IN MY SHOES: What It’s Like To Cover A Hurricane For The Weather Channel
The New York Times profiles Weather Channel reporter Mike Seidel – “a weather geek since age 6 when he started measuring the snow in Salisbury, Md.” – who “had sand in his teeth, his pockets and his ears [and] was soaking wet, barely able to hear” as he filed live reports for 15 hours on Saturday from a the beach on the Outer Banks of NC during Hurricane Irene’s landfall:
It is harder than it looks, staying on live television during a hurricane. But Mr. Seidel, a meteorologist by training, lives for it. …
Mr. Seidel started broadcasting at 5 a.m. from the second-floor deck of the Comfort Inn in South Nags Head, purposely positioning himself away from the protection of the building to show the most serious winds. Sometimes he’d have to stand there, silently braced against the deck railing, just so the channel could show he was there – what he called a “bobble-head” shot. …
During the day, inconveniences piled up. Water poured from the ceiling of the makeshift newsroom. Cable and Internet service disappeared. Mr. Seidel and his cameraman, Michael Gemelli, struggled to communicate while on the air. The audio operator, Doug Suttle, had to help keep the camera stationary.
But the crew said that by hurricane standards, they fared quite well; though the satellite truck experienced “rain fade,” meaning that the signal was sometimes lost when the rain turned torrential, the dish was able to stay up most of the day.
“That’s the key: truck protection,” Mr. Seidel said both before and after the storm. NBC’s truck and three others were parked behind the hotel, as if hiding from Irene’s easterly winds.
When the winds shifted direction after the eye wall passed, the crew switched to a Skype-and-wireless-phone set-up for the last two hours of live shots. Mr. Seidel wrapped at 7:40 p.m. as darkness set in. (The 12 hours of strongest winds affected Nags Head during daylight — a blessing for TV crews.)
There are tricks to the trade: Mr. Seidel donned safety glasses on the beach to help keep sand out of his eyes, and positioned himself almost as low as a football linebacker to stop from being blown over. The audio engineer wrapped his battery pack in a condom to keep it dry.
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