First, the caveat: I've never covered a hurricane or anything like Hurricane Harvey. The sort of things I've covered have affected cities, but not metropolitan regions or 1/3 of Texas like Harvey has. But I have covered natural disasters. There were the straight-line winds that hit south Pittsburg and parts of Scammon/Weir. There was the Picher, Okla., tornado (mostly Matt Clark, honestly) and the Joplin tornado. There was the Baxter Springs tornado, too. The scale of those events were much smaller than what happened/is happening along the Gulf Coast. But I have found a few lessons/tips from covering those events that I wanted to pass along.
Focus on Stories
The most important thing to have in any disaster story is people. Numbers are fine, but they're mostly punctuation when it comes to a natural disaster. An 80 mph wind and a 110 mph wind don't make much of a difference if they both produce destruction. What's impactful and lasting are the people stories — a person who looked outside and saw the tornado coming, then ran inside and barely got to safety. Or a person who's picking up what remains of their home trying to find anything they can to salvage. When trying to describe the scale of destruction or the impact, it's best to focus on a few stories — personalize the event. A story's facts are great information, but they should be fit in around the stories.
Small Things
For a journalist, there are a number of small things that you have to troubleshoot around. With Joplin, we got there the morning after the tornado hit. This was a strategic, intentional decision not to go on Sunday night to let the emergency crews do their thing first. All the power lines were down in the Manhattan Island-sized tornado path. That doesn't really seem to explain it, though: Many of the poles themselves were down, so many of the familiar aspects of city life were on the ground or gone. But the thing I remember most about Joplin was that almost all the street signs were down or gone. GONE. A day or two after the storm, officials spray-painted road names on some of the curbs and streets for identification purposes. Without signs and power poles, it was disorienting. I got lost once in a pretty familiar part of town. In the Baxter Springs tornado, there were other problems. Without power in the town, there was no cell phone coverage — no way to contact my peers at the office on what to post online. It also meant there was no Internet, so I couldn't post anything myself — I had to physically return to the office 30 minutes away in order to get any of the news online, which was half a day after I had left (with a small staff, we only sent one person to Baxter Springs). It also meant that when we tried to coordinate about press conferences or whatever, it was hit-or-miss. But every once in a while, you luck into things. In Baxter, I got a ride from the Salvation Army truck, since I knew the director. He happened to have a map of the path of the tornado sitting on a clipboard in front of me — Great information to have, and it wasn't available to the press at the time. I snapped a pic of it with my phone, then thanked him for the ride when he dropped me off at my car.
Hard on Reporters
It's important to be prepared. For instance: Always go to disaster sites with good boots on. There will be shards of wood, metal, unexpected nails everywhere, etc., that you'll likely have to step over or around. It'll also be muddy and wet in almost every situation. The shoes need to be comfortable, because you'll do a lot of walking. Take extra batteries and cameras if possible. Take extra pens and paper. Charge your phone completely before you leave (I've made that mistake before). Take easy-to-eat food for whenever you have a chance, including water and/or energy drinks. I learned that the hard way: I distinctly remember running to the Baxter Springs Subway for a quick lunch because I was exhausted and it was only a few blocks away. But there are many things you can't prepare for. Joplin started setting up checkpoints and blockades to make sure that only authorized personnel came in. This is getting to be a more standard operating procedure, but it also means that journalists have to be a little daring in either looking for ways to get around those checkpoints (I took back roads that were unlikely to be blocked.) or having a press pass/identification handy to be waved through. After the end of the day, you'll be exhausted from all the walking, all the deadline writing, all the processing of photos or big stories that you're trying to get out. When possible, find rest and a shower. Find a way to decompress once the story starts to come down from the climax of emotion — reporters have to emotionally process what they've seen and felt, too. Nearly all of the most exhausted times I had as a reporter were during and after disaster coverage.
National Media
Avoid them, both as a reporter and as a reader. I remember one national broadcaster, whose name I won't divulge here, pulled into the St. John's Hospital parking lot in Joplin and parked their van right in front of the local media and regional media who'd been there for a day or two already. They essentially blocked the background view of the media who had already been there and been on site (The national media van later moved when given a different, but just as good view of the partly destroyed hospital). As a reporter, the national media tended to only get surface level — this is a disaster, this is how the authorities are responding to the disaster, and here are maybe two individuals who are in the worst-looking parts of the disaster. That meant that they weren't getting anything I didn't have already. Joplin was the only time I dealt with the national media, and I wasn't impressed. If you want to read what's going on after a disaster, find the local newspaper or the local TV stations. They know the city best and know the best stories to tell. I found myself frustrated with how national media felt like they swooped in, did the most shallow news stories, then swooped out a day or two later.
Press Conferences and Media Availability
This is a necessary evil for disaster coverage, but it's among the most frustrating things to handle. Remember: Phones aren't working, there's likely nowhere to charge a phone if batteries get low, and there's no Internet to speak of. So finding a trusted local authority who can keep you in the loop for visits and press conferences by notable dignitaries (mayors, governors, elected leaders) is important. When the moment comes, plan out a few questions but don't expect to ask any of them — there's usually a throng of reporters standing together, commiserating about how the situation sucks, then a few minutes of furious microphone holding and reporters trying to ask questions in a hurry while the dignitary says nothing of importance, but something that needs to be quoted anyway because of their position (Something generic like: "What I've seen today is hard to put into words. There are people who need help and they'll need help not just today, but in the weeks and months to come. There's a lot of work to do here in TOWN NAME and we are going to do everything we can to get this city back on its feet as soon as possible."). And sometimes things just don't pan out like you expect. When I covered the Baxter Springs tornado, Gov. Brownback flew in on a helicopter, landing and taking a few questions from the 3-5 reporters before hopping into an SUV to "tour the scene." I and another print reporter were told that he'd have media availability again after the tour, then he'd leave. This was the last thing we both needed before going back to the office to write the story since there was no phone or Internet service to speak of. The other reporter and I were told to wait where we were because he'd have another press conference at 1 p.m. At 1 p.m., he still wasn't back from his tour. Then we were told 2 p.m. Then 2:30 p.m. Then we were told 3 p.m., if at all. At 3:30 p.m., he skipped the press conference and went straight to his helicopter. During those 2-3 hours when the two of us print reporters were told to wait, he'd gotten out of his SUV and walked around, talking to a few people in the city (good photos, although a more cynical reporter might call it staged). Neither of us got those pictures or that angle of the story — the only quotes we had was from his few minutes of availability when he first landed, but nothing after he'd actually surveyed the damage. We both left Baxter Springs angry because we'd wasted 2-3 hours when we could have been working up photos and writing stories.
Types of Disasters
A few minor lessons on how the disasters are different. A tornado is fast. It's an event that happens quickly in a matter of minutes, then it's done. The story is about the clean-up and the devastation and the what now?, but the event itself is fast. Fires are the same way — fast. Hurricanes are slow. There are usually days of build-up before the event, then a day or two of it hitting a location (or in Houston's case, nearly a week). There are usually several days before the storm surge and flood waters recede. The scale is also different. The Joplin tornado was only the size of Manhattan Island, almost exactly. Hurricane Harvey has hit multiple counties and states. The scale is far different.
Motives and Mueller
Perhaps the most difficult thing to interpret as a political reporter is motive. It's hard to tell if a political action is done for the reasons stated or if there is an ulterior motive behind an action. The rule we're taught in J-school is "When in doubt, leave it out." You have to get someone on the record who believes there is another motive, and even then it quickly devolves into "He may have said X, but he really meant Y." And that's confusing and partisan and, frankly, boring. Without a person on the record in a position of authority, it's simply conjecture — and how do you know if you're right?
So when President Trump pardoned Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio recently, the stated reason is that Trump thought the conviction was wrong, and that Arpaio was the victim of malicious judges and/or prosecutors, from what I can tell. In short: Arpaio had done no wrong. There were a couple of pieces of speculative journalism (the worst kind) like this one and this one from otherwise reputable publications about how the Arpaio conviction was really a way of showing that Trump will take care of his friends in legal trouble. And hey, would you look at that — he's got friends being investigated by Robert Mueller! So the Arpaio pardon, they say, is more about testing the waters of his pardon powers before the Mueller investigation finishes up.
Mueller, it should be noted, has reportedly started teaming up with New York AG Eric Schneiderman, a longtime Trump opponent and prosecutor. It was Schneiderman who prosecuted the Trump University case. Moreover, if Schneiderman prosecutes someone on a state level, then Trump's pardon power, which is limited to federal crimes, would not apply. It's a countermove in case the motives in the previous paragraph are correct.
But this is all highly speculative. We don't know and can't know for sure about any of this. Maybe Trump just wanted to pardon his longtime ally in Arizona and didn't think about the ramifications for the Russia investigation. Maybe not. Maybe Mueller and Schneiderman were working on similar cases and so decided to share evidence. Maybe they truly were reacting to Trump's use of the pardon. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
I have another example, pulled from real life: A few years ago, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback announced delays in the state's major transportation projects. In Southeast Kansas, this meant the highly desired expansion of U.S. Highway 69 to four lanes. The local Brownback-allied state senator, who was headed for a tough election fight, then lobbied the governor and was able to convince the governor to put the U.S. 69 expansion back on track, mostly. Did it happen like that? Or did Brownback, knowing his friend was in trouble, plot to make the state senator look like a hero by getting the project back on that he had never planned to stop in the first place? I don't know. I know that the state senator is now the state treasurer, but I'm not sure anyone can know for sure. But when journalists act like they know true motives outside of someone's words, that's when it's best to ignore the journalist.
Summary Judgments
Wendover Productions had an excellent video on How to Stop a Riot and, in more detail, what went wrong and right in Charlottesville. It changed my way of thinking about the riot, which he accurately describes as such. • • • Speaking of Wendover Productions, they spun off into more weekly products called Half as Interesting. The first week, he looks at the longest drivable road between two points in the world. I won't spoil it for you, but the two countries he connects would make for some interesting fusion food. • • • Great story on the Houston Chronicle's coverage of Hurricane Harvey. Fascinating. • • • We're not really talking about it, but ISIS is on its back heels. Much of this work began toward the end of Obama's tenure, but it's really starting to come to a head now under the Trump administration. ISIS is almost entirely pushed out of Iraq after Tal Afar was freed yesterday. Forces are starting to tighten the noose, so to speak, around the ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria. • • • I ran 5 miles on Monday, but it was in the afternoon heat. I won't be doing that again. I've got about 10 days before the 10K (6.2ish miles), and I know I won't run the whole way. But I am excited to see how far I can run and to push myself physically. I'm already surprised that I'm getting up to 5 miles. • • • The kids had their 3-year checkup this week. Evie's on the growth curve and doing fine. Roland's not on the growth curve. However, he's growing at a normal rate. It's looking like he's just a tiny, tiny boy. I'm sorry, buddy, but you didn't get the height genes from either of your parents — we didn't have any to give you.
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