BILL COCHRANE (Production Manager, Galveston County Daily News): Well, it started to be fine, then it started to be not fine. Cochrane weathered the storm with a few stalwarts at the paper's solid concrete block building next to the Galveston Causeway. Outside on the loading dock, Bill Cochrane has two coffee makers working. And they've been leaving the back door open, so we get a cross breeze, which is nice.ĪLLEN: Their only power is a small generator. We've got the windows open so that we get a nice breeze. It's been amazing and, you know, people are just dying for information.ĪLLEN: Since last Sunday, Jones and a small coterie of reporters, editors, and the photographer have been working and living at the Daily News building in Galveston. And I had so many people subscribe to that feed. So I Twittered like crazy during all that time. But we had a police scanner, and we were listening to what the first responders were seeing. LEIGH JONES (Reporter, Galveston County Daily News): As the storm came in, we were still stuck at the hotel because the winds were too high. At the same time, the Daily News constantly updated its website, a vital resource for the tens of thousands of people who had to leave the island and were desperate for information about their homes.Ī week ago, Saturday, the day the storm hit, reporter Leigh Jones was at the San Luis Hotel downtown, where city officials made their emergency operation center. Some of the papers were just eight pages, one section with no ads. In the days after the storm, much of the staff worked in New Braunfels and printed the paper in Victoria. After Ike flooded much of the island and took out the power, the Daily News moved operations inland. And we were just committed to not doing that now.ĪLLEN: And they haven't. I think they missed some editions during the Civil War, but other than that, we've never missed a print edition of our newspaper. It was founded in 1842 when Texas was still a republic. DOLPH TILLOTSON (Publisher, Galveston Daily News): Our newspaper is the oldest newspaper in Texas. You talk to him about the Galveston Daily News, and you hear about pride and tradition. Tillotson's slim, 58 years old, with salt-and-pepper hair, dressed these days not in his usual suit, but in T-shirt and jeans. As it happens, that's the role he fills at the Galveston Daily News. GREG ALLEN: If there was a movie made about a small Texas newspaper, Dolph Tillotson would be good casting as the publisher. NPR's Greg Allen has this report now on the small but resilient local newspaper, the Galveston Daily News. But evacuated residents have had an information lifeline through last weekend's storm and its aftermath. After being pummeled by hurricane Ike, the island city won't officially reopen until Wednesday. On the Texas coast, Galveston is still officially off limits to most of the people who call it home. Welcome back to All Things Considered from NPR News.
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