CNN’s Blow-by-Blow Account of Bertha Sparks Deluge of Calls

It’s his fifth hurricane, so perhaps it’s understandable that CNN newsman Jeff Flock was a little blase about Bertha.

The reporter’s live coverage--featuring him standing, more or less, in gale-force winds as the storm reached North Carolina’s coast Friday--prompted dozens of calls to the network.

Most of the 60 or so calls expressed concerns for Flock’s safety, CNN spokesman David Talley said, although some wondered if he didn’t have enough sense to come out of the rain.

“He has covered several hurricanes for us,” Talley said. “He’s a connoisseur of the messages of Mother Nature. He knows exactly what to do.”

Flock, CNN’s Chicago bureau chief since 1985, has specialized in live reports from exotic places--including areas hit by hurricanes Gilbert, Hugo, Andrew and, last year, Opal, Talley said.

“He himself has said he’s been through worse hurricanes than this,” Talley said. “When his live shot is over, he and the crew are back in their hotel, where it’s safe and not as breezy.”

Flock has been with CNN since it began in 1980. He held several jobs in the Atlanta headquarters and was CNN’s youngest bureau chief when he took the job in Chicago. He heads a team that specializes in unique live reports. He broadcast the first live TV reports from the top of Mt. Rushmore, from a deck beneath Niagara Falls and from the bottom of Pearl Harbor.