"The problem ... is slowly eroding levee protection, cutting off evacuation routes sooner and putting dozens of communities and valuable infrastructure at risk of being wiped off the map..... The Army Corps of Engineers says the chance of New Orleans-area levees being topped is remote, but admits the estimate is based on 40-year-old calculations. An independent analysis based on updated data and computer modeling done for The Times-Picayune suggests the risk to some areas, including St. Bernard and St. Charles parishes and eastern New Orleans, may be greater than the corps estimates." From IN HARM'S WAY By John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein, New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 2002.
21. A Tale of Two City Dailies
It was the best of journalism, it was the worst of journalism …
By Bill Kovarik
Twenty years ago , while covering a National Hurricane Center press conference in Charleston, SC, a square-jawed, crew-cut man took me aside.
“You’re the reporter for the daily newspaper?” he asked. I nodded and we introduced ourselves. I’m Neil, he said. He looked familer. Of course. It was the legendary Dr. Neil Frank, director of the hurricane center. He had been standing in the back, watching his employees brief the news media.
He pointed to a flood map that was pinned to the wall. It showed the Charleston area as it would look in a category five hurricane. And itshowed very clearly that if that hurricane approached landfall at high tide, the evacuation routes would be quickly flooded over.
“Do you think you guys could run that on the front page?” he asked in a characteristically direct way. I wasn’t sure. My editors seemed awfully concerned about development and tourism.
“Well, you should,” he said. “Hurricanes … Are … Killers.”
Ill never forget the gravel in his voice and his thousand-yard stare. He had obviously seen the damage up close. We talked for a while longer and I was convinced that he was right and that we in the news media had a responsibility to show how serious it could be.
When I got back to the newsroom that morning, the editors were horrified. Are you trying to scare people, they asked. Well, yes, I answered. People need to understand the danger. They shook their heads in disbelief.
Dr. Frank called to reinforce the message, and there were more arguments in the newsroom. OK, have it your way, they finally told me, but the illustration would have to be a category three hurricane, not the category five. The idea that many thousands of people would not have time to get off the barrier islands and could be killed in a big storm would not appear in their family newspaper. **
I mention this gross abdication of social responsibility not only because it is typical of many small-minded news organizations but also because of the striking contrast it presents with Charleston’s sister newspaper, the New Orleans Tiimes-Picayune.
Before Hurricane Katrina, the Picayune ran literally hundreds of hard-hitting articles about the dangers of hurricanes. They quoted Red Cross officials saying that anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000 people could die in a worst case scenario. They printed stories on funding for levee building, emergency preparations, disappearing wetlands and the dangers of barrier island development.
“It's only a matter of time before south Louisiana takes a direct hit from a major hurricane,” said reporters John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein in a series called “Washing Away” in 2002. The levees could break, thousands could die, and the city could be uninhabitable for many months.
And so, to their credit, the editors and reporters of the New Orleans Times-Picayune did not lack the courage to warn of a pending catastrophe years before it struck.
Of course, its impossible to say whether their warnings saved lives and whether the Charleston Post-Courier’s attitude did not. But one newspaper deserves the laurels and another, sadly, deserves less.
For a remarkably prescient and courageous piece of reporting, see the Times-Picayune’s 2002 series Washing Away: http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/index.html
And, for contrast, even today, Charleston gives readers mush-and-milk hurricane reporting. Check out the Post Courier hurricane special. You may notice something missing. How vulnerable are the escape routes? Should people evacuate early? What could happen in a category five storm? What went wrong when Hugo hit in 1989? The kind of reporting we saw in New Orleans just isnt there. Instead you will find soft features about how you can stay safe in a hurricane. “Planning,” you may be gratified to learn from the Courier, “paves the way for safety.” Get a battery operated radio, get emergency supplies, and get fuel for your car.
Or perhaps, as Neil Frank might say, get a clue, Charleston.
** ( A few years later, when Hugo hit in 1989, I had friends in Mclellanville just north of Charleston on the coast. They decided to stick it out with their kids. When the water came through the first floor windows, they ran upstairs. When the water came through the second floor windows, they moved to the attic. When the water kept rising, the kids dad swam back down through the house, got the axe from the first floor utility room, and brought it back up into the attic. They hacked their way out and clung for dear life to the lee side of the roof as the winds raged around them. They made it, but they certainly would never have stayed on if they'd had any idea of what might have been in store for them. )