Last Updated on August 22, 2017
Did television networks go overboard in covering Hurricane Irene as it approached New England?
Groups of viewers and media critics alike, both of whom seem to delight in asking such questions are asking away.
Howard Kurtz, of The Daily Beast, called storm coverage a “hurricane of hype.”
And a Manhattan resident quoted by the Associated Press says broadcasters blew the storm way out of proportion:
“I get that news is a business, but drumming up ratings at the expense of 28 million people is beyond the pale. My family, who all live in another part of the country, were worried sick all weekend while I slept right through the worst of it.”
Frankly, I’m glad this guy slept right through the worst of it. He determined for himself that there was no threat, turned the television off, and went to bed.
Good for him. I’m glad he did so. It certainly beats sitting up staring at the set, watching people you apparently don’t trust covering something you don’t think warrants coverage.
That in itself puts him above many of the critics.
But as of Tuesday morning, nearly a quarter-million people were still without power in central Virginia alone. Let’s not even talk about the devastation in Vermont, a state that isn’t the first one anyone would think of when asked about which states might be part of “hurricane alley.”
On Monday, the death toll was widely reported at 12. As of Tuesday night, that number rose to 42.
Ask any of the families of those 42 people if the storm warranted coverage.
I suspect, and this is just a guess, mind you, that if we could ask any of those 42 people, at least some of them might suggest that the media should have done even more to make the threat seem more dire.
Hindsight is always, as the saying goes, 20/20. And it’s always easy to whine and moan about what the media did or didn’t do after the dust has settled.
These same people seem to forget that the media has absolutely no control of where the storm actually goes; therefore, there’s no way to know whether the storm might make an unexpected turn, making those “worst-case scenarios”  absolute reality.
But no one forces anyone to watch storm coverage. Especially when a viewer reaches the point at which he feels the coverage becomes excessive.
Change the channel. Watch something else. Read a book.
Other people want to hear what’s happening. Some of them do benefit from the coverage. Some of them are motivated to evacuate. And no media critic can rule out the possibility that lives were saved specifically because the media made a big storm sound like it was a big storm.
@patricksplace As of right now there are 298,686 with our power in CT down from 775,000 (83%) at the peak of the strom
@DianaCT Well said. Glad you got your power back…I’m amazed that there are still 179,000 in central Virginia alone without power at this point.
By the way, during my brief vacation, I had several rum and cokes myself. The rare times I do drink alcohol, that’s about my favorite concoction.
@patricksplace The snow storm beat the hurricane by all most a 100,000! At its peak there were 869,000 people without power. I lost power at 4:00pm Saturday and I still don’t have power. What is worst is the temperature, it was down in the 20s last night.
I have photos of my house on my blog.
A co-worker of mine showed up with a few abrasions on his face yesterday; he said he couldn’t resist an attempt at body surfing as things got wild on the beach. I suspect being slammed onto the beach might have told him something about being adventurous.
I agree with everything that you wrote. This was also my also the topic of my blog today, when we got power back yesterday after almost 36 hours without it, I started reading the news web-site. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. What I said when I read them was not fit to print.
A friend down on Long Island Sound had water 3 feet deep in her cottage and the cottage next to her’s was bashed in. My niece in NJ still doesn’t have power. My friend in VT is in one of those towns that became isolated because of the flooding.
The topography of the New England states with it valleys and forests make it especially susceptible to flash floods and wind damage. Unlike the Gulf Coast where storm surges going inland for miles, here in New England we have little brooks that turn into raging torrents. The brook near my house swelled up and flooded the center of town and the town was cut in half by it.
Because of the warnings, I was prepared. I wrote this on my blog…
I’m prepared for hurricane Irene; I bought a bottle of rum and a carton of coke!
All kidding aside, I am making a much ice that I can to fill the freezer,
I got batteries and blubs for the flashing lights, I got batteries for my radio,
I got mantles for the propane lantern, filled the gas grill propane tank,
I have oil for the oil lamps, I got canned food and dry food (pastas to make tuna fish or crabmeat salad, etc.),
I filled my prescriptions that were low, I have city water and they have backup generators, but if worst case happens, I have a 40gal hot water tank,
I charged up my cell phone, I filled the car gas tank,
I bought a 12vdc to 110vac inverter that plugs in the car cigarette lighter so I can charge my laptop (need to be able play games).
I got a new book.
And most important, I took a hot shower; it might be my last for a several days.
ÃóÃó@AislÃngeKelloggdeGómez There are always those avoidable deaths. No matter how much people are warned to take care, there are always those who do not listen. There is little that can be done about that.
I think that – considering the potential situation if Irene had not weakened like she did – that the media coverage was sufficient and warranted. Things could have been a lot worse and the media did a fine job of trying to reach the potential victims and keep us all advised as to how the storm was progressing.
As you pointed out, no one wass forced to watch the storm coverage so if they were tired of it, they could have turned off the TV and done something else.
Not to be a little sour on a serious topic, but several deaths were attributable to trees falling on people. I suspect a large number of those were avoidable deaths – don’t stand under trees in a major storm! How about the surfer? In every storm, no matter how big, there is one idiot that sees the suddenly California-like waves and decides that he, unlike the others, won’t die out there in his friend the ocean. But this isn’t California. And we only have what are facades of California waves – ours come with terrible undertowes and other problems. But the idiot drooling at the site of those suddenly surfable waves isn’t thinking about anything else, like the danger.
I have not seen what all the deaths are from, but a certain percentage are always avoidable and could have been missed.