Hurricane Zeta Smacks New Orleans - Leaves Millions Without Power Along The Gulf Coast And Into Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia

Zeta's Path (photo: nhc.noaa.gov)

As predicted, HURRICANE ZETA made landfall in NEW ORLEANS (10/28) as a Category 2 hurricane, and then, as it moved inland, weakened to tropical storm status as it plowed a path of heavy rains, flooding and damaging winds heading NORTHEAST. The storm affected electrical service for nearly two million customers in LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA and GEORGIA.

According to CNN, "About 38 million people are under a tropical storm warning early this morning as ZETA makes its way near metro ATLANTA and other inland cities. ZETA is the 27th storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, one shy of tying the record for the most storms in a season."

ALL ACCESS has been reaching out to stations in the area to get reports of how they are doing in the wake of ZETA and how they are servicing the community.

Atlanta Feels Zeta

CUMULUS VP/Contemporary Music and OM/PD at Top 40 WWWQ (Q99.7)/ATLANTA and the cluster LOUIE DIAZ told ALL ACCESS, "ZETA was a big factor for us today rolling into town at 4a (ET) with heavy winds and rain. There are widespread power outages in ATLANTA that affected our morning shows for sure. At Q99.7, BERT was on but only half the staff, working remotely, could get on-air, due to lack of power.

"Q99.7 will also continue to cover the aftermath of ZETA today with extended weather forecasts and updates on power and closings in the area throughout the day," he added.

"Over at WKHX (NEW COUNTRY 101.5) morning duo KINCAID & DALLAS found KINCAID phoning it in via cell at one point. Midday personality COREY DYLAN made it into the studios. And at WNNX (ROCK 100.5), BAILEY & SOUTHSIDE used a combo of having power and cell phones to get the show rolling."

In NEW ORLEANS, CUMULUS Country WRKN (NASH 106.1), Hot AC KKND (106.7 THE KREWE) and Alternative WZRH (ALT 92.3) PD BRAD STEINER reports that it was definitely uncomfortable for a little while. “Luckily it was a really fast moving storm. Mostly a wind event – so we have a lot of down trees and some damaged property." He added, “WRKN ran live, wall to wall coverage from our TV partner, WDSU, from 1–11 … while the other stations pushed listeners there for the most up to the minute information. We spent every hour pushing that and trying our best to stay on top of it … as much as remote voice tracking can allow ... all while most of us lost power."

Also in NEW ORLEANS, IHEART's News Talk WRNO (99.5 WRNO) was live from 1p CT to midnight starting with coverage from TV partner WVUE. The rest of the NEW ORLEANS cluster joined in around 5pm as conditions went south in the metro. ZETA's Eye was in close proximity of the cluster in the CBD. WRNO PD JEREMY POURSINE said, "At one point we lost cable and TV, so myself, WRNO APD DAVID DUCORBIER, WNOE Country (101.1 WNOE) PD CASEY CARTER opened up the phone lines with Market President TORI KAHL screening the lines and got reports from listeners. The cluster stayed until 10pm, CT. WRNO/KVDU went 'til midnight. Back to regular programming after that with updates continuing through the night. All my thanks to those pros for getting it going on a moment’s notice."

POURSINE added, "Power outages like I’ve never seen in terms of how widespread they are. Weather though is now fall-feeling now after a front blasted through, so at least it’s not humid and miserable as people clean up and crews can work quickly to clear streets and let power lineman get to work. Hoping that's the last one for LOUISIANA for the season. We have had enough!"

If you have info to share about HURRICANE ZETA and how it's affecting your stations and market, please email it to ALL ACCESS, here.

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