As the media begins to look into the rash of rumors that sprang up in the days after Hurricane Katrina, the picture of a communications breakdown becomes clearer. Officials were quick to jump the gun and announce rumors as actual reports.The Washington Post points out that the Rodney King riots in LA and other stories painted poor, black communities as potentially violent in the American mindset -- allowing people to believe the worst. But, in fact, the people who toughed it out at the Superdome and Convention Center were a far cry from that image:
"The people never turned into these animals. They have been cheated out of being thought of as these tough people who looked out for each other. We had more babies born [in the Superdome] than we had deaths." -- Major Ed Bush, Louisiana National Guard, Stationed at the Superdome during the flood, quoted in the Washington Post
The communication breakdown on the ground was so severe that government leaders did not know for a full day that the levees had breached (above) and the city was flooding. They only learned it from watching live television reports. (WashPost)
1 comment:
That's exactly what blows me away. No radio communications but they can broadcast live television footage. Might be a good idea to go back to learning Morse Code as a backup. That worked long before we had cellular towers and satellites.
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