Hurricane Ike: Myanmar Redux in the USA?
It’s been five days since Hurricane Ike hit the Texas gulf coast. Millions remain without power. The local, state, and federal governments have clamped a lid on media access and communications to the most affected areas. And the finger pointing for slow disaster response has started. Sound familiar?
Earlier this year, a cyclone ripped through the Indian Ocean country of Myanmar (formerly Burma). The complete casualty figure will never be known, but hundreds of thousands died from the storm, flooding, and lack of basic services following the disaster.
The government regime in Myanmar was strongly criticized for many things in the aftermath. NGOs were not allowed into the affected area for weeks to provide relief assistance. Offers of help from foreign countries such as the U.S. were slow-tracked by the junta. Journalists were not allowed into the affected area to document the devastation. The government of Myanmar said it could handle the situation by itself (although it was plainly clear that this wasn’t the case), and didn’t want interference from outsiders. In a press conference at the White House on 5/5/08, two days after the disaster unfolded, First Lady Laura Bush was among the most critical of the Myanmar junta’s response:
The response to the cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta’s failure to meet its people’s basic needs.
I wonder if she would say that about the regime of her own husband, who visited the Hurricane Ike disaster area today, but left without making a statement of any sort.
It’s been almost five days since Ike ripped through southern Texas. This past Saturday, the media was wall-to-wall Ike, as the huge storm came ashore in Galveston, and tore a path well inland through Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city. The following day, when media reports started flowing in about blown out skyscraper windows, and power and basic services being knocked out, I had a gut feeling that things were pretty bad. Incidental reports that I was receiving through my own back channels only verified the extent of the damage in Houston.
But precious little information has been coming in regarding the situation south of Houston.
A no-fly zone has been established over the most devastated areas of the barrier islands on the Texas gulf coast, including Galveston, ostensibly “to provide a safe environment for disaster response and relief operations”. The thing is, no one has been able to determine who issued the no-fly order. News organization helicopters and others have not been allowed into the areas, and no media has been allowed in on the ground on the Bolivar Peninsula. Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas has clamped a lid on any city officials (other than her and the city manager) speaking to the press. There is even an unconfirmed report that FEMA has restricted all cell phone communications on Bolivar Peninsula.
There’s no indication as to why this media blackout is taking place - but it’s pretty clear - DHS, FEMA and the Bush administration are trying to manage the story. They don’t want another Katrina-style PR disaster on their hands, particularly in an election year. Take a look at this Coast Guard video, shot on 9/12 before Ike came ashore, and you might understand why.
It’s unclear how many people are still without power in southern Texas, but the number is in the millions, as of this evening. No lights, no air conditioning, no refrigeration for food. Gasoline (where available) is being restricted to 5 gallon purchases, at inflated prices. Businesses are closed. Schools might not reopen for weeks (or longer, in the most affected areas).
The finger pointing has already started. FEMA apparently belatedly showed up with manpower, but no relief supplies, and no distribution plan. They blamed the State of Texas. The State of Texas blamed local authorities. Sound familiar?
In the aftermath of Ike, federal and Texas officials blamed each other over delays in getting provisions, water and ice from staging areas in San Antonio and Fort Worth to relief workers and public distribution centers in the storm zone.
After taking criticism from U.S. Reps. John Culberson, R-Katy, and Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff claimed the state had failed to provide promised workers to run distribution centers. The supplies eventually arrived, and Houston Mayor Bill White downplayed the dispute as “a little drama.”
And according to today’s Houston Chronicle, FEMA is still “days away” from establishing a “mega relief center”.
It’s apparent that the only thing the Bush administration and DHS and FEMA have learned from the Katrina disaster of 2005 is message control. Maybe they asked for some pointers from the Myanmar junta that they so strongly criticized.
Update: Apocalypse Ike at Crystal Beach, Tx.:
(Found here in a huge gallery of Ike photos you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.)
Update, 9/17: New info - it’s only a matter of time before the pot starts boiling over in S. Texas:
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff returned to Texas for a second time to check on recovery efforts amid growing criticism about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response.
In Houston, most people in the nation’s fourth-largest city remained without power for a fifth day, making it tough to track the latest information on where to pick up supplies. For most, the electricity wasn’t expected back on for at least another week…
Residents again waited in line for hours Wednesday at the nearly two dozen supply distribution centers set up in Houston to hand out food, water and ice. Mayor Bill White complained FEMA wasn’t bringing in the supplies fast enough, and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett had personally taken over coordination of efforts to hand out relief supplies.
FEMA officials in Houston said they were refining glitches in the relief effort and delivering millions of meals and water every 24 hours…
Heck of a job, Chertie.
Richard,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. As is so often the case, those in the most need have no voice. Kudos for speaking up for them!
Daniel
When the night shows
The signals grow on radios
All the strange things
They come and go as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
Still waiting for the swollen Easter tide
There’s no point in direction we cannot even choose a side.
I took the old track
The hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
They were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
And as the nail sunk in the cloud,
The rain was warm and soaked the crowd.
(chorus)
Lord, here comes the flood
We’ll say good-bye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
In any still alive
It’ll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.
When the flood calls
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You’re a thousand minds, within a flash
Don’t be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there’s only you and me
And if we break before the dawn,
They’ll use up what we used to be.
-Peter Gabriel
Yay! I’m so glad we have Deciderman and The Dick in charge!
I wonder what the next state to be devastated will be before these people are removed from office.
I wonder what the next state to be devastated will be before these people are removed from office.
State of the union, perhaps?
Oh, wait. They already did that one. Never mind.
State of mind? State of consciousness? State of reality?
State of Delusion.
I thought it was interesting when I heard Bill Weir from ABC’s Good Morning America say (on the day of landfall) that they were not permitted to take pictures of any fatalities. The bodybag war, especially if in a red state, comes to weather. NOAA, however, has provided some updated imagery, which is embedded in this Google Map (on my blog and directly on gMaps).
Silly Richard. Bailouts aren’t for flood victims. they’re for massive private insurance companies.
I can say that I am extremely lucky to be on the side of Houston that is in better shape (West, where the “clean side” of Ike rolled over). We have power and gas (to a reasonable extent, not everywhere, but in lots of places). But all you have to do is drive a few miles into Houston and you see no traffic lights, trees down, damage, etc. Locally, we are getting a reasonable good view of the damage, because the local news outlets aren’t trying to go with damage control, they are trying to get as much info out as possible to help the citizenry at large.
That said, I know that the news access to the worst sections of damage (Galveston, Bolivor, etc) have been restricted. The rumor was that it because there were bodies all over the place. Local TV news reporter Wayne Dulcefino took Gov. Perry to task over the restricted access during a live news conference (heated words were exchanged both ways). Dulcefino ended up renting a boat and going out to Bolivar himself to take picture. The truth, at that time, was there were no bodies. There isn’t anything. Wayne showed that all that’s left are concrete slabs where homes used to be. That is what it looks like the officials are trying to hide at Bolivar: that there isn’t anything to go back to.
I agree with the point of the post, I just wanted to point out that the news coverage problem is really more applying to the national media. There have also been serious issues with FEMA (I know, shocking) that mirror what happened in the last 3 years anywhere a natural disaster hit in the US. Too much beauracracy, Bush photo ops, miscommunication, etc. Honestly, from the ground level, it seems like this time everybody had supplies ready to go, but too many people wanted to pull the trigger and be the one to say, “See, we got it right this time!”, only when there were delays, they all turned on each other and started pointing fingers. I saw myself the long caravans of FEMA trucks, ambulances, National Guard trucks, grocery trucks, and gas tankers rolling in from San Antonio on Saturday afternoon (hours after Ike past through). This time it was the execution, not the availability.
And please don’t think I am some Bush apologist. That idiot decided it would be a good idea to take pics on the ground in Galveston, delaying relief efforts for hours. I’m just saying it isn’t as bleak as Katrina was. Some people locally paid attention after that (and the botched Rita evacuations), so they learned, even if Bush only got “Control The Message” out of all of Katrina’s mess.
Superb post. Thank you. All Americans, regardless of their party or candidate, should be outraged by this.
Thanks for bringing this news to light. I live quite a ways from Galveston we are still without power. I am currently staying at a friends house until we get our electricity back on. Centerpoint says we will not get our power until after the Monday. The thing that is bothering me is the total lack of national media coverage of the cover up of the west end of Galveston. No fly zone in place, limited to building contractors and the authorities. I understand they do not want to show such grim images but the residents of Galveston need answers and to be able to start their recovery process.
http://blessingsblessings.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/17/1875291-galveston-coverup-you-decide
http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2008/09/hurricane-ike-news-blackout-1500-bodies.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html