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Don’t Hate the Hurricane Hype

Shana Pearlman argues that just because the hurricane hype didn't come to fruition, doesn't mean politicians were wrong to act.

By Shana Pearlman

30 Aug 2011, 14:30

The headlines are blasting from the papers: “The Perfect Storm of Hype,” grumbles the Telegraph. “Category Feh,” shrugs the Philadelphia Inquirer.  Even the New York Times pointed out that the meteorologists got it wrong.

I am going to buck the trend and defend the National Hurricane Center as well as Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City and Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey.  I’m glad that they took the precautions that they did. I’m glad that the NHC tried to impress upon us just how serious the situation was. I’m glad that Bloomberg and Christie did their best to mitigate any possible effects by shutting down the transit systems and forcing evacuations.

Because hurricanes are large, slow moving storms whose formation we don’t entirely understand, it’s difficult to predict exactly what kind of effect they will have on the landscape. You don’t know exactly what is going to happen with storm surge and wind effects until the hurricane is more or less on top of you. People forget that because Hurricane Katrina didn’t make direct landfall on New Orleans, it was briefly thought that the Crescent City was out of danger. As we all now know, it wasn’t. In addition, hurricane forecasting technology hasn’t changed much in 20 years. Their path, their formation, and their structure is still quite mysterious to us.

The mid-Atlantic has very little experience dealing with hurricanes.  New York City, in particular, because it is so close to sea level and under a lot of pressure from groundwater, is particularly vulnerable to flooding. When I lived in New York, a small tornado in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, brought most of the subway system to its knees. If deep, narrow New York Harbor suffered any kind of storm surge, it could be disastrous to life and property. People could be trapped in their apartment buildings or swept away. The city’s geography just happens to be particularly vulnerable to that kind of flooding.

In any kind of emergency situation, it’s much better to be prepared for the absolute worst-case scenario rather vaguely hoping for the best. Nobody wants another Hurricane Katrina, where government officials at every level were totally unprepared for any kind of difficult situation. And if the constant hurricane hysteria from the media scares people out of their homes and into a sensible shelter, I think that’s a positive thing.  It’s much better to go to a shelter for a few hours than to be trapped without food, water, or medicine because you just couldn’t be bothered to leave your comfy West Village apartment.

A lot of people used to say that the Y2K threat was overblown, but exhausted computer programmers pointed out that their hard work prevented the threat from becoming a reality. Sensible precautions from Bloomberg and Christie prevented this hurricane from becoming a tragedy. Three cheers for both men whose leadership allowed us to shrug off mean old Irene.