Saturday, April 05, 2008

I spent most of the day parked along a road watching for shuttle buses to ferry people out of the FLDS sect's YFZ Ranch. Trent and I came up with a plan. If we saw the vans, he would hop out of the car and start shooting. I would whip the car out ont to the highway, getting us pointed in the right direction so we could tag along and see where it went and hopefully, who it was carrying.

Everything went according to plan and he got a pretty good shot of two women taken out of the ranch earlier today as they were transferred to another vehicle at the Schleicher County Civic Center.

Other highlights: a press conference where we learned how many people -- 183 women and children -- the state has removed from the property; and seeing some of those women and children recreating in a backyard.

Now it is 9:45 p.m., and the day is far from over yet. I am sitting in a car parked on County Road 300 in Eldorado, waiting. For what? Not sure.

I can see the temple on the YFZ Ranch, a bright spot on the horizon four miles away. A helicopter, red lights flashing, is circling over the temple.

We were told some hours ago that after asking for days to be let in the temple, authorities plan to force their way in some time tonight.

We can only imagine the scene up there. Are the people ringing the building, blocking the doors? What is going on?

Earlier this evening, an ambulance and several fire trucks went up to the ranch. The fire trucks left, but the ambulance is still up there as far as we know. Just in case.

The faithful FLDS consecrate -- bless-- their homes; they believe that allowing outsiders to enter their homes defiles them.

Obviously, the temple is an even more sacred space for them. I spoke with an FLDS woman I know from the twin towns this evening about the situation. Remember Nauvoo? she said.

That was the second LDS Church temple. Today the LDS and Fundamentalist Mormons like the FLDS have nothing to do with each other.

But way back, they share this common history.

So Nauvoo. When the Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo, they walked away from the temple. It later burned to the ground, the woman said. Her point? Once authorities enter the temple, the people will consider it defiled.

But authorities want to check every building on the ranch, and that, they say, includes the temple. We have had no confirmation that authorities have identified the girl whose complaint of physical abuse triggered the raid.

Do they think she is in the temple? Or, that other people are hiding there?

The media speculation here at the Eldorado base camp includes the groundless rumors that have swirled around the temple since its construction.

Let's just say it's been a long day under a hot dry sun.

The bad thing about this wait is we may never know what happened. Authorities are under a gag order that prevents them from talking to the media.