We are alive! But we did dance didn't we.

North Carolina coast is where Irene decided to make her landfall. I know that she made another in NJ but her first stop was here. In NC, we reportedly took five storm related deaths. She flooded a lot of places and a bunch of folks evacuated into shelters when the "Sky is Falling" wardens came howling down their streets.

Irene was somewhere between a Cat 1 and a Tropical Storm when it headed for the Wash. DC/Boston megalopolis. Plant a big storm and run it up the most densely populated section of real estate in America and....not much happened, in terms of Human life.  Everyone and their brothers uncle will be claiming damages though from flooded fields to weakened buildings. Obama helped them out by basically declaring the entire East Coast a disaster area BEFORE the storm hit?

SO I went to CNN and looked at the state by state update
 http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/28/irene.state.by.state/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

and not much to write about. The Washington DC Subway is still running so flooding can't be that bad. The Jersey shore will probably exercise their insurance damage claims for their overpriced Mansions on the sea.

BUT, and here is the point of the last post and this one: 5 dead in NC!
Let's look at these storm related deaths:

From the CNN site italics are mine:

NORTH CAROLINA

-- Irene made landfall in North Carolina on Saturday, leaving a trail of destruction. At least five people died in storm-related incidents in the state.

-- It pushed a 4-foot storm surge into the Chesapeake Bay, the National Hurricane Center said.

-- A child died in Goldsboro after the car he was in collided with another vehicle at a stoplight knocked out by the storm, police officials said.  Traffic accident in my book regrettable but happens every day.

-- One adult died when a car that was carrying family members hit a tree near Clinton, North Carolina, emergency officials said.  Clinton is 60 miles inland and how is running into a tree storm related it might be but it might be that he just ran off the road.

-- A motorist died when he lost control of his car Saturday morning and struck a tree in Pitt County. Again 60 or so miles inland and how is it storm related?

-- A tree limb struck and killed a man feeding livestock in Nash County. Bingo Now this one is storm related for sure.

-- And a man in Onslow County died of a heart attack as he put plywood over his windows Friday in preparation for the storm.  Taking precautions make it storm related but maybe he just shouldn't have been handeling plywood sheets with a bad heart!

So in my accounting methods One for sure, and Lets say the stoplight being out was caused by the storm and the guy was fleeing Irene. The heart attack I think was a heart attack. So I got two deaths as a result of Irene where she came ashore the fiercest.

Three people died of trees falling on them in Virginia. A women is reportedly missing after being swept into a stream in NJ. New York is not reporting any deaths. Governor Christy in NJ however still sees the sky falling: Christie said, citing coastal and inland flooding due to swollen rivers. "Do not leave your homes," he told state residents. "It is still not safe to go out there."


I believe that it is Governments job to watch and inform us of weather events. To suggest ways that we can avoid harm or injury. But honestly, what is happening out there is domestic terror mongering by our officials and our media. 


We don't need official "chicken littles" We don't need everyone crying "Wolf". A Cat 1 storm in Florida raises an eyebrow but not much more.  It should have had the same impact on the East Coast but "hyped to hell" Irene made us dance their fearful dance.