We wound our way through downtown along the way dropping off evacuees from the hotel at a shelter a few blocks away. We then made our way to 90 west which took us across the Mississippi River. It turned out to be a pretty easy ride, but that was hard to tell when standing downtown with water up to your knees and chaos going on around you.
That night, about 10 of us left on a chartered flight from Baton Rouge — that is not normal practice for CNN, it’s usually reserved for the heavy-hitters not peons. We arrived late but still gathered in Jeanne Meserve’s room to decompress. I’ve talked to my friends about our coverage and every one of them has mentioned to me that they began to realize the scope of what happened in New Orleans when they saw her liveshot on the 10pm show, Aaron Brown’s NewsNight. She sounded and looked exhuasted, mentally and physically, as if she was going to just break down and cry at any moment. I don’t think anyone would have blamed her if she had.
The next day, I went into the newsroom in Atlanta to say hello to friends and co-workers. But I couldn’t let it go. I had to sit down and work. I wanted to find out what happend to Karen’s hospital. I called police departments all over Louisiana but the fdew that actually had working phone lines could not help. I emailed Adaora to tell her and she wrote back that she had run into Karen at the airport. They had been able to airlift the patients but many of the 800 staff members were still left behind. I asked about her husband and she told Adaora that she hadn’t spoken to him and didn’t know where he was.
Before I started writing tonight I walked down to the liquor store to buy beer. My plan was to just stay home, drink, listen to music and write this out. Each night since the storm I’ve had nightmares to some degree. The change in sleeping pattern and the stress has taken it’s toll. I feel very out of sorts. But, as I made my way back from the liquor store, a woman was walking her caramel colored puppy with floppy little ears. I asked her what kind he was, she said it was a Cocker Spaniel. I smiled and petted him as he licked my toes.