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Have You Ever Had To Work On Radio Or TV During A Weather Emergency?
We're very lucky we only get the remnants of hurricanes in this area and tornados in Toronto are rare, as well. But I wonder if anyone here has ever been forced to work at a radio or TV station when all hell was breaking loose outside weatherwise?
It never really happened to me, except for having to stay for coverage of a few massive snowstorms. There was one night I briefly thought about sleeping in the station's tape library instead of trying to venture home. Fortunately, most of the way was on the subway, which was not affected by the deluge of flakes. So once I trudged to the nearest station, I was almost home free.
But there is one scene I will never forget. We were doing the 6 PM news after a huge summer rainstorm, something of a record setter. They were showing viz of the various flooding scenes around the city, taken by various camera operators who fanned out to catch the worst damage.
And that's when I saw not only my neighbourhood, but a street about two blocks from where I live. The pictures showed an almost unbelievable scene of water over the tops of cars and a nearby Esso station on the corner with flooding halfway up the pumps. It was stunning and while I got through those newscasts, the only thing I could think of was my house and my basement - and what I was going to face if I could even get home.
I can't explain it, but when I arrived hours later, my place was thankfully untouched by the damage and there wasn't a drop of water anywhere in my house. But seeing the neighbourhood you live in pictured on your TV screen when you're very far away from it and not knowing what's happening is an indescribably disturbing feeling.
I can only imagine what the people in Florida are going through.
- markow202
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Re: Have You Ever Had To Work On Radio Or TV During A Weather Emergency?
RadioActive wrote:
We're very lucky we only get the remnants of hurricanes here and tornados in Toronto are rare, as well. But I wonder if anyone here has ever been forced to work at a radio or TV station when all hell was breaking loose outside weatherwise?
It never really happened to me, except for having to stay for coverage of a few massive snowstorms. There was one night I briefly thought about sleeping in the station's tape library instead of trying to venture home. Fortunately, most of the way was on the subway, which was not affected by the deluge of flakes. So once I trudged to the nearest station, I was almost home free.
But there is one scene I will never forget. We were doing the 6 PM news after a huge summer rainstorm, something of a record setter. They were showing viz of the various flooding scenes around the city, taken by various camera operators who fanned out to catch the worst damage.
And that's when I saw not only my neighbourhood, but a street about two blocks from where I live. The pictures showed an almost unbelievable scene of water over the tops of cars and a nearby Esso station on the corner with flooding halfway up the pumps. It was stunning and while I got through those newscasts, the only thing I could think of was my house and my basement - and what I was going to face if I could even get home.
I can't explain it, but when I arrived hours later, my place was thankfully untouched by the damage and there wasn't a drop of water anywhere in my house. But seeing the neighbourhood you live in pictured on your TV screen when you're very far away from it and not knowing what's happening is an indescribably disturbing feeling.
I can only imagine what the people in Florida are going through.
Was this from back in 2012?
- Forward Power
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Re: Have You Ever Had To Work On Radio Or TV During A Weather Emergency?
Late summer 2018, I was primarily working from home but was at the radio station this one day, when a series of tornadoes came dangerously close to our area in the Ottawa Valley. Tornado warnings were issued, and at one point in the afternoon, the emergency alert box was on the air longer than regular programming. An alert message would end, switch back to regular programming, then a few seconds later the box would take over again. This went on for at least half an hour, but my then-new Android phone blared only once when the warning was issued.
- mace
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Re: Have You Ever Had To Work On Radio Or TV During A Weather Emergency?
We're very lucky we only get the remnants of hurricanes here and tornados in Toronto are rare, as well. But I wonder if anyone here has ever been forced to work at a radio or TV station when all hell was breaking loose outside weatherwise?
It never really happened to me, except for having to stay for coverage of a few massive snowstorms. There was one night I briefly thought about sleeping in the station's tape library instead of trying to venture home. Fortunately, most of the way was on the subway, which was not affected by the deluge of flakes. So once I trudged to the nearest station, I was almost home free.
But there is one scene I will never forget. We were doing the 6 PM news after a huge summer rainstorm, something of a record setter. They were showing viz of the various flooding scenes around the city, taken by various camera operators who fanned out to catch the worst damage.
And that's when I saw not only my neighbourhood, but a street about two blocks from where I live. The pictures showed an almost unbelievable scene of water over the tops of cars and a nearby Esso station on the corner with flooding halfway up the pumps. It was stunning and while I got through those newscasts, the only thing I could think of was my house and my basement - and what I was going to face if I could even get home.
I can't explain it, but when I arrived hours later, my place was thankfully untouched by the damage and there wasn't a drop of water anywhere in my house. But seeing the neighbourhood you live in pictured on your TV screen when you're very far away from it and not knowing what's happening is an indescribably disturbing feeling.
I can only imagine what the people in Florida are going through.Was this from back in 2012?
Probably July 8, 2013 when 126mm [4.9"] of rain fell on Toronto in 90 minutes. I have a photo of hwy 427 looking south towards Burnamthorpe where the guardrails are submerged and cars are floating in the water. Looks like a giant lake.
- RadioActive
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Re: Have You Ever Had To Work On Radio Or TV During A Weather Emergency?
We're very lucky we only get the remnants of hurricanes here and tornados in Toronto are rare, as well. But I wonder if anyone here has ever been forced to work at a radio or TV station when all hell was breaking loose outside weatherwise?
It never really happened to me, except for having to stay for coverage of a few massive snowstorms. There was one night I briefly thought about sleeping in the station's tape library instead of trying to venture home. Fortunately, most of the way was on the subway, which was not affected by the deluge of flakes. So once I trudged to the nearest station, I was almost home free.
But there is one scene I will never forget. We were doing the 6 PM news after a huge summer rainstorm, something of a record setter. They were showing viz of the various flooding scenes around the city, taken by various camera operators who fanned out to catch the worst damage.
And that's when I saw not only my neighbourhood, but a street about two blocks from where I live. The pictures showed an almost unbelievable scene of water over the tops of cars and a nearby Esso station on the corner with flooding halfway up the pumps. It was stunning and while I got through those newscasts, the only thing I could think of was my house and my basement - and what I was going to face if I could even get home.
I can't explain it, but when I arrived hours later, my place was thankfully untouched by the damage and there wasn't a drop of water anywhere in my house. But seeing the neighbourhood you live in pictured on your TV screen when you're very far away from it and not knowing what's happening is an indescribably disturbing feeling.
I can only imagine what the people in Florida are going through.Was this from back in 2012?
Can't quite recall the year (it was a long time ago) but it was definitely earlier than that. I'm guessing it was sometime closer to the year 2000.
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Thread Starter- markow202
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Re: Have You Ever Had To Work On Radio Or TV During A Weather Emergency?
We're very lucky we only get the remnants of hurricanes here and tornados in Toronto are rare, as well. But I wonder if anyone here has ever been forced to work at a radio or TV station when all hell was breaking loose outside weatherwise?
It never really happened to me, except for having to stay for coverage of a few massive snowstorms. There was one night I briefly thought about sleeping in the station's tape library instead of trying to venture home. Fortunately, most of the way was on the subway, which was not affected by the deluge of flakes. So once I trudged to the nearest station, I was almost home free.
But there is one scene I will never forget. We were doing the 6 PM news after a huge summer rainstorm, something of a record setter. They were showing viz of the various flooding scenes around the city, taken by various camera operators who fanned out to catch the worst damage.
And that's when I saw not only my neighbourhood, but a street about two blocks from where I live. The pictures showed an almost unbelievable scene of water over the tops of cars and a nearby Esso station on the corner with flooding halfway up the pumps. It was stunning and while I got through those newscasts, the only thing I could think of was my house and my basement - and what I was going to face if I could even get home.
I can't explain it, but when I arrived hours later, my place was thankfully untouched by the damage and there wasn't a drop of water anywhere in my house. But seeing the neighbourhood you live in pictured on your TV screen when you're very far away from it and not knowing what's happening is an indescribably disturbing feeling.
I can only imagine what the people in Florida are going through.Was this from back in 2012?
Probably July 8, 2013 when 126mm [4.9"] of rain fell on Toronto in 90 minutes. I have a photo of hwy 427 looking south towards Burnamthorpe where the guardrails are submerged and cars are floating in the water. Looks like a giant lake.
Yes! That was a crazy afternoon.
- newsguy1
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Re: Have You Ever Had To Work On Radio Or TV During A Weather Emergency?
I worked all through the huge snowstorms in the 90's in Toronto, the ones that caused Mel Lastman to call in the army.
People still laugh about that but I still think ol' Mel was justified.
The huge snowfall blocked roads so fire trucks and EMS vehicles could not get into neighborhoods.
The weight of snow collapsed the canopy over the front door of my house, doing 7 thousand dollars damage.
Also I was working when the huge ice storms hit, the ones that knocked out power in Toronto, but more massively in Quebec.
I also covered the inquiry into the Walkerton water disaster. It was in the winter in the early 2000s, and there was a huge snowstorm in the Walkerton area, causing roads to be shut down by the RCMP and we were trapped there for several days, but got out just in time for a Christmas break.
Last edited by newsguy1 (October 9, 2024 12:12 pm)