USATODAY.com - Where's the compassion in Katrina's aftermath?

USATODAY.com - Where's the compassion in Katrina's aftermath?: "Hurricanes shouldn't fall into a special 'news' category or gain more or less news coverage. Consider the tsunami of 2004, for example. The tsunami happened, people cleaned up and rebuilt. The aftermath wasn't any government's fault. It wasn't anyone's fault."

Er.. I have so much to say about this Op-Ed piece I don't know where to begin.... so I'll just start at the beginning....

Hurricanes don't generally fall into some special 'news' category or gain more or less news coverage. Hurricane Katrina was not your average run-of-the-mill hurricane. You know.. back in 1998 when I was sitting in my house with no electricity two weeks after Hurricane Georges passed -- I totally understood why CNN wasn't at my doorstep asking questions. If this bloke doesn't understand why Katrina headlines linger -- perhaps he needs to take a little cartrip down from Delaware and take a look. If he doesn't think what happened down here is worthy of the scattered lingering headline a few months later -- I would like to know what he believes real 'news' should be about....

As suggested, I am now considering the tsunami of 2004 for example.... Uh... And I'm drawing a blank. The tsunami happened... It killed well over 100,000 people -- leaving another 100,000 missing over a year later. But this guy reduces such a catastrophe to: "the tsunami happened." People cleaned up and rebuilt... According to a CNN special report: "Nearly 1.5 million people are living in tents, barracks and other temporary shelters a year after the tsunami slammed into Asian coastlines, and aid organizations face the challenge of getting them into permanent housing." (See also: CNN.com: Frustration flows over aid funds - December 19, 2005) But things are all better now over there, right? I mean - if that weren't true it would still be making headlines.... Uh wait.. no.. Isn't that this person's point? Such things aren't worthy of lingering headlines....

I also find it interesting that he references Hurricane Camille in 1969 and the Galveston hurricane of 1900 as examples of natural disasters where the "devastation, aftermath, and cleanup ........ weren't the government's fault." Even if you get past the long-held belief that Camille was a tampered with storm (although the government does not deny 'seeding' any other storm during that hurricane season - it conveniently denies seeding the most devastating...)... You really can't overlook the fact that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was created in response to and in the aftermath of Hurricane Camille. But Mr. Shaffer apparently can.

As for the Galveston, Texas hurricane - between the local "Weather Bureau" director's strange belief that Galveston was hurricane-proof (read: government employee) and the Federal government's insane and ignorant displays of egoism when they refused to listen to any reports from Cuban officals regarding the massive hurricane - I'd say the government shared some responsibility in the tremendous death toll there. (Further reading: Isaac's Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History)

Of course, you wouldn't know any of this if you relied on news headlines for your information....

(As a bit of a footnote: "Obviously, cities along the Gulf Coast were not prepared for a Category 5 storm." and "Are residents of the Gulf states preparing for a possible Category 5 storm this year?" Er... apparently Mr. Shaffer missed the headlines which informed the public that Katrina made landfall as a Category 4 storm... and then the subsequent headlines telling us that she had been further downgraded to a Category 3 storm at landfall upon examination of meteorological data.

Yes, Mr. Shaffer, I'm prepared for a Category 5 hurricane.. it's just those Category 3 hurricanes that do the damage of two Category 5 hurricanes I can't seem to get a handle on....)


Edited 2/14/2006 to correct a few redundancies.