A Millennial in Wonderland

There are certain weather-related events you worry about when you live by the ocean, like tidal flooding and hurricanes. The east coast seldom worries about tsunamis but on Tues., February 6, we almost did.

Accuweather pushed out a tsunami warning notification, which did not have the word “test” in the title. Upon opening the notification, it showed that this notification was a test.

A few things ran through my mind immediately. First and honestly, what the f***? To which I admit that I actually did say out loud. Second thought was is this real or a repeat of Hawaii’s fake ballistic missile notification and thirdly I thought, where do you go if there’s a tsunami coming? Cape May is not exactly high above sea level elevation.

Of course, with our ever-changing climate and recent natural disasters (read: California Wildfires, mudslides), I didn’t want to immediately rule out the chance of abnormal weather. I hopped on to social media to see a few others asking if anyone else got a false alarm. I did not feel relief as I was not really too worried in the first place.

Accuweather released a statement, essentially blaming the National Weather Service for releasing the warning. NWS, in turn, blames an unnamed agency. Play the blame game all you want, but these false alarms need a system of checks and balances so they don’t become a regular occurrence.

At the urging of my boss and fellow journalist, John Cooke, I replied to a reporter’s question on Twitter if anyone on the Jersey Shore had gotten the fake notification. Not too long after replying, I got a phone call asking for an interview. Journalists work fast like that.

Being a reporter, you are typically on the other side of the lens. The side that is capturing the story, not being captured. There is much more anticipation when you’re being interviewed for a story, rather than the one doing the interviewing. For me, it was a personal reminder that I would rather be on the side doing the reporting, though it was a refreshing change.

John and I were interviewed by Philly Fox 29’s Hank Flynn, for his Hank’s Take segment. I will update this blog post tonight and link the video once it is online. It will be on tonight Fox 29 at 10 p.m.