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A huge overnight storm hit Oregon and Washington State. Hurricane-force winds downed trees and caused electricity blackouts in Seattle. All three networks led their newscasts with stunning visuals of the rugged coastline along the Pacific Northwest. The coverage was picturesque but hardly in-depth. The storm may have qualified as the day's lead but it was only the day's third most-heavily covered story: #2 was the farewell ceremony for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; #1 was the publication of the annual Statistical Abstract by the Census Bureau.

Both NBC and ABC sent reporters to the windswept coast. On Heceta Head in Oregon, ABC's Bill Redeker (no link) showed us sea foam whipped up a cliff face like snow falling upwards. NBC's Peter Alexander found a shortage of generators on Whidbey Island in Washington.

CBS had John Blackstone narrate the storm footage from San Francisco, but it did have Jerry Bowen on the scene at Mount Hood in Oregon to provide an update on the trio of mountaineers who have been missing on the peak for more than a week now. Experienced climbers, if they survived, they would have dug themselves a snow cave. Bowen crawled inside to show how one works: "to keep the cave from becoming a tomb" the entrance is below the sleeping area, which needs a ventilation pipe jutting upwards to the surface.

Bowen, who is based in Los Angeles, likes the cold. In the past he has reported for CBS from both Alaska and Antarctica.

Andrew Tyndall 12/16/06 10:35:20 pm

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