Misinformation and attention seeking

[paulfoel]

Wow so much of it on social media and the media in the uk.

I was there for the hurricane and flew home on tuesday. Those of us there would know it was on the news for days before, all the info you needed, food WAS available when I got it as was gas.

There seemed to load of people making up curfews far in excess of the official ones. People scaremongering that all the food was gone and no petrol was to be had anywhere.

Our local paper even ran a story about someone from our area who was stuck in a villa for days, terrified and running out of food because they'd been told not to venture outside! This was the day before the hurricane hit. (Personally, I think these people should be careful about leaving their own street for holidays next year!).

Also, I didnt understand the pre-occupation with waiting for information from the travel rep or travel company in the uk? Surely local advice from the experts on the TV or official websites is better?

[SMAX]

Sensationalism sells newspapers.

So I take it you didn't have hungry cannibals beating your door down or any scenes from MadMax draining petrol out of your tank at gun point.

Therefore the newspapers won't be interested

[paulfoel]

Originally Posted by SMAX

Sensationalism sells newspapers.

So I take it you didn't have hungry cannibals beating your door down or any scenes from MadMax draining petrol out of your tank at gun point.

Therefore the newspapers won't be interested

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Ha ha. Nope. Went to walmart on the saturday. Plenty of food there bit short of bread and water. But seen worse when we get 1" of snow forecast in the uk. I got gas on the way home from disney at 8pm on the saturday evening.

It just annoyed me that people were making stuff up and making people worry by making stories up. I must have seen about 20 posts saying that there was no gas or food left anywhere in florida.

Just how thick would you have to be to stay indoors two days before the official curfew just because someone told you to do so? Didnt these people turn the TV on?

The times when the hurricane was going to hit was pretty accurate (within hours anyway) so didnt these people wonder why it was still 90F outside two days before?

[Bal]

Originally Posted by paulfoel

Ha ha. Nope. Went to walmart on the saturday. Plenty of food there bit short of bread and water. But seen worse when we get 1" of snow forecast in the uk. I got gas on the way home from disney at 8pm on the saturday evening.

It just annoyed me that people were making stuff up and making people worry by making stories up. I must have seen about 20 posts saying that there was no gas or food left anywhere in florida.

Just how thick would you have to be to stay indoors two days before the official curfew just because someone told you to do so? Didnt these people turn the TV on?

The times when the hurricane was going to hit was pretty accurate (within hours anyway) so didnt these people wonder why it was still 90F outside two days before?

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Some of the stories did amuse me. The Express ran a story about the possibility of WDW being flattened completly. Although that's not so much Sensationalism, as pure click bait. Some of these stories don't even make it to the printed press - there on the website purely to drive traffic.

We do however need to be careful of basing every bodies experience in the State of Florida on a personal one. Orlando wasn't that badly hit in the end. Places like the Keys however were very badly hit and there are still real issues there.

Also, FWIW, I'd rather a sense of urgency in the face of these things, than a sense of complacency.

[Bal]

Originally Posted by paulfoel

I must have seen about 20 posts saying that there was no gas or food left anywhere in florida.

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Really? Anywhere?

[paulfoel]

Originally Posted by Bal

Really? Anywhere?

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Exactly. I saw a few posts like this on the facebook group - Its Orlando Time.

Either these people are making it up to cause a bit of drama or they've been in one shop and are exagerrating.

[waiting4disney]

Seemed to be the big story on UK media as we got a lot of messages asking if we were evacuated.

I was worried the night of hurricane as we had no power in the villa. We were under curfew from 10pm saturday until 2pm Monday in Lake County.

We did enjoy MK Saturday evening though as so quiet. Maybe people didn't go as they thought curfew was already in place.

Got petrol in Orlando no problem. The petrol stations in Sanford were empty on Wednesday. We filled up when we left villa. Thankfully Avis didn't charge us an additional fee for it not being being full as they understood the situation.
We also saved on the tolls as they were all waived.

[EssexSue]

Well there was a fair bit of scaremongering all round wasn't there?

Those of us actually here were often shouted down by people that knew better!

[paulfoel]

Originally Posted by EssexSue

Well there was a fair bit of scaremongering all round wasn't there?

Those of us actually here were often shouted down by people that knew better!

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Yes I just think its well off for people to scaremonger when people are already worried.

BTW - are you in villa in Lake Berkley or townhouse? We were there (flew home tuesday) and lost power on sunday evening and it was still out tuesday am. Townhouses were ok but not villas.

Seems the communities next door were also ok. Although I think we saw the electricity substation thingy over by the lake under a few feet of water!

Hope powers back now...

[paulfoel]

Originally Posted by waiting4disney

Seemed to be the big story on UK media as we got a lot of messages asking if we were evacuated.

I was worried the night of hurricane as we had no power in the villa. We were under curfew from 10pm saturday until 2pm Monday in Lake County.

We did enjoy MK Saturday evening though as so quiet. Maybe people didn't go as they thought curfew was already in place.

Got petrol in Orlando no problem. The petrol stations in Sanford were empty on Wednesday. We filled up when we left villa. Thankfully Avis didn't charge us an additional fee for it not being being full as they understood the situation.
We also saved on the tolls as they were all waived.

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Yeh got sick of all the messages asking if we were evacuated. As if you could evacuate the whole of florida!