The worst things in life are never planned. Tragedies blindside you when you least expect it, which is what happened to the USC community over the house fire in North Carolina this past weekend.
I first heard about this story when I was driving back with a friend from Hilton Head Island, returning from my own beach weekend getaway. Around 1:00 p.m., the editor in chief, Jackie Alexander, called me to report about possible student deaths in a fire over the weekend.
As we drove across the state, we received more and more calls from friends and USC reporters with more information confirming the worst. As I rushed into the newsroom, I see a few dedicated co-workers trying to patch together enough information to get the story out to the public for tomorrow’s paper.
In the middle of the room, is a dry-erase board with tidbits of information and scattered names, covered in question marks.
Throughout the night, question marks are replaced by “deceased,” “unidentified,” “released” or any connection the student might have to anyone else. There are about three people writing stories about the fire and everyone is contributing whatever information they can.
News sources such as CNN an ABC are calling The Daily Gamecock for information, which is intimidating and exciting in itself.
At 7:30 p.m., a few reporters, myself included, head down for the second news conference of the night in the Russell House Ballroom. This one is headed by Andrew Sorensen who gives his condolences and what little new information he has. We rapidly write down any and every quote we can and head back up to the newsroom to compile the story.
For us nerdy journalism types, it is usually exciting to piece together a big story and to have more information than big news outlets. However, this is nothing but a somber and tragic experience.
These students were young, they had their whole lives ahead of them. They did what a great number of USC students do on a regular basis: pack up the car and head to the beach for the weekend. Tragically, it was not such a simple trip for this group.
Covering this story was stressful for everyone, but I have rarely heard the newsroom so quiet. Each fact contributed to the story means one more family member of friend is crushed.
While we work on our newspaper to get the facts out to everyone as quickly and accurately as possible, it is important to remember why we are doing this and to keep all those affected in our hearts.
We will update the stories as soon as we know any more information.
Liz Segrist
Metro Editor
