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This is EXACTLY the reason why I hate the general media when it comes to reporting the weather. From Reuters (the title on the site I found it was “Killer Storm Fay Sets Sights on Florida” while the inside headline was “Tropical Storm Fay Menaces Florida):

KEY WEST, Florida — Store owners boarded up their windows but few Florida Keys residents appeared inclined to flee as Tropical Storm Fay strengthened on its way to the islands on Monday after killing more than 50 people in the Caribbean.

The sixth storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was expected to refuel over the warm waters of the Florida Straits before striking the low-lying and flood-prone Keys later in the day, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

It was forecast to be near hurricane strength, with top sustained winds near 74 miles per hour (119 km per hour), when it reaches the Keys, and a hurricane when it strikes the west coast of Florida in mid-week, the Miami-based hurricane center said in an advisory.

First off, the people that were killed represents a tragedy, but those people were killed in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, places where the land has been stripped bare of vegetation by humans leaving horrible flooding and mudslide conditions anytime there is a nasty thunderstorm. One of the most deadly storms in the history of the Caribbean was a tropical storm that didn’t even go across that island and killed thousands.

Second, if anyone in Houston recalls, we had a cat 1 hurricane here a few weeks ago that did VERY minimal damage. The Florida Keys have seen a LOT more hurricanes than we have and certain much worse conditions than they’ll receive from Fay.

The lost revenue would hurt the tourism-dependent Keys, said Karen Thurman, marketing manager for the Grand Key DoubleTree Resort on South Roosevelt Boulevard.

“But we must err on the side of caution,” she said. “After seeing what happened in New Orleans, and that area, I think early evacuation of visitors is important for safety, especially in the Keys, where we only have one road out. Lives are more important than revenue.”

New Orleans was swamped in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which became the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history and killed 1,500 people on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

You have GOT to be freaking kidding me. How do the Florida Keys compare to New Orleans? Oh, right, they DON’T. The Keys are mostly resort areas populated by tourists and locals in the tourist trade. The locals are used to the weather. The tourists can just go home. New Orleans is a large city with significant numbers of poor people abandoned by the city, state and federal government for DAYS in a city that is actually BELOW sea level.

Comparing Fay to Katrina is like comparing a chilly fall breeze with a tornado. It’s stupid, but it is the media we’re talking about.

Every summer, I dread the period between August 1 and September 21. Not only is it the absolute hottest, most God awful sweltering heat of the year, but the only sports on are baseball (yawn) and the Olympics (every 4 years). Best of all, it is the peak of hurricane season. Even though the season runs from June 1 through November 1, it is rare in Texas for us to see a major storm before August 1 or after September 21.

These are the times when I wish I had a kick ass vacation home in the mountains somewhere and enjoy the peace, quiet and cool for six weeks.

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