Revisiting Willow Island
The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette published a two-day package marking the 30th anniversary of the Willow Island Disaster, the largest construction accident in U.S. history. Fifty-one construction workers died on April 27, 1978, when a scaffold collapsed during construction of a coal-fired power plant along the Ohio River. The Gazette examines the disaster's causes, interviews survivors and discusses continuing workplace safety problems nationwide.
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The global food crisis
A series by The Washington Post explores the causes and implications of the current global food crisis, the likes of which have not been seen since the 1970s. "A complex combination of poor harvests, competition with biofuels, higher energy prices, surging demand in China and India, and a blockage in global trade is driving food prices up worldwide." The impact is not limited to impoverished countries; consumers in the U.S. and other countries are feeling the impact of rising food costs.
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Gaps in Wisconsin tornado warning system identified
After tornadoes ripped through the southern part of the state earlier this month, Ben Poston of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that thousands of southeastern Wisconsin residents are out of range for tornado warning sirens. Using mapping software, Poston plotted nearly 75 siren locations in Milwaukee and Racine counties and then overlayed census data to identify gaps in the warning system.
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"13 Seconds in August" details bridge collapes
The Star Tribune spent months reconstructing the locations and identities of the more than 150 people who were on the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis when it collapsed into the Mississippi River on August 1. With the help of an aerial photo, an interactive Flash graphic titled "13 Seconds in August" offers the most comprehensive archive of victims' stories (including video, audio, still photos and text) accessible by clicking on individual vehicles in the photo. The Star Tribune has encouraged readers to comment as well as submit additional information to flesh out the story of the bridge collapse.
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FEMA aid distribution uneven to victims of NY storms
Patrick Lakamp, Mary Pasciak and Susan Schulman of the Buffalo News report on FEMA's uneven aid to areas hit by a surprise storm last October. "Almost one-half the nearly 18,000 residents in Western New York who applied for FEMA money got some help. But in Buffalo, one-third of the applicants received aid." In North Buffalo, only 20 percent of applicants received aid, even though some areas looked like "a war zone." An East Side neighborhood where FEMA workers went door-to-door encouraging residents to apply received the largest sum. "A News computer analysis was able to determine what items FEMA approved, and at what cost, for 98 percent of the claims."
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Bridge data adds context to collapse
Following the collapse of an I-35 bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, journalists turned to the National Bridge Inventory database, available from IRE and NICAR, to check the bridge's inspection history. The Saint Paul Pioneer Press. and The Star Tribune reported that inspection data from 2005 showed that the Minnesota Department of Transportation deemed the bridge "structurally deficient." The Pioneer Press also noted a federal report's finding that Minnesota ranked high in overall bridge safety with 3 percent of its bridges rated deficient in 2006.
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Residential areas grow in wildfire risk zones
According to a USA Today report by Brad Heath, "Since 2000, roughly 450,000 people — enough to populate a city the size of Atlanta — moved to Western areas endangered by wildfires." Heath's analysis combined historical fire data from the USGS Forest Service, Census population data, fire modeling software used by researchers and a wild and urban interface map to discover this dangerous migration.
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Sago Anniversary
On the anniversary of the Sago Mine explosion, The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette continues to probe safety issues behind the blast that killed 12 miners. Ken Ward Jr. reports that "the Sago disaster might not have happened if regulators and the coal industry had heeded the warnings... from a series of other lightning-induced explosions in the U.S. and abroad dating back more than 30 years, federal and state investigators have learned."
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Death at Memorial Hospital
Following the announcement of murder charges against a New Orleans doctor and two nurses on duty in the wake Hurricane Katrina, CNN continues its Emmy-nominated investigative series, "Death at Memorial Hospital" with exclusive interviews with siblings of the accused Dr. Anna Pou, who maintains her innocence. "In October, CNN reported exclusively that after deteriorating conditions -- with food running low and no electricity -- some medical staff openly discussed whether patients should be euthanized," says a CNN.com report by Drew Griffin, produced by Kathleen Johnston.
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Income not checked for emergency food stamps
Kathleen Chapman of The Palm Beach Post investigated the emergency food-stamp program in Florida after Hurricane Wilma and found that nearly 700,000 Floridians, many of whom were not really too poor to buy food, got in line for the stamps. "Florida didn't require proof of income to get the payments, and the state hasn't completed any large-scale audits since the money went out." The investigation also found that applicants who did report too much income to qualify were turned away.
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Serious problems with tornado sirens
Bob Segall of WTHR-Indianapolis used county records to find there are serious issues with many of central Indiana's tornado sirens. The investigation found problems that included sirens that have failed thousands of times, to inoperable sirens, to local officials who have no idea whether sirens are working or even where the sirens are. "For example, on a single test date in October, 2004, records show 70 siren failures. But the week before, only one siren failed, and the week after, 23 sirens failed. " Records show sirens have failed to work properly 4,689 times over the past six years, both during regular Friday morning testing and during actual storms. There were several dates when more than half of them weren't working — at least 70 sirens listed as failing simultaneously. The story includes a sidebar on the coverage area and how they reported the story
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Dam threats in Hawaii underassessed
Karen Blakeman, staff writer with The Honolulu Advertiser, used National Inventory of Dams data from IRE and NICAR for a story about the deadly failure of a privately owned dam on the Hawaii island of Kaua'i. Two bodies have been found and five others are missing. Blakeman reported that state safety inspections of dams across Hawaii are woefully behind schedule and the threats dams pose to people have been underassessed. "Federal records on dams in Hawai'i show very few have emergency action plans." (Editor's Note: IRE and NICAR offer the National Inventory of Dams to journalists.)
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States make little use of provision to help hurricane victims
Jenni Bergal of The Center for Public Integrity reviewed health records to find that states have barely used $2 billion provided in an emergency bill passed by Congress to help low-income hurricane victims scattered across the country. "Any state that took in Katrina evacuees could tap into the money to offer cash to those who had at least one child and met certain income guidelines qualifying them as poor." But more than five months after the bill was signed into law, only 12 states — including Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — have taken Congress up on its offer. Federal Emergency Management Agency figures show that at least 320,000 of the more than 1.6 million people registered with the agency have addresses outside of the three hurricane-ravaged states. Every state, from Wyoming to Maine, has taken in Katrina evacuees, according to FEMA statistics.
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Retrofits offer limited earthquake protection
Thomas Peele and Jessica Guynn of Contra Costa Times found that despite houses being retrofitted to keep them safe during an earthquake, less than a third of the houses inspected would survive a major earthquake. In an investigation of 35 retrofitted houses, the newspaper found that in 24 of the 35 homes , residents might have had a false sense of security about earthquake protection. "Scientists predict a magnitude 6.7 earthquake is likely to strike the Bay Area before 2032. Yet state and local building codes don't require specific standards for a safe voluntary seismic retrofit of a home." The investigation also found that in most cases, nails were either too small, which can leave connections weak, or too big, which can split critical wood blocks and that shear walls were made of misshapen pieces, or "quilt-works," of plywood rather than the full-size sheets needed to effectively transfer earthquake forces.
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Vulnerable live in Sacramento's flood zones
Phillip Reese of The Sacramento Bee used Census data and maps to report that “more than 150,000 of Sacramento County’s most vulnerable residents — the elderly, the poor and the disabled — live in areas prone to substantial flooding, and local officials acknowledge they don’t know whether they could quickly get them to safe ground.” Those individuals live in areas of the county that could see floods of at least two feet.
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Hurricane shutter company failed to deliver
Mc Nelly Torres of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reviewed bankruptcy records, county licensing records and complaints filed with the local consumer affairs division to show that Palms West Shutter & Screen Inc., a company supplying hurricane shutters, had taken about $1.5 million in deposits from 672 Palm Beach residents before it sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October & mdash; the same month Hurricane Wilma hit the area. "Residents gave their money to the company — licensed to install screened closures in Broward since 1978 — in many cases more than 20 percent — expecting hurricane shutters and screen enclosures for their homes that have yet to be completed." Bankruptcy records show that the company also owes money to vendors, suppliers, the Internal Revenue Service and other businesses. The high demand for and shortage of shutters, screen enclosures and materials have caused problems and backlogs for many local shutter companies.
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Nation's mine rescue system falling short
Ken Ward Jr. reports in the Charleston, W.Va., Sunday Gazette-Mail "the nation's miners face a mounting risk because of a rescue system that is growing ever short on personnel and is in major need of reforms." From 2000 to 2002, the number of safety teams approved by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration dropped by 10 percent. A team of reporters, including Tara Tuckwiller, Scott Finn, Eric Eyre and Dave Gustafson, have contributed to the series of stories. Other stories include a history of the safety violations at the Sago Mine, an analysis of data that indicates lightning strikes may have played a role in the accident, and a story questioning whether the mine had adequate state environmental permits.
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Ga. hotel bill for Katrina evacuees tops $19 million
Yolanda Rodriguez of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with assistance from Craig Schneider, Leon Stafford and database editor David A. Milliron, used a FOIA request to show that “Georgia hotels have billed taxpayers more than $19 million to house evacuees who fled after hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast last year.” The agency has paid for rooms in 650 Georgia hotels, ranging from Atlanta’s Ritz-Carlton to lower-priced hotels. A map shows the location of the hotels.
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Corps ignored reports about levee problems
Bob Marshall of The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reports the Army Corps of Engineers knew about "engineering mistakes that led to the canal levee failures that flooded most of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina" but dismissed them. "Documents, obtained by The Times-Picayune and provided to forensic engineers studying the levee breaches, show project engineers made a critical mistake in assessing soil strengths on the 17th Avenue Canal project, said Robert Bea, a University of California-Berkeley professor who is a member of the National Science Foundation team."
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Gulf Coast homeowner loans lagging
Leslie Eaton and Ron Nixon of The New York Times used federal data to show the pace of homeowner loans in the Gulf Coast is lagging. “The Small Business Administration, which runs the federal government’s main disaster recovery program for both businesses and homeowners, has processed only a third of the 276,000 home loan applications it has received. And it has rejected 82 percent of those it has reviewed, a higher percentage than in most previous disasters.” The loans that have been approved have been going to higher-income neighborhoods.
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Multifamily housing hit hardest by Wilma
Brittany Wallman and Jeremy Milarsky of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed hurricane damage reports to show that in Broward County, “condos and apartments were hit the hardest, accounting for 55 percent of the buildings declared uninhabitable. Mobile homes made up 28 percent of seriously damaged structures. Houses fared the best. Only 42 were deemed uninhabitable, barely 1 percent of all severely damaged buildings.” Low-income areas had the most buildings declared unlivable.
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Calif. county unprepared for disaster
Bob Cuddy, Sarah Linn and Leslie Griffy of The Tribune reviewed San Luis Obispo County's disaster documents to show that the county was vulnerable in case of a major disaster. "While the county, home to Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, gets high marks for its planning, Hurricane Katrina showed that plans are one thing, implementing them is another. A major emergency could strand thousands of the county's most vulnerable and severely tax the government's ability to spread information." In a four-part series on disaster management in the county, the investigation also looked at the safety of people in nursing homes, those with special needs and pet safety. According to the paper, in the case of nursing homes, essential precautions such as stockpiling supplies, planning evacuations and setting up communications are left largely under-regulated in a system that splits oversight between state and local officials and gives neither the authority needed to ensure safety of the residents.
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'High hazard' dams unregulated and in need of repairs
Eric Hand, Todd Frankel and Jaimi Dowdell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch examined the state of dams in Missouri and Illinois, following the failure of a dam in southeastern Missouri. They found that hundereds of dams in Missouri and Illinois lack plans for handling emergencies, are regulated by cash-strapped state offices that make intermittent inspections and depend on the willingness of private owners to make repairs, some of which are needed badly. "Of the state's 641 dams labeled "high hazard" — meaning a potential loss of life after a failure — more than half are not regulated. " (Editor's Note: The National Inventory of Dams, one of the sources used for this story, is available to journalists from IRE and NICAR.)
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FEMA program in New York 'dreadfully flawed'
Russ Buettner, Heidi Evans, Robert Gearty, Brian Kates, Greg B. Smith and Richard T. Pienciak of the Daily News in New York used FEMA data to show that the federal government's $21.4 billion program to help New York recover from the 9/11 terrorist attacks was dreadfully flawed. "New Yorkers by the tens of thousands received free air conditioners, air purifiers and other clean-air devices in such an illogical pattern that the toxic plume from the smoldering World Trade Center would have had to travel like a wild tornado, arbitrarily touching down here and there throughout the city." The size and scope of abuse in the FEMA-funded program dwarfs any fraud and misuse allegations that have surfaced in disaster aid programs for hurricanes in Florida, wildfires in California and floods in Detroit. The paper found that air conditioners and the other devices were awarded to people living in buildings with central air, in buildings where the windows did not open and in locales where scientific evidence showed there was no environmental impact.
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Region unprepared for disaster
Joe Mahr and Phillip O'Connor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch find that "repeated recommendations from all levels of government in an eight-state region of the central United States have been largely ignored on how to best brace for an event that scientists expect to kill thousands and cause widespread chaos." The Post-Dispatch reviewed studies, reports, and interviewed government officials, researchers and preparedness advocates to reveal that "More than two decades after federal and state officials called for massive preparations for a major earthquake in this region, including St. Louis, a Post-Dispatch investigation found that government has failed to marshal many of its own resources to prepare for a disaster that could rival the devastation of Hurricane Katrina."
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Flawed homes go unrepaired in hurricane-prone area
Mc Nelly Torres of South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that, despite an engineer's independent study showing workmanship and materials that did not meet standards in a hurricane-prone area, homeowners have been waiting 10 years for their homes to be fixed. Torres reviewed hundreds of records, including a grand jury report, two independent studies, and other construction-related documentation to show that Arvida/JMB Partners and Disney World Co. failed to design and construct homes using the materials and workmanship required by the 1979 South Florida Building Code. Independent study by an engineer found evidence of shoddy construction with firewalls missing, no wall reinforcements and with roofs attached with staples instead of nails. The home owner's association filed a class-action lawsuit in 1995 against Arvida/JMB Partners and Disney.
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Major cleanup planned in New Orleans
Randy Lee Loftis of The Dallas Morning News reviewed government test results to show that the Army Corps of Engineers is planning one of the biggest environmental clean ups ever attempted in New Orleans. According to the report, part of an extensive look at the rebuilding of New Orleans, the clean up would involve scraping miles of sediment laced with cancer-causing chemicals from New Orleans' hurricane-flooded neighborhoods. "The clean-up plans would also include crews using front-end loaders to scoop up contaminated sediment that Hurricane Katrina floods left in yards, playgrounds and other spots throughout the greater New Orleans area." Despite one widely publicized study that said the Katrina floodwater was no more polluted than typical urban floods, the examination of the EPA's tests of flood-deposited sediments reveals long-term health concerns if the contamination were to remain.
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FEMA awards millions in extra payments after Katrina
Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz and John Maines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel continue their investigation into waste and fraud swirling around Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster aid, this time focusing on Hurricane Katrina. In three Louisiana parishes, FEMA issued more $2,000 aid checks than there are households, at a cost to taxpayers of at least $70 million. And in 36 parishes and counties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, FEMA awarded $102 million to at least 51,000 more applicants than local officials said were displaced by the storm. " In Mobile, Ala., residents coached each other on the right words to use when calling FEMA to get the $2,000. Many who received the money never had to leave their homes. Some had minor roof leaks. "The newspaper's findings are based on a review of $1.46 billion in FEMA claims paid through Sept. 22 and interviews with officials from 54 counties and parishes.
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Breakdowns in equipment thwart forecasts
Debbie Cenziper of The Miami Herald used forecast verification reports to show that breakdowns in crucial weather-observing equipment are foiling forecasters at the National Hurricane Center — the nation's first line of defense against tropical weather. "Buoys, weather balloons, radars, ground sensors and hurricane hunter planes, all part of a multibillion-dollar weather-tracking system run by the federal government, have failed forecasters during nearly half of the 45 hurricanes that struck land since 1992." Records show that forecasters have predicted tracks hundreds of miles off course, anticipated weak storms that grew all powerful, and powerful storms that eventually grew weak. The story includes information on how this story was researched and reported.
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Data reveals no-bid contracts for hurricane clean up
Eric Lipton and Ron Nixon of The New York Times used federal contract data covering hurricane response to show that "more than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency alone were awarded without bidding or with limited competition ... provoking concerns among auditors and government officials about the potential for favoritism or abuse." FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers have spent the most so far. (Note: For other stories looking at what went wrong in the Katrina disaster, please see IRE's Katrina resources page.)
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Disaster plans lacking in Hudson Valley area
Greg Bruno of the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y., looked into disaster plans for communities of the Catskills and Hudson Valley, finding that three-quarters of them would be unprepared. "Of the 75 communities that provided their plans for review, only 25 percent are updated or specific enough to be useful in a catastrophe, according to state emergency planning standards." The paper found some plans don't include basic information, such as shelter locations and phone numbers for first responders; others are generic or fill-in-the-blank documents; and some planners have not studied possible disaster scenarios. "Only 16 communities are in the process of reviewing and revising their plans." The story includes a chart detailing the results for each town and information about how the story was researched and reported.
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Hospitals not prepared for worst quake scenario
Duane W. Gang and David Olson of The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise examined state, county and hospital emergency plans and found that Inland California counties were unprepared to provide medical services after a large earthquake. "A major temblor could leave multiple hospitals damaged and unable to treat their own patients, let alone the thousands of injured."
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Missteps, fraud have plagued FEMA
Megan O'Matz, Sally Kestin, John Maines and Jon Burstein of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel continue the paper's investigation into FEMA. "The handling of aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina is only the latest in a series of missteps and fraud that has plagued this tax-funded government agency. The Sun-Sentinel took a look at 20 recent disasters and found mismanagement and misallocation abound." Among the findings: thousands of claims in Cleveland for damaged washers and dryers after a thunderstorm when the city received only 73 complaints; claims of smoke damage in Los Angeles from wildfires that were 30 miles or farther away; and $9 million paid to people up to 37 miles away from a tornado that touched down in South Florida. The package includes more information about how reporters reseached the agency.
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Vulnerable in Fla. county could be left behind in hurricane
Matt Reed and John Kelly of Florida Today used Census data to identify neighborhoods in Brevard County that are "home to higher-than-average numbers of seniors, poor people and families without cars — people who may need help fleeing" a hurricane like Katrina. They found that thousands of seniors, poor people and families without cars might not be able to evacuate areas almost certain to flood. The county would provide free rides to them, but they must register beforehand, something many are not aware of or willing to do.
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Disaster planning focused on terror threats
In a Web exclusive report, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball of Newsweek report that state emergency management directors have complained FEMA has concentrated too much on preparing for terror threats and not enough on natural disasters. "Internal Homeland Security documents obtained by Newsweek lend support to the state directors' complaints. Out of 15 'all hazards' disaster-planning scenarios approved by DHS and the White House Homeland Security Council last May, only three involved natural disasters, one document shows." (Note: For more stories looking at what went wrong in the Katrina disaster, please see IRE's Katrina resources page.)
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Mapping tornado sirens allows look at disaster planning
Sarah Okeson of the Peoria, Ill., Journal Star mapped tornado sirens and looked at how much of the county they cover, as well as geocoding the county's schools and nursing homes and looking for gaps in the coverage. "The National Weather Service thinks Peoria is adequately prepared for a tornado or other disaster." Okeson describes in a NICAR-L posting that "I went to all 80 of the county's tornado sirens with a GPS device and then put the locations on my computer and converted them to a shapefile. I drew buffers around the sirens and calculated how many people in the county weren't covered by comparing the siren coverage area to the census blocks."
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Sept. 11 loans go to many unaffected by terror
Frank Bass and Dirk Lammers of The Associated Press examined nearly $5 billion in loans granted by the Small Business Administration as Sept. 11 recovery aid, and found that many went to businesses "that didn't need terror relief — or even know they were getting it." The SBA said it first learned of the problems from AP. "The records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act also show that many other loan recipients who made cases they were injured by Sept. 11 were far removed from the direct devastation of New York City and Washington, like a South Dakota country radio station, a Virgin Islands perfume shop and a Utah dog boutique."
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Thousands of home permits issued for fire-prone areas
Jim Miller and Ben Goad of The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise use mapping software to plot thousands of new home permits issued since the 2003 Southern California fires and then compared the points to state maps showing fire threat. "In the 18 months after the firestorms of 2003, Inland cities and counties issued permits for more than 2,500 homes in areas the state identifies as facing 'very high' or 'extreme' fire danger." (Editor's note: IRE and NICAR offer resources for covering wildfires)
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FEMA contracts with criminals
Megan O'Matz and Sally Kestin of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that "government inspectors entrusted to enter disaster victims' homes and verify damage claims include criminals with records for embezzlement, drug dealing and robbery." The paper found the names of more than 100 inspectors for the Federal Emergency Management Agency through public and confidential sources; 30 had criminal records. "The story is the latest in the paper's investigation into FEMA's mismanagement of hurricane relief funds. Read more about the story in the upcoming May/June issue of The IRE Journal."
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Wildfire risks fail to slow home growth
Diana Hefley and Scott North of The (Everett) Herald used state and local data to show that "the areas of Snohomish County with the highest potential for wildfires are home to more than 5,500 people, most relatively new arrivals. ... Since 2000 an average of 100 new houses and mobile homes have sprouted in the fire-prone areas each year."
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FEMA paid for too many funerals
Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz and John Maines of the Sun-Sentinel used federal records to show that "the federal government has paid funeral expenses for at least 315 deaths" in the wake of hurricanes in South Florida last year, "including those of a man who shot himself and a stroke victim hospitalized more than a week before the last storm hit." A state official said that the actions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency constituted a "Free Funeral Payment Act". The total cost of the funerals was $1.27 million, according to the paper's analysis of FEMA data. The paper is suing to force disclosure of the names of all recipients of FEMA aid related to the hurricanes.
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Oil tanker regulations ignored, trimmed back
Eric Nalder of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigated the inner-workings of a tanker fleet owned by the third-largest oil company in the nation, ConocoPhillips. The series was inspired by a mystery spill in Puget Sound. The company had denied that its ship, the Polar Texas, was the spiller, while the U.S. Coast Guard said the oil matched the vessel's cargo. The investigation revealed a much wider pattern, that on the West Coast important reforms following Exxon Valdez spill are being undermined, ignored, violated and, in the case of tug escorts, trimmed back through the influence of the oil company. The P-I revealed through interviews and internal company documents a wide pattern of misconduct and dangerous behavior aboard a number of the company's huge ships, vessels that regularly carry nearly 40 million gallons of oil over some of the roughest seas in the world to refinery ports in Washington and California.
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Utah dams improve, but high hazard conditions still exist
Lee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News used state data to show that "44 percent of such Utah 'high hazard' dams meet all minimum safety standards - more than a sixfold improvement" since the paper last examined Utah's dams in 1988. "At that time, officials rated as safe a mere 7 percent of those dams classified as 'high hazard,' defined as those where failure would likely kill people and cause extensive damage." Salt Lake City is downstream from eight unsafe dams.
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FEMA payouts questioned in several states
Sally Kestin and Megan O'Matz of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel continue their investigation into the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a story showing that reports of possible fraud are coming from several states. Officials from Mobile, Ala., to Detroit say the federal government has pumped millions of dollars into their communities, even after officials told FEMA their communities had no significant damage from storms. Members of Congress have called for a Government Accountability Office investigation into FEMA spending as a result of the series of stories, which began in October with an examination of what is now $29.2 million in aid sent to Miami-Dade County following Hurricane Frances, which hit 100 miles to the north of the county.
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Emergency shelter not built to refuge standards
Melanie Payne, Jeff Cull and Steve McQuilkin of the (Fort Myers,Fla.) News-Press used public records to investigate the construction of a 2-year-old civic center that collapsed during Hurricane Charley, endangering the lives of nearly 1,400 people who sought refuge there. Although DeSoto County invested $8 million in the project, "when it came to spending money on things that might have made the building safer and disaster-resistant the county opted not to spend the extra funds." The reporters also found that although the Turner Agri-Civic Center was built to be used as an emergency evacuation shelter, the county "now can't locate weekly engineering reports or key engineering documents to prove that the building's design and materials should have held up under hurricane-force winds."
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Storm claims come into question
Sally Kestin and Megan O'Matz of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel find the federal government "approved $28,000,000 in storm claims" in Miami-Dade County, 100 miles south of where Hurricance Frances landed. The claims were "for new furniture and clothes and thousands of new televisions microwaves, refrigerators and other appliances." The ongoing series of reports reveals the "Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for new cars, dental bills and a funeral, even though the Medical Examiner recorded no deaths from Frances." Others who contributed to the reports include Luis F. Perez, Madeline Baró Diaz and staff researchers John Maines and Barbara Hijek.
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Nichols details role in OKC bombing
Nolan Clay of The Oklahoman uses a detailed statement given by Terry Nichols during secret plea negotiations last year to show Nichols confessed his major role in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He admitted he helped bomber Timothy McVeigh, including siphoning diesel fuel from his GMC pickup to help finish the bomb. Nichols made the admission last year as part of an effort to persuade state prosecutors to drop their request for a death sentence. The negotiations fell through because prosecutors thought he was not forthcoming enough.
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Fire-relief donations spent in variety of ways
Jennifer Vigil of the San Diego Union-Tribune examined donations totaling $30 million to nonprofit organizations and faith-based groups after fires devastated San Diego County in 2003. "One-third went directly to the more than 2,600 families and individuals whose homes were destroyed." Some controversy surrounds what has been done with the rest. "In effect, disaster relief is a well-coordinated industry." But some of the key players have been plagued by problems. The local Red Cross has suffered a decrease in donations after a recent scandal and several charities that haven't met their fund-raising goals. One worker who has experience in rebuilding efforts after disasters, said "he left the fire-relief effort because he believed the current community recovery team leadership is unwilling to listen to those who have more experience with recoveries."
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Fla. county's buildings at high risk in storms
In a piece published the day Hurricane Frances arrived at Brevard County's coast, Matt Reed and John Kelly of Florida Today found that "more than 10 percent of Brevard's homes and businesses — including one in 10 mobile homes — face the highest risk of weather damage. Together, that property is worth more than $800 million, not counting cars, business supplies and personal belongings." Using property and weather data, the paper found many of the mobile homes facing a direct hit by the storm were built under older, weaker construction standards.
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Tenn. tornado sirens leave gaps in coverage
Ian Demsky of The Tennessean plotted the locations of tornado sirens in the Nashville area, finding that the alarms "don't reach many parts of Davidson County, leaving gaps that people might not realize exist." The paper examined areas within a mile of the 70 sirens, which are supposed to carry between a half-mile and a mile and a half. "A map of the siren locations shows that the county's central area has the greatest concentration, and areas such as Bellevue and Joelton have less coverage."
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Flaws, violations could destroy Space Station and occupants
John Kelly and Todd Halvorson of Florida Today reviewed thousands of NASA safety documents to find that "NASA keeps flying crews on the International Space Station despite more than 800 known flaws and safety violations, some of which could destroy the outpost or kill its occupants." The errors are some of the same things that led to the 1986 Challenger accident and destruction of the Columbia in 2003.
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Disaster funds pay for sand, signs, bike paths
Gilbert M. Gaul of The Washington Post obtained Federal Emergency Management Agency records on money given to towns after Hurricane Isabel last fall, finding that "dozens of wealthy beach towns and coastal communities turned to the federal agency after Isabel and received tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded disaster relief. The bulk of the money was used to clear debris and pay for emergency workers' overtime. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, however, were used to repair flagpoles, signs, bike paths and ball fields. And, in what some environmental groups and regulators say is a troubling development, the federal agency is paying for an estimated $15 million worth of sand." The Post got the records through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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67 percent of Red Cross money went to victims
Jennifer Vigil of The San Diego Union-Tribune analyzed records from the local Red Cross chapter to find that its response to victims of wildfires in October 2003 was much stronger than it had been three years ago. "At least 67 percent of funds spent by the local chapter of the American Red Cross during October's wildfires went to fire victims," compared to an audit of the 2001 spending which showed that 10 percent went to victims. Nearly $4 million of the $5.8 million spent was in the form of direct cash assistance or temporary housing. "Development director Bob Morris said the percentage of aid reaching local victims is 85 percent if more than $2 million in noncash donations — such as clothing, food and toiletries — are factored in."
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IRE awards three medals
An astonishing story of brutal war crimes by The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade and a book on the American tax system by David Cay Johnston took top honors in the 2003 IRE Awards. In addition, the Freedom of Information Award went to a team from the (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader for exposing a massive secret pardons program rife with questions and conflicts for the governor.
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Link between mainenance problems, airline fatalities increasing
Ames Alexander, Ted Reed and Ted Mellnik of The Charlotte Observer have a four-part series on airline maintenance and safety, finding that "since 1994, maintenance problems have contributed to 42 percent of fatal airline accidents in the United States, excluding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That's up from 16 perc! ent the previous decade." The paper analyzed federal databases to find that contractors hired by airlines handle an increasing amount of maintenance jobs, and that such contractors operate with less scrutiny from regulators than their airline counterparts.
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Many ferry accidents attributed to human error
Mike McIntire of The New York Times reviewed 1,500 Coast Guard safety records to find that "Staten Island ferries have been involved in dozens of accidents that injured hundreds and were often attributed to human error — chiefly what investigators called inattentiveness, poor judgment or negligence by crew members." The records, obtained under a FOIA request, detailed Coast Guard investigations and disciplinary hearings and suggest that a deadly ferry crash last month should not have come as a complete surprise.
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Flammable foam in club fire found in many household items
G. Wayne Miller and Peter B. Lord of The Providence Journal have a four-part series on the dangers of polyurethane foam, the material that played a major role in the fatal fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island. In addition to being common in upholstered furniture, the substance is also found in "couches, love seats, chairs, recliners, mattresses, mattress pads and mattress toppers, pillows, carpet cushioning and many other places. More than 2 billion pounds of foam enters the U.S. market every year."
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Post-Sept. 11 grant not spent where officials intended
Edward Wyatt and Joseph P. Fried of the New York Times report that "more than a third of the emergency grant money intended to help small businesses in Lower Manhattan survive after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack went to investment firms, financial traders and lawyers." Almost $200 million of the $539 million World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant program went to those businesses, while "far smaller amounts went to restaurants, retailers and other small businesses, many of them dependent on the foot traffic that largely disappeared from Lower Manhattan after the attack." The Times obtained information on the grant from the Empire State Development Corporation through a Freedom of Information request.
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Series of problems contributed to Columbia disaster
Kathy Sawyer of The Washington Post used "official records, transcripts and video from NASA and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, including Freedom of Information Act releases and engineering test results and analyses — and interviews" to tell the story of the Columbia's breakup during re-entry. The article also details efforts by NASA personnel to obtain spy satellite photos of the damaged part of Columbia's wing while the shuttle was still in orbit. "Investigators would blame the entire system as well as a large number of individuals for missed communications going up and down the chain of command as well as for allowing their knowledge of classified imaging capabilities to wither."
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Poor judgment led to fatal nightclub fire
Stephen Kurkjian, Stephanie Ebbert and Thomas Farragher of The Boston Globe unveil the results of their two-month investigation into the fatal nightclub fire at The Station in West Warwick, R.I., revealing "willful code violations" and the fact that the club's owners glued the infamous foam to the walls of the club themselves. "The road to one of the nation's deadliest nightclub fires was marked not so much by great acts of malfeasance but by poor judgments, missed opportunities, administrative sloppiness, and shabby acts of self-interest."
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Shuttle debris could have caused disaster on the ground
John Kelly and Todd Halvorson of Florida Today analyzed the debris trail from the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia, finding that "NASA narrowly skirted what could have been an unprecedented disaster on the ground: Raining debris on thousands of people and homes in suburban Dallas-Fort Worth." Had the craft disintegrated even a minute earlier, the paper's review of field maps and flight trajectory data showed, "nearly three times as many people and homes would have been exposed to falling wreckage." NASA has never studied re-entry debris patterns for the shuttle, even though it does so for unmanned space vehicles.
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