This is their community, and they obviously care about it. I can't tell you how many people got choked up just talking about what's going on here, and how they're not sure what the future holds for their families. One woman I met today has lived in the area for years, has been through Hurricane Katrina and more, and told me she's ready to pick up and leave New Orleans all together. 'Why bother?', she said to me. And I can definitely see where she's coming from. You could almost compare this to the situation in Juarez: with so many attacks on the place they call home, why would Juarez residents want to stay when it's just not safe for them or their families? Similarly, how many blows can the New Orleans area take? For a while, it was all about severe hurricane damage every summer, and now this oil spill is affecting the economy, even far from the coast in New Orleans.

Which brings me back to my original point in starting this blog entry - access. We aren't really getting any to certain areas which we've been told are inundated with oil. Right when Hurricane Alex began it's path across the Gulf, we're told the winds blew an all new large patch of oil up onto the beach in Port Fourchon, La. Mario and I took off right away to go check it out and get video to share with you guys, but access to the area was entirely blocked off. Not by BP, not by any federal officers, but by local Louisiana police. We were turned away very sternly, and told there was no other access to the beach (and believe me, we tried to find some).

If this is the community they love, the area these people have called home for their whole lives, what is keeping them from wanting to show the world the devastation here? It's exposure that could get them help, because if no one sees, no one wants to help. This is especially surprising because U.S. government organizations, like the Fish and Wildlife Service, have given KFOX complete access to every part of what they do - nothing remains behind closed doors. And those are the images you see of oiled wildlife that are so heartbreaking. If the government wants to share, I'm shocked local residents aren't willing.

What do you all think? Comment here.

~Hema

Arriving in Louisiana6/30/10 New Orleans is very far from El Paso. It may not seem like it, but it's very far. I suppose I say that because we drove, rather than flew. KFOX photojournalist Mario Pena is my traveling buddy on this trip, and we shared the drive pretty equally, stopping in Houston along the way. Once we took off from there headed for New Orleans, the scenery changed completely. Living in El Paso for the past couple of years, seeing green for miles is a bit of a shock, but what's really neat about the drive is all the water. Just on I-10, you see bayous, marshes, and swamps - the last of which I have to say is an amazing sight.

Seeing all that water definitely got me thinking about what we were preparing to see in Southern Louisiana. This is my first time in this area, and one of the biggest shocks for me was actually how large this area is. From the city of New Orleans, the Gulf Coast is about 2.5 hours away. So while you may not see oil creeping up Bourbon Street, we definitely learned the spill is having a trickle-up effect across the area.

I'm ending this here to shoot some video on the beach in Grand Isle, La., where it's raining like crazy, and the gulf waters are extra choppy. Look for that video in the coming days, and tune in for my story at six - here's a tease: you might recognize the man we interviewed, he's from El Paso!

Be sure to also check out my Twitter page: @HemaKFOX where I've tweeted some pictures of our journey so far.

~Hema

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