Savage said:
What can radio stations say during a hurricane other than "stay indoors??"
Well, let's see. We could tell them about where the eye is and where it's headed.
I said "during the storm" which means while hurricane strength winds are over the location. Since any really dangerous storm is many score miles wide, a minor deviation in wind strength or course has no real impact. Unless you were stupid and did not heed an evacuation alert if one applied to your location, there is just about nothing you can do during a storm except pray the windows hold and the roof stays on... but once the winds go over 90 or 100 miles an hour, you can't evacuate, you can't do any further reinforcement or boarding up of buildings, and you can't go out to help others unless you want to be impaled by shards of what used to be the Exxon sign a half-mile away.
That's kinda important to know. We can remind them about safe hurricane behavior - staying away from windows and close to load-bearing walls, as examples.
Yeah, that takes about 30 seconds to say. What else?
We could take live calls on the air from listeners with eyewitness accounts - people are comforted hearing from those in like circumstances.
In every one of many hurricanes I have been through, we were asked by the authorities and the phone company to try to caution people not to overburden the phone system. Much of even solidly redundant systems is in peril in hurricanes due to water damage. Your advice is good for an earthquake but genuinely bad for a hurricane. People inside houses have no ability to judge a storm and no criteria to relate their experience to. It's, in fact, a dangerous idea and could spread panic.
Anyway, most hurricanes move in off the ocean, and diminish rapidly as they lose the fuel of warm ocean waters. Reports are not going to come from places where the storm has been until such time as the storm is already on top of most areas and when anything but staying put is a pretty bad idea.
We could get interviews from meteorologists including storm stats.
The meteorologists might just have better things to do. And the ones who know anything are in the Miami center, not in Pascagula or South Padre or Manatí.
We could inform people about emergency shelter locations if their homes are seriously flooded or damaged. We could update the status of the water supply and other utilities. I could go on...
And, pray tell, how would anyone get to a shelter during the storm? I'm reminded of the story told me by a well known gulf coast engineer about an insurance loss he was contracted to verify. The incident was the collapse of a tall tower during Camille (200 mph winds). His finding was that a cow had hit the tower above the 100 foot level and, combined with harmonic vibration from the storm, unusual vertical stress and such, the tower failed and went horizontal.
So you want people to look for shelters while the cows are flying at 200 feet. The shelter would be wise not to open its doors, as a change in pressure could pop its roof.
And after storms, in urban areas the broken glass and debris is such that you can't get very far on normal tires without puncturing them all... but that is the point where radio is most critical... during the recovery... because most people will have no water, little food and prone to taking risks that result in food poisoning, disease and death.
You know. That kind of thing. The same role radio has played in natural disasters for about 80 years now.
The things you suggest are anything but what you should do as a broadcaster during a storm. Of course, I guess you don't get many Hurricanes off Lake Ontario.
