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For people saying this was a dud or uneventful.
Thank the Hawaiian GODS for that!!!!!! I've been in two hurricanes on Oahu and I doubt you'd want to see the real thing.
Keep the duds coming!
Tho, Usually all the weather people on Oahu stand right in front of the big island. It's funny to see them dance around now that they might have something to talk about.
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I agree, ericlp.
Duds are a very good thing.
And as far as the comments about our government being "so wound up?"
Whew.
Thank goodness for that as well.
"That is the price of being safe, and I will do that every single time." ...Mayor Harry Kim, Hawaii Tribune Herald 8/14/07
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I don't think the computers or the government are wrong about any of this. I went to a presentation by a scientist from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center about local hurricanes recently and, even though they have very good technology, they cannot tell us exactly what will happen. That scientist said that we shouldn't relax with the myth that the Big Island is invulnerabe to a direct hit. If the agencies err on the side of cautiousness, it's way better than going through the fiasco of Hurricane Katrina.
The news media is another issue. News is more about profits, these days, than information. Histrionics means more viewership which means more advertising dollars. Don't mistake that for what some local agencies might be trying to do for us.
The 8:00p update on Flossie has it downgraded to a Cat 1 hurricane with max sustainable winds at 85 MPH. The eye has disappeared and the hurricane is weakening. They probably had a good idea that this would happen but they couldn't tell us to relax because there is always a chance that it would gain strength and turn northward. In 2000, they couldn't predict that a storm would develop right above Hilo and dump so much water on the East side.
When you look at the weather maps, I don't know that you can assume that these two large mountains that impress us puny humans would have much effect on a tropical cyclone the size of Flossie. It's way larger than than the land mass of the BI. The water temperature and the wind shear are not so visible, and probably play a greater part in these dynamics than our large volcanoes (yeah, these large sea mounts may have a role in this, but I'm not a geoclimatologist, or whatever).
Anyway, how much were we put out by all of the caution?
Edited by - Les C on 08/14/2007 22:30:24
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The 11:00p update has downgraded Flossie to a tropical storm and the hurricane watch has been cancelled!
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I'm glad to hear that everyone is safe. I think there is still some nervousness about hurricanes after Katrina, so the media does make a big deal out of something that could be small. I didn't actually hear much about Flossie here on the East coast, except for what I read on this website and what I found when I googled it. So to put it into perspective, anyone on the BI is going to hear a lot about it, everyone else won't hear about it at all unless they're paying attention.
Just think if it was a monster and you were all told not to worry about it. Better to be safe than sorry.....
"How do you know i am mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the cat "or you wouldnt have come here."
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quote:
Cat, thanks much for those Wai Opae pics. The driveway where Robert is standing talking to Civil Defense is where I've been subletting.
I need to back and do my move out cleaning. Thursday if possible, would appreciate hearing when it gets back to normal. I drive a Honda Civic Hybrid, really low to the ground, doesn't do well driving through water!
Surf is FLAT FLAT FLAT today. Although dark an dreary down here only a tiny smattering of any rain since about 5 AM.
I suggest it is safe enough to come back but just to be cautious came back in the few hours surronding low tide. The road is completely dry at the moment.
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quote:
I don't think the computers or the government are wrong about any of this....
An old guy told us that "those young guys and their models dont know (anything)" - ha ha He worked for the NWS for 50 years - Chuk, Antartica, Guam, Iowa, KS - he saw the shear, and looked at the upper air maps and said it would tear the storm apart. We kept showing him the sat images an saying "BUT LOOK AT THIS????" ha ha
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My husband and I often rent vacation houses on Wai'opae. Imagine our surprise when our local (San Francisco) news at 11pm last night showed images of the flooded street there!
Hopefully there wasn't too much damage and everyone is safe.
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Let's be thankful that Flossie was a dud. It is better to be overprepared than to experience another Katrina-like disaster, so I won't criticize the local officials for their caution. As usual, though, the news media (particularly TV) tried to keep us all as excited as possible as long as possible to keep their ratings and ad revenue up. So what is everyone going to do with all the extra bottled water and batteries?
I have a friend who works at Home Depot who says that they sell out of generators every time this happens, but they reappear a few days later. It seems lots of BI folks buy the generators, keep them in the box, and then return them when they find out they didn't need them after all.
Cheerful and relieved,
Jerry
