Disclaimer: I have no connection to the websites linked below. I'm saddened by the loss of life and property due to Hurricane Matthew, especially because it was needless. I'm also just the messenger; please don't shoot me.
If I lived in the Atlantic Basin or Caribbean Basin hurricane zones, I would bookmark http://hurricanetrack.com/ and pay attention. Mark Sudduth has operated the site for 17 years. His updates and projections are based on NWS and NOAA data, which he digests into easy-to-understand plain English for anyone who wants to stay informed and stay safe.
Mark is not a gloom & doom sensationalist. He neither hypes the danger nor minimizes it. He just tells it like it is, based on the best available data and forecasts, which come from weather stations, satellites, and weather research aircraft actually flying in the storms. If you don't believe me, go watch his YouTube videos. Mark issues updated reports as needed, mostly based on data that are freely accessible by anyone who visits the National Hurricane Center website. The data lags real time by at most a couple of hours.
What happened with Matthew is a tragedy, but none of it was a surprise to anyone who was paying attention. Mark warned that the principal danger from Hurricane Matthew was flooding, not wind. He explicitly warned against driving in the flooded conditions. He even said that people would be lulled into a false expectation that, because it was "only" a Category 1 storm by the time it hit North Carolina, many would be unprepared, and there would be a resultant loss of life. He said it would be a tragedy, and he already knew that it was going to happen because people don't pay attention to the information that's available to anyone with a device connected to the web.
I empathize with anyone who lost loved ones or property, but the tragedy of this storm is that the loss of life was avoidable. It's not exactly a secret that the Gulf coast and Atlantic coast have a hurricane season every year. All of the storm surge, rain, and flooding was predicted in the weather advisories. The information is all there, but until people take responsibility for their own safety by staying informed, this kind of tragedy will happen again and again. Thoughts and prayers have no power to prevent it. Rational behavior based on staying informed is the solution.
If I lived in the Atlantic Basin or Caribbean Basin hurricane zones, I would bookmark http://hurricanetrack.com/ and pay attention. Mark Sudduth has operated the site for 17 years. His updates and projections are based on NWS and NOAA data, which he digests into easy-to-understand plain English for anyone who wants to stay informed and stay safe.
Mark is not a gloom & doom sensationalist. He neither hypes the danger nor minimizes it. He just tells it like it is, based on the best available data and forecasts, which come from weather stations, satellites, and weather research aircraft actually flying in the storms. If you don't believe me, go watch his YouTube videos. Mark issues updated reports as needed, mostly based on data that are freely accessible by anyone who visits the National Hurricane Center website. The data lags real time by at most a couple of hours.
What happened with Matthew is a tragedy, but none of it was a surprise to anyone who was paying attention. Mark warned that the principal danger from Hurricane Matthew was flooding, not wind. He explicitly warned against driving in the flooded conditions. He even said that people would be lulled into a false expectation that, because it was "only" a Category 1 storm by the time it hit North Carolina, many would be unprepared, and there would be a resultant loss of life. He said it would be a tragedy, and he already knew that it was going to happen because people don't pay attention to the information that's available to anyone with a device connected to the web.
I empathize with anyone who lost loved ones or property, but the tragedy of this storm is that the loss of life was avoidable. It's not exactly a secret that the Gulf coast and Atlantic coast have a hurricane season every year. All of the storm surge, rain, and flooding was predicted in the weather advisories. The information is all there, but until people take responsibility for their own safety by staying informed, this kind of tragedy will happen again and again. Thoughts and prayers have no power to prevent it. Rational behavior based on staying informed is the solution.
