Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Storm Chaser
Sunday
September 5, 2004
At the 9:45 AM Eastern mark, high winds are whipping across the Tampa area. The media is advising people to stay inside and off the roads, and I intend to follow that advice.
Along with the high winds, there is some rain coming through, though it's not nearly the level of rain that people on the eastern coast of Florida saw yesterday. Part of that is due to the storm passing over the state and weakening; part of that is also due to the brunt of the storm still being far away at this point. Frances is a huge one, and Tampa will be on a virtual weather lockdown today. Some daring people might head out, and as I type this I can hear the wail of a siren from the fire station across the street from my apartment complex, so emergency service crews are still heading out at this point. Though from what I've heard, once winds reach a certain velocity even emergency crews will forego the open roads (for their own safety).
|  | | Storm Chaser is treated like it's Tugger on South Park. |
When I woke up this morning, I realized that I had forgotten to bring in the two plastic chairs that I have out on my porch area. Luckily the wind hadn't been severe enough yet to blow them away; I brought the chairs in and dried them off, and now they're sitting in my front room.
Amazingly, Channel 10, the local CBS affiliate, showed Big Brother 5 last night. This was especially fortunate considering that every other major network affiliate in town pre-empted all of its evening programming. Though, in the case of ABC Action News, they had to wait for the Clemson/Wake Forest double OT thriller to end before they could go on (though, to their credit, they've been on for the duration since that point as far as I can tell).
The most compelling hurricane coverage so far from was ABC Action News'
Don Germaise, who gave cell phone coverage from his location at an oceanview hotel in Melbourne, FL. There was a bit of unintentional comedy involved with the way that he (and the entire ABC Action News crew) were referring to their Storm Chaser vehicle like it was a living being (a la "Tugger" in the classic Russell Crowe "Fightin' Round The World" episode of South Park), but even if that was a bit over the top, I found myself captivated by his description of the events transpiring around him. Without the aid of TV visuals, he had to treat it like was a radio broadcast, and to that end he painted a compelling picture with his words...
My friends Bill Mellander and Ryan Priest have both been on TV (NewsChannel 8 and ABC Action News, respectively) doing informational work for AllState in the past days. As I was finishing this I heard a familiar voice on the TV in the front room and I wondered "Is that Ryan?" -- and sure enough there he was. It will be a busy time for everyone in the insurance business through the next week.
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