Currently working remotely following the flooding of WVUE-TV's headquarters, Koster has no idea how much of the station's graphics library will be salvageable once the floodwaters and contamination from sewage have been dealt with.

"Unless it is possible to salvage data on many hard drives, we'll have to basically start again," he says. "This is a process I've already begun, while also trying to get back up to speed on other issues, because I suspect we've lost a great deal. This probably includes all of our head shots and archived photos of local, state, national and international landmarks related to news events. In addition we've lost graphic cut-outs on a wide variety of subjects that can be used to create new graphics quickly when breaking news happens."

Rich Koster's battle to restore WVUE-TV's graphic style and re-build its library reflects the determination the entire station has shown in getting back on air after it was forced to flee its headquarters in the heart of New Orleans.

"Our station in New Orleans and transmitter in Chalmette were both flooded with water containing sewage as well as other hazardous materials," Koster says. "The station took on about five feet of water and our first floor (newsroom,
weather centre, studios and sports centre) was destroyed.

"After the storm, a small group of engineers were allowed back in and they managed to salvage some equipment from the second floor, but not very much. They also put a temporary low-power transmitter on our station's broadcast tower, which thankfully didn't collapse in the high winds. Then, a little later, they were able to put us back to full power. This is still only a temporary fix and we are still without a broadcast centre in the devastated area."

Currently, WVUE-TV is being housed in Mobile, Atlanta, where EMMIS sister station WALA-TV has made room for staff in its newsroom. Mimi Strawn, WVUE-TV's News Director, says: "Our anchors and production crew are working out of the Mobile facility so we can broadcast in the New Orleans area. We have reporters and photographers stationed around New Orleans to continue our coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita). We are on our own Channel 8 signal and we have been broadcasting for some weeks in the New Orleans area, from our original tower and at full power. We are also carrying out newscasts on our website."

Strawn adds that although the situation is difficult and the facilities and equipment are in no way comparable to what the station had in New Orleans before the disaster, staff have been amazing at making do, thinking outside of the box, and rebuilding.

"Our company is committed to rebuilding and relocating staff back to the New Orleans area as soon as possible," she adds. "We face different problems than our competitors because our station was flooded. In the meantime, we will continue to provide daily coverage to our viewers."

The cramped conditions at WVUE-TV's temporary home in Mobile have made it necessary for some staff, Rich Koster included, to work remotely. This, says Koster, has brought an interesting new dimension to the job.

"Although this situation has been created out of necessity, the way I'm currently working could catch on," he says. "I might actually be a part of a "wave of the future" by telecommuting my graphics job remotely to my TV station. At the moment, there simply isn't enough room in the temporary studios for me, nor any spare computers to use for graphics. I took the initiative to offer graphics via "telecommuting", using my own personal laptop. Luckily I've got a very powerful laptop that already had Photoshop on it as well as some of our graphic templates. Using the Internet, I've connected to our station's account at AP Graphics Bank and downloaded images so that I can start the process of re-building."

Making graphics remotely has proved easier than Koster imagined, mainly thanks to a reliable electricity supply and even more reliable Internet access through Bellsouth Fastaccess DSL.

"Station producers, anchors and reporters simply send me an email with their graphic requests, providing me with the same information they would normally do before Katrina," he explains. "They use our station's electronic newsroom system (ENPS) with its connection to Artbox graphics networking and Deko graphics output computers. If I have a question about what they want, I either reply via email or call them. After creating the full-screen graphics and maps on my home computer, I email a reply back to them, file-attaching the graphics. At their end, they take these jpeg files and input them into the video display system they're using in Mobile, to be used live on-air as well as editing them into packages."

One key piece of software that WVUE-TV needed immediately after the hurricane was its map graphics package, Curious World Maps.

"With half the city underwater and the situation changing very rapidly, we really needed a way of creating quick, accurate maps that showed our audiences exactly what was going on," Koster says. "For this reason it was vital that we got Curious up and running as fast as possible. I contacted the company and they very kindly FedEx'd me a current version of the programme, along with a software license key for it, because our permanent license (on the hardware dongle) couldn't be retrieved or used as it was under water.

"We're very appreciative of the help provided to us by Curious Software. The company has gone above and beyond what I expected from anyone. I'm also really grateful to the people at AirPhotoUSA for supplying new map imagery. Without their assistance we still wouldn't have any maps on the air, but because they have been so generous and prompt with their help we're able to show what areas along the Gulf Coast have been affected by both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, plus we're ready to inform our viewing public about what to do the next time storms threaten us during the rest of this year's hurricane season."

No one can predict where or when disaster is going to strike, or the impact it might have, but in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Koster recommends that all broadcasters at least back-up their graphics data.

"Backing up templates and files would certainly have helped speed things up for us," he says. "I would recommend that broadcasters keep up to date station logos, idents and graphics on CD-Rom or DVD, or better still networked and stored offsite, just in case they ever have to evacuate in a hurry."

However, short of pulling out multiple hard drives and evacuating them along with staff, Koster thinks there is little the station could have done to save its graphics library.

"With a graphics archive going back 15 years, it would have been impossible to back-up everything because of the amount of storage space required," he says. "Nor would it have been possible, in the hurry of the evacuation, to have brought everything needed by our graphics department to get back up to speed immediately, especially as we've long had the most graphics-intensive newscasts in the New Orleans area. Plus, lives are more important than property. In a city the size of New Orleans, every hour not spent evacuating once the need arises puts people in further in danger. What really matters is not what we lost, but the fact that all our employees were able to get out in time, and we're all alive."

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