Florida Sheriff’s Office: Don’t Shoot at Hurricane Irma – By Megan Trimble (USNews.conm) / Sept 11 2017
As Hurricane Irma continues to impact Florida, officials there have dispatched some curious advice alongside more typical storm warnings: Please don’t fire weapons at the storm.
“To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma. You won’t make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effects,” the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office tweeted over the weekend.
The warning comes after a Facebook event, “Shoot At Hurricane Irma,” circulated online and drew some 56,000 replies of interest. Pasco County is north of Tampa, along Florida’s west coast.
Ryon Edwards, 22, told the BBC that “a combination of stress and boredom” prompted him to start the event. Edwards said he was surprised by the response.
“I never envisioned this event becoming some kind of crazy idea larger than myself. It has become something a little out of my control,” he said.
On Sunday morning, the day of the scheduled event, Edwards also posted on Facebook that “about 50% of the world could not understand sarcasm to save their lives.” He additionally said he thought law enforcement “would understand the humor behind” the Facebook page, according to USA Today.
There’s no evidence that anyone has actually shot at the storm – or been injured doing so – but the original shooting page reportedly led to the creation of other similar groups, including one that suggested using flamethrowers to dispel the storm.
But along with such seemingly ridiculous Facebook suggestions came serious advice to consider. Wildlife threats, for example, are among the potential dangers in the storm fallout.
“After storms, be alert to wildlife – snakes, alligators, etc. may have been displaced as a result of strong winds or rain. #Irma,” the Florida Department of Health tweeted Monday.
Hurricane Irma left millions without power and reportedly has been linked to at least five deaths in Florida, according to ABC News. The storm made landfall in the Florida Keys over the weekend as a Category 4 hurricane and has since been downgraded to a tropical storm as it takes aim at Georgia.
PB/TK – We are a special kind of stupid society for 56,000 folks to reply to a dimwitted social media post “shoot at Hurricane Irma” that the police had to too take time to want everyone not to do it. Yet I do believe a couple hundred folks did shoot anyway
