THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508180057
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
IT WAS 6:03 a.m. Wednesday when WTKR's Dale Gauding popped up on the TV screen from the Outer Banks in North Carolina to report on the arrival of Hurricane Felix. His assessment of the surf barely visible over his shoulder in the first light of morning:
``Broiling.''
Channel 3 also sent Paula Miller in white shorts and tennis shoes out to Sandbridge in Virginia Beach where she found ``overwash'' on Sandfiddler Road. She put her toe in the green stuff.
It was early - very early - but the troops from Hampton Roads' three network affiliates were out on Wednesday morning to beam in pictures and stories against a background of a sea turned violent.
WVEC had reporter Sandra Parker and photographer Kathy Marshall in Nags Head where Marshall's camera picked up a handwritten sign on plywood that conveyed the thought in the hearts and minds of thousands of people in Hampton Roads and eastern North Carolina:
``Spare me, Felix.''
WAVY's troops in the field included Doug Aronson in Kill Devil Hills, where on Wednesday morning he did not yet need his rain gear, and in Sandbridge, Cy Bolton was Channel 10's man on the scene. Watch the overwash, Cy.
Early on in the hurricane watch, WVEC news director David Cassidy decided to launch into ``Storm Watch,'' a brief storm update on the top of the hour throughout the broadcast day. ``In a time like this,'' said Cassidy, ``service to the public is paramount.''
And newsroom budgets be damned.
If anyone in the newsroom is entitled to a slice of overtime this week, it is WAVY meteorologist Jon Cash, who on Wednesday covered Felix's arrival on two fronts - Channel 10's early-morning broadcast, and on The Local Weather Station, a WAVY service for cable subscribers.
One minute he was here, on Channel 10, and then he was on an another set, appearing on the LWS. His message on both fronts: ``Take the storm seriously. Very seriously. The big problem will be a storm surge.''
The LWS forecasts are spare and to the point: ``Northeast North Carolina tomorrow: Stormy.''
And equally to the point was WTKR's meteorologist Duane Harding when he said, as early as Tuesday evening, ``This hurricane is heading right for us.''
You could see the bad news in Harding's face, as in the faces of Jeff Lawson and Rhonda Bentley of WVEC, Cash and Don Slater of WAVY. A storm that carried with it the promise of the worst flooding in years was on our doorstep. Brantley, in a spiritual turn, said, ``We'll make it through this together.''
Where were the praying hands?
Soon after that comforting thought from Brantley, ABC's ``Good Morning America'' was on the air on WVEC Wednesday morning with Virginia-born Spencer Christian reporting from the Outer Banks.
He was telling us what our local forecasters had been preaching for hours. ``The storm is huge.''
And both a frightening and beautiful satellite picture - all fluffy white and gray.
On The Weather Channel, the color of the day was red - a red background on which the harsh details of the storm's approach were spelled out. ``Felix stalled off the coast. Winds 36, gusting to 45.''
For those who own a home computer, and subscribe to the on-line service called CompuServe, there was a unique way to watch the storm's progress. By clicking into TWC's CompuServe forums, computer owners are able to ``talk'' to TWC forecasters as well as people whose homes are in the path of the storm.
For the couch potatoes of Hampton Roads, there are wonderful windows through which to watch what may be the storm of the decade - cable with TWC and LWS, local reports on the network affiliates, and the buzz on the Internet.
It will be a grand view until the power goes out. by CNB