I feel sorry for those who are living in Atlanta, Georgia, USA right now. Tornados are not fun. We in Cornwall just recently had storm to hurrican force winds dumped on us not too long ago,so we have an idea of what it is like. But this unfortunate event, has for us media types, seen a rather unusual side effect.

CNN Center was in the midst of all the devastation, and took a lot of damage. The studios that CNN US normally broadcast from are quite close to the external walls. It seems from looking at video on CNN.com, that CNN Center took substantial damage and the normal CNN Studios may not be safe for people to work in right now.

So CNN have decamped the US operation to the CNN International studios, which are much deeper inside the CNN Center, and are broadcasting from there, on a temporary basis. No idea currently how temporary this is going to be, but for the moment, CNN US is broadcasting on CNN International, from CNN International. How this will affect the CNNI output once the weekend is over, is yet to be determined. It is conceiveable that CNN International could be broadcast from London as a temporary solution, especially if the normal CNN studios need a long time to be repaired. Indeed, CNN International originally came from London when it first started back in 1985.

I'd like to think that we could see more CNN US being broadcast over here in the UK, perhaps as an interactive (red button) option. Perhaps the old quarter screen idea, along with CNN Headline News. Call me old fashioned, but I did used to like it when we saw Headline News and CNN material on CNN International, back in the mid 1990s. I would like to see more.