Where is the Media Now?

The media has always made me crazy, especially when it comes to disaster coverage. When the tsunami hit, that was all you could see. After about 3 weeks, you would think all that rubble had been cleared up or everyone was okay, because you sure did not see anyone reporting on it. When the war in Iraq started, there was coverage about what was going on and lots of troop support. After President Bush gave the impression that the war was over, the media acted like nothing was going on any more, and instead of continuing to see pictures of soldiers and stories of families, they switched sides and acted as if no one should support the troops or know how things were going. Now, Hurricane Katrina has had the same treatment, but worse, if you ask me. Here are opportunities to serve and care right here on our own soil, but we have a media blackout as far as what is happening. We ought to have a weekly report! I can't even find a map to show affected areas, camps, needs, memorials, or anything. It's like it did not even happen. Here is a link to an article that I could find in the blogosphere, at least. It gives you a good idea of what is going on, in a small corner. Here is JUST PART of the article:

Ten Months After Katrina: Gutting New Orleans

It has occurred to us that our New Orleans is looking more and more like Baghdad.

By Bill Quigley

source: Reconstruction Watch Thursday June 29, 2006

We are still finding dead bodies. Ten days ago, workers cleaning a house in New Orleans found a body of a man who died in the flood. He is the 23rd person found dead from the storm since March.

Over 200,000 people have not yet made it back to New Orleans. Vacant houses stretch mile after mile, neighborhood after neighborhood. Thousands of buildings remain marked with brown ribbons where floodwaters settled. Of the thousands of homes and businesses in eastern New Orleans, only 13 percent have been reconnected to electricity.

The mass displacement of people has left New Orleans older, whiter and more affluent. African Americans, children and the poor have not made it back -- primarily because of severe shortages of affordable housing.

Thousands of homes remain just as they were when the floodwaters receded -- ghost-like houses with open doors, upturned furniture, and walls covered with growing mold.

Not a single dollar of federal housing repair or home reconstruction money has made it to New Orleans yet. Tens of thousands are waiting. Many wait because a full third of homeowners in the New Orleans area had no flood insurance. Others wait because the levees surrounding New Orleans are not yet as strong as they were before Katrina, and they fear rebuilding until flood protection is more likely. Fights over the federal housing money still loom because Louisiana refuses to clearly state a commitment to direct 50 percent of the billions to low- and moderate-income families.

Meanwhile, 70,000 families in Louisiana live in 240 square-foot Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers -- three on my friend's street. As homeowners, their trailer sits in front of their own battered home. Renters are not so fortunate and are placed in gravel-strewn FEMA-villes across the state. With rents skyrocketing, thousands have moved into houses without electricity.

Public housing has been boarded up and fenced off as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to demolish 5,000 apartments -- despite the greatest shortage of affordable housing in the region's history. HUD plans to let private companies develop the sites. In the meantime, the 4,000 families locked out since Katrina are not allowed to return.

The broken city water system is losing about 85 million gallons of water in leaks every day. That is not a typo: 85 million gallons of water, at a cost of $200,000 a day, are still leaking out of the system even after over 17,000 leaks have been plugged. Michelle Krupa of the Times-Picayune reports that the city pumps 135 million gallons a day through 80 miles of pipe in order for 50 million gallons to be used. We are losing more than we are using, and the repair bill is estimated to be $1 billion -- money the city does not have.

Public health care is in crisis. Our big public hospital has remained closed and there are no serious plans to reopen it. A neighbor with cancer who has no car was told that she has to go 68 miles away to the closest public hospital for her chemotherapy.

Mental health may be in even worse shape. In the crumbling city and in the shelters of the displaced, depression reigns. Despite a suicide rate triple what it was a year ago, the New York Times reports we have lost half of our psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists and other mental health care workers. Mental health clinics remain closed. The psych unit of the big public hospital has not been replaced in the private sector as most people in need are too poor to pay. The primary residences for people with mental health problems are our jails and prisons.

For children, the Washington Post reports, the trauma of the floods has not ended. A Louisiana State University mental health screening of nearly 5,000 children in schools and temporary housing in Louisiana found that 96 percent saw hurricane damage to their homes or neighborhoods, 22 percent had relatives or friends who were injured, 14 percent had relatives or friends who died, and 35 percent lost pets. Thirty-four percent were separated from their primary caregivers at some point; 9 percent still are. Little care is directed to the little ones.

The criminal justice system remains shattered. Six thousand cases await trial. There were no jury trials and only four public defenders for nine of the last 10 months. Many people in jail have not seen a lawyer since 2005. The Times-Picayune reported that one defendant, jailed for possession of crack cocaine for almost two years, has not been inside a court room since August 2005 despite the fact that a key police witness against him committed suicide during the storm.