Posted on 08/30/2005 10:10:45 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
It is with heavy heart I write this...
I have finally reconnected with my best friend who is a paramedic who was sent from Georgia 2 days ago to Gulf Port, Mississippi before the hurricane hit.
He just reached me within the last 10 mins via emergency cell phone to tell me he was alive.
Thousands of bodies have been discovered throughout Mississippi in Gulf Port, Waveland,Hancock County,Bay of St.Louis.
They are hanging in trees and they are pulling them out 30 at a time. Entire families found drowned in their homes and washing up on shore.
The stories he could tell me were brief. National Guard is on the scene and arresting anyone seen on the streets.
The numbers are staggering and what I have been told tonight will shake people to their foundation as the numbers will be coming out in the next 24-hours of just how many people have actually perished in these and 3 other beach communities.
More to follow....
IMHO...Teddy needs to be Cindy Sheehan's personal driver on her "Hate America" tour.
We just don't--or wouldn't--know . . . yet.
Oh sorry, I thought you were responding to one of my posts from here w/o the link.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473113/posts?page=724#724
As horrible as this is, I think that any one who believes there will only be a few hundred casualities, is in deep denial.
I am so sick and tired of people like you saying this is all some sort of big punishment from God.
If that is the way it works, then why doesn't he regularly wipe out prisons and brothels?
Give me a break.
I suppose you think a woman wearing a mini skirt deserves to get raped, too?
I believe it's been referred to as "Sean Hannity Syndrome" (SHS).
Fantastic set of links AliVeritas...I will be notifying many on my usual bump list.
Indeed. If I wanted to listen to that crap I'd get a shortwave and tune in al-Jazeera.
He was here last night for the post.
" they're supposedly in plain sight in the killer trees"
A tree acts just like a fish net to things being washed along by 20' of water.
"Rockwellian family groups down on the beach or in their homes.
~2/3 of the folks stayed. There's a lot of slabs and tangled piles left.
And may our many lost fellow Americans...especially the children and the helpless...rest well in peace. Heaven hold them tightly.
Hah!
Hugh Hewitt
http://hughhewitt.com/archives/2005/08/28-week/index.php#a000171
Responsibility
August 30, 2005 11:15 PM PST
At the time of the Los Angeles riots, I wrote a piece for the May 3, 1992 Los Angeles Times titled "When Television Throws a Riot." It isn't available in the online archives, but the thrust of it was that televsion coverage can and does communicate invitations to lawlessness which are acted on by people who realize that there is no threat of police arriving and arrest.
This same dynamic seems to be taking over in New Orleans right now, and even though very few folks are watching television with the power out, news still travels instantly, and television producers have got to discipline themselves to refuse to broadcast pictures of and locations of looting, especially in the areas outside of New Orleans. The government cannot enforce such a ban, but it is very much in the interest of the people in the devastated region these media outlets purport to serve to downplay civil unrest. The national shows also need to avoid throwing fuel on the fire. If you want more civil unrest, broadcast pictures of civil unrest and the cell phones and blackberries will do the rest.
I am also concerned that Senator Vitter is correct that media reports are adding to an overall sense of panic in New Orleans. Time for the media folks who have been up for 36 or 48 hours to go home and take a shift off, and let cooler, fresher heads make the news calls.
Similarly, moderators at bulletin boards have to be careful to avoid allowing fear mongers to post junk without any sources whatsoever. There's enough dire news as it is. Rumors only add to the worry and fear of families that are out of communication.
I would appreciate any pointers to (1)coast guard bloggers, (2)civil engineering blogs that are discussing the levee breaks, and (3)word on whether the elevators in the many high rises in downtown New Orleans have been checked for trapped people.
I expect that the outpouring of generosity by Americans on behalf of Americans will surprise us all. See Insatpundit for a list of organizations, and N.Z. Bear for a list of bloggers participating in Thursday's Blogs-across-America relief effort.
Bravo to You Big Mouth You for highlighting corporate generosity.
My e-mail is hugh@hughhewitt.com.
Rule of thumb: In any disaster any government will under report fatalities by a factor of ten.
I saw that it looks like all along the La/Ms/Al coast everything within 400 yards of the Gulf of Mexico was gone, nothing but slabs of concrete, yea a few steel building here and there still stood. Truely it was a tsunami, a 30 foot tall miles long tsunami.
Maybe they are talking about the death toll. It's one thing to fear the total destruction of buildings. However, would anyone expect that residents would stay to weather the storm?
A poster put up a report on FR this morning from a paramedic source that those on the ground know there are bodies all over and that it's not being reported. Immediately this poster was trashed by some.
My point is that I believe the report from our freeper's source will be borne out and that the MSM is ignoring this aspect although they are assiduous in investigating every hang nail suffered by our troops in Iraq.
If the boots on the ground observe widespread corpses, then it should be reported. If the boots are debunked or are exaggerating, this should be reported also. The subject is being skirted, in my opinion. Maybe it's an unspoken agreement among the MSM to avoid panic, I don't know.
No one is castigating officials in the hurricane zones. They can only count the casualties as they are verified.
Leni
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