Attack Of The Snowpocalypse!!

If snowpocalypse isn't a real word, well then it should be after this week's snowstorm. Most people I know seemed to think it was the end of the world.... If you've been living under a rock, then you may have seen it through a small peephole, but probably haven't heard.... Snow, ice, and freezing temperatures hit 2000 miles of the Midwest and part of the Northeast this week. Two-thirds of the nation faced down power lines, several deaths were reported and thousands of airports made cancellations.

Here in Columbia, we also had a large interstate shut completely down after we received about 18 inches of snow. I experienced driving in my first (complete) white-out conditions, and that's saying a lot because I'm a Chicagoian. On my way home from the station yesterday, I had to remember from memory where the roads were. I drove only about 10 miles per hour the entire way and I'm pretty sure I hurt my car trying to get up a hill covered in at least 6 inches of snow.

Before this took place however... let me take you back to the beginning.

Tuesday morning I was prepared to go out and cover the beginning of the storm for our morning show, but then around 1 a.m. an apartment fire broke out in Columbia. So I ran out with a camera to get some footage and all the details... Thankfully it wasn't that cold out, and it hadn't started snowing yet. In my first few liveshots my hair wasn't blowing widely around just yet. Watch the video below:



The snow was starting to come down really hard and the wind started to pick up a little before 7 a.m. During my last hit I mixed the apartment fire details with a little bit of weather news. As you can see, the wind I was talking about earlier, blew my hair to one side of my head. This next live hit wasn't done very well, but you do get to see some of the video I took from the fire!



Finally at 7 a.m., just when the live truck operator and I thought we could start packing up and heading back, we received news the crew back at the station extended the morning show and wanted us to stay. This time I would be talking about weather. I asked the live truck operator to move the camera so viewers could see the road. Not only could the viewers see the road, but the wind was blowing towards my back and not my face. This also came in exceptionally handy when the producer and director had us stand out there for more than 30 minutes to figure out audio problems. I was definitely covered in snow by then!

Below is my liveshot and also a glance at how the entire KOMU crew came out to help when the snowstorm began to move in. When I got back to the station people were flooding in with their sleeping bags and food, ready to spend the night at the station.



To say the least, I had a great deal of fun helping to cover the snowstorm this week. Our newscasts provided a ton of interaction with the audience and I feel it improved the newscasts a lot when we showed people's pictures and videos they had tweeted. It really got our audience excited and involved. Weather is only fun to cover if you make it fun.

Also this past week I wrote a story on Newsy about how underage sex rings spike during the Super Bowl. Click here to read "Super Bowl A Magnet For Sex Trafficking" or watch my story below.