the challenges in just helping people find out where this assistance is needed. they say in the absence of tv and newspapers, they are turning to social media and word-of-mouth to get the word out, alex. >> i love the efforts and i love what we're seeing behind you. thank you so much and thank you to all of those doing extraordinary work there. now to houma, louisiana, a makeshift emergency room has popped up in a parking lot. let's go right to nbc's vaughn hillyard joining me. houma got hit pretty hard, so this should not be surprising to some. extraordinary having an emergency room in a parking lot. what's the story behind it? >> reporter: exactly. this is houma, this is a community that essentially didn't have cell service up until 24 or 48 hours ago here, and so many of these streets there's still electrical lines that are down in the streets, homes, walls and roofs that are blown into the streets. it was actually our photo