Little-Acorn
Well-Known Member
OK, I know, there's no such thing as a little hurricane.
But Katrina was a Category 4, wasn't it, with winds topping 150mph? Sandy is maybe a Cat 1, max winds around 80mph and gusts to 90?
If Sandy had hit New Orleans dead on like Katrina did, people there would mostly brush it off, "just another hurricane, no big deal", they get them fairly frequently down there. They board up the windows, lay out sandbags, stock up on batteries and Coleman fuel, and either visit their aunt in Denver or just ride it out.
What's different about Sandy isn't the hurricane itself. It's that it hit 60 million people, not 15 million like Katrina did... and it was 60 million who aren't used to hurricanes in an area far less prepared for one. 80mph winds, huge rain, and storm surges along the shore are still nothng to sneeze at.
And Sandy is hitting *newspapermen* right where they live: Manhattan and Washington DC. That's the real reason for all the consternation and screaming. "Journalists" who went to NO to cover Katrina, felt like they were visiting a foreign land (well, for them, maybe they were: The United States of America), not seeing something that was happening to THEM. But Sandy is hitting them right between the eyes: They CAN'T get away from it.
Katrina was huge and unusually powerful; Sandy is only average as hurricanes go. But Sandy is hitting journalists where they live... and that makes it news.
But Katrina was a Category 4, wasn't it, with winds topping 150mph? Sandy is maybe a Cat 1, max winds around 80mph and gusts to 90?
If Sandy had hit New Orleans dead on like Katrina did, people there would mostly brush it off, "just another hurricane, no big deal", they get them fairly frequently down there. They board up the windows, lay out sandbags, stock up on batteries and Coleman fuel, and either visit their aunt in Denver or just ride it out.
What's different about Sandy isn't the hurricane itself. It's that it hit 60 million people, not 15 million like Katrina did... and it was 60 million who aren't used to hurricanes in an area far less prepared for one. 80mph winds, huge rain, and storm surges along the shore are still nothng to sneeze at.
And Sandy is hitting *newspapermen* right where they live: Manhattan and Washington DC. That's the real reason for all the consternation and screaming. "Journalists" who went to NO to cover Katrina, felt like they were visiting a foreign land (well, for them, maybe they were: The United States of America), not seeing something that was happening to THEM. But Sandy is hitting them right between the eyes: They CAN'T get away from it.
Katrina was huge and unusually powerful; Sandy is only average as hurricanes go. But Sandy is hitting journalists where they live... and that makes it news.
