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16 Fort~lIlns Coloradoan August 1976 ..;. i. 8)' JERR\;' SHARPNACK Coloradoan Ma.n8.glng Editor A newspaper staff, like any other organIzaUon. needs to do lIome planning for what lies ahead. UnUke other orga.n1Z.aUona, however, it haJJ some buUt-in Umlla. How, for Instance, do you "plan" tor a North. em Aotel Itre that took a 11te? The trouble v.1th dlS8.Ilters Is that nobody ever tellll you when they are going to happen, How do you plan tor a MlG-year nood that suddenly roat"lI down a canyon in your own back yard? You don't, This la on. the-job trll1n1ng, but It you have a good. alert staff, and good guidance as the story developlI, things fall into place. Not everythIng, but mCMlt. Th18 Is how the Coloradoan covered the Big ThompllOn flood as It developed. SATURDAY, JULY Sl 9p.m.: The.usualskeleton crew wal on duty, In tha case Managing Edttor Jerry Sharpnack, AI8(stant News Editor Ron Norlyukl. Sports Editor Mike Chapman, Reporter Stephanle Brown and. In and out, photographer Joe Novotny. Thinp were falling Into pla~ quite well. Our ma1n story for sunday's paper was a natural - the con- troversial athlet1c dlrector at Colorado State Unlvenllty had resigned. We had had the story In plenty ot Ume, and gotten some quotes from CSU President A. R. Chamberlain to strengthen It. It was a three.column story, with a mug shot, upper right on Page 1. The page also carried, upper left, a Colorado Day edItorial extolling the v1rtUes of the state in general and Fort Colllrul In parUcular, The sports edItor, on a midnight deadUne, was moving his storie. along unhurriedly. Reporter Brown WIL8 fln1Ahed with the. police beat and her stories were in. NothIng much was going on. Except the police monitor. The sta.tt normally keeps halt an ear on the monitor (radiO) through the day. But about 9 p.m., It became three.quartera of an ear. The tone changed; there was a senae of urgency on the sherltf's trequency. 9:S().10 p.m.: Something was going on. DepuUea were talking about "wamlng people up the canyon." Which canyon! Poudre? Blg Thompson? It obvIously was a gully-washer of a ralnstorm. Unusual tor that area, but not critical, surely. Canyon fioodlng over the years has been rare and not overly exciting. Northern Colorado, after all, 1a baalcally a high plaln8 desert. A ,tory on high water In the Loveland area leeme.d In order. A "hold" was put on Page 1; the sporta editor was told to push through h1a remaln1ng pages to the production department early. We wanted everyth1ng out and done except for Page 1. The news deadline was 10 p.m. It would be broken. 10:30-11 p.m.: There obvlously was big trooble in BIg Thompson. Deputies were talking over their radios about having seen BOmeone noating down the nver. Reporter Brown had lruItlnctively gone to the SherUf's Ottlce, but she waa not learning anything more there than we were hearing on the monitor. She was told to come In, make some phone ~alls to people In poudre Canyon, which at that time allo appeared to be In bad shape. But the people In Poudre whom we could reach dtdn't know what waa happenIng, except that It was "raln1ng like hetl" and "too dark to see anything. " 11-11:30 p.m.: Photographer Novotny was told to get out fast to the clCMle8t place IlOmethlng wu going on, and get back fast SO we coold have a photo. That turned out to be Ted'8 Place, the entrance to Poudre Canyon, where a roadblock had been set up. ... -- r-;;;r :..',. _ _ I" ,1>':':, . ,,'l'iJ' ". -. ~. t.. i '.i~>~", l' ." .--" .." ,.;~t." >~..,,,, ~ _,., '--\!l~'MI .~ ~'T'< _~. ~:: -~-t,., -. '~;:'\;.r. J~~ :;Js.: ,'~~ .-~~ -~,..: ~ .~:~J~ ~~ r<it~ /" :'-~ ~ -.... _" WI-~ "I"!' . ". - '.... . ~ . .1 , ~ .J -: .~ :17 &-~:;. These two photos show some of the damage in ~ist Conyon - The 'other' canyons also hit by flooding .. While the Big Thompson River was rampaging down the canyon July 31 and Aug. I, other areas were getting heavy rain as well. though oot nearly as much. Yet, there was damage. private access roads. buildings and several cars. In both JUst and Poudre canyons, 8treams overflowed and roads and some property were hU. Road crews constructed pioneer roads (or temporary use, and plans were made to gravel these, as well as widen them, so that school buses would be able to travel the routes by the Urne school resumed the last week In August. . The Rtst Canyon Creek, which runs alongside the road, normally Is not much more than a trickle. formed rlVt'rs that ......ashed down from the cUffs. The Poudre Canyon road (HIgh. way 14) had only minor damage, and was quickly cleared of debris. There were several rockslldes that covered or partially covered the road, but damage to the highway Itself was minimal. At least one house was washed away in the Poudre, as were several private bridges: some private ae. cpss roads also were damaged. The area affected in the Poudre Canyon was a stretch of about 10 mJles. Both Rist arid Poudre canyons are northwest of Fort Collins, and the site of dozens of private resIdences. In Rist Canyon, whIch winds from Bellvue to Stove Prairie, a four-mIle stretch of road was wiped out., with the damage at its worst between Davis Lane and the mouth of the tanyon, There also was damage to some In Poudre Canyon, the much larger Poudre River actually caused comparatively IItUe damage: more ~ was caused by newly r.,;f112-Lf'~ ~'-'~-1 rl t ~,:~ /i ~l ~ ~_(iJ'( I'. BW Ron Stephanie Katherine Jake .. Joe . Matt Jones Nortyukl 8roMl Ken1atoo Henshaw Novotny Jacobe .....'...,..... .,.,.,.",.,.,~"""";.,.,."""",,,.,., ,.,.z.,.".,.,.,."'......... ( ~ Jerry ShazpnaCk People In the producuon department, where the pagel of Sunday's paper were being put together, earller had been told t.o remove an AP story below the athleUc director story, and to move the latter down further on Page 1. We were planning, withOut havtng seen It, a four-column picture at the top of the page. MIdnight (nnaI deadllne): Brown was now trying to wrUe her story trom monltor reporta. We learned quite a bit from the radio, but It wal dlajOlnted and hard to tit together. But It got done by 12:20 a.m. In the meanUme, Novotny returned with h1I four-column pIcture. 12:40 a.m.: AP story came In on the Teletype v.1th some addtUonallnformat1on. We placed It next to our story, subsUtutlng paragraphs as approprlate. The story was a IltUe choppy, but It can1ed more hard news than before. The preu started at 1 a.m. - nve minutes late. SUNDAY, AVO, I, COLORADO DAY Radio stations reporting 19 unconfirmed deaths. Reporter Jake HeMhaw, whose regu1arbeat Is the university, WIL8 sent to Loveland - It Wall obvlOWl now that Big ThompllOn was the d.lsaeter area, not Poudre. Novotny had been told the night before to get into the area Urst thing In the momlng. HeMhaw a1ao Wall told he would be working Monday, which had been scheduled as a day oft tor him. He was joined In Loveland. by Brown. Her regular beat II the Poudre school system. Part-time photographer Matt Jacobe _ who would have a tull-tlme job the relit of the week _ leamed ot the fiooding when he WIL8 In Boulder, and went dlNctly to Loveland to join the other staffers. The extent ot the damage and an accurate death toll were Impossible to determine. It waa sUll ratntng heavily In the canyon and imposslble to get there by land or air.' We had talked Saturday nlght ot increasing our 22. page Monday paper by two pages. On looklng at the situation later. we decided to Increaae the sl%e by six pages in order to have room tor aU of the extra photoa and stories that were developing. By Sunday aftemoon, U was evident that a major diluter W8.ll taking place. The AP photographer trom the bureau In Denver had come Into the Coloradoan to begln the tranlmlulon of the tlrat of what would be about three dozen photol. These phOto. were trans- mUted to newspapen throughout the United States. MONDAY, AUO. ! Virtually everyone on the news staff w8.lllnvolved In the coverage of the flood. Asslatant News Editor NOrlyukl was brought in to help edit copy; Monday would have been h18 day oft, which allO was the clUe with Novotny. [ News Editor Bm Janel coordinated statf efforts as the ltory rapidly developed. and photos began pouring in from our two photographers, plus thole from the AP photographer. The photographers had been able to get far enough I up into th.e canyon to get some startUng photos of the flood damage, plu.shote of evacuee. aa they arrived" ...:,:.;~:.:+ 'laheveled and In ahock. at what became the rel1ef center In Loveland. A declalon wu made early In the morning to in- crease the newspaper's preu run by 2,000 extra copies. The death count began to rise aa bod1es waahed down the river and were recovered; the toll had reached 117 by preIS time. There was no Identtncat10n Of the victims; theIr clothes had been ripped away and their bodies badly battered. Many penKl1'lll trom other departments of the Coloradoan ted the newsroom with tips and auch tnformatlon as the names of people they knew Uvlng or vtsltlng In the canyon. News stalf teamwork worked. Sporta Editor Chapman wrote a story on a young man who had been up the canyon, but got out safely. Women's Editor Barbara Allbrandt did a ttrst. person account of coming down Poudre Canyon sunday momlng, unaware at ttrst there had been a I flood. Police Reporter Gary GWen, who had joined the Q>loradoan only the week before, wrote on a couple who had 10.1. their home. Summer Intern MarcIa Walford handled a wide variety of aaalgn- ments. Henshaw wrote the main hard newl of the diaaater as he was to continue doing. ' TUESDA\;', AUG.! The Tuesday edition was kept "le<>e," that Is, a large percentage ot the space was kept open tor news. Newspapera normally use about 60 per cent of their space tor advertlaing, with the remainder tor news: th18 raUo WlU being reversed. Jacobs helicoptered (thanks to Army) into hIgher reaches of Big ThomplOn, getting the f1rat photos from thIs area from ground. level, plus aer1all, Focus Edttor Katherine KenIlton and Women's Ed1tor Allbrandt volunteered to write addlUonal teature stories; wbh granted. Early Tuesday, it was learned that all copies of Monday's Coloradoan had been IOld. It wu dl!clded to print an addltlona18,OOO caple. of Monday's ed1Uon on Tuesday moming. By Wednesday, moat ot thele were gone,too. Paul Harvey had reported on the radto that an in- fant waa seen stranded on a rock In the middle of the Big Thompson, refelTing to It as a modem "Baby Moses." Story WaB widespread, but false. We \a\d. t.M rumor to rest on Page 1. Flr8t stories on state and federal aid for vicUrns were publllhed. WEDNESDAY, AUG, 4, OUr biggest paper of the week, with 48 pages. All of Page 1 again was turned over to fiood coverage. Gettlng an accurate .death toll was extremely dlt. f1cult, with fIgUres fluctuating all over the place. A Loveland mortuary was to have the only really ot. flctal count, and then it abdicated that role. At th1a point, estimates ranged from 711 ot nearly a hundred _ with speculaUon that another hundred bodies had yet to be found. We generally stayed on the con- servative s1de In reporting the count. coverage Plans were made for a four.wheel.drlve vehicle drive down the canyon trom Estes Park, for photographer and writer. Decided to send outdoor columnist Earl WUson, who knows the territory and ta a good reporter. Wilson was one of two "oulalde" perseM recruited to help us with coverage: the other was Betty Woodworth, retired Focus editor, now a correspondent. WhUe nearly everyone on the start waa Involved in the flood story, 11Ie, Incongruoualy, went on. A back. to-schoolsecUon SCheduled Aug. 18 became a problem since schools reporter Brown was occupied with the flood. It W8.ll decided to turn the section over to Mary Thmosa, who normally Ipl1ta her time as a proofreader and edltortal aas1atant (filing, clipping, etc.). She haa done some feature work and rewrite - here was her chance to be a reporter. THURSDA\;', AlIG, II Situation setU1ng down. Main stories now concemed the continulng search tor and ldenutlcaUon of bodies, the clean.up operaUon and planning for rebuUdlng. An editorial praised the efforts of the hundreds of volunteer workers. At this point, the Coloradoan had carried 87 stories about the flood, and 58 photoa. THE DAYS ."HEAD WIth the pace cooled, there was some time for refiection, Ume to reaaaesa our coverage of the past tew days and to look ahead. It was about this time that talk ot a special edlUon began. Should It be done? What would it contaIn? How many pages should It be? Should we use color? What about coat? What ahould it seU tor? How would sales be handled? At a meeting ot Coloradoan execuUves, the auggestion was made, and una.n1mously accepted, that regard1esa of the coat ot the edtUon, the Coloradoan would receIve none of the proceeds. One hundred per cent ot the revenue would be contributed to dlauter relIet, and the Coloradoan would absorb the coat of printing. Th1a was not a .ltuation tor profit- taking. Eventually, the decision on the edition was "go," and work began on the details. WIth virtually no way to esUmate the demand for the edmon, it was decided to print the 18-page ediUon by advance order; early e.Urnates on' sales tijl,d ranged from less than 000 to more than 8,000. The estimates proved far oft - the total would be In ex. cen of 18,000. Reporters were aBsigned special storles and up' dates for the edtUon, and editon pored over the more than 800 photos that had been taken In the course of flood coverage. Editors looked tor pIctures that would "best tell the story" In the IImlted space available. WhUe the 16 pageS were to contain no advertising, we had material enough to fm a hundred pages. Meanwhile, the after-the-tact flood coverage continued, and, along with it, the grim body count. For the news staft at the Coloradoan, the Big Thompson fiood ......as a gnat news story, trom the professional point of view. And there W8.1 a teeltng of pride In the role that each played In relaying the story to the reader. Th1I1a their job, and, as one reporter W8.1 to say, "ThIs la what we get paid tor." But there la no rejol.cing In a story llke thts. Reporters and editors and photographers are human beings no leu 80 than those human helnp who died so violently that nlght In the canyon or thole they left behind to mourn. Newspaper people are not the makers of the news, only the bearers of it, whether the news be bad or good or somewhere In between. Profeealonally, the reporter separates h1msell from the event; per. sonally, he la no different than anyone else.