New York City shut down on the advice of meteorologists for a blizzard that never showed, but BYU-Hawaii students said, regardless, they think it is good to be prepared. At the end of January, New York remained unscathed despite National Weather Service predictions, while the Midwest and New England took a hit of “actual historic amounts of snowfall with considerably less hype,” wrote the Huffington Post. “Though the storm didn’t hit as hard in New York, it’s always better to be over-prepared than not,” said Dom Lacroix, a junior majoring in psychology. Lacroix, who is from Connecticut, said her home on the coast was flooded and they were snowed in. Residents of the Northeastern United States got ready for the storm by stocking up a few days worth of necessities to prepare for what the National Weather Service said could be a “raging blizzard,” said CNN.Melanie Hynes, a sophomore from Arizona majoring in international cultural studies, said, “This is why we, as members of the church, are advised to have 72-hour kits and ample food storage. It’s harder here in Hawaii because of the humidity, but I am sure those members in the East who had the resources were feeling blessed that they listened.” Those who live on Oahu know false weather warnings well. “We prepared for Hurricane Ana just as those on the East Coast prepared for the blizzard. Sometimes all we can do is pray that we dodged the storm,” commented accounting major Ana Portugal, a junior from Houston, Texas. Atmospheric scientist Adam Sobel wrote on CNN’s website, “Good weather forecasts and well-informed, proactive emergency preparation and management save lives and property. Those are great benefits to society…but it's also important to understand that the unavoidable cost of enjoying these benefits is that sometimes, the problem won't be as bad as forecast, and so some decisions might seem unnecessary after the fact.”Tune into http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/ for extreme Oahu’s weather reports. Uploaded Feb. 5, 2015
Writer: Morgynne Tora
