It didn't happen. Tom wins again. His report:
-RWLew, the state’s hurricane hysteria, and the mainstream media’s complicity in it here in South Florida, is so blatantly obvious and laughable. All day long yesterday the local TV stations were warning over and over again that WE’RE ALL PROBABLY GOING TO DIE from the hurricane. One TV info-babe was ominously warning us while standing on a beach while people behind her were having a blast windsurfing. Another info-babe informed us that waves were “crashing” against a dock, but when the camera went to the dock it showed barely a ripple. Frustrated at the absence of any scenes of imploding homes or destroyed boats, they began showing video of 20- and 30-year-old hurricanes that did do some damage as an attempt to keep the public frightened. In Palm Beach County there were 30-40 mph winds and a couple inches of rain. Big deal. I walked up to the beach around 8 AM and the only “damage” I saw was a few palm tree branches on the ground. The ocean was calm enough that there were already a lot of surfers in the water.Governor Rick Scott, wearing a “Navy” ball cap, gave a press conference in which he breathlessly announced “mandatory evacuations” of some areas and declared that “the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, and the National Guard will be in charge.” Some towns declared curfews because, of course, after the government ordered evacuations the criminals know that it would be easy pickins. And it probably was. The governor was surrounded by National Guard bureaucrats in camouflage, giving the impression that they had prepared for jungle warfare.This morning, when it was obvious to all that the storm was not nearly as big a deal as was broadcast, the local TV talking heads were all saying the same thing: “Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uhhhh . . . . . .”
Not that I am an apologist for the MSM or local governments but frankly they had no choice. If they down played the hurricane and Miami did get hammered than the same people laughing at their misdiagnosis would be saying now, see they can't inform citizens correctly about a bad storm. Plus like any politician, Gov Scott wants a political future, having a bunch of pissed off citizens in South Florida wouldn't exactly be politically prudent.
ReplyDeleteYet we are supposed to submit to more taxes and regulations when these same organizations predict global warming disasters...wait...what?... oh...this storm was a global warming disaster! So that's what they mean.
ReplyDelete[aka Stargazer] We live on the Florida Space Coast six miles from the Atlantic. We too just 'survived' Matthew (with some damage to our house). The path of the storm was uncertain right up until the last moment. If it had 'wobbled' just 30 miles further west, we would have had 115 mph winds with much higher gusts instead of 80 mph winds. The damage would have been far greater. What the state and local governments did was very helpful in facilitating evacuations and organizing recovery preparations.
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