Hurricane Whores

Over the weekend a bunch of clouds drifted out over the Atlantic ocean from Africa. At that time the local Miami TV stations started hyping their hurricane coverage. By Wednesday the clouds had become tropical storm Dean. That means now the TV stations geared it up to semi-hysteria and started cutting into television programs. Just as Judge Judy was about to rip into a asshole of a guy who had taken a girls money, then dumped her, the local station interrupted with a ‘Storm Update’. Even though the storm was more than 3000 miles away and didn’t appear to be aimed at South Florida they seemed to think we needed to know what ‘Dean’ was doing right now.

The interesting thing is that all the storm coverage we get on local stations is sponsored by Home Depot and Publix Super Markets. By the time this storm turns into a hurricane and is 2000 miles away they will totally pre-empt all prime time television and talk incessantly about nothing. My favorite is the reporter in a rain coat standing on the beach acting like all hell has broken loose and an elderly couple stroll by like it’s a spring day.

My advise to Trish who just moved to Florida is don’t pay any attention to the local TV channels where you live. Watch the Weather Channel at ten minutes to the hour, every hour. They don’t have a vested interest in scaring you into believing the storm may hit you.

By the way, two years ago we were hit by hurricane ‘Wilma’ and the utility pole in the yard next door was blown over to a angle that looks precarious. It still leans like that today even though the power company came out and worked on it. I see that as the source of my next two week power outage.