What we're following:
- Path of Destruction: Entire towns flattened
- Morning dispatch from Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- Prince William and Kate Middleton are married
And did you see...
- Gas thefts climb as prices rise
- Lara Logan talks about being assaulted in Egypt
- Man robs Walmart of milk while dressed as a cow
Squinting through the jet lag of my three flights in 24 hours (New York-London, London-New York, New York-Tuscaloosa), I was met at the airport by two of our colleagues. We set off from the airport onto local roads, then the interstate. The air smells wet, and carries the unmistakable smell of freshly exposed wood — the sheer tonnage of snapped, uprooted and shredded trees that this storm left behind, and the distinctive aroma that is released when a tree's insides are suddenly splayed open. The new air is trying to push in, in the wake of the raw energy that worked its way through this countryside. Our drive is typical of our work: We often arrive in places where tragedy is fresh, where others are being kept away or told to leave.
In our case, we were violating a 10 p.m. curfew by being on the interstate. And then, in keeping with the sweeping, swinging, twitching elephant trunk nature of an unpredictable monster storm, we come upon the first random prong of damage: cars in a pile, overturned violently and clustered around an underpass. A lone Alabama trooper, no doubt pulling his second 24-hour shift, stands guard with strobes flashing. Highway signs and steel water tanks are part of this entanglement. Huge piles of collected straw, grass and other small debris, inconsequential in the scope of this but notable on a normal day, are everywhere. And then they're not. The next mile of highway shows no scars. Our motel parking lot, miles from the heart of the damage (many other motels are damaged or without power or water) is full of freshly minted rental cars and well-worn news vans.
During our impromptu staff meeting in the lobby, while a flat-screen TV incongruously blares Oprah's interview with Rob Lowe, the manager approaches and tells us, solemnly, that the motel, as he gently puts it, "has been touched by this tragedy." My friend Garrett, sensing the sensitivity, took him around the corner for a chat. The manager tells him his front desk clerk, a 22-year-old working her way through college by working the night shift at an interstate motel, is gone. Her father is here. My eyes fill up — for a lot of reasons: the dread that I feel on assignments like this one, the sheer sadness of her loss — just a nice kid, not from a fancy family, but wanting a degree from Alabama and doing the work it requires. She's someone's pretty, lovely angel, and one man just a few floors below me is coming to grips with the fact that his life will never, ever be the same. And of course I'm thinking of my own 23-year-old daughter, suddenly so very far away from me in New York, and what I will say to her in an email tonight — and what I'll say to a torn-up, grieving father when I meet him. I will ask if there's anything I can do. But I imagine he'll say no.
There will be a lot of this tomorrow. Sadness. Kindness. Acts of volunteerism that are breathtaking. And entire vistas of scorched, upended, sanded and all-but-vacuumed earth.
The effort to educate more Americans to the dangers of tornadoes (badly needed and needs to be virtually nationwide) will owe its new urgency to this disaster. Put as simply as possible: 300 Americans, people from around here who were doing nothing wrong, were killed by highly energized air, over-fueled and perversely formed into a freakish vortex vacuum capable of doing to the surface of the earth pretty much anything the human mind and imagination can come up with.
I note another one of our guys has dropped off a bag of beef jerky in my room. It made me smile when I saw it — not just because of their kindness (the act of hunter/gathering as presented to a fellow man) but it’s the sheer utility of it that strikes me: That bag and its contents will be my staple meal in this region where restaurants are rubble and where local victims in need should always and unhesitatingly be given what food and other supplies are available.
This is going to be a long haul. One man in this hotel is working through the realization that he's not getting his 22-year old daughter back. For others, the need will be money, food, nails, boards, blue tarps (FEMA blue, we call it). But it's all about need here. And loss. And the people who, undamaged in any demonstrable way, are just going to have to live with the image — the knowledge and lifelong memory of having seen a monster, of historic size, the day everything changed in Tuscaloosa.
As I left New York for London last night, I was haunted by one thing: the radar image I had seen on the Weather Channel before departing. It showed an active tornado over the top of Tuscaloosa, Alabama—just one cell in this active, sprawling weather system, which for the 4th night in a row was firing off brutal, monster intensity storms. We talked about it in the newsroom before I left—about how it would take hours before we knew anything.
I landed in London, morning their time, and checked my Blackberry before we taxied off the runway. I saw the death toll. 83 and climbing. Before long, it was posted at 172. Two colleagues picked me up at baggage claim and Customs, and our coverage conundrum wore away at me as we drove. I kept thinking of the four-inch Royal Wedding briefing binder in my bag—I had devoted the night flight to studying it—a global media event outside my area of expertise.
Rather than driving from Heathrow all the way into Central London, we decided to get off the highway and park in the residential neighborhood of Chiswick. We symbolically aimed the car back toward Heathrow. We watched as people left for work and school, people walked their dogs and collected the trash, some pausing to notice the idling car with passengers in it, talking on the phone. Our NBC News staff in London was just awakening to the news from home. Minutes later, NBC News President Steve Capus made the call: He said I should go home. We both agreed the tragedy would dominate our newscast and our coverage. I never got to see our infrastructure in London, or any of my colleagues beyond the confines of my car. We had a magnificent setup—the result of months of planning—to cover the big day in London, and we still will, live and wall-to-wall. But for now, for us, for this story, one of us had to go back and lead a separate coverage team—as the death toll grows.
Three hours after arriving in London, I was in the departure lounge for British Airways flight 177 to JFK. I am now back in New York. We hope you can join us for the broadcast tonight.
GIVE
VOLUNTEER
ORGANIZE AND ADVOCATE
What we're following:
- Over 196 killed as extreme weather races through the South
- Simple checklist may spot signs of autism by age 1
- U.S. economic growth slowed in the first quarter
And did you see...
- Marines get trained on accepting gay recruits
- Apple releases white iPhone 4
- Royal Wedding order of service
Tonight on the East Coast version of the broadcast, in what will no doubt become a Royal Wedding keepsake edition, I referred to what the White House released today as the "long form" of the President's "gift certificate." Personally? I love me an iTunes gift certificate. And I bet the President would have much preferred a gift certificate--of any kind--to the controversy over his Hawaii birth certificate. As mistakes go, it was a really good one. A keeper. One for the ages.
It was British comedy that gave us the phrase in the headline above. Fitting, considering this: After a tumultuous day of birther developments, a rearrangement of the National Security strata, more violent weather and all kinds of other developments, we now get to turn at least some of our attention to a purely happy event in London. Let's hope it’s a safe one.
We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.
What we're following:
- White House releases President Obama's birth certificate
- Petraeus to be nominated for head of CIA, Panetta to become Secretary of Defense
- Rogue Afghan pilot kills 8 U.S. troops
And did you see...
- Number of 100-year-olds in the U.S. doubled in 20 years
- PlayStation's network breach revealed to be more serious
- Overnight royal wedding rehearsal
Each night when we come on the air, just off camera, I have what we call the "competition monitors." As soon as I have tossed to our lead story, I look to see what the other broadcasts are doing. For the past five years, Katie Couric has been on one of those two monitors. This will be a big change.
I just called Katie – she is my friend as well as my competitor, and we see each other often. Of course, NBC will always be considered Katie’s home, where Americans got to know her. I'm thrilled for her that she got to experience this terrific television staple and tradition: anchoring one of the three network evening newscasts. She has been...and remains...tough competition. She now moves to a new genre, a new day part.
I've been fortunate, all these years, to compete against people I admire and respect, and they include people with names like Peter and Dan and Bob and Charlie and Diane and Katie. All of them superb journalists and towering professionals—they all represent individual chapters in the history of this side of the television business.
I will miss Katie—but Katie isn't really going away. It just means the picture will change once again.
We hope you can join us tonight.
What we're following:
- Seven killed as storms slam Arkansas
- U.S. urges Americans to leave Syria amid violence
- High security planned for the Royal Wedding
And did you see...
- PlayStation network offline after hack attack
- Inventor of the teleprompter dies at 91
- Electric vehicles earn top safety ratings
I recently told a friend of mine, nothing makes me worry about our future more than the realization that our trains travel at the same speed they did during WWII; our planes fly at the same speed they flew when Eisenhower was President; and we're about to end the manned space program. From the looks of things, Peggy Noonan was thinking many of those same thoughts when compiling this weekend's Wall Street Journal column. One thing we seem to build better these days is weather: Tonight we are looking at a storm system that could end up affecting 150 million Americans before it's all over. I hope you had a happy Easter weekend, and we hope you can join us tonight.
Now that an entire American generation has been raised on webcams, the grandmother of them all is back: Puppy Cam, the one so many of us became so heavily addicted to so many years ago.
Its mom's third and final litter (click below to watch), and it’s some of the best television out there. At one point this afternoon, every member of my family and half of our newsroom was watching this afternoon. Warning: its highly addictive. There's a good chance if you start watching today, you'll keep watching until Thanksgiving.
Have a great weekend, and we hope you can join us tonight.
What we're following:
- Syria protests turn deadly as government cracks down
- Sen. McCain arrives in Libya, calls rebels "heroes"
- Gas Prices put the brakes on Easter weekend travel
And did you see...
- 9/11 responders to be screened for terrorism ties
- New Yorkers take cross-country cab trip
I spent some time today with friends of mine -- people I first met through work -- people I first met because of a national tragedy. They are aides to Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and we talked about their lives, their work and their boss. That shooting in Tuscon truly is one of the "Where were you when you heard?" moments of the past few years. Oddly, I was coming out of a supermarket when my wife found me and called me with the news -- I sat paralyzed in the car, with the groceries in the back seat, listening to the early news coverage on satellite radio. I later went home and was transfixed by the early television coverage on cable while making preparations to go to Arizona myself.
I first met her staff just days after the shooting, and each day they fight their own private battle...against grief for a former fellow staffer, the struggle to keep up with the work of running a Congressional office without a fully functioning boss, and processing all that has happened to all of them. It was great having them here in New York today.
We hope you can join us tonight for the broadcast.
What we're following:
- Rebels take key border crossing in Western Libya
- New police tool raises privacy concerns
- Strong corporate earnings drive stocks up
And did you see...
- Coveted championship trophy dropped, crushed by bus
- Apple iPhone software tracks users' location
- Could we see $6/gallon gas this summer?
Photo by Brian Williams
The sheriff's trusty steed.
Yesterday in the airport in New Orleans, I heard a vehicle behind me while walking to the gate.
It was the sheriff.
The local sheriff's office has purchased a fleet of three-wheeled dreadnaughts that cruise the terminals and gate areas. These suckers stand out: They are tricked-out with LED's and faux mag wheels. They are to Segues what Bentleys are to Smart Cars.
The deputy driving behind me had the pleasant look of Wilford Brimley. He pulled up to our particular gate, parked the vehicle and watched us board, with the confident look of a man who knows he could out-run any terrorist in a drag race down the concourse.
The elephant in the terminal: The inevitable Paul Blart comparisons. I suppose the deputies on these cruisers differentiate themselves by being armed, but very few people look cool atop these vehicles.
You know how there's nothing more harrowing at the supermarket than walking with your cart in front of someone who you fear is going to hit you with their cart in the back of the ankles? Walking in front of one of these is the vehicular version of that. These tricycles are tall—the deputy in the saddle is a looming presence. It makes you suddenly pay hyper-close attention to your lane-changes as a pedestrian. I considered going to Cinnabon, but it would have meant crossing two lanes of oncoming traffic coming off the Chicago flight.
Just a word to veteran air travelers: When in the New Orleans airport, be prepared to share the road...with the gentle giants of the concourse.
We hope you can join us tonight.
Photo by Subrata De
Brian Williams and Dean Blanchard, Venice, La.
Tonight you'll see us from one of my favorite places on earth: Venice, Louisiana. I woke up to the sight of a small gator in the canal outside my motel room -- alongside the levee that was no match for Katrina. Driving to the marina where we'll locate the broadcast tonight, we passed the now-familiar piles of Katrina rubble, the buildings that have not been repaired all these years later. And of course we're here to cover the progress since the most recent disaster a year ago: the BP spill.
We passed the giant shrimping vessels on our way into the marina, vessels with names like "Gladiator" and "All In", that seem like remnants of a better time. The season for these boats starts in mid-May, and in a few days the docks will be crowded with buckets, brushes, engine parts and all the assorted signs of the approaching season. The market for shrimp is tight, but the shrimp are plentiful -- for simple reasons of supply (lots) and demand (zero to very little following the spill).
I urge you to see our interview with Dean Blanchard tonight -- a veteran shrimper, a business owner on nearby Grand Isle. He tells it like it is, with an accent that must be heard to be believed.
It's great to be back, and we hope you can join us tonight.
What we're following...
South surveys damage from killer twisters
One year after the Gulf spill, where's all the oil gone?
Americans getting caught up in Mexico's bloody drug war
And did you see...
Something to be cheerful about: U.S. taxes are low
There's a new Volkswagen Beetle
"Three Cups of Tea" author defends his book
In light of the President's comments last night—brought to light by my friend Mark Knoller (which the President didn't intend to share with any of us, but which sound very familiar to complaints he's made privately in the past)— as someone who flew on Air Force One from 1994-1995, I was sometimes amazed while covering the White House at the caliber of the technology surrounding the Presidency. As we will point out in tonight's broadcast, and as consumers and taxpayers are always surprised to learn: Jet Blue had live satellite TV in its aircraft before Air Force One did. George W. Bush privately complained to an aide prior to 9/11 that he couldn't successfully complete a cell phone call from the Presidential limousine -- that started a communications and technology review which has continued, on and off, since then. So be thankful for your cell phone, iPod, Blackberry, iPad and whatever else. It sure beats running the country.
Have a great weekend and please join us tonight.
What we're following:
- Wild weather slams the South, Midwest
- Air traffic controllers say naps are necessary
- Detroit to send layoff notices to public teachers
And did you see...
- Oops... Lady Liberty stamp features a replica from Las Vegas
- For the first time Hispanics outnumber African-Americans in most metro areas
- Broadway's Spider-Man to shutdown for a three-week overhaul
What we're following:
- Witnesses tell of first moments after NY drownings
- Population soars near U.S. nuclear reactors
- Pirate attacks hit an all-time high
And did you see...
- Restaurants say consumers are ordering healthier meals
- Yale student killed after hair gets caught in machine
- February job openings reach highest level in 2 1/2 years
Because competition stops at the water's edge, and because some things -- like the safety of journalists -- are more important, I'm proud to say we hosted a great luncheon here today. Our News Division President Steve Capus invited a number of us -- and his network counterparts -- to a gathering where we talked about the safety and well-being of the freelance journalists (and their families) on whom we depend from time to time and from story to story around the world. We have all worked with them. I have come to know many of them -- some I only see overseas. They often go where others aren't willing to go, taking huge risks. When the worst happens, we are often left to care for their families as a community. Today's presentation was by the Director of the Rory Peck Trust, an organization named, founded and funded in memory of a New York-born cameraman. Its a good organization and an important cause to our profession.
We hope you can join us for Nightly News tonight.
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