The Blogfinger trio amongst the rubble of Hurricane Sandy. Mary Walton is the one in the middle. Charles is on the left. Paul is ambidextrous. We are in Firemen’s Park near Main Ave. and New Jersey Ave. Nov 6. Photo by Eileen Goldfinger
We at Blogfinger.net have been touched by the many expressions of gratitude for the blog’s reporting on Hurricane Sandy. We thought you might like a glimpse behind the scenes.
All of us — Paul Goldfinger, Charles Layton and Mary Walton — were involved in the coverage full-time — Charles in Philadelphia, and Paul and Mary in the Grove.
Certain that a power failure was inevitable, Charles drove to Philly on Sunday afternoon and moved in with friends. His role was to post stories, edit comments and cull information from the Neptune Township website and other official sources that few Grovers, including Paul and Mary, could access. He also made calls and fed tips and suggestions back to Paul and Mary.
Paul handled most of the photography. Both Paul and Mary were “feet on the ground,” interviewing Township officials, Camp Meeting Association leaders and, of course, many, many residents about what was going on.
Says Paul, “Getting all those hits and comments caused me to feel the pressure of having so many people depending on us. I like the idea of public service, but this challenge was daunting. Getting online access was the worst part. Finally we found some creative ways to do it.”
Often that meant pre-dawn trips to Wegmans to be at the head of the line when the doors opened at 7 a.m., so that we could grab open outlets to plug in our laptops and transmit stories and photos to Charles. Wegmans had a 30-minute time limit per customer, and flashing our New Jersey press badges got us nowhere. Thirty minutes was 30 minutes.
Once they kicked us off the Internet we headed to the back of the store to buy ice.
Like everyone else, we had to spend a fair amount of time charging our cell phones and laptops. Even though reception was miserable and calls kept cutting off, those cell phones were all we had.
Most Grovers who remained in town were powerless (literally) to access the blog, but those who had evacuated or had gone away for the winter were concerned about their friends, family, neighbors and property. They logged onto Blogfinger.net by the thousands.
On an ordinary day, when there is no hurricane or other big news, Blogfinger draws around 1,500 hits from readers. On October 30, the Tuesday after the storm, we had more than 25,000 hits.
Recovering from Hurricane Sandy will be a complicated and lengthy process. Blogfinger plans to remain on the job.
— Paul Goldfinger, Charles Layton and Mary Walton