Stories From The Hurricane Highway Season 1 Episode 20 Transcript - 2004 Part 6 / 8 - Ivan

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Highway the podcast series that takes a look back at the long and storied career that I have had the many many miles on the fabled hurricane highway I am your host Mark Sudduth thank you for joining me this is a look back at the year 2004 this is part six Hurricane Ivan and this is dropping on April 15 2020 so glad you could join me thank you for tuning in don't forget this is supported by our patrons on patreon and our hurricane track insiders it's an exclusive thing for you guys it's not available on Apple podcast on Spotify on Google it's just for you guys you support it and it is your um it's your thing it's it's you know this is yours so thank you it's a privilege for me to be able to be here and do this so uh Hurricane Ivan that's the big discussion tonight and this is definitely um like a huge Benchmark event in my career in the history of the unmanned camera project all sorts of stuff so a lot to talk about as we go back over Hurricane Ivan in this edition of stories from the hurricane highway so let's refresh your memories uh Hurricane Ivan first became a thing if you will in very early September came off the coast of Africa at the very end of August moved out into the Eastern Atlantic a very strong very solid tropical wave and quickly became organized and became a name storm powerful hurricane pretty low latitude headed towards the Caribbean plowed through portions of the Eastern Caribbean um kind of sidestepped Jamaica and then it looked very much like it was going to try to maybe impact Florida directly like right up the peninsula and so we all know of course what happened it ended up making landfall in Gulf Shores Alabama with the center and of course it brought a lot of storm surge and other damage to portions of Florida but it was the Panhandle instead of the peninsula and it was just a huge huge hurricane and um at one point it reached Category 5 intensity I do believe if memory serves if it didn't it was very close um just a powerful long track High Ace producing hurricane that eventually made landfall in the United States and I was in the eye of that hurricane in Gulf Shores Alabama so how did we get there well so remember we have the hurricane landfall project we have the Isuzu Rodeo completely outfit with all kinds of uh stuff equipment you know we had a painted bright yellow the hurricane landfall Project logo or warding was on there special attachments for camera systems the anemometer um I mean it was like I've said a crash test vehicle for hurricanes and Ivan looked like this could be the one that we can finally deploy this in a big hurricane right along the coast and gather some data without us having to be there visual data and meteorological data this was the one I felt it it's like all right here we go so who were the players it was just two of us this time for Ivan uh it was myself and then John Van Pelt our partner and colleague he also ran and still runs the storm study project I think he works for Weather Nation now as a correspondent but it was going to be the two of us so we uh towed the Isuzu behind the Tahoe we set out for the Florida Peninsula first because it looked like I said as I mentioned at one point the four and five day positions for Ivan as it was moving through the eastern and Central Caribbean turned it North right up the middle of the Florida Peninsula and so we first and we were way ahead of this by the way um I owe that to a couple of things the fact that we were so well funded from my Partnerships with Lowe's and Sprint but also that you know this was my job this is what I do my wife was very supportive still is all these years later so I was able to leave in plenty of time have everything ready to go and get out ahead of this thing there was no rushing you know it was a very relaxed as much as relaxed could be you know some hurricanes we kind of leave kind of late in the game and you know it's every one of them is different but Ivan much less stressful that and I definitely remember that so we headed down uh into the peninsula of Florida and as part of my work and partnership with Sprint remember Sprint was donating um my phone some of my colleagues phones we didn't have a phone bill we were using the Sprint air cards you know I had one in the laptop in the Tahoe we had one in the laptop that was going to go in the hurricane landfall project Isuzu that would help broadcast a webcam image we weren't quite to live video yet that was still going to happen later but we could send a live image data from the anemometer and the pressure sensor as well as temperature and rainfall and all that back in the day and so it's part of the the partnership both from equipment and funding from Sprint we would also work with one of their PR people we had two of them a woman named Nancy Schwartz and her colleague in Atlanta Kristen Wallace both of them have since left Sprint obviously a lot of change has happened since 16 years ago almost 16 years ago now but um Nancy had arranged for some media interviews uh in Florida and I remember one in particular was in The Villages and if you're not familiar with the Villages in Florida that's a heck of a place it's its own Community a lot of people live there um you know retirement is not the right word it's a it's a heck of an active living facility it's its own I don't know if it's its own I think it's its own town now um and they have their own media their own television and press you name it and then they and and back then 16 years ago now roughly you know it was formidable even back then I can only imagine how much it's grown now and so I remember we did an interview in The Villages of all places you know but they have a big population they did then and they have even more now and so we did an interview there we as you know John and I and maybe some Affiliates out of Orlando uh The Villages is north of Orlando um between Ocala and Orlando I believe it is near Summerfield um kind of nestled right in the middle of Florida the north central part of Florida I guess is the best way to put it and John and I like I said we started there and we were monitoring what was going on with Ivan and then it became clear that Ivan was not going to come up the uh Peninsula right and you know come right up the middle I mean it literally this was like oh I think it's about September 9th or so uh that he and I were down there September 9th 10th somewhere along along those lines um and so it changed of course it changed you know so by later on it was like the West Coast of Florida and then the Eastern Gulf you know maybe headed towards the Big Bend area you know how this stuff goes it evolves over time So eventually we were like okay this is Shifting more and more towards the Panhandle you know by the time we got to the 10th and 11th around that time frame of September and so John and I left the uh the peninsula area the middle peninsula and we made our way over to Panama City Panama City Beach and because it looked like it was going to come in there Mexico Beach Panama City Panama City Beach that region beautiful part of the country by the way and this was really the first time that I got to appreciate that we were there in 2001 for tropical storm Barry Jesse and I were we got to see the region a little bit then but that was just like a few hours that we were there really maybe a half a day um I was there briefly for Bonnie uh John Jesse Eddie and myself tropical storm Bonnie earlier in the 2004 season remember for Bonnie and Charlie but John and I were there in the Panama City Beach area right on the ocean front big condo I wish I could remember which condo it was but um we were there and we again remember we're Towing the Isuzu behind us now the Isuzu ran you know he could unhook it from the Tahoe take the tow bar off and drive it wherever you need to drive it there was nothing wrong with the Isuzu it's just better to tow it behind the Tahoe you see people do that all the time they tow a car behind an RV or a smaller vehicle even small SUVs behind bigger SUVs and that's what John and I were doing and we hold up at a a condo whatever it was in Panama City Beach again right on the coast there and I remember all of the construction that was going on big cranes up in the air building building building and this part was not the forgotten Coast as it's called This is the built up part Destin Panama City Beach that area you know it's very very built up um farther east is of course you know the Forgotten Coast as it's called and then you get to the Nature Coast over there near Cedar Key and Point South the Big Bend much less populated through that region all the way over even to Mexico Beach you know before Michael only about 1200 people or so 2 000 at the most in Mexico Beach but uh west of their big time population increase as you could imagine from Tyndall Air Force base Panama City and Points West so there we are John and myself you know hunkering down watching what's going on with Ivan doing updates on Hurricane track.com we're shooting these look live video segments um and you know I think that I was able to post them that year I I honestly don't remember it may have been the next year 04 that or I'm sorry 05 and we get to 05 in December um we're about done with season one of the hurricane Highway stories you know uh podcast here um but um we get to o5 later that's the point I can't remember if we were doing video blogs on the site yet or not in o4 terrible I can't remember that but I can't sorry but I know we've shot them and we call them look lives where it looks like you're live you know the old um hi I'm Mark seventh and I'm John Van Pelt and we're here in wherever and you know you the who what when where why typical media who what when where why right and you lay that out and you it looks like you're doing it live we recorded lots of those and um milled around the area looked at you know possible locations where would we even put the Isuzu you know that was the idea where are we going to put this thing as Ivan kind of rounded the corner uh through the care of the Caribbean of course it's interesting Ivan sidestepped around Jamaica and didn't make landfall directly over Jamaica one of the most amazing things I've ever seen it avoided the Western tip of Cuba just barely and then threaded the needle in the Yucatan Channel and moved into the South Central Gulf of Mexico by the 13th and 14th of September so John and I are there ready to go not sure exactly where this is going to end up of course and something really interesting happened the hotel or the condo whatever it was that we were staying in Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel was also staying there and of course we knew who it was you know he was and still is to us a rock star you know the most famous face in weather arguably and he was staying there we said hello and just struck up a quick conversation you know probably something like you know hey Jim I'm Mark Sut with hurricane track.com maybe he had heard of me I know I met him once before in 1996 during Hurricane Fran uh he signed one of my tracking maps that the cat peed on remember that you got to go back to 1996 podcast episode and listen to that one about Fran it's in there um so I remember we talked to him a little bit and we told him about what we were doing that you know hey Jim you got a minute I want to show you something and he was like yeah okay and we showed him the Isuzu we we explained it to him and he was absolutely fascinated I mean the dude was just taken aback because nobody on Earth was doing something like this setting out all of these unmanned cameras there would be a total of three to four if I remember correctly I think I had the funding and enough equipment for four High eight cameras that would each be in a housing on the Isuzu one of them in the Isuzu and they would record anywhere from six to eight hours on high eight videotape uh and then we had the anemometer system which went up to with this little contraption that Edwards Crane Company had made for us the the anemometer was at five meters or 15 feet roughly off the ground and we had these anchor points where we could literally use like mobile home tie downs to tie the Isuzu down to the ground to keep it from flipping over you know from the very first wave that hits it from storm surge or the first big gust of wind you know it mitigated it a little bit so it could hang on and continue collecting data for as long as possible it was a heck of an idea it really was and it gained a lot of attention as we drove it around people saw it you know it was it was kind of a big deal so we showed it to Jim and again he was absolutely marveled by it he was so excited about it uh and like a kid in a candy shop I mean the guy was so thrilled at this idea he's like where are you guys going to do it and we're like well we don't know you know and um it was interesting because I had been following Joe bastardi he was at AccuWeather at the time for years since 1999 I got introduced to Joe bastardi and on the internet and actually corresponded with him some over the years Jesse and I did and I remember Joe was suggesting maybe more towards Mississippi at the time Biloxi somewhere between Biloxi and maybe Mobile Bay you know certainly not the Florida Panhandle and um and I told Jim you know kind of like an off the cuff you know a little birdie told me kind of thing because you don't ever do well Joe says this you know well I've been hearing that maybe you know we're thinking about taking it over to Mississippi and I remember Jim was like Mississippi what nah man this is Florida Panhandle and we're like nah I don't know some of the stuff I'm looking at some of my sources you know anywhere from Mobile Bay to as far west as Central Mississippi instead of the Florida Panhandle for a a direct landfall and Jim you know all right I don't think so you know we'll see and obviously it you know it turned out it was Gulf Shores Alabama but uh we get to that so um time goes on and it's starting to narrow down it's like I said 13th 14th of September around there Ivan's moving into the Gulf you know taking up most of the golf there Beast of a hurricane and John and I pull up shop out of Panama City Beach roll West and going into Alabama um we're going on I-10 into um huh what is it Loxley I think it's l-o-x-l-e-y or l-y I-10 and Highway 59 that goes south and we drop South through Foley and go on down into Gulf Shores and that's where we're going to make our stand you know that's like this is it we roll into Gulf Shore Gulf Shores the night of I think it was the night of the 14th and early evening we're down at the waterfront and they have this Pavilion down there big almost like a boardwalk really nice area there's a bath house there's lots of shops you know and there's a an amusement park about a block North of the ocean front condos down there whatever Orange Beach is off to the east you know it's an it's just a neat area and we get there and I'm like I just had a feeling I was like this is it let's set it up right here and there was lots of law enforcement down there they came over started talking to us hey what are you guys doing what's all this and I mean the Chevy Tahoe with all of its stuff the Isuzu it says hurricane landfall project on it there's no way you're not going to get attention from people luckily for us the attention from the police was one of those moments in history that's just so serendipitous you know it happens by accident but it's a good accident huh that you just you're like wow how lucky can we get well it turns out that several of the people on the police force were just all into hurricanes you know what I mean they just had that bug like we do you know they don't wish hurricanes on people like we don't either but if there is a hurricane there's just something fascinating about it they don't get mad about it and you know whatever they embrace it as part of the culture it's part of the coast whatever and they duck it they got us they understood why we were there and so we all agreed that the next day the 15th John and I would uh come down in front of the bath house there these restrooms and whatnot and set up the Isuzu tie it down right in front of the bath house not even a hundred yards yeah 120 yards at the most I think it was less than 100 yards north of the Gulf of Mexico itself and we told them where they could look at the data you know the wind data that we're going to have cameras on there we have the live webcam sending an image every minute and they were just all about it and they said you can stay with us and um you can stay at the police department at the jail the jail is empty it's you know it's a jail you know hurricane isn't going to destroy a jail unless it floods uh you're good you know you can hang with us and we're like wow now there's more to it guess who else is with us the documentary crew headed up by Jeff flock and Rob Hess and crew and John Cassell um I believe that's his name and um uh they're there to continue shooting because they want to put this series together um you know the hurricane landfall project pilot or whatever so they're shooting dock as it's called and so they're with us too and we're like wow this is amazing so I remember we went and got gas we had plenty of gasoline we're all set no problem and um we we have our spot you know this is where we're going to do it and so we got some sleep and then sure enough the next day on um the 15th that's a Wednesday I think it was John and I go down to the the beachfront there with Jeff flock and his crew with the Police Department Gulf Shores PD all the way up to the chief um Chief born uh Bill Cowan um and different folks that were helping us out wow you know I think back it was just incredible a lot of support from these guys and gals from the dispatch you know auxiliary you name it it was just remarkable so we set the Isuzu up got everything running tied it down with these anchor points and these big toe straps with these large like ground screws that you use to tie down a mobile home um turned all the cameras on kind of early to late afternoon Ivan's coming it's a you know category four looking like a beast just a very clear eye moving over warm water you know there's a chance it could intensify a little more you just never know and big storm surge threat and you name it waves are rolling in and it was already starting to fill up the Intracoastal Waterway the lagoons on the north side of Gulf Shores East and West you name it Orange Beach all the way west over to Dauphin Island Mobile Bay and Beyond very very very big bad hurricane I mean no doubt about it National Emergency type hurricane because it's going to disrupt oil interest be a major multi-billion dollar thing you know everybody was focused on it huge hurricane so we got everything set up and we're like all right and it's getting towards the evening the water's starting to rise we're filming this filming that working in complete concert with Gulf Shores PD which was awesome so we could come and go as we pleased might you know we didn't really have any reason to go back North into Foley you cross over this bridge over the Intracoastal and you're in Foley Alabama I don't think we had to go up there for anything so we stayed in Gulf Shores the evening time comes you know it's picking up and I'm thinking it's just about dark and I'm just like I tell John I'm like you know um we've got all those tapes running uh there's you know the video cameras there's one uh well there's two on the roof one let me let me back up we had four cameras total there were two of them up on this platform thing that Edwards crane made like I was talking about it's like a it's like a raised table almost the size of a bar stool and in the middle of that was a mast and the mass went up several feet and that got the anemometer up to five meters the little Barstool Contraption made out of steel had enough room on it that we could bolt in these two camera housings scuba housings just the naked housings the hi8 cameras were in there one was looking at the golf one was looking the other way towards Shore and then there was a camera on the roof of the Tahoe uh inside of a housing and then we had one inside you know and I thought you know um that'll be enough okay and they all should run um I think most of them were six hours maybe eight if you put it on an SLP if I recall and so as the evening progressed you know early early evening dusk whatever I told Jonathan you know it's obviously going to happen at night and we're just gonna miss out on the the out the exterior cameras are going to miss it because the dark there's nothing we can do Power's Out and you know it's disappointing it's like ah you know so I said we need to go out there and we need to put a light some kind of a light source inside the Isuzu because the fourth camera was in the Isuzu not inside of housing I couldn't afford four housings I remember this uh so I had three housings on the outside and the in the one in the inside we left it in the very back like the backpack like the storage area where the giant storm case was that housed the battery and the laptop and the Data Logger for all the meteorological data like our black box if you will this thing's the size of a trunk you know like a Foot Locker and on top of that I had just set the video camera on there so it would be like you're sitting in the very back of the Isuzu looking towards the windshield in the very very back that was the view and I was like I gotta put something on the dash any kind of a light that we've got we've got flashlights and some flood lamps or whatever you know we really should go back I should put something there and he was like I don't know man they have water's already coming up you know it's getting really windy and it's like man the clock is ticking this thing's gonna make landfall in about six hours you know so I talked him into driving us out there and of course the film crew came Gulf Shores PD accompanied me as far as they could and their Cruisers couldn't go much further because of the water coming in these waves the OverWatch was really rolling in and so John drops me off right where this Pavilion area is and I walked through about ah Shin deep ocean water the waves are rolling in sand is getting deposited you name it I go to the Isuzu and I put this light that my wife had given me way back in 1999 as part of a Christmas present she gave me like this um it's a forever light it was like an LED little handheld light thing and then this like emergency roadside kit and it had like a red light that flashed and then a larger white light you put D batteries in it and probably run for I don't know 10 hours or something and uh I just wanted something so we could see what happens you know so I went in sat in the front seat and put the light up on the dashboard I was looking what can I put can I hang it from here it's like I had to hurry because water is coming in waves are coming in and it's really windy and I'm like time is ticking here every minute counts now and so I said I'll just put it on the dash I set the light up on the dash kind of looked around I remember I looked back at the camera just kind of looked at it and I left and here's the mistake that I made remember the that particular tape would run for eight hours and we had set it up early that afternoon or late in the afternoon whatever the case was and we were getting close to the end of the eight hours not too close but I should have grabbed the dadgum camera and rewound the tape to the beginning and started over because nothing had really happened yet you know we set everything up and the exterior cameras were catching all these waves coming in and they were doing they were catching something so something was happening there but the interior camera just saw nothing you know just the inside of the Isuzu for whatever three four hours and we still had several hours to go until the worst of it that's the mistake that I made I regret that to this day I didn't think ah grab the camera rewind it to the beginning and start it over start your eight hours now you know whatever it is 7 30 8 o'clock at night I didn't do that ugh I regret it so closed everything up took off we went back hunkered down at the jail you know had tuna fish crackers whatever um and Ivan comes in and man it's just howling you hear stuff breaking uh I'm sitting out in the Tahoe with um the film guy from the documentary he's filming me for that he's filming me for my stuff he holds my camera it's just raging Outside the Fire Department's buildings coming apart so they're evacuating and coming across where we are I filmed them it was very dramatic you know and it's very somber because it was just that place was just getting nailed and east of there Pensacola in that region was also getting nailed as well as we now know and you know just a violent hurricane and it got really bad um we're watching the data off the Isuzu everything's working great you know we're getting this great data 90 miles an hour 100 miles an hour we had a peak gust I think of 114 or something like that the pressure is going down you know the webcam is even running you know just can't see anything it's dark but everything's working it's like oh gosh this is incredible and we literally took shelter in the jail cell um I can't even remember which one it was you know I'll be in a ubnb whatever John slept in one I slept in the other was slept you know you try it was interesting because in the jail cell itself um back in the cell blocks you couldn't really hear the hurricane all that cinder block and whatever it's kind of quiet it was all right um so you know Matt got a nap I don't know you know maybe we're able to relax a little bit and I know I think John did fall asleep I got up at some point it was real close to Dawn you know whatever Dawn would be in mid-september and of course now we're up to um September 16th when this does make landfall which is interesting because that's roughly uh 14th 15th 16th that time frame that's when Floyd made landfall back in 1999 you know five years earlier so um first light's coming and I'm thinking you know I want to go out I want to see you know and it's still raging pretty good so I go out by myself I get in the Tahoe with my video camera I had a digital eight camera and I drove out from where Gulf Shores PD is to the main road and you know this Municipal area of Gulf Shores past the water tower out to Highway 59 and then made my way down uh towards the lagoon area and um what would be um I think it's called Sawgrass Landing or something on the left there was um a water like a dive shop on the right and then the road kind of dips down a little bit goes across the marsh kind of a bridge Causeway deal and then your little ways down you're out on Gulf Shores there's a Pizza Hut out there uh Water World USA or Waterville Waterville USA is what it was called and then bam you're on Gulf Shores proper and I remember driving out and it's just that crazy purplish dark gray hurricane Dawn if if unless you've been in it it's absolutely the weirdest thing and I've seen it many many times in my career it's just this bizarre Dawn that comes in that everything is Blended in there's no contrast it's it's just crazy and you got no business being out in it honestly but I was so I drove down and I'm going real slow down 59 there or 40 yeah 59 and uh and it looks like the road is undulating you know like like it's liquefied here like what am I looking at and I'm driving real slow and I realize as I approach this low spot oh that's what we call the rack line or thatch you know all that crud that comes up grass debris you name it and the waves are going underneath it and wow there's the storm surge I mean that far it's about a mile from the Gulf and there's the storm surge and I just sat there in utter disbelief wind was whipping up off of it very frothy I filmed the dive shop Sawgrass Landing whatever it's called um you know just complete utter shock like whoa holy crap I mean really this was like I had never seen storm surge like this and um drove out of there went and picked up um I think I went and picked up the uh Billy Cowan um I think he was a Corporal then not sure but I went and picked him up and or maybe I don't think I picked him up as much as I met up with him back at the police department and we rode in his police cruiser I remember that's right we rode in his police cruiser around Gulf Shores he's trying to see what was up trees down everywhere of course power lines very dangerous out and it's calming down pretty good now maybe 30 40 minutes later and we drive around and it's you know lights coming up just a little bit more still dark and kind of purple out and I'm looking over and I'm just like what is that he's like oh oh I think that's a stag I was like what the hell is a stag and he's like look at that I was like what is that am I seeing things it looked like a unicorn and as sure as I'm sitting here talking to you we saw this gorgeous pure white stag you know just it's like a deer but it's called a stag and it's Giant and we were just like well I he knew what it was and I'll get to it I thought I was like hallucinating literally like really what why why is that there and it was it was about 20 yards out in front of us and uh I was absolutely flabbergasted and he said I bet that's from the zoo so the zoo go yeah yeah we got the golf zoo or whatever it is down here there's there was a zoo there so okay so yeah yeah they're really worried about it the surge got in there they got alligators and other Critters okay and the Stag had gotten out from the zoo and I even videotaped it and for the life of me why I didn't include it in the Ivan chapter of tracking the Hurricanes 2004 is beyond me I didn't put it in there that clip I don't know why but it's not there I still have it somewhere I have to look for it I have that somewhere five ten seconds of this white stag from Hurricane Ivan but we went back to the uh police department uh you know mornings here people are getting out the Hurricanes moving North into interior Alabama basically riding right up Interstate 65 honestly past and over Montgomery and it eventually goes into Central Tennessee and up into that region and rains a lot you know flooding Etc so we're still down there and you know it's starting to calm down more and more strong southerly flow whatever but it's it's getting there we're getting we're getting out of the hurricane people are coming out you know law enforcement you name it Gulf Shores of course closed barricaded off you can't come in can't go out I guess um and we all go down to the water I say the Waterfront we go down to this flood Line near Sawgrass landing and you know the dive shop the thing is called Down Under dive shop or something like that and the media is there satellite trucks you know they're allowed in and it's just like this big Convention of sat trucks First Responders Fire Department police department water rescue you name it you know literally now dozens of people congregating in this area and you know the hours tick by water levels still kind of up uh you can see out across it and I remember we saw another deer just a like you know just a small deer or you know floating across or whatever not floating but like up to its neck its neck it looked like the Loch Ness monster sticking up above the water you know we're all waiting and what are we gonna do and I really wanted to go out okay that's that's John would tell you I wanted to get out to the beach front and get that stuff get those cameras what happened to the Isuzu you know like come on and um but here's something I forgot I gotta remember this um and I'm glad I did early that morning as well I forgot to say this during the time when I was out there I still had internet connection uh through Sprint it still worked and I remember and I've I have this somewhere as well Somewhere In The Deep archives of all my Digital Life the weather data um it was still working the webcam it was like it said something like I don't know 5 45 AM or something it was alive it was like a hey I'm here you know like a Mars Rover that's been lost and then it beacons you know whoa It's still alive I couldn't believe it and I have that somewhere I should try to find that and maybe if I find it I can post a link to it here on the patreon post um it does exist somewhere but um so we knew that you know it had survived it was working and there was going to be this incredible amount of wind data pressure data but what about the video what did we get what about that camera that was inside not secured to anything in the back seat you know beyond the back seat the very back I really wanted to get out there and see what happened to the Isuzu nobody had been out there yet you know they were focused on search and rescue as you can imagine helicopters flying over whatever the day goes on getting towards the late afternoon and I'm telling John like man I want to go out there and he's like I know and lately I remember they had like a jet ski the the some of the First Responders were going to go out and just see if you know they could walk the beach and if anybody needed anything most of the people evacuated you know pretty much everybody Jeff by the way and his guys went out to the Ramada Inn out there and and wrote it out right out on Gulf Shores beachfront I forgot to mention that but that's where they wrote it out by the way um I think it was Jeff and Rob and then John Casale the camera guy stayed with John and me and um so uh they were trying to get jet skis running but they kept getting their intake thing clogged up with fishing line and other crud you know it's just yeah it's after this thing a hurricane it's it's Mayhem it's very we're all tired in the aftermath commences you know the clock starts ticking on that and it's just wild you know it's it's something that's hard to describe unless you've been through it so we're sitting there like all right what are we gonna do it's getting towards late afternoon and we're looking around all this thatch and debris and you know we find you know pictures and plaques and all kinds of people's lives in there and I filmed some of it and whatever and we're looking and there's like this little small boat literally a very very small boat aluminum boat and it's upside down under some debris kind of off to the side and we go over and I'm going to flip it over it's like John John let's go maybe we can use this and we can get out there and we can paddle out there whatever he's like be careful before you flip that thing over no telling what's under there you know snakes an alligator whatever and that was the thing they had said that some giant 12-foot alligator and he had some name I don't remember what the name was you know some scary name had gotten out you know whatever whatever it was I'm just gonna make up a name I'll call him Griff just off the top of my head whatever that thing's name was Griff has gotten out Griff the 12-foot alligator whatever the heck that um it was uh what was it it's now starting to come to me um I thought it had like a uh oh man that's a shame I should look it up and and get it right but I want to keep this continuous and just try to recall that's fine whatever Griff the alligator got out you know from all the flooding and everything and the damage to the zoo and um you know nowhere to be found so there's this 12-foot alligator out there and um we had to be mindful of that you know there's obviously snakes and who knows what else so John was you know very you know leery of me flipping over this uh boat so I flipped it over very carefully got some debris and stuff out of it told John Cassell look we want to go out there and um uh you know get to the beach front and would you are you gonna come with us and film he's like I can but I'm not gonna be able to help you guys I can't be part of the story you understand that you know I'm trying to film a documentary here for Jeff and Rob I can't help you so anything goes wrong I gotta film it we're like okay fine you know so we told the uh you know the police folks what we were doing and they're like all right be careful you know and so off we go and um John Casale had uh true hip waders Big Time hip waiters I mean came up to his chest this dude was prepared I was not I'm wearing sneakers shorts and they're they're tactical shorts that John had gotten us yeah but they're shorts and you know my t-shirt or whatever the heck I was wearing John was wearing pants and um kind of like a uh almost like a uniform shirt like like Boy Scouts would wear or like tactical shirt from 511 tactical or whatever they're called and um off we go right so we didn't paddle the boat we just walked you know and the storm surge was going down enough it did come up to about our bellies uh and maybe almost to our chest honestly and off we go we walk out there dragging this boat with us on the surface of the water because I figured we'll put all the camera gear the big storm case and all the stuff from the Isuzu if we find it in the boat and drag it back and we won't have to carry it that far okay cool so there we go we're walking across and it's you know probably a quarter mile across this first area of water not even that maybe an eighth of a mile and you know constantly worried about what we're stepping on we're stepping on big power lines and yes this was absolutely moronic that we did this agreed okay what'd I say man the hurricane isn't going to get us it's the aftermath you know these mistakes that you make but something you know pushes me to you know you learn now we have more patience and we'll see right I guess but I digress um there we go obviously we made it um but uh you know everything we brushed up against our leg wood debris anything scared the heck out of us is that the alligator you know whatever and uh we go along and you get further out and you're leaving all of these media and cops and everybody behind on Shore if you will and we're heading towards the disaster Zone Gulf Shores proper we finally get out there drag the boat up on the dry land walking out there and you're passing all these businesses and everything and you can hear the alarms beeping you know all these fire alarms and burglar alarms or whatever that constant beeping everything's wrecked cars are swamped and it's just this huge disaster we passed Waterville USA and that was amazing to see it all underwater you know um this big shark that was the front of like a big tourist trap shop whatever um you know souvenir gift shop Place had a giant shark on the outside that was all collapsed Pizza Hut was wrecked and whatever and we're getting out there and we see pieces of uh of the amusement park these these cars that were part of like some of the rides they're all the way over here and we're just seeing the wreckage and we're literally some of the first people out there again a couple of First Responders went out there but that was it we were some of the first I guess you would say civilians out there um and we're walking along and getting closer to the Pavilion area this big intersection I think it's Highway 182 and 59 that 182 goes east west along the water the main road and Gulf Shores out to Orange Beach and West towards Dauphin Island and all that um and then Highway 59 T-Bones into that that's the big intersection and that's where the Isuzu should be and I remember over on the left was the liquor store and we're filming you know we filmed everything uh and I look over and you can hear me it's so funny because we just it just appears out of nowhere and we're looking out there we're looking here and look over and there's a liquor store and there's just hundreds of liquor bottles all of them intact scattered out in the sand and the debris and I'm like holy cow look at that like whoa look at all that liquor and we went over and took video of it and yes that is in the documentary and including that quote holy cow look at that look at all that liquor or whatever I said and um uh we went over there and looked at it and went in the liquor store and you know there's shelves that are completely intact and there's in the French ripped off it just defies belief you know like how does a whole shelf stay intact and there's perfectly intact bottles of Bacardi and Jack Daniels and you know what else just incredible and so we um we grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels and said you know we need to take this back and give it to the police chief and let him know you got a big problem out here if anybody comes out here they're going to read all this they're going to loot it and no we didn't I promise you we didn't even open a bottle we had nothing I I don't drink so there you go we didn't have a sip ourselves not at all uh and we looked down Highway 182 and the sun's getting ready to set and it's just sand like three feet high looks like it snowed you know and you're after a blizzard just incredible the wreckage everywhere and we walked down walked down a little bit and we're near where the Pavilion should be it's gone um the ferris wheel that was out there for the amusement park it's knocked over and there's the Isuzu we can see it and it's leaned up against the telephone pole kind of halfway on its side very close to where the amusement park used to be you know about a block from where we put the Isuzu the night before the day before whatever and you're like there it is you know and the anemometer was still on top collecting data everything was still running it was unbelievable we get over to it the front windshield is smashed out you know for the most part you know different Windows broken there's sand inside water inside Gunk whatever I remember there was a dead fish in there the headlights were half filled with water you know it was just it was crazy and you know the cameras were still up on top none of them had broken off and I realized you know everything worked this idea worked and I remember I laid my head on the hood and just started weeping you know I can't explain it and I'll be the first to tell you it hit me you know your idea worked you know you had driven this Isuzu in numerous hurricanes it was your first intercept vehicle you bought it with your hard work yeah it's just it's very emotional the idea of this you know landfall project that we could capture stuff remotely in the worst of it where no man should ever be nobody not me not the other great Chasers Jim Leonard he was still alive Mike Tice Jim EDS the up and coming group of storm chasers hurricane Chasers that we know now there's no way you could be out there right at the beachfront and record any of this you still can't even today 16 years later right so it just hit me and I put my head on the isuzu's hood and just cried you know and John patted my back it's all right man I'm like I know I know that's this is just amazing we did it and it was a team effort might have been my idea but it was a team effort and um and it's funny because that footage from Casale is somewhere I should write him and say what happened to that footage wouldn't that be something hmm maybe I should do that so we gathered what we could it was getting ready to get dark and we're already risking a lot now you know by going out there and didn't have any encounters with Griff the alligator whatever the heck did Beauregard or something I don't remember what the darn thing his name was uh boy but you know it was getting dark so we got to get back so we grabbed the storm case out of the back of the Isuzu and again it had the laptop the giant battery that powered everything the inverter all the connections you name it the data and that was big I was we really wanted that because it logged everything all that meteorological data and then we grab the hi8 cameras and then you know where's the camera from inside where is it and it was in the very back in in salt water and crap and debris and right it's like uh well you know got to be very careful with this uh how am I going to deal with it you know the thing was in salt water for a bit loaded it all up into the boat or Into the Storm case dragged it all the way back to the boat um with a liquor bottle and then floated the boat with all this stuff in it back across the Lagoon that had flooded whatever the water went down maybe another six inches and and we approached the uh the media area where everybody was congregated and now it's dark early evening all the lights are on and we thought for sure that they were seeing us coming and we're gonna run up to us like you know the President coming off Air Force One or something Mr President what'd you get and there's gonna be this big rush of people congratulating us that what did you get man what'd you get it was so funny we were like here we go this is our moment of Glory and we approach and we're coming and you can see us coming with all those bright lights that they had so the anticipation is building we're going to get this mad rush of media what'd you guys get whatever it's so exciting we get up there we drag the boat out of the water and one guy comes up one guy from the media and he goes when you guys are done with that boat can I use it and that was it I was like you got to be kidding me nobody cared maybe a couple people hey man good job what is that oh that's got data oh cool let us know what you get it was a big anti-climactic letdown man it was like what ah so we collected everything and made our way back up to you know put it all in the Tahoe I went back to the jail cell to the police department and went over a little bit about what we got and then the next day uh John and I went in and did an interview for MSNBC uh with John Hager I think it's his name remember him said his name John Hager man he was one of the best um and uh um some other I think Chris Hansen was there the guy that did that to Catch a Predator several Big Time NBC people were there and we did a couple interviews with them what did you get what'd you learn what'd you think and whatever um but it was a big catastrophe and not a lot of people were really interested in what the what what did the storm chasers get you know because it was going to be a while before I could look at the video that the Isuzu caught so to speak so there was a little bit of this delay it wasn't like we came forth with all this great video I had to get it home to North Carolina process it the Hyatt camera that got in some salt water that was in the back of the Isuzu had to figure out how to deal with that so you know we made a lot of good friends there the Gulf Shores PD Etc and we're like all right well how are we gonna get that Isuzu out you know like it's not over you know we're not done we don't get all this equipment back and let's go how you gonna get that Isuzu out so we go back out the next day and the water drained away so we were able to drive out there with the Tahoe on the sand you know it's got four wheel drive and you know the the Isuzu is mired in sand and again the luck that we have to this day knock on plastic desk in my office right knock on wood ah the luck folks I as you know Scouts on her no kidding dude Not only was there a guy there with a giant tractor helping to pull Vehicles out and you know for for the officials the guy works at Lowe's in Foley and knows about the hurricane Readiness program that I was a part of so we're kind of on the same team you know what I mean he knew about me so just for a uh in exchange for a a 16 ounce bottle of water that's all he wanted you know can I pay you 50 bucks and I forget it he said yeah I'll I'll tow I'll grab the Isuzu out for you and then you can hopefully hook it up to the uh the Tahoe and get it out of here if it's not completely smashed you know I'll get it out of the sand for you up onto the sand if you will which is all compacted and it's up to you to get it out of here thank you no problem so that's what he did and yes we filmed that that's also on the documentary and and of course I will link to this in the patreon post if you haven't seen it be sure to check out tracking the Hurricanes 2004 uh and the Ivan chapter of course is in there and you can see what I'm talking about so this dude helped us out we gave him a bottle of water in return we uh latched it to the back of the Tahoe one of the wheels was just a little wonky you know kind of off-center the front wheels but it was it was enough and all right we can tow it and we got it out of there with the tow bar um said goodbye to the Gulf Shores PD folks made again some just amazing friendships with those guys and gals uh and which as you'll hear next you know in December when we picked this up starting with o5 you know we come visit them again very soon but we get to that in December but um it was an amazing experience and so but it wasn't over right but wait there's more so we leave Gulf Shores we gotta get up Highway 65 to Montgomery and then you know to Auburn Opelika Atlanta whatever to get back to North Carolina and um so we left and we're Towing the Isuzu behind us and we're probably only going 50 55 miles per hour taking it pretty easy and remember it's got that one wheel that's kind of wonky like I said you know whatever like it's not completely trustworthy and then the Isuzu is beat up it's pretty bad um but we're Towing it so whatever so off we go it's night time we're driving along we get to Montgomery pass through Montgomery and uh get up you know between Montgomery now we're on 85 Highway 80 Interstate 85 and we're approaching the Auburn Opelika area and sure enough that wheel just turned sideways whatever the one on the Isuzu was it was one of the front wheels front left front right doesn't matter that thing the axle it broke and not off but it it came more separated and turned sideways basically so now it's just like you know along the road like that's not good show's over we pull over immediately we didn't want to wreck we made it this far without Calamity I mean come on so we call a tow truck and um now they come out and you know they stop and I'm not making fun of them at all but they're like all right where you guys won't take this and we're like Wilmington North Carolina roughly like Wilmington damn boy you know that's gonna cost it's like that's fine we're well funded you know he probably shouldn't shouldn't tell people that but I don't think I said those words but you know no problem what is it and it wasn't bad you think about it back in the day 16 years ago it was eleven hundred dollars I was like all right done you know I told him we're good for it um we'll write you a check whatever you know we didn't have venmo and PayPal like you do now there was PayPal back then but we didn't have it like we have now all right man I'll pay probably 1100 so yeah we're with lows we do this we're not with lows but I explained the situation you're gonna get paid all right well it's gonna be a couple of days I gotta get my buddy and we're gonna drive it home for you and whatever so great so John and I go on and we make it home no problem and like a day or two later I remember that evening uh they call yeah hey Mark this is so-and-so and we're coming with your Isuzu and they bring it into my driveway and my kids are all out there like Dad what the hell man it was so funny you know what happened to the truck I'm like no it's all on purpose guys we told you this could happen you know we talked about it and it was just weird um you know it had seaweed in it and grass and whatever else sand and the dead fish and it was quite the spectacle you know and they loaded it off the flatbed into my driveway and of course my wife's like and just what do you think you're gonna do with this now all right so um there it was and I paid the guys thanked him I think I gave him like a 300 tip on top of it Lowe's agreed you know they covered the the cost it was nice of them and we got it back you know and there it sat and so I went over my video and of course it was extraordinary especially with the remote cameras on the outside captured the surge coming in all the way up till it got dark but missed the bulk of it it missed the violent bashing of the waves and all of that because it was dark it's like God but we did get incredible win data around 114 miles per hour which was corroborated by uh Dr Josh Warman of the center for severe weather research he had his Doppler on Wheels truck up at the airport in Foley which was only a few miles as the crow flies from where we were and his Doppler velocity data his pixel data indicated at almost the exact moment because we get it down our data is fairly low frequency it's every minute we record new data every minute and he's recording data every second or even probably more than that now but it was enough of a corroboration that his data suggested Winds of about 115 miles per hour right above the surface you know 100 feet or whatever um almost down to building level actually his his data is very very fine because he brings the Doppler radar right there you know and so you get much much higher resolution data so the data lined up with what he got from his mobile Doppler which I thought was just like wow here's this PhD Dr Worman you know he's incredibly famous if you don't know about him you should look him up w-r-m-a-n Josh Warman and that was really neat to be able to to know that and so then we had to deal with the high eight tape that had gotten some salt water so I did some research talked to some people and they said you know get you some distilled water fresh water soak it in that just a little bit rinse it out whatever and then let that thing dry don't monkey with it you're gonna have to be patient until that thing is dry you know put it in some rice just like you would do if you dropped your cell phone into water and it needs to dry out whatever um you got to let that tape dry and it should be okay you know because it's only in the salt water briefly it wasn't soaking in salt water when we got it it just you know waves and and whatever got in there knocked the camera off of where we had it and I really wanted to see that video so after I think it was like 10 days the tape dried out I put it in I had a actually I had a digital eight tape deck uh in my office and I played it and it was remarkable and that is on the documentary if you haven't seen it I highly suggest that you take a look it says up into that moment and you know that was the you know to that day that was The Benchmark moment that was nobody had ever seen anything like this the water coming up over the hood of the Isuzu you know the roof kind of bending downward as the waves were crashing over you could hear this the Isuzu kind of twisting in the in the ocean that was coming in it was pretty violent now it obviously cut off before the worst of it happened which we talked about earlier in you know that I told you that I never thought about rewinding the tape and had I done that oh yes it would have been even more dramatic but you know you take what you can get and it was remarkable it really really was what does it look like from the inside of a small SUV when a big storm surge is coming in and if you haven't seen it I'll say it again if you haven't seen that on the documentary tracking the Hurricanes 2004 Ivan be sure you check it out seriously the ending of it where I I review that footage is remarkable so everything worked and it was a very proud moment Lowe's was proud Max Mayfield The National Hurricane Center he was the director then he was extremely proud you know we did a lot remotely we learned a lot since Charlie you know we tested it in Francis and nailed it in Ivan now the Isuzu is toast it's done what are you gonna do with it so kind of skipping ahead a little bit uh I decided to put it on eBay why not I figured it's a collector's item you know I haven't turned out to be one of the most damaging hurricanes in all of U.S history was a major major impact hurricane you know re-changed the coastline down there a huge impact storm Pensacola Gulf Shores Inland you name it so I put it on eBay and I put it on for five grand um you know flat offer five thousand dollars and if anybody bought it as a collector's item whatever they would do with it fine it's you know your prerogative and I would donate half of that money to the American Red Cross disaster relief fund through Lowe's and um and then I'd keep the other 2500 to begin what can we do in the future you know do I buy another SUV off of some rock lot somewhere what are we going to do later that would be seed money the other 2500 and we'll talk about that in December when this resumes we got one more episode after this but we'll get to that so that's what I did all right I put it on eBay and that's where we're going to end you're gonna be like oh come on if you already know the story you watch the documentary You'll Know How It Ends but if you don't know the story wait until next week because it is fascinating what happened to that Isuzu and what it led to all right so that is it that is the story of Ivan and the first successful unprecedented you know there's that word and this really was unprecedented what we did what John and I did what the group of us Eddie Jessie John and me did collectively and the people that helped to support that my friend Jason that wrote the software to get the meteorological equipment to talk to the to the computer and to get it all on the internet people that contributed ideas for the video cameras everybody loves Sprint even the National Hurricane Center encouraging me to Foster this unmanned way of doing things you know Max really not liking Chasers out there but valuing the data that they do provide it's a kind of a a fine line there you know we like the data we like the video we see because it shows people what hurricanes do but we don't want you In Harm's Way and we had come up with a solution you know the very first infancy stages of it but a solution nevertheless and that was during Hurricane Ivan and so what turned out to be this amazing success from something Ivan the Terrible whatever a very very big disaster we took something from it that would absolutely help the science it really did our data the video from the storm surge that we captured nobody had ever seen anything like that before not like that and it was going to propel us into the future into the future like never before so there you go that is it that's Hurricane Ivan in part six now we got one more hurricane to go and then a wrap-up episode so I guess two episodes to go that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna wrap things up with two episodes Gene is next hurricane Gene the end of September uh wraps things up for the actual landfalls and the adventures along the hurricane Highway 404 and then the week after I'll just do a short wrap up uh episode to tie everything together what did we learn where were we going to go from here um and and kind of get us ready when we resume this podcast Series in December remember this is December in the off season through April into May and we will stop you know right as we get let's see two weeks from now roughly be almost May so there you go all right so that's it um that is Hurricane Ivan for you as part of the stories from the hurricane Highway as always I appreciate you tuning in and you supporting this this is all for you so I'm gonna remind you of that thank you so much and um tune in next week as we are just about ready to wrap all of this up for season one of stories from the hurricane highway I am your host Mark suddath as always thanks for listening almost said watching thanks for listening thanks for supporting it I'll be back with you again next week as we take a look at Hurricane Gene in part 7 of stories from the hurricane Highway the year 2004 I'll talk to you again then