Thanks to Jimmy for the inspiration for the title. It’s one of my favorite tunes of his…
What an amazing technologically-advanced time we live in. It wasn’t even ten years ago that if you wanted news about a gathering hurricane threat to the US you would plod out to your livingroom, plop into your favorite easy-chair, then pop on the TV and probably turn to either CNN or The Weather Channel in order to get your information.
Today, the blogosphere is full of places that not only provide better, more accurate and up-to-the-minute info, but a wider range of information where you can choose the site that gives you the kind of info you like, in the format and content you like best, all from the comfort of your computer desk. No commercials, no bubble-headed bleached blondes spouting happy chat, just info. And if you don’t like what you see, alternatives are just a couple of mouse clicks away.
Do people realize just how much of a sea change that is in terms of technology and sociological change?
Me, I’ve come to rely on Accuweather.com for my weather info out here in the Valley of the Sun; as soon as the monsoon season arrives, at the first sign of clouds I’m checking their radar to see if there’s any activity heading towards us. Joe Bastardi was one of my favorite meterologists at Accuweather, now he’s started his own weather site at WeatherBell.com.
Jeff Masters at Weather Underground is also a great resource – I remember during Hurricane Katrina that his WunderBlog was the absolute tops when it came to the best info, not to mention lively discussion from weather buffs from all over. Over the past few days, courtesy of Instapundit, I’ve really enjoyed Brendan Loy’s blog for not just his hard info, but his intuitive nature as well.
We’ve sure come a long way from the likes of WBZ’s Don Kent and his chalkboard.
But I digress.
It sure looks like Hurricane Irene is gonna cause some trouble as it churns up the Eastern seaboard (BTW, isn’t that a lovely term? God, I miss hearing that term. Sure beats “the desert southwest”!).
But I digress….
A friend of mine has this “opinion” about millionaires who build houses on “sand” and then want the government to give them money to rebuild…NO! is what he says. Build your house elsewhere and no on sand and you won’t lose your house in a hurricane. I would love to have a beach house and live by the ocean, however, Mother Nature could care less about my house on the beach. I have to have trees and flowing water near me…so, I have to live with trees falling on my roof and flooding waters (which have never flooded my house so far)and this is my choice. But, living on the beach so near the water that my entire house could be washed/blown away is a risk I would not take.
Comment by Jana — August 26, 2011 @ 4:35 am
Don’t think they can do that any more on the Gulf Coast, Jana. There are a lot of people who were pretty angry about that. We’re not talking about $80k starter homes. A lot of those homes in Gulf Shores and Galveston Bay were a million dollars and upward, many of them with no flood insurance whatsoever because they couldn’t get any yet many of them got money anyway from one program or another after Katrina and Ike. If they chose to rebuild, though, from what I understand, it’s on them now. Should have been on them all along.
Comment by Rob — August 26, 2011 @ 2:50 pm