It’s just a little sink hole.  I’ve seen much bigger.  (San Diego County)

I was on my way to the station.  Just starting my day and ready to get out and cover some news.

I never even made it to the station.  The desk called me in the van and told me to head over to West Hollywood for a water main break.

From the 110 Freeway across town in about twenty-five minutes is decent for LA traffic.  I wasn’t the first camera there, but we had a helicopter flying over the scene.

They put a reporter on the story and it became more about getting the story on live TV at that point.

We did what we could for the first hit.  Our trucks weren’t allowed on the street near the sink hole and went live from way too far away.  The phone started ringing immediately after the live shot.

We managed to get some parking patrol guys to let us bring out truck in closer for the next hit.

It was probably wise for the guys in the hard hats and day-glo vests to keep us out of the area until they were sure it was safe.  It would have been pretty embarrassing if the sink hole expanded and swallowed up our news van.

On the other hand, if only we could have gotten a live shot out from the bottom of the sink hole.

That would have been pretty cool.