Let the people you interview help tell the story

Let the people you interview help tell the story

Journalism history is full of stories about reporters who were relentless in their pursuit of stories that were difficult to develop. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, for example, faced difficulties on many fronts, but eventually broke the news story about the Watergate scandal during the 1970s, which prompted the beginning of the end for then President of the United States Richard Nixon.

I remember exactly where I was and what I felt on September 11, 2001, when two aircraft struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, NY. At that time, I worked for a design engineering magazine and the editors decided to look for stories that involved search and rescue equipment used at the scene in the days after September 11, when they were still pulling people out of the rubble alive.

I had no idea where to start researching the story. But I remember setting up a small television set on the desk in my office, so I could monitor what was happening in the world and the ongoing rescue operations being conducted in NYC. There were lots of stories about rescue efforts being conducted by police and firefighters. Some of them were pretty grim.

I started looking for search and rescue organizations in the NYC area. I found a few and started calling them. Most of the time I got busy signals, so I’d have to call back later. No voicemail.

This went on for a few days. Eventually, I did reach a Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) command center for search and rescue operations. I had to call back a few more times until they had someone available. It was 10:00 pm at night when I finally spoke with Cynthia, a veteran police officer and search manager at the World Trade Center. She explained to me that her search and rescue teams had to use several different approaches to find people because the rubble was spread over 14 acres. The way the buildings fell made search and rescue more difficult because there were many layers to the rubble, with large flat pieces of concrete stacked on top of each other to a height of seventy feet.

Cynthia explained that search dogs were taught to bark when they found a victim and lay down when they find a corpse, but during that operation the dogs did not behave like they normally did, perhaps because there were thousands of victims in the rubble pile. Also, the rubble was jagged and not conducive to the dogs laying down on it.

A second approach involved using thermal imaging cameras to detect the heat of the living survivors trapped in the rubble. But there were so many fires burning in the rubble that the thermal imaging cameras did not work because there were too many hotspots created by fires.

When I asked Cynthia what search and rescue technology was effective, she said a listening device had been used. The device’s sensors “hear” tiny vibrations below 20 Hz through concrete. So I wrote my story on the design of the listening device, its six sensors, and the devices unusual cable that was particularly appropriate for this search and rescue operation.

I had to make several more calls to find the listening device manufacturer, then make even more calls to get to the right engineer who designed the product. The engineer explained to me that in order to weave in between the layers of concrete, the device’s cable had to be extremely flexible. Key to the flexibility was the cable’s 14 wires, some of which were contra-helically wound, with the inner wires twisting in the opposite direction of the outer wires. This cable design, and its unique capabilities, became the focal point of my design story. Getting to this point in my story required several days and dozens of phone calls. And a relentless attitude to do what it took to get the story. Several times during development of the story I felt like just giving up and moving on to a different story. But I’m glad I didn’t give up on that story. It taught me things. And it was an important story to have published in the magazine.

Cynthia added that the device ended up helping them to find four police, fire, and rescue responders.