{"id":433,"date":"2008-06-20T18:22:27","date_gmt":"2008-06-20T23:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=433"},"modified":"2009-07-07T21:07:16","modified_gmt":"2009-07-08T02:07:16","slug":"the-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/the-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"The Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW ORLEANS — All morning, we visitors have been referring to Hurricane Katrina, occasionally to the other big one, Hurricane Rita, in the course of the all-day speeches and panel discussions. Instead of two days of workshops, this year’s National Society<\/a> of Newspaper Columnists conference loaded up the teachin’ today so tomorrow we can move through the city and see what — The Storm — has left, nearly three years later.<\/p>\n

A couple of Louisianans this morning referred to the The Storm, and all of us understood Katrina-Rita was (were) meant. Then Mayor Ray Nagin called it The Storm in his lunch address to us.<\/p>\n

In the day’s last presentation, Americana musician Spencer Bohren<\/a> defined it. (We’re listening to his songs — some original some folk or gospel classics — and stories all the while getting information not provided by the (other) experts.<\/p>\n

“It’s like Voldemort, ‘He Who Must Not Be Named,’ where we’re not supposed to say Katrina,” Bohren said. Harry Potter fans in the audience understood.<\/p>\n

I’m naming this series, or category, of Brick<\/strong> entries The Storm because the metaphorical sense works well. The NSNC is meeting here to see how the recovery is going, so long since Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. But as journalists as well, we want to use this knowledge to be better in our home communities. So other catastrophes have come up.<\/p>\n

A panel I moderated, on coverage of mental illness, went from Katrina to the Virginia Tech<\/a> shootings of April 16, 2007. Elsewhere we discussed this month’s flooding in the Midwest, worst in Iowa. Each of these is The Storm.<\/p>\n

The Storm is inevitable. Maybe it’s global warming, or societal pressures, but every so often there’s an overwhelming natural or manmade disaster. The Storm.<\/p>\n

Comments to Brick<\/strong> always are welcome, but they’re even moreso with this series. Columnists are invited to contrast how they view what we’ve seen and heard with my shaky notes and recollections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW ORLEANS — All morning, we visitors have been referring to Hurricane Katrina, occasionally to the other big one, Hurricane Rita, in the course of the all-day speeches and panel discussions. Instead of two days of workshops, this year’s National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference loaded up the teachin’ today so tomorrow we can move […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-orleans-2008","tag-columnist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5200,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/08\/revisiting-postal-katrina-mae-west\/","url_meta":{"origin":433,"position":0},"title":"Revisiting ‘Postal,’ Katrina, Mae West","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load Let's not go postal, it's not a trend, according to the Poynter Institute on Aug. 26-27 in \"Before Today, 8 Journalists Have Been Murdered While on Assignment, at Work or for Their Work in the U.S. Since 1992.\" Writer Kristen Hare states: \"The on-air shooting deaths\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Shy of a Load"","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"0512 brick logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Solebrick-logo-2-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":107,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/10\/havent-they-been-through-enough\/","url_meta":{"origin":433,"position":1},"title":"Haven’t they been through enough?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Monday, Oct. 2, 2005: Refugee, evacuee, ban, persecute. Who could object -- well, I couldn't -- when Oprah Winfrey in the second week after Hurricane Katrina pronounced from New Orleans that people who made it through the devastation \"survivors\"? It's uplifting, optimistic, triumphant and, well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":437,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/big-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":433,"position":2},"title":"Big Money","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"NEW ORLEANS -- The second speaker for the columnists conference was Jarvis DeBerry of the Times-Picayune. He had a heck of a column Sunday showing how this month's flooding in Iowa and The Storm (Katrina-Rita of 2005) have at least this much in common: deliberate damage to wetlands to benefit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Storm, New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"The Storm, New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/new-orleans-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":881,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/02\/nature-in-slow-motion\/","url_meta":{"origin":433,"position":3},"title":"Nature in slow motion","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The knit sheets we grabbed in the dark annoyed, our flannels would slide in woven linens. Cascading limbs threatened the bed upstairs so with four blankets below, three above, we lay with cats by the washer\/dryer. Not merely sleepless, for 10 hours we stared under the hurricane in slow motion:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fungi by Christy K. Pollock","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/fungi-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":398,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/unkle-katrina\/","url_meta":{"origin":433,"position":4},"title":"Unkle Katrina","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY -- In the Mall of the Ozarks where the Toasts of the Town shop, where the vivacious news anchors and the handsome sports anchors check out the best duds to wear on the air, the meteorologists also lurk. They grab the nice clothes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":438,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/deluge-for-a-deluge\/","url_meta":{"origin":433,"position":5},"title":"Deluge for a Deluge","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock NEW ORLEANS -- You had to be here, you have to go here, to fully realize what's going on here. If that is true then what of the Indonesian tsunami that began Dec. 26, 2004? Do you have to go to Iowa to understand its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Storm, New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"The Storm, New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/new-orleans-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1476,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}