Reporting on Local Television News Since 1981
Reporting on Local Television News Since 1981
California's 1989 Earthquake   It was the biggest earthquake to hit California since 1906. Thanks to aggressive news departments, Bay Area residents heard the initial facts and saw the dramatic pictures within minutes. The images were unforgettable. A double-decker freeway collapsed upon itself. A roaring fire covered a city block. A section of the Bay Bridge collapsed.
5:04 p.m. October 17th "Our building took a massive jolt. First, it shuddered and then it did a whiplash motion," said Peter Maroney, News Director of KPIX-TV, San Francisco. Everything shook, and then it stopped. At that moment, most of the newsroom people were thankful the building had been prepared for exactly this kind of emergency. "Plaster fell off the walls. Monitors fell. Tapes were scattered everywhere," said Nancy Cope, Executive Producer, KGO-TV. The first indication they had of exactly how serious it was was when the Assignment Editor, who had been listening to the scanners, turned around and said, "The top deck of the Bay Bridge went!" Sections of a freeway had collapsed, too. "You could see cars burning under there. There were clouds of black smoke. There were people yelling --- and screaming for help," said Ray Jacobs, the Director of News Operations at KTVU-TV, Oakland. The Nimitz Freeway collapse and the bridge tragedy were in KTVU's backyard. From the station, the news crews could see the bridge section that had fallen. It wasn't long before they were broadcasting a shot from one of their ENG units. In fact, before their emergency generator was up and running, they began their coverage in their parking lot with the ENG gear First reactions Most San Franciscans would remember for the rest of their lives where they were and what they were doing when the quake hit.
Maroney was in his office at KPIX reviewing scripts for an upcoming series. "I walked out and saw our anchorman Dave McElhatton standing under a doorway with his arms wrapped around the Managing Editor and the Executive Producer in a bear hug. Suddenly, the building stopped shaking. Dave walked five steps, sat down at the update desk, and put on his microphone," said Maroney. Six minutes later, everything at the station had been switched over to the generator. KPIX broke into programming for live coverage. It would last for the next 30 hours. They were in the air during the earthquake. The news executive told us, "Within a minute-and-a-half of going on live, we had helicopter aerials of the collapse of (freeway) 880." The Oakland Airport is next to the highway, and the KPIX chopper had just gone up to shoot traffic aerials and aerials of a World Series game. "We were there --- right over the collapsed road, and the photographer immediately began shooting it," he said. Meanwhile, KGO-TV and KRON-TV were knocked off the air when they lost power. It took KGO about 7 minutes to switch to the generator and get back on live. KRON was off for about 28 minutes. KGO had just finished an hour of pre-World Series local programming. Their anchor, sports anchor, and several crews were at the ballpark. "When the quake hit, we had those people already set up. And, we had the advantage of /the ABC Goodyear Blimp," said Cope. KGO immediately got anchors in place in the newsroom and at the ball game and went back on using cover video from the blimp. She explained, "We never went to ABC, but we had the advantage of using the blimp shot from them." It provided a good view of what was going on and they quickly dispatched crews to the big fire which destroyed an apartment building in the Marina district. General Manager Jim Topping had invited all his employees to stay for peanuts and popcorn and to watch the World Series on big screen TV. People had stayed. "We pressed them into action answering phones and making calls to get information," Cope said. Dramatic bridge footage Photographer Dick Terry of KXTV, Sacramento, was on the Bay Bridge when the quake hit. He recorded the first professional video of people climbing out of their cars and out of the gaping hole. He also got shots of the Coast Guard searching the waters below for cars which might have gone over. "Terry hooked up with the Oklahoma couple who shot incredible video of a car going into the hole. He got in their car, immediately drove back to the (KPIX) studio, and we put both of their tapes on raw and de-briefed them right at the update desk," Maroney explained. All of this within the first hour and fifteen minutes after the quake. KGO used that home video as well as video from a surveillance camera inside a bar and one from a convenience store showing what it was like when the quake hit. The tragedy on the bridge was also quickly captured live by KTVU. One of their ENG units focused on it from their parking lot. They we were able to show where the top level had dropped down. They showed the cars and a Coast Guard helicopter landing on the bridge. Freeway collapse crushes motorists When the generator kicked on at the Oakland station, the scanners came on filled with heavy traffic about the Interstate collapse. Using the local streets which ran next to the freeway, the KTVU crews were there quickly. Trapped drivers were screaming. Neighbors grabbed ladders so they could scramble up onto the road. "Disregarding their personal safety, they were trying to help the victims," Jacobs said. The neighbors provided the first interviews that KTVU shot there. Emergency medical teams and police arrived. "We were shooting all this. We got them pulling people out of there injured --- seriously injured," he told us. The news team was live when one man came out alive. On tape, there were two children who lived. Their parents, sitting in the front seat, had been killed.
Rescue efforts went on. "We stayed with the rescue far into the night when they had the lights up. It was incredible --- people crawling under there looking for survivors," Jacobs said. Sacramento stations respond "If you feel an earthquake in Sacramento, it means something serious has happened somewhere else," said Bob Jordan, News Director of KCRA-TV. They weren't on a fault line here, so you knew it was bad somewhere else. When the quake happened, KCRA was live on the air in their 5 o'clock news. "When it actually hit, we were in a package. We came back live instantly to the studio. The lights were swaying and the set was moving," he told us. Their first video was from KNBC in Los Angeles. KNBC had a seismograph adjacent to their newsroom. And, KNBC newscasts were up on satellite. "When we saw what they had, we took that," said Jordan. KCRA managers also put up their helicopter right away and provided strong aerials to CNN and other NBC affiliates of the fire in the Marina District. The chopper shot tape of the fire and then went up to about 6,000 feet to feed it back line of sight. As the tape played back, the reporter narrated it live. Like many other California stations, they had staffers in the Bay Area covering the World Series. "As fate had it, we were over there with our satellite truck. And that saved us many, many hours. There's no way we could have gotten the truck into the city through the normal approaches. Coming from Sacramento, we couldn't have gone by the Bay Bridge or down 880 the other way," he added. A news crew was involved in a serious traffic accident in Oakland. "It was dark. There were no traffic signals. At an intersection, they were broadsided," said Jordan. The station car was demolished, but the crew was not seriously injured.
Flexibility was the rule "In a situation like this, our first concern was to make sure our own people were safe," said Cope at KGO. Next, their goal was to get good information to the audience.
KGO lost the wire services when the power went out, but the NewStar computer system came back up with the generator. Using the electronic mail function, KTRK in Houston sent KGO the wire copy which was coming in about the quake. Carrying kerosene cans The whole thing started in Loma Prieta, south of the Bay Area. It's less than a mile from the epicenter of the devastating 1906 earthquake. It's almost directly above the San Andreas fault, believed to be amassing enough pressure to someday release an earthquake far more deadly than this. The force knocked out the power at the transmitter of KNTV-TV, San Jose. The local electrical power was out, too.
It was newsgathering under pressure. Not only were they hand carrying their fuel, but the power was out back in the newsroom, and at the start, half of their crews were fifty miles away at the World Series. Early information was scarce At 5:04, everyone knew that something horrible had happened, but nobody knew where the damage was. Moo said, "You have to get out and find it. You can't just call and say, 'Where's the damage?' because everyone's trying to give first aid. The power's out and phones are all tied up because people who are safe are calling home to tell other people they are okay or they're trying to get information." Fundamental, practical information was needed. "There are people down here who are using bathrooms where they haven't been able to flush the toilet for two or three days," said Moo. The viewers needed to know how to cope when they'd lost all their utilities. "We can't go out there and help them with their plumbing, but we can give them information," he explained. The public needed basic, detailed explanations of how to recover and avoid further harm. They had to know how to check gas service and, if appropriate, how to turn a gas pilot back on. Other information was needed. Where people could get help tending a very ill person. Whether schools would be open tomorrow. Where shelters had been established. Santa Cruz was rocked Further south --- nearer the epicenter --- people without electricity huddled in drug stores and department stores with generators and they watched the stores' television sets for information. KSBW-TV served a market that divided into three sections: Salinas, Monterey, and Santa Cruz. The station people had to cover their diverse base, but still provide information about San Francisco for their viewers.
KSBW was live until 12:30 a.m., and again the next day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. They switched to the NBC coverage when they felt it was important. "Photographers were all told to edit in the camera and we ran video raw," she said. The first video was from near the station. It included people pushing a cracked chimney over so it wouldn't fall on the house. Eyewitnesses called in. Early on, the news crew invited the viewers to join the broadcast. "We opened our phonelines and we told people, 'give us a call ---tell us what you're seeing in your area.'" said Laurent. The callers could describe what they were doing when it hit, what had happened to them, and what they saw in their immediate neighborhoods. Typical: "The road in front of my house is all broken up. I couldn't get out of here if I wanted to." Laurent told us, "We sort of became a talkradio TV station until we could get information back from our own reporters." The callers were alternated with early video and information. "We broke it up. We didn't want to have ten calls in a row," she explained. The viewers were helpful. As the calls increased, it became clearer and clearer which areas had been hit --- and which had escaped. The news team quickly understood Santa Cruz was in trouble. However, there were no calls reporting of structural mishaps over on the Monterey peninsula. In Salinas, the problems were few. Their bureau in Santa Cruz was live quickly. The reporter communicated how hard that section had been hit by simply showing what had happened in their own office. "She just stood there with her microphone and she said, 'this is where we kept our video tapes and as you an see the whole cabinet has fallen down.' She would just point out the damage in the bureau. It really brought it home," said Laurent. The four-inch thick book About a year earlier at KPIX, Maroney had prepared for a big earthquake. He gave each department a list of things that needed to be resolved --- everything from where to have food and water to always making sure the generator tanks were full. "We even looked at how we would get on the air if our building were totally destroyed," he said. They developed a massive plan that included phone trees for calling in staffers and phone numbers for every county. They knew they would need to reach key people ranging from who would make the decision on whether the water was drinkable to how to reach the local gas/electric/school/road authority in the area. Maroney explained, "We have a book four inches thick which includes maps of the fault lines, where emergency shelters would be set up, and where the mayors would go in each town to set up their emergency headquarters." They brought out that book, put it at the assignment desk and it paid off. The earthquake book also contained Civil Defense information that had been prepared by Bay Area officials. The material was in the form of scripts, and the anchors read the information between stories. "It told people what they should do the first five minutes after the quake, the first ten minutes, and what you should be doing after two hours," said Maroney. KPIX had also installed three telephone hotlines which important sources could call. "We can put them right on the air with those lines," said Maroney. Keep the backup generators ready to perform "The biggest factor in responding to the emergency was that we were ready with our generators," said Steve Moreen, Director of Broadcast Operations and Engineering, KPIX. They had tested the generators regularly and the equipment was big enough to do the job well. "If a generator does not come on line, you are dead in the water," added John Starelli, Building Manager. They had put together a manual with procedures to follow in the event of an emergency. When the power went off, the first technical priority was the generators. The station had one generator that supported life safety: lighting and air conditioning. The other operated the television studio. "What helped us the most was the actual training on the generators," said Starelli. They had simulated what to do if the generator didn't come on line. They also had a good supply of backup parts for the generator and the transfer switches. And, they trained engineers on what to do as power was restored. "If you're not careful, you can knock out the whole building again with a power surge," Starelli warned. "The homework we've done has paid off," he stressed. Emergency systems were exercised regularly Twice a year, the engineers had simulated a power outage at the building. "We literally pull the power coming into the building and simulate a power failure," said Moreen. "It tests the emergency systems --- the emergency generators, emergency lighting, and all the other peripheral things. It also tends to break equipment. It makes things break which are weaker and unable to handle a power outage," he said. A maintenance person was on duty for these drills with a checklist of things which had to be reset manually when the power was restored. And, equipment that broke during the drill was repaired. Broadcast equipment that is weak may fail when it is turned back on. "We 'exercise' the station twice a year to make sure our equipment does withstand the power outage and the turn-on," he explained. This was usually done late at night. However, the Master Control equipment that was sensitive to power loss was operated on uninterruptable power supply. "Basically, it is a battery-operated power system," said Moreen. As the power line was traumatized when power was interrupted and turned back on, there were some pieces of equipment that were so sensitive, such as the transmitter remote control and the Master Control computer, you simply didn't want to put them through power interruptions. "Those all operate on a power system which is immune to any kind of failure," he explained. A comprehensive maintenance program kept everything ready They had been aggressive in the previous three years in renewing all the equipment at the station. Much of the equipment in the field was new and it was carefully maintained. "If we have a problem, we fix it. It is so competitive in San Francisco, you can't afford to have things not working," he said. How to handle the generators was just one part of a larger maintenance program for all life safety equipment at KPIX --- a program that was very successful. "We simulate disasters --- such as a fire in the building," Starelli explained. The engineers responded to the "disaster." For example, they sometimes set off a smoke detector or actually started a sprinkler going to simulate panels going off. This allowed them to make sure the appropriate alarm receiving company, such as the burglar alarm company or the fire department, was actually receiving the alarm. "Our people have to locate the alarm and take the appropriate action," he said. Starelli was in the Navy and implemented at the station the kind of life safety drills he participated in aboard ship. "I've taken the training I got in the service and applied it to the building," he said. Coincidentally, the week before the quake, Starelli staged a drill evacuating the whole building at the same time with the fire department on site. Although they wouldn't evacuate the building during an earthquake, had there been a fire after the quake, getting people out would have been imperative. "We've tried to think of everything that could happen during an emergency and incorporate it in our plan before it does happen," said Starelli. What They Learned The managers developed an earthquake manual that all department heads were familiar with. But, your perspective is different when you've experienced the disaster, too. Here are suggestions Moreen had after living through this emergency. 1. Have an audio cartridge explaining the interuption ready to play on the air. While KPIX was not technically off the air, the tape machine playing "Cosby" had stopped when the power went out. Although the generators kicked in right away, engineers didn't feel it was appropriate to keep playing "Cosby." "We put an I.D. slide up, and within a few seconds went to the live camera in the newsroom as soon as they were ready," said Moreen. He planned to have an audio cart ready to play while the news talent was getting on set and the cameras were turned on. 2. Have as many systems automated as you can. "In an earthquake, you are physically so shaken, you're scrambled. It is hard to think. You don't want to have emergency power generators you have to turn on. They need to be automatic. Generally, if it's a bad earthquake, it is very emotional and it shakes you to a point where it is hard to do business as normal," he explained. 3. Have a plan for how you would get on the air if your building were destroyed. Could you quickly broadcast from your satellite earth station or your transmitter? 4. Have alternative forms of communications. KPIX had a number of handi-talkies in the building and a two-way radio system. "We have radios at all the important locations --- the transmitter, earth station, studio, and all the vans," said Moreen. 5. Have a backup studio-to-transmitter link. "This is important in case an earthquake shakes your primary method of getting your signal to the transmitter," he explained. 6. Make sure your earth station has alternative power, too. "We found there was a great need for the outside world to know what was going on," he said. Within a half-hour of the quake, CBS New York called and asked them to power up the earth station. 7. Have enough fuel for extended operations. KPIX ran on emergency generator for 14 hours. "That means we needed to have a standby generator which was capable of handling continuous operation for a long period of time. Most power outages I've experienced in the past have lasted an hour or two," he said. 8. Check your fuel periodically. Things can grow in diesel fuel. A clogged fuel filter can knock your generator out just when you need it the most. Once a year, the technicians filtered their fuel. "That way we're assured it is always of adequate quality," he added. 9. Arrange for emergency cooling. "When you're on emergency power, it's important to have cooling in the building," he said. They had to break a window in one of the news areas because they needed to ventilate it. "You can't run your whole station on emergency power, so you try to pick the things which are crucial," he explained. 10. Have adequate emergency lighting. After this experience, they also installed emergency lighting in the bathrooms. "It's not a problem if your power is out for only an hour or two. But, we found we were living by the emergency generator," said Moreen. 11. Have alternate ENG receive sites. The station had six ENG sites they used exclusively and they shared several others. They lost power at two sites. But because they had others, they were able to still offer elaborate live coverage. "Our coverage was unaffected because we had redundancy of microwave receive sites," he said. 12. Consider routine overnight deployment of news vehicles. Their photographers took their equipment and vehicles home with them at night. "The reason we allow them to take the equipment home is because of the bridges. If there is an earthquake overnight and the Bay Bridge failed, we want to make sure we have a microwave in the East Bay. We had vans in all parts of the Bay Area," Moreen explained. 13. Make sure your clock in Master Control is securely fastened to the wall! The clock fell down. "It's not enough to hang them on the wall. In San Francisco, you've got to nail the clocks to the wall," he said. Working Without Power Over at KRON-TV, they had more lessons learned --- items that are important as you prepare an emergency plan. The Associate News Director for Special Projects, Ian Pearson, said TV station executives should prepare themselves for an emergency just like they would prepare their homes for a disaster --- have flashlights, batteries and emergency supplies on hand.
Here are specific ideas from the KRON earthquake experience: 1. Have dependable communications. "When our phones were out and our lights were out, we were able to continue communications from floor to floor by using the two-ways," said Pearson. 2. Make sure you have the ability to pick up the broadcasts of other media inside your station. "When we went off the air, we had to become like ordinary citizens trying to get information from other media," said Pearson. And, getting radio signals from other stations wasn't always easy inside a TV station. 3. Create a mini-newsroom for the biggest portion of the story. For example, in the earthquake, traffic and transportation became the big story. The news managers created a control center in one of the offices just for traffic information. 4. Make sure you have the needed supplies. Flashlights, batteries, pencils and paper. "If you've gone to computers, have typewriters on hand with script paper," he urged. 5. Have telephone lines which are not part of your in-house phone system. "If for some reason your phones are knocked out, you can get out on other lines," he said. Those lines should have long distance capability. 6. Have a manual fact and information retrieval system. Make sure you can retrieve background information and phone numbers manually. A giant Rolodex is a must when the power goes out. 7. Have important phone numbers for people inside the station. "If you were displaced from your office and had to operate out of Master Control, would you know the extensions of everyone in the building?" Pearson asked. He recommended a portable kit with key phone numbers, including emergency numbers, station extensions, and home phone numbers. "It should have a pencil and paper, tool. We're talking the lowest of low tech," he stressed. 8. Find alternatives to your computer graphics. Because transportation was the big story, the staffers made a big 8-foot by 8-foot hardboard traffic map. They stood a reporter in front of it and trained a camera on him. "That became the most critical part of our newscast," Pearson stressed. "Have the ability to put up a hardboard map," he urges. It was 1950s TV, but it worked! "You can stand a knowledgable reporter in front of a map and have him point," he reminds us. "As our electrical systems allowed, we added in voiceovers, computer maps, and telephone numbers people could call. But at the bottom of it all, was a fundamental system: a human being, with knowledge, who could point to a map. We didn't have to rely on phone lines, or electrical power, or chromakey. This person could do the job," he said. 9. Have necessary hardboard maps ready. Pearson recommended you make several maps showing critical things: highways, low lying areas, etc. "To get your graphics department people just to drive into the station can be a challenge. Once you get them in, they may not have the manpower to go for four or five days straight," he added. 10. Remember, spouses at home may not understand why their loved ones are leaving them during an emergency. Besides working long hours under difficult conditions, your staffers may be getting a lot of arguments from home. "We found there was a tremendous need to support our employees because many of them were having trouble on the homefront," said Pearson. Spouses were not in the broadcast business, and after day three or four, they began asking why their partner couldn't stay home. "Everyone in the community felt the earthquake and was equally scared. It was on everyone's mind. The kids were clinging to the knees of the dads and moms as they were walking out the door. Management must realize that's happening and be supportive of their people," said Pearson. See also: Seattle Earthquake: TV Newsrooms Were Ready This 2001 earthquake hit 6.8 on the Richter scale. |
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"Station preparation, as far as having backup
generators, was crucial to getting back on the air and allowing us to get information to
our audience."