North Carolina TV Station Evacuates In Middle Of Hurricane Florence Due To Rising Floodwaters
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NEW BERN, N.C. (CBS/AP) — A North Carolina TV station had to evacuate its newsroom in the middle of Hurricane Florence coverage as floodwaters surrounded the building.
Employees at New Bern's WCTI-TV NewsChannel 12 had to abandon their studio for the "first time in history," the station posted on Facebook Thursday night. A spokesperson for the ABC affiliate said that roads around the building were flooding.
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"Our first priority is always the safety and well-being of our staff and we are happy to report that all employees from the WCTI station are safe following a sudden evacuation," station general manager Matt Bowman said in a statement.
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The station's journalists were out in the weather Friday, reporting on the impact and posting updates to the station's Facebook page .
New Bern is a city along the Neuse River near the Atlantic coast, about 90 miles northeast of Wrightsville Beach, where Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at 7:15 a.m. Friday.
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Video posted on Twitter showed a meteorologist telling viewers they'd be taken to coverage from its sister station WPDE in Myrtle Beach before walking offscreen. A Doppler radar picture in the background that kept rolling amid the silence showed Florence swirling toward the coast.
Just after midnight, the station tweeted that everyone had safely evacuated. "Little rough but we're all out," a tweet said.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
