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Over the last three decades, I've been telling or marking each of the major hurricanes that hit South Carolina, but I've never thought too much about what it meant in a city that was monitoring the situation up until then. I read an email that The Post and The Courier Editor sent his reporters early Wednesday morning.
"If you're based in Charleston for the storm, we strongly recommend you park on the second floor or higher" in one of the garages located near our King Street office, wrote Mitch Pugh. "Advise against the normal lot."
I was so struck by the implied danger of this note and by the casual and factual way in which it was presented (oh, we do it all the time), that I shared its feeling with friends from Columbia who were discussing Hurricane Dorian on hold. arrival.
Their answer was not the one I was waiting for. One of them wrote that "it seems like the staff have to go to work" as usual ", except for" where to park ", despite the evacuation Governor McMaster.
Cindi Ross Scoppe
"Do I miss something here?" She asked.
Well, yes, the whole culture of journalism.
I would not have had the idea of writing about this type of conversation a few years ago.
But given the overwhelming efforts of politicians, interest groups, and social media trolls to undermine the credibility of journalists, it seemed like a good opportunity to talk about people in our community who were talking to them. ensure that you have the information you need. before, during and after the storm.
Emory Parker and Andrew Brown, from the post and mail, walk along East Bay Street at 1:30 am on Thursday to check for high tides. Thad Moore / Staff
Post and Courier editor Mitch Pugh at the laptop meets editors and journalists Wednesday morning to take stock of the day. Photo by Emory Parker.
Ken Smalls, who runs The Post and Courier cafeteria, had limited portions of Dorian's approach in case it would become impossible for people to leave. Photo of Cleve O'Quinn.
Dorian, thank God, was not the big one. As massive and devastating as it is in the Bahamas, for South Carolina, it was not a particularly notable storm, but remarkable storms disappear; half of the population in our coastal counties ignored the governor's evacuation order.
But even if it had been Hugo everywhere, even though Charleston had become a ghost town rather than a provocative party site, the reporters, editors and photographers of our press service would have stayed home, as police officers, firefighters and nurses. doctors and others who consider that their duty to the public is more important than their personal comfort, even their safety.
They would have stayed because they knew that accurate information is more important than ever when people are stuck at home or away from home. The same goes for the journalists of any self-respecting newspaper.
As I explained to my friend, "Journalists do not stop working because of the weather. We have to produce a newspaper every day. If something makes it physically impossible to use the presses, I guess we would try to find a newspaper somewhere else that would allow us to use its presses. And even if we could not do that, we would always produce the online version. This is a time when it is essential to do it. "
My friend understood that most journalists, editors and photographers were supposed to work all week. They were advised to prepare to spend the night in the office on Wednesday. Others have been assigned to chase the storm from one end of the coast to the other. As their neighbors evacuated or partying, they hurried to finish Thursday paper earlier so that the print edition could be delivered before midnight, before Dorian was too close. They put new stories online and updated the others day and night. Many of them work throughout the weekend to learn more about the effects of the storm and evacuation on the Lowcountry and the rest of the state.
Find our last hurricane cover here
And all our Dorian blanket here
And a photo gallery here
Even when they are not dangerous, disasters almost always require extraordinarily long hours, often for days at a time, and journalists are no longer able to tell stories they can not stand. I have never heard anyone complain about this. This is what journalists do, without ever thinking twice about it.
Cindi Ross Scoppe writes editorials for The Post and Courier. Contact her at [email protected] or follow her on Facebook or Twitter @CindiScoppe.
Follow Cindi Ross Scoppe on Twitter or Facebook @cindiscoppe.
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