The Ranger Online

Issue date: 5/18/06 Section: J School Travels

Before leaving to report on, photograph and videotape East Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, preparations had to take place.

Canned tuna, canned fruit, crackers, salmon jerky, batteries, flashlights, hand sanitizer, face masks and boots were just a few items on a long list of necessities to bring along.

The students, accompanied by journalism Instructor Irene Abrego and photography adviser Tricia Buchhorn, left town in a district van at 6 a.m. Dec. 26.

"I was anxious," sophomore Julie Ann Sanchez said about her feelings before departure. "I just wanted to go out there and witness what was going on in the aftermath."

Sanchez said she was concerned people would not be willing to talk to the reporters. When they reached Sabine Pass that afternoon, however, Sanchez said the group "just knew that everything was going to be fine."

Sophomore Amber Whittaker said the group might have imagined the trip scarier than it actually was. The 9th Ward in New Orleans left the biggest impression. She said it was hard because no people were there and things had not been cleaned up.

"I just feel haunted by them and their situation," Whittaker said. "I don't think anybody is coming back."

She was surprised that nobody was in the area. "Nobody wanted to look at it," she said. "A lot of tourists just want to go to Bourbon Street."

The reporters said New Orleans, where the students spent two days, is a divided city, with the historic French Quarter and beautiful Garden District opposite the absolutely destroyed 9th Ward.

Freshman Charles Cima said he saw only the beginning of cleanup, mountains of organic debris - tree limbs mostly - throughout the region. "If I were a resident, I wouldn't know where to start."

The reporters had to work in groups of three. One reporter interviewed sources, another took photos and the third videotaped the scene.

Continued...

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