Stunned Reactions to Local Earthquake

The stunned reactions of the news anchors at four Louisville TV stations that were presenting early morning newscasts when the earthquake hit showed they were rocking like everyone else.“Take cover!” called out WAVE-3 meteorologist Kevin Harned to the WAVE-3 staff in the studio as he instantly recognized what was happening. The reason for the warning was that the studios at all the stations are full of large, hanging lights that were precariously swinging.WHAS-TV’s “Good Morning Kentuckiana” was going to a break with a picture on the screen but one of the anchors could be heard saying exclaiming “A-a-h … it’s shaking in here!”Afterward, some of the on-air people were just trying to find out something, anything and looked a little like deer caught in the headlights. But they quickly recovered and later interviewed an array of knowledgeable experts that made sense of the quake and what it might mean. Many viewers called in with bedtime stories, since that’s where most people were when the quake occurred at about 5:40 a.m.In one of the lighter moments, newscasters at Ch. 11 read an e-mail from a viewer who said she attempted to wake her husband when the shaking started, but it had stopped by the time he was roused, and he said to her, “Put another quarter in.”

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