Lookout Local, a four-year-old digital publication in Santa Cruz, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for its coverage of catastrophic storms in January 2023 — and a Long Beach Post reporter who traveled north to help was named as a member of the winning team.

The Long Beach Post offered to send breaking news reporter Fernando Haro Garcia to the small team in Santa Cruz to cover the storms, which collectively dumped 36 inches of rain over three weeks in Santa Cruz and surrounding agricultural areas.

The move to send Haro to help a similarly-sized news organization 365 miles north of Long Beach came about due to a partnership spurred by the publishers of six newsrooms — all independent and digitally focused — around the country to advocate, strategize and share resources at a time of diminishing local news.

David Sommers, then-publisher of the Post, said when he saw the latest in a string of storms barreling toward Santa Cruz in early January 2023, he asked the publisher of Lookout Local, Ken Doctor, if he’d like some help.

“It meant a lot that he said yes,” Sommers said.

Haro Garcia spent two days with the team at Lookout Local. Reporters, editors and photographers worked 12-hour days to provide wall-to-wall coverage of the storms that included text messages, a live blog, newsletters, photo galleries and more.

The Pulitzer judges commended Lookout Local for “detailed and nimble community-focused coverage, over a holiday weekend, of catastrophic flooding and mudslides that displaced thousands of residents and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses.”

Doctor said winning the industry’s most coveted prize — typically awarded to large metropolitan news organizations — was a huge honor. It was also a huge win for community journalism, he said.

The success, he said, was due to building a newsroom that is skilled, that knows the community, and that is in position when disaster strikes.

“You’ve got to be ready to meet the moment,” Doctor said. “And we met the moment for this community in a time of crisis.”

Haro Garcia, meanwhile, said this exemplifies why local journalism is important — saying he was “honored to have been able to help.”

Haro Garcia joined the Long Beach Post in late 2021 where he’s helped anchor its breaking news coverage, consistently providing readers with vital information they can’t find anywhere else. His eye for good stories and fearless reporting have produced thrilling articles, like his profile of a man dedicated to exposing alleged pedophiles in TikTok stings.

See Lookout Local’s winning coverage of the storms here.