Our newsroom kicked into high gear over a trio of storms. On Friday, we were on the air with wall-to-wall severe weather coverage for 12 hours.
This tree fell outside of our station and it freaked me out on my way to work. Before sunrise, I couldn’t see the length of it and I couldn’t tell if I could drive around it. So I had to find an alternate route into the parking lot.
On Friday morning, I spent a majority of time helping with phone calls. Several viewers were upset with us pre-empting the Today Show. More people called into the newsroom and asked for help with power outages, flooding, tree damage and more. Over the weekend, more people called with power problems. Some said the utility companies couldn’t fix their power problems until later this week. Others said they were so desperate for information that they were watching our station with a generator.
I thought sorting through all those phone calls was almost overwhelming. This is in addition to keeping up with scripts, updating the ticker and keeping track of graphic needs and tapes for reporters in the field. But it also showed me that this business is about more than chasing police dispatch calls in the middle of the night. We’re making a difference and people are responding to all the information we have on air.
The wind knocked down this tree near the California Statehouse. Crazy!
We lost power in Vacaville and our cable internet. My EP said she still had cable but lost her HD channels. Another producer sent us a cell phone camera pix of a tree that crashed into his apartment complex. We also had trees crashing down on news trucks.