SouthFloridawx wrote:Ivan14 wrote:That's crazy that some guy in New Orleans reported it as the real thing. That would scare anybody that's in the New Orleans area.
Oh good lord. Figures people wouldn't call someone to verify it. They could even call thier local tv weather people and ask them. Or even call noaa to see. That is plain old ignorance...
I have a feeling everything is going to get blown out of proportion this year and hurricane season will be held up to a spotlight and examined every which way.
I sincerely hope this derision/scorn is aimed at the Radio Announcer and the station, both of which should have done their homework/research, but didn't and chose to blast this report all over the airwaves and not the uncountable tens of thousands who might have simply heard it, and had no other option than for a few harrowing moments to think another storm might be headed their way. Many of my students commute across Lake Pontchartrain every day because their homes are still not livable, hence this "hoax" or whatever it is was read just as they were leaving school. For anywhere from a 30 min to 1 hour drive they were probably going back and forth about what to do. It's kind of hard to call local tv weather people, much less noaa, while operating a vehicle in open traffic. Sure you could bring up the cell option for those who had them (and many do not)... still an unnecessary aire of concern and fear would prevail until more could be found out meanwhile the other voice over the radio was lending credence to the report, and BTW--nobody READ the date of the report over the airwaves as I heard it. Switching channels around did little to no good as during those times most of them are in the midst of either syndicated long-winded talk-shows, or their 20 straight minutes (etc.) of uninterrupted music. Besides, you'd had to have heard how it was reported....sort of a "this just in" sort of thing--like "we got it before anyone else" something of a scoop on everyone else...additionally it was "only" expected to be a tropical storm and threaten no land before Tuesday. Frankly, I think it is reprehensible, and grossly irresponsible, and the ones folks should be outraged at are the incompetents who aired it--not the victims of nature's fury in this area who happened to hear it. I was one of the lucky ones, living within 5 minutes of my work I wasted no time to check sat images, S2K, AND NOAA, seeing something was definitely amiss and telling all I could who had heard it not to worry, clearly they had made a big mistake--later acknowledged. But, you know, we actually still have people living in sections of our erstwhile "city" who live in tents propped up in front of their property, no electricity (hence local tv news/weather/) and certainly no internet. But a lot of them do have transistor-type radios to keep in touch with something of the outside world.
Look, I can see having a sense of disdain/scorn for people who, upon hearing this AND having ready access to check it out simply chose, instead to REact and spread panic--yes, those would be almost as irresponsible as the announcers who propagated the rumor (almost) ; but bear in mind a lot of folks around here are still dealing with PTSD and the last thing they needed to hear was some announcer, over what was considered THE most informative source throughout all this mess, come on and inform them of an impending storm possibly heading our way--not after all they'd already been through. The scorn, if aimed at anyone but the announcer and radio station--is seriously misdirected.
A2K
I was just concerned that some folks might want to blame the hearers instead of the announcers. You're 100% right! This radio station, certainly had the resources to have checked this out thoroughly before they aired it across the tri-state area. Kind of like yelling "Fire" in a closed theater, while people are watching something akin to the Towering Inferno.
