>>>The key is to surviving any category of hurricane is to stay close to a CNNreporter. While people die and are stranded in flooded areas, for some reason they are immune, somehow manage to find a building that isn't flattened and can come and go as they please. What's up with that?
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>>Perhaps part of the explanation - but by no means the complete explanation - is that they are willing to assume some risks?
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>Kind of ironic that they are willing to assume risk that rescue agencies aren't. CNN is able to have people on the ground before during and after a disaster. Oh and are able to determine drivable streets to get SUV's into places that the military can't get troop carriers and hummers into. One strange scence was a Coast Guard crew was trying to rescure a stranded person from a rooftop via helicopter. They couldn't, but yelled over to a BBC crew in a 12 foot aluminum boat to ferry the person out.

Ahhh, this is a different problem...

Those oficially "in charge" first have to go through the whole rigamarole of informing the media who they are and arrange contacts for 'live' interviews.
They then have to rehearse their words about "excellent cooperation with all levels of government" and other drivel.
Then they have to inform their peers at the other government levels, often necessitating re-scheduling of agreed interviews so that the other person can be there too to show the high level of cooperation. Of course this often means that the new guy has to present his credentials to all media too, just as above for the first guy.
Then they have to arrange to fly over or drive through some of the affected area so that the interview has some good footage to be shown while they talk.
Then they have to get the make up people to prep them for the interview(s).
Then they do a final run-through of what they're going to say during the interview.
Finally, the interview, where even inane questions (unless you're General Honoree) are answered with sincerity and length, mentioning at every opportunity just how well the different levels of government are cooperating..
When the 4 netwroks and all the cable channels have their interviews in hand you need a good night's sleep.
When you wake up you fire off a few orders to make some real things happen, then the interview process starts all over again.

It's really really tough to get anything actually DONE when getting famous for 15 minutes is the name of the game.

I hope this helps.