By: Joe Strupp As the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina looms on Friday, it is not a surprise that the Times-Picayune of New Orleans would devote its entire Page One to hurricane coverage.
But, with a strong tropical storm, Gustav, possibly targeting the city -- and likely to spark some weekend evacuations -- the paper is having to mix reminders of the 2005 storm with preparations for yet another potential devastation.
"We are going to be much better prepared than we were three years ago," said Peter Kovacs, managing editor, news. "Our mistake three years ago was a reliance on operating from this building. We have other contingencies that we have worked out that would keep us in the city."
In 2005, when the hurricane struck on the night of Sunday, Aug. 29, the Times-Picayune remained in its New Orleans home until the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 31. Most of the staff traveled to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, about 80 miles north, where the paper operated for several weeks.
Kovacs said the staff would likely relocate to a French Quarter hotel if Gustav prompts bad flooding. He notes that that neighborhod was never flooded in 2005.
"We have more equipment, more air cards," he said about how the paper could function better in a hotel than it could have three years ago. "We have stuff that was not as widely available in 2005."
Thursday's Page One had an unusual mix of Katrina stories and warnings of what may come with Gustav, which may hit Tuesday, Kovacs said. The lead headline proclaims: "Area's flood shield has danger zones," and includes a map of weak flood areas. A side column then lists problems still remaining since Katrina, problems being fixed, and others already completed. Other stories discuss officials preparing plans, a deadline extension for families applying for aid from 2005, and a story of people still living in trailer homes.
The front page image can be found at:
http://www.newseum.org/media/dfp/pdf28/LA_TP.pdf
"Keeping a watchful eye on Gustav has caused people to be less-conscious of the anniversary than they would have been," Kovacs said. "There is a sort of nervousness of 'no, not again'."
Kovacs said the paper's Web site, which was the only means of news coverage for several days in 2005, is already seeing a 75% boost in traffic since Wednesday.
The Times-Picayune staff, meanwhile, is about 20% smaller than it was in 2005, Kovacs said, adding that all of those cuts are due to attrition. Currently, the paper has about 220 news staffers, some of whom are bracing for a possible evacuation again.
"It exists," he said of the evacuation possibility. "And it is making people edgy." Because of an elaborate evacuation plan put in place since 2005 that requires some people to leave days ahead of a storm, Kovacs said departures could begin as early as Saturday.
"This is jamboree weekend," he said about the annual football kickoff event for local high school teams. "I remember going to my son's jamboree weekend the Katrina year. I went Friday night and that was the first night you knew Katrina was coming."
As for Gustav, Kovacs adds: "none of the projections have this to be as strong as Katrina, but people understand the vulnerabilities better than they used to. We, like many New Orleaneans, didn?t envision the multiple failures of the corps of engineers flood control structure."
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