NBC News: Coverage of Hurricane Katrina

When it was clear that a major hurricane was headed for New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region, NBC News committed major resources to reporting on the storm. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and a team of journalists headed to the region on August 27, 2005. As the storm blasted the city on August 29, Williams reported from inside the New Orleans Superdome, and with his crew captured the harrowing scenes of evacuees seeking shelter—as pieces of the roof of the dome began to disappear. On the following day Williams conducted the first interview with FEMA director Michael Brown. In the days that followed, NBC News continued to report on all angles of events related to Hurricane Katrina. Crews secured visual documentation of the storm’s devastation. Reporters covered disintegrating social conditions in the city of New Orleans. Williams and others posed difficult questions to government officials, questions dealing with issues of race and class as well as with natural disasters and emergency services. Lisa Myers followed the FEMA stories with more than a dozen exclusive reports. NBC’s commitment continued in the aftermath of the storm with ten unique reports in a series entitled After the Storm: The Long Road Back. Carl Quintanilla and Martin Savidge took viewers into towns along the Gulf Coast, towns often ignored by the media. In Home Away from Home, NBC offered a series dealing with evacuees throughout the country. Executive producer John Reiss, senior producer Edward Deitch, Williams, and the entire staff of NBC Nightly News exemplified the highest levels of journalistic excellence in reporting on Hurricane Katrina. For their efforts, a Peabody Award goes to NBC News.