Hurricane Charley: Orlando TV News coverage
August 29, 2004 – When Hurricane Charley made an unexpected trip up Interstate 4 on Aug. 13 — Friday the 13th of all days — the storm became part of Central Florida lore. There had not been a hurricane like this to hit the region in more than 40 years. Fortunately, television news had advanced considerably since Hurricane Donna slammed Orlando on Sept. 11, 1960. Thanks to their experience, their commitment to cover the story, their competitive natures and their technology — not the least of which was Doppler radar and storm-tracking software — the area stations helped Central Floridians prepare for and weather the “I-4 storm.”
Meteorologists at Orlando stations alerted viewers the storm was heading directly here around noon Friday — hours before the National Hurricane Center would acknowledge a change in the storm’s path. Exactly which station first predicted the storm’s new path has been a matter of great debate. WFTV’s Tom Terry was credited originally for making the call, but WKMG and WESH both have said they too reported a change in the storm’s path before the Hurricane Center.
It was big news. Most everyone had gone to bed Thursday night and to work on Friday morning thinking the storm was going to come ashore somewhere near Tampa and give Orlando a glancing blow as it moved across the peninsula. By noon, every Central Florida station was warning that it was going to be much worse than anticipated here. Terry was telling viewers to get home before 2 p.m. Many stopped at grocery stores (that ones which were still open at that point) to get last-minute supplies. I got a call from my wife while I was in a check-out line telling me the storm — which had just been upgraded to Category 3 — was now a Category 4 storm. Yikes!
I think WESH was the first station to start wall-to-wall coverage, but the others quickly followed. Even Central Florida News 13, the Bright House cable station, abandoned its recorded news wheel and went with hours and hours of live coverage. WB18, which doesn’t have a news department any more, ran a crawl with hurricane information. WOPX-Channel 56, the Pax affiliate out of Melbourne, began simulcasting WESH’s coverage. (And that was a lesson for next time. WESH’s transmitter is located north of Orlando in Orange City. With no cable or satellite, it’s nearly impossible to get a picture on Channel 2. But Pax’s UHF signal on Channel 56 comes in pretty clear with an old “rabbit ear” antenna. Too bad it switched to NBC’s Olympic coverage just as the storm was approaching.)
When a feeder band came across the region in the early afternoon as a prelude to Charley’s arrival, things started to quiet down. Businesses were closed, streets were deserted. The stations used all the technology at their disposal to cover the storm’s approach. From reporters doing live shots in the southern part of the state to utilizing Department of Transportation cameras along I-4, we watched as the storm worked its way toward us.
The worst of it for the Orlando area came around 9:30 or so. There was a 105 mph wind gust at Orlando International. Those DOT cameras showed powerful winds whipping sheets of rain and rocking light poles and traffic signals. WFTV’s camera atop the SunTrust bank building in downtown Orlando was shaking like there was a huge earthquake going on below. From its bird’s-eye view, you could see power transformers flashing and lights going off and on all across the downtown area.
As the storm was toppling hundreds of trees in downtown Orlando, Terry told viewers the station was running on generators — but you wouldn’t have known from the on-air product. WKMG-Channel 6 wasn’t as lucky. It lost power and had generator problems. Finally, the station got back on the air by using one of its live trucks — supplying power to two lights and two microphones in the studio for the anchors and to the tower outside to send a signal to WKMG’s transmitter. It was bare-bones broadcasting — no graphics, no lights and, unfortunately, no weather radar — but it was broadcasting. And, even more important, with so many in Central Florida without power, WKMG’s broadcasts allowed it to continue providing coverage on FM radio. (WKMG’s audio signal — as is the audio of all Channel 6’s in the U.S. — is carried on 87.7 FM.)
I mean no disrespect to the hard-working folks at WESH, WKMG, WOFL or Central Florida News 13, but WFTV and Tom Terry stood out with their extraordinary coverage. At the height of the storm, I wasn’t concerned with flipping around the dial to see who was doing the best job. We just kept the TV on WFTV. Terry and the team of folks staffing the station’s relatively new Severe Weather Center 9 gave a minute-by-minute account of the storm’s approach and what to expect. They constantly updated graphics to show the storm’s exact path and expected wind gusts. Their Doppler radar and associated software were able to tell the story of the storm in an easy to understand way. They would focus in on an area and show what the winds were. They would zoom out and show where the rough weather was and where it was headed. They checked rain-fall totals. And through it all, Terry’s businesslike demeanor kept everyone calm. That included me.
While watching WFTV’s coverage and hearing Terry mention one nasty feeder band was heading toward our area, he again repeated that everyone should be in a safe interior area away from windows. My weather station was showing the winds outside were about 50 mph — but it sounded like 150 to me. My wife, son and I decided we’re ride out the rest of the storm in our utility room. Not too long after we got in there (with our two dogs), some debris came crashing through our kitchen window. Scared the hell out of all of us. But, with a small TV somehow also squeezed into the utility room with us, we watched Terry’s radar images and realized the worst for us would be over in about 30 minutes. It was the longest 30 minutes I’ve ever waited in my life as we kept hearing more glass break and wind whipping into our house. But, just as the radar indicated, things began to settle down.
Compared with the damage others had, we couldn’t complain. We lost most of the shingles and paper from our roof, the top of our chimney was torn off, the backyard fence and the big oak in the front yard were down, and we had lots of leaks inside the house. But we were safe and had electricity!
As storm continued it path along I-4, it finally exited the state and went out to the Atlantic. WFTV ended its coverage around midnight; WESH and WOFL signed off around 12:30 a.m. WKMG, which was barely broadcasting, made the decision to stay on the air the rest of the night. A lot of folks have asked what good was served by that decision, but if I were alone in a damaged house without electricity, I think hearing a familiar voice on the radio or on a battery-operated TV would be pretty comforting in such a hectic and scary situation. And, as Local 6’s reporters made their way back to the station with their video, it became apparent just how widespread the damage was across the region. That was something the other stations wouldn’t pick up on until their came back with their newscasts around 5:30 a.m. And anchor Bob Frier must have set some sort of Central Florida record — being on the air for nearly 18 hours with just a few short breaks in between.
Video from Hurricane Charley coverage – August 13, 2004
WFTV-Channel 9 Hurricane Charley Coverage
You can see many examples of WFTV’s Doppler graphics indicating the direction and strength of the storm. In the 2nd photo on row 2 is Arch Kennedy, a new meterologist at WFTV who was thrown into action a little early. In third 3rd photo in row 3 is one of many traffic cams WFTV showed as the storm approached and arrived in Orlando. In the qst photo in row 4, the bad “red” area of Charley hits my home. In the 2nd photo in same row, Charley storms into downtown and the SunTrust tower cam gives a bird’s-eye view. In the 2nd photo is the last row, Terry introduces six others who were helping out in WFTV’s weather center coverage.
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WKMG-Channel 6 Hurricane Charley Coverage
Reporter Donald Forbes (row 3, 3rd picture) had the video of the day from southwest Florida, where he was slightly injured when a roof blew off a structure next to where he and his camerman were seeking shelter. In the 2nd picture in row 5, reporter Mike Deforest interviews a guy in Sanford who was just walking in the middle of the storm (with a beer bottle, of course). In row 6, with the power off at WKMG, DeForest returns and dumps water from his boot on the anchor desk during his debriefing. Finally, in the last row, you can see the power slowly coming back on at WKMG around 3 a.m..
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WESH-Channel 2 Hurricane Charley Coverage
In the photos in row 2, you see an example of what one wag called WESH’s tie-dyed Doppler. WESH used slightly different colors to represent severe weather on its radar and sometimes gots unusual looking results. In row 3 are images I took from WESH coverage before the storm on WOPX-Pax 56 (which is where WESH moved NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremonies of the Athens Olympics). The last row shows the reception I got for Channel 2 shortly after the storm moved out around midnight.
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