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Telly Award Winning Documentary "Why Plan? Lessons Learned from the Hurricanes" |
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"Then I'll never forget the people asking "Where's the towels?" Well, this is not a Holiday Inn, you know, you're supposed to bring your own." - Pat Forgione, Supt., Austin ISD |
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Chuck Wolf of Media Consultants, Kay Karr of Responsive Learning, with Jim Zura and the TPT crew traveled through Texas to capture the story of how school districts were affected by these tragedies, how they dealt with them, and the lessons learned in the process. Areas around Beaumont suffered a direct hit from Rita. Districts in East Texas found their schools converged on by tens of thousands of fleeing motorists, seeking food and shelter. |
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"When everybody left and the busses rolled away, it hit me like a rock at that point; I got emotional and I cried." - Vicky Esparza-Gregory, Pflugerville ISD |
 Districts in Central Texas and Houston suddenly had to accommodate enrollment of more than 45,000 students evacuated from Louisiana |
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Houston Mayor Bill White, Texas Senator Todd Staples, and former Harris County Judge Robert Eckles shared their comments and observations. |
You're prepared for a student to move into your district and be a new student. But are you prepared for a student that comes that has no records, that has no school supplies, that are living most likely in a church gym evacuation site? . - Steve Patterson, Orangefield High School Principal |
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The team conducted interviews with 18 key people; including district superintendents, district staff, and government officials in producing this 25-minute documentary. |
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"The red light here in Corrigan is the first red light that is on Highway 59 coming out of Houston... |
...we had hundreds of cars that just ran out of gas, and when people finally made it to Corrigan, they would notice our high school here on the highway, and naturally assume this was a safe place to get out and come into, but we were not an evacuation point. In fact, we already had a building full of nursing home evacuees and we just didn't have the ability to take on more people." -Tom Bowman, Superintendent, Corrigan-Camden ISD |
