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Jenn Pincher Professor Lago November 26, 2013 Essay Four: Portfolio Draft Hurricane Sandy: Ignorance is Not Bliss How bad can it be? It is just another over exaggerated storm coming to hit the North East. Nothing major will happen. Were fine. This was my attitude before the storm. As a resident of New Jersey, I was just expecting maybe a couple of inches of rain with a slight breeze; as many other people were. Being foreign to ever experiencing a strong hurricane, much of my neighborhood went and took extreme precautions like getting bottled water and a few gallons of milk. Never had we thought that we were going to be without power for weeks, be in desperate need of gas, and have something so special, like the beach house, be taken away from us. Before Hurricane Sandy landed it was considered to be a joke; no one took it seriously. We undermined the potential that this storm had, and caught us all off guard. This mindset that people have in the North East is dangerous. Storms of this caliber should not be taken lightly; ignorance is what caused us to get in this situation. The North East needs to learn to take these storm warnings seriously and consider taking even more safety measures to prevent further unnecessary damage from occurring. Taking my two feet out of the car onto the rocky driveway and smelling the saltwater in the air was always one of my favorite experiences. It would symbolize relaxation and all of the exciting activities that come along with being on the beach during a warm summer day. It also represented family, and the enjoyment of being around one another; cooking burgers on the porch, but of course I was always more of a hotdog person. It was my home during the summer;

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I loved being there. But now its gone. The last time I felt that way was late September; about a month before Sandy hit. When first going down there to check on the house, we were not optimistic. Buildings upon buildings were torn off their foundations, some were even completely destroyed; but I know my house could not be completely destroyed. That just couldnt happen to me right? There are still a few houses standing! Taking my two feet out of the car onto the rocky, now sandy, driveway, I looked up at what used to be my house. It was caved in, the lower level supports gave out. There was debris everywhere; I recognized things that used to be on top of my dresser in my room, a block down my street. I have never seen anything so devastating; having something so familiar, something that contained so many memories and childhood belongings, get completely demolished. I was burning up inside. It was the most heart wrenching experience I have ever had. Looking around, I notice that not only is my house unsalvageable, my favorite bakery and ice cream shop got washed away. How can a place that I once knew so well, be completely and utterly foreign to me. Reality hit me. I am no longer going to spend time with friends and family in the comfort of my beach house. No longer, am I going to have those delicious sticky buns my parents would always pick up for me in the morning. But looking back before the storm hit, I remember just how unaware almost everyone in my neighborhood was about this storm. No one seemed to have any concern that there was a storm on the way; but is it really our fault? The news is most peoples primary source of information when it comes to the weather. It also has a tendency to over sensationalize many of the stories it covers. This over sensationalizing of news is also known as yellow journalism, which plays a significantly large role when determining the credibility of certain news sources. As Hachten points out in his book, The Troubles of Journalism, The media, and sadly some serious journalism and some of its

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best-known practitioners have become ensnared in the various orbiting worlds of advertising, publicity, public relations, promotion, and that pervasive commercial activity, marketing (Hachten 16). Hachten is saying that the news is not focusing its attention on the accuracy of its stories, rather the amount of viewers it is going to bring in; that they are purposely making their stories more interesting, to better their ratings. This is a problem when it comes to dealing with serious matters like big storms. Because they have a history of making small storms sound like they are going to be apocalyptic events, it becomes easier for people to brush off what they say. When there actually is a big storm we need to worry about, we do not take the reports as seriously as we should because the news was playing the boy who cried wolf. Had the news been more responsible when it came to reporting smaller events, we would have been more inclined to listen about an impending catastrophic event. Since people cannot differentiate the severity of small storms and big storms from the news, people do not know when to prepare and when not to and usually default to not doing anything. According to a recent article from Tampa Bay Times, a reporter by the name of Marissa Lang points out that the title of the storm the news source gives it, also plays a significant role when people determine the severity of the storm. This suggests that part of the reason why we are having difficulty differentiating the strength of these storms is because of the mindset people have when naming storms. "If it doesn't have a name, a storm doesn't get the same kind of attention," said Stu Ostro; a man who is the director of a weather channel (Tampa Bay Times). Since these news channels are completely obsessed with getting the publics attention, this is clarifying the reasoning as to why people are blinded by ignorance. The news needs to understand its responsibility to give out accurate information to the people. The better information the news can provide the better people will know how much they need to prepare.

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Our ignorance and mistrust within the media not only affects individuals, it scales all the way up to government infrastructure. Organizations like New Jersey Transit fell into the same mindset as the people listening to the news. They disregarded the warning as false information and realized too late that they were wrong. Making last minute decisions before Sandy arrived, they attempted to protect millions of dollars worth of train equipment by moving them into higher regions; however a third of the train fleet was still left below. According to Karen Rose, she reports that over four hundred NJ Transit railroad cars and locomotives were left in low lying yards, which resulted in over a hundred and twenty million in damages (Herald News). This is wrong. If they took the proper safety measures before the storm arrived, they would have been able to move the train fleet to a different location and millions of dollars worth in damages would have been preserved. Steve Janoski from Northjersey.com sums it up perfectly, stating, No amount of preparation is too much, and even that will not be enough when a mega-storm like Sandy comes hurtling up the coast, (Northjersey.com). No one ever complains about being overly prepared, rather it is always the opposite. It is better to over prepare for an impending storm than to not have prepared enough. We have to learn to take the time and effort to sufficiently plan ahead, and learn to get out of the ignorant state of mind we all seem to be trapped in. When getting ready for a storm it is important to remember that a community comes together during tragic times. We have each others backs and support one another by setting up shelters and giving donations to charity organizations like The American Red Cross. As a community, we need to acknowledge the flaws within the media and how sometimes it is not the best source to use when it comes to finding out information about a massive storm. As many people may know, the news tends to over exaggerate events just to get a large amount of

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viewers, but as a resident of New Jersey there comes a point when people will just stop listening. How many times can they tell us that a storm of the century is coming to slam the North East with the outcome being only an inch of rain and some fog? We deserve news that will accurately tell us information, so we can plan accordingly. Although some think the news does provide them with the information they need, and the data given is not always wrong, it is always better to receive material that is not under the influence of the media, and focuses on accuracy. In order to get this accurate information, it is essential to utilize government services like the National Weather Service and encourage others to use them as well. In a recent article from USA Today news, Furgione reported that the National Weather Service teamed up with other weather forecasters before the events of Hurricane Sandy, and was able to effectively and efficiently provide accurate information more than four days in advance for the residents living in the areas most effected (USA TODAY). If more people knew about the National Weather Service and listened to it, it is certain from the information provided by USA Today that we could have prevented more damage from occurring. Not only will this offer proper information without the constant embellishment of weak storms, it will help people become better prepared for the next storm to come. In the end, we are survivors of the storm. We were able to stand strong and become more aware of the severity of these storms. We came together as one enormous community called the North East, and although Hurricane Sandy wounded us emotionally and physically, we have learned a valuable lesson. One cannot simply ignore the strength that Mother Nature possesses; she punished us for our ignorance. It is the responsibility of the community to be well prepared in the event of a natural disaster. While news may make it harder to weed out non serious threats, we should try to take the bigger ones more seriously and realize that the unexpected can

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happen. We have to plan for the worst during the appropriate times, and even though we may not know what to plan for, we must utilize key resources like The National Weather Service to help us gain knowledge about the situation and most importantly, to help us warn others. When people are unprepared it is the community as a whole that will suffer as a result. My personal experience during Sandy serves as a reminder for why it is important to make better preparations for when disaster strikes. It will only be when we learn to make plans and understand how and when to execute them that we will be able to be ready to brace the impact of events like Sandy.

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Works Cited Furgione, Laura. Our warnings were clear and effective. USA TODAY December 14. 2012: Final Edition. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Hachten, William A. The Troubles of Journalism: A Critical Look at Whats Right and Wrong with the Press, Third Edition. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005. Google Scholar. Web. 12 Dec. 2013 Janoski, Steve. Local towns reflect on what they learned after Hurricane Sandy. Northjersey February 18. 2013: Suburban Times. Northjersey.com. Web. 13 Dec. 2013 Lang, Marissa. Storm Names get a Cold Shoulder. Tampa Bay Times October 8. 2012: 0 South Pinellas Edition. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Rouse, Karen. "Rail Storm Plan By NJ Transit Still Incomplete." Herald News November 14. 2012: AE. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.