People Jumpy

[fci]

Funny thing yesterday.
I guess a local met (or radio station) talked about the Tropical Wave passing through South Florida.

Since a lot of people don't understand what a Tropical Wave is and are jumpy down here, it caused some to rush out and get flashlights, can goods etc...

Someone at a local CVS Drugs told my wife last night that they were slammed due to a rush of customers worried about the Tropical system that was going to hit.

Incredible.......

I guess it fits following the media report last week of the Tropical Storm developing off the Florida coast!

[cajungal]

People are jumpy after last year's horrible season. I never seen so much focus on generators this year. They even set up a hurricane display in the middle of the store. Something they never did before. But, the media needs to quit hyping things up over just a wave. Nothing has developed yet.

[Frank2]

People are so misinformed that is scary - in today's world of natural and man-made disasters, people need to be aware of what's going on around them as much as possible - their life may depend on it - but, they seem either not to care, or don't want to know (the old "put my fingers in my ears and hum my favorite song 'till the problem goes away solution") or, are just too uninformed to understand what needs immediate attention and what doesn't.

What's even more discouraging is the fact that, while many know the name of the person voted off the latest reality program, most do not even know a safe route from their own neighborhood, other than the one main traffic artery.

Frank

[Thunder44]

People are so misinformed that is scary - in today's world of natural and man-made disasters, people need to be aware of what's going on around them as much as possible - their life may depend on it - but, they seem either not to care, or don't want to know (the old "put my fingers in my ears and hum my favorite song 'till the problem goes away solution") or, are just too uninformed to understand what needs immediate attention and what doesn't.

What's even more discouraging is the fact that, while many know the name of the person voted off the latest reality program, most do not even know a safe route from their own neighborhood, other than the one main traffic artery.

Frank

Yep, most people would probably more interested on learning who got voted off American Idol and why rather than learning the difference between a tropical wave and a tropical storm.

[GeneratorPower]

It might be a good thing that people are at least aware of the tropics. Better jumpy than complacent, eh?

[Frank2]

I agree with you both - the Government's Homeland Security and even Red Cross television and radio ads always stress the "being prepared" aspect of things (per the Scout's motto) - folks better realize that the campus mindset of those "endless party weekends" of the '80s are gone in today's world, when it comes to natural or man-made disasters...

Frank

[Opal storm]

It might be a good thing that people are at least aware of the tropics. Better jumpy than complacent, eh?

Exactly.

[fci]

Jumpy is much better than complacent, absolutely!!

However, the misinformation is scary.

Plus, when people don't know the difference between a wave, storm and hurricane; they will get complacent when nothing happens on days like today after they have been scared into thinking something was happening.

[WxGuy1]

It might be a good thing that people are at least aware of the tropics. Better jumpy than complacent, eh?

True, but the false alarm issue creeps in eventually. If people are told something, and that something doesn't happen, they learn. The first time, it's not a big deal. By the 4th or 5th time, they start to say to themselves "gee, we've heard all this before, and nothing happened those times", and complacency becomes a larger issue. Warnings have gotten better with time, which means that false alarms have gotten better as well. That said, it's NEVER good to put people through several consecutive false alarms. We see this with tornado warning response (the false alarm rate for tornado warnings is about 75%!)... Then we have to sit though people complaining that "I didn't think this would happen to me" because they've heard it all before while experiencing none of it.

So, a BIT jumpy be preferred to laziness, but there's a point at which people get "tired" of this response and fall back into complacency. Heck, what was a common response by those in New Orleans after Katrina hit? "We've been under warnings before, and nothing happened... I didn't think this would happen this time". In a perfect world, every warning would verify perfectly, and there would be no false alarms. Obviously, we're far from this point, though closer than we were 20 years ago. Political implications mean that one usually aires on the side of caution (even when unlikely), since a missed event has more severe implications than a false alarm. Not many people complain about gonig through 5 warnings without a verified event, but Congress comes a-knocking if an event goes unwarned. This holds for tornadoes and tropical systems alike... A tornado touching down without a warning is place is pasted all over the news, and government officials start knocking on the door of the local NWSFO. Unfortunately, there is still plenty of unpredictability, so there's a tendency to overwarn (high FAR) in attempt to catch all events (high Probability of Detection).

[jlauderdal]

Funny thing yesterday.
I guess a local met (or radio station) talked about the Tropical Wave passing through South Florida.

Since a lot of people don't understand what a Tropical Wave is and are jumpy down here, it caused some to rush out and get flashlights, can goods etc...

Someone at a local CVS Drugs told my wife last night that they were slammed due to a rush of customers worried about the Tropical system that was going to hit.

Incredible.......

I guess it fits following the media report last week of the Tropical Storm developing off the Florida coast!

The brainpower or lack of in this state never ceases to amaze me.

[brunota2003]

its the "Big Bad Wolf: Hurricane Version 1.01" media screams a TS is off Florida, people flip, then after a while, the media screams TS is off Florida and no one does anything thinking its another false alarm, the TS bombs and kills a ton of people...thats why false alarms are deadly and bad...

[Windtalker1]

People are so misinformed that is scary - in today's world of natural and man-made disasters, people need to be aware of what's going on around them as much as possible - their life may depend on it - but, they seem either not to care, or don't want to know (the old "put my fingers in my ears and hum my favorite song 'till the problem goes away solution") or, are just too uninformed to understand what needs immediate attention and what doesn't.

What's even more discouraging is the fact that, while many know the name of the person voted off the latest reality program, most do not even know a safe route from their own neighborhood, other than the one main traffic artery.

Frank

Were all gonna die!!!!!

[HurricaneHunter914]

In my neighborhood, people would walk in a Cat-1 Hurricane during the day and wouldn't care, yeah people due prepare in my neighborhood, but not as much as other people.

[Aquawind]

= The standard Floridian durring cane season..

Hurricane this and Hurricane that has alot of people listening but they still need to be educated.. Then of course we have the totally misinformed.. Everybody thinks they can be a weatherman..

[Patrick99]

Funny thing yesterday.
I guess a local met (or radio station) talked about the Tropical Wave passing through South Florida.

Since a lot of people don't understand what a Tropical Wave is and are jumpy down here, it caused some to rush out and get flashlights, can goods etc...

Someone at a local CVS Drugs told my wife last night that they were slammed due to a rush of customers worried about the Tropical system that was going to hit.

Incredible.......

I guess it fits following the media report last week of the Tropical Storm developing off the Florida coast!

Ridiculous. The idea of a tropical wave "hitting" anything is moronic.

[Scorpion]

In my neighborhood, people would walk in a Cat-1 Hurricane during the day and wouldn't care, yeah people due prepare in my neighborhood, but not as much as other people.

I doubt your area has recieved any Cat 1 winds in the past several decades, so I doubt the people would know what hurricane force winds are like.

[HurricaneHunter914]

HURRICANE CHARLEY! Don't tell me I haven't experienced Cat-1 winds and you don't even live here!

[Aslkahuna]

Philippine Flag? I lived there for 9 years and saw my share of typhoons including 4 eye passages.

Steve

[beachbum_al]

It is alway good to be prepare. Before hurricane season even starts I believe everyone in an area that could be hit should have supplies on hand so they don't have to hit the mad rush when the area is put on a watch. I do know what you mean by people going crazy when there is a storm in the GOM. Lines long as the lines at Christmas. Gas stations running out of gas. No looking forward to that again.

[caribepr]

Funny thing yesterday.
I guess a local met (or radio station) talked about the Tropical Wave passing through South Florida.

Since a lot of people don't understand what a Tropical Wave is and are jumpy down here, it caused some to rush out and get flashlights, can goods etc...

Someone at a local CVS Drugs told my wife last night that they were slammed due to a rush of customers worried about the Tropical system that was going to hit.

Incredible.......

I guess it fits following the media report last week of the Tropical Storm developing off the Florida coast!

Ridiculous. The idea of a tropical wave "hitting" anything is moronic.

Well, the States really ARE different than here in the Caribbean. There are few who don't prepare, because a tropical wave alone CAN do severe damage, and is not the sign of being moronic, but rather, realistic.
People don't freak out, necessarily, at an incoming system, but they certainly are aware and ready if a large system is coming through.
Maybe it is because there is nowhere else to go, we are our own safety net and better have a plan set up...maybe it is because flooding, landslides, and death can happen quite easily without a hurricane. Maybe reality is just a bit closer when living a bit more on the edge...whatever it is, I like it!