hurricane force

Why is it necessary to send reporters around to be blown about and rained on to report on a hurricane. I'm not surprised that they volunteer for this, because they did so for wars as well (to be shot at or have bombs go off outside the window)...but seriously..I think we've been through a bad storm at some point in our lives. Just multiply that by a very high number for intensity and add a very long time and there's your hurricane. Instead we get "quick everyone get out of town, CNN is coming to film the devastation".