The sun rises behind the New York Times building; the same sun that rises in the Midwest. Commonly, the midwest is thought of as farmland and nothing more than the occasional tornadoes or floods.  Have you ever thought about how many people are at risk when these natural disasters hit? When a disaster hits the Midwest, roughly 74 million Americans are at risk, reported Dennis Romero, from NBC News, yet the Midwest gets little to no media coverage.

In Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota, after the “bomb cyclone,” families are suffering but the media fails to point out their struggle with

rivers flooding. These are our heartland Americans who struggle but don’t get the spotlight on their cries for help. In an article posted on the Columbia Journalism Review website, Michael Massing, reports, “People at the national news organizations ‘think the sun rises and sets in New York’ and so, for the most part, ‘ignore what’s going on in the heartland’.”  Reporters tend to stay in their coastal “bubble” when covering news on natural disasters. Journalists need to realize that the Midwest doesn’t consist of just dust and farmland; people live here, too, and need to be heard.

When you think of the Midwest, you think about farms and livestock instead of heavily populated areas like St. Louis, Kansas City, or Omaha. All of the Midwest is vital to the American economy. They provide essential crops to the rest of the country and the world. However, nobody outside the region cares as they naively think the issues don’t affect them. In an interview, Josh Kummer, an 18 year old student at Eureka High School in Missouri stated, “Sometimes I wonder if people in the Midwest are taken advantage of.” He proceeded to bring up the point that they “distribute food across the country, but when we’re in danger, nobody cares.”

You might not know, but Nebraska and Iowa had massive floods. A New York Times article, written by Mihir Zaveri, covered the event. The flooding occurred on March 13, yet the article wasn’t published until three days after the disaster; “Several areas in the Midwest experienced record flooding this past week,” reported Zaveri. This shows how this flood is big and should’ve been covered immediately. Although the New York Times is located in New York City, there shouldn’t be a lack coverage in any part of the country. Americans should be informed of what occurs in each region to show that every state and American is important.

As the sun sets, and after the dust settles, the water dries and our crops return. The Midwestern people are hopeful that someone somewhere will come and report their silent struggle.