Atlanta TV News Snowcoverage 2011

Never one to be left behind when it comes to self-promotion, WSB-TV goes for a high school yearbook approach. (See pic.) Oh please don’t let them slap that on a billboard!

I had to drag my friend/neighbor Jenna away from the TV news Snowpocalypse coverage so we could take the kids to our neighborhood Willy’s for tacos last night. I really needed to get out of the house, but I needed a Willy’s margarita even more. But I know it’s hard to tear yourself away even for cocktails, as local news has been some of the most compelling TV going this snowbound week of non-stop coverage.

There’s my fave, Mark Winne, who’s been pulled-off the crime beat to go chat-up DeKalb County snow plow drivers now stuck in drifts alongside the road. Drink when Winne blurts *crime doesn’t take a day off* because he will inevitably say that, for your entertainment purposes.

And there’s top shelf material, WSB-TV’s Richard Belcher, finally catching-up with someone possessing half-a-brain from GDOT (Georgia Department of Transportation). If anything needs a top-to-bottom media overhaul it’d be GDOT, eh?

Then there’s Hullinger over at WXIA chasing GDOT’s Vance Smith all the way down to the Gold Dome basement. Snort! And Wizbee’s (what industry insiders call WSB-TV) pol-gal Lori Geary talking poll results from pollster Matt Towery about who out there stuck inside (with a land line) thinks GDOT is doing a heck of a job, Brownie. (Only the old folk, of course).

Local TV news in Atlanta during this wild winter storm of January ’11 is a wacky ride of knowledgeable, experienced reporting combined with can’t-go-wrong images that even an ancient, union cameraman can halfheartedly point and shoot in a general direction and still get great snow-covered video.

Like the Catholic Church’s ad campaign to get folk back despite a pedophilia problem, now’s the time to come home to local TV news. It may not get this good until the next big *snow event*…. what Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed calls this icy mess we hope will melt away by King Day.

Tour of a Flooded Home in NW Atlanta, Georgia. 9-23-09

UPDATE. May 5, 2010. This particular home was a total loss and torn down. Seems a new one is under way though, when I drove by in the heavy rains today along Peachtree Creek. Boy are people resilient or what?!

Post-flood. A tour of a flooded home, randomly chosen from many others just like it, along Hanover West Dr. in NW Atlanta, GA near Peachtree Creek.

Thanks to the homeowner, Bill Powell and his amazing attitude: “We’re gonna dry it out, clean it up, then we’re gonna jack it up.”

Thanks also to Jarred Opstad of Metro Furniture Restorations in Tucker, GA who took a moment to talk about the process of working on a seriously flooded home. A WaySouth Media, Inc. production. 9-23-09.

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Twitter Hashtags In Crisis Communication/Atlanta Flood 2009

Grayson Daughters and Tessa Horehled talk using Twitter hashtags in crisis communication and disaster relief during the Atlanta, Georgia flood of September 2009. #atlflood

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The Great Speckled Tower

Remembering Bonnie Turner. She Did Not Escape The EF-3.

From the AJC today:

Bonnie Turner, 63, a retired veterinary assistant, died when the EF-3 tornado, stronger than the EF-2 that ran through downtown Atlanta, plowed through their living room and threw the couple 50 yards. Mike Turner, 65, a Lockheed Martin retiree, had surgery Monday in Chattanooga for a shattered pelvis.

The Turners were talking to relatives on the phone shortly before the tornado hit, saying they were about to take shelter in a stairwell, nephew Tim Jackson said as he surveyed the damage. They had no basement or cellar to take cover in, Jackson said.

“Mike has no memory other than they were fixing to take shelter in the stairway and the next thing he remembers is being out in the pasture,” Jackson said. What is left of the chain-link fence from the kennel lies twisted and stretched out into a nearby pond. Fish were sucked from the water and thrown into the pasture, Jackson said.

Full story here. For all the extensive damage we have, we got lucky in downtown. Very lucky. A Facebook Group for Bonnie Turner is here.

What Was Coming Right At Us

From RadicalGeorgiaModerate. And Death Star Two, of course:

Tornado Damage in Atlanta’s Vine City Neighborhood

From Shelbinator:

The Virtual Newsroom

The tornado that ripped through Atlanta has been a perfect social media storm for citizen journalism. Citizens on the scenes are using text messaging, cell cams by the droves, live Internet broadcasting, Twitter and more Twitter, blogs, and video to communicate amongst themselves, give updates, alert friends and family, and of course… alert MSM as to what’s going on on the ground in the hardest hit neighborhoods. 

YouTube video spurns conversational gathering point. Despite a ruined newsroom, CNN’s iReport has more news than it can handle. Twitter alerts coming in every few seconds. Shelby should be going live from somewhere soon.

Keep it going folks. Please comment here if there’s anything from shelters or aid stations. Nothing from such places yet.

Tornado Rips Downtown Atlanta