As I am interning at the Bradenton Herald, I can tell you exactly what happened, along with our policy. I lived on Anna Maria Island, about 9 miles east of the paper's building. On Thursday, I was told by police that if I wasn't off the island by midnight, I wasn't getting off. So, I packed up my things and headed into the paper -- really, one of the best shelters around, except for the problem of being rather close to the Manatee River, which feeds into the Gulf. The building is concrete and brick, and everyone works on the second floor. The only real problem is that of having your car wash away -- that is, if the flooding hit here.<p>After putting the paper to bed last night, I was told we would come in as late as the weather would allow, seeing as more than 40-mph winds are deemed undriveable. When the hurricane was predicted to hit last night, we were pretty much Ground Zero. I bunked up with a co-worker at his apartment on high ground, and we headed in today at 10:30 a.m., well ahead of our normal 3:30 p.m. shift start time. Since I am getting ready to leave my internship (my last day is Sunday), I had all my things in my car. I brought in a blanket, my pillows, some electronics I really didn't want getting wet, and the standard flashlight and deck of cards. Like I said before, had Charley roared right through town and produced the 10-foot-plus storm surge as expected, I still would feel safer here than in the designated shelters.<p>As far as paper production, I was one of the first copy editors to arrive. My boss got in around 11:30, and informed us of the situation: Worst-case scenario, we would publish a 12-page edition to be printed in either Orlando or Miami and ferried back to have something on reader's doorsteps (if the doorsteps were indeed still there). At about 1 p.m., we put together the 12-page emergency edition, with a 4 p.m. deadline, as that was when the brunt of Charley was to come through. We were then told to work until no longer possible, and then hunker down and resign ourselves to the 12-page edition if we lost power. Most of the people in the area were evacuated, so we all planned to bunk up together tonight.<p>Fortunately, Charley decided to hang a hard right, and we saw nothing but gray skies, light drizzle and maybe 30 mph winds. However, the eye still has time to pass us, and I've heard that winds within a 30-mile radius of the eye are still at plus-100 mph. As of this writing, we're waiting to start the real edition of the paper, having completed a lot of it already for the 12-page edition we already finished. I think, had the storm hit as predicted, we would have been a little more taxed, but things have gone really smoothly (knock on wood).<p>At St. Pete, reporters and copy editors are organized into color-coded teams, and certain colors come into the newsroom at certain times. As far as here, we are fully expected to work until power or hurricane winds force us to hunker down and stop. I personally agree with this rule, but only because of the building -- it was specifically built for a newspaper, and is one of the sturdiest facilities in the area. Our only major concern was flooding and our cars.
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