to be heeded.  My thing is why don’t the people that live in hurricane alley use the traditional shutter system of yesteryear?  I can see it not working for businesses w/the the major store front glass but on homes it sure would save time, money, and work from having to do the plywood thing.  Put some tape on the windows and close the shutters, simple. 

    WTF does this mean…”Do east-coast urbanites just have a nasty habit of over-exaggerating threats to their cities as much as they seem to exaggerate their supposed ‘toughness’ and pretentious significance?”   That might apply to DC but not average Americans on the east coast.

    • Anonymous

      I lived in NYC for 3 years, spent time in Philly, Boston and DC. Everyone there thinks they are the center of the universe, and that anything that happens there is infinitely more siginifcant than if it were to happen anywhere else.

      The cliche “tough guy, seen everything, done everything” New Yorker attitude is off-the-rails exagerated.

    • Anonymous

      You are right about the MSM focusing on DC and NY.  NC and VA Beach got slammed but there has been very little reporting in comparison to the NE.  The media seemed almost disappointed it wasn’t a real disaster.  It was hilarious reading some of the reports and watching the video clips.  Damn it, we WILL make this into a bad storm!

      I couldn’t understand all the hype about Irene, yes it’s a hurricane and be prepared but she was far from being the mother of all hurricanes like they were carrying on about. It didn’t make sense. 

      Then I see the photo of barry in the weather hut being all presidential saving the coast from Irene.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the media hype was just for that sole purpose.  Pre-meditated.  Hype it up and then give barry credit. It simply wasn’t that bad of a storm. (15 people died but only a few were actually storm related per say)  Neither was the earthquake which was bizarre, but very little damage done in comparison to other earthquakes.  You would have thought DC had been eaten by the earth or something.   Mineral and Culpeper the epicenter where there was damage did not get squat from the national media, only DC.   I don’t want to be clumped into any East Coast pretentious significance but I will agree NY and DC think they are.

  • Charlie from New Jersey

    This is part of the Liberal obsession with man-made global warming.  SInce it is not really happening, they need to exaggerate every normal event into some historic crisis.  This carries forward the dead story that the planet is getting hotter and more dangerous.  In fact, we had a storm a few weeks ago here in NJ that was nearly as serious and no one cared.  It is, after all, normal.