Welcome back to the little place we like to call "Confessions of a Vulture". Sorry for the length of time it took between posts (again). This time I think I have a legitimate excuse, as the last few weeks have been arguably the busiest of my professional career.
The floods that ravaged Alberta in the last month have forever changed a part of the world that I have called home for my entire life. It has been absolutely surreal to report and volunteer in some of these communities that more than a month ago, were preparing for what they were expecting to be a normal summer. We've seen stories of despair, heartbreak, disappointment, anger, heroism, jubilation and every emotion in between. I know the word "resilience" has been used a lot in the last few weeks, but it's the only word that comes to mind in watching entire communities rise above the carnage to help their fellow neighbors and complete strangers, in the midst of the most difficult times in their lives. There was never a moment where everyone said "oh whoa is me". It seemed to always be "well, this isn't going to clean itself".
As a reporter, it's a bizarre feeling to be in the midst of all of this. You're watching people break down in front of you as they tell you about their most cherished belongings being under water or get tossed into the garbage bin. You want to drop the microphone and help in any way you can. But at the same time, you have a responsibility to tell the stories of these people and these communities. You have a responsibility to get the information out there as fast and as accurately as you possibly can, and in any way you can, whether it be on-air, on-line, on-phone, wherever. For the first six days of the flood, I spent most of my time in Calgary's Emergency Operations Centre. That was where we were getting the majority of our updates from city officials. That was where municipal, provincial and federal politicians also spoke to the public, through the media.
I must admit, we're a fairly cordial media bunch in Calgary. There are no flying elbows or dastardly deeds done between different outlets. But this was, by far, one of the most cooperative situations I've ever come across in media. It was less about being territorial with the information and more about getting the right information out there in a time of need. Any lingering biases were tossed out while you saw reporters fling questions at one another, double-checking quotes or helping each other on the technical end. We became less about trying to "get the scoop", and we returned to being a public service.
On a personal level, it was literally one of the busiest stretches I've ever encountered. You see, it's not just about the "on the radio" aspect of the job. Sure, I'm in charge of gathering the tape (recording what's said into the microphone), cutting up the tape (downloading it onto my computer and editing the tape into short clips for newscasts) and writing the stories to go along with the tape. But you had all the other stuff to worry about. Social media became the big thing. I "live-tweeted" every single news conference I went to. Took pictures for Facebook and Twitter. I wrote up stories for our website whenever I had a chance. There was never a lack of things to do.
And with this becoming a national story, our sister stations were also looking for information. So I became the unofficial point-man for live interviews with our friends in Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg and Toronto (mainly because I'm the morning reporter, so it's easier for them to line something up with the guy who's actually awake at the strike of stupid o'clock). It was, without a doubt, a challenge to juggle all these different roles and responsibilities. This wasn't unique to me either. Many reporters pulled all sorts of crazy hours, sleeping in the EOC, napping at their desks, running off of coffee and the company of fellow reporters. And while some might question why all that work was put in, the simple answer is: that's our job, our responsibility and our passion.
As I said before, at the end of the day, we are a public service. Whether we be newspapers, radio, television or internet, we are to be THE source for information. It's what we're trained to do. We'll do whatever it takes to get it out there. I remember when I was working in Medicine Hat and the power went down in the entire City of Lethbridge. That meant our sister station (and any other radio station in the city) was without power. But we still had our transmitter site with a backup generator. So our news director drove out to the site with a microphone and CD player (maybe it was an iPod, I can't remember exactly), plugged in, and kept broadcasting (although at lower than normal power). Between songs, he'd read news updates from his BlackBerry, which he was getting from my newsroom in Medicine Hat, as we were still getting all the city emails and updates. Our company had the only operational radio station in Lethbridge during a state of emergency, and we earned rave reviews for what we did.
Thank you to everyone, from family and friends to listeners and co-workers, for all the kind words throughout this disaster. But this is far from over. We still have many more chapters to read in what will be a long road to recovery, which will undoubtedly include more emotional extremes, from heartbreak to heroism. And I hope you join us as we share those stories.
