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Teamwork and finding ways to buoy spirits

In dire situations, people come together. That’s the takeaway every time. There are always helpers pulling together communities.

Reporters often specialize in a certain type of coverage – news, politics, justice, features. Photojournalists usually do not. We shoot it all, from portraits to news, wildlife to culture. But reporters and photographers both gain entry to situations we would never experience, and people we would never meet in different careers. It’s thrilling; it’s interesting; it’s different every day. But ... this job can be challenging when we’re faced with the difficult stuff.

Writer Patrik Jonsson lives in the southeast United States, and one of his beats is storm reporting. In a recent Monitor Weekly cover story, he focuses on his coverage of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most destructive storms in current memory. He tells how he and those affected wrestled with the impact. I joined him on multiple journeys to report on Katrina’s aftermath.

I remember when we first got to New Orleans 20 years ago, just a week after Katrina hit the city. Levees had failed, spilling water into neighborhoods filled with iconic homes. Floodwater flowed into our tall rubber boots as we navigated streets turned into rivers. 

Working late into the nights, we’d arrive back at our lodging in Baton Rouge, more than an hour away, exhausted and melancholy.

In these dire situations, people come together. That’s the takeaway every time – the helpers, the pulling together of communities. We look for positives in order to not be dragged down ourselves. 

When we heard a woman was taking a boat to her waterlogged home to rescue her cat, we went along. The mission had a successful outcome not only for her feline, but also for a tiny kitten that I rescued after I found it cowering in a downed tree. It was a small victory that buoyed our spirits.

Patrik and I have worked as a team many times. I enjoy working with him because he always finds wonderful characters to interview. No surprise, he’s quite the character himself. Usually barefoot – even in gritty New Orleans – he prefers to sleep in his old and bedraggled van on a mattress in back. He doesn’t like his smartphone and prefers to wander rather than to use GPS. 

That’s often how the characters are found – by happenstance. Patrik’s methods are a bit unusual, but we always get what we need. In the cover story, he looks back and relates how the city has rebounded with the help of the many characters who call it home.

Oh, and that tiny kitten? I couldn’t bring him home, but I heard he grew to be a big, healthy boy, living with the cat rescuer’s brother.

This column first appeared in the July 28 issue of º£½Ç´óÉñ Weekly. Subscribe today to receive future issues of the Monitor Weekly magazine delivered to your home.