Train wreck

Blogging live from Yilan where two trains collided this morning around 10h30, killing five and wounding 16. Railway authorities are cleaning up the mess of mangled metal right now, but they don't expect rail traffic to resume until after midnight.

It's been seven hours since I've arrived at the site, and I've done about seven live reports so far, and it looks like I'll be here to do some more. The weather has been miserable. First it was scorching hot and I was wilting beneath my jacket and hat. Then as the dead count started to rise, the heavens began to cry, pouring down rain and striking thunder on the tragic scene. Soaked from the waist down all the way to my toes, I was freezing cold. When the rain finally subsided, raging winds picked up. Aside from my note pad, shoes and socks, everything was dry again in an hour. Still freezing, hungry and thirsty, the wreck was still a wreck. Then the head of news gathering calls and said that I should prepare myself to stay the night and that she'll find someone to anchor for me tomorrow morning. The bad news is, I'll be at the site until whenever they finish cleaning this mess and then I'll have to find a cheap little motel to stay in and only sleep half a wink before having to get back to the scene to start reporting again. The good news is, they think I'm good enough and want me to continue handling the scene and that I won't have to do the Taiwanese news tomorrow morning! So far, it looks like they'll let me go back in time for my 14h00 Mandarin show. My cameraman for the day is grumpy, I'm wet and gross and tired, but I think I'm doing well despite the circumstances.