It's because of the government-imposed media blackouts.

The Houston Chronicle's Rosanna Ruiz pens a story today about rumors that run rampant in the aftermath of a storm such as Ike:

The stories about Ike's yet-unaccounted-for victims invariably come from those who say they know someone who has photos of them or who talked to an acquaintance of a pilot who flew over the storm-ravaged areas. One message to the Houston Chronicle was about someone who tried to head out into the Gulf on a boat to check an oil platform but had to turn back because of all the bodies.

"The rumors are not true," said Jim Guidry, a Galveston County spokesman.

He's probably right, but government spokes-folks don't exactly have tons of credibility when it comes to crises such as these.

And certainly nothing we've seen here has changed our mind about what we've written previously -- that government-imposed media blackouts are worng and wrong-headed. Read more of what we've said here. And here. Oh, and here.

We still haven't seen it written better than how Dolph Tilloston wrote it when, in a Galveston Daily News editorial, he called the blackout "incredibly bone-headed."

We've mentioned the editorial in a previous post, but it's worth noting again because everything predicted in the Sept. 15 editorial has come true.

Here's one example:

...the move will force reporters to go to other sources, and some of those may be less reliable and less knowledgeable than official city sources. Why the city would wish this to happen is beyond us. It will make the news media's job more difficult, and it will make the information somewhat less reliable.

Here's another prediciton that was dead-on accurate:

...one of the major issues facing the city and facing the media trying to tell this story is the many thousands of evacuees spread across North America. They desperately seek information about their homes, their businesses and their loved ones. A news blackout will cause those people, helpless evacuees, to suffer longer. Not knowing the full story is the worst pain they face, and the city has helped prolong and make that pain greater by blocking access to news. 

When people don't know what's going on, they are going to start thinking the worst.

It might even cause some folks to risk safety and sneak back home.