Katrina Part 2: The Sinister Storm!
Writing by treason on Tuesday, 30 of August , 2005 at 8:19 pm
The cable news people all got out the big thesaurus for this one. Was this a case of media hype, or was this really a huge storm? The adjectives were everywhere and the words were getting longer. After a while I stopped listening, but then one word caught my attention: sinister.
Sinister? If you mean threatening, ominous, or menacing, then that makes sense. But this was hinting at dark, evil, wicked. It’s nature. It’s a storm. How is that evil? Storms just happen. They don’t intentionally target anyone. I just thought this was odd.
But then it made sense when the next description was “a storm of biblical proportions.” Where is the media going with this?
Before the storm actually hit, FNC reporters like Shepard Smith were incredulous that people didn’t know Kat was coming. A few who knew and didn’t care were sipping daiquiris in a bar on Bourbon Street. How the hell do you not know what’s coming, I asked. T pointed out that not everyone is glued to FNC or even cares about what’s going on in the outside world. They have lives and are too busy to pay attention.
It reminds me how it always amazed me when coworkers hadn’t heard a major news story or didn’t know an election was coming up or didn’t know who the candidates were. We’ve known a particular couple for ten years now - they’re in their 40’s - and they always ask me around election time about the difference between Democrats and Republicans. “Now which one’s which again?” I know it’s sometimes hard to tell, but there is a difference. But these two people have chosen to insulate themselves. If it’s not happening to them directly, they don’t want to know. I suspect they don’t vote.
Another question: where are the radios? Communication is impossible and even people who thought they were prepared suddenly realized they don’t have access to a working radio. When I was a kid everybody had a transistor radio. In fact, one kid who lived in our building had one permanently attached to his ear. You’d walk into a hardware store or a bar - there was always a radio. Depending on where you were in the city it was tuned in to either a Cubs game or a White Sox game - or a news show.
When I get into the car, the first thing I do is turn on the radio. When I’m getting ready for work in the morning (well, when I was doing that) I listen to the radio. Not FM, not music. I listen to the big AM news talk station.
There’s so much about this story that’s horrible, but the part that’s wearing me down the most is the animal factor. People who stayed behind to be with their pets. And all the abandoned pets.
The other thing that’s wearing me down is the coverage. It reminds me of the earthquake of 1989. Politicians and reporters were in a frenzy. The catastrophe was all about them. I was watching the first few minutes of the ballgame - I was working a 6PM to 6AM shift then - and I heard “What the - !” before the picture disappeared.
“Uh-oh.”
Then I noticed the glass and metal shelving I was sitting next to was shaking and the water in the 55 gallon fish tank on the other side of the room was splashing and hitting the floor. I’d lived through several earthquakes in the Bay Area and the far northern parts of the state and none of them felt like this. The first thought in your head if you’re in California during an earthquake is “This is the big one. San Francisco is gone.”
I actually went to work. I had to drive a mile and it took forever to get there. Happily, I was told to go home because there was no power and they had to check for chemical and gas leaks. Great, a night off and I have no electricity. But I always have a battery operated radio, so I sat in the dark and listened to the reports. Each hour the national report figures grew. Hundreds dead. That one local politician - and I forget his name now - was making it sound like he was standing knee-deep in corpses. I pictured buildings and bridges reduced to rubble. Hours later the power was restored and the TV came on. The first image was of that car driving over the bridge and disappearing.
As much as people would like to compare Katrina to the Loma Prieta earthquake or September 11, they really can’t. And it isn’t fair to even attempt the comparison.
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