hurricane forces new orleans newspaper to face a daunting set of obstacles - portable document camera projector

Lisa GUERNSEYSEPT.
Jim Amos, editor of The Times
Picayune faced an ugly decision on Tuesday morning.
Approximately 240 employees and some family members, including a 6-month-
The old baby spent a night in the corridor of the 3800 Howard Avenue newspaper building in New Orleans, just a mile northwest of the Superdome.
They seem to have survived the hurricane: although a whole piece of glass from a window has been blown out of the shell and through the general manager's office, the building still stands.
Outside, however, the parking lot was flooded and the water rose from the steps of the entrance.
It is reported that a prison break occurred nearby.
When the water got up from the other riser, he made the decision.
"We need to leave when it's possible to leave," he said . ".
Next is the Odyssey of the times.
While Picayune's staff were looking for a new home outside of New Orleans, they managed to publish their papers ---
It was originally online and eventually printed.
Newspapers with a usual circulation of £ 270,000 have to cover the biggest story in their history, without electricity, no phone calls, and no workplace.
The newspaper turned its affiliated website www into an advertisement, and the readers were scattered in the South. nola.
Com, becoming the release valve for the city's accumulated story of suffering, provides news, important information and a forum for missing people, which now contains more than 17,000 posts.
Pilgrimage has joined the knowledge of the times-
Picayune has been serving New Orleans since 1837. his history includes writers William Faulkner and William Sidney Porter, his pen name O. Henry.
Other newspapers in the hurricane area are also difficult to publish.
Mississippi Press, located in pascago ULA, took refuge in the Mobile Register Office in Alabama and used its printing machine.
The Sun, in Gulfport, Miss.
With the help of the Columbus Ledger, last week managed to print a paper every day
Inquiry from GeorgiaBut The Times-
Picayune has become an example of a New Orleans private business that can function and even thrive in disaster.
At the same time, employees there, like their neighbors, are dealing with the loss of homes and the relocation of families.
They struggled for their deepest fear: A Photographer's wife and son were missing for five days (
On Saturday, they were found at a shelter in Houma, Los Angeles.
Where they were flown from nearby).
But the whereabouts of journalist Leslie Williams are still unknown.
"We're rocking between being completely desperate about what's going on in our city and our lives and being excited about what we're doing and how our readers react to it," Mr. Amoss said.
Last Monday, the idea of evacuation was not considered after the initial blow of Hurricane Katrina. Amoss said.
There was a power outage, but the newspaper had a generator for some computers to run in the photo studio, which is the innermost part of the building and therefore the safest part.
The advertising staff and their families chose to spend the night in the building, and some of them and their spouses planned to squat down and wait for the storm.
But by Monday night, their sense of security is weakening as Hurricane Katrina continues.
Close-up editor James auberne and art critic Doug McCash take the plunge by bike to see the Lake ViewO'Byrne lived.
The house has been submerged in more than 8 feet of the water.
"I know my house is gone . "O'Byrne said. At 10 p. m.
On Monday, as other news outlets reported, the newspaper's environmental journalist Mark schleverstein confirmed that there was a gap in the embankment near the 17 th Street canal.
The title of this article is: "The Lake View embankment is threatening the city.
The paper has never been printed.
The power outage shut down the newspaper printing press located in the same building, so it was only published on the website of the newspaper.
By early Tuesday morning, "At this point, you can't go to the waist in the water," said Peter kovage, editor-in-chief of news operations.
The water is up, sir.
Amos and publisher Ashton Phelps
, Designed a plan to leave the loading dock using a newspaper delivery truck.
"The editors make orders in the newsroom and in the buffet lounge where some people are still having breakfast, go get what you can put on your legs and move to the loading dock," Mr. Amoss said.
About six laptops were made. Mr.
Kovacic snapped up his toothbrush.
Shirts and cigars. At 9:40 a. m.
The article was shown on the newspaper's website, apparently in a hurry: "Times --
Picayune is evacuating the New Orleans building.
Like the whole area, the water around our building continues to rise.
We want to evacuate our staff and family when we are still able to leave our building safely.
"When the truck came out, photographer Alex Brandon returned to the building with a computer memory card full of photos.
Photo editor Doug Parker said he trudged, swam in the water, handed over the cards and returned to work.
"He's still on the streets of New Orleans and hasn't taken a bath since Monday," he said. Parker said.
Advertising, the water flow is on the grille of the delivery truck, and some trucks are packed with up to 25 staff members who are moving slowly along the road to the pontcharley highway.
From the back of the truck, evacuees can see the fallen trees, the crushed wires, and residents push their shopping carts and walk along the upper edge of the road.
Truck to the West Bank bureau of the newspaper, about 8 miles south of the Howard Avenue building, a few miles across the Downtown Line.
There, the editor decided that some employees needed to go back to the city to continue reporting and taking pictures, and they asked for volunteers.
Seven journalists and two photographers climbed into a truck and went back.
Since the storm hit, the newspaper has a total of about 15 journalists and photographers in New Orleans.
"I was thinking that if there were another 15 to 30 minutes, our ass would still be inside . "Kovacs said.
The evacuated staff were sent to two locations.
Many people arrived at Hou Ma in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon.
There, couriers provide food, computers, telephone lines and Internet connections, although they are not stable.
Family members of the staff get off at a nearby shelter.
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That night, about 12 journalists, led by chief editor Dan Shea, lived in Houma, posted news on the website and tried to organize a newspaper, or pdf, in a portable file format, it allows traditional newspaper layout.
The team did not have their production software and templates and could not access any era
Picayune's font and struggles with a rolling outage.
Still, copy editor Mary Shaw was able to dynamically copy the look of the paper by piecing together graphic elements from earlier online versions. .
60 more.
Picayune staff continue to travel to Baton Rouge, Los Angeles.
There, the School of Mass Communication at the State University of Luis Anna offers mobile phones and computer banks.
The documents that appeared the next morning, also in pdf format on the website, contained 17 articles and an editorial, all written by the staff and 12 photos, only one of them is from The Associated Press.
Photos taken from the air show a city destroyed.
Emergency workers climbed up the roof to rescue one of the dead;
Refugees on board;
A burning building;
A pile of floating rubble, including half. submerged car.
Advertising a detailed article on violations near the 17 th Street canal
The title of Schleifstein is: "The flood will only get worse.
"By Wednesday, reporters sent articles from several places along New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Houston and the coast to editors, some by any fixed phone they could find, often from the home of friends or relatives.
Sometimes they use car batteries to power their laptops. Nola.
Com became Mr.
Phelps of the times
Picayune's publisher, known as "lifeline", has viewed more than 72 million pages around the world from Sunday to Thursday. Mr.
Amos said the number of page views on Friday exceeded 30 million.
Before the hurricane, the site received about 6 million page views per week.
For Gordon Russell, a journalist from New Orleans, the most terrible experience is still there.
Last Thursday, when the streets seemed ripe for riots, he and a photographer drove from the convention center to what looked like a shootout.
A bloody body lay on the ground and the police picked up the weapons.
Photographer Marko Georgiev, a freelancer for The New York Times, said police trained their weapons in the car when he slowed down to take pictures.
The two were called from the car.
First, hold the car and the nearby walls with your hands.
The police threw their notebooks and camera equipment on the ground and ordered them to leave. Mr.
His colleague quoted Russell on Nola.
Later that day, the website said, "I was scared.
I am not afraid to admit this.
I'm leaving here.
The title above the report is "The city is not safe for anyone . ".
"At the same time, the staff working to report the disaster are aware of the extent of damage to their own homes.
An employee estimated that more than 30% of newspaper staff had lost their homes.
Jon Donley, editor of Nola.
Com, working for two days before learning that his adult daughter was safe, did not hear from her.
"He posted all this information on the internet and didn't know if his daughter was alive . "O'Byrne said.
Photo Technician Joe Graham hasn't heard from his wife and son on Friday afternoon.
Their house is located in the east of New Orleans, where some of the worst floods have occurred.
On Saturday afternoon, the editor of the first page, Terry buquette, reported
Graham's family was found safe.
The Newhouse newspaper chain that published The Times in Washington
Colleagues at Picayune and 25 other newspapers said they felt lost contact.
Bill Walsh of The Times said: "We can only contact editors on and off --"
Reporter from Washington.
"Some people don't even know where they are or if they're okay.
"By the end of the week, many employees were aware of what they had achieved, even though their enthusiasm was affected by the great losses suffered by the city and the unresolved disappearance of their colleague Mr.
Williams was sent to the Mississippi coast last Monday to report the storm.
"I'm trying not to get a frustrating idea into my mind," Mr. Kovacs said. Mr.
Williams, an experienced journalist who was born in the area, reported many hurricanes.
"It presses on me;
This is important for all of us . "Amoss.
Meanwhile, editors are trying to counter rumors that the newspaper will be closed.
Sir, Thursday.
Phelps called the rumor "absurd" in a statement ". "The Times-
Picayune will continue to be released.
He wrote.
In fact, by Friday morning, The Times
Picayune managed to restore its print version again.
Printed 50,000 copies at the Courier. -
Seat for pants, Sir
Amos says its size is speculation about how many viewers the newspaper will have.
The document was distributed with the same delivery trucks that transported the staff to a safe place and to subscribers across the state of Luis Anna and habitable areas in New Orleans.
It was also heavily transported to the shelter, where it was delivered.
Don't know when, or if, time-
Picayune can bring its circulation back to 270,000 more than a week ago.
No one knows about its stress condition and no one knows about the Howard Avenue building.
The courier will still be its printing factory for the time being. But Mr.
Amoss was also heartened by the news that the reader, as soon as he received the newspaper "like a hungry wolf", rushed to the newspaper, and for today's problems, the printing volume will increase to 60,000.
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A version of this article was printed on page C00001 of the National edition on September 5, 2005, with the title: Hurricane Katrina: newspaper;
A report and life of a disaster.