For television news teams in the Tampa Bay area, Saturday was a day of waiting for the big news to happen.
As Hurricane Frances stalled, even the reporters in rain gear shouting at water-splattered camera lenses from New Smyrna Beach to West Palm Beach had little to report except, "It's bad here."
Although local stations updated viewers on the giant storm in the morning hours, by midday only WFLA-Ch. 8 and 24-hour cable news outlet Bay News 9 were still in news mode.
WTSP-Ch. 10 turned to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, WFTS-Ch. 28 had college football, and WTVT-Ch. 13 showed half-hour infomercials. Each offered occasional updates on the storm.
At 3 p.m., WFLA meteorologist John Winter said the storm was simply moving too slowly for him to be able to tell viewers anything new, and with that the station switched to a NASCAR race.
There was some news for local viewers, most notably a probable shift in the storm's path through the state that suggested it might exit closer to Tampa Bay than the previous, more northerly route.
As the first bands of weather moved in, reporters from the local stations delivered on-the-scene video from locations up and down the east coast.
In the morning, WFLA's Samara Sodos described hunting all over Vero Beach for a hotel room, only to end up spending Friday night at a mobile home park's clubhouse. By midafternoon Saturday, she was holding onto her hat in the parking lot as trees tumbled around her.
WFTS' Don Germaise phoned in a report from Vero Beach, too, describing "awnings flying down A1A" and commenting that he wasn't finding very many folks on the street to talk to.
The Weather Channel's coverage of Frances relied on its team of daredevils. Over a clip of gonzo weather guy Jim Cantore getting ready to head out to the beach, Stephanie Abrams said, "You know Jim, he's digging this assignment."
Later, from Palm Bay, Cantore reported, "Well, that $15-million beach replenishment project they did here is washing out to sea right now." But even he seemed to be filling time, offering props to the staff of the hotel he was staying in.
When WTVT returned to news at 5 p.m., reporter Mark Wilson was talking about conditions in Vero Beach when he was interrupted by his father, anchor John Wilson.
When that storm comes in and things get ugly, Dad asked, "Where are you going to be?"
Mark Wilson said, "The first thing we did when we got here was find the highest, safest building we could."
Pinellas 
