Stories From The Hurricane Highway Season 1 Episode 19 Transcript - 2004 Part 5 / 8

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Highway the podcast series I am your host Mark Sudduth thank you for joining me today we're going to take a look back at the year 2004 this is part five remember I told you 2004 was a big year we had a lot of hurricanes that year a lot of them hit the United States it was a very very damaging year and historic here as they say so we're up to part five here and in this Edition we will take a look back down the hurricane Highway at Hurricane Francis a devastating large Cape Verde hurricane tracked all the way across the Atlantic in fact it had such a long journey that Gaston hurricane Gaston made landfall first the g-storm made landfall before the f-storm it's kind of rare that that happens but in 04 that's exactly what happened up to this point the team and I had been in Alex along the North Carolina Outer Banks and then Bonnie and Charlie in Florida of course how can we forget the harrowing experience of Charlie and then shortly after Charlie Jesse and I went down and tackled Gaston uh down in South Carolina not far from Charleston North of there along the Bulls Bay Area between Georgetown and Charleston but looming and lurking out in the Atlantic was Francis again powerful Cape Verde hurricane came off the coast of Africa in late August about the last third of August there moved out into the warm Waters of the very fertile Atlantic that year became a depression on August 24th and so the Saga began as it goes across early speculation was it'll turn out to see you know which most of them do obviously if everything hit the United States or other land masses of the western Atlantic we wouldn't live at the coast it would just be unbearable so most of them do turn out to see and it looked like Francis could do that but as we know you know things change and that's what happened in the western Atlantic Ridge kind of took over and Francis was forced back to the West a little bit more each day it seemed and it made a course it set of course makes it sound like it's a living thing but you know how it works it was headed for the Bahamas and looked like it would steer clear of the Greater Antilles the Lesser Antilles in vicinity and probably cut through the Bahamas as a powerful hurricane and that's exactly what happened now there's a lot more to it there's quite a few intricate details here an interwoven stories that I'm going to try to keep straight for you that's going to be my job here uh because we did we had a lot going on so we had the hurricane landfall project and that was finally ready for Francis where we took the old Isuzu Rodeo that I had in operation in 1999 through the year 2002 remember in O3 Lowe's helped to purchase the Chevy Tahoe so we didn't really use the Isuzu anymore instead of getting rid of it or whatever we decided to turn it into a crash test vehicle for hurricanes you know we got it painted bright yellow that was John's idea so we took it over to Mako and they painted it up nice bright yellow not quite neon but it was pretty bright yellow um like yellow submarine yellow and big old hurricane landfall project decal on the side or lettering whatever you want to call it um and we had Edwards crane put some stuff fabricated some steel reinforcements and some anchor points you know we did we did the stuff you need to do to turn it into a mobile laboratory or crash test vehicle for a hurricane but it was very serious a chuckle there but it was very serious we wanted to have something that we could take out and we would tow it behind the Tahoe and it still drove it wasn't anything wrong with the Isuzu but you know if we didn't have enough Personnel or whatever we just tow it behind the Tahoe and we would leave it that was the idea leave it out as close to the beach front as possible in the next major hurricane and record data when data pressure data and then have all these cameras on it one of them inside of it you know inside of scuba housings you know all of this are are things that I was working on and my team was helping me John and with his input Eddie with his input Jesse with his input other colleagues of mine you name it you know that's how we did it back then we had message boards we had my website you know no social media not like we do now not even close but we did have people you know I would blog about it talk about it on the website and people would make suggestions send me emails oh you should do this you should do that and it all came together so that's one thread of our very intricately woven Story another thread is Jeff flock my friend from CNN uh remember he and I met in 1999 covering hurricane Dennis and then Floyd he and I became friends stayed in touch we were on the phone daring Charlie uh Jeff had retired and I'm going to do air quotes you know quote retired in 04 very early 04 from CNN and was kicking back we're enjoying the retirement life I guess and I guess he got bored and he decided especially after Charlie he was tossing around the idea even up to that point you know maybe we could do like a documentary a short series maybe get one of the production companies that he knew in Chicago to pick it up and maybe we could pitch it to Science Channel Discovery TLC somebody The Weather Channel CNN something you know whatever short film or short series documentary film you know he he thought this would be kind of cool and we could call it the hurricane landfall project at least the working title so throughout the summer you know in The Barrage of hurricanes we'd already dealt with Alex a tropical storm Bonnie then Charlie Gaston on Etc Jeff worked on getting a little bit of seed money a producer a camera guy and um an associate producer I believe he had as well so a small team and they were like all right we're gonna do it you know we'll shoot some stuff we'll shoot some dock as they call it maybe hire a couple extra camera people and a sound guy you know do it up right we have multiple camera angles and you know proper sound and the whole bit and we'll join you for the next one and the next one was Francis so there's that thread okay um and then there's the thread of who all is going to cover it so Francis is coming into the Bahamas powerful hurricane looking like it's going to affect South Central Florida East Coast there of course towards Labor Day weekend 2004. so everybody convenes in Wilmington Jessie's there John comes down Eddie is going to sit out Francis and it's just going to be the three of us Mark Jesse John plus this hurricane landfall project documentary crew Jeff flock a guy named Rob Hess um trying to remember his name it was Casale I don't know if it was Scott or gosh I can't remember that's that that bothers me uh and then another producer I don't remember her name there's four people working on this crew all right so all of us met at my house over in Brunswick County and Leland I lived I now live in Wilmington proper back then I lived across the river over in Leland in a golf community and you know we had the Tahoe there with all of its stuff the yellow Isuzu loaded for bear uh they had their big Suburban which news crews always have you know it's like very typical but anyway I digress and we were ready to go so and then Jesse brought his SUV John brought his SUV a a Dodge truck that he had and I would tow the Isuzu behind the Tahoe right so there's this big crew of us and off we go Francis is in the Bahamas menacing the Bahamas you know it's it's a big deal Major League news event for the United States it's forecast to make landfall uh over Labor Day weekend roughly around you know Labor Day is on a Monday so the weekend leading up to Labor Day uh as a powerful hurricane you know it's really really got everybody upset obviously and off we go right so um I remember and these are those intimate details that I promise you we um it had been a stressful year you know Charlie really rattled us you know and we're I'll always be honest about that I'm never going to change my story you know 10 years from now I'm like oh yeah Charlie was nothing you know no no no no no it'll always be the one that woke me up okay and where I literally saw the light you know oh can't sit in an SUV in a cat for a hurricane ever again that's dumb and we gotta do better so this is it this is the start Francis is truly the start of you gotta do better okay you gotta have common sense here people this is the start but it's very stressful you know the job is stressful updating the website everything that I'm juggling I got a family young kids you know I still have young kids even today jeez um and it weighs on you so I remember we get down to Ormond Beach and uh we wanted to stop at uh Ormond Beach area and get some Boston Market and I think they were closed but Papa John's which was next door and I know you're thinking man how does he remember that we've talked about this before my wife says the same thing how do you remember those anyway um Yes Papa John's was open and we we were all there the crew my crew Jeff's crew Everybody right and I remember sitting on a bench I think I called my parents um who lived in the North Carolina Mountains just checking in with them you know we stay in close contact uh we always have very close to my parents just checking in with them and I remember just the massive amount of evacuation traffic that we passed South into Florida you know Jacksonville St Augustine we even stopped at a rest area near near just south of Jacksonville and just the line of cars oh it's too bad we didn't have drones back then right um but for whatever reason you know I think everything caught up to me and I remember eating my pizza and drinking my Sprite or my Coke or whatever uh I just talked to my parents and I sat down I was by myself just kind of off to the side on a bench or something and I just felt horribly depressed you know literally like um remember in Star Wars the episode four the first one in 1977 A New Hope when the Alderaan Planet gets blown up and Obi-Wan feels that feeling and Luke says what's wrong and he's like you know it's as if a million voices suddenly cried out and were suddenly silenced or whatever and Obi-Wan just he felt weak you know it affected him the destruction of Alderaan I just felt bad you know like all the stress of all those people you know whatever it is in the medical metal the metaphysical world I don't know folks I can't explain it but it it affected me affected with an a just like Obi-Wan in Star Wars when Alderaan affected him okay and I just felt horrible you know almost like I was gonna cry and just really depressed like all of a sudden not a panic attack I've had those and if this was different and you know kind of like what am I doing here why are we doing this why are we so excited about it when all these people are leaving and they may never see their homes again you know we I felt empathy and it for people and it just it all caught up to me and you know I talked to Jesse about it and you know dag oh man I just feel weird and he's like yeah it'll be all right and we all talked it over and I talked to my parents I think again and um I told them about it and you know I was able to kind of brush it off take a deep breath we're doing important stuff we're not out there goofing off we're not a stunt crew you know we have a purpose and it made me feel better um and people you know I didn't talk about it on the website or anything but I had nothing but encouraging emails from people all along and that's the way it's always been very very encouraging you know I can probably count on just one hand and then just a few fingers of the other hand the total amount of people that have ever been genuinely negative in my 20-something year career doing this on the internet especially For Real you know that are truly vile negative people um very very few like I said less than 10 okay that's the best way to put it everybody else phenomenal encouragement I mean look at you you're supporting this on patreon I mean there you go so that helped me the positive emails come in we talked about the hurricane landfall project on the website people knew about it you know and it was a big deal we were going to be doing something that nobody else was doing there were universities that had their programs for studying wind and other aspects but we were trying to do everything wind pressure and video data with unmanned cameras because that was the idea remember I got to keep harping on that we're going to leave the Isuzu somewhere it's going to have several cameras on it one inside whatever instrumentation on the outside everything properly anchored data loggers you know a lot of money put into it and a real concerted effort this was not some kind of a publicity stunt it was the first generation and the first attempt here at unmanned remote sensing as they call it that's the official term Force called remote sensing and you know so I I quickly brushed it it off yep yep we do have a purpose let's go you know I think we're going to help save lives in the long run right you know this is good it's good it's good it's all good and off we go but I just wanted to mention that you know that it does affect me and I remember that to this day clearly because I just told you but that is part of this whole process okay hurricanes do affect me and the rest of the team believe me so we get on down to Daytona Beach which is not far at all from Ormond Beach as you might know if you know your geography of Florida and we checked into the Holiday Inn there near the speedway my how that area has grown let me tell you um and um we waited because what happened well Francis comes roaring in uh to the Bahamas powerful hurricane and it just kind of starts to slow down and you're just like come on you know and that's the big worry here it's just I mean hey like Dorian last year in in 2019 man you know it's funny how history repeats itself not funny but you know what I mean and Francis did just that it came into the Bahamas through the southeast Bahamas headed towards Florida but boy it slowed down quite a bit and it just prolonged the agony uh and and we weren't really really sure what we should do what do we do you know where are we gonna put the vehicle and a lot of pressure here you know the documentary crew filming we're spending money you know and then Florida is running out of gas because it was Labor Day weekend already a busy time of the summer you know millions of people evacuated sucked up all the gas there was no plan in place and there was very little gas and we only had a little bit several tanks or cans that John had brought from North Carolina and that was it I mean for real so we had to be conservative with the gas we go on and we kind of wait you know one day turns into two days and this thing just slows down to a crawl it goes across um the North and into Northwestern Bahamas finally looking like it's going to come in um over eventually into the peninsula uh that weekend Saturday into Sunday but very very slowly it's got a huge eye I remember that and it weakens as when they slow down they up well water and they weaken then the land friction gets in and all that so it dropped in intensity down to about 105 miles per hour category two and it finally was Showtime if you will and the plan was to drive down to the Hutchinson Island area sewell's point that area put the Isuzu out there somewhere and leave it see what we get now we were all breathing a very big sigh of relief that it had it it had weakened from 145 miles per hour whatever it was to 105 that was a big blessing but it was really interesting because Jesse and John were very gun shy about going out on the beach area and getting stuck and we're in the core of the hurricane and it's not that I wasn't but I was more resistant you know and it's the truth I was like yeah okay and you know they really wanted a plan what are we going to do and I thought well it's not that strong we could probably hang out down on Hutchinson you know and they're like nope not doing it and it it they were upset about it and we got to have a backup plan so I got in touch with Martin County Emergency Operations Center told them what we were doing they had heard about me and our group you know good reputation preceded ourselves and they said yep you can come stay safe here Etc so once we set up the Isuzu the plan was we would all go to Martin County EOC uh wherever that is I still don't know where it is you'll see where this is going and um so we go out daylight hours to sewell's point uh we cross the bridge over the Intracoastal no cops no nothing no barricades just you know you want to go out there go out there so as it turns out several days before we left North Carolina but you know I was talking about it on the website what we were going to do the whole game plan I get an email from a gentleman in New York Long Island or somewhere I don't really remember might have the email on my computer I don't know um wouldn't it be interesting to find it but anyhow he was following everything we were doing and uh offered for us to stay at his condo in Hutchinson Island or on Hutchinson Island and there was you know he had like a housekeeper or a service and they could leave the the door unlocked you know it was like a nice condo area and I was like wow that's amazing thank you and oh yeah no problem you can you can go in you can do this you can use it there's food you know several bedrooms that's you know the guy was fairly well off you know got a nice condo down there on Hutchinson Island and I wrote down the information or printed it out or something and I remember I folded the paper up and I put it in that little center console in the Tahoe you know that little thing you open up and you can put like stuff in there I just call it a center console it's a little cubby area and I put the paper in there and honestly I forgot about it and that's important to remember okay very very important to remember that particular detail that a man from New York offered us a place to stay on Hutchinson Island so now we're back to the present in the story anyway we're setting the Isuzu up we're out there John and Jesse it's windy too you know Francis is coming it's just moving so slow that it's going to take a day or longer 30 hours probably to get in and out instead of like Charlie or Michael or whatever you know in our past experiences that's in and out pretty quick or Alex which is like five hours total earlier uh in August of that year my goodness you know these you know everything's cramming together really quick here we are up to Francis already so yeah Francis is going to take a long time and but it's still windy and the the surf is churned up there and uh we get the Isuzu where we need it and I remember uh Jesse was like okay are we good you know you good whatever yep he's like all right I'm gonna start heading back and I'm gonna go to the uh the EOC there in Martin County I'll see you and John there yep see you later Jesse so he took off in his Ford Explorer John and I finished up a few things shot some videos you know handheld videos which were all on the tracking the Hurricanes documentary under the uh Francis chapter of course the CNN guy Jeff flock and his crew you know we'd been shooting all along all of our stuff for the this pilot that he wanted to put together um and you know again just all this different stuff going on it's crazy so we got the hurricane landfall project Isuzu up and running what does that mean well the anemometer was set up it was reporting data recording data as well and sending it out to our website hurricane track.com and we had an interface built where you could watch it where there was a webcam up on the top I mean it was working yeah we it was going and um I had a couple of the video cameras on the roof these rolled High eight cameras with six hour tapes and I believe I might have even had a couple of eight hour tapes if you put them on SLP mode or whatever um you know and it's running and I was like all right well this is a good first test a good inaugural event Category 2 hurricane kind of unwinding not intensifying it's not another Andrew you know it's not some powerful you know it's weakening right so I felt more confident in my own safety that the Isuzu probably is going to be fine but it's a good test okay we'll take it I was satisfied you know you gotta walk or crawl before you can walk or walk before he can run right that would have worked walk before you run and that's what we were doing so we're finishing up and uh John is like again he's like okay you good are you ready uh yep I'm we're good I'm gonna stay a little bit longer shoot some stuff with Jeff you go ahead and go meet Jesse up in uh Martin County if you don't mind and I will meet you there you know I'll meet you there later okay yeah no problem see ya I had no intention of meeting them there and I'll just be straight up about it I wanted to stay out and experience the hurricane I was not scared and I think the biggest thing that they were worried about to their credit is the flood threat and we talked about that it was actually a pretty heated debate in terms of where are we going to be and they were insisting that I get us some Refuge that was not on the Barrier Island you know and I was like guys it's not Charlie come on and they're like but you know 20 30 inches of rain and we could get stuck somewhere and we're smarter than that and you know they had a great counter argument to my ambition of wanting to stay out and I you know I wanted to babysit the Isuzu see how things were going since it was not a severe hurricane in my opinion I just felt safe you know and you know I had no intention of meeting Jesse and John at the Martin County EOC so they go they both left and I'm out there with Jeff and Rob and I think the guy's name was John Cassell come to think of it the cameraman I know it's Casal but I don't remember if it was John or not but anyhow I digress and there's a couple of other extra camera people but they bolted they wouldn't come out to the island either it was funny they were hired Freelancers to help shoot this documentary pilot and they wouldn't even go out there you know it was that was quite funny so remember now this is where the the thing from the guy in New York and the condo comes in I remember at some point John and Jesse had left it's just me Jeff flock Rob Hess this other producer I don't remember her name it was maybe it was Deborah something yeah it was Debbie I can't remember her last name but it was Debbie um and we were all out there and yeah all right it's running and Jeff was interviewing me you know for the documentary and uh whatever we're going through all that I remember looking over and just like out of the corner of my eye it I saw a sign and it said Hutchinson Island and a bell went off in my head ding ding ding where ever heard that before oh yeah that's where we're gonna stay duh there's a guy and I told you I remember oh my gosh Jeff I just remembered we can stay here he's like what it's like there's a guy in New York and he emailed me and he said that we can stay in his condo and it's out here somewhere whatever oh it's in my Tahoe and I went in and I got the piece of paper and I called him I remember I had his phone number and I called him up and I know hey this is Mark suddath the hurricane track guy hey Mark how are you and you know the phone reception was not the best and you know I told him I said yeah we're going to stay sorry I didn't let you know oh that's fine that's fine that should be unlocked well where is it what's it called and I don't remember what it was called you know you know how condos have a name I don't remember uh but he said it was near the Hilton or something and you know he gave me directions and now it's starting to get dark you know and Francis is creeping closer and the winds are coming up 60 70 80 miles per hour Gusty you know the power's out it's done and we start looking for this place can't find it you know it's not like we have now with uh Google Maps where you can just punch something in and you're there you know there might have been something like that back then but we didn't have it and so I had to call him back he's like hey I'm so sorry but what do we do is that what you go down should be a road with something here and you turn left and it was just nuts because you know Francis was starting to ramp up you know the the core was getting closer what was left of it and it's a little harrowing and it's getting dark and it's like oh my gosh and finally we get to this condo area and there's sheet metal blowing around everywhere that had come off of all of the carport um uh what do you call them like you drive up under Mike I guess it keeps the sun off of people's cars it's just all you know shoddy putting together sheet metal stuff um we don't have that in the Carolinas by the way where I live but down in Florida it's like these little carport things you drive up under it's all made out of you know the cheapest sheet metal I guess you can buy and very weakly put together Steels beams or something I don't know but the sheet metal is flying everywhere and it's like golly and you can hear it banging into each other and banging in the trees whatever only a few cars there from some of the residents that stayed oh I mean literally just a few and we're trying to find the the condo it's on the second floor you know I'll just make up you know 220 or something and um so uh I told Jeff that the door is unlocked the guy had his housekeeping service go by and unlock the door for us it's unlocked all we got to do is find it and you know three bedrooms a kitchen everything's good to go and that's where we'll stay so Jeff and I go to look you know how do we get up the elevators are not working and we go to one end of the building to the stairwell because we're like yeah yeah let's take the stairs and the stairwell is has a door I mean who does that that had a door I guess they do right some do some don't but this one had a freaking door and it was locked and I'm just like ah you know that's just gonna be horrible and I'm sure there was some swear words said as well uh and so we ran down to the other end and thank goodness that one was unlocked otherwise we'd have been pooched and so we walked up we go in to the corridor it's outside Corridor or whatever and there's room 220 like I said I'm just making that up it was on the second floor I do remember that and um it opens oh there we go and we wave down there hey come on up you know I remember I had a big Spotlight with me the crew comes up and we all go in and uh it's pretty quiet in there to be honest with you it's a very well-built condo it's very nice uh and we stayed and the hurricane is coming uh the eye comes over and I go out in it with Jeff and the crew and the eye lasts for like six or seven hours it was insane I think it was that long it was definitely long enough that I took a nap in the condo during the eye and I went back out and the eye was still over us and we went over to where the Isuzu was checked on everything took some b-roll of it whatever and everything was working great um and uh at some point I know you got to be wondering well where did Jesse and John think you were some point in the evening they called or maybe I called them I don't remember and I said um yeah you know we were getting ready to leave and it was just too dangerous which was true it was too dangerous to leave and drive in this stuff so I was like yeah we're just gonna stay here in fact do you remember I told you about this guy from New York and there was a condo out here well it turns out it was open so we actually have a place to stay and John I think I talked to him it might have been Jesse doesn't matter but they were actually very relieved you know they were not mad or what you tricked us you know oh that's great that's awesome good good for you you're gonna be safe it was really funny because of course I knew that I had planned the whole thing I was not going to leave Hutchinson Island right I wasn't going to do it so there we were as high and dry as we could be myself Jeff flock the crew Rob Hess Mr Casal the camera guy and Debbie and I slept on a pillow top mattress comforter whatever it was Exquisite you know really nice condo um we had food we used the stove and we had bathroom running water still hot water in the hot water heater of the condo whatever and it was like freaking you know luxury resort in a hurricane filmed the next morning from the balcony I mean it was unbelievable and I made the mistake of updating the website that morning and as I made the mistake you'll see and I said how you know well I'm still out on Hutchinson Island and I did this I did that and everything's been great out here and the way the tone of it was it made it sound like that I was on vacation and John and Jesse of course read it they saw the up the website update whatever and that didn't sit well with them at all and they got pretty pissed and you know said we're gonna have a real big talk about this later you know you did this on purpose and I and I came because I was like yes I didn't think it was that risky and it was not good and again these are the intimate details you know it's not all 100 percent you know uh everything is you know sunshine and rainbows we have our problems uh this was not that big of a problem but they were upset and I think the biggest trigger was that I mentioned in the update that I slept comfortably you know uh and I was really I was trying to thank the guy uh that let us do it you know that was the intention here that hey we're safe we actually got a good night's sleep we're in a nice condo whatever well here's where it triggered John and Jesse they slept on a concrete floor in a hallway with 300 other people right and they ate MREs and we're in there eating microwave food and baking pizzas and whatever so yes yep that was that was tense so we got over it got past our differences reconvened the group up in Daytona where we started and waited why did we wait and we got the Isuzu out of uh sewell's point and all that and you know Francis lumbered its way across the peninsula kind of out over the gulf a little bit and then lumbered its way into the southeast United States but we were stuck why were we stuck in Daytona two days because Florida had no gasoline nope it was a disaster you guys remember that it was a complete failure of the system and we only had as much gas as we brought with us John like I said had brought several cans with him I think I mentioned that earlier he did he brought several cans so we distributed as best we could and so we just kind of had to sit there you know really couldn't go far from Daytona and do nothing you know because nothing was open we had to wait for the power to be coming back on and for the gas stations to open to pump gas because if they were either out of gas or unfortunately because they didn't have generators at the gas stations uh they couldn't pump gas that was the biggest problem to be honest with you so it became increasingly frustrating you know sleeping in our vehicles uh the hotel was full of evacuees and other people dealing with the hurricane and it just it started to get rotten it really did our morale was down and we started trying to think of what can we do so I thought well there's a Lowe's over in Ormond Beach a Lowe's Home Improvement store they have rental trucks maybe we can get up with corporate and get permission to go siphon the gas out of one of the rental trucks so that's what we did the first part anyway we got in touch with corporate the people that I worked with and no problem they said that's fine you know so we because if the police come by what are you doing here oh we have permission yeah that's not going to go over very well people take pictures of it and we're on the front page of the Daytona times or whatever the Orlando Sentinel uh of us stealing gas from Lowe's we had to have a legitimate reason so low said yes that's fine and you know we had a a contact if the police came by and you know whatever it is that was all diffused well ahead of of time so uh there we go and we don't have a true way to really siphon it so I remember and this is how well prepared we were we're much better off now trust me you learn from these things um John had the idea go over to the Garden area and they have hoses out there and let's just cut off a few feet of Hose he had a knife and we'll use that so that's what he did he cut a garden hose a few feet of it and we found a truck and he stuck the um uh hose down into the gas tank pulled it back out and it was drippy with gasoline so yep there's some gas in there and we tried to siphon it and for whatever reason probably because you're not supposed to suck gasoline right you know and siphon gasoline that's a big No-No it didn't work because there was just no way that you could get a breath deep enough to hoist that gasoline out of that big tank and then let gravity and the laws of physics take over and fill up the gas can nobody could do it you just it was not possible and you know you ran the risk of it going into your mouth and in your lungs for and that you're done really that's a very very dangerous thing so it didn't work and we were stuck and we burned gas driving to Lowe's so it was definitely a loss if you will we took a loss on that attempt so a couple days go by and two days doesn't sound like a long time but when you're just hanging out in a parking lot smell to high heaven hungry everybody's irritable can't go anywhere it's hot you know it did it it was bad finally a station nearby at one of the interchanges somewhere in I-95 opened up and we all went up there were able to get gas and I think it was limited to 10 gallons or something I don't know and we were able to finally get out of Florida uh and make our way back home and uh you know go our separate ways that's kind of what it felt like um and it was a very very trying experience we were burned out uh all of us sick and tired of each other you know basically uh and didn't even have time or the energy or whatever or the morale to to reflect on oh well the hurricane landfall project idea worked we got really good data from the anemometer we got good pressure data we got these camera views up there you know we didn't even it was just kind of like uh you know the end game of dealing with all that frustration kind of ruined the whole mission it honestly did you know just it felt like well that sucked you know that's what it felt like and um so you know we got back and regrouped if you will you know got our our sleep caught up on and yeah we were all friends it was no problem but it was it was definitely a trying experience and it was kind of neat that that was all captured uh I guess from Jeff flock and his idea of doing a documentary Series yeah we had some good stuff okay well you want drama there you go but it wasn't any kind of over-the-top drama that's that's absolutely true it just it was just enough right a little irritating but we made it and so all right we got the uh the Isuzu it worked I went over the footage from the cameras did some time lapses from them you know nothing dramatic nothing like whoa that's amazing but it worked we had a viable solution here you know the anemometer captured good data the pressure data from the pressure sensor I sent it all to the Hurricane Center you know at the end of the day the idea worked we just had to refine things a little bit a little bit more communication you know you work on things just like in any relationship and we we would move on and uh move on is exactly what we did um and that's what we will cover in part six which will be Hurricane Ivan oh yeah Hurricane Ivan uh I will tease it by saying up to the point of Hurricane Ivan you know that was The Benchmark at the time and you'll see we'll talk about it if you know the story uh and I don't mind at all you know if you know the tracking the Hurricanes is on our hurricane track Insider site I'll put a link to it again on patreon all of our documentaries are on there uh go watch it you can watch the Ivan chapter it's all there um but it's those stories right behind the scenes like I said VH1 Behind the Music or whatever that's what this is for these intimate details that I just can't put into a documentary necessarily and you know so this is it so Ivan will be next on part six can you believe it and we finish it up with Gene actually as we round out almost the entire month of April here we'll finish up with hurricane Gene um to round up uh and round out and come to close out the 2004 very very busy hurricane season all right so look as always you joining in and listening to this means so much to me I appreciate it your support the financial support keep me going to support my family to support this project but knowing that you're listening to this and I get feedback from you is just fantastic so keep it up I do appreciate it um and that'll that'll do it that'll wrap it up this has been stories from the hurricane Highway the year 2004 we took a look at Hurricane Francis like I said next week we will take a look back at Ivan Ivan the Terrible No it wasn't terrible it was Ivan the successful like I said up to that point the biggest Benchmark event of my career I can't wait to share it all with you we'll do that next week I am Mark suddath for Hurricane track.com as always thanks for tuning in to this we'll continue the Journey Down the hurricane Highway next week