At least 31 deaths attributed to Hurricane Irene so far

[yardwork]

My deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives.

http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/10058779/

[MineralMan]

1. My sympathies go out as well.

The toll would probably have been higher had there not been all the attention to this storm by the news media. I cannot fault them in any way for warning people that the storm had deadly potential.

[yardwork]

2. As you probably know, that's been a fiercely debated issue here on DU.

Personally, I didn't see any overblown hype. I'm in North Carolina and all the warnings I saw were reasonable. Now, I'm not going to call anybody a liar. I'm just saying that I avoid Fox News, etc. so as to limit my exposure to unhelpful broadcasts. My local media was very reasonable, I thought.

[MineralMan]

3. Yes, it was hotly debated.

My news viewing in the media is limited to the evening news on my local CBS affiliate. I normally watch the local and national news for an hour. It didn't seem overly hyped leading up to the storm reaching NC. I suppose If I watched cable news nonstop, I'd have gotten tired of the focus on the storm, but I don't, so I didn't.

In reality, the very reason that I do not watch cable news is the continual repetition of the same information, along with inane analysis of it by a stream of people who don't seem to really understand much of what they're saying. So, I limit my news viewing. I need to know what's going on locally, of course, so I do watch the local news and read my morning newspaper. Beyond that, important stories show up here on DU as soon as they break, so my checks of DU keep me filled in.

I do not understand the need for constant news. I certainly don't need it, and it's not very useful to me. I prefer to hear a story when some information has been collected, not when the first breathless coverage happens, and I certainly don't need a constant barrage of the same stuff. I just can't see how I'd ever get anything done.