The Digital Journalist
© Ted Jackson/The New Orleans Times Picayune
THE CLOVERLEAF As helicopters raced from one rescue to another, the Interstate 10 / Causeway Blvd cloverleaf became an evacuation staging area. I just happened to be there. Flooding victims, everyone from infirmed seniors to terrified infants found themselves huddled with a mob of humanity - safe but anxious survivors each living out their own personal nightmares. It was here that I reached my first breaking point. Paramedics struggled as they carried an elderly woman from a helicopter. She screamed in agony with what looked to be a broken hip. As they struggled to lift her over a barricade onto a waiting gurney, three or more news photographers crowded around, jockeying for position as the medics began screaming for us to help. The screaming heightened the drama and the photographers zoomed in tighter. I was sickened by the insensitivity. There was no shortage of drama all around us. There was more than enough drama for everyone. Disgusted, I dropped my cameras and helped carry her. I couldn't pick the cameras up again for almost 30 minutes.