Sad season: St. Petersburg Times photojournalist Bob Croslin, JM 2002, shot this photo after one of the four hurricanes that hit Florida this past summer.
Crash course
Florida newspapers pick up valuable lessons in summer's record-breaking hurricane season
By Jessica Strul
A four-foot gutter hit ABC Action News reporter Don Germaise’s legs during his live coverage of Hurricane Jeanne this past summer. It was one of eight times debris fell on him while he informed Tampa, St. Petersburg, and 13 surrounding counties about Florida’s four storms.
“It’s mass chaos with Mother Nature trying to shove you over at 120 m.p.h. and using wind and rain and anything in her power to do it,” said Germaise, who left the College in 1981. He took several steps to steady himself when chunks of wood and other material nearly knocked him down. He considered himself lucky to avoid needing medical attention.
Shane Blatt, JM 1995, who leads a team of seven designers, also considers himself fortunate – for never having to use The Tampa Tribune ’s relocation plan. The paper sits by the Hillsborough River; a 10- to 14-foot storm surge would have submerged the press, he said. “The reality was we were going to print a paper, and we were going to do whatever was needed to get there. We were concerned with putting out a very solid visual product.”
Getting the paper to its readers required rare arrangements, said Blatt’s coworker, Erin West, JM 1995, Tribune team leader for regional design.
“We got special passes from the city because of floods, so police would know that we needed to be on the road to get to work when other people weren’t allowed to,” West said. “Seeing the product at the end of the night made it all worth it.”
‘Readers are expecting it’
When the record-breaking hurricane season hit Florida with constant uncertainty, newspapers delivered consistency and reliability.
Vicki Sherman
Some newspapers, like the Sebring-based News-Sun, faced severe challenges. It still hadn’t printed its A section when it lost power during Hurricane Charley. Sitting in the passenger seat, Editor Romona Washington finished typing and editing incomplete stories on a laptop computer while the production manager drove them to Leesburg, where the paper printed the main section, recalled Advertising Director Vicki Sherman, ADV 2004 .
For her part, Sherman recruited her husband to join the publisher and his wife in spending a day hand-inserting 10,000 newspapers, a task usually completed in two hours by machine.
“The readers are expecting it,” Sherman said. “I was without power for three days. No TV, no Internet, no phones. All visual communication was gone. The newspaper is the only form of communication that we could get. There was one radio station available. It made me see just how valuable the newspaper is as far as a means of communication.”
After Hurricane Charley, the News-Sun published an ad featuring a letter by reader R.C. Davis: “Like a MIRACLE you managed to publish your paper so that the people in Sebring could know what was happening – who to call for help if they found a working phone – or where to go.”
To cover future storms, the paper needs to buy a generator, reserve gas for its drivers and obtain more information on curfews, Sherman said.
But some issues may go unresolved.
“Part of the challenge of working in the media is making sure your own family is safe,” said Rick Hirsch, JM 1980, Miami Herald managing editor for multi-media. “It’s like a police officer – you have a larger responsibility to the public.”
During a hurricane, journalists face a logistical liability.
“It’s one thing to gather the news,” Hirsch said, “it’s another to deliver it in the same weather everyone is hunkering down to avoid.”
Nature show: St. Petersburg Times photographer Bob Croslin, JM 2002, who took this picture, uses his camera to open Floridians' eyes to hurricanes' danger. "It's the real deal," he says.
The Herald housed 200 journalists and their families during the storm, he noted. They slept on airbeds, and ate for free at the cafeteria, which offered 24-hour service.
“No one collects news on the scale of a newsgathering force like a newspaper,” said Hirsch, a member of the Department of Journalism Advisory Council.
The Herald, which has a gas-fueled generator that can power 80 percent of the newsroom’s computer system, reviews its hurricane plan annually, he said. In the past few years, it switched from cell phones to satellite phones and drafted reciprocal agreements with newspapers around the state, such as the Fort Lauderdale-based Sun-Sentinel, to ensure that if one organization is unable to print, the other will.
“You name it,” Hirsch said, “we’ve tried to anticipate it.”
Insured against boredom
Margo Pope, JM 1970, didn’t anticipate covering Hurricane Frances on her third day as interim newsroom manager of the St. Augustine Record.
“Winds were whipping up outside and the terracotta tile on the building was popping off,” said Pope, also a member of the Journalism Advisory Council.
The Record was 45 minutes and eight pages from meeting its deadline when its building lost power. The Florida Times-Union, the Record ’s sister operation in Jacksonville, printed the paper.
“We learned a lot during Frances that helped us with Jeanne,” Pope said.
During Frances, everyone on the Record ’s news staff worked full-time. Following Frances, a revised plan mandated rotating reporters. The paper condensed the jumps from the front to a single page, sending fewer spreads to the press.
The Emergency Operating Center (EOC), which provides hurricane relief to the public, helped the Record perform its job. “When it looked like we were going to lose power,” Pope said, “EOC allowed us to plug in our laptop and e-mail our stories because they considered us part of the emergency operations.”
Like Pope, the Sun-Sentinel ’s Kathy Bushouse, JM 1997, also recently changed professional positions – from covering the city of Boca Raton to insurance and banking.
“Someone said, ‘Insurance is boring,’ and I said, ‘Not if you have hurricanes,’ ” Bushouse recalled. “There has definitely been a steep learning curve. People look at you as the expert.”
Bob Croslin
Newspapers educate the public, said St. Petersburg Times photojournalist Bob Croslin, JM 2002 . “We have such a huge beach community here, and a lot of these people who are too stubborn or ignorant won’t leave their homes. These pictures that my colleagues and I take show them it’s the real deal.”
