Why Did the National Hurricane Center Blow It on Earl?
Well, here in NE at least two things contributed:
1. All the local stations followed Earl from three or four days out with their “Earlwatch etc” promos ad nauseum. It’s a lot more exciting to think a storm may be coming, blah, blah, blah. The central premise is to get people to WATCH, right? By the last 24 hours, it was 24/7 coverage. The sheepish stations did (probably under pressure from Cape Merchants) tell people when the storm passed that the Cape would be a good place to visit for the rest of the weekend.) Too late.
2. Hurricane Bob, a decade or more ago, which was not a monster hurrricane, tore thousands of boats from their moorings, smashed them into each other and/or left them well inland when the storm passed. So a huge majority of boat-owners pulled their boats before this one, just to be safe, and that contributed to the buzz.
