Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner can be thankful that he has the magic "D" by his name. Had he been a Trump supporting Republican, he would have already been crucified in the mainstream media for urging that residents of Houston, Texas not evacuate even though there was already a high risk of severe flooding from Hurricane Harvey at the time he made his faulty recommendation. As a result, the MSM has so far been mostly very circumspect reporting about his non-evacuation order beginning with his Friday tweet:
Please think twice before trying to leave Houston en masse. No evacuation orders have been issued for the city. #Harvey
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) August 25, 2017
An example of attempting to spread the blame comes to us by way of Lydia O'Connor of the HuffPost. The blame spreading begins with the title of her article, Texas Officials Spar Over Hurricane Evacuation Order That Never Happened.
See, it was the fault of generic Texas officials rather than you-know-who. The article itself also continues the blame shifting:
The sparring between state and local officials over Hurricane Harvey evacuation plans has confused residents in the storm’s path and shown that there’s no foolproof option for weather disasters of this magnitude.
Harvey has claimed at least five lives in the Houston metro area since making landfall in Texas on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, and the situation is expected to worsen. The storm is “unprecedented” and “beyond anything experienced,” the agency said in a grim update Sunday morning, and dozens more inches of rain expected in the coming days could afflict the region for weeks.
It became clear on Sunday that Harvey’s impact would be even worse than anticipated. As flooding records shattered throughout Harris County, the National Weather Service said it expected “catastrophic and life-threatening” rainfall in some areas to total 50 inches, the highest level ever recorded in Texas.
Three paragraphs in and O'Connor has yet to reveal exactly who failed to recommend evacuation. So far all we know is that there was vague sparring between unnamed state and local officials.
Unbelievable photos emerged of people trapped in their homes ― including senior citizens sitting waist-deep in their flooded nursing home ― after abiding by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s plea on Friday for residents to shelter at their residences. But at a Sunday morning press conference, Turner stood by his decision not to issue an evacuation order.
Ah! Finally we have a name. And now some HuffPost excuse making...
Adding insult to injury, the storm drastically weakened before making landfall and was far from the disaster local authorities had anticipated.
Yeah, who could have possibly anticipated even a weakened hurricane bringing heavy rains?
While Turner hoped to avoid a repeat of that calamity, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued his own statement on Friday advising Houston residents to evacuate north even if no local order to do so was in place.
Oh, so the Texas governor anticipated the floods. Yeah, but he has that nasty (R) by his name which you made sure to include while conveniently neglecting to provide the party designation of the non-evacuation mayor.
And now for some more blame spread.
That mixed messaging prompted other Houston authorities to back up Turner’s decision and discourage residents from fleeing. They included Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett.
See it was the fault of "mixed messaging." Incidentally, doesn't the tweet from Sanchez sound like a call to NOT listen to the evil Republican governor?
Local officials know best. Houston has no evacuation order. In Harris County: very limited to select communities. LOCAL LEADERS KNOW BEST. https://t.co/DpW11lb1En
— Francisco Sanchez (@DisasterPIO) August 25, 2017
Democrat local officials in Houston know best so you just butt out Mr. Rightwing governor! You recommend Plan A then we will do Plan Z just because of who you are.
Oh, and since this story appears in the Green section of the HuffPost, you just know where it inevitably has to go...
Climate scientists warn that the frequency and intensity of these wet weather events is likely to increase as global temperatures rise, turning otherwise regular storms into disasters like Hurricane Harvey.
Yup! Global warming. It went there. And we should expect more MSM sources to also blame, directly or indirectly, global warming for causing Hurricane Harvey. It will be interesting if more of the MSM will also attempt to shift blame away from the mayor. However, at least one hardly conservative site, the Daily Beast, was harshly critical of both Houston's mayor and his fellow local officials:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Houston residents that even in the absence of an official evacuation order, “you need to strongly consider evacuating.”
But there was immediate pushback from Houston officials, who said they knew better.
Harris County’s emergency management spokesperson, Francisco Sanchez, responded to Abbott’s suggestion on Twitter this way:
...“Local officials know best. Houston has no evacuation order. In Harris County: very limited to select communities. LOCAL LEADERS KNOW BEST.”
One person tweeted back, “You’re going to feel stupid if this storm proves you wrong.” Sanchez replied: “Actually we feel quite blessed. And, thankful for the first responders & public safety officials that are working to keep us safe.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Friday that evacuation was not necessary.
“There are a number of people who are in Hurricane Harvey’s direct path, and evacuation orders have been given to them. But for the Houston area… this is a rainmaker for us. There’s no need for people to be thinking about putting themselves in greater danger.”
Even former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco of Hurricane Katrina non-reponse fame knew what had to be done:
Kathleen Blanco, who was Louisiana’s governor during Hurricane Katrina, told The Daily Beast on Sunday that an advanced plan on how to evacuate the most susceptible to flooding is what was needed.
“It’s not apparent to us watching that they have developed a sensible evacuation formula,” she said. “You have to allow people in the southernmost regions to get out the quickest. You can’t tell everyone to leave at the same time or you end up with gridlock, especially in a big urban center.”
So as we track the future path of MSM coverage of the response to Hurricane Harvey, will they try to spread the blame to spare Houston's mayor and fellow officials or will they be more brutally honest as the Daily Beast was?
