BY STEPHANIE LOUDIS
 Special to The Herald

 Covering one of the biggest stories of the year, even in their own backyard, has
 proven exhausting for local reporters.

 Though the Elian Gonzalez story has many settings, most of the action takes
 place at the boy's home in Little Havana, where reporters have set up folding
 camp chairs to maintain their watch.

 But forget the long, tedious hours of waiting. Just getting to the scene can be a
 challenge as reporters must navigate police blockades, and still wind up parking
 blocks away. WSVN-Fox 7's Derek Hayward did just that recently and lost his
 car.

 ''It was the first time I'd ever been to his house -- usually my photographer would
 have driven, but he was already there,'' Hayward said. ''When I was ready to leave,
 I went back through the roadblock to the parking lot, but my car was gone.''

 Hayward filed a police report and had called his insurance company to report the
 car stolen when colleague Craig Stevens, also on assignment at the Gonzalez
 house, called him on a cell phone: He had found Hayward's car in a parking lot a
 block over, past another blockade.

 Another dilemma facing reporters: When it's time for a bathroom break, do you
 dash to the nearby Burger King -- and risk missing breaking news -- or do you
 use the portable toilet on the street and find relief in plain sight of everyone?

 WPLG-ABC 10's Mark Joyella, for one, is glad the portable toilet is available.

 ''It is the greatest thing out there. We're drinking tons of water. . . .,'' Joyella says.

 The Elian story has inspired the epitome of a media mob scene, with neighbors
 coming home and having to wait for reporters and photographers to part like the
 Red Sea to let them in their driveways. Once, a Fox 7 cameraman fell and had to
 be taken away by ambulance.

 But perhaps the most striking event involved Bernadette Pardo of WLTV Univision
 23, who was bashed in the forehead by a camera when she collided with her own
 photographer as the two left the federal courthouse. Pardo went to the hospital,
 but was stitched up and back on the air at 6 p.m., wearing a large bandage over
 the wound.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald