My Reporter's NotePad...

RITA is coming

Friday 9/23/05 4.45 am Houston, Texas
Last update: 6.16am

Rita still coming, Cat.4 winds expect 150+m/h.  I'm still in Houston covering the story for Univision, KXLN-TV45 and Univision Radio.  We have basic crews working and doing as much as we can to keep people informed.  We have placed at least one live truck outside Houston as to come back after and serve viewers and radio listeners.  We're simultcasting in Spanish.

Thousands still waiting up to 24hrs in most Hwys. trying to come  out of Houston, gas has ran out in most places.  However tonight, state tanker trucks are helping and lines are moving along. Last night Mayor Bill White called for volunteers to help distribute water to stranded drivers waiting in Hwys.  18 buses packed with volunteers  came to the rescue.  As of 6am, 40 thousand bottle of water have been distributed.  People who live near the Hwys and have gas are coming out to help those stranded.  Meanwhile, the city seems calm and in control. Streets are quiet.  Only a couple of incidents of 2 people breaking into a store. Local shelters are starting to pen for those who won't make it out.

Calm and quiet streets in general.  Some homes boarded up but many are not.  I'm at home for tonight in the Houston Heights on E. 1Oth St. West of Studewood very near to I-10 West, minutes from downtown.  Latest Rita info believes it will come in between Port Arthur and Beaumont near the Lousiana border time has been pushed forward.  We will however still get plenty of rain and up to 100mph winds within Metro Houston.  In the Beaumont area authorities have airlifted near 9,000 elderly and those who need medical attention.  Airports will shut down at 12 noon Friday most probalby earlier. Many flights however have already cancelled.  7AM CT press conference expected.   

I will head out to cover any news in the Houston area early AM with news photographer Mariano Garcia.  We have food and water for 5 days, we are safe and prepared.  We will make  arrangements for shelter tonight. Like thousands my family has also gone to San Antonio and I have secured our home.  Pics attached.

Track Rita HERE
Complete Coverage HERE
Univision 45 HERE
LIVE RADIO HERE
Diarios Rumbo HERE
ABC-13 HERE

I'll be in touch when I can.

Patricio//

Astrodome doors closed

Friday, Sept. 25, 2005.- I woke up this morning to news that the Astrodome closed its doors overnite.  As I get ready to head out to the dome to cover the story, I quickly glance at the headlines... "Astrodome at capacity, but buses with evacuees keep coming" reads the local Houston Chronicle.

This would be a day this reporter will forever remember... as I walk around the grounds of the Astrodome hundreds of evacuees... a man comes up to us, I can see the pain on his face... "Where's the FEMA office, he asks, I have my mother inside, she's sick, she needs medical attention, but noone seems to be able to tell me where to go!  Andrea, a fellow reporter, shows him where we think he needs to go... we can only hope he found the help he seeked.  "We must get in there... we must go talk to the evacuees..."  A volunteer offers to help us, she tells us how bus drivers outside the Astrodome area are also desperate.  They are here in Houston, outside the dome, yet many haven't had much food either.

We're now outside Reliant Center, one of the Astrodome's building, those who couldn't get in the dome are now here, outside at the parking lots.  Policeman on horses, buses lined up, around the parking lot,  small piles of garbage are starting to pile up, as I walk, one single tennis shoe lays on the ground... and the closer we get, a smell of everything mixed together... and we're outside!! in Houston, Texas.  Couldn't even imagine how it was back in New Orleans at the Superdome.

It's very hot outside, as I work closer to the front door, I talk to a man... he arrived this morning about 3am. He says "I have been wearing these clothes since last Sunday" he adds.  Not very far from the main entrance, the volunteer showing me around, asks me to come in.  After checking with a police officer at a makeshift fence, we're Ok, no questions asked... I finally walk in.

So here it is... reality.  Hundreds around me, many on cots, sleeping, or at least trying.  The noise is loud, a thousand voices, and a thousand more.  Signs mark different areas "Elderly..." "Women only"  "No food in sleeping area"  as I walk through the hallways, a long line against several of the side walls.  People waiting to eat.... many elderly in wheel chairs... mothers holding infant children.

And then... a young man walking around with what looks like a refrigerator opened box... a name painted on it; he's hoping to find among the thousand cots he walks around.

A Promise of Hope... and a renegade bus!

Wed. August 31, 2005 sometime before midnight, Astrodome, Houston.-  Some have arrived, but hundreds, thousands more are coming.  Evacuees transferred from one stadium to another, but tonight here in Houston, the Astrodome, to many, means only one thing... a promise of hope, a promise, sometime, somehow, things will be getting better. No matter that many are still left behind in New Orleans 350 miles away, no matter snipers tried to stop them, no matter hundreds if not thousands are yet to see help, drink a glass of water, or taste a morsel of food.  It is Friday today, as I gather my thoughts and strength once again; I’m on my way to the Astrodome to report the latest about the evacuees, to tell their stories.

I just can’t help it... but when you see many of them you just want to just dump our camera, microphone and notepad and get in there and help.  As I walk out the door, I hear news of how the Mayor of New Orleans is not asking... he is now begging for troops.  Where are they? People are dying not in Iraq… but here just 350 miles from New Orleans where I comfortably take a shower or drive through my local McDonalds yet 15 minutes from my own house I meet my news crew to report on more buses driving into the parking lots of the Astrodome in Houston, Texas.  It has been almost a week.

Today for the first time in days, many of those evacuees now in Houston get some  rest.  Most, if not all of them, a clean glass of water, a shower, a place to sleep, the freedom to come and go.  No matter that most have only  the shirt on their backs, and not even one dollar in their pockets. 

I have seen their faces as they walk in, I see their bodies hunched over and many barely walking… I saw a man today; an officer helped him find a toilet in the media parking lot outside the Astrodome… he couldn’t make the 3 blocks walk… his pants were soaked of urine.  They are tired, exhausted, worrisome faces that speak a thousand, a million words, yet many seem to have only one question... What now?  Most, if not all, can’t even begin to guess the answer.  We can’t even think what next !

“I’m tired, I need a bed, got to put some food in my body.  This drive.... just a long drive” one man told a reporter.   I later interviewed a mother and child… they made it out.  The 17 year old tells me how she wonders where her grandma is… I look over my shoulder, tear run down her mother’s cheeks.. I mean not just a little bit… a flood of tears… I don’t know where she is; I just don’t know. 

Today… the doors to the Astrodome have now closed… and thousands still coming. 

What now... frankly, as a journalist covering the story, I find it hard to even begin to guess myself.  Yet only one thing seems certain, as many of our stories air on television or are printed in papers across the country... calls from viewers or readers keep coming in.  Everyone wants to help, to give, to share... it is the human spirit, it is a promise of hope!

Just about the only sure thing evacuees, those left behind and this report can still count on.