A high rise construction crane broke apart and crashed into the building across the street, which includes the offices of the Tampa Bay Times, during Hurricane Milton on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)

On Wednesday night, I sat with my family in our living room, the windows boarded up with plywood, our phones tethered to chargers just in case we lost power, our hurricane snacks mostly forgotten. 

That night, Hurricane Milton tore the roof off Tampa Bay’s MLB stadium, Tropicana Field. It speared a crane through the building that houses the Tampa Bay Times, which Poynter owns. It roared loud outside my home as it spun across the state. 

And the experience I had, in the actual middle of it, was probably pretty different than what people saw outside of Florida. In fact, I know it was because I toggled between local and national coverage.

National journalism is so powerful — its resources, its contacts, its perspectives. But before and during the storm, it felt like national media were shouting when what we needed was a steady voice. 

I found that, of course, in our local news. 

At 8:19 p.m. that night, I wrote this on Facebook: “‘I’m not passing through this town. This is my home.’ - Local TV journalist out in the storm.”

That journalist, WFTS’ Paul LaGrone, was one of the many voices who got us through the night. 

Now, the national news has mostly left. My colleagues, neighbors and workplace are just getting back power. School, for my two teens, resumes on Thursday. The lines at gas stations seem less intense. Greetings at the grocery store begin with, “How’s your house? Are you OK?”

That’s how my conversation started on Sunday with Ray Roa, editor-in-chief of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, our alt-weekly. He and I have an event together this weekend for my new book, and we sat down over Zoom to talk about old Florida hotels. 

He’d been out for days helping neighbors. I was taking a break with some soothing deep cleaning. 

Because we’re both here, seeing the gas lines, dealing with kids home from school, worrying about our neighbors, that conversation included recent and old hurricanes. We talked about the impact they’ve had on Florida and the historic places I wrote about. And we talked about what we can learn from those places about resilience. 

It’s a conversation I only could have had with someone a few miles away. You can read it here.

Like LaGrone, the reporter who stood out in the storm, walked across the street to check on neighbors and showed up again the next day and the days after, we’re not passing through.

The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

I have weeks worth of things to share, so let’s dive in: 

• From The Nutgraf, read about the student journalists in North Carolina who jumped in to cover Hurricane Helene. 

• From CJR, read about how a small paper in western North Carolina covered the storm. 

• From the Asheville Citizen-Times, read about the broadcasters who stayed on air during and after Helene.

• North Carolina Local News Lab is investing more than $500,000 in 31 local newsrooms. 

• Read this survey from the Institute for Independent Journalists, who report “layoffs disproportionately impacted women, people of color, and younger professionals.”

• From San Jose Spotlight, read about how city hall asked that newsroom for confidential sources and how that newsroom responded.

• Learn about the newest Press Forward Local chapters.

• From me, learn about where $20 million in Press Forward funding is going.  

• And from Successful Journalism, remember to tell readers what they can do, not what they missed.

That’s it for me. Our trash and recycling got picked up today (after nearly two weeks) and I never thought I'd be so happy to hear that noisy trash truck.

Thanks for reading ❤️