From: gregs@slc.slac.stanford.edu
Newsgroups: alt.hurricane.andrew
Subject: Re: Violence in FL??? (Re: Pets need help in FL!!!)
Date: 2 Sep 92 17:40:42 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center


Thomas L. Burleigh responds to:
>>We thought it
>>interesting that there were no reports of looting in Louisiana.  And
>>couldn't figure out why in one place but not in another.

with:
> Found it rather interesting too.  Our governor, Edwin Edwards (D),
>attributes this to our heritage, strong sense of community, and strong
>Christian background here in these parts.  He may be on to something,
>but.......

However, what Governor Edwin Edwards (D) fails to realize is that instead
of taking credit for a lapse by the press, he should be thankful.  Working
with major disasters for the past several years, I have found it amusing
how the press distorts the public's perception of major disasters - how
federal and volunteer relief agencies were supposedly sitting on their
idle posteriors following Andrew's destruction.  We can only assume that
they were likely getting that extra raquetball game in at the spa before
they felt like lifting a finger to help out...that they have a stockpile
of some 42,000 prefab houses in some great warehouse where some cigar-
smoking government official is watching "the Price Is Right" with his feet
on his desk instead of shipping them out.  Is the media that desperate
for a story?  You bet.

And then the media LOVES to report looting - I don't know what it is, I
think each media agency has a special "Looting Seeking" task force with
trained dogs that sniff for that special scent that looters must have.
That's not to deny that legitimate looting does happen sometimes, and not
just the kind that gets reported to the insurance companies for a few
free family heirlooms in duplicate, but a hurricane passing through town
isn't necessarily going to convert the career criminal into a model
citizen.  Crime happens at disasters, just as it does everywhere else in
America.  Personally, I'd feel a lot safer walking through Homestead right
now rather than New Orleans at any time of the year.

CNN reports that two humane society people have been shot -- should that
come as a surprise?  It's not to me.  One of my strangest memories was of
the Loma Prieta earthquake where I was supervising the damage assessment
for San Francisco.  There I got to survey all the damage of the city
either first or second hand, and all I got were calls from friends back
east who saw Dan Rather on TV and got the impression from him that
the entire city was in rubble and engulfed in flames.  Not to minimize
the impact of that earthquake, as many lives were lost and its impact is
still felt in the Bay Area today, but outside of the 4 x 5 block area
Dan posed infront of, you'd be hard pressed to notice that San Francsico
had just experienced a major earthquake from what you could tell of the
structural damage to buildings in the rest of the city.

Even the New York Times, that bastion of media ethics that it is supposed
to be, reported that the Univerity of CA, Berkeley library was on fire
after the earthquake - when it was only an auto repair shop.  The media
is business - and their business is to sell advertising and to lure
viewers/readers/listeners.  Don't forget that.
Newsgroups: alt.hurricane.andrew