Local reporters, photographers and editors from Fort Myers and Naples, Florida, met in a hotel parking lot Thursday to plan their coverage of Hurricane Ian.
They knew they'd lose power and phone service at their southwest Florida homes, so planned to meet at noon at an inland hotel to regroup. But when they got there, the hotel had lost power too, so the meeting moved to the parking lot.
There are about 30 journalists between the two newsrooms, both part of the USA TODAY Network. Many of them were already deployed, some embedded with emergency responders, some walking the roads and beaches that were safe, others trying to book boats and helicopters to get closer to the barrier islands hardest hit.
They go out in teams of two and try to communicate back to editors in the small patches of time they can find cell service. Teams are covering rescues, damage, power outages and impact across two counties, spreading out in every direction.
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They know the story is important, but their safety is our first concern.
"They were just itching to get out there," said Wendy Fullerton Powell, the executive editor for the Naples Daily News who also oversees the Fort Myers News-Press. "It's just something in journalists."
'Every one of us has been impacted by it'
Hurricane Ian, now a tropical storm, continued to hammer Florida on Thursday with heavy rain and strong winds, as it became one of the strongest systems in U.S. history. Communities across the state were swamped by the overwhelming water. Six deaths had been confirmed as of Thursday afternoon. More than 2.5 million people were without power.
When communities face a catastrophe like this, local news reporters are in a unique place. They must cover the story while being part of the story.
"This is not us coming in to just tell somebody's story. This is our life. This is us," Powell said. She has worked in Florida for 33 years. "We are part of this community, and every one of us has been impacted by it individually, as well as our neighbors and our friends. We're worried about those people and getting texts and trying to call. The phone connection has been awful. So people are fearing the worst of their family and friends that are in the area. And that's in addition to getting out there and trying to tell the stories of everybody else, and what happened and how this community has been impacted."
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The USA TODAY Network has 18 local newsrooms across Florida, including more cities in Ian's reach: Sarasota, Lakeland, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Leesburg, Ocala, Winter Haven and St. Augustine. Reporters from across the state, as well as reporters across our national network, are working together to swarm the storm and be a source of information for readers often literally in the dark. In all, we have more than 75 journalists on the story, including many from USA TODAY.
We also had press and production team members who hunkered down in press facilities, often with their families, to be ready to print and deliver newspapers when it's possible to do so.
"I know we oftentimes are looked at as the enemy, and we are not, we're the neighbors, we're the friends, we're the people that are also living here in this particular case," Powell said. "We're all in it together.
"It's not just a story. It's something that's happening in our neighborhoods. It truly is a balance to be part of the story and to tell the story."
This is their home, their story
As the hurricane projections made it clear that Fort Myers and Naples would take a direct hit, I asked Powell how it felt to be the editor in charge of the local newspapers in both of those cities.
"I was here for Charley and I was here for Irma, so I wasn't all that nervous about it," she said. "But it grew and got a little intimidating because it is so massive. From Marco Island to South Sarasota. I'm a planner and you can't plan for these things because you're at the whim of being allowed onto places and getting access.
"At the same time, I'm still trying to figure out whether I have a house and I'm hoping that when the water receded nothing's terribly damaged."
Powell left her south Fort Myers home Tuesday night as the storm drew near. So far we know that three of our journalists' homes are not habitable.
"It was the scariest hurricane I've ever been through," said photojournalist Amanda Inscore. "And I was here for Charley, Wilma and Irma. We went to Bonita Beach. The storm surge damaged a lot of homes and businesses and washed sand all over the road. Boats are all over the roads and stuck in mangroves."
Reporter Harriett Heithaus has opened her east Naples house and kitchen table to journalists who need power and a place to regroup.
"The usually pristine streets of Fifth Avenue South, Naples' chic shopping district, were strewn with debris – branches, leaves, air conditioning filters, cans and paper," she said. "Those desperate for coffee waited in a line that snaked out of the lone 7-Eleven that was open."
The adrenaline keeps them going now. But they know this is a story that is just beginning.
"It's going to be a long, long story to tell and we're gonna be the ones that are still there to tell it. Next week we'll be telling the story. Next year we'll still be telling the story," Powell said. "This is not a one-and-done event that's being covered and then we'll go away.
Inscore finished transmitting her Bonita Beach photos from her colleague's house. She's about to head back out to the Naples pier.
"I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done to show the destruction," she said. "And as the recovery begins, there will be so many people whose stories needs to be told.
"I just hope we can do them all justice."
Our local journalists will do just that. From hotel parking lots to busted up beaches to kitchen tables.
This is their home, their story.
During the hurricane, our Florida websites are free to all. To support journalism moving forward, please consider subscribing to theFort Myers News-Press and Naples Daily News.
Nicole Carroll is the editor-in-chief of USA TODAY and president of the Gannett news division. The Backstory offers insights into our biggest stories of the week. If you'd like to get The Backstory in your inbox every week, sign up here. Reach Carroll at [email protected] or follow her on https://twitter.com/nicole_carroll.
