A New York office building undergoing a residential conversion had to be evacuated on Monday morning after two of its structural columns buckled.
The ensuing emergency led city authorities to order additional evacuations of nearby buildings and shut down surrounding streets as a precautionary measure.
Affected by this turmoil were staffers of NewsNation’s New York bureau, as their office was in one of the adjacent buildings to the crumbling tower. The news network, as well as its sister station, the local affiliate WPIX-TV, had to quickly find new workspaces after their building was ordered closed.
Ensuring that its news operations continued to run smoothly, NewsNation quickly implemented contingency plans for several of its shows, including those that air in the afternoon and primetime, which are broadcast from its New York offices.
Among those affected was Jesse Weber, who had to host his 11 p.m. ET program, Jesse Weber Live, from the streets of New York City as the bureau was still closed on Monday night.
“Because NewsNation is headquartered in America’s heartland of Chicago, we were able to seamlessly transition production there,” said president of news and politics, Cherie Grzech, and president of programming and specials, Michael Corn. “We also leveraged the resources of our Washington, D.C., bureau to ensure uninterrupted coverage.”
National correspondent Jessica Kartalija provided a firsthand account of the unfolding chaos within their building on-air, saying an announcement was made over the loudspeaker for everyone in the office to evacuate and that “it was a very coordinated process.”
Kartalija, in one of her reports, also gave a tour of WPIX’s temporary newsroom, noting that they had to move a lot of stuff from their offices because they don’t know when they will be allowed back in.
“They are doing all of their broadcasts from out here,” she said. “So they have their whole studio crew, their cameras, their lighting, their anchor team, everyone down here to do the best that they possibly can to get the news to everyone at home.”
