I was sitting in a county commission meeting Monday morning in Brewton when my phone started vibrating. The income call was from Nascar Ron as I have him listed. I ignored the call figuring I'd call him back after the meeting. I got two more calls from Nascar Ron back-to-back.
I called Ronald Moye when I left the meeting and I could hear the fear in his voice about what was going on in Texas. I didn't have a clue. Larry White, who was at the county commission meeting, didn't have a clue.
Nascar filled me in on what he knew about about Flomaton residents Mike McGee, Charlotte Moye, Janet Shultz, Todd Shultz, Joseph Huss and Darlene Huss being caught in a flash flood and I could tell from his voice he was serious and concerned.
Before I left Flomaton to go to the commission meeting, I told my office manager that I was going to talk to Emergency Management Director David Adams and when I got back we needed to put something on our website about a possible hurricane coming our way. Adams addressed the commission and I realized we wouldn't print a newspaper in time to give residents a heads up. So we posted Adams' story first. Adams said at the time that it looked like this area would be OK if all the current tracking charts at the time remained true. Adams said he didn't want to panic anybody, but did say we all needed to keep an eye on the news. We all know about hurricanes and a little wobble here or there and things can go downhill in a hurry.
My phone started ringing off the hook about the tragedy in Texas. I began checking. No offense to Nascar, but I wasn't going to repeat or post what he said without confirmation.
I finally met with Escambia County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Mike Lambert and he confirmed (after talking with family members and law enforcement in Texas) that Todd Shultz and Darlene Huss had been rescued. Mike McGee, Charlotte Moye, Janet Shultz and Joseph Huss were still missing. Before posting that information on the website I asked Lambert if family had been notified. I wasn't about to put out the story unless they had. He said they had, so I posted the story.
The next update was confirmed from Texas officials through Lambert that Janet Shultz had been found alive clinging to a tree some 20 to 25 miles downstream of the campground.
Social media was blowing up and I was trying to do my best to verify everything we posted. I made my mistake at 2:45 p.m. Monday when a family member said Joseph Huss and Charlotte Moye had been found alive. I talked to some officials to verify and who agreed the family member had been told the two were found.
My stomach hurt when I found out a few hours later that Joseph Huss and Charlotte Moye had not been found. It was bad journalism and I apologize for making that post before I had absolute confirmation. I took my post down as soon as I heard. The family member who posted the two were found alive, took his down as well.
Tuesday morning we corrected our breaking news story to say Mike McGee, Charlotte Moye and Joseph Huss were still missing.
As I'm writing this column Wednesday afternoon, they are still missing. I think we all hope there is a miracle out there and we will be able to report they have been found alive.
I complain a lot about people posting things on social media or on blog sites without verification and I apparently fell into that trap Monday. I should have known better. I was trying to get out information to people who wanted information and I let my ethical guard down and I'm still sick over it.
All I can do now is apologize and tell you it won't happen again. We don't post a lot of breaking news on our website, but I felt the storm was too important to ignore and I knew people wanted to know what was going on in Texas.
