Been watching Ike coverage on Direct TV (361) and something is very fishy

[wanpete]

showing extremely limited views of devastation. on the ground anchors are running into people that have no water or ice and have no idea when it's coming...anchors are starting to ask questions about the response...won't report any numbers related to fatalities or missing people...something really stinks here.

Seems like the beginnings of shades of Katrina.

[flamingdem]

1. We need independent news media doing interviews there

I hope Indymedia is on this.

[wanpete]

10. they claim that they can't get aerial views of the devastation. that's preposterous.

seems like they don't want Gov. Perry to look bad. especially since Jindal was the star of the show when the hurricane came during the convention. of course, now that their convention is over, who cares what happens to folks if another hits.

this whole thing stinks and something is very rotten in Denmark. There definitely needs to be some independent journalism going on there quick fast and in a hurry.

[EFerrari]

16. The airport is closed and the Feds have restricted the air space.

That's why they can't get aerial views.

[wanpete]

17. why have the feds restricted the airspace. a plane can fly over the area from another airport??

[EFerrari]

18. Imo, to control information. Skeletor would probably say

to stay out of the way of first responders and clean up crews.

[kath]

25. Don't want pictures of floating bodies. Wouldn't be prudent at this juncture.

(channeling Dana Carvey channeling Poopy Bush)

[flamingdem]

20. THAT IS PATHETIC I AM FURIOUS

How dare they control the image of this tragedy!

[EFerrari]

22. That's the only thing BushCo knows how to do. n/t

[jobycom]

42. Keep in mind that the only rescues on Galveston are by air, so there are a lot

of aircraft in a very narrow region. Earlier, there were private, local, and national media aircraft covering the area. There is a lot of aerial coverage already filmed. Our government is not very pristine, but there are legitimate safety issues here.

For some videos: http://www.khou.com/video/news-browse.html

[Ghost Dog]

52. Keep an eye on Houston Indymedia here:

http://houston.indymedia.org/

And New Orleans Indymedia, of course, is here: http://neworleans.indymedia.org/

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. ...

:kick:

[MiniMe]

3. It's an election year. They don't want people to know how many peope

died and how no help is getting there. Might remind people of Katrina.

[EFerrari]

4. They just said MREs and water will be distributed

and more is on the way.

[glowing]

5. Yep, they don't want to report how bad it is because it looks bad for Bush and pugs and the gov

of TX which is a pug.. But to be sure, its not good. How long before those nice people standing outside the store, won't start forcing themselves into the store for supplies... Can you imagine if this storm had been a 3 or 4? AND seriosly, no numbers about deaths? Or injuries... It is really fishy. AND the city is shut down... nothing in or out..

[flvegan]

6. I thought I saw a 500 vehicle convoy of first responders

on the television yesterday. Where the hell are they?

[EFerrari]

8. Some of them arrived last nght and they're setting up to distibute now. n/t

[flvegan]

12. Excellent. That's good to hear. n/t

[jobycom]

7. How is that shades of Katrina?

With Katrina, there were bodies in the water, and many reports from the first moment of tremendous casualties. There are no reports like this for Ike. People have been interviewed all over the island, and Crystal Beach, and nearby towns, and no one is talking about floating bodies or collapsed buidlings with bodies inside.

[wanpete]

14. not speaking about floating bodies, but the lack of preparation and slowness

of federal assistance to people whose lives have been devastated and have no electricity, food, water, or ice.

[EFerrari]

15. They more or less were told not to report floating bodies

on Saturday by the Feds, iirc. That being said, no matter how much BushCo wants to de-Katrinafy this coverage, people slip and the truth comes out eventually.

[jobycom]

34. I don't know, I've watched a lot of local coverage. Interviews, aerial footage...

If there were hundreds of bodies, you'd be picking that up from local coverage, national coverage, blogs, etc. They've been interviewing people from Galveston, Crystal Beach, Freeport, Orange...

I mean, the water hasn't even receded yet, so there's limited access, and there's no telling what they'll find on the west end of Galveston Island where there wasn't a seawall. There are reports of pancaked houses and such. But it's clear from the aerial footage and from interviews that this was nothing like Katrina. I've seen footage of Surfside and Freeport and Galveston, and while there is destruction, it's not continuous like Katrina. With Katrina, there was aerial footage of the 26 miles of the Mississippi Coast, and for most of it nothing was standing for half a mile inland. All houses were gone, and only some of the bigger structures still stood. The aerial footage I've seen here show every third to fifth house heavily damaged, and some completely destroyed, but nothing like Katrina.

On Galveston, residents and even the mayor have described every building as having water damage, but most still standing. I saw an interview with man on the seawall lamenting the destruction of the Balinese and other buildings that were built on piers out over the Gulf (you'd expect those to be destroyed), but you could see the street behind him, and the buildings barely looked damaged. Signs were still standing, even.

I mean, maybe there's a lot worse somewhere, but let's not start screaming and spreading rumors without any basis. Believe it or not, people read sites like this to find out what they can, and you could be scaring the shit out of local residents for no reason at all. I know after Katrina I was worried about my parents and relatives, and I kept reading reports here of hundreds of bodies floating in the Gulf and Lake Pontchartrain, and hanging from trees in Hancock County. Scared the shit out of me, and probably shortened my life by a few years until I finally heard from them. None of these reports were true. Let's be responsible here, instead of trying to use this for our own agendas.

[EFerrari]

36. Oh, I agree and am NOT hoping for the worst at all.

But, how much aerial footage have you seen? I haven't seen much.

And these people at Ch 11 are being handled. They said upfront on Saturday morning that there were "things we've been asked not to report". They didn't make a big deal out of it and maybe, that's for the best right now. Here's hoping.

[jobycom]

39. I've seen a ton of footage. Here's a link:

http://www.khou.com/video/news-browse.html

There's footage of rescuers on Galveston going into houses--you remember after Katrina that there were no houses--there's aerial footage of Surfside and Freeport and Crystal Beach (which was totally destroyed--that's on the peninsula right across the channel from Galveston, to the east, if you know the area.

[EFerrari]

41. Thank you. I don't know that area and have to keep figuring out

what I'm looking at on the teevee.

[jobycom]

46. Have you looked at a Google Map of the area?

You've got about forty miles of sandbar with the city of Galveston in the middle. Everything is barely over sea level except the city of Galveston, which was built up about twenty feet, though it's lower in the east and north sides of the city. About forty miles inland, along the west side of Galveston Bay, is Houston. Between Houston and Galveston there are little to mid-size towns on or near the bay--Keemah, Seabrook, Clearlake, La Porte and the NASA center, Pasadena, Texas City...

The west end of the sandbar is Surfside, Freeport, and Lake Jackson (Ron Paul's home). Small towns, mostly fishing, some oil refinery. To the east, across the bay, is the Bolivar Peninsula, with Crystal Beach. This is even more rural, and mostly fishing and sport. Along the east of the bay is rural, with a lot of channels, some shipping and oil industry transport.

An hour to the east is Beaumont, and then a few small, very low, towns--Orange, Bridge City, Port Arthur, and further over, Lake Charles, Louisiana. This is where Rita hit, and I haven't heard enough about the damage here. Lots of marsh and low land, very dangerous during hurricanes.

For whatever all that's worth.

[EFerrari]

47. Would you call the Lake Charles area Arcadiana? (eta: link)

Because I read there was flooding and damage there -- maybe in uppityperson's thread -- this morning.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3997458&mesg_id=3997472

[jobycom]

50. Part of it.

That area below Lake Charles, around Cameron, is very low. I've driven through it after rainstorms and seen water in houses. Back in 57 (I know this from my parents, not firsthand) Hurricane Audrey killed a lot of people because the region is so low that the storm surge carried far inland.

Acadiana is most of the coast of Louisiana, basically below I-10. I guess that whole region got some serious flooding, it looks like.

[intheflow]

44. No way of knowing if it's shades of Katrina or not.

So many places are still inaccessible, and just because people aren't reporting seeing bodies everywhere doesn't mean much. There's an awful lot of debris and water that could be hiding a lot of bodies, and a lot of survivors who have not been interviewed. :(

[kcass1954]

9. I'm watching Channel 11 here...

http://www.maroonspoon.com/wx/ike.html

The on-the-ground guy says they've been told by DHS that they can't fly over the "west end" (not familiar with the area, so I don't know where that is). They're questioning why they can't get in to get pictures.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

19. The west end was being destroyed before Ike even came ashore

There is no seawall there. There's little hope it is anything but a total loss from what I've read.

[EFerrari]

21. Perry says there's a grid search going on right now.

They definitely don't want to go there.

ETA: He just said explicitly that he will not go into "loss of life issues".

[Lone_Star_Dem]

23. No unpleasent details will pass his lips.

If he doesn't say it, it's not true, and if he says it, we're all supposed to take his word for it. I cannot even express how much I dislike that man.

I know I read early this morning they've found three people on the island dead for sure so far. One in a submerged car if I recall correctly, and I'm not sure with the other two.

[EFerrari]

28. At the briefing, someone said that they got calls from the West end

and lost contact at some point. They don't know how many people they lost there. (That was the Galveston city manager.)

The Galveston mayor looks like she's barely holding it together. She may just up and rebel on their @sses.

[gvstn]

32. Great Link...Thank you :)

#9 http://www.maroonspoon.com/wx/ike.html

[chill_wind]

35. That's very interesting. n/t

[jobycom]

37. There's probably a lot of damage there, but there's also a safety concern.

The west end isn't protected by the seawall, so the damage will be far worse. But they could also be worried about safety--if they are trying to do rescue with helicopters in the west end, and Surfside and Freeport area, then news planes and copters could make things dangerous. I know they've been evacuating people from the island and nearby areas to Texas City. Too much aerial traffic could be dangerous.

Here's some footage of Surfside, which is at the far west end of Galveston Island (I'm not sure it's actually Galveston Island--it may become another island at that end, I don't remember). Here's a resident saying it's not as bad as reported. http://www.khou.com/video/index.html?nvid=282544

Here's a lot more videos: http://www.khou.com/video/news-browse.html

[countryjake]

45. I'm not getting any audio on the report "Damage in Galveston"...

Is anyone else having this problem?

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

11. You can bet

that their ability to corral the media has advanced since Katrina. Assume obfuscation.

[Graybeard]

13. No electricity, no running water, no gasoline.

These are conditions that can be tragic without immediate and massive aid.

[Vincardog]

26. No electricity: Power lines down everywhere and thousands of buildings underwater

You want to fire a few thousand volts into that mix? Why do you want to add electrocution deaths and potently hundreds or thousands of new electrical fires to the problems?

No running water: The fresh water lakes that act as water supply have been contaminated by salt water. Do you want them to pump contaminated water into your home? IF so, how do you expect them to do it without power (Electricity)?

No gasoline: the underground storage tanks require electricity to pump the gas. You can argue the wisdom of underground tanks and or a requirement for gas stations to have back up generators but lets deal with reality now OK?

[malaise]

24. GEM$NBC just cut the link to the press conference

as they were discussing fatalities or the possibility of many more.

[wanpete]

27. if you have direct tv, go to channel 361. although it appears that the channel that has the live

feed is being muzzeled as well. the weird thing was, yesterday, they all kept talking about how the damage wasn't so bad and how they dodged the bullet. I knew that didn't sound right, especially since they had so few damage reports and no pictures. they hadn't really even talked to many people at that point. now it seems as if the truth is trying to seep out.

[malaise]

30. I am following KHOU on line but the TV was on GEM$NBC

Thanks

[EFerrari]

29. Perry said he won't talk about it. The Galveston city manager says

he doesn't know what happened to the callers they lost contact with. I think they said they'd have more information by tomorrow night.

They don't want to leak anything today while people are home to hear or watch, I guess.

[tanyev]

49. Perry weaseling out of direct questions about Bolivar and West End right now.

:grr:

[EFerrari]

51. They really are the slime we thought they were.

We have to get ready to help ourselves and help each other because our government has been privatized.

I told my friend in The Netherlands on 9/2001 that these people were criminals. But I had no idea what that really meant.

:grr:

[countryjake]

31. And when they showed the aerial footage yesterday, it was highly edited...

as soon as MSNBC got that Coast Guard tape, they first only showed brick homes that are not on Galveston, and kept looping back to one home with a big tree laying across the roof and a marina with minor roof damage. Later on, they began showing images of the island, but by then those images were so choppy, you could tell that they'd cut stuff out.

It was infuriating to me, and I only have friends who live on the west end. I can't even imagine how it must feel to actually have homes down there, waiting to see the view of what has happened to homes beyond the seawall, and then to be given those selective aerial shots.

[EFerrari]

38. The whole production seems very groomed to me.

Where are the upset people? I'm not hoping to see them but wouldn't you expect to find at least one person crying from relief if nothing else? Stage managed. :shrug:

[MadMaddie]

33. This storm is more devastating then they are letting on

Interestingly enough we are not hearing the pundits hammer those people that deceided to stay.

Gas is up to $5.00 in many areas.

I think America will be shocked again...

[madrchsod]

40. lots of photos on google

many are from overseas bbc and the british papers. there are several air photos posted today at du...

[roamer65]

43. This is one of the biggest reasons why they don't want BBC World in the US.

Can't have the American people seeing the cold, hard truth. Can we?:sarcasm:

Oh well, life in the USSSR.

[TexasObserver]

48. Bush, Chertoff and the GOP want to redirect all discussion to those who didn't leave.

They want to muster all the national outrage they can at those who did not leave.

Except for the coastal regions, people were told NOT to leave, because the evacuation of that many people turned out to be a real killer in 2005 with Rita.

[wanpete]

53. yep, I've heard "those who did not follow orders to evacuate" several times already today. Let the

finger pointing begin...

[emmadoggy]

54. Was just watching ABC13...not sure what

their call letters are....and one of their reporters was ranting about the media restrictions and what's going on. He was pretty pissed about it all, saying he has covered many, many hurricanes and how he's very upset and concerned about the way this is being handled.

[RoyGBiv]

55. KTRK ... Been getting pissed all day ...

This was the channel earlier where the announcer was getting fed up with the "pool" video from the helicopter that was cleared by the feds to fly and get coverage for the news stations.

They had no ability to control the graphic being imposed on the video, and that graphic was indicating the *wrong* location.

When they were flying over Bolivar Peninsula, they were actually over a part of Galveston. The difference there is between massive destruction and an entire community that has basically been washed away. Later, the helicopter was flying east of I-45, away from the worst damaged areas, and the graphic at that time said it was over Galveston.

He was livid that they were doing this and was saying so on air ... he was being openly polite with the wording, but you could hear it in his voice.