Every year the Gulf Coast prepares itself for hurricanes, the people here having weathered them for centuries. But every year the forecasters and news teams seem to become even more over the top than the the year before. This year is not any different.
Hurricane Ike has created havoc in Haiti and Cuba and has set its sights on Texas. The newscasters could not be more thrilled. The city news has not actually shown happenings in the area in the last week, instead opting to show nothing but forecasts of Ike. Maps like the one below have flooded (no pun intended) our television screens.
Even before that image was taken, the forecast “cone”, or “cone of ignorance” as I like to call it, was massive, stretching from Florida to northern Mexico. The meteorologists on T.V. call it the “cone of uncertainty” which I think is their way of conceding that they I have no idea where the hurricane is going.
So, Houstonians will do what they have always done, purchase some canned goods and hunker down for a wet weekend.