All but forgotten . . .

Hurricane Rita, now a Cat 2 with further strengthening expected, is smacking the Florida Keys right now. Texas, in its projected path, is already making preparations for its arrival.

Yet the media remains fixated on Katrina's impact on New Orleans. For the most part, all but forgotten is that Katrina didn't actually hit that city or Louisiana.

Mississippi took Katrina's damage head on. Its entire coastline and Alabama's, too, has been flattened.

You don't hear much about that in the news reports, do you. Oh, it's mentioned occasionally but it's almost as an afterthought. "New Orleans, Nagin, New Orleans, Nagin, New Orleans yadda yadda . . . oh, and some stuff happened in Mississippi and Alabama, too. We'll be right back after this commercial break."

Once again bloggers are covering the news far better than the so-called professionals. They're providing the details that aren't forgotten or completely ignored because they don't fit between commercials. These aren't poofy-haired "reporters" with fancy tans and designer clothing.

They're real people who are reporting and filming what they see around them each and every day: the good and the bad, the successes and failures.

Start at the beginning with Seawitch and work your way back.

Everywhere you go, they are there. Directing traffic, handing out supplies, bulldozing debris out of the way, helping restore water and sewage utilities, rebuilding schools, and doing everything possible to help us on the Mississippi Gulf Coast recover and rebuild. The are the men and women who serve in the Navy, Army, the National Guard, the Air National Guard, the Mexican Army, and the Dutch Navy.

The same thing with "Dr. Goodheart", a California cardiologist.

Back down Pass Road, we find the hand-drawn sign that says “Field Hospital”. Frankly, we didn’t look when we came by before because the signage was so crude. It turns out that’s the only crude thing about an enormously impressive operation. Here in the K-Mart parking lot (9 bodies were found on the K-Mart roof, such was the flood level here) is the world’s first complete mobile trailer-based hospital, Med-1 from North Carolina.

Things like this and this from Red State Rant.

All of these homes directly on the coast had one thing in common, poured concrete front steps that led to "nowhere"

Too bad the media isn't covering some of these stories instead of their "All Nagin, All the Time".