10/01/2024
Did the so-called experts Get IT Wrong or did they withhold lifesaving instruction!
Instead of posting images of my shredded property like everyone else’s, I focused on the weather people and one car that caught my eye while driving through Savannah westbound on 204.
Before I get into it, we’re thankful to Southern Company for restoring power. It beats hell out of waiting 7 days like last time.
I would label Savannah's weather experience as a mild inconvenience, at least it was for us. However, all the prerecorded advice instructing us to go to an internet address was a little difficult when you didn’t have power or if all the cell towers were damaged – wasn’t it? The only thing I found amusing was getting my invoice from Comcast and Verizon on time.
Mobile hotspots and jetpacks were useless as we all discovered. I’m sure you also found the local radio stations prioritized playing music over informing Chatham County residents of "current" weather conditions since it was impossible to receive any coverage from WSAV, WTOC, or WJCL. Although I could hear the generator humming through the woods supplying power to the WSAV-TV transmitter in Bloomingdale. That too was pointless.
5G, 4G, G-Whizz
Yo ho! I sure do miss Cap'n Sandy!
Good ole' Captain Sandy lived across the street from me when I was a kid. He gave it to me straight every time. He was my mobile App! I'm also willing to bet Cap'n Sandy, was more accurate with Wilbur the Weather Bird, Calamity Clam, and that whiteboard than Doppler.
Again, your storm tracker app is crap if you have ZERO bars. If you knew to drive to mid-town or were hanging out around Exit 150 you wouldn’t be able to place a call. I’m sure there were other areas with better reception if you weren’t waiting in line for gas while your ice melted (if you could find any) or recharging your EV at Parkers. So glad I don’t own one BUT for the ones who do – more power to ya!
It’s too easy to be critical but in contrast …
Savannah got off lucky compared to Valdosta, Augusta, North Carolina, South Carolia, and Tennessee. To think of the souls that were lost is unfathomable. Asheville, Brevard, and Boone NC, were severely impacted by biblical flooding, with parts of Asheville experiencing record 31 inches of rainfall and damage to its Biltmore Village. Historic downtown can only be seen by drone and boat. Some cities are unrecognizable or just GONE!
Level 3 State of Emergency | Dam Failures, Roads Collapsed, Cities Underwater.
Mudslides and landslides were also prevalent, particularly close to Asheville where it took half the damn mountain where one of my employees lives with his wife, 2 dogs, 3 kitties, and other critters.
The way he explained it made my eyes water. The horrific noise the mountainside made when the ground growled, then liquified into rushing sludge. Boulders larger than tractor-trailers were to follow rolling downhill like a pachinko machine not knowing if one would find its way through their home in the dark.
In Tennessee, areas near the Appalachian Mountains faced similar devastation, with road, bridge closures and power outages affecting thousands. Pigeon Forge underwater, Lake Lure Dam in western NC stable but potentially damaged. These regions have extensive damage and power loss as the storm traveled inland.
With all the “science”, doppler, and satellite tracking, how did all meteorologists I saw get it so wrong?
What Fisher Price model were they looking at? Perhaps they got it right but were told not to create a multi-state panic or mass exodus. Would that have been worse? I have a hard time believing “they” didn’t know a 500-mile-wide storm would do that much damage.
The worst hurricane / tropical depression to ever hit Georgia let alone the last 3 hurricanes to land near Perry Florida within 61 miles of each landfall, the weather service with all their technology plainly failed their viewers in my opinion.
Meteorologists do a great job sensationalizing the mildest condition, don’t they?
Now, their posture is more humbled. I’ve observed them attempting to explain the aftermath – rather sheepishly. They’re looking downward at their desk reading from a script. In my past vocation, I was an expert at reading body language and detecting when people were lying. Kinda like being interrogated by my mother after eating cookies before dinner. She could plainly see the crumbs on my face as easily as I saw the guilt-ridden expressions on theirs. They seemed to spend more time telling us the obvious instead of why they missed it.
It's wrong to compare one disaster to another or talk about the death toll so casually when so many lives could have been proactively saved. Thanks to all the linemen and women, call centers, doctors, nurses, swift-water, police, fire, and EMS, you’re unbelievable people.
You live for situations like this so others can.
