Tropical Storm Katia Tracks in Irene’s Footsteps, Finds Disaster Fatigue on Twitter

Hurricane season is far from over, but it seems as though people are already feeling the effects – I’m talking about disaster fatigue.

A complicated concept, it involves any of the following symptoms: General apathy, specific apathy toward any discussion of said event, hopelessness, anger over unchangeable circumstances, tendency to expect the worst, humor in response to frightening possibilities and so on an so forth.

On the heels of Hurricane Irene, a weather event that not only battered the east coast of the United States but battered people’s psyche with social media overload, we have Tropical Storm Katia. Recently updated from a Tropical Depression to a Tropical Storm, Katia is currently moving across the Atlantic.

And the internet is flustered.

Right now, Katia is moving Northwest at about 17 MPH, around 500 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. Projections say that the storm might intensify into a Category 3 Hurricane or stronger by the end of the week. Some models indicate that the storm might turn north before hitting the east coast of the U.S., but other suggest that it could take a path similar to Irene.

Twitter is talking about Katia, and the responses range from frustration to disbelief to apathy and back around to borderline panic. Here’s what I mean by disaster fatigue –

Hurricane Irene slammed the east coast over the weekend leaving over 30 people dead and over 6 million without power. Flooding has been a huge problem in many different states, but some questioned whether or not the event was over-hyped from the start. Some said that the hurricane didn’t hit with the ferocity that was predicted while others quoted the above stats in an effort to relay the seriousness of the storm.

Remember some of the thoughts about Irene?

If Katia intensifies and moves toward the east coast, can you imagine how it will explode across social media?

Irene did a lot of damage to the east coast and people are still reeling. Katia is the 11th named storm of the season. Historically, the 11th named storm of the season doesn’t come until late November. Let’s just hope that Katia veers north and leaves us the hell alone.

[Image Courtesy Weather Underground]