Friday's Tentative Rundown

Yesterday was a success. Myra's package ran in the Daily Update this morning. Watch in on Ch 7 in the Park Cities. The DU runs on the hour from 8-Noon as well as 3p and 6p. Garrett also did a phone interview with the Update folks this morning previewing the game itself.

Preliminary plans for today for Ashleigh and I: Quite a few interviews today. We'll be talking with a professor from Tulane who evacuated to Houston, then to Dallas, then up to Massachusetts to continue his research. He's back at Tulane now, but what does his program's funding look like? We'll find out.

We'll also be talking to a Loyola student whose contact info we were given yesterday from Bob. (He's the student VP at Loyola, which was also a surprise interview for us.) This student attended SMU last fall and then returned to Loyola. She was a little under the weather yesterday when we called, but hopefully she'll feel better today.

Also on the docket, the President of Tulane. We'll be talking education in the city, what the surroundings mean for that type of education, and the University's role, as the largest employer in the entire city, in recovery efforts. We're really fortunate we were able to schedule this interview and we're looking forward to it.

Lastly, we discovered yesterday that visiting and having elements from Dillard is going to be imperative. Everyone we've talked to has said they are having the hardest time recovering. Stories seem inconsistent...some say there's no phones there, some say no email. We're not sure, but we figure out the best thing to do is make a house call and see for ourselves.

One last thought from yesterday...the kind folk at Loyola reserved us a parking space. Ashleigh and I couldn't but help remember all those times we've seen reserved parking places at SMU. So we took a picture of our cone:

PKG: Fed to Dallas

We just returned from WWL-TV. Tomorrow's story for the Daily Update has been fed back to Dallas.


Myra watching herself on the satellite feed.

Crossing the Great Divide

As promised, here’s how Gabe and I got lost…and by lost I mean totally discombobulated.

Instead of heading the right direction toward Xavier, we decided to take the “scenic” route over the New Orleans Bridge. Indeed, a great drive but not in the right direction at all.

When we realized the Superdome was nowhere in sight we decided to turn around. We looked to the left and what did we see? You guessed it: bumper-to-bumper traffic. Our interview was scheduled for 10 a.m. It was 9:30. Ok. We’re journalists with a speeding addiction. We’ll make it.

Deciding to bypass the bridge, we pulled over here.



Welcome to Gretna. We successfully managed to leave the vicinity of New Orleans. How this happened when we were using a map? We don’t know.

So, we headed for a crossover road labeled as a tollway on the map. After spending another 20 minutes trying to find this so called “tollway” we pull up to the river. Ironically, we found what we were looking for. Apparently this Louisianan tollway isn’t what we consider a tollway back in Dallas. This was a ferry! This barge before us was clearly not what we expected.

Finally, we bit the bullet and asked a local…and by local we mean man standing outside Gretna City Hall…how to get back to the highway. Long story somewhat shorter, we made it back to the highway, paid a real $1 toll and made our way back in the right direction.

What we’ve learned from this:
1) Print directions.
2) Take them with you.
3) Leaving an hour in advance doesn’t always get you where you need to go with time to spare.

And, as an added bonus, our interview subject was late too. So “net-lateness” equals zero and we made it out alive with a great interview.

We love our jobs.

THE ADVENTURES OF MERCY AND LIZ...

We started today with two stories in mind. The first a piece that I have been working on about following the funds donated from SMU students. The second story is Mercy's about bringing back New Orleans' music. What we found today was so much more.



We left to grab brunch and get on the road so we stopped in a small cafe... Cafe Orleans. As we entered we were informed they were closed and didn't open for an hour. After a short conversation we were offered shrimp po boys by the owner who sat and chatted with us about his business, post-Katrina. The food was great and so was the scenery in the French Quarter. We are returning tonight to find out more about business life in the Big Easy... new story number one for the day!

A contact at KTVT in Dallas suggest that we check out Lakeview, an up-scale community in the area. He said this was the only place that could afford to rebuild due to high contractor fees, expensive labor force, and building supplies. When we arrived we realized this area sat between two major New Orleans levies, both of which broke. We wanted to take a closer look...so we asked the construction workers if we could climb up on the levy...the London Street Canal to be exact, and they were very willing to let us. These construction workers have been working on this site for a year and were very excited to see fresh faces.

In this same area, we encountered two very different groups. The first people we spoke to were homeowners in Lakeview, who were rebuilding their home. Their home had been severely damaged by 15 feet of water. It was a father/son duo who were doing most of the work themselves. They gave us a tour of the home and talked us through the difficulties they have encountered after Katrina...new story number two for the day!!

The second the group we found were six male volunteers from Toronto, Canada. They drove the entire way, in a small mini van, to vacation here in New Orleans by gutting houses! They were all extraordinary people dedicated to the helping restore this city. They were so kind and helpful that we decided to give them SMU-TV t-shirts....new story number three for the day!

More to come on our trip to the Ninth Ward and the Musicians Village...

Sights on St. Charles

I spent some time down at Tulane this morning shooting B-roll for Myra's package. On the long drive down St. Charles Avenue I stopped periodically to take some photos. Have a look.

These signs are everywhere on campus, and up and down St. Charles.
Even some of the nicest houses on St. Charles are still having work done (and there are some beautiful homes here)
There is a huge election here this weekend (more on that later), and signs like these are everywhere in the city, encouraging people to turn out and vote.

Two of three crews are out shooting now. Myra and I are editing her package for tomorrow's DU. We're planning on getting out of downtown and exploring a little more shortly. Stay tuned.


-Garrett

We've only just begun

Gabe and I just caught a break between our interview with Xavier's Student Body President and Loyola's Dean of Admissions. Our university angle is developing very well, even though we ended up on the complete opposite side of the city this morning before interview #1. Oh don't worry, we'll post more on that excursion later. So much to tell!

As for now, we'll stop hogging a library computer and turn it over to the students who actually pay for it. On to interview #2.

First Impressions and Thursday's Tentative Rundown

The latter group of us didn't get into town until dark, so it was difficult to see much. What was visible, even in the dark: many a home, without power, with a FEMA trailer in the front yard, abandoned motels, and the monstrous Superdome.

We had a brief meeting before heading off to bed to go over the plan for tomorrow. Here's an overview.

Big goals/projects for Thursday:
1. Myra's PKG. We'll finish shooting b-roll elements and prepare the story to feed from WWL-TV back to WFAA in Dallas.
2. Several interviews we've already scheduled, including a student body president at a local university and a dean of admissions.
3. Explore the city. We're getting our head around the timeline of last fall. We all watched this progression graphic from the local newspaper website that helped us immensely.

And some good news for Garrett's story on the Superdome, we just received an email from a contact at the construction company that oversaw the facility's reconstruction with the phone number of a possible interview. We'll make contact with him first thing in the morning.

More updates to come.