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You are right that some of these homes can't contain anyone who is still alive but clearly there are areas where people are desperately awaiting rescue. I'm watching FOX coverage right now. They have been waiting for at least the last 15 minutes for one rooftop rescue to be completed.

Each of these water rescues takes quite a bit of time and getting to everyone in an area so big by boat and helicopter is clearly an impossible task.

I'm assuming the news crews are observing all these rooftop rescues from other helicopters. While I understand that those choppers may be private resources, I do have to wonder if staying in one spot for 15 minutes with one helicopter simply observing a pick up by another is the best use of such valuable resources. While they are shooting film for their networks, you would think they would at least keep moving and try to locate and relay the locations of people in need. Time is running out for many after almost a week.

I could be wrong and this film may be coming from another military helicopter and they may be required to travel and work in pairs. But if so, they do seem to be using these second helicopters in news chopper fashion primarily for filming. I would just hate to see one person die for the sake of filming the dramatic rescue of another.

The rescue copters are working in pairs and much of the rescue footage you see is shot from them. One does the work, the other one is either a backup in case something goes wrong - or it's loaded with Marines and door gunners in case someone shoots at them.

The few newscopters that are up are *very* restricted as to fuel and are almost always of the Jetranger class without winches - short of landing on a house, they can't pick anyone up anyway. That said, in some of the news footage, I've seen private Jetrangers (and larger) doing exactly that and participating in the airlifts.

I've been listening all afternoon to an online relay of NOPD scanner. They speak to each other in "north" and "west" GPS coordinates only. They say things like "two male, one elderly" "two females/one male, one dog" because they're describing the rooftop occupants. Then, I guess there must be faster pluck'em choppers, and then medical rescue choppers, which clearly take longer. The scanner has also been discussing an oil leak somewhere that's been ongoing for hours.