When disaster strikes
Be patient, be prepared, be perceptive

By Xiao Zhang
Reporter
Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald

Posted: Aug. 9, 2002

Xiao Zhang

The city editor left a message on my home phone: "We're sending you to Roseau tomorrow. We may need you to stay there over the weekend."

Roseau, Minn., is two hours northeast of Grand Forks, N.D., where I work as a reporter. The town of 2,750 was being flooded. A broken dike inundated the town, covering all the streets. Ninety to 95 percent of the buildings were damaged.

I was so excited about the message that I forgot I'd been disappointed just two days ago, when the dike broke and my offer to go to Roseau was turned down by the same editor.

He told me then that I was too inexperienced and not familiar with the area. (I started my first full-time reporting job with the Grand Forks Herald in late January.)

But now, I was going.

Lesson 1: Be patient and your turn will come.

I think it's good that I didn't show my disappointment. Instead, I worked hard on the flood backup stuff, making phone calls to counties and putting together lists of road conditions.

I also didn't give much thought to the fact that I would work 12-hour-plus days for the whole weekend. I also didn't imagine the three-day trip would generate several good stories, prompting my editors to send me back to Roseau three more times.

Lesson 2: Be prepared.

I had read a thousand times about how important it is to be prepared for disastrous situations: boots, coat, etc. I wasn't thinking that practical advice applied to me. The morning before I left for Roseau, I had in my trunk a raincoat, three pairs of shoes (sandals, tennis shoes, hiking shoes) and lots of socks. I saw on television people in jeans standing in water and figured that was how I would do it, too. The photographer told me that I needed to get a wader. I now have chest-high fishing boots and a pair of shorter boots in my trunk.

Lesson 3: Learn from experienced colleagues.

I was so nervous that I didn't eat anything Friday. I would be the only one reporting from Roseau for the newspaper, writing main stories for our flood packages during my stay there. (Flooding is a big deal. During the Grand Forks flood in 1997, people received help from Roseau residents. Roseau is within our circulation area, too.)

I picked the brains of other journalists at the newspaper. If you are willing to learn, they are willing to teach. I asked for specifics about what my editor might want from me each day. Not that I would follow his ideas precisely, but it was good to go in with an idea.

I talked with the reporter who had been in Roseau for the past few days. What's the latest? How should I approach people in distress? What should I look for? By what time I should go back to the hotel and file my stories? The reporter is from the area and knows almost everybody. He was nice enough to let me ride with him the first afternoon and gave me an excellent orientation.

The photographer I worked has been in journalism for about 20 years and has a great eye for news. We would ride together and comb the streets, looking for stories. I asked him about his previous experiences covering disasters. It's amazing how much you learn about storytelling from someone who is not a writer and has a different perspective.

Lesson 4: Listen.

"What should I do?" I nervously asked another reporter about my stay in Roseau.

"Go to the briefing every afternoon, but the rest of it, you just got to play it by ear," he said.

OK.

So when I rode around town with a conservation officer, looking at how much water had receded from most city streets, I saw churches. "How many churches are there in the town?"

Right away, he could think of six.

I should go to one on Sunday -- the first church service after a major disaster in the city.

My editor liked the idea.

At one of the daily briefings, the emergency team was surprised and elated by how fast the water had gone down. Roseau was safe. Flood fighting was over. Recovery stage started. But the river carried the water downstream to the farmlands northwest of the city. Not much attention was paid to the farmsteads in the rural area. People were ready to quit fighting.

The commissioner there said the flood fighting was not over. I interviewed the commissioner. "The water here (in Roseau) is gone, but theirs (northwest of Roseau) has just begun," he told me. For a few days, I checked with him every day to see how things were going.

He was glad I cared and later helped me get an airboat ride to see the flood situation in the rural area. Before I took off, he gave me a hug: "You've done good. We need your help."

And empathy.

I guess my biggest impression is that no one flood is worse than another. It's equally devastating when your home is full of water. It doesn't matter if it's 10 inches or five feet.

Even though nobody died or was hurt during the flood, people were as devastated as in any disaster. They had lost precious things, like photos, and they went through intense emotional stress.

They had to rebuild their homes.

Xiao Zhang was a Fall 2001 Scholar at The Times in Shreveport, La. Reach her at xzhang@gfherald.com.

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