When Did the Media Notice the Levee Breaches?The Wall Street Journal
looks at this question.
In its Aug. 29 online edition, the New Orleans Times-Picayune first reported a breach in the 17th Street Canal levee at 2 p.m., citing City Hall officials. No other major news outlets picked up that report. The newspaper's Web site also reported massive flooding near the Industrial Canal, writing that city officials "fielded at least 100 calls from people in distress in the Lower 9th Ward and eastern New Orleans." At about 2:30, it reported that the Industrial Canal had been breached, citing a National Weather Service report.
But in the hours immediately following the storm, some news organizations seemed to play down the damage in New Orleans. Introducing "World News Tonight" on Aug. 29, anchor Charles Gibson said: "In New Orleans, entire neighborhoods are underwater, but the levees held. The nightmare scenario of an entire city underwater did not happen." A spokeswoman for ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co., had no comment.They also note the overtopping versus breached distinction:
Confusion over the difference between a breach of a levee and a mere overrun may also be to blame. Locals have long known that an actual break in a levee would mean catastrophic and irreversible damage. But if flooding was only the result of water sloshing over the top of a levee, combined with 12 inches of rainfall and possible storm surges, then the situation could have been far less serious.Update: Our buddy
Rick Moran points us (in the comments) to this post in the
Times-Picayune's weblog on Tuesday, August 30:
Seeking answers to rising waters
Tuesday, 8:05 a.m.
"The water continues to rise," according to Walter Maestri, director of emergency management for Jefferson Parish.
Maestri told WWL-Radio that parish officials have given engineers the next "three to four hours" to determine the cause of rising water.
