A Tale Of Two Messages – II

Since I beat myself up when wrong…

Yesterday I wrote and quoted a viewer who was incensed I’d broken into a ‘soap’ for tornado coverage.

We are so tired of hearing these false alarm weather reports. Every time it’s a normal storm becomes a tornado watch. Are you serious people? You’re gonna scare the hell out of old people.

Since I beat myself up when wrong…

000
NOUS41 KOKX 251619 CCA
PNSOKX
CTZ005>012-NJZ002>006-011-NYZ067>081-261200-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT…CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
1151 AM EDT FRI JUN 25 2010

…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CONFIRMS TORNADO IN BRIDGEPORT
CONNECTICUT…

LOCATION…BRIDGEPORT. BRIEF TOUCHDOWN ON MAIN STREET…NICHOLS
STREET…AND CEDAR STREET…1 BLOCK NORTH OF INTERSTATE 95.
ESTIMATED TIME…230 PM
EF-SCALE RATING…EF1
ESTIMATED WIND SPEED…100 MPH
PATH WIDTH…100 YARDS
PATH LENGTH…0.15 MILES

THE DAMAGE REPORTED IN EASTON AND TRUMBULL WAS ASSOCIATED WITH
STRAIGHT LINE WIND DAMAGE AND IS NOT CONSISTENT WITH DAMAGE CREATED
BY A TORNADO

.15 miles is a little less than 800 feet or nearly three times the distance of a football field. In a densely packed city a path that length covers lot of people and property. Thankfully no one was killed and injuries were light.

A Tale Of Two Messages

For instance here’s the transcript from a voicemail I received. It was sent during a live wall-to-wall cut-in. A tornado warning was in effect.

We had some dicey weather in the state today. Tornado warnings went up between 2:00 and 3:00 PM.

We were on it at work, but who at home is really prepared for the possibility of tornadoes? People watch and hear my words, but how they react is anyone’s guess.

For instance here’s the transcript from a voicemail I received. It was sent during a live wall-to-wall cut-in. A tornado warning was in effect.

We are so tired of hearing these false alarm weather reports. Every time it’s a normal storm becomes a tornado watch. Are you serious people? You’re gonna scare the hell out of old people.

We pre-empted “One Life To Live.” This guy must be a big fan!

I’m not sure it was a tornado. Probably.

At Bridgeport the wind gusted to 75 mph at 2:23PM, then six minutes later to 78 mph. If memory serves me (and my friend Bob who tipped me off) that’s the highest officially recorded gust since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.

We’ll know better tomorrow when the Weather Service takes its survey and makes the official declaration.

In the end though what difference does it make? The damage was as bad as anything a tornado causes.

Not long after the voicemail I got this plain email.

Geoff: This may be silly but you are being talked about with a lot of admiration today. I’m in Rochester, NY and a viewer of yours wrote on a soap board how you came on TV during One Life To Live to talk about a possible tornado warning. You APOLOGIZED for interrupting the show. This never, never happens. And we often talk about how the soap fans are treated with such a lack of respect by television reporters. They interrupt the soaps when they would never interrupt a sporting event. I just wanted to thank you from here in Rochester, NY for respecting the soap viewer. It is much appreciated and you are becoming a hero on the board.

Maybe I should send her to the phone message guy?