KVIA’s General Manager Comments On Storm 2006

by Kevin Lovell, KVIA General Manager- El Paso and rain are not usually synonymous. But on August 1 st and in the weeks that followed, many parts of El Paso and the surrounding Borderland received rainfall in record amounts. This produced millions upon millions of dollars in economic losses for home and property owners.

FEMA, state and local emergency personnel were put to the task. Broadcasters provided unprecedented flood coverage and safety information during the flood and devastating aftermath.

Rainwater rushed into KDBC-TV, forcing the local CBS affiliate off the air for several hours during the height of the storm. Water gushed into the KFOX-TV studio but KFOX remained on the air. Other broadcasters suffered varying degrees of damage.

We at KVIA-TV did not suffer flooding damage other than the leaking roof that plagued most every building and home in El Paso.

Texas Association of Broadcasters President Ann Arnold asked me to write my reflections of KVIA’s flood coverage.

I’m the station’s former news director and assignment editor so when the rains came I dropped all of my normal general manager duties and raced to the newsroom to try to help.

Calls poured into the station as the rain refused to cease. KVIA dispatched every crew it could to flooded areas, but as one would expect many transportation routes became impassable.

Still, three of our crews made their way into positions to do live reporting. Other crews shot video and returned to the station as we began more than 13 consecutive hours of live, commercial-free coverage.

To my knowledge no El Paso TV station had ever broadcast more than a couple of hours of continuous coverage of an event. Rain had started about midnight on the 1st .When I got to work about 8 in the morning it was still raining but everyone expected it to back off.

El Paso is in the Chihuahuan desert. Our average annual rainfall at the official airport reporting station is eight or nine inches. The rain was most intense on El Paso’s west side, where KVIA and most media properties are located.

We have a series of weathernet recording stations throughout the city and at nearby Dr. Green Elementary and at KVIA the rain gauge kept filling up! By 8:30 am, August 1 st , the west side rain gauges had already reported five or six inches of precipitation.

Water began rushing off of the nearby Franklin Mountains, through homes, backyards, businesses and normally busy streets. Entire roads became flood-ravaged streams and were washed away in the mayhem.

As the rains persisted during the day an Interstate 10 underpass collected so much water it forced closure of El Paso’s busiest thoroughfare. By 8:30 am it became apparent we had a major story on our hands.

We began our extended live coverage through the duration of Good Morning America. About ten minutes into the start of our syndicated programming at 9am, I made the decision to break into programming, and stay with flood coverage until it stopped raining.

We all know that monsoon-like rains are common in Houston and much of the eastern half of the state when a low pressure system sets in or a tropical storm sweeps in off the Gulf. But virtually all of the rain in El Paso comes fast and furiously as a result of late summer late afternoon thunderstorm activity.

Days of constant rain are virtually nonexistent in the desert, so August 1st was unique. It was unusual enough to have an all-night rain, but when it kept raining after daybreak we knew something unprecedented was underway.

When I committed the station to broadcast live throughout the duration of the rain at 9:10 am, I never expected rainfall to last more than another few minutes. But Mother Nature wouldn’t quit.

It kept raining and raining and as we employed greater resources the rain continued to come down.

Our morning news team carried us through the noon hour and by 1 pm our primetime anchors and reporters were in place to continue the live coverage. Property was being damaged, roads washed away and even more hazardous, ponding areas, reservoirs and the Rio Grande were filling up.

Although one life was lost in a bizarre weather-related accident, I think that local media played a role in helping the public remain calm and stay put during the most intense period of the storm.

The rain didn’t stop until late in the afternoon. This resulted in a period of some 16 consecutive hours of almost constant rainfall. Rain like this just doesn’t happen in El Paso! Some are calling it the flood of the century and with reason.

Rainfall totals at our weathernet sites in west El Paso registered almost ten inches – more rain than El Paso typically receives in a year! By 4 pm when the rain finally relented we were amidst our regular evening newscast time periods of 4, 5 and 6 PM.

We just kept going with our coverage even making the decision to not carry ABC national news. Into primetime and through the 10 PM newscast we kept at it. There were many stories to tell and video to show and vital safety information to get out to the viewing public in the El Paso area.

We branded the event “Storm 2006.” I don’t know if it was a conscious decision or by accident, but the City of El Paso actually chose to use the same Storm 2006 language as its headline to update the media and public on flood related information.

Storm 2006 coverage on KVIA marked the most comprehensive multi-media approach we’ve ever utilized.

In addition to our 13 initial hours of continuous, commercial free coverage, KVIA provided live simulcast streaming of our over-the-air coverage on our KVIA.com website. Friends and relatives of El Pasoans all over the world reported watching our live coverage.

Local AM news talk radio station KROD chose to simulcast several hours of our broadcast. Web-enabled cell phones picked up live flood updates on KVIA-to-go.com. We used our microwave link to the El Paso Times to receive flood reports from Times reporters.

I’m proud of the efforts of all El Paso media. Every broadcaster used enormous resources and personnel to provide unprecedented coverage and safety information to the public. The story didn’t end on August 1st.

Subsequent rain in the following days and weeks caused reservoirs and ponding areas to overflow in El Paso and areas of Southern New Mexico. Whole neighborhoods were flooded out.

KVIA continued with live coverage throughout much of the flooding aftermath. The devastation caused by Storm 2006 will be long lasting. El Paso will be better prepared the next time a hard rain comes. And I like to think the media have helped inform the very interested public.

The volume of email we’ve received appreciative of KVIA’s coverage has been nothing short of staggering. We’ve received hundreds of responses from viewers thankful for our commitment to following the story and to keep the public informed.

We all look forward to the sunshine returning to El Paso, ever mindful of the devastating power of Mother Nature.