Hurricane Gustav Threatens the Gulf Coast, New Orleans

At the time of this writing - 8 PM 8/26/08, Hurricane Gustav is a category 1 hurricane, loosing strength over the rugged mountains of Haiti. The forecast is never certain with hurricanes, but the National Hurricane Center usually gets it pretty close. In five days time, they predict that Hurricane Gustav will be somewhere in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico, with category 3 winds, threatening the US mainland.

I don't want anyone to over-react, but if you live neat the Gulf Coast, pay attention to this storm. The waters in the Gulf of Mexico are very warm and upper level winds are conductive for Gustav to grow in size and strength, and pose a threat by this Labor Day Weekend.

There has already been plenty of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Fay in the Eastern part of the Gulf coast, and this storm could aggravate the flooding that is just now beginning to subside. The last thing needed is another round of heavy rains.

The timing of Gustav possibly hitting the US mainland will coincide with the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. If it does hit, and causes damage, it will probably not get the kind of coverage it should because of the Labor Day weekend and the Convention coverage. All too often the media seems only able to focus on one story at a time, and other newsworthy items get pushed aside. They have a long history of this.

I recall that about eleven years ago two very well known people died. Princess Diana died tragically, and the media focused on that for weeks. About the same time of Princess Diana's funeral, Mother Teresa of Calcutta died, but you did not get very much coverage on that as the media was focusing on Princess Diana.

On November 23 of 1963 when the country was still in shock over Kennedy's assassination, the Golden Age Nursing Home near Fitchville, OH had a tragic fire that killed 63 elderly people.

In both examples, media coverage went almost entirely to one big story, and the other event, even though normally very newsworthy, was moved to the bottom.

My hope is that Gustav stays away from land and oil platforms for that matter. If Gustav does flare up in the Gulf and becomes a threat to land, my hope is that the media will take enough time away from the convention to cover the story adequately.