As weird as this may sound; I get super geeked when it comes to hurricanes. Growing up on the gulf coast of Mississippi, I’ve experienced a few hurricanes. I didn’t go through Katrina, but my family did. But, no matter what the category of the storm, I have always felt them out in the ocean, or when they get close to making landfall, I want to be right there in the thick of it. I remember when a storm was getting ready to hit and I was working at my first radio station, we all had to ‘report’ and camp out overnight to cover any breaking news. I remember someone calling in reporting flooding on Highway 90 and I jumped at the chance to get in the station van and take our big bag phone and go report on what was happening. When I arrived at the location of the flooding, it wasn’t much. Maybe about 2 feet of water covering the highway, but passable. I pulled into the parking lot of the Coast Coliseum and ran into another radio guy who came down to check out the situation. We chatted a bit and then went back to our stations and waited the storm out. I may have missed my calling. The airplanes that NOAA used to fly into the hurricanes and report on conditions were stationed at Keesler AFB and other locations near us, but I always wanted to fly into the eye the storm myself. If you’ve ever wanted to see what it looks like flying into a category 5 hurricane, then watch as the 53rd weather reconnaissance squadron flies into a hurricane.
Be Just And Fear Not
sQueeGee
