Don’t ask me why I am awake at 1:30 AM (EDT) and watching Hurricane Coverage on my TV and my Computer. I wish I had an answer other than I am a news junkie and when I am not working in a newsroom, I am often watching what someone else is doing in one.
An odd moment just happened when I was watching two alumni from Charleston, SC television–where I first got my start in the business–on at the same time. Karen Maginnis and I worked together way back when at WCBD there, now she is standing in front of the weather maps on CNN with Rick Sanchez in these wee hours. Karen is doing a great job of tracking the storm and explaining the many weather issues connected to the storm.
Gotta give CNN some props for using Twitter as an open “party line” that Sanchez is reading and answering on the air. One of the things that I know has happened as part of every hurricane I have ever seen covered on radio or television is the simple, yet so very comforting idea of throwing open the phone lines and just talking to people about what they are seeing and how they are doing. Now the internet provides another way to do that, but it is when radio and television news can really make a difference in people’s lives.
Also having spent time in Charleston is Margaret Orr, who worked at WCIV there and now is a meteorologist for WDSU-TV in New Orleans, where she is part of their around the clock coverage that is being streamed over the station’s website. WDSU went through a tough time, as most all of the television stations in The Big Easy did during Katrina. Tonight they are switching their coverage back and forth between their studios in New Orleans and a set-up the station has north in Baton Rouge where one would suspect that they would transfer their operations to if the storm shuts them down at home base.
Perennial market leader WWL-TV is a dominant force in television there, but watching off and on today it is clear that WDSU is not ceding one bit of the competitive battle to WWL. WDSU’s coverage is being fed out now by Direct TV to the entire country, so they are getting some great exposure to the freaks like me who want to watch the local coverage evolve through the night and early hours of Labor Day.
If there is any good news out of New Orleans at this hour, it is the confirmation of the fact that the city and immediate surrounding areas are reported as near ghost towns. Which means that the ability for officials to evacuate a major American city in the path of a hurricane is directly proportional to the shortness of time since that area was last hit by a major storm. Katrina’s legacy is that less than 10,000 people may be left in the city of New Orleans. Not counting all of the journalists there to cover the storm,
Hats off to those folks who are working their asses off to pump out a lot of excellent coverage in the wee hours of the late night shift.