Information Overload

Human Nature & Extremes

So I've been soaking up all of the information made readily available via internet, radio, newspaper and tv about the huge mess down South. Half the time, as I read stories of loss, violence, fear & helplessness, I find myself feeling it all, myself, and I start leaking again. Half the time I feel like an Accident Looky-Loo Extraordinaire. I keep thinking I should just stop absorbing the information overload... but can't help wanting to know more... wanting to hear good news from somewhere, yet still morbidly fascinated by the massive proportions of the tragedy.

Somehow, extreme statistics seem to fascinate peeps: "potentially the most costly national natural disaster ever"... "one of the most deadly natural disasters the country's faced in a century"... "thousands probably dead"... "millions without electricity"... "hundreds of thousands displaced"..."months to recover"... "record highs in energy costs". The worse the extreme, the more fascinated the country (and the world). Good news is: the more attention paid to the situation, the more people are aware of the big-time needs, and the more inclined they are to help. Funny thing, human nature.

Unfortunately, human nature also lends itself to a very dark side... as evidenced by those in New Orleans who are desperate, scared and don't have the luxury of news reports to know that help, and more help, is on the way. Peeps can be capable of some pretty scary things when stripped of civilization. Like those who are shooting at rescue workers, demanding that their families be helped NOW. Then, of course, there are those who are already criminally minded. I couldn't believe when I read about the horrid conditions amongst the refugees in the SuperDome... and how women and a child had been raped in there. *shaking head*

The OTHER Victims

Of course, animals are my soft spot, so I'm reading stories about how the Humane Society is mobilized with people and resources... but they just can't get into the disaster areas. They're working with the rest of the aid organizations and government agencies in New Orleans to do what they can, but they're all limited. I read about families who decided, for the first time during a hurricane because the shelters they normally used were full and the hotel they managed to book didn't take animals, just this once decided to leave their pets locked upstairs in their homes with food and water. Hoping that help can get to them in time, and equally hoping it's not already too late. Bedraggled, refugees with children and pathetic, drenched pets under their arms trying to make their way through the nasty water. A woman in Mississippi who managed to find a tree after her house was smashed, and survived the hurricane in the upper branches... with her li'l dog right there with her.

Not to mention the wildlife perserves... the dolphins who they evacuated to specially treated hotel pools during the storm, and are now being evacuated to Florida. The 3 sea lions who suddenly found themselves in the middle of Gulfport, injured and suffering so that a police officer had to make the decision to shoot in the head the last that hadn't died on it's own.

Too Much Tragedy

And, of course, this is on top of the stories of people who have lost their homes, their families ripped out of their hands in the floods, living in disgusting conditions... people left where they die. I've heard some opinions that this is what they get for not evacuating. But I know that many didn't have that option. Especially children, the elderly, the sick... the critical patients in hospitals that have no clean water, generators running out so that ventilators have to be operated manually, overworked caregives who've had no sleep.

It really is an overload. I've heard the reporters who say it's completely different to watch these scenarios play themselves out overseas in foreign countries... and then to see it in your own country. Sad as that is, it really is true. It's so much closer to home. Even countries at the height of progress and economic stature can be so drastically humbled. By nature... by ourselves.