Not saying the train wreck isn’t bad, but this is impacting far more people regardless of whether anybody dies.
I have to disagree with your assessment; Ike was the news last night, nothing else had a chance, right up until landfall it meandered along as a Cat 2 with 105mph winds until just before the first surge approached and then shot up to 110mph which suddenly took it from a weak 2 to a strong 2; the wreck got 30-60 seconds, Ike got almost nonstop dire predictions and, as I speak the hype goes on.
Right now they are reporting on T.V. that they have mounted the biggest search-and-rescue mission in history to find survivors among the estimated 20,000 who refused to leave under the evacuation order; are they looking for breathing bodies or cold ones?
Nobody has been reported missing at this time that I have been able to determine.
We’ve got to stop the hype.
Concerning the 1,200+ 911 calls reported by the AP it seems that during emergency decaration periods a new telephony system has been in place there since 2006 so that any call to a government agency would be automatically routed through and treated as an emergency through the 911 network:
“Hurricane-Prone Galveston County, Texas Uses Avaya IP Call Center Network to Respond to Critical 911 Calls
Emergency Communication District links eight public safety organizations in a seamless, survivable network that can weather extraordinary conditions; Avaya public safety solutions to be featured at two leading industry events
For Immediate Release: 02-Aug-2006
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – When Hurricane Katrina roared inland last year across the Gulf Coast, officials in Galveston County, Texas feared that government buildings housing local emergency response teams would be unable to survive the storm.
“For the first time we actually had to abandon some of our public safety sites out of a concern for our employees,” said Bobby Wright, executive director, Galveston County Emergency Communications District.
To prepare the county’s emergency response infrastructure to weather such extraordinary conditions in the future, the District is implementing a new survivable IP telephony solution from Avaya (NYSE:AV), a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services.
A centralized Avaya communications network will replace eight standalone systems and link 911 call centers countywide – including those operated by the Galveston County Sheriff’s Department and the city police departments in Galveston, Texas City, La Marque, Hitchcock, Santa Fe, Dickinson and Kemah. Four centers have been added to the network to date, with the remaining sites expected to be up in early August.”