I don’t know if this is the proper channel for this, but I thought the current students might want to know how an alum was covering the Katrina disaster. Shreveport, La. Saturday, Sept 3, 2005
I knew I was back in Louisiana when I saw three bottles of hot sauce on the breakfast table this morning and some Cajun seasoning called, Slap Ya Mama.
I’m in Shreveport working at KTAL, Nexstar’s NBC affiliate here, answering phones, editing news packages, putting information on the web site and news ticker, etc.
There are thousands of people here, the hotels are full and gas is hard to find. Many people staying in the hotel where I’m at have their pets with them. There’s a feeling of uncertainty, shock, desperation and panic in the air, much like what I saw on the streets of New Orleans on 9/11. I see them at the hotel–little old ladies that ask me if I know about Mandeville, or a young couple with a dog who asked about the West Bank. The hallways, the front desk, and the dining area are filled with them, talking on cell phones, watching TV coverage. I overheard one young lady say, “Well, I never had to deal with snow, but I can”. Obviously, she was contemplating a move up north. The only friend of mine from New Orleans I could reach was with his family visiting friends in Austin, Texas. He doesn’t know what happened to his house or when he can return. He said he’s enrolling his kids in school in Austin.
It’s estimated that there are in excess of 20,000 evacuees in shelters in Shreveport alone, and more arriving everyday.
I arrived on Thursday night, after driving in a rented SUV from our corporate office in Dallas. I spent Friday in a KTAL edit suite, editing 2 photo essay pieces for a special telethon that KTAL is airing tonight from 8-10. The photo essays were songs covered with footage from the hurricane, rescue and evacuation–tunes to evoke emotion, offer comfort or hope, and hopefully, to spur a contribution to the Red Cross volunteers manning the phones. KTAL had also held a donation drive that filled 4 tractor trailers for the Salvation Army in the first couple days after the disaster.
In addition to me, there are others here and on their way from other Nexstar markets–an editor from Amarillo, a photographer from Joplin, Missouri, and 4 people (reporter, photographer, producer and technician) from Terre Haute.
In the newsroom, we’re all watching CNN, and to a lesser extent, FOX and MSNBC, monitoring everything that’s coming across on WWL TV’s web site. Displaced people from New Orleans are using WWL’s web site and WDSU’s as their primary source of information because not only you can see streaming live news coverage, but also go to discussion boards that have pictures and eyewitness accounts of the damage to specific neighborhoods and streets, an invaluable source of information for people who want to know what kind of damage their area sustained.
I volunteered to get the newsroom some food and drink this evening. They’ve been living off pizza for several days, so I went and got some Cajun food, a welcome change for me and the newsroom. Everything is going well, the news product and coverage is excellent, and everyone is positive and accommodating, pulling together, wanting to help.
The news director, Sean Kennedy, was here all day (and the day before, and the day before that, etc) manning the assignment desk, answering the phones, just being a steadying influence in the newsroom. You can tell that he knows everyone and they like and respect him. When I got here today, one of the reporters was cleaning out one of the news vehicles–empty soda and water bottles, candy wrappers, etc. He was cleaning it up to head back down to Baton Rouge, about a 4-hour drive, to relieve another reporter and shooter from down there. Everyone here is so young, and diverse, and into it.
Shreveport, La. Sunday, Sept 4, 2005
I began the day eating at the same place I ate yesterday. There is a story behind the “Slap Ya Mama” Cajun seasoning on the table. Mama Walker in Evangeline Parish, La was always getting slapped on the back for her cooking when she used her home-made seasoning, thus was born the name, and the business of “Slap Ya Mama” Cajun seasoning. I plan on getting several cans.
My first duty when I got to KTAL today was to re-up the ice and fluids. Ice is at a premium so I had to drive around to find a store with ice.
Next came getting some hotel rooms for the various other people coming in from other Nexstar stations to help with the news coverage. Tiffany Alaniz and Justin Haase arrived minutes ago from Joplin, were briefed, given some directions and sent out on a story. Welcome to hurricane coverage in Shreveport!
Tuesday, we expect 4 people are coming from WTWO in Terre Haute.
I did manage to find a couple rooms at the Hampton Inn in Bossier City, right across the Red River from Shreveport.
There are signs everywhere that demonstrate the extent of this story. Last night when I left the station, there were 5 big buses with a police escort lined up right outside the station. More buses were coming to join them up the road, ostensibly headed to New Orleans. In the hotel lobby, there’s a table full of information about insurance, schools, housing and jobs. Today, I passed a restaurant offering hurricane victims ‘buy one entree, get one free and 1/2 price for kids’. Everywhere there are signs with messages of encouragement and hope for the victims. One simply read, “We love you, New Orleans”.
When I ask how many more evacuees Shreveport has today since yesterday’s estimate of more than 20,000, I’m told nobody knows; they just keep arriving in shelters.
My job is to keep the news ticker up to date. The news ticker is the information that crawls along the bottom of the TV screen. What’s on the news ticker now is information about shelters, donations locations, Red Cross, FEMA, missing persons, names of churches taking in evacuees, etc.
A local woman called to say that a local donation center needed boxes—that went on the news ticker. It’s a valuable, concise, quick, and constant source of real good information, and the viewers really like it. The station has been getting a flood of e-mail from viewers complimentary of its news coverage.
I just got word that I have to go down to Baton Rouge, about 4 hours by car, to help support Nexstar’s sat truck there.
Baton Rouge, Tues Sept 6, 2005 11AM
I’m writing this from the Baton Rouge Public Library in downtown Baton Rouge. It’s the only place I know where I can get internet access. There’s a long line of people who want to use the few computers here and an old librarian with a clipboard who makes sure the line keeps moving.
I drove down from Shreveport yesterday morning, a drive of about 4-5 hours. On the way down, traffic was light, with most of it being military convoys, tractor trailers, and small groups of rescue convoys from all over the country; some with small boats and ATV’s towed behind them. There were abandoned cars on either side of the highway–out of gas, or just wore out, I guess.
Nexstar’s satellite truck (it’s actually KARK in Little Rock’s truck) is parked on the grounds of the La. State Police headquarters, the same place where all of the emergency management people are. When I arrived, President Bush’s Marine Corp helicopter sat surrounded by his escort of helicopters right behind the building. In front of the building is where the all of the press is parked. It’s a sea of sat trucks of all sizes and shapes-CNN, NBC, ABC, FOX, and many more. I’d estimate there are about 40-50. Accompanying them are lots of RVs providing much needed sleep. I’m envious. While the sat truck does have AC, it’s small and cramped, especially when you get a tech or two, a reporter and photog in there.
There’s not a hotel room to be had anywhere within 50-60 miles of the city, maybe more.
I talked to a friend of mine who lives here about helping with accommodations. She told me that her house was full, every temp or
corporate apartment was taken, and that people whose houses were for sale, had to take down the sign because people were walking up and offering to either rent or buy the house on the spot.
I slept in a nice bed and had a hot shower this morning thanks to the widowed aunt of KTAL’s general manager, Scott Thomas. I can’t thank Sue Leach enough for opening her house to a stranger. It was either that or the floor of the sat truck. I hear that KTAL is sending down an RV so that we can sleep right next to the sat truck.
I’m scheduled to meet up with the reporters and photographers at the sat truck at around 1:30. Each reporter (yesterday, we had two) has a photographer that works with them. They determine what story they intend to cover and are out of wherever they’re staying at 6am to start working on it. They come back late very in the afternoon to the sat truck to edit and feed their stories via satellite back to KTAL for a 5, 6 and 10pm airing. Often, the reporters do a live introduction. They usually do several different stories. It’s a very long day for them, roughly 6am to after 10pm, then get up and do it again. Well, here comes the librarian with her clipboard so I have to go.
If you wanted to get a glimpse of what some displaced Americans are going through thanks to Katrina, you only needed to spend a few minutes in the downtown Baton Rouge library, like I did this morning. When I walked up to the counter, I noticed the man next to me had the phone book open to the yellow pages, and, using the library phone, was calling all the businesses starting in the “A”s to ask if they had any job openings. Next to me at the computer terminal I helped a certified Ford mechanic look for a job on-line because the New Orleans dealership where he worked was underwater. While we were on-line, there was a man and his family next to us. The man’s son found a web site where they could examine satellite images of the flooding. Suddenly, I heard a gasp, and sobbing; they found a picture of their neighborhood completely underwater.
Some have survived the flood only to be drowning on dry land. Americans, like us, with vacuous looks in their eyes, looking disconnected, lost, and powerless. While they may now be getting the necessities to sustain life–water, food, a roof over their heads, medical attention-their lives are in a state of suspended animation.
After I left the Baton Rouge library, I met up with KTAL news anchor Shawn Patrick and his photographer, Marc “Goose” Gustofson at our satellite truck in front of the state police headquarters. The sat truck has its own editing system, so Shawn edited together his story for the early evening’s newscasts that we would shoot back via satellite to KTAL in Shreveport.
Around 2pm, we were joined by 2 people from Nexstar’s sister station, KBTV in Beaumont, the NBC affiliate there. Rick Boone, KBTV’s anchor and his photographer, Troy, had driven all night, had been in the New Orleans and shot their story. Now they wanted to use the sat truck to edit it and also do a live shot for KBTV’s 5 and 6pm news.
It was very hot, and not all of us could fit in the sat truck. So I went out and bought a big umbrella and 2 folding chairs so we wouldn’t have to sit in the hot sun. Everything went smooth for all the newscasts that day and at 10pm. Both KTAL and KBTV got their stories and both Shawn and Rick got their live shots.
After the 6pm satellite feed, I walked over the WWL’s sat truck. I used to work at WWL and was hoping to see some friends. When I got there, the engineer was on the phone with Chris Slaughter, WWL’s assistant news director. The engineer tells Chris that someone’s here to say ‘hi’ and hands me the phone.
I knew Chris was busy and didn’t have much time to chat, so I just told him that everyone in the country was following WWL’s news coverage via streaming video from the web site, and that their news coverage was exceptional. Chris said, “That’s all I need to here, I’ll tell everyone here what you said, thanks, Paul”.
That night, sleeping arrangements were a bit rough. Shawn and “Goose” were sleeping at a friend’s house, a news producer working at a Baton Rouge TV station–either on a couch or curled up somewhere on the floor–it all depended on how many other people were there that night. But neither Rick nor Troy had anywhere to sleep. In front of our sat truck was an older RV that had been converted to a radio studio and both WWL-AM and some Clear Channel stations (normally they compete against each other, but here had become allies to cover the hurricane relief). I met one of the radio news guys and got him to leave the door open to the bus, (albeit without any air conditioning) and Troy slept on the old couch and I slept on the floor of the radio studio in a sleeping bag. Rick, the news anchor from KBTV, slept on the driver’s seat of their news van.
Baton Rouge, La. Wednesday, Sept 7th, 2005.
This morning, Troy woke me up at 8am. We were both kind of groggy, and in need of coffee and a shower. We brushed our teeth using bottled water, and I drove off the site to get us some coffee. Later that morning, Rick and Troy set off for New Orleans again for another story, and I drove off to Sue Leach’s, the widowed aunt of KTAL’s GM, to shower. When I left Sue’s, I gave her a bottle of wine and reminded her of the line from “A Streetcar Named Desire” about “living off the kindness of strangers”.
We were told by the KTAL news director, Sean Kennedy, that they were working on getting an RV down to us, and that night, just after 10, I got a call from Jeremy, the station engineer at Nexstar’s sister station in Terre Haute, WTWO, the NBC station there.
Jeremy was calling from the RV. Because the security was so tight in anticipation of Vice-President Dick Cheney’s visit on Thursday, they weren’t letting any more RVs into the compound, so Jeremy had parked right across the street. We all piled into my car and drove over there. I’ve never been so happy to see an RV! It had beds, refrigerator, a bathroom, a shower, a microwave, and a TV. Yahoo!
Baton Rouge, La. Thursday, September 8, 2005
This morning, we arranged for Shawn Patrick and “Goose” to meet up with an old New Orleans friend of mine who was temporarily living with his sister about 2 hours north of the city. In real life, Glenn “GT” Taylor directs reality shows like the popular “Extreme Makeover” but now was facing a nightmare version of a reality show himself. He and his wife agreed to meet up with Shawn and “Goose” and drive down to his house in New Orleans. His house and yard were flooded, ruined; the only thing he salvaged was an old baseball bat that belonged to his dad, a one-time pro ball-player. The video was touching; Glenn in hip boots, walking a little boat through his neighborhood while his wife, Jennifer, along with Shawn, and “Goose” sat in the boat and recorded it all.
The good news for me is that with Jeremy’s arrival, I can leave. Before I leave, Jeremy and I get some groceries for the RV and fill up several cans with gas for the sat truck. The sat truck must stay where it’s parked and be serviced like a queen bee.
When we get to the sat truck, we unload the gas, and shake hands. He’ll stay on with Shawn and “Goose” until he’s relieved.
I drive back to Shreveport and stop in my room just outside of town to take a quick nap and shower. Then I head into town to KTAL’s newsroom. More people from other Nexstar stations are in the newsroom helping out, and after dinner that night, I head back to my room, sleep, and then head back to my home in Dallas on Friday morning. The first thing I’m going to do when I get back (after kissing my wife of almost 25 years and the kids) is to grab a towel and take a dip in the community pool up the street. I promised myself I would do that all week long.