The Official Hurricane Ivan thread...

[speck76]

Pssst....(said in my sweetest NY tones )...Turn off the TV.

Just because its on doesn't mean you have to watch.

(awaiting the neg rep points)

Yes, there is so much to do in Orlando when EVERYTHING is closed, you can't go outside for 2 days, and you have watched every DVD you own.....and then your cable internet goes out.........

The stations used to do an update on the hour and half hour in a split screen format....this was much better, as the regular programming was still on.

 

[Weird_Inside]

Yes, there is so much to do in Orlando when EVERYTHING is closed, you can't go outside for 2 days, and you have watched every DVD you own.....and then your cable internet goes out.........

Exxxactly. I remember I stepped outside Saturday night (after my electricity had gone out) and the Sherrif drove by and told me that I needed "to be inside"

And Speck, may I say that since you are the only person to actually leave your name when you left the "reputation" I must say that you rock. Hardcore.

People who do not live here really cannot begin to understand what I'm saying (which is probably why they were too cowardlike to leave their names behind...but nevermind.)

 

[AMartin777]

Fears and Reassurance

Well, for my part, I do feel for the people of Florida (I'm in Raleigh NC). That being said, I think it is important to keep things in perspective. When a storm like these come along it's important to stay informed and prepare accordingly. I believe if you take it a step at a time, it's much easier for the typical person to deal with:

1. Take a deep breath and look around you, for the moment you are alive and well. This is the basis for everything else and will carry you through.

2. Realize that this situation cannot be avoided but it IS controllable. You have the power to handle this situation mentally and physically. You have the power to be active and you will survive the situation through preparation and remaining in control. Calm.

3. Thousands, if not millions, of people are prepared and ready to help you when and if this storm moves on. You are not alone, EVERYONE in your situation has the same fears, hopes, worries, etc. as you but collectively can help one another through this time.

Basically I just want to say be prepared and everything WILL be alright. BTW - A friend of mine who is a meteorologist assured me that the odds against another storm following IVAN within the same season are astronomical. He believes that IVAN will litterally be the last major storm of the 2004 season. Let's all hope that he is correct. I believe him. I hope this helps. This is just my ramblings and thoughts on the matter. I hope this helps!

 

[tigsmom]

Not a "neg rep point" - but you have to understand that almost EVERYTHING closed like at least by Friday and nothing re-opened until almost Monday, even Tuesday for some places.

The entire city becomes a ghost town and like speck said, EVERY station is trying to to each other trying to tell you how much worse the storm is going to be according to their station.

I think I have a video encoded of one of Brutha Jeb's speeches if I can find it somewhere...

Ah, but I do understand, but my understanding comes from a different season....have the world close down when there is a threat of a major blizzard and then not one flake falls. Schools closed at 11am, closed the next day (snow may still fall)...1/2" snow over the weekend and school closed on Monday because of a pending ice storm (that never arrived).

:wave: my last post here...use common sense & do what is right for you.

 

[mattjs]

Good for you that Francis wasn't that bad in Orlando. And I'm sure you feel overwhelmed by the coverage you're getting there. But as I understand it, there are probly more than a few folks in Florida (yet outside of Orlando) who might disagree with you that the coverage has been overblown.

I have relatives in Vero Beach who just got their phone back yesterday, and are still without power as of this morning. Gas in short supply. One of the grocery stores in town reopened yesterday, but you can only get non-perishables. No power to cook with anyway. They're hot as heck without AC (and there are a lot of older retiress down there who, healthwise, don't handle the heat all that well). And as I understand it, Vero is not alone in terms of it's current condition. So I guess I'm just a little unsure of how exactly you feel the Weather Channel, and the National Hurricane Center (which is where WC gets the bulk of their info from) overhyped Frances? There is life in Florida outside Orlando ya know? And the Weather Channel reports on the weather there too.

 

[speck76]

Good for you that Francis wasn't that bad in Orlando. And I'm sure you feel overwhelmed by the coverage you're getting there. But as I understand it, there are probly more than a few folks in Florida (yet outside of your Orlando) who might disagree with you that the coverage has been overblown.

I have relatives in Vero Beach who just got their phone back yesterday, and are still without power as of this morning. Gas in short supply. One of the grocery stores in town reopened yesterday, but you can only get non-perishables. No power to cook with anyway. They're hot as heck without AC (and there are a lot of older retiress down there who, healthwise, don't handle the heat all that well). And as I understand it, Vero is not alone in terms of it's current condition. So I guess I'm just a little unsure of how exactly you feel the Weather Channel, and the National Hurricane Center (which is where WC gets the bulk of their info from) overhyped Frances? There is life in Florida outside Orlando ya know? And the Weather Channel reports on the weather there too.

If it was just the Weather Channel, that would be fine, but it is EVERY network station, even CNN and FoxNews joined in.
The state does a good job of evacuating areas that are to hard hit. For the rest of us, an occastional update would be fine, or an update as the storm changes, or as a new problem (Tornado) becomes apparent. The fact is, all that was on TV this last weekend was a bunch of reporters saying the same stuff over and over. The Fox reporter in Melborne was at one point running from fallen object to fallen object. "look....here is a part of a gutter that blew off....look, here is a leaf that blew off....look, here is a garbage can that blew over"....they are not reporting the news, they are trying to keep people scared, and most of all, keep their TV's tuned to their station.

 

[Weird_Inside]

If it was just the Weather Channel, that would be fine, but it is EVERY network station, even CNN and FoxNews joined in.
The state does a good job of evacuating areas that are to hard hit. For the rest of us, an occastional update would be fine, or an update as the storm changes, or as a new problem (Tornado) becomes apparent. The fact is, all that was on TV this last weekend was a bunch of reporters saying the same stuff over and over. The Fox reporter in Melborne was at one point running from fallen object to fallen object. "look....here is a part of a gutter that blew off....look, here is a leaf that blew off....look, here is a garbage can that blew over"....they are not reporting the news, they are trying to keep people scared, and most of all, keep their TV's tuned to their station.

You = awesome.

Like I said, my grandma did nothing other than watch the Weather Channel and Fox News alllll weekend long and she would call up crying asking if everything was okay - that's not right.

Another one of my favorite local news moments was...
"Natalie... could you step back a little bit into the wind!"
"LOOK AT HER JACKET, FOLKS! Her Jacket has PUFFED UP!"

And it went on like that for like ten minutes!

 

[mattjs]

Again though, I guess I'm just unclear as to whether or not you think the Weather Channel, and the National Hurricane Service (since again that's where WC gets their data) overhyped Frances or not. Which is the case you were making earlier, and contiunue to make now.

Again, as I pointed out, Frances was a devastating storm for hundreds of thousands of Floridians outside the Orlando area. Should the Weather Channel not have covered how bad it was outside Orlando? Clearly it would have made you happier, and your grandmother might not have gotten so concerned for you. But wouldn't that have been a bit of a diservice to the huge portion of Florida that was hit very, very hard by the storm? So hard life's still not even remotely back to normal in many communities?

 

[Weird_Inside]

So hard life is still not even remotely back to normal in many communites?

The weather channel made Orlando out to be the the absolute warzone that it was not. She said she heard several reports on Orlando that were just not true.

Even when my friend called I said, "yeah, it's just raining" and he said "BUT THE WEATHER STILL SAYS THE HURRICANE IS OVER YOU!"

Sometimes, once again, those half-truths can be entirely misleading. Yes, the hurricane was still "over" us - but it was "over" us for a long time but we saw nothing more in Orlando than a few heavy rain bands and some gusts. Don't trust the Weather Channel or Fox News or whoever else you watch because they get paid to make things seem interesting (read: terrible) when they really aren't.

 

[barnum42]

If it was just the Weather Channel, that would be fine, but it is EVERY network station, even CNN and FoxNews joined in.
The state does a good job of evacuating areas that are to hard hit. For the rest of us, an occastional update would be fine, or an update as the storm changes, or as a new problem (Tornado) becomes apparent. The fact is, all that was on TV this last weekend was a bunch of reporters saying the same stuff over and over. The Fox reporter in Melborne was at one point running from fallen object to fallen object. "look....here is a part of a gutter that blew off....look, here is a leaf that blew off....look, here is a garbage can that blew over"....they are not reporting the news, they are trying to keep people scared, and most of all, keep their TV's tuned to their station.

It was the same over here in Britain. The 24 hour news stations had lots of coverage of the same nature - probably the exact same reports. Were it not for the appauling news from Russia this is probably all they would have shown.

I guess the decimation of a state probably brings them higher advert revenues than more regular news stories.

I guess I may end up seeing things first hand next week, depending on where Ivan ends up, but all fingers crossed this will not be the case.

 

[mattjs]

Of course the Weather Channel said the hurricane was over you. At one point it was over you. It wasn't very strong, but it was in fact over you. There's no half truth there. Some viewers may not have understand it had weakened, but I was watching, and I thought the Weather Channel made the weakening nature of the storm abundantly clear.

In fact, I watched quite a bit of Weather Channel over the weekend, and as far as I saw, they had one reporter in Orlando. And in all the Orlando reports I saw the reporter clearly indicated that the storm wasn't terribly bad there. Now outside Orlando was a different story altogether. But in Orlando, I saw their reporter consistantly de-emphasizing the severity for Orlando.

To the contrary, the reports from the coastline were pretty sensational. But I'd say with cause since those areas were abolutely hammered for hours on end. And good for the Weather Channel for getting the word out on what was going on in those communities. If some viewers were confused by all the different reporting locations, then so be it.

If you've got an issue with Fox, or CNN, or your local affiliate for the way they interpretated what was going on then that's one thing. But I think to imply that the Weather Channel (and thereby the National Hurricane Center) overhyped Frances, and to say WC is not a credible source on these matters is simply ridiculous. As evidenced by the tremendous, record setting damage left in the storms wake. And as evidenced by the numerous communities that are still in a state of significant disarray.

 

[TimeTrip]

It was the same over here in Britain. The 24 hour news stations had lots of coverage of the same nature - probably the exact same reports. Were it not for the appauling news from Russia this is probably all they would have shown.

Sadly, there was hardly any coverage of the events of Russia on the major stations in Florida (and from what I gather, in the rest of the nation). You'd think they could take a break every once and a while for important world events. Ah well.

 

[TURKEY]

The Orlando stations barely mentioned President Clinton's hospitalization/heart problems/surgery. They barely mentioned the Russia news.

There is only so much that can be done.

I missed my sports this weekend. It really sucked.

There was no reason to be going wall to wall on Friday night all the way through Tuesday morning (that's what I remember anyway).

The only times I turned the TV on the local stations (didn't touch Weather Channel) was to see exactly where the eye was, movement, etc. because I didn't have internet for the most part.

 

[barnum42]

Sadly, there was hardly any coverage of the events of Russia on the major stations in Florida (and from what I gather, in the rest of the nation). You'd think they could take a break every once and a while for important world events. Ah well.

I'm used to "American World News" media stations covering practically sod-all outide America (and now Iraq), but I am a little surprised they did not jump on this one to add to the anti-terrorist capaign. Plus any with anti-Islam agendas could have had a field day with it. On top of that, there has been copious ammounts of personal grief and heartbreak, all things to get an advertising executive rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of higher ratings.

 

[Weird_Inside]

Showing images of this MASSIVE hurricane over the ENTIRE state of Florida speaks louder than words. An image like that is used to envoke fear out of people and thus rake in more viewers.

Does the National Hurricane Center lie? That's debatable. I firmly believe that they have NO idea where any of these storms are going and so by propagating the Chicken Little-esque "THE SKY IS FALLING" news stories, yes, they are lying to the public.

It's becoming clearer and clearer that arguing with some of you is completely futile. Please, do me a favor and try NOT to go on believing EVERYTHING you see on television.

I can't believe your whole response was "But.. you SURELY cannot be saying that the television LIES!!"

Yes, Billy, the newsmen lie a lot. Sorry, I hate to break it to ya.

 

[Atta83]

As I said once before and I am going to say it once again, Its weather its still unpredictable and nothing we can do about. In 83' we got no warning of Alicia she was a tropical storm one day, a cat. 3 the next, then bam hit us with a punch. At least there are warnings thats all i got to say.

 

[Weird_Inside]

As I said once before and I am going to say it once again, Its weather its still unpredictable and nothing we can do about. In 83' we got no warning of Alicia she was a tropical storm one day, a cat. 3 the next, then bam hit us with a punch. At least there are warnings thats all i got to say.

But these are BEYOND warnings and more like constant reminders of how the entire world is going to end.

It was because of that very simmilar screw up with Charley that I believe is the reason for this over-coverage of Frances and Ivan.

 

[626]

"Just because you read it in a magazine or see it on a TV screen don't make it factual" The news does overhype things. My mother still lives in south Florida and she was telling me on the phone last night she will be surprised if she isn't dead by this morning because she is so worried about yet another hurricane that she feels physically sick. The media does create panic and that's just sad

I am supposed to fly into MCO Tuesday morning. Now it looks like there is a good chance our flight might be delayed. This morning my wife started talking about postponing our trip all together, something I'm sure she's been thinking about the last few days. Personally I give her credit for holding her tongue this long. I expected her to start talking about that yesterday. I don't want to postpone our trip and unless Ivan is heading directly to Orlando and stays a Catagory 5 I will fight her tooth and nail to not cancel. It's a shame that I have to fight to go. I am scheduled to board a plane to Disney World on Monday, less than 5 days from now. I should be on cloud nine right now! Every other Disney trip I've gone on, with only 5 days to go I am completely packed and listening to Disney music non-stop. This year I am worried. Not about me, I know I'll be fine. I'm worried about my mom and how she is dealing with all this stress. I'm worried about my wife, who has never been through a hurricane herself, and is beginning to panic. I am worried about my family and friends throughout Florida, all of whom so far have been lucky this year. They have only lost power for a few days. I am worried about all of the CMs at WDW, who even when they have no power. Even when they go home to the devastation left by Charley and Frances, have to show up to work and be bright and cheerful for a bunch of strangers. My hat goes off to them. I don't know how they can do it. I know I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face dealing with tourists angry about the parks closing during a hurricane when I have no power at home.

I needed to get that out. I feel a little better now. I hope I didn't offend anyone. If I did I'm sorry. Hurricanes are so complicated. Ivan, get lost!

 

[mattjs]

Again though. There was in fact a huricane over Orlando. I suppose the Weather Channel could have not reported on that, or simply not shown the radar imagery showing that there was in fact a hurricane over Orlando. And I suppose the NHC could have ignored it as well. But I thought both of those entities handled the situation great.

From my viewing, I thought the severity in coastal communities was emphasized appropriately. And given what happened in those towns, I'd say they were right on to do so. I also thought the weakening nature of the wind was significantly emphasized as the storm pushed inland. Which also turned out to be right on. If people simply look at the radar imagery but don't listen to what's being reported about it, who's fault is that. And again, I though WC was very clear that the storm had weakened significantly by the time it was over Orlando.

These are incredibly dangerous, and very difficult to predict storms. Note that the NHC marks the out days (days 4 & 5) as dashed lines, and clearly indicates the high uncertainty of the predictions for those days. As does WC by broadening the cone of strike possibilties in the out days to as much as 700 or 800 miles. And by clearly explaining that to the viewer in their tropical updates (but again, only if you're listening and not simply looking at the graphics). So no, it's not perfect forecasting. The computer models aren't always right. But I believe both entities are very clear about that if you're paying attention.

But not long ago (before we had sophisticated modeling for these things like we do now) these storms regularly resulted in large numbers of casuslties. So personally I say thank goodness for NWS/NHC and the work they do. No weather forecasting is perfect, but they (and I would argue the Weather Channel as well) have undoubtedly saved many, many lives, since coming on the scene through their timely forecasting/reporting. And not just with hurricanes, but also tornados, Blizzards, etc.

And so I guess I agree with you on the pointlessness of continuing the debate. If you've truly gotten to the point where you actually question the integrity of the National Weather Service/National Hurricane Center, then I'd say there's really no point in continuing the discussion.

 

[Atta83]

But these are BEYOND warnings and more like constant reminders of how the entire world is going to end.

It was because of that very simmilar screw up with Charley that I believe is the reason for this over-coverage of Frances and Ivan.

Thats the thing though you sometimes have to remind people daily because some people live very busy lives. And then again you have some people who need constant reminders. The reason by doing this is to avoid the mass of confusion going on with the past two storms that just went through. When they told Floridans in the path, they evacuated. They saw what happened the last one and did not want that to happen again, they did not in a way want to be suprised like Punta Gorta, they did not know they were going to be hit full blast. They all though it was going to go north.