Chris Smith: You read ’Danger! Don’t go!’ and what do you want to do?

The journalistic instinct, I do believe, is sound.

Imagine that weather conditions are turning extreme. Floodwaters gather on low-lying country roads. Or the ocean surf is rising up, dramatically so. People caught unaware could be in danger.

So TV news reporters bundle up and drive out to shoot video of the escalating natural peril. We see them on the 6 o’clock news, leaning into the buffeting wind and rain or snow, perhaps filming cars that slide on ice or plow slowly through standing or streaming water as high as the wheel wells.

Readers of the PD, too, are quite familiar with stories and photos that warn of weather-dealt danger. I’ve written some over the years.

As I work on this column, the lead headline at pressdemocrat.com reads, “High surf warning issued Sunday for Sonoma Coast; breaking waves could reach 28 feet.”

A quoted meteorologist warns that it could be fatal to be struck by a wave and pulled into the cold ocean. He pleads, “We encourage people to stay away from the beaches, and away from the water if they go to the beach.”

The intended message of the cautionary story couldn’t be more plain: Steer clear.

But it seems inescapable that one effect of such media coverage is to set into motion who knows how many people who’d previously given no thought to a trip to the coast, but suddenly can’t wait to get out and see the big waves.

“I think it is just human nature,” said Steve Baxman, for decades a primary guardian of the lower Russian River and west Sonoma County in his role as chief of the Monte Rio Fire Protection District.

“It’s just like when we get a tidal wave alert and they flock to the beach to watch! Or a big fire is going and everybody wants to take pictures and watch.”

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JUST LAST SUNDAY, Baxman was on the coast near Goat Rock State Beach, part of a corps of first responders who scanned the surf with their hearts in their throats after a wave knocked down and dragged in a man and his two small children.

Newcomer to Sonoma County Michael Wyman, a 40-year-old attorney and solar-power entrepreneur, was pulled out of the water but could not be revived. His daughter, Anna, 7, and his son, John, 4, have not been recovered.

Chief Baxman was back out at the coast on Friday. The weather was still inhospitable, the surf still high.

Even so, Baxman said, “The place was crowded.”

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I DO WONDER if for the media to scream “Danger! Stay away!” makes matters worse, by attracting lookie-loos. For the most part, it seems to me, sensible and aware people don’t need to be told that amid severe weather it can be hazardous to be out and about.

As I write that, it does occur to me that there are people who would not know that a certain stretch of coastline is especially treacherous at times of high surf, or that particular roads are extremely vulnerable to sudden flooding. They should be told.

Perhaps they could be warned through subtly phrased words to the wise, rather than through dramatic news footage, photos and prose that say “Stay away” but for some convey “Come quick.”

You can contact Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.