OMG HERE"S the media! My family, front page, Ike coverage & a pig!

[illuminaughty]

This is so surreal I think my head's going to blow off. I posted a thread last night "Where's the fuckin' media?", because I'm outraged about the blackout and lack of coverage we're getting on Ike aftermath. Today, I call my niece in Corrigan, Texas who can't believe national news is not covering the mess down there, cause it's on 24/7 for them. No electricity expected for three weeks, etc.

Anyway, she asks me to look for the front page of the Amarillo Globe paper online. Unbelievable. My family made the front page of the paper for evacuating their pig. Half page article with pictures. I guess ask and ye shall receive. So this is the hurricane Ike coverage we
re gonna get and it even involves a pig, but unlike all the other MSM news stories this week, this pig ain't about Palin and lipstick.

Here's the article. You can't make shit like this up. A two page article about my niece and nephew, their pigs 'amarillo and scooby doo' and their evacuation. I can't stand my crazy country anymore. I just remembered that Nader filmed himself for YOU TUBE talking to a parrot this week because he said animal stories get more coverage than he does.

But seriously, I'm not dropping the subject on this like of coverage (Bolivar, etc) until we get some answers. Meanwhile, enjoy some insane fluff. Sorry I can't get exact copy of front page to link. But trust me, it was right under "$85 BILLION BAILOUT" story and took up more than half a page.

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/091708/new_news1.shtml

Pigs fly before Ike hits
Tascosa ag students caring for swine displaced by storm
By Chris Ramirez
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Michael Lemmons / Amarillo Globe-News
Amarillo High junior Samantha Guerry feeds some of Tascosa High's FFA pigs Monday. Among them are two pigs relocated due to Hurricane Ike.


Michael Lemmons / Amarillo Globe-News
A Duroc pig named Amarillo is one of two pigs relocated to Tascosa High's FFA pig barn because of Hurricane Ike.


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SHARE THIS STORY: Monique and Willie Brooks drove all the way to Amarillo from the hurricane-whipped Texas coast to save their bacon - literally.
The Houston-area couple was among the more than 1.2 million who fled beach communities as Hurricane Ike rumbled ashore Saturday. Most sought refuge in Austin, San Antonio and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, hunkering down in shelters, hotels and with loved ones.

Not the Brookses.

They instead made a beeline to the Texas Panhandle with their two prized 200-pound pigs - named Amarillo and Scooby Doo - in tow. Once they arrived, the couple turned for help to the friends they made at Texas livestock shows the last five years.

"I've run with those boys for a while, and we've become a family," Willie Brooks, 37, said in a phone interview from his Corrigan home. "I just needed a place to put my pigs. And they were the first people I thought of."

Brooks was referring, in part, to Trevor Williams, the agriculture-science teacher and agriculture adviser at Tascosa High School. Williams and eight of his students are now feeding, bathing and whipping Amarillo and Scooby Doo into shape for the upcoming livestock-show season while the Brookses work on their damaged home.

"This is just a prime example of people pulling together through their love of animals," Williams said. "(Students are) going to learn from this experience."

The Brookses can't care for the hogs right now.

The Category 2 storm dumped heavy rain on the Houston and Galveston areas, washing out the Brookses' animal pens.

It also knocked out the electricity, leaving the family's wells and feeding chutes powerless.

Brooks said he doesn't expect to get his power back for at least another two weeks.

"We don't mind caring for them," said Tascosa senior Tailore Reasoner while spraying down the pigs this week with a water bottle. "It's going to be fun."

Brooks bought the two pigs in Amarillo in May for his 14-year-old son, Chase.

Mapquest estimates it takes about 9½ hours to drive to Amarillo from the Houston area. But the Internet travel guide doesn't account for detours, traffic snarls and unscheduled stops to water and feed the animals.

Their journey was much longer, closer to 15 hours.

It's not clear how long the hogs will stay in the Panhandle. School officials say students will care for the pigs until the Brookses "have everything situated" in Corrigan. And that could mean much of the state livestock-showing season, which kicks off later this month at The State Fair of Texas in Dallas.

Tailore and Alyssa Gutierrez, also a senior, are prepared to feed, water and exercise the pigs for as long as it takes.

Neither owns a pig, but both are interested in showing some at upcoming regional and state livestock shows this school year. Working with Scooby Doo and Amarillo gives them pointers on how to care for pigs until they get their own, Alyssa said.

[OneBlueSky]

1. nice . . . are you SURE there's no lipstick on that pig? . . . :) n/t

[chill_wind]

2. If only I had seen this when it could still be rec'd. But I can still kick.

Unbelievably, it seems for so much of DU, the monstrous mother-of-all storms, the incongruent reports of the numbers of missing and/or dead and the questions of the whereabouts and daily hellish conditions of those being sheltered after this nightmare is just soooo yesterday's news.