StarNews relocates to WWAY, Hampton Inn as storm compromises building
By Pam Sander
StarNews Staff
In advance of Hurricane Florence, StarNews employees bragged that our old building on South 17th Street was a fortress — a windowless workplace with thick walls and concrete floors under the aging carpet. And three exceptionally large generators to ensure the news team could continue to work when power went out. Day to day, our staff didn’t love the space. But during a storm, we could count on it.
Until Florence.
Overnight Thursday, as the hurricane’s winds and rain battered the coast, water started dripping through the ceiling tiles in multiple departments. Trash bins were relocated to catch the flow. By Friday morning, after the eye came ashore at Wrightsville Beach and directly over our heads, the generators stopped working. By Friday afternoon, cell phones providing internet for our computers began the dreaded battery decline to single digits. Mine alone was providing three computers with access to the internet. I was getting desperate until our finance director, John McElwee, appeared with a HALO portable charger to give us a few more hours.
The team kept working without pause as reports came in from StarNews journalists stationed throughout the Cape Fear region.
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