[Op-Ed By Yossi Gestetner]
You gotta love it when people who sit at dry TV sets in DC or in dusty basements tell you that preparing for Irene – the Hurricane that killed someone in your neighborhood; left you without power for a day; flooded your friend’s house with five feet of water; disrupted food and gas supply in your area; and dropped a huge tree onto your uncle’s dining room – was all just hype.
Indeed, Irene didn’t kill hundreds or thousands of people, but this is because people took the warnings serious and stayed indoors or evacuated in a timely manner. Many if not most deaths related to Katrina exactly six year ago were due to flooding (not the stronger-than-Irene winds), and due to people who didn’t heed the warnings to get out of harm’s way days earlier. But of course, after Katrina all three levels of government were attacked for their lousy work, but this time around state and local governments are attacked for trying to do their work.
Get a life, Toby Harden
Harden, the UK Telegraph writer noted that by lunchtime Sunday, sun shines were seen across New York. Indeed the sun was out, but huge sections of the NY 17 and the NYS Thruway were flooded into the evening hours, and mudslides and trees snapping took place late afternoon too. The 46 year old father of four who got electrocuted blocks from my house trying to help a six year who stepped into a small puddle that had a live wire in it, died when the sun was out, and the 83 year old Jewish woman who was swamped by water in Fleischmann’s New York perished after lunchtime.
Personally, I view NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg as an elitist snob; New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo as a Mob Boss, and New Jersey Governor Christie as someone who is full of himself. Additionally I think Government failed the Jewish woman in upstate New York as they failed my mother eight weeks ago when she was nearly killed in a flash flood. But all in all, the local and state leadership did the right move to warn people of an impending disaster. One can only imagine what chaos and loss of live we would have if people were going about their Sunday commute and shopping as in a regular weekend. George Will would be saying that yet again government failed the people on a massive scale…
Yossi Gestetner is a New York-Based Writer and Marketing Consultant in the Orthodox Jewish/Hasidic Communities. His Firm “Gestetner & Co” Serves Political, Charitable and Corporate accounts. Yossi can be reached via [email protected]
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
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8 Responses
Gestetner, you need to separate the hype in NYC to the non-hype elsewhere. The conditions were different in NYC than elsewhere.
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Thank may we soon be jerusalem in Jerusalem
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The critics are not minimizing the seriousness of the storm and the need for preparedness. The point they are making is that the information the media disseminated was not accurate. How can we trust media reporting if they cannot even report on a storm accurately.
You seem to be missing the point. No one has said that the hurricane did no damage, caused no loss of life, and did nothing to infrastructure. If the general message had been, “We are monitoring a storm that is on a path to our area. It is currently a major hurricane, though the NOAA projects the storm to either be a strong tropical storm, or a weak Category 1, with winds between X and X mph, which could cause wind damage, flooding, and power outage. Please monitor expected conditions for your area and make an informed decision about your course of action,” I don’t think that anyone would be calling it hype. Instead, those heard loudest in the government and mass media, started yelling, “Destruction imminent! Run for the hills! We’re going to die! It will be a disaster! Category 3 storm! Get out while you still can! We DEMAND that you leave NOW!” This is hype. From the speeches and reports given, one would’ve thought that the end of the world was on the way to New York. Surely, it was most likely a smart decision for people to evacuate areas of lowere elevation near flood-prone areas and beaches, but this is a decision that can and should be made by individuals after weighing the information and their options.
An informed citizenry is a vital foundation of any functioning democracy, and this is the responsibility of every citizen. The fact is that those who depended upon the popular media and government to inform them were victims of massive hype. The storm projection of the NOAA as of Thursday was that the storm had a greater probability of disappearing altogether before getting to New York than being anything greater than a mild Category 1. There is a phenomenon that takes place in the southern coastal regional during storm seasons whereby people burnout after one or two calls for evacuations from storms that end up being much weaker than reported in the media. When the time comes for the people to take these reports seriously, they assume it is simply another bout of media hype, and do not leave, leading to disastrous results. This is not to say that people should not have taken things seriously, but they should’ve done this in the framework of facts and scientific projections, not media hype meant to offset public burnout after the droaning summer of nothing but presidential election coverage.
I agree. It is very bothering to me that the truth is that if winds where as expected then there would have been an disaster. Unlike in tropical areas the trees in the northeast when in full bloom will fall with much less wind and more so when the ground is like mud.——- As was, after the storm my area was littered with fallen tree’s and tree limbs, which resulted in power outages for many families. Had the storm had greater winds of even a short (perhaps as little 15 mph) amount more than yes there would have been a much greater damage. So in my opinion was this the hyped up, perhaps a little (by the media), but in natural sense. However this was a dangerous storm and there was no overreaction. ————————– Not to diminish the effect and danger of flooding (my house as well as my neighbors were flooded). I just want to make some clarification about Katrina.From NOAA; “Along the coast, storm surge is often the greatest threat to life and property from a hurricane. In the past, large death tolls have resulted from the rise of the ocean associated with many of the major hurricanes that have made landfall. Hurricane Katrina (2005) is a prime example of the damage and devastation that can be caused by surge. At least 1500 persons lost their lives during Katrina and many of those deaths occurred directly, or indirectly, as a result of storm surge. “Storm surge is produced by water being pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds moving cyclonically around the storm. The impact on surge of the low pressure associated with intense storms is minimal in comparison to the water being forced toward the shore by the wind.”
——(fyi “Storm surge flooding of 25 to 28 feet above normal tide levels was associated with Katrina. ” A storm surge of 23 ft has the ability to inundate 67% of interstates, 57% of arterials, almost half of rail miles, 29 airports, and virtually all ports in the Gulf Coast area (CCSP SAP 4-7)”)
I’m wondering what press conferences people were listening to when both the Mayor of NYC and the Gov of NJ were discussing the impending storm on Friday. Both said very clearly, a number of times, “we are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best”. I’m not sure I understand the reaction of some people. Would they prefer that a category 3 hurricane hit NYC?
bzinbp says: “though the NOAA projects the storm to either be a strong tropical storm, or a weak Category 1, with winds between X and X mph, which could cause wind damage, flooding, and power outage.”
Actually you’re missing the point; and you and the other Armchair Quarterbacks are very misinformed. The op-ed author is 100% correct!
I actually happen to monitor the gov. weather forecasts. I listen to them on VHF and went online to NHC. They stated (at the time the gov. preparations had to begin) that it’s a Category 2 with the possibility of going either direction, even if it was a greater chance that it would weaken. So what would you do if you were in charge -tell e/o not to worry – at the most it might be a Category 1 or warn e/o to act like it’s a Category 3?
If it happenned to become a Category 3 and no one said boo and the loss of life was much greater, there would be a tremendous outcry. A thousand times greater than any blizzard complaints. I actually understand the Goyim, since they don’t really believe in a higher power, then the gov. has to be able to predict everything. But Frum Yidden should have Hakoras Hatov to the gov. for doing the best they could with the info they had. We know as Frum Jews that the gov. isn’t in charge and don’t know the future. But they erred on the side of caution and that’s exactly what the Torah requires human beings to do!
“Chutzpah! Selfishness & Arrogance”
the headline looks like it’s about the article itself.
Personally, I view NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg as an elitist snob; New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo as a Mob Boss, and New Jersey Governor Christie as someone who is full of himself. Additionally I think Government failed the Jewish woman in upstate New York as they failed my mother eight weeks ago when she was nearly killed in a flash flood. But all in all, the local and state leadership did the right move to warn people of an impending disaster. One can only imagine what chaos and loss of live we would have if people were going about their Sunday commute and shopping as in a regular weekend. George Will would be saying that yet again government failed the people on a massive scale…