Hindsight Geniuses

I know this doesn’t have anything to do with sports, but it’s been driving me crazy the past 2 days. I’m talking about all of the geniuses out there, including various celebrities, who’ve  criticized authorities for their ‘overreaction’ to the impending arrival of Hurricane Irene. Apparently it was a mistake to evacuate people from areas where there was a strong possibility of sustained winds of 60-100 MPH, with gusts much higher, storm surges ranging from 3 – 12 feet, and rains totaling as much as 15inches, which were likely to result in flash flooding as rivers and creeks were going to be overwhelmed with far more precipitation than they could hold. According to these soothe-Sayers, it would have made much more sense to take precautions only in areas where this was actually going to happen. Outstanding. I wish FEMA, the NRCC, President Obama and others had thought of this before they wasted everyone’s time insisting people who’s homes and lives would not be in danger leave their homes in advance of Irene. Boy, were they ever stupid.

These Nostradamus clones should have informed us earlier that many of the precautions that were taken were unnecessary. It would have been very, very helpful to have known ahead of time exactly what measures were needed beforehand so that all kinds of local, state and federal resources including people, equipment and money were not ‘wasted’

To the apparent Einsteins out there, including professional athletes, news pundits and others: yes, some of the predicted effects did not happen in some areas but, there was absolutely no way they could possibly have known that ahead of time. They cannot predict exactly what is going to happen and where before the storm has hit. And neither can you. You can see it was unnecessary in some areas after the fact. Wow, what a talent – 20/20 hindsight!

The weather experts can give a good account what kind of storm is likely and where it will probably hit. Given these probabilities, the authorities can then act to have people evacuated from areas where there is a strong enough likelihood that the storm will strike. There is no exact science able to predict a storm’s strength and direction. Are these idiots suggesting they should have erred on the side of danger and not have evacuated people who only might have been in peril? I would hope not. Until all of you can tell us definitively what is going to happen in the case of a natural disaster, shut your pie-holes when the prediction doesn’t turn out to be 100% accurate.