The national hurricane warning system is designed to limit fatalities. That important duty should not be interfered with by business interests.
Myrtle Beach is leading a squall over the National Hurricane Center's use of a five-day forecast during Hurricane Isabel this month. It replaced the old three-day forecast, and its first tour of duty was amazingly accurate.
But some tourism interests now complain that the window is too broad on a five-day forecast and it can unnecessarily cause tourists to cancel or delay trips to a beach that never sees a whiff of the hurricane.
It is true that a five-day forecast is less accurate than a three-day forecast. But their argument is fatally flawed. People are going to get the latest information on hurricane projections at least five days out, no matter what information the business interests try to withhold.
Thanks to cable television and the Internet, there will be no blackout on up-to-the-minute information. Thanks to newspapers and local television and radio stations, warnings about local conditions and potential hazards are widely known. Local and state government leaders, in addition to the National Hurricane Center, want the public to be well informed. They want people to make travel decisions based on the best probabilities. They want people out of harm's way.
It has taken many years to build up a public appreciation for hurricane information, and there are simply too many messengers out there for any special-interest group to shoot.
The longer forecast can actually help beach business. While it may warn people away from some areas, it can give a green light to others. On Hilton Head Island, a great sigh of relief about the projected path of Hurricane Isabel was breathed on Sunday -- four days before Isabel came ashore in North Carolina.
What the general public and the business sector must recognize is that hurricanes -- despite the best technology to predict them -- are fickle. They can speed up, slow down, turn left, tick a few degrees to the north and totally botch forecasts. Everyone must err on the side of safety. And they must accept the earliest hurricane projections for what they are: our nation's best, good-faith effort to save lives. It is not a matter of dollars. It is a matter of sense.