The weather reports said to stay inside, stay off roads because another big one was coming. After the devastation from the recent rains causing massive flooding, Nebraskans paid attention.
Blizzards aren’t unheard of in Nebraska in April. The weekend my son Chris was born April 4, 1980, we had a huge blizzard. It eased enough so I could get to the hospital and by Sunday, the snow was melting, the sun was out and it was so warm, the hospital opened the windows.
After our winter no one laughed at the report of a blizzard with 4-7 inches of snow, ice and 60-70 mph winds. What Keith wanted to do yesterday, like go to the YMCA, he did in the morning.
Later afternoon the wind picked up. Couldn’t have paid me to go out. Keith brought in the mail, closed and locked the front door. Rain started hours later. During the night it sounded like sleet slamming into the house. This morning I looked out to snow on the ground. Not mounds of snow, but a nice coating.
I heard silence. The wind had died out. And soon after, birds began chirping. I felt we’d been oversold on the severity of the storm. Unless the weather isn’t finished, it feels like the media and weather service, at least where we live, cried “wolf.”
We know how that turned out. The little boy cried wolf so often that when a wolf really did show up to devastate the flocks, no would listen or come to help.
The media tends to overreact to certain scenarios to gain an audience. Not sure about the weather service. But I do wonder, if overreactions become the norm, will we stop believing and responding?
By Carolyn R Scheidies