Day 48 (Sat., Oct. 29)

It's been a rough week and people just wanted to get out of the house today. So, that's what we worked on today. I headed out w/ intern Yolanda Sanchez, also from California, to the Sawgrass Mills mall to talk to people who were there to get away from all the hurricane drama.

Luckily, there were many people out enjoying the air conditioning and power that the mall offered. Most people are still w/o power and the only way for them to feel sane is by doing normal things like watch a movie or eat ice cream at the mall.

I spent the early part of the day at the mall. Then, as I headed to the office, I was sent to St. Clement's Catholic Church, where the Archbishop of Miami was going to give a special mass.

The church suffered some damage and it was still w/o power, but that didn't stop some 70-plus people from joining in for the service. It was cool. I feel bad, I haven't been to church in two weeks since my trips to California and Nevada. I am bad!

I headed to the office, finally. And after spending a couple of hours working on some photos I decided it was time to go home.

During the drive, however, I was called and told to go to a crime scene. Apparently a Sunrise Police Department cop was shot and we needed to be there and find out what happened. I tried to make photos, but it was hard because they had the place pretty well secured.

I felt the same thing people in the community felt when I got to the place. Since a large area was blocked off because they were looking for a suspect, people were stuck and couldn't go home. I really wasn't in the mood to stand in front of a few cops for a few hours instead of going home. Finally, time ran out on me and the cop told me that I couldn't stay there any longer because Broward County was still under a 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

In the above photo a cop (left) talked to a few residents who were pretty upset about going home. The officer tried to help them out and after an hour and half allowed some of the residents who lived on the outer part of the crime scene to go home. Those who were right in the heart of the action were denied entry.

In waiting, a guy named Robert came up to me. Asked me if he could use my cell phone because his battery had died. I have two cell phones, so it would have been awful if I would have denied him. So, I let him use my phone. After all, I have free nights and weekends. I did it to help the guy and in the end it was cool because he walked me to his truck and offered me some good warm chicken he was trying to bring home to his family. He had beer, it was warm, so that's why he didn't offer. Not that I would have accepted it, since I was on the job. But it's good that he offered me food after I did something cool for him. I think that's the overall feeling around here these days. People are looking out for each other. That's the beautiful part of this disaster.

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