Small Katrina Story

[smofbabe]

Thanks to the Columbia Review of Journalism daily feed, in a story about a presentation by Josh Norman, who was part of the Biloxi Sun Herald's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

One of his best was of going door-to-door with two firefighters who were urging residents to evacuate before the storm hit. Norman said they would often encounter residents who were insistent on staying; some bragged of having survived Hurricane Camille in 1969. At one house, the firefighters encountered a woman who stubbornly brushed off three attempts to get her to leave. Finally one of the firemen, visibly frustrated, tried a new tack.

"You know we're going to find you naked, right?" he said.

"Huh?"

"Well, that's what happens. There will be a surge; it will rip your house apart, destroy the neighborhood, and then we'll find you dead -- with no clothes on."

Without hesitation, the woman turned to her husband: "Pack!"