The Hurricane Thread | Hurricane Francine


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In the end it was a bad storm,but not as bad as the media portrayed. American News channels have become entertainment channels chasing ratings
 
In the end it was a bad storm,but not as bad as the media portrayed. American News channels have become entertainment channels chasing ratings

True. The film Nightcrawler is a good portrayal of this. American news channels love a disaster.
 
It was quite close to being as bad as they portrayed, to be fair. The track it took was favorable to the coastlines.
 
In the end it was a bad storm,but not as bad as the media portrayed. American News channels have become entertainment channels chasing ratings

We don't know how bad it's been yet.

But if loss of life has been minimal then I'd say that's because people were warned that it would be bad. People evacuated, others moved to shelters. Buildings that were supposed to withstand strong winds did so. We're also looking at a storm where a route deviation of 50 miles would have had massive consequences.

After the 2000/millennium bug warnings, so little happened on the night that people talked about it as if it had all been a giant con trick. Maybe there had been some of that. But there had also been massive amounts of absolutely essential work done in the build-up, without which we could have had major trouble.

Sometimes being prepared does what it says on the label.
 
In the end it was a bad storm,but not as bad as the media portrayed. American News channels have become entertainment channels chasing ratings

Perhaps for Americans but the apparently irrelevant islanders took a beating with catastrophic consequences sure to reach the billions. Moreover, this is the nature of natural disasters (Aided by human interference with nature) - they are unpredictable, especially hurricanes. They can change course, dissipate or strengthen in seconds and if FEMA and disaster preparedness in the US taught them anything, being unprepared is a recipe for disaster
 
In the end it was a bad storm,but not as bad as the media portrayed.

I don't think that's fair or accurate and is certainly the wrong wording. It wasn't as bad as predicted. However, that was simply because of the sheer size of the storm and that it hugged the Cuban and then Floridian coastlines and lost some power, and that it unexpectedly changed course at least twice. Over 30 people (in total) still lost their lives and countless more have lost their homes and millions have lost power and will have their lives disrupted for what could easily be months.

Irma as easily have gone entirely as predicted exactly like hurricane Harvey did a couple of weeks ago. They were almost 100% accurate with Harvey, right down to the exact amount of rainfall it would drop. IF Irma had gone as predicted then I think you would be looking at untold death and destruction, so I think everyone should be extremely grateful that the best predictions were slightly off and that the storm wasn't as bad as it could easily have been.
 
In the end it was a bad storm,but not as bad as the media portrayed. American News channels have become entertainment channels chasing ratings

In a sense, it was lucky it hit Marco Island / Naples which have great infrastructure, drainage etc as opposed to Tampa or Miami where it would have been flooded and caused a lot more damages.
 
My old man was giving updates yesterday in Miami Dade County, they lost power about mid day though so not heard to much. Don't think there was much damage, he showed me a few trees had fallen down in his area. Worst is over now.
 
Don't get me wrong. The Hurricane overall was a bad one and my heart goes out to those Caribbean islands that got the worse of it. But the coverage when it hit Florida was hyped to the max including dramatic music going into a break. Fox,MSNBC and CNN were all responsible.
 
Don't get me wrong. The Hurricane overall was a bad one and my heart goes out to those Caribbean islands that got the worse of it. But the coverage when it hit Florida was hyped to the max including dramatic music going into a break. Fox,MSNBC and CNN were all responsible.

Of course they hyped it to the max like they do with anything and those reporters in the field were loving every minute of it.

In this instance though, it probably saved lives.
 
The American news channels went into overdrive and though it appears that the majority of Florida did not bear the brunt, this sort of constant coverage of the potential damage meant that the real damage that happened in Caribbean islands ended up being a footnote.
Here's hoping they will bring enough attention to the places that were actually damaged, so that people can donate towards rescue and relief efforts in those islands.
 
Seems like the worst is over, Florida has been lucky considering what the Caribbean islands suffered.

Jose seems to have diverted a bit and now heading towards east coast
 
Checking in here. Never lost power the whole night and the winds weren't even that strong with 19mph average per Ventusky. Irma dodged Tampa.
 
Ye.. Scarry when people are worried about nuclear strike while all it takes is a few napalm bomb in the key points in the artic and we'd have armageddon in our hand.

Hurricanes and rising temperatures are only a minor worry. I'm worried if the artic melts into 2 then we're literraly and properly fecked

Solution: We then need to learn to be better swimmers!
 
Every time I turned on CNN I switched it off within 15 minutes. The level of glee from the likes of Cooper and Cuomo was nauseating.

The islands were hit really bad. A friend of mine is stuck in the Virgin islands. He probably won't get back to the states until Wednesday/Thursday.

Tim Duncan is raising money to assist the Virgin Islands, so hopefully that sheds light on their plight and more money can be raised to help them recover.
 
The Pope has something to say to the climate change deniers:
Pope Francis has said the recent hurricanes should make people understand the need to address the threat of climate change. Speaking to reporters as he flew back to the Vatican from Colombia, the Pope said those who denied the science on global warming would be judged by history. He said humanity would "go down" if it did not change course on climate change, and everyone had a moral responsibility to do their part.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-latin-america-41177350
 
Eh, is Richard Branson seriously asking the government for a recovery plan for his own private island hes using as a tax haven?
 
Seems like the worst is over, Florida has been lucky considering what the Caribbean islands suffered.

Jose seems to have diverted a bit and now heading towards east coast

It's been downgraded to a Cat2 also, last I heard. Still if it brushes up against those islands already hit by Irma, then that is still a lot more wind and rain that they do not need.