Earthquack And Irene, Part Deux

Irene remains the big, big, big story in and around Gotham. You’d think there had never been a hurricane on the East Coast before, let alone a Category 3 one, let alone one that was (horror beyond belief) coming this way!!! You’d think a storm was unheard of, some kind of novel, freakish accident. Indeed. MSNBC has even reminded New Yorkers that Long Island is after all, wait for it, an actual island:

"You have to recognize that you're living here on an island, and island living represents certain risks," said Edward Mangano, county executive in Long Island's Nassau County, where school buses were being moved to higher ground in case they're needed to evacuate residents to storm shelters. "And those risks appear now, at least, to be tracking toward us."

“Tracking toward us” is apparently bureaucratic disaster speak for “arriving.” Personally, I’ve never heard of such a thing. An island? I thought Long Island, a corner of the Gothamsfero I avoid at all cost, was a traffic jam.

And they’ve already trotted out that wonderful pre-disaster reporting cliché, “Preparing For The Worst!” Cue the scary music. The storm isn’t supposed to get to New York for a couple of days. So the nadir of disaster reporting has probably not yet arrived. Stay tuned for pictures of empty supermarket shelves, people hammering plywood over windows, and finally some guy in a parka standing in the wind while things that are not tied down blow around.

This is just not getting it for me. I need something like this: