When Citizens face an obstacle that scares them, makes them run and take cover, hurts them, is that terrorism?

Question

I am confused;

I am aware of public warnings about Pending Terrorist Attacks, Outbreaks of Diseases, Serial Killers and Rapists being reported on the news media outlets as Terrorism Alerts, but I have to rely on the local Weatherman/Meteorologist for the serious attacks to my Community if/when tornados and hurricanes are approaching.

I respect my Weathermen/Meteorologists very highly, but I'd rather hear from an Emergency Management Official or Homeland Security/FEMA Official to tell me to evacuate my premises. I want to hear from the Weatherman/Meteorologist about the prewarnings of these disaster causing attacks, but seeing the terrorism warning systems recognize people and diseases, but not things I have to take some kind of action on, personally, bothers me.

Comments, opinions??

Answer 1

In a way, your weather man is an Emergency Management Official.  The TV station is a publicly licensed institution that bears a responsibility to tell you and local officials weather warnings.

I think that's what terrorism will mean in a few years.  However, by definition terrorism refers to an act done to achieve an ideological or political objective by creating fear in the public population...  Something our government is good at.

Sorry about this too but, Homeland Security is more apt to bug your phone than tell you about a tornado, and FEMA acts after the fact.  It's best to rely on the weather man.

Answer 2

I don't think you can count weather related incidents as terrorism.  Some may be terrorized by weather, but terrorism is initiated by humans.

NOAA is the nation-wide "EMO" for weather alerts.  NO AA weather radios issue Watches, Warnings and Alerts issued by NOAA.  

In my opinion, I would trust the weatherman on weather issues.  During weather events, I tune to the local TV stations and I also monitor the NOAA radio for alerts.  Waiting for EMO, in my opinion, takes too long.  EMO will have to digest the same information I am getting from the weatherman and NOAA, decide who to warn, issue the warning, and then wait for the news media to broadcast that warning.  

I don't know where you live or what weather disasters you might face.  When it comes to weather, the best judge of when to shelter or flee should be YOU.

Answer 3

I don't know what part of the country you live in, but I think you can trust your meteorologists when there's a storm coming.  That's what they're trained to do.  

I lived in Oklahoma, the tornado capitol of everywhere.  When there was stormy weather coming, they could tell you almost what street it was on.  They would pre-empt everything on TV and there was a map in the corner of the TV screen with the radar returns.  They were in their element.