When New Orleans staff photographer Gerald Herbert heard reports of a tornado touchdown 50 miles away, outside of New Orleans, he jumped into his truck and headed out of town to get a head start on coverage of the damage. Within minutes he changed direction when another twister touched down inside New Orleans itself.
Over the next few hours, Herbert was a one man journalism machine, filing to photos, video, text, radio and even securing dramatic UGC.
Lisa Carruth hugs her granddaughter Juayonna Carruth after a tornado tore through the New Orleans East neighborhood in New Orleans, Feb. 7, 2017.
AP PHOTO / GERALD HERBERT
Gregory Rugon climbs out of his home after failing to find the eyeglasses that he lost while taking cover when a tornado hit his Warren Drive home in the New Orleans East section of New Orleans, Feb. 7, 2017.
AP PHOTO / GERALD HERBERT
Lisa Carruth surveys the damage after a tornado tore through the eastern part of New Orleans, Feb. 7, 2017.
AP PHOTO / GERALD HERBERT
A man walks past destroyed homes after a tornado tore through the eastern part of New Orleans, Feb. 7, 2017.
AP PHOTO / GERALD HERBERT
Homes are damaged and destroyed in this aerial photo after a tornado tore through the eastern neighborhood in New Orleans, Feb. 7, 2017.
AP PHOTO / GERALD HERBERT
Sheila Jefferson sits outside a relative's home as friends remove salvageable possessions on Feb. 8, 2017, one day after a tornado tore through the New Orleans East section of New Orleans.
AP PHOTO / GERALD HERBERT
When he arrived on the scene of the tornado in New Orleans East, a neighborhood that has yet to fully recover from Hurricane Katrina, he instantly made pictures with his iPhone and filed them to get something on the wire fast. He then took photos with his professional camera and filed those. He shot video, including an interview with a man whose glasses were blown off his face. But before he could finish sending it, he realized he needed to get to the nearby airport. There, he persuaded an employee to mind his laptop while it finished uploading.
Herbert was a one man journalism machine, filing to photos, video, text, radio and even securing dramatic UGC.
He quickly took off in his own plane – he had another pilot fly for him – so he could beat a flight restriction about to go into effect. With only 10 minutes in the air, he shot aerial photos that gave a haunting perspective to the wide destruction. On the ground again, he grabbed soundbites for video and text and gave an interview to AP Radio. In the course of talking to one witness, he discovered she had taken video of the tornado and her screaming effort to take cover. He sent it in. When the desk had trouble getting an emailed waiver back from her, he helped her charge her phone so she could respond. After climbing over the rubble, he had to pull carpenter’s nails from his boots and the next day he had two flat tires from the nails. Nonetheless, Herbert managed to capture imagery that ran on the front of the New York Times National section, the front page of USA today, the Dallas Morning News and many other news outlets. His still images were also used on Shephard Smith’s show on FOX.
Herbert’s quick response and his almost superhuman ability to file to multiple formats earned him this week’s $300 Best of the States award.
The moon rises over a destroyed neighborhood on Feb. 8, 2017, one day after a tornado tore through the New Orleans East section of New Orleans.
AP PHOTO / GERALD HERBERT