Hurricane Matthew dominated the network evening newscasts Thursday, with David Muir, Scott Pelley and Lester Holt each anchoring from Florida, along with correspondents reporting all along the Florida coast, and into Georgia and South Carolina.
On the CBS Evening News, Pelley anchored live from West Palm Beach, Fla., where the weather was already deteriorating quickly. Indoors, Pelley reported from a high school cafeteria being used as one of 50 storm shelters set up in the city.
World News Tonight’s Muir led the ABC newscast from further up the coast in Jacksonville, and a team of reporters including Ginger Zee in Melbourne, Gio Benitez in West Palm, Eva Pilgrim in Jacksonville, Steve Osunsami in Savannah and Rob Marciano in Charleston.
Lester Holt anchored NBC Nightly News from Melbourne, where conditions were wet but largely calm, before throwing to correspondent Miguel Almaguer, hardly visible on camera as the storm’s outer bands lashed his location in Palm Beach. Also reporting were NBC’s Al Roker in Washington, Ron Mott in Daytona Beach, and Tammy Leitner in the Bahamas.
Nightly also had Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore in Fort Pierce.
There were plenty of warnings to people in Matthew’s path to heed public officials’ advice and evacuate–but perhaps the most blunt came from Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith, who told viewers that a small shift in the path of the storm could spell disaster for the Florida coast. “This moves 20 miles to the west, and you and everyone you know are dead. All of you. Because you can’t survive it. It’s not possible, unless you’re very, very lucky,” Smith said, then adding after a moment, “and your kids die too.”
Thanks Fox News! pic.twitter.com/eGV2CCMSIo
— Marty of Social Club (@Deathbymartymar) October 6, 2016