How to open hood with cable latch under dash broken?

By pulling on the hood release cable it used to pop the hood and then all you had to do was use your fingers under the hood for the safety release. Without a cable release I need to use something to pop the initial hood (some sort of lever, pry bar, etc.)Any advice on how to locate and pop the hood? I can feel the safety latch release, but without the initial hood release it will not open. Thoughts? Once opened I can rig some sort of wire/cable to the main latch that will allow me to close and reopen from front.