Dear readers,

Just a minor rant. I've been seeing various home videos braodcast of Hurricane Charley's effects. Some cool shots. But about as smart as a box of rocks.

A videocam and aspirations of appearing on Good Morning America are equipment to NOT survive. When a big storm approaches and you live in a possible danger zone, it's time to go. It doesn't matter whether the local authorities say so or not, your safety is up to you. GO!.

If you choose to stay in the area, it's up to you to get to the safest location you can. Standing out in the storm so you can get neato video is just dumb. I don't want to hear your running commentary on the "experience" of having your trailer disintegrate around you. This is not "reality" TV where there are trained support people just steps away. This is REAL. Real life. And real death.

Just put the camcorder down, and no one has to get hurt.

My $.02

Peanut

So tell me, Mr. Peanut - how do you *really* feel about people who get out of their cars to take close-up pictures of the cute little bear cubs? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

You can´t compare commiting suicide in a storm with jeopardizing the cubs and the sow. People doing the latter should be punished as severly as poachers.

100% agreement. One of the casualties of the hurricane was a resident of Arcadia who stepped outside the safety of his home in the middle of the storm to smoke a cigarette. A limb fell out of the tree he was under and he was promptly crushed. Who says cigarettes don't kill.

Craig

I once heard of someone who just got finished making a homemade bomb in his basement. Satisfied, -he then lit up a smoke. Kaboom!, -was the rest of the story! [email]celler[/email]

We had a similar thing happen. An "ameatur chemist" was "expiermenting" in his garage and blew off most of one hand and a hole in both his belly and chest. He had taken some material home from his work and was drinking a beer at the time. Yeah, his neighbors were real happy. Not sure if he went to the concrete hilton or not. I guess when it comes to time to swear the oath in court, he'll have to raise his right stump and repeat after the balif.