I’ve been dispatched to Nantucket to cover the impact of Hurricane Earl. Everyone is saying this area will likely face the highest winds & heavy rain. My photog and I.. Trung Dang left Boston around 10:00am after packing like crazy. We brought a bunch of bottled water.. snacks and of course our rain suits. We left on a 1pm ferry out of Hyannis. A great ride over.. with sunny skies and calm seas. On the ferry.. a lot of trucks bringing over supplies like plywood and telephone cables .. all things that will most likely needed to get Nantucket back online after Earl comes storming through.
We arrived in Nantucket around 3:30pm and went to work right away. We found businesses boarding up.. the grocery stores packed with people buying essentials. I took a picture of the water shelve.. it was completely bare.
Tonight we will be staying in a nice bed and breakfast.. one last night of rest before the hurricane hits tomorrow. We likely will be up all Friday night long into Saturday morning covering the impact of Earl.
It was SUCH a beautiful day here on the island.. an amazing sunset..it’s tough to imagine what’s surging towards us tomorrow.
Ry

Well.. here we go! Hurricane Earl is still days away but we spent the day down on the cape where people are getting ready for a possible hit.

In Chatham people are pulling their boats out of the water after the harbormaster put out the warning that Earl could cause some damage. There’s been no evacutions or anything close to that yet.. but town officials say they are planning and will be ready to act fast if it looks like Earl is getting too close for comfort. Low lying areas in Chatham could see some evacuations if the storm really gets going.

People we talked to who were enjoying the last few days of summer say they are mentally preparing for a hurricane… many say they will hit the grocery store tomorrow and stocking up on the essentials. Others say they’ve been through this before and they are fully prepared for anything.

It was a beautiful nigtht on the cape.. it’s tough to imagine a huge storm might be surging towards us.

Ry

It was a very busy Monday for me.

I followed up on that terrible accident at the Beverly Airport where that 30 year old flight instructor was killed when he came in contact with his own propeller. I went back to his mom’s home in Weymouth and had a nice conversation with her. She didn’t want to go on camera but she shared some nice pictures of her son and then had me go interview her best friend & her son’s godmother. It was a very emotional interview.. lots of tears and talk of dying too young.. very sad.

I went back to the station and wrote the entire story but as it often happens in the news business things changed. It’s tough when you invest so much time into a story and then have to just give it up. I spent a long time talking to the family.. interviewing them and collecting photos.. so it’s tough when you’re sent to another story. That’s the job though and you have to be ready to move on to the next story at any second.

I was sent up to Gloucester to cover a bridge fire. The Piatt Andrew bridge is undergoing renovations and when they were mixing paint & paint thinner a spark from the drill they were using ignited the vapors and a big fire broke out. This happened during rush hour on 128 and it was a major traffic nightmare.. but no on was hurt. We got up there later than usual so it was a race against the clock to assemble the story and go live at 10pm.. but we did it.

Now.. we all watch Earl.. it will be interesting to see how close he comes to us and what may happen! Stay Tuned!

Ry

Don’t get me wrong.. I’m thrilled today is FRIDAY.. but the story I had to cover today was a rough one. A 30 year old instructor pilot was killed at the Beverly Airport when he came in contact with the propeller on his plane. He was trying to help out another plane while they were waiting for clearance to take off. He hopped out and somehow he was clipped by the propeller and died instantly. A horrific story and in this job we are tasked with trying to get reaction from family members about their loss. To me it’s probably the toughest part of the job. You pull up to a house where you know the people inside are hurting. You have to walk up.. knock on the door and ask the most obvious question of all time.. “How are you feeling?”  It’s not easy.. but I always approach with respect.. offer my condolences and explain that we would like to do a story about their loved one’s life. Some people are hostile.. and you can’t blame them. Others find it therapeutic to share stories and talk about their loved one that’s now gone. It’s my job.. but sometimes I can’t help but wonder how I would feel if someone is knocking on MY door .. asking about MY loved one who passed away.

The worst for me is when a solider dies… trying to show up and get the story becomes a challenge because you want to show the public how this man or woman gave their life for us… but you don’t want to push the family too much.. it’s such a balancing act. Ask anyone who does this job… we don’t want to knock.. but it’s our job.

For tonight’s story.. the family did not want to go on camera but they were so nice and shared a picture of the 30 year old victim.. a guy who loved to fly..  who died doing what he loved.

Have a good weekend everyone

Ry

Sometimes in this job the story just doesn’t pan out. That happened a few times today and we spent hours in the car driving from one story to the next.. But in the end we found a great story in Rockland. A man on union street is in big trouble for making homemade explosive devices and fireworks. The bomb squad spent hours carefully removing all of them from this guy’s home after executing a search warrant.
Theres great video of hazmat crews sifting through all the explosives.
He’s no stranger to law enforcement— he was arrested back in 2008 for doing the same thing .. And we were told he has burns on 80% of his body from an explosion!
It was an exciting night for me because it was 1. Breaking news.. I love some good breaking news & 2. We got the arrest info moments before my 10pm live hit so I had to quickly add all that new info– very fun
So after a long day of sitting in traffic and stories that just didn’t work out– this was a great way to end the day!
Happy Thursday!!!
Ry

Another rainy day..another trip to New Hampshire… But this time much closer!
Police in Hudson and Londonderry are investigating a rash of home break-ins. In Hudson a suspect busted out a front bedroom window and got away with cash and jewelry. Hours before that.. the same suspect was caught on camera at a Londonderry home trying to bust in there.. But the homeowners were prepared. They had set up their own web camera surv. system. The owner was at work when he logged on & saw the guy trying to bust in.. He called 911 & the guy never made it inside. This is 3rd time someone has tried breaking into their home– they said they’re ready to move! Police are hoping that surv. video will help them catch this suspect.

We went live for the story at the Londonderry police station.. Where my photog dusty wood saved the day. After I had introduced the story live.. the battery on the camera died! All of the sudden I see Dusty backing up fast to the suv where he snapped on a new battery and we were back in business literally seconds before I was set to come back on live. Ahhh the fun of live television… You never know what might happen!
Ry

The story sounded amazing.. a man attacked by a bear as he was throwing out his trash. He was going to toss his trash away in a dumpster but a bear was waiting inside and both were surprised the other was there. The guy got away with 16 stitches after the bear cut up his arm. My photog Trung and I hit the road at 3:00pm for North Conway, NH. That’s a good two and a half hour drive without traffic. Of course we hit some heavy traffic on 93 north and we knew we were in for a long day.. boy we had NO idea though. After fighting traffic we finally arrived in Conway, NH around 6:45pm to the wrong address. No big deal.. it happens all the time in our business.. we will just keep looking around for this guy’s apartment. We searched everywhere.. and it was getting dark. We along with our assignment desk at 7News did everything possible to track this address down but it wasn’t working. In the middle of all this I noticed a large crowd of people pulled over along side the road up in North Conway taking pictures.. pointing at something. Sure enough a moose was enjoying a nice dinner in the river near the road. I made my photog Trung turn the car around and we parked .. joining the 40 other people watching “Connie” the moose as I named her eat dinner in front of a large audience . It was like no one had ever seen a moose before.. there was screaming and cheering. We used the station camera and shot some cool video of Connie.. I whipped out my iPhone and took some pics and a little video.

We never did end up finding the bear guy.. but we also did not come home empty handed.. Thank you Connie for making that trip a little more fun

Ry

Happy Monday Everyone!

I am back at work after a great weekend down in Norfolk, VA where my younger brother Brad got married. 

It’s amazing how the weather has changed! I have to admit  I  kind of like this rainy.. cloudy weather… but only for ONE day haha.

So today at work I was sent to to Hull to interview Judy & Fred Marks who had their toy poodle Ruthie stolen from them Saturday night in Dorchester.  She was missing for about 24 hours until they got a call from someone claiming to have Ruthie. They sure did have her.. and wanted the reward money. Police and the Marks’ feel though that maybe this guy hand a hand in her “dog-napping.” There’s no evidence of that yet… but police say their investigation is still going on! Ruthie is an awesome little dog who if she was  a cat really does have 8 lives. She’s survived an attack by a German Shepard.. house fire and now this! Her family is thrilled she’s back home .. the vet says she’s fine

I hope all of you are having a great Monday!

Ry