On Wednesday I work with Susan — the other reporter in the Gulf Coast Bureau who came in from a local news station in town. It turned out to be a great experience. She is a very good reporter, an incredibly nice woman and easy to work with. And I’m very lucky that’s the case because the story we were working on was a bit complicated and in Hope, Arkansas.
FEMA has placed more than 10,000 home trailers for Gulf Coast residents in need at the Hope Airport. Apparently, it was the only the closest place they could place the trailers until they could get them to the Gulf Coast — and they had started putting them there in November and not a single one had been moved so far. This, as deadlines for Gulf Coast evacuees passed and many had to leave hotels they had been staying in.
We get in to Little Rock late Wednesday and have a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant. The next day, before we depart for Hope which is an hour and a half away, I send a story pitch to the bureau chief about the reopening of Tulane Hospital. It’s the first hospital located in downtown to open. I knew American Morning would want it but he didn’t think it had enough for AC360 to bite so he did not want to pitch it until it was better suited for AC360. So I sent it to American Morning on my own and they bought it. I didn’t like doing it but I felt like I had to and the other show would have never gone for it.
So we drive out to Hope which is incredibly small but known for being the birthplace of Bill Clinton of course. Susan decides to go into a bakery and talk to a few locals while we go shoot some town video. When we return she walks out with a large box. She said the owner just gave it to her, it was full of donuts — really delicious donuts. I decided to go in and thank him and he tried to feed us some more.
The airport had a beautiful hanger on it which was on the national registry of historic places. We shot video of the sea of trailers next to the runway and interviewed the mayor about the $25,000 FEMA is paying per month to have the trailers there at the airport. Next we interviewed Rep. Mike Ross who represents Hope and has asked FEMA three times about when the trailers would be moved. They had not answered him but they decided to once they found out we were going to Hope to see the trailers and interview Rep. Ross.
We went over to the meeting place and jumped out with the congressman as he met the FEMA representative for the first time. It was sort of an ambush but necessary considering FEMA wasn’t going to let us on the property to tour the trailers with Ross. When they came back from the tour Susan asked Ross if he was aatisfied with FEMA’s explanation of why the trailers were still there, he said he wasn’t. They had told Ross that Louisiana has not found proper locations to place the trailers and that FEMA’s own rules state that theey cannot put a trailer in a flood plain. So then why did they get trailers in the first place?
The FEMA spokesperson — who was so rehearsed with his answers he could be have been speaking in the Brady Press Room at the White House — said, “FEMA was suprised by the number of obstacles in placing the trailers.”
And they wonder why they have become such a punching bag.