Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Covering Hurricanes: Before, During and After the Storm

By John Pope

Lessons from a newsroom that anticipates disaster every summer.

Reporting Natural Disasters

By Manoucheka Celeste

A Haitian-born journalist and media scholar advises educators on how to equip the journalists of the future with the cultural awareness to effectively and sensitively report on natural disasters. 

Hurricane Katrina: Five Years On

On the fifth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, DartCenter.org highlights content from our website that is relevant to journalists. More »

Home on the Water

By Kael Alford

In a personal journey that is also a passionate elegy for an imperiled environment and traditional way of life, documentary photographer Kael Alford has built a bridge home from the wars she’s covered.

Oil and Water: A Conversation with Kael Alford

By Donna DeCesare

Donna DeCesare speaks with Kael Alford about her evolution as a photojournalist and the connections between her efforts to document the oil-driven war in Iraq and the impact of unfolding natural disasters in the Gulf of Mexico on fragile Louisiana communities.

The Deadly Choices at Memorial

By Sheri Fink, Paolo Pellegrin, Stephen Engelberg, Susan White, Ilena Silverman, Aaron Retica, David Ferguson, and Charles Wilson

This gripping narrative, which exposes the decision-making that left 18 patients dead after injections of painkillers and sedatives in a flooded hospital in New Orleans, is a winner of the 2010 Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma. It was originally published by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine in August, 2009.

The Story Behind a 2010 Dart Award Winner

By Sheri Fink

In a Katrina-flooded hospital, doctors injected patients with painkillers and sedatives. Were they easing their pain or speeding their deaths? In a 2009 interview, ProPublica reporter Sheri Fink, winner of the 2010 Dart Award, explains how she pursued the story.

Katrina: Two Years Later

This week marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. More »

The Lower 9th Ward: "Desolation Row"

The Independent's Andrew Buncombe visits New Orleans 18 months after Hurricane Katrina and finds that the city "has barely begun to recover." More »

"An Entire City, Gone"

Covering the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

By Elizabeth Aguilera and Chris Walker

Denver Post reporter Elizabeth Aguilera and Post photojournalist Craig Walker are in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. Elizabeth talked to fellow Post reporter Amy Herdy and provided this first-person report, sent Thursday, Sept. 8.

"Words Fail..."

Covering the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

By Penny Cockerell

I arrived on Monday afternoon and spent about a week covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the outlying areas of New Orleans.