Post Irma recollection - please add yours

[liberal N proud]

So much of the Southeast US and the Caribbean experienced Hurricane Irma in some form or another. This is my thoughts following the storm.

Here in Hilton Head area, we faired reasonably well, there was some flooding and a little wind damage any power outages were minimal. I made it out to the beach today for a look, there is a giant navigation buoy washed up on the beach. It is a new beach attraction. The area evacuated while only the island areas were mandatory. This area was originally for cast as possible landfall. Yes we dodged a bullet at the cost of Florida.
So as thing started to move back to normal I realized that as we were experiencing these things, our lives were focused on the storm, the evacuation, getting back and the damage, the rest of the world still moved forward. They were not putting their lives on hold. It was an email I missed as we prepared for evacuation and the subsequent reminder that woke me up, the world is still there.

In all I can't stop thinking how lucky we were and how sad I am for everyone who lost so much, some my friends.
Life moves on!

[zipplewrath]

1. Chris Cuomo

Cuomo specifically, and CNN in general really need to do a reflection on their work. The hysteria coming out of that network was off the charts. They need to contrast and compare it with both the Weather Channel's work, and some of the local stations work. The difference was startling.

I understand they are broadcasting to a national/international audience, but they get so much wrong it isn't funny. Early on they put way too much faith in the path predictions. They don't acknowledge (actually they try to understate) that there are significant differences between Cat 4 and Cat 5 storms. They speak in terms of peak gusts instead of sustained winds, even though they are relatively meaningless numbers to anyone but a structural engineer looking at a specific structure. There is a difference between evacuating within a county to a shelter and evacuating a state. And they quote storm surges as maximums that apply to very localized areas as if they apply to entire regions. And really, they should get more local talent to work the broadcast because their ignorance of local features and geography, not to mention past storms is irritating.

If they were truly professionals, they would hire some outside firm to review and critique their work. At the very least they should have local affiliates offer objective evaluations of their broadcast.

[msongs]

2. the reporter is hysterical yet background palm trees barely move nt

[HopeAgain]

3. Here in West Broward County Florida area...

It was an intense storm, but for us, Wilma was way worse. Lost much of my landscaping, but house is fine. Power was out from Sunday Morning until late last night (Thursday).

They were giving pretty dire predictions on local news here and seemed to give us little chance of getting anything short of the brunt of a full Cat 4 Hurricane. Instead, we got mostly Tropical Storm Force with Cat 1 wind gusts. Still lots of lights out and debris from broken/fallen trees everywhere, but so grateful, for us, the forecasts were way off. Feel terrible about the Caribbean Islands and the Keys and looking into what I can do to help.