Killer Tornadoes
Orlando Sentinel
On Friday, February 2, in the early morning, two tornadoes struck northwestern Lake and central Volusia counties with devastating force. The destruction was over in a minute, but it wiped out whole neighborhoods.
We blew out our coverage for the February 3 and February 4 issues of the newspaper. I was designing regionals on Friday, but Saturday, I came in to work on A-side, and these pages fell into my lap.
The first is a story about the little mementos that the tornadoes left behind, undestroyed. A look into the details of what remains of people’s lives, in the face of so much destruction, is really moving, and it was a hard page to design, emotionally. You have to step back, in a way, and let the photos tell the story… I couldn’t tell it myself.
The second was a story about the frantic search for survivors, the massive rescue effort that had to be mobilized so early in the morning to have any hope of saving lives. We included 9-1-1 transcripts from victims, and the photos show the aftermath of the damage in a way that the story can’t.
It’s not easy covering events like this. It was difficult, after being surrounded by it, not getting emotionally involved, and I’m sure I let my guard down. But I think these pages, these photos, really speak for themselves.