IT COULD HAPPEN TOMORROW - TWC - DISCUSSION THREAD

[mike815]

oh no not dallas it was decient

[brunota2003]

Yes, they showed Isabel like 20 times going from a pretty Cat 5 to an somewhat ugly Cat 3

[mike815]

oh isabel why u were so pretty then ewwww

[Extremeweatherguy]

OMG, according to this map, the storm they showed was only a Category 1 at landfall, when it devasted Manhattan...

hmmm...

[MGC]

The original first show was a Cat-5 hurricane hitting New Orleans. TWC decided not to show it and instead broadcast the New York City hit.....MGC

[mike815]

wow thanks for that good that TWC isnt going to show that

[terstorm1012]

It was a decent show, I caught the late repeat.

I liked the point counterpoint between the city emergency manager who said "it'll be very challenging, here's our plan," to the guy who said "oh no, woe is us! they have no plan!"

but they all agreed---it'll be up to individual New Yorkers themselves to decide to heed the warnings, which they will only get a few hours worth.

offtopic, but does anyone else get dizzy from the way they put these new documentaries together, its all quick shots and stuff, makes my head spin!

[jimvb]

Yes, it's one thing after another. You can't really digest what they are trying to show in a scene because presto! they're showing another scene. Yes, it makes my head spin, especially that superfast rotating of Isabel that they did over and over again, usually followed by a quick instant shot to another quick scene.

By the way, my "avatar" shows what happens if you stop Isabel and take a good look at it. It ingested a chunk of cold air and ruined one side, showing the spiral nature of the rest of the hurricane. The boxes are my cutting out similar sections of the hurricane. The ratio is NOT the Golden Section.

[isobar]

The original first show was a Cat-5 hurricane hitting New Orleans. TWC decided not to show it and instead broadcast the New York City hit.....MGC

You're right. Here's a piece from USAToday stating that fact. I would be interested in watching the episode to see how many of their predictions actually came true.

Weather Channel shelves series debut due to Katrina
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The Weather Channel had to shelve the first episode of a new "what if" series about natural disasters because the scenario came true with Hurricane Katrina.
The series, It Could Happen Tomorrow, a look at the potential for major disasters and preparations to deal with them, was to open with an episode about the possibility of a Category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans.

Instead, Sunday's debut episode (9:30 p.m. ET) speculates on what would happen if a hurricane as powerful as the one that struck Long Island and New England in 1938 came ashore in New York City.

The New Orleans show was prepared in April and tested the next month on focus groups — several months before Katrina devastated the city, said Terry Connelly, the network's programming chief.

"Right now we're not planning to air the New Orleans episode," he told reporters this week. "Quite frankly, we just think it may look opportunistic. We're still getting over it, frankly."

The network has discussed showing some of what it filmed and going back to talk to some of the same authorities, he said.

Other scenarios probed on future It Could Happen Tomorrow episodes include a giant tornado hitting Dallas, a repeat of the San Francisco earthquake of a century ago and an eruption of Mount Rainier.

The series might seem a little melodramatic for the normally staid Weather Channel. But Connelly said the experience of Katrina showed the importance of sounding alarms.

"When you talk to these emergency management officials ... you've got to hit them over the head," he said. "People aren't paying attention, people are content, they're lackadaisical, they don't think it can happen to them. So, yeah, there's a bit of pounding the pulpit deliberately."

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

I still seriously doubt a 5 hitting NYC, as a 5. Even Katrina weakened down to a 3 before it hit the Gulf Coast, and the Gulf of Mexico is a hell of a lot warmer than the waters 'round these parts.


With the above stated. I think it is far more likely for a 3, or even a weak 4 to impact Cape Cod, and then Eastern New England as a 2 or 3 than NYC.

[Ixolib]

I still seriously doubt a 5 hitting NYC, as a 5. Even Katrina weakened down to a 3 before it hit the Gulf Coast, and the Gulf of Mexico is a hell of a lot warmer than the waters 'round these parts.


With the above stated. I think it is far more likely for a 3, or even a weak 4 to impact Cape Cod, and then Eastern New England as a 2 or 3 than NYC.

Well, as Katrina PROVED, it's not necessarily its intensity at landfall that is so important - it is its intensity shortly before landfall (say, 24 hours) that tells or becomes the story. While this phenomena may not be so evident in a weaker storm, it is surely evident in a major.

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

I agree with you there. Katrina caused much more damage than a cat 3 (at landfall) should have. Great point.

[jimvb]

Well, now it happened. An F5 tornado struck Dallas in the Weather Channel's second installment of "It Could Happen Tomorrow". It started with Oklahoma City instead, with that tornado in Moore with its 318 mph wind. It imagined what if that were to occur in downtown Dallas. It did point out some interesting things. The same weather that generates the tornado also would generate flash floods and large hail, and that would by itself cause huge traffic jams. Then the tornado would strike and send shards all over the place, including entire cars. It showed battered buildings afterwards and said it would take Dallas years to recover from it. But I felt it did not show enough of the damage that it would cause - no pictures of huge flocks of flying cars striking skyscrapers and gouging them out.

Further, the story ignored tornadoes that hit Nashville, TN, and Fort Worth, right next door to Dallas, in recent years. That Fort Worth tornado produced some rather battered buildings. Further, it dealt with a less than 1 percent chance multiplied by the area of central Dallas divided by the area of then entire Great Plains - something like one in several million at least.

But I think it did show with some effect what would happen if this event were to happen.

[Astro_man92]

crud i didn't watch it does anyone know when the re-run is?

[TexasStooge]

They're fixing to rerun the "Dallas Tornado" episode tonight at 9:30PM ET/8:30PM CT on TWC. Quite likely, nothing like that will happen, but knowing mother nature, anything's possible.

[jimvb]

When you say "Nothing like that will happen", do you mean the F5 tornado in Dallas, or do you mean the show? If you meant the show, you were correct. I tuned in at 9:30 pm last night to hear whatever the TWC was going to show then. They had said it would be on the Dallas tornado, but the previous Friday at 9:30 pm I expected the Tsunami show but got instead a rerun of the New York hurricane, so I didn't know what to expect last night.

Instead, last night, I got NO "It could happen tomorrow" show, but instead got the usual Weather Channel forecast. No Dallas tornado, no New York or Miami hurricane, no Memphis or San Francisco earthquake, no tsunami, no "It could happen tomorrow" show was shown last night.

The Weather Channel is capricious. I have emailed them about that.