Katrina what went right

heads up from Instapundit...

Similar to the Pop Mechanics story...

But is this in the headlines? No... bashing Bush is more important....never mind it is untrue and the calumney of the real heroes is implied in their storye:
AP: How does the government come out in all of this?
Fournier: Terrible. It makes every level of government look terrible. Most Americans who watched the events unfold don't think the response was swift enough. Even though nobody could be perfect in a historic hurricane like this was, most Americans think government at all levels let them down.

Now, let's go back to the above link (which mirrors Popular mechanics story)...

and guess what? Government did not let them down...the media merely didn't find the story...and my question is: WHY NOT?

The three goats of Katrina — FEMA’s Michael Brown, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, and Mayor Nagin — had little if any role; in fact, because local communication was wiped out by the storm, they may not even have known about the scale and success of the rescue operation. ...

“I saw things I never saw in 23 years as sheriff,” Valteau says. “I saw things I never want to see again.” But he also saw Coast Guard helicopters dodge power lines to winch the endangered to safety. He joined one of the ad hoc rescue crews launching boats from the off-ramp. “We weren’t alone. Hundreds of people who had boats showed up at interstate exits and launched their boats Monday afternoon.” ....

Absent those early rescues, thousands would in fact have died, in line with the mayor’s prediction. With all communications knocked out, says Sheriff Valteau, “it was a reasonable estimation. . . . The mayor didn’t know what was going on in the field. It was impossible for him to know how many hundreds of citizens were out there saving people.”

It was impossible, as well, for the media, which were getting most of their information from City Hall.

(in these days of satellite phones and computers, you mean no media reporter bothered to accompany the police, coast guard or other rescue units? HELLO...you knew the hurricane was coming, and the rescue would be a big story...did you even try to embed reporters with the rescuers?)

What audiences across the country saw as a breakdown of relief efforts was in fact a breakdown of media relations. Instead of marveling at the courage and endurance of rescuers, television spread lurid rumors of near-parodic depravity: gang violence (with AK-47s!), murder (200 slain, stacked, and frozen!), rape (women, children, babies!), sniping at helicopters, and rampage at the Superdome. Mainstream publications have since shown these reports to be false; since most of what the media did report was dead wrong, no one should be surprised that there was a parallel failure to report what went right.

And believe me, CNNI gave the USA a black eye...and what is worse, it portrayed Black Americans as savages...in Asia, racism against AfroAmericans is a dirty little secret.....but seeing Katrina coverage, emphasizing the savagery while showing mainly black survivors, was a disaster for racial tolorance in this area...)

On this score, the biggest lie — worse than the urban legends haunting the Superdome — was that help was slow to arrive. Rescuers say that on Monday, when the levees failed and water surged through the city, they saved thousands who were in danger of drowning — and that they simply could not have arrived any sooner. Not enough resources? Admiral Duncan says one of his biggest problems was that so many helicopters were operating, they risked crashing into one another.

As yet, there is no official hard count of how many were saved, nor has any central authority spoon-fed definitive numbers to the media. But clearly, success left a deep statistical footprint. The Washington Post, in a poll of survivors who relocated to Houston after staying through the storm, said 40 percent — roughly 40,000 to 50,000 people, if the sample is representative — reported that they had been rescued by the Coast Guard, Air National Guard units, or local police and firemen in boats. ...

Read the whole thing, and weep that the MSM is still not reporting the story...
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It's because I was in the PAANG for years, and know we were called up for emergencies...
And as an ER DOC, and as a smalltown GP, I have worked with emts, cops, firemen, etc. and other first line rescuers and see their valor in helping people, often at the risk of their own lives..
It's a class issue...lack of diversity in the press room...more important to hire blonds and pretty faces and kids of your friends than to hire hard headed street reporters...so the reports lack grounding in the reality of what really happens in a disaster...

I contrast this this with the mudslide in Leyte, (next post) where those trying to rescue the few survivors were praised in the press, who didn't use the tradgedy as a club to bash Gloria, even though, unlike hurricanes, mudslides are caused because government corruption allowed illegal logging....

And check the link to the Discovery channel story...usually these shows come to Discovery Asia in 6 to 12 months...so let me know if it's any good...