I second that, about stupidity in the media. Or should I say, stupidity of PEOPLE. I was watching Good Morning America earlier this morning, around 11:30 maybe 15-20 mins after the worst of the storm was leaving NE, and they showed some kid out doing his version of extreme sports sliding around on a dmaged roof on his duff, and being buffeted by the wind. WAS HE NUTS????
20 years ago, that kid was me, a REALLLY stupid 14 yr old. I was staying at my aunt's place at Point Pleasant on the Jersey Shore, and since I had grown up swimming in some rough weather on Keuka Lake in central NY State which gets some nasty sudden storms for a freshwater lake, and in Jersey, I could even handle some high tide, so I thought I could handle what I thought was a tiny undertow. The storm had blown out to sea the night before and there were some pretty good waves, but I didn;t think they were that bad. I thought I could handle anything. So I ran out for a swim before the parents woke up.Well lo and behold, I didn't even have to be deeper than my knees when a huge wave suddenly blew up from nowhere and in 3 blinks of an eye I was swept away. The next thing I knew, I was reduced to sack of jelly on the beach maybe 50 feet from the place I had been walking, from the waterline. I couldn't move so much as a finger and watching another wave bearing down on me. Luckily suddenly my stepfather came running up at that moment and dragged me away.
As to the media...they are REALLY starting to piss me off. I got the sense that they were somewhat disppointed that 60% of NE wasn't leveled like they were predicitng last night. What, if NE didn't become a moonscape and the Superdome didn't wash away, it wasn't "that bad'??? Andrew may have destroyed Miami and caused "high-profile" damage, but let's remember that this one was in terms of size SO MUCH BIGGER> there's aMUCH larger area affected. And don;t forget a lot of people in Moblile, Baton Rouge, etc weren't expecting to get the direct hit and prob didn't evacuate. And Mobile got the 20-ft waves. We won't know how much the damamge can be measured until we tally up deaths, etc. It'll be a week before we know the true extent. Right now the first pics are coming in and they're concentrating on the big stuff like the Superdome and the French Quarter. But the aftermath could prove just as bad, BUT it won't get the media saturation like it SHOULD.
Prayers to all of you still down there. It's gonna be a grim September.
It would seriously kill my faith in humanity if I didn't also read stories about massive Red Cross mobilizations, churches and schools all over Louisiana opening their doors...
That is hilarious!
g storm is still in southern Mississippi. It's looking really bad for us. Don't mean to rub in a pity trip but this is not fun, dancing in the shadow of a Category 5 storm.
