We have compiled tip sheets, articles about covering the public health angle of disasters, award-winning stories about health and past hurricanes, as well as links to resources and academic research that should help you report on Tropical Storm Isaac. You should be able to find story ideas and sources to help you evaluate and cover the health response before, during and after the storm.
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Award entries with questionaires on how stories were reported |
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Mapping health data for local stories: Links to GIS software, data and resources
Covering disasters: Tips, articles and resources
The Next Big (Health) Crisis – And How to Cover It: Transcripts
This 2006 conference focused mainly on influenza but there are lessons to be learned. Of particular interest might be the “Interactions of journalists and sources” session in which speakers discussed what has transpired between journalists and sources during past disasters.
Health Journalism 2006: Katrina health impacts – David Rousseau, principal policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation, offers some insights. (PDF)
Disaster planning: Questions, concerns and Clayton County: A presentation by Mike Stobbe at the session “How prepared is your city for health disasters?” at the Urban Health Journalism Workshop 2007. Stobbe is a reporter for The Associated Press in Atlanta. The presentation describes the reporting behind an AP project on one Georgia county.
Health disaster planning: Listen to Brian Currie, senior medical director at the Montefiore Medical Center, discuss “How prepared is your city for a disaster” at the 2007 Urban Health Journalism Workshop.
How prepared is your city for a health disaster? A presentation by Kim Elliot at the session “How prepared is your city for health disasters?” at the Urban Health Journalism Workshop 2007. Elliot is the deputy director of Trust for America’s Health. The presentation describes the realities of epidemics and public health preparedness.
Following the money in public health crisis preparation: A presentation by Kristi L Koenig, M.D., F.A.C.E.P., professor of emergency medicine and director of Public Health Preparedness, Disaster Medical Sciences Center at the University of California at Irvine, that covers the effects of 9/11 on federal funding, determining how to spend the money, Hazards Vulnerability Analysis, measuring effectiveness and more.
Reporters’ preparation would decrease chaos in covering disasters: Disasters are a time of chaos and uncertainty. To perhaps lessen this chaos for reporters, a panel of experts at Health Journalism 2009 in Seattle discussed how journalists might cover and survive disasters as well as understand the medical systems in place to handle them.
Disaster coverage: Is your newsroom prepared? Joe Hight, managing editor of The Oklahoman and president of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, presented a disaster and trauma brainstorming session. Here are some points he brought up for journalists to think about.
Reporting on the health impacts of flooding: With floods come major health risks, including drowning, injury, contamination or shortages of water and food, infectious diseases, extreme heat and mental stress. There are a number of resources available to reporters.
AHCJ urges reporters in disaster areas to avoid focusing on selves: Reporters covering the earthquake in Japan, cholera and the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami in Indonesia and Pakistan floods brought the world’s attention to people in urgent need. However, a few news reports places in crisis raise questions of journalistic ethics and professional responsibility. These questions prompted the board of AHCJ to consider these questions and offer guidance to our colleagues.
Thousands of families who were left homeless in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina were housed in temporary travel trailers provided by FEMA that were emitting toxic levels of formaldehyde. Dan Rather Reports broke that news and that FEMA was aware of the problem before delivering a single trailer.
For the Biloxi, Miss., Sun Herald, Megha Satyanarayana focused on southern Mississippi health care in the years after Hurricane Katrina.
Sheri Fink’s Pulitzer-winning article, “The Deadly Choices at Memorial,” a collaboration between ProPublica and The New York Times, described what happened at one isolated New Orleans hospital in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina. She found, after more than two years of research, that more medical professionals were involved in the decision to inject patients with drugs to hasten their deaths – and far more patients were injected – than had been previously understood. In an article for AHCJ, “Covering a complex story for the long haul,” Fink explains the reporting and writing process for this 13,000-word article.
MedPageToday chronicled the state of the iconic University of Texas Medical Branch a year after Hurricane Ike shut down that Galveston facility and the four-year transformation New Orleans health care has gone through post-Katrina.
The Hot Zone: This story documents the health effects of global warming, including the breakdown of the public health system in the aftermath of extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Katrina, that will become more commonplace due to climate change. This story also looks at possible solutions and the failure of government agencies to plan accordingly.
For PBS Newshour, Betty Ann Bowser and Bridget DeSimone look at “How is the Gulf Coast Mentally Coping with Devastation of Two Disasters?“
GAO report – Hurricane Katrina: Use of $2 billion for Medicaid and other health care needs
GAO reviews child mental health and low-income primary care efforts in Katrina’s wake
Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma
- Covering Hurricanes: Before, During and After the Storm
- Tips on covering disasters
- Best Practices in Trauma Reporting
- Covering Trauma: Impact on Journalists
- Covering Trauma: Impact on the Public
Public Information Map, from ESRI, is a continuously updated hurricane map that shows the projected paths, storm surge, weather warnings, and precipitation, integrated with social media posts. Could be a way to find story ideas: One recent tweet alerted people to higher-than-usual alcohol sales.
Map of a Tampa evacuation scenario
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Louisiana Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency
Alabama Emergency Management Agency
Texas Governor’s Division of Emergency Management
Florida Division of Emergency Management
Profile: LSU Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes
Epidemiology of Tropical Cyclones: The Dynamics of Disaster, Disease, and Development (2005)
Large Scale Rooftop Search and Rescue: the experience of Hurricane Katrina. Matin Katirai and David M. Simpson. 2008.
The Emergency Management Response to Hurricane Katrina: As Told By the First Responders—A Case Study of What Went Wrong and Recommendations for the Future, Henry W. Fischer et al. 2006.
Hurricane Katrina: GIS Response for a Major Metropolitan Area. Andrew Curtis, Jacqueline W. Mills, Jason K. Blackburn, and John C. Pine. 2006.
Hurricane Public Health Research and Katrina Search and Rescue Mapping, 2006 ESRI Health GIS Conference
Ready or Not 2010: Protecting the Public’s Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism – The report exposed serious underlying gaps in the nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies and that the economic crisis is straining an already fragile public health system. It contains state-by-state health preparedness scores based on 10 key indicators.
Matthew S. Davis, Ph.D., is a social psychologist whose expertise includes disaster preparedness and awareness (why people do/do not prepare for natural disasters, the psychological effects of participating in disaster preparedness training, and public perception of risk). His presentations include:
• Disaster psychology: Why do we live in dangerous places?
• Community-based public education projects in California
• Community-based disaster preparedness training: Impact on citizens
He teaches a course at Domincan University titled “Natural Disasters: Societal & Individual Reactions to Risk.” His campus phone number is 415-257-0198 and his email is matt.davis@dominican.edu. He can be contacted through the university’s news office at sarah.gardner@dominican.edu or 415-485-3239.
The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina – the Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist, by Ivor van Heerden and Mike Bryan
City Adrift: New Orleans Before & After Katrina, byJenni Bergal, Sara Shipley Hiles and Frank Koughan
University of North Carolina Public Health Grand Rounds:
After Katrina: Building a Better Public Health System for the Future
Learning from Katrina: Tough Lessons in Preparedness and Emergency Response
National Hazards Center: A national and international clearinghouse of knowledge concerning the social science and policy aspects of disasters.
USGS National Wetlands Research Center: Hurricanes
International Disaster Database: Data on the occurrence and effects of more than18,000 disasters in the world from 1900 to present, compiled from U.N. agencies, non-governmental organisations, insurance companies, research institutes and press agencies.
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
NLM’s Disaster Information Management Research Center: Has links to relevant agencies, standards of care in disaster situations, hazardous materials, environmental clean up and more.
National Organization for Victim Assistance
The 2016 National Snapshot of Public Health Preparedness demonstrates how federal investments enhance our nation’s ability to respond to public health threats and emergencies.
