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Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 was another disaster where Journal teams arrived early on the scene 鈥� actually several scenes because of the size of the storm and damage. They remained on site for weeks.

鈥淚 remember reporters and photographers having to sleep in the rental cars on the freeway because the whole town was flooded,鈥� Donn Friedman, a former Journal assistant managing editor, said.

鈥淚t keeps getting worse,鈥� was the six-column headline across the top of the Sept. 1, 2005, sa国际传媒官网网页入口 front page. The story, by reporter Jeff Jones, described helicopters unloading flood refugees onto Interstate 10 near a New Orleans suburb, where ambulances and buses waited to take them to hospitals or emergency shelters. Journal photographer Richard Pipes鈥� photo captured a helicopter hovering over a freeway covered with thousands of refugees below. 

鈥淢ATAIRIE, La. 鈥� Waves of military helicopters landed, and then clawed back into the sky from the green grass just off Interstate 10 on Wednesday, delivering load after load of refugees from the flooded heart of New Orleans,鈥� read the start of the story.

鈥淭housands of people with soggy clothes and sad eyes covered the freeway at this evacuation transfer point just west of the hurricane-wrecked city waiting for bus rides to shelters elsewhere. 鈥�

鈥淐orey, a two year-old boy, slept on a filthy pillow on the gray concrete median, a blue toy car peeking from his pocket.鈥� 

The boy鈥檚 grandmother, Irene Bell, told the Journal the family鈥檚 home was destroyed, and 鈥渢he family walked through several feet of water to make it to a rescue helicopter.鈥�

Meanwhile, a second story on the page titled 鈥淣M disaster medical team at Superdome,鈥� also by Jones, described a cellphone interview with Byron Piatt, a member of the 35-person New Mexico team.

At the time of the interview, the specially trained medical unit was 鈥渢he only team at the dome providing acute medical care to the group of dome refugees that could number as many as 25,000,鈥� according to the story.

Piatt said talking to Jones was the first time he had telephone communication from outside the dome since he arrived days earlier. 

鈥淲hen the team rolled into New Orleans, it had to dodge downed powerlines and debris to reach the Superdome," Piatt said. "As they arrived, water started rising around the vehicles. We had to make a mad dash to get the vehicles inside the facility and we became an island.鈥�

Piatt said the people they were treating included many who, after more than a day of waiting, 鈥渨ere plucked from the rooftops of their flood-demolished homes 鈥� or from the limbs of trees 鈥� by rescue helicopters.鈥�

New Mexico sent other rescue teams to hurricane-ravaged areas as well, including members of the Bernalillo County Sheriff鈥檚 Office, whom a Journal staffer accompanied on some of their rounds. 

Journal staffers remained in the area for several weeks, sometimes traveling to other communities devastated by Katrina.