New Orleans had a distinctive charm which tourists remember well. However, according to The New York Times, the Big Easy was quite a dangerous town. Drug addiction was rampant and was the biggest contributor to the violence. The Times was mentioning fans of Anne Rice wanting to visit the places she made famous in her novels and they warned: “Two neighborhoods predominate in Rice’s work: the French Quarter and the Garden District. Bear in mind that you need to be careful strolling through the French Quarter, even during the day; at night, cemetery visits or walks, which may have special appeal for Rice readers, can be particularly dangerous.” That was in the good times. When the almost Biblical deluge came and drugs were no longer available the addicts became unglued. Most of the violent crimes committed during the hurricane disaster were by street thugs seeking their drugs, not the ordinary people of New Orleans. It was devastating to hear the media report on the unbelievable crimes being committed upon the suffering victims and their rescuers.

Now I am somewhat heartened to learn that apparently, many of the stories of horrid behavior, are now proven to have been misreported. Michelle Malkin has “Debunking Some Katrina Myths” at her blog. For example, the children who had their throats slit, the rapes, and the corpses in the Superdome were made up and passed on to the reporters as misinformation. The biggest lie of all was said to involve cannibalism. It was spread by civil-rights activist Randall Robinson which he has since retracted. Ditto, apparently, for the story about the police shooting a teenager after running him down with their car. It is to be expected that in great upheavals and twenty-four hour news coverage, there were bound to be some stories based upon hysterical rumors.

Other good news for all of America and the world’s gasoline consumers is that almost all of the refineries in the Delta area are undamaged and will be continuing their output.

Now the media seems bent on convincing the American people that President George Bush was derelict in his duty because he was not in New Orleans delivering bottled water and MREs to the hurricane victims. In fact, if George Bush had violated the Constitution and the sovereignty of Louisiana, the press would be attacking him for that now instead. More good news is that most Americans understand that the hurricane was a natural disaster, and although there were many failures to prepare properly, beginning with individuals, no one person is responsible for its massive destruction. Linked at Wizbang Blog where Paul reminds us that “Bush declared a state of emergency before the storm even hit and he personally lobbied local officials to call for a mandatory evacuation. He was not the one behind the curve on this one.“