For the assignment Friday, I read the article Old West has nothing on Katrina aftermath by Brian Thevenot Kieth Spera and Doug MacCash. The article, while not as "poetic" as those of Steve Lopez or the New York Times (9/11 coverage), was very well written. It described the chaos that took over New Orleans in the first days after Hurricane Katrina- the rescue effort, the looting, and the confusion as the article's focus.
It was written very descriptively. There were a number of adjectives and quotes that had been written with the "N'Orlans" dialect intact. It gave a very realistic account of the madness that took place through vivid narrative and first person accounts.
I was unaware that store owners had taken up vigilante justice to defend against the looters. The article tells of one man who "patrolled Oak Street near the boarded-up Maple Leaf Bar, a sawed- off shotgun slung over his shoulder" and another man was quoted as saying "'Listen, I was in the Army and I will blow your ass off. We've got enough trouble with the flood.'" I found it very interesting that Wal-Mart looters were not able to be stopped, as the authorities merely watched as they stole TVs and other non-emergency items while the small businesses were being guarded by self-appointed armed guards. Touché small businesses. These descriptions were eye-opening to me. I was unaware that things turned that "otherworldly" down there. The descriptions of a place that seems so strange gave the article some literary power.
The ending of the article is heart wrenching. The writers go back to finish the story they began the article with, the story of a man named Daniel Webber. Webber had watched helpless as his family drowned and then spent hours floating through the muck on a piece of wood. The article ends with the writers telling us that Webber said that he wished he would’ve given up and let himself die. "'I'm not going to make it. I know I'm not.'" These were the last words of the article.
This article was very well written but lacked the beauty of other articles I've recently read.

The article I chose to read and evaluate was “I Saw it All. Then I Saw Nothing.” by Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal.
This is the best article I have ever read about the 9/11 attacks. Possibly the best news article I’ve read in general. Daniel Henninger tells his first hand account of what happened on that September Morning. It was written poetically and beautifully, staying away from standard boring reporter talk. It was an insight into what that day was like for a New Yorker. Everyone talked about how it was hard even for tough New Yorkers, but that meant absolutely nothing to me until I read this account of the attacks. It’s written as a narrative, not as an official statement or whatever. Henninger talks about the buildings that surrounded the area (the tuxedo shop where he was planning to get the tux for his sons weekend wedding, the bakery with the delicious cinnimon raisin croissants) and what they had meant to him and his colleagues before they were swallowed in the tragedy. He told us step by step about he and others running across the bridge from the black wall of smoke. His use of narrative made this story what it was. It was very powerful and made me think more about how horrible the attack was, even now, more than six years later. The article ends with him saying that he still looks to the place where the towers were and that he always sees “the same thing, which was nothing.” Beautifully written and very powerful.