
Before leaving for work, I reached into my fridge to grab some snacks (Red Bull for rare occasions like this, Naked juice, salsa for my tortilla chips) and noticed the plug had come loose from the wall at some point and there was a lack of refrigeration in my fridge.
Today I'm wearing a navy pleated skirt, a lilac sweater, nude wedges and a denim jacket. Oh, and it's raining. Because why shouldn't it rain? It made me glad that I decided to fill up my gas tank last night instead of this morning.
I slept later than usual but still made it to work on time. When I first hit the road there was a surprising lack of traffic. Did I miss everyone? Did everyone get to work already? Did people see the rain and decide to stay home? But nope. I caught up to everyone later on.
The man on Sirius XM The Pulse said the South was having weather, and corrected himself because as I pointed out on my Facebook page, there is always weather. But sometimes, it's news.
At work, I heard my Bureau Chief say my name on the phone followed by a task she's putting me on. I felt grateful because on the way to work I thought if today was going to be a slow day my exhaustion would just silently build inside of me. The winter weather in the South clearly heard my prayers.
More on weather- my task today is to scour social media for people in the South who are clearly unequipped to deal with snow. We can't really get crews places due to aforementioned weather. The first photo I found was from a producer at The Weather Channel. The next was from a web producer at our Atlanta affiliate. Next, a former producer at CNN. Where are all of the normal people? I thought. This is going well.
I didn't immediately understand the situation in Atlanta because I'd been told there's 2 inches of snow on the ground. The Long Island girl in me could not comprehend. There was a foot of snow on the ground last time I was home. All cars are made the same, there is just no reason for the cars to not make it through the two inches. But I see people have been in their cars overnight (or worse just abandoned their cars and walked home), sleeping in grocery stores overnight, separated from their children overnight because kids can't get out of school.
I'm proud of the teamwork at NBC today. I'm in an email chain between the staff here in Miami and those producing Nightly News in NY. At one point, a Nightly News producer asked me to track down a photo about the National Guard. I emailed the Manager of Social Media at the NBC Affiliate who told me their reporter had video and pics of the Guard. I saved 6 photos off of instagram and commented to get permission from those users to air them on Nightly. I commented on 30-40 instagram posts out of Atlanta to get pics and videos from those in the storm. I was asked to track down a woman who slept in Home Depot last night. I did. I was asked the location of the photos. Roswell, GA. I received an email from Nightly in NY that said, "Rockstar, thanks." My inbox was alive with contributions to tonight's story.
I learned in school last semester that research shows Americans find weather to be the most important part of a newscast. I learned stories of kindness while researching the story: we have heat, come sleep at our place. We have gas, text us your location and we'll come to you. People were making sandwiches for drivers stuck overnight. Parents were walking 6 miles to spend the night in elementary schools with their kids.
Sure, it's 2 inches of snow and ice that this Long Islander cannot understand. But the story of community and society that it demonstrates, I would never hesitate to tell.
You heard it here first,
Jordan
See the story here.