Before leaving to report on, photograph and videotape East Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, preparations had to take place.
Canned tuna, canned fruit, crackers, salmon jerky, batteries, flashlights, hand sanitizer, face masks and boots were just a few items on a long list of necessities to bring along.
The students, accompanied by journalism Instructor Irene Abrego and photography adviser Tricia Buchhorn, left town in a district van at 6 a.m. Dec. 26.
"I was anxious," sophomore Julie Ann Sanchez said about her feelings before departure. "I just wanted to go out there and witness what was going on in the aftermath."
Sanchez said she was concerned people would not be willing to talk to the reporters. When they reached Sabine Pass that afternoon, however, Sanchez said the group "just knew that everything was going to be fine."
Sophomore Amber Whittaker said the group might have imagined the trip scarier than it actually was. The 9th Ward in New Orleans left the biggest impression. She said it was hard because no people were there and things had not been cleaned up.
"I just feel haunted by them and their situation," Whittaker said. "I don't think anybody is coming back."
She was surprised that nobody was in the area. "Nobody wanted to look at it," she said. "A lot of tourists just want to go to Bourbon Street."
The reporters said New Orleans, where the students spent two days, is a divided city, with the historic French Quarter and beautiful Garden District opposite the absolutely destroyed 9th Ward.
Freshman Charles Cima said he saw only the beginning of cleanup, mountains of organic debris - tree limbs mostly - throughout the region. "If I were a resident, I wouldn't know where to start."
The reporters had to work in groups of three. One reporter interviewed sources, another took photos and the third videotaped the scene.
Sophomore Mandy Derfler said she enjoyed taking photos. She previously changed her goal of becoming a copy editor to becoming a designer after taking a design class at this college.
When she mentioned she enjoyed taking photos to her instructor, Abrego "started teasing me and said I was becoming a photographer now. But that's not the case. I just really enjoy it."
Videography, however, is not for Derfler. During her first two interviews, she forgot to turn on the boom microphone, and the footage didn't have any sound.
The participants regularly went to bed after midnight and had to be ready to go at 8 a.m. Students posted to a Web log from their laptops in their hotel rooms at night when wireless service was available.
Sophomore Joseph M. de Leon researched and set up the blog for participants to write about their experiences before, during and after the trip.
"I actually did it for selfish reasons," de Leon said. He said he wanted to gain experience in managing online content because he had done some research on jobs that required that kind of knowledge.
Students did not only post written blogs but also posted audio blogs which were transmitted from a cell phone onto the Web site. To see the blog, go to jschooltravels.blogspot.com.
On Dec. 29, the group separated and the majority went to Mississippi while two students, accompanied by Beaumont Enterprise reporter Dee Dixon, traveled south to Port Sulphur, La. The rest of the group toured destroyed areas of Mississippi.
"We saw a lot of boats out of the sea," sophomore César G. Rodriguez, who also toured Mississippi, said. "It's amazing because you don't expect to see boats out of the sea."
Rodriguez and other reporters said the things they saw on the trip have made them grateful.
"I was just grateful for all the little things - like drinking clean water or turning on the light," Rodriguez said.
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