As the major news media is want to do, they have been constantly repeating themselves. They really should have a channel that’s just a loop of a 5 minute segment that changes only every 30 minutes (I think Headline News does this somewhat, but it’s more for airports and the like, where people aren’t watching it for extended periods). That way everyone who’s just tuning in would likely get an update and people aren’t under any uncertain expectation that what they are doing is breaking “news” and not just repeating themselves with slight variations. “Well the eye has moved about 1584 feet since we last updated you” isn’t really much of an update (as I can just do the math thank you very much). “The estimate is still that there are about 10k people left in New Orleans.”

As I happened to watch Fox News after watching a bunch of Discovery about squids, I happened upon 2 bits of new and actual information, relating to levies and to the evacuation. I only caught a bit about the first, but it was in relation to something about the design of the levies changing. Actually, I don’t know what they changed or how it is better, but I’d personally like to hear more. Also, another reporter said something about Amtrak trains and barcoded bracelets being used in the evacuations. News to me. So, instead of just repeating the same of when it’s supposed to hit landfall, that everyone’s evacuated, that the French Quarter is vacant, that everyone’s playing nice, etc, it might be nice to step away from the fact it’s basically in the same place it was 5 minutes ago and delve into some of the more technical things. What has the Army Corps done over the past 3 years to improve things? What legislation was passed (or not) to help with the storm? What were the evacuation plans? Why has it gone so much better? How are these barcodes being used? Where are the people going? What do the FEMA towns look like 3 years later? Why are they still around? Does boarding up your house really help? What are the major preparations people have to make? What sorts of things do people have to clean up and fix after the storm? Do most people have insurance that covers these incidents?

Why haven’t we heard about how much better it’s being handled with regard to the Bush administration. They’ve been saying over and over how much better everyone’s prepared, but I hear this deafening silence of any attribution of the preparation to Bush. Maybe I’ve just missed it, but it seems to me that at this stage of the game that he was solely responsible for Katrina, but now no one seems to give him any credit for the success up until this point.