Stories From The Hurricane Highway Season 1 Episode 10 Transcript - 2001 Part 2 / 2

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Stories from the hurricane Highway uh welcome to another Edition here as we re-examine the year 2001 this is part two and once again I'm proud to say that I have a guest I was hoping to be able to travel to Southeast Virginia to talk to our guests tonight Mr Jesse bass we'll get to him in just a moment so I wasn't able to I was working on some other things and so we'll do the next best thing and I've got Jesse on the phone so we'll have our first phone interview I interviewed Mike Farrow in person because he lives here in Wilmington so that made it a lot easier so tonight we'll talk to Jesse and for those of you that know our history you'll you'll know how that all began we'll talk about that tonight um so just to recap 2001 you know another I guess I always tease these that it's a big year we're doing big things Etc and that was no exception all the maps were full force I was doing the storm surge Maps now I had expanded to Georgia and had interest from Long Island and you know everything was just going full force we had finished up the Hurricanes of the 90s no hurricane landfalls in 2000 we were in a new century a new millennium and waiting on the first hurricane so it had my green Isuzu Rodeo remember that was all outfit with uh the anemometer and the Davis pressure sensor inside and the lightning detector and all that good stuff the hurricane intercept research team was going strong and we were doing these lows hurricane Expos uh I had my contract with Lowe's starting in 2001 and at those hurricane Expos we had those in Wilmington at trash Coliseum and the very last one that we were going to have under this project IMPACT Program from FEMA the first one was 1999 we did one in 2000 then another one in 2001 and it was at that Expo that I met Jesse Bass and um he had come down with his wife he'll explain it uh I don't know if they were even married at the time but you know he came down he came to the Expo he had known about me through wavy Channel 10 and in fact you know what I'm just going to let him explain it all so I'm gonna introduce Our Guest uh from Portsmouth Virginia Jesse bass welcomed at stories from the hurricane Highway how are you tonight

well I appreciate yeah it's good to recap uh it's it's been you know 19 years now coming up on 19 years uh hard to believe so first of all how did you if you can remember and by the way Jesse I'm going to embarrass him when you guys are listening to this it'll be his birthday at least when you listen to it on the day that it's posted originally and that will be February the 5th that is Jesse's birthday and he's turning the big 5-0 um and so when I tease him about his memory now you can understand why so happy birthday absolutely happy birthday absolutely

yeah well you've had some years on this hurricane Highway with me and a lot of Adventures and Jesse will be back for future uh chapters of this uh audiobook that we call stories from the hurricane Highway this won't be the first and only time that we hear from Jesse bass so how on Earth did you hear about me way back in 2001 um you know had to be some something probably the maps I was doing up in wavy uh Portsmouth wavy Channel 10.

one of their track um probably a 98 99 right and

and right um

uh on their website yes really and the infancy of the internet and um even then I was starting to try to figure out ways to I don't know out on the down other links

managed and it's just where they had your map linked from and found your website right and if I if I'm ref

lect anything like that right in 1999 that's right exactly yeah

and if I remember hurricane track.com was born and yeah so I I and uh

being able to possibly get on the road one of the one of these days and to get into one of these massive

little look here look at what uh inside of one of these things and hopefully beginner a bit of a documenting career if it were or as it were for my burgeoning photography yeah because you had an interest in photography if I remember correctly you came down to the 2001 hurricane Expo we certainly promoted it a lot and so were you and who is your wife now Crystal were you married in 0-1

sure you know

she's right now holding up two fingers symbolizing 11 years and yes we were gay for 11 years I sort of drug my feet on that we're married now and have it for quite a while and it's excellent so y'all came down you made the trip from Portsmouth Virginia down to Wilmington to the 2001 hurricane Expo I had a a booth if you will it was like a corner section I was very much involved with that Expo it was the project impact hurricane awareness Expo is what it was called a very big event um you got to talk to a lot of other people there but you made it a point to come and meet me and if I recall you bought a couple satellite pictures from me in 99 and 2000 as well or something like that right oh yeah correct um some of the satellite images of past hurricanes like Andrew and then uh Floyd and Dennis and Floyd from 99 yeah

just yeah I used to print those out I had a big format printer and I was one of the only people that you could order one custom made um you know right off the inkjet printer and uh it would always be weird I'd have these box there's a company called Uline and they sell you know supplies they're like a supplier kind of like the Granger of um small offices and you know they supply business and industry like Granger does for industrial stuff Uline sells these little uh cardboard tubes that I'd have to ship the posters in because I would roll the posters you know fold them that'd be horrible that's right so I'd roll them up and mail them out yep yep so you come down to uh Wilmington we hit it off uh at the Expo and um you showed me some of your photography from you had like a photo album if I recall that's correct and we stayed in touch you know email exchange phone numbers Etc and uh you made it clear that if you ever need any help you know hit me up I'd love to go with you sometime and I had worked with Eddie Smith and Jamie Arnold we've talked about them and Dr Brian Davis and so Jesse would be the fourth um victim if you will he would be the fourth that I talked into this hurricane Highway who wants to go on a road trip uh and so yeah sure I was like yeah okay you know we didn't it's not like I knew him that well and you're always you know uh not apprehensive but it's you know yeah yeah that'd be great to do something together and you just you don't know how it's going to turn out you know and um and that's the case even today you just never know uh but nevertheless he offered you know can help out he can document take pictures take video you know he was into weather and I'll let you explain you know you sound like from what I know of you of course I already know the history but you have a very similar background in terms of the Hurricanes that influenced you as a child as well right

my main issue was coming down

see the vehicle that whole thing was just where I was my my Center but also you had a uh Jay Baldwin who wrote the North Carolina hurricane Florida hurricane history book right wanted to get those and then speak with him and I think he was late that day or he had it or something so

um

you the most um but we got to talking and that's when we realized it was kind of the hurricane it's Gloria yeah that sort of really wrote me in living here in southeast Virginia uh enforcement only about

the front we're heavily affected when these things come in and to remember the media

people didn't have uh

as we do today hyping your windows before duct tape in those and that's just that's that that was just what sort of drawn drew me into the whole situation I became extremely interested interested in it and from there

uh at the libraries in school and that kind of thing and study it and of course the weather channel was coming along there so all of that just kind of sounds familiar yeah it all shaped sort of this this uh interest in weather and it wasn't uh mainly just hurricanes yeah exactly I like yep and uh I've always been interested in severe weather you know one of the things that really got me interested in weather and getting out and docking weather of all types was the movie Twister yeah and it just was one of those things that I think people are actually out doing this and working on this right now and I'm seeing this on the internet people were shooting these types of photos right and it's what I want to do right you heard of Jim Leonard and others that were uh doing this you saw some of these people in some documentaries on Nat Geo or whatever and then the movie Twister really brought it into the Forefront we heard of we heard the story of Stan Goldenberg we knew people were flying into hurricanes from NOAA and the hurricane center and it just became you know like this world that that I know I wanted to be a part of it and you know obviously you did too

people you could name people like uh Tim Marshall yep uh Jim Reed and like you say you said Oldenburg those guys were uh Jim Leonard yep one of

one of their games was something that stood out above everything else they basically were my idol as far as let's say you know a lot of these kids and people have Idols as far as Sports yep

or Joe Montana right now these guys are the ones that I was talking about right and yeah

from Hurricane Andrew where he and his family dealt with during that time right and it was incredible

literally it real pressure right and through these things

wow exactly

right and as a family man you know he's a real person his house was affected Etc that's a heck of a story if you guys don't know it I highly encourage you to look on YouTube and Google uh Stan Goldenberg b e r g I think Goldenberg uh Stanley Goldenberg hrd hurricane research division Hurricane Andrew was his story uh and his his life is an amazing story but um all of that all these different people from cantori to hope you know Jim Cantore John hope um Back when Mark Mancuso was at the Weather Channel Jill Brown you know the weather channel was like this one set of uh of rock stars uh the forecasters at the Hurricane Center were he looked at the discussions you know and it would say Bevin Mayfield Rappaport Avila or Avila you know um Lawrence miles Lawrence and whatever and those those were all people eventually Stacy Stewart uh in 1999 and Beyond then the directors Max Mayfield you know before him um Jerry Gerald was in there Bob Sheets Etc you know and the great Neil Frank you know who really pioneered hurricane awareness and I think that we have a very similar origin you know all these origin stories of of movies that are out there I mean that's our origin story was growing up hearing about legendary hurricanes and the legendary people uh behind them you know from you know Camille on down the road right you exactly you name uh Neil Frank and I mean he's the one in 84 and 85. with Diana and Gloria and I just remember that they were bringing him on that flat top

look you look like a NASA guy

right right oh my God he literally

right when Neil Frank was on he felt like it was some NASA guy had that look that NASA look and it might as well have been a comet headed for Earth man it was exactly yeah yeah so we meet we hit it off we agree yep we could probably hang together and and then we wait and um I don't even remember uh Arlene of that year uh or whatever it was uh I guess it would have been Arlene um or Allison sorry it was Allison duh I do remember Allison um hey I'm almost 50 as well so I'm entitled to forget some things it was Allison of course Allison dumped all that rain on the Houston area and um uh big flood event Etc and so we were waiting for the next name storm the next name storm that year would be Barry b-a-r-r-y and uh it um popped up uh towards the early part of August and what had happened is I did these hurricane Expos with lows separately from the big project impact hurricane Expo in Wilmington I talked about that in part one of our look back at 2001 in the previous uh chapter episode whatever you want to call it and um you know like I said I started out in Victoria Texas that was the first one Mike Farrow went with me to that I was in Savannah Georgia you know I had one down scheduled in in Lafayette but that got canceled because of Allison we had Savannah like I mentioned Wilmington um I think there was one up in Raleigh as well uh in the Raleigh Durham air I think specifically it was Durham and um and then one in St Petersburg in Florida and at that that one I had met a fella that it's really funny because I'm gonna tell you all this story but it has no ending Like Jesse will remember this it was a guy that said he wanted to shoot documentaries of hurricanes just some photojournalist guy a videographer young guy and you know hey if there's ever a Hurricane can I come with you guys and with you whatever is like sure so remember that right remember that I don't even remember his name unfortunately maybe we'll figure it out but there was another guy that wanted to just film hurricanes he said he was going to make a documentary or something and so yep that's fine I'll let you know if there's something that pops up and if you can meet us somewhere meet me meet my team whoever goes with me whether it's Eddie this new guy Jesse I don't know who it'll be but yeah that's fine so early August comes along and a disturbance comes into the Gulf becomes tropical storm Berry and it goes under the influence of sheer it's a mess exposed Center not real sure about it you know but it's some action you know it's something to do I got in touch with Jesse we talked about it and he comes down to Wilmington uh and brings his you know video camera um did you have a still camera then I guess you shot on the film so surely you brought your still camera yeah that was in the early days it was a Minolta manual uh film camera it was all manual

should Advance the frame myself I had the focus Ed itself horrible man of course yeah and I didn't take any

that picture Ferris Bueller I never had one lesson

right trying to to learn this on my own sure yep so he comes down and and you know off we go uh we're gonna go down to the panhandle of Florida um maybe the Destin area somewhere like that Barry doesn't look real good not sure about it now very important as I mentioned in part one I had a Sanyo bar phone and I was using it as a modem when you tether it to my laptop I had an HP laptop and remember I talked about this I bought it from outpost.com and um yeah gosh that was the Amazon of the day man before B and H um and I was really excited about it and as I've mentioned in the last uh in part one I was able to do a webcam image about every five minutes you know and so there was this Logitech or whatever it was and you would see the little preview on the laptop that's a live shot you know that you see and then you tell the program FTP the jpeg image to my web server every five minutes or whatever you'd watch that little progress thing it was connecting 1G speeds 288 or whatever it was maybe 50 to 70 kilobits if we were lucky in burst speed whatever and Jesse will tell you I was very excited hey man I got wireless internet this is a game changer you know we don't have to stop at a gas station or a McDonald's and run a 100 foot phone cord and go plug into a phone Outlet and use the dial-up modem on the laptop you know we'll use the phone so Jesse went with me for the first time that probably anybody out there was keeping up with and also blogging about what we now know as blogging uh the storm you know on the road and uh it wasn't in real time like we do now um you know live or whatever but that was it you know we could stop and get updates uh and it just kept us in the loop and it was a big big moment in history do you you recall how excited I was

I remember uh as we were getting on the road and making our way through the uh carpet bomb section of I-96 of South Carolina yeah worst Interstate section in North America

just being able to to connect and pull up that information and of course you know you were selling out the money for the service at the time um and of course as you know back in those days that would kill you as far as money if you could left it on continuously for the data and it certainly has come a long long way so we would fire it up at every advisory to be able to take a look at it see what the new advisory was and get that latest satellite image right and then we would that's right

it's like drugs you are somebody else that might have been doing an update about it right seeing what was being

yeah just a few of the other folks out there and what their thoughts were yeah and then we'd shut it off right right and then we would be right down the road

live right and then into the laptop

right and you were saying dude one of these days during this I don't know what it's going to be but one of these days the network is going to be fast enough that we're going to be able to actually live stream on the road and it'd be live video right and it gave us Goosebumps we were like yeah that's gonna be awesome

we were just like oh God I care it's got to come soon I mean right it can't be much further off right yeah that's right I would tether that thing dial in send the webcam image up and then unconnect disconnect you're right because it was you had to pay for the data uh I I'm glad you remember that and the other thing about it when you're using the phone for as a modem you couldn't use it to call or do anything else so yeah I was like well yes one or the other so um so we're told the the fella that was wanting to shoot documentary uh footage b-roll or whatever he was doing uh to meet us in Tallahassee and um so we did we picked him up in Tallahassee I just don't remember his name I don't know if it was uh Greg or Peter or something I just it's just it escapes me um I don't remember the guy's name but he joined us um and he just started shooting as they call it shooting dock you know just uh you know filming whatever he had all these batteries and so anyway we we go on down to the Panhandle and Barry's coming in and we're reading those advisories keeping up with the satellite and the radar from time to time and uh you remember somehow or another we ended up so that we were basically out all night you know and we ended up next to I don't remember

hotel room we got down there and it was I don't know maybe 2 30 3 o'clock in the morning somewhere around that time frame and of course that's back it would also took a few hours oh we had no such yeah they called out the satellite Eclipse yep that's correct

goodness the bird convention yeah

and nobody had room for us and this was before you book on your app or Expedia and yeah yeah you just show up you got a room you're like nope sorry and what the hell's going on they're like oh there's a big bird show you know everybody's got these exotic we're like what and there's and the place was sold out all the beaches down there the Emerald Coast uh you know and we're talking areas west of Mexico Beach and Panama City it's that area Destin um and and the Emerald Coast areas they call it yep not a room to be had nope so we stayed out right

afternoon oh yeah yeah right yeah check back yeah check and see what's up so we stayed out all night and we ended up next to um a very large body of water down there I should have pulled it up on a map um it's one of those uh I guess hey let's see if I can do that while I'm on if this will let me

we knew we had to stay out all night so we're like well what are we gonna do so we went over along Highway 98 and uh we would go up and down the various uh feeder roads if you will the connectors like like 231 for example that connected to Panama City and you know just kind of killing time uh exhausted of course uh so we were down in the Fort Walton Beach area Destin like I said and uh there it is right there it's choctawatchee Bay that's the name of it it's a very large Bay you've got uh 293 that comes down there 331 that goes down towards um what is that Grayton Beach Miramar Beach Etc so you know we were waiting for that satellite Eclipse we're waiting for the 5 a.m advisory and we went down along this choctawatchy Bay and I just happened to set up I had two video cameras at the time and I said hey let's just take a time lapse and as you remember we got the five o'clock advisory and we got the uh satellite image and the sheer had let up all all of a sudden overnight and Barry was ramping up like a big dog and Stacy Stewart wrote The Advisory and the discussion and you remember what he said about I hope that Recon doesn't find any surprises and we were like oh it's on now man because it started it looked like it had an eye but it was from one of the overshooting tops and it was an optical illusion but man it looked like a big flat pancake the convection was coming up and we caught that convection on time lapse from the choctawachi bay looking out across the land over Miramar Beach out over the ocean and you could actually see the outflow in the upper levels going clockwise and the inflow of Barry's convection going up going counterclockwise it was amazing and um so we shot that time lapse Barry's ramping up and we go down there uh and we're ready for it we wait and it's going to be coming in uh it's taking its sweet time we had all day down there I think we went and went ahead and booked a room uh you know and I think that the room was going to be farther over to the east maybe near Miramar Beach or somewhere and we were gonna basically do Recon between Miramar and Destin along Highway 98. and so that's what we did all day I think that was a Saturday if I'm not mistaken into Sunday and as fate would have it we're on the side of the road we would pull off to do these updates uh and we had the guy filming all this documentary stuff um and we pulled off the side of highway 98 checking things out and who pulls up behind us NBC News and we'll let Jesse remember that that was like one of those moments that as they say changes everything

uh if you remember we were we were sitting there uh that morning early and that image came set the trap on a catch because we were able to see

just as well yep early that night and then never did catch any bolts or anything coming out of it but we got some pretty fair strong structure um coming out a decent handles on a couple of the storms and you could see the convection going up um almost look like your classic

thunderstorm basically but it was some of those outer fans that we were seeing that were just offshore yep and that uh morning over over a course of various pressure dropped 14 millibars yeah 90. I mean that was pretty significant and they were a little worried they're like oh boy and it was trying to develop an eye wall they were noticing that on radar out of Eglin or Elgin whatever

deprivation for these type

one right but when I get some sleep

to do something some Recon as it were to find places to so we get open areas we need to collect wind data because remember back then you had to do it with the vehicle there's no setting up cameras there's no putting in them we were the camera we were the anemometer that's you got to remember that very key as we go forward for the next few years all right go ahead and as we were sitting on side of the road it was late afternoon early evening the fire

s yeah

zero yep as it were

we were getting our day yeah they were very impressed right and we had the anemometer on there so it had a good visual uh we had the laptop running we could pull up radar and other things and The Correspondents that they were going to be working with on The Today Show was out of Miami and that was Carrie Sanders NBC News correspondent Carrie Sanders and um they were like okay well this will be on the Today Show on Monday and um I think so this would have been Sunday that all this happens and uh you know if we put a link to msnbc.com on our website at msnbc.com back to Hurricane track.com will you put a link to us and we're like yeah sure and okay cool you know we really want to do that we're trying to promote the internet more and blah blah blah yeah that sounds good to me and so they shot this interview uh with us and you know some b-roll stuff whatever and that was it you know so we went off and uh Barry comes in um that evening and it's funny we we went into Destin and uh hungry you know he eat junk food and crap all the time and we went to a Krispy Kreme and we were in this Chase truck if you will the the Isuzu Rodeo and uh and Jesse will vouch that uh they were getting ready to close so that's part of it so but the other part is that they thought everything wow you guys are hurricane Chasers this is awesome so they just gave us like two dozen donuts for free

oh man I'm telling you that was something else they were like yeah yeah you guys can have them those are the you know good job out there thanks and that was something I started to think I was like well man I'm getting the Royal Treatment down here this is all right so Barry rolls in uh we documented it uh uh and uh it did develop what looked like an eye trying to develop an eye wall uh recorded some excellent wind readings the pressure dropped and in the eye of it and it you know had a calm Center uh we stopped and I filled out the very first online form at wx4nhc.org that is the ham radio call sign for the amateur radio operators at the National Hurricane Center wx4 NHC .org and they got this online form that you fill out and uh you fill out your lat long or you know what you're seeing you know details about your instruments it's an official submission of an observation and it says how it's got your IP address and if you're falsifying this they'll come and burn your house down and you know whatever they don't say that but it was it was an official thing you don't mess with it and I was very proud to submit that we had a pressure of about 9.92 I think and the top wind gust of 84 miles per hour and uh yeah we filmed some good stuff Jesse filmed some things and finally made our way back towards Destin got tangled up in some power line almost ripped the anemometer off that was exciting because you're so tired and you know you're driving around with like a grappling hook on the top of the Isuzu for goodness sakes that thing stuck up probably nine feet above the deck and it literally looks like a big old hook up there and any power lines that are draped you know they get teased by the wind so they start to slack and fall down or drape more or whatever hang low and we snagged one luckily it didn't damage anything um I think a couple of other Chasers drove by and maybe made faces out of this or something I don't even know but it's embarrassing you're like ah man that sucks you know because luckily nothing bad happened from it but you know teaches you right out of the gate this isn't all I don't want to say fun and games but there are risks you and that's the point we survived the 84 mile per hour wind but then you run into a freaking power line right and that's you start learning about the hazards that come beyond the obvious

absolutely it was uh if I remember correctly um we swapped seats I jumped out of the passenger seat and got into the driver's seat uh and you were out trying to direct me around finding the house in the lives yeah

and sounded to slide underneath of it yep I ever remember correctly you even had

to take that down on top of the roof and was able to get underneath that it was just enough yeah um but yeah that

this all happened of course yeah late at night

and let him bring my old memory serves me correct I believe the pressure was like 9

times what Recon had

either that or he could have come up another bar a tune fall right and we were just Inland you know in some Woods or something out there I remember that we were out in the thick of it and um it was amazing so we submitted that report we you know dealt with Barry no problem um you know well relatively speaking Yeah we made it and we got some sleep and the Today Show came on aired the piece Etc and we all returned home and as far as the guy that was documenting what we were doing never heard from him again like I don't know if if I he's like oh God I'm never doing that again a couple of idiots out there or I have I have no clue where he is what he's ever he's got that footage somewhere he he's got the um he's got the secret tapes of those early days who knows what he's got on there um nothing incriminating we never do anything incriminating so you can record all you want we have a very clean nose when we operate but he's I don't know I don't know where he ended up what he ended up doing with it I have no clue I know that's anti-climactic to that story but hey come on now though don't forget we went back to the hotel got some sleep was getting up in the morning packing up and loading up early that morning and got into the live shoot oh yeah yeah it was uh

that's right

Panhandle as it were what not you know through all the debris and the flooding yeah but we missed it really yeah I think we missed it though and the producer kind of yelled at me on the phone and we still went anyway and remember because we were hanging out with Carrie Sanders and the producer in the in the room and and Carrie was like just sitting there like one of the guys like hey guys yeah we're like okay this is I mean Carrie Sanders was right up there with you know any other big celebrity in the news Market you could think of and just hanging talking like we were all in a fraternity together or something

right and that's yeah that's right things were held up and he got mad at me I was like what

okay I don't remember if I was on there gosh maybe I really was sleep deprived wow Jesse remembers more than me absolutely we did go live if I remember correctly it went loud because they showed the bid again with uh the setup of the phone and you talked about how you were using right the Sprint Zone and the Sprint network there you go yeah hooked into the laptop and the whole the whole nine yards and he's standing with you next to the truck while the cameraman's off to the side shooting that video yeah you've got pictures of that and your phone's ringing and it's Kansas City calling it was Sprint yeah because they saw as it hit live growth wherever that out in the previous bit that we did in the evening and then wow what a memory so that's exactly what happened as they say one thing is different and then everything else beyond that you change one thing and everything else is different and we were in the right place at the right time uh a marketing person with Sprint corporate at Overland Park Kansas saw the Today Show and these you know they were seeing the coverage and they they went to the website because you know Carrie Sanders says it he's like you know a real-time website hurricane track.com something like that and um you know this woman went to Hurricane track.com sent an email got in touch with me and out of that uh the Sprint sponsorship era was born because of Barry and from from after we got back they sent me they're like oh you're using your phone for internet oh no you don't have to do that we have these things called air cards we'll send you one and it was like whoa and and oh you won't have to pay for it it's we'll we'll cover it I was like oh oh man and you know you got any other people you were who's that guy that's Jesse we'll send him a phone too it's like oh I mean it was it was amazing uh and so sure enough within a couple of weeks um they had sent me this air card a pcmcia card that you would slide into your laptop it had a little plastic looking antenna on it I mean it was probably whatever the main content it wasn't plastic but it looked cheap his little whoop you pop it up two inches looked fragile but it did the trick

right people getting connected to the town of the Tower so it hits certain server function yeah that's true and so the rest of the hurricane season um after Barry was kind of uneventful uh and then something happened of course that we all remember um September 11th uh the country was attacked and that really coincided um very very badly with something that was coming out of the tropics it was the peak of the season and I remember on September 10th thinking you know man it's Peak Time of the Season where is all the activity there was just beautiful high pressure all across the Atlantic we had major hurricane Aaron offshore of the east coast and had it been just a couple hundred miles more West and it had it made like an Isabel turn then September 11th wouldn't have happened it may have been another day you know how they say whatever you know if you change things in the course of history but interestingly enough for you weather Buffs out there that really follow this stuff the strong subsidence on the periphery of a hurricane where the air is coming into the hurricane out at the top it sinks along the periphery hundreds of miles away we call that subsidence when they when you have a really intense hurricane dry sinking air because of hurricane Aaron in the overall pattern gave the East Coast pristine skies on Tuesday Morning September 11th and it's just interesting had that hurricane been just a little bit more to the West enough so to disrupt any air traffic or what have you it would have been a different outcome obviously but the irony too is for us and what we were doing Gabrielle had formed tropical storm Gabrielle in the Gulf looked like it was headed for Southwest Florida and Joe bastardi and AccuWeather at the time was just hyping it up saying it was going to make landfall up in the Panhandle or Big Bend area hurricane here we go you know he wrote about it in his uh blog on AccuWeather site uh he was talking with us about it we had been in touch with Joe he was aware of what we were doing and the Hurricane Center was calling for a right-hand turn Northeastern into like Southwest Florida Venice you know Naples somewhere around there and Joe was like nah that's not happening guarantee you that's not happening and so Jesse uh is gonna come down and I'm like all right pull the trigger let's go let's go for this one and and we had already had the attacks and it was like a little bit after what was it like the 12th or so 13th I mean it could have been that far out there was a few days I don't think it was much more than maybe the 12 th yeah and there was this apprehension you're really gonna drive with the country on edge with what looks like a rocket launcher on top of your green Isuzu I mean my parents were worried and you know even some of my colleagues within the federal government were a little you know I don't know I remember Dan Summers but be careful everybody's on edge and it looks like he got a missile launcher on top of your Isuzu and we're like not just that it was it was uh we were getting news that they

that's right in the Naples area that's correct in the the issue with the anthrax and it was just not a good time right it was yeah it was just everything was dry

I'm headed west coming out of Hampton Roads when you called and said I I think we need to to grow this up I think we have some time right and it uh the first advisory is actually written on September 11th uh at 21z I'm looking it up now and so we would have left probably Thursday or Friday somewhere around there to be ready and um it it it it turned quicker kind of did a Charlie what we learned from three years later right and it was there was no way to get there in time and so we aborted the mission and we didn't go um I called Justin's like you know what just forget it we're not gonna make it it's already heading in um and I think that a lot of that can be can you know Joe's excitement for it and he wanted to be right and the Hurricane Center I don't say dropping the ball but we were all distracted as you could imagine and you know luckily for the United States it was not a Michael or a Charlie where it explosively deepens with all that was going on with um uh Washington and New York and Pennsylvania and you know the country is as a whole uh Gabrielle is is menacing as it was it could have been a lot worse obviously so yeah one Mission you know that didn't happen was Gabrielle and so we wait and all during this time I had had more interest from New York uh up to this point I actually flew to New York um and I forgot to mention this but as I've said before that's okay we can go back it's like we're all just sitting around the dinner table chatting remember in part one I talked about interest from The Villages of East Rockaway in Freeport New York to do a storm surge hurricane Nor'easter multimedia Big Time awareness project like what you did in North Carolina and Georgia that's what they wanted so I remember I flew to New York actually a month before the attacks I flew up on August the 11th I never forget and we had just come back from Barry and I took off to New York and I met with these different leaders of these two Villages up there the project impact coordinators somebody from State Farm and we were going to ramp up this project what can we do you know can we do stuff online you know they were they were they were really excited about working with me and that was my next big project you know and I told Max about it Max Mayfield the director of the National Hurricane Center at the time and this was going to be a big big deal because it was not Florida it was not Texas or the Carolinas it was New York it was Long Island you know when people hurricanes oh yeah we've got some in the past but hurricanes aren't really a problem well they can be and it was really really exciting and then the attacks happened and I thought oh well there goes that you know you know some of the people that worked in East Rockaway and in Freeport you know they know everybody knows somebody that was affected in either fire department NYPD you name it and you know I thought well that's not happening um which was a shame because it was a really ambitious project and then you know what though lo and behold early October uh they and as they do up there in the Northeast and New Yorkers whether you're in the city or Long Island or whatever they are tough and they just they said you know we're going for it we're gonna do it absolutely and I remember I flew up couple weeks after the attacks if that and that whole experience was just bizarre uh flew out met with them and we got the show on the road to develop this massive project for these two villages in Long Island and that began in Earnest in the fall of 2001. uh Jesse and I had become much closer friends because of Barry and uh the almost trip to Gabrielle you know the pictures that he had taken and we started talking a lot on the phone he got a phone from Sprint you know testing the uh right the air card um I mean stuff was just like you know hey man it can't get any better than this and um and so it really wasn't a big season but then at the end of October uh in the early part of November my birthday is November the 3rd uh and so sure enough at the end of October on the 29th the first advisory was written for what would become major Big Time hurricane Michelle and I'm like all right Jesse here we go this looks like it could possibly affect South Florida the keys and Jesse will tell you he and I both really wanted to see a hurricane in the Keys right yeah

they were younger all right

I've come a long ways oh yeah see now we don't have to

so Michelle is gonna uh you know possibly affect South Florida and um Jesse and I both had talked about man wouldn't it be amazing to be in a hurricane down in the Florida Keys we've seen the shots of palm trees blowing and they got real palm trees down there and uh right and so that look right you know and and um you know ignorance is bliss and we look back and now we're glad we weren't down there for a category four hurricane because it missed as you know uh in hurricane history we still didn't have a hurricane landfall in the United States in 2001 but we went down there and um you drove down from Portsmouth to Wilmington and um and then we made the long Trek down I-95 you know we talked about the hurricane Highway Man there you go that's the north-south version of the hurricane Highway and I-10 is the East West it's the way I look at it all right and yeah we're excited we're pumped now we got an air card you know and we are the only like what do you weather people hurricane Chasers whatever you want to call us no one else had an air card and we know that for a fact none of the research people no University no other stringers nobody and so it was a real big deal you know I've got my phone so I can make phone calls and I got my air card and we can be connected all the time and there's no data cap it was like woohoo and so it was amazing yeah every moment of the way we could keep up with what was going on checking Recon satellite advisories you name it and it's interesting and Jesse will tell you we go back down I-95 through South Carolina where again looks like it got bombed in World War II but they just left it as a a state historic site or something I don't know what the reason was for that horrible man it would just rattle your teeth right out of your skull gosh and you get to George you're like all right I'm in Georgia hey woohoo and George is fairly quick and we'd stop and get gas you know down at exit one in Georgia or exit 3 or whatever uh and then you get into Florida and you're like yes we're in Florida it was like you know late in the evening or something like that and then you see that sign and what did the sign say Jesse

Miami three was a 384 miles right right it was like and whatever the number was it was not you know 122 miles hey man we're only two hour dude you still got six hours

yeah feeling of dread I'm like and then it's another two hours to get to where we need to go once we get to Miami that's exactly right yeah Miami is just Miami you want to get down to the Keys that's still another 120 miles but we were young and full of energy and so you just say it screw it you know you drive through the night and um so we we drove down now I can't remember so this is why it's good to have you we drove by the National Hurricane Center but I don't think that we stopped in on the way down there did we

pulled in and and the uh the guard somebody let us in

uh we don't remember I don't remember who it was that was

um but they were off in the corner and they were extremely busy and I believe it was just one person in there that night

I gotcha

were in the Hurricane Center yeah we told them what we were doing like okay whatever

sure sure it was a big deal yeah but we didn't stay long and we had to get the heck out of there

yeah now I will say this time somehow I remember planning ahead however I did it and I did get us a room ahead of time at the Hampton Inn down in the Islamorada area so we did have a Hampton Inn to get to so that was good and uh the Hampton Inn had an Outback in the Hampton Inn I remember that and um yes the uh so the the so the thing the couple things about Michelle uh it was a cat four it was a beast it was coming up out of the Caribbean and most of the guidance including what they what we now know of as the GFS back then they referred to it as the AVN the you know the model incept avian model the aviation model and then you had the hurricane models the gfdl the the famous gfdl and what was really tugging on me was the fact that the gfdl was so persistent and insistent that Michelle comes right up into Naples I'll uh uh like a Charlie or what eventually happened with Irma as an example and you know my goodness that massive hurricane coming into Naples I thought what if it's right and um yeah but the but the remainder of the guidance was generally East south of the Florida Keys uh you know parts of the South Florida Dade County Monroe County we're under hurricane watch probably uh certainly tropical storm warnings probably hurricane watch I don't think they were under hurricane warning but they could have been I don't remember and I remember Mike Tice uh who we had met I had met in 2000 uh from being up in Cedar Key for uh Gordon um I had also met him earlier in the summer I forgot to mention this but that's fine again we'll go back where we need to go back as part of his little nugget here as part of my agreement with Lowe's for my contract on an annual basis I would do hurricane Awareness stuff I would be their hurricane PR guy I'd produce their hurricane Maps Etc but one of the things that I would do is I would do articles on my website about relevant topics hurricane preparedness you know that kind of thing obviously but also I wanted to do showcasing of people who chase hurricanes I wanted to do a profile on Stan Goldenberg I wanted to do a profile on Jim Leonard one of the legendary chasers of the age and this young up-and-coming little tyke name Mike Tice uh who was just like a high school kid or something back then um and he was like Jim's uh he's Jim if Jim Leonard was Yoda and he was Mike Tice was Luke Skywalker I kid you not and he was learning a lot from Jim Leonard and they all lived down there in the keys um and I went down and I did an interview I spent a day maybe two days in the summer of uh or maybe late spring of 19 of 2001 sorry and I interviewed Jim Leonard and Mike Tice I'll have to look on the Wayback machine uh that web archive that that's out there that big internet archiving project and see if maybe that article is on there that'd be something else but it is true if you ask Mike Tice today Tice t-h-e-i-s-s Mike Tice extremenature.com is his website hurricane track.com was the first media that ever interviewed him about what he does I was the first time he ever was introduced to the world or whatever right it was me and that was neat because he was an up-and-comer uh bright full of ambition and um uh so we knew Mike we knew of him Etc and we got word Mike's going to go to the Bahamas and intercept uh Michelle when it crossed through the Bahamas I remember that I don't remember what island he was on but uh Michelle came up Jesse and I get down there we uh you remember we ran into some there was some producer or somebody from the Weather Channel Simon somebody another remember that guy exactly I do I think that we run into him at the Outback yeah yeah yeah and we also ran into like the Florida win team or something University of Florida win team somebody was there and they saw us on our laptop and they were like how are you guys getting data and looking at all that you know we were we were like Jonas from Twister you know like hey and these guys are like yeah but but not the same Jonas was the bad guy I mean so

out and got themselves a major sponsor Sprint you know it's like you're damn right we did we earned it buddy but yeah we did we had a little bit of our like yes we do have data what can we help you with it was funny it was great it was it was nice to be ahead of the Curve um so I remember we ran into somebody down there from The Weather Channel one of their producers I thought his name was Simon something another but anyway um Michelle brushed by we got you know some effects no big deal uh I think I harvested a couple of coconuts off the ground to bring back to my kids from South Florida and uh and we left and we got out of there and we got word on spaceweather.com that this is early November now my birthday is November 3rd and um Jesse was big into astrophotography like I was he was very well aware of it that there might be a chance of some auroras as we were coming back you know in the next day or two it's like whoa okay you know so you know our attention was um shifted from Michelle to well maybe we'll see some Aurora Borealis that would be cool and was it the World Series going on while we were down there this is the Dodgers or somebody you remember that no I don't because I'm not really big into baseball so I think

I'd do that yeah

I swear um so the funny here's a funny story as we get ready to wrap this up we're all done Michelle followed most of the guidance that's not the gfdl and didn't bring major impacts to South Florida the Hurricane Center had a pretty good forecast as they usually do and it goes on out crosses the Bahamas and Mike Tice nailed it son of a gun that started to get under our skin real quick you know it's a it's not a competition but it is right and we learned about that later you know

I think so yeah probably probably so and those those guys man they got it and it's like oh and somehow they were able to feed it and it was probably on the Weather Channel and that's probably how we saw it we're just like oh oh well it's all friendly competition and so we stopped we stopped back at the National Hurricane Center and and it's kind of like if if if Jesse said that the Hurricane Center was our Yankee Stadium uh imagine going to Yankee Stadium after a big game you know maybe maybe they play the World Series there and they win game seven and you know that's Michelle [ __ ] to Florida and everybody oh it's just nuts so when we go back it's it's over the world series is over so to speak and there's nobody there there's not 5 000 media cars in the parking lot no big deal we go in and there's there's no press there to speak of there's just one guy miles Lawrence and uh me and Jesse were just like a couple of kids in a candy shop poking around you took pictures remember you were snapping away

and uh as you can imagine I was chatty Kathy you know well yeah we got this we got that talking to Miles and um boy that that gfdl sure was wrong wasn't it well wouldn't it have been something if if you know if that had been right and whatever and and miles uh kind of it's got a sandwich he's trying to eat his sandwich and he turns and he says what

here we're busy and it just shut me up

okay and with that yeah I guess we'll be going we'll be going we'll we're our services are no longer needed miles uh God bless him he didn't want to have anything to do with us we were a couple of young dudes and yeah whatever it is what it is you know there's no anger no animosity it's like okay because Jesse and I were just it might as well have said John Lennon you know on the bottom of a forecast when we saw those forecasts Lawrence Lawrence is the one for Floyd that said I think 135 knots should be enough to get everybody's attention for now something like that yeah these these guys were freaking famous to us right I mean they were they were absolutely we adored them and I'm thinking you know uh I'm you know the hurricane intercept research team and I'm Mr up and coming hurricane Interceptor and I'm in the hurricane center and Jesse's here and you know we just went down to the Keys and there's a little bit of hubris to it and and perhaps false arrogance that we're more than we think we are and he quickly puts you in your place you know um as Jesse said he says you know I know it doesn't look busy here and he takes a bite out of a sandwich but it is busy

and I mean you could feel the water draining out of the room if you will it was horrible like it's gonna be a long drive back to Wilmington isn't it

yeah like dang that was awkward I wonder what was up his rear end you know I was like oh man come on but it's a very serious solemn place man and you can't just be like you know and we weren't like that but it it it it it rubbed him the wrong way and whatever so we left and um our Tails between our legs and headed north and uh somewhere in South Carolina near Florence or somewhere we got treated to a beautiful red sky an aurora oh and you can go to V and this is all online by the way go to VA storm photo like Virginia VA vastormphoto.com and look at the hurricane gallery and all of this is in there that from 2001 that I'm telling you about it Barry and Michelle they're all there

no old website and it's not being updated any longer but those were those were old and negative film scans right so it was from negative film that's not a um uh like a 5x7 print that was that was scanned from the from the negatives and backwards I mean we're in the emphasis sure and computers were just so the small file sizes but exactly that was my first

uh and you can I clearly see the red and green Aurora that was so neat

sleep over there in the dry uh passenger seat almost at the driver's seat we've done that too

much glory to you right I remember that right right yeah we had to find a good dark spot and then it got fairly bright yeah but but there was there were still some some light pollution nearby so it's difficult to see not just set it up and I said well I guess the best way to do this is going to be to do it like I would shoot lightning

only image that turned out and so for my birthday I turned 31. and for my birthday I I got admonished by uh miles Lawrence and treated to an aurora borealis one of only a couple I've ever seen in my life and uh that was that was quite a way to to wrap up the first year the first season 2001 of working with Jesse bass uh and you know as you for those of you that know the story and what we've done since then that was just the beginning so 2001 you know wrapped up I got deeper into my project with New York um I think I made another trip up there late November early December and started on that project even more documenting things and shooting uh different scenes with different officials somebody from State Farm somebody from the two Villages there of East Rockaway and Freeport and putting together what was going to be this amazing project of one of a kind modern day hurricane Nor'easter awareness project for Long Island the only thing of its kind in the country I mean it was really really neat and that's how I was able to wrap up another very successful year uh in my first year working with Lowe's and and I got a you know a little sidebar yes there was concern because of the attacks what's the country gonna do where are we going because it looked like we're certainly going to probably be going to war with somebody you know you remember that it was horrible and it really it just rattled everybody every American you just the future was uncertain the economy all of that you know George Bush God bless him he just that I what he had to deal with I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat you hate him you loved him it doesn't matter that man had a tremendous amount on his plate as did the rest of the country he was you know uh citizen number one at that point that had to deal with so much and it trickled down all the way down to my project our project me Jesse our future what was I going to be doing with Eddie in the future I don't know you know what's any of this going to do what are we going to do with Lowe's and those uncertain times and I remember and and how to kind of wrap this all up I had a conversation towards the end of 2001 with Max Mayfield who uh called me and was congratulating Jesse and I on getting that really good win data in Berry and this was later on in the fall when they do their tropical Cyclone report and all that stuff and you know we talked about the future of everything and uh oh I understand uh y'all you know well I can do a pretty good Max yeah well uh Mark I understand y'all we're going to come down here for uh hurricane uh Gabrielle or whatever I was like that's not the best Max but I used to do a really good Max but um I haven't done it in a while so I've kind of lost it but uh seriously Max was you know very appreciative of that online report but I remember he said you know your projects are probably going to all be fine you know I don't know the future whatever I can't you know I don't have a crystal ball but he said keep this in mind in World War one and World War II in the Vietnam War and so forth the Hurricanes didn't stop coming just because we're at War and I remember that that weird way of looking at it gave me hope that my projects wouldn't be sidelined because we might be going to war you know because of these attacks and that we would stay focused on other things that are also important such as hurricane awareness you know and he was right the Hurricanes don't go away uh just because you're at War and that's that's how I remember wrapping up a very emotionally um roller coaster ride of 2001 from the start of it with this amazing opportunity with Lowe's meeting Jesse Barry the Sprint encounter now a major sponsorship with Sprint then the New York project then bam the September 11th attacks you know it's all part of this story uh and body of stories along what we call the hurricane highway so Jesse thank you for joining us tonight I appreciate any other thoughts before I put the wraps on this

not just going down the hurricane highway but Memory Lane oh yeah that's what it's all about nearly 20 years years that's I'm surprised I remember as much as it did yeah I'm impressed that's great that's right as you listen to if you listen to this today I drop it as they call it uh February the 5th again happy birthday to Jesse happy 50 years old I appreciate all the the good years and memories and you know many of those uh early miles over 430 000 miles Jesse was a part of that so great to spend some time with you tonight buddy

yeah rehash oh two three four four six exactly as I said this won't be the last time you hear from Jessie all right well this will

oh and uh one more reminder um vastormphoto.com just before you finish up VA storm photo VA storm photo.com hurricane Gallery among other awesome stuff that he's got there that's the old the old days

hey how about that Jessie J e s s e bass like the fish and in fact hey I know I keep trying to go uh it's not like we're in a hurry here's a here's another trivia question for you guys and I keep talking about uh I do this Jesse on some of these episodes where I drop a little nugget like if you're ever if I'm ever a Jeopardy question or whatever it's like I get a big head about it sometimes but here's a trivia question for you a little inside information more times than not even if I'm out with my wife I could be out with anybody and uh uh any of the colleagues I've worked with including Jesse and it makes sense when I'm with Jesse but I got this from him we go to a restaurant oh it's about a 15 minute wait oh okay that's fine uh what name do you want me to put it under Bass

I don't know y'all are probably what did you talk about no really so I will go out with my wife and we'll go to a restaurant and let's say it's a 20 minute wait F no problem we'll get on the list well what name do you want to put it under bass and you go why would you do that because if I say sudaf and all that noise and they go Setters like what the heck it's horrible sometimes I'm not a you know attacking my last name but um and I bring this up because it is Jesse bass b-a-s-s just like the restaurant name that we give that's that's my point Jesse bass photography with a Y right uh

jessiebassphotography.com is your new and improved site but yeah folks the old stuff history over at VA stormphoto.com well that'll wrap up part two of a very interesting and fun 2001 uh got to spend a good part of that with Jesse bass back in the day your support obviously that's needed but to know that you're there and enjoying these podcasts and I've gotten feedback from you it means a lot to me all right that is it from me as always I appreciate you tuning in this is and has been and will continue to be stories from the hurricane Highway thanks I'll talk to you again next week