You know news is happening when mobile home parks have public affairs officers to escort you around the property.
We decided to stop by one of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s mobile home parks erected for survivors of Hurricane Charley to see how they were reacting to the threat of Hurricane Wilma.
We arrived to find two guards who gave strict instructions to wait for someone from FEMA public affairs.
“Huh?” I thought.
I was at the very same park a few months ago without a single sign of a FEMA spokesperson. Why now? Well, it seems that after Hurricane Katrina, about 4 million journalists wanted to see how Charley victims were dealing with the threat of more storms.
Few things tick me off more than being part of a media circus. You get the sinking feeling deep in your soul that nothing original will be said, and certainly not to you. The security guard was listing off other news organizations he’d seen in past days: NBC, CBS, USA Today and journalists form all over the world, including China.
We needed to check out the mobile home park, so I was stuck in this bad scene.
I bought a local newspaper from a box and opened the paper on the hood of our Suburban. As I read, two journalists from Spain drove up in a rented Ford truck.
“How long have you been here?” one of them asked.
“Since yesterday,” I said, not lifting my eyes from the page.
“No,” he said. “How long have you been waiting in line?”
“Since yesterday,” I said in total resignation.
The look on his face was beyond priceless.
“About 20 minutes,” I said while turning the page.
Soon, FEMA spokeswoman Mildred Acevedo escorted us on to the mobile home park, hawking over us during most interviews.
The journalists from Spain avoided us the rest of the day.