Watching, waiting as storm rolls closer

Tony Winstead’s Wednesday at the beach went much like normal.

The Salem man, his wife, three children and brother’s family awoke in their orange house on Emerald Isle on the North Carolina coast. They had breakfast and lounged by their private, ameoba-shaped pool.

After lunch, the sun broke through the clouds. They put pork in the oven for barbecue that night and rode a golf cart to the beach.

But Hurricane Irene cometh, strong and likely before the weekend.

About

I'm a reporter-producer at the PBS NewsHour, focusing on politics and Supreme Court coverage for the nightly national broadcast and online. I produce discussion segments and tape pieces for the broadcast, and blog, shoot and edit videos for the web.

I learned how to break scoops as a reporter at the Roanoke Times in Southwest Virginia from 2009 until April 2012. There I wrote about business, public education and multiple county governments, often focusing on enterprise work that used public documents and data.

Before my years in Virginia, I majored in English literature at the University of Pittsburgh -- marking the last time I've picked up a fictional novel. Instead, Pitt's non-fiction writing professors mentored me through various news internships and during one year as editor-in-chief at the student newspaper, The Pitt News. Don't worry, I still read voraciously, preferring the real-life stories that are often more enthralling than what may come from one's imagination.

Follow me on Twitter @kpolantz.

Or email me at kpolantz at newshour dot org.