It was Thursday night and after a good run and workout at the gym I thought I might have a beer and listen to music on my computer before I went to bed. But first walk the boy — er, dog, Pedro.
When I walked back in my blackberry had a voicemail and email message from the assignment desk. It was another incident at a mine in West Virginia. Two men were caught inside a mine after a fire broke out on a conveyer belt deep in the mine located in the southwestern part of the state. I returned the call and they were still deciding whether we should go or not — that was at 1030pm. I decided I should pack a bag just in case because we’d have to leave in the next few hours if we were to go to be there for the morning show.
About an hour later we were told to be at the bureau by 130 so we could be criven to Dulles airport to catch the chartered flight. We took off around 3am and landed 45 minutes later at Charleston’s Yeager Airport. There we loaded all of our equipment into a late 70’s model van that was serving as our taxi to the site over an hour away. The driver was an older man who had the heat cranked up the entire way. I tried to sleep the entire way but was very uncomfortable with the equipment stacked up around me despite the plush velvety seats — and it was a hot.
We arrived at the scene in Melville — one mile west of Logan — just before 6am. The truck was setting up for a press conference and we needed to get Bob on the air. I got my one photographer — the other stayed behind to rent a car from Hertz once it opened at 630 — to setup the liveshot location. By 630am we were on the air and then had a guest for the show, then Good Morning America wanted the same guest and then Headline news wanted Bob on the air. In addition to all of the chaos in and around our satellite truck, we still had the press conferences to worry about which were happening every two hours.
This is a lot for one person and I cannot believe nothing was screwed up. I can’t take total credit though, the crew did a great job and the satellite truck operator was fantastic.
As the day wore on the mine officials kept briefing us but were making little progress in actually searching for the miners, the fire was still raging inside the Aracoma Mine. About 100 yards down the street was a Baptist church where the families were gathering to hear any news. They recieved briefings before we did about the situation from the mine officials and Gov. Joe Manchin.
The press conferences were held in the stock room of Badger Lumber hardware store. They were wonderful and incredibly hospitable despite who we are. They brought us food, coffee and even made it difficult to pay them for anything from their store.
We continued to do liveshot after liveshot — 22 or 23 in all — until about 515p. None of us had slept in close to 36 hours. Chris Huntington and his producer took over and we headed of to our super acommodations at the Super 8 — it’s not so super let’s just say.
That night we went dinner at a restaurant recommended by someone we met at the liveshot location. We were tired and starving and ready for a hearty meal and a beer. We walked into the restaurant, which was dimly lit, and despite that, everyone stared at us. A bit like the scene in Animal House when the white college kids walk into the black club.
As we stood and waited to see if we needed to be seated or not, we heard one of the patrons say, “it’s not brain surgery, just pick a booth.” We finally sat down much to the delight of the patrons. The waitress seemed a bit distressed or lacking medication. If a midget snapping his fingers started dancing around in the middle of the room it would not have surprised me, it was a strange restaurant.
We had our fill and crashed at the Super 8. It was the earliest I have ever gone to bed on a Friday night. But then again, I was in Logan, WV