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Pastimes : Hurricane and Severe Weather Tracking -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (12853)	8/31/2011 12:37:54 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26025

Hype is a subjective term based on expectation vs. result. To use a sports analogy, say Brady and the Pats are playing Manning and the Colts in the playoffs. For sure the hype will be high in expectation of a shootout between two of the best QBs in history. But suppose the score is 7-3 in a defensive masterpiece with the lone TD coming on a punt return. Was it overhyped? Was it a great game? To most of the audience who couldn't care less about either team but tuned in to see a shootout, yes, it was overhyped and likely quite boring. To a Pats or Colts fan, given they likely chewed their nails off while their heart was in their throats, or to a football aficionado who thinks defense wins championships, yes, it was a great game. The analogy here is that it appeared that if Irene followed the predicted path, which it actually did, the East River would flood lower Manhattan. We had Anderson Cooper there with live shots, expecting the climax where water is rising steadily at his feet as he is whisked away by waiting emergency personnel. The fact NJ had the worst flooding in its history and upstate VT lost landmark covered bridges to runaway rivers is inconsequential except to people who live there and to hurricane aficionados. So if you define Irene by expectation, based solely on what the media fixated on (which is no fault of Irene's), I can see where the word over-hyped can be applied. However, perhaps it might be more accurate to say Irene was incorrectly hyped rather than over-hyped, though I can't blame the media too much because 1) they were going by their weather experts and 2) we're talking NYC which is lot more interesting than a trailer park in FL. But to people who lived in its path in areas rarely hit by hurricanes, it for sure ranks up there among the worst ever. - Jeff