You Better Hope Those Hurricanes Really Do Only Come Every Ten Or 20 Years Because Do You Really Think These Same People Are Going To Buy This Much Tuna Fish Ever Again?

No one knows, or is saying, exactly when the administration understood that Irene was going to weaken, and despite what many are calling “universal praise” for the actions undertaken to Save Lives!, the overreaction seems to have worked (“He wanted to go from bozo of the blizzard to hero of the hurricane”) — at least until the next big storm, when people will probably not pay as much attention to the words of caution.

“Bloomberg, he did O.K., but he made people crazy and spend a lot of money,” said [. . .] a building superintendent on 44th Drive in Long Island City, Queens, just outside the Zone A low-lying evacuation area. He said he had spent $200 on supplies on Friday and $67 on a fill-up.

“Water, batteries, tuna fish, other food in a can,” he said. “For what? Believe me, people spent a lot of money on this. The tuna fish and the other food, O.K., we’re going to eat it. I don’t need all this water and batteries, though.”