Career Moments

HURRICANE HARVEY 2017

Before the 2025 FOX 35 TV Station Tornado, my most memorable moment was covering Hurricane Harvey and its catastrophic flooding. This happened in Houston in 2017 and it felt like the scene in Forest Gump when they’re on patrol in Vietnam during a monsoon. Water was waist-high as we waded through the flood to higher ground, holding equipment, cameras and our stuff over our heads as we evacuated the inundated TV station — a team effort to protect gear, safety, and each other in one of the most chaotic moments of our careers. I was one of the last three out. It became the largest single-event rain total in US history, beating a similar event in Hawaii, with 55”-60” falling in Houston. This event marked a wet end to the historic 57 year old KHOU-TV building which was torn down after the flood. The station relocated across town on higher ground.

HURRICANE IAN 2017

Several years ago, a similar threat presented itself as Hurricane Ian (2022) approached Florida. Thanks in-part to Harvey, I recognized that flooding rain would be Ian’s legacy in Orlando — and our team quickly pivoted coverage to emphasize the looming flood risk, making sure our audience had the clearest information possible. Ian was later classified as the worst rain the Central Florida region had received in recorded history. In fact, Ian classified just behind Harvey as the second-largest U.S. rain event, for widespread 10-20+ inch rainfall.

VIDEOGRAPHY/REPORTING FROM CHOPPER

At WFLA Tampa, I have fond memories of reporting weekly from the station’s helicopter, including a police chase from Tampa to Orlando. (Raw video below). A few special moments included landing on Egmont Key on a broken-up WWII-era helipad nestled in a jungle (for a story about how the Key is sinking into Tampa’s ship channel), and later we flew down to the NHC in Miami and dipped very low along the winding Peace River in Highlands County to enjoy the views.

HURRICANE SANDY 2012

Last, but not least a highlight I will never forget: I got to fly into Hurricane Sandy, (official site link) in October 2012. We conducted surveys inside the huge and historic hurricane while it was spinning over the Bahamas and making its way toward NJ and NY. It felt like being in the back of an out-of-control school bus on a bumpy dirt road going 100 mph. Without seat harnesses, we’d have been tossed around the cabin and injured.

While that alone made it memorable, we inadvertently flew into an active US NAVY surface-to-air missile range, when they were practicing live-fire maneuvers. This was in the northeast quadrant of the hurricane over the open Atlantic, a few hundred miles northeast of the Bahamas. Its was quite unexpected and at word of where we’d ventured, our pilot did a U-turn to get out of harm’s-way.

I remember hearing the mysterious, booming voice of the NAVY coms officer, clear as day after we’d only heard hours of muffled, distant transcontinental airline chatter as they headed to destinations around the Caribbean and Florida: “NOAA42, YOU ARE IN RESTRICTED AIRSPACE. THIS IS THE US NAVY! [NAME OF VESSEL OMITTED BY ME] TURN AROUND IMMEDIATELY, TO EXIT OUR RANGE!” I don’t recall our pilots answer, beyond, “ROGER THAT!” Suddenly, the floor became the wall and we pulled G’s until completing the turn and flying back into the bumpy eyewall.

At that moment, I learned that the DoD at the time did not always talk to the DoC about shared goals of the day, to avoid such territory conflicts.

It turns out, the NAVY was firing on ‘dummy’ aircraft (drones) inside the hurricane, and we had flown right into their zone. (Talk about training in the worst conditions possible!) I’m just glad we were ‘squawking’ our location and call sign via radio transponder so they knew we weren’t the target.

The brave souls of NOAA and the USAF, who venture into Nature’s worst during each hurricane season are heroes and bring priceless information to forecasters. Without their efforts, the forecast cone would be far, far less accurate.