Blizzard 2011 grounds the Tulsa World print edition

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=297&articleid=20110201_297_0_Thehis742189

 

My baby sis is stuck at home sick in Tulsa. Mom can't go out and get anything or go to the doctor since there is 1.5 feet of snow piled up against the garage.

 

I've been at papers that printed despite getting twice as much snow as this. As I said on the other thread, this would never happen 5-10 years ago.

 

Snowstorms will come and go, and readers will argue over it in the comments section. Amazing!

 

Exactly.

Unbelievable.

 

Pussies.

 

In 1936, our newspaper found a way to print when most of the city was under 10 feet of water.

In 2004, we did it with 6-foot snow drifts in some places.

Run the presses, boys.

 

Yeah, it did. I worked at a place that called off its print edition, about 10 years ago because of the ice. Power was out in most parts of town, even though the printing press had emergency generators.

The publisher said it was one of the hardest calls he had to make, but said when he couldn't walk out of his house because it was so icy and after checking around with the circ. people, they all said the same thing, and he shut it down for the night.

No point in killing the carriers.

 

I was at a paper 24 years ago that honored a request by a competitor to run on our press when their power was wiped out by a freak ice storm in the spring. Unspoken rule.

We were in a similar predicament two years ago and even had people at the other plant getting set up, when the power gods smiled upon us literally at the final hour. There is no happier sound than a computer suddenly kicking on in a dead-silent newsroom.

 

A few years ago, we printed when power went out downtown and we were forced to work in satellite offices with no access to servers. In my time here, we've printed in all sorts of weather nearly as bad as this.

The fact is the Tulsa area had an unprecedented amount of snow, and the city and area towns are not equipped/capable of clearing the roads in time as other areas are. Comparing Tulsa right now to other parts of the country that see this or worse more often and are thus better prepared is unfair and unrealistic.

For most people, it is nearly impossible to travel anywhere in Tulsa, and our executives decided it would be safer for everyone involved to handle things this way rather than risking people getting stuck trying to get downtown. We will be publishing an electronic edition of the paper, and we've updated the website constantly all day. Yes, this is a step we never would've taken 10 years ago, but 10 years ago, the World's website was not what it is today and it would not be possible to deliver the news to our customers. Some of our customers will be hurt by the decision, but I feel it was the right one to make (and I'm not just saying that because I work at the World).