[chucks]

I'm sure that there are 200-500 dead, but several thousand? Pulling bodies out of trees and homes, etc. and absolutely no mention of this from the MSM? How can that be? How or why would the rescuers stay silent? Would the governors, state officials, etc. not get the word out?

Either the 'friend' is playing a terrible hoax on you and you repeated it at this forum, or...

Sorry, I just can't believe it without corroborating news from a reputable source.

[petitfour]

Go to the www.clarionledger.com. From what I read there, this report seems to jive with what MS officials are saying and not saying.

[DB]

There's no access to much of the destroyed areas. It is going to take time (weeks) before we really no the extent of it all.

[HamiltonJay]

The Main Stream media is NOT imbedded with rescuers... getting to these sites is still difficult at best... as access gets easier, they will report the numbers...

Or you could take the cynical approach and say they aren't reporting them for dramatic effect and to keep you watching...

[JennysCool]

Unfortunately, it sees like it is that bad already in some areas:

GULFPORT, MISS. - Stunned residents emerged from shelters and homes Tuesday to start assessing the massive damage left by Hurricane Katrina as rescuers pulled bodies from crushed homes and apartments near the coast.

The death toll in this hard-hit county rose to more than 100, but officials believe that number will rise. "There's so much rubble, we won't know for a while. But I fully expect the number to be in the hundreds," said Jason Green, assistant to the Harrison County coroner.

In an auxiliary morgue downtown, hearses unloaded bodies uncovered by search-and-rescue teams.

"Several families have brought in their dead," Green said.

County Supervisor Connie Rockco said it appears the heaviest loss of life was in east Biloxi, where an apartment building collapsed and killed 30 people.

"But there are fatalities from one end of the county to the other," Rockco said. - Houston Chronicle

[DJ MacWoW]

I'm sure that there are 200-500 dead, but several thousand?

Whole cities are obliterated. And most did not evacuate. So...why is it hard to believe?

[petitfour]

Here is a quote from Haley Barbour: "Speaking about the reported death toll of more than 100, Barbour said, "that number ... is not where the number is going to stop."

It is in a story here: http://www.thejacksonchannel.com/weather/4918567/detail.html

[R. Scott]

How or why would the rescuers stay silent?

They might just be a bit too busy to fill out the paperwork or hold a news conference.

[petitfour]

Here's more from the same story mentioned above:

"It's clear the death toll on the Mississippi Gulf Coast will rise sharply in the days to come.

"We are very, very worried that this (death toll) is going to go a lot higher," said Joe Spraggins, civil defense director for Harrison County, home to Biloxi and Gulfport. "We're just estimating but the number could go double or triple from what we're talking now."

One Hurricane Katrina survivor after another told stories of friends and loved ones who floated off or disappeared as the floodwaters rose around them.

American Medical Response Operations Supervisor Mark Williams said paramedics on the scene say the devastation is so great that they won't quit counting bodies for days."

[vetvetdoug]

FreeRepublic is a much more reliable source than the MSM. Stay around awhile and you will see. I knew that missiles were sent by Clintoon half a day before he did it by reading FR. With your criteria, the only way I'd found out would have been when Cohen lied to MTP about the issue.