Next time it may be a Cat 4-5 right over Memorial Northwest and your brother may stay and have a tree fall on a power line and fall on his house and start a fire and he'll die and Dr. Neil and NBC, CBS, ABC staff may right an email to you talking about how he told your brother to go but he didn't and died...and he'll attach pictures.
Your brother needs to find better things to do with his time. The forecasters did their best. If it would have hit here and people weren't warned in time your brother would have surely fired off another email saying "why weren't we warned?". When it comes down to it, it really didn't hit all that far away. I'm amazed at how they are able to predict it as close as they do.
I think it's a valid point to say that forecasters should stick with facts as opposed to always emphasizing the worst case scenario. If Houston was Mayberry USA, we all could have jumped in our 10 pickup trucks and left town with no problem. But since we are a major metro area with about 4 million people, and it was pretty clear we were not going to be hit and that the storm was weakening, the cost and risk of a mass exodus can be a lot more than the risk of staying. Dr. Neil blew his credibility. On the other hand, Frank Billingsley left out the hyperbole, stated facts, added some cautions and did a great job.
I agree. I understand where, those that don't like it, are coming from. But, to me, it says a lot that we can laugh at something like that after the fact.
I might add that because of the false alarmism this time around, people may think Dr. Neil is crying wolf next time when he is being factual. That won't be funny at all. Sorry, I can usually laugh at almost anything but I can't this time. Because of the traffic nightmare, when a Cat 4 or 5 does hit us in the future, some people will not leave and that could cost lives.
If people think he's crying wolf next time, that's their fault. The weathermen and authorities worked with the information they had available to him. Imagine what would've happened if no one would've listened to them on Wednesday or Thursday only to realize on Friday that they were right. It would've been mass hysteria exponentially worse than what we saw. Inconvenience was the magic word for this hurricane. Much better than death.
I agree. I also thing the "mass hysteria" is getting blown out of proportion. It wasn't as if each vehicle had someone screaming, "WE ARE GOING TO DIE! GET OUT OF MY WAY!". It's just we had a bunch of people leaving at the same time. If there was any hysteria it was at the gas pumps.
OMG. Loosen up people. If you didn't see the alarmism in the weathermen then...then...I don'e even have words to say. The hysteria was BECAUSE of Katrina. Cat 4? Cat 5? I don't care what it was. Before Katrina people would have evacuated Galveston and low-lying areas to Houston. Most people in Houston would've riodden it out. But becaue the weathermen were wetting themselves with hysteria the people of Houston bailed, too. Look it was a good trial run in case something bad happens but that crap was unnecesary. My brother's email was hilarious. If you disagree then you are part of the problem.
Actually, I think it's the opposite. Unfortunately, next time something like this happens, there will be many people who decide not to evacuate because of what happened this time with the storm veering to the east of us. If that storm had stayed on course and been a little stronger than it was, we would've had a tremendous tragedy. Then it would've been the evacuees laughing at those who didn't leave. Well, I wouldn't have been laughing, but you get my point.
Okay. Storm's over. Now get the hell out of Austin. Speaking of sick and depraved humor, I attempted to joke last night to one of the Houston "evacuees" that I wondered how many Houstonians, after this oh-so-harrowing experience, would vow to never return to Houston, choosing to stay in Austin and start a new life. Well, I didn't know his family was from Baton Rouge. Riiiiiiight. And that's when I decided to leave 4th St. last night...
No, it wasn't funny, it was a lame attempt at humor. If you think people having a different sense of humor than you makes them a problem, then that makes you a douche. I don't care what people would've done before, if you think a cat4 or 5 is heading your way then it's not stupid to want to get the **** out of the way. And as far as it being a "good" trial run, what RM95 said.
I thought the picture was funny given the situation. I think this comment is just dumb. I am the first person to blame the media when it comes to hyperbole, but when you have a storm blowing 170mph off the coast and threatening to come on shore as a very strong category 4 hurricane, you start evacuating people as soon as possible for the very reasons we saw. Yes, there was gridlock. But, there was NOT gridlock Friday night and no one was forced to ride out a strong storm in their cars where, no doubt, many would've died. I get your brother's point, but I doubt the forecasters who said what MIGHT happen to New Orleans wished more would've heeded their warnings and the hype surrounding their clearly correct theories would've been as extreme as the hype we saw with Rita. That may have saved hundreds of lives.
If next time a storm is bearing down on us and people decide not to evacuate based on what happened this time. And instead of weakening and veering off to the east, it slams right into the Houston area with full force, then clearly no one really learned anything from Katrina. These storms cannot be taken lightly and people need to assess each situation individually and base their decision to evacuate or not on the facts and forecasts given to them for that particular hurricane, not on what happened with Katrina or Rita or any other storm. Clearly many people based their decision to leave on Katrina this time and more than likely will base their decision next time on Rita.
I'm completely with you. If the same exact thing happens next week, I'll be back in Kansas instead of saying it'll never hit us since Rita didn't. Unfortunately, I think there are many who don't feel that way. They'll be wishing they had left if they stay and a Cat 4 or 5 hits.
I didn't see the joke...I didn't open it up or scroll back further in this thread. When my family left winds were clocked in at 175 mph sustained...a Cat 5 storm. If that storm sustained itself...or even came in just a little bit weaker..we'd be talking about sustained winds of around 140 mph in Houston. My 40 year old home on the west side isn't built to handle that. I'm guessing yours isn't, either. A storm like that making landfall here would do wind damage similar to what you saw in Mississippi with Katrina...only it would be in a more densely populated area. No, thanks. I'll leave everytime a storm like that threatens. Cat 2-3...eh...I can stick for that. But the idea that it was all overblown because it didn't hit?? That's absurd. It's a misunderstanding of how these storms work. Of how unpredictable they really are. There's a window of time you have to work with to stick or get out. If you wait until it makes landfall...you're too late.
You and your brother are idiots. Big idiots. I drove 14 hours through that crap and I never blamed anyone for leaving. I'm in Nacogdoches and 90% of people here don't have power. There are down trees and powerlines everywhere. I feel very lucky not to been hurt. A tree sliced a house in half right by where we were staying. You will understand when you see the photos that come out of here. It looks like a war zone. I could only imagine if cat 4,or 5 hit Houston directly. You are nothing but ignorant.
