Well, for those of you who’ve been living under a rock, we had a big storm roar through my neck of the woods last week. In fact, Irene caused a whole bunch of trouble all up and down the east coast. There was a lot of worry and many warnings here in New York and when all was said and done, while we sustained damage, it wasn’t nearly as bad as people feared.
Those in other locations–not as lucky.
So, the question keeps getting asked, was Irene over-hyped? Does the 24 hour news cycle we’re in feed the hysteria? The truth is, there’s no easy answer.
I watched the news and weather stations religiously. I’ve mentioned that MH is a total science junkie. Earthquakes (we had a baby one of those last week, too), severe weather, cosmic events? He’s all over that stuff. We knew what we were dealing with. We prepared the outside, putting away or tying down all the furniture. I stocked up on food (much chocolate) and we cleaned out one of our big coolers, bought ice and batteries. We live on high ground, so we weren’t being evacuated, but others were. Some heeded the warnings, others didn’t.
Personally, I think we were very lucky and all that hype kept some tragedies from happening. In the end, Irene caused some serious problems around here. There was flooding, some people will be without power for a week, and there are more uprooted trees than I’ve ever seen, but we didn’t get hit as badly as expected.
So for those who think the storm got too much press, put it to rest. If the hype kept people safe, saved one life, helped one family cope a little better, it was worth it. I’m sure the people who are losing everything in flood waters or had a tree come through their roof don’t feel it was over hyped at all.
