- Lee Zurik
- Matt Dempsey
- Omaya Sosa
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires caused record damage to U.S. cities in 2017. These panelists — veterans of some of the worst storms in history, Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Katrina — will cover resources to help you dig into the problems left in the disaster's wake, including disaster relief efforts, using databases and mapping to show the extent of damage in certain areas and neighborhoods, and how to follow the money.
Natural disasters are tests for your newsroom. How well it knows your community. What are the vulnerable points?
You maybe can't predict when thery're going to happen, but you know they're going to happen.
- Floodplain shapefiles
- dam conditions, ACOE ratings
- NFIP claims (by blockgroup/county/community)
- buyout data
- rain data from NOAA
- Number of shelters/shelter plan
- Shapefiles of previous fires
- WUI shapefiles from University of Wisconsin (wildland-urban interface)
- Raster maps to see changes in vegetation
- Check building codes to see allowed development, compare with Firewise guidelines
- Lots of maps (fault, hazard, landslide)
- Realtime feeds
- Historical data
- Historical path data
- Historical strength and stats
- Evacuation plans and procedures
- Historical trends and locations
- Siren locations, repairs, tests, usage plan
- Building codes
- Local planning committee
- Tier II chemical inventories
- ECHO (epa data search)
- OSHA
- Rtk.net.RMP "Right to know network" Risk management plan data.
- Plows
- Plowing plans
- OEM
- Assessor data
- Building codes
- Disaster plans
- Academic studies
Omaya Sosa
No power, water, internet, cellphone, food, ports and airports closed, almost no media outlets (1 radio station), most roads blocked, govt. collapsed, no official data.
Local journalists were also victims.
Temporary newsroom.
Back to basics + creative use of technology = great, high-impact, necessary stories.
"We had to move on the ground everywhere" to interview people. No way to make a phone call.
How did it start? Common sense. 16 deaths being reported by government didn't make sense. Interviewed two doctors who had 9 casualties in 1 day.
On the ground sources. Some official sources, much later, not very useful.
Other sources: Missing persons reports, radio, community leaders, social media.
Took picture of picture on cellphone because no way to send it.
Started with basic spreadsheet. Added to it as much as possible.
Were able to prove the government wrong with data.
Online form for people to report deaths they knew about.
Get to know your community. Get to know the details of your systems. Don't lose perspective, the data isn't the story. Marry data with reality (deaths listed in hospitals when people died at home). Humanize the data.
Lee Zurik
Long-term, after disasters. The bigger the disaster, the longer the money's going to be spent.
- Check registers before and after
- Salary and overtime
- Business corporations
- Campaign finance (also before/after)
What I'm looking for:
- Who's making the most money
- Do campaign contributions = contracts?
Data only tells some of the story. Will lead to other documents, invoices, build your own dataset.
Case study — Plaquemines Parish Schools
Took years to rebuild after Katrina. Used check register to build Pivot Table, found most money went to one contractor, requested invoices. Construction management company.
Invoice said they spent 200 hours in a month to maintain project files.
Federal procurement data system has reports on disasters.
Community Block Grant money goes from federal to state, how to keep track of it after it goes to the state?
FEMA appeals drags out?
Check register?
Fast moving disaster, good working relationships?
Data on how disasters affect undocumented or other off-the-grid people?
Lee Zurik is an IRE Board Member and Evening Anchor and Chief Investigative Reporter at WVUE-TV in New Orleans. He also serves as Director of Investigations for Raycom Media. He's been honored with local and national awards including the Peabody, duPont-Columbia, and IRE. Before Hurricane Katrina, Lee was a sports anchor. He taught himself to be an investigative reporter by reading IRE resources (books and tipsheets) and attending nine IRE conferences. @leezurik
Matt Dempsey is the data reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Matt previously worked for the Arizona Republic and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has worked on projects involving wildfires, state pensions, and the chemical industry. His passion for public records frequently leads to disclosure of data from all levels of government. His series Chemical Breakdown won the 2016 IRE Innovation award and the National Press Foundation's "Feddie" award. @mizzousundevil
Omaya Sosa is an award winning journalist, entrepreneur, and adventurer with 20 years of experience. She is co-Founder of Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism. Her recent work on the underreported death toll of hurricane Maria has been republished and quoted by more than a dozen media outlets. Omaya is also co-Founder of NotiCel.com digital news outlet sold in 2016. Before her digital media life she worked at El Nuevo Día newspaper and radio news station Red 96. @omayasosa
Description and speakers from official schedule