Ortt's rant of the day... the media

[Derek Ortt]

I would like to first say that the media should be commended for their covereage yesterday of Hurricane Alex. I mean, afterall, they failed to make significant mention of it. I mean, a near disaster on the Outer Banks due to a blow forecast. Nah, that's not a news story and I commend the media for putting it in its place.

NOT!

The media should be 100% ashamed. That was a significant event and something that should have been the headlines. Every coastal resident had the right to be made aware that TC forecasts are still not certain and what the dangers of not heeding a hurricane warning are, even in the case, as was the case with x, when hurricane force winds are not expected. Instead, the media force fed us another "terror warning", as well as the daily dose of Kobe Bryant. To terrorism: yes, that is an important story. However, there was nothing iminent. Instead of worry about what might happen in the future, why dont we focus on what is happening now. As Dr William Gray has presented at confrences equating global warming with the sun (possible cancer down the road) and a hurricane as a truck about to hit you, terrorism is the sun, and the hurricane remains the truck. While we are all looking at and worring about the sun, we were hit by a mac truck yesterday. Thankfully, that truck swirved at the last minute so that we were not too badly injured. On to Kobe: I cna sum this up in one word, pathetic!

What can we do, well, the first thing is reign in the media that we have. Prevent them from making the stories and merely report on them. If a state controlled media is what we need, then so be it. Afterall, nothing can be worse than the trash that we are fed now.

Rant over

[ColdFront77]

Isabel?

I also was wondering why there wasn't any coverage on Hurricane Alex. I heard the Outer Banks lost power, so they couldn't show any video. The stronger storms that have made landfall there have gotten more attention. Perhaps it's because of the small area of the coastline it affected.

[Rainband]

You mean Alex?? I trust

[Rainband]

. If a state controlled media is what we need, then so be it. Afterall, nothing can be worse than the trash that we are fed now.

Rant over

I beg your pardon you call dems communists and you want a State controlled anything. With all due respect, That was a hypocritical satement if I ever heard one

[Derek Ortt]

yes, I meant Alex and corrected it.

Regarding my last line, well, thats more of my personal wishes and isnt really a part of the rest of the post. Just a way to express my disgust with the media and expressing my desire for complete change

[MWatkins]

I think the press showed remarkable restraint by not covering Isabel, considering it made landfall 11 months ago. I mean...why would they want to cover a system and scare residents if it made landfall 11 months ago?

Of course..you were referring to Alex...although the media does deserve to be criticized...a state-run media is a BAD idea. To some extent...in terms of hurricane forecasting...we already have some govt control over forecasting...

But if we go to state-run media because they aren't hyping a hurricane...we might as well hand over our right to vote..since people can't really think for themselves anyway.

In fact...let's cancel the November elections.

MW

[Rainband]

I think the press showed remarkable restraint by not covering Isabel, considering it made landfall 11 months ago. I mean...why would they want to cover a system and scare residents if it made landfall 11 months ago?

Of course..you were referring to Alex...although the media does deserve to be criticized...a state-run media is a BAD idea. To some extent...in terms of hurricane forecasting...we already have some govt control over forecasting...

But if we go to state-run media because they aren't hyping a hurricane...we might as well hand over our right to vote..since people can't really think for themselves anyway.

In fact...let's cancel the November elections.

MW

[hurricanetrack]

The media was not very interested on a national scale. Local and regional media was on it fairly well- post storm perhaps. I did not see any media coverage (as in I did not have time to watch) before Alex hit. So I do not know what was said and how little was put out there.

This is why I like my site- as well as this site- and others like ours. HurricaneTrack.com has many thousands of regular visitors- and millions, literally millions, during a threat. I post a reasonable commentary on what people can expect and really push the "listen to local officials" idea. I also post links to the NWS Hurricane Statements. We will be reading these on our video updates when we do them during a bigger event- in which we have time to do so.

Storm2k, Derek's site, MWs site and many others who do a responsible job of conveying the overall idea of the NHC are great portals for people who are interested in the first place. Some people do not care and hate hurricanes and hurricane coverage- so they don't watch. As we heard with Max's interview- lots of people are on the 'net looking for info. We have a great opportunity to do a public service where the media falls short. We are the media too- electronic, always dynamic and always available (99.9% of the time).

Terror and rape were the top stories as of late and Alex, which did not affect a very large area, was 2nd shelf news. But for people who visited our sites, mine included, it was front page, breaking news all the time. We did our job- the NHC did theirs (great on the track- not so good on intensity, which is a tough area as we well know) and our fans/visitors knew exactly what to expect.

There's my thoughts.

[Steve]

I'd like to offer a counterpoint to the lack of coverage:

a) the internet wasn't running at 2mph this time around, and all sites (governmental and private) that I visit were up all day long.

b) see a

Thank you for your vote.

Steve

[orion]

The media was not very interested on a national scale. Local and regional media was on it fairly well- post storm perhaps. I did not see any media coverage (as in I did not have time to watch) before Alex hit. So I do not know what was said and how little was put out there.

Here in coastal Carteret County (NC) the media was on it, but probably not early enough. I didn't really hear anything about it until the day before on TV and radio - and the newspaper here only comes out 3 times a week. I went out to the piers Monday night to check the surf and the TV trucks were everywhere. And you are right about post-storm, damage pics and stories everywhere now.

For the locals, hurricanes have always been a part of life. Its amazing how the down east communities come together and rebuild. But when watches and warnings come out, most don't even give it a second thought unless its predicting a cat 2. I think the damage caused here by Isabel may have changed the way some think about that. And although there was minimal wind damage here from Alex, there was considerable flooding of areas still in the rebuilding process from Isabel.

[Guest]

The problem with this particular hurricane was that there was no build up to it,it seemingly came out of nowhere.Since it was not a storm that traveled for hundreds if not thousanads of miles there was no bulid up to it & hence not only the media but lots of folks were caught napping.I'm sure if it wouldve been tracked for at least 4-5 days it would have gotten much more attention,but thats just the way things are I guess.

[ColdFront77]

I see your point, MIA_canetrakker, but at the same time the system was obviously being followed and it was in the news enough, just not as much as others and the way it should of been covered.

[Hyperstorm]

I would think there are 2 possible answers to the question:

1) Ratings - They probably thought that terrorism would have created much higher ratings because it was a national concern rather than just a hurricane that affected only a few thousand people in Eastern North Carolina.

2) Isabel was all hype - Well, not ALL hype, but think about this. Isabel was a monster of a hurricane in the Atlantic with winds of 160 mph! Almost everyone thought the hurricane could have affected the United States as a Category 5 or at least a strong 4! That sparked a lot of media attention. Of course, everyone was preparing for a monster, so the media tracked it to gather viewership. When the hurricane reached land it was as strong as what Alex was yesterday, but the media (as they are the media) in their "right" mind? thought we could have gotten an incredible disaster in N. Carolina from a Cat. 2 hurricane, (which BTW they don't understand and think all categories are the same) so they kept the coverage.

This year, Alex developed as a TD near Florida and was never offically forecast to become a hurricane, much less a category 2 in earlier forecasts. Therefore, the media created in their mind the idea that it was of no concern covering this and it was probably heading out to sea. Just 24 hours before hitting NC, Alex was only a tropical storm, therefore the sudden change in strength did not catch up the media attention because it was not forecast in advance. It's like they want to alarm people beforehand, so when the real time comes they get many more viewers. Let me put it this way, if Alex had been forecast to become a Cat. 2 hurricane or major hurricane in earlier forecasts, they would have gotten the attention of it.

I don't know if someone do understands, but is mostly a psychological thing creating all the hype...(here there wasn't never any hype beforehand)...therefore no media attention.

As some would say, it's ALL about the HYPE...

[ColdFront77]

Hurricanes and even strong tropical storms always have made news no matter how small an area they affect, which isn't usually to vast an area.

[soonertwister]

30-40 miles west of where Alex actually did track, and the media would be all over it. Lots of dead people and crumbled houses. Makes good headline fodder.

We can thank our lucky stars that a system that was underrated by NHC (I'm NOT blaming them!) just happened to take a track paralyzingly close to major disaster, but instead just scuffed the OBX, and headed out to sea.

Sometimes I can't believe how lucky we can get with Mother Nature's nastiest creatures.

[Thunder44]

I agree with everything you said Derek. Although one other explaination may be that NC getting hit by a hurricane is kind of "old news". They seem to be getting hit every other year now. If it were Florida, it would probably a bigger deal.

[hurricanetrack]

I'm up for a Florida hurricane- not a bad one, but one none-the-less. NC is about done having hurricane warnings issued.

[Derecho]

I'm genuinely curious...

Is it the general opinion of S2k that Tropical Storm watches and warnings are

1) Irrelevant and to be ignored

2) Require no preparation by people living right on the coast?

[mf_dolphin]

Good question! I think most people here in the Tampa area generally ignore them. You can tell the ones that have been through a storm though. They're early into Home Depot and the food stores

[Derecho]

Well,

Here's my problem with the whole "Blown Forecast/Alex hit without Warning!" stuff.

1) The area hit had been under a TS watch for an ENORMOUS amount of time, and a TS warning for a REALLY long time; far longer than the standard criteria NHC shoots for.

2) The forecast tracks on repeated run after run, while they had wandered back and forth, as usual, were all basically pretty close or over Hatteras.

3) NHC shoots for a cane Warning 24 hours before a strike. I believe they missed this by 6 hours...(about 18 hours warning for Hatteras in Particular).

People on barrier islands, places that frankly aren't suitable for permanent human habitation, take on a responsibility to be very attuned to things when they live there.

I just don't get this "totally unwarned!" stuff. Seems to be a desire to create more drama in a situation, because I've seen the claim for other storms.

It certainly is not NHC's intention that TS watches and warnings be perceived as a joke. An educated coastal dweller should be aware that there's not some gaping chasm between a TS and a Cat 1 hurricane, and you may see Cat 1 hurricane conditions.

One unfortunate problem of the past is given the greater inaccuracy of track forecasting, people on a regular basis had to be under TS watches and warnings who ended up getting no storm at all.

Thus we see the example of Gabrielle, when a strong TS hit an area with TS watches and warnings, but an area that had seen very few direct hits, and people were "Surprised" that a TS was actually capable of doing damage.

And then of course you see you-know-who getting traction with his fanbase with a ridiculous crusade claiming Gabrielle was actually a hurricane, in the face of all evidence, because it plays into the perception that a "mere TS" is incapable of doing any damage.

Same with Claudette last year; the area it hit had Hurricane Watches and Warnings at the appropriate criteria times. The problem is the area it hit hadn't been hit by a hurricane in 30 years. Thus people didn't prepare adequately and were surprised at the damage. None of this was caused by the NHC intensity forecasts from 48 hours before being 10 kts below what it ended up being; people need to be aware intensity can change radically.

They were adequately warned, and if they weren't prepared it was THEIR fault, not anyone elses.

Unfortunately NHC can't control how things are spun by the local media. I suppose they can do more to emphasize that TS watches and warnings DO require preparation but unless the local media helps, it isn't going to work.