Angelo Braves Hurricane Irene with Radios and Other Man Gear

Irene forced my six year old and me to sleep in our basement on Saturday night.  Actually, it wasn't Irene, but some possibly overzealous weather forcasting that persuaded me to get off the second floor (where a tree falling on my house could have killed us).

I brought a few radio companions to keep us company through the night:  A Radio Shack weather radio, "Freeplay" solar/crank AM-FM-Shortwave and my trusty vintage 1970s General Electric pocket transistor radio.

I used the Radio Shack Weather Radio to notify us of NOAA alerts for our area----when the worst of the storm was expected, flash flood warnings and the like.  The "Made In South Africa" Freeplay radio is a favorite of mine:  Crank it for a minute and get 20 minutes or more of radio from a built-in generator.  It also has a solar panel on it----if you put it in the sun for a few hours, it holds a nice charge.  An added bonus is a flashlight feature-----also rechargeable by the crank.  If you could find one in good condition on E-Bay, I recommend making the purchase.  I gave up my Eton rechargeable because this one is so much better.

And my little GE runs strong on a 9 Volt battery----lots of hours of listening in bed without disturbing my kid's sleep.

I found it interesting that most stores were out of C and D batteries last Saturday----it was reported that Home Depot sold out at several local locations.  People were scooping them up for their flashlights and radios.  In my case, I had plenty of C and D batteries at home----but didn't need to use any of them with this trio of radios (The Radio Shack model uses AAs.).  

Getting back to the "overzealous" forecasting:  There's no doubt that the rain caused by this tropical storm has caused heartbreaking flooding in some areas---and many thousands without power----my house for ten minutes, some for hours, some for days.  But in the days leading up to last weekend, the "Storm Center" reporting really was over the top.  The talking heads on TV as well as local Washington DC area radio jocks were giving warnings about hurricane force winds.  New York City stopped their mass transit service way ahead of the storm.  People were terrified into buying generators (perhaps not a bad idea, but not one of those things you should decide on in a few hours, based on scare tactics).  

It was a parade of weather nerds that aren't often heard from, except when some snow is expected or during times like this.  One individual went on Mark Levin's radio show last Friday----I believe a climatologist-----and stated confidently that this would not be more than a category one tropical storm.  He correctly predicted that the National Weather Service and local meteorologists were overstating how bad the winds would be----that the storm would pack a punch, but not be as "historic" as everyone was saying.  He appeared on Levin's show again on Monday to run a victory lap (not his words, but my estimation).  It's clear that he was much closer to getting it right than anyone else I heard.

On cue, the national news lied about the severity of the storm to prop up the missed predictions.  An example:  Both FOX and ABC reported "major damage" in New Bern, North Carolina.  I guess "major damage" is open to interpretation, but having lived through the Tropical Storm Agnes flooding in 1972, I think I have a good idea of what "major damage" really is.  It's not a few trees down and water in basements.  I know people who live in New Bern and drove all over town to survey the "damage" after hearing the news reports.  They told me a couple nice old trees were down.  They had no idea what the news was reporting.  And as a side note, the news reports I saw about New Bern didn't offer photos/video coverage.  They were reporting from Atlantic Beach and/or Virginia Beach, and mentioned little known, obscure New Bern in passing.  At the very least, they exagerrated.  My opinion is that they lied to make the story fit the template that had been drawn up a couple days earlier.  It's terrible reporting. 

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Comments

[Ed]

Does major damage constitute 3000 coastal homes in North Carolina damaged, 7.4 billion is the current damage estimate and growing, a million people still without power a week later, toxic flooding in many Virginia and New Jersey towns? Glad you were unscathed, but for the others they would not say the hurricAne was "exaggerated."

[Angelo]

Ed: Please re-read my post. I was very careful about how I wrote it, acknowledging the known serious problems associated with this tropical storm. I also gave a very specific grievance with the reporters and the story they focused on in New Bern, North Carolina. You're right----people affected terribly would not say the hurricane was exaggerated as there is no way they can possibly be objective if their homes were destroyed, loved ones (one of two dozen) died or they've been without power for 5 days. We're talking apples and oranges---the storm itself was not as severe as the predictions leading up to it implied it would be. Also, I'd like to know where you're getting your information----I live in Virginia (northern VA). Is the "toxic" flooding in southern VA? Where did the 7.4 billion dollar estimate come from? I had heard 2 billion in insurance damage claims (potentially). Is the 7.4 including property that is uninsured? To be clear, I do understand the gravity of this disaster and how widespread it is. There are also horrible things going on with flooding in the southwest (farmlands) that are going unreported. Again, it's the media that decides what is newsworthy and what isn't and they're not always right.

[Karl]

Remember, New Orleans survived Hurricane Katrina...Shep Smith and Anderson Cooper breathlessly told me so....until the flooding started.

[Angelo]

Karl: Agreed. What year was Katrina, 2005? And people everywhere are still talking about it as a historic event/disaster/storm. As terrible as Irene has been to the victims of the worst damage (and people who had to live without power for a week----a very, very hard thing to do), only these people will be talking about Irene in a few years. That is really my point----not how serious the storm was to some, but how the media reported it in the days leading up to last weekend----and how they had to make the story fit the template they created, even if it wasn't accurate reporting.

[Ed]

Look, if the media had downplayed the severity of this storm, and your house was destroyed or a loved one hurt, you would have been the first one to bitch how that damn liberal media hadn't given you enough warning! They just can't win with guys like you, Angelo; they're damned if they do or don't. Next time just listen to Mark Levine and do whatever he says, since you find him and his guests to be the most accurate source of meteorological forecasting. Don't listen to the National Weather Center, what the hell do they know?!?

[Angelo]

Ed: You brought up politics, I didn't. In fact, I mentioned that FOX news was guilty of puffery with the aftermath of the tropical storm, in New Bern. I had no idea they're considered liberal media, but since you say so, I guess they are. As well, I didn't "bitch" about the media giving warnings about the severity of the storm. All I did was point out that in my opinion, the reporting AFTER the storm was sensationalized to match the dire "reporting" and predictions that were given before the storm. I'm all for "better safe than sorry" and I'm glad people took the precautions they did, myself included (Though I do think they jumped the gun in closing the subway system and other mass transit in our nation's largest city). I think at the end, a more accurate story would have been "Thank God that for most of us, this wasn't as bad as had been predicted. However, for many of us, it really was a terrible disaster." Sorry if bringing God into it offends your liberal sensiblilities.

[Angelo]

By the way Ed, while writing all of this, I'm listening to Levine interview national treasure Dick Cheney. Since it's Friday, he'll be playing Ray Charles "America the Beautiful" and the end of the broadcast. I'm listening on a Panasonic table radio, one of the best sounding I have.