LIVE!! From Crystal Beach in Bolivar Peninsula!
Is a reporter from Channel 13, outside, telling us no one should be outside.
“There’s suprisingly a lot of traffic out here,” he says, as the camera pans to show two trucks.
Which may very well count as a lot of traffic in Crystal Beach, we guess.
Then an anchor gets a shocked tone in her voice: “BEHIND YOU!! There’s a sign that looks like it was blown over!!!”
TV news likes nothing better than a blowing sign, because that demonstrates the otherwise unfathomable concept that tropical storms can get windy.
You get footage of some sign blowing in the wind, you replay that sucker five-six times an hour.
Anyway, the crisis at Crystal Beach, unfolding before out very eyes, was a bit of a letdown.
“The sign! Is that evidence of just how strong the winds are out there?” the anchor asked.
“Ummm….maybe,” the reporter cautiously replied. “It was like that when we got here.”
— Richard Connelly
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2008.