Resident of the Bahamas says Dorian came out of nowhere

I listened to this interview a last Thursday between NPR and longtime resident of the Bahamas Spence Finlayson.

Spence Finlayson has lived in the capital Nassau for 62 years. He hosts a local radio show there.

During part of the interview Finlayson relates the idea that the people of the Bahamas where some what surprised by hericane Dorian. I bolded the key sentences:

KING: This must be incredibly difficult for you emotionally, and for many other people to just not know where their relatives are or if they're OK.

FINLAYSON: That's the - yeah, that is the major problem - not knowing. You know, we - this hurricane came - Dorian almost came, like, out of nowhere. We live in the hurricane belt, so we expect to have hurricanes every year.

KING: Yeah.

FINLAYSON: But this one - I'll be honest - most people didn't pay a lot of attention to it initially.

KING: Why not?

FINLAYSON: Well, you know, we've become jaded. We see so many that we're - the national thought is, well, we're looking at this one. It's not really going to come, and it's not going to cause any damage. But this storm - it's just a bad situation.

The comments didn't make much sense to me. As Dorian was forming out in the Atlantic there was wall to wall coverage over it; news media was having a field day running stories about how powerful it could be and the usual global climate change rhetoric. How could the people of the bamamas say that it felt like the storm came out of nowhere?

But than, thinking back on the early coverage of Dorian, all the news stories where made in relation to Puerto Rico and how that island had not yet recovered from hurricane maria. How the government of Puerto Rico was still reeling from the corruption scandals and where in a bad position to deal with Dorian. The wall to wall coverage on Dorian was all about Puerto Rico; thinking back I don't think I heard a story relating to any of the other islands in the area and how they could be impacted.

Even as Dorian's track looked to spare Puerto Rico the wall to wall coverage turned to Florida and not the islands in its path. I don't think I heard any Bamamas vs Dorian news coverage until the day it made land fall on the islands and even than Florida was still dominating the coverage.

Could Finlayson's feeling that the storm came out of nowhere be a direct result of News Media failing at its job to inform the people? That News Media were far to interested in the juicy story that is Puerto Rico with the the old saying "if it bleeds it leads" in mind.

When News media neglects to perform it fiduciary responsibility when it comes to reporting on a individual politician the ramifications are small and easily overlooked. But if their neglect is causing situations where whole groups of people are blind sided by a natural disaster ... that feels almost criminal.







NPR

Don't know how they can say that......

It was on the news every day for a good week before it hit......

From the time time it developed as a tropical storm, agencies were telling people to keep an eye on it, because of how fast it was moving and growing......

If they say it came out of no where, they missed at least 7 to 10 days of warnings....

Was literally updated almost every hour on strength and direction

The Bahamas aren't a new chain of islands, they should be use to being aware of any storms in their vacinity.....

I know I'm echoing you OP, I'm just a bot dumbfounded

a reply to: DanDanDat

That's worrisome if they were not prepared for it, and especially if it was because of lack of proper coverage and forecasting.

I can't help but also think of all the media attention give to Trump's "Alabama" tweet and "Sharpiegate." All the pettiness about that sure didn't help any, I'm sure.

It's heart wrenching any way you look at it.

a reply to: DanDanDat

I heard just this morning that there are 70,000 missing or unaccounted for!

a reply to: DanDanDat

Not sure where your located and it's not too important, but while many stories did focus on Puerto Rico and Florida, I most certainly heard many stories of the storms track threatening the Bahamas. The Weather Channel had reporters on the island prior to the storm as did other news outlets. There was even a celebrated storm chaser on the island doing live streaming before the storm, during, and after.

If you are located in the States and possibly Puerto Rico then you must understand that news services tend to report on weather threats specifically that relate to the viewers they serve and not another country that might not even be able to recieve their signals. In many of those situations, there is a local subsidiary of say CNN, which has an international service often broadcast locally in the native language and with locally hired anchors. That's not provided in every location but in many that its financially viable, for instance the middle east where they have locally produced content in addition to international content.

I believe the man was speaking metaphorically. Why would a news broadcast system only broadcasting to Florida warn of a storm forecasted to hit Missouri ? They may cover it superficially but no one in Missouri is going to see their broadcast so no emphasis is given to any Missourians. Many of our international news channels are only available by cable or satellite and would be blocked to those outside of the US while they could have access to an international service provided by the same company.

It's not our media's job to inform another country of storm hazards even though they do so, at least periffally. They had plenty of warning, but it's a chain of several islands. Hard to evacuate to higher ground. Again, I think the man was speaking of people's lackadaisical attitude as they haven't suffered a direct hit like this for years so many were hopeful it just passed hy

a reply to: DanDanDat

I think you missed his point. His point is one I make all the time. Every storm is "The Big One" on the news that is going to kill everyone .. then it gets there, and it's a nothing storm.

It's the boy who cried wolf, the media turns every storm into a huge deal for ratings and then when the real big one comes no one is listening anymore.

I live in Charleston, SC, my parents call freaking out every storm because of what the news is saying, basically making it out to be everything will be under water and destroyed and if you don't leave you will likely be dead. I tell them to stop listening to fake news and look at the data set it is based on. While the news was telling them there will be several feet of rain and huge 8 foot storm surges the reality was the data was predicting 2 inches of rain. The disconnect between the news and the data is amazing.

a reply to: DanDanDat

I just don't understand why there was not a mandatory
evacuation of those islands.
I wonder if any cruise ships were there to relocate
people prior to the storm.

Prayers to the people in utter devastation.
S&F

a reply to: Boadicea

It was not coverage, it was trust in that coverage. It was covered, but people had become jaded and no longer believed the forecast of doom.

FINLAYSON: But this one - I'll be honest - most people didn't pay a lot of attention to it initially.

KING: Why not?

FINLAYSON: Well, you know, we've become jaded. We see so many that we're - the national thought is, well, we're looking at this one. It's not really going to come, and it's not going to cause any damage.

originally posted by: Wildmanimal
a reply to: DanDanDat

I just don't understand why there was not a mandatory
evacuation of those islands.
I wonder if any cruise ships were there to relocate
people prior to the storm.

Prayers to the people in utter devastation.
S&F

How would you evacuate entire islands?

a reply to: Sookiechacha

From what I read I think it is 70,000 that are now homeless.

Its the same as Katrina...complacency. And how are ya gonna evacuate a couple hundred thousand people? You cain't/aint.

I can relate to the jaded point. I, to , lived in Charleston for many years. After you have evacuated for an incoming storm, on the road for 10 hours to get 100 miles away,only to have it turn slightly and hardly touch the area you live, you don't trust prediction models and would rather just take a chance and stay home. I finally grew tired of it all and just moved to Kentucky.

Something wicked was with Dorian.

Maybe some dark psychic forces !! 🐇

That's not what he means.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record this season, I grew up in Florida. I don't live there anymore, but I did grow up down there and know hurricane season intimately. I ignored MOST storms that came our way, even Charley initially. In hindsight, he did seem to come out of nowhere that year. Poetically speaking.

The reality is that up until they slapped hurricane watches & warnings up and down the west coast, NOBODY took it seriously (false sense of security from the Tampa Dome Effect, almost 100 years now of no landfalling majors there) And truth be told, even when the warnings went up, and evacuation orders were given, and despite people hitting the highways to leave, most people staying still brushed it off with a shoulder shrug.
You know who it came out of nowhere for in the end?
Punta Gorda.
They ignored it as much as everyone else did, until the jet stream hooked it east and it flattened that area. That was a bit of a left field last-minute track change, but the point remains the same -- despite all the tracking, all the forecasts, all the warning cones and evac orders, despite everything up until the last possible minute, it still felt like it blindsided everyone with that.

I get the Bahamas complacency with Dorian. I really do. It's very easy to have multiple years of not much worse than tropical storm conditions or weak hurricane ones lull you into a false sense of security, and make you roll your eyes at the next Blobcast on the news. That's what the guy in the OP's article was talking about, not that there was some literal news blackout on the storm.

a reply to: Groot

I've been in Charleston 10 years now, haven't evacuated once (I actually can't even if I wanted to), no regrets.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: Groot

I've been in Charleston 10 years now, haven't evacuated once (I actually can't even if I wanted to), no regrets.

I moved to Charleston just after Hugo (born and raised South Carolinian btw) and left 19 years ago after evacuating for Floyd, I think, with my then 1 year old daughter.

I don't miss Charleston one bit, love my mountains.

a reply to: DanDanDat

I think they only get CNN. That is a huge handicap for Any Nation.

a reply to: Groot

I won't be here for long, few more years at most.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: DanDanDat

I think you missed his point. His point is one I make all the time. Every storm is "The Big One" on the news that is going to kill everyone .. then it gets there, and it's a nothing storm.

It's the boy who cried wolf, the media turns every storm into a huge deal for ratings and then when the real big one comes no one is listening anymore.

I live in Charleston, SC, my parents call freaking out every storm because of what the news is saying, basically making it out to be everything will be under water and destroyed and if you don't leave you will likely be dead. I tell them to stop listening to fake news and look at the data set it is based on. While the news was telling them there will be several feet of rain and huge 8 foot storm surges the reality was the data was predicting 2 inches of rain. The disconnect between the news and the data is amazing.

That certainly is a plausible interpretation of the events. But that would still implicate the News Media for sensationalizing all weather events to the point where their reports are no longer taken seriously.

a reply to: DanDanDat

Yep, that's what has happened. I see it all the time here in Charleston, where hurricanes happen every year. Storm hit Thursday, news was going crazy, mandatory evacuation was called the weekend before. So people lost days of work, and then the storm barely did anything. News was saying feet of rain making it seem like all of Charleston will be underwater and my accuweather app was calling for 2 inches and that's what we got and it was a nothingburger storm. This is 2 years in a row a do nothing storm that was supposed to be a do nothing storm had crazy sensationalization by the weather media.

This is from last year's storm.


Another good one.