Little of the national TV is showing the small MS towns wiped out by this.
As of Thursday, a friend of mine STILL hadn't heard from her family in south MS --- who lived at least 1 1/2 hours drive inland from the coast!
I think 80 MPH winds came through that section. No phone service, no electricity, etc.
It's a small rural area, so neighbors are most likely helping each other. But she was hoping to hear something soon!
re: shortage of news about MS deaths:
There are a lot of people who are out of contact with their friends and relatives in MS. For most, that lack of contact is because phones are down. For some unknown percentage, the lack of contact is because the people are dead
The Gulf Coast is a big area. If the news media broadcast lots of stuff about large numbers of deaths, you would have hundreds of thousands of concerned people clogging the roads to the affected areas to go and find out what happened to their relatives and friends. I don't think the government wants that while theyre still working on rescue efforts