Copy editors wanted in Nassau and Hempstead

It's easy to make typos when writing on blogs or creating posters for a news conference. This blog will probably have one or two.

But giving the wrong directions for emergency evacuations on a full-color mailer sent to county residents?

Sure,  on Tuesday, Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen gave a news conference standing next to a poster that said: "Supervisor Laura Gillen's 2019 budget proposal.....1.5 percent tax cut" even though she was clearly talking about her 2020 budget.  Mistakes happen. Nobody was misled.

But a county mailer from Nassau's Emergency Management Office describing four emergency evacuation routes for residents south of Sunrise Highway gives the wrong directions for "Route D."

The mailer directs evacuees to Farmingdale via the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway, to Hempstead Turnpike and then Clinton Street. "Turn left into the Suny Farmingdale College Campus ice road to exit at Charles Lindbergh Blvd."

Wait. What? Charles Lindbergh Blvd is in Mitchel Field, not Farmingdale.

"Continue on Charles Lindbergh Blvd. Turn right on Earl Ovington Blvd. Proceed into the Nassau Community College..."

Nassau Community College is in Uniondale, miles away from the Suny Farmingdale College Campus.

It's apparent that paragraphs from "Route C" were lifted and printed in "Route D." But does that help people fleeing an emergency?

County spokespersons did not immediately respond to questions about the error. Or how much it will cost to correct.

But this is when it becomes clear that copy editors -- the people who are paid to correct spelling, grammar and factual mistakes -- are in short supply these days. Even though they're needed as much as ever.


Comments

  1. squirrelmamaSeptember 27, 2019 at 3:02 PM

    The implications of this are frightening. Not because mistakes can happen - often they do, and mostly they're for minor things - but evacuations are not a trivial matter.

    ReplyDelete

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