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Joe Birch Has Seen Local TV Evolve in the Digital Age

“My knees got weak after I filed my first email story. I actually fell into a chair in amazement.”
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3 weeks ago

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First, there was Ron Burgundy, and later came Joe Birch. Well, perhaps they were more like contemporaries in the 70s. One fictitious, the other quite real.

Long before digital technology, there were manual typewriters and carbon copied scripts. Television anchors in the 70s often had uniforms of sorts. Think of Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

“We had the news jackets with the station’s logo,” said Joe Birch, a reporter and anchor with Action News 5 for the past 44 years.

“The original teleprompters were like conveyor belts with a camera,” Birch said. He explained scripts were written on manual typewriters and produced with seven carbon copies of the script.

“Invariably scripts slipped off the conveyor belt or the teleprompter operator struggled to keep pace with the news anchor’s delivery,” Birch explained. Crews for the studio were still shooting on film. Yes, film.

“We had an army of Action News 5 camera people who would get the shot, capture what we needed,” Birch said. “Then they’d rush the film back to the station, put it in a solution. It would take about 40 minutes to develop.”

It’s hard to imagine that kind of grunt labor and moving parts involved to submit a three-minute package. They required a darkroom where today all you need is a digital camera and a laptop.

Birch clearly recalls the first time he sent the studio digital footage from the field via email was during Hurricane Katrina. It was love at first ‘send’.

“My knees got weak after I filed my first email story. I actually fell into a chair in amazement.”

On a remote shoot or with time-sensitive stories, Birch would have someone from the crew run the film to the airport and have it flown back to the station. There were runners in Memphis waiting for the package as it came off the plane. This was a ritual timed to perfection. Much like how hospitals move hearts for a transplant, except there’s no cooler involved. It had to be or it wouldn’t make the 10:00 news.

“It has changed so much,” Birch continued. “There used to be four or five of us in the studio with cameramen, studio floor director. Then there were people who made sure you didn’t have spinach in your teeth, wiped the dandruff off your jacket. All those people are gone. Mostly I’m left with robotic cameras. I truly miss all my colleagues.”

I’m sure the dandruff and spinach guys aren’t that bummed about change.

“We had one floor director who just before we went on the air, she’d say in a clear and unmistakable way, ‘You’re about to be on television. Be professional.’ I’ll always remember that.” Birch interpreted what the floor director said before each broadcast was something like ‘don’t get distracted.’

Birch co-anchors the evening weeknight broadcasts of Action News 5 at 5:00, 6:00, and 10 o’clock. That’s a lot of screen time.

He grew up in northern New Jersey just across from New York City. He is the eldest child. Birch was a lackadaisical student at best. Teachers were a bit underwhelmed by his overall performance.

“They tended to frown on you when you showed up without your homework,” Birch jokes. “That may have happened a couple of times. Christian Brothers Academy lovingly kicked my butt.” Those swift kicks to his derriere may have been just what the doctor ordered for a kid without direction.

He graduated from college in 1974 and his mother was terrified he was going to be drafted into the Army for the war in Vietnam. For Birch, the Vietnam War would be something he’d experience from afar.

He liked Memphis and wanted to become a part of the landscape. Birch liked it so much he enrolled at Christian Brothers College and graduated in 1978.

Christian Brothers University is a smaller school, with maybe 2000 students when Birch attended. “I studied English and wanted a smaller school where I could get to know my professors,” he said. “My wife graduated magna cum laude at the same school. She’s smart. I’ve only beaten her in Scrabble once.”

Throughout his career, Birch has had ample opportunity to move to bigger markets but never budged. He received calls from all over the country and at times he and his wife were tempted. They were flattered by the attention, but something always felt right about Memphis.

“I’m so grateful that we stayed,” Birch said. “I have all my family here. A lot of journalists don’t have the chance to do that. I spend a lot of time working with mobile food pantries working with the impoverished, one of the poorest areas in America. We have lots of partners in the community. They recognize me as the guy on the news.”

He’s become an institution in Memphis and a generation has grown up watching and listening to Birch a few times a day.

“I had some great mentors,” Birch said.

Frank Gardner was the news director when Birch first started at the station. He describes Gardner as an old-school, a crusty Lou Grant kind of guy. A grizzled man who wouldn’t hesitate to yell at you to ‘get off his lawn.’

“Within the first few minutes of meeting Frank I hoped to become a reporter someday, Birch recalled. “He put his head down and shook his head. I don’t think he was trying to insult me or take a swipe at my goal, I just think he’d heard the same thing from a young reporter a thousand times before.”

The early days were lean financially, but Birch was willing to do whatever it took to succeed. To earn extra money, he would sell stories to the mothership.

“If you had a story idea with any kind of national appeal or impact, you could sell it to NBC,” Birch said. “Each story they took earned me 100 bucks. My photographer got 100 bucks. That was great money, a big payday for me. At the time, I was mostly schlepping equipment so that was a bonus.”

In his youthful zealousness, Birch forgot to mention any of this story selling to Frank Gardner. Sometimes it’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

One day in 1980 Gardner summoned Birch to his office and asked him to close the door. That’s never a good start to a meeting. This talk was going to be memorable in one way or another.

‘So, I hear you’re on TV,’ Gardner started.

Birch said he didn’t think Gardner was upset. He just kind of chuckled.

“‘Well, now you’ve got some experience,’” Gardner told him.

In the Ron Burgundy days, cameramen had to carry a heavy camera and battery packs, along with microphones and three-quarter inch tape decks.

Birch helped tote that gear and was what he called a combination between a grip and reporter– ‘grip-porter.’

“I started covering ice storms when nobody else would do it,” Birch said.

To paraphrase Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, Birch would go anyplace at any time for a story.

Throughout his career, the coverage of crime in Memphis has been a constant. Birch has conducted a slew of interviews with Memphis mayors as they attempted to get a handle on the crime situation.

“I would like to see dramatic change with crime,” Birch explained. “Crime has gotten out of control in a lot of cities. At this moment it’s out of control here.”

Shelby County’s Juvenile Court system struggles to find a way to rein in young offenders, many of whom are as young as 11 years of age and repeat offenders.”

Birch explained how one 11-year-old has been in police custody a half dozen times since December 2022. In a majority African American city, the vast majority of these young people are Black and have grown up in single-parent families.

Birch said Memphis doesn’t have a full complement of police officers. He said the five officers involved with the Tyree Nichols case in January were in ‘attack mode.’ Perhaps profiled Nichols.

“It’s very difficult to recruit new officers and requires some heavenly intervention. The city has offered tremendous financial bonuses to sign on as a cop in Memphis. I think it’s fifteen thousand dollars. That’s unheard of. They’ll pay moving expenses and a bonus if you come from working as an officer in another city.”

Birch has won numerous awards for his charitable and civic endeavors. In December 2021, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital named Joe a “Hero Among Us” for twenty consecutive years of participation in the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend since the inaugural event in 2002.

He spends a huge amount of his free time working with the communities.

“I’m president of the Memphis Rotary which was chartered in 1914 as the 96th Rotary Club in the world,” Birch said proudly. This year Birch made helping people on the margins of society a priority of his year as Rotary President. He’s dedicated a great deal of his time to benefit St. Jude’s  Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. He knew Danny Thomas and still knows his daughter Marlo Thomas. In 1962, Danny Thomas helped create the hospital with the goal of removing the burden of treatment costs for families so they were free to focus on their ill child.

Birch’s great-grandfather was the second mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey.

In the early days of the American movie industry, the Fort Lee–Coytesville area became New Jersey’s busiest production center. The first permanent film studio built there was the Champion Film Company.

This was long before Anchorman was even a script. Stay classy, Memphis.

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Tucker Carlson Sees Ratings Surge With January 6th Videos

The Mar. 7th edition (4.165 million) topped all cable telecasts in total viewers that week.
Doug Pucci

Published

5 hours ago

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March 29, 2023

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Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight has featured the host’s many polarizing claims. The ones made on the Mar. 6th and 7th editions of his show could be labeled as among the most controversial.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had granted Carlson exclusive access to over 40,000 hours of January 6th security camera footage. On his FNC show across those two aforementioned evenings, Carlson denied an insurrection had taken place at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; instead, it was “mostly peaceful chaos”, most who were there were mere “sightseers”, and that the footage provided “conclusive” evidence “proving” Democrats “lied” about the events of that day.

On the Senate floor on the morning of Mar. 7, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called Carlson’s Mar. 6th show “one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television.”

The immense reach that Carlson’s rhetoric regularly attracts justified the high concern and swiftness of the condemnation and backlash. One glance at the ranks of the week’s top cable news programs at the end of this article, or any of this site’s past weekly news ratings items, can glean how highly popular Carlson is in, not only the cable news world, but also, the entire television landscape.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the Mar. 7th edition (4.165 million) topped all cable telecasts in total viewers that week and matched the live plus same-day total viewing figures for the 17th-ranked broadcast network show of the week ending Mar. 12, the CBS procedural East New York.

Carlson also took the week’s No. 2 and No. 3 spots on cable in total viewers; within the key 25-54 demographic, its Mar. 6th and 7th editions were tops for non-sports cable programs (it ranked 17th and 18th, respectively, in the demo with sports included, mostly from men’s college basketball conference tournament coverage on various outlets).

For Mar. 6-10, Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged 3.568 million total viewers, 469,000 with adults 25-54 and 312,000 with adults 18-49 — the program’s highest-rated week in all metrics since the week of the 2022 midterm elections (Nov. 7-11, 2022).

As a backdrop to all of this, it was revealed on Mar. 7 — due to the legal filings made public as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News — that Carlson privately messaged colleagues he loathed Donald Trump and his presidency. (The release of that communication received no coverage at FNC.)

Cable news averages for March 6-12, 2023:

Total Day (Mar. 6-12 @ 6 a.m.-5:59 a.m.)

  • Fox News Channel: 1.359 million viewers; 172,000 adults 25-54
  • MSNBC: 0.673 million viewers; 71,000 adults 25-54
  • CNN: 0.408 million viewers; 81,000 adults 25-54
  • HLN: 0.155 million viewers; 41,000 adults 25-54
  • CNBC: 0.111 million viewers; 27,000 adults 25-54
  • Fox Business Network: 0.104 million viewers; 12,000 adults 25-54
  • The Weather Channel: 0.101 million viewers; 18,000 adults 25-54
  • Newsmax: 0.083 million viewers; 7,000 adults 25-54

Prime Time (Mar. 6-11 @ 8-11 p.m.; Mar. 12 @ 7-11 p.m.)

  • Fox News Channel: 2.237 million viewers; 274,000 adults 25-54
  • MSNBC: 1.088 million viewers; 108,000 adults 25-54
  • CNN: 0.443 million viewers; 95,000 adults 25-54
  • HLN: 0.199 million viewers; 53,000 adults 25-54
  • CNBC: 0.145 million viewers; 36,000 adults 25-54
  • The Weather Channel: 0.131 million viewers; 21,000 adults 25-54
  • Newsmax: 0.094 million viewers; 11,000 adults 25-54
  • NewsNation: 0.087 million viewers; 15,000 adults 25-54
  • Fox Business Network: 0.058 million viewers; 10,000 adults 25-54

Top 10 most-watched cable news programs (and the top programs of other outlets with their respective associated ranks) in total viewers:

1. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Tue. 3/7/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 4.136 million viewers

2. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Mon. 3/6/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.695 million viewers

3. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Wed. 3/8/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.622 million viewers

4. The Five (FOXNC, Tue. 3/7/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.300 million viewers

5. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Thu. 3/9/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.289 million viewers

6. The Five (FOXNC, Wed. 3/8/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.187 million viewers

7. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Fri. 3/10/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.099 million viewers

8. The Five (FOXNC, Mon. 3/6/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.004 million viewers

9. The Five (FOXNC, Thu. 3/9/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.982 million viewers

10. The Five (FOXNC, Fri. 3/10/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.911 million viewers

24. Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC, Mon. 3/6/2023 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.253 million viewers

170. Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO, Fri. 3/10/2023 10:01 PM, 58 min.) 0.765 million viewers

178. Erin Burnett Outfront (CNN, Tue. 3/7/2023 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.698 million viewers

334. The Daily Show “Mar 8, 23 – Marlon Wayans” (CMDY, Wed. 3/8/2023 11:00 PM, 30 min.) 0.408 viewers

359. Last Week Tonight (HBO, Sun. 3/12/2023 11:05 PM, 34 min.) 0.348 million viewers 

388. Varney & Company (FBN, Fri. 3/10/2023 10:00 AM, 60 min.) 0.297 million viewers

392. Forensic Files (HLN, late Fri. 3/10/2023 12:30 AM, 30 min.) 0.290 million viewers

441. Fast Money Halftime Report (CNBC, Mon. 3/6/2023 12:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.241 million viewers

478. Heavy Rescue: 401 “(511) No Other Choice” (TWC, Sat. 3/11/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.221 million viewers

492. Newsnation: Rush Hour (NWSN, Mon. 3/6/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.215 million viewers

Top 10 cable news programs (and the top  programs of other outlets with their respective associated ranks) among adults 25-54:

1. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Mon. 3/6/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.565 million adults 25-54

2. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Tue. 3/7/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.556 million adults 25-54

3. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Wed. 3/8/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.467 million adults 25-54

4. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Thu. 3/9/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.395 million adults 25-54

5. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Fri. 3/10/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.365 million adults 25-54

6. The Five (FOXNC, Tue. 3/7/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.363 million adults 25-54

7. Hannity (FOXNC, Tue. 3/7/2023 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.361 million adults 25-54

8. The Five (FOXNC, Thu. 3/9/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.341 million adults 25-54

9. The Five (FOXNC, Wed. 3/8/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.340 million adults 25-54

10. Gutfeld! (FOXNC, Tue. 3/7/2023 11:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.330 million adults 25-54

39. Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC, Mon. 3/6/2023 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.219 million adults 25-54

74. The Daily Show “Mar 8, 23 – Marlon Wayans” (CMDY, Wed. 3/8/2023 11:00 PM, 30 min.) 0.179 million adults 25-54

102. Low Country: Murdaugh Dynasty “2. Something In The Road” (CNN, Sat. 3/11/2023 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.152 million adults 25-54

165. Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO, Fri. 3/10/2023 10:01 PM, 58 min.) 0.115 million adults 25-54

195. Forensic Files (HLN, late Fri. 3/10/2023 1:00 AM, 30 min.) 0.105 million adults 25-54

222. Last Week Tonight (HBO, Sun. 3/12/2023 11:05 PM, 34 min.) 0.097 million adults 25-54

344. Shark Tank “Shark Tank 1102” (CNBC, Mon. 3/6/2023 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.070 million adults 25-54

498. Heavy Rescue: 401 “(508) This Aint Gonna Be Pretty” (TWC, Sat. 3/11/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.047 million adults 25-54

505. Kudlow (FBN, Fri. 3/10/2023 4:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.045 million adults 25-54

552. Newsnation Prime (NWSN, Sun. 3/12/2023 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.039 million adults 25-54

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research

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BNM Writers

Jayme West Grew From Small-Town Arizona Reporter to KTAR Anchor

“I think my radio job was paying $4 bucks an hour. You did not make a lot of money in a small town. I was always broke.”
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Published

13 hours ago

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March 29, 2023

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It’s natural for a young reporter to dream of being part of that huge story. You hope to cover the monumental event that puts your mark on journalism. Jayme West is a news anchor and co-host with Jim Sharpe on Arizona’s Morning News on 92.3FM KTAR. West learned there are stories embedded in your mind, details that will never diminish. The most memorable story for West was the aftermath of 9/11.

West traveled with Phoenix firefighters to New York. The first flight out of Phoenix after the terrorist attack was ten days out. As they drove down Lexington Avenue near the armory, every available light post was covered with posters of the faces of missing people. It was horrible, but I am honored to be part of that historic event.

“We went to ground zero and it was an incredible experience,” West said. “In the taxi from the airport to Manhattan, every available space was covered with an American flag. I’d just been to the top of the Trade Center three years before. To see it all reduced to a ten-story rubble, so compacted, it was disturbing.”

West remembers grabbing a cup of soup from one of the many food trucks that were feeding those on the ‘pile.’

“I was about to sit down on the threshold of a door, and I wiped the cement.  Then it hit me. The ashes from the seat could have been ashes of a human life.”

Delivering her 9/11 stories to Phoenix was difficult at times, but she had a job to do. West was there to relate to listeners what the Red Cross from Phoenix was doing. She talked with firefighters on the ‘pile.’ West described what was taking place at the Javits Center. To help listeners visualize what was going on.

West’s family moved to a small town, Pinetop-Lakeside. In high school, she always listened to the radio. In her bedroom was a record player with a microphone. West pretended she was running a radio station, spinning records, introducing songs.

When West finished high school, there were very few jobs for women in radio in town. “I played 45s,” she said. “I was not allowed to play two female artists in a row at the station. I learned everything there. We didn’t get free concert tickets. It was such a small town we didn’t get concerts.”

Spinning records was fine, but once she started doing news she loved it for several reasons.

“My parents were always behind me,” West said. “I think my radio job was paying $4 bucks an hour. You did not make a lot of money in a small town. I was always broke. Only one time did my father ask me if radio was the right career. But he never discouraged me from being in radio.”

While searching for news each morning, West said Twitter can be a solid source.

“I trust Twitter for news that is happening right at that moment,” West said. “With all the technology the news is right there. We won’t report on all of it, only what we can confirm. I started with a teletype. Ripped stuff off the AP wire. It’s amazing how much easier it has made my job.”

West said she does miss being out on the streets working on stories. Working leads with other reporters.

“I’m not out in the field anymore,” she said. “I monitor government agencies and law enforcement agencies.”

After thousands of stories, West has a few she can easily recall.

“British Airways was announcing their new Boeing 777,” she said. “We flew to London on a 747 and came back on the new 777. When we got to the airport they had the fire engines spraying water arches when we came through.”

West talked her way into the trip by telling her bosses she was doing a story on Yuma lettuce. Describing to listeners how the leafy vegetable made the trip from Arizona to the shelf in London the following day.

“While I was there we visited Piccadilly Square. We’d ask Londoners what they thought Arizona was like. One woman told us it’s where people cook beans, like in western movies. ‘It’s so hot there,’ they’d tell me. ‘If you don’t have an air conditioner you’ll die.’”

West didn’t attend college, but she could have. What she wouldn’t get in the classroom she made up for on the job.

“My experience came from life. From moments in history. I’ve met historical figures. I don’t regret missing college at all.”

West covered serial killers roaming the valley in 2008, the Serial Shooters. Two men were killing people at random. West spent time embedded with the Phoenix Police Department homicide division. She was with a detective from the initial call of a murdered woman. 

“I went to the crime scene,” West said. “The woman was a waitress at Denny’s. She won $1,200 at the casino and drove home where she was robbed and killed. I went to her autopsy, and we searched for bullet fragments in her car. We notified the family. It took a couple of years to catch the murderer.”

She was asked to witness an execution at a prison. She declined the invitation.

“That’s one of those unforgettable moments in life,” West said. “I realize they do need media witnesses, but I did not want that memory in my brain. I had the chance to fly with the Blue Angels but didn’t do it. No way I was going to barf on a fighter jet.”

For 20 years West has hosted Silent Witness on KTAR. This is a show that covers unsolved crimes and asks the public for help.

“I’ve been told it has been successful, but they can’t tell us specifics,” West said.

West and her husband purchased a cabin two hours north of Phoenix in Strawberry, Arizona. “When we want an escape, that’s where we go.”

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Media Turns Attention to Mississippi After Deadly Tornadoes

Rick Schultz

Published

2 days ago

on

March 28, 2023

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As most Americans were winding down their work week in anticipation of a restful spring weekend, many unsuspecting Mississippi residents were hit with a blow of destruction that will change their lives forever.

Just after sundown on Friday, deadly tornadoes tore through the Magnolia State, taking the lives of dozens and causing massive damage through a 100-mile path across the state.

Hours later, Griff Jenkins detailed the emerging story on Saturday’s Fox News Live.  He welcomed Rev. Franklin Graham, President of the humanitarian aid group Samaritan’s Purse, and the two discussed the natural disaster and the immediate needs of the impacted citizens. 

“We have people on the ground right now, we have equipment en route, we will be set up this time tomorrow. We’ll be taking volunteers, trying to help people find their things and try to recover as much as they can,” Graham began. “But Griff, the most important thing right now is prayer. As the Governor, Tate, has said, the devastation will be felt forever in these communities. As is the loss of life, 23 people and the number will probably go up.” Sadly it has, in the few days since.

Since 1970, the world has grown accustomed to Samaritan’s Purse quickly offering assistance in times of trouble, both domestically and abroad. The group models its mission around Jesus’ command to “Go and Do Likewise,” after the Samaritan helped the hurting man that others had passed by in Luke’s Gospel.

“People need prayer that God would just comfort their hearts and He’d put his loving arms around them during this very difficult time,” Graham said. “The houses can be rebuilt after time. Businesses will come back after time. Those things can be fixed with time. But the loss of life, that’s so difficult and it’s going to be felt for a long time, as the Governor said, forever. And I agree with Governor Tate, we need to pray for the people.”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) earlier had issued a statement which said, in part, “please pray for God’s hand to be over all who lost family and friends.”

For his part, Jenkins seemed to understand that God can often be heard best during times of tumult and difficulty.

“Prayer so important for people facing a very uncertain future,” Jenkins noted, as he recalled encountering Samaritan’s Purse in other disaster-ridden parts of America over the years. “If you can for our viewers, explain the challenges of getting in there and dealing with the destruction, and how you can help people.”

“First, we go in and we meet with the local officials, FEMA. We want to get their input and we don’t want to go down and get in people’s way,” Graham said. “We want to go to an area that certainly needs our help, where people haven’t gone. There will be other volunteer groups going in – Convoy of Hope and people like that will be responding – and so we all coordinate and we all work together.”

Graham said his organization basically spreads out and helps people in the most pragmatic ways possible.

“We’ll just go in and assess it and start helping,” he said. “We bring in volunteers. If a person’s house has been flattened, they’re looking maybe for a wedding ring or for pictures. Things that can’t be replaced. And our volunteers we’ll go in and help go through the rubble of the home, trying to find the valuables.

“Houses that just lost a roof but are still standing, we’ll have tarps so we can get the house back in the dry to keep it from being further damaged. The list just goes on and on, but we’ll take work orders and we go and help people that are asking for help. And we’ll be there. We’ll be there for some time, Griff. This is a bigger storm. You know, over a hundred miles and it’s just massive.”

Fox rolled footage of the destruction from Rolling Fork, Mississippi, which showed bridges, homes, roads and vehicles utterly destroyed.

“The first thing, for the local officials, this is search and rescue,” Graham said, noting that Samaritan’s Purse has been helping in similar conditions in Turkey since last month’s earthquake. “You’ve got to try to find people that may still be alive under the rubble. So you have to just stay out of the way and let the local authorities do what they do.

“And tomorrow things will begin to open up where we can come in and start helping the homeowners. But right now it’s search and rescue, and we need to pray for them. That if there’s somebody alive that God would direct them to them and get them out of that rubble right now, because time is very important.”

“SamaritansPurse.org if you want to try and help and support Samaritan’s Purse. They are among the best in situations like this. And certainly bringing a lot of relief to those who need it the most right now ,” Jenkins concluded. “And of course, as you said Reverend – prayers, prayers for this community and all of those affected in this hundred mile path.”

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