Day 51 (Tue., Nov. 1)

This morning's traffic wasn't a big improvement from yesterday. It took me two hours to get from Sunrise to Greenacres, a 45-minute drive on most days. But not in post-hurricane traffic.

Once there I met Mr. and Mrs. Guzman. An elderly couple from Cuba who were struggling because their apartment is still w/o power. They went on the radio the day before seeking help from the community and everyone showed up to give them help. Unfortunately, during my stay at their home, I wasn't so lucky to see a member of the community show up and bring them supplies. That would have made a great photo.

Mr. and Mrs. Guzman are like most elderly people. They are tired and they just want some respect. The fact that they were still w/o power is a slap on the face on them because they feel they should have top priority.

One of the coolest things they talked about was their religion has helped them through the tough times. They said they can really count on Mary if they are struggling.

Earlier, during my drive, I saw an electric crew working on traffic signals and I thought this was the perfect photo that tells the story. "Wilma rips through Florida" I kept on thinking as I was shooting this photo. So symbolic, don't you think?

Tonight I had to cover a tough story. Another dead soldier in Iraq? When will that end?

The thing that made this dead soldier in Iraq story different than others is that the 21-year-old army specialists died on the day his mother was celebrating her birthday. Man!!!!! What luck? So sad.

These are the type of stories that are so hard and sad to follow and cover. I mean, what's proper protocol when knocking on the home of someone who is going through such a hard time? What do you say? How do you greet them?

It's for sure you can't say "how are you doing?" as you might normally say when you greet a stranger. Man!

There's a lot of glory in working as a journalists, but sometimes there are difficult times in people's lives and you gotta be there to tell the story.

Yesterday - Main - Tomorrow