When it comes to raising children, the days are long, but the years are short.
I guess you can say the same thing about the television weather business. Last week I posted by somewhat insane daily schedule, which runs from 4:52 a.m. until almost midnight. The days are indeed long. But, I can close my eyes and I am at work on September 11, 1979. Seems just like it was yesterday.
It was my second day on the job as the primary weeknight weather anchor on WAPI-TV in Birmingham, Channel 13. I had just turned 23 years old, and there is no doubt that job was a “God thing†since I had little experience and was not particularly good on the air. But, I had a real passion for weather, and being able to talk about it weeknights in Alabama’s largest market was just too good. I was living the dream. But, I had to overcome the excitement of the new job to deal with a major weather situation brewing in the Gulf of Mexico; Hurricane Frederic was growing stronger and was headed for the Central Gulf coast.
Now understand, back in 1979 there were no satellite trucks, and we were barely into the days of video tape (thank goodness, I just missed the film generation!). But, we wanted to be aggressive, and the decision was made to send me to the Alabama Gulf coast. I met photographer Dwayne Syltie early in the morning on the next day, September 12, and we were in Mobile by midday. It was my first experience heading south on I-65 as the lone vehicle, while it seemed like the world was headed north. No lane reversals back then, we had the southbound road to ourselves.
Since we had to do our live reporting via the plain old telephone line, we decided that instead of riding out the storm at Gulf Shores where there would be no communication, we spent the night of September 12 at Azalea Middle School, which was an evacuation center. I was able to do a live report during the 10:00 news on September 12; after that conditions rapidly worsened as the eye of Fredereic, a category three storm, came right up Mobile Bay. A part of the roof peeled off, and a group of elderly people who were in the school had to be moved to another part of the building. We all helped, and our TV lights were invaluable in the dark school. The noise alone was enough to drive anyone crazy, along with sound of trees snapping and metal flying everywhere.
At daylight, we were out and shooting damage. We shot as much as possible across Mobile and Baldwin Counties, and we had to drive the video tape all the way back to Birmingham to get it on the early evening news. Folks over in our newsroom would find this laughable today, but that was the way it was in 1979. We arrived at the station at 4:30, and the editing process was started. All stories made the news on time that night at 6:00.
The following day, September 14, we flew down (this time in the brand new “Sky 13” helicopter) to the coast to cover more of the storm’s aftermath, and the visit of President Jimmy Carter to the Alabama coast. Needless to say, getting back that day was much easier in the chopper.
Frederic was not my first hurricane experience (that was Hurricane Eloise in 1975), but the added pressure of the TV responsibilities made it one that will never be forgotten. And, back in those days you didn’t have hundreds of good looking TV people waiting for their hair to blow in the wind, we pretty much had the whole story to ourselves. We would later do a 30 minute special on Frederic in late September, my first experience with long form TV.
Funny how my love and passion for weather is even stronger today. And, with the great advances in communication technology, covering big storms like Frederic is more exciting.
