[peeker01]

A very interesting study of the intersection of media hype and public safety. A graphic
illustration of why people don't evacuate.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmich ... cane-hype/

[peeker01]

More info.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196173.html

[Outcast_Searcher]

I was also kind of upset today when I saw how the various weather folks that benefit from funds to predict such storms were patting themselves on the back for getting the path "right".

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-2 ... nsity.html

Well, for those of us who can remember more than 3 days, not so much. Last week, the map was showing the thing blasting straight through the CENTER of Florida. At that time, if it had veered left (instead of right) it would have smashed into the gulf.

So, maybe people in western Florida and oil rigs in the gulf were taking unneccessary precautions -- even while these self-serving forecasters congratulate themselves on a "job well done".

I'm not impressed. Until they get a LOT more accurate and/or a LOT more consistently REASONABLY accurate -- people will ignore them in droves (and occaisonally suffer or die because of it).

[Sixstrings]

Peeker what's your angle on this.. ?

I don't think any of the evacuations were really mandatory -- i.e. cops forcing people out of their homes, so what's your beef. Evacuate or don't evacuate but stop whining and blaming the government. Think for yourself, make your own decision.

Here in Florida we take these storms in stride. Don't obsess over it. Get the old folks out of the flood areas to ride out the storm in a shelter. If they don't want to leave they don't have to, but EMS won't go out in the height of the storm.

[babystrangeloop]

Killer storm leaves Vt. homeowners, towns stranded
By JOHN CURRAN / Associated Press via Bloomberg / August 30, 2011

Flooding isolated entire towns in Vermont and New York, some communities warily watched swollen rivers and more than a million people from Virginia to Maine lacked electricity Tuesday, three days after Hurricane Irene churned up the Eastern Seaboard.

The storm has been blamed for at least 40 deaths in 11 states. ...

The next day the death toll rises from 40 to 49.

Vermont towns shocked by Irene flooding
The Associated Press / August 31, 2011

U.S. National Guard helicopters rushed food and water to a dozen cut-off towns in the northeastern state of Vermont after the rainy remnants of Hurricane Irene washed out roads and bridges in a deluge that took many people in the landlocked New England state by surprise. ...

... All together, the storm has been blamed for at least 49 deaths. Forty-four of those were in the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico. ...

Why don't you talk to the friends and relatives of the 49 dead about how they were fooled by hype?