The Radio Television Digital News Association honored the ProPublica and Texas Tribune collaboration, “Hell and High Water,” with an Edward R. Murrow Award in the category of investigative reporting. The award recognizes outstanding work produced by radio, television and online news organizations around the world.
The immersive project explored the vulnerability of the Houston area to a large, devastating hurricane. Reported by ProPublica’s Al Shaw, Kiah Collier of The Texas Tribune, and Neena Satija of The Texas Tribune and Reveal, the piece explained how researchers have warned for years that a hurricane could cripple the region, and wreak havoc on the refineries and storage containers clustered nearby — yet leaders had taken almost no action to prevent a disaster.
After “Hell and High Water” was published, President Obama signed into law a bill to expedite a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study that will determine how best to protect Houston from such a hurricane. The law emerged from a bill that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn filed one month after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune published the joint report.
A complete list of Murrow Award winners can be found here.
