Pam Radtke Russell

Journalist

New Orleans, Louisiana

Prize-winning senior journalist and editor with 20 years of experience in daily journalism. Reporting focus on climate adaptation, extreme weather, resilience , environment and energy.

Pam Radtke Russell

Journalist

New Orleans, Louisiana

Prize-winning senior journalist and editor with 20 years of experience in daily journalism. Reporting focus on climate adaptation, extreme weather, resilience , environment and energy.

Flint Water Crisis and America’s Clean Water Access Failings
Growing up on a Navajo reservation in Arizona, Jay Yazzie, now a senior environmental engineer at Brown and Caldwell, did not have running water in his home. To get its water supply, the family would take a 55-gallon drum to a livestock well or to a distribution point to obtain potable water for everyday use.
ENR/Engineering News-Record
Threats of 'Day Zero' Water Scarcity Multiply
The last train that carried water into the parched city of Chennai rolled out of town Oct. 9, almost four months after officials declared the city at “day zero”—with no water for a population of more than eight million people. For those months, people lined up to get their allotment of water brought from the countryside by rail car or by tanker truck.
ENR/Engineering News-Record
Award of Excellence Winner Cris Liban: Tackling the Big Picture Issues of Infrastructure’s Future
Days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) issued a statewide stay-at-home order, Cris Liban, chief sustainability officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was asked to participate (virtually of course) in a meeting with LA Metro’s Planning Department. Liban suggested that in light of new travel and work patterns due to COVID-19—which could linger for months, if not years—it might be necessary to revisit the way the agency plans for transportation given potential new work patterns.
ENR/Engineering News-Record
How TV weathercasters became the unsung heroes of the climate crisis
Local TV weather forecasters have become foot soldiers in the war against climate misinformation. Over the past decade, a growing number of meteorologists and weathercasters have begun addressing the climate crisis either as part of their weather forecasts, or in separate, independent news reports to help their viewers understand what is happening and why it is important.
The Guardian
Fighting Rising Tides, Coastal Towns Turn To Oysters To Save Their Land
On the brackish waters of Louisiana, about 40 miles southwest of New Orleans, residents mark the passage of time by the landmarks that have been lost to the tide. In their 60-plus years, Theresa Dardar and her husband, Donald, two of the 790 tribal members of the French-speaking Pointe-au-Chien tribe, have seen their ancestral land transition from cattle pastures to marshes and then to open water.
The Huffington Post
California Towns Rebuild After Wildfires With Resilience in Mind
On the morning of Nov. 8, flaming pine needles rained down on the homes of Paradise, Calif., blown from the Camp Fire, still 2.5 miles away. The embers set fire to roofs, attics, landscaping, decks and any other fuel in their path. Within four hours, most of the town’s homes and buildings were in ashes.
ENR/Engineering News-Record
In New Orleans, Waiting Out an Anniversary
It’s an incredibly rare 73-degree August morning here. The stately live oaks stand out against a perfectly clear blue sky. The smell of fried seafood greets me as I pass the neighborhood lunch spot, and I hear a trumpeter in the distance practicing scales. It feels as if the city should be getting ready for the next seafood or music festival, or some crazy walking parade with outrageous feathered costumers carrying go cups.
Roll Call
Louisiana Community Fights For Its Life Against A Plastics Plant
On a recent summer evening, about 40 people sat in Freetown Hall in St. James Parish, Louisiana, passing around plastic objects: a water bottle, a pump moisturizer bottle and a tall food container. Holding the food container in one hand, Beverley Alexander, a St. James Parish resident, approached Wilma Subra, an environmental scientist who drove in from Lafayette for the meeting.
The Huffington Post
Mississippi River Diversions Could Save Louisiana's Drowning Coast
Engineers are working to help reconnect the Mississippi River to Louisiana’s sediment-starved wetlands in an effort to rebuild some of the land that is disappearing at a rate of almost 11,000 acres a year—or roughly a football field an hour.
ENR/Engineering News-Record
Special Report: How Engineers Are Preparing for Sea-Level Rise
Piloting his crab boat during a storm off Tangier Island, Va., Mayor James Eskridge sweeps his hand over the water and says, “I remember when all of this area was land.”. Below the water are the homes, stores and graves of the Tangier Island communities that have been swallowed by the sea. Since 1850, the island has lost more than 66% of its land mass.
ENR/Engineering News-Record
Engineer 'Hero' Brings Flint Crisis to Light
In January, a year after Flint, Mich.’s corrosive, lead-tainted drinking water prompted President Obama to declare a state of emergency, Marc Edwards slept on a fold-out couch in a cold, empty home in the city to test its water at 3 a.m. Edwards’ first sample from Walters’ tap, in 2015, showed a lead level of 13,200 parts per billion.
ENR/Engineering News-Record
Hurricanes Propel Forward Thinking on Risk, Resilience
“Our infrastructure is aging and deteriorating. That makes situations worse,” says Mark Abkowitz, director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Environmental Management Studies. “It will be difficult to make urban areas more resilient to flooding. In some ways we have our hands tied behind our backs because we’ve allowed development along the coast to occur.
ENR/Engineering News-Record

About

Pam Radtke Russell

— Prize-winning senior journalist and editor with 20 years of experience in daily journalism reporting on local, state and federal level.
— Work has appeared in HuffPost, CQ Roll Call, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, Platts, Engineering News-Record and EnergyBiz, among others.
— Reporting focus on climate change, climate adaptation and resilience, environment and environment.
— Self-starter with initiative and proven ability to identify and untangle complicated stories.
— Team player who works well with others. Can take direction as well as lead.
—Thrives under deadline pressure.