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.