We met up briefly with Mike Theiss in Tallahassee, Fl and talked about our plan. Mike was still considering going to New Orleans, while Dave and I planned to stay a bit east of the projected landfall due to the fact that we didn't want to get directly into the path, we just didn't feel comfortable with that. We stopped many times while driving west since we wanted to gas up as much as possible and pick up extra supplies. We did bring 15 gallons of extra gas with us but wanted to keep the tank as full as possible. As we approached the Mobile, Al. area we received word from storm chasers George Kourounis and Mark Robinson that they had found a suitable shelter in Gulfport, MS. It was a parking garage attached to the Hancock Bank on 14th street. This location was about a half mile from the ocean. At first Dave and I didn't feel comfortable with this location but decided to met up with them and see it for ourselves. We arrived in Gulfport around 6pm on the evening of the 28th and looked over this parking garage. Dave and I decided at that point to see if we could find anything better a bit east of Gulfport in the town of Biloxi. We drove there and searched but found nothing suitable at all. We even tried getting into the parking garage of the Imperial Palace, but were turned away by security. At this point we bounced back and fourth several times on what to do. It was really the lesser of two evils, stay further east and hope we find decent shelter, or head back to Gulfport which was closer to projected landfall but we would have better shelter. We decided to head back to Gulfport.
Upon arriving back in Gulfport we checked out the marina, it was really beautiful and we were some of the last people to see that place intact. We met back up with George and Mark and at this point that had some good news for us. Several people were taking shelter in the Hancock Bank that our garage was attached to and told us that if things really got bad, we could take shelter with them in the bank. This made us feel a bit better. With being on the third floor of this place we felt relatively safe from the storm surge, but still had our concerns on how high the water would get. We also got word that this structure survived Camille in 69'. We also spoke to some emergency management folks who gave us their cell phone numbers. So, this is where we would ride out the storm.
None of us got much sleep that night and around 5am the next morning is when things starting picking up. We all started shooting video from down at street level since we knew that soon we would have to hold up in the garage and only the garage. Around sunrise is when all hell started breaking loose, and by 9am we were in the thick of it. Debris was flying by at an incredible rate of speed and roofs all around us were being ripped apart. Part of the bank roof tore off and landed right above us on the fourth floor of this parking garage. The entire place was vibrating and our biggest concern at this point was not being struck by flying debris. The roar was constant, and every few seconds you would hear glass breaking, and roofs coming apart. We could see the surge surrounding our location but thankfully it didn't get higher than a few feet where we were. If you went just a bit south, they were under almost 20 feet of water. The next few hours were spent shooting video, re positioning the cars and basically just trying to not get injured. Small rocks were being blown into our level and smashing out car windows everywhere, thankfully our vehicles didn't sustain any damage, again....we got lucky.
As things calmed down and we ventured outside, it became obvious that Gulfport was in ruins. We surveyed the damage for about 30 minutes before making our way out of the area. At this point we still weren't sure if we'd even be able to get out but decided to try since if we stayed the authorities would put everything in lock down and we'd be stuck for sure. We managed to make our way back to I-10 where for a few miles had to actually drive eastward in the westbound shoulder. We did all make it out and Dave and I drove to Crestview, Fl where we spent the night in the car in a Hampton Inn parking lot. The next morning we drove back to Orlando, Fl and even managed to get there early enough to catch an earlier flight home! Without a doubt we were lucky in several ways during this trip, we all realize that. I am very thankful to be home now and my prayers are with all those affected by Katrina. If anyone reading this can, please make a donation to the Red Cross...these people need all the help they can get.
Below is a five minute video clip of footage I shot in Gulfport during Katrina (20MB Download)
The next morning, after looking at the forecast, we realized that we wouldn't have to go far that day at all. As a matter of fact, we never strayed that far from Amarillo the entire day. Dave and I joined Cloud 9 once again that day and ended up intercepting storms just northeast of Amarillo. This storm was a beautiful LP, with a really nice wall cloud. We stayed on this storm, but worried that storms just to the south would produce tornadoes. THEY DID. Even though we didn't see any tornadoes out of our storm...it was the first time I had ever photographed a nice LP. Everything I've photographed up until now have either been classic supercells, or HP's....so no complaints from me! In all fairness, we did witness what might of been a brief touchdown out of our storm, but this hasn't been confirmed.
The next day would be our last chase day, so we decided to head to Shamrock, Tx on I-40 and pack it in for the night. The next morning, Dave and I realized that our target area had shifted several hundred miles to the south. This was not good since we needed to be back in Denver early Monday morning for our flight home. We headed to Childress, Tx and met up with several other chasers at the Kettle Restaurant (at least I think it was a restaurant..lol), all we knew was that they had wi fi, that was good enough for us. Dave and I were concerned that storms would fire around and just east and south of Lubbock, there was no way we could head that far south, and we knew it. We drove down to Turkey, Tx. where we hung out for a while and watched the sky. Storms would begin to go up, but then die out quickly. Nothing was panning out like we thought. After playing cat and mouse with a few decent looking storms around Memphis, Tx. we decided to start heading back to Denver. Of course storms did fire up east of Lubbock, and the southern most storm ended up producing multiple tornadoes, this was a hard pill for us to swallow, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Hey, if we had the time, we would of been there...but it just wasn't in the cards this time around. All in all though, I had a blast! It was great chasing with Dave again, and I had the chance to get together with some good chaser friends. And....we still came home with some great video! I've posted some video stills on our "New Photos" Page..check it out!
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Today, we started out in Grand Island, Ne. and targeted northeast Kansas. We headed down I-80 towards Lincoln and then dropped south. Once again, storms started going up early and we intercepted a cluster of storms near Washington, Kansas. The storm we were on was severe warned, but not tornado warned like the storms we intercepted yesterday in Nebraska. None the less, were were treated to some intense hail, lightning, a nice funnel cloud, and one of the best shelf clouds that I've ever seen! We also had a bolt of lightning hit a field a few hundred feet away as were were driving through the storm. No complaints at all! Tomorrow is looking like a down day so we'll do some sight seeing. But we're in for what could be another active week coming up. Check back for updates!
Thankfully I had a hugh brush guard on the front of my truck, most of the impact was absorbed by that, but I still has some considerable cosmetic damage. His truck however was messed up really bad. We had to dismantle the brush guard and store it in my back seat since it was pressed up against my hood now. After dealing with the police and insurance, Dave and I decided to continue on since there was no engine damage. A big thank you to George, Mark and Dave for helping me with everything, I would of really been screwed without them. Anyway, we continued heading down I-95 and finally made it to the Florida border during the late afternoon and stopped again to shoot some video of the massive traffic heading north on 95. I have never seen so many cars!!!! At around 10pm we pulled into Juno Beach, Fl. where we met up with Jim Edds and Mark Rackley. By this point all of us had been up for well over 35 hours and we were dead on our feet so we checked some data and hit the beds.
The next morning we headed over to the beach to shoot some heavy surf video. We had to be out of the area by noon since there was a mandatory evacuation in effect and decided to make a quick stop at a local grocery store to pick up some last minute supplies. After picking up our supplies we drove a bit further north to Ft. Pierce where we were lucky enough to find available rooms at the Crossroads Inn. Once we were all checked in, we all went out and shot some pre Frances video. Most of the stores and homes in the area were already boarded up and at this point very few gas stations were open so we made sure both our vehicles were totally filled up (this still wasn't enough we'd later find out).
The next morning is when things started picking up and we headed over to the barrier islands to get some surge video. By the time we got there the winds were already tropical storm force and we got some great video down by the marina of boats being tossed about in the water, palm trees bending in the wind, and tons of debris on the roads. Frances was really taking her time coming in, at this point the storm was just about stationary so this gave us time to go to many locations to shoot video including the town of Stuart which was a bit south of Ft. Pierce. While on US1 heading towards Stuart, we noticed a Buick/GMC sign that was dangling right over a bunch of new cars and hung out for a while to see what would happen. It didn't take long for the large sign to snap off it's post and fall right on one of the new cars. After that, we pressed on to gather more video. Upon arriving in Stuart we witnessed many trees and power lines down and stopped to get some pics, realizing at this point that Frances wasn't even here yet!
After many hours of getting soaking wet, we decided to head back to the hotel to dry off a bit and eat some dinner (we made sure to bring enough food with us so we wouldn't go hungry). We all agreed that it was best to stay at the hotel for the rest of the night since we were all down to a half tank of gas and it would be getting dark soon. This is where things started getting bad.
Scott Blair has stopped by our hotel and told us that there was one gas station open on the turnpike about 8 miles south of our location so Dave and Mark went to track this gas station down while George and I waited at the hotel. When Scott told us that the gas station was on the turnpike, we assumed he meant I-95...this was wrong and Dave and Mark drove around for quite a while trying to find a gas station that wasn't there. Scott had meant the Florida Turnpike (being from NYC, when we hear the word turnpike we think of the Jersey Turnpike). It was a stupid misunderstanding that almost got Dave and Mark in big trouble. While on their way back to the hotel Frances decided to start moving again and Dave and Mark were now driving right into the western eyewall. Driving condition went downhill super fast and George and I were really worried back at the hotel, constantly calling them to make sure they were all right. At this point it was now dark and we could see power transformers exploding in the distance. Around 8pm Dave and Mark finally made it back to the hotel, shaken up but unharmed.
Frances seemed to be intensifying right as she was making landfall, still moving at a snails pace. Now we were in the hurricane force winds big time!! We couldn't see anything at all since all the power was out but you could hear things breaking all around. We went up to a corridor on the second floor that gave us great shelter from the hurricane and spent the next few hours shooting video of power transformers exploding. There were several gusts that we experienced that must of topped the 100 MPH mark...it was amazing!!!! Finally at around 2am we decided to get some sleep since the eyewall was now moving over us. Since Frances was moving so slow, the eye lasted for many hours and we didn't experience the eastern eyewall until the next morning!
We all got up at around 7am on Monday, September 6th and at this point things were still relatively calm outside, but that didn't last very long. At around 7:30am the eastern eyewall moved in and once again we had our fill of hurricane force winds to deal with. We shot video for the next few hours and finally at around noon, decided to head on out to get some damage video and then head home. Once again, we ran into more problems.
We both had about a half of tank of gas left so we figured that we would be able to get far enough north to find a gas station open, we couldn't of been more wrong. We drove, and drove, and drove and finally as we were approaching Daytona Beach we realized that it was hopeless and stopped at a really nasty hotel called the Host Inn to hopefully find a room since at this point we were down to fumes. Thankfully they did have rooms available, but we feared for our lives staying at this place (and the hurricane had nothing to do with our fears, let me put it that way). While getting some things out of the truck, Mark was propositioned by a hooker..lol! That was one of the lighter moments of that evening at the Host Inn.
Anyway, we started calling around to see if there were any gas stations in the area that were open and had gas left and thought we had found one in St. Augustine. I had spoke to someone on the phone who said that they did have gas, so we figured that was our only hope. George and Mark had more gas than I did so they opted to do the 40 mile drive to St. Augustine (keep in mind, at this point the weather conditions were still horrible outside). If they were able to get gas there, then they would fill up the reserve tanks and bring them back for us to use. Then we would all head back north and fill up. About 30 minutes after George and Mark left we called again just to confirm that they still had gas. It turns out that the idiot that I spoke to thought I was one of their neighbors asking if they still had gas in their stove!!! What else could go wrong!!!! We immediately called George and Mark and told them to turn around and head back to the hotel. At this point George and Mark were as low on gas as we were so we were all stuck there for the night. We ate the rest of the food that we brought with us and then went to bed. To charge our phones and laptops, Dave rigged a spare car battery that I had brought just in case. It looked like something right out of McGuyver.
The next morning things finally started calming down weatherwise. We figured our best bet would be to drive into the heart of Daytona Beach and see what the gas situation was (we were also so low on gas that we could only make it a few miles before we would run out completely). While packing up the cars Mark noticed that George's truck had a flat...here we go again! But this wasn't too much of a set back since George had a full size spare. Once that was taken care of we hit the road and stopped at a Hess station right by I-95 and asked the lady what the situation was. She said to us that they did have gas, but no power. We decided that the only thing we could do was get our spots right next to the pumps and wait. And wait is what we did! We sat there for about 5 hours before power was restored and we were finally able to gas up and get the hell out of Daytona! That part of our trip was strangely fun though. We got to meet all kinds of people and even got to eat at a restaurant next door, finally....a decent meal!
From there it was a 23 hour drive back to NYC for Dave and I, and an even longer drive for George and Mark who were going back to Toronto!. What a chase! I slept like a rock last night and I'm sure it will take all of us a good week to fully recover from this experience. One thing we learned from this whole experience is MAKE SURE TO BRING PLENTY OF EXTRA GAS! Click on the pic below to view a video clip of Frances (19MB Download)
Dust started spinning up on the ground and we jumped out of our cars and started rolling video. Baseball sized hail was falling in the area (got some nice dents on my Xterra)so we had to be careful but at this point we knew a large tornado was forming just to our south about an 8th of a mile away. It was a bit too close and we were all a bit nervous but we felt confident that we could get out of the way in time since the tornado wasn't moving that fast at the time. As the tornado intensified we realized that it was heading towards us so we jumped back in our cars and drove about another quarter of a mile up highway 160 and pulled over again. Now the tornado was about an 8th of a mile wide and heading north towards highway 160 about a quarter of a mile behind us. Dave Lewison and Chris Kridler were in front of Pete and I and we all jumped out of our cars and started shooting video again. Dave and I set up our tripods as fast as possible and as I zoomed in I could see the tornado was about to cross highway 160..I didn't see the house there at first but as the shingles started to rip off I now saw that there was a house directly in the path of the tornado and were were all horrified. All we could think of was that there was a family in there in grave danger and that's when the tornado completely ripped the house apart. It was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen in my life and we got on our radios and called in the report asap. Dave Lewison called his nowcaster Jason, and Jason called the Harper County police and informed them that a house was just hit by the tornado on the east side of town. Many other storm spotters were calling in reports as well and I really believe that if it wasn't for all of them, Attica wouldn't of had sufficient warning. Thankfully as it turns out, it was a home under construction and there was no one there at the time...that was a hugh relief for all of us.
It didn't end there though, there was another tornado forming to the east so we headed up 160 another few miles and that's when we noticed the third tornado forming off to our south. Keep in mind, at this time large hail was falling here and there and were trying our best to get out of the area as fast as possible but 160 only went east so we had no choice but to head further down the road, heading back towards the west wouldn't of been a good idea since we would of been decimated by very large hail. We all pulled off and shot video of the third tornado for a while which was beautiful!! It was over open land too which was great! As we pulled back onto 160 to try once again to get out of the path of this storm we had the scare of our lives.
Another tornado was forming right on highway 160 in front of us...now we thought we were in real trouble. I have to admit, Pete and I got pretty scared and I know Dave and Chris felt the same way but thankfully the satellite vorticy moved south into the field and we nailed the gas and after dodging more large hail we finally got out of the path and set up our cameras to shoot some amazing lightning. All in all we had an amazing chase day, that's for sure. We didn't intentionally put ourselves in the path but unfortunately the road options weren't that great but we did manage to get out safely. Dave and Chris deserve the credit for that, without them Pete and I would of been super confused on how to get out of there since I was fiddling with two cameras and Pete was focusing on the driving, I should of been paying more attention to navagation. Thanks Chris and Dave! And thanks to Mark Robinson, Dave Sills and Sarah Scriver. We had a blast with all of you and can't wait to meet up again. And to end it all, any chase like this that ends with no one injured or killed is a very good day.
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