Tragic though they may be, disasters often bring out the best in journalists. The student journalists of The Cavalier Daily proved their mettle in the news crucible of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The University of Virginia community got a comprehensive report from the school’s daily newspaper on the world-rocking events—and their aftermath.

"Devastation" read the banner headline on the CD’s Sept. 12 edition, atop a photo collage of the now-familiar but still-chilling scenes of the World Trade Center’s demise. With pictures taking up over half the front page, the rest was anchored with just two stories—one a wire-service account of the attacks.

"We pretty much decided early on we shouldn’t put one of our reporters on the national news," recalled Editor-in-Chief John Clark. "We figured it would be a disservice to our readers if we did just an amateur job with a story that needed professional work."

The other front-page story was a staff-written roundup of how the University was coping with the tragedy—with a blood drive, candlelight vigil and memorial services. The University Hospital went on alert to receive burn victims that never came. The Rotunda closed to the public, as did other national landmarks. Classes continued as scheduled, but the story pointed out that counselors were gearing up to help students deal with the trauma, and published a 24-hour hotline number.

Inside, the rest of the paper was full of staff-written disaster coverage. One story discussed security measures being taken at public buildings in Charlottesville. Another featured eyewitness accounts of the attacks from Virginia alumni in Washington and New York. Still another piece aired speculation from University experts on why the twin Trade Center towers collapsed.

In Thursday’s paper, Associate Editors Deirdre Erin Murphy and Kadie Bye provided a front-page account from Washington on how the nation’s capital was virtually shut down in the wake of the attack on the Pentagon. The same issue also included a story about minority students fearing a backlash, and an analysis by University foreign affairs experts on how the nation might respond to the attacks.

By Monday, Cavalier Daily readers could read compelling, staff-written stories from New York describing the devastation in the southern tip of Manhattan and the continuing, futile quest for survivors.

"My journalistic instinct kicked in, and I just had to be there," said Life Editor Josie Roberts, who wrote two front-page stories from New York. The weekend excursion provoked intense internal debate, with some editors arguing against it.

"A lot of people were worried about buildings still collapsing," said Roberts, who was one of five staffers to make the trip. "They were worried about more bombings that could be going on. I guess I was probably a little stupid in going up there because we didn’t know ... but I couldn’t help it."

The CD staffers managed to slip through the outer police barricades and get within a few blocks of Ground Zero, where Roberts spied former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley standing alone under a knocked-out stoplight. He had come, he said, to "pay my respects to the firefighters and policemen."

Roberts then interviewed lower Manhattan residents forced from their homes, volunteers waiting for a chance to help, utility workers trying to restore the city’s fractured infrastructure and a National Guardsman keeping the streets clear. "You’ll see a hundred firemen walking away from the burning core of the building and look like they have been through hell," the guardsman said.

Roberts got away with interviewing rescue workers behind the police lines, she said, because she lacked press credentials. The workers had been instructed not to talk to the press, so she stressed that she was a student.

While wandering the dusty, smoky streets of lower Manhattan, Roberts said she wore the cloth mask issued her by a Salvation Army worker. But she said she was less worried about her physical safety than about her emotional reaction to the horrific devastation she was covering.

Accompanying the story was a poignant photograph taken by Freedom Kelley of a pair of crumpled, scorched cars in the street, with flowers laid atop them as if they were some kind of shrine to the dead and missing.

"They had been so crushed, it was kind of like they were in a junk yard," said Kelley. "They were still covered with soot and ash, and little pieces of concrete from a building." She described the deserted, traffic-less street as "bizarre ... like I was on the scene of a movie."

Later the same day, Roberts and Kelley visited Union Square Park, where thousands of New Yorkers flocked to honor the victims of the attacks. They captured in print and photo how the park fences were papered with flyers of the missing, prompting a rare outpouring of anguish and compassion from the city‘s usually brash denizens.

Roberts said she came back heartened, despite the trauma she had seen.

"I walked away from New York feeling good about the state of our country, and not afraid of what other people could do to us," she said. The experience also helped solidify her career choice—journalism.

Editor-in-Chief Clark said he has been "amazed" by the quality and quantity of work the staff has done.

"We had a lot of new writers, so it really was a baptism by fire," he said, and papers were being sent to print at Culpeper at the unbelievably late hour of 4 a.m.

After a few weeks, the paper’s coverage reverted closer to normal, with news about the Honor System and Virginia elections creeping back onto the front page. But Clark said the paper continues to carry roughly twice as much national and international news as it did, in recognition of how the world has changed—even for University students.

The tragedies demonstrated to Clark just how important a newspaper can be in helping a community cope with difficult and painful events.