By: Erin Olson Hurricane Jeanne blew through Florida this weekend, the fourth of its kind to hit the state in six weeks, but most papers in harm's way still managed to publish and deliver papers, close to schedule, while maintaining very active Web sites.
Within the hardest hit area, the Scripps Treasure Coast Publishing Company printed newspapers both Sunday and Monday, and kept its Web site up to date, www.tcpalm.com.
Publisher Tom Weber said reporters from the company's four papers along Florida's East Coast (in Vero Beach, St. Lucie, Stuart and Ft. Pierce) combined their efforts to produce one paper, the Treasure Coast News, which was distributed primarily to people in shelters. "There was some home delivery, but not all, because some streets are not passable," Weber said.
Weber said the Sunday paper was printed Saturday before Jeanne hit and distributed Sunday when the storm was over. Monday's paper was written Sunday and sent electronically across the state to Naples, where another Scripps publication is located, for printing. "It should be arriving momentarily," Weber told E&P Monday morning.
Reporters stayed in shelters and homes along the coast, Weber said, some finding Internet connections in homes and working from there. "We have 560 employees, and I would say yes, a majority of them stayed," he said, adding that none had sustained injuries from the storm.
Weber said he thinks the East Coast presses should be up and running again by Monday night or Tuesday.
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