Florida native and syndicated radio host Joe Pags discussed Tuesday his days as a news reporter covering severe storms in South Florida.
Pags was raised in Lake Worth, Florida and attended Santaluces Community High School in Lantana. He began his radio career in Palm Beach.
He was reacting to the news of Hurricane Ian which reportedly made landfall Wednesday afternoon near Cayo Costa State Park just north of Sanibel and Captiva Islands.
“As you know I grew up in Florida, we faced hurricanes all the time, and I covered hurricanes on television and radio,” Pags said.
In 2004, Pags covered Hurricane Charley which made landfall at 150 mph. According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm cost the State of Florida an estimated $13.5 billion in damage.
“I know a lot about hurricanes and lived through them with my family and lived through them in my adult life covering them for the news,” he said.
Pags said social media adds another dynamic to hurricane coverage. He said he’s seen many posts where people are calling Hurricane Ian karma for Florida Ron DeSantis sending illegal migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
“It’s not a couple of people, it’s a lot of people,” said Pags. What bothers me is that they just don’t have any humanity or they’re not smart enough to know that that is completely inappropriate. I want everybody in Florida left, right, or middle to be fine.”
“If we can’t be more human about this, who are we?” This is what social media has done to us,” he added.
