Today is MTV’s 25th birthday. It has not been mentioned on MTV! More on that in a second. VH-1 Classic, a digital subchannel with vastly inferior reach, carried the flag with flashbacks to 1981.
By the time MTV came on, I was already in Buffalo, hosting PM Magazine. I was envious, to say the least. Alas, even by then, I was probably too old for MTV.
Today’s MTV isn’t anything like the MTV of 25 years ago. There’s little music on Music Television. Much of the day is spent in MTV’s version of reality.
This was all presaged. I’m sure this wasn’t the first time it was uttered, but Bob Pittman is on the record five years ago, on CNN, saying:
So, to today’s audience, the MTV of 25 years ago doesn’t exist… or if it does, it’s too closely related to their (unhip) parents to be mentioned. A 25th anniversary of anything isn’t very important when you’re 16.
I remember sitting home with Helaine, in Buffalo, waiting for the premiere of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. It was a simpler time.
Over the past few years I’ve become increasingly uneasy with the lifestyle portrayals on MTV’s reality shows. I’ve called it soft core porn for teens. Maybe that’s an exaggeration – though not much of one. Certainly I was uneasy when my daughter watched them through high school.
I’d say more, but I don’t want to sound like an old guy railing at youth.
There are no more VJs – no more Martha Quinn or Mark Goodman. I suspect MTV’s still a major incubator of talent. It always has been. It is amazing to look at who’s gone far after leaving MTV.
Meanwhile, if you’re wondering about the originals, here’s a quick rundown from NPR’s Talk of the Nation.
After leaving MTV in 1990, Quinn stayed in television, working as both actor and anchor. In 2005, she joined Sirius Satellite Radio, where she hosts a weekly show, Martha Quinn Presents: Gods of the Big ’80s.
J.J. Jackson
Jackson returned to radio in Los Angeles after his stint on MTV. He was host for a number of successful radio programs before he suffered a fatal heart attack in March 2004. He was 62.
Alan Hunter
Since his 1987 departure from MTV, Hunter formed a production company, Hunter Films, with his brother Hugh and co-founded the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham. He is currently a host on Sirius Satellite Radio’s 80s music channel.
Nina Blackwood
Blackwood
No News On The Weekend
This has been a lost weekend for the Fox family. Though today was Stef’s birthday, we didn’t do much. Our big celebration, a ceremonial family dinner, happens tomorrow.
Earlier this afternoon, Helaine was watching TV. It was food or shopping. I can’t be sure. I glaze over at the thought of either.
I asked nicely if I could put on the news, and proceeded to do just that. It was mid-afternoon. No local TV news then. CNBC was running an infomercial. MSNBC was in some prison. I caught the last moment of a female anchor tossing to a long form program on CNN. I ended up at Fox.
We watched for a minute or so – until the anchor started reading copy about a story we had on my station two nights ago.
“No news today,” said Helaine.
It’s a real pity, but news does seem to stop over the weekend. It’s not limited to TV. Here on the Internet, many of my favorite niche sites stop updating on Friday and pick up again on Monday. A few rotate through their headlines, so there are different lead stories showing, but it’s the same overall rundown. I’m not fooled.
I guess it’s because of traffic. This site, as an example, has its lowest traffic on the weekend.
Maybe, on the other hand, it’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Cut back on content and readership/viewership will fall too.
Because of the Internet I need more, not less content. I’m like a caged animal, flitting between sites and networks all weekend. It can’t be just me?
Power Of Internet Video
I just watched a clip of Jeff Jarvis at the Syndicate media conference in New York. He was talking about Jon Stewart’s famous appearance on CNN’s Crossfire.
When the show aired, about 150,000 watched it. The video clip, as posted to the Internet, has been seen 10,000,000 times. I’m not sure CNN made anything from the Internet plays, even though their reach dwarfed the ‘main’ channel.
For broadcasters and cable channels, this is a significant disconnect. It’s not that programs aren’t being watched, as much as they aren’t being watched in a way that produces revenue necessary to make them.
Global Warming Skeptic
The problem is, the more I understand, the less I am willing to buy into the Global Warming theories. That’s especially true of the global scale models used in the forecast, and the shortcuts they have to take.
I am a non-believe in the James Hansen Goddard ISS/NASA theories concerning global warming. They receive lots of press, and Hansen is an excellent advocate.
I interviewed him in his little office at Columbia University in Morningside Heights around 20 years ago. He made a good case, accompanied by graphs and charts and his famous colored dice.
Challenger – 20 Years Ago Today
Today is the twentieth anniversary of the Challenger disaster, January 28, 1986. I still have that morning indelibly etched in my mind.
Helaine and I were living in Branford. Steffie wasn’t quite a twinkle in our eye. We went to sleep late and woke up later.
From bed, we turned on CNN. I’m not sure we had any anticipation of seeing a space shot that morning, but as the set came to life, the countdown was in its final two minutes. There was no way we were going to turn away.
We watched what happened live. James Oberg writing on MSNBC today said that was the exception not the rule. I knew something was wrong right away. No one had to tell me.
Twenty years ago, the bloom was already off NASA’s rose. Few people cared the shuttle was being launched. From time-to-time on previous launches, I’d run a few seconds of tape. But really, there’s was little news value. I was indulged because it fit so well with my TV personna.
On January 28, 1986 only CNN had a live reporter at the Cape¹.
Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire school teacher was onboard to help NASA drum up some good publicity – the mother’s milk of funding. It doesn’t seem fair, considering the risk she faced.
Should NASA have known the shuttle was in danger that cold January morning? Was there a push to launch no matter what the circumstances? Truth is, it makes no difference.
Even if this explosion hadn’t happened then, there were other dangers hidden. Everything that brought Columbia down was already in place long before Challenger. There are other hidden perils we’ll see when the shuttle flies again… if it ever does.
Challenger came before my stint as host of Inside Space. I knew a little, not a lot about the space program when I started. The more I hung out where ‘spacemen’ hung out, the more I learned. This was my first step in deciding manned spaceflight was, and is, a hugely dangerous waste of money, resources and time.
Climbing onto a missile and having someone light the fuse is in and of itself dangerous. I have commented to astronauts on more than one occasion, it’s a job that can kill you when you’re just practicing. That’s what happened with Apollo One.
Today, everything that can be done on the shuttle can better be done robotically. There’s really no need to put people at danger. Anyway, even when the shuttle was flying, there wasn’t much science being performed.
NASA would like you to think otherwise, but what I’m saying is so. Look back at what was aboard Columbia – it’s embarrassing. I’ve heard talk of metallurgy and pharmaceuticals in space for decades – but it’s never happened in a way that would lead to the promised commercial applications.
Don’t get me wrong, the astronauts and NASA’s scientists are dedicated people. It didn’t take long to figure that out. I have met more brilliant minds at NASA facilities than anywhere else I’ve ever been. They are not the problem.
Flying people into space is a macho thing. It somehow seems more significant and worthy if a person is at the controls and not a machine. Until that mindset changes we will accomplish little and endanger many.
¹ – I’m not sure who it was, though probably the late John Holliman, a very nice guy and space enthusiast.
The Climatic Skeptic In Me
Wednesday morning on CNN, Miles O’Brien and meteorologist Chad Myers, chatting.
MYERS: No, I absolutely believe that CO2 is heating the atmosphere, but also, some of these thermometers that we’ve had out in the plains for years or in the cities for years are getting surrounded by more buildings. So you get more buildings, you get more asphalt, you get more heat, so the thermometers are different. The whole — metro areas are getting warmer, where, in fact, maybe you just see — if you put that same thermometer out in the middle of a cornfield in Nebraska, maybe it wouldn’t be too much different. We’ll have to see. You know, I know that this is happening; it’s just a matter of how much it is, that’s all.
O’BRIEN: So, there’s a little bit of global paving, too, along with global warming?
MYERS: Well, there you go.
Myers comments got a quick rebuke on Mediamatters.org and spilled over to a weathercaster bulletin board I often read.
Like Chad Myers, I’m “a little bit of a skeptic on global warming.”
Here’s what I posted in the conversation after someone said, “This is a scientific issue, not a political one.”:
That one sentence cuts to the core of this controversy. Of course it’s a political issue. If it were a scientific discussion, we’d be hearing positive as well as negative implications to warming. Even in dire global warming scenarios, there are many beneficiaries.
If this were a scientific discussion, not political, graphs of CO2 levels would start at 0 ppm, not 310 ppm¹. Starting high on the graph makes the increase look much more severe.
It seems, based on my limited contact with colleagues, that operational forecasters tend to be skeptics on the long range implications of additional CO2 in the atmosphere. I first noticed it at the “Million Meteorologist March,” when many of us were invited to the White House (excellent baked goods) to hear Al Gore speak about global warming. Most of the operational mets I spoke with that day were skeptical.
If you forecast the weather on a daily basis, you’re likely skeptical about the worst of the global warming predictions, because you’ve been burned by models and then chastised by viewers. Research mets don’t get that dose of forecast reality.
Last year I flew to Florida to see my folks. The plane stopped in Tampa on the way to PBI. As I looked out the window, I noticed the sky covered in cirrus clouds. As I looked closer, I realized they were contrails which had become diaphanous. They just hadn’t mixed out under the very weak upper flow.
I picked up my cellphone and called a friend – my expert on NWP. How, I asked, are these man made clouds taken into account in the models? They aren’t.
In fact all our short range models and certainly the multidecadal climate models, make assumptions, guesses and estimates. There’s just not enough data to properly initialize everything.
Tonight, based on the 12z runs, the models will have over predicted much of Connecticut’s temperatures by 5-10 degrees. And that’s just a 24 hour forecast!
In the meantime, I’m sure tonight many people in Fairbanks are saying of global warming, “Bring it on.”
PAFA 270653Z 00000KT 1/4SM R01L/3500V4500FT FZFG FEW001 BKN004 M43/ A2981 RMK A02 SLP123 T1433
That’s -45f with .25 mile visibility in freezing fog.
¹ – Here’s the graph I was talking about.
Journalist By Luck… Bad Luck
Recently, I’ve been reading more and more about the idea of citizen journalist. These would be folks from the community who, by virtue of circumstance or desire, report on local news.
This blog, and others like it, are not examples of citizen journalist. Sorry Geoff.
In the past 24 hours there has been a shining example of citizen journalism, courtesy of a blogger who was on the Alaska Airlines flight that depressurized between Seattle and Burbank.
Not only did Jeremy Hermanns write about his experience, he took photos! There were others on board taking video on their cellphones. I’ve seen some of that footage on CNN and our air here in Connecticut.
Read the story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and then Jeremy’s blog entry. In many ways they are complementary, as the PI story brings nuts, bolts and overview, while Jeremy’s blog entry lives the emotion.
It is likely we’ll be seeing more and more of this, as we did with the London subway bombings and the Boxing Day Tsunami.
One of my surprises are the comments below the entry (which Jeremy says he won’t edit). It is startling to read the vitriol from so many small and vindictive people. It also seems some of the negatives might be coming from Alaska Air!
Why Play Up The Bloggers
I am a blogger. This is my blog. No one asked me to do this. It was my decision. The world wasn’t clamoring for my opinion… and I’m not sure how valuable it is on any given topic.
The difference between bloggers and everyone else is we’re willing to waste the time to do this. We think people might want to hear what we say. Mostly, they don’t.
We’re opinionated, we’re bores, we’re self important.
With this in mind, I am disappointed to have just seen a segment on CNN where two political bloggers were asked to speak their mind, as if they had some sort of expert qualification to make their opinion important.
Both bloggers were conservative, but that is not my point. The question being pondered, about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, called out for a conservative’s response. Conservative, liberal, middle-of-the-road, it makes no difference.
Are bloggers worthy of being called upon as experts or spokepersons just because they blog?
I quickly jotted down the names of the bloggers and their blogs. Lorie Byrd writes on PoliPundit.com. Alexa.com says today PoliPundit.com is the 48,576th most popular site on the web!
Erick-Woods Erickson’s RedState.org is today’s 15,401st most popular website. Alexa also finds 35 sites that link back to RedState.org (PoliPundit.com does). CNN on the other hand has over 19,000 sites linked back to it!
It should be noted, both of these sites are way more popular than mine.
Lorie Byrd and Erick-Woods Erickson are probably very nice, thoughtful people. Maybe they have sage wisdom we should all listen to. But isn’t it a bit ironic that these two self selected voices are being called upon to express the conservative concern that, not enough is known about Harriet Miers.
What about them? Without CNN, I wouldn’t have even known they exist. I now know their opinions, but without context. Why are their opinions important enough to receive this lightly filtered national exposure?
I don’t know.
I Hate Change
When I went to bed last night CNN was on Channel 33. As of this morning it’s somewhere in the 50s – I’m not sure where.
I’ve got the World Series of Poker on Channel 29 as I type this. Last night ESPN was at 49.
What is Comcast doing? Their mailer said they were clustering similar channels. OK – sounds good, but yesterday MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CNBC, Headline News and Weather Channel were 31-36. Today the order is different, the channel numbers are different and Weather Channel has been moved away from the pack¹.
I took a quick peek at my DVR before I left for work. All my shows are still set, but they’re set for the wrong channel. There are going to be a lot of unhappy people.
There are supposed to be some new channels too, but as of this morning they were blanks. I assume they’ll be on by the time I get home.
How long will it take to get used to these changes? How will this affect the ‘legacy’ channels that aren’t moving? We shall see.
Meanwhile, for the next few weeks tuning the TV will be like writing the date on checks in January.
¹ – Personal note – good.
I Want Him To Be My Pilot
Here’s the entire story from AP:
Stop. Reread that last paragraph.
I was at my desk when I first caught sight of something out of the ordinary. It was MSNBC, I think. I was looking at a JetBlue A320¹ filling the entire frame. A small courtesy font was in the upper corner of the screen. That meant live, breaking news… and there’s an airplane involved.
As I watched, the story began to unfold. This pretty, fairly new, JetBlue Airbus had taken off from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. An indicator told the pilot the gear had not properly locked and/or retracted.
After a quick trip to Long Beach and a low, slow buzz by the tower, it was decided the gear was down but turned perpendicular to the motion of the plane.
By the time I got to see what was going on there were cameras all over the place peering at this jet. Some of the best shots were coming from hovering helicopters. The shots were close enough to clearly see the recalcitrant landing gear.
The all news channels moved to this like a moth to flame.
MSNBC’s coverage featured Alison Stewart. On CNN it was Paula Zahn. I never stayed long enough on Fox to get a feel for who was anchoring their coverage.
Both channels found experts to talk with. They were mostly pilots, though MSNBC also found Robert Hager (Bob, you’re out of retirement for a few minutes) and Tom Costello.
Some of the info was confusing. Text crawls at the bottom of the screen talked about ‘dumping fuel,’ though this Airbus isn’t equipped to do that. Anchors asked pointed questions implying there was a tragic loss of life on the way.
The coolest head was pilot John Wiley, on the phone, on CNN.
But I think, basically, what’s going to happen is, these guys are going to touch down. It’s going to make for good video. It’s going to make for good stories for the families, needless to say. Two, they’re going to be a little excited about this. But I think that it’s going to eventually wind up in a very safe outcome.
If this guy isn’t right stuff material, who is? And, in fact, what John Wiley said did come true.
There was talk in the newsroom of what was going on in the plane. I thought the flight attendants were preparing the cabin and passengers for a crash landing. Maybe they were, but the TV’s on each seatback were still operating.
People were on this seemingly doomed plane watching coverage of their own demise!
After hours of circling, the pilot greased a perfect landing right on the centerline of the runway. First the main gear touched. Somehow, even as speed began to burn off, he held the nose up. It was like hang time in the NBA – but with an Airbus full of people.
For the first few seconds everything looked fine. Then came sparks. The sparks grew longer, Finally, there seemed to be flame shooting under the entire length of the plane.
I expected, any second, to see the plane burst into flames.
I kept hoping the front gear would break away, allowing the nose of the plane to slide on the concrete runway. It never did. Instead, the sparks diminished and the plane slowed and then stopped.
It was over.
It was a surreal moment. Yes, it ended wonderfully (as John Wiley predicted). It could have ended tragically. And yet, there was no way to avert my eyes. I had to watch.
The next time I fly, if I can’t have John Wiley, give Captain Scott Burke, that guy from JetBlue. They can’t use his valiant performance for a commercial, but you almost wish they could.
¹ – God bless the Internet. The plane in tonight’s incident, N536JB, had 3 pages of photos on the web before it became famous!
Katrina Timeline Straightening
I am one of those people who firmly believe FEMA and/or the National Guard should have been in New Orleans as soon as the wind began to die down. However, a great misconception most people have is the flooding started around the time the storm peaked.
Here’s what I wrote around 3:00 AM EDT Tuesday morning. By then the storm had moved north and New Orleans no longer had hurricane conditions.
The hospital had seen no real flooding while Hurricane Katrina passed by, but tonight, water had begun rushing in and it was rising at an alarming rate.
I could hear the fear in her voice as she described the water level rising an inch every five minutes. That’s a foot an hour. Already there was six feet of water outside the hospital. Soon, water would reach the level of their emergency generators on the second floor.
Sanchez was taken aback. I’m not sure he originally understood what she was saying. It was so unexpected – so out of context.
She said a levee keeping Lake Ponchartrain out of New Orleans had been breached. The cut in the levee was two blocks long and water was rushing in unimpeded. Even if there were pumps working, and she wasn’t sure there were, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with this deluge.
On CNN, Rick Sanchez kept asking questions, but it was obvious this woman wanted to get off the phone. Speaking to him wasn’t going to help her.
I heard terror in her voice.
The hospital had to get its patients out. Its patients were by and large critical. The only way to move them would be by helicopter and FEMA would be needed for that.
The other all news stations are in their usual reruns. I have no way of knowing if this is true. If it is, this is New Orleans’ worst fears are realized. Lake Ponchartrain could inundate the city.
As far as I can tell, that was the first national report of flooding in New Orleans.
So, maybe that was what Chertoff thought on Tuesday… but where was he on Monday? Even before the flooding, New Orleans was in great need. The city was without power. Windows were blown out all over the city. Buildings had been destroyed. People were homeless or were housed in shelters with no food, water or sanitary facilities.
Yes, the flooding came late, but wasn’t anyone there surveying the damage or deciding what kind of support the city would need before then? Even before the flooding, the city had suffered a tragedy.
Why was he depending on newspapers (or any media) for his information?
Asking Tough Questions
This is a small blog with minimal schlep. I’ve been asking where our country’s response to Hurricane Katrina has been for days. Now, through Internet audio and video, I have watched others – mainly journalists with network weight, asking the same questions.
I’ve found most of the links on Crooks and Liars. It is a site I had never seen before today and, quite honestly, I don’t know anything about it or its political slant.
The answers I’ve heard haven’t been satisfying to me. The fact that these journalists now feel empowered to ask tough questions is a good thing.
I watched Anderson Cooper interview Senator Landrieu of Louisiana. He was having none of whatever she was saying – especially her glad handing other politicians for their diligent work in this catastrophe. He brought her back to dead bodies and suffering people.
In the past I have criticized Anderson Cooper for his ‘cowboy’ reporting in the face of imminent natural disasters. My opinion of Mr. Cooper has greatly changed, and to the better. I have seen thoughtful and insightful reporting on his part. He has won me over.
I’ve always enjoyed Jack Cafferty. Whoever at CNN decided to let him speak his mind did us all a great favor. Whether I agree with everything he says, I always listen and ponder.
In a piece of video I just watched, Cafferty used his age, 62 years old, as a reference when speaking that he had never seen a response like this to any disaster – ever.
I’m am watching Ted Koppel in a segment that has been captioned:
Ted is interviewing Michael Brown from FEMA. This is not a good day to be Michael Brown.
The Storm’s Gone But It’s Getting Worse
The past 24 hours were the most difficult time yet to watch what’s going on in the areas struck by Hurricane Katrina.
First up was the emotional reporting of CNN’s Jeanne Meserve. Here’s what USAToday said.
“Mark Biello, one of our cameramen, went out in one of the (rescue) boats to help shoot. He ended up being out for hours and told horrific tales. He saw bodies. He saw other, just unfathomable things. Dogs wrapped in electrical lines … that were being electrocuted.”
Brown said Tuesday: “Jeanne conveyed a human being’s view of what she saw. Her reporting was incredibly solid. Her humanity was incredibly real. The marriage of those two elements helped viewers understand the desperate situation.”
There was an equally emotional side to Robin Roberts live shot on Good Morning America. She had gone to the Gulf not knowing the condition of her family. This was where she grew up.
Later Tuesday morning I watched an interview with a man who had lost his wife. He was on the street, a child in tow. He seemed dazed or disoriented as he told the story of being on a rooftop, holding his wife’s hand and then having her slip away.
As she drifted off, she asked him to take care of their family.
It was as sad a moment as could be seen. This man was the embodiment of human tragedy.
When the reporter asked the man where he would go, he didn’t know. His simplicity was his eloquence.
I’m hoping that sentence makes sense to you. I wish I could think of a better way to explain, other than to say, he didn’t need to speak volumes of words to have his plight understood.
I got an email from my friend whose mother had been evacuated from New Orleans home he grew up in to Baton Rouge.
New Orleans looks like a war zone. Very very sad..
Until today this had been a New Orleans story. There is plenty of damage farther east in Mississippi and Alabama. The pre-Katrina story had been set-up better in New Orleans. Now it’s all coming into perspective.
In Mississippi and Alabama the damage has been done. In New Orleans additional damage is piling on.
The breach of a levee I wrote about yesterday continued to pour Lake Ponchartrain into the city. Attempts to stop or slow the flow failed. As i understand it, flood control pumps only would pump the water back into the lake – a vicious cycle.
Civil law began to break down today. Looters were out in force. I watched people brazenly fillet a Wal*Mart. People were walking around with carts, as if they were really shopping.
CNN reported tonight there had been shootings and carjackings.
The city is preparing to move everyone out of the Superdome. It hasn’t been said, but I assume people inside are becoming volatile.
The New York Times is reporting a naval contingent on its way to New Orleans. Where have they been? Why wasn’t this done sooner? I don’t know.
Since the hurricane, the weather has been fine. On the Gulf that won’t last. Thunderstorms will fire up. There’s even the chance of more tropical trouble from the Gulf. After all, the hurricane season doesn’t peak for another few weeks.
Notes From New Orleans
My friends mom, the one I encouraged to leave New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina was approaching, is fine though her home is not.
From a Mississippi State classmate who just started a job forecasting the weather as Hurricane Katrina approached:
I talked to friends watching from other places and CNN
and Fox were saying it was a glancing blow. Just
because there were buildings blown over it wasn’t
that bad. Now that more and more of the flooding
video is being seen I think people are changing their
minds. This will go down as the worst storm in
history.
Mike
There is no New Orleans Times-Picayune I can find. Their website hasn’t been updated since Monday’s edition. Their Tuesday front page link leads to last Tuesday’s.
Tuesday, 9:40 a.m.
The Times-Picayune is evacuating it’s New Orleans building.
Water continues to rise around our building, as it is throughout the region. We want to evacuate our employees and families while we are still able to safely leave our building.
Our plan is to head across the Mississippi River on the Pontchartrain Expressway to the west bank of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. From there, we’ll try to head to Houma.
Our plan, obviously, is to resume providing news to our readers ASAP. Please refer back to this site for continuing information as soon as we are able to provide it.
I’ve heard stories of the Brazilian rain forest. If a jungle area is clear cut and then allowed to grow back, it comes back differently. The rain forest is what it is because of how it evolved over time.
There’s a truth in that last paragraph for New Orleans. This city will come back (if it is actually able to come back) different than it was a few days ago. You can’t rebuild tradition and charm. You can’t plan to regain what was there by serendipity.
I’m still not sure we know everything.
Bad News For New Orleans, Out of Left Field
I just finished watching a show I’d recorded earlier tonight. When it ended, I went down to my cable system’s block of news channels to scout around.
Usually, this time of night, they’re re-running shows from earlier in the evening. Tonight, as I hit CNN, I noticed a white LIVE ‘bug’ in the upper left hand corner.
Rick Sanchez was on the air, speaking by phone with someone from Tulane Hospital in New Orleans. The hospital’s spokesperson was talking about water – rising water.
The hospital had seen no real flooding while Hurricane Katrina passed by, but tonight, water had begun rushing in and it was rising at an alarming rate.
I could hear the fear in her voice as she described the water level rising an inch every five minutes. That’s a foot an hour. Already there was six feet of water outside the hospital. Soon, water would reach the level of their emergency generators on the second floor.
Sanchez was taken aback. I’m not sure he originally understood what she was saying. It was so unexpected – so out of context.
She said a levee keeping Lake Ponchartrain out of New Orleans had been breached. The cut in the levee was two blocks long and water was rushing in unimpeded. Even if there were pumps working, and she wasn’t sure there were, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with this deluge.
On CNN, Rick Sanchez kept asking questions, but it was obvious this woman wanted to get off the phone. Speaking to him wasn’t going to help her.
I heard terror in her voice.
The hospital had to get its patients out. Its patients were by and large critical. The only way to move them would be by helicopter and FEMA would be needed for that.
The other all news stations are in their usual reruns. I have no way of knowing if this is true. If it is, this is New Orleans’ worst fears are realized. Lake Ponchartrain could inundate the city.
I went to WWL’s streaming site, but it’s down. WDSU’s streaming site has static and solid blue video.
CNN is my only source and their info is coming from a woman whose identity I can’t confirm. On top of that, her claim is totally unexpected.
There was nothing at nola.com, so I went back to WWL’s website and found a recorded video clip from the mayor. He confirms the levee breach and a lot more.
I thought, based on what I’d seen and heard, New Orleans’ damage was moderate. Based on what I’m hearing now, it’s tragic. The mayor sounds like a defeated man. Some city areas are under 20 feet of water. Highways and bridges have been destroyed. Gas lines have been broken and geysers of flame are shooting up through the water on a few flooded streets.
The Twin Spans are gone. When the mayor said that, the two anchors sitting with him stared in total disbelief.
The Twin Spans are an amazing 23.8 miles across, held in place by 9,000 concrete pilings. During the day, as you approach the middle of the bridge, you can see no land in either direction. At night, you can faintly see the city lights.
Locals say it’s an eerie feeling until you get used to it. Too late for that now, I suppose.
Earlier, I had used the term “fog of war” to describe how much we didn’t know. Now that the fog is lifting, the true extent is damage is coming into view.
Blogger’s note: In my original posting on this entry, I think I confused one roadway for another.
Came across your blog when doing a google search on Twin Spans after what
I heard in the NO Mayor’s interview that according what FEMA told him that
Twin Spans are gone. Well it may be correct but you are confusing the Twin
Spans with the twin Ponchartrain Causeway (the one which is 24 miles long)
and connect the North and South shores.
The TWIN SPANS are the bridges on the I 10E crossing the Lake on the
eastern side of NO.
You will find it in the map below
http://www.wwltv.com/weather/hurricane/images/contraflowmap.jpg
regards
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– –
Jignesh Badani
I appreciate Jignesh’s attention and help in pointing this out.