More examples of media bias...Friday 9-2-05 (1 Viewer)

[aquapub]

On CBS Man Blasts Bush for Stuporous Response Compared to Iraq
In the middle of a Thursday CBS Evening News story on the destruction in Slidell, Louisiana, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, reporter Mark Strassmann showcased a distraught man "with a message for the President" who blasted Bush for how he responded in Iraq while not doing so for Louisiana. Anthony Nata charged: "You can go into Iraq and come in with big helicopters and set stuff up for people, but you can't do this for us? Come on, Bush. You can do better than that."

2. CNN's Jack Cafferty Again Goes on Anti-Bush Tirade, CBS Joins In
Two days after CNN's Jack Cafferty demanded to know, "Where's President Bush? Is he still on vacation?" and snidely suggested that "based on his approval rating in the latest polls, my guess is getting back to work might not be a terrible idea," on Thursday's Situation Room Cafferty took off after Bush again. At about 3:30pm EDT during his "Cafferty File" segment, he suddenly found the conservative New Hampshire Union Leader very wise and quoted approvingly from their Wednesday editorial: "'A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource....The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months following 9/11, has vanished.'" He piled on with how a New York Times editorial excoriated Bush "for 'appearing casual to the point of carelessness.'" Later, on the CBS Evening News, Bill Plante also found the Union Leader editorial worthy of highlighting. with audio

3. Olbermann Mocks Condoleezza Rice for Seeing "Comedy on Broadway"
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Thursday night took a series of gratuitous shots as he strongly suggested George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice have some personal culpability for shortcomings in federal action following Hurricane Katrina. On his Countdown show he asserted that "8,000 Guardsmen from Mississippi and Louisiana who might have helped, might have been deployed in the relief efforts are, in fact, in Iraq and not in Mississippi and Louisiana" and cited how Bush "claimed this morning, quote, 'I don't think anybody anticipated a breach of the levees,'" but countered that "there was a U.S. News and World Report article detailing just what would happen if they were breached that was published exactly six weeks ago." (So, if President Bush read an article in a magazine that would have changed anything? Isn't there a whole federal agency full of people charged with disaster relief?) And, in his cheapest shot, Olbermann pointed out how Rice "has cut short her vacation and made it back to her office just four days after New Orleans was besieged, just a day after she reportedly saw a comedy on Broadway in New York City."

4. Raines: Bush Worries Over Big Oil as "Poor Drown in Their Attics"
In a Thursday column for the Los Angeles Times, former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines joined the left wing in using the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to bash Bush: "The dilatory performance of George Bush during the past week has been outrageous. Almost as unbelievable as Katrina itself is the fact that the leader of the free world has been outshone by the elected leaders of a region renowned for governmental ineptitude." Raines ended with this blast which echoed the radical left: "The churchgoing cultural populism of George Bush has given the United States an administration that worries about the House of Saud and the welfare of oil companies while the poor drown in their attics and their sons and daughters die in foreign deserts."

5. ABC's Diane Sawyer to Bush: "Will You Call for Tax Increases?"
Update to the Thursday CyberAlert item about how ABC's Diane Sawyer, in a live Good Morning America interview, hit President Bush with a series of liberal talking point questions designed to politicize the hurricane recovery effort. That interview aired in the 7am half hour. At the top of the 7:30am half hour Thursday, Sawyer related some questions she had posed to Bush off air, including her using the tragedy as an excuse to push for a tax hike: "I also asked him about this idea that the whole economy could be torqued by this in such a way. And I said, 'will you call for tax increases, in fact, if that's required?'"

 

[ALiberalModerate]

On CBS Man Blasts Bush for Stuporous Response Compared to Iraq
In the middle of a Thursday CBS Evening News story on the destruction in Slidell, Louisiana, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, reporter Mark Strassmann showcased a distraught man "with a message for the President" who blasted Bush for how he responded in Iraq while not doing so for Louisiana. Anthony Nata charged: "You can go into Iraq and come in with big helicopters and set stuff up for people, but you can't do this for us? Come on, Bush. You can do better than that."

2. CNN's Jack Cafferty Again Goes on Anti-Bush Tirade, CBS Joins In
Two days after CNN's Jack Cafferty demanded to know, "Where's President Bush? Is he still on vacation?" and snidely suggested that "based on his approval rating in the latest polls, my guess is getting back to work might not be a terrible idea," on Thursday's Situation Room Cafferty took off after Bush again. At about 3:30pm EDT during his "Cafferty File" segment, he suddenly found the conservative New Hampshire Union Leader very wise and quoted approvingly from their Wednesday editorial: "'A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource....The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months following 9/11, has vanished.'" He piled on with how a New York Times editorial excoriated Bush "for 'appearing casual to the point of carelessness.'" Later, on the CBS Evening News, Bill Plante also found the Union Leader editorial worthy of highlighting. with audio

3. Olbermann Mocks Condoleezza Rice for Seeing "Comedy on Broadway"
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Thursday night took a series of gratuitous shots as he strongly suggested George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice have some personal culpability for shortcomings in federal action following Hurricane Katrina. On his Countdown show he asserted that "8,000 Guardsmen from Mississippi and Louisiana who might have helped, might have been deployed in the relief efforts are, in fact, in Iraq and not in Mississippi and Louisiana" and cited how Bush "claimed this morning, quote, 'I don't think anybody anticipated a breach of the levees,'" but countered that "there was a U.S. News and World Report article detailing just what would happen if they were breached that was published exactly six weeks ago." (So, if President Bush read an article in a magazine that would have changed anything? Isn't there a whole federal agency full of people charged with disaster relief?) And, in his cheapest shot, Olbermann pointed out how Rice "has cut short her vacation and made it back to her office just four days after New Orleans was besieged, just a day after she reportedly saw a comedy on Broadway in New York City."

4. Raines: Bush Worries Over Big Oil as "Poor Drown in Their Attics"
In a Thursday column for the Los Angeles Times, former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines joined the left wing in using the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to bash Bush: "The dilatory performance of George Bush during the past week has been outrageous. Almost as unbelievable as Katrina itself is the fact that the leader of the free world has been outshone by the elected leaders of a region renowned for governmental ineptitude." Raines ended with this blast which echoed the radical left: "The churchgoing cultural populism of George Bush has given the United States an administration that worries about the House of Saud and the welfare of oil companies while the poor drown in their attics and their sons and daughters die in foreign deserts."

5. ABC's Diane Sawyer to Bush: "Will You Call for Tax Increases?"
Update to the Thursday CyberAlert item about how ABC's Diane Sawyer, in a live Good Morning America interview, hit President Bush with a series of liberal talking point questions designed to politicize the hurricane recovery effort. That interview aired in the 7am half hour. At the top of the 7:30am half hour Thursday, Sawyer related some questions she had posed to Bush off air, including her using the tragedy as an excuse to push for a tax hike: "I also asked him about this idea that the whole economy could be torqued by this in such a way. And I said, 'will you call for tax increases, in fact, if that's required?'"

Thats not examples of liberal bias, but rather its reality. I mean you must have your head up pretty high in Limbaugh's colon not to see the reality on the ground down there in New Orleans.

 

[MSgt]

Thats not examples of liberal bias, but rather its reality. I mean you must have your head up pretty high in Limbaugh's colon not to see the reality on the ground down there in New Orleans.

This has nothing to do with "reporting reality". It has everything to do with creating contraversy and selling juicy tabloid like pieces of information to the masses by placing the President under a microscope every time something happens. There is enough problems going on down south and the numerous reasons our government failed to get aid to the victims in time without refocusing attention on what ever a reporter can dig up on the President.

Much like 9/11 when the President was accused of not caring because he sat in a class room for an extra twenty minutes, people are already hastening to show how much our President doesn't care about our recent disaster because he did not rush to fill sandbags amidst the looting.

Let's not focus on the problem...let's instead find out if President Bush wept enough to satisfy his haters....right?

 

[Argonath]

If he didn't have the National Guard in Iraq, then maybe the risk of wide-spread disease and death could have been avoided. But, theres oi- *cough cough*- Terrorist cells, to be found, so, you can't really blame him

 

[MSgt]

1) First, the national Guard has no place anywhere in Iraq where professional soldiers and Marines are conducting warfare.

2) Second, if the National Guard unit for that state was at their post then they would have been a victim to the weather just like the rest of the civilians. It's not like they hang out in uniform training all day like the Active Duty. They would have been caught up in it with their families. Help still would have had to come from outside the state. It wouldn't have made a difference.

But..please, continue to exploit where ever possible...*cough cough*.

 

[Argonath]

Exploit what? that they took three days to get there?

 

[LaMidRighter]

If he didn't have the National Guard in Iraq, then maybe the risk of wide-spread disease and death could have been avoided. But, theres oi- *cough cough*- Terrorist cells, to be found, so, you can't really blame him

First of all, I don't appreciate my state being used as a liberal playtoy. Second most of our national guard is still in Louisiana, the 256th is currently serving in Iraq in which some of my friends are involved(not like liberals care). Third, and I hate to have to do this again, but the people who are most responsible for this, that is STATE and LOCAL are liberal democrats. Finally, we as a state appreciate help from anyone, I am in a very safe city as a permanent resident, we are taking in extra evacuees from the area and our hearts are broken, the president has done alot already and I don't see how anyone can be callous enough to use this CATASTROPHE for their own agenda or worse, to reinforce a very narrow and short-sided worldview, anyone who does makes me sick.

 

[LaMidRighter]

Exploit what? that they took three days to get there?

Let me ask you a few things.
1) have you ever had to evacuate 1.3 million people in 3 days. and
2) how would you accomplish that?
3) Bonus: would you have left your property knowing that-
a) there is a large criminal element waiting for the chance to take your property after you and leave and the cops get too busy to intervene.
b) It may not be there anymore.
c) your friends and family could be lost and you will not see them again.
d) You trust your elected officials to not let this kind of thing happen.
e) something like this hasn't happened in many people'

 

[LaMidRighter]

Exploit what? that they took three days to get there?

Let me ask you a few things.
1) have you ever had to evacuate 1.3 million people in 3 days. and
2) how would you accomplish that?
3) Bonus: would you have left your property knowing that-
a) there is a large criminal element waiting for the chance to take your property after you and leave and the cops get too busy to intervene.
b) It may not be there anymore.
c) your friends and family could be lost and you will not see them again.
d) You trust your elected officials to not let this kind of thing happen.

 

[LaMidRighter]

sorry for the double post, don't know what happened

 

[Argonath]

Let me ask you a few things.
1) have you ever had to evacuate 1.3 million people in 3 days. and
2) how would you accomplish that?
3) Bonus: would you have left your property knowing that-
a) there is a large criminal element waiting for the chance to take your property after you and leave and the cops get too busy to intervene.
b) It may not be there anymore.
c) your friends and family could be lost and you will not see them again.
d) You trust your elected officials to not let this kind of thing happen.
e) something like this hasn't happened in many people'

1)It took them [national gaurd] three days to mobilize, i.e. to start evacuating people. Three days to start.
2) by not dicking around and mobalizing aircraft immediatly, at least withing six hours.
3) A) If I want to live, then, yes, i would leave my possesions.
B) That's what floods do, they sweep things away
C) I wouldn't plan on leaving without them unless absolutly neccesary.
D) That's right, you do trust them. If I remember correctly, they were warned that this sort of thing could, and most deffinetly would, happen. The man who built the water things that hold back the water said it himself. That's just plain ol' stupid on their part
E) Something like this has happened to many people, if that's what you mean. That whole December 26 thing in the Pan-Asian pacific thing? You did get the memo, right? If it's in someone, well. . . I'd worry.

 

[Argonath]

First of all, I don't appreciate my state being used as a liberal playtoy. Second most of our national guard is still in Louisiana, the 256th is currently serving in Iraq in which some of my friends are involved(not like liberals care). Third, and I hate to have to do this again, but the people who are most responsible for this, that is STATE and LOCAL are liberal democrats. Finally, we as a state appreciate help from anyone, I am in a very safe city as a permanent resident, we are taking in extra evacuees from the area and our hearts are broken, the president has done alot already and I don't see how anyone can be callous enough to use this CATASTROPHE for their own agenda or worse, to reinforce a very narrow and short-sided worldview, anyone who does makes me sick.

It's not a liberal playtoy. If you didn't notice, I mentioned that your state could have been helped sooner if the national gaurd weren't in Iraq. That's just fact. Why are they in Louisiana? and, last time I checked, Liberals do care about your friends in Iraq. If you hadn't watched the news for the past, oh, what's in been, five years, now? They didn't want to go to Iraq in the first place. They wanted your friends to stay!
Poloticians can't, and never will, control the weather. If they could, then, well, you can totally blame them. FYI, the oil thing was a joke, but, with writing, it gets hard to know when someone is sarcastic, especially when it comes to polotics. The president has done a lot, you say? Sending the National Gaurd three days after the catastrophe is a little slow, but he did do it, I'll give you that. A narrow, short-sided view? The side is very large, if I do say so myself. If you ment sort-sighted, then, well, that's wrong to. It takes a lot of thought to look at a very plausable conspiracy. Plauseable, because Bush is an oil buisiness man, along with Cheney. so it only stands to make sense. It's plausable, very possible, but it could still just be a paranoid theory.

P.S. I'd love to help. really, I would, but I'm not able to because mom won't let me. 'It's not safe', she says. It wasn't safe do be there when it happened, either, but, surprise, suprise, they were! Man, I wish I could help. Being a Boy Scout, and not being able to help is bad for buisiness all around. The only help I could make is donations and saying that look at what the Tsunami people did to rebuild thier lives. They could be an example to motivate us. If a third world country can do it, then by god, we can too.

 

[MSgt]

"It's not a liberal playtoy. If you didn't notice, I mentioned that your state could have been helped sooner if the national gaurd weren't in Iraq. That's just fact. Why are they in Louisiana?"

No this is not fact and this is what he means when he say's things like "liberal play toy?"

Once again, if the Louisiana National Guard was in Louisiana instead of getting in the way in Iraq, they would have been trapped in the storm just like any other civilian. "Help still would have had to come from outside the state."

There is blame to go around in many different places for why things didn't happen faster than people wanted.

Some possibles:

1. Why did it take the national guard so long to mobilize? Because it's the National Guard and reacting quickly is not what they do. By the way, the President did not send them three days later. He sent them when they were finally prepared to go and after the danger had subsided. Being a part of Humanitarian efforts around the world, you cannot not just rush in to help. It does no good to get yourself into some trouble, so that now a seperate force has to be launched to rescue you too. Now, I'm a Marine and this is our SOP. You can imagine what the National Guard's SOP is like.

2. Why did it take so long for the Federal Government and it's many different departments to organize efforts? You got about a dozen places to investigate.

Is this what you are doing? No...you are taking advantage of the situation to blast away at the President. There is a lot of tragedy going on and panicking through frustration comes with every tragedy. Same crap, different event. Turn your news media off and let the reporters that are throwing in their political opinions as they report the facts influence someone else. I believe this is what he means.

 

[Argonath]

Good points. But, it's a valid question. There was a great possibility that this would happen to New Orleans, and we were ill prepared for it. I want to know why. Not "Cindy Sheehan" know why, but honestly know why. Cindy already knew the answer to the question, she's said it herself dozens of times, she just wan'ts Bush to say "uncle".

 

[SKILMATIC]

No this is not fact and this is what he means when he say's things like "liberal play toy?"

Once again, if the Louisiana National Guard was in Louisiana instead of getting in the way in Iraq, they would have been trapped in the storm just like any other civilian. "Help still would have had to come from outside the state."

There is blame to go around in many different places for why things didn't happen faster than people wanted.

Some possibles:

1. Why did it take the national guard so long to mobilize? Because it's the National Guard and reacting quickly is not what they do. By the way, the President did not send them three days later. He sent them when they were finally prepared to go and after the danger had subsided. Being a part of Humanitarian efforts around the world, you cannot not just rush in to help. It does no good to get yourself into some trouble, so that now a seperate force has to be launched to rescue you too. Now, I'm a Marine and this is our SOP. You can imagine what the National Guard's SOP is like.

2. Why did it take so long for the Federal Government and it's many different departments to organize efforts? You got about a dozen places to investigate.

Is this what you are doing? No...you are taking advantage of the situation to blast away at the President. There is a lot of tragedy going on and panicking through frustration comes with every tragedy. Same crap, different event. Turn your news media off and let the reporters that are throwing in their political opinions as they report the facts influence someone else. I believe this is what he means.

GODAMIT!!! GUNNY you always get to them before I do. Very wel done though

 

[SixStringHero]

"The only help I could make is donations and saying that look at what the Tsunami people did to rebuild thier lives. They could be an example to motivate us. If a third world country can do it, then by god, we can too."

^
Okay, first off, who do you think was on the ground helping out in the first place? Without America's help along with some of the rest of the International community that would region would never have been able to deal with such a natural disaster. America's contributions to that relief effort were vast and don't think for a moment that they would have been able to do nearly as much without international help and ours.

Just the other day I saw Jessie Jackson on Larry King stating that Bush doesn't care for these people, and was essentially placing all the blame on the president. I'm sick of seeing idiots politicize national tragedies.

I don't subscribe to this disaster being any president's fault but if you want to take that route than why are some of you people mysteriously silent about the fact that Clinton cut some of the funding that was originally supposed to be allocated for strengthening the levee. Where's the criticism there? Obviously it's just disingenuous partisan crap once again.

 

[Argonath]

"The only help I could make is donations and saying that look at what the Tsunami people did to rebuild thier lives. They could be an example to motivate us. If a third world country can do it, then by god, we can too."

^
Okay, first off, who do you think was on the ground helping out in the first place? Without America's help along with some of the rest of the International community that would region would never have been able to deal with such a natural disaster. America's contributions to that relief effort were vast and don't think for a moment that they would have been able to do nearly as much without international help and ours.

Just the other day I saw Jessie Jackson on Larry King stating that Bush doesn't care for these people, and was essentially placing all the blame on the president. I'm sick of seeing idiots politicize national tragedies.

I don't subscribe to this disaster being any president's fault but if you want to take that route than why are some of you people mysteriously silent about the fact that Clinton cut some of the funding that was originally supposed to be allocated for strengthening the levee. Where's the criticism there? Obviously it's just disingenuous partisan crap once again.

We, the citezens of america, gave private donations. Private organizations gave many things, some rediculous amounts of money (around 5 million from some companies) and rations. Private donations total in 18 million, from citezens. from companies, well, the amoutn of money totaled from them could ahve bought Portugal and bits of Morrocco. The government itself gave 350 million dollars. Sounds big. SOUNDS big. Most bad stroms in Florida cause around 2 billion dollars in property damage. That includes houses, as they are property. We were out donated by Spain. SPAIN. We gave, I can't deny that, but we [the Government] Could have helped mabye a little more. Just a little. We were high in donations, I can't argue that, but if ten people gave a nickel each, and America gave a dime, it wouldn't be much if the person taking needed three dollars. It helps, but we could help more.

Jessie Jackson had his time back in the eighties and seventies. Right now, he's so deeped in his beliefs that he's almost (if not completly) another Pat Robertson.

I didn't know about Clinton doing that. He just wen't down a peg. But, we've known that the breach in the levees would happen since thier construction. The architect said it himself that if they were to brake and fail, New Orleans would be destroyed. What I meant by that was that we could look at the tsunami victims adaptation to thier current life (it's already been over eight months ago) is. They [New Orleans survivors, I hate the term "refugee", sounds like New Orleans just got attacked by Russiians] could at least be humble knowing that they survived and that there are people on the other side of the world that know how they feel. It's ment as a cheer up, not a put down.

 

[scottyz]

Bush along with many others messed up.. Did you expect the media to congratulate them about it why thousands are dying?... wait, why am I asking? you probably did.

 

[vergiss]

Much like 9/11 when the President was accused of not caring because he sat in a class room for an extra twenty minutes, people are already hastening to show how much our President doesn't care about our recent disaster because he did not rush to fill sandbags amidst the looting.

Let's not focus on the problem...let's instead find out if President Bush wept enough to satisfy his haters....right?

Irrational, yes? Kind of like when members of the right have a hissy fit at us for not criticising terrorists "enough" in anti-war type threads?

 

[SixStringHero]

God I'm Glad that I am not a conservative or liberal. Some of you people are so out of touch with reality it's frightening.

 

[Argonath]

Hey, I'm in touch with reality! She's just always tellin' me to back off, WOOOOOOO!

 

[argexpat]

This goes out to all "liberal media" conspiracy theorists who like to use anecdotal evidence:

Both the Washington Post and (recent "liberal media" whipping boy) Newsweek obediently, and ineptly, passed on -- and thus gave credence to -- the Bush lie that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s hesitancy to declare a state of emergency had prevented the feds from responding to the crisis more rapidly.

The Post, citing an anonymous “senior Bush official,” reported on Sunday that, as of Saturday, Sept. 3, Blanco “still had not declared a state of emergency”… when, in fact, the declaration had been made on Friday, August 26 -- over 2 days BEFORE Katrina made landfall in Louisiana (and while Bush was getting his tire pumped by Lance Armstrong at his "ranch"). This claim was so demonstrably false that the paper was forced to issue a correction just hours after the original story appeared.

Newsweek’s effort to assist the Bush damage control effort was even more egregious. While claiming that “Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Barbineaux Blanco seemed uncertain and sluggish, hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help” the magazine didn’t even bother to cite a “senior Bush official,” choosing instead to report Blanco’s alleged failings as unsubstantiated fact. Wonder where they got that “fact”? You think it might have been from the same “senior Bush official” that snookered the Post?

So, there you have it, proof positive of Republican bias in the media, right? Right? And there's more where that came from. That's the beauty of anecdotal evidence, you can find it anywhere and use it to prove anything.

 

[Argonath]

mmmmmm. . . . .anecdotes. . . . .

 

[LaMidRighter]

This goes out to all "liberal media" conspiracy theorists who like to use anecdotal evidence:

Both the Washington Post and (recent "liberal media" whipping boy) Newsweek obediently, and ineptly, passed on -- and thus gave credence to -- the Bush lie that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s hesitancy to declare a state of emergency had prevented the feds from responding to the crisis more rapidly.

The Post, citing an anonymous “senior Bush official,” reported on Sunday that, as of Saturday, Sept. 3, Blanco “still had not declared a state of emergency”… when, in fact, the declaration had been made on Friday, August 26 -- over 2 days BEFORE Katrina made landfall in Louisiana (and while Bush was getting his tire pumped by Lance Armstrong at his "ranch"). This claim was so demonstrably false that the paper was forced to issue a correction just hours after the original story appeared.

Newsweek’s effort to assist the Bush damage control effort was even more egregious. While claiming that “Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Barbineaux Blanco seemed uncertain and sluggish, hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help” the magazine didn’t even bother to cite a “senior Bush official,” choosing instead to report Blanco’s alleged failings as unsubstantiated fact. Wonder where they got that “fact”? You think it might have been from the same “senior Bush official” that snookered the Post?

I don't know where you got your timeline from, but a state of emergency was not called until the twenty seventh, two days before the storm hit on the twenty ninth. That little slip of fact shows a lack of credibility from the source.http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=69494 By the way, the State of Emergeny was requested by the president, that should have been the governors job in the first place.

So, there you have it, proof positive of Republican bias in the media, right? Right? And there's more where that came from. That's the beauty of anecdotal evidence, you can find it anywhere and use it to prove anything.

Conventional wisdom is a little better than anecdotal wouldn't you say? Our governor did little to prep, I live here, you don't, and she looked like a complete idiot the day after the storm hit, she isn't doing @#$% except for alot of complaining, which doesn't help.

 

[LaMidRighter]

Here's a good analyzation of what went wrong, I don't see alot of bias here.http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krwashbureau/20050910/ts_krwashbureau/_wea_katrina_response_1

There were many other instances of bungling. Federal officials, accustomed to serving a supportive but not commanding role in a disaster, waited for specific requests from state and local officials. Local officials, overwhelmed, trapped by the devastation around them, and unable to survey the damage, couldn't gather the information they needed to make specific requests. Radio communication was impossible and phone service as bad.

-from the site.