When a gander of us should have been enjoying what was left of our summer, something massive occurred towards the end of August. A hurricane was swarming near coastal waters and was expected to crash, not just silently slide, into the East coast.
However, it was not exactly unexpected since it’s (1) hurricane season and (2) natural disasters frequently brew near the southern tip of the nation in warmer waters. What did send chills up and down millions of spines was the prediction that Hurricane Irene would leave New Jersey disastrous, in an eerie resemblance to New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina.
The storm, which first was a category two and later declared a category one, had the entire East coast in a frenzy on Aug. 26. Now, a ‘category two’ is not something to mess with, so I’m told, and a category one is still a hurricane, but is supposed to be less damaging and not leave as serious effects.
As someone who works as a cashier during the summer, I saw this frenzy first-hand as customers poured –no, stampeded- into the department store from opening until closing for three days straight. It was like wild animals searching for their prey. For three days, the prey included batteries, flashlights, and for some reason, a ton of frozen food, milk and eggs. If your power went out people, what in the world would you do with all of this cold food?
Oh well. Working in retail is always a crazy, baffling experience. I digress.
For three days, I saw these people panic, cry and fear for their homes due to the overwhelming reporting on the hurricane. I became incredibly scared myself, and watching the news constantly wasn’t doing anything but add to my fear.
The bad news is Irene did do a ton of damage, flooding, and left approximately three million homes without power along the East coast. The good news is it left a lot of people wondering ‘wait…is that it?’
Once the storm left New Jersey the morning of Aug. 28 and reached Rhode Island, it became nothing more than a tropical storm, something we see often during this time of year.
There was definitely more excessive damage in North Carolina and Virginia, where the waters are warmer and the hurricane was at its highest strength. However, in Monmouth and Ocean County, winds reached at most 70 mph. Trees snapped and there was definitely major flooding in several areas. There were several reported deaths that should have never happened in the first place.
Yes, the government did the right thing about taking precautions and evacuating people in close proximity to the water. What bothered me, and many others, was the EXTREME overhyping in the media.
Only once did I see it reported that Hurricane Irene had 11 percent chance of being a hurricane, and 89 percent chance of being a tropical storm. Why? This strong bias in the news during such a havoc ordeal frustrated me.
While I was at work the next morning, co-workers were saying to me that the news is TRYING to find all this damage now that they’ve been predicting for days.
Another had commented that because this hurricane wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be, the next time somebody says hurricane in New Jersey, they’re just going to shrug it off and “say no big deal.”
I don’t know about that. As frightening as it was to watch Irene creep ever so slowly along the East coast, I’m grateful for the mass amount of time we were given to prepare ourselves, and our shelters. I’m even thankful for the media who reported on the storm 24/7, even if it was a little excessive at times.
Honestly, I don’t know how the people in the southern part of the States handle the constant hurricane watches. The Northeast gets one after a number of years, and we thought the world was coming to an end before our eyes.
All in all, kudos to the people who made the preparations so far in advance, even if it did send millions into a chaotic state of mind. Here’s to (hopefully) more relaxed weather as we move from a humid summer, into a blistery fall, into another snowy winter.
PHOTO COURTESY of foxnews.com
