Hurricane Ike.. The truth?

The Chronicle had a list of over 600 people missing, or that had not been heard from since the storm.

 

After any large disaster there's going to be a lot of confusion. After Katrina and 9/11 there was a lot of talk that the death toll was going to be much higher but eventually a lot of the missing were accounted for. In anything with a massive evacuation there's going to be confusion as people spread out to several different places and don't inform everyone. For instance the couple that went to Wyoming.

Also after and during a disaster there's going to be a lot of rumor flying around too, remember during 9/11 when even legitimate news media were reporting that a truck bomb had exploded outside the State Dept or that hijacked planes were on their way to LA?

At the moment I would be very leery of engaging in alarmist rumors. Things will sort out as the cleanup and recovery progresses.

 

I wouldn't disregard the possibility of a goverment coverup but like some others, they do not want to show bodies floating in the water on the news if there are any.

I think it's just that most of people who did perish were washed away to the sea.

Last night, they said a woman's body was found off Smith Point and said the searchers need some help with the search because there are so much debris and there is a possibility that there are more bodies underneath.

It's sad that the people who perished didn't take this storm seriously just because it was a category 2.

RIP

EDIT: here is an article on missing on abc 13

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=weather/hurricane&id=6412037

 

Why don't we want pictures of bodies on the news? We saw people jumping out of WTC windows on 9/11. In any case, we shouldn't be allowing our government to disallow fly-overs for such a trivial purpose. If there are bodies floating in the water (which I doubt -- wouldn't they either wash ashore, wash out to sea, or eventually sink?), I want to see them.

I don't believe there is a conspiracy, but the news organizations should be pushing this more. There are more dead, I believe, and there are certainly many people missing, and the official media isn't talking about it.

 

The truth is that everyone died, present company included.

Welcome to the ghost of Clutchfans.

 

I'm with you. I don't get the whole, "they don't want us to see dead people" as if this has been policy for some time. We saw body bags coming home from Vietnam...we watched 9/11...and we saw bodies laying in water in NOLA in 2005. If there is a "no dead person on network news" policy it's a new policy.

At this point, i can't imagine why we're restricting airspace over the area...the storm hit 2 weeks ago. Those pictures tell the story. Free press.

 

Perhaps it's out of concern for the relatives of missing people. You might have a different attitude if one of your loved ones was missing and they were showing overhead views of dead bodies floating around.

 

They are so poor, so dead

 

LOL! JuanValdez, only TELEMUNDO and UNIVISION were showing that after day one... all the English-speaking channels decided [air quotes]the U.S. public didn't need to see that[/air quotes].

EDIT: It's so "PC" now that sports channels can't rebroadcast an injury... OMG! You think they'd let you show this stuff from BP? I don't think so.

Oh, great. So... he gets to ride around... and... so... I guess you have MORE to tell us than that GEM of a news break?

 

Nope. He's under strict orders not to reveal anything or he will be permanently assigned to Presidio.

 

But it's not a media decision...I agree with you entirely and understand that concern. but it happened in NOLA. Apparently the media was unaware of any change in policy from the feds since Katrina...because they were barking like crazy when they weren't allowed to fly over. It was a restriction of air space. I really do understand the concern...but that's never trumped the right to free press before that I'm aware of.

 

If everyone is making a guess on this, I'll go for one. I think the reason the government didn't let media fly over the first few days was because they were clearing up all the dead bodies around there. If you think about it, when they finally did allow media in that area, you saw all these houses blown down but no bodies anywhere. Yeah its a stretch, but until we really know, anything is a possibility.

 

The thing is...we won't ever REALLY know. What REALLY happened on 9/11? What REALLY goes on in Area 51?

 

I don't know if there has been a change in policy over this but it does seem like the government(s) are becoming more sensitive regarding showing dead bodies. When the I-35W bridge collapsed the state and city government kept the public away from anywhere where you could get a direct view of the section where the bridge collasped into the river and even kept the press from getting any upclose shots, until all of the bodies were recovered. The city and state stated they were doing this out of respect for the families of the dead to keep gawkers away.

 

I think its possible that there are a lot more fatalities than are currently reported...Some left, some stayed, no one really knows...

 

I'm sure there were multiple reasons for the delay in opening Galveston to residents. Imagine bringing your kids home to something like this.

Do you really want the media to show anything resembling this? :

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...dies&um=1&hl=en&rls=SUNA,SUNA:2006-07,SUNA:en

 

I talked with my dad, now that he's back down there, and he said it's very eerily mum around there as to why they haven't been showing flyovers at any close distances.


He's a property owner out past Surfside, about half way to the San Luis Pass toll bridge, and he's not allowed out there.


The main issues they've mentioned are possibility of snakes stirred up, disease from septic tank damage, coupled with the obvious road damage...


But he and I both have a gut feeling (we discussed while they were still up here in Dallas) that there were, at least early on, noticeable casualties, as in dead bodies, visible from the air... hence the lack of footage.


The storm may have easily pushed Gulf water over Boliver (as we know it did over the barrier island) and into the bays, pushed the same surge to the places of least resistance (as water does to some extent) southward along the coast behind Galveston Island's city area, then pushed some of the water back out in some areas over West Galveston Island and the San Luis Pass area, in a churning situation (water pounding in, and undercurrents out), leaving a trail of not only cattle and beach house damage, but possibly human bodies.


If there have already been multiple harrowing first hand recounts of people riding out the storm clinging to debris for 12+ hours, ending up 14 miles away from their origin, then it is certainly conceivable that a drowning victim could be literally swept as far as the storm would push them until they hit a point of resistance. The one story of the young man knocked off the jetty as far away as Corpus before the storm hit, only to wash up later miles away is an example of just how the under currents can take a body very far.


We may never know, just due to the strength of the storm how were literally taken miles offshore.

I would completely rule out a "cover up" as conspiracy theorists may insinuate. But by the same taken, I can completely comprehend the officials responsible just trying to be sensitive to the due process of confirming the bodies, locating and notifying next of kin, etc.

It is still very early at 10 days post-storm.

 

It may simply be sensitivity toward the relatives, but they need to cut it out. It's not nice to see dead bodies on TV, and worse still if they are your own kin, but the public has a compelling interest to know. We're grown-ups; we can take it. I might see my own wife's body on the news one day, which would suck. But, you can't just hide the deaths of scores of people; it's not right (or constitutional).