Stories From The Hurricane Highway Season 1 Episode 21 Transcript - 2004 Part 7 / 8

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hello and welcome to stories from the hurricane Highway the podcast series that takes a look back at hundreds of thousands of miles of stories along the hurricane highway I'm your host Mark Sudduth thank you for joining me this is the next to the last episode for this season as we wrap up season one of stories from the hurricane Highway season two will begin the first Wednesday of December whatever day of December that is I haven't even looked that far out in time this is April 22nd 2020. and we got to get to December that's a long way away so we'll deal with that then but yes this will return in December the first Wednesday of December we will pick up where we leave off we still have tonight's episode well I'm recording it at night you are listening to it whenever uh but I'm recording this episode um today April 22nd and we got one more episode after this it'll be kind of like a wrap up tie up Loose Ends kind of deal and then maybe a little bit of a teaser as to what to look forward to just miscellaneous stuff that's what we'll go over in the last episode The Last Story if you will of stories from the hurricane Highway the podcast series hey don't forget in related news the hurricane Highway which is the television series that I'm working on and it is it's more of a TV type series than it is like a movie you know instead of a two-hour documentary it's a television series it's going to be eight parts uh Parts one two and three are already on our hurricane track Insider site and for all patrons and all hurricane track Insider supporters you have access to that I will put a link to it where the gallery is of all of our original content all of the tracking the Hurricanes documentaries from 2004 2005 2008 then we skipped a few years we had 15 16 17 18 and they're all on this link that I'm going to post in the patreon update where I put this episode does that make sense it's not really a description that's more YouTube but you know what I'm saying um and then the first three episodes of the hurricane Highway the new series those are there too episodes one two and three already got them done and it's good you know I hey I'm doing it on a 900 laptop with no production budget to speak of you know I'm not doing it doing it with a two hundred thousand dollar a year budget um in fact I'm able to do this because of what you are helping me with and I very much appreciate that and you can see the power of that in the series um in this podcast I'm able to do this each week thanks to your support so we're doing a lot we are we're moving forward and hurricane season 2020 is almost here um and so let's get on with it let's talk about the last uh uh field mission of the year 2004 that's the Year we're in so I think this is part seven of o4 if memory serves and um we're up to Hurricane Gene and another category three another landfall in Florida and I was there for it pretty exhausted by this point in time had just returned from Hurricane Ivan not long before it was time to head out again this time for Hurricane Jean all right so the date it was like Monday September the 13th if I recall that the first advisory on Gene was issued by the National Hurricane Center it was just east of the leeward and Windward islands area just east of the Northeast Caribbean looked like it was going to move across Puerto Rico and maybe into the southeast to Central Bahamas um and you know hurricane weary Florida after dealing with Charlie and then Francis and then Ivan which affected the extreme Western Panhandle you know folks were pretty much battered and bruised and just done with it but it wasn't over here came Gene and for a little bit it looked like maybe we were going to get lucky that Gene would eventually track North at least the guidance was suggesting it that it would track North and maybe just kind of go out to see kind of do a Dorian where it comes in scares the heck out of everybody of course Dorian made landfall in North Carolina but it looked like we might get off the hook for Gene put it that way I try not to mention future events too much but whatever just giving you some context so as the as time progressed you know of course Gene moved over Puerto Rico and it brought um you know rather inclement weather there it goes without saying um it was a tropical storm at the time if I do recall and so as the days passed again it looked like well maybe this is just going to kind of dilly dally around maybe it'll come into the U.S you know it was just weird I remember that it was like I don't know what it's going to do it was it was you know frustrating yeah how many times have we heard that and then it looked like well maybe it'll go north of the Bahamas and just kind of sit there and maybe if it sits there long enough a trough will come along and kick it out to see so we waited and we waited which was good because I got some time personally to kind of decompress after the Ivan situation and so what eventually ended up happening if you know the story is Gene did this clockwise Loop out in the Atlantic north of the Bahamas Northeast of the Bahamas and then came back at the United States it kind of got trapped out there it did this clockwise Loop kind of slowed down became sheared and you know we weren't sure what was going to happen and then it kind of looped back around again still you know in this clockwise fashion and finally As We Know uh it made landfall in Florida but it was interesting because there was times that when it was due in this very slow loop I remember oh it might go up to the Carolinas no I don't think so it might sit there a bit longer and maybe it'll dissipate no I don't think so uh maybe it'll come back towards Florida we're not sure maybe and it was just days of this remember the first advisory was issued on the 13th so by September 22nd it's still out there it was and in fact I remember the forecast track had it coming back and kind of like what hurricane Dorian 2019 did affecting the Bahamas this is what the track showed this isn't what happened as we know with Gene and it looked like it was going to come up and hit Wilmington like right on me so that was like the 22nd uh and then it kind of changed at that point it looked like oh boy I think this is going to come on into Florida a strong Ridge of high pressure built in over the Western Atlantic late September Gene resumed this Westerly heading and kind of made up its mind so to speak yep it's going to come on and and it looks like it's going to hit Florida okay and right where Francis had done its landfall um at the beginning of September you know in the sewell's point Hutchinson Island area is like oh you got to be kidding me but you know it wasn't a joke it was real so off we go who is it well it's myself and Eddie Smith we are the last survivors of the 2004 hurricane season uh that can still go on the road of course it's my job so I'm gonna be there I had Lowe's and Sprint supporting me very much um with their sponsorship slash partnership dollars and you know everything else they did to it wasn't just the money but um you know just all the logistical help um and of course I had my crew Jesse Eddie John and then other people on the periphery that would help out you know it again this is all before social media like we know it now but had a great following of people lots of encouragement we scored very big with the Ivan mission of course um and we're kind of celebrating that if you will uh and so I headed down into Florida for Gene with kind of this um major sense of accomplishment Eddie and I took off um probably around the 24th or 25th of September made our way down Cocoa Beach area Canaveral that area um towards where it was going to make landfall you know and just followed it followed the strike area you know the the line the skinny black line that they say don't follow well that's what we do have to follow we kind of want to be where that intercepts intersects land if you're going to intercept the line with your vehicle which back in the day of course that's what we had to do so we had the Chevy Tahoe and its anemometer system but we had no hurricane landfall project infrastructure any longer because Ivan I won't say destroyed it but it beat up the vehicle the Isuzu do you remember we we got it back to North Carolina and I had it towed from Opelika where it finally one of the wheels gave way had it towed on a flat bed got it back to North Carolina and it was time to put it on eBay and I'll talk about that I did a little bit before I'll talk about it again as we wrap up Gene so Gene was pretty straightforward to be honest with you I went to Florida with Eddie and didn't really have much equipment or anything it was basically going to be well we'll tackle it with the vehicle we'll be very careful we don't want another Charlie you know um kind of learning from the past but we we didn't we didn't have the hurricane landfall project truck the SUV the Isuzu it was you know toast it was sitting in my driveway soon to be sold like I said off of eBay um so we just went down and kind of intercepted or chased whatever you want to call it I don't care that's what we did and um it was very stress-free as I recall I was pretty comfortable with the whole situation we had great cooperation and coordination with local emergency management people lots of media attention you know it was just it was kind of like all right been there done that we're getting good at this now but not too cocky either we didn't take any unnecessary chances Eddie kept me very steady you know we're not going out on any of the islands we're not doing anything dumb and we didn't we didn't cross the Intracoastal we stayed um uh on the land side of things the mainland side of things uh Gene makes landfall uh finally around the 25th 26th somewhere in there the night of the 25th I think it was into the 26th and we recorded you know some decent wind uh shot a lot of good video and I just remember how easy going it was I gotta be honest with you uh we hung out at a hospital as I recall we were in the Jensen Beach Fort Pierce area somewhere between there I remember we ran we Recon on us one uh as some of the outer bands came in trying to intercept any tornadoes that we might have seen on radar and remember we didn't have radar scope like we do now um it's just everything was different back then it's a wonder we ever survived to be honest with you

um but we did we survived and I remember it came in you know of course at night ramped up real good Gene intensified right up to a landfall um made landfall is a category three strengthening pretty solid all the way up to landfall and we hung out at a hospital uh kind of in the back parking lot of a hospital down there um trying to remember exactly where that was it might have been the Fort Pierce area I remember we were up at the North side of the uh eye wall and we got into the eye and just kind of hung out at this hospital it was very well lit they had emergency power we didn't go in the hospital we didn't bother them but it was just an a good area to be a safe location big parking lot lots of media there I did lose the back windshield of the Tahoe in Jean uh we pulled up underneath real close to the emergency entrance and there was a tree there and just the wind agitating the branches of the tree one of them kind of whipped around and caught the back windshield the hatch thing of the Tahoe and shattered it it sounded like somebody fired a shotgun and so we lost the back window or windshield whatever you want to call it of the Tahoe that was exciting to have to deal with all the way back home and we just kind of hung out you know got some like I said good wind readings good pressure readings played it very safe played our cards close to the chest as they say didn't venture out much I mean come on it's night time the area it's just not safe to be driving around in a category 3 hurricane anytime much less at night you know and so we were on again the west side of Hutchinson Island um right along the the Intracoastal there that Lagoon or whatever it is that um that goes along the coast it parallels the coast as you might know if you know the region and once it made landfall of course and it was coming in um we were able to duck into this ho this hotel the hospital and like I said just kind of take refuge there and I just I keep coming back to it I remember how just easy it was you know not stressful at all and um which is a good thing uh reported data via email to the National Hurricane Center you know post a few updates on hurricane track.com on you know no big deal even losing the back window thing of the Tahoe yeah goes with the territory you know it wasn't like a catastrophe and so the eye comes in comes over things are starting to calm down Gene was not fortunately was not going to stall or anything ridiculous like that and I was pretty anxious to get out and about and do some damage video and Eddie was very careful to pull the trigger too early very cautious he's like I'm not driving out in that and you know that was good he kind of held me back and and it's really good to have that balance this is what I'm talking about it's not a couple of yahoos out there feeding off of each other's bravado you know even back then this is now coming up on 16 years ago we were mature enough um as you know fairly young adults uh then and you know still well I'm almost 50 now but you learn a lot right but we did we did we played it we played it safe and and I I treasure that I do that we learned from Charlie and uh the other I don't even call them mistakes it's lessons you learn things you get schooled the Hurricanes will school you and we were we were schooled that year and we took note of it and we did a good job and so the sun comes up we get out there we're cruising along um A1A out there uh we're able to get out along the Intracoastal whatever that Lagoon is that that's right there there's lots of bridges that cross from here to there out to the islands the barrier islands and I remember all the erosion that took place and you know is this damage from Francis or is this from Gene you know what I mean it was crazy you know damage on top of damage it's kind of like when you get a a big snowstorm and then you get a blizzard a week later on top of it it's weird how that works and this was the same thing it was like wow okay there's hurricane damage on top of hurricane damage and you know we made our way up the coast uh surveyed what we could and went on back to North Carolina there's really not much else about it um Gene you know I don't want to say it was forgotten but it was it just if it was the only hurricane that year it would have been a much bigger deal you know clearly um but it wasn't it was the fourth hurricane to directly impact Florida so it was almost getting to be old hat you know not that people were used to it as in okay another hurricane whatever it was yeah like a pain in the rear end for everybody down there but it just didn't have the same bite I felt you know it's like being hit while you're down um but you're not hit with the knockout punch it didn't come in as a cat five it was bad but it could have been worse I guess you know hard to explain it's just one of those things I just recall that it was like enough already seriously and luckily as the end of the season well at least the land fall season I mean the end of September is hardly the end of the season but it was the end of the landfalls for the United States we didn't have any other landfalls that year and Jean was it uh we went on back home no major incidents from you know the windshield getting knocked out like I said down at the hospital parking lot nothing now no big deal and we called it a season that was it and um Gene wanna went on up into the southeast did what hurricanes do recurving got into the westerlies and off it went into the North Atlantic uh you know earning its place in the history books at the end of September there and the season wasn't over you know it continued on we had Carl which was a hurricane Lisa which was a hurricane and then tropical storm Matthew of course many years later we would have Hurricane Matthew in 2016. um there was a subtropical storm remember subtropical storms are more Loosely organized kind of have features some ingredients of a tropical storm some ingredients of a mid-latitude ocean storm and so they call it a subtropical storm that was Nicole and then finally uh tropical storm Otto Otto Otto that was actually at the end of November so the o4 season kept on going Nicole by the way it was around October 10th subtropical storm as I mentioned and then Otto was at the end of November into the early days of December really the the first couple of days December 1st and 2nd and that was it we were able to close out a very tumultuous 2004. uh we learned a lot that year and accomplished a lot had an amazing incredible Adventure doing it we really did but we gathered at the time really really and I don't use this word a lot because it's used I think too much it's overly used and that's unprecedented we did do some unprecedented things things that had never been done before there was no precedent that you could look to you know this was it this was setting the precedent and that was the hurricane landfall project little did any of us know we we knew this could be the start of something but and you hope for the future hey we've got webcam images we're able to capture video using big bulky video cameras and video housings you know remember the scuba housings maybe this will lead to something down the road we're able to use Vehicles well the SUV known as the Isuzu the little SUV there as you know remote platforms whatever you want to call it the hurricane landfall project vehicle but we can't keep doing that what are we going to do go out and go to a junkyard and buy like a two thousand dollar or even a 500 clunker and as long as it can be towed we're just going to keep putting Vehicles out there no no we knew we couldn't do that and and so the future was fairly um solid like this is the start of something but what is it going to be and you don't know you know you don't know the future you have to some of it you make your own luck and you pave your own Way by doing things like what we did in o4 persevering um and and I remember I'd bounce ideas off of Jesse Eddie John you know um it was just uh you know one accomplishment led to another and that's what I remember so much about 04 and so what we did like I mentioned uh last time when we talked about Ivan I put the Isuzu on eBay and the idea was let's sell it to a collector somebody that's just really into hurricanes it's a piece of hurricane history let's just see what happens you know half stunt you know I'm not into stunts but half stunt half fundraiser if it sells great so I made it just flat out five grand and um a family out of Havelock North Carolina purchased it for their son his name is Tim Bruno and I'm sure he's listening and by the way Tim I know Tim saw the stag the white stag that I promised I would look for um and I did I found it I was encouraged by one of our other patrons as well you know if you ever find the picture that I think they refer to it as a unicorn and it might as well have been but if you haven't seen it I posted it on patreon uh recently today in fact uh about the white stag that I refer to in the Ivan um story of the podcast series from last week uh but anyway Tim Bruno uh it was just a teenager at the time his family in Havelock uh military family they purchased the Isuzu I towed it up there behind the Tahoes it was able to run enough or not run but you know the we fixed the wheel and I was able to tow it on the tow bar and we delivered it to the Bruno family Tim all into hurricanes whether you name it a very handy skilled at tinkering with things you know what I mean just one of those bright young men and he was going to try to rebuild it fix the engine fix it up maybe it become his first car who knows uh and it was just something else I remember you know Towing it up there how excited he was and that's actually in the Ivan um and actually the end of the documentary of 28 of 2004 tracking the hurricanes o4 that's in there I can't remember it was after Gene I think it was because once I got back after Gene is when we took care of that so check that out I'll put a link to the um that closing part or the whole series whatever I will put it in tonight's episode I keep wanting to say description like it's YouTube but you know what I'm saying I encourage you to watch it it's in there young man long time ago now he's 16 years older can you believe that we all are well yeah we are so anyhow um I gave 2 500 of the 5 000 from the Bruno family to Lowe's uh to the uh American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and the other 2500 reserved stored it away to figure out what are we gonna do next what are we going to do next and of course that's what we're going to get into months from now when we get back into this in December we talk about what we did next and you know you probably already know where this led but again those background intimate details that if I wrote a book and this was a book that's where you'd read about them I haven't had time to write a book this is much faster so and this is probably more enjoyable than writing a book that's probably got to be difficult maybe one of our patrons uh we'll know somebody or themselves works for a publishing company and if you're ever interested in helping me to produce a book and publish a book I would love to do it and hey we got all this material on tape so to speak while it's at least at zeros and ones there you go we've got a good foundation but you know really that's what this is all about is these these stories that I just can't put into a documentary or the thing would be you know whatever 20 hours long you know Ken Burns freaking series The Civil War right we just don't have time for that so this is the best way to do it so you get these really nice details and that's where we go next you know uh once we get back into this in December but next week as we wrap up the first season I'll go over a few just random thoughts things maybe I missed um just if I'm gonna think about it I'm going to go back and just look at the episodes and remember oh yeah that's right for this I've forgot to mention that I'll talk about where people are now that we have met up to this point you know what I'm saying we're going to just kind of tie it all together and have a season finale wrap up of the first podcast season of stories from the hurricane Highway and then we take the time off deal with the 2020 hurricane season and we will return in December the first Wednesday of December boy imagine everything that's going to happen between now and then wow um but we already know what happened between 2005 and 2019. isn't that weird how that works like that story has already been written and that's what we're going to talk about when the hurricane Highway podcast series The Stories part anyway resumes in December but you know what like I said next week we wrap it up then all right and we will have a a good time doing so I have a couple of surprises for you it'll be great and then we're done and it's time for hurricane season 2020. oh boy hey as always thank you for joining in and listening I do appreciate it your feedback the encouragement from folks like um it was Miranda that's the name I remember now Miranda one of our patrons was the one who encouraged me um I think she said would love to see the video of your unicorn or the clip of your unicorn something like that and you know in the Unicorn I believe was in quotes because they're like oh I know right it's like it might as well have been but honestly you know we don't have ten thousand patrons yet and so we don't have thousands of people listening to the podcast and that's okay we're gonna get there we gotta start somewhere and I've only been on patreon for a couple of years now where it's really grown in its momentum but these little tidbits of feedback from all of you that do so and and this will grow as people start coming back to patreon as the season gets here they're going to have this whole podcast series waiting for them and I can't wait to see the feedback then but seriously um you know Miranda when she talked about you know show the Unicorn or whatever you know I love that I appreciate that and then when I when I posted that today um Tim Bruno as I just talked about he mentioned that he picked up on the audio uh that was captured where somebody was talking about a vehicle being underwater you know that's kind of that background audio that you I wonder what that was all about that was the Isuzu that they were talking about that was the videographer that was there to document event we were trying to do this pilot episode stuff like that I should talk about like whatever happened to that you guys are wanting to do a documentary you know if somebody was making one about you whatever happened well that's what I'm talking about next week loose ends we're going to tie it all up wrap it in a nice package put a bow on it and send it out season one will be done and ready for delivery whatever that means it'll be finished and wrapped up so really thanks again for uh tuning in I do appreciate it thanks for your support as well it's been a lot of fun we got one more episode to go I'm looking forward to it I am Mark suddath for Hurricane track.com you've been listening to stories from the hurricane Highway one more episode to go I will talk to you again next week