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When the Storms Hit follows Kevin Painchaud, the sole photojournalist at the small but determined newsroom Lookout Santa Cruz, as he documents a historic series of atmospheric rivers that devastated California’s Central Coast.
Amid power outages, road closures, and evacuations, Kevin and his colleagues work tirelessly to keep their community informed—often without rest, resources, or recognition. What begins as urgent local reporting evolves into a Pulitzer Prize–winning effort. This short documentary is a testament to the grit of local journalism, the emotional toll of crisis coverage, and one photographer’s unshakable commitment to bearing witness.
"There was absolutely no playbook, no script, no plan to cover the storms the right way."
— Kevin Painchaud
Director’s Statement
When the Storms Hit began with a simple question:
What does it look like when a local newsroom refuses to look away?
In early 2023, a historic wave of atmospheric rivers battered California’s Central Coast. I was living in Santa Cruz at the time. My home flooded, the power was out for days, and I was navigating the chaos while becoming a new dad. My daughter was only a few months old. In those long, uncertain days, one of the few reliable sources of information I had was Lookout Santa Cruz.
Through road closures, evacuations, and emergency updates, their coverage was relentless and human. At the heart of that effort was photojournalist Kevin Painchaud, who worked around the clock to show not just the damage, but the people behind the headlines. Kevin’s presence, soaked to the bone and always behind the lens, became a symbol of something much larger: the role of local journalism in holding a community together.
This film isn’t just about the literal storms, though they were devastating. It’s about the metaphorical ones, too. The collapse of local journalism, shrinking newsrooms, and the exhaustion of those who stay. When the Storms Hit explores what happens when a small team does the unthinkable: covers a historic crisis with grit, empathy, and integrity—and wins a Pulitzer Prize in the process.
As a filmmaker, I’m drawn to stories rooted in lived experience, stories that reveal what’s at stake when institutions either fail or hold. This one hit close to home, quite literally. I made this film not just to document a remarkable moment in local journalism, but to honor the people like Kevin who refused to stop showing up, and the community that leaned on one another when everything felt uncertain.
