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....
And if the first tower had not been hit so high up trapping fewer people.
And if the second tower, which was hit so much lower, had been hit soon after the first tower allowing fewer people to get out.
One more concidence: it was also primary election day for mayor, so many were late to work because they were voting.
ping
FYI........this thread has been linked to at Hugh Hewitt's blog. Calling it junk with no support.
http://www.hughhewitt.com/
corroborating, I posted this at 3pm yesterday:
Disturbing news, I just heard from a friend that had family in Bay St Louis that there are many, many dead there, almost everything near beach gone. They are going through rubble and marking the doors with X's because they have no other way to deal with them at this point, this is going to end up being ground zero and likely "hundreds and hundreds" of casualties. He said maybe thousands, but this is not an official statement.
Houses 15 and 20' high and there is nothing left-- no sign there was ever a building.
These folks live less than 60 miles from NOLA and are well aware of what hurricanes can do. They made their own individual decisions.
Read between the lines of this story:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/30/katrina.mississippi/index.html
"The death toll will be rising" is about an accurate description by the media as you're gonna get. I think we may never know the complete number of deaths from this hurricane for a while.
I wouldn't gauge the number of dead by the amount of debris on the ground. Hopefully many got out in time.
CNN reporting the same this morning & showing pics of many houses with just shreds of building materials & foundations left.
I wouldn't go that far. There's plenty of reporting outside of NOLA. Let's be real, this storm was huge, there's no possible way the media could cover every square inch of the debris field left by this massive hurricane. Katrina was 500+ miles wide.
If it's any comfort, just read that my state is sending Utah Task Force Team One (28 firefighters / 6 logistic specialists) to assist with rescue efforts and unfortunately, body recovery.
My prayers go out to your family and everyone else who has been directly affected by this tragedy.
JellyJam,
I spent years working on newspapers and magazines also, and as I've been watching this on TV it is pretty obvious the media just isn't getting the full scale of the disaster out yet.
Don't know why. I've seen and heard reports where the reporters were actually choked up. If they are there seeing this with their own eyes I can only guess it is because they are trying to help authorities keep a major panic at bay.
So Hugh thinks it can't be news until the New York Times has the story?
MFH is no noob.
We have beat the MSM with breaking stories hundreds of times because of first hand accounts coming here first.
When the space shuttle disaster first came to us, it was also "junk with not support".
Time will tell.
Funny...nothing on the MSM and they have reporters crawling all over ther area you say your friend is at.
Color me skeptical.
Holding back tears no doubt. Displaying a very human and compassionate quality he has for his fellow citizens.
They've reported very similar items on CNN within the past 30 minutes - special teams going around with spray cans marking bodies out in the open and houses containing bodies.
The message comes in loud and clear to me--respect the power of nature. Other than that, God hasn't called me on this one.
I do not pretend to know what God is thinking at the moment. I never have. "Like a thief in the night" That is all I know.
That is the only "God's message" I will post. :-)
The Shuttle was not "junk without support" cause I was on those threads.
I've seen the aerial video and monitored the reports all day.
Nothing anywhere else but this guy is claiming "thousands of bodies handing from the trees".
Think about it.
It's true. Not sure about the exact numbers but my friend yesterday who told me about marking th red x's said that the numbers were going to be shocking. that was on the ground in Bay St. Louis, MS
Not sure why they are not reporting it, maybe to keep the area from becoming too crowded with family members?
I've heard those...but this guy is claiming reports...unconfirmed of "bodies hanging from the trees...thousands of them"
Even the local podunk news station would have gotten a story out like that by now.
Think about it now. I do news for a living.
I'm still not buying what he says.
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