In 1999, Hurricane Irene moved across South Florida. When the storm was well south of the area, the National Hurricane Center posted a Hurricane Watch and a Tropical Storm Warning for Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, as well as various watches and warnings for other parts of Florida. In addition, the NWS office in Miami issued a Flood Watch for all of South Florida.

The warnings turned out to be exactly right. Winds reached Tropical Storm force and flooding was widespread. To varying degrees, the local governments, however, chose to ignore the warnings. Broward County government declared "business as usual".

Six people died in Broward County and two in Miami-Dade County from walking through puddles charged by downed power lines and driving into swollen canals. Clearly, if they had stayed inside and let the dangerous conditions pass, these people would not have died.

This past season, Hurricane Michelle approached from a similar direction. Again, a Tropical Storm Warning was issued for South Florida. And, again, Broward County declared "business as usual". This paper discusses the appropriate media response given the events of two years before.

In addition, the paper will look at the great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (the strongest hurricane ever to hit the United States) and examine how we would respond today.