# Katrina - 30 Days Later **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 7, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179 "2005-10-07T13:40:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/1 "2005-10-07T13:40:30Z")
In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=333773&page=1&pp=50) it was asserted that, in a month, the Katrina story would have no more significance than one about “missind white women.” I disagreed and promised to check back. [This](http://news.google.com/news?q=katrina&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-10,GGLD:en&sa=N&tab=nn&oi=newsr) google search brings up at least 333 discrete Katrina related stories. Katrina was a headline story on NPR this morning. Locally, Katrina is in the news daily, with most of the stories being displacee related. So what say ye **Merijeek** , **Harborwolf** , and **Finnagain**? Do you feel that your predictions were accurate? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/2 "2005-10-07T13:54:43Z")
NPR had several stories on Katrina today. The big 2 were the Army Core of Engineers expect to have the Dike system rebuit by June 2006 and Charity Hospital will need to be taken down and it will be a long time before it is replaced. I have heard daily reports in Hard News, Business news and Fluff pieces. (Best friends reunited: Boy gets dog back). ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/3 "2005-10-07T13:54:57Z")
On a related note, it is interesting how Katrina killed 1000 or so and dominated the news for a month, while Tuesday’s [Stan](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4317704.stm) has killed at least 230 and has _already_ disappeared off the BBC front page. If there was a feeling that black urban Americans were “worth less” than white suburban Americans, then Guatemalans must be loose change. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/4 "2005-10-07T14:04:18Z")
I’m not one of the people you mentioned, but found this thread interesting because the newscast I watched this morning (CBS) centered mostly around [this story](http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785493173) about a missing white woman. Granted, this one’s body has now been found. I don’t remember hearing anything about Katrina.\* (I only watched for about half an hour, but it was the first half-hour of the newscast. If there were Katrina stories, they weren’t in that first half-hour.) Just an observation. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/5 "2005-10-07T14:14:20Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > On a related note, it is interesting how Katrina killed 1000 or so and dominated the news for a month, while Tuesday’s [Stan](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4317704.stm) has killed at least 230 and has _already_ disappeared off the BBC front page. If there was a feeling that black urban Americans were “worth less” than white suburban Americans, then Guatemalans must be loose change. They’re not American. Now, if there were four American tourists who died in that one, they’d be all over the news. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/6 "2005-10-07T14:25:08Z")
> [@](#): > > They’re not American. Funny, I could swear I read “Central _American_ death toll: 230 and rising”. I guess they’re not in the right county. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/7 "2005-10-07T14:32:41Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > On a related note, it is interesting how Katrina killed 1000 or so and dominated the news for a month, while Tuesday’s [Stan](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4317704.stm) has killed at least 230 and has _already_ disappeared off the BBC front page. If there was a feeling that black urban Americans were “worth less” than white suburban Americans, then Guatemalans must be loose change. Let’s see New Orleans, a huge and World famous city submerged, a large part of the oil industry was shut down and 3 levels of Government of the “only remaining superpower”[sup]TM[/sup] failed miserably. Don’t you think that was legitimately more important world news than Stan. I know I am being callous about the deaths, but Katrina was more about Government Failure, Lawlessness, and huge economic impact. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/8 "2005-10-07T15:00:28Z")
> [@jfranchi](#): > > Don’t you think that was legitimately more important world news than Stan? More important, certainly - even the straight death toll would warrant greater coverage. But still, I am surprised by the sheer magnitude of the discrepancy: it almost didn’t make the news _at all_. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/9 "2005-10-07T15:05:17Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > Funny, I could swear I read “Central _American_ death toll: 230 and rising”. I guess they’re not in the right county. USAans often refer to the US as America. Please don’t try to turn that into some sort of political incorrectness. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/10 "2005-10-07T15:11:55Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > More important, certainly - even the straight death toll would warrant greater coverage. But still, I am surprised by the sheer magnitude of the discrepancy: it almost didn’t make the news _at all_. Thats fair to say. Stan impacted a country of very little importance to the UK and limited importance to the US & Canada, so therefore, our respective News Agencies barely cover it. Earthquakes, hurricanes, Famine, Floods probably strike a half dozen times a year that do serious damage. (Hundreds killed). This is a small news item most of the time. Katrina was on a vastly different scale. Their has rarely been a similar disaster in the TV & Internet age with the dozens of angles and the huge impact. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/11 "2005-10-07T15:18:40Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > USAans often refer to the US as America. Please don’t try to turn that into some sort of political incorrectness. Seriously. Don’t be obtuse. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/12 "2005-10-07T23:15:14Z")
I’ll admit that there’s still more coverage than I thought there would be. However, let’s take a look at what’s going on right now on various websites. Foxnews: Senate OKs War Funds, Armstrong Probe, Third Suspect Arrested (NY terror deal) CNN: Economy Bends, not breaks under Katrina, New York spends day on alert after false alarm, A rush, a roar and two villages are gone, Oprah helps nab fugitive sex offender, Will Mini Cooper ride into SUV land? CBS: NYC Probe Leads To Iraq, Who’s Cleaning Up New Orleans? ABC: Man Abused Corpse of Missing Girl, Is the Subway Threat Credible?, The Biggest Purcahse of your Life Google News: New Yorkers Baffled Over Differing Stances on Terrorist Threat, Japanese A-bomb victims congratulate Nobel Peace Prize winners, US September Payrolls Fall 35,000 After Hurricane (Update7), Engines of Ecotourism, Understaffed Wildlife Refuges Still at Risk IMO, there’s not much on it. FEMA has been forgotten, the various local officials haven’t been pilloried, they are still finding the dead (but that doesn’t get mentioned). I wonder if it’s time to start pointing fingers yet? There’s more than I thought there would be. Admittedly, not many white women have disappeared lately, it seems. 🙂 -Joe ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/13 "2005-10-08T00:53:33Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > So what say ye **Merijeek** , **Harborwolf** , and **Finnagain**? Do you feel that your predictions were accurate? Well it would be kinda wonky to feel that they were accurate when they’re obivously not. That sort of resistance to cognitive dissonance is reserved for… other folks 😉 > [@Me](#): > > I don’t know… I seem to remember news about one of the Downing Street Memos being swamped by one missing white chick or another, but I could be wrong. We shall see. > [@Me](#): > > Fair enough. My point was that right from the beginning, the DSM story was buried by the cute white girl story. As far as I see it, if it could happen to that story, it can happen to this one, especially given time. Again, we shall see. Well, we dun seen 😃 I’m happy to note that while our culture’s attention span is normally miniscule, in this case it was longer. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/14 "2005-10-08T01:19:04Z")
Right now it has as much significance as the boat capsizing in New York and the new supreme court nominee. The “outrage” from the media has faded. Katrina gets mentioned now in the same breath as any other republican problem. It’s gone from a catastrophy to a political liability. > [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Locally, Katrina is in the news daily, with most of the stories being displacee related. I also said [this…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6556233&postcount=52) > [@](#): > > There will be local stories from the areas housing the displaced for a good deal of time, but they’ll fade off of the front page just the same. in that thread. The story remains, but the medias testicles have gone away. I stand by my statement. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/15 "2005-10-08T01:51:59Z")
The original exchange may have taken place in the Pit but this thread isn’t a rant, flame or even very impassioned argument. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, mind, just more suited to IMHO than the Pit. Over it goes… Veb ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/16 "2005-10-08T01:53:24Z")
Katrina isn’t front page news anymore. It basically lingers, as 9/11, as an excuse for everything from the price of tacks to the price of rabbit food. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/17 "2005-10-08T03:19:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Please don’t try to turn that into some sort of political incorrectness. That horse has already left the barn. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/18 "2005-10-09T05:31:55Z")
I guess it matters whether you mean U.S. or global news. Here in Mississippi, Katrina is still in the news. From schools on the coast strugging to get up and running, dentists’ offices and engineering firms trying to locate paperwork and workspace to get up and running, to communities struggling to assimilate the huge numbers of folks who have relocated there… it’s staggering. My daughter was supposed to enroll in University in New Orleans this fall. Instead, she fled as a “transient” student to Mississippi State. There are many students at State from the Coast who have _no_ home left. Nothing. I don’t want to appear callous, but it seems that in the _big news_ of New Orleans’ troubles, no one appears to think of the devastation on the Louisiana, Missisippi, and Alabama coast populations. Yes, Katrina is _still_ a big story here. And will be for years to come. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/19 "2005-10-09T15:13:29Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > The story remains, but the medias testicles have gone away. I stand by my statement. This one?– > [@](#): > > I’d bet money that in under a month we’ll be back to looking for the missing white women ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179/20 "2005-10-09T18:00:19Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > This one?– Picked the words but missed the point. Man you’re adorable. The point I was getting at, since you seemed to have missed it, was that the medias “outrage” would last as long as the publics attention span did. As I said in my earlier post, Katrina is still in the news but it isn’t the main issue. The medias testicles have disappeared again like I said they would. Do you deny this, or are you going to keep being cute? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-30-days-later/325179.md?page=2)