Ballcap with a logo:  guilty.  Reporting from an actual hurricane:  guilty. 

It’s not a storm of controversy, but it’s very talked about. 

One of our commenters, Big Daddy, wrote, ”Why must all talking heads venture out in hurricanes wearing the obligatory logo-ed ballcap and windbreaker? It’s just so chiché! I would still watch if they stayed indoors, and respect them more for their common sense.”

So, here we have two issues.  Fashion and whether news crews should be reporting so close to or in a hurricane.   What should we wear while reporting in a storm (how about a John Deere getuup instead) and how close to the storm do you want to see pictures and get information?

Thanks for the topic, Big Daddy.

Thanks if you took part in the Hurricane Ike webcam/chat Saturday from my desk in the KTBS 3 newsroom.  What a cool exchange of information! 

Since there’s such a big demand for that way of connecting, we’ll have a regular time (in addition to situations like hurricanes) for the webcam/chat.  It’ll be Thursdays at Three.  Just click on the chat icon that’ll appear on www.ktbs.com.

So, what do you want to talk about this Thursday?  I’ll line up guests and we’ll all jump in.  Ideas?

From HRB in Houston, TX:

“We went to the grocery store and it was total mayhem.  All canned goods and bread were gone.  People were freaking out.  We got some microwave popcorn and peanut M&Ms and got the hell out of there.    There is an eerie feeling, like Christmas morning except windy and hot.” 

Want the news from work?  Need information on Ike, but don’t want to wait until the 5pm news?  We’re live again this afternoon at 3:00 with the webcam/chat from my desk in the KTBS 3 newsroom.  Today begins Thursdays at Three for this format.  It’s one of the fastest, most personal ways of getting news there is.  It’s very casual.  I gather the latest information and interview others reporters, photographers and authorities to get you what you need on a topic (today, it’s Ike).  Meteorologist Marcy Novak has been working on info. about evacuations and will have the latest on Ike’s path an the effect it’s forecasted to have on the ArkLaTex. 

Just look for this icon today at 3:00 on www.ktbs.com.  Click and join us in the live chat.  We’ll probably stay live today for about an hour.   Hope to talk with you!  

There’s not a reporter, anchor, photographer, producer, assignments person or anyone else involved in long hours of hurricane coverage I’ve run across who can’t relate to this!

Long hours at work + little sleep often = a poor diet.  Add to that, the tendency to eat more unhealthy foods during stressful times. 

Caffeine for me.  Sonja Bailes can tell you about her not-so-special “hurricane diet”.  She can’t get back on track.  A newspaper photographer friend of mine worked 16 straight days.   After covering Gustav in Lafayette, she and I were working out and she said, “You know, the MREs aren’t bad.  They’re just so fattening.”  I remember covering Hurricane Ivan, using my fingers to ravage cold ravioli out of a pop-top can.  For breakfast.  No electricity.  No restaurants.  No stores.  After a while, the dish on the satellite truck was lookin’ good to me. 

So, many of us in the newsroom are looking for ways to avoid a personal health crisis during crisis coverage.  What non-perishable food items can we keep in our desks or take on the road with us that are healthy? 

   

While many people in Louisiana are still recovering from Hurricane Gustav, we’re prepping now for Ike.  Governor Bobby Jindal has set up a task force to prepare for the possibility of more chaos.  “We’re not hoping for another strike, another storm, but we’re ready,” he said.   

Ike is expected to hit the gulf coast later this week.

Question for you:  If you just returned home to south Louisiana from a Gustav evacuation, would you leave your home again for Ike?

I seldom give my opinion when regarding the news, but I want to open some areas up for discussion here.  Sure, there were lots of problems with how the Gustav evacuation process was handled by Louisiana-run shelters.  And yes, a lot of people yelled really loud about what they didn’t get.  Some were justified (conditions were awful at some shelters!)  That wasn’t the case with others.  Regardless, the negative cries (whether justified or not), got the attention of the national media.   And the national media bought it, in many cases, as the only side to the story. 

It’s clear the state needs to get its act together if it’s going to continue in the business of sheltering.  Some of the near life threatening situations involving the elderly on behalf of the state are shameful!  You can’t expect a 94 year old woman to survive a 7=10 hour mandatory bus ride with absolutely no attention to fare well.  That’s abuse.   

But maybe the national media big guns stopping there were more than a tad irresponsible.  Please let me know if there are exceptions, because I haven’t seen them. 

I spent today interviewing more than a dozen volunteers, organizers and evacuees from most all of the shelters here.  There were lots of fear-based rumors, due to a lack of official answers given to evacuees there.

AND I found story after story of compassion and gratitude.  There were stories of evacuees helping other evacuees, volunteer medical personnel spending the entire week at the state-run Sam’s Club shelter and the old Sports Outlet Mall shelter.  Some of the nurses and PAs I spoke with had medical ailments of their own (broken limbs, etc.).  Their family members had to force them to sleep,   Many slept prior to my interview with them today.   I saw an evacuee taking charge and proudly becoming a calming force.  (See more on Dee Dee, who lost four family members to Katrina, including her mother, then took charge at the Sam’s Club Shelter and brought peace there during chaos.  That airs Monday night at 10 on KTBS and on www.ktbs.com, keyword:  miracle).  

I am awestruck by the generosity and compassion that emerges here in situations like Gustav.  I applaud the women I saw in the grocery store, a small sample of what was going on across the ArkLaTex.  The women were planning meals for evacuees and sweating over the details about what our guests would or wouldn’t like to eat.   

I heard today from those in the trenches that maybe the faith-based community didn’t respond as strongly this time as it did during Katrina because of those who weren’t grateful…no…because of those who thought the initials of the volunteers who were helping them were F.U.    

But it’s not just Gustav.  It’s not even Katrina.  Year after year, research shows the ArkLaTex, one of the most cynical , conservative, fishing and Bible-reading markets in the nation, also rivals, if not is, the most generous. 

But please don’t take our generosity for granite.  We give hard.  It’s there and it’s solid.  But, you might be best not testin’ it without some gratitude.   

I’m so proud to live, work and do my part in a community where we give thanks.   

Hundreds of evacuees are housing their pets in a shelter at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds in Shreveport, but no felines there are quite this big!  This cat, named Theodore, was brought up by his owners from south Louisiana.  Theodore weighs about 40 pounds and looks like a really fat cat.  But his owners say he’s not fat.  They say Theodore is part bobcat.  What do you think? 

Many of you have been asking about news from Baton Rouge, since much of the national focus is still on New Orleans.  Look on www.ktbs.com.  Right now you’ll see video on President Bush’s visit to BR and a detailed map of power outages across the state. We’ve taken our regular website and made it into a continuous source for news.  We have staff feeding this site as fast as the news comes in.  We’d planned to launch this format later, but jumped in with it as soon as we saw Gustav coming. 

Stay safe.   

Our internet and news teams are bringin’ it.  Makes me so proud to work with these people.  Internet guru Brad Pollitt set up a webcam at my desk, where Meteorologist Joe Haynes and I chatted live with commenters for more than an hour just now.  What a great exchange of information!

We’re cranking up the webcam again Monday morning, so watch www.ktbs.com for the Gustav-live webcam/chat icon.  When it pops up, jump in and we’ll do our best to answer your questions as you comment.  We’d also love to hear how you’re affected by Gustav. 

HRB, could use some Houston perspective before the power goes out!  Hope to see you in the morning.  Stay safe.