THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220072
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
IT WAS OUR turn to be famous for 15 minutes last week. A storm called ``wet, wide and windy'' by Dan Rather on the CBS evening news brought the great TV networks to our doorstep.
As tourists by the thousands left Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks, reporters from CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN trudged in with their field producers, looking to up-link, down-load and whatever else it takes to bounce a signal off an orbiting satellite.
Barry Serafin of ABC, in Sandbridge, talked about how Virginia Beach was losing both sand and tourist dollars to Hurricane Felix. There will soon be no beach left to erode, Serafin said. Grimly.
Cut to a live shot of surf thrashing a bulkhead in Sandbridge.
From Nags Head in North Carolina, Robert Hager of NBC estimated the storm cost merchants on the Outer Banks about $25 million ``without ever coming ashore.''
On Atlantic Avenue at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, John Zarrella of CNN also discussed tourist dollars that flew away when hurricane warnings went up.
John Roberts of CBS also was at the Oceanfront, estimating that 30,000 visitors left the city when Felix threatened to come ashore near the Virginia-North Carolina border. For about 2 1/2 days last week, the names of the resorts in our neighborhood flashed across TV screens around the world and rolled off the tongues of Rather, Diane Sawyer, Ted Koppel, Bernard Shaw and just about every Weather Channel forecaster.
From his flagship, the Mount Whitney, safely out to sea, the three-star admiral who commands the Navy's Norfolk-based 2nd Fleet told Koppel how important it is to get the big ships out of harm's way. ``You don't want to be anywhere near the hurricane's main punch,'' said Vice Adm. Jay Johnson.
Virginia Beach. Norfolk. Nags Head. The Outer Banks.
Those names were all over network TV last week. Free press! Free publicity for the resorts! I wonder if all of that national and international exposure, including great-looking shots of the Oceanfront's skyline and the Outer Banks' wonderful long stretches of beach, will offset the loss of the tourist dollars?
CNN is seen around the world, you know.
Ron Kuhlman of the Virginia Beach Convention and Tourism Promotion Division said the city ``fared very well'' in the TV coverage, which included remotes by stations from Chicago and Atlanta as well as the networks. He doesn't hold to the theory that any mention of the resort city is great as long as they spell the name right.
``If all the cameras show are pilings in Sandbridge washing away, that really doesn't do us any good,'' said Kuhlman, who estimates the storm will cost Oceanfront merchants at least $8 million. ``But from what I've seen, the city has looked good on most of news clips and remotes.''
Using the considerable resources that a network brings to a story, the reporters were able to put together good feature stories and offbeat pieces in a hurry. I liked Dave Marash's report on ABC's ``Nightline'' about how the folks in Buxton, N.C., were preparing for Felix. And somebody at CBS was sharp enough to send reporter Art Rascon to a nursing home in North Carolina where he interviewed oldtimers who have lived through countless great storms. Rascon called them the not-scared, thick-skinned, tough guys.
However, at times the network crews were a day late and a dollar short compared to the work done by locals including meteorologists Duane Harding of WTKR and Jeff Lawson of WVEC, and weather reporter Don Slater of WAVY. Last Wednesday night, when Serafin on ABC was talking about how 40 homes in Sandbridge may be washed into the sea, Harding on Channel 3 informed viewers that the crisis had passed.
I'm still waiting for the 10 inches of rain that Serafin said was coming. My water-starved lawn would welcome even a drop or two. by CNB