OUR OPINION: Media types shouldn't hype the weather just to have something to say

Last weekend’s appearance of Tropical Storm Claudette and Hurricane Bill’s menacing presence in the Atlantic are reminders that when there are storms in Atlantic basin, it’s bad for business. Most tourists don’t want to come to the beach to get socked in by rain, wind and a possible hurricane. Nobody wants to get married on the beach during a tropical storm.

It happens most every year and every time we are surprised by it. Businesses bemoan the lack of customers and all of us that depend on tourism for our livelihood wring our hands and pray the sky really isn’t falling.

Some say the local economy started to sour with 9/11 but that it wasn’t until 2004, the year in which we awaited the arrival of Charley, Danielle, Earl and Ivan, the signs were unmistakable that the cork was being pushed out of the bottle. Then in 2005, when Arlene, Dennis, Emily, Katrina and Wilma came calling, there was no doubt. The cork had popped and our champagne was going flat in a hurry.

Men have tried for eons to manipulate Mother Nature but nowhere is evidence of our failure so visible as along the coastlines. The seas claim our beaches and redeposit them hundreds of miles away. They rip away the puny houses we put up as if they were nothing more than burrs clinging to the edge of Neptune’s robes. And yet we keep building more and more houses and hotels, all the while shaking our fist at Mother Nature and cursing her laughter.

Tropical Storm Claudette blew up in less than 36 hours. What if she had been a slow moving storm and first traveled on a more westerly course? What if Claudette had lingered in the Gulf for a day or two and soaked up the energy of the warm waters? What if Claudette had grown into a category 3 or even 4 hurricane? Perhaps we could have stretched our advance notice to 48 or even 72 hours but even then, could everyone have gotten out in time? Could you have gotten out in time?

Weather watchers and emergency officials warn us to prepare for every little storm. "Run," they say, "run."

For anybody who has lived here for any length of time or who hunkered down for any of the storms in 2005, you have a sense of when you should go and when you should stay. Bottom line, we don’t need no stinkin' Jim Cantore to tell us how bad it is or isn’t. We got it covered and we'd just as soon as Mr. Gloom and Doom stay the heck away from here.

And if Cantore does come here again -- and we're sure he will -- we'd politely ask that he heed the signs and stay off the dunes. They're here to protect; not make him appear taller.