As Sandy Takes Its Time, TV News Is an Endless Loop of Anticipation

One of the blessings of Hurricane Sandy, if there are any, is its status as a very slow moving weather event. The lead time has given people in the affected area — a broad swath of the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic — days to make way for what is set to be a very destructive visitor. But people who turned on their televisions in search of up-to-date information could not be blamed for thinking that they had tuned into a storm-themed sequel to “Groundhog Day,” the film where a television weatherman, played by Bill Murray, wakes up to find the same day, running in replay, over and over. Since October 26, and even before that, all-news channels and local TV stations in the areas in the hurricane’s path have had to find a different way to say the same thing over and over.