it's a category 2 hurricane out here did the Western eye come ashore yes it did it came right across right down over top of us right there there is the hurricane landfall project truck it's all set up strapped down we're going to turn all the switches on in just a little while standing outside of the Chevy Tahoe we are getting into the eye wall of hurricane Jean right now core came in on Shore here along the Southeast coast of these little bullet cams right here that we will use to record that [Music] surge hello again and welcome to another edition of stories from the hurricane highway I am your host Mark stth great to be back with you again this time around we're going to talk about Hurricane Arthur at least I will tell you all about it and and I was joined by
Jesse bass yes it's in the can I recorded a session with him recently he was there with me for Arthur the first name storm of the Season Category 2 hurricane along the North Carolina Outer Banks in July of 2014 yeah Jesse and I will uh tell yo all about it in uh in just a few minutes first though just to kind of catch yo up on everything it is 2014 now in the
chronological March forward through all these adventures and we're up to June just got back from testing Herby in Ardmore Oklahoma with Paul and Carrie and it was very successful despite the payload being stuck up in a tree Carrie was able to get it down and we got the cameras and the data from the little microchip that was in there and all that interesting upper atmospheric data very cold high up over uh I think we hit 97,500 ft something like that and just a very good test and so I I got back to North Carolina in early June and looking at the Twitter timeline here and again this is such a cool thing I'm going to be doing this for the rest of the series for years to come using Twitter is sort of my framework to help me remember just about anything that I possibly can uh it certainly does help because it's all there Mr musk didn't get rid of that when he purchased Twitter he can look up stuff on advanced search going back a long way so yes I get back to North Carolina it looks like I don't know June 3rd or 4th something like that I flew back home and uh always complaining about boarding an airplane it looks like I said something like 300 years into the future we're still going to have a dreadful time loading an airplane it's true why is it so difficult but anyway I get back and on June the 4th I tweeted
that we have 90l in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico uh first of the Season that invest number now active in the extreme Southern Gulf I said Eastern but it's Southern Gulf and of course I did video blogs about it I'm sure posted those to our app hurricane impact and by the way I don't remember exactly when if it was 13 or 14 that I did have a name change
from Hurricane track to Hurricane impact because there was confusion with another very popular app that had been around for many years called hurricane tracker and even a couple of articles that were written about the app and hurricane track and me and the project listed the
app with the wrong link on the App Store they listed it as hurricane tracker and they were in pretty much direct competition with eileene and her app uh my colleague and friend Eileen from Kitty code who had hurricane hurricane Pro hurricane HD but anyhow I I said look we got to change the name here so we stand apart and uh chose hurricane impact and of course we had it available on Android starting in 2014 that was very very costly sunk a lot of money into the app it was always having problems I was paying a local developer here in Wilmington and it just never seemed to just have everything going for it yo know it was always something wrong it was very difficult to keep up with and very costly we'll talk about that more later I might dedicate a little segment down the road to eventually sunsetting as they say I think that was about 2018 2019 somewhere around there I was like we're not doing this anymore but we had it in 14 2014 and I was trying to promote it get those app sales up like three or4 doll or whatever like come on got to be a better way eventually there would be a better way we'll get there so you know I'm talking about all kinds of stuff with the tropics on a daily basis social media especially Twitter and Facebook YouTube YouTube it still was fairly small for me still I did have a pretty good following on Twitter and um I took advantage of it uh the other thing that was going on I got back just in time remember we did the weather balloon test the Herby test June 2nd and I flew back third fourth something like that and on the fifth I'm all the way up in needs Ferry it's near Jacksonville North Carolina that area and I spoke at the enlo County Library I did a little presentation to a group of people that came out for Hurricane awareness talk and um it was a pretty new facility if I do recall and it's interesting because I tweeted a picture as I was driving up there a radar scope screenshot uh of a pretty bad thunderstorm that was coming through the area even had some pinks in there that hail signature severe thunderstorm warning was in effect as I drove up there and um it was real muggy very hot a lot of energy in the air and I I kind of remember this now you know I was like all right I'm going to go do this talk I always love talking to the public such a wonderful experience anytime I get to do it and there was this terrible weather that I had to endure to get there driving up Highway 17 I finally got there I did the talk and everything was fine no problem so we go on through the
fifth six and so forth we had 90 L but eh it really wasn't doing much um and then it looks like I did another talk in Richlands at a public library on June the 7th so I was busy doing some public speaking I think there was this uh sort of circuit they were doing they wanted me to talk at a couple of different venues a little series whatever and I think that must have been part of that cuz I was at two different locations over two different dates um so yeah that was interesting I did a lot there in 2014 really promoting you know the Herby stuff showed some really cool video from the test in Ardmore uh a little bit of you know the history of hurricane track up up to not quite including 2014 because we hadn't done anything yet but that was going to change definitely going to change as we get up to um the mid part of June just kind of scrolling through the Twitter here nanel comes and goes no big deal
obviously but then as we get out towards the middle and then eventually the last third of the month of June the global
models started picking up on an area of
low pressure that would kind of Mill around in the Gulf of Mexico sort of from an old surface trough come Inland develop sort of you know a mesoscale convective low or whatever non-tropical in nature it's over land and then come back out again off the Southeast coast maybe off of Florida and the models are saying hey this might turn into something you know you know a non-tropical deal that develops into a tropical storm so you know that's what
we were watching okay this could be interesting and this was the first year that the national Hurricane Center 2014 was issuing the uh graphical tropical weather outlook with the colors the yellow people call them crayons now they've broken out the Crayons yeah they were doing that 2014 yellow orange and red for low medium and high chances for development and there were these little areas that kept popping up in and around Florida it was just a disturbed area a little boundary through there that was the focusing mechanism we had had 90l in early June uh By the 19th there was another little area of low pressure little mesoscale system very small non-tropical low kind of tangled up with a front and it moved across the gulf the Eastern Gulf and finally came in kind of around the Bermuda high I can just imagine that big circulation pattern clockwise sent that area into the South and then it came around again and eventually made its way back out over the Atlantic and all of a sudden it was like huh well here we go something might start to form so on June 26 I first mentioned it on Twitter anyway NHC mentions possible low developing off southeast coast this weekend steering Panner would not send it out to see something to Monitor and I remember and I won't say who it was cuz I try to avoid calling people out I just don't think it's a good practice unless they really deserve it and even then yeah you know why do I have to be the one but there was a prominent meteorologist in Charlotte that I remember because they were starting to become some talk I don't like the word hype either because I'm not out there yelling like with a big bullhorn or something unless you need to Katrina Ian
you know I these life-threatening systems there's times when you need to Hype stuff up and you need to hit people with a hammer so to speak yell in their ear whatever the case may be but this wasn't it and that's not what I was doing yeah I was talking about it all right we got to watch something and yo know Twitter was still catching on and you got people that do kind of overdo things and they want to do it for likes and shares and clicks and whatever and so this one meteorologist in Charlotte kind of went the other way and was just like hey look absolutely don't change any plans for the Outer Banks it's probably going to be a messy system yo know very little impact he's basically saying monitor for now I mean he had his cya monitor for now but it's really nothing to worry about um and I was like well the models say otherwise is what I was thinking I wasn't going to go head-to-head with this person again it's not my place you know you waste time doing that honestly and I want to focus on the here and now and the Here and Now was suggesting something could develop so it in fact did and it would become Arthur and uh so as time goes on uh you we get up through the day on the 26th into the 27th this little area pretty innocuous looking overall just a little impulse that's all you need you need the the seedling to be there and with the Atlantic the Western Atlantic pretty warm and the nice pattern setup that we had uh it looked like something was going to happen so by the 27th I was mentioning it even more more and um it was a 20% chance of development according to the Hurricane Center Jesse and I get into all of this when when I bring him in in just a few minutes but again just kind of setting the stage for you here uh through looking back through Twitter and uh so that was at uh like 8:00 a.m. on the 27th and um by 8:00 p.m. so you know 12 hours later uh Hurricane Center says 30% chance of development and so by the 28th I post said something on Facebook unfortunately if I click on it it doesn't show up I mean let me just make sure I think it's just not there yep file not found the good old 404 era era
error uh I said on Facebook basically pay attention this weekend into early next week as the potential exists for the first name storm to develop off the Southeast coast so basically as we rounded out the month of June it looked like we were going to have Arthur and by the 28th uh we got 91l you know it was designated as 91l there were some Northerly Shear if that would let up you know how this goes if that lets up if this happens if that happens we're going to be Off to the Races and that's exactly what happened Arthur ended up being a category 2 with Winds of 100 milph it moved up the Southeast coast from south to North and then crossed over near Cape Lookout in vicinity west of the Outer Banks across the pamco sound very vulnerable to storm surge and I was there of course and Jesse came down to help and it was just an amazing adventure my first uh big thing with the Weather Channel you know as I had signed the contract that they would work with me exclusively any footage any camera stuff whatever it was all going to be on the air on the Weather Channel they would interview me you know it was a partnership it was great and we were doing it in my backyard now a couple of side notes yo know and related to my life at the time uh I lived in a rental and we lived
in sort of the southernish part of New Hanover County not far from the ocean actually it was a pretty nice little house uh in a subdivision uh in the Masonboro area as it's called and the inter Coastal Waterway was not too far from our house and then Masonboro Island which is uninhabited was a little bit more East than that and this first drone that I had the Phantom 1 if I put it up 100 ft
and it had a very limited distance and I flew it out a couple hundred yards to the east by being 100t up or so yo could clearly see the Atlantic so we're pretty close to the ocean relatively speaking and a pretty nice little neighborhood and one of the neat things about the Weather Channel it looked like because of the contract and it wasn't you know an insane amount of money obviously but it was good and we had come through all this financial hardship from me losing the Lowe's partnership
and the financial collapse that came for everybody pretty much except the bankers later well some bankers suffered to yo know the story there's a movie about it called The Big Short in a book too anyhow um we were nearing the end of our bankruptcy protection you know reorganizing everything we did I think it was 11 or something like that I can't remember exactly but it wasn't chapter 7 where you just liquidate everything and we we restructured some stuff and you know all the unsecured debt credit cards whatever bye-bye cars and things we wanted to hold on to we restructured Ed and we came up with a great payment plan and we had a trustee and all that good stuff and we were able to hang on and we persevered you know I've talked about this I like being open about it because it's a heck of a story uh and now that the Weather Channel had signed me we were in a financial position now coming up on just about 5 years and it was a 5year plan that we could buy a house uh and start over in New Hanover County in Wilmington so that's we were starting to get there that's that was an amazing time and at the same time though you know we we got to get there my wife and me the kids and so let's just kind of keep track of how many kids Mark has at this point 2014 we have Nathan who's in high school we have cole who is still in middle school at this point I believe then we have maler uh also I would assume middle school close to it maybe Cole was High School maybe a freshman anyway I don't have to know everything and mallerie was a competitive dancer and I really came up through the ranks went to a local private Studio that had a very small like I don't know it's like 15 20 young ladies and it was intense
hours a day several days a week very yo know like high-end it's not wck dance let's put it that way and it was very expensive too believe me and they did really well to the point that her her dance company as they call it went to a national championship out in Vegas and guess when that was going to be happening during the time that Arthur was coming yep so
uh mallerie is going to be gone and she's with my wife Rebecca out in Vegas so we have Nathan at home Cole at home mallerie's gone we have my daughter brillan and we have Josh who is just about four years old at 3 and A2 in
2014 and uh we we didn't have Daphne yet
okay so we're at six kids for those of you playing at home um and that's a lot to juggle as I've got to get ready for Arthur up on the North Carolina Outer Banks and we darn well better hope that me we being me that it does not Veer and
actually come into the Cape Fear area you know how awful would that be I mean I would have known it in time and just stayed home but you know who needs a hurricane in Wilmington when my wife's not home and that would have been terrible but anyway that's not what happened it did in fact go up towards the Outer Banks but it was stressful me wrestling everything three and a half year old lot of energy a lot of chaos and I got to get ready to go I got to get the equipment ready the weather channels anxious to get rolling um yo know they told me Jim Cantor is going to be out there we want you to stop in and do some stuff with him here are the different times that he's going to be there there's just a lot of planning and it's exhausting and so before I bring in Jesse I'll get us all the way up to the point here then I'm going to leave Wilmington I get the Tahoe packed up and
I'm going to be ready to go and I did tweet here this is on the 29th time to get the hurricane gear ready for possible field Mission later this week I guess Fourth of July fireworks with the kids will have to wait and that's actually a bummer cuz I love little Traditions like that especially with the family and my kids and you know even the adult kids now it's just fun you go down to the beach we do it we do it responsibly don't get crazy at least not too crazy we all still have our fingers and we've never been issued a citation because they are illegal but anyway uh I hate missing stuff like that um but it was coming work work was calling right so time to go time to get ready and I I remember how tired I was
when I finally left at the end of the month there getting into the first part of July whatever it was probably the July 2nd Jesse and I talk about it and we settled out all those details but my plan was to try to leave fairly early good luck and stop in Williamston North Carolina at a Hampton Inn take about a three or 4our nap which if you do it right it it really works I'm telling yo I've done this long enough enough yo you need 3 or 4 hours something's crashing in the background but that's all right and you'll be okay and of course nothing ever works out like that or at least it didn't it's better now it really is but I didn't leave until later and I remember I stayed for like an hour at the uh Hampton in if that just kind of reminded me of Sandy where I tried to get some sleep at that Hampton in up in vinand New Jersey and I just like I think I closed my eyes for 10 minutes all right time to get up just anxiety um the adrenaline it's not good for you it can't be but you know humans are pretty tough and I would get through it and it would be an incredible adventure and I would accomplish some things that nobody's ever done before and that all happened literally where I got my start on the North Carolina Outer Banks for Hurricane Arthur over July 4th weekend 2014 so that my friends is a good segue
into uh bringing in Jesse bass and my conversation with him and so let's do it we'll have Jesse come in and then after the uh conversation with Mr Bass I will be back to wrap this up put a bow on it and we'll talk about what's going to happen in the next episode but for uh now here's Mr
Bass
all right it's my pleasure to bring in Jesse bass Jesse good to see you again and uh talk to you about Arthur can yo believe once we get to July 4th it'll be 10 years that's just ridiculous since Arthur man that makes absolutely zero sense and I feel old right well let let's think back almost 10 years ago um just to remind people you live up in the Portsmouth area of Virginia so you're fairly close to the North Carolina Outer Banks and uh I live down in Wilmington so I'm close to and we were watching Arthur which uh formed from a non-tropical area of energy that came off the Southeast coast that was kind of interesting we'll talk about that in a minute from the from the Wikipedia and to help refresh memories but um it was going to be a mark and Jesse Affair to meet out there and uh it was pretty interesting because I was going to take the drifting surge Cam that was like a big deal had developed that in early 2014 with Carrie had it with me um I had the Logitech vehicle cam we were testing the Logitech as a vehicle cam but we still had a couple of these bullet cam uh systems and uh then we had an anomet that we were going to set up at Dan's place in rhany good friend of ours Dan and uh see what happened you know and we were you know ready for Arthur so that's the setup that that's what the plan was um so let's go back just real quick I'm going to go over to the Wikipedia page I think Jesse it's interesting that Arthur started from a non-tropical area of low pressure it was tracked as a little vort Max of energy across the southeastern United States and became a category 2 hurricane from
that we don't see that very often do we no it's pretty rare it does happen some occasions but uh yeah that that was definitely one that uh was uh something different for the for the time that we've been together and doing this stuff we haven't usually seen something like that I am going to see if we can find
the list here of yeah here we go all right wow they got to have a better way of archiving this I want to go back and see um when the first tropical weather
outlook was issued for it and uh this might take me a minute no problem let's see list there we go 2014 there's
17 2022 oh I see golly man next time I talked to the Hurricane Center oh it looks like that's interesting looks like the very first one was July 1st yes yeah I'm seeing that now on my uh my little write up blurb on my old website that's still up
well that's annoying I wanted to go before that where you could see like yeah watching this but it doesn't exist no I think they were probably just you know outlooking it or what have yo just discussions yeah I get a 4 a 4113
error the the when I click on when I click on view two-day dra graphical tropical weather outlook it's already a tropical storm yeah July 1 July 1 well that's some some bull wheat it was tropical depression one as of July one because they were starting the graphical tropical weather outlooks that year yeah and they just didn't archive them I guess that's fine but yeah it started from a uh um non-tropical area of low pressure and let's just go down to the meteorological statistics if they have that on Wikipedia probably should have just read it from the uh tropical Cyclone report let me just do that talk on it what I have what I have here actually is uh on July 27th the lad developed as it pushed its way off of the coast into the attic I mean yeah excuse me June 27th yep you're correct um and then by uh July 1st NHC started uh advisories on tropical depression one off Florida East Coast as the depression uh began slowly drifting Southward right but through the day on July the 1 the depression would organize further and become tropical storm Arthur later that day it was a beautiful hurricane too on satellite we'll get to that um but non-tropical Origins let's just start with that the origin story of Arthur you know it's it's it's not a tropical iCal wave it is uh not an upper level area of low pressure that spins out over the ocean like waen did where it came from in 2015 as example there um
it's a non-tropical area it's just a low pressure like a mesocyclone or not a mesocyclone a meso Vortex convective complex or something or an MCV trying to say mesoscale convective Vortex just fancy words that's all they are for an organized area of thunderstorm that developed out of the tropics that's all it is it's nontropical but it is a Seedling and that's what's interesting is you do get these complexes of thunderstorms these mesoscale convective systems MCS or MCV for Vortex and
they'll come off I remember in 1997 hurricane Dany developed from such a system that rode around a big old western Ridge and it came from north to south down into the Gulf of Mexico in a Big Al Nino year of 1997 and was a category one hurricane Danny near Dolphin Island and I remember how bad I wanted to go over there but I didn't have enough money so the Weather Channel covered it and I didn't neither did yo I didn't know you yet yeah but uh yeah sometimes these happen so um reading the uh forecast or the tropical Cyclone report from Robbie Berg NC State graduate by the way um we won't read this word for word but it did start as a non-tropical area uh June 25th showers and thunderstorms formed over the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico in an area of upper level D fluence ahead of a shortwave trough this is all your technical stuff over Texas weak lowlevel vorticity developed within an area of showers and thunderstorms during the day and moved northeastward across Louisiana Mississippi and Alabama so that's interesting it started as a clump of thunderstorms in the Gulf in the Northwest Gulf and it had nice D fluent flow which is air spreading out ahead of it and so it moved off of the gulf which of course is very warm into the United States and uh that would be Louisiana Mississippi Alabama it turned Eastward across Georgia South Carolina where it became entangled with a weak frontal boundary more focusing right and then that front moved slowly Southeast out southeastward and low pressure developed just off the coast of South Carolina on the 28th of June and we were Off to the Races so you remember all that how that all came to be we were certainly watching it on the Hurricane Center site and probably I was tweeting about it and yeah uh doing video updates and I remember first mission I can remember bits and pieces man that was long ago yes coming up on 10 years yeah that part of it I or you know you reading that and listening to that yeah it's definitely bringing back the memories but uh and I remember tracking it across each day cuz that was the first year they did the graphical tropical weather outlook yo can see that little yellow area and then it would be I guess orange finally went red code red and um and boom we had
Arthur so let's go back to your page and I'm going to put a link to Jesse's page here he's got a good write up on it the old vorm photo.com and still there is that site like is the server just sitting out there and yeah it'll just be there forever by accident because nobody knows how to get to it I guess yeah I still have yet to be able to get into it to start pulling down the information and these write ups and that yeah I know one of these days I'm might have to just take a month off and sit in my little
hole somewhere in my back office and just rewrite everything and just I don't know right click and Save Right images and then whatever happens happens I guess yeah I don't know I've been able to get I haven't been able to get in I haven't really haven't tried here in the last few months but uh did right up nice pictures and I'll make sure I link this on patreon and over on the Discord um so our plan was to go up to the Outer Banks and be there uh for the
arrival of Arthur unless at least go back to the uh let's see advisories and that
should have the nice map thing we'll go back to 2014 sometimes it's fun just to do this live as they say and not worry about editing and making it all smooth it's just kind of real time so we had uh we'll do the 5day track forecast with the uncertainty cone as they call it and watches and warnings there it is wow that old looking map all right it is funny how it's changed over the years okay let's see oops if you go too far back it takes you to the end all right so first advisory trop tropical depression one advisory one came out at 11 pm. on June the 30th and it was just east of ah roughly
Viro Beach area um off the coast of Florida where they had a tropical storm watch it would parallel the Florida coast forecast to parallel the Southeast coast and then maybe just cut across Cape Lookout and
then Cape Hatteras possibly on the sound side of hatus which is a big impact or yes just offshore like which hurricane 10 years before Arthur you know that one right because you were there for that with me and John yes sir Hurricane Alex good old Alex just what even 20 mil offshore of buckon and whatnot and uh big impact yeah Western eyewall but this looked like it could possibly cut across pamco sound and maybe bring the eye directly over the Outer Banks which would be a landfall because Alex in 2004 they didn't classify it as a landfall because the eye didn't cross the coast even though a little piece of it might have gotten into Cape hatus area but it's got to be more than just a little piece and yep I guess they call it a strike or something but not a landfall so it' be similar to Alex uh in ' 04 again that's 10 years
earlier and Technology had Advanced a lot since 2004 so I'd be taking again this drifting surge Cam that was my first year working with the Weather Channel so that was going to be all exciting cantori was going to be down there we were going to be working with him I told you about that yep um I had the Drone quadcopter we called it back then and uh thought wow this would be cool to get some drone shots and uh we got up there pretty early well ahead of everything and um let's see looks like you got out there you got there before I did you got out uh from what I have here around 3 or 3:30 in the morning ah yes I did yeah and I came in sometime after 4:00 a.m. right and got down on the island I got across the boner Bridge just before they decided you know to that was the yeah the evacuations Andor shutting down access to the right to Hatter Island through the bridge yeah and I still had the original Taho uh all the stuff on it and I remember that dude so this is one of these stories that I like to tell just about how grueling this stuff can be so for me my setup was um we had in my family life uh three
and a half year-old Josh and we had brillan uh who was let's see in 2014 she
would have been seven or eight something like that then we had Nathan who was like 16 17 you know teenager and we had mallerie had Cole Noah whatever but mallerie uh my oldest daughter you know she danced you remember Jesse she did the competitive dance yes she and my wife put in some time on those too yes just happened to be uh in
Las Vegas for the national championship of this particular dance um stuff yo
know that it's called Nationals and for her level she was in a pretty high tier um similar to like you you know like incaa division one they would be division one you there's wck dance and then there's like different divisions just like cheer there's cheer competitions and there's baseball and Pop Warner football and you know there's all kinds of stuff for your kids to do so she's a competitive dancer at a fairly small but very intense studio and they were at Nationals in Vegas and I was just like H you got to be kidding me so I had to go up to the Outer Banks for this and you know how it is dude you're up all night I even see you mentioning in here uh the ecmwf showing the system moving off the Southeast coast United stes installing you know like whatever that would become Arthur so forth we're watching models and that keeps us up late cuz that stupid thing doesn't come out until like 2: am or later yeah it's awful and it's just grueling so you know you mentioned me getting there at the we hours in the morning that's exactly what I did I packed everything up and I
left uh Wilmington and wanted to make sure I got out there before sunrise on on I guess
what would that be the third so that we'd have all day that day yeah the third right and uh so I uh had had for
whatever reason booked the Hampton in up in Williamston because I thought I know what it was I thought I'd leave earlier which you know never actually I'm getting better at it because I'm more organized and there's more stuff but it's just easier to yeah that is departmentalize everything yeah those days are not as easy right right um and you know with everything going on I got my you know Josh is three and a half and a handful and Mark's busy is playing dad and hurricane track guy um so I was hoping yeah I'll probably leave Wilmington at you know five or six and uh I'll sleep a few hours at the Hampton in was my thought process and so the Hampton in and Williamson is only like maybe 90 minutes from uh what would be the checkpoint and you can probably hear my phone is just continuously let me put this into airplane mode the whole family chat man um when you have seven kids and and a wife and everybody's texting each other at 11 o'clock at night when we're recording this yeah it gets busy anyway phone is in airplane mode it's all good um I stopped in at that I was going to stop in at the Hampton and get a few hours of sleep and wake up like yeah you know because three or four hours of sleep is better than no sleep and um try to still get out there around 5:00 a.m. and then you would come on down and we would beat the uh the the closure as as you alluded to they would close Highway 12 and yo know again I want to make it clear we know people out there but they don't care and it's nothing against me or Jesse or anybody um if you're wanting to go south and they've put up the roadblock it's almost impossible unless you get permission from the local emergency management director or the D County control board that's literally what they're called and I just don't like playing that card unless I have to and so far in my career I've never had to you know like why am I so important that I feel like I have to be out there I know the rules so get out there before the roadblock goes up because you know Jesse those people men and those things they got they don't want to worry about stormchasers or looky l or whoever and they got enough going on so yeah we we wanted to make sure we got out there before all that Shenanigans so as usual it took me longer to uh to get ready and uh I
didn't leave until probably after Nightfall and you know go up Highway
17 through Newburn Washington go up to Williamston I checked into the Hampton Inn and I think I slept for an hour and
I left I was like the adrenaline was pumping I couldn't do it I gotta go and I got out there and it was uh like 4 something in the morning and the sun was just starting to come up I just wonder if that wasn't the second into the third because it just seems like we were out there a whole day and then you came down and I remember I took a nap during that day it just seems like because the fourth is when it hit you know like exactly after midnight on the fourth yeah but no it was the third if I remember correctly and from my writings there um it was that morning and the photos if you scroll down you'll you'll see where uh you had uh texted me and or we were chatting one way or the other that uh you were going to uh get some shut ey right and um I met you where we would be staying and dropped off a few things but then I went ahead and went out to catch Sunrise shot some photos uh at the rhany
pier then a few photos along the beach in the Waterfront there as a sun started to come up but then I made my way back over to 12 where Jim Cantor had a conga
line of locals and tourist told me that now yes uh locals and everybody was out there to see him and meet him and uh he's doing his live shots right and um so I made my way I
waited till he was done uh the the crowd thinned out and you had told me to um stop by and tell him that you would be getting up with him right shortly yo know blah blah blah right and um so I mean this is still early in the morning we're talking maybe 7:30 7 7:00 somewhere around around there and uh I made my way over introduced myself and uh I said I got a message for you and he was like he was like okay and I said that uh I said Mark s's down here said uh I said and I work with him and we'll be getting up with you short he goes the sth is here the sth is down here that's awesome
yeah and he nearly broke my hand yep yo know shaking it and yep he's a thick dude yes he is I was like okay I that you can let go now right he knows his way around to Jim Jim Jim does but uh yeah we discussed the people stoping he was like dude he said I love it but it's crazy he said because there's nowhere to go to get away from it down here he said there's water on this side and water on that side he said so I'm kind of stuck he said but I enjoy it I love it yeah it's neat I mean he he was there when they started and um Jim Cantor you know he's he's a legend and it was really cool cuz you know I was going I had a contract with the Weather Channel and this would be my first big opportunity to to do something impressive I guess um and by the way so I've got four tabs up on the computer we got the Wikipedia and we got the Twitter it's always Twitter to me and using Twitter advaned search I go back to late June 2014 through July 5th and lo and behold
you know Elon stuff I haven't liked about what he's done with Twitter and what that's not even what this is about but one thing that's still there and I commend him for not purging it all is all the graphics all the videos links everything it's still there those archives they are all still there I don't know what server Farm or whatever they're storing all this on but Jesse I got the graphical tropical weather outlook on a tweet just going back a little bit here because I found it from June 27th I tweeted boers off the Southeast coast be aware of this weather feature over the weekend and there it is it's a little yellow circle over North Carolina and South Carolina kind of in the upstate Charlotte Area it's a little circle and uh by the way folks this will be picture number one when you reference this and I got to make sure I reference it and make a little note here this is picture number one and and I we'll do that here tropical weather outlook pick one so what I do now Jesse and I've kind of evolved the podcast in this direction as I use Twitter to help me remember things but also find little nuggets like this that I never would have remembered were sitting out here and I can save these pictures and then post them as attachments on patreon and then I can also put them on our Discord so anyway this graphical tropical weather outlook that's picture number one that was 8: amm EDT Friday June 27th 2014 and it
says 0% chance of tropical Cyclone formation over the next 48 hours but through five days 20% so that's the 30th a't that
funny so then then I'm sorry this 27th so let's just count 28 2930 July 1st July 2nd and by July 2nd it was well on its way and they yet they only gave it a 20% development odds just things go yeah that was just in the beginning that's you know so that was uh at 11: that was 8:00 a.m. 12 hours later uh I just put a text up here it's increased 30% and then finally it becomes 91 L on the 28th um if the shear lets up I say it has a good chance to develop I do remember it was sheared from the north and you could see it on radar uh down there off of Miami and um Melbourne it it looked like a shrimp sort of that curled up look but definitely the feeder bands and everything were on the South Side indicative of Northerly Shear uh June 28th well the 12z run of the Euro certainly has my attention brings what looks to be a strong propal storm into NC next weekend you alluded to that in your write up and then I'm talking to different people uh on Twitter so forth so I'm just going to try to catch up here um we did have the app by the way hurricane track or hurricane impact whatever the heck I was calling it at that point and it was on iOS and Android and uh Mike Watkins helped us to get it on Android he put a small investment in um he never got that investment back by the way but that's neither here nor there it was an angel investment um because you know he was an Android guy he's like I'll help you I think he gave me like $1,000 to give to the developer and you know because I don't know how to code so we paid somebody and man it was just a headache we're going to talk about the app more in just a separate episode um but yeah we had the app I was talking about that and you know we could put videos and the data and everything else in there um so here's the 30th lots of tweets from me on June 30th uh it's a TD now uh by July 1st of
course more app stuff now tropical storm Arthur on July 1 uh no Watchers yet so forth and so on it is forecast to be a category 1 hurricane I said on July first I post a little snapshot of the GFS at 500 millibars small but very potent hurricane close to the Outer Banks 25 miles could be huge alluded to that when we talked about Alex and then um I sort of start honing in on that every mile is going to matter with Arthur as places like Atlantic Beach okra Coke and hatus living on knife's edge in regards to impact that's also in July 1st and here is is a a reference to our mutual friend and now retired Legend Stacy Stewart I
said just a fantastic discussion by Stacy Stewart of the NHC regarding Arthur really helps to understand the forecast reasoning so he must have written a legendary one right usually all right that's how he rolled it looks like I'm driving around somewhere here on July 1st because I posted a picture some clouds I don't know where the heck I was going or coming back from doesn't matter no telling yep busy Mark always was then and am now still um start mentioning the drifting surge cam then I'm going to take that out there so forth and so on all right so finally later in the day on July 1st let's see what the time is on this 10:52 p.m. July 1st from the NHC just now tropical storm and hurricane watches will likely be required Wednesday morning for portions of this area this area of course meaning the North Carolina Outer Banks so picture number two man I tweeted a lot on July 1 um out of Miami
and um let me share my screen with yo Jesse I forgot I could do that I want you to see this this is what it looked like share screen multiple I don't understand this oh there we go duh four years into using Zoom when we still don't know how to use zoom properly um there's the shrimp
yep let's see I got a I got to do something here oops there we go had to extend the meeting it was going to shut me off after six more minutes Zoom wanting to charge more money for us to talk longer can yo imagine anyway um so yeah there's the shrimp I'm going to post this as uh picture number two but I'm G to tell yo though when you see that you you know you see that it had that eye that sort of nent eye as they call it and that's coming out of Miami so it's pretty far away it's a screenshot of radar scope by the way that'll be picture number two let me make a note of that actually how we've been using radar scope that long yeah yeah I was using it since
2012 yeah I was pretty close to that at least right it's a good app that's for sure it is but yeah man it looked like ah and Jesse and I know this that's what really got us amped up uh and it does I say it looks like some sort of embryo yeah and and it really does because it is the embryonic stage of what would go on to be a phenomenally picturesque
[Music]
hurricane
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all right back now talking Hurricane Arthur 2014 with Jesse bass uh yeah so it looks like a an embryo because it is going to develop into quite I won't say a beast but it was certainly going to be a formidable hurricane for the North Carolina Outer Banks um so hurricane watch yep goad sir I was just going to say and quickly too relatively I wouldn't say rapid bordered on it but to go from nothing basically off the coast for right from non-tropical yeah from a from a depression on the first to a category two right 100 mile hour category two by
by the time it left the area three days time sure sure and let's not forget this is coming up on you know I think the elephant in the room here is July 4th weekend it's like what and I know the weather channel was really playing that up and rightfully so you know the Outer Banks is the Outer Banks you got a lot of people down there it's not Jersey yo know it's not Cape Cod where there's a lot more people but it's still going to be pretty populated and you know Jesse you know be very Frank about it it pissed a lot of people off oh yeah cantori would get some people that would yell at him right you or tweet about yeah get out of here you always bring these things they take the anger out on and we'll just use it collectively us yeah and we'll talk about how that manifested itself with me and Jesse in just a few minutes but yeah it was coming up on July Fourth weekend and look in all honesty we get it people spend a lot of money on these rental properties and uh you know I don't know what the cancellation situation is and 2014 has got to be well before the Advent of Airbnb and verbo and all that um and so it was handled through like realy outerbanks realy and yo know what do you think Jesse $1,200 for just a few days probably fourth yeah depending on you know the size and right and that's just if you're talking house or Cottage uh Hotel definitely is definitely up there but uh that day that morning i' I've never seen that much traffic at four at 400 a.m headed north yes it was just a sea of uh
headlights as far as I could see going down 12 as I was coming across I was like good Lord and nothing behind me right as I was South yeah everybody was getting out and it was a steady stream like that all day so not don't not to forget too also you still had the ferry running and people were coming from okre Coke right to get back to the mainland right to get to the mainland because ochre Coke I mean that place is a nightmare when it you have one that comes close enough by I mean the Outer Banks get swamped as it is but ochre Coke is way worse I think so well by July 2nd Hurrican warning goes up 4:49 p.m. I tweeted that Hurricane Warning has been issued for the North Carolina coast from Surf City that's just north of me North northward to duck and so that included all of the Outer Banks and I I had gone to Aspen Tire and Auto and got the Tahoe serviced and made sure the tires are good to go the old trusty Tahoe I did that on the uh earlier on the second I'm just looking at my Twitter here so finally I head up there
um got my chores done and uh I said right here um I said not staying at hotel long this is July 3rd uh said I'm in Williamston for a few hours did some chores now time for a shower then head to the Outer Banks so let's see what time I tweeted that 1206
a.m. yuck yeah man that nighttime stuff yo know and just not sleeping um yeah it's bad July 3 at 4:50
a.m. there's Mark tweeting and Arthur's now a hurricane now look let's talk about that when we see that knowing what we do every time we see one of these become a hurricane it just gets that adrenaline going because there's something about that word you know top winds 75 miles per hour that's that's it oh Hurricane Arthur you know it's like I say this lots of times it's like Jaws the mayor says to the chief you say Barracuda and everybody's like hey what I don't what you say shark and you know you cause a panic or whatever he says to the Chief and the same thing hurricane has more bite to continue with the Jaws pun and so at just shy of 5:00 a.m. on July 3rd Arthur becomes a hurricane so I finally make my way to rhany which is and that's 4:52 a.m. uh and rhany that's pretty far east
on the Outer Banks it's almost like the farthest east that you can get right exactly yeah that's pretty much the furthest point uh if I remember I think it is it's it is just shy of probably being the furthest point east it's like maybe just Northwest of the furthest point right on the Outer Banks I mean obviously Cape Cod and Maine and all that are more East in terms of longitude but right uh for North Carolina that's it you know so uh got to Dan's place in
rhany and um wasn't too long later that Jesse came in um I got the weather station up and running on top of Dan's house this is about 6:00 in the morning and by the way the sun comes up out there uh and this will be oh that's cool this will be picture number three uh I'm still screen sharing so yo can see this right yes yeah uh I had the quadcopter up so
quadcopter pick three um of the sunrise Sun starts coming up out there in July early July I
mean 4:15 4:30 you start see in that glow CU you're so far east and it's one of the you know one of the longer days of the year or whatever and uh anyway I just thought I would mention that so the sun comes up nice and early and uh Jesse and I get to work I put the quadcopter up um gorgeous day so far I say there uh
currently in rhany with my good friend Jesse Bass the weather station is now operational yeah I was I was probably Milling around on the beach then taking those photos while doing that and I'm going to put some uh of those photos as well we'll just tag those as addendums on um on patreon so be sure to look for those from Jesse they have I think you've got all of your um signatures at the bottom yes you do Jesse the third photography so that's how you'll know that they're from Jesse old school stuff so picture number four will be the screenshot from our app the old app there Tower one Thursday July 3rd at 11:30 a.m. 7 miles per hour gusting to 13 oo and uh um you remember though the way we set the weather station up I think it was uh what did we do we like gorilla taped or whatever the Mast to something on Dan's third story deck or whatever it wasn't the best no but yeah what are you GNA yeah but I mean you're not going to go drilling into right somebody's home um oh no way we had lunch at Lisa's Pizza still open that's right great place and if I'm correct my
high school surf buddy and high school friend Jimmy that's right Vincent came and met us for lunch good afternoon to you mark of hurricanetrack.com here at Lisa's Pizza finishing up breakfast/lunch that's Highway 12 yo see with traffic mostly going out even though there's not that much traffic at the moment as I come over here and look towards the Southwest into the breeze you can see the cirrus clouds starting to come in from Hurricane Arthur as it approaches Southeast North Carolina now and eventually towards the Outer Banks later today and tonight very likely that this road here Highway 12 will flood from The pamco Sound which is behind me how much remains to be seen winds gusting 80 90 maybe over 100 milph with Hurricane Arthur as it approaches here's what it looks like a beautiful day right now but that's going to go downhill really quickly marku hurricanetrack.com much more to come so we got done uh talking with Jimmy and then we made our way down we were going to get our way make our way down to the lighthouse um National Park Service has rolled up the Lighthouse for the day that I said there that was at 2:8 p.m.
all right and um I'm just trying to find the point where the lady yelled at us let's see if I can find that I do mention that environment Canada has issued a tropical storm watch for portions of Nova Scotia because it looks like Arthur is going to go up the coast and maybe impact Nova Scotia later yeah and also just prior to that you noted that New England had issued uh yeah tropical storm warnings for yeah yeah for New England yeah Massachusetts area the Kate probably n Tucket and Martha's Vineyard um so here's one thing I do want to mention before I try to hunt down it wasn't an incident it's just something Jesse and I remember from a from an angry uh person um you remember how hot it was because we went over unbearable it was crushing heat like suffocating because we went over to uh real what was the place called I should look it up on Google Maps unless you can remember the real re real water sports or something like that real sport yeah let me let me find it come on maps. Google it's where Jim was Cantor correct they had rented um like a condo or something and uh they were going to report from real water sports that's what it was called uh over in uh waves which is just down from rhany so you got rhany waves and
Salvo great names right that's just Outer Banks names for you a long Highway 12 and uh Jim is down at uh waves and
he's at this place called real water sports and so you can rent jet skis um you know they do stunt shows out there they had like little ramps and things so they had all these jet skis pulled in uh you know to to dry dock them and whatnot and there's this little Marina type thing for them and uh they had a bar and grill and a really neat facility it looks very modern and and very catchy it's very cool looking um I wonder if is that Waterman's Bar and Grill trying to zoom yeah it is it's Waterman's Bar and Grill at real waterports Surf Shop whatever so that's where cantori was going to be broadcasting from and yo remember Jesse that property had this huge green um like lawn or whatever and we had to walk out there to to talk to Jim and we were just dying in that heat I mean it was like it was still kind it was kind of Cloudy you know it wasn't full on sun but gosh the heat I'll never ever forget how crushing the energy was in the air it was just like suffocating heat I think that's when we were down at uh Kitty hwk kites actually we had gone and yeah I thought already over there we we floated back and forth between the two and going to talk to Jim here and there but um yeah we were we stopped because it's on the sound side and we stopped at Kittyhawk kites I believe it is yep Kittyhawk kites because if you go back and look at my my images where one of the guys is starting to put one of his kites together for wind surfing there's the line of people too I just found it yeah to meet Jim hilarious and there he is yeah I'll save a couple of these I'll make sure you guys see it oh look at that it says expert evacuation
forecasting that does nothing but ruin my vacation no Weather Channel that's a t-shirt This Woman's shaking his hand yep wow and then they took pictures with him like Hey that's funny oh the the uh that's interesting the photographer this per they have a bean that's exactly what this a Broadband satellite thing four starlink mhm interesting picture that's a bean Jesse it's got to be satellite oh the people leaving there's the hurricane warning flags yes so let me find the picture you're talking about so we hey nice turtle um there's a kite
Surfer yep that's right there along the sound right what pamco hey there's
me the Logitech on the little teeny tripod interesting okay yeah so here we go so yeah so we had to go see Jim um but we also wanted to fly I wanted to fly my Quadcopter and um I don't know exactly where this was it looks like it's in rhany still it's a nice Green Lawn and we pulled in yeah it was right there at Kittyhawk kites because if yo look at that uh some of those images where those people were putting their kites together I mean it was pretty green there gotcha that's what I think I I can't 10 years ago Dude right you got pictures that helps at least yeah that does help but I think we were out front uh out in front um of their facility there
at Kittyhawk Heights and 12 was just to
our well in the photo to your yeah yep to your right yeah so we're out of the way we're not in anybody's way at all minding our own business quadcopter set up yep virtually out of a parking lot we just in know open grass area right and some lady drove by and rolled her window down and yelled out get a
job and I literally turned to her and I said this is my job thanks though I'm good it's just it
baffles me it's like why are you angry with and and look I know the the human psychology of it she's mad and and and hurricanes they do suck man they come in and they ruin kinds of whatever but it's like you know why don't you pull in come out and say hello get to know us me and Jesse aren't a couple of Jack wagons yo know and ask questions and and be curious and and get your it's just me and maybe I'm just too nice or whatever but I I still still find that odd and humorous and off-putting like why do yo talk to people like that yeah you know well it's the mental generators for $1,200 the mentality is is that we're hoping to see a hurricane because we're excited about it we want to experience that and be there to document that and so that type of energy right is what manifests the storm right we cause the the hurricane because it's what they mean when they say are you with the hurricane yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean if I had a dollar for every time I'd be a millionaire oh man that every jack wagon rolls up masses that well I don't know what makes that obvious the anomer hanging off of the roof of the vehicle the rain gauge the fact that says hurrian fact hurricane hurricane resar you know whatever y well she was not happy and get a job I was like and flipped you to bone too yeah that's right I do remember that so anyway put the quadcopter up and uh got some aerial views of whatever and I think we did that when we went down to um Cape haris Lighthouse as well um yo can't do that today that the quadcopter literally won't let you because it's in a national park but back then it was the Phantom one and there were no such restrictions you just you know because drones was just too new anyway uh day wear is on crushing heat so forth and so on went by and saw Jim talked about the plan uh some pictures here of people getting the jet skis out at real water sports and uh there's uh somebody talking to kantori there's him shot yeah that was the uh the manager or possibly the owner of the real sports right yep and then he
was doing his live shot right y uh so
the day wear is on and Arthur's strengthening it's a hurricane and it's coming and we got to get down to uh hatus village where our friends the Harrisons live that we met because of arth uh Alex sorry and we wanted to put a camera system at their property I known them for 10 years at this point and now I'm trying to remember did yo go with me for that yeah I went down and helped you set up that was it for yo because you had to get North yeah I had to get North I wanted to get North and get out of there in case they started shutting things down or whatever and it already some of the rain bands were moving in boy did that lightning was incredible we got that stuff set up and in place uh just before and the wind was already picking up and it was probably blowing at a good clip of 30 possibly 35 and that's starts to become an issue in those areas where there's zero foliage along those Dune lines and that sand becomes a basically a sand blizzard yeah yeah that can mess you up you had to get out of there and um get back up to Portsmouth and I was going to stay in Rodanthe at Dan's place and set up the drifting surge cam with cantori and uh just just kind of ride it out there at Dan's I went up to uh Ma's head I just wanted to be across the bridge sure yeah I was going to come home and then said no right because it uh because there were some questions of whether or not we were going to see any any major effects here or any type of effects here and probably need to get home but as as the day wore on they got to be a uh a no for us up here so I got
I wanted to just get across the bridge and get out of that flood zone yeah because we know how bad 12 can flood yes we what I said we here in my right up I said we put several cameras down in Hatter's Village at the home of the Harrison who have been dealing with these storms and us for many years marks out of hurricanetrack.com about 8:30 Eastern Time am Thursday July the 3r I am at uh the Harrison's house here in hatus Village see all those Vehicles over there those are the vehicles that have gone to High Ground to avoid the storm surge that is inevitably coming as powerful Hurricane Arthur turns towards the area looking more and more organized on satellite and radar the clouds are streaming by yo can see that uh the low-level clouds we had a couple of spits of rain and a couple of lightning bolts earlier but nothing substantial just yet the wind is starting to pick up uh there's quite a few people still out and about surprisingly actually I thought there would be less people here but they're here enduring Hurricane Arthur as it closes in on the North Carolina Outer Banks the sun has set and that is it for now we will see what happens on Independence Day as Hurricane Arthur rolls in to the Outer Banks of North Carolina marks out hurricanetrack.com much more video post to come they're a great family and have always been great in offering up their home and Business to us to put any equipment we wanted to on their front porch to capture whatever hurricanes threw at us yeah the fishing family I mean literally that's what they do they fish off the The Waters and the graveyard of the Atlantic and they got a nice little shop there and sell to the tourists to the locals and have endured quite a few storms great family uh so
yeah this tweet 800m on the dot Wow
exclamation point Exclamation or whatever wow just
saw a nice Cloud to ground lightning strike and Watkins responded with
h yes so uh weather station at uh 8:39
p.m. uh 13 gusting to 24 back up in uh
at Dan house now let's mention too as I
look at the graphics archive from the Hurricane Center um let me do the three-day cone and warning so I get a zoomed in shot nope don't animate that's annoying um this thing is passing pretty close to
Wilmington and Nathan is there my oldest holding down the fort with uh Co
and Maller is in Vegas of course with Rebecca so then there would be Noah and brillan who again was seven or so and Josh was three and it's the the core and everything was pretty close like ye like so I was keeping in touch with them keeping in touch with Rebecca out in Las Vegas because she's dealing with the Nationals with mallerie dance and there's just a lot going on like uhoh you know don't forget back home and uh so that was a little little squirly um so that's the 5:00 p.m. I'm just looking at some graphics here and then uh 900 p.m. so you had already left he went up to Nag's Head and I go back up to Dan's
and I'm like all right I'mma hang out here in rodanthi and I told Jim we will
set up the drifting surge cam uh and get it ready and leave it out
here on the this uh bulkhead area where
they launch these jet skis now it's interesting Jesse the wind was on Shore so the water from the Pam Co sound had been pushed away right so you had a low water situation yep and another thing to remember 2014 was the first year that the National Hurricane Center was issuing storm surge above ground level
and not just above some Tide datam right let me just find the forecast the
public advisory on the thir and let's do it at
um let's do the 5:00 pm one just let's see so uh hazards affecting land here we
go wind hurricane Force whatever storm surge combination of this that and the other so here we go North Carolina within the hurricane warning area three to five feet and this was and it says right here the water could reach the following Heights above ground that was a change for 2014 and this is a big moment here because I remember talking to cantori at real waterports about the drifting surge Cam that we should deploy it I said the water's going to come up as much as 5 feet and he said literally no effing way that's not going to happen I was like absolutely goes no they're talking about three to five feet it's not look how low it is it's barely gonna no Jim no it's above ground level now don't it's like oh yeah it's like trust me and they look they have like a crew they got a SAT truck or whatever and cables everywhere I was like it's going to come up and yo know they didn't have F around and find out back then you know like they do now but that's like okay you're gonna find out about one in the morning and I'll be back and we'll uh we'll get this this camera ready the drifting surge Cam and it'll float away in this 3 to five feet above ground level all right okay if you say so you know look sometimes you know more than the great Jim Cantor and that night I knew you know I mean these forecasts they've really been working on it and they were forecasting 3 to 5et of inundation above ground if
the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide now I don't know if it did right at the time of high tide but that's exactly what happened it certainly did come up several feet all right so uh I'm all set to go and uh uh go back
up to Dan's and I'm sitting up in the Second Story area above his what do yo call that where you where the tahos park there he's got his driveway and the stilts are there and it's like the underp part it's not a garage it's not a carport it's a what do people call that you know what I'm talking about like that under area yeah walk under Dan's house so you got that open area where the the stilts are that hold the house up and there's stairs that go up to the to the first floor and then the second floor is where I am up in the kitchen and living room he has a bar in there not a like you know what I mean like a bar like in your house not a hey the bar is open come get drinks um I'm sitting at the bar using his Wi-Fi tweeting stuff keeping up with things talking to Jesse up in Nag's Head and Arthur's coming up the coast it crosses Cape Lookout and it's going to come West the eye is going to come West of the Outer Banks right across the pamco sound it's strengthening it looks fantastic on radar in terms of structural integrity and whatnot and uh it just looked like
oh wow and here we go it's gonna be yeah this is going to be bad news and the lightning was incredible in those bands on the outer bands and uh yeah I was I was I was angry with you at that point because I was missing it the light show yeah Jesse loves the lightning um great picture here I think this will be number five number four sorry yeah crossed over just east of Morehead City it's almost to okre coke uh Cedar Island Atlantic sea level Stacy those little tiny communities in eastern Carter County they're in the eye and there's my position you'll see this when you look at this picture folks make sure you check it out on uh patreon as yo listen to this episode or reference Discord looking it and looking at that image you can clearly see what he was talking about remember the winds are counterclockwise around the center of that and you can clearly see by just by looking at that how that wind was pushing that sound water Westward yeah West and northwestward to a degree Inland basically into mainland of North Carolina right so offshore flow where Cantor is standing at real water sports it's blowing away from yes exactly because you have your mark of your GPS location at the time as well phenomenal thing yep but the I clearly the the the best indication for you to look at and just kind of see what I'm talking about is down there south of oke right where you can actually see the land areas and the um the sound and just
know that that's rotating counterclockwise and swinging around from the southeast to the Northwest yep and that's just blowing all of that water Westward yep yep blowing it towards the mainland and the sound as that eye passes yeah right and as that eye passes the wind switches from the Northwest to the southeast and it rushes right back in yep you you take the uh frictional effects of the wind away so gravity starts to take over plus you're pushing it at the same time it's two uh compounding impacts at once so I say and by the way that radar scope picture it's it's tagged as being 12:03 a.m. on Independence Day like what that's crazy July 4th 2014 I'm going to be in a hurricane on Independence Day so I say here let's look at the time stamp 1254 a.m. going to deploy the drifting surge cam live with Jim Cantor at the top of the hour first ever such attempt to record and stream Surge and my friend Dave Williams says to both of us me and Jim I'm watching so don't screw it up old Dave so yeah that's going to happen so right at the top of the hour few minutes after 1:00 am um we set the the drifting surge cam
up turned on the Logitech that's inside of it turned on the GoPro turned on the spot locator everything was running and we set it out in like howling Wind and Rain I remember I was wearing my white hurricane track t-shirt and these stupid black shorts I would always wear and my sneakers my New Balance dadbod sneakers as everybody calls them or Grandpa sneakers whatever they're awesome man they're my new balance man um and that's it Cantor I look like I'm there to play volleyball he looks like he's there to report on a hurricane remember he said that on the air he's like nice if he to dress up for it Mark that's just stupid like I just I
don't I mean I care but I was like whatever man I'm I'm just out here doing what I do it's right it's raining what the hell do you want I guess but I mean you know he's got this suit thing on WE it down yeah right yeah oh I know I don't like the bulkiness of it it just yeah when I cover winter whether I have to or I'll die but the right but the the hurricane stuff I don't really care I'm soaking wet you know that's why I bring 30 changes of clothes I can get dry within the hour I got plenty of t-shirts but it was hilarious he he called me out on the air hey man thanks for and by the way just as a small side note same thing
happens uh three years later or something like that I'm in Las Vegas with my wife during the summer of 2017 and I'm at Brad Garrett's uh remember him from um Everybody Loves Raymond and he was in some movies the voice of that puffer fish in finding forgot that yeah Brad Garrett he's got a comedy store at the MGM Rebecca and I are sitting on the front row and I'm basically wearing the exact same thing my white hurricane track t-shirt these black shorts front row and he's doing his thing he's like talking to people you know how the The Comedians like to bang on people and he looks at me he's like appreciate yo dressing up for the comedy show there Fred Flintstone just like God I might Rebecca's just God and he didn't know I named you Fred years ago then he did he went
will and Rebecca's just beat red like oh
God hey man I'm proud of the hurricane track and he didn't know who Jor was by the way that's a story for another day but yep so uh Jim and I set the drifting surge cam up it's ready to go and we put
it there on the decking of this bulkhead area of these little channels that they've got where they would normally real water sports would launch all these jet skis that are all moed and dry docked and I'm like all right good luck we'll see you later don't forget the water's going to come up five feet so you know you you better start leaving and he kept on reporting I went back to Dan's Place go upstairs sitting up on the second floor and man it is just rocking that house it's been there since the 80s if not before and uh Dan and his father have marked off high water marks inside the the uh storage room that's part of the downstairs where you turn on the hot water and all that stuff and he's got you know tools and whatever in there little pipes going there and they got these high water marks you know Gloria and Sandy and whatever and so um the
house has been there a while and it's just rocking and I brought the Logitech and the Verizon hotspot up with me and I just streamed from inside Dan's house you know his family house and I remember watching a uh a glass of water and it looked like Jurassic Park when the T-Rex was coming and it would do that boom and there was Rings would come out and the little kid and when the the the lawyer were looking at it like what is that yo know remember that famous scene in Jurassic that's what it looked like Dan's house because the house was
rocking so here's the the light and yo see how it's moving and flickering see the light moving I'm not doing that that I'm
steady look at the look at the flowers moving the whole house is being being shook you can see it in the water too look at that look at that water big monster gust will hit the house and it just shakes everything nothing like San Louie the S Louis Resort in Hurricane
Ike that was as unnerving as it
gets I was like that's not good and like you could literally see the water shaking in this glass class I was trying to show that on the stream and it was just kind of neat to stream live in the hurricane as it's coming and we get on along and and and uh um it's
you know after 1:00 a.m. uh I said here
this is uh picture 1:54 a.m. the eye is
26 and some change miles to my Southwest boy Jesse look at that band on the east side of the eyewall that is a Monster Band man that thing like and and now right front quadrant man yeah it's a cat 2 it's up to 100 miles per hour and uh it's going to parallel uh the Outer Banks to the west and uh cut right across Pam Co sound and probably go right over Oregon Inland where the boner bridge is and I'm like well Dad gummit man have come all this way you know it it's not Charlie thank goodness I wouldn't be there but yo know I'm not going to be in the eye like I have to go north and I remember talking to Greg on text Greg Nordstrom he's tuned in watching probably texted you too like man I'm gonna miss the eye I got to go north I don't know man yo know you saw it in Sandy like you're not going to be able to go anywhere I I we'll see and I saw a tweet I don't have it pulled up I'll try to find it but I remember C Tori tweeting in all caps at some point as the eye just gets past them cuz waves is just a few miles south of Rodan and Arthur's moving slow enough that the wind comes around and they found out as the expression goes yeah they weren't they weren't screwing around but he didn't you know and it's all caps you know oh we're safe everything's fine but they had to scramble in a hurry and I noticed the spot locator the drifting surge cam was drifting and I was like ah it's working and I could see it moving it only updated every five minutes but it was moving the surge has come up and Cantor said yep we're safe they went over to like realy or something you know down there Jesse had they got those parking lots where the ground is like six feet higher and everybody Parks up there yep they got their sat truck and whatever else and their personnel and but it came up in minutes it really did that Surge and so I was like all right I gotta go like I I wasn't worried about Surge and rhany I was like I got to get in the eye like I didn't come all this way to not be in the eye and I got the anomer on the Tahoe I mean come on SO at 2:18 a.m. in
rhany anomet says 31 gusting to 60 so it's cranking pretty good and uh let's see here I say Jesse exclamation point why did I say that let's see uh looks like you get the eye pretty much had on here it comes and I think I I think I said I was probably trying to why did I mute this oh that's from we won't say who it's from but I muted him for some reason um making a North wobble may stay to your West and head north towards kevil Hills that's why I said Jesse yeah all exclamation points there there's five looks like Jesse so I was like well I can't miss this that's just stupid stupid so what's stupider than that me saying hey why
don't I drive north and so my rationale was this because Watkins was against it Jesse was like Hey you remember Sandy out here you know good luck uh I thought all I'll leave the safety of Dan the safety quotes remember this folks I'll leave the safety of Dan's house in rhany and I'll go up to Merlo Beach that's just North uh literally part of rhany really and get on 12 and parallel the eye and it'll intersect at either P Island at The Visitor Center maybe Oregon Inlet and you know I'm going to get in the eye one way or the other and when I'm on the way the Tahoe anemometer is 9 fet above the ground I'll get some wind readings I'll get the pressure readings and so forth so off I go and my sort of
um like my r now my uh the expression
I'll let fate decide if I get to Merlo Beach which is where we used to have What's called the s-curves and let me just take a minute to catch my breath Jesse described the s-curves that are no longer there because they've put a big bridge thing and whatever but tell tell us about the s-curves what's important about that area yeah the s-curves coming down 12 after you uh come through P Island and just before you hit the first uh t to Mero you had a bin that made a sess in Highway 12 right and every single time
the Wind Blows the S curves would go underwater it's a good s it was always known as a good surf spot I surfed there back in the day when I was much Slimmer and then in high school and uh it it was just a a
spot known though to get washed out and if you guys remember uh oh I'm G throw this out there but I can't remember what was the uh the movie where the Serendipity House yeah kns and Rodan nights and Rodan that's it yep and um y
Diane Lane yep yeah that's that was that was the house and they moved it they moved that house that's the S curves they have moved that house yep they sure did so the S curves are like dangerous you know they'll overwash you get sand blown across whatever so I thought all right if I don't if I get to that area and it's blocked obviously I'm not going north and I miss the eye like I'll let fate decide no no problem I won't have a choice and I'll go back to Dan's house and you know wait it out and Jesse would hopefully get the eye and the eyewall if it if it doesn't take too sharp of a turnout to see uh up in Nag's Head fine you know that's why he went up there yep I was yep I was making my way down cuz I had worked up and down the Coast trying to see anything shoot anything right at the time of course you had all the action I mean it was raining hard sure up in Kitty Hulk and Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills which I had gone all the way up north um to what is that the Hampton in or not the Hampton in but the uh the Marriott Hilton Garden in Hilton Garden that's it yep sorry and was making my way back south just working up and down uh both sides whether it was the beach Road or the uh the bypass road looking to catch anything right worth shooting video or photos of and that sort of thing and it just it was just a lot of Gusty wind and some uh heavy heavy rain at the time but that was about it but you and I were staying in touch and I had started to make my way back south again yeah I mean it was like now or never so I decided I'm going to go for it I'm going to leave the safety of Dan's house again saf sa and air quotes and head north and if I can make it I will so I did I ventured out the Sand's blasting across and I brought the Logitech back down with me put it on the dashboard of the Tahoe I didn't come all this way not to
be in the
eye we'll let fate decide if I can get North and get in the eye
and I'm and I'm streaming live Nordstrom's watching and he's like ah this is unbelievable there's quite a few people watching on on Ustream even at 2 2:33 in the morning and um I'm like I'm going to go for it and I got out beyond the s-curves there was no OverWatch no problem it was certainly windy and I made my way up to uh the P Island Visitor Center it's like a bird sanctuary area and all that good stuff and uh stopped there and was stationary and the eyewall was just coming over me and I got a picture here this will be like number five or six or something like that they'll be in order once yo look at them but it shows that uh a literal photograph from the iPhone of the anomet it was an instantaneous wind a 55 mph and a gust to 75 milph and the
peak gust as it shows here a tweeted at 3:09 a.m. I uh had a peak gust of 79
miles
hour
all right back now after that musical interlude I always like producing those for you guys gives me a little bit of a break and it just breaks up the segments but we're back talking about Hurricane Arthur and it is a solid hurricane last I said here was this tweet 3:09 a.m.
eastern time on July 4th 2014 Independence Day the early hours of the 4th of July and I got a peak gust of 79 miles per hour up there on Highway 12 I am the only human being up there
duh in the eyewall of this hurricane and uh the Tahoe was still doing doing well you know doing its thing with that anomer that irm young anomet and um nice picture it says my location right now and I'm in the Northeast quadrant of the uh the core there um and the radar coming out of Morehead City is a little bit pixelated um because it's far enough away can't see it right share your screen again oh yeah let's do that gotta share the screen thank you yeah yeah nice to be able to see that yeah that was actually really helpful yes now we're back in business there we go so there's old marks spot and uh I'm in that right front quadrant uh it's hard to see the Outer Banks in there if you look closely yo see the the land mass so I'm the only one out there and I'm real close to the Oregon Inlet and I'm like I got to get into this eye come on I said I'm almost in it to Jim tweeting at Jim Cantor uh looks like I got an 81 miles per hour Arthur whipping the Tahoe pretty good yep I'll post all these pictures on patreon by the way folks so you can see them and I'm so close to the eye really close I'm like he shoots he scores I'm probably like Delirious with you know no sleep whatever and let's see what time I posted this screenshot says 3:28 yep so 3:28 a.m I haven't slept at this
point since much earlier on let's see I left
on the second and got out there on the third so I haven't slept since July 2 worth a hoot yeah I was probably right there with you if I got out there at 4:00 and it's usually about three hours so I may have grabbed a quick map before I
left yeah pressure in the Tahoe on the weather station we had that Davis remember on the Taho dashboard yep
98332 and uh radar scope boom I nailed it y in the eye of Arthur and this was
really important to me uh just a neat thing it's 409 Eastern
I'm in the eye my radar scope uh yo know pinpoints as best it can but I'm over Oregon Inlet I mean I'm in it I'm on the boner bridge now it's called the Bight Bridge or whatever they built a new one and you know I try to keep things uh
humble enough and not brag too much but there's a few firsts that I and the people that have supported me have accomplished and this is one of them I have to be the first and only person to be on
the Bonner Bridge over the Oregon Inlet in the eye of a hurricane too no doubt right a cat too right you know and it was remarkable I was making my way to you right that was I was not far from you sorry go ahead yeah that but it man it was so flooded you wouldn't have made it we know yeah well I made it part of the way I got I I made it part of the way uh that part you'll be coming up on yourself when you start discussing the effects right but I saw it before you saw it true because I was uh yeah I was near uh
what how do you say it bod island or body Island Lighthouse right I was a long 12 I was in that area that's right you weren't that far away no I was not so you had to have been in a little bit of the eye oh no I was in the eye there was no question yeah I went right through it I had perfect calm no wind no rain I'm sitting on 12 near the entrance
a few miles north of me yeah I was sitting probably at the entrance of 12 uh right up there by the lighthouse right and I was sitting in the middle of the road because there was nothing nobody's coming in any direction of course nobody's out at that time anyway generally speaking and I'm just sitting there and you can hear those chirping bugs and the other stuff and birds squawking and raising all kinds of C because of what has been going on just all of a sudden out of the middle of the night where it's quiet everything settled down and then all of a sudden you just start hearing all this Ruckus right and before I knew it I was slammed
by the backside yes oh that backside um yeah we're going
to get to that so I got 98.4 air pressure in the eye of Arthur I had 980 the 5 a.m. advisory from the Hurricane Center says that the pressure was 973 uh the winds were 100 miles hour uh Arthur moving offshore of the Outer Banks so that might be too late let's go to the 4 am uh update 4 a.m. I of Arthur reaches the northern outou Banks whatever pressure still 973 okay so my
pressure was 980 I don't think I posted
any uh yeah where it was lower but that's fine so I got 980 peak wind gust of 81 it looks like at some point there yep yep 81 um so I'm in the eye go ahead was
just going to say that's what I had written up because that's what you had told me what your Peak was when I did the write up you had an 81 I don't see anywh where yeah I'm sorry I didn't I was just going to say I didn't see where you had uh told oh no wait a minute NOP no that's it you told me the 81 that's it I documented that right um sorry yes the pressure probably about 980 maybe a little less I don't you know didn't notice it so the eye comes over me and and uh I did a live hit with Brian Norcross
on the Weather Channel for several minutes uh in the eye and I also might have been on there with Michael Lowry too he was at the Weather Channel at the time um but yeah I remember being in the eye broadcasting live doing a phoner and of course streaming from the Ustream camera in the eye of a hurricane over Oregon Inlet you know it was like that's pretty Monumental it is like 330 million people in the country and I'm the only one in the eye of this hurricane over Oregon Inlet it kind of was a big deal to me and you know there's Jesse who had been with me since 2001 and uh what the heck
was that down this him already starting to forget it Barry Barry I thinking Bonnie for some reason Barry on the Florida Panhandle and you know he's just a few miles north of me and we're both in this eye it was just really neat yo know and I brought that amazing story to the Weather Channel with Brian Norcross who had um I he didn't fight to get me
on but he was like a big proponent to talk to management to finally get me signed and uh it was it was it was
incredible it really was and I remember thinking gosh I wish my kids could see this uh my parents you know it's 4 in the morning whatever nobody's really awake not if it was 4 in the afternoon certainly yeah but Greg Nordstrom was watching and I remember he kept texting me like this was epic like dude yo killed it yo know um while you were doing those interviews uh because I think you tried calling me I had somebody on the phone and I don't know where it came from well at the time I knew I can't recall now but I had a phone call that came in while I was riding up and down 12 and kitty hwk and Nag's Head and somebody had me on with them where they were doing a stream because they picked up my uh spotter ID stuff off of um the
radar app uh radar scope and my number was listed at the time and so they called me and they were broadcasting and sending out information that I was giving them over ham radio as well if I recall correctly yeah so that was pretty
crazy we were covering it from yeah every angle we could and they were asking about you and I was telling them the last time I'd spoken with you you had the 81 on the boner bridge and they were like he's sitting on the boner Bridge they like that is bad asses was the the quote I was like I don't know about how bad it is but I even s here on the VOR bridge I could hear the Crickets you could hear something similar the peepers and whatever where you were yeah it was insane man that was great amazing I could just look across I could see the lighthouse it was just as calm as it could be over an inlet that was created
from a hurricane I think 1898 or something like that talk about that in the uh the Dorian episode of our series
The Hurricane Highway had Jay Barnes discuss these the hurricane that created the inlet in the late 1800 I think it was and the reason it's called Oregon Inlet is because the the first ship to go through this new cut Inlet was called the Oregon so there you go from Jay Barnes um crickets right so I'm sitting there I'm like all right well the other side's going to pass Arthur is now moving at like 22 miles per hour it's picking up speed and the other side's going to come so I kind of get got to get off the bridge don't want to be blown into the pamco sound um so I'll go back off like I did a three four five point turn or whatever a't that amazing Jesse to just sit there in the middle of the boner bridge for a while 20 30 40 minutes and nobody's coming it's just me you it's insane it was amazing well same thing with me on the opposite side that's what I was saying I just sat there I could sit there and nobody was coming nothing no emergency vehicles nothing nobody was out and just to be able to sit there in that take it in and take it in and in the and it was calm morning to you mark sth hurricane track.com here 411 eastern
time on the 4th of July 2014 and I am in the eye of Hurricane Arthur sitting literally over the Oregon Inlet on the Bonner Bridge I'm aiming the iPhone out the window of the Tahoe very little wind at all Breezy uh it's it's hard to get absolutely calm conditions in the eye of a hurricane unless you're in the dead center this is as close as it gets no precipitation falling at all I'm going to be quiet for a few seconds listen to how there's nothing going on just a little bit of a breeze the uh Peak gust that I got on the anomet on the Tahoe 81 mph blowing at about 20
above the Tahoe there at 9 ft above ground level but as you can see in of the Tahoe nothing no precept you can see across the water there to the lighthouse I believe is over there and the marina uh looking out across the um Oregon Inlet obviously it's dark but there's no roaring sound of the eyewall mark suth reporting from the eye of Hurricane Arthur I'll keep posting these videos until I run out of steam later on this morning with just like you say the Crickets and whatever other bugs trip and everything else and it was it was just amazing to be able to experience that right because we didn't really get to experience that when I was with yo and Charlie right because it was so quickly and people were yelling scared and yeah and I my legs were asleep in the back of the Tahoe because I was P you kept sliding the seat back was I needed room to crouch down another dashboard I no but you were pinning my fat rear end in the back and I couldn't move my leg so I couldn't even get so 10 years later we got a little and you know just when people say are yo with the hurricane well this is when we were we were one with the hurricane at that point Arthur Zen yeah exactly it
was Zen mode um so an amazing experience but the backs side's coming so I'm like all right let me get down off the bridge and I'll gradually as Arthur Goes by make my
way back down to Rodanthe I'll get a nap collect my stuff stuff figure out where the drifting surge cam ended up I noted that the live stream from it had quit uh and I think it quit pretty early on but I was like hopefully the GoPro 3 is still capturing the surge event we will see I did notice that the spot locator was working fine and it had come across Highway 12 and it looked like it was stuck somewhere like I kept getting repeated uh pings from it somewhere else okay we'll figure it out later but it looks like it moved moved a half a mile or something so we'll see uh but first I got to get through the backside so I I come off the bridge and I go back down and there's that little parking lot over on the left um and there's like that old building over there um uh like a coast guard yeah station thing or something and I'll wait here so kind of just parked there and we're just now starting to get first light and yo know what that looks like Jesse you've been with with it with me and storms and everything enough it's just sort of this weird blue gray color like everything's sort of monotone in a sort of weird slsh like slate with a hint of blue the way I described it in my write up it was that horrible Blue Sky of very early morning that just seems to make everything harder to see it does that's right it was just it was just above pure Darkness right right it's like you're just coming out of the Abyss yeah that's oh D that's a pretty good way to describe it it it is looking back on that yeah that's and it is horrible it's bad I mean because you can't really move uh you know and do anything yo know like it's dangerous so I I'll stay put and you know we're we're gradually getting more and more light and you know so it should be fine so I'm watching Pam Co which is now to my right and uh I either took pictures or took some video I will find it and I'll post these as well um uh when I can
um but uh the pemo sound was definitely chopped up and you could really see it like had big waves on it like dang that's something else it is getting it because now the eye has passed so the wind is coming out of the Northwest to eventually West at me and so I'm like okay now we'll sit here and chill for a little bit and start getting some more light and I'm streaming but I'm really not doing much tweeting because I'm very much concentrating not texting much either I want to get South and I got to be real careful because I don't want to get caught in the surge which I assume is moving up from the south I just figured I'll eventually have to see it so I start driving slowly South the sun's coming up so a little bit more light a little bit more contrast you can see better and I get to the P Island Visitor Center okay there's that okay and I'm going and I'm like oh wow look at that and the way that Highway 12 is it's like sort of ditches or whatever it's not so much a ditch on the left because you've got the sand dunes trying to fill it in but on the right there's like a ditch and then they've got these areas that come off the pamco sound that feed into that it's very difficult to describe but the water can work their way in there I don't know if they do it on purpose or what to let the water come and go EB and flow whatever but I remember I could see the surge here's my point I could see the surge coming north like in real time oh
there's the surge it's coming I could see it coming up the road and it was in this low spot this ditch for the lack of a better word and it was moving a little faster and so I was like ah of course let me get out and film this so I'm still streaming live but it's kind of breaking up it's not real clear kind of in a bad spot plus a hurricane just went over so I get out it's windy but it's not really raining much it was kind of a drier backside uh and The Surge is coming up and I and I crouched down or whatever and um I put the iPhone it's an iPhone 4
I believe that's what I had there like right on the sand to get that cinematic shot that I want to get and just have the surge come right at the camera you know like and and as soon as it was going to hit the camera I'd lift it up and oh here it comes and it's windy and then jump back in the Tahoe and uh I think I tried to tweet it although I don't see it uh tweeted on here let me see there's a picture of a high water mark but no I didn't get to tweet that video and that makes sense cuz there was no throughput to speak speak of but I definitely had that video and I was trying to tweet something or maybe get it online or whatever and it just wouldn't go so minutes are going by and what I didn't realize is the sound and uh different people Mike Lowry uh Michael Lowry his surge specialist Taylor trogon Cody Fritz now um or Fitz
whatever uh people at the storm surge unit uh have have called it a surge bubble The Surge bubble was moving up the Pam Co sound now and then those few minutes that I took to shoot the scene of The Surge coming up that ditch thing it had already worked in front of me so in those few minutes that I'm trying to tweet it or whatever the heck I'm doing um I had already become surrounded by surge so when I turned around to go back North because I can't go south because that's where the surge is it's coming in fast and I'm just panicking I'm like oh you got to be kidding me and it is rolling in there and I guess it's one of these moments where I'm lucky that the stream cut out so that people didn't see this and see me like panicking because I was really worried not for my life that's word I'd trash the Tahoe and it's an embarrassment you know it's like come on man you're so tired you what like yo screwed up and the Tahoe would have been probably shoved up against the Dune and certainly water logged and yeah haha there's the hurricane guy got rolled up you know it's not a good look and I was really sweating and dude Jesse I promise you that water was trying to come over the hood and it was swirling and I'm just and I could feel the Tahoe drifting I like oh my I'm done I'm done I'm going to be a out here I'm have to set up on the Dune which is like 10 12 feet high I'll be fine and I'm going to be this marooned idiot and the taho's done
and it was able to get some traction and I pushed and I pushed and I kept going you know working the gas pedal and miraculously I made it out of that Surge and my adrenaline was just nuts man and I got North pass the P Island Visitor Center and went back up to the approach to the Bonner Bridge turned around I'm like I'm out I'm G to take a nap I'm not messing with this we'll let the surge come and go and I Mark almost found out that's what happened I mean really and I thought oh man you are absolutely phenomenally lucky cuz 30 seconds more and the water would have been too deep and the Tahoe would have just started drifting and that would have been the drifting surge Camp yo know like oh so I waited and the sun came up I probably dozed off a little bit thank goodness and uh wind started
dying down it was still pretty pretty stout I remember I tried to to put the Drone up and as soon as the propellers got active it looked like it was going to just sail into the Atlantic so I was like nope that's not going to work uh so I put the Drone back in the Tahoe gradually drove down 12 it's like a washboard of sand at this point and there was standing water from the Surge and it was just you know an hour ticked by two hours ticked by water was gradually you know diminishing and I was like well I'll pull off and just keep waiting and I'm sitting there I'm just chilling kind of in a a days you know where you're just exhausted and it's kind of blustery still I'm just kind of dozing off in the seat there and I hear what sounds like somebody fired a shotgun into the back of the Tahoe yo know just this I was like oh and the back window blew out you know the hatch window just shattered bam and to this day I still think A bird hit it you know yeah I know because uh in that same
region that same area where you were sitting once the backside came in and started ramping itself back up there were a bunch of Seagulls or I guess the proper term is gals from what I understand from right Wildlife folks it's GS uh they had taken a break yeah in the eye and were resting and suddenly as the backside came they started trying to fly off um one flew up into the air I watched him get caught by the wind and slammed into my windshield yeah yeah didn't break it right which I could not believe because like you say it sounded like a shotgun went off and uh I don't know I turned around and I started booking it back North to get out of there and something else I don't think it was another bird but another one hit the roof I heard something or something hit the roof and bounced off and uh I finally gotten back up to the that inter interchange there coming back into uh Nag's Head and uh started making my way a little further north um and then it wasn't long after thatth yo called and said that you had your mishap and I was like hey I know where that was yeah it's only 6:45 in the morning that that happened yeah very eventful morning uh I said kamakazi bird strikes out here totally scared the you know what out of me blew the back of the Tahoe out and uh yep glass everywhere it's that tempered glass there billions of little whatever so I uh just waited like all right well that sucks you know um I walked out over the Dune shot some video it l i tweeted that it looked like Planet of the Apes because there was these washed up boats and some leftover shipwrecks that had been exposed and just whatever it was very strange looking in the sand and the the ocean and I'm the only human being out there very plantet of the Apes looking you just needed the Statue of Liberty and you know the the famous line that Charlton hon says it just you start thinking of these things when you're out especially when you're as tired as I was you know I'm surprised I didn't see Apes as tired as I was you know hallucinating but uh I waited and I waited like oh come on I got to go I got to get South to rany I got to find the drifting surge Cam and then I got to get out of here and I got to go to Raleigh and Rebecca and mallerie are flying in the next day and just like G come on and so I finally get to the Lego Bridge as we called it um so Irene cut
an inlet in 2011 and the Army Corps of Engineers and Dot and whoever else I guess I'm assuming the core of engineers helped but you know lots of officials put together this temporary bridge that literally looks like it was built out of giant Legos there like this odd conglomeration of metal and just what look like Lego so we called it the Lego bridge and I get to it I'm just like what am I looking at I couldn't understand the road Highway 12 the Jersey walls had cut across diagonal and
I thought and I remember I might have text Ted you or talked to you on the phone or I might have been saying something to somebody's like oh how have they already put barricades out here to keep people from going south yeah that's what you said I said dude there's no way you're right yeah tired though I was like wait a minute and I realized they were along the side you know of this road because they were they were doing maintenance and whatever out there still right The Surge the Church moved the Jersey walls
in unison like a like a a rope you know
in the current and and they cut across the highway and then the highway I got out and I walked up there there's like hose and and infrastructure and the camera they had out there to monitor stuff was knocked over and the road was buckled it looked like it had been in a like magnitude 8 earthquake and I tweeted huh I'd say no one is going anywhere for a while if they are south of here and that of course included cantori who was still down in um in
waves right so to me I was like all
right well that's the end of that I'm not sitting out here for two days until they fix this thing you and whatever uh I remember a dude came up in a a a deuce and a half or whatever they call it from from the south and he couldn't get to me but I saw him and we waved hey yeah it's rolled up how is it up there it's pretty bad a lot of water and sand okay be safe bye I'm like all right I'm out of here and uh so I drove North and then at this point uh this guy Dave malov from The Weather Channel had called and he was like hey where are you I'm trying to head north goes can we meet in Nags Head we'd like to do a story about you and talk about everything I was like oh I am exhausted like I'm I have to take Gorilla tape and hold my eyelids open I'm so tired all right yeah that sounds fine you know so I'm driving north and I'm where Jesse was did you when yo left that boy island or whatever it's called lighthouse in the I whatever did you drive through flood water can yo remember that because I sure did that no no that no that's what I I I made the uh in the statement in my write up that uh once we met up up there cuz you we came and that's right got together and chatted for a bit and you were like dude that whole area is underwater and I was like what and you were like yeah it's a 3 to 5 ft of water man you you were lucky you got the hell out of there when you did because you probably wouldn't have made it yeah because you're because I had had a Trailblazer and that thing doesn't sit that high off the ground and you had your the Taho certainly a little higher off the ground so I that that
that was my concern cuz that's the only vehicle I have and I can't afford yo know I can't I just couldn't so I had to get North and then I almost got it swamped yeah yeah I was like dang this is more Shenanigans and the Tahoe was starting to stutter you know I was like well let's don't do that you we don't need like come on come on and it's just like gosh I'm just done with this yo know you get so excited to go work and do everything like all right I'm ready for it to be over I need some freaking sleep and I mean folks I am exhausted like really really tired physically exhausted my face hurts I'm so tired I get up finally to where 12 meets what is
that 58 or or something 158 you know yo
got 64 that comes in from the west and 12 go south and you're in Nags Head and there's a a Taco Bell and a KFC and then there's a little catholic church right there and that's where told Dave malov to meet me I'm at this Catholic Church whatever let's do the interview there so he pulls in I don't even know what the heck I said I don't I'm assuming I was coherent that I had enough to make some words fit together and we talked about who knows what and um I remember I watched him edit everything together he had a laptop in the back of his SUV he was using Adobe Premiere or whatever and he stitched all the stuff and I had sent some video and he added those in and he he cut together this piece and uh uploaded it to the Weather Channel he's like all right everything worked it's good it'll be on later or whatever and I was like okay thank goodness and I guess you said that I saw you so we must have chatted for a little bit and um oh wow are you kidding me Lieutenant I can't believe this this is July 4th Russell Honore the Russell the the guy from you know who he is from the uh the Katrina disaster that took over everything Russell L hore Lieutenant US Army retired as 33rd Commander first Army jtf
Katrina wow I didn't realize he must have yeah he said Jim canor and hurricane track Jim did the power distribution lines get knocked looks like power line on the road cuz he saw my tweet picture and I said no that was some kind of line of pumping work for the road I say no power lines down myself South I saw no power lines wow Russell Honore tweeted at me that's pretty cool
and uh Cantor tweeted the picture and that's my first viral Moment by the way I don't know if there's stats on here let's see the analytics no it's too old not available but I do remember it was in the tens of thousands I mean there's 97 retweets in 2014 that's a lot so between Jim and
Russell hore yeah he's sitting at 124,000 followers now Jim Cantor now is 1.3 million probably a third of that or
something back then whatever anyway that picture was my first viral moment just for those of you keeping track at home wow General honor I forgot about that Jesse anyway uh I'm done I'm
like okay I gotta go and so I worked my
way off the Outer Banks finally made it to Raleigh which is like two and some change hours Inland checked into a Hampton in and just crashed you know where you're so tired you hurt like I said you physically hurt and I smelled like just swamp dog or
something right it's just awful the Taho is just like coming in there's just there's just something about that time frame during those storms it's just it's like what what is that right you know
what I'm generally I'm getting better at it stuff's easier these days yeah but I mean what I mean is the two to three days of taking a shower it seems just doesn't I don't know what that's about it is it it's awful it piles up and and accumulates and you're just you're you're a disaster it get and it gets sealed by Salt Air right you got sand inside the vehicle I don't know it's awful all of your crevices are just no good you need you need Stanley Steamer and and uh the what's the green compan serf proo they need serf Pro human people you The Human Side need a good Steam cleaning anyway I crashed I like oh thank goodness got some sleep uh but I was tweeting cuz I noticed that the drifting surge cam uh was you know and I'm going to look on Google Maps here almost done with this episode or at least this segment with Mr Bass where did it come to land I'm going to tell you because it worked sort of uh again launched it from real water
sports uh down in
waves and it gets mobile from The Surge it did come up several feet and it scared Cantor away and all that already talked about that and it goes across 12 to
Cecil's Cottage Road several houses down that's what the spot locator showed so I sent Jim who was still stuck down there with his producer Steve pedak and other people that he works with a screenshot of the spot locator info and then I posted on Twitter please put the word out in rodanthi and waves $500 cash reward if you can find basically the drifting surge Cam that Jim and I had put out if found email me it's a Black Pelican case looks like it has two eyes on one side set out work anour is doing live shots whatever uh so I sent this info to gym with a screenshot of the GPS coordinates and whatnot and a day later roughly he and his producer or cameraman or somebody went over to Cecil's what was it called Cecil's Cottage Road and walked down the road in this sludge stuff and saw it underneath a trailer
basically and got it out of the muck they found it and this is a true story uh I came back couple days later he and his Entourage left you came down right and we all got together and he gave it back to me well he had to go to the airport and fly something I no he gave it gave it to me yeah now we're talking it was like what two maybe three days later that they were able to get out of there and bring it right uh we kept watching making sure it wasn't moving right up until the battery died I mean I was even watching it here um then they found it well no I guess the battery continue to to work because I was able to pull that yeah in their SUV right I pulled it up and watched where they were because you called me and said hey Jim's got the camera in the case they're getting out of there they're on their way can you get down and meet him somewhere on the way to the airport now you got it yeah so Crystal and I hopped in the truck and Crystal got to go great yeah that's right we beat feet down there and I pulled off on an area where we could pull off of 158 168 whatever that is on the way South through Chesapeake and that's where we sat was in Chesapeake Southern Chesapeake and I was following it on the phone and I was watching uh watching the tracker so I knew where it was coming and uh he texted me or something yeah and I told him where to look and where to turn and they they came flying up into the little parking lot little area that we were sitting at and uh he popped out and turned around and he was like dude y'all have got to get this thing up and running I want to see what in the hell it caught he said we I can't believe we were able to find it and where it was I was like that's awesome though I said I really appreciate you taking the time he said yeah but we got to we got to hurry and uh get get motiva and get up to the airport Y and uh of course Crystal's standing there and he turns around and Jim being Jim he goes well hello and crystal says how you doing this my wife Crystal he goes how you doing darling and I was like okay yeah pick yourself up off the ground get in the car you know because she was just like oh God it's Jim yep you know just like every other woman on the planet and uh he helped me carry it back to the truck and we put it in the back of my it was Heavy wasn't it Trailblazer yeah yeah oh yeah we put it in the back of the Trailblazer had a few more words shook hands huged it out right oh yeah hugged it out and uh off he went and we got in and I brought it here and brought it to the house and we made the plan to meet up in Nag's Head right right I came back out uh Rebecca
mallerie finally got back in to Raleigh like the the fifth or sixth or whatever fifth I think and uh uh by the way mallerie's dance troop whatever it was called company in their division they won the national trophy so there's that um and uh I went back out as Jesse talks
about there uh and met him and and got the Pelican case back and um turns out
it didn't really record anything unfortunately and that was the last attempt too dark uh it was too dark but also the heat you know it just got too hot oh yeah that's right y yeah stuff would just shut off even at night didn't matter everything's just too too too close of quarters in there um it wouldn't be the LA almost said it was the last it wouldn't be the last I tried it later and that's what I'll start getting into in a couple of episodes actually out in Arizona of all places the drifting surge cam what why in Arizona well you'll have to tune in to a couple later episodes you'll find out um but that was it for Oceanic you know Atlantic whatever uh and we'll talk about later you know I'll I'll address what the problems were why it wouldn't work um but what was really remarkable since Jim found it and you know the Weather Channel I imagine that they pay him a decent salary after all these years don't yo Jesse Yeah I would assume yes right right you know like he doesn't need $500 from me uh and so I said uh so yeah about
that reward you know you found it yo know where do you want me to mail the check and I don't remember the exact organization but it was something that he supports with Children's Health something it was a charity he said uh send the you know the money to me he gave me his address and I'm going to make a donation to The whatever Foundation $500 and he did and again I don't remember exactly what it was called but um the money went to Jim and then Jim donated that $500 to a uh a charity that helps um some special needs children or something like that and I thought that was pretty cool you know like oh okay that's awesome because he gets a lot of flak and you know he he did he did a good thing so that's as far as Jesse and I are concerned and and his role the story of Hurricane Arthur anything you want to add Before I Let You Go Mr Bass now that was that was uh great to sit here and look through that and remember yeah some of that stuff now and how it came back as we continue to talk and I started piecing some of that together because that was just such a long period of time with zero sleep yeah it was awful it is it it
was and still is I try not to do it as much anymore I'm older and got a lot more people helping so it's easier ah it was grueling you know Fourth of July hurricane and the first one of the 2014 season and um I thought all right yo know I was on the Weather Channel with Norcross and Lowry and I did that interview that I don't think I ever saw it but I'm assuming it was okay with Dave malov um and uh I was Off to the Races
you know for my first year under contract working with the Weather Channel not for them I was not an employee they were Contracting with me to provide exclusive this that and the other and Arthur at least seemed to be like all right here we go this is this is going to be something else so we'll see what the rest of the 2014 season brings well Jesse I appreciate you joining in man it's always good to talk to you and uh I can't remember absolutely always fun when you come back let's see I know by 2018 we had a
blizzard and I start covering winter storms in 2014 um and by the way before I let yo go that was the year 2014 that I officially started covering winter storms and it was because I went to Massachusetts and covered that big bomb cyclone and I was on with Cantor and I had the Drone and all that that was a big part of how I got the gig with the Weather Channel because the president David Clark was watching all of that that was a pretty good coincidence and it was who it was Kant Tor who said get your butt up here so I owe a lot to Jim and you know you and I have known him for a long time and uh 2014 was an interesting year it was it was really cool yeah I mean uh I I can't remember
what year it was now I'd have to go back and look but um I remember meeting we met him at one of the conferences when we started taking the vehicles right and yours was inside mine was outside I believe when we had my Explorer decked out and he just was he was like this is awesome what you guys are doing are incredible we got to get you guys on the network yes yeah it's like 0405 and he introduced us to people remember Tony gski yes yeah yeah so it was a good
relationship it was the start of it and I had a lot of uh enthusiasm Carrie did too of course a big part of the project and all the hurricane track followers and um so one last tidbit and then we're out with Jesse and I'll wrap up this episode separately uh I kept saying I left the quote safety of Dan's family's house and
rhany turns out they have a nice high water mark from Arthur I think it's a little over four five feet something like that Tahoe would have been flooded had I stayed at Dan's house absolutely would have been destroyed so me driving it North and
getting into the eye and all that and then almost flooding it was actually the better choice than staying in my safe spot on that road I think it's Seashore Drive or whatever in rhany because they did get several feet of water in fact I took pictures where you can see the rack line the the reads and whatever that had settled on his picnic table after they had floated several feet so yes the Tahoe lived to see another day because I was quote brave enough also maybe imprint that see stupid enough to drive and get in the eye well we remembered you know and that was always been my thing for down there right uh we've always talked about H how bad could it be blah blah blah have yo but you know you're surrounded on both sides by water basically there's very small stretch of land across there couple hundred y but during yeah but during Alex yep I mean we know how long it took us to get out right from Hatter Village all the way back up to the Bor Bridge because the entire stretch of 12 was underwater there were fish and there was cars stuck in the rack we got up crap yep yeah absolutely and so that's why I was like well I can't risk it so I I need to get North and it was that you know so I I knew a better we talked about that spot in rhany it was pretty we thought I guess at the time we tried to reason and ration that that spot would be okay to stay um now we know better though yeah and I've learned a lot since then and that helps me a lot for the stuff now and including winter storms out there when you get these Coastal storms and understanding how the ocean and the Pam Hound do what they do and you know sometimes you got to learn and I just think the irony that had I just stayed put and thought it's too dangerous to drive north on 12 I would have I wouldn't have lost the vehicle but it would have been unsalvageable all that salt water it would have been enough so that the seats of the Tahoe would have been covered in brackish water from the pamco sound oh yeah no doubt there yo go well Jesse man thanks a lot I appreciate it as always and we'll have you on again when we talk about whenever you pop up again in one of these episodes along the hurricane highway it's coming I definitely remember 2018 blizzard and we'll have you on when we talk about that because 2018 sure that's a big year that'll probably be in the next season but whatever anyway thanks for joining us dude we'll catch yo again another time thanks for having me on man appreciate [Music]
it [Music] so there you have it Hurricane Arthur all wrapped up and in the books in the can for you what a remarkable Adventure that was working with Jesse working with Jim Cantor out there on the Outer Banks where I got my start just a really neat adventure and hey I got to be on the uh Oregon Inlet Bridge there the boner bridge over the Oregon Inlet which is pretty cool considering a hurricane itself created the Oregon Inlet back in the 1890s and yet I was in the eye of Arthur over the Oregon Inlet on the Bonner Bridge probably the only person alive or dead that's ever done that you know what the heck I'll take it just one of the little interesting tidbits from this that you guys will remember hopefully you maybe I should go out there and put a little sticker on one of the new girds that's up on the new bridge called the baz Knight Bridge they took the boner Bridge down and spent a lot of money on a new bridge called the bass night bridge and I think from Senator Mark bass Knight if memory serves um but yeah what what an amazing adventure so 2014 just to uh kind of refresh a couple of things here as we move forward it was not expected to be a particularly busy season in fact the April forecast from Colorado State University was 9 three and one nine tropical storms three of those becoming Hurrican hurricanes that's not very many and one of those becoming a major hurricane um those was that was an April forecast once we got to late May Noah had a range they do that range thing really making it hard to be wrong right you know it's just weird when you have a range but whatever 8 to 13 Nam storms 3 to six hurricanes 1 to two majors and really it was the thought that we were going to have a warm inso or elino Southern ation phenomenon and not a particularly favorable main development region and overall Tropical Atlantic look it just didn't look like it was going to be very favorable at all and
thinking that the ace would be fairly low probably under a 100 um and again just not a very busy season was expected and certainly by July 31st when Colorado State updated their forecast they reduced the total numbers to 10 name
storms they upped the hurricane forecast to four hurricanes we'd already had Arthur um and uh and then one major hurricane was still their thought so how did it all end up well you got to tune in to the rest of the episodes for this season here to hear all about it so the next episode speaking of that will be just another incredible Adventure something I have always wanted to do and I remember speaking with the Weather Channel in April at my pitch meeting the biggest thing that I wanted David Clark who was the president at the time and all of the people that would make the decisions about a potential contract I wanted them to you know and I said this to unleash me I wanted to be able to do whatever I felt like would be a good story to cover mainly hurricanes but certainly other weather if I could but seeing that we put everything together late in the year winter had come and gone so it was pretty much just hurricane season that my first contract would cover but I wanted to be able to cover maybe something in Cancun kumel if the need arised uh Bermuda maybe the Bahamas certainly Puerto Rico maybe Jamaica and
definitely the desert Southwest when we get pacific hurricanes coming up that way and in a year like 2014 which was a warmer inso event where the equatorial Pacific was warmer that looked like it was going to be sort of a sure thing that covering the impacts especially the water perspective all that water dumping into the desert Southwest you know I lived out there for a few years from ' 86 to '89 in Las Vegas still almost like a complete other life and uh it's just an amazing area and I wanted to be able to cover C that
uh if a tropical Cyclone you its remnants moved up into that region and I would get that chance in the 2014 season and that's what the next episode of stories from the hurricane Highway will be all about I'll tell you all about hurricane Norbert and then the episode after that is odal and how and why the
drifting surge cam never did an Atlantic deployment ever again but we took it out to Arizona for odal like why would yo take the drifting surge cam I think yo probably understand if you think about it but yes I'll explain all of that two episodes from now but the next episode hurricane Norbert an incredible several days long adventure with myself and Carrie and uh it's too bad he's still not with us you know to tell you about it in person but we'll find some audio clips I'm sure and I will recount these stories uh of when he and I went out there there to the desert Southwest on an epic adventure as hurricane Norbert and its remnants came up into the region and my quest for the desert flash flood yes I can't wait to tell you all about it so as always thank you for listening to this episode I appreciate your feedback and and especially too that you're patient as I put these together there's only one Mark suth and I got a great team of people behind me but I'm the only one that can tell these stories at least their Origins and so I appreciate your patience as I put these together for you I try to do the production as best I can as well and uh include these audio clips and try to dig up these pictures and post those on patreon and don't forget try to go back and look at those too they are there pictures 1 through eight I think it is and I will also put them on Discord when I link to this episode on Discord all right all right well that is it from me for this time around Hurricane Arthur in the books in the can all those production metaphors one wonderful thing is done now we move on to Norbert on the next episode of stories from the hurricane highway I'm of course your host Mark suth thanks again for listening I'll talk to you next time [Music]
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