You don't see adjectives like those in most Pulitzer Prize citations.

Not one, but two Pulitzer Prizes for Public Service, a third for breaking news reporting and a fourth for photography, were awarded this week to the newspaper staffs that covered 2005's big story -- the hurricane and flooding that washed away lives and homes and shut down the papers' presses, leaving online editions to keep the news flowing.

See the full citations from the Pulitzer board, and follow the "works" links to the public service prize stories at The Sun Herald, Biloxi-Gulfport, Miss., and The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. The staff of The Times-Picayune, known as NOLA.com online, also took the prize in the Breaking News Reporting category.

(Can't say we didn't see those coming, especially after hearing a Chris Lydon interview with a NOLA Web producer about the site's role in the immediate aftermath of the storm.)

The prize for Breaking News Photography went to the staff of The Dallas Morning News, for its heartbreaking -- and sometimes inspiring -- Katrina pictures..

Other news-related Pulitzers are listed before (for commentary, books and other awards see http://pulitzer.org):

• Investigative Reporting: Susan Schmidt, James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith of The Washington Post
  
  
• Explanatory Reporting: David Finkel of The Washington Post
  
  
• Beat Reporting: Dana Priest of The Washington Post
  
  
• National Reporting (two prizes): James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times; staffs of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service
  
  
• International Reporting: Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley of The New York Times
  
  
• Feature Writing: Jim Sheeler of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo.
  
  
• Feature Photography: Todd Heisler of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colo.

6:22:14 PM  #