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Hurricane: How Do Reporters Survive & Where Do They Go When Off Air?
With Hurricane Florence potentially one of the worst storms to hit the U.S. Eastern Seaboard in years, it brings up something I’ve always wondered: how do the reporters who rush headlong into the headwinds manage to survive being right in the middle of it?
We’re all familiar with the now almost clichéd news footage of some guy or gal standing in the teeth of the Hurricane, hanging onto a pole for dear life as the wind gusts threaten to literally blow him or her away.
If everyone is being evacuated from a sure-to-be-hard hit area, with officials acknowledging “we won’t be able to rescue you,” and severe damage predicted, where do these reporters and their crew stay while the worst is happening and they're not on air? How do they get food, lodging, and safety when all hell is breaking loose in front, beside and all around them? If I understand the warnings, almost every hotel has been emptied and abandoned. So where are they hunkering down, perhaps for days?
I’m sure they’ve been well provided for by their networks in terms of provisions, but being a reporter or a cameraperson doesn’t protect you from a 30 foot ocean swell or a 240 km wind gust.
I doubt there’s a lot of these storm chasers on this board, but if so, I’m curious how you survive mostly alone in the teeth of what could be one of the worst disasters in decades and live to tell the tale. (And how do they send live reports from a sat truck when those winds can easily blow the dish away?)
- Dale Patterson
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Re: Hurricane: How Do Reporters Survive & Where Do They Go When Off Air?
RadioActive wrote:
With Hurricane Florence potentially one of the worst storms to hit the U.S. Eastern Seaboard in years, it brings up something I’ve always wondered: how do the reporters who rush headlong into the headwinds manage to survive being right in the middle of it?
We’re all familiar with the now almost clichéd news footage of some guy or gal standing in the teeth of the Hurricane, hanging onto a pole for dear life as the wind gusts threaten to literally blow him or her away.
If everyone is being evacuated from a sure-to-be-hard hit area, with officials acknowledging “we won’t be able to rescue you,” and severe damage predicted, where do these reporters and their crew stay while the worst is happening and they're not on air? How do they get food, lodging, and safety when all hell is breaking loose in front, beside and all around them? If I understand the warnings, almost every hotel has been emptied and abandoned. So where are they hunkering down, perhaps for days?
I’m sure they’ve been well provided for by their networks in terms of provisions, but being a reporter or a cameraperson doesn’t protect you from a 30 foot ocean swell or a 240 km wind gust.
I doubt there’s a lot of these storm chasers on this board, but if so, I’m curious how you survive mostly alone in the teeth of what could be one of the worst disasters in decades and live to tell the tale. (And how do they send live reports from a sat truck when those winds can easily blow the dish away?)
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Last edited by Dale Patterson (September 12, 2018 1:03 pm)
"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
- mace
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Re: Hurricane: How Do Reporters Survive & Where Do They Go When Off Air?
I love watching local television coverage of major storms. Last year, when Hurricane Harvey devestated Houston, I watched storm coverage on the city's NBC affiliate KPRC. This week, with Florence heading toward Wilmington, N.C. I plan to watch some of the storm coverage provided by ABC WAAY and NBC WECT.
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Re: Hurricane: How Do Reporters Survive & Where Do They Go When Off Air?
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: Hurricane: How Do Reporters Survive & Where Do They Go When Off Air?
Some fascinating coverage being live streamed by stations in North and South Carolina. One local TV outlet, WNIC in a place called New Bern, N.C., was completely evacuated after the building that housed the station was flooded out, forcing every employee into the parking lot and away from the place. They wound up taking another affiliate's feed for the duration of their absence.
As I was watching, one of the anchors used his cell phone to report on the exodus and I recognized the name - it turned out to be Wes Goforth, who used to work at WGRZ in Buffalo. So he's likely more than used to terrible weather.
WCTI Live coverage
WSOC Live coverage
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Thread Starter- mace
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Re: Hurricane: How Do Reporters Survive & Where Do They Go When Off Air?
WWAY and WETC in Wilmington also have some awesome wall to wall storm coverage,