Did everybody go crazy at once during the Katrina disaster?

Question

What I am referring to were the immense number of reports describing a nightmare of rape and shootings, then, suddenly, report after report spoke of gross errors and exaggerations. None of these things we reported happened after all the people in the media seemed to be saying.

What, in your view, caused unfounded rumors to get spread?

Thanks for your erfforts to answer this.

Answer 1

From the reports of crime not in N.O. and other hurricane affected areas but the areas where Katrina victims were sent for a place to stay I'd say all of it is true. Police in Atlanta have stats that show the percentage increase in crime for that city related directly to people shipped in from N.O. All violent crimes. You really don't have to believe it you can see it. A lot of those crimes in N.O. are on video tape. I don't believe a single rumor was spread. I believe it was far worse than reported. I also agree with the guy that said we need to rebuild N.O. so that we can keep that group down there away from the rest of the country.

Answer 2

I think at least part of this exaggeration came from people wanting help.  They wanted to be put on a high priority (maybe they were very upset) and so they exaggerated the problems in order to get more help.  The fact is, of course, that help was coming but it couldn't get there instantly.  

The media didn't help, in that they (as usual) reported always the worst-case scenario.

Answer 3

Yes everyone went CRAZY!

Answer 4

When the reports first came out about the death, destruction, and then the looting and crime, my thoughts were, just cover the area up and make it a landfill.  The future is bleak with the lay of the land and it will happen again.  Just get rid of it.  But as things when along and the absolute filth of many of the people and the way they lived came out.  My opinion turned.  Lets rebuild it and get folks back there...i really dont want them relocating into my neighborhood.  Leave em there!..thanks for the question, my answer may sound synical but i really feel that way.

Answer 5

I'm not sure they were unfounded.  I've been watching politics for nigh on to forty years now and from what I've seen, truth dies in this country when the interests of the official parties coincide.  The relevance of this is that both parties had an interest in killing the Katrina story.  

The Repubs needed the story to go away because it made the Bush Administration look so bad.  Since the GOP is the party of the corporation elite, and the big media (mainstream media) is completely owned by large corporations, this means they had the power to kill the story or censor it to suit themselves.

The Demos needed the story to go away because it was making one of their core constituencies, US blacks, look so bad.  Most of the looting and virtually all of the violence in the Katrina disaster was committed by the inner-city blacks of  New Orleans.  Since the big media is overwhelmingly staffed by white liberals (ie, the other Demo core constituency), they had the power to control what the media covered and how they covered it.

I read accounts in the British and Australian press of the events in the NO Superdome as seen by Brit and Aussie survivors and what they reported was horrendous.  The small group of White refugees was repeatedly threatened by mobs of drunken blacks screaming racist invective.  

NONE of this got into the totally controlled US media....

Barrow-Wight

Answer 6

it was horrible!!

Answer 7

well the media of course

Answer 8

those reporters have never been to a disaster area before and started panicking and telling stories........

Answer 9

My husband and I lived in Waveland, MS where the eye of the hurricane passed.  We had four, 34 ft. waves come in from the gulf at 160 mph.  No one talks much about that.  We floated on an ice-chest on huge whitecaps for 6.5 hrs. and lost everything.  After the water went down, we left with one set of wet clothes and a jar of peanut butter.  We stayed 6 nights before anyone knew we were even alive.  During that time, we'd see helicopters rescuing folks & picking up the dead, military going from house to house seeking dead people.Animals were shot because they were packing.  Do you know what it's like to have a gun put in your face just receive water and an MRE?  We had to walk a mile (I'm disabled) to even get the food.  We were all in shock and still suffer from Post Traumatic Stress.  Rumors are true.  In N.O. the hospitals were robbed for drugs and the medical staff was taken hostage.  People were raped and murdered in the Superdome.  Looting...everyone was looting even the police.  The "thugs" walked over the MS river bridge and vandalized a mall and set it on fire.  When the fire dept. tried to put it out, they shot the firemen.  People were finding dead family members under their houses or in the trees.  The media seem to get hung up on one thing and ignore the rest.  New Orleans was destroyed because of poor government and not building the levees to protect the population.  In Mississippi, we were just wiped out.  It looked like a bomb was dropped...just nothing left...nothing.  Even slabs of houses were washed away.  Many older service men said it looked worse than Hiroshuma after the atom bomb was dropped.  So...all I can say is that those who were there will never forget it....never get over it...and will always feel as though FEMA was a joke.  Godloveya'll.

Answer 10

Rumors are never unpopular, and in such circumstances, with normal methods of fact-checking impossible, both that and the double-counting (or worse) of actual events is "normal."

You also have to take into account that LA is a different place than the rest of the US. Not being affiliated with any group, it took me a few days of plotting to get to south MS to help with relief efforts, and there was a lot less of that in MS than in LA.

Answer 11

well there are lots of rumors we dont really know if they are true like celebritys theres lots of rumors of them and im glad im not a celebrity

Answer 12

I don't know the answer but I can tell you what I think.  I think it may be easy to suggest that was the truth because of the dominance of black victims. If it wasn't a race issue it can be suggested as a poor issue.

There have been rumors that this could have been prevented. There are even rumors that this was done purposely to save the highlands where the "rich" live and sacrifice the grounds where the "poor" live. Thier land was not worth the money to save. And second it was only black people. Not all people were black, but they were all in the same environment deemed as poor. Being that it took Bush a while to respond leaves me a little specious of it all. History has a way of writing itself. I don't think we will ever know the truth. I think that something is wrong.  "They" whoever they are are looking for a scapegoat to defend their actions and non actions. So blame the locals. Make sound crazy so the world won't feel so bad about the lives that have been lost. That should have been saved.

Answer 13

most of the stories/rumors were true.  there was a lot of crime  and violence.

turn off the electricity, flood the streets,  block all routes of leaving,  remove  the police,  and let everyone out of jail, and wait a week.  this is what happened.  

i am not picking on N.O.,  all h**l would break loose anywhere under these conditions.