As Hurricane Florence barrels toward the Carolinas, public broadcasters in South Carolina and Florida have announced a partnership to enhance coverage of dangerous weather situations.
South Carolina ETV in Columbia and WUFT in Gainesville, Fla., are collaborating to provide more information about hurricanes, tropical storms and other emergencies to viewers and listeners in the region, the stations said Monday.
WUFT is providing SCETV with radio programming and social media content about Hurricane Florence.
Other stations impacted by Florence in North Carolina such as WFDD in Winston-Salem, WFAE in Charlotte and WHQR in Wilmington “are also carrying the content we’re creating for radio and social,” WUFT Executive Director Randy Wright told Current Thursday.
By Dec. 1, WUFT’s partnership with SCETV will include television content as well as enhanced online and social media such as GIFs and interactive maps. The stations are installing eight remote weather stations and camera systems. WUFT will hire an additional meteorologist and digital content producer to focus on South Carolina, Wright said.
“Things are already stressful enough during a hurricane or other natural disaster; finding helpful, unsensationalized information should be easy,” said SCETV President Anthony Padgett in the announcement.
Correction: An earlier version of this post reported that the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network is involved in the partnership with SCETV. It is not. This post has also been updated with information about North Carolina stations.