The media seems to be fixated on The Big Story. If you just focus on the headlines you would think the world was in great jeopardy every other week. The different companies that make up the media all want to scoop the others and so the hype just gets greater and greater.

          Nothing makes news quite like a hurricane. Helpless people cowering before the mighty storm that gets closer and closer day by day, their lives and properties in danger. Then the storm will move far inland, flooding the country side for hundreds of miles. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A STORM LIKE THIS ONE! And these days it is because climate change has made the storm so horrifying.

          Don’t get me wrong. Hurricanes are scary. Marsha and I have been through two. Lots of wind, lots of rain and it just doesn’t let up. But it is not the destructive force of a tornado. There is a lot of clean up and home repairs, but usually it is over and done in a week. A Category 1 hurricane has sustained winds from 74 mph to 95 mph. A Category 2 has winds of 96 mph to 110 mph. A Category 3 is 111 mph to 130 mph. A Category 4 is 131 mph to 155 mph and a Category 5 is anything above that. To emphasize the wind, the newscaster will say “sustained winds of 122 mph with gusts up to 135 mph.” A gust is just that, a gust. Typically, it is isolated and, amidst sustained winds, they are not noticeable. Since we have lived here in Indiana we have seen Category 1 winds. I once drove a pick up 30 miles through a Category 3 hurricane. It wasn’t much fun, but it was doable. At one point, while out to sea, Florence was a Category 4. But that is common at sea. As they close land their speeds drop. Continents create their own weather patterns, which are much bigger than the hurricane pattern, and those patterns clash as the hurricane nears land. They don’t talk about that much, though, because it takes away from the The Big Story. By the time Florence hit land it was a Category 1.

          The danger in a hurricane is the storm surge, which is the seawater it is pushing ahead of it. If you are one of those people who have paid big dollars for ocean side housing, you are going to pay the price. Those people should evacuate and then get a place further inland. In places like the mid-Atlantic states there is a second danger and that is the rainfall. Rain in the mountains can spell trouble for the low lands. Flooding in North Carolina is a greater danger than flooding in Florida, although that can be a problem there, too.

          Mostly, though, unless you are in a small boat out to sea or in a danger zone close to the shore, hurricanes are just big storms. The news media will say anything to sell a story. Case in point; back when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and the president and his wife were boarding the helicopter to fly to the airport to board Air Force One to go to Houston to see the damage, the press went nuts because Mrs. Trump was wearing heels walking from the White House to the helicopter. “What will the American people think? Does she think she is going shopping???” Heels were the news. Amazing, but that is the American press.

          If the storm is so devastating, why are their reporters standing on the beach telling us how bad it is?

          Americans are resilient. They can handle a storm. The media is out begging viewers.

          If you want truth, and nothing but truth, read the Bible. God is not begging readers, He just gives it to you straight.