Still not sure what to make of this flood season hullaballoo. At first it seemed a bit overblown–especially on the day when it didn’t rain a drop and yet all the news was doom and gloom. At one point, I kid you not, Dirk Verdoorn smirked and compared the situation to New Orleans pre-Katrina. Seriously. And I frequently see news anchors begging on-the-spot reporters for confirmation that we were indeed, all going to die, and getting little in response. As I returned on 12/31 from Home Depot shopping for equiment to fix my sump pump (there’s a flood on, didn’t you hear?) I was informed by my wife that Dann Shively was in LiveCopter 3 cruising around looking for trouble spots and reporting back that he couldn’t find any. The other night Grace Lee was in Rio Vista, which is apparently getting hit pretty hard, reporting from the high school which was acting as an emergency shelter for evacuees. Head count? One family.
But even the national news does seem to be indicating this is going to be bad. Things may indeed get worse before they magically get better, so I’m reserving most of my snark. But I’ve been through quite a few flood seasons (though I went to college in L.A. so I was always heading back down to 75-degree weather when the shit was starting to hit the fan) and my hunch right now is that we are having a normal Sacramento January, and that we are experiencing a Katrina effect on the news media. Any thoughts?
The Sac Rag 
Good call. With CNN playing in the background on Saturday my husband yelled “they’re really Katrina-sizing this thing” which I thought was a perfect description. Fox News was even worse.
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In a way, we should consider ourselves lucky that we can look back and say that the coverage was overblown. However, with the estimate of at least $100 million in damage (and this will likely increase – http://www.kxtv.com/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=15120 ), the Governor’s declaring states of emergency in several counties (including Sacramento), and the fact that flash flood warnings are still in effect, maybe these storms and their threats to our levee systems were certainly newsworthy.
It’s too bad victims of Katrina didn’t have the benefit of experience we have.
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WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! HEAD FOR THE HILLS! WOMEN, BABIES, AND ANNOYING COMMENTATORS FIRST! GET YOUR SANDBAGS! MOVE ALL THE HEAVY ASS FURNITURE, BBQ GRILLS, AND CARS INTO THE SECOND LEVEL! Don’t you DARE tune out, because a LEVY COULD BURST AT ANY SECOND AND KILL US ALL! Oh- and while this IS “Breaking News,” here’s a word from our sponsor.
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I’d be disappointed if the local media didn’t over dramatize the flooding. Isn’t that their job?
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