NEW ORLEANS — WWL-TV’s coverage of Hurricane Ida and its aftermath helped garner a couple of Edward R. Murrow Regional Awards and a feature on a female chess champion netted another, it was announced Friday.
The station won three first-place Murrow awards for: Breaking News Coverage, Digital Coverage and Feature Reporting.
WWL-TV's award comes in Region 9, which includes Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi.
The breaking news award was for coverage of the deadly nursing home warehouse scandal following Hurricane Ida. WWL-TV broke the story in the days after Ida passed and continued coverage to include investigations surrounding the conditions at the warehouse where vulnerable seniors were brought to ride out the storm.
The digital news award was for Hurricane Ida coverage as well. The digital properties of WWL featured the warnings and forecasts leading up to the storm, breaking news as it struck and coverage of power outages, locations to get food and supplies, generator safety and several stories surrounding the nursing home warehouse scandal and problems with independent senior facilities in New Orleans where several people died.
WWL-TV also was awarded the feature reporting honor for a feature on the highest-ranking female chess player in Louisiana, 17-year-old Jordan Pembo, who is also ranked 45th in the world among female chess players her age. It's a riveting look at the young lady’s devotion to, and master of, the game. The story was crafted by photographer T. J. Pipitone.
