Jim Baratta sees a double standard in ABC News’s disaster coverage of the California mudslide victims vs. the tsunami victims. Check it out and see if you agree.

By the way, I have noticed there hasn’t been much attention paid in the blogosphere to the mudslide victims. No, it’s not a catastrophic tsunami. But these are fellow Americans struck by natural disaster who need help and prayers, too. The story of Jimmy Wallet, who left his wife and three young daughters to get ice cream when the landslide occurred, is heart-breaking. La Conchita was hit hard.

If anyone knows of private charities or church groups assisting the mudslide victims, please track back or drop me an e-mail and I’ll post it here.

Update: Mudslide video links here and here.

Update II: Reader Jay sends a link to the Ventura County Star’s tips on how to help the mudslide victims…

Pierpont community members will hold a clothing drive for victims in La Conchita from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Pierpont Elementary School, 1254 Martha’s Vineyard Court. Financial donations also will be accepted at the school on Saturday.

KVTA has set up a La Conchita Relief Fund at County Commerce Bank. Checks should be made payable to La Conchita Relief Fund, account number 0901004705. Donations also may be dropped off at the radio station, 2284 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.

United Way of Ventura County and the Ventura County Community Foundation have established an emergency relief fund to benefit victims in La Conchita and flooding elsewhere in the county. Each organization will contribute $3,000 to start the victim’s relief fund. Individuals, businesses and companies may make donations to VCCF at 1317 Del Norte Road, Suite 150, Camarillo, CA 93010, or to the United Way at 1317 Del Norte Road, Suite 100, Camarillo, 93010. More information is available from VCCF at 805-988-0196, and from the United Way at 805-485-6288.

The American Red Cross will also collect money for victims of the mudslides. Checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross. Somewhere on the check donors should also state, “For La Conchita disaster,” to ensure the money is used solely in that community. Checks may be mailed to P.O. Box 608, Camarillo, CA, 93011.

Update III: There are more details on Jimmy Wallet’s story, and they are worth pointing out because they dispel the notion that only “rich people” in expensive mountainside homes were affected by the mudslide. From AP:

Jimmie Wallet went out for ice cream, and when he got back, everyone and everything he had left behind were gone.

On Wednesday, he identified the bodies of his wife and three of his daughters, pulled from a tangle of homes smashed by a mudslide.

No one lost more than Wallet in Monday’s mudslide, which has killed at least 10 people in this oceanside community. And, driven by the frantic hope of finding his family, no one was as quick to claw through the debris and help pull out survivors.

Wallet dug for hours in the rain around where he thought the family might be. He helped rescue two people before he stopped and waited, smoking cigarettes as friends stopped by to embrace him. Early Wednesday, after 36 hours, his wait ended.

His wife, Mechelle, was the first to be found. Around 2 a.m., firefighters and several of Wallet’s friends carried her to the makeshift morgue at the town’s gas station. Wallet went in and identified her, then returned to the porch of a peach stucco house where he had been staying, put up his feet and sat without a word.

Two hours later, his youngest daughter, 2-year-old Paloma, was taken out on a stretcher. Her sister Raven, 6, was next, soon followed by 10-year-old Hannah.

The three girls were found next to each other, apparently sitting on a couch when the slide broke apart their house, pushing it for about 100 yards and covering it in muck.

“They never had a chance to get out,” said Scott Hall, a battalion chief with Ventura County Fire Department.

His fourth daughter, a 16-year-old, had been in nearby Ventura when the slide happened…

…As workers searched for the missing in La Conchita, Wallet said in interviews with The Associated Press that he moved to this oceanside town 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles from Ventura in search of an easier life.

The family lived in a household of 10, including Charles Womack, a 51-year-old musician also killed in the mudslide.

Wallet, a 37-year-old carpenter who has thick dreadlocks and is nicknamed “Gator,” worked construction jobs with Womack and was staying with him to help save money, said Larry Gallardo, another friend.

Wallet said they played music and hung out on an old bus with a rooftop patio. Engraved over the home’s front gate were the words “Music is love.”

Residents of La Conchita said Wallet sang with his kids, took them to the beach and walked around town with Hannah on his shoulders. His wife stayed home with the children and was “powerful, such a rock,” said Vera Long, who lived three houses down.

“They were incredibly beautiful children. They had these sparkling, intelligent, deeply soulful eyes. Just incredibly loving,” Long said. “The only comfort I can derive is that they were all together.”

Raven and Hannah shared Wallet’s affinity for the arts - they took dance lessons and played piano.

Jimmie Wallet had been returning home Monday when days of soaking rain triggered the mudslide. He watched the torrent curve toward his block and ran home, only to find it smothered. Officials said the house was broken apart, pushed for about 100 yards and covered with about six feet of mud.

Instinct took over and he began to dig. Fire officials credited him with helping map out likely locations of destroyed homes.

“The most frustrating part was that he couldn’t do more,” said fire Capt. Conrad Quintana.

When Wallet returned late Monday night with six friends, rescue workers let them dig five hours in the rain around where they thought the family might be.

After leaving to rest Tuesday morning, Wallet returned to dig, but was stopped by authorities and handcuffed after he crossed police lines. Rescue workers had changed shifts and did not recognize him. He was released after authorities realized who he was.

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