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Louisiana Flood Rescue Media Black-Out

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By Deborah Dupré

Louisiana flood survivors of the worst United States “natural disaster” ask why media is conducting a black-out , ignoring them, the human suffering depression and post traumatic stress, plus remarkable rescues by locals. Thirteen deaths and up to 100,000 homes lost after an estimated 6.9 trillion gallons of water fell across Louisiana between Aug. 8 and 14, yet media silence continues, particularly about some aspects of the horrendous event. An even more evil reason than Agenda 21 for the censorship is becoming apparent: disaster capitalism, as Dupré broached on Aug. 15 in the article, Deadly Louisiana Flood Coverup. 16 Startling Truths.

“The smell is horrendous,” says Kevin White, who has been working on flood relief for the past week in St. Amant, Louisiana. “Rotting roadkill. It’s worse than that. It’s incredible.”

It took Volunteers of America to report the worsening stench across parts of Louisiana post-flood.

The oil industry is hurting these days in Louisiana, reaching an all-time low in profits. With more land for more pipelines and refineries, next year’s profits might look less grim to the oil mafia, notorious for its no holes barred policies, regardless of human death and property destruction. Indeed, disaster capitalism is in the foul air.

$100B Louisiana Oil Industry Flooding Sets Fossil Fuel Profiteers Crazy

Forsaken, traumatized south Louisiana survivors of over 31 inches of rain in 15 hours, again live in what they call a bad dream, another one added to Hurricane Katrina and then, the BP Gulf of Mexico oil crime nightmares.

In the tiny flooded town of Springfield, La., Rachel Moriarity waited over a week for a center accepting emergency food stamps to finally open in the Am-Vets hall — but she was turned away at the door. “This week they are processing only those with last names beginning with A through D,” reported NPR on Wednesday, one of too few reporting on the unprecedented U.S. catastrophe.

“I don’t have a vehicle to get here,” she tells a staffer from the state, who replied that due to the volume of applicants, there is nothing they can do.

Defeated and exhausted, Moriarity sits on one of the metal folding chairs anyway, not knowing if she can hold out until next week for food. Such is the case with thousands of Americans in South Louisiana. More than 115,000 people have applied for aid. At least as many homes and businesses are ruined or badly damaged. Authorities expect these numbers to keep climbing.

[Want to help? See: Emotional 'Louisiana Flood Adopt a Family' Soars]

When over 20,000 people were rescued, not one media source reported the hundreds if not thousands others who remained stranded and unaccounted – with no water, no food and no shelter — for days. [READ: Apocalyptic Louisiana Flooding Updates: Hurricane Katrina-Type Stranded Desperation Sets In]

Residents say that while the flooding has made national news daily, it is the severity of the situation that has gone unrecognized. “Not to mention the amount of work that needs to be done. Louisianans affected by this flood pride themselves on taking care of their own, but they say they could really use some outside help.” (VOA)

“The national media really has not given this story the focus that it needed to,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards told Time. “This is historic, unprecedented, record-level flooding, with well over 100,000 homes damaged and tens of thousands of people that are not in their homes right now.”

One reporter blew the lid off the media cover-up. Sean Hannity from Fox News went to Baton Rouge. One after another resident told him, “Hurricane Katrina was not as bad” and “couldn’t compare to this.” What might compare, however, is disaster capitalism, thus explaining corporate media silence. [See: Naomi Klein: Disaster capitalism - how to make money out of misery]

Hannity met with a room full of flood volunteers who gathered in a church building to tell their stories to him, such as 11 people plus their dogs in two upstairs room, left to fend for themselves with no aid for three days. Story after story, each story seemed worse than the previous one told to Hannity, seemingly not in Lousiana solely for a PR stunt.

 
Fox admitted Wednesday, however, that Hannity’s appearance and performance was politically based. The News group admitted they didn’t bother getting involved with flood victims until it became political.
 
Dana Perino, a Fox News Co-Host stated on air, “Well the other thing is, we didn’t cover this story about the floods until it became political either.”

Nevertheless, Hannity pointed to human kindness during during the height of the catastrophe, that reflected old-fashioned American values and principles as neighbors saved each other. The burning question for many was, “Where were government agencies?” Hannity was sure to subtly point his little finger at the Obama administration for not doing more to aid survivors.

Others knew better than to depend on government to rescue them. Others, however, still literally weep, continuing to ask, “Why the media blackout?” A media blackout might be voluntary, or enforced by the government or state. Some regard it as a human rights violation and repression of free speech. Press blackout refers specifically to printed media.

Chaos: National Emergency Urgently Needed

Edwards blamed media for extensive coverage of the Olympics, far more profitable.

“But because of the Olympics, because of the presidential election, and I think because it was not a named storm, this wasn’t a hurricane that the nation was looking at,” Edwards said. “As a result, the attention of the American people has not been on this story.”

Edwards says because the catastrophe was blacked out, Americans in other states have not been engaged and contributing to Red Cross as they normally would. Of course, many Americans today say they know better than to donate to the American Red Cross, that has repeatedly demonstrated (hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, to name only two major events) as an official partner of FEMA, that its first priority is not in saving lives.

Those who experienced Katrina, BP’s Gulf oil crime, and Sandy know the plot. The federal government’s responses, despite flush with money and resources, were catastrophes in themselves. For example, after FEMA swooped in and ordered Katrina survivors walking to one end of boiling hot New Orleans to another, where still, there was no bus awaiting them. FEMA threatened to have anyone trying to save lives shot dead. It sent some survivors to experience hell on Earth in the Superdome, while sending swat teams out with order to shoot to kll anyone on the streets. The Red Cross refused water and food to victims. In Sandy’s aftermath, again, Fema shut down anyone trying to help, Hurricane Sandy victims were corralled into “Camp Freedom,” with its razor wire fencing, Blackhawk helicopters swarming overhead and security guards checking FEMA badges in front of the bathrooms, Camp Freedom, said reporter Stephen Edelson, not allowed to enter. He said it “more resembled a prison camp.” Media wasn’t very good at reporting all that, either.

In the U.S., sports trumps all those kind of real life dramas. Numerous times each day, major news “alerts” were sent in email blasts about the latest Olympic medal winner, never about fellow Americans’ struggling to survive in the Deep South.

Louisiana Homeless, Catastrophic Flood Victims’ Gifts from Obama, Hillary, Trump Will Amaze You

Over 100,000 Houses Destroyed or Seriously Damaged. Where’s Media?

“When you hear the stories of devastation and how many people were literally getting on boats and saving lives as the water came in so fast, it’s an incredible story of heroism, generosity, kindness, I mean everything that makes America great.”

Speaking to a local volunteer John Broussard, Hannity said he watched a video and could not believe what he saw: house after house, street after street, devastation, water up as high as six feet in the houses, every home destroyed.

“Not one government agency got here,” Hannity said, referring to one of the hardest hit areas, Livingston Parish. The Livingston sheriff had told Hannity earlier that it was truly amazing that only one person died there, considering the devastation, the number of elderly and disabled… “It was neighbor helping neighbor, with their boats. So many lives were saved.

As Hannity said, the pictures he showed in the program will “shock your conscience.”

The full episode of Hannity, O’Reilly Factor, The Kelly File, FoxNews, Sean Hannity Reports From Baton Rouge Louisiana Flood Area! Exclusive Episode 8/22/16, is below.

Related Articles by Deborah Dupré

 

 

 

 

 

 



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    Total 12 comments
    • Deborah Dupre

      Thank you for reading this and for hopefully considering to adopt a family. The situation is far more desperate than my humble words could express in this article.

      • Veronika

        HOW MANY FAMILIES ARE YOU TAKING IN???

        • Deborah Dupre

          Veronika. Rather than attempting to sling an insult, how about reading about the adopt a family program? Educate yourself a bit, firs. It’s better than embarrassing yourself with an ill-informed insinuating question.

          For your information, I happen to have family and friends in Louisiana, so do not need to go through Adopt a Family.

          Grow up and have a heart. You might decide you like it and go on to helping many people in your new life.

          • HitleryforPrison

            I personally could give a $hit about Louisiana Flood Rescue…though that SOB no good Trump showed up to assist them making obama and i appear like the anti-American rodents that we are! Son-of-a-Biach!

          • Hi NSA, kiss my artichoke

            Provide links and research papers.

    • The Clucker

      Debbie, if you keep up this business of having stories high up in the front page news feed Charlie might have to bump you up to sub-prelim status. Good Luck. Maybe you’ll be an Angle before you know it. You could maybe be his “Left Angle” but that’s entirely up to him.

    • FACTCHECK

      I am shocked. You actually wrote a piece that wasn’t too far off the mark. To show that I am not a complete a-hole, I will award you kudos for this new piece. However, you do have some inaccuracies in it. I will point them out as follows:

      1. This is not the worst natural disaster in US history. Not even the worse in Louisiana history. 1800+ victims died in Hurricane Katrina. While damage toll may be high for the flooding due to the sheer number of homes and businesses ruined, calling it the worst is rather unjust. It’s not even third. Hurricane Rita, a month after Katrina, killed over 100 and actually did far more damage over a wider scale than Katrina though Katrina, affecting both Louisiana and Texas, most especially the Sabine pass region and the Texas oil refineries at Port Arthur, Beaumont, and Houston. While Katrina holds the highest financial figure. The storm was also larger. It is called the “forgotten” hurricane.

      2. Your unnamed resident is full of sh*t. Flooded houses will never = hurricanes. Wade through the water and get help. Hurricane = no roof on your house, and everything you own gone forever = dead bodies floating down the street. It’s bad and it’s terrible and many actually have lost all they own, but it is nowhere near on par with a hurricane for which the residents of my state are far too experienced with.

      3. Left to fend for themselves for three days. We never saw the first FEMA truck for over a week after Rita. We didn’t see utility truck convoys for three days. Damn lights were back before FEMA did anything worth talking about. And just a word from someone who was in the middle of Rita – don’t give the Red Cross a damn nickel. The Red Cross is the most corrupt and uncaring bunch of a-holes on the planet. Just this last week they were caught charging survivors for water and food in Louisiana. I would link this, but apparently Google has removed all search results for the material and replaced it with DONATE TO results for the Red Cross, so if anyone comes across the articles, please link it.

      • Hi NSA, kiss my artichoke

        I have an older neighbor that worked for them during Katrina.
        He quit them after it.
        He would agree entirely with you.
        I do as well.
        You’re NOT helping anyone by donating to the ‘Green” cross.
        Spend your $, and chose your charity very, VERY, carefully.

      • Deborah Dupre

        Hi Fact;

        1. The reason many in Louisiana say this is the worst natural disaster in the US – and not Katrina, has to do with measuring deaths against ruined lives. More lives have been ruined so far in this event, people say: over 100,000. The other fact to take into account is that this event is far from over. Government figures are proving to be extremely inaccurate, according to locals who say the federal government is downplaying this – as media has. Therefore, really we cannot say, only report what locals who have been through all the worst there say.

        2. Again, the residents’ words are quoted. Time will tell.

        3. Thousands of people in Louisiana have yet to see any help from the feds, including the Red Cross (FEMA’S lap dog according to an MOU signed several years back). It’s mainly been locals helping locals – including rescues. I know from news reports and even more so from family and friends there. As far as aid yet to come, they know better than wait for that. I do wish to see that article your refer. I totally agree with the Red Cross. Can you remember the title of the article or date? Trust Google to pull it.

        Here’s the thing that gets me: Your and others’ perception of this event are mainly based on the relatively limited news reports about it. That’s almost as tragic as the event, because it means fewer Americans understand the gravity of it, and therefore have not rallied to help as much as they could.

        Many thanks.

    • Doccus

      We’re NOT ignoring you.. but red cross is throwing out tons of private donations of clothes, blankets, food, medicine, and even cash because the donors aren’t “registered” with the Red Cross. Only “approved” donations are accepted. And it takes months to get “approved”. Blame frikkin Obama and the sick lackeys at his side, the bureaucratic pissants that couldn’t give a damn about the people they’re supposed to help, and the sick minded officials that arrest people for illegally feeding the homeless. Theydo as much as they can before they ghet arrested and their supplies confiscated. You all can help by grabbing these donations and distributing them to your own neighbors while the officials are looking the other way…
      The private citizens are all doing the best they can except fighting the system, is proving harder than fighting the storm. :-(

      • Paul Brown

        You’re absolutely right. I know people in Louisiana who lost everything. They were living in areas not classified as flood zones. The government and Red Cross do next to nothing, as in Katrina (where FEMA did more harm than good). I was foolish enough to volunteer to go help with the Red Cross in Katrina instead of just going on my own with some other volunteers. In both disasters, volunteers including church groups, have done the most. This has been true for both Bush II and Obama.

        As for a worse disaster, tens of thousands of residents are saying this is worse for them than Katrina was because their lives are ruined with these floods. People who were not ruined by Katrina. The worst consequences for Katrina were from flooding and this flooding is far worse.

      • Deborah Dupre

        Very interesting – but don’y just blame Obama. The Red Cross-FEMA MOU began under Bush’s regime, my friend. Wakie wakie – the “two parties” are the same – both controlled.

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