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August 30, 2008

Stay connected throughout Gustav with online briefings

PORT ARTHUR — By Amy Moore

The News staff writer

On the road, out of the area or simply can’t get to your newspaper? Finding all the information about Hurricane Gustav’s trek toward Southeast Texas won’t be a problem as The Port Arthur News and other local media are working to keep readers, watchers and listeners informed through the World Wide Web.

“Check the website — it will be updated frequently with comments from local authorities,” Roger Underwood, The Port Arthur News publisher, said.

The News’ site — www.panews.com — is Southeast Texas source for the latest Gustav developments, emergency management statements and forum where residents can share evacuation tips and more. Visitors to the site can find road and school closure information as well as where to find help.

The site will have the best information for before, during and after Gustav in the Hurricane Central section.

In firming up details about Hurricane Gustav plans, Underwood said the decision was made to miss printing the Monday edition of The News, but plans are in place to print Tuesday’s edition in Huntsville from a sister paper’s pressroom.

“The worst case scenario is if the storm’s effects continue, but we’ll continuously have updated information on the Web site and produce the newspaper from Huntsville to be delivered in our area,” Underwood added.

KBTV Channel 4 meteorologist Dana Melancon said the station will broadcast from a Freeport station that has a link that allows Southeast Texas residents to pick up the station.

“That’s in an extreme event,” he said. “We’re basically going to ‘Web mode’ where we post everything online so people can view stories, video and weather reports on the web — setxhomepage.com.”

A spokesman with KFDM Channel 6 said the station will continue broadcasting throughout the weekend as well as updating the Web.

On the radio dial, tune into AM 560 KLVI for developments, too.

Melancon, a seasoned weather expert, said he thinks Gustav will bring sporadic power outages and should make landfall in Lafayette, La.

“We’ll at least have tropical storm force winds and it’s not even in the Gulf yet,” he said.

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