Forgotten Because of Politics?

How many of these natural disasters have you heard about?

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

Hindenberg Disaster in 1937.

MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas in 1980.

Eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980

Hyatt Regency walkway collapse in Kansas City in 1981.

Los Angeles Northridge Earthquake in 1994

The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island in 2003

Hurricane Sandy in 2012

Oklahoma tornado outbreak of 2013 centered in Moore, OK

Northern California wildfires in 2017.

Hurricane Ian which hit Florida's gulf coast in 2022.

Do you know how many died in these disasters?

200-300 estimate   Chicago Fire

238        RMS Titanic (U.S. citizens)

36          Hindernberg  

85          MGM Grand Fire

57          Mt, St. Helens

114        Hyatt Regency

57          Northridge Earthquake

100        Station nightclub fire

158        Hurricane Sandy

30          Oklahoma tornados

44          Northern California wildfires

161        Hurricane Ian

In the recent Lahaina fire in Maui, Hawaii 115 people have thus far been officially pronounced dead from the flames,

Over two weeks after the fire more than 1,100 were still reported missing and unaccounted for in addition to the 115 official casualties.

Late last week the missing person list was revised down to 388 without any real change in the death count. This was reported as due to people on the list being found and duplicates on the list.

However, we are now three weeks out from the fires.

What are the chances that those remaining 388 missing souls will be found alive?

If they are not, we are looking at over 500 deaths from this fire.

Even if half are found alive, the death toll from the Maui fires will be greater than any of the high profile natural disasters on the list above.

You may recall that Joe Biden said he had "no comment" when asked about the Maui fire when he was asked about it when vacationing at a Delaware beach several days after the blaze.

Source:https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-14-1222/politics-vacationing-biden-says-he-has-no-comment-nearly-100-dead-devastating

No comment?

Of course, Biden made it worse when he visited Maui to show his "empathy"and ended up comparing their losses to the fact that he almost lost his beloved 1967 Corvette due to a small kitchen fire at his home years ago.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-blasted-comparing-kitchen-fire-home-devastating-maui-blaze-absolutely-disgusting

The Maui fire death toll could end up easily being one of the top 10 natural disasters in the last 100 years.

I can recall the media attention for many of the disasters that I listed above.

However, it does not seem to me that the Maui fire is getting anywhere near the same attention in the news that some of these other disasters did.

This is where the Google Trends feature comes in handy, at least involving major news events since 2004.

For example, compare the mentions involving Hurricane Ian last year to the Maui fire.

The Maui fire is barely is a blip on the radar. compared to the hurricane coverage.

Or compare Hurricane Sandy to the Maui fire.

Yes, there is more news to play out on the Maui fire as the full death counts becomes known.

However, why is the media attention so muted compared to these other disasters?

Is it because Maui is so far away?

Could it be because the media is trying to cover for Biden's out of touch responses to the tragedy?

Is it because FEMA is actively trying to suppress news about the Maui fires?

Like so many things today, there are more questions than answers.

The fire in Maui was an immense tragedy.

I hope and pray that its victims will not soon be forgotten because of politics.