The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 11/3/05 Section: Opinions

Media Credit: Vlad Lodoaba Poignant photos of the Times-Picayune´s evacuation set the scene for Editor-in-Chief Jim Amoss´ story of the newspaper´s hurricane coverage.

With the new yet bittersweet slogan of The Times-Picayune, "We publish come hell and high water," projected behind him, Editor-in-Chief Jim Amoss explained to a Middlebury audience last Thursday exactly how his newspaper survived the odds and the elements, publishing all the while during Hurricane Katrina's onslaught. Amoss, the uncle of Matt Amoss '07.5, lectured at Middlebury on Oct. 27 at his nephew's request.

The Times-Picayune, which is the largest local paper to serve the New Orleans area, recently gained fame under Amoss' leadership when the newspaper did not miss a day of publication during Hurricane Katrina. The newspaper was also one of, if not the first, to make known the depth and extent of the devastation in New Orleans.

Using his staff's photographs to illustrate his story, Amoss told the Middlebury audience that he arrived at the Times-Picayune office on Aug. 26 ready for more of the usual hurricane season coverage. That fateful afternoon before landfall, he joked to his colleague and Times-Picayune hurricane reporter Mark Schleifstein that it would be "another uneventful weekend." But when he saw Schleifstein's expression, Amoss realized that this time, something was different.

"How pale he was made me pay attention," said Amoss. In spring 2002, Schleifstein had written a five-part series in the Times-Picayune entitled "Washing Away," which detailed how the "bowl" of New Orleans would fill up if a Category 4 hurricane or stronger hit New Orleans. When Schleifstein showed Amoss computer images of Katrina spiraling straight towards the Louisiana coastline, he knew that Schleifstein's predictions - once ignored as being alarmist - were suddenly valid.

After convincing his wife and son to evacuate to Texas, Amoss packed his sleeping bag and hunkered down in the Times-Picayune office with his colleagues to await the storm and to cover whatever it would bring.

"At about 2 a.m. on Sunday night, the wind started howling," said Amoss. "Then at about four in the morning, the power went out. By 4:30 a.m., one of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows in our newsroom was blown in its entirety all the way across the room into the opposite wall." That was how it began in the Times-Picayune office - and by morning Katrina was in full force.

Continued...

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