Days of Tornadoes Keep Reporters On the Move

By Chris Ariens 

An outbreak of deadly tornadoes across the Midwest and Mid-South this week has kept news crews hopscotching from state to state reporting on the devastation. Lester Holt, who anchors NBC News’s weekend newscasts, “Today” and “Nightly News” reported on the leap day outbreak which hit Harrisburg, IL the hardest. Today he’s back covering the aftermath in Henryville, IN.

Holt covered Wednesday’s storms for “Nightly News” and “Rock Center” and for “Today” and “Nightly” on Thursday, before returning to New York Friday. “When my team and I got on the plane to head home yesterday morning after covering the leap day tornados, we knew we’d be back in the neighborhood and soon,” Holt tells TVNewser. “It wasn’t a question of whether there would be a new series of tornados, it was a question of where, when and how bad.”

Holt got onto a flight in the middle of the night and arrived 15 minutes before weekend “Today” went on air. “I got home long enough to have dinner with my family, recharge my laptop, and head back out,” says Holt who is covering the story alongside his NBC News and Weather Channel colleagues.

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“These are the stories you have to answer the bell for,” says Holt. “This is what we do.”

Holt will be anchoring “Nightly News” tonight and the “Today” show tomorrow from Indiana.

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