The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "hurricane" ...
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The Deadly Choices at Memorial
Reporter Sheri Fink takes a close look at the course of events at Memorial Medical Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The hospital was "cut off from the world" and doctors took drastic measures, some admitting to injecting gravely ill patients to quicken their death.
Tags: Katrina; hurricane; hospital; medical center; Louisiana; New Orleans; flood;
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Charity or Con?
One hundred victims of Hurricane Katrina were supposed to have their homes rebuilt because of a multi-million dollar charity, but families were left homeless and the money was unaccounted. The charity, "100 Homes, 100 Days," was a partnership of national charities like the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and local charities, collecting more than $3 million.
Tags: homeowner; hurricane relief; donation; donate; natural disaster; Home Depot; Pascagoula;
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CDC Buries Toxic Warnings
"The Centers for Disease Control suppressed repeated warnings from one of its top scientists, raising questions about whether the CDC bowed to pressure from FEMA to conceal the long-term health risks of formaldehyde in the trailers it distributed to hurricane victims."
Tags: Dr. Christopher De Rosa; Ellmore Ohio; beryllium; health threat; poisoning; toxicology; environmental medicine;
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The CDC, FEMA and formaldehyde
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people who moved into trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency almost immediately complained about the air quality in them. As complaints mounter, FEMA had an agent of the center for Disease Control conduct a test of the formaldehyde found inside the trailers. Joaquin Sapien explains why it took more than two years for the government to admit that formaldehyde levels in many of the trailers were high enough to increase the risk of caner and repiratory illnesses.
Tags: formaldehyde; Federal Emergency Management Agency; FEMA; Hurricane Katrina; Center for Disease Control; CDC; housing; FEMA trailers; air quality; environment; health
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Insurers Criticized for New Rate Models
This story investigates property-casualty insurers' use of controversial computer models created by various modeling firms; the computer models use complex data to project potential losses from hurricanes and other natural disasters. But investigative reporting revealed the models can be flawed in their design, in their assumptions or in their application by insurers.
Tags: housing; rate increases; computer models; potential losses; property insurance; premiums
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NOAH Housing Program Investigation
WWL-TV's 50 part investigation into a non-profit City of New Orleans agency revealed a post-Hurricane Katrina house gutting program designed for the poor and elderly may have been a scheme to funnel money to contractors. The investigation showed homes the non-profit claimed to have gutted using federal dollars, but the work was never done. Through extensive research, the WWL-TV team also found significant links between the highest paid contractors and the executive director of the non-profit. And one contractor was even linked to the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.
Tags: house demolition; contractors; federal funds; charity fraud; property owners; non-profits
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Hurricane Giveaway
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)kept tens of millions of dollars worth of new household supplies meant for Katrina victims stored in FEMA warehouses for two years. In early 2008, the agency decided the items were no longer needed and declared them surplus, even though agencies that help hurricane victims told CNN they desperately needed those types of items. The supplies ended up with federal and state agencies, but not Katrina victims. The investigation revealed the groups that are helping rehouse Katrina victims did not know these items existed. Furthermore, CNN discovered a serious disconnect between FEMA and the states, as well as within states themselves. Louisiana's surplus agency passed on taking any of the surplus items because the director said he was never told they were still needed. Mississippi, on the other hand, took the supplies and gave them to state prisons and other agencies, but not to non-profits helping Katrina victims. Those non-profits told CNN they never knew these items were available.
Tags: Federal Emergency Management Agency; Hurricane Katrina; non-profit organizations; Louisiana; Mississippi; natural disasters
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Losing Louisiana
The Times-Picayune found that over the next 100 years the natural sinking of soft marsh soils could result in making New Orleans an island. Hundreds of miles of Louisiana coastline would be wiped out and sea-level will rise over time as the soil falls.
Tags: flooding; marshes; delta; Mississippi River; Hurricane Katrina; wetland; sediment;
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Prison Cover-UP
Hurrican Rita was on her way. But prisoners in the federal penitentiary in Beaumont were not evacuated and lived in some horrendous conditions. Prison officials lied to prisoners' relatives and the news media, first by saying prisoners had been moved to safer quarters and then by saying conditions inside the prison were fine. The prisoners' accounts were later verified by prison guards.
Tags: prison; inmate abuse; hurricane rita; inmates in jeopardy; poor treatment; negligence
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Storm World
"In the wake of Katrina, the book follows the careers of leading scientists on either side of the argument over the relationship between hurricanes and global warming, tracing how the media, special interests, politics, and the weather itself have skewed and amplified what was already a fraught scientific dispute."
Tags: global warming; hurricane; Katrina; environment; science; politics; media;