REPORTING ON THE STORM

Covering the devestation of Hurricane Katrina has reporters working beats they don't usually cover, and in some cases reporting for sister media outlets.

Betty Parker, whose normal area of expertise is political columnist for the Fort Myers News-Press, has been reporting on Katrina's wrath for parent company Gannett's Mississippi newspapers, the Hattiesburg American and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Her story on effects in my home area of Hattiesburg were noted as being covered "from outside the region because telephone and e-mail service have been disrupted". I'm sure she is only one of a number of staffers from throughout Gannett's nationwide chain of papers sent to back up local reporters in the affected areas.

I have a number of family members in the Hattiesburg - Laurel area of southeast Mississippi, and it's fustrating to try to get information from that area. There are no television or radio stations in the Pine Belt that offer streaming audio (and most of the stations would be off air anyway due to power outages), and while the American is doing as well as can be expected, information is slow but to be expected considering the circumstances. Katrina's centre passed very near Hattiesburg earlier this afternoon.

I hope they're OK.

And speaking of reporters covering the storm, here's a link to an interesting piece written by Executive Editor Keith Magill of the Houma Courier in Louisiana. Just one example of how a weekend can change soooooo much sooooo soon.