re: Sheriff Marceno just said on GMA that Lee County (Florida) has hundreds dead

quote:

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Ok, lets use this storm as a test case. On Monday, the NHC (two days from landfall) had the storm brushing Tampa and going just north. The resulting surge from that path would have been catastrophic.

What should the media say about that?

Is it inaccurate to report the official path and what would result from it?

By Tuesday, a day out, it became clear who was going to get hit. It was reported that way.

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All very good points. Absolutely valid. The problem, however, is that the media has historically blown up stories about storms to the extreme time after time after time. "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" syndrome has already set in with a lot of people. It's gonna take more than accurate reporting on one storm to make people less skeptical.

A good start would be for The Weather Channel and other entities to accurately report expectations for smaller storms as well. Storms like tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes like category one "Florence" in 1988 ought not be reported like they're on par with Betsy, Camille, Andrew, or Katrina.

Once these media players earn some real credibility insofar as factually reporting storms I think people will start placing more trust in them and acting accordingly when a massive and powerful storm is brewing. But, of course, there will always be a few true idiots that will never be convinced to evacuate ahead of a legitimate potentially devastating hurricane. Natural selection tends to weed these people out and prevent them from further contaminating the gene pool.