Hurricane lies from state media (NPR)

by philg

“Some don’t evacuate, despite repeated hurricane warnings, because they can’t” (state-sponsored NPR):

Depending on a family’s financial situation, evacuating away from a storm can be costly.

“Many modest- to low-income households simply don’t have the cash or credit,” said Joshua Behr, research professor at Old Dominion University, in a 2018 interview with NPR.

Behr emphasized that the poorest may often wait until the last minute to evacuate, resulting in little to no availability for affordable hotel rooms.

The tragedy of inequality yet again and the obvious remedy is an expansion of the government that funds NPR so that enhanced transferism can be implemented.

As discussed in Practicalities of evacuation from Florida’s west coast, however, all of the quoted material from the NPR article is a lie. The county-run shelters near Fort Myers are (1) free, (2) pet-friendly, (3) equipped with backup generators, (4) stocked with free food and water, and (5) accessible via free transportation (Uber or government-run; summon via taxpayer-funded Obamaphone or wait for the flood and the knock on the door from the public safety crews). A poor person would actually save money by going to the shelter because he/her/zir/their food would be paid for. (The information regarding hotel rooms is also a lie; plenty were available starting at about $60 per night as of the day before the storm made landfall.)

Aside from lack of funds, what other obstacles could a person face in getting to safety?

And while many emergency warnings and notices are now printed in both English and Spanish, there’s still a gap when for those who speak other languages.

More than 400,000 households in Florida speak Haitian as their primary shared language, according to the Census Bureau. Tens of thousands of Floridians speak Portuguese, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Arabic, German, Russian, Italian or another language as their primary shared language at home.

“While looking at an evacuation map at a county in Florida, I saw they have it in both English and Spanish and thought ‘OK, that’s great.’ But also there are people there who may not speak either language,” said Cuite.

Cuite says alongside the language barrier being an issue for people, there are also different levels of literacy to account for.

“Some people may not be able to read, which makes things like finding their evacuation zone a challenge,” she said.

NPR has previously informed us that low-skill immigrants make a country rich. Today, NPR informs us that a substantial number of migrants can’t speak English or Spanish, are illiterate in all languages, and live in households in which all members are illiterate in all languages. Putting these two together, we can infer that this Army of the Illiterate will boost what we are told is the world’s most advanced economy.

Our neighborhood came through the overnight thunderstorms, which Mindy the Crippler did not appreciate. The phone shrieked a couple of times with a tornado warning and the federal government’s advice to Floridians to take shelter in basements (the nearest of which is in Atlanta?). There was heavy rain at times and some branches had come down from the palm trees. The neighborhood teenagers played football on the green (I also removed my shirt and a nice young lady paid me $100 to put it back on).

There have been no power glitches so far and no wind gusts above about 30 mph.

19 thoughts on “Hurricane lies from state media (NPR)”

  1. I’m looking forward to your continuing coverage and … whew: What wouldn’t I do to look like those guys out there on the green again, as a hurricane bears down on them? I’m gonna have to read some Goethe. I hope you told them to take care and hold on to that as long as they can, because you only have it once, maybe twice if you’re really lucky – and you can’t hit “rewind.”

    Best wishes through the rest of it. I’d really like to hear more about what is happening in the aftermath.

    As far as transportation goes: watch out for the “shallow” puddles: nothing deeper than the axles, and slowly – or else – and then get the car inspected afterward. The Odyssey was not engineered to be a submarine.

  2. I am here in Lithia, FL 25 miles east of tampa. We have sustained winds 35 MPH and gusting to may 60-70. No power outages. Only chatter on the community facebook page is that lot of people already ran out snacks.

  3. NPR has apparently taken on a role in Narrative Shaping and that’s my biggest fault with it. I listen to them all the time – they’re probably my #2 selection on Satellite and FM. They lie by omission and because of their bias, to an astounding degree sometimes. To some extent, Public Radio has always been that way but their vitriolic hatred of Donald Trump, et. al., boosted that tendency into a much higher orbit. I’m being very charitable here and probably shouldn’t be.

    The most surprising thing, to me at least, is that they don’t seem to realize it themselves – there’s no irony or overt recognition of how biased they know they are. That’s one reason why I listen to them but don’t donate. They’re supposed to be “smart”, but they have shifted very far to the left and are apparently very happy there, asking for more money all the time and almost never acknowledging their bias. I mean, come ON. Even Larry Summers was kicked to the curb for suggesting that there was too much stimulus while all the ladies who were up next in the interview segment wanted MORE and MORE. And he tried to blame Republicans!

    They’re kind of interesting, as I’ve said before, as a window into a certain state of mind that I’ve known very well over the years.

    • Alex,
      Having run out of disposable funds for subscriptions like Sirius, NPR is about it for me unless I want Fox Radio (I don’t).
      If I really want a deep dive into Africa, there’s always the BBC. Seriously, I visit BBC a little because my daughter lives in London.
      The best recent media subscription for me is Youtube TV (telling myself it’s just for football season but it will be hard to go back to hardcore cable-cut with Roku and OTA antenna).

    • @Donald: Sometimes you can negotiate with Sirius. I did, and won six free months of satellite radio for my car when the initial subscription had expired. You have to call them and basically be a little assertive and say you want to try the service again, but it’s too expensive, but, but…and the rest is up to your negotiating skills. Don’t tell anyone I said so.

      I listen to BBC World Service all the time, in fact it’s one button down from “NPR Now” on my Sirius car radio. I think BBC are overwhelmed, frankly. They try to cover the entire world, but also they need to serve Britain, so their coverage is hit-or-miss. However, they *do* have a large group of contributors basically everywhere, so you hear things you won’t get anywhere else.

      As always, you have to treat everything with a filter. I rarely listen to FOX or watch it on cable. Believe it or don’t, but it’s true.

      In the past year and a half, I’ve loved the free version of YouTube for things like cooking videos, ASMR, and watch repair videos. My medical conditions sometimes make it tough to relax and get to sleep at night, so I try to find things that are soothing and intriguing to me. Quiet things.

      I also have a couple of car channels I keep tabs on, mostly repair stuff. It’s easy to drift off into Fail and Dumbass Drivers Behind Wheel in Russia But Everywhere Else Too videos, though, if you’re not careful.

      My fave channel on YouTube is probably “MASA ATE”, because I like the way he cooks steaks and the restaurants he visits. I’m now an armchair Japanese Teppanyaki expert. I get a kick out of the fact that he’s been able to monetize a YouTube channel in such a way that it pays him to travel and eat really good food so often. I have the distinct feeling that he’s also independently wealthy, probably semi-retired, and now does this for fun:

      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnUV5-ScXgHkeOWDcL1G3vA/videos

      I’ve never been a big pro sports fan, although I like motorsports channels and I dabble in American pro sports when there’s something big going on. Oh, and the French hill climbing motorcyclists are a very determined and interesting breed of people, I have to add as an afterthought.

      Anyway, we’re way off-topic. 🙂

    • @Donald: And – credit where it’s due – even though the two of us couldn’t probably be farther apart politically speaking (but maybe not, she’s kind of an entrepreneur) – I have probably watched more Whispers Red ASMR than I have FOX News in any medium over the past 18 months. Why? Because she’s amazing and really dedicated and talented at what she does, which is basically to help people who are freaked out and panicked get some peace and quiet without drugs.

      They should pipe ASMR videos into prisons, I think – but strictly with the permission of the ASMRtist.

      https://www.youtube.com/user/WhispersRedASMR

    • I’m a frequent BBC radio listener, occasionally actually hear solid reporting from them.
      Via SiriusXM

      NPR is a long time favorite, but they really drop the ball with some reporting, seems like a bunch of inbred college elites.

    • @Donald: Finally, the ultimate Steak Cooking Guy on YouTube IMHO is Aden Films. Impossibly good stuff that I cannot afford but I just love the way he captures it.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUHSjWA7rXM&t=4s

      I used to watch high energy physics videos but lost interest. I’ve learned that our #Science and medicine are really very limited and lots of it is a pharmaceutical experiment and an exercise in billing competence. It’s kind of discouraging.

  4. Helps a lot to be Not Where the Storm Is – worked for me for 80 years, but there actually is a finite (if small) risk.

    • @Donald: That’s very good advice not just in terms of hurricanes and so forth, but driving and riding a motorcycle, also. It’s called “target fixation” or, more colloquially, the “Deer in the Headlights” problem. Riding a motorcycle especially, looking directly AT the thing you’re trying to avoid is a natural reflex, but it kills people all the time. You tend to steer directly into the thing you are fixated upon and have to train yourself to think: “Look where it will NOT be, not where it is GOING.”

      I know this personally and almost died as a result of it in a Big City. It also happened in Europe: the Kaprun Disaster.

      https://railsystem.net/kaprun-disaster/

      “The twelve survivors of the disaster were the passengers who travelled downhill past the fire at the rear of the train, escaping the upward-rising fumes and smoke.”

  6. “Dr” Phil: All your writings have converted me. I now really hate poor people too — especially minority border-crossing poor people. Because they are all so lazy. And most of them have Covid. Now that I’ve joined you in the idle-rich class, I’ll also spend my ample free time complaining about poor people, just as Jesus Christ taught us.

    Please key me in to your most recommended right-wing media echo chambers, so I can really get my grievances going.

    On my deathbed I’m scared I won’t have spent enough time complaining about poor people, so I need to catch up.

    • @Mike the Idle Rich: > Now that I’ve joined you in the idle-rich class, I’ll also spend my ample free time complaining about poor people, just as Jesus Christ taught us.

      What did you do before you became a member of the idle-rich class who has so much free time on your hands?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XcKBmdfpWs&t=1s

      Since you’re accusing our host of being a member and claiming you are also, I think we’d all like to know more. Philip’s work in both the relatively distant and recent past is available to anyone who reads this blog. I think you owe it to all of us, but especially him, to share your bona fides.

      Normally I don’t step in between someone hurling an accusation like yours and the intended recipient – usually you get punched by both – but I’d really like to know! What have you ever done to become a member of the “idle rich class?”

    • Mike: The Florida system of government is ideal for poor people because it concentrates on getting the fundamentals to work: schools, roads, parks, etc. In Maskachusetts, the peasants sit in traffic for hours because the roads aren’t functional while the rich arrange their lives so they need not commute. In Maskachusetts, the peasants had to home-school their kids for two years while the rich paid for private schools that were open while the Boston public schools were closed. In Maskachusetts, the parks have no restrooms or the restrooms are disgusting, but the rich don’t care because they can join country clubs.

    • philg: Which is why FL ranks significantly below MA in education?

      Sounds like you’ve gone to the right place for your intelligence level.

    • AA: Thank you for your concern regarding the children of Palm Beach County who cannot get an education (see https://www.palmbeachschools.org/news/what_s_new/july_2022/district_maintains_a-_rating ). If you want to consider the states overall, Florida was doing well back in 2015 before Maskachusetts elected to shut down its urban school districts for 18 months. See https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/upshot/surprise-florida-and-texas-excel-in-math-and-reading-scores.html

      But an individual child doesn’t live in an entire state. Florida public schools are much better for gifted children because state law requires that gifted children get appropriate challenges, unlike in MA where there is no state requirement or state funding for gifted education (young scholars in Maskachusetts must typically wait for 8th or 9th grade before being offered advanced or AP classes; gifted education in Florida starts in 1st or 2nd grade, depending on the district (2nd grade is the state law))).

      Maskachusetts has some districts populated with rich white/Asian kids who get good scores on tests, just as their parents did. Does this prove that test-taking ability is heritable or that these districts have superb teachers? The urban districts perform so badly, on the other hand, that the state periodically threatens to take them over (see https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/24/opinion/damning-audit-calls-action-bps/ and https://www.boston.com/news/schools/2022/06/27/mayor-michelle-wu-dese-plan-improvement-boston-public-schools-jeff-riley-agreement/ regarding the Boston schools). In any case, their quality poses a Zen koan: how much are students learning in a school system that has been shut for more than a year? By contrast, here’s a kid who went to in-person public school in Miami Beach during the years that Boston’s schools were shut down: “Florida teen accepted into all eight Ivy League schools, seven other top universities” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2022/06/13/florida-teen-ivy-league-schools-harvard-princeton/7607868001/

      Stepping back from the town-by-town data in MA, the most obvious conclusion is that parents who score well on tests tend to have children who score well on tests.

  7. @philg could point me to that nice young lady who paid you $100 to put your shirt back on? She might pay me $200 to put mine on :))

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