When a fierce storm hit Durham and knocked out power, N&O journalists responded quickly
Walk into the casino in Danville, Virginia, and it’s an impulsive guess which slot machine smiles your way.
It’s the same with a lottery scratch-off ticket.
Fate decides your fortune. Or does it?
Fate has a perverse persona, too, and we felt it when storms on Tuesday left one woman dead and thousands without power. Here’s how The N&O’s Aaron Sanchez-Guerra and Jessica Banov chronicled the damage that upended the Triangle during rush hour:
On a record-high hot day, with temperatures nearing 100 degrees, Tuesday’s storm left downed trees and a major accident on Interstate 40 involving 32 vehicles. Westbound lanes on I-40 were closed for hours in Durham near mile 274 due to the rush-hour pileup. Two separate collisions just before 5 p.m. near The Streets at Southpoint mall closed parts of the interstate until after 8 p.m., according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.
Local meteorologists do a fine job of tracking North Carolina’s weather patterns, and there were indications Tuesday that these summer-pattern storms could bring nasty winds.
Still, if you were watching the ever-changing radar images flashing angry reds and hostile yellows, no one would blame you for treating the weather map like a roulette wheel. Of wishing the cluster of lightning bolt icons would shift a different direction, or hoping those wind bursts avoid your dot on the map.
When the weather wheel spins, you’re betting against red and praying your point on the map stays green.
Damage and outages in Durham
For our friends in Durham and points south and east of the Triangle, there was little to no luck. N&O photos show damage ranging from fallen trees to scattered power lines. The winds turned trees into twigs; the waiting wheel — when power would be restored — spun and spun and spun.
N&O journalists live throughout the Triangle. For those in Durham, there was the journalists’ balance of taking care of family and pursuing an undetermined, breaking news story.
Within minutes after the storm screamed through Durham, N&O journalists were assessing damage, filing their reports and scouring for any internet connection.
Audience analytics show that advance coverage of storms tend to draw more attention than the aftermath coverage. That makes sense — you want to know what could happen and how to increase the odds of surviving a storm.
But Tuesday was different because the high winds and quick movement of the storm caught many off guard. Stories on what to do after a storm, what foods are safe to keep after a four-hour power outage and how to respond if the neighbor’s tree damages your property attracted a lot of interest on newsobserver.com platforms.
Big arena news
Sports columnist Luke DeCock got caught in Durham’s power outage but found a way to post an exclusive interview with Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon. It was an important read for the Triangle and N&O audience, especially those interested in the future of PNC Arena as a major entertainment and lifestyle zone.
If you missed it, the county, city and Hurricanes are moving forward with a massive mixed-use project that will turn the area around PNC Arena into a go-to destination for year-around shopping, dining and work-life experiences. Here’s Luke summarizing it best: “PNC Arena has spent its entire existence marooned on an island of asphalt, but it’s going to become the center of what Raleigh mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin called the biggest economic development project in the history of the city …”
The PNC Arena development was a major story. Add in everything else — a burst of legislative vetoes, evolving campus issues —with storm recovery, and let’s just say N&O journalists were busy.
For many of our Durham colleagues, their routine — work, life, work — continued while not knowing when the lights would come on again.
I’m grateful to work with colleagues who care about this community.
And each other.
That’s the best fortune.
Bill Church is executive editor of The News & Observer.
