News Leadership

Tough Calls - Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina

DAVE VINCENT
News Director
WLOX-TV
Biloxi, MS

When 20 percent of your staff loses everything they own, it becomes an emotional issue not only for those affected but for the entire newsroom and station. When the tidal surge came ashore with waves up to 30 feet, WLOX-TV anchor Rebecca Powers’ house was destroyed when another home slammed into hers. Rebecca and seven other staff members lost everything they own. There has been a lot of crying and hugging as employees returned from surveying their homes and letting other staffers know that yes, they have a home or no, they lost everything. Most, if not all of these staffers, have said I need to help the station inform our viewers about what is happening along the coast. We have brought in counselors at least two times to help the staff cope with the stress and difficulties they face. As the weeks unfold, we find everyone bone tired, and stress is at an all-time high. As I and other members of the management team work with the staff we must remember what everyone has gone thorough. I think the best thing a manager can do it just to be there for your staff. Try and help them find an apartment or help them get a rental car. Be a listening post for them. If they need a day off, try your best to arrange. Our newsroom was heavily damaged but we are building back and hope to be back in our nice newsroom by Christmas. Wow, what a present.

DOUG MOUTON
Assistant News Director
WGNO-TV
New Orleans, LA

Sunday before the storm hit, we helicoptered our chief meteorologist to Baton Rouge. When he got there, they put him on the air, and we switched our signal over to theirs. The rest of us then evacuated New Orleans to Baton Rouge. We combined our staffs, WGNO-TV and WBRZ-TV, and broadcast together, 24 hours a day, for nine days. Since then, for the past nine days, we’ve combined for 11 hours of live news coverage a day. The Katrina story packed an emotional punch like no other. Beginning the day the storm hit, and lasting for about seven days, I’ve never seen more emotion in a newsroom. Many of us working in New Orleans also grew up in New Orleans. We worked 12-hour shifts, or longer, but spent much more time worrying about parents and extended families. The quantity of crying was incredible—crying for lost lives, crying for our lost homes, crying for our co-workers who lost everything, crying for our displaced and horrified families, and general crying for the loss of our city. I saw hardened news pros break down over and over, and I don’t think anyone cried more than me. Certainly, we don’t feel this anymore. There’s a lot of optimism now, but those first seven days were really tough. There was no way to get away from it. For us New Orleanians, Katrina changed our lives. I wish I knew the words to describe what it’s like to cover the story that changed your own life, but if I never have to do it again, that’s cool with me.

ANZIO WILLIAMS
News Director
WDSU-TV
New Orleans, LA

The biggest challenge in covering Katrina for me was keeping my co-workers safe before, during and after the storm, and continuing to provide live updated information around the clock. We developed a plan to evacuate many employees to our sister station, WAPT-TV in Jackson, MS. Field crews of four to seven journalists were paired and positioned in areas believed to be safe from winds and high water. My last message to all of the crews, “It’s better to come back alive than be live on the scene.” We had to resist the urge to be in the elements. Plans changed fast and often. When the roof of the Superdome started to peel away, we had nine people on the football field. A second crew was forced to the roof of an Emergency Operations Center, and a third crew became trapped inside a local hospital. Our sister station, WESH-TV in Orlando, FL, was able to take over our coverage within an hour of the first phone call. Rising waters submerged our transmitter, knocking us off the air. Millions of people watched our live streaming coverage on WDSU.com. There was ongoing dialogue between station management and Hearst executives looking for ways to reach those who evacuated. We started off as a local station, now we are a regional network broadcasting in Houston and Jackson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and other cities throughout the state.