Is Anybody Listening? .....

You work the desk at a local television station long enough (for me, twenty years at two different stations) and you eventually develop a list of 'stock' complaints from viewers ..... those that you hear again and again, season after season, year after year. Among those is that we do some stories over and over, annoying the viewers with needless repetition of something they already know ..... well, maybe ..... then again, maybe not .....

One of those stories is "Don't drive through the water" or something to that effect ..... every time there's a good-size rainstorm, you'll have a reporter standing next to a stretch of flooded road, somewhere, advising drivers to avoid areas like these. The story's only been done a zillion times ..... but is anybody listening?

If you watch the reports closely enough, you'll notice that they rarely resort to file video ..... they don't have to ..... there's always plenty of fresh video of still another fire crew rescuing still another driver from still another stalled car in the middle of still another flooded intersection.

The efforts of local media have been supplemented by the National Weather Service with their "Turn Around, Don't Drown" campaign ..... getting the word out through web pages, bumper stickers and billboards. And you can always count on someone from the Weather Service, or law enforcement, to visit with reporters on-camera, and help get the word out. That should help ..... right? I mean, can we finally put this story to rest?

This morning, Younger Son and I were on our way to drop him off at school. We pulled off the road and stopped, to look at an SUV in the bottom of Scharbauer Draw, wedged under the Lamesa Road bridge. I hope everyone got out safely ..... these things can be dangerous ..... really, I wish the news media would get the word out!