Friday, July 23, 2010

The Weatherman is Smoking Crack Again

Since I can type with two hands already, its time to move on to something other than whining about my shoulder.

I'm gonna whine about weathermen instead! Yay!
Tropical Storm Bonnie was born yesterday in the Caribean. (Look!!! They named a storm after you!! YOU know who you are!!)
Its a baby TS and not packing much punch. I think max winds are around 40-45 mph, gusts of 50mph and 4-6 inches of rain were projected. Tidal flooding was expected, but minimal.

Since Monday the weather guys at the local tv stations have been praying for this thing to blow up into a Cat 4 hurricane. Much to their dismay, that is not going to happen and more to their dismay, it was expected to weaken as of the last report early this morning. BUT!! There is hope!!! It was turning north slightly so Miami-Dade County could be ground zero for a direct hit of some rain and wind. pffffft.

These guys live for this stuff and as of yesterday evening at 6pm when Bonnie was officially born there has been nothing but LIVE!! BREAKING!! WEATHER COVERAGE OF TROPICAL STORM BONNIE!!! on all three major networks. Every.Fifteen.Minutes. They've takin this storm to the next level of assclown. Much to their glee the storm did jog north a bit, like they tend to do, and hit just North of the Keys.
OMG, Every 15 minutes(!!!!!)they are on the news telling us to have water, generators, storm shutters, enough food for 3 days and our medications filled....JUST IN CASE IT GETS WORSE. OMG!! Doomsday is headed our way!

Please, this storm came thru this morning and was here and mostly gone by 12:30pm. Oh No!! What the hell are they going to report on now???

I kid you not, it was like two, maybe three heavy rainshowers with a few gusty winds. We didn't even take the umbrellas out of the tables by the pool. I didnt muster the energy to put up my storm shutters....One Armed mind you. Bad, bad, me!

STUPID idiots just make everyone hate on them and they'll keep doing this every storm that comes along, no matter how big. So when the big one does come, most people will be bored of hearing them cry wolf and probably get their asses handed to them.

When Hurricane Andrew hit way back in the early 90's, it was not forcasted to hit us. Then he took a jog north and grew to a GINORMOUS Cat 3-4 storm overnight. They had a good idea this was going to happen and were warning us, but the previous 50 storms before Andrew didnt do it so you had no one listening to the warnings. When everyone woke up that Friday morning before the storm hit and turned on the news.......they saw it was gonna happen....sometime Late Saturday or Sunday morning. A MASSIVE Catatory 4 Hurricane was barreling towards us, guns drawn on South Florida and no-one was ready. Mass panic happened 36 hours before Andrew hit.

I was a Paramedic working that Saturday into Sunday and I ran 30+ calls from 7am Saturday morning until 2:30am Sunday morning when they finally pulled us off the road for safety. I had actual transport reports for 22 patients IN 19.5 HOURS!! UNREAL. We ran calls from one end of Broward County to the other, one after another. Heart Attacks, massive broken bones, chainsaw injuries, nasty cuts, lots of bruises, everything. Most of it was for people trying to prepare for the storm. Doing shit and preparing for the storm. Some of it should have been done days, if not months before. But they were now in a panic, a rush and they were getting hurt bad. It was crazy. It was fun (yes it was). It was exhausting.

This is what we were seeing on the tv midday Saturday when we got a glimpse of one at the hospital after dropping patients off.


I slept thru the storm in the bowels of the hospital where we were stationed at the time. Our normal squad room got taken away from us and given to some administrator and his family. I ended up sleeping in a broom closet. I took the stretcher from the truck, shoved it in the closet with two pillows and a blanket and passed out. My partner woke me up at 6:30am and Andrew had come and gone. We were back on the road and running the calls that they'd stacked up while all EMS/FIRE/POLICE were grounded. The first two calls were dead people. Died of heart attacks. It was sad because their families had watched them slip away with no help on the way. The 911 operators had talked them through how to do CPR but it was too long a time without the lifesaving drugs needed to save them. It had to be horrible for the families.

It was a fast storm. Probably a good thing in retrospect. We had damage up here in Broward County, lots of trees and powerlines down but Southern Dade County was demolished. I'll have to get my pics out someday and show you all. Street after street with flattened houses. What a flippen mess. I don't want to deal with that ever again. In the weeks after the storm half of Dade County moved up to Broward County for 6 months. Half of those people never went back to Dade. ugh.
This is a pic I pulled off the web. Mile after mile of this destruction. MILE AFTER MILE.

Anyway, the point is obvious. Crying Wolf seems to be the norm nowadays. They stopped doing it for awhile after Andrew hit. I thought they'd learned their lesson but apparently not. Its once again going on storm after storm and its so detrimental.

I know I said the storm wasnt bad this morning, but there are always idiots out there...lol I guess when you gotta fish, you gotta fish!!

8 comments:

Linda Medrano said...

Peedee, I get really sick of the media trying to create a "culture of fear". when you think about it, Swine flu, West Nile Disease, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, the Taliban, Al Qaida, it's all the same thing. Terrify the masses for more advertiser's dollars.

I hope your shoulder is better today, Honey.

vixen kitten said...

Those freakin paid liars do that to us here too...only in reverse. All winter they warm of the armagedon of snow. They give it names like "Storm Watch 2010." They give reports every 15 minutes or so, using the doppler radar, so people panic and raid the damn stores. You go to bed thinking YES....SNOW DAY!! Then you wake up and there is like 3 inches. Enough to make the drive in to work a pain in the ass....but not enough to stop the world from turning.

2 winters ago we had snow up past my waist. There are some pics on my blog some where. The weathermen never said a word about it. I guess 36+ inches of snow just snuck up on them and their flipping doppler radar.

I hate them all.

As you can tell, it's best I never watch the news. :)

xoxo
~vk~

PS... I hope my little rant at least made you smile and that your shoulder is feeling better.

Momma Fargo said...

Isn't it a great job? You can lie and be wrong 100% of the time and still have a job and a paycheck. Crazy.

Ann T. said...

Dear peedee,
I can take all their crap with a grain of salt EXCEPT the hurricane stuff. That works a number on me. And, the opposite to what I should do: it immobilizes me and I can't move!

I hate the freaks too. Anyway, that storm sounds like a big Zero so enjoy the weekend!

I hope you have rented some damn good movies and get some time on the beach!

x0
Ann

Anonymous said...

didn't even rain here! Oh to be a weatherman! You never have to be right and everyone is tuned in!

I wonder if they caught anything.

The Observer said...

peedee:
Our dipwad mets get all wound up with tornadoes. Not too long ago, one of them was told to back down with the weather bulletins and everything.

That crying wolf thing is real. If everything is an emergency, than nothing is an emergency and we all get caught with our pants down.

Great post!
the Observer

Unknown said...

Absolutely right Linda! Media = culture of fear. It keeps us tuning in. =/

lol VK, I try not to watch the news when this crap is going on. You pretty much have to switch to cable channels only because the main channels are doing nothing but broadcasting this stuff.

Yeah, I need this job Momma. ;)

You shouldnt watch either Annie, being detrimental and all! Just get a glimpse every 4 hours or so. Its just repetition/regurgitation the whole time anyway.

I dunno Sage. I knew the fishing pic would get a guy comment. lol

They actually listened to them Observer?? Amazing! I wish someone would tell these assclowns to do the same!

meleah rebeccah said...

I think sometimes it's a secret conspiracy to lure us into Weather Channel addiction - by creating frightful scenarios of things that may never happen; complete with slick new sets; and even slicker meteorologists! Oh and that dramatic music conjures immediate images of weather peril having been imprinted by episodes past. Oh the contrivance of it all!!