“Thank you for coverage during Hurricane Dorian. The calm, practical, truthful, sage educational advice and professional coverage is very much appreciated. No doubt you and our community/state agencies have guided millions in the most organized, well-coordinated efforts I’ve seen in my four decades of living in Florida,” is how one viewer characterized WPTV’s coverage.
As Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5, the strongest hurricane recorded in the east Atlantic, sat on top of the Bahamas, the fear was the east coast of Florida was next.
So WPTV, the Scripps NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach, had a comprehensive hurricane coverage plan.
WPTV was the first in its market to add special programming on Wednesday, Aug. 28, with a half-hour special.
From that point on, WPTV gradually increased coverage until Sunday afternoon when it went to continuous coverage. WPTV stayed on the air nonstop through Tuesday, Sept. 3, at 6:30 p.m. — 50 straight hours.
“The anxiety, concern and downright fear is difficult to explain,” said Lloyd Bucher, WPTV’s general manager.
“But just imagine the damage we would have incurred in our community had this taken the slightest shift west during its stationary time — or just started moving at all. Our market would have been shredded as we can see from the damage done in the Bahamas.”
In addition to TV, WPTV had multiple Facebook Lives each day. The live coverage was constantly streaming on the top of the WPTV app and website as well as on various other OTT platforms.
Residents noticed.
Thank you for the 24-hour coverage on Hurricane Dorian. Your expertise, concern, devotion and caring community spirit was comforting during this stressful time. Thank you all. — Lenora Hurley, viewer
A big THANK YOU for everyone at WPTV who did an excellent job of informing all of us how to prepare and what to expect with Hurricane Dorian! A special word of gratitude to the meteorologists who tirelessly yet cheerfully worked to keep us up to date. We appreciate everyone’s long hours, your informative reporting in the station and on the ground and your relentless pursuit of staying on top of the latest developments. So grateful for every person involved! — Diane Harrington, viewer
Thank you for coverage during Hurricane Dorian. The calm, practical, truthful, sage educational advice and professional coverage is very much appreciated. No doubt you and our community/state agencies have guided millions in the most organized, well-coordinated efforts I’ve seen in my four decades of living in Florida. Thank you and God Bless you. — Mary Corrig, viewer
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