New Hurricane Will Require Gulf Evacuation

[Thefreeze Profile]

I spent two days photgraphing the devastation in Galveston from Ike, and wrote a story for the magazine i was working for.

But during my shoot, I was constantly approached by emergency personell that were BEGGING me to tell the story o how they shut down a 300 mile circle around the impact points near crystal beach...and how many deaths were covered up.

I was approached by a FEMA worker that refused to go on record, but told me that he was in charge of body bags, for his work zone and they went through all 320 of his allotment on the first day, and that Cadaver Dogs were not being put on Crystal beach and areas east, due to all of the alligators that got washed out of the ship channel from the backflow, and were swimming back to shore, eating through the deceased. There was a sdebris field 12 miles long aand about two stories high, where the surges brought galvestons debris ashore.

I was unable to breach the sherrifs roadblocks from east of the ship channel all the way east to crystal beach. Threatened with arrest twice.

The FEMA officials were approaching radio and television stations up to sixty miles inland and threatening removal of their FCC licences if they dared report a body count. (two instances..a radio station in Beaumont, and a small radio station off the Bolivar Peninsula...both confirmed this for me while eating at Landrys, which despite being on the seawall was undamaged.)

Upon my return, and explanation of how the sotory had turned...Almost every official i spoke with talked of the media blackout which Perry refused to intervene in , and the body count cover up, and my written files (contained on a belkin Drive) were immediately confiscated, and my story was killed.

I retained all of the photography however.

Yachts five miles inland on the median on hwy45,
and high water marks FAR about the 8 feet claimed.
More like 18 feet near Surfside.

Devastating to see.
I broke down twice..

The debris collection dump points were as large as cities.
And there were three on the island.

Like Nuclear war as far as you could see in any direction.
I'll never forget it, and gained a true appreciation for
conflict photography and the emotional toll it takes.

I commend you on what ya did out there SIX... I was able to get on the island, (cant remember how many days after; was 1st time they let residents back in for 1 day) to help a friend out with his remaining belongings. water level for entire island that i could tell was 8' tall, up to all of the homes' facia/soffit height. (45 & 6'th st.) Yeah, boats everywhere right off the freeway inland. Dead carcasses everywhere, the stinch smell was something terrible!! Of course by then any human bodies that were out had already been collected....

[Lowsix Profile]

all i managed to do was become convinced for myself and not by report that its a foregone conclusion, the degree of control put into place to manage our perceptions.

Which in and of itself, can work both ways.
I saw the good side of it, it kept panic down...(at least there in galveston),
but it also made reliable information, impossible.

To this day i cannot reconcile the published number of dead with what guys workin different parts of the county were telling me, while glancing around for their supervisors.

But the desperation of the workers asking me to talk about it was unnerving.
While i was not relying on press credentials as some were,
i still became this desperation target...since i had the camera.

Not one single official was willing to go on the record though,
and that played a part in the decision not to run it.
(which was understandable from my publishers standpoint)
But i lost control of the material so quickly, that THAT was what woke me up.

Granted, they owned the written portion outright.
And would have owned any run photographs..
so thankfully, i didnt have them off the card yet when i went in.

I never even considered it would be confiscated..not even a thought.
He asked for the drive the minute i returned, said he was on his way out of town and would review the story, needed the drive right then..

And then the editor delivered the news on the kill..several days later.
The publisher never addressed it again.
Im sick that i lost all the notes and outline..like really sick.

Because there was enough info there, to go back to..like now.
And get impressions, and clarification. Names and towns...and numbers.

But i do have the images.
Absolutely not my best work...m mind was blown.
It was a recognition of the complete failure of the camera to help me narrow it all down to what the shots should be, everything i looked at should be a photograph, a giant full sizedreal life sized mural so people could really get the scope of it.

Would a video have been better i wondered?
Becuase then I would have the continuity of ALL of the images together in context,
but then, scale would be sacrificed.

But by focusing on singular or grouped elements to emphasize their scale..
the SCOPE was sacrificed.

The Scope.

I cracked a little, and although i had enough publishable material,
my emotions forced me to drop the ball on a natural action for me,
and i vaporlocked...and caught myself twice after wandering for over an hour,
without shooting a single frame....

I may just be too empathetic for that shit..I began feeling/experiencing the actual sorrow of the people whom i was asking if i could photograph as they swept their lives into wet black fetid piles of their lives, stweing int he heat and the smell of the dead animals they lived with..and loved...and fish...and livestock.

And although its a melodramatic phrasing, i felt as though i was raping them.
I cant imagine a war photographer sacrificing service to a dying person for 'the shot"..
but they MUST. I had a choice, and let probably the best material go out of respect..
and never pulled the shutter.

But there were stories that wouldnt get told either that should have been...
Some bravery, some nuttery, lots of drinking, a lot of really surprised drunks,
lots of rich people lost their summer homes, lots of poor people lost everything.
And all these people mingled and mixed and mostly got along for the next two excruciating weeks somehow. That in itself should be the story, too.

And then there were people who didnt get a scratch
and drove off the island in dry clothes.

And among them all were vultures like me.

[Readlearnxplore Profile]

Lets wait and see!

[Drextin Profile]

Vultures...........that is the hardest thing to come to grips with. I was doing it during and after katrina as an independent mainly for the adventure. How's that for being a vulture. Not my proudest moment. The one time I might have made a difference I wussed out and ran away. Not my proudest moment.

Video is good for cold documentation but stills will always tell a better story.

[sockpuppet Profile]

And then there were people who didnt get a scratch
and drove off the island in dry clothes.

And among them all were vultures like me.

Sometimes, the Universe just wants a witness.

[Realorfake Profile]

Low, posted this pic in the "pic of the day" thread last week...

this was Hurricane Ike as it passed underneath south florida...

softball fields..

[Drextin Profile]

I still have that pic downloaded on my comp when you posted it months back rof.

[Realorfake Profile]

I still have that pic downloaded on my comp when you posted it months back rof.

awesome drex, that means a lot to me..

yes, i put it on [removed] didnt i? <--- ah ha ha ha, i totally forgot those 3 little letters are banned

[Drextin Profile]

everyone who sees the pic loves it. yeah o c b is still banned. Its actually ok that it is.

[Lowsix Profile]

Low, posted this pic in the "pic of the day" thread last week...

this was Hurricane Ike as it passed underneath south florida...

softball fields..

i snagged this one too from that thread..