“Momma Said There’d Be Days Like This”

I didn't become aware of the news out of Ocean Isle Beach until shortly before 7 p.m. on Sunday. I was in shock. What a horrible fire, and I truly can't imagine what the families, friends, classmates, and professors of those college students are going through.
The (distant) second thought that went through my mind Sunday evening was: it's going to be a busy, busy day on Monday.
Monday, my main objective was to produce and anchor "Fox News At Ten," but I had a front-row seat on a banner day here at WBTW.
Our reporters, photographers, producers, and, in particular, our news director, David Hart, did an outstanding job of first seeking and then gathering information that seemed to come in waves all day, and right up until the start of our shows.
First, the initial reaction from neighbors, officials, and witnesses had to be processed. That lasted until noon on Monday.
Then, our jobs turned to finding those who knew (and are related to) those who died.
This is still the single hardest part of what we do in the news business. I don't know how we do it, but I do know why we do it.
We do it because we tell better stories through people: people who cry, people who are angry, people who are relieved, and people who knew things about the victims that no one else would know.
Our reporters, photographers, and producers did amazing work digging for that information all day.
Patricia Burkett worked all day to dig up information on what we were certain was a victim (and his brother) from Florence. Kelly Gillespie continued into Monday night to get reaction from the family who owned the house, and who are tending to an injured daughter.
Lyra Manning told the story of Tim Burns, a newspaper delivery man who called 911 on Sunday morning when he saw the flames that had engulfed the house.
Hats off to Thema Ponton, along with photographers Jimmy Moore, Marshal Staton, and Nick Stavrakis, who worked long hours on the scene in Ocean Isle Beach on Sunday and Monday. They brought us the first images, and great reaction from neighbors and a very tired and very bewildered mayor.
And, hats off to Jody Barr, David Hart, and especially Elise Olson, who sought out and built a story around what we here regard as truly remarkable sound off the 911 tapes from Sunday morning.
On those tapes are a variety of bizarre, frantic, and, frankly, scary conversations from eyewitnesses and emergency operators who were trying to deal with the developing emergency, with none of them knowing the scope of the tragedy at that point.
It's a day when we as a newsroom can be proud of our efforts, our teamwork, and our truly unique ability to cover the breadth of our market in one sweep.
But tomorrow's a new day, with new stories.
As Deion "Prime Time" Sanders said on the day he played an NFL and Major League Baseball game in one day: "Momma said there'd be days, but she didn't never say anything about this."

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