Huricane Bonnie, 1998 Fiasco

[canebeard]

While the mdr remains quiet, maybe this account of our Hurricane Bonnie chase might prove a humorous diversion.

Hurricane Bonnie Fiasco:

Hurricane Bonnie, 1998 provided another interesting occurrence. Two CBS Sixty Minutes crews were accompanying us to produce a piece for their show. Being “investigative reporters” by nature, but not so, we thought, on this specific assignment, they seemed more interested in knowing how we were able, over the years. to get through the official roadblocks to the evacuated barrier islands, when their crews were often denied access. We hid our civil defense badges from them, told them it was a trade secret, but knew eventually they would “find out” when we got them through the roadblocks to the NC coast to Wrightsville Beach, east of Wilmington, to mostly observe and present the work of us rare few hurricane photographers that had been supplying their network lead-story footage for years now.
Andy Dressler, a some-time chaser, was driving my car at the time we went through the roadblock. The policewoman manning the roadblock came over to our car and asked why we wanted to go onto the dangerous evacuated barrier island. Andy presented his Florida Emergency Management Badge through the cracked window to the police lady standing outside in 80 mph winds and blasting rain squalls stinging her face.
“OK” go on out there, but be careful,” she screamed over the howling hurricane gusts.
The two cars-full of 60 Minute producers and camera men and three and us (Andy, Jim Leonard, and myself) proceeded to the far end of the island and set up for filming on the third floor of a parking garage, on the edge of the peninsula. 110+ mph gusts blasted through, the tidal surge covered the roads to two feet deep and more in some places, and the CBS guys filmed us doing our thing.
During the eye one of the crews decided (unwisely) to go back to the mainland to file a story for the Bryant Gumble show for later that evening. 20 minutes later a producer still with us gets a cell phone call from that other crew advising him that they had been arrested at the roadblock and the cops were coming out to arrest us as well for violating the 24 hour curfew and for other charges as well.
Sure enough, a deputy in a P/U got to the parking garage and ordered all of us scoundrels and “Yankee” newsmen to follow him back through the flood, in the eye, back to the mainland.
Once there, they set up a makeshift court in a bank building, called the local magistrate at his home, and insisted he come to administer the court hearing; as the second half of the hurricane was now coming ashore.

Absurdity gone wild.

Apparently, the crew that went back through the roadblock opened a fat mouth to the newer policeman now manning the roadblock and got him angry with their arrogance. Probably. Nonetheless the hurricane is roaring outside and many network crews who were not allowed through the roadblocks were filming this court hearing through the glass doors of the bank/courtroom, hurricane winds whipping their backs.

Basically missing the experience of the back half of Hurricane Bonnie, we carefully answered interrogations about our true goals and lawless behavior in their territory; threatened with jail time, and huge fines. Meanwhile, we could see out the glass entry doors to the bank (kangaroo court), winds gusting 100 mph+, debris smashing about, and a skaggle of news crews pressed up against the doors, cameras trained on this ridiculous exercise in redneck law, and suspicions that the CBS network crews were conducting some clandestine operation.

The magistrate reprimanded the local police for pulling him out of his house and away from family in the middle of a hurricane; for something that could have waited till later to present their silly case.

The police lady, apparently was only supposed to let LOCAL Emergency Management officials and FEMA through the roadblock. She must have lied to her superiors and stated we told her we were from FEMA. Our badges said F (Florida) E (emergency) M (management) A (authority) and that is what we presented to her.

We were chastised by the local police captain / prosecutor during the hearing, and finally charged for breaking curfew and presenting ourselves as “officers”, fined several hundred dollars (bail); and told we had to come back to a real court hearing several weeks later.

The next morning Jim and I were asked to do a live interview about the hurricane and present footage on Good Morning America. Lo and behold, they knew about the arrest and court hearing, and were more interested in that. We agreed to do the interview, but only if they did not ask about that part of our hurricane Bonnie experience. The interview went fine.

Our clownlike detention by Sherrif Andy and Deputy Barney Fife ruined our chase; or at least 1/2 of it. But supplied us with a goofy hurricane chase story to tell in the future.

[canebeard]

Another quicky: our (lucky?) Huricane Charley chase, 2004.

Hurricane Charley
Luck--good or bad?
Hurricane Charley Chase, 2004

On August 11th. evening as Charley passed south of Jamaica I actually had a dream that the hurricane would come ashore at Punta Gorda, FL.

Early the next morning I reserved a room at the Holiday Inn, Punta Gorda for August 13th, just to be "safe". When friends and relatives called me to ask my opinion on landfall, I unusually confident told them "My guess, Punta Gorda"

In the first picture below is the motel, just west of US 41 bridge now labeled "Hurricane Charley, Sushi Raw Bar and Grill. This bldg. was the Holiday Inn in 2004. The front driveway / entrance has a green roof. Charlotte Harbor is on the north end of that bridge across the Peace RIver. The second wider-out picture shows Punta Gorda, US 41 bridge, the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor.

Brad Riley and myself left Vero Beach mid morning on the 13th, and pulled up to the hotel just between noon and 1 pm. Some spiral bands were passing through at the time, with gale force gusts. I tried to check in and the clerk told me our reserved and paid for room was not available, and the hotel was full. Getting vocal and demanding, then flashing my "credentials" to the manager, he assigned us a room on the second floor near the NW corner of the hotel, yards from the water; and I checked in.

As I was checking in Brad connected his computer to the hotel Wi-Fi and we observed on radar that the eye had taken a NE jog, and that 1 hr motion, extrapolated, had the eye now coming in at Ft..Myers, 21 miles to the south. (Cell phone back then did not have internet access).

So we took off for Ft.Myers and found a parking garage right near the water, overlooking the US Post Office, downtown, and the Ft.Myers marina. We pictured the surge soon sending all those docked boats through downtown and under our 3rd story perch in the garage.

Winds increased to over hurricane force when we learned the eye had jogged back to the north. The rain was so torrential at the time, visibility was down to a few feet. Too late to drive back to Punta Gorda. So we set up filming there and hoped for the "best".

Winds gusted there to about 105 mph; not the 140-150 that occurred north of us. The best footage we captured was the roof of the Post Office being ripped off, in total. 3rd. image below.

We drove back to Punta Gorda, just before dark. The motel room we had at the Holiday Inn was a wreck. Our second floor room, which we never went into, was basically gone. The several rooms at the NW corner of the hotel had collapsed into the first floor: roof gone, ceiling of floor below, gone; most of walls, gone; bricks strewn everywhere.

If we had stayed there, and not abandoned the room soon enough, we might have died with a smile on our faces; or scared shitless.

Were we lucky, or unlucky to miss the best of Charley?

So happens, this is one hurricane that we failed to get into the eye or wallcloud. It seems that every other hurricane chaser alive intercepted Charley in Punta Gorda or Port Charlotte.

So it goes.

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