Stories From The Hurricane Highway Season 1 Episode 22 Transcript - 2004 Part 8 / 8 - Season Finale

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hello I am Mark Sudduth and welcome to stories from the hurricane Highway the podcast series supported by you our patrons and our hurricane track Insider supporters welcome to the last episode of season one as we wrap up what we have been talking about all those miles on the hurricane Highway we started in December of 2019 now this is May 3rd 2020 the last episode here the season finale as it were we're gonna wrap up some loose ends tie up some loose ends wrap things up couple of extra stories topics that I wanted to discuss and then that's it until December uh the first Wednesday in December we will pick up again and we will start off with the year 2005. and wow what a doozy that was and wait till you hear the inside details of all of that but before we get to that and before we say goodbye for now let's just recap where we have come from as I said started this back in December of 2019 and we begin at the very beginning of my career my college days when I was a music Major changed over to geography always had an interest in weather and hurricanes in particular graduated in 1995 started working immediately to become an entrepreneur you know blazing my own trail as they say met a lot of great people along the way that were very supportive and helpful and that even continues today you all being a prime example of that the crowdfunding group that helps to to allow me to do this well those things have not changed they've evolved but they're still there those basic principles of people who find importance in what I do my ideas the people that I work with the team members that have helped over the years it's just been an amazing journey you know we went through uh the Hurricanes of the mid 90s Bertha Fran uh Bonnie Dennis Floyd the early 2000s the Advent of my relationship with Lowe's and then Sprint and our technology advances we got introduced to this Wireless Broadband technology from Sprint you know where we didn't have to have a dial-up modem anymore and eventually uh you know the Chevy Tahoe uh all the beginnings of the uh the hurricane landfall project with unmanned cameras unmanned weather stations you know we set that out and Francis and Ivan and then we wrapped everything up you know with o4 at the end of o4 Hurricane Gene I think was the perfect stopping point for this first season and so we've covered a lot and just by the way if you are just tuning in to this episode and want to listen to all the rest if you're listening on patreon there should be a way hopefully that everything's listed for you in patreon but you know to make it easy in the post that I have made with this episode in it there's a link to where all the episodes are located on our web server at our hurricane track Insider site and everybody has access to that so that's where they all live if you ever want to go back and listen outside of the patreon app they're all there in the link that I have provided in the post here on May the 3rd 2020 as I drop this episode as they call it so if you ever need to listen to a past episode they're all there sitting on our server system all right so again we wrapped everything up with a tumultuous 2004 season a lot of advances a lot of successes sold the Isuzu Rodeo that got all beat uh to Pieces well not too many pieces but it was battered pretty good in Hurricane Ivan um sold that uh on eBay I talked about that a little bit and I'll just expand upon it a little bit more sold it on eBay to a family up in Havelock North Carolina for their young teenage son at the time now he's 16 years older Tim Bruno he's probably listening uh hey Tim how are you buddy he and his family purchased that Isuzu Tim was going to try to rebuild it as a project he was into weather still is you're going to learn about Tim again later on a lot of these recurring characters and new characters they're coming you'll see but you know that story of how o4 led into o5 and this is how kind of tease it for you that's where it began the really the next phase and where we go to from here finishing up 2004 that was the big the key there selling that Isuzu this family bought it I gave 2 500 of the 5 000 that I asked for uh to Lowe's Home Improvement to their American Red Cross disaster relief fund and then I kept the other 2500 to eventually invest in something new now I didn't know exactly what that was going to be we just knew myself John and Jesse Eddie other people that I was working with you know after the success of o4 and the hurricane landfall project you know we knew we can't keep taking SUVs building them up with different things and turning them into Crash Test Dummies that's not going to work that's not practical uh and so that's where we leave off in terms of the stories part of this series right that after I collected that money it's seed money you know all right what are we going to do with it and so those months October 04 November 04 December 04 right that's where I started getting the wheels turning talking to Jesse hours and hours and hours on the phone what are we gonna do what can we do I don't know let's think about this you know just ideas we just didn't know and as we will start talking about in December it magically kind of happened you say magic and it's also the word serendipitously where something positive happens by accident a serendipitous event you'll see and that's where we're gonna pick up again in December it's going to be very exciting I think you're going to be really really intrigued by the evolution of where we went from 04 and the first phase of the hurricane landfall project unmanned cameras and so forth to the leap into live video and unmanned camera boxes so there's my teaser for next December December 2020. we'll pick it up then all right so a couple of Side Stories little off-ramps or rest stops along the hurricane highway to continue with that metaphorical uh description of all of this family I don't talk about family very much it comes up from time to time so I thought I would address that during this whole process 1995 to 2004 that we've covered in season one here I started a family during all of this other stuff right all those stories all those miles all those adventures all those conferences all those storms hurricanes everything we just went over in that time frame added to all of those amazing Stories I also began a family I got married in 1996 had my first child in 1997. my second child in 1999 my third child in 2001 and my fourth child in 2004. you know it and yes it does keep going we'll but we're not there yet we start with o5 and Beyond in December okay but that's enough for now that's that's four kids if you're not you know one two three four holy crap dude right so how do you do that how do you do that so how does how does anybody do that that works in a traditional job setting where you got to be at the office from 8 30 to 5 or 9 to 5 or whatever uh or if you're in the medical field or you do shift work 7 A.M to 7 P.M 7 P.M to 7 A.M whatever and my wife she's a nurse that's what she does did does and will continue to do until she retires how do you do that even in a regular standard job setting well I don't know because I never was one of those regular people I think that's clear by now I as an entrepreneur had an advantage that I could work at home that's good and bad as we're all learning during what's happening in 2020 I try to keep current events out of our conversations here uh our dialogue but you know what I'm talking about a lot of people are learning how to work from home with children and pets and other distractions I have been doing that since day one and even before day one um but you know what it's not always easy and that's you know part of these intimate details that I promise that you know opening up and talking about this stuff there were times where from the financial side of things you know having to ask my wife to trust me that this is going to work from a financial perspective to support the family I cannot tell you how many times those words have been uttered trust me I think this is going to work that should just be I should have a t-shirt that she wears and and yeah like quotes around it and then underneath it says who it's from and says my husband many many times trust me this is gonna work uh that's what it was all about that I'd have these ideas and I would need her trust and support and that was not always easy you know she had her career that was starting up she graduated in 1996. BSN Bachelor of Science and nursing began immediately as an emergency department nurse up in Pender County at Pender Memorial hospital now she works here in the Wilmington area and she's been through all the Hurricanes as a nurse that I've been in here in southeast North Carolina that adds stress and then on top of that we had kids like I mentioned four children and yes that is extremely difficult it really is you know I'm not going to sugarcoat it and tell you oh man it was easy she she took care of the kids while I went and chased hurricanes no way that is not what happened it was difficult because we both had to juggle things I'm trying to work at home I'm doing my blogging my projects you know these awareness projects video Work compre creating these Graphics you know I was busy you know it may not be eight to five five days a week busy sometimes I'd work until two o'clock in the morning maybe until five in the morning because I had to because we had kids and the kids demand your attention there's nothing you can do about it but we just rolled with it you know you had to well you don't have to I guess you could take the easy way out and say screw it get a divorce do whatever we didn't do that we stuck together and so far you know like 20 plus years into the future here uh We've made it this far and I think that's pretty darn good but man to say that it's been easy always is a lie it hasn't uh there's a lot of stress involved as I said not just the financial side how are you going to support your family but also just going out and being in hurricanes being away at conferences traveling you know you're away and you missed the time with your family uh people that do travel for their business that's traditional not entrepreneur based right even entrepreneurs travel I mean you know what I'm saying when you travel there's a certain bit of Freedom with it it's nice you get away a little bit as a change of scenery but you do miss your family I know I did and I do and I will continue to do so um and then there's the positives you know you come home and your child comes running up and gives you a big hug they ask you know did you bring any surprises for us and I usually bring some gifts back more often than not it's usually relics from the hurricane or wherever I mean and that's and I don't mean always like pieces of we don't loot it's not that but you know like coconuts from South Florida or a rock from the beach of somewhere maybe I go up to the Northeast to study nor'easters uh and observe those and I bring some of the Rocks back from Massachusetts you know I go out into the desert from Monsoon and uh hurricanes out of the Pacific and I bring back desert rocks or whatever and every once in a while some small piece of debris that's washed up on shore from a hurricane I might say hey look this was from Hurricane so and so uh never anything that belongs to somebody that I could figure out a way to return no no no no I'm just talking about literally relics you know something left over and then the occasional toy you know maybe the National Hurricane conference would be in Orlando and I'd go to the Disney Store you know whatever so uh but family was always a part of this you know I had the hurricane and the weather bug at an early age and I started a family at a fairly early age you know I got uh I started let's see 1997 I would have been uh what 27 years old right is when I had my first child so I guess that was good I was young when I started and I still feel young even today after lots lots lots of kids right um but uh yeah family important part of this absolutely no escaping it you take the good you take the bad you mix it all together and hopefully when it it comes out in the wash as they say you got a lot more good than you do bad and that's definitely the case and uh We've made it you know we've done a real good thing together all those years uh what else I want to talk a little bit about where some of the people are that I met along the way okay um people that you meet along the stops of the hurricane highway to continue with the metaphor um early on Dan Summers New Hanover County Emergency Management director back in the day where is he now he went on to become the Emergency Services director same kind of thing down in Collier County which is Naples Florida um and he's been there for many years since the early to mid-2000s I believe somewhere like that still there today and we occasionally run into each other uh usually work related right and uh so that's where Dan Summers is you know talk about him a lot in those early years Eddie Smith we talk about him uh he went on to finish college and now is the deputy director or no Deputy Town Administrator assistant Town it was something like that uh in Kannapolis North Carolina he's actually in episode one of the hurricane Highway TV series that I've been working on if you haven't seen that you know I'll post a link to that in the post for this today too just to just to be sure it's all there all right so anyway Dan Summers Eddie Smith Yep they're still alive and well and doing good things Eddie Smith as I said assistant Town manager or something like that up in Kannapolis North Carolina uh Jesse bass met him in 1999 we still worked together even today and uh he has and still does live in southeast Virginia um still has his website VA storm photo and I think he's got Jesse bass photography .com I'll look it up and put a link there too as well in the post for this episode um still helps out when he can uh he never started a family uh well he got married but no kids and he lives and works in southeast Virginia uh John Van Pelt the guy from Storm study where did he go well as we'll learn as we talk about once we start this up again in December with o5 when we talk about 2005 um I guess the easiest way to describe it we decided to part ways it just it's like a relationship some relationships work others do not and at the end of 2004 I decided that it wasn't working out we had different Visions for the future and they weren't compatible with each other and we parted ways and as they say that's that um you know nothing else can really be said but I do know uh that John went on to work eventually with Weather Nation he's always had a great passion and intellect for marketing and great radio personality he used to do radio good on TV and great on TV if you've ever seen his reports uh just bright we just didn't get along to keep going you know and you just I need to make a change this isn't working out same thing that's why you don't marry everybody you meet well it's one of the reasons you get what I'm saying some relationships work some do not some people meet their childhood sweetheart and they get married fine well that's all it was you know just didn't have we didn't see eye to eye so that was the end of that at the end of o4 but John has gone on to do some great things in his career still does advertising and marketing as far as I know up on the Raleigh North Carolina area and like I mentioned from time to time you can see him I believe he's on Weather Nation uh that other Weather Channel That's exists out there I think they're based out of Colorado or something uh so that's what happened with John anybody else any big like names not big name prominent figures in our stories uh my professor uh Dr Brian Davis remember the guy that went with me uh during Dennis in 1999 he was my professor of astronomy I learned some Physics from him as well just a great consultant and friend of mine he is still a professor at UNC Wilmington believe it or not after all these years literally looks like a wizard and he too is in the first episode of the hurricane Highway TV series and make sure you see it if you haven't seen it again that's included for all of you on patreon and hurricane track Insider our crowdfunding crowd that's included so check it out if you haven't seen the TV episode it's got Dr Davis in there and also Jamie Arnold the guy that helped me out during Bonnie hurricane Bonnie 1998 and again in Floyd in 1999 what happened to him he uh finished college at UNC Charlotte went on to become chief meteorologist at wmbf at uh Florence Myrtle Beach and he too is in the first episode of the hurricane Highway and he's still there still down there and uh Chief met Chief guy top dog at wmbf in Myrtle Beach and I think that's pretty much the biggest you know that that comprises the most prominent people if I left anybody out I'm sorry but here's a little bit of like where are they now so there you go um what else as we wrap things up um basically the last thing I want to say the real common thread throughout all of this is one like concept and that is the concept of people without people appreciating and absorbing what I'm doing there's no reason for me to be here and all the people that I have met since day one whether I have met them in person and interacted with them like all the folks I just told you about I value all of those relationships and then you include the people that I have met only in the online world emails from thousands of people over the years hundreds of thousands of interactions on social media now that that's become a thing I wouldn't trade that for anything you know never became a millionaire at doing this whole entrepreneur hurricane thing but that was never the point just want to have a career be able to not worry about paying my bills that's sometimes a challenge but beyond that are you doing good and that and that's where that word is important you can say well you did well I did well at that but are you doing good what's the difference doing good means that you're doing something that benefits you you know the greater good and what I do and what the people that help me to accomplish is good we do good and it it affects people with an a affects them it affects people in a positive manner and I see that coming back in the form of unbelievable support in the way that people interact there's virtually no negativity in my entire career from people only a handful every once in a while extremely rare So statistically the amount of negative troll people is is statistically zero if you know what that means you know there's only a few people but it's literally like having um a billion white marbles and 12 12 one two three four five six nine eleven twelve twelve out of a billion marbles are black well those 12 marbles are statistically zero you know if you mix them all in with a billion others you know roughly it doesn't matter literally 99.999 of all of my interactions with people have been positive and that that's remarkable and you know part of that is certainly because of me that I try to be a good person do good things be true to myself and you know don't screw up you know but it does come back in the form of good from people I try to produce good for people and then I get return goodness sent back to me from people it's great and it's more than great it really helps to keep me going when I get an email and now more prevalent than than ever of course is social media interaction about my update really helped to explain something thank you you know if somebody tells me that my guidance really helped them to get their house ready and maybe it helps somebody to get their parents to evacuate it just goes on and on and on and then to think that some people are willing to support this financially on top of that is absolutely what keeps me going it's like wow you know to just there's no way to ever emote that to you the importance of people the goodness that people share from their positive experiences by what I do what my team members have helped me do what we all do together that's what crowdfunding does it enables us to do good and that's where we are you know uh as we end this first season of stories from the hurricane Highway I thank you for that I really do it's been amazing and as they say we're literally just getting started this may wrap up the first season of stories from the hurricane highway but as you know probably unless you're brand new to all of this you know man I'm just discovering this marks out of the guy well then you're in for a real treat if I may say so myself because there's a lot more but most people know the stories or so they think and that's what this is all about and I'm so happy that you have been with me along uh these Journeys here that we've taken since December of last year and driven down the hurricane Highway together here to you know talk about these things and um you know try to make sense of it and give you the inner details that you wouldn't get unless I wrote a book and again that's going to happen someday I don't know when but there will be a book and at least this as I've said many times will hopefully be a basis for that book A book on tape if you will that's what this has been all about hey again thank you so much for supporting this for supporting all of my Endeavors related to weather in general but hurricanes in particular that's the most important part of this uh but it makes us all very much aware of our surroundings I think if you're ready for hurricanes you're ready for anything else in my opinion and that's a good thing speaking of doing good that's the good that comes from this all right so that'll wrap it up for the first season here uh again it'll come back in December the first Wednesday in December 2020 we will resume stories from the hurricane Highway with a look at the year 2005. make sure that you tune in for that you're not going to want to miss it I am Mark South for Hurricane track.com as always thank you for tuning in I appreciate it more than you will ever know I'll talk to you again as we resume stories from the hurricane Highway in December 2020 stay well I'll talk to you then