Last Updated: May 31, 2000
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One of three winning stories by Mike Jacobs of the Grand Forks (N.D.)
Herald that won the editorial writing category of the 1998 ASNE Distinguished
Writing Awards.
Monday, April 21, 1997
Good morning.
This is the second day after disaster.
For the Herald, the disaster grew worse - unbelievably - when we learned
our newsroom, circulation and finance departments and Handy Mail, a subsidiary
business, were destroyed in the fire. For those of us who write and edit
the Herald, this blow is a cruel one. Our remodeled building was especially
fine, the work of Schoen and Associates, and the envy of newspaper people
who saw it.
The physical structure is only part of the loss. The past was lost,
too. The Herald's archives were destroyed. For decades, librarians here
have clipped the newspaper, recording the comings and goings of the mean
and the mighty, the haughty and the humble. For decades, beginning with
W.P. Davies, editors of the Herald have kept a file of important dates
in the community's history. Jack Hagerty kept it up, and I have tried to
maintain it. Some issues may be salvaged on computer or on microfilm at
UND. But everything else is gone. Unrecoverable. In my office was a file
of newspaper etiquette, ranging from proper dress to proper use of language,
that M.M. Oppegard compiled. It, too, is gone.
The Herald, however, is not gone.
We are working tonight in the public school in Manvel, a community whose
people have taken us in, offering everything from food and lodging to bed
sheets and telephones. This is our second emergency newsroom. The flood
chased us from our first, on the UND campus. We are deeply grateful to
the people of Manvel, and to officials of the university, as well.
Our gratitude, and the gratitude of the entire community, must go out
to so many other people. We at the Herald learned how beneficial it is
to live close to a major military installation, as firefighters from Grand
Forks Air Force Base, joining the city fire department and others, struggled
to contain the blaze that destroyed our place. Their efforts failed, but
not because they didn't try.
The city learned, too, what an invaluable institution the National Guard
is. Guardsmen showed up in my neighborhood when the emergency dikes were
laid. And they were in Grand Forks Sunday, when I left the city, directing
traffic, protecting property, holding down the fort.
These are only two of the public institutions that have served us well
in this crisis, and will serve us well in our recovery.
The loss at the Herald is not limited only to the past. Much potential
was lost. Ryan Bakken lost the text of a book he is writing about the incredible
winter we survived together. The text was in his computer; a printout was
in the briefcase I abandoned on my way out of the building.
Past and potential. All lost in the present.
But the Herald has begun to rebuild. Against large odds, we have succeeded
twice in producing a daily edition of this institution, which has lived
in, loved and wrestled with Grand Forks for more than a century.
This is Day Two of our life after the disaster; it is Year 118 of our
enduring relationship with Grand Forks.
In the days to come, this newspaper will discuss what must be done to
rebuild our town. One part is to help us keep our voice. That is what we
have succeeded in doing; it is what we will strive to do, tomorrow and
in the time to come. Mike Jacobs is editor of the Grand Forks Herald.
