Hurricane Earl: Script followed a familiar path
Celebrity sighting: NBC's Al Roker.
The TV crews set up shop on the beach behind the Ramada: Al Roker, Stephanie Abrams and more. Small crowds gather for celebrity sightings.
Officials tell the tourists to get out. Many of them do.
Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel scolds Hatteras Islanders for not leaving. He says he’s not willing to risk his crew. He stays anyway.
“All eyes are on Earl,” an Atlanta anchor proclaims. The track is a disturbing red.
The hurricane approaches: 140 mph, 115 mph, 110 mph, 105 mph. It gets windy. It rains. The rain lets up. People drive around to see what happened.
I think I’ve read this script before. The big buildup, then a hurricane that degenerates to “only” a Category 2. Hatteras Island gets pummeled, the northern beaches get the equivalent of a nor’easter and we’re all relieved after another close call.
In a way, Hurricane Earl was a perfect storm. It helped television ratings, distracted us and got rid of some traffic for a couple of days. When it weakened and passed just offshore, we experienced just enough so that our anxiety wasn’t completely wasted.
But I’m still left guessing by the alarming melodrama that precedes the arrival of storms like Earl. It might be intended to scare us into taking action, but to me, it does just the opposite.
A Category 4 storm is majestic and menacing on radar when it is 1,000 miles away under ideal conditions. It’s dramatic, compelling TV, and it’s frightening. So I’m almost relieved when they weaken, as they usually do, to a Category 2 or 3, even though a Category 4 this far north would be a freak rarity anyway.
Isabel and Floyd were huge, well-formed hurricanes offshore. By the time they got here, they were “only” Category 2s. The difference between them and Earl: They both made landfall. Isabel practically destroyed half of Hatteras village and ripped a new inlet. Floyd killed dozens of people.
I’ve never experienced anything close to a direct hit from a hurricane of any size in Nags Head. I have no idea what would happen.
But I do know there will be another big storm and another dramatic buildup. And I’ll have no faith in it.
This column originally appeared in The Virginian-Pilot.
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Bill Holt says:
… and we hope our request and boycott of Cantore will do some good. He is a radical sensationalist… they should send him somewhere else! Of course Roker can stay and Stephanie had a pleasant sense of fitting into the real scope here and she was pretty real and seemed to try to get an understanding of the people.
Nice little article here Rob! Keep this news – online – paper comin’ Enjoy it!!
bubba says:
Anyone ever see the big fan they pull out of the van to make it look windy? I hear there was a fan pulled out last week.
Louise says:
It is too bad that people will become indifferent to the warnings — like the boy that cried “wolf.” You — the press — need to keep reminding people how much damage a category 2 storm can do on land.
Bill says:
Once thing I love is that its a “summer-time” weather melodrama thing. We get much worse weather along the OBX during the late Fall, Winter, and early Spring months, but we see no television crews here then…Why? Where was Jim C during the big Nor’Easter last fall (November) which destroyed Rt 12 at Mirlo and produced that epic photo of an ocean wave/whitewater straight out of the Indonesian tsunami in Buxton? Talk about some dramatic coverage…, if Cantore was in Buxton for that event, he would have really been a storm chaser!
All in all, the coverage of tropical weather in the news media has a sprinkle of real meteorology and a huge dose of sensationalism. Yea, it definitely boosts the ratings. My mom, safe in central PA, said she was glued to CNN until 2:30am Thursday night wondering how her son was surviving on the OBX!
Exactly what the media’s coverage goal was for Hurricane Earl!
Shannon says:
That’s why I stick to the very dry but accurate updates straight from the Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm starts turning NNE as predicted and you get that report with an added “but it could still veer west and hit us straight on!” from the TV weather people.
Puhleaze.
Stan Clough says:
The coverage of hurricane threats on the Outer Banks is a problem on many levels. People like Jim Cantore (I spelled it right )are way over what we need. They need to put a leash on him. People that complain about our public officials, You try being the one to decide when and if to evacuate. It is easy to say they should have done it different. You go get electted and make YOUR decision. If you chose to live here you have to learn to live with the threat of a storm. Living with the weather channel exagerating your situation in front of the entire country for our families to deal with is not cool. Get over yourself Jim Cantore and be a weather reporter for the good of the people and not a self absorbed merchent of fear and dismay, preying on us who have a “possible” threat maybe coming upon us.
Thank you local officials for keeping your heads and doing your jobs !
ekim says:
Local offcials get a C+ in my book. They were too worried about losing money than protecting property Even JIm Cantore didn’t understand why the beach mansions weren’t boarded up. We can’t when they’re occupied while the home owners are calling me freaking out because I can’t take care of the prop that takes care of me. GREEDY!
Alexy says:
The Jim Cantores of the world remind me of the Don Henley song “Dirty Laundry.” If it is sensational it sells PERIOD. They are just here for ratings. Will Cantore apologize to Burruss…nope. Will he be back next storm … yep.
Want to get even next time he shows up, make sure you . . . use it to the advantage and stand behind him with a http://www.preservebeachacess.org. or a http://www.replacethebridgenow.com banner and get some press on what is troubling the island.
Mike W says:
I really preferred The Weather Channel when they sat behind a desk with a chalkboard behind them to show the weather. Since when does the potential of property damage, flooding, personal injuries and power outages become entertainment? I guess with shows on TV like Jersey Shore, Bizzare Foods, Dirty Jobs, etc. etc. storms are fair game. Sad.
Stan Clough says:
Local officials get an “A” in my book on this one, and I get tired of hearing about greed, people do need money, dont they ? Jim Cantore is a actor on a TV show, just so everyone can understand, and his “GREED” was driving him to be where he was and say the things he said. I heard he was saying something about why were million dollar mansions not boarded up ? North Carolina Building codes have required for years “impact resistant glass” so plywood would be redundant, and there has been no scientific evidence that putting plywood on your windows is a good idea anyway(even without impact resistant glass) . Inland it would maybe be a good idea, but on the oceanfront, what would hit a window other than water ??? Anyone that may be in the vacation rental property business and thinks Dare County Emergency Management Officials are “greedy” because Jim Cantore is on Hatteras Island is probably in the wrong business, and is not looking out for the property owners on Hatteras Island. It is a difficult game to play, but I respect our Dare County folks who have to make the decisions of weather to evacuate vacationers or not. Now there is the evac. insurance, remember when that was not thought of ? Expecting and hoping for profit is not GREED, it is business, and people that are employees must understand that. We are not a comunist country. We are a Republic.
Nicole says:
You guys might criticize that a storm rarely hits here and does damage as forecasted. However, you do not live down here and the damage seems to go unnoticed. Several residents in Frisco had major flood damage to homes and vehicles on the soundside. Without predictions and prepareation, I myself would have had major damage. Yes, my downstairs flooded and I tore out carpet, padding, walls, insulation. However, I was able to properly prepared and raise all of my personal property to minimize that loss. For the critical people balknig at the forecast, maybe you should experience this and rethink your criticism. Most be see damage as “oceanside” but a majority of the damage on Hatteras Island is soundside flooding.