Ice Storm 2007 - Impact On TV

[CDubya87 0]

So, here in JoMo, because of how bad this ice storm is, I'm at work now, at a TV station that did not have a 5, 6, or 10pm news yesterday or a morning show today after 21 and a half hours without power. Joplin media has been greatly impacted- as of the 50,000 + residents in the city alone, at the peak of the storm, 48,000 of them were without power, and as of today (12-11) 45,000 of them are still out. I'm a producer at the station, and, let me tell you, it was the most interesting thing ever.

My job was coordinating our power usage. We do not have a generator for the station, so I plugged a series of (fire hazard, I know) extension cords to Edit Bay 1 from our live truck, which we then started up. We powered edit bay 1, our scanners, and our camera battery charges all from the live truck for 5 hours. It was determined by 8:40pm that we would not have power until well into this day, so we sent everyone home. Of course, the de-icer for the tower was not operating, so ice was forming and then falling off the tower, so it was my job and a photog's job to move all the news vehicles to the street away from the building (yes, we're one of the few stations with the tower right behind our station). It was a crazy day, thankfully, our power was restored in time for a noon newscast, and we've been working hard ever since getting everything back online. Anyone know of any other unfortunate stations?

[Weeters 1829]

WTMJ has had non-stop coverage all morning. They just switched out the desk anchors that have been on air for I'd guess around 5-6 hours.

 

UPDATE: WTMJ is now reporting they'll be on the air "all day long", so I'm guessing they're going to stay on right into the 4:00 news.

[TrfRptr 3]

Good to know stations broadcasting 24-7 when nobody can see them anyway.