Katrina 2nd Anniversary, US State Dept. Foreign Press Center Media Tour (August 19-22, 2007)

(Andrew Strike, Dept. of Defense Press Liaison and Beyond Katrina Blogger, Margaret Saizan)

I'm just back from New Orleans -  helped the  US State Department organize a media tour for the Foreign Press in conjunction with the 2nd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.  The tour was phenomenal for all involved and it was quite an experience to get to trail twenty foreign correspondents around New Orleans for several days. And aside from  being the boots-on-the-ground liasion for the tour, I found I couldn't completely shed my own persona as a journo. I decided my own story angle during the tour wasn't to be focused exclusively on covering New Orleans two years post-Katrina - as I always have access to what's happening in NOLA -  rather it was  to cover the foreign correspondents covering New Orleans two years post-Katrina. :)  (I love to turn the tables on journalists!)  I took lots of photographs from my Cingular 8525 and Paul Richards, the photog assigned to this tour, has promised to share a few with me as well. I'll be posting  these along with more about the tour over the next few days - and as I get wind of the feature stories generated as a result of the places we went, and people we talked to, I"ll be sure and post links to them here.   The photo above of US State Department Press Liasion, Andy Strike and me was shot through the windshield of our car by Brazilian correspondent Jose Passos. 

Update 8/30/07 - To see some pix from the tour click here.