Posted on 08/30/2005 10:10:45 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
It is with heavy heart I write this...
I have finally reconnected with my best friend who is a paramedic who was sent from Georgia 2 days ago to Gulf Port, Mississippi before the hurricane hit.
He just reached me within the last 10 mins via emergency cell phone to tell me he was alive.
Thousands of bodies have been discovered throughout Mississippi in Gulf Port, Waveland,Hancock County,Bay of St.Louis.
They are hanging in trees and they are pulling them out 30 at a time. Entire families found drowned in their homes and washing up on shore.
The stories he could tell me were brief. National Guard is on the scene and arresting anyone seen on the streets.
The numbers are staggering and what I have been told tonight will shake people to their foundation as the numbers will be coming out in the next 24-hours of just how many people have actually perished in these and 3 other beach communities.
More to follow....
I see, because the person who offers to share information with us isn't a techi who knows exactly what kind of phone his friend called him on (which has virtually no bearing on the story) means the whole report is invented...
Whatever.
"Yet in the media, all we hear about is New Orleans. It's like the rest of the states don't matter, at least to the media."
You might try some other channels. Most of what I heard last night and part of this morning pretty much was the Miss. and Ala. coasts. Better pictures.
Well said and logical sir.
It would not surprise me to know there are bodies in trees, because we've already heard stories of people being rescued out of them. The article cited at Drudge, quotes a lady who was washed out of an apartment building, who says they were pushing cars away from them as they floated by. It's a fact that the water surge was at least 20 feet high in Biloxi-Gulfport area, so it's likely that some bodies are going to be found exactly as described. I doubt it will be thousands.
More likely, they will be found buried under all the debris, or farther inland, or worse, never found (as so many were not found after the great tsunami).
We're being given time to mentally prepare for what is to come.
Man, what's with all the vitriol with some of these people?
Skepticism is fine--it's almost to be expected. But, to be so snotty about it is uncalled for.
And many of those that follow the original being half@ssed
And your example is?
Yep, and also the Great White nightclub fire a couple of years ago -- that one was first reported by a FReeper down the street from the club!
FR is an amazing news source. But, yes, caution must alwas be applied.
Still, nothing in MFH's post seems far-fetched to me at all. An informed public will add his paramedic friend's report in with other reports and create a full picture.
I simply see no good in impugning MFH's credibility. He -- a longtime, responsible FReeper -- relayed the report, we shall see if it is true.
Myself, I'd believe My Favorite Headache over, say, Ann Compton.
The vitriol is becasues of the wrath I incured about two hours ago for merely saying I was skeptical of a story that relies on hearsay evidence with nothing to support it...told in a way to ensure mass hysteria in a certain block of my fellow FReepers.
You'd have thought I'd arrived and said "Hi I'm Skinner from DU...can I play?"
The thought police are in effect in here today...no devience from the "bodies every where hanging in the trees oh my GOD this is the end of the world" mindset is being allowed in here.
Ditto.
This storm will probably take 10 years or more to recover even partially from, what with entire families wiped out, questions of who owns the properties now, insurance payouts beyond comprehension, survivors lives shattered, refugees with no homes, jobs or transportation. One of the busiest shipping port areas disabled. Refineries down. Yikes. I really can't comprehend it all, it hurts my head.
Exactly! If memory serves that just started out as a normal Live thread for people that wanted to watch the shuttle land...and morphed into the Live thread about the Columbia burning up.
But the fact remains...the scoop was reported from what people were seeing and hearing through verifiable sources.
Who's Ann Compton? ;-)
That's where I see 'self responsibility' as the actual cause of death.
No, you impugned the poster's dignity because you hadn't seen anything like his story in the mainstream media.
All the more reason NOT to parse the exact wording as though this was a written news article or something. MFH is restating the things he picked up from the call, in his own words. Clarity or lack thereof in the wording does not reflect on whether the thrust of the post is accurate. If it IS inaccurate, then MFH will have discredited himself when the death toll doesn't materialize. I see no reason to doubt the report until then.
Real scoops have identifiable sources or a confirming trail of independent verification. The classic example here at FR was the space shuttle thread where you could see minute by minute comments by FReepers as the tragedy unfolded.
Has it occurred to you that Columbia incident involved a vastly smaller number of people, was thoroughly documented as it happened, involved no breakdown in communications infrastructure, etc.? This hurricane has many, many more variables in play than one 7-person vehicle burning up.
This just gets worse and worse. And I'm afraid the dying in New Orleans has only just begun. There are estimates of 100,000 people still in the city. They've got to get them out of there.
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