{"id":1250066,"date":"2023-10-06T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/?p=124780"},"modified":"2023-10-06T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T11:00:00","slug":"reporting-on-workers-who-rebuild-after-natural-disasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/10\/06\/reporting-on-workers-who-rebuild-after-natural-disasters\/","title":{"rendered":"Reporting on workers who rebuild after natural disasters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>Reading Time: <\/span> 6<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

I felt anxious asking disaster restoration workers to share their experiences with exposure to toxins such as asbestos, lead and mold on the job in New Orleans this past spring during a reporting trip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trip was at the heart of our project, Toxic Labor<\/a>, which documents the hidden health impact workers face after prolonged exposure to ubiquitous toxins found in post-natural disasters worksites. Long after the news cycles move from covering the devastation left by hurricanes, wildfires and floods, workers who handle the ensuing cleanup often do not have access to personal protective equipment or safety training. I and colleagues at the Center for Public Integrity partnered with Columbia Journalism Investigations to investigate the issue. In our search to find restoration workers, who might be willing to talk about their experiences, we visited the places where they usually gather looking for work and frequent \u2014 laundromats, Latino supermarkets, food stands and churches \u2013 and posted fliers, seeking workers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CJI fellow Janelle Retka and I made our first reporting stop in Fort Myers, Florida. As I spoke with dozens of workers, including many newly arrived immigrants, I realized there wasn\u2019t enough time to delve into deep questions about conditions at work.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By the time I began to interview people in New Orleans, a city that\u2019s homebase for many in this field, my anxiety started to lift when I met Jesus, a 58-year-old Katrina-era disaster restoration worker.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere are you from?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGuanajuato [Mexico] \u201d I said, smiling behind my mask. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDonde la vida no vale nada [Where lives mean nothing],\u201d he responded, reciting lyrics from the song \u201cCaminos de Guanajuato\u201d from beloved Mexican singer and songwriter Jos\u00e9 Alfredo Jim\u00e9nez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laughter erupted. We had a moment of familiarity recognizing that while the song describes landmarks and festivals in my home state, it\u2019s mostly about grief. Any tension at this point disappeared. And that\u2019s exactly what we needed as we delved into his experiences cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina (2005), Sandy (2012), Matthew (2016), Harvey (2017), Laura (2020) and Ian (2021). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Reporter Public Integrity reporter Mar\u00eda In\u00e9s Zamudio interviews disaster restoration worker in Fort Myers, Florida in March. (Janelle Retka for The Center for Public Integrity.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No federal or state data exists on how many disaster restoration workers get sick while cleaning up after hurricanes, floods and wildfires each year. Nor does any U.S. government body or advocacy organization track these workers\u2019 exposures to dangerous toxins in post-disaster zones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months before Public Integrity joined the project, CJI fellows had been working with experts who provided guidance to create a questionnaire to collect data about this population and document prolonged exposure to dangerous toxins. The questionnaire asked about exposure to toxins and symptoms overtime, and whether workers had access to personal protective equipment and training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I prepared for the reporting trip, I read a 2009 report asserting the adverse impact on Latino laborers\u2019 health after Katrina was \u201clikely to be duplicated throughout the country\u201d without oversight. That fueled my desire to continue documenting workers\u2019 exposures and symptoms associated with toxins. When I returned home, I continued calling workers in the evenings and weekends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this was just the beginning: During the past nine months, I\u2019ve interviewed 120 disaster restoration workers. At the end, I reached our team\u2019s goal to document 100 interviews<\/a>; nearly all said they had torn out drywall and busted up sheetrock following a climate disaster. Most worked at least three events over seven years \u2014 from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana (2005) to Hurricane Harvey in Texas (2017) and Hurricane Ian in Florida (2022) \u2014 across multiple worksites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These workers are proud of what they do and say they like helping communities rebuild after the devastation. The stories I documented painted a picture of resilience and human spirit of people struggling to survive in a new country. New laws in Florida<\/a> are making it harder for immigrants to work and make a living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heard stories of workers falling from roofs while working without a harness and other traumatic and physical harm workplace accidents that resulted in hospital visits and hospitalizations. At least three workers told me they had suffered head injuries that left them unconscious following a fall. Another worker shared that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer since he began doing this type of work while many others said they have asthma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During these interviews, I also learned about the harassment and sexual violence women faced in their workplace. Others told me similar stories of contractors and subcontractors<\/a> advertising cleanup work immediately after a natural disaster advertising good pay, lodging and transportation only to renege after workers arrive. I heard painful tales of contractors rushing workers and not providing basic personal protective equipment. Wage theft is so common in this industry that it became an incentive for the workers speaking with me \u2013 as workers hoped sharing their stories with a journalist could help recover back wages because they feel like they don\u2019t have any other options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

And Latino men are no different from other hard-working laborers: They don\u2019t talk about their health and they rarely seek medical support, especially if they don\u2019t have health insurance. I knew the road ahead of me could be rocky if I didn\u2019t take the right approach when talking to them. Trust is always the most important denominator when interviewing people who don\u2019t know you or your values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In New Orleans, we met with Mario Mendoza and Leticia Casildo, founders of the grassroots organization Familias Unidas en Acci\u00f3n. Mendoza was wary of our team\u2019s intentions. He wanted to ensure we were listening and respecting workers. More importantly, he wanted us to acknowledge that we didn\u2019t know their struggle, and thus, we needed to show respect and be humbled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can someone come and tell me what I need? You don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like,\u201d Mendoza told me. \u201cIf you haven\u2019t lived it, you don\u2019t know.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After spending hours answering their questions, Mario and Leticia opened their doors. Since the workers trust them, they agreed to the in-person interviews \u2013 and many more follow-up calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Reporter Public Integrity reporter Mar\u00eda In\u00e9s Zamudio posts flyers in New Orleans to recruit disaster restoration worker to answer our questionnaire. (Janelle Retka for The Center for Public Integrity.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Resilience Force, an advocacy organization formed after Hurricane Katrina, was instrumental in helping me connect with workers, too. Before the trip, Resilience Force organizers introduced us to workers. Once we got to New Orleans, I met Mariano, a kind Katrina-era restoration worker turned advocate. We spent an evening interviewing him and his older brother in his home. Our trust grew stronger following a difficult conversation about the use of an offensive Spanish word to describe a lesbian. He explained that he had never met a queer Latina woman and we laughed awkwardly about it before we parted ways. He became a key ally in helping us to connect with workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will always be grateful for his kindness and contributions to this investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the work pushed forward, I had many discussions with my editor, Mc Nelly Torres, about how to do this work while upholding the Society of Professional Journalists\u2019 Code of Ethics admonition that journalists should \u201cbalance the public\u2019s need for information against potential harm or discomfort.\u201d<\/a> That\u2019s why we agreed not to publish workers\u2019 names and only use photos where workers are not identifiable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did rigorous fact-checking to verify their stories, including examination of photos, medical records, paychecks, payroll records, property records and other public documents. In the end, the team recorded 100 questionnaires and the end result provides a stark image of what workers are facing and the ongoing symptoms workers experience months and years after the cleanup work ends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third worked after Hurricane Katrina and most of them are proud builders. \u201cYou may not see their faces rebuilding New Orleans in history books,\u201d they would tell me, \u201cbut Latinos rebuilt The Big Easy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYa somos parte de New Orleans,\u201d Jesus told me in Spanish. \u201cWe are part of this city.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
CJI fellow Janelle Retka records moment when dozens of disaster restoration workers hoped to be picked for a day’s work in Fort Myer Florida post Hurricane Ian. (Mar\u00eda In\u00e9s Zamudio\/ Center for Public Integrity.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The post Reporting on workers who rebuild after natural disasters<\/a> appeared first on Center for Public Integrity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Center for Public Integrity<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>\n

I felt anxious asking disaster restoration workers to share their experiences with exposure to toxins such as asbestos, lead and mold on the job in New Orleans this past spring during a reporting trip.\u00a0 The trip was at the heart of our project, Toxic Labor, which documents the hidden health impact workers face after prolonged [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post Reporting on workers who rebuild after natural disasters<\/a> appeared first on Center for Public Integrity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24474,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69055,3500],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1250066"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289405,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250066\/revisions\/1289405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1250066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1250066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1250066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}