Hi, this is Rob Marciano, your CNN On-the-Spot Idiot. I’m under this here cinderblock lean-to as winds whip debris and rain through the air around me–and, hey, we’re not even close to being slammed by the eyewall yet! Uh, was that an anvil that just went by? Or maybe a big ol’ rock? My baseball cap is totally gone, dude. This lady in the hotel where we are? She tried to open her door, and it slammed shut–like, from the wind–and whacked off half her finger, and the nurses are trying to give her first aid. But yup, here I am.

For Pete’s sake, I wonder where people get the idea that maybe they don’t actually need to evacuate when they’re told to because they’ll be able to brazen it out no matter how bad the storm is. I especially like the way Daryn Kagan solemnly warned everyone immediately after Rob’s report that they shouldn’t go outdoors until it was safe. (BTW, Daryn? What’s with the hair? Do we think we’re the Joan Jett of journalism? Is that who we think we are? Maybe Siouxsie Sioux? Sheesh.) And here’s Jeanne Meserve (outdoors) to tell us about more of the Superdome roof skin flying off. One of her crew seems to have blown away–they cut back to Atlanta.

On the bright side, the proverbial ten pounds the camera adds are very flattering to Rob there, who looks kind of excessively lean and blow-dried in his CNN bio pic.

Added at 23:52: Okay, Anderson Cooper is acting seriously scared–and do you wonder? He’s also bitching to Daryn about the lack of common sense on the part of other people who are walking around outside. They’re not super-cool reporters, so they could get hurt.

Michele Catalano is collecting stupid over-hype coverage at her place.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 29th, 2005 at 10:32 and is filed under misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.