Omaha Storm Coverage
Were you watching KETV meteorologist Bill Randby Chuck McWilliams (Editor's correction) overnight when the storm struck the Omaha area? Or did you tune in to coverage on the radio by KFAB (1110 AM) or another station?
Sunday, June 8, 2008
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1 – 200 of 321 Newer› Newest»KETV gets major props for their coverage last night. Bill Randby and the KETV team were the only ones live on the air when the tornado hit. All others were playing catchup, not going live until well after the storm had passed, and only then they realized that it was a major news story.
uuuh, i was watching KPTM actually, around 3, i think...props to them!
Channel 7 had them all beat - shame on the rest. A wise investment is a weather radio with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology. This allows you to set a county/counties for warnings/alerts. Also, they typically beat the siren warnings.
While Channel 7 did have "More Complete Coverage" as it promises, ONLY Channel 6 DROPPED THE BALL. Jim Flowers didn't come on until the threat had LEFT the metro area.
I gave 6 props for not interrupting prime time programming to tell people it was raining and thundering (oohhh) during its prime-time programming this week, but you need to be live on the air (or at least running pre-taped tornado tips) during an actual Omaha tornado warning.
7's Chuck McWilliams was excellent during the warning itself. He was calm, cool, and collected. Howabout all the Channel 7 reporters out at the damage site moments after the threat passed. Kudos to Vonn Jones, John Matya and Carol Kloss for interesting reports via cell phone.
I thought 3's CT was very solid as well.
I will say this, though: For those of us in west Omaha, the warning was probably too late anyway. By the time the sirens went off, and we hit the basement, I think the worst had passed.
We had no electricity here from 2:18 until 6 this morning, I tried all the FM stations, and by the time I thought to go to 1110 I got my laptop on weather.com to see the radar.
Chuck McWilliams deserves a medal for his on-air calm during the storm.
I didn't notice any coverage after returning from shelter on KMTV, KPTM (not a huge shock) or WOWT. Just KETV. That was just before 3.
Wow. Having a tornado in Omaha is a big thing and demands having people on site to let the public know what's going on. I mean, they'll interrupt a Nebraska Cornhusker football game with weather updates...Knowing full well that they are going to get some very nasty viewer protest...Because its that kind of a priority.
And WOWT runs a western??? Not exactly the most professional outfit they've got over there.
If what I read on the other thread was true, and they got rid of Jeff Jensen as a budget cut, then I hope that move wasn't made to keep on paying Mr. Flowers the huge salary he undoubtedly makes. Because it doesn't sound like he's worth all that dough.
Apparently credibility isn't quite as important as having a healthy profit.
Jim Flowers was on 3 or 4 times on KFAB before he was ever on the air at 6... i felt like who is he really working for
8:44, from what they are saying yes it was too late for us, how scary.
We went out and took some pictures this morning around Millard, the most damages places were blocked off. But we got a few.
Anyone else ?
Racheal Pierce is going to Des Moines.
I grew up in Omaha, however I do not live there now. My mother, who was out of town lives in the Millard area, so my means of coverage was the internet beginning around 730AM. Some observations:
Obviously the storm had struck hours earlier and I am sure all the stations were beginning to wind down their coverage. I thought as others had said KETV had the best overall coverage of the areas effected most. By the time I tuned in KETV had their back-ups on and all did a great job, far better than KMTV's main anchor Carol Wang. She might have been on for a few hours by the time I watched, but she grew very tiresome, plus her requests for photos and video I thought was poorly handled. Don't ask for "great and fantastic" pictures when referring to pictures of damage that destroys some people's houses. I will say KETV and KMTV's catch of Mayor Fahey live was a good get. Meanwhile WOWT finally got their live coverage up on the internet around 8. While the others were still wall to wall with storm coverage, WOWT was back doing their normal Sunday moring show routine with First Birthdays and some lame story telling me where the burglaries of the week happened. It seemed as if the tornado got in the way with their Sunday mornign offerings. Also I saw online Mike McKnight's live shot from 7AM. He was poorly placed. They introduce him by saying he was in the Millard area and shot video moments after the storm happened, yet he was live from Berquist Standium near 44th and Center. Sure there was damage there, but compared what the others had and since Mike in his story was talking about Millard it would have been better to have him there. Six definitely seemed to have get blown away in coverage like parts of Millard this morning.
Actually, Sean, it was Chuck McWilliams who was on for KETV as the storm was pounding Millard. And you've got to hand it to the guy. He was obviously multi-tasking, working the radar, pulling weather reports off the printer, fielding damage reports and the whole time he was calm, cool and collected. I hope his station appreciates him!
And even though it sounds like some of the damage happened before the sirens started wailing, there is something reassuring, when you're woken up by a severe storm and you hear the tornado sirens, to turn on your television and find somebody on air giving you the information you need. KETV had that.
WOWT and KMTV had a scroll on the bottom of the screen "Tornado warning for Douglas County". Yeah thanks...that helps. Who knows what KPTM had, but they would never be my first stop to begin with.
10:14am...
Archaeologists, while searching for the lost ark of the covenant, recently discovered a stone tablet with the long lost 11th Commandment:
"There shalt not EVER be a news story that trumps the importance of First Birthdays"
Total embarrassment for 3 and 6. KMTV did not get on air until after the warning had been canceled and WOWT was even later.
Do they not have someone at the station overnight? Even if a meteorologist was not there could they have someone there to at least put the radar up full screen and have a clear warning not the crawl that everyone ignores since it had been running all day with other watches and warnings?
Now everyone knows that 7 is the only station you can trust to have coverage during severe weather.
ha ha. channel 3rd tries to brand themselves as the severe weather station and they weren't even on the air when it counted!!! i would love an explanation from management about their poor performance. if ketv is smart - they'll start running a "PROOF OF PERFORMANCE" spot showing what the other stations were showing as the tornado moved in!!!!!
Rachel Pierce is going to one of the worst stations in the midwest.. WOI.
Ditto for compliments on Chuck McWilliams and KETV's coverage of the storms Sunday AM. I appreciated knowing what was going on while the other TV weatherfaces and apparently storm chasers were caught completely unaware. It sure was easy for them to analyze and talk about the storm after the fact. But Chuck McWilliams did an excellent job getting us storm info as it actually happened while the other weatherfaces from 3, 6, and 42 were either home asleep in their beds (one of them actually admitted that) or just asleep. Oh yeah, I really enjoyed Jim Flowers sputtering, uh-ing and um-ing thru his constant rehash and explanation of what happened during the storm while he was dressing and getting to the studio. Great work, Chuck. Thanks.
FALSE ADVERTISING!!!!!!!!!
"When it comes to weather in the Omaha metro area, no weather team is better than the First Warning Weather team, on Action 3 News. The Action 3 News First Warning Weather Team works 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to ensure that you will be the first to know about any severe weather that is approaching your home."
--Copied directly from www.action3news.com
WHAT A JOKE!!!!!
Forget Chuck Norris..... Chuck McWilliams is the man!! This guy's the real deal. Defends his country and protects his hometown. Way to go!
Jim Flowers was probably over at Matt Perralt's house when the storm hit.
McWilliams did a great job on KETV, but I've got to give CT props on A3N. He always does a great job. I couldn't tell you who McWilliams was before last night, but if anything is going to happen between 12-3a, I'm going with KETV.
WOWT shit the bed. No excuses.
KETV was the best, hands down. KPTM was on air before WOWT.
Echo the comments about Channel SUX. I didn't realize it was Chuck McWilliams on KETV (like Sean, I thought it was Bill Randby -- they never showed him on air). But he did a great job. I turned over to CT for a while after the threat had passed, and KPTM did eventually come on, but by the time I went to bed, WOWT still was only running the crawl.
You're right -- Flowers was probably getting dressed and trying to find a fresh flower for his suit -- that takes a while, you now -- while he reported for radio. In the meantime, however, no one was manning the station...
I posted this on the WOWT comments board:
"Pretty amazing. An EF2 tornado strikes Omaha and our "Weather Authority" TV station is showing a Western while it happens. WOWT, I dare you to print this in your comments. But I know you won't."
Please have a defibrillator standing by in case they actually post that particular comment where others can see it.
However, they have no problem with posting comments that blame the National Weather Service!
I was awaken by the storm, and the FIRST place I turned to was KETV. Chuck McWilliams was on with live radar and did a fantastic job keeping me updated on the situation.
Knowing KETV had something going already, I checked the other stations -- and this was right around the time the storm hit -- to see what they were doing. NONE of the other three stations had anybody on the air live. NONE. NOBODY. KMTV and WOWT both shit the bed profusely on this one, as both were running regularly-scheduled programming with nothing more than bottom-screen crawlers for information. I'm not even sure KPTM has anybody in the building after the 9 p.m. news.
For a number of years, I have bounced around between the stations when it comes to watching for news and weather coverage. After last night's storm, there is one station -- and ONLY one station -- that I will refer to and refer others to, and that is KETV Channel 7.
Michael and others are 100% correct. KETV was the ONLY choice last night. We lost our satellite dish last night in the storm, and had to use the over the air feed. Only KETV was on the air. But if I needed my 3:00 am fix on Entertainment tonight, it was there.
Chuck was extremely solid. KETV needs to rush about 500 promos on the air pronto. Any TV that was on in Omaha last night was on KETV and they were up to the challenge. Kudos to Chuck and everyone at KETV!
Kudos to KETV. Awesome weather coverage. At point today, I think Chuck, John and Andrea were all on the air at different times for coverage.
What happened to Jeff Jensen? He was the only weather guesser at 6 that I liked. Now it's Flowers and Rich. The dream team...Haha.
And as for Rachel Pierce going to Des Moines. Thank God! Can't stand seeing her at all!
This event couldn't have come at a better time for WOWT. Maybe now everyone in town will see what a fraud this station has become. I was one of the last holdouts defending this place, but their continuous cutbacks and cheap hires have cost them greatly.
I can't count the number times bad storms rolled through Omaha late at night. And every time there was Jeff Jensen calmly getting us through the storm. Now I read that he's been let go by the station. If this is really the case, they deserve every bit of criticism that comes their way.
I live just a little west of where that grain elevator toppled over. Amazingly, that storm did not wake me up, which is scary. I thought all the bad weather was supposed to stay to the south of us, so I didn't make it a point to stay up and pay attention.
About 4AM I woke up to the power being out and thought it was a routine outage, didn't think anything of it and went back to bed.
The destruction was pretty spotty in my neighborhood. A couple neighbors trees were damaged and they were cutting them down this morning, but all my house had was a blown over trash can.
I really want to pelt rocks at all the morons making the tornado sites a tourist attraction.
I think WOWT is trying a little bit of damage control. I saw a bit of their 5:00 news on Cox Channel One and they rolled Tracy Madden and John Kniceley. (Unless they've been doing the Sunday news for a while now, but I doubt it).
Too little, too late folks. Then they had that Andrea Rich trying to explain it all away...Something about five minute radar loops or something.
Nice try, but you can't explain away the fact that one station had live weather coverage while you were showing "Gunsmoke" (or whatever the hell it was).
Does anyone know what happened to Jeff Jensen? Where is he going? He was at Channel Six for a long time. It's pretty sad when you have more staff in the sports department than you do in the weather department!
It's called tenure -- the three guys at WOWT have been there so long they are going to have to retire first.
ketv, yup. thx chuck.
aside- I think it was wild wild west on 6.
*snore
Ugh. I saw Andrea Rich on the news. That was really classy the way she threw the National Weather Service under the bus. Basically blaming them and their technology for the fact that there was no advanced warning. I wouldn't be surprised if Jim Flowers did the same thing.
Well if that's the case, then what's the point of the 4000 computers you have in your weather center? When it comes time for the nightly weather forecast, simply say "Please switch to the Weather Channel for the next five minutes in order to get a weather forecast. Then, switch back in five minutes for sports. Don't worry, we have twice as many sports reporters as we do weather forecasters".
It is amazing to watch the WOWT ship sink so fast. For all the times these guys break into programming to tell us it is raining outside, the one time the public needed information, Jim Flowers was home in bed. The area was under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch last night, a watch that I believe had already been in effect when the 10:00 newscasts were on, and I find it amazing that Channel 7 was the ONLY weather department to keep somebody on duty. I would think that when the area is under a storm watch, you would have a person there monitoring the situation. 2AM is no different than 2PM. Shame on WOWT.
WOWT = FAIL
Jim Flowers can make all the excuses he wants about the NWS warning being late. That has nothing to do with the FACT that when an EF2 Tornado was tearing up Millard, there was NOBODY in the WOWT weather station monitoring the situation. Somebody's head should roll for this debacle. KMTV is not without some blame, but they are also not the self proclaimed "Weather Authority". If WOWT had any dignity, they would remove that title ASAP.
Yep. Jimbo is on WOWT making excuses. "Well the storm was at night" (apparently having a severe thunderstorm at night didn't occur to him).
"The storm didn't seem bad at first and the storm was moving really really fast" (again, apparently this is the first time we've had a fast moving storm that blew up out of nowhere).
And he's saying "Well Mike McKnight and I we were on KFAB during that time". Well, that doesn't help if your TV station doesn't announce that we should turn our radios to KFAB to get your infinite wisdom.
Like somebody else said, KETV had the commitment to keep somebody at the station through out the Severe Thunderstorm Watch. But the "Weather Authority" WOWT was utterly useless.
Jim Flowers should be fired for his lame excuses. I watched at 10 and couldn't believe he tried to explain his way out of his poor performance.
Chuck McWilliams did an amazing job. Thanks Chuck for going above and beyond.
KETV already has a proof of performance ad running from last nights tornado, just ran during the basketball delayed Sunday 10 PM news.
i got a couple of things to say
1- i do have to say that when i went to bed around one-ish i noticed that the area was dropped from the tornado watch. that may have been the reason why stations (except ketv) were unprepared
BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that is ABSOLUTELY no excuse for the vomit that happened last night. kptm- not surpirsed so thats all im going to say about you.
kmtv- weak
wowt- flip the switch now- fire everyone and feed in nbc from khas in hastings
ketv- i WANT you to run your adds proclaiming how good you are because what you say is T-R-U-E. i usually find them annoying but not this time. i cant wait to see them. i love ketv. they dominate the local news and i can only see things get better for them.
by the way- i cant believe wowt was blaming NWS for their mess up. do you need alerts and radar images from them to determine its going to storm? dont you have a radar of your own? dont you have meterologists that can look at a screen and say "man.... maybe we got something here". i would just like to know that.
im heading over to wowt messages boards to read their comments on there
The following is a verbatim of Jim Flowers' comments during Sunday's 10pm newscast:
"We received a number of emails from folks who were disappointed at our coverage last night. I wanted to address that. For the folks that rely on this station, I would sincerely apologize to those folks. But keep in mind, at the time from 2:30 to about 3:15, Mike McKnight and I were both on KFAB providing live coverage to folks that had been hit. And I can't tell you the number of compliments we got on the radio side. These are people that lost power, people that had gotten hit. And then we started our coverage here at about 3:15. So, it's kind of a two-edged sword. So, that's kind of how things played out this morning."
Check out this comment from the message board at WOWT.com. Apparently Ron in Millard appreciates an old western durning a tornado. Must calm his nerves.
Ron in Millard = Jim Flowers????
"Posted by: Ron Location: Millard on Jun 8, 2008 at 10:29 PM
Your coverage on the TV was the best of all the stations before, during and after the storms. Jim Flowers did a great job on the radio too."
Jesse--I'm one of the people you want to pelt with rocks I suppose, I went out and took pictures. The main reason is because, there are a lot of people who don't realize that even a small tornado can do such damage. The power of mother nature is awesome.
On another note, regarding the Jim Flowers thing, why the hell couldn't WOWT simulcast like they do in the mornings ?
Both Rich and Flowers did throw NWS under the bus, must have been a little staff meeting to make sure stories were straight and keywords used in the "blame speech" were the same.
The arrogance of Jim Flowers absolutely astounds me. All he had were excuses galore.
That whole business about being on KFAB the entire time. As if he that had been the plan all along and he was surprised that people didn't realize that. How many people, when they see severe weather or hear tornado sirens think to themselves, "Oh dear, severe weather. I better turn on KFAB to see if the WOWT meteorologist is on there" And then the amazing audacity to pat himself on the back for his work on KFAB. "I can't tell you the number of compliments we got". It is the arrogance that gets me more than anything else.
And then the kicker. He was saying something about, "Now keep in mind that nobody was seriously injured. Nobody was killed". You see, that makes it all OK. It doesn't matter how inept you are, how unprepared you are, how lazy you are as a meteorologist...As long as nobody dies, you should get to keep your job. The arrogance! I'll try that at my job the next time things go wrong: "Well, nobody died". We'll see how far that takes me.
I would have so much more respect for the man if he had gone on last night and said, "Look. We dropped the ball. And I'm really sorry. We underestimated the strength of the storm. It was a bad mistake. We should have been at the station throughout the severe storm watch. And I promise I'm going to try and do better for you in the future". People would forgive that. People don't forgive you arrogantly sitting up there, blaming everything and everybody but yourself. Ugh! Have I mentioned the man is arrogant?? :-)
But the funniest part of all of this. All of Jim Flowers weak excuses were rendered moot the moment KETV started running that ad with the man saying "We were in our basement and the only channel we could find on the air was Channel 7". That says it all right there!
Remeber, Chuck served for over 1 year in Iraq with the national guard. I don't think a little EF2 tornado is going to phase him.
Kudos to KETV and Chuck.
I was in Omaha with the family visiting the in laws. I got the couch (good place for the son in law) and when the whistles blew, the channel happened to be on six. Well, no report there other than a movie. Flipped to Seven and there it was. Curiousity took the best of me and flipped to three...nothing. KPTM? Nothing but they did come on sooner rather than never like Channel 6.
KETV congratulations on actually serving the public as opposed to Six which was truly piss poor during this crisis.
Did Perrault suffer any damage?
Oh yeah, I wanted to add one more thing. The lameness of sitting up there and saying the reason they weren't on the air is because they simply had no advanced warning.
Well, it took them about an hour to get on the air once the tornado warning was issued. What does that tell me? Even if they had 30 minutes advanced warning that a tornado was heading our way, they still wouldn't have been on the air until 30 minutes AFTER the tornado had come through. So that excuse is just as weak as all the others.
No, your fine Jess. I just found some of the rubbernecking traffic to be obnoxious. It's important to document this stuff, because it is serious and it is also easy to become complacent.
I like Flower's new approach. I assume this means that they will not be breaking in during prime time programming anymore for all the crap that they usually break in on, which are events that are less in severity than an actual TORNADO HITTING OMAHA; they will just tell you to turn on KFAB.
I have been waiting a long time to see the Wild Wild West. This classic just doesn't get played much anymore. I want to thank WOWT for not interupting this classic for a small tornado. It would have been disappointing to stay up that late and miss the ending. By the way, the good guys won!
Last comment Jim said at the 10 pm newscast.."we'll be here". What a shame and a joke. Then he provides excuses Sunday night. Own up to your mistakes. Great job KETV, I will be watching them more from now on. Chuck was cool and calm.
Without a doubt, KETV wins this one hands down. They were the only station on and have in the battle for hearts and minds, they're victorious.
KMTV made a valiant attempt to play ball with the big guys, and they should be proud of their live shots and video during the wee hours of the morning. But, man, that Carol Wang has to go! I never watch the station anymore and seeing her last night made me realize why I don't tune in.
No matter how Jim Flowers spins it, WOWT shat the bed. Plain and simple. There is no excuse for their lack of coverage, and the spin job the talking heads did during their newscasts Sunday was even more pathetic than them dropping the ball in the first place.
8:15,
I agree with you 100%. The spin job and excuses are worse than actually dropping the ball early Sunday morning. If they would have come out with a simple apology and admitted they screwed up, they could have saved some face. I have lost all respect for Jim Flowers as a professional broadcaster, and this should be the beginning of the end for him here in Omaha.
@7:46 --- "battle for hearts and minds" "play ball with the big guys" I think somebody has a future career in broadcasting! You've certainly got the cliches down. Good luck! I'll post my review of you, once I see you on the set.
You have felt my wrath Omaha. I warned you...bow down to my altar lest I release the furies of sky once again upon you.
This was only a warning.
Listen to my radio show or suffer the consequences.
You have been warned.
Sincerely,
The Perrault
Is Channel 6 down to just two meteorologists? Are Jim Flowers and Andrea Rich the only ones left?
Make no mistake about it, WOWT. Jim Flowers and his moniker as "the heartland's most experienced meteorologist", the reputation of your station to react and provide vital information at a time of crisis, in fact the very reputation of your station as a whole, has become an absolute joke.
This is remarkable because WOWT was kind of terrific once. It has a great history. And you have squandered all of that with your cheap talent and your cutesy slogans. Five hours after the first tornado I can remember in Omaha since 1975, while other stations have constant, complete team coverage of the storm damage, your Sunday morning news program runs a story "This week's burglaries and break-ins with Jim Siedlecki". Do you honestly expect anybody to take you seriously with that kind of laughable reaction?
As your ratings continue to tumble, I hope that you don't have the nerve to act surprised. I would suggest that you look back at this weekend as the absolute perfect example of how your station has fallen.
Channel Sux blames an extra long edition of First Birthdays on the fact they didn't get to them on Sunday because of the tornado. WRONG! Another spin job.
They had their First B-days on Sunday. Maybe if the Suxers would have been more concerned with the top story of the tornados and less of First Birthdays and weekly Burglaries, they could have appeared to have battled back better on Sunday Morning.
I think we can officially decerftify Jim Flower's "The Weather Authority". I love how WOWT thinks saying it 20 times during their newscast makes it valid. I think Jim is quickly earning the title, "The Weather Assthority".
10/11 out of Lincoln had on-air coverage during the tornado as well. before most of the Omaha stations were on the air.. (except KETV- great job by the way- Chuck for president!)
Flowers was out looking for his 2-pay that the tornado swiped off of his dome. Give the guy a break!!!
Switching subjects... the fancy Super 3 station's threatening graphics didn't help them much this weekend...did they?
This morning, I was in and out listening to the smooth sounds of Jim Rose (ooooooh Adrian Fiala!) and then Scooter Voorhees on 1110. Funny enough, there was no mention of WOWT dropping the ball. In fact, they were going to check in with Big Jim later on in the Voorhees show to talk about the process that the NWS goes through when issuing a tornado warning. Really? That's your #1 source?
And when did WOWT get into bed with KFAB? Does that mean that Webber will be back on the Husker 'casts ? Dare I hope! Ugh.
I can't find any negative comments on WOWTs "comments" section on their "web channel" (that drives me nuts). Am I not looking in the right place or is someone doing some selective editing?
Razz, it seems to be that it's the latter of your two guesses.
Razzdoodle,
They are picking and choosing what they post. I submitted a comment in a professional yet critical tone about their coverage and it has not been posted.
Yet somehow a post about how they had the best coverage of all got posted. That was probibly by a 6 employee.
Their comments are obviously highly edited. I once posted on there about his "winter forecast" BS that they always pimp during the ratings period. I kindly provided all of the data from the NWS that how Jim predicts what is going to happen every month was innaccurate pretty much every month the winter before. They obviously did not post this comment, but Jim was kind enough to e-mail me directly back and tell me that, "the devil is in the details," and "I said it would be below average temperatures for the winter, so I was right on." He did not dispute one fact that I provided. This guy is a joke. He truly believes that he is accurate 100% of the time. It's not that the innacurracy that bothers me, it is the arrogance, and the hype, the "Precision Forecast", and "Most Experienced Meteorologist," and "Weather Authority". I think we have a great example here of them losing track of their role to the community, it is to provide timely, accurate information during severe weather, as a public service to the community, not have the most graphics on the screen at all times during prime time and throw as many consultant driven slogans as humanly possible at the public. Sorry for the rant.
The KFAB and Channel 6 relationshiop is of a recent vintage...probably started earlier this month in fact. For a long time, KFAB had used the WeatherChannel and then some other group but, in a fit of local synergy, decided to go with Channel Six.
Nice choice KFAB. I bet the guy who pushed that memo through has been furiously updating a resume.
Yes. I also left a comment expressing my unhappiness. And it never appeared. It certainly wasn't a rude comment. It wasn't vulgar. Wasn't mean-spirited. Nothing like that. But it portrayed their station in a less than positive light so they didn't print it.
I have to at least give some credit to KMTV. Because their Weather Blog at least has the guts to allow critical posts to be printed.
Andrea Bredow makes my pants grow
Chuck McWilliams eats pancakes off Jim Flowers' head!
I'm sure the professionals at 6 are gathering all of the critical, professional critiques for the weekend 'cast when they have that viewer response segment. I'm sure it'll be balanced. And I'm sure they'll wedge it in between the Burglaries segment and Chapman reporting on what sports he saw on TV.
Well, it sounds like WOWT doesn't need to get a check to Mr. Flowers since KFAB must be taking care of him.
We don't have a radio in our basement but sure have a TV. Guess which station it was on?
And really, unless you're in your car when a storm happens, who pays attention to the radio anymore???
Jim Flowers shat the bed, plain and simple. And everybody outside of the Channel Sux studio knows this...but nobody INSIDE will understand this reality.
Channel 7 did a great job Sunday morning with live coverage, but follow this link and tell me this isn't going a bit far with the self-service:
http://www.ketv.com/weather/16548932/detail.html
10:51 -- I don't think so. It's no different than WOWT deleting the critical comments, IMO...
I have never been a big fan of Jeff Jensen. But I hope he's getting a big hearty belly laugh over the fact that the same week his station lets him go, they are exposed as incompetent frauds who are simply incapable of providing the coverage that competing stations can provide.
And regardless of why they let Jeff Jensen go, it is extremely short-sighted to reduce your weather team during the height of the severe storm season. Aside from that, what should cause people the most concern is the fact that WOWT thinks it is more important to have four sports reporters and two weather people.
But all of that still doesn't get Jim Flowers off the hook. The man will never come up with a valid excuse for his failure. Now, I don't have the AMS seal of approval, but a man with 27 years of weather experience should know that it is entirely plausable to have a tornado break out during a Severe Thunderstorm Watch. And you might want to have somebody with some kind of weather experience on-site, monitoring the situation just in case. Even if that means you have to (gasp!) work a little later than usual.
But if he doesn't think that possibility is important enough to disrupt his schedule, that is totally his prerogative. But, as others have said, if you choose to have that attitude, then don't have the temerity to call yourself the Weather Authority or the Heartland's Most Experienced Meteorologist. Because nobody is buying it anymore.
And, ordinarily, I don't like the idea of TV stations tooting their own horn when it comes to coverage. But in this case, KETV totally deserves the praise they are getting. And I say go ahead and be proud of it.
I appreciate the radio coverage and all but, at 2 in the morning, my tv remote is a bit more handy than my radio on my alarm clock.
In this day and age, I want to see, via radar, what is coming at me.
I wonder if Channel Six will further address this. Doubtful.
10:47, the people who had no damn electricity are who pays attention to the radio in a storm ---it was dark out and we couldn't see the smoke signals.... so the radio was our last resort since even wireless was not working.
10:47 - I listen exclusively to XM Radio, the only choice for quality radio.
10:51 Hell yes they should toot their own horn, they had that coverage in the bag and rather than still touting some false bullshit that they are the authority, they are putting up the same thing people are saying all over the local internet and town. Why is that so bad ?
The only reliable way to get anything anymore is to dig for it yourself. Get the radar on your wireless computer, monitor the storm cells and watch some Munsters reruns as things pass. It's better than Wild Wild West.
I listened to KFAB and heard the preeminent weather tool chatting on his cell on his way to the station. He was very insightful with comments about lots of wind and rain. Had no idea looking out the crescent moon hole on our stick shack that any of that was a goin' on.
Then the put Becka on the air, and I turned it off almost quicker than I turn the dial when I hear Jim "I was becoming a thing and didn't know my kids' teachers names" Rose and went back to sleep.
Does anyone know if they found Flowers' 2-pay? I didn't know he'd lost it until I read the earlier post.
KETV deserves to gloat alittle about this one and I have no problem with it. It is not like they are putting promos out because they were on the air 30 seconds before the competition. More like 30 minutes or more.
somone sure knows about shating the bed.. that was posted about as much as a Matt P. is gay and wrestling is the best!
i just thought i wet the bed, and the wife was farting, i didn't realize my roof was gone.
12:59 -- next time you have a thought, just let it go...it's not yours to begin with and you're just going to screw it up for the rest of us.
Thanks for playing, though...
9:14 -
Did not know Flowers wore a rug.
Chuck McWilliams did INFACT eat a Sunday morning Pancake off of Jim Flowers' head.
Nice.
On May 1st, Gary Sadlemyer announced that the premier radio news station, KFAB, had partnered with the number one news TV station, WOWT, to provide the weather. WOWT has NOT been number one for years in the ratings.
We lost power so had to listen to KFAB and after a LONG time, Terry Leahy came on and did not know what was going on (probably watching the Western movie on WOWT) and when Jim
Flowers finally came on, he did nothing but sputter about the sudden storm.
I called Channel 6 and told them I would never watch again. I also called Channel 7 and told them to give Chuck McWilliams a raise!
Claire
We all know why 6 was late to the party, just none of you are putting it into words.
They were all having the big budget powwow to see who's next to get the axe. I'll bet they had KETV on in the room and saw what was happening, then had to have a meeting on whether or not overtime would be granted. See, I've just explained it all, something WOWT could not do, and will not do, for the "Mighty Wilden and Adams" will never allow it.
BTW Dennis, use your f-n sticks you twit.
Terry Leahy hasn't been with KFAB for 10 years
Oh wow. Strike up the band. Pass out the cigars. Pose for the pictures. Let loose the balloons and the confetti.
Jim Flowers was on KFAB with storm coverage. All this proves is that Jim Flowers owns a cell phone and a car with a window.
Well done indeed!
Would love to know more about this Wilden and Adams. Who are they, and what part have they had in this train wreck?
If the budget gets cut any further at Six, they'll have to go back to the black and white days where the weather guessers used to draw in the fronts on the erasable board and have some dude hold up cards with the estimated temperature and flip them as they go from city to city.
Heck, who am I kidding, they will simply open up the window, take a quick glance, stutter something on camera and call it a day.
I remember those days -- and it seemed back then that THOSE weather forecasters were more accurate, and more committed to reporting the weather, than WOWT was early Sunday morning.
In the old days, those guys would have dragged their asses outta bed, PERSONALLY fired up the TV transmitters and gone on the air with the info. I doubt Jim Flowers can SPELL transmitter, let alone know how to turn it on.
1:34----What's up Dennis? You know who you are.
For those of you that don't know, Wilden is the Asst News Director, and Adams is the News Director. At least that's what they were when I left.
Hmmmm. Would love to hear more about this Wilden and Adams as well.
WOWT is still only publishing the (very) few comments that compliment their station. Are they really in that kind of denial that people will buy that the whole of Omaha thinks WOWT is just the cat's pajamas.
What are you talking about? I am the cat's pajamas.
Meow.
Sincerely,
The Perrault
I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Flowers got spanked, no doubt about it. But I personally think 7 got lucky by just having someone there. I mean, if the system has petered out, why on earth was McWilliams there? Unless he was already scheduled to be there, and got the jump on it that way. 6 is so worried about their bottom-line, that the quality of the station is in the tank.
Where the real travesty is was directly AFTER the storm, when 7 had people everywhere, and 6 didn't even TRY. Whoever was in charge that night/morning should be fired for not having the foresight of getting people on the streets asap.
But look at what 7 and 6 did for the later news shows:
7, Brandi alone (mistake!) and tired stories. 6 certainly had more interesting stories, and could have cut Flowers out of the show entirely and might have even made it better.
For that reason, and that reason only, I'm still going to watch channel 6, for now, to see if things improve. I still think their reporters are better.
2:12 -- maybe those in charge at KETV had enough foresight to look at the National Weather Service radar and make the decision that, in the event that this storm DOES get bad, there is someone there to take the ball and run with it so that if something DOES happen -- like Sunday morning's tornado -- they will be able to go on air live with the latest information.
Their other choice, of course, was to come in after the fact and blame the NWS for slow radar, which is the approach WOWT has appeared to take.
Now let me ask you this -- if you have to choose between those two approaches to determine which station you're going to rely on the next time threatening weather comes to your neighborhood...which one are you going to choose?
I'll take the former over the latter eight days a week. You go ahead and do what you want...
Chuck was there because he's an experienced meterologist and could see that there was a continuing threat to the Metro. He was smart enough to keep a crew available until he knew people were safe. That's the difference when you have a real meterologist looking out for you. I'm quite sure he would have preferred to be home in bed too. The story that hasn't been shared yet is that while Chuck was doing his amazing reporting, his own family was in the path of the storm. He was so calm and collected-- and he never mentioned anything about it. Chuck rocks.
and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that KETV had a 5am show and none of the other stations go on that early....I'm not saying Chuck didn't do an excellent job...he did, but it was probably his normal shift to be there that early...so KETV was at the right place at the right time. (And I watched right along with everyone else....)
I like WOWT's new weather promo.
http://i28.tinypic.com/snhys5.jpg
And of course...let us not forget that the KMTV weather geek was doing his usual stumbling out of Brewsky's as the dangerous storm rolled this way...
So what it comes down to is this:
KETV is committed to 24-hour local coverage.
WOWT is not.
KMTV can't count that high.
Neither can KPTM.
Why all this worship for Chuck? Shouldn't we still continue to bow at the alter of The Perrault? He is the thunder and lightning, the alpha and the omega, the Travis and the Justice, for all.
And that's just in the can.
2:24
How does this explain the fact that 7 had a story on the air at 5pm tonight with NWS saying..."yeah there was no way for us to predict this."
Which means he couldn't "have the foresight to follow the NWS radar" since they had no clue either.
McWilliams did the better job, but let's face it, 7 got lucky.
Okay, to the folks at 2:12pm and 2:59pm. You people are mistaken. Chuck McWilliams is the weekend evening meteorologist...He did the 10pm newscast that night. John Campbell would have been the meteorologist for the Sunday morning newscast. If you read the Channel 7 weather blog, you'll see that John Campbell says he was actually out the door for the Sunday morning newscast when all hell broke loose.
Chuck McWilliams showed dedication and stayed late. Jim Flowers headed for home. There's your difference.
And especially to the person at 2:12pm. I would never put my trust in Jim Flowers after this debacle. The fact that KETV was on the air when the warning went off provides undeniable proof that Jim Flowers could have done better. And he can't possibly explain that away. And that fact that he is making all these excuses and not admitting he made any mistake tells me he thinks he didn't do anything wrong and won't do anything different in the future.
Kinda scary.
Chuck was not at the station because of the 5 AM show. John Campbell does weather for that show not Chuck and he is not scheduled in until about 3:30. He came in early to back up Chuck.
By the time WOWT had one person on the air KETV had two meteorologists, an anchor, a full production staff, and reporters, producers, and photographers in the field.
KETV was also the only station to rent a helicopter yesterday to get aerial footage of the devastation.
Oh my God! To the person at 3:09 pm. That link is TOO funny. It deserves to be listed again:
http://i28.tinypic.com/snhys5.jpg
Face it, 3:24 -- Luck comes when hard work meets opportunity, qualities that obviouslly are lacking in you boy Jim Flowers' world right now.
I really don't care how you schedule your weather room, all I know is if you are going to have the nerve to crown yourself, "THE WEATHER AUTHORITY," you better figure out how to have somebody on the air when a tornado actually hits Omaha for the first time in 30 some years, especially since your competition demonstrated that it could be accomplished.
KPTM used to have the 'your weather authority' brand, hahahha
It's too bad the buffoons over at six have the Olympics lead-in in July to save their ratings and their jobs for at least a few more months. If this weren't a diary market, they would be toast.
Seven should be the best, they have a company that pumps plenty of cash into the product, and that shows. It's amazing that KPTM was able to even compete right after the storm considering they're owned by a complete jackass. If that station gets bought by a company that actual puts some effort in budget and human resources in the next 6-12 months, wowt better watch out.
Ted's posting!
http://omanews.blogspot.com/
Settling down now that everybody seems to be covering the current storm fine? There's a reason most of you aren't in charge of anything with all the knee-jerk reactions. What a bunch of whiny tools.
Sincere;y,
Matty P.
Ha, of course wowt will try to make up for screwing up royally over the weekend. But the damage has been done.
I suppose we can look forward to Jim breaking in anytime it gets cloudy now for the rest of the summer.
WOWT ran a "weather authority" promo after Leno's monolouge -- I nearly fell off the couch laughing at the absurdity of the fraud that it has become.
A few comments on this topic:
*Someone tell me why, in this day and age, it is acceptable NOT to have LIVE DOPPLER RADAR? Even the old black and white radars of the 60's and 70's were LIVE.
*Thank God for Channel 7's "Live Super Doppler 7," and shame on Channel 6 for attempting to fool viewers into thinking thier radar is current by putting the current time stamp on it.
*Oh, and the audacity of Jim Flowers to use KFAB as an excuse not to be on Channel 6, the weather authority! First of all, not many "normal" people listen to radio in the middle of the night. If this happened during drive time, I could see the rationale. But still, shouldn't Jim have been at Channel 6 and simply simulcasted the information on both TV and radio?
Unforgivable. I feel betrayed, because I was once an avid Channel 6 viewer. Never again!
A few random thoughts about the storm coverage:
No matter how sad WOWT's on air coverage of the storm was, the animated radars on Six on Your Cell ROCK!!!(http://www.6onyourcell.com) Around 2 a.m. I noticed the weather outside was looking sketchy, so I grabbed my cellphone and pulled up Six on Your Cell. The animated radar showed its symbol for "Tornado Vortex Signature" with the direction arrow pointing right at Omaha. That gave me enough time to turn on KETV, wake up my better half and put the dogs out to pee before shooing them into the basement.
Six on Your Cell appears to be a service that WOWT contracts with. Maybe next time whoever's running WOWT's master control should just cut to the Six on Your Cell radar...
...
If Flowers's "we were on KFAB" excuse was to hold water, then WOWT's audio should have been simulcasting KFAB. As an earlier poster noted, what happened kinda makes you wonder where Flowers' loyalties lie.
...
Did Jeff Jensen really get dismissed due to budget cuts, or did he tell WOWT to f--k off? Think about it from a staffing standpoint: with all the newscasts WOWT has, how do they expect TWO meteorologists to cover all those shifts? If Andrea Rich is working the weekday morning and noon slots, then working evenings and nights on the weekends, she's working seven days a week EVERY WEEK! And that means Flowers will have to pick up the morning weekend shifts in addition to the 4, 5, 6, and 10 pm weekday shifts. Which puts him on-air seven days a week, too. So much for those weekend fishing trips. Somehow I doubt the "heartland's most experienced meteorologist" is going to work those hours long-term... just can't see it happening.
(Side thought: should we start taking bets on which newscasts WOWT will cut from its schedule?)
One more reason to wonder if Jensen gave WOWT the finger: No glowing sendoff blog posting from Jim Siedlecki on "The Daybreak Crew's" blog. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember Scott Akin and Michael Born getting blog sendoffs.
...
Speaking of blogs, did WOWT cut the blogging budget? Some of the most recent blog postings appear to be from April... and the Daybreak Crew's blog still touts "Jim, Malorie, and Michael"...
...or is blogging no longer a priority at WOWT since they no longer need to compete with Chuck McWilliams' Iraq blog (welcome back, Chuck!!) and Elictia Hammond's pregnancy blog on KETV???
...
Kudos to KPTM. Bang-for-the-buck-wise, they kicked butt. When I was watching, Nathan Moore was in the studio and Tyson was on the phone. They may not have their own radar, but they still kicked WOWT's butt.
...
My memory's hazy on this one, so maybe someone can clarify... Like 10 or so years ago, didn't WOWT have the capability to make its Precision Doppler 6000 scan either clockwise or counterclockwise? Also, didn't they once in awhile have it scan back and forth over a small region (example, scanning from south to southwest reversing back to south -- going back and forth over the same area)? If that's true, can't they still do that? If they can, that blows their five-minute scan delay excuse out of the water. Sure, a new scan from the NWS radar may come every five minutes, but if they can control their own radar then there's no excuse. (If they can't control it, what's the point of having it?)
...
During the storms mid-week last week, KETV interrupted reruns of Wife Swap and Supernanny to broadcast weather info. Good for them.
What surprised me the most was Randby finally mentioned that they use NWS feeds. I find it irritating that he always is saying "SuperDoppler 7 shows..." when it's obvious that the radar feed is coming from Valley or Hastings. Well, okay, Channel 7 bought some radar software to display the NWS radar feed. But calling the NWS radar feed out of Topeka, KS "Super Doppler 7" is a joke. Last week, he finally admitted on-air that what he was showing wasn't from KETV's radar at Crown Point.
...
Speaking of KETV and SuperDoppler 7, I thought Randby did a smooth job when SuperDoppler 7 crashed at least three times during the mid-week storm coverage. They just cut to the "HD Radar Source" until they restarted SuperDoppler 7... I think SD7 crashed during the 10 pm news that night too. Evidently they got it fixed before the early Sunday morning storms.
...
Any former WOWT staffers know much about parent company Gray TV? Is their business plan to bleed WOWT dry, then sell it (Kinda like what happened to KMTV in the mid to late 90s and early 2000's)?? It seems like KETV parent Hearst-Argyle is willing to put money back into KETV...
...
While it's fun to discuss the weather coverage by Omaha's TV stations, we should all be glad that they have the technology that they do. Watching both 8 and 10-11 from Lincoln after getting used to the radar display capabilities of the Omaha station gives one pause. It really highlights how size of market affects what a station can afford. (Not to knock 8 and 10-11... they do the best they can with what they have.)
They use both their radar at crown point and the NWS at Valley for local radar. This is to get the best view. As the storm gets close to the radar the radar image is masked by ground clutter near the radar so as a storm approaches crown point the valley radar would give a better image. You can tell when they switch back and forth the line that represents the radar sweep is shown originating from either crown point or valley.
When they are showing radar images from other areas of the country of course they are not using their radar just their software to interpret the signals. Their radar only reaches so far they get feeds from NWS radars and other Hearst stations radars.
IF YOU WANT to get criticism by the Channel Sux web censors, you have to be wily.
It also helps if they're dumb.
That is too funny about the coded messages of criticism that WOWT blindly (and probably happily) was willing to put on their "web channel".
I can almost hear them. "Look, some good things being said! We must put that on the website at once!"
"Maybe next time whoever's running WOWT's master control should just cut to the Six on Your Cell radar..."
The only problem with that is: THERE IS NO ONE IN WOWT'S MASTER CONTROL AFTER 1:00AM! The station is totally automated from 1:00-5:00AM. And if the last MC op hadn't set the switcher to auto-air weather warnings before leaving, even the pathetic crawl Sux ran during the tornado warning wouldn't have happened.
"I'm one of the people you want to pelt with rocks I suppose, I went out and took pictures. The main reason is because, there are a lot of people who don't realize that even a small tornado can do such damage. The power of mother nature is awesome"
-Jess, I love your comments and your blog, but that pile of steaming crap compares with Flower's. EVERYONE knew every media outlet would have hundreds of pictures for you and you could always ask if anyone from the neighborhood had pictures (i.e., me). I would also bet you were like most people who did not have the decency to park 6 blocks away, walk over for your pictures and, maybe grab a branch or 2 to help out. Instead people drove their cars right through the cleanup effort and geot in our way only so they could satisfy their own hunger to gawk (under the altruistic guise of "documenting mother nature"). Next time, you can rest assured that we will take pictures for you and if you are looking for something to do, we could use your help cleaning up WAAAAY before we need you documenting what happened.
Uh oh.
FYI-The majority of the pictures I took I did get out and walk, we even parked in a parking lot--not even on the street ! The rest yep we drove and took pictures. It's ok for the media AND you, but not me ?
Another FYI--every single year in the spring I do a blog about tornadoes and safety. EVERY year. So get off your fucking high horse, you love my blog so much then read the whole thing.
There are many MANY people who read that aren't near anywhere that has the severe weather we do, and when they hear "this was a small tornado" they think that means it was powerless.
ANOTHER FYI--When we tried to get through a barricade to offer help, the police officers kindly told us that there was an influx of people at that time and there was no room for us to park, even blocks away. Forgive me for not stopping and offering to put a new roof on the other places I drove by and took pictures of, I left all my tools at home.
I will never say that I wasn't curious and a gawker at some point too, but I'll bet that you took pictures of more than what is in your own backyard.
so is ch. 6 hiring for a new weekend weather person? I would take the gig!
Sorry, I've already accepted the position.
Inteesting how many times Six interruppted "Nashville Star" last night, but when Jim and the anchor started babbling, and not telling us anything new, I switched to KPTM's news!
Jess, way to slap back. Stellar effort as always.
Telling the tools you left yours at home always seems to make them shush.
Good to hear Carol Scott is coming back to TV.
8:59, you were watching Nashville Star? Dude.
You mean somebody actually ADMITS to watching Channel 6 during last night's storm?
After what went down Sunday morning...you were still THAT STUPID to rely on Jim Flowers? SERIOUSLY???
I guess some people never learn...wow!!!
“FYI-The majority of the pictures I took I did get out and walk, we even parked in a parking lot--not even on the street !”
-Good. That showed some respect.
“The rest yep we drove and took pictures. It's ok for the media AND you, but not me ?”
-I lived there, so, no I did not pull out of my driveway, drive up the street, drive back down and pull in my driveway. As for the media, they act as the gathering source for information so people don’t have to drive by. And no, they were respectful enough to not drive through the areas hit hard (Birchwood, Jefferson, etc.). They parked blocks away and walked.
“Another FYI--every single year in the spring I do a blog about tornadoes and safety. EVERY year. So get off your fucking high horse, you love my blog so much then read the whole thing.”
-I am not questioning your love for tornados. I am saying it was a pain in the ass for us to work on Sunday because so many people who love tornados felt it was more important to satisfy said love for tornados than to stay out of the way of people working and homeowners trying to get their stuff in order.
“There are many MANY people who read that aren't near anywhere that has the severe weather we do, and when they hear "this was a small tornado" they think that means it was powerless.”
-True. Send them links of pictures from the media outlets. They pictures of EVERYTHING you posted.
“ANOTHER FYI--When we tried to get through a barricade to offer help, the police officers kindly told us that there was an influx of people at that time and there was no room for us to park, even blocks away. Forgive me for not stopping and offering to put a new roof on the other places I drove by and took pictures of, I left all my tools at home.”
You really think we were putting a roof on a house????? Did you not pay attention to the very pictures you took?? Most people managed to park at Holling Heights or Rockwell and walk the 3 blocks to one of the damaged areas and help get rid of tree branchs.
“I will never say that I wasn't curious and a gawker at some point too, but I'll bet that you took pictures of more than what is in your own backyard.”
I said I did. This was when I WALKED to the storm areas and in between actually helping the people.
First of all, its human nature to gawk. That's one of the main reasons all the stations are broadcasting all these photos. Now if she had snuck into the neighborhood and snapped pictures solely in hopes of ending up on the 6:00 news and getting a thank you from an anchor for "rounding out their coverage", then that's pretty lame.
But it sounds like to me Jess had pure motives and a good reason for being there. Just because somebody doesn't have a camera crew and a van with a satellite dish on it, don't think they are being disruptive and disrepectful.
And I would be surprised to learn all the local media types rolled up their sleeves and picked up branches during the downtown between the live shoots.
Oops downtown=downtime.
Observations from the storm:
Channel 7 dominated the coverage (as covered in detail already).
The private businesses kicked ass. I saw Lowe’s, Millard Lumber & Lumberman’s driving around, handing out free plywood and supplies to houses that needed it. WalMart & Baker’s were giving out free food and even the Red Bull car was driving around giving out free drinks.
The neighbor’s did a great job with helping each other out.
The lookey lou’s were a real pain in the ass: “Is that your house? Man, that sucks. Can you move now so I can pull up here to get some pictures? Thanks. Good luck getting that all cleaned up.”
So, you're beef is with me personally taking pictures while in a car that didn't have a news channel logo painted on the side, or not parking for every picture.
How odd that you enjoy my blog and look at pictures that I take of everything else with no issue.
No one ever mentioned that I am probably keeping the doctor from more important things when I asked him to bring in the tumor they took out of my daughter's face for me to see and take a picture of and post, which I could have directed people to another site to see a picture of what other people's have looked like.
If you would be so kind as to take a look again at the pictures, no one not the homeowners, the billboard owner, the grain elevator operators, or the soccer field supervisors were outside doing anything at that point in time.
I understand you are pissed about the whole situation, and are taking it on on me because I'm here and admitting to what's got you pissed, but really get over yourself a little bit.
jess...even though you were documenting the damage (i.e. gawking) you still didn't stop in my driveway and ask me if I needed help hauling branches to the curb (only one car out of the thousand plus stopped long enough to ask if we needed help). You didn't walk up any of the circles and offer help. All you did was gawk and take pictures, and avoid eye contact with anyone out there cleaning up. Then you drove back to your tidy West Omaha home, downloaded your pictures and emailed them to all you friends, telling them that you were ok, that the tornado just missed your home, that you were lucky, and that it hit just a few blocks away (even though it was probably several miles). I'm so thankful that you and the rest of the gawkers had to go back to work yesterday because now I can get out of my driveway without having to have someone direct traffic. Spin it however you want, Jess Flowers, but you were still just gawking.
Major props to the city of Omaha. They have been all of this, and have nearly all the branches in my neighborhood cleaned up.
First of all, 9:35 needs to stop pretending he/she/it isn't a former Channel 6 employee. Get over it teabagger. You've never f'd anything up? We've been waiting for You, where have You been? Please come and save us all.
Someone clearly has a hard-on for Jess, and not the kind Don Cornelius has confessed to :-)
9:54 - She's not J-Dub, she's Jess. No need for the microanalysis of what seem to be right-hearted motives. How are you finding so much time to blog if there's so much work that needs to be done? Methinks something stinks.
Jess, if you walked into the operating room and asked the Doctor to move aside, THEN the comparison would have been accurate.
That said, I am not complaining about the people who took pictures of businesses. I am complaining about the people who drove through Millard Highlands, Discovery & Millard Heights. Fortunately, the police had the foresight to eventually close down Discovery and Millard Heights, but the gawkers still flocked to Millard Highlands.
I am not aware of how bad other neighborhoods got it, but can say the LAST thing we needed as we were trying to move stuff out of the streets and having to drag limbs, etc. across the street as one side already filled up was gawkers.
You know what, you're right. Hell I don't even live in Omaha.
Guess what else, I didn't help any of my neighbors pick up either. I simply said " screw you guys I have pictures to download now give me a beer and a cigarette and quit your bitching !"
Axel, your response does not surprise me. I am sure you swung through our neighborhood on Sunday, got in the, snapped some pictures and have not been back.
In case you were wondering, the city did a great job almost completely emptied out our neighborhood yesterday. Thanks for the concern, though (about as much as you showed Sunday).
To 3:26pm...check your facts...KMTV also had aerial video of the aftermath on Sunday.
jess...10:30 here. We know your intents were not bad. Hell, I've done the same damn thing. It didn't really bother me that much that there were hundreds and thousands of gawkers driving through. In fact, I had a little fun with it. If you have any pictures of a guy posing while you are taking pictures, then you got a picture of me. There were literally so many people with camcorders and cameras taking pictures of our branches, that I started posing when they drove by. My problem isn't so much with the gawkers, it's the fact that nobody stopped to offer help. But that's ok. Not everyone is cut out to volunteer, and I can guarantee that it was much drier in the car. Myself, after cleaning up my yard and my neighbors yard, took two people up and down the circles and helped other people clean up. As you might have noticed while you were driving by, it rained most of the morning, so we were pretty much soaked all day long. Didn't matter. It was more about helping people that needed help. As an admitted gawker myself, it gave me a chance to still see the damage and help people out at the same time. You should try it sometime.
I will say, however, that the people that filled our streets and drove over our yards at 3 am, just after the tornado hit, are the ones that I have problems with. The other person from Millard Highlands can probably attest to the backup of traffic at 3 am. I saw people drive over yards to get around traffic and tree branches. I had a group of "good samaratins" get out and cut up a tree branch that was covering the road in front of my house. They were nice enough to move it out of the street so the 3 am gawkers could get through without having to drive up on yards. Where did they put the branch, you ask? They were nice enough to drag it up into my driveway and leave it there. They couldn't throw it up on the yard, they had to block my driveway. But at least they were able to get through now.
10:51 - Sorry, was out of town and missed it. Wouldn't have if was in town because if you don't like to be gawked, don't go gawking. Sorry for your troubles but at least the pros were in and got everything taken care of. Freak storms happen, remember the Boys Town tornado?
Come on, people, let's focus and get back to the Michael Scott dirt.
11:13 - I noticed that. Fortunately for us, we live on one of the circles and did not have to deal with all the idiots. I was wondering what kind of an idiot decides at 3:00 to go out and look at damage. Clearly, the kind of people who don't give a shit about others are more interested is seeing destruction than helping them.
Ok...the OMH and 7 are just getting annoying now.
So let me get this right: Chuck was there late monitoring *potential* hail and flooding?
If we in the anono-blogo-sphere knew he was doing that on ANY other day of the year, we'd have mocked him as an "over-reacting ejacucaster."
Now the OMH and 7 are giving him such a hand-job it's laughable. They stopped just short of painting a Superman "S" on his chest.
He wasn't even looking at a severe storm. He was ejacu-casting off-air and on the clock(maybe he needs the OT?)
Now, that being said, there is no argument that he and 7 did the best job, and had the best coverage. But it sure as hell wasn't becuase he *expected* something to happen. He just *happened* to be in the building.
The OMH and 7 are idiots for making it seem like Chuck is the savior of Omaha. I'd like to think that Chuck himself is embarrassed by this whole ordeal.
Now since almost everyone of you will force yourselves to uphold this Chuck is Superman fantasy no matter what the facts are....let the flaming begin, lol.
A lot of these people roaming the neighborhoods, interfering and snapping pictures are just trying to get themselves on the news.
And we have the media to blame for that. And I mean all of them. All the cable news channels and all the local news stations. Everytime there is an earthquake or a tornado or a plane crash or a flood, the first thing that all of them do is put out an alert saying: "Were you there? Do you have footage of the disaster? Please send it to us and blankety-blank.com and you may be featured on the air!"
12:48 PM, why don't you just come out and say you are Jim Flowers?
Also, Andrea Rich's voice sounds just like Ellen DeGeneres.
Is Bredow married?
11:01 your right i did not see KMTV had aerial coverage, but they used a small plane not a helicopter like KETV so the shots are from much higher and you can barely see anything. They also lied and said that they were the only place you could get an aerial view.
I have noticed this several times KMTV will say they have an exclusive or "you will only see it here" but other stations have the same story, same video.
I don't understand what 12:48 is talking about. I happened to be watching Cold Case and then The Shield on KETV on Sunday morning and Chuck had been breaking in since around 1:00 AM about the storms and was on a little after 2:00 talking about the storm coming and then the tornado warning came in while he was on air about 2:30.
Also what is the OMH that he refers to? Does he mean Omaha World Herald OWH? I have not seen KETV mentioned in any Herald stories.
I think 12:48 just wants people to believe that its pure luck that Chuck McWilliams stayed well after the 10:00 news ended to keep an eye on things.
I'm surprised they didn't try proposing a theory of "Well I heard Chuck McWilliams locked his keys in his car that night. And he had to wait until morning for Triple A to help him. So he had nothing better to do than stare at the weather radar"
Its not good luck versus bad luck. Its dedication versus trying to get home and get some sleep so you can go fishing the next morning.
So, last week Channel 6 keeps interrupting the Stanley Cup final for weather updates and then totally misses the real weather event on Saturday night! What the puck is that all about?
Channel 6 is finally the definitive underdog in local news and weather again. (I exclude KMTV because they have gone from "underdog" to just hopeless). Fitting place to be for WOWT, considering that when they were on top of the heap, they were so arrogant about it--especially when their on-air talent were in the public. Several of them acted as if they were royalty. A couple of them still do because they are clueless as to their current status.
Here's some free advice for the powers that be at the not-so-mighty Six:
1. Urge Mr. Flowers to retire. He's been washed up for a few years now, and this was his swan song (not that we heard much from him until much later).
2. Use the money you save on his much-too-generous salary to hire two younger, decent meteorologists who could be up-and-comers. Also, while you're at it, invest in a truly LIVE, and state-of-the-art radar.
3. Cut the sports staff in half--none of the other stations have (or need) four sports reporters/anchors on staff. More money saved.
4. Mr. Knicely should also be asked to consider retirement. He's the epitome of a talking head with no substance.
5. Re-brand every aspect of the newscast, going for a more simple and no-nonsense, no-hype approach.
Doing so will allow you to regain the trust of the viewers you still have, and to bring back so many of the ones who left after continued disappointment.
Of course, all of this will have to begin from the management level and be supported by Gray Television. The prospect of reduced overhead and guaranteed opportunity should be enough to persuade Gray to invest *something* in one of its potentially lucrative TV stations in a growing market.
Good luck.
Just for the record WOWT does have it's own live radar. It's up at 72nd and Crown Point Ave. by the tower. However, just like channel 7 they use a lot of the National Weather Service Radar in Valley for a different view when the storms get closer to Omaha.
The gawkers should have been shot on site by the police. They have no business interfering with the homeowners and fire/police that were trying to help. Those people are worse than vultures on a dead cow.
I always thought it idiotic that tv stations stick their radars near their stations, particularly in metropolitan areas. As for the NWS radar site: Valley, at one time, was considered out in the boonies. Now, their site is not much of a vantage point. I think as new radars replace outdated ones, it might be a good time to erect the replacements 50 miles away to minimize clutter. I know--it's expensive. But so is serious injury and loss of life.
June 9, 2008 11:12 PM Anonymous said...
They use both their radar at crown point and the NWS at Valley for local radar. This is to get the best view. As the storm gets close to the radar the radar image is masked by ground clutter near the radar so as a storm approaches crown point the valley radar would give a better image. You can tell when they switch back and forth the line that represents the radar sweep is shown originating from either crown point or valley.
When they are showing radar images from other areas of the country of course they are not using their radar just their software to interpret the signals. Their radar only reaches so far they get feeds from NWS radars and other Hearst stations radars.
Yup. I know this and it makes sense to do so.
What grates on me is they say stuff like "SuperDoppler 7 shows this storm over Topeka" when they're showing imagery from the NWS radar near Topeka. What's so hard about saying "Radar shows this storm over Topeka" -- nothing wrong with keeping it generic if you don't want to actually say "National Weather Service Radar".
Same thing goes for the wording on their graphics. When you're showing a radar graphic of the middle third of the United States, don't put "SuperDoppler 7" in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Hilarious. If Chucky-boy excercised his "dedication" to talk about the little hail patch he was watching on the air...every single one of you idiots would have called the station to shout "get off the screen!"
....and then every single one of you idiots would come here and post how much of a tool he was for even THINKING about getting worked up over hail.
Face it, 7 got lucky, and you are all so deeply entrenched in your hatred for 6 that you can't admit you're wrong.
-- The Anti-Perrault.
Wow. Channel six must have sent out a memo telling their employees to post here.
8:51 -- would this be the same kind of hail patch your boy Jim Flowers felt compelled to interrupt Jay Leno's show last night to let us know about a small, insignificant (by comparison to Sunday's tornado) cell out in GENEVA??? Over two hours away from Omaha??? THAT is worthy of breaking into programming for???
Unlike you, I was awake AND coherent as the storm was barrelling down on my neighborhood, and there was only one station doing the job it is SUPPOSED to do -- and that was KETV. Jim Flowers (and the alleged meterologists at the other stations) all shat the bed when it mattered most.
Tell you what, sport...the next time you have a thought, do yourself a favor -- just let it go.
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON THE SITUATION AT CHANNEL 6
Actually, most of the employees (the few remaining) at Channel 6 are either embarrassed for their employer or feel so low in morale that they know a lot of what's being said is dead on. But this Sunday morning weather debacle is only a symptom of a much larger problem going on at the station.
There are two individuals (both in management) who are defending their station's inaction and making every excuse possible. I know this first-hand because I am closely associated with one of the Channel 6 staffers who feel really awful about the horrible current situation they're going through. There are some really dedicated people working for those couple of colossal pieces of excrement who continue to bring the once-mighty 6 to its knees. Sadly, there's no end in sight to the plight of those unfortunate minions who are being psychologically tormented by the diabolical duo currently in control. Perhaps a little overstated, but not much.
LOL. I wasn't aware that Jim Flowers had broke into the Tonight Show Monday night. After the Sunday morning debacle, he was desperate to find some way, ANY way of proving to the viewers that he is capable of staying past 10:35pm and isn't actually under some kind of court order to be home asleep by midnight.
ha, Im watching kmtv covering the storms wed morning....and guess how long it takes for their radar to make one loop.
less than one minute. and over at kptm, they used the NWS radar and it took less than 20 seconds there!
ROUND TWO: 6 WAS ON FIRST, BUT 3 PROVIDED BEST COVERAGE OVERALL, WHILE 7 DISAPPOINTS
I was watching this morning as the severe thunderstorms moved through and it seems that Jim Flowers stayed all night and was the first on to cover the storms. CT Thonklin was the second on just as the severe weather was moving into Douglas County. Tyson Pearsall was on next, then finally at 3:48am, KETV went live with Andrea Breadow.
Though Jim can take credit for being first on, he obviously went to continuous coverage way earlier than he should. But it is understandable. What was not understandable was his incessant stammering. I agree with one of the earlier postings that the man can't talk freeform to save his life. But kudos to him for trying.
CT Thonklin gets the high marks for his calm demeanor this time around. He came on at a respectable time and was calm and collected during the entire event, providing pertinent information. For overall coverage and professionalism, Mr. Thonklin takes this round.
KPTM should be praised for even going live in the first place. Tyson went live just shortly after KMTV did.
KETV lost this round. By the time they were on and had their audio going, the storm was almost out of Douglas and Sarpy county. Andrea sounded flustered; like she perpetually needed to take a drink of water.
I live in Sarpy County, so I woke up to hail pounding my house. I turned immediately to channel 7, but nobody was on locally. So, I turned on channel 3 and they did a great job covering Sarpy County. Thank you CT and KM3.
Yeah-I think Jim has to stay all the time now. They don't have anyone else left to do weather, do they?
Big storms predicted for today. I'm torn between watching Channel 6 or listening to KFAB. I hear this Jim Flowers you speak of does an "excellent job" on KFAB. Oh woe is me. The decision I must make.
Hey 9:48---just have the guts to say Wilden and Adams. I do!!!
Just put Chaps in charge and all problems will be solved.
I LOVE IT!!! KFAB just tried to give props to Channel 6 for their weather coverage Tuesday night. Gary said "kudos to Jim Flowers and channel 6 for being the first on air for the storm." Rose responded with "for the tornado?" Gary then said, "uh, no. For the big thunderstorm last night."
This is AWESOME. I love watching these tool sheds falling all over themselves to show how useful they really are.
I hope people like coverage of thunderstorms. Because I think for the rest of the summer, that is all we are going to see. The local stations are going to be having marathon coverage. Just to be able to say they were on the most and the longest and try to salvage some reputations.
"BREAKING WEATHER NEWS: There are now clouds in the Southwestern Otoe County. I am now issuing a Cloud Warning Alert!! Please be advised that these clouds have a history of blocking the sun and possibly producing rain!! We will keep you advised! We now return you to local programming"
maybe we will get lucky and lightning will stike all the stations and there will be no live TV coverage of wind and rain! today!
It is going to get real old real fast if Flowers is breaking in whenever it rains all summer.
better than him breaking wind during each newscast.
You never know. Maybe that explains his incessant giggling.
I am sorry to interrupt this blog, but we just picked up a cloud on our radar. Now, this could result in a massive EF 5 tornado. Now back to your regular programing and, rest assured, your Weather Authority will continue to monitior the progress of this cloud for you.
How many of you people complaining on this blog were up...watching TV...when the storm actually hit?
I was. Loud thunder and blaring sirens tend to disrupt my sleep.
I was, as it hit my neighborhood.
His last name is Flowers, and he wears a flower on TV each day! If that's not reason to watch 6, I don't know what is.
Oh merciful angels. I'm assuming WOWT actually audits their "web channel" once every six months?
On their weather page, amongst the 400 different maps they have up (all bearing the words "Weather Authority"), they include a map that tells the current wind chill.
That should come in handy this 4th of July, when I have to decide if I should dress in layers when working the barbecue.
Guys, I’m sick of your crap. I am the WEATHER AUTHORITY. Ok? I am, because I say so. And just to remind you, I make sure that it gets said at least 15 times during every newscast just in case you forget. Get off of my ass for not being in the studio Saturday night, we told you at 10:00 that it might rain overnight, any fricken’ idiot knows this means a tornado may blow your house up. So if you weren’t ready, well, your bad. Anyways, I don’t see what the big deal was anyways, it was just an EF-1 and 2, SERIOUSLY, you’re all gonna get worked up over an EF-1 and 2??? I mean, it’s not like it was an EF-4!!! And it really only hit a couple of dozen houses. Look, average 4 people per household, 20 houses, we’re talking like 80 people! BFD! There’s like 800,000 people in the Big O, that’s only like 0.01% of the city, so calm down all. So, you guys have asked for it, and now you’re gonna get it. It is time for you to start RESPECTING THE WEATHER AUTHORITY!!! I have the winter forecast, for Christ’s sake. I stick a fork in winter when it’s done. Winter is done, when I say it is done, because I AM THE WEATHER AUTHORITY!!! I have the HOUR BY HOUR FORECAST, and even though it is like a computer module that every fricken’ station uses, I came up with the HOUR BY HOUR crap!!! I CAN DO THIS BECAUSE I AM THE WEATHER AUTHORITY, DAMN IT!!! Hell, I came up with WEBCHANNEL, f-ing brilliant, huh! When my forecast starts, I have them zoom in on me like I’m God, because I know you are all coming in to the forecast center to worship my existence! Now you all will now respect the AUTHORITY, and to make you remember who your weather daddy is, I’m going to break in every night for the rest of the summer, whenever I feel like it! That’s right, I can tell you right now that I am going to break into the last 10 minutes of Law and Order, to tell you that it’s raining in Panora, Iowa, even though they are watching the Des Moines affiliate! I can also tell you right now that I am going to break into that last ten minutes of the Last Comic Standing season finale, just to tell you that the sun might be out tomorrow, and the UV index may just be hazardous! So how do you like them apples, or should I say Flowers!!! So what, Chucky got one right over there at 7, but never forget who the WEATHER AUTHORITY IS, BECAUSE I SAY SO!!! So now everybody get on your knees and worship me!!!!!
I'm kinda turned on by that last comment.
Sincerely,
The Perrault
I want to have Jim Flowers' children.
Sincerely,
The Perrault
9:23--Could you update me on the status of that cloud ? I'm gonna need to alert the underground network of gawkers so we can all come and take pictures. Oh, aaaaaaand can you send a camera crew out to film the scene of all the gawkers lining up before the firing squad ?
Mr. Flowers, Dad, Jim....can you please tell me what it will be doing at 8:57 p.m., because if I forget to lock my truck that's what time I'll go out there but if it's raining I won't, I'll either remember or just use the clicker.
Almost forgot ! 10:53 ...you should wear layers of saran wrap on 4th of July, that would be awesome !
P.S. Can I come to the barbeque and take pictures ?
Jess, I'll give you layers of Saran Wrap...Okay, I admit that didn't make a whole hell of a lot sense...But it sure did sound provocative (raising eyebrow)
But on the serious side...I have been in touch with the Cloud Chasers. What they have told me is quite disturbing: There are unconfirmed reports of a 4th cloud in the sky in Nemaha County...It may have split off from a larger cloud due to favorable cloud-splitting conditions.
I'm hearing reports that it might be a circulo-strato-cumulus cloud...Or it might just look like a Smurf. That's why I have a crew rushing to the scene to get visual confirmation.
I'm stationed in Lincoln and I don't want to alarm you people in Omaha but we have clouds that are moving your direction. They are fluffy white looking things. Quite frankly, if I had control over the alert system, I might interupt Oprah to get you people prepared.
If I were you kids, I would duck and cover.
If I were in a mobile home. I'd shoot myself and try not to hit the three dogs living under the porch, but then head to a ditch and, yes, that's right, duck and cover.
If I were in an automobile right now, I would go and gawk at potential strike zones. I would also have my digital camera at the ready. Then I would suggest ducking and covering.
Oh shit. We are in a tornado watch until 10 tonight. Good bye prime time television shows.
1:46 Wait, what if I'm in my car pulling my mobile home with the dogs hanging half out of the windows ?!?!?! Hurry the hell up and tell me man I'm freakin' out here !
Anguish, when I was but knee high to a grasshopper my grandpappy used to tell me stories of a fabled "smurfado", and I never thought I'd see the day. Thank you Jesus.
I have LIVE VIDEO, not TAPE, but LIVE VIDEO of the "funnel like appendage" bow down before my flower!!
As much as it blows to admit, channel 6 is looking pretty good right now with the video from their spotters.
6 is redeeming themselves. Nice video..way ahead of the other stations reporting about the Boy Scout Camp.
Get back to work channel 6 interns.
When the NWS radar got taken out by lightning it took Flowers close to 10 minutes to recognize it and turn on their radar. I wonder why they have not been using their radar at Crown Point is it that outdated they don't even turn it on anymore?
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