Citizen journos took enduring Irene images

Many of the enduring images of Hurricane Irene were taken by ordinary citizens pulling their cameras out at the right moment.

CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason reports that citizen journalists became an important part of Irene's coverage.

As Irene threatened the Lower Bartonsvile Bridge in Vermont on Sunday, Susan Hammond grabbed her little flip camera and took a video, but she was running out of memory.

"I was frantically deleting old videos from my camera to open up space for it," Hammond says.

Then Hammond caught one of the defining images of the storm on the last bit of footage she had left.

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Across the internet's social networks, the people who witness events increasingly are telling the story themselves.

On the photo site Flickr, Dylan Nord posted a memorable picture of the storm surge in Long Branch, New Jersey.

Two girls look out across the beach in Long Branch, New Jersey, as Hurricane Irene comes ashore.

/ Dylan Nord

Bill Kurtz, a public school teacher took an incredible shot in West Haven, Conn., before being knocked over by a giant wave.

These citizen journalists often have an emotional attachment to their subjects.

Chris Dymek shot his sister's house in Manville, New Jersey.

In Vermont, Susan Hammond had grown up near that covered bridge, and said "It was devastating" to watch it get washed away.

Chris Schoenbohm said he put all the photos he took from the storm on Flikr, including a memorable one of dark clouds.

Eventually, however, the sun came out, and Irene came to an end.

A flooded house in Manville, New Jersey.

/ Chris Dymek