Perhaps MSNBC could send discredited “journalists” Olberman and Matthews to Havana to cover Ike…..and leave them there.

You’re doing a fantastic job and (voluntarily!) providing a valuable service to me and – from what I’m seeing as far as other sites referencing and recommending you – many others out here in the dark who dig a bit deeper for tropical weather information this time of year.

I particularly appreciate your right sidebar references to some of the other weather folks’ sites. Between you and them, I feel that I am getting some damned good information …MUCH better than what I get from the drones and drama queens on television.

I don’t live in sunny *Dublin CA* ….I live 40 miles from the Gulf of Mexico in Lafayette LA (where my need for storm information is more than likely a wee bit more important on a life-saving basis) and as such, I find myself in the justified position of saying to John, “Go piss up a rope.”.

Brandon, thank you and keep up the great work. We’re reading your blog in this area and we appreciate what you’re doing.

chsw

I’m sorry you are disappointed with the frequency of my updates. There is no question that I have been unable to re-create the “hyperactive” pace of my Katrina-blogging. The reason is simple: Katrina approached and hit the Gulf Coast during the weekend at the end of the first week of my second year in law school. At that particular moment in time, I had limited outside responsibilities, and was able to blog pretty much non-stop. I got little sleep for those three days, and even when school started up again the following week, I was able to continue frequently updating by falling behind in my homework, missing some classes, etc.

Now, I am a father with a full-time job. I can’t fall behind in either of those responsibilities: neither my work nor my eight-month-old daughter can be “put on hold” for a hurricane, the way I essentially put my life on hold during Katrina. So instead, I post as many updates as I reasonably can, and provide prominent links to other weatherbloggers so that you can check their sites for information, too, when I haven’t updated in a while.

I don’t think it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. Jeff Masters is one of the finest weatherbloggers on the Web, and he usually posts just 1-3 updates a day. Same thing with Eric Berger. The torrid update-every-30-minutes pace that I maintained during Katrina is very unusual, and it’s easy to see why: you pretty much have to be a full-time weatherblogger to do that, and being a full-time weatherblogger doesn’t pay the bills.

If you want to be the weather caster here on Pajamas media, be around when the rest of us are looking for information.

You are a failure, sorry to tell you buddy.

John, in Dublin California

Also, I’ve found google maps to be a fascinating source for gaining a sense of what kind of damage Ike may be causing at the time of this comment. At this very moment, based on the satellite imagery http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t4/loop-rb.html Ike appears to be passing over a beautiful little town called Gibara, Cuba. Google maps has an array of very nice photos of the place that, if you’re a praying person, might inspire you to pray for the people who live here: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=cuba . Also, here’s an interesting panoramic view of this charming small Cuban town: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4913264

Not only Baton Rouge, but also Lafayette, Opelousas, and ALL of Avoyelles Parish. The media seems to salivate at the prospect of New Orleans sustaining a direct hit, even when it’s obvious that landfall is more likely than not elsewhere.

The bottom line is that folks living in the areas that WERE hardest hit who stay glued to media reports of predicted path (of New Orleans) ultimately end up thinking that N.O. is where the story is ….which just isn’t true. Media did a huge disservice to the residents of most of S.E. Louisiana by placing ALL of their focus on New Orleans. Wrong. Plain wrong.

There are a lot of $12 to $15 a hour people who would do anything to avoid the group shelters but will be stretched to put out for another half week or week in a motel. I am already hearing grumbling and it is understandable.

Next time, they might not go at all.

Fortunately, this is all getting ahead of the reality of the weather at this point.