Life is rapidly returning to normal in Southeast Texas and we call all be thankful this time it is not a “new normal,” as it was after Hurricane Rita.
Businesses are reopening at a rapid clip. I missed picking up a batch of fresh bananas Tuesday evening at my local grocer, but the peaches were delicious and I’m sure the bananas will be back on the shelf today.
A word here about our dedicated staff in the News Department, at the press and in other departments of the paper. Obviously when a mandatory evacuation is called, we can only operate with volunteer employees who show up to their jobs because of their dedication.
The ENTIRE news department was available for work even though it was a holiday weekend. Stories like the evacuation and the possibility of a hurricane are the reason most of us became journalists, so we weren’t going to miss the opportunity to provide important information to our community.
We aren’t fortune tellers and like the rest of the people in the area, we were concerned that the effects of the storm would be severe enough here to cause us to lose power. Publisher Roger Underwood made the necessary arrangements for us to set up shop at a sister paper in Huntsville. I don’t know how he did it but he somehow secured some room at a bed and breakfast when the word was out that no more rooms were available anywhere.
News staffers worked like ants to keep our Web page updated with the latest news from the Emergency Operations Center. We knew most of our readers were heading out of town and panews.com would be their connection to home.
I want to take this opportunity to mention some names of people who went above and beyond the call of duty. Amy Moore, Mike Tobias, Sherry Koonce, David Ball, Mary Meaux and Darragh Doiron gathered information to keep the Web up to date and to put in the paper even though there weren’t many people left to deliver it do. Tonya Whitaker and Cody Pastorella were a great help in editing and producing pages. Our partners at The Orange Leader, especially Gabe Pruett, Debby Schamber and Tommy Mann, helped us out while doing their own thing.
Some of them worked until the last munute before having to take care of their families. Others actually worked while they were evacuated, reporting on Southeast Texans in other places.
I won’t even venture to name all the folks in the other department who went above and beyond, but they have the great appreciation of the newsroom and deserve the appreciation of the community as well.
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