Water everywhere, but not where it's supposed to be

I've heard this phrase a million and one times, "I'm only one person!"

Today, I heard it from a police dispatcher and kinda liked the fact that feeling is universal.

When the big 48 inch water main blew, the phones began lighting up, not only at the news assignment desk, but apparently at every single police department where residents were experiencing water problems.

There was water water everywhere, but it was not where it was supposed to be. Dozens of eastern burbs lost their water or water pressure for a time being and thousands of customers were affected.

When the big one hits, no matter what duties are left to do, the rule book goes out the window and you drop back 10 and punt.

Just after the water main broke and I began hearing scanner traffic as well as fielding phone calls, my priority was the water main break. I needed to:

• get my producer the most updated info for our show
• simultaneously writing the story for wkyc.com as breaking news
• twittering the information
• Facebook-ing the info
• continue answering phones
• make sure my morning show had a good grasp on what was happening, a plan, and hopefully all the tools in place to execute
• unfortunately, it was too late to send a crew due to OT restrictions but next crew in will be assigned that task

One of the phone calls I received was actually from a police dispatcher who nicely asked that when we air the story, we try to impress on our viewers that they really should not call any police departments or 911 lines unless it is a true emergency....

The water department and police agencies are working together to get the info out and the situation rectified but they can not do that if they are fielding the phones.

I can commiserate. If we have breaking news, such as a water main break, an earthquake, or something else, I can not get the facts if I am fielding hundreds of calls.

Same thing internally. If I see a story on the competition that is interesting or breaking....and every producer, manager, employee calls the desk asking if I saw that story--

1. I can not jot down details while I am fielding in-house calls
2. I can not make calls to verify the facts while I am being given the 3rd degree

Oh, dispatcher, I feel your pain many many many days out of the week.

It's just good to know that I am not alone, a news assignment desk is not the only group that experiences this job war wound....

Dispatchers, unite!