Covering Katrina
By Allison Romano -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/29/2005 7:16:00 AM
As powerful Hurricane Katrina--a strong category 4--battered the Gulf Coast, TV news reporters fanned out across Lousianna, Mississippi and Alabama Monday morning, chasing the storm and struggling to keep their live shots going.
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams hunkered down in the Super Dome in New Orleans with thousands of residents, reporting by telephone for the Today Show (cameras were not being allowed to shoot live in the Super Dome.)
CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who has made hurricane coverage his specialty this season, is in Baton Rouge, as is morning anchor Miles O’Brien, where he is blogging between reports.
ABC News managed to get live video from New Orleans, with a correspondent appearing on Good Morning America via a wireless Internet connection. MSNBC’s David Shuster is reporting and blogging from Biloxi, Miss.
Local TV stations across the region are furiously trying to cover the storm and stay on the air.
At least six New Orleans stations (WWL, WDSU, WPMI, WLOK, WKRG and WJTV) are streaming live coverage, according to TV industry blog Lostremote.com, but video is spotty due to power outages across the region.
Several local stations, including KHOU and WPMI, are blogging about the storm. One posting on Lost Remote says that WLOX is being hit hard, with parts of its roof blown off and Internet access down.
As Katrina careened toward New Orleans on Sunday night, many reporters moved inland, to Baton Rouge and points north, and east to Biloxi, Miss., and Mobile, Ala., all of which are feeling the 100+ mile-an-hour winds, too.
No related content found.
