and look what happened to him.

Seriously, the news media (both local and national) loves sensational video, especially today with so many 24 hour news networks. They've got a lot of airtime to fill and hurricane coverage is relatively cheap. All you need is a camera operator, a talking head, and an uplink.

A couple years ago, I saw a hilarious news blooper. It featured some local reporter siting in a rowboat talking about how serious the flooding was during a storm. Just behind her, a pickup truck drove by. Her boat was sitting in about a foot of water.

If it bleeds, it leads. While storm coverage isn't as interesting as a good murder, it's apparently the next best thing.