I have a lot of catching up to do with this blog this weekend. One of the stories that fell through the cracks amid the many stories about the latest gaffes and revelations from the McCain-Palin team and the big financial institutions’ failures and bailouts involves the tragedy of Hurricane Ike.
We’re three years out from Hurricane Katrina, and FEMA hasn’t improved to the point of where it can be counted on by citizens who live in areas hit by natural disasters. A week after Hurricane Ike hit, power hasn’t even been completely restored to Houston. City officials in Galveston limited reporters’ access to the city to report on what was happening, and then reporters were denied access to the Bolivar Peninsula as well, which was one of the hardest hit areas. Reporters couldn’t even fly helicopters to survey the damage from the air. And the death toll from the hurricane is expected to rise as clean up efforts continue. Currently, the official number of fatalities is over fifty.
As my blogging pal, XP, points out if the damage is not as severe as what happened during Hurricane Katrina, the national media does not cover a natural disaster as closely, and subsequently neglects to analyze the situation from a policy perspective. XP wisely asserts that the immigrant community will be cleaning up the damage in the gulf coast of Texas and that John McCain would be wise to re-evaluate his shift to the right on immigration if he plans to win the lonestar state as expected prior to the hurricane. Many know that Latino immigrants have been pivotal in the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Worth noting, check out the Texas Governor’s response to a Houston reporter’s questioning about media access to Bolivar Peninsula:
It is sad how he can’t even give a straight response to this reporter regarding media access. Governor Perry (or GWB II?) essentially evaded answering the question and then passed the buck to the local officials and then the feds.
Photo Credit: EPA/LARRY W. SMITH, trash on the north side of Galveston, Texas 9/15/08
2 responses so far ↓
1 pajamadeen // Sep 22, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Does anyone else smell a rat, insofar as barring the media from some of the worst-hit areas? _Where_ are all the missing people who stayed behind during Hurricane Ike? Even reading the Houston Chron certainly provides a different take on the situation than what we are seeing on national news.
2 Michaelr // Sep 23, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Don’t tell me you’re surprised? More of the Bush Administration attempts to emulate Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The bigger the lie, the easier it is to believe it.
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