This is the worst storm of the last century. There were maximum danger warnings yesterday starting early in the morning—I saw them from 800 km away. Yet I’m seeing images of people trapped in shopping centers, Ikeas, and similar places, both workers and customers. What on earth were these people doing there? Why didn’t the authorities suspend economic activity? What could possibly be so urgent that you had to buy it at IKEA during a storm like this?
I don’t know about Spain but the weather forecasts and warnings in Germany have become kinda more sensationalist (or you could argue err on the side of caution for official warnings). And though we do have worse storms, people often experience that for their region it wasn’t as bad as predicted. That’s also why authorities avoid giving real orders. They don’t want to be blamed or held reliable when it doesn’t turn out to be ‘that bad’.
And a lot of people still don’t realise (or remember) how fast the elements can turn dangerous. And while employees might be forced into work, don’t underestimate how ignorant people in general can be.
That’s just my explanation.
It’s still absolutely horrible and a huge tragedy. I hope that aid will be swift and that no more lifes will be lost.
I don’t know what happens in Germany, but in Spain the media can be sensationalist about the issue sometimes, but official notices usually don’t. They are based on warning colors (yellow, orange, red and special red) when the warning is red there are always problems, not always deaths, but serious traffic problems and property damage at least.
It is true that on some occasions they have made mistakes with warnings that later did not amount to that much and this led to public debate, but these are specific occasions, most of the time when they usually warn they get messed up.
Yesterday the notice was special red
