I think politicians learned one significant message during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. If you are a person holding public office you must not be perceived as underestimating the threat an approaching hurricane. Never mind what may or may not be factual, sadly that seems to have taken a back seat to political weather posturing (for lack of a better term). Whatever your opinion of George Bush, some of the claims made about his culpability in the Hurricane Katrina disaster were frankly absurd. But everyone else got the message loud and clear. The result? Rational assessment and appropriate preparation have been replaced by politically driven psuedo-hysteria. Hurricane Irene is very likely not going to be the biggest storm in the last 50 years to touch the eastern seaboard.
Are all these orders and actions by prominent politicians an appropriate response to hurricane Irene? Time will tell, but there is already evidence that the virtually apocalyptic predictions may not be realized. Will there be damage? Sure. Deaths? I hope not. But we are setting up a “Boy Who Cried Wolf” scenario if we sound an unnecessarily shrill alarm for a storm that may not deserve it, thereby creating a populace that learns to ignore or downplay the warnings when a real monster comes ashore.
