THE HYPING OF ISABEL: Okay, on a preparedness basis, I believe in treating all incoming hurricanes as serious. Better safe than sorry, ounce of prevention, and all that. But when it comes to media coverage, I think Gregg Easterbrook has it right: “CATEGORY 2 STORM, CATEGORY 5 HYPE.” And as he notes, lots of bogus, inflated statistics about property damage, etc., will appear in an effort to make it sound worse than it was. Meanwhile, a reader in DC who would rather remain anonymous emails that the closing of the Metro system, etc., has drastically expanded the economic impact of what was, basically, a rainstorm with 40-mile-an-hour winds, and suggests that it’s the result of having too many underemployed disaster-agency bureaucrats around. Worth looking at, if you’re assigned to do an Isabel restrospective story.