The hard work of chasing hurricanes - it's worth it
New subscribers: we're thankful you're here. The Behind the Story newsletter is a bi-weekly look inside the biggest stories the Paste BN Network is covering, giving you a glimpse of what it takes to report the information you read, watch, and interact with. This edition is written by Paste BN Network enterprise reporter Sean Rossman. You can read his articles here, and follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
The number startled me: 1,300.
The number of miles I drove chasing Hurricane Florence through North Carolina in just six days.
The massive storm, it turned out, slammed more than just the coast. It destroyed beautiful, quaint intercoastal areas and river towns. Florence’s expanse forced me into constant motion. I’d wake up each morning, find the storm’s mean swirl on the radar and drive into it to find all the torn places.
Those 1,300 miles point to how far Florence’s devastation extended. I never made it to other hard-hit places like Wilmington, Morehead City or Rocky Mount. There wasn’t enough time to reach them all.
Chasing storms requires a lot of a skill journalists proudly boast: the ability to adapt. Traversing North Carolina during a life-threatening storm requires a lot of it. I typed most of my stories on my phone in my car, often alone in a vacant town during pouring rain. My GPS, which I relied heavily on, sometimes proved worthless as it couldn’t keep up with the rate at which roads flooded. (Hurricane rule: Don’t drive through flooded roads).
Above are photos Rossman posted on Instagram while reporting. Top left to bottom right: Hurricane humor spray-painted on a boarded up building; Gigi Charlebois and her family stayed in their coffee shop Thursday evening to avoid #Florence. It was safer than their home; Here is Oday Betts, who I met watching the waves in North Carolina; 911 call-taker Tara Battle prepping for a long night of calls; Waiting for #Florence; At Ocean Boulevard Bistro and Martini Bar, a pre-#Florence emergency wedding before they started boarding up the outside.
It’s also a lesson in survival. The batteries, trail mix and gallons of fresh water in my back seat served as a constant reminder I could easily be stuck without power for days. (Thankfully, this never happened).
But out in the middle of places like Washington, N.C., it’s difficult to feel like you’re taking some selfless risk because the people around you will be cleaning up their lives for months to come. Long after I’ve filed my stories, posted my photos and received kudos at the morning editor’s meeting, they’ll be waiting on contractors, insurance claims and a return to normal.
It’s actually the part I love most about reporting – the chance to be humbled by news. We get to experience a range of troubles and the emotions that come with them from a close but comfortable distance. It gives us a well-rounded outlook on our world and rejiggers our sense of empathy so we can better tell the story next time.
It’s a lot of trouble, a lot of work. It’s wet. It’s muddy. But it’s worth the miles.
- Sean Rossman, Paste BN Network
If you want to help those who have been affected by the hurricane, here is a list of organizations collecting physical and monetary donations.
For continued coverage on Florence and its aftermath, go to The Citizen-Times (Asheville, N.C.), Greenville Online (Greenville, S.C.) The Independent Mail (Anderson, S.C.), and Paste BN.