Editors' Notebook

Some Pride and Sadness

Greg D Horstmeier
By  Greg D Horstmeier , DTN Editor-in-Chief
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Small remembrances dot the debris that remains from the West, Texas, fertilizer explosion.

We don't pat ourselves on the back very much around here. This news business is a roller coaster of the good and the not so good, so you learn to not dwell too long on the peaks or the valleys. Plus, my paternal grandmother often sternly reminded me of the old adage "Pride goeth before a fall."

At the risk of that fall, I do want to take a moment to note that the DTN newsroom recently received a coveted Jesse H. Neal Award for News for our coverage of the aftermath of the tragic fertilizer explosion in West, Texas, in April 2013.

A grouping of our stories on the tragedy can be found at http://www.dtn.com/…

DTN and The Progressive Farmer were finalists for Neal awards in five additional categories, from features to blogs. We also received recognition of the Online.DTN.com subscription website and both our free iPad app and our for-pay Ag Weather mobile phone app. So from traditional magazine journalism features to the latest mobile apps, we were recognized in a competition that includes some 4,000 business-to-business media titles. To be recognized as not just among the best in agriculture, but in all business media, is a great honor. We've received several Neals in recent years, in fact.

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Pride for this particular Neal for news coverage is mixed with sadness, of course, for the victims of that terrible tragedy and for their families, friends and for the town that continues to heal almost a year later. In fact, the first words I got back from reporter Russ Quinn after emailing him and the rest of the news team on our award was, that while he was happy for the recognition, he couldn't help think first about those whose lives were lost, a loss that could happen again. None could have said it better.

I recently found myself on the road near West, and couldn't help slowing for the exit off I-35 and spending some time in the town. From the highway, busy with new lane construction, one could easily go right past not know of the events of April 17, 2013. Busloads of travelers pile into the well-advertised kolache bakeries, and nowhere is heard a mention of the tragedy that occurred less than a mile away.

At the west end of town, the clean-up continues. New houses -- erected when the existing one must have been damaged beyond repair -- jut discordantly with older residences that were spared. A short brick marquee is all that currently remains of West High School, which was a few hundred yards from the blast. Behind it is an empty field, surrounded by fencing to keep trespassers out. Small remembrance crosses and stars scatter the area around the blast zone, honoring lost loved ones and friends.

The area where the West Fertilizer facility stood was also mostly an empty, fenced area, with only a few cast-off anhydrous tanks and bright orange waste dumpsters inside the fence.

The saddest news is that, on the whole, not a lot has yet changed in the way of fertilizer safety regulations or in responder preparedness for such events. We'll continue to follow those issues. Not for the accolades, but because it needs to be done.

As I pulled back on to the interstate, I saw a nearby billboard continuing to remind passersby to "Pray for West." Indeed.

Greg Horstmeier can be reached at greg.horstmeier@dtn.com

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