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- <text id=93TT0232>
- <title>
- July 26, 1993: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- July 26, 1993 The Flood Of '93
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBISHER, Page 4
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Like the overflowing waters of the Mississippi, TIME's flood-coverage
- team spread out across the land last week. It was obvious to
- Midwest bureau chief Jon Hull that a major disaster required
- a major effort, and he divvied up a wide range of assignments.
- Correspondent Elizabeth Taylor headed off for Des Moines, Iowa;
- reporter Staci Kramer viewed the damage in St. Louis, Missouri,
- from a helicopter; and St. Paul, Minnesota, reporter Marc Hequet
- examined relief efforts as well as the health impact of contaminated
- water throughout the region. It would be a trying but fulfilling
- week for all.
- </p>
- <p> Hull himself flew from Chicago to St. Louis to rendezvous with
- photographer Bill Campbell, and within an hour of landing, both
- were on a boat in St. Charles County, just north of the city,
- reporting on the calamity firsthand and uncovering the kind
- of anecdotes about human nature that catastrophes seem to inspire.
- Says Hull: "The man who gave us a lift on his boat seemed more
- upset by the fact that the floods had forced him to move back
- with his ex-wife than with the massive destruction itself."
- And in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, prisoners and housewives worked
- side by side tossing sandbags. Hull was impressed by the resilience
- of flood victims, many of whom maintained a spirit of teamwork
- and humor in the face of exhaustion and tragedy.
- </p>
- <p> Meanwhile in Detroit, business correspondent William McWhirter
- was covering the financial aspect of the flood--and he was
- also thinking back to his younger days in Kansas City, Missouri,
- hit hard by the great 1951 floods. Correspondent Taylor was
- collecting some new memories of the flood of 1993. "There was
- an eerie normality to life in Des Moines," she says. "With Guardsmen
- patrolling the empty streets, humidity oppressive and helicopters
- circling in the sky, it seemed like a M*A*S*H episode." TIME's
- photographers--Steve Liss, Ron Haviv, Najlah Feanny and Fritz
- Hoffmann--were scouring the area to capture such scenes on
- film.
- </p>
- <p> Back in Chicago, senior correspondent Madeleine Nash, reporter
- Julie Grace and photo researcher Mary Thompson were monitoring
- developments and keeping the members of TIME's team in contact
- with one another. Perhaps the most dramatic contribution of
- all came from photographer Liss, a pilot. Ignoring the misgivings
- of police at the airport, he flew a small aircraft through a
- thunderstorm from Des Moines to Jefferson City, Missouri, to
- take the photo that graces this week's cover.
- </p>
- <p> Elizabeth Valk Long
- </p>
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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