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The perfect storm

"NewsFlash" by Kathleen de Onis
Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 1:36 am

The adrenaline rush of breaking news…It comes over me every time we get a report that I think could be the ‘big one.’

Tuesday we had the worst severe weather my hometown has seen in decades. I watched the storm loom along the horizon before honing in on our community with precision. As I stood outside bracing myself against the wind and trying unsuccessfully to keep the door open as our weather man taped his web recording, I was awed that the storm could move so quickly and ominously…just like a tornado. With it came nearly golf ball-sized hail.

Everyone at the station had already put in a full day, but that means nothing in the news business. We thrive on long hours, deadlines and caffeine. The scanner was abuzz and the pagers were clogged with reports of downed power lines, flooding and fallen trees that were crushing homes. And in the station, we were experiencing storm problems of our own. Water gushed in from all sides of the building. A reporter and I grabbed mops and tried to stop the stream of ice-cold water, but it was no use. We were in trouble. We ran barefoot to try to save boxes of tapes that had been set on the floor and scrambled for camera gear just in time to save it from getting drenched. Damage control kept us busy for quite some time before we left the station one by one to go cover the storm.

I headed out on a report of a tree on fire because of a downed power line. Several firefighters were at the scene, so I hauled my camera and tripod out of the car and waded through some puddles filled with a combination of murky water and tattered leaves. When I arrived near the tree, I was met with the sight of three firefighters and one enormous pool of mucky, deep water. Feeling sorry for me, my new-found firefighting friends hoisted my equipment across the mini lake, and one fine young man gave me a lift across on his back. I would not mind being transported like this more often.

I shot some b-roll of the tree that was slightly aglow before interviewing one of the officials at the scene. I then headed back to the station to find a restoration company draining the flood from our building. No easy task. Then it was time to capture, write, edit and proofread before calling it a night.

As I pulled out onto the pitch-black highway to head home, I asked myself how long I would be able to keep up such a lifestyle, but at the same time I was also filled with the feeling of ‘I love this.’ Proof, perhaps, that this business is a powerful drug that has now officially claimed me as an addict.