I always like to see damage for myself. Long term storm chasers still refer to “total devastation” covering all the way from branches everywhere and shingles missing, to bare slabs and roadbed.
Politicians hype reports to up the ante for grants and aid.
MSM has soap and diapers they need to sell.
Even video footage tends to skew towards heavier damage, obstructing the “average.” Uninterrupted flyover video, or full coverage still image mosaics give the least biased assessments.
It’s a shame, really, that in this “information age” we still can’t get spot info promptly, and even after a wait, much of the data is way less usable than it could be.
We have realtime reports from the high camps on Everest, via sat phone, but quake and hurricane zones can’t be bothered.
Agree, and the word ‘devastation ‘ is abused, regularly.
Andrew, now THAT storm caused actual devastation.