MPR News Features are news segments created for various long-form programming, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, amongst others. Features run the gambit of interviews, reports, profiles, and coverage.
April 21, 1997 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports on the major impact Red River flooding has had on Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Red River will crest today in Grand Forks at 54 feet - more than double its normal depth. The flood has forced the evacuation of Grand Forks and the city across the river, East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Over the weekend, there was also a big fire in Grand Forks. Fire trucks couldn't get to it, so helicopters dumped buckets of floodwater on the fire.
April 23, 1997 - Pronouncer = STAUSS = rhymes with house The mayor of East Grand Forks now says it could be a month before city residents can go back hom. He says sewage in the flood waters has contaminated their homes. That was tough news to more than two thousand flood victims who have come to stay temporarily in Bemidji. East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss (stouse) travelled to several northwestern Minnesota towns where flood victims have congregated, as Minnesota Public Radio's Christina Koenig (KAY-nig) reports. Several hundred of the flood victims gathered Bemidji State University's Hockey arena to hear the mayor. Lynn Stauss told his fellow flood victims
April 25, 1997 - (to run out of Koenig piece) I'm Laura McCallum in Moorhead. There's an on-going "reunion" of residents of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks taking place in the Moorhead State University ballroom. Evacuees can watch videos of their flooded town, have a cup of coffee, and check a wall covered by hand-written messages with people's whereabouts. A huge map of the community sits on an easel, and people who stop by mark the spot where their home is located. About thirty families from East Grand Forks, and nearly
April 25, 1997 - One of the biggest challenges for people who left the Red River Valley because of flooding has been getting information about their homes, towns and loved ones. Communication for evacuees who fled in every direction has been set up through the internet, ham radio, cellular phones, videos and teleconferences. We have two reports on communication efforts. In a moment we will hear from Minnesota Public Radio's Laura McCallum about a grass roots communications center, but first Minnesota Public Radio's Christina Koenig looks at a high tech approach to disaster communications.
April 25, 1997 - A fundraiser organized by Twin Cities radio stations brought a flood of donations this morning in Minneapolis. More than 20 semi-trailer trucks filled with soap, towels and other goods are headed for people in the Red River Valley affected by floodwaters. Organizers estimate money raised from the event will top half a million dollars. The money will be split by the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson has more. tape . . . sfx 9:00 help you unload? With the sun just peeking over the Minneapolis skyline organizers of the fundraiser got a hint of what they had created. A stream of vehicles grew into two lanes of traffic with volunteers racing to un
April 25, 1997 - Kent Nerburn reads a selection from "A Haunting Reverence."
April 28, 1997 - Man does not live by bread alone, so as friends and neighbors reach out to flood victims with food and shelter, other folks are offering ... Grateful Dead tapes over the internet. I'll have an e-mail address for you in a few minutes. The group The Grateful Dead was known for letting fans make tapes of their shows, as long as they were never offered for sale, and these tapes can be as important to Deadheads as a book collection or a shelffull of Toby mugs might be to other people. And losing them to the floodwaters would be equally devastating. Steve Patterson of Corvallis, Oregon is a Deadhead with a lot of tapes -- he's been collecting for eleven years -- and he's been following the flood story on public radio. --------------------------------------------------------- | D-CART ITEM: 9291 | TIME: 2:31 | OUTCUE: "...FOR THE POSTAGE." ---------------------------------------------------------
April 28, 1997 - Clean up along the Red River in Minnesota and North Dakota is just beginning...but some government representatives are already busy looking at the long-term policy questions raised the floods. State officials say they'll need new ideas to pay for Minnesota's costliest natural disaster. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports... At its daily briefing on flood news, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's office of Emergency Management reported the Red River was cresting lower than expected at Saint Vincent, the last stop on the river's nothern flow into Canada. With the dikes in Saint Vincent holding, and the water levels dropping in East Grand Forks, state officials say they've had a few
April 28, 1997 - A NORTHWEST AIRLINES 747 CARGO PLANE DELIVERED 120-THOUSAND-POUNDS OF SUPPLIES FROM THE TWIN CITIES TO THE GRAND FORKS AREA YESTERDAY. TARGET STORES COLLECTED THE GOODS ON SATURDAY. RESIDENTS DONTATED MORE THAN THE AIRPLANE COULD CARRY, SO FIVE SEMI-TRUCKS WILL BRING THE REST IN THE DAYS TO COME. MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO'S JON GORDON REPORTS. ........................................................................... DCART ITEM:9150 TIME:2:58 OUTCUE:soc ........................................................................ TWELVE TRUCKLOADS OF BOTTLED WATER, CLEANING SUPPLIES, TOILETRIES AND MORE WERE TAKEN FROM THE TARGET STOREES TO THE TWIN CITIES AIRPORT SATURDAY. NORTHWEST AIRLINES EMPLOYEES VOLUNTEERED THEIR TIME TO STUFF THE GOOD INTO SILVER CRATES, THEN INTO THE BELLY OF THE BOEING 747,
April 28, 1997 - In any play or film, dialect is crucial to establishing time and place. The Park Square Theater in St. Paul is putting on a production of Irish playwright Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan." The play skewers 19th century England's high society, and champions its outcasts. Wilde is known for his brilliant dialogue, and a dialect coach must be hired to help the actors with their lines.