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Updated: Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Published: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 |
New Dispatch from Hurricane Katrina
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2005. 12:23 a.m. ET |
President Bryan Monroe, assistant vice president/news for Knight Ridder, told Richard Prince's Journal-isms from Mississippi's Biloxi Sun Herald that the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe was "the most difficult, emotional thing, but powerful and incredible story I've ever covered." He added, "our black journalists are doing a job down here." This new dispatch from Monroe was first posted by Roland S. Martin, executive editor of the Chicago Defender, on the NABJ Listserve. Martin's short introduction said: "Just straight notes. Was typing fast. Didn't want to eat up our president's valuable cell phone juice! Notes from a few minutes ago ..."
"I'm OK. We're working the story. We've got lots of NABJ members down here. Audra Burks from Miami Herald. Mizell Stewart. Mike McQueen. Cynthia [Daniels] from Newsday. Cathy Strait from St. Paul."
He said that four black editors are helping to run the show down there alongside the folks from the Biloxi newspaper. The whole newsroom staff of the Biloxi paper is about 50. "But they can't find half of them; don't know if they are in shelters, left the city or are dead. ... Those who are here are working their butts off. They are doing some incredible stuff."
He added that half of them have lost their homes.
As for the Biloxi Web site, Monroe said he was told they normally average 65,000 page views, but in the last three days, they have averaged 1.8 million a day. As for the web, the news is being dictated to a guy in San Jose, Calif. "We are calling in stuff and dictating stuff on the satellite phone," he said. As for cell phones, "at best, for every 10 calls you try to make, maybe it gets through. Once. And that's only the last 24 hours."
He said Monday and Tuesday, they had no web, hard line or cell service. Gas is a premium. "There is no gas 150 miles from here." He said what you drove in on is about it, but they are trucking gas in, as well as bringing in Winnebagos. As for the paper, it is being printed at the paper in Columbus, Ga., "where we sent the copy desk and the layout folks."
"We basically phone in copy to them and get them photos via a satellite link and they do our page design and we talk through play and headlines, and the next morning, someone puts the papers on the truck and trucks them in five hours here. He talks through the police lines."
"I was out passing out papers in the neighborhoods" today, Monroe said. "It's amazing how grateful people are just to have a newspaper. It brought tears to my eyes. People were like, 'Oh my God! It's really hard to imagine seeing whole neighborhoods gone, especially an area called The Point," which is a mixed area of Blacks, Vietnamese and others.
"I stood on the foundation of someone's house and their house was across the street," Monroe said. "The death count (initially) was about 50. Now they are saying (in Biloxi it will be) in the several hundreds." As for New Orleans, "their issue has mainly been the rising water."
"The issue here has been total devastation. Houses being blown away. A riverboat casino the size of a city block had been lifted up and moved probably 400 or 500 yards across the street."
"Most of downtown Biloxi is flat; like a nuclear bomb went off. ... These homes I went through today, in one home they found 12 bodies where people who thought they could ride out the storm, and as the storm was rising, they kept getting higher in the house. Well, the water was rising so fast and they had nowhere to go, and they drowned in their attic."
He said he's not sure how long he will be there before returning home.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2005. 6:06 a.m. CT |
I just wanted to send out a quick note to everyone to let you know that I and several other NABJ members are now in Biloxi, Miss. at ground zero of Hurricane Katrina.
Mike McQueen from the Macon Telegraph and I arrived yesterday, along with a team of half a dozen Knight Ridder journalists from Charlotte, San Jose and Macon who are helping our sister paper in Biloxi publish. Another wave is expected to arrive today, assuming they can get through (Roads are in bad shape, four bridges are damaged or destroyed, Hwy. 90 along the beach is simply gone.).
While New Orleans has been getting most of the early attention, let me tell you that the real story is here in South Mississippi, which absorbed the full force of Katrina on Monday morning as it veered east of New Orleans. The devastation is overwhelming. Homes are gone, roads destroyed, infrastructure in shambles. At least three staff members from the paper here have lost their homes. The publisher is trapped in his and can't get out.
We reported late last night that we have at least 50 confirmed dead here in Gulfport/Biloxi, a number the mayor told me yesterday will surely rise with daybreak today. Most were trapped along the beachfront and in low-lying areas of Harrison County (many of the dead may likely be African American). The destruction in many areas was total. "This is our tsunami," said the mayor.
We have little or no phone service here, except via a sat phone I brought with us. Internet, however, is up here at the building, so I am able to get and send email sporadically.
No power exept from generators. No water pressure or sewar expected for weeks or months. And, with no power, no electricity to run the gasoline pumps, so the nearest working gas station is at least two hours away, north of Mobile (this, it turns out, is a BIG deal).
We are about to go out with the chief of police in a Humvee in about an hour to see the damage in Biloxi up close. What we saw yesterday was horrific, much worse than when I covered Hurricane Hugo in Myrtle Beach more than a decade ago. Because Katrina was so huge, it will likely dwarf the damage from even Hurricane Andrew that hit Miami. This is bad, real bad.
Gotta run. More later when I get time. For fresh updates, we are blogging and updating at www.biloxi.com .
Yours in service,
Bryan |
