Was the media's coverage of Hurricane Irene over-hyped?

NBC reporter Peter Alexander braves the strong winds on the Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn. (Craig Ruttle/AP)

The remnants of Hurricane Irene are dumping heavy rain on Quebec and Atlantic Canada Monday morning after hitting the U.S. Eastern Seaboard over the weekend.

Irene left at least 21 dead in eight states, caused massive flooding, and paralyzed air and ground transportation. Early estimates put the damage in the United States at around $7 billion US.

Still, the hurricane was not as powerful as some forecasts predicted. Some people have criticized media for what they called overblown coverage, and governments for issuing such dire warnings.

"All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," said President Barack Obama on Friday.

And New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg last week ordered 370,000 residents to evacuate their homes in low-lying areas. Bloomberg defended his decision saying it was impossible to know just how powerful the storm would be.

Comments on CBCNews.ca were divided on how the storm was covered by the news media and CBC in particular.

CBC Community member tj2010 called it, "Sickeningly over-hyped coverage."

"The media surely blew this one out of proportion. The specter of Katrina will linger for a long time," said MaxThrax.

 "What a bunch of babies! Humans have been coping with hurricanes forever - get used to it," said Stay tuned.

However, the majority of the comments - and the highest-rated ones - said the coverage and warnings were reasonable for a hurricane of this size.

"Another obvious reason why Americans get annoyed with our (Canadians) arrogance. To sit up here and call people in the path of a hurricane a bunch of babies is embarrassing and pathetic," said Setec Astronomy.

 "To all the people complaining that the government and media have blown this hurricane/storm out of proportion... there were still 14 deaths so far," said prairiegirl76 on Sunday. "How many deaths might there have been if some people had not taken the extra precautions? No one can say. But is it not better to be safe than sorry?" she said.

"Meteorology is not a perfect science," said Dave11. "It's a forecast, a prediction of what MAY happen... We have to prepare for disasters based on what we know MAY happen. This storm could easily have been a category 3 hurricane when it hit landfall," he said.

Do you think the government warnings were too severe? Was the media's coverage of Hurricane Irene over-hyped? Let us know what you think.




(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)