DAYTON TV CREW SHARES EXPERIENCES FROM TEXAS
Reporter, photographer travel with Ohio Task Force 1 to storm zone.
News Center 7 reporter Gabrielle Enright and photographer Chuck Hamlin witnessed firsthand the worst of Mother Nature and the best of the human spirit as they reported about Hurricane Harvey in Texas the last week.
Enright and Hamlin traveled with Ohio Task Force 1 on previous hurricane deployments — Irene, Gustav, Ike and Matthew — but headed last week to Houston with the Kettering-based rescue team for the biggest storm of their careers.
Here are accounts of their experiences in Houston and Katy, Texas.
Gabrielle Enright
I just couldn’t believe how much water there was. I’d never seen anything like it.
The rain never stopped. Things that looked like they were fine, 10 minutes later they weren’t. Buildings turned into islands.
Ohio Task Force 1 at one point wanted to move us because the water just kept rising. So it was a dangerous situation. It was a very fluid situation. Everything just kept changing. It was interesting and, in some cases, a little frightening.
I never felt in danger because I was with a highly-skilled, trained team. If you’re going to be stuck at a disaster, they are the best people to be with.
Being able to use Twitter and Facebook really changed how I could tell the story. I was able to give people real-time updates, interact with people, and give them things as they were happening instead of hours later. The technology between then and now — the ability to give them real-time information as it’s happening — is incredible.
What made this hurricane different was the spirit of the people in Texas.
I walked into neighborhoods and I would get out of the news van, and people I didn’t know would come up and hug me and just welcome me into their neighborhood. There was not one negative thing that was said, even from people that had lost their home. They were so optimistic, so friendly. They wanted to help us, and we didn’t need anything. We wanted to help them.
It was the most incredible example of human spirit that I’ve ever seen.
Chuck Hamlin
Lighting is important, sound’s important, but taking you there almost as if you’re in my shoes is the important thing. If we had water on the lens ... it was kind of acceptable because it was everywhere.
We had 72 hours of nonstop rain. That was something that was a constant challenge.
We were putting cellphones in Zip-Lock baggies in order to keep the moisture away from them. If you lose that technology, you’re out there doing nothing.
I think the whole thing Gabby and I’ve learned by doing so many of these trips is by trial and error — like we always make sure we have hair dryers with us. It’s basically to keep the equipment in working condition if we get it wet.
Everything is just a logistical nightmare from being able to get fuel, to being able to make sure that the truck has the ability to perform. We are driving through water conditions. We are not doing this by ourselves, we are doing this in a convoy with the task force.
It’s kind of daunting driving through some of these roads in this caravan to get to a location you want to be.
The first day we were there, the rains were coming down so heavily the task force came out and said, ‘Listen, it’s not safe for you to come out with us with your vehicle.’ Gabby and I decided we were going to stay behind and do live broadcasts.
The next day they offered, ‘If you want to come out with us you can.’ That’s the day we left our satellite truck back at the base of operations, and we rode with them to Houston. We left about 9:30 that morning and we didn’t know exactly what time we were going to get back.
That particular day we ... were gone more than 12 hours. At a certain time, we realized we were going to miss our television deadline. We started shooting more on a cellphone. And we had two stories that Gabby had actually edited in her phone and sent through Wi-Fi for the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts because we were actually away from the truck.
As strange as it is, we left Houston and we were in Dallas at a shelter, and two individuals we ran into had out a portable barbecue, on a trailer like you see in Dayton. At first I thought, ‘I can’t believe they are trying to sell barbecue to these poor individuals.’ And then they came over to us to say, ‘Hey can you help get the word out that we have free barbecue?’ It was very touching. It wasn’t the most visual thing, but it was my lasting thought of the generosity of the people.