FEMA and Hurricane Sandy - Everyone Within 1000 Miles Has a Story to Tell, Tell Me Yours
By Lance WinslowHurricane Sandy came at an inopportune time for political candidates, just days before the 2012 election. The political forces and campaigns "ground game" appeared to be washed out along with any hopes for a joyous Happy Halloween. Even retailers noted that they had far too much Halloween Inventory on them and they were taking a bath on it, some literally as their North Eastern retail shops had been flooded.
The night before Hurricane Sandy slammed into the New Jersey Shoreline the Wall Street Journal put out an article of just how dire things might become. The article was titled; "Monster Storm Targets East - Coastal Residents Evacuated, Flights Cancelled as Hurricane Sandy Approaches," by Mike Easterl, Ted Mann, and Lisa Fisher. It was a terrific article without hype, other than the title, which the next day appeared to be quite realistic actually. The article immediately noted that;
- Washington DC Schools Closed
- New York City Transit Closed
- Amtrak Closed
- New York Stock Exchange Closed
- 375,000 Residents Evacuated in NJ, NY, DC.
- Government Offices Closed in DC
There were similar articles in other major newspapers stating the same, along with these bullet points plastered on TV Cable Networks as well. Then the social networks came alive with story after story of personal triumph, catching the last plane out, being stranded, flood waters rising, waves crashing, and general worry and fear all documented for the human record in tweets, posts, and online videos. Truly amazing indeed - a complete digital documenting of the human record in real-time.
Okay but, with all this digital history, who is to say if the hardships cited by each individual when taken in total hypes the reality for future periods and historians? That is to say, with each person trying to embellish their story to get notoriety, to get their 15-minutes of fame, who is to say that this event will end up in history to appear greater than it actually was? Thus, it might trump other weather events which were much worse, but overwhelmed to the abundance of this current storm.
Are we to believe that previous storms were milder, less eventful, or subdued? Will that lead us to believe that the weather is getting worse these days, thus, blaming the increase on Global Warming or something else, even though, perhaps, Hurricane Sandy wasn't as dire? The storms in the 1950s were amazingly strong, all the historical record indicates this, but there wasn't as much written about it, oh sure for the day there was lots of information at the time, but nothing compared to just a couple of hours on social media during Hurricane Sandy.
While this hurricane is anywhere from 800 to 1000 miles wide depending on who you interview - FEMA, News Media, NOAA, or just perusing satellite data yourself online - it appears to be in fact a Monster Storm as cited by that WSJ article, but is it packing the punch that we are led to believe when pitted against even more significant storms of past periods. Indeed, I'd like you to consider all this and think on it, as you post your own story of this historic storm in the making - because you are giving it life and adding to its digital record.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on the Future of Education. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net
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