Hurricane blogs

Brian Williams, in a single-handed attempt to save the nightly network news, has done some impressive things in the name of broadcast journalism -- namely, diving head-first into the Superdome during the New Orleans evacuation. It's a move that has a strong resemblance to Peter Jennings's young days.

Another great move for Williams, the Daily Nightly -- his blog where he really does pull back the curtain. His latest post

Forgive my lack of postings...we have very limited ability here. No one in New Orleans has a source of power or food or water or gasoline. At least we have the very best equipment and crews...but satellite telephone time is expensive and my online work has had to suffer as a result. We will do our very best to continue covering this story, while we may never be able to express the full magnitude of the suffering or loss... We hope you'll join us again for Nightly News Wednesday night from New Orleans."

There's a new post at the Daily Nightly from Jeff Gralnick, my former Journalism school professor, describing his helicopter tour of New Orleans, where he once lived.

Also, two of my Journalism School classmates, Mike Keller and Josh Norman, are working at the Biloxi Sun Herald. They started a blog as the storm approached called Dancing With Katrina. At first, their blog's tone was clever and cheerful with pictures of Mike in a sleeping bag on the newsroom floor. It didn't take long for that tone to change. Their last post has 280 comments, many of which are frighteningly similar to this:

Can anyone tell me anything about the North Gulfport...Orange Grove area? My mother and grandmother decided to stay in their apt on Old Hwy 49 In Gulfport due to my Grandmother being to weak from surgery to make it in a shelter. I ahve not heard from them since late Sunday night.

Mike and Josh's paper, the Sun Herald, is covering the worst of the worst in the worst possible conditions. The paper's official blog shows how bad its working conditions are. They can't even find their own reporters:

Communications to the Biloxi area are down -- phone, e-mail, Internet .... If you work for The Sun Herald, please contact the paper to let us know where you are. As we know the news, we will post it to SunHerald.com. We're in this with you for the long haul.

Worse still, the Times-Picayune, having been evacuated from their New Orleans offices, are trying their best to keep their paper running electronically. All their breaking news is now being run off their blog. Yesterday's paper was only delivered via .PDF online. Same with todays: