Iowa media struggles in flooding
Cory Bergman June 13th, 2008
Widespread flooding in Cedar Rapids and mandatory evacuations in Des Moines add up to a challenging environment for the media to cover the story. The Gazette (check out that home page) is partially evacuated and running on generator power. Water is being pumped out the basement. Has anyone heard anything about the TV stations in the area?
4 Comments Add your own
1. Jake | June 13th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
KWWL (NBC) and KCRG’s (ABC) websites are both pretty lame in such a crucial time. KCRG was live on TV for what seemed to be around 14 hours straight yesterday. It was on at 10 AM yesterday morning and they signed off at 1 AM this morning. For some reason they had the same two anchors at the desk for the ENTIRE morning/afternoon/evening. KCRG is running off of generator power and was just blocks away from creeping waters yesterday (they might be in it now, I don’t know).
KWWL wasn’t live for very much of the day yesterday. They kept regularly scheduled programming going throughout most of the morning and afternoon.
KCRG’s home page has the same generic “this is a disaster” message in their top story area of their webpage while they post stories somewhat-regularly on the sidebar.
KGAN (CBS) in Cedar Rapids is on air but doesn’t have many viewers.
KCCI in Des Moines continues to kick butt with their website coverage - streaming live pressers online and updating information constantly. They also brought in a helicopter crew from KMBC in Kansas City.
DIsclosure: I am a freelance photojournalist that has worked with both KCRG and KCCI in the past.
2. Anonymous | June 15th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
How much of a television audience would be left in that area in the first place? It seems a selfish request to ask and I’m certain that at least the NBC station has helped the network out quite a bit, if not all the affiliates. Asking for local TV to step up may be a bit unfair. 24/7 floodwatch tends to burn viewers out who should be alert for the emergency instructions they will need shoud things get worse where they are at.
3. Hussman | June 16th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Jake, where did you get your info?
I don’t see how live, streaming coverage of the flood on KWWL.com could be considered lame, especially with the metric ton of photos from viewers submitted, as well as a forum for people to talk about the flood.
All three stations we on pretty much all day Thursday & Friday, wall-to-wall.
Actually, I give props to all three for the extra effort put in. It’s a tough job to do when your station getting knocked off the air (both KWWL & KCRG) becoems part of the story.
4. Eileen | August 19th, 2008 at 5:31 am
Why is Kwwl and Kcrg off the air thismorning?
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