Cassidy: Louisiana has answers for nation’s woes
May 31, 2011Katherine Newsom
June 2, 2011
Morgan City Mayor Tim Matte and Cajun Coast Tourism Director Carrie Stansbury attributed a loss in city tourism dollars during the 2011 Memorial Day holiday weekend to exaggerated reporting by regional and out of town media.
Matte said the city’s biggest tourist attraction, Lake End Park, which is normally packed out for holidays, took a hit. He blamed national and regional media for thwarting the city’s tourist revenues.
A spokesman at the park said Sunday that just about half of the park’s camper sites had been rented.
The park features bank and pier fishing, a boat launch and a marina with 47 slips, 147 RV sites, 20 tent sites and four pavilions.
He, along with many in the city, rank a CNN report on May 18 as one of the many news stories that painted an exaggerated story of the Atchafalaya River’s impact on Morgan City. The reporter’s package, entitled, “Homeowners surrounded by flood water,” is posted on the CNN website at https://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/05/18/nr.endo.la.flooding.cnn?iref=allsearch.
In the package, reporter Sandra Endo uses phrases like, “The city is a ghost town,” “The water rose five inches since we’ve been here,” “The worst is yet to come here in Morgan City,” “Louisiana officials anticipate 25,000 homes will be flooded when all is said and done” and “They have a lot to protect still, and a lot more days of flooding to come.”
Endo wraps her statements around an interview with a family member of one of a handful of homes on the unprotected side of the 22-foot seawall in Morgan City. The family had jacked their home up in the air, to avoid floodwater.
While Endo delivers her report to anchor Suzanne Malveaux, Malveaux tells Endo, “Obviously officials don’t recommend staying there. Obviously people have been evacuating.”
Malveaux is from New Orleans, according to the CNN website.
Before the school year ended, Morgan City High School students also spoke out on the CNN report. Students in Catherine Holcomb’s history class posted a reply to the report to clarify the flooding in Morgan City.
The report is posted at: https://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-609969?ref=feeds%25Flatest, CNN’s website that gives anyone an opportunity to report news.
The students say that while homes and businesses on the unprotected side of the seawall will see water, the city is not a ghost town, and it is dry.
Another instance of what locals call “bad reporting,” came during a WDSU TV weather segment, where Meteorologist Margaret Orr in delivering a forecast, showed Morgan City as having 11-foot levees on her weather map, and then said, “Eleven-foot levees. They’re at a 4-foot flood stage, so we know there is flooding there.”
Of the reports, Stansbury said, “the bad news…it’s just sad.”
“We’re dry,” the tourism director said. “The city is dry. All of our vendors are open for business. But unfortunately, all of the bad news has created a downturn in their sales, some the worst they have seen in years.”
At the St. Mary Parish Council meeting Councilman Steve Bierhorst praised the local media for its accuracy, along with other parish councilmen.
“Continue to read, listen and watch your local media. That’s where you’re going to be informed correctly,” he said
Beaches in Morgan City and across St. Mary Parish had far fewer visitors Memorial Day weekend, according to officials, in large part because many feared erroneous reports of severe flooding and stayed away. HOWARD J. CASTAY JR.
