CHICAGO — The Daily News' coverage of Plum Island beach erosion has won a national journalism award for the second year in a row.
Yesterday the Inland Press Association announced a second-place award in the Pictorial News Coverage category. The announcement was made at the association's annual meeting in Chicago. A first-place award in the category was won by News-Tribune of LeSalle, Ill.
The pictorial coverage involved a fierce storm on Thanksgiving Eve 2008 that severely eroded the dune underneath a Plum Island home. Local officials decided the home was in danger of collapse, and the decision was made to push it over the dune and demolish it.
At low tide, an excavator tractor was used to nudge the teetering house over the dune. The dramatic sequence of photos showing the house plummeting off the dune and breaking apart on the beach were taken by Daily News photo chief Bryan Eaton.
Last year, The Daily News won a first prize for Explanatory Reporting from the Inland Press for its 12-part series called "Fighting The Tide." The series explored key aspects of the local seashore's problems with erosion and coastal development.
In recent months, The Daily News' coverage of Plum Island's erosion has also won first-place awards from the New England Press Association and the New England Associated Press.
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