Here’s what the media gets wrong about hurricanes

Hurricane Ian is over, but media myths about hurricanes live on.

Reporters say the federal government must direct disaster relief as if only federal agencies had the knowledge and money to do so.

“The debate about how big the government aid needs to be is already growing,” says CNN.

Why?! Don’t they know that the state has no money of its own? That everything federal bureaucrats spend is taken by the rest of us?

They don’t think about that.

Nationwide, “disaster relief” is handed out after storms, according to one headline That New York Times As he put it, “A great storm requires a great government.”

But it doesn’t.

My video this week debunks four myths about hurricanes.

Myth #1: We need the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for disaster relief.

That’s just stupid given FEMA’s history of incompetence.

FEMA once spent millions on bottled water and expensive trailers. Then they just left them at an airfield.

Matt Mayer worked in the Department of Homeland Security during Hurricane Katrina. He says the federal government was just too bureaucratic to provide much help.

“States, local, community, neighbors” just do a much better job, Mayer told me.

FEMA fails because, like all government bureaucracies, there is no incentive to spend efficiently. Charities are more flexible, and “they’ve been doing this for 200 years.”

Right now in Florida, while some people wait for FEMA, religious charities are helping people rebuild.

Myth #2: The government must stop greedy companies from abusing customers.

Some companies raise prices as storms approach. Politicians call this “illegal price gouging”. That’s just stupid, if not cruel.

As storms approach, people rush to buy supplies. When stores don’t raise prices, people buy everything they might need and probably some things they won’t need as well. The first buyers buy additional bottled water, generators, sandbags, etc.

Stores are sold out, so only the fastest customers get what they need.

But when stores raise prices for items that are in demand, fewer people hoard and more people get what they need. Yes, it’s tough for poorer people, but the price hikes give stores an extra incentive to stock up. Prices drop again quickly.

Banning price hikes hurts more people.

When John Shepperson learned that parts of Mississippi were losing power after Hurricane Katrina, he bought 19 generators, left the safety of his home, and drove 600 miles to the disaster area. He offered to sell his generators for twice what he paid for them. People really wanted to buy.

But the Mississippi police called the “gouging out.” They imprisoned Shepperson and confiscated his generators.

I bet the cops used the generators themselves.

What the law calls “gouging” is just supply and demand. It saves lives.

Myth #3: Hurricanes are getting worse.

The media says, “Storms are getting worse because of man-made climate change!” Are these “climate experts” sure it’s “man-made”? All of it? never mind

When I showed the late climatologist Pat Michaels a video of reporters discussing the strength of the hurricanes, he exclaimed, “No, they’re not! Look at all the hurricanes on the planet. We’ve been able to see them since 1970 because we’ve gone global with satellite coverage. We can measure their performance… There is no significant increase.” There isn’t.

Even our government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concedes, “There is no clear evidence of a centennial increasing trend in major U.S. hurricanes.”

There could be evidence in the future. But that doesn’t exist now. That doesn’t stop media buffs from saying it is.

Myth #4: America must have federal flood insurance. After all, private flood insurance costs “too much”.

But private insurers charge more for good reason: Homes in flood plains are flooded more often.

i should know I once built a house by the sea.

It was a stupid idea. The sea was only a stone’s throw away.

Private insurers wanted fat premiums. I couldn’t afford that. I wouldn’t have built if I hadn’t discovered the cheap government insurance. Thank you Uncle Sam!

Ten years later my house was washed away. It was annoying but I didn’t lose any money. you covered my loss

I won’t do it again, but others will.

Until we learn the myths about government “aid,” we will continue to make the same costly mistakes.

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