Houston Media Covers Harvey's Rain Of Terror

As flooding from Hurricane Harvey intensified over the weekend and into Monday, Houston TV stations as well as national TV news outfits struggled to navigate the city as thousands of residents were rescued from the disaster. Five people were killed over the weekend.

FierceCable reports local TV stations by and large were not technologically neutralized by the storm, which has brought two feet of water to one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S. CBS affiliate KHOU did have to evacuate live on the air when water started creeping onto the set.

Social media has played an outsize role in this story, as stations have used Facebook to stream live images and residents in peril have received help through Twitter. The Houston sheriff’s handle has been trending and offers a starkly compelling narrative of a city in crisis.

TV crews have ended up on the scene of several dramatic rescues, in some cases helping out themselves. One Houston columnist marveled at seeing “reporters literally drop their microphones” to take part in rescue efforts.

FEMA administrator Brock Long said the state of Texas “has never seen an event” like Harvey. Rivers and reservoirs are not projected to see peak levels until Wednesday, by which time another two feet of rain may have fallen on the saturated region.

The logistical challenges of a major city paralyzed by the ongoing weather crisis have slowed the customary TV response of anchors and reporters flocking to the scene. Some faint grumbles were heard on Twitter on Sunday night that MSNBC and CNN had stayed with their scheduled episodic programming instead of opting for wall-to-wall flood coverage. '

Radio Responds

As the storm intensified over the weekend, Kevin Quinn, APD and afternoon drive host at Cumulus Top40 KRBE 104.1 FM, knew he had to make his way to the radio station – immediately.

“I got here about 4:30 am on Sunday,” he tells InsideRadio. “I was able to make it in just barely from my side of town—and now I’ve been cut off. I can’t make it home.”

Like so many working at radio stations throughout the region, the unprecedented flooding that continues as a result of Harvey means that getting the message to affected communities comes first. It also means that for many radio personnel, the station becomes home base.

At CBS Radio’s Houston cluster, “I brought in enough food to last us three days, but we’re starting to run low now. We’re down to protein bars and Hot Pockets,” says Sarah Frazier, senior VP and general manager of the company’s six stations in the market, including hot AC, talk, sports, country, CHR and Spanish outlets.

She adds, “Our chief engineer, Robbie Green, has been living here since Friday. Several of our producers have been here since Saturday and yesterday when it started to get serious, we pulled in every on-air person we had that could get here to put together an all-news simulcast and coverage. Last night we had eight people staying here and seven in the hotel next door.”

Cox Media Group—which operates a classic rock and two country stations in Houston—was also at the ready, with hotel rooms reserved across the street for whomever was able to make it to the Galleria area, where its stations are located. “Our folks started coming in Saturday to stay put,” says Mark Krieschen, VP and market manager. “We’ve had anywhere from 12 to 14 people on the air around the clock since Saturday. We have accommodations at the station to keep people comfortable there as well. We have a good group of people that are keeping us on the air and keeping our listeners informed.”

Sarah Frazier

As the rain continues, for the Houston area, the most essential outreach that radio can provide now is navigation. CBS’s Frazier says, “We have spent the last 24 hours using our broadcasts, our social media feeds, our websites and our phones to get people evacuation routes and shelter information. Once we went live to the simulcast, the phones started pouring in with questions and needs and that helped us to define what was important for our community.

“We’ve turned KIKK-AM into a running loop of information. It’s a daytime signal, but we applied and were granted permission for an emergency STA request to go 24-hours during this emergency time. That loop is running and is being constantly updated as new areas are evacuated.” And the CBS Radio cluster is doing much more…

Frazier tells RadioInk her team will be in full storm mode until they are through the storm, which she doesn’t believe will be for another two days. “Once we went live to the simulcast the phones started pouring in with questions and needs and that helped us to define what was important for our community. Radio is the ultimate connector. We’re connecting people to information and we’re connecting people to the relief efforts and, most importantly, to each other.