CHEEKTOWAGA, NY - My day began early as it often does on what we call "weather days." I was assigned to drive our live truck to Orchard Park early to get in place. Since the roads were already awful I left the station at 2:00 a.m. to make the normally 20 min drive to Orchard Park.
It took me nearly two and a half hours to get to a NOCO station on Buffalo Rd. Because the winds were already quite heavy, I could not raise the mast of our live truck all the way for fear it could tip the truck. I was able to raise it just enough and in time to be on air at 430.
After our standard live shots, I began driving around Orchard Park to begin news gathering. By this point I was out of position to get a clear line of sight for our live truck to get a signal and still couldn't raise the mast because of the wind. I was a broadcaster without a reliable way to broadcast, except for my twitter feed.
Conditions were getting worse and I realized I needed to start working my way back to Buffalo, but with every major highway closed I'd need to take "the back way" into Buffalo.
My live truck first got stuck near the intersection of Union Rd. and Michael Rd. about 9:30 a.m. Fortunately, I did not end up putting the truck in the ditch like other vehicles at the intersection.
After a frantic call to our engineers, who tried to come out and get me, I was able to get unstuck and continued to crawl my way up Union Rd.
An NFTA bus was stuck, multiple tandem trailers. No one was getting anywhere. I got back in my live truck and proceeded up Union.
Eventually, I caught up with a line of vehicles and my progress began to stall. I went from averaging about 10 mph to 5 mph and then I stopped, just shy of Slate Bottom Creek.
It was almost 1:30 p.m. I hunkered down in my news van and broke into some of the food I had brought with me and began editing a news package for the 5:00 p.m. news. I ended up using my cell phone as a mobile hot spot and connecting my laptop to send the story back to the station. Ten years ago I would not have been able to get any footage or stories back to the station like that, it was still way to windy and unsafe to transmit from the live truck.
The fireman asked me if I would take someone in. This man, who I unknowingly photographed earlier in the day. They tried transporting the gentleman to an emergency shelter at Union and French by way of snowmobile, but when they got to the shelter it was locked up and closed. The closest one was at Union near Broadway, and the fireman told me, "He'll die if you don't take him in." That is something I will never forget.
The man was already showing signs of hypothermia and was not dressed properly to be outside. He was older, and had left that morning to go to the Rite Aid to get more medication.
From this point, I was no longer a newsman, I was a caretaker. My news director told me early on to never lose my humanity in this job.
I brought him in my van, gave him a pair of spare socks that I brought - my father always told me to be prepared in winter to be stuck in your car for days. I always thought he was paranoid, but this day, he was right.
I gave the man my spare socks, spare sweatshirt, hand warmers, and a power bar. I talked to him for two hours, keeping him alert until first responders returned with a front loader and ambulance to take him to safety.
They wanted to take me too but I insisted on staying with the live truck and I eventually made it back home to WGRZ. It's a day I'll never forget nor anyone in WNY, November 18th, 2014.
