For newspeople, a disaster of any scale can be a study in deprivation: Food, drink, sleep (depending on the time involved). Simply put, when a disaster hits, you jump into your truck and go. From there, it could be hours before you're able to get to a restaurant, convenience store, whatever. Toward that end, some of us keep a few supplies in there. A thermos of coffee, a bottle of water, maybe some kind of semi-non-perishable snack, petrified french fries under the front seat, or maybe nothing. It's the times when either you have nothing, you've consumed what little you had in the truck, or as Justin said in his blog, you're separated from your truck by the urgency of an evacuation, that you truly appreciate the samaritans out there...
A week ago, Zack Ottenstein and I were dispatched to go storm chasing. We worked our way down through Maumee and into Perrysburg following the tail of the storm. Finally we received word that there was a possible funnel cloud between Bowling Green and Woodville. We raced down route 20 toward Woodville, arriving between storm hits to find quarter size hail on the ground. We set up to go live in front of a house on College Ave., and taped an interview with Wid and Judie Hessalbart, the folks who live there, about their experience as the storm passed through town. While we were on live, they made and brought coffee out to us. Allowing us to use their front yard for a TV studio was effort enough. The coffee was just over the top.
As round two of the storm rolled into Woodville, we broke down the live truck and headed for a different area. A couple of live reports later, as Zack, Ron Diaz (the live truck engineer), and I are discussing our next move, we're interrupted by a pizza delivery driver, who hands us a pepperoni pizza and some cheesy bread. It seems the gang at Beck's Pizza in Woodville saw Zack on TV and thought we might be hungry. I know where I'll be eating the next time I'm assigned to the Woodville area.
Flash forward a week. Reliance Propane bursts into flames, and Zack and I are on the road again. After a number of evacuations, Justin Billau, Alexis Means, Jason Klocko (engineer), Zack and I are standing on the edge of a farmer's field in Monroe County, roasting in the afternoon sun. For this one, the thanks go to Zack's friends Dave and Mary Liske of Luna Pier. Zack gave them a call and they showed up on the edge of this field with a cooler full of ice and a case of bottled water. They definitely get an above and beyond the call award. When Zack spoke with them, he thought we were going to be at Mason High School. News being an ever changing thing, we weren't there when they arrived, and they made the extra effort to find us, saving at least Billau and myself from dehydration. Dave has written about their ordeal in his blog.
Later that day, Zack and I are at the Erie Fire Station, where the shelter has been set up for the evacuees. Not only do we leave with interviews and information, we take with us a couple of chili dogs (consumed on site) and two pizzas (consumed later in the live truck). They offered drinks, but thanks to the Liskes, we had plenty of those.
So, a special thank you to all those who donated time, effort, food and drink to the 13abc newsgathering effort.
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