Thursday -- May 30 morning

Okay, so no new photos to post, but the scene is rapidly changing. The city and county officials are doing a fantastic job of getting debris removed. The changes just in the three days I've been here are pretty amazing.

Yesterday's torrential downpours didn't help the situation much. I made a video of the flooding taking place downtown on Second Street (the main street) because of all the downed tree limbs and debris clogging up the drains in the gutters. I'll attach it tomorrow when I'm at home because I don't have the cable to attach the camera to the computer.

I'm frustrated, along with many citizens, with the lack of information. I've offered to help, but the government officials seem to think they've got it under control. Here's one example of the job their doing... Yesterday morning during the daily 10:00 a.m. town meeting, they tested the tornado sirens. Their plan was to do it then because "everybody" (for those of you in the communication field that's akin to the "general public") was there and they wouldn't be freightened. This is a town of about 1900 people; a conservative guess would say that 600 have completely lost everything, but all 1900 residents witnessed this tornado. The daily town hall meetings host approximately 100 people. I'm no wiz with numbers, but even I can do the math on this problem. I was downtown in an office building with a number of other employees (many of whom had lost everything) and customers (many of whom had lost everything) when the sirens went off -- it was terrifying. To make matters worse, we were in the middle of a strong thunderstorm (I realize that officials couldn't account for Mother Nature).

We have National Guard patroling the streets. Would it have been wrong for them to poke their head in every business downtown before hand and let people know about the test? Would it have been wrong to tell the media the day before about the test? Would it have been wrong to put the information into the Daily Bulletin (again, something that "everyone" gets) the day before?

Yesterday, I heard an official on the radio saying that they are doing an "extraordinary job of communicating with people." We all know that if you have to tell people that you're doing an excellent job, you aren't doing an excellent job. You're using the media respond to criticism (public relations 101). I wish the communication staff, whoever it is, would come and sit in City Hall or an insurance or attorney's office, like I've been doing, and listen to the rumors and frustration and misinformation.

I know this has been a bit of a rant, but it's frustrating to see so many, many things going right, but this one area going so terribly wrong.