By Sarah Lagan
The Birmingham Post claims to be the only newspaper to have captured
a photograph of the devastating tornado that hit the city last week.
Photographer Neil Pugh was on his day off and driving home when he saw a “black and green mass of clouds”
above
the trees. He pulled over and grabbed his camera from the boot of his
car. The Post devoted its front page to Pugh’s picture and filled nine
pages with reports and eyewitness accounts.
Post sub-editor Jo
Travis was lucky to escape injury when a tree fell onto her car,
missing her by inches. She looked back at her house to see her kitchen
roof had caved in and the floor and kitchen tiles had been reduced to
rubble.
In a story published in the Post, she said: “I felt numb.
I didn’t know where to go and I felt very vulnerable. Mine was the
worst-hit home in the street.
“I thought the window [of the car]
was going to come in. Then a branch hit the driver’s side and did smash
the window. A tree had fallen on my car and dented the roof.”
Sister
paper the Evening Mail had to delay its final edition when news of the
tornado broke at about 2.30pm. It turned the story around in half an
hour with the help of photographer Darren Quinton, who was covering a
separate story for the Sunday Mercury and offered the Mail his
pictures. The Mail got the story on the front page.
Deputy editor
Colin Clark said: “The fact that the Mercury offered us its pictures
shows how we can all work together when a big story breaks.”
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