While I have reliable Internet access...a resounding "bite me"

[Atman]

To all those who say Irene was nothing but hype. It may not have been Katrina (unless you're in VT or upstate NY), but it's a disaster for lots of us in New England. Two days with a chainsaw in my hands, hauling 5 gal water buckets from the lake, every drive entailing back-tracking because of flooded streams or downed trees. And try finding a hot shower. There is no indication of power any time soon. My ears will ring for weeks with the sound of generators and chainsaws. It's not "catastrophe," to be sure. But you guys sitting there typing condescending messages to us -- and I still have it way easy compared to VT/NY -- need to get some compassion. We may not be waist-deep in filth at the Superdome, but it ain't exactly livin' da vida loca.

.

[deutsey]

1. I spent all Saturday night sitting outside on a drain grate with water up to my neck

keeping the grate clear of debris so our neighborhood wouldn't flood. Even before that, I took the threat of the hurrican seriously.

What I hated was how many media types ramped up the fear factor (for ratings, I presume) instead of trying to inform the public.

Government response from Federal down to the town I live in was great, imo.

I think I saw an military emergency person on CBS's Early Show who said the same thing. The doofus show host asked him about the hype and he basically said all the hype was on the media side, not the officials issuing evacuation orders.

I agree.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. Here in tornado alley

I've done several stints without power - lasting from a few days to a couple of weeks. The worst by far was a week without power following a winter ice storm. No heat. No light. No hot water. And, yes, lots of time spent outside in the cold with a chainsaw.

If you don't have significant damage to your home or to yourself and your family members then you are fortunate. Everything else in an inconvenience - and whining about it makes you seem less than grateful.

[SlimJimmy]

3. We were without power, water, and sewage for two weeks after David hit. I understand

his frustration, but I wouldn't call David an epic hurricane.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. And so your point is that you'd not use a word that the OP did

not use? So your point is that you have no point.

[SlimJimmy]

8. Give me a break. That is *exactly* the sentiment that the OP used. That

those that said the hurricane was "hyped" by the media were wrong. I gave an example worse than his situation, and I sure as Hell don't remember the media saying that David was going to be the storm of all storms. And you know why? Because it wasn't ... and neither was Irene.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[SlimJimmy]

20. I didn't say it was *nothing*, I said it was not the EPIC storm that many in the media and some

HERE were predicting. And if you think I'm being an asshole by pointing out the truth, then you haven't seen a thing yet.

[tkmorris]

24. NO one said that. No one at all

People did say that the storm was not what some in the media were hyping it to be, and it wasn't. That does not mean, and it never did, that it wasn't going to cause some damage and flooding and all of the other things that a typical large Category one hurricane does. The worst thing about this storm is that it hit an area unaccustomed to such things.

But yes, if it's a storm that hits you it really doesn't matter much that it's not a singularly unique event. Your power is still out, your roof still needs fixing, you still have trees across your driveway, etc. etc. I think maybe it's time to stop warring over this and get to work fixing what we can. All of this anger isn't helping anybody.

[KittyWampus]

7. Aren't you special! And you didn't "whine". You're a paragon of virtuous steely-manhood.

[Coyote_Bandit]

27. Oh, please

I was damn lucky. No heat. No light. No internet service. And the only working media source was a car radio or a small battery powered radio. And, yes, there was lots of time spent outside in the cold following that ice storm with a chainsaw. Sure it was inconvenient and frustrating. But, for me, it was little more than a brief and temporary pain in the ass.

The neighbor across the street lost seven trees and had major structural damage to his home that was not repaired for several months.

My next door neighbor's father, a Pearl Harbor vet, a nice old man and a very talented woodworker, was sickened during the power outage and died within two weeks of the ice storm. The neightbor was out of town and had to delay her return trip to attend to him until the airport re-opened.

A local artist I am acquainted with had substantial damage to her home and was without power for nearly three weeks. I took my chainsaw and helped clear those limbs.

A disabled fellow (friend of a family member's co-worker) who is a chronic pain patient with a congenitial spinal defect was trapped in his home by fallen tree limbs with no heat or electricity or warm water for nearly a week until somebody thought to check on him. I also took my chainsaw and helped clear those limbs.

A family member's next door neighbor slipped on fell on the ice on her back porch and lay dead in her privacy fenced yard for over a week before being discovered.

A small business owner I know had no income for a two week period.

Fortunately, nobody I knew asphixiated or had a house fire from the inappropriate use of an alternative heating source or generator. But it happened here several times over.

I was damned lucky and I am grateful for my good fortune. I had a small stash of batteries and candles, some bottled drinks, some prepared food and a way to heat it. Yes, it was inconvenient and frustrating to be without electricity and heat for over a week. But, all things considered, it was little more than a brief and temporary pain in the ass.

The OP complains of the frustration and inconvience of having to use a chainsaw and going without electric service for a few days. Seems to me that the OP needs to put his inconvenience into perspective and realize his own situation could have been much worse. Dare I suggest that the OP might turn the damned computer off and help somebody who was less fortunate in weathering the storm. It might change his perspective and improve his attitude.



As for my manhood, well, I am an older woman. I live alone. I am not athletic or in great physical shape. I have both vision and hearing impairments that limit my physical abilities. If I have any toughness at all it is because I know I have to take care of myself.

[Silent3]

31. When we were kids, we used to have to work 48 hours a day...

...at the mill, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Things could always be worse. Just how bad to things have to be before people have your permission to complain a little, without being judged "whiners"?

Some people have lost entire families in natural disasters, and have been terribly maimed on top of that. Does that make someone who loses "only" one family member a "whiner" who should shut up and be thankful for their "blessings"?

[Bluebear]

19. "whining" - nice.

[sufrommich]

5. Back in the 70s we had a storm in the Detroit area that knocked

out power for a week. It was a pain in the ass at first,but strangely enough people got used to it. We spent a lot more time outdoors with our neighbors and reading. Consider yourself lucky that it was a summer storm that knocked out your power and not a winter storm, then your screwed.

[KittyWampus]

6. I spend last two days trying to get my garden into some kind of order. Lost a lot of food

Clean up is horrendous. No electricity sucks.

[myrna minx]

9. I'm so sorry that there are people sneering and mocking the pain of others.

It's the Randian-inspired brutalization of the American psyche that turned the American "can-do" spirit and devolved us into the land of prisons and selfishness and pissing contests over natural disasters. I guess we have a deficit of empathy and compassion too.

[SlimJimmy]

10. We're not sneering and mocking the pain of others, we are pointing out the

"sky is falling" mentality of the Main Stream Media whenever there is a weather event.

[William769]

14. In some places the "sky is falling".

There are ample pictures to prove it. :eyes:

[SlimJimmy]

17. I'm talking about the general assessment of the hurricane by the media. Not

individual instances of damage. There is always going to be damage from a hurricane, and isolated areas of extreme damage. But in terms of overall damage, I would say storms like Katrina and Andrew deserve the hype they received, not this one.

[LanternWaste]

16. I saw very few "sky is falling" stories...

"we are pointing out the 'sky is falling' mentality of the Main Stream Media..."


I imagine we often see remember those new stories which better validate our position, and minimize or ignore the one which don't. I saw very few "sky is falling" stories, but I imagine that's because they neither corroborate nor reject any presumptions I may have already had.

[tkmorris]

25. Again, NO one is doing that

Rather I should say that I have not seen anyone do that. I have seen that accusation leveled at several people who did no such thing, but people actually sneering or mocking? No.

[bullwinkle428]

11. I wasn't shocked to see who was responsible for at least a few of the

"ALL HYPE!!1!!1!" comments here. Classic case of "consider the source".

K&R.

[William769]

12. Good luck with your clean up.

Those threads about the hype were useless IMHO.

Recommended

[Taverner]

13. I never thought it was it was hype - and just ask any Vermonter

It most definitely is not hype

And this coming from a Californian who's never seen a Hurricane in his life

[eilen]

15. My friend's family lives in Greene Cty NY and they won't

have power for months. Whole towns were wiped out when the dam broke. They live on the south side of the mountain and the dam held but there are only 2 bridges to get there so they def. had to evacuate. The North side is where the dam broke and everything was flooded.

She is sending their spare generator to them as those items tend to spike up in price in situations like this.

[Atman]

22. Yeah, but peeps in NJ & NY were spared, so everyone else is a whiner.

:shrug:

As long as Wall Street didn't get damaged.

.

[eilen]

33. I guess that is the current meme

but currently people are truly suffering.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

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[FreeJoe]

23. I hear you

I hear you. We've lived that many times where I live. The last hurricane to pass through (Ike) left us without power for two weeks. We live in flyover country, so you don't hear quite so much about it.

[NNN0LHI]

26. I have seen only a handful of numb skulls refer to Irene as "nothing but hype"

[Blue Owl]

28. Oh and BTW, fuck Eric Cantor

n/t

[susanr516]

29. You have my sympathy/empathy

I've lived on the Gulf Coast for almost 32 years. No electricity, no water, trees all over the place, hoping you don't run out of gas before the stations open up again. It sucks. Fortunately, our house has never flooded. I just hope it's cool there. Here in TX, right after a hurricane the wind completely dies down and it's like a steam room.

Hang in there.

[biermeister]

30. here's some idea of what my neighbors in VT are experiencing

www.strattonfoundation.org

I was very fortunate but other were not.

[kdmorris]

32. You have my sympathy

But you have misunderstood what the original thread was about. It was not that there was not going to be massive damage that is caused by a Category 1 hurricane/tropical storm.

It's was simply AND only that the media used fear tactics to hype this storm so that they could get ratings.

One of the posters from New York probably said it the best. Yes, the media used scare tactics (like the War on Terror) to get ratings. But it was poor timing to talk about it now. None of us have started new threads since then about how it was hyped. The only new threads that started are from sarcastic people who twist the words and who are (at this point it has to be deliberate) making it seem as if what was said is "it wasn't that bad".

Category 1 hurricanes (and even Tropical Storms) cause a lot of damage in flooding, tornadoes, falling trees and even wind damage. I've been through several tropical storms and hurricanes. I feel your pain and I don't wish being out of power for even a day on anyone.

The case that was made was simply that the next time a storm comes through that is a Category 3 hurricane and might be the storm of the century, people are less likely to listen to the warnings. That makes the media complicit in any deaths that occur next time.

Chad Meyers was called on the carpet for all his NYC coverage and NEVER covering the inland flooding that he NHC/NOAA said was likely to occur. Because of their desire for ratings and money, people in Vermont and Connecticut were not as prepared as they could have been if they had known the potential for the storm. But the media concentrated on NYC and "what will happen to the 9/11 memorial" instead of giving factual information to people.

That being said - I hope your power stays reliable and doesn't go down again. But "bite me" is a little harsh when maybe you didn't really know what was meant by hype.

[JoeyT]

34. K&R

I've been through enough hurricanes to know there's no such thing as a trivial one when it hits you.

Good luck with your cleanup. Be careful when using the saws and such: We always have more injuries from the cleanups than from the actual storms.

[Waiting For Everyman]

35. "A resounding bite me" on that from me too, Atman.

Calling this widespread disaster "hype" is an absurd thing to say, on its face. It's also a "10" on the inappropriate scale. It's shocking, shameless, and offensive, and still it goes on.

I hope things get back to normal for you soon, Atman. And the same to all those who are still undergoing difficulties.