Yahoo Front Page Story Headlines

[flashflood1998]

boy, this kind of article is bound to get things fired up around the watercooler. i do wonder what "bullseye" marcia is referring to.. (in paragraph 3)


Charley's force took experts by surprise
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer


Hurricane Charley's 145-mph force took forecasters by surprise and showed just how shaky a science it still is to predict a storm's intensity — even with all the latest satellite and radar technology.

"Sometimes our models just aren't good enough to get everything that happens in the atmosphere," National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) meteorologist Robbie Berg said Saturday afternoon from Miami, 24 hours after Charley slammed into Florida's western coast. "Strangely enough, we're better at track forecasting. It's the intensity forecasting we're still struggling with a bit." He added, "It's chaotic."

Charley quickly grew from a Category 2 to a Category 4 storm Friday and its course took a sharp turn to the right, which put it some 70 miles south of the originally projected bull's-eye.

With so much media focus on Tampa and St. Petersburg, many residents in and around Punta Gorda were caught unprepared. The hurricane left at least 15 people dead in its wake — a wake that might not have been nearly as big if the storm had stuck to its original path and struck the big evacuated cities farther up the coast.

Berg said that all along, the hurricane center had issued warnings for coastal residents from the Keys all the way up to Tampa Bay.

"We're kind of surprised that people were caught by surprise," he said.

Although Charley's path had the storm heading toward the Tampa area, Berg said the warning swath encompassed a much larger area — as far south as Punta Gorda, in fact. The swath takes into account any errors, he said.

"We were not saying Tampa. We were saying the west coast of Florida," Berg said. The media's fixation with "Tampa, Tampa, Tampa," gave the public the wrong idea, he noted.

Everyone had "ample warning," Berg said. "It's just unfortunate that certain people didn't evacuate."

Charley's turn to the right was not a big deviation, but because the hurricane was moving parallel to the coast, it ended up making a big difference in the landfall area, Berg said. The difference wouldn't have been nearly as extreme if the storm had been moving perpendicular to the coast, he said.

As for its sudden strength, it's not uncommon for storms in the Gulf of Mexico to rapidly intensify, Berg said. "We're just not that good with it yet. Satellites don't help.

[KBBOCA]

The reporter writes:
"The hurricane left at least 15 people dead in its wake — a wake that might not have been nearly as big if the storm had stuck to its original path and struck the big evacuated cities farther up the coast."


What is she talking about?!?! She thinks the death toll would have been LOWER if it hit Tampa St Pete?!?!!! This woman is clueless.

Of course they were "evacuated" but so were Sanibel, Captiva...

This is the second awful AP story I have seen on Charley.

[KatDaddy]

What! Punta Gorda residences UNPREPARED!!!!!!

They were under a HURRICANE WARNING. Come on people wake-up from stupidity. Boy this kinda stuff makes me mad.

[Mello1]

Charley quickly grew from a Category 2 to a Category 4 storm Friday and its course took a sharp turn to the right, which put it some 70 miles south of the originally projected bull's-eye...

With so much media focus on Tampa and St. Petersburg, many residents in and around Punta Gorda were caught unprepared. The hurricane left at least 15 people dead in its wake — a wake that might not have been nearly as big if the storm had stuck to its original path and struck the big evacuated cities farther up the coast.

And this is an AP story that will likely get picked up by other media outlets ~~ probably without the first sentence in the second paragraph above...

The question that this reporter must ask herself is why all the media focus on Tampa and St. Petersburg? Who told them that the storm was most likely to hit there? This is how s--t gets started...

[LAwxrgal]

Because doomsday scenarios on major metropolitan areas = ratings and $$$$$.



I hate AP stories like this. I much rather read local coverage (i.e. NBC-2 from Fort Myers and the Tampa area papers) but CNN so far has done a pretty good job grasping the scope of this disaster.

I hate it when media sources overplay stuff, and I also hate it when media sources misinform people or downplay stuff.

[flashflood1998]

i really cannot believe that this story would get greenlighted by any credible news source, but as we all know, most of today's major media outlets are NOT credible. it doesn't help that it's a saturday, when most established writers have the weekend off and younger, more eager to exaggerate and write a "juicy" angle types are on the desk.

i googled ms. dunn's name and found that she is basically a NASA press release writer for AP out of cape canaveral, but is far from being new to journalism, having been there since 1990. wish i could find an email address for her... i'd love to ask her a few choice questions.

[Mello1]

i really cannot believe that this story would get greenlighted by any credible news source, but as we all know, most of today's major media outlets are NOT credible. it doesn't help that it's a saturday, when most established writers have the weekend off and younger, more eager to exaggerate and write a "juicy" angle types are on the desk.

i googled ms. dunn's name and found that she is basically a NASA press release writer for AP out of cape canaveral, but is far from being new to journalism, having been there since 1990. wish i could find an email address for her... i'd love to ask her a few choice questions.

If you find her email addy, post it because I'm going to do the same thing.

[KBBOCA]

Those of you who feel like e-mailing AP journalists, look for my "irresponsible journalism" thread from last night (I would guess it's page 4 or 5 by now)

That article basically glorified those who chose to ride out the storm on Sanibel, saying they "enjoyed quite a show" and it was "almost fun"!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the kind of story that will get people killed in some future storm....

Update: here's the link to the other story I'm talking about
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /408131091

Of course it is a story about those who stayed. I just find it irresponsible not to balance the story with a real assessment of the danger these folks were in. It glorifies thrill-seeking and irresponsibility.

[flashflood1998]

hmm... a little more googling pays off. well, a little.

seems that ms. dunn is known in journalistic circles as a sensationalist (go figure). she is criticized, among others, for submitting and releasing a prepared story about the space shuttle columbia's successful landing the morning it exploded in flight named "Columbia Streaks Toward Florida".. a Dewey Defeats Truman caliber headline and story. Here are some threads regarding her hack journalism...

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/02/01/1 ... 03&tid=160

http://www.testycopyeditors.org/cgi-bin ... 3&t=000002

The Original Story: http://www.habitablezone.com/columbia/F ... Story.html

[flashflood1998]

oh and by the way.. this story has been taken off the yahoo front page and the "related stories" list for charley.