honestly don't think that new track maps will make a big impression on the public. i doubt it would alter emergency management response to things either. might look cool, but that's about it. on a good note, i've got a feeling that 2004 got the attention of most everybody in florida, and that the collective 'hurricane memory' is back to near common sense levels.
there's no good way to deal with the media side of things. they hype everything to death, and tend to have a narrow, locational focus (e.g., when andrew hit, the talk was miami this, miami that.. initially. who'd ever heard of homestead?). last year with charley, the nhc drew a line near tampa bay consistently, and the media ran with it. a less forgivable example was with ivan. the networks, fox in particular, decided that mobile sounded boring, so they reported endlessly on the threat to new orleans. the worst hit area ended up being gulf shores to pensacola.
a hurricane doesn't have to hit a major city to do major damage, but with the formula hype+exaggeration of probabilities=ratings, the media will spend a disproportionate amount of time on such stories.
HF 0703z03april