Any discussion about whether Hurricane Irene was gratuitously hyped by meteorologists and cable news anchors has to be muted by the fact that a reported 46 have died because of the storm.
But when you realize that a much stronger hurricane, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 killed 20 less people, you might want to question the genesis of some of those deaths, especially the two registered in Florida, where Irene never hit.
The St. Petersburg Times Emily Nipps has, and in an outstanding story out today, documents how the two fatalities in Florida attributed to Irene may in fact, not be.
This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2011.