Blown Hurricane Coverage

Media sensationalism runs rampant again tonight, this time surrounding the reporting of Hurricane Charley. Charley was a Category 4 storm as it came on shore in Florida, but weakened as it raced across the central part of the state. Before 8pm central time, the storm had been downgraded to Category 2, and was still weakening, even as it's speed increased.

The only station to get it right was The Weather Channel, and one would hope they could.

All of the CableSpews channels were still reporting it as a Category 4 storm with winds up to 155mph. Sounds scary, right? I switched to the Weather Channel at that precise moment, to discover that Charley was now listed as a Category 2 storm as it approached Orlando. A Category 2 storm has sustained winds as high as 110mph. Charley actually had winds of 90 gusting to just over a huindred, making it a Category 1. Being properly cautious, the National Hurricane Center had not yet downgraded the storm officially.

Imagine you are in or around Orlando, the storm bearing down on you. Turn on CNN or MSNBC to find out whether you live or die, and hear that a Category 4 hurricane is about to land on your ass.

"150 mph! Holy Shit!"

If you're in a less than sturdy structure, you might hop into your car and make a run for it. Winds of the correct speed will still get you killed in a car - 90mph is nothing to sneeze at. Thing is, you get the true report of the lower wind speed, you probably decide to stay indoors, scared, but not fucking terrified. At the time of this writing, the only two deaths attributable to the storm were traffic deaths.

To call this sort of reporting irresponsible doesn't even begin to describe the enormity of it. Were I watching TV and in the path of the oncoming storm, I've now seen the horrendous damage the storm did when it was stronger, and from what I'm hearing, that level of destruction is almost on top of me.

But it isn't. Not to belittle a hurricane of any strength - I've been through one of its Pacific counterparts when it too was weakeneing, and it made for a veryt long, anxious night - but the difference between winds approaching 100 mph and those nearing 155 is enormous. Here in Oklahoma it is not unusual for powerful storm systems to create straight line winds of 80-100 mph, and windows can be blown out, mobile homes damaged, roof shingles blown away. At 155, found here only in tornados, houses collapse, trains are blown over, cars flipped, and so on.

You get the idea. It is fear mongering of the worst kind; irresponsible, reckless, and ultimately dangerous as panicked people make decisions based on false information. The 24 hour news cycle as represented by MSNBC, CNN, and FOx is already an abuse of the airwaves (or cablewaves, as it were), but this is either gross incompetence, or a cynical ploy for ratings. Either way, it is beyond the pale, and rapidly becoming the norm.