Quote: (09-16-2018 02:33 PM)Bluto Wrote:
I agree with you completely pertaining with the media. They have a tendency to fear monger when anything like this happens. This is basically what local reporters live for. If it gets them national coverage than it feeds their narcissism.
**snip**
Absolutely...
The "million" number was what was quoted on the news--probably grossly exaggerated, as per standard. But, you were more correct in your earlier post when you said that most of the people in the Carolinas live on the coast. So the entire coast of SC is more than just Charleston and Myrtle Beach. And, it is in peak tourist season, probably where the "one million" came from.
Anywho... I wrote
mandatory evacuation in italics, because everyone knows it's not mandatory whatsoever and completely unenforceable. It's just a clever use of words, as you pointed out, that means there's a good chance you won't have any emergency responders, so you may need to leave.
We're pretty much saying the same things, except I do blame the governor and think he just fucked over the state because he head-shot his credibility. A better thing to have said is, "Tourists go home and residents prepare to protect your property." And, he did it waaaay too early. Even the most conservative storm model didn't have the storm hitting the coast until late Friday night/early Saturday morning. He declared the evacuation on Tuesday morning. Then the storm didn't even strike--had he waited until Thursday, people could've just as easily left if they wanted to, but it was clear the storm wasn't going to hit SC by then. He shut down the whole state for nothing.
In regard to the reversals, it was very ignorant. He reversed all eastbound lanes of I-26 all the way to I-77 in Colombia. Some of the people that crowded the interstate eventually became stranded in place and could not return home without breaking out the GPS and starting a "fuck me I don't even know if the gas stations have gas" journey through an unfamiliar area, which was also clogged like crazy. Basically, once you got on I-26, you were stuck there.
Some of those poor residents of NC who actually did get hit by the storm and have been without electricity since Thursday, those who received the only severe flooding, could have easily evacuated
to Charleston and been living in perfect comfort if the place wasn't shut down by the governor. I think it's very haphazard behavior by government officials and just straight up fraud on part of the "news" stations.
I was on one of the barrier islands off Charleston when Hugo hit. The place looked like
Hiroshima.. Some people didn't have electricity for 3 months.
Direct hit. Category 5.
You know how many people died?
61
They were mostly old people who were dependent on life support, i.e., in hospice care and had extended power outages.
This little thunderstorm was
absolutely nothing like Hugo.
The only thing that has changed is the pussification of the general public and how easily the media can spread mass hysteria.