Q&A with Joseph B. Treaster
A Conversation with the Author New York Times reporter Joseph B. Treaster
Q: Why did you write this book?
A: I think Hurricane Katrina provided the final spark. I had been covering hurricanes for years. In the last few years I had started thinking about a hurricane book. When I got home from Hurricane Katrina, I realized the time was right.
Q: How did you become a journalist, and what interested you in the profession?
A: My dad was my inspiration. He worked on the business side of newspapers, in the circulation department. He was thrilled by newspapers and their importance in public policy. He would come home with stories about reporters. I started working for school newspapers in junior high. For a while I thought I might be an engineer. But by the time I got to college I never thought seriously about any other kind of work.
Q: Why is it important to educate young readers about hurricanes?
A: For one thing, knowing about hurricanes makes them less mysterious and may make them a little less frightening for someone living in the hurricane zone. But hurricanes are fascinating creatures, and I've found that the more I know about them, the more I want to know about other aspects of weather and the overall environment. So a book like this may draw people further into their studies of science, and it may help to make science fun.
Q: How did you overcome your own fears about covering a storm from some of the most dangerous locales?
A: I didn't have to overcome any fears. I'm not fearless and I've sometimes been scared in hurricanes. But I never thought twice about going into the heart of a hurricane, because above all else, I'm a reporter. And that means that when there's a story I go to it. I've covered half a dozen wars and many disasters. When the opportunity came to cover Hurricane Katrina, I was ready. My impression is that not everyone shares my frame of mind. But that's the way I look at these things.
Q: Have you had any close calls while reporting on a storm?
A: In Kingston, Jamaica, during Hurricane Gilbert, I was in a hotel lobby with dozens of tourists. The front of the hotel was a glass wall and it was bending in toward us as the wind gusted. The wall did not break and there was no disaster. Most of the experiences have been like that. It looks like something terrible is going to happen, then it doesn't. One reason I think I've done well in hurricanes so far is that I take a lot of precautions. Except for that hotel in Jamaica, I've been able to find fairly safe places to stay in storms. When I'm watching a storm, I make sure I'm in a place where flying debris is not likely to hit me. Afterward, I keep my distance from damaged buildings that might collapse on me. I also do not drive into water without knowing how deep it is and I watch out for fallen electrical wires. You brush a live wire or you step into a pool of water with a live wire in it and you're finished. Sometimes, I make mistakes. I was out on the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and chunks of concrete began tumbling down near me. I pulled way back. It wasn't such a big deal really, but it's not the kind of thing you'd generally have to deal with if you stayed away from disasters.
Q: What do you want young readers to learn from this book?
A: Everyone who reads this book ought to come away with the strong impression that when a hurricane is heading toward you, you head the other way. It is never a good idea to stay home and try to ride out a hurricane. You rarely can do anything to limit damage to your house, and you may be risking your life. But a larger, less somber takeaway from this book is that hurricanes, weather, and the natural sciences are fascinating aspects of life. The more you know, the more you want to know. The knowledge may take you into this area as a career or it may simply make you more aware of the dangers of violent storms and help you to steer clear of them and protect yourself.
Q: Why should young people care about weather disasters both here and across the world?
A: Besides the personal safety lessons that spring out of disaster stories, I think that really understanding them may make readers more sensitive to the hardship of the victims. A good result would be for readers to be more empathetic to victims in remote places around the globe and to think, somewhere in their minds, that while we humans can do nothing to stop the wind, we can do a lot to make conditions everywhere safer for when hurricanes strike. That includes building stronger houses and making and executing effective evacuation plans.
Q: You had a real inside view of the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. In your opinion, what if anything could have been done differently to save more lives and minimize damage?
A: New Orleans, southern Louisiana, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast should have been evacuated earlier. It seems possible to me that if evacuation orders had gone out even as little as twelve hours earlier and broadcasters kept repeating the warnings of danger, more people who chose to ride out the storm would have taken shelter elsewhere and many fewer people would have died.
Q: Do you think the media has done a fair job of reporting on Hurricane Katrina?
A: The reporting on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath has been excellent. Reporters got out the word on the extensive flooding in New Orleans, the slow reaction of local rescue and security forces, and the suffering of tens of thousands of people who had taken shelter in the Superdome and in the New Orleans Convention Center and, for days afterward, were left essentially on their own in stifling heat and awful sanitary conditions. The news reports pushed federal officials to react, even if their reaction was also slow and clumsy. The New York Times, some broadcasters, and some local newspapers have stayed with the story and have influenced public policy during the recovery. I just learned the other day of one fine example of journalism: A woman who had lived in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, which was nearly wiped off the map by the storm surge of Hurricane Katrina, went back home and produced 146 stories for CNN in a series called "The Town That Fought Back."
Contributor: Houghton Mifflin Company
Reviews
Hurricane Force: In the Path of America's Killer Storms
Joseph B. Treaster
Treaster a New York Times (NYT) journalist has been exposed to hurricanes since he was a young boy of five growing up in Florida. He has a healthy respect and also a fascination as to the power, beauty and destructive force of these incredible storms. His story opens with an account of one of the most recent hurricanes to cause severe damage in the gulf coast region-hurricane Katrina. He was asked to enter the beleaguered city to report on the storm for the newspaper. His account pulls no punches as he describes the work of local authorities, state and federal response, the delays caused by erroneous news coverage and the lack of preparation in Louisiana as compared to states like Florida. Along with the storm drama readers learn about the origin of the word hurricane, the way storms form, the system of rating a storms severity, the functions of the National Hurricane Center and how storms are named. Some like Katrina which have created severe damage and hardship are given names that are retired forever from the naming list. Throughout the book excerpts from NYT articles are highlighted and further enrich the text. Since Treaster is a journalist, his story is eminently readable and even though the book is text dense and the type font is small, I just kept tuning the pages. I was also hooked on learning more about these storms and intrigued by the pictures. Students undertaking research about hurricanes and Hurricane Katrina in particular will find Treaster's book an excellent starting point-he clearly gives the background, sets the stage and describes what happened in New Orleans. In addition, his extensive listing for further reading is divided into nearly two dozen sub categories and there is an extensive index to his book. He ends by telling readers "Hurricanes are fascinating. But above all they are dangerous. ....unless I'm reporting on a storm, you won't find me trying to reason with hurricane season." The last part of the book contains a series of short chapters which are more like appendices. There is detailed information about the source of the NYT quotes, a description of a hurricane proof house, a recap of the 27 major storms since 1900, a detailed timeline of events leading up and through Katrina. 2007, Kingfisher/Houghton Mifflin, Ages 10 up, $16.95. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot (Children's Literature).
Best Books:
Booklist Book Review Stars, Mar. 1, 2007; United States
School Library Journal Book Review Stars, May 2007; Cahners; United States
ISBN: 978-0-7534-6086-3
Added 09/20/07
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