HumidCity

[Many thanks to Loki for the invitation to do some posting on what's happening in Texas in the aftermath of Ike. Truly, I am a pinch hitter.  While I'm more than familiar with hurricanes and the coast of Texas, I do not presently live there and I was nowhere near the area before, during, or (thus far) after the storm.  There is a vital group of progressive bloggers in the Houston area.  Many of them have been knocked offline and/or remain outside the area. I look forward to their return and what they can tell us firsthand.

Right now, there are definitely more questions about the events below than there are answers, but I'm electing to start out  with this piece rather than something more general about the already widely-reported and  obvious dilemma of those who survived the storm and are now facing massive shortages of resources and the challenge of broken infrastructure in Houston,  Galveston and the surrounding area. That piece does, however, remain true.  It's a bad situation and those in the area can use any help you can spare.]

The truth is almost always in the middle, between the extremes on other ends.  That’s why the people whose job it is to hide the truth often have an easy time doing so. There are always plenty of credible details on all sides to conceal the edges.

That should probably be kept in mind as we attempt to learn more about the media crackdown on news and information from the Bolivar Peninsula, an area 3 miles north of Galveston, reachable from the west only by ferry, a beachfront community literally scraped away by Ike.   Simply take the words media blackout, FEMA, Rick Perry and throw in a Blackhawk helicopter or two and many in the blogosphere (justifiably so) will be gone all the way out in one direction.  Others, possibly more familiar with the logistics of getting in and out of that area, or with the work of search and rescue, or more trusting of their local authorities and media, could make a believable case about logistics and air safety, and even in the worst case scenario, respect for the victims and their families.

But Rick Perry knows one thing… or not. Wayne Dolcefino of Houston channel  KTRK-TV confronted the governor about the situation. Goodhair tries to be a smartass but  doesn’t come off with his usual aplomb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoSxup2yw40 [EDIT; Link Fixed -Loki]

The airspace over the area was placed off limits yesterday with this FAA NOTAM (Notice to Airmen), declaring the airea closed till further notice:

TO PROVE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR DISASTER RESPONSE AND RELIEF OPERATIONS

No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM (except as described). Flight operations directly supporting critical infrastructure (including oil platforms, railways, airports, electrical utilities, etc) may also be coordinated to operate in the defined airspace. Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Operators requesting to operate within the defined airspace are reminded that all UAS flights in U.S. Airspace must be authorized by a Certificate of Authorization (COA) issued by the FAA Air Traffic Organization UAS office.

Rumors, and more than rumors, allegedly eyewitness accounts are beginning to surface about visible evidence of many corpses remaining in the completely devastated area, in the wreckage and floating in the water.  The numbers being reported range from under around 200 to possibly 1500.

This post, from Robert Ryland, today at BOR, has more details than previous reports, and came directly from a close acquaintance of the poster:

I kid you not when I say that he told me they saw AT LEAST 1500 bodies in trees scattered about Galveston.  They also saw a lot in various ditches and marshes, esp. on the north side of East Galv. Bay, east side of Trinity Bay, and in the marshes between I-45 and Seabrook/Clear Lake/Deer Park.

It explains why they’re not letting the media anywhere close to the Island except in limited sectors nd we’re not hearing anything from or about the people who survived and those who stayed behind. It’s like 20,000 people never
existed….where are they?  Where’d they go?  What are their names?  Nothing….

Same thing in Orange county.

Take it for what it’s worth….I believe him, though his count may be wrong given the shock of the sight.  But like I said, I’d trust him to raise my kids.

I’d be more surprised if he were wrong than if he were right.

All of the real truths in this story are probably scattered in the middle, but for me, at least part of this is very simple:

This is a valid news story.  The casualty figures for this monster storm have been incredibly low thus far.  If there are more victims than have been reported, the public has a right to know.  I would further argue that the public has a right to see.  It goes without saying that the public has a right to transparency in government, even in, particularly in, a disaster situation.

Nothing good is going to come of this  blackout.  The timing of it, six weeks prior to the fall election, is suspect, and it’s not tinfoil territory to suspect opportunism on the part of authorities at some or all levels, to take advantage of the badly-fucked up infrastructure and still-scattered populace and avoid the kind of graphic photos of death and destruction we’ve all still got in our heads from post-Katrina.

I actually find this last part a bit nonviable.  At least in the reports most of us saw, Galveston prior to Ike was not New Orleans prior to Katrina.  I’m not going to get into the psychology of the eternal Leave/Stay question right now, or venture into the fruitless “blame those who stay behind” debate, but in terms of opportunity to leave,  the perception (and again, this is part of the story- were our perceptions correct? ) was that people in Galveston had more opportunities to leave, even those without financial means, than those in pre-Katrina New Orleans.  There were certainly thousands bussed to inland shelters in the days ahead of the storm in what appeared to be a well-managed evacuation.  The perception was that a lot of people stayed on Galveston and the surrounding area against all advice, and despite many offers of evacuation assistance up to the last minute  ( Of course that didn’t include those prisoners in the Galveston jail, but that jail isn’t on Bolivar.) So, if the pols are fearful of having the blame for hundreds of deaths laid at their feet, it would seem—based on what we perceived— that they have plenty to fight back with. So the motivation for the blackout doesn’t make political sense to me. Yet.

I may be underestimating the degree of fear of the simple association with Katrina coverage: dead people surely equals yet another failure of government, more deaths on the Bush watch?

I also wonder about race and class. Many outsiders with no knowledge of Galveston assume it is some kind of exclusive island beachfront enclave. Not true. Galveston has a substantial urban poor population, largely African-American and Hispanic.  About half the total population of the island is white. The population of Bolivar was almost totally white, 93 percent in the last census, though hardly wealthy. (Depending on what figures you use, median income 43-50K)   If there are bodies, and if they are from Bolivar,  does the race of the victims play into the reason for the blackout? This is obviously, at this  point  anyway, not a question with an easily-verifiable answer either way.

I do have to say, I can’t understand the mindset of anyone who would have elected to ride Ike out on Bolivar. It makes no kind of sense to me.  That doesn’t mean I blame them for possibly not planning better, or that I don’t regret their death, but I don’t blame the Mayor of Galveston or the Governor of Texas for it. Yet.

H/T to Burnt Orange Report and  Brain and Eggs

Some before and after pictures of parts of this area.

-Virgotex, Live From Texas

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 7:43 am by Virgotex and is filed under Hurricane, virgotex. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.