So after my town was hit by a devastating tornados (es) that wiped out most of downtown and knocked the power out at our newsroom. We packed up some macs and went to a local university that lent us their admin building so that we could have a newsroom.
Never had to do anything like that before. But it lent for some truly comical/tragic lines.
"Where's Dennis?"
"He's not here."
"Why the hell not?"
"His house got destroyed. He's at a hotel with his wife and infant son."
"Oh. O.K., well where the hell is Dan."
"His wife's pharmacy was destroyed and they are picking through the rubble."
Ah comedy.
I was wondering, what oddball places have people edited papers in times of disaster?

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jeremy Peppas:

I was wondering, what oddball places have people edited papers in times of disaster?<hr></blockquote><p>Have nothing in any way comparable to your paper's obstacles, but have seen this:<p>1. Worked at paper where flash floods were common. Fortunately, we had a powerful generator for when floodwaters knocked out electricity. Unfortunately, the generator was in the basement. We'd get a flicker of power out of it before it went pfffft. Then we'd sit in dark for hours until water receded and generator was repaired.<p>2. Worked at two papers where not having dependents meant mandatory "hurricane duty." Standing orders: Get to work before the disaster hits, equipped with sleeping bag, extra clothes, toiletries, food, and whatever beverage will get you through. <p>3. Again, not a big deal, but have worked where snow trapped people at the office or nearby for days. Three clerks spent 10 consecutive days at a nearby hotel one winter -- they all but ran the paper. Knew where to find beer and food when no one else did. Probably paid off student loans on the OT pay.
Remember the first year of having satellite dishes on that office's roof; took a while before anyone realized that wire copy and photos weren't reaching us because the dishes were buried with snow.<p>4. Once took applicant's test at paper where power had gone out. I worked in pencil, barely able to see pages that afternoon, while bored reporting staff watched. <p>5. Once put out a paper in pre-pagination, pre-Internet connection era without access to wire services aside from what a sister paper sent in 1-column measure directly to our typesetters. All heds and cutlines were dictated to artists on graphics dept's new Macs, once we figured out what typefaces most resembled paper's style.
I was wearing strips of type like bandoleros, running to and from production dept. and newsroom. Naturally, editor and m.e. had to get involved: 10 minutes from first-edition deadline they stepped in front of me and wanted to chat about ideas for later editions. A miracle i wasn't fired on spot for what i said. Guess they were afraid i'd make a fashion statement by walking out wearing Page 1. <p>I love putting out a paper knowing it can't be delivered a mile beyond the pressroom for days but is being printed for the ad revenue. Can remember a newcomer fretting about not updating a minor wire story for the cancelled final edition of a paper that no one would read for a week.<p>Many non-press folks are amazed to hear such minor tales because of the complications faced and dedication shown. But to put out a paper on the move while your town and lives in it are shattered is an accomplishment. Congrats.

One Friday in the late 1980s in Albany, N.Y., I was in the slot one evening when a small earthquake hit. Few of us had any experience with earthquakes but it was clear that it was minor. Nevertheless, after a few seconds of "stunned silence," I voiced what everyone was thinking: "OK! Let's blow this out of all proportion!" And so we did, complete with a six-column banner and interviews with shopping mall customers unnerved by the swaying concrete. The best thing about it all was that after the first day, there was never another mention of the great earthquake. There was nothing more to be said. I'm so ashamed.

Not my story but one that made the rounds in my Tampa days:Lots of deskers at the Miami Herald stayed at the paper post Hurricane Andrew knowing their homes had been destroyed. <p>The Mercury News won the Pulitzer with no small help from the generator that kept the presses running after the Loma Prieta earthquake took out power just about everywhere. A guy I work with lives on top of a mountain ridge and had his path to work blocked by debris & wreckage. He called in stories from his neighborhood for a week or so.

Wayne, I can relate to No. 5. In summer 1993, downtown Des Moines was under water, so the production desks decamped to the tiny office of a company-owned biweekly 15 or so miles south of town. Everything was going pretty well, considering, until the top editors decided they had to be where the "action" was. They got their big feet all over everthing, but worse, they ate all our sandwiches.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Wayne Countryman:
...3. Again, not a big deal, but have worked where snow trapped people at the office or nearby for days. <hr></blockquote><p>That would be in Washington D.C. after a couple of flurries, wouldn't it?<p>The Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota moved to a high school and didn't miss a day (I think) when their building burned down during a flood in 1997.
(That's some accomplishement: being destroyed by fire while underwater.)

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by canuck:
<p>That would be in Washington D.C. after a couple of flurries, wouldn't it?<p>The Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota moved to a high school and didn't miss a day (I think) when their building burned down during a flood in 1997.
(That's some accomplishement: being destroyed by fire while underwater.)<hr></blockquote><p>Have lived in and near D.C., and can vouch for how little it takes to shut down the city in winter.<p>Baltimore, my current home, deals with snow and ice a little better. Still, within the newsroom snow is called "White Death From The Skies" because of how TV stations (and sometimes the Sun) encourage the public to panic.<p>The paper will pay for its folks to spend the night at a nearby hotel. The offer gets used ("ask for the snow rate"), but not for just a few flakes. The Sun says it doesn't want anyone killed trying to get home in a storm. The reality is that sometimes people stay at the hotel BEFORE a storm hits to make sure they can get to work the next day; not being able to get in will cost you a pay day or vacation day. No excuses.<p>In Roanoke, Va., 200 miles west of D.C. and another former home, we might get 18 inches of snow in a storm. Ice storms are common, and in some ways they are worse than snowstorms.
The paper sometimes rented SUVs (before so many people owned them) to shuttle people to and from work.<p>Have never endured anything like what the Grand Forks staff did. If my memory is accurate, their building (and others) burned because power lines fell. <p>A Roanoke legend, predating my time there, is that when the newspaper building caught fire the local-section slot wouldn't let a rimmer join the evacuation until his work was done.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by canuck:
<p>That would be in Washington D.C. after a couple of flurries, wouldn't it?<hr></blockquote><p>Ha, you should be in the South when it snows. Hell, it doesn't even have to snow. Just the mere mention of a chance of snow and schools close.<p>A decade ago, we got more than a foot of snow in Anniston, Ala. A number of people managed to get to work (and get stuck there for a couple of days) and put out a paper that could not be delivered.

Regarding the Grand Forks Herald: After the building burned, the headline read, "Hell and High Water."

We had a power outage at the Albany,N.Y., paper a while back (two years? four years? As Garcia sang, it all rolls into one...)<p>It was an interesting scene. A lucky few were dispatched to the nearby Troy paper under some kind of longstanding agreement of "journalistic principle," or some such shit.<p>Several of us were inexplicably sent to...believe it or not...KINKO's, which I assume most of you know is a 24-hour place that makes copies and subjects its employees to all sorts of hellish repetitive work for $6 per hour.<p>The head of the online "product" was the master of ceremonies for this expedition, and we were there a couple hours, treated to bewildering explanations of "capturing" wire copy and making some kind of printouts that "they" were going to
do Christ knows what with.<p>Eventually, this was abandoned and our crew was sent to the Schenectady paper. We got lost trying to find it, even though it was only eight miles away and one of the people in the car used to work there.<p>There, the copy desk chief did a wonderful job of explaining things to us, how the system worked and all. We hunkered down to get the paper out.<p>And, within minutes, got recalled to the Main Office.<p>That's about all I remember. But then again, I used to take a lot of acid.