Deciphering the Real from the Fake: Hurricane Sandy Edition

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If you watched some of the Hurricane coverage, you’d think the world had come to an end in New Jersey, New York and other areas affected by Hurricane Sandy.  While  there are a lot of people that have lost homes, and some areas were severely damaged, if you’d look at some of the images from this post on Buzzfeed proclaiming to be of the New York area during Hurricane Sandy, they depict the worst case scenario.  I won’t repost a lot them here, as people posted them all over social media during the storm.  None of them are real.  Many of these are photoshopped.  One is even from the movie the Day After Tomorrow and that pair of pics are below.  The first one is from the movie, the second is photoshopped.

Movie

Photoshopped

 

The video below is a good summation of the extent of the real damage.  There has been A LOT of devastation but nothing that is as sensational as a wave smacking into the Statue of Liberty.

Before you go blindly clicking share, please just check a REAL news source.  JUST because it was on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram doesn’t mean it was TRUE!!  Sources I would trust are your local news channels, The Weather Channel and if you have a scanner you might want to seek out your local SkyWarn frequency.  These are trained weather spotters and broadcasters that talk directly to the weather service reporting what they see providing vital information to the National Weather Service so they can advise the authorities on possible warning updates and storm damage.

This was a serious storm, and many towns were devastated, leaving people with damaged homes, or no homes at all. You can check out Judie’s tips on how to help, and Dan’s post on how he survived the storm, and how he can make the next one easier. In addition, there are two major lessons to take away from this storm. On the one hand, you want to use your head with respect to what you see on social media. It’s far too easy to photoshop and cause further confusion or panic. At the same time, listen to reputable sources, from the National Weather Service to your local news, and if you are ordered to evacuate or take other emergency measures, do it!

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About the Author

Joel McLaughlin
Joel is a consultant in the IT field and is located in Columbus, OH. While he loves Linux and tends to use it more than anything else, he will stoop to running closed source if it is the best tool for the job. His techno passions are Linux, Android, netbooks, GPS, podcasting and Amateur Radio.