Hurricane IKE, SCTVs first hurricane!

Randy had to work so he could not make this chase, so I invited James Machen, a buddy of mine who had never been on a real chase. He was super excited, and understood the mental a physical strain of a hurricane chase. So on Thursday, the 11th, we left Tulsa with high hopes, tons of redbull, and a lifetime supply of beef jerky.
We stopped in Tyler Texas for some rest, that we would for sure be lacking the next night. By now, it was a for sure night landfall, which sucks, but we were already half way there. We met up with Tyler Costantini and Bart Comstock as we arrived in Houston, and we all agreed to head to the coast as the outer bands of Ike were whipping ashore. We met the Hurricanes first rain band near Seabrook, where a lot of media and other Hurricane chasers were riding out the storm in a Hotel. We geared up and walked down to the shore, which was already flooding the lower level of the parking garage with 6 feet of water. We played around in the 60mph winds for about an hour, filming the trees whipping, and parts of the side of the Hotel being ripped apart by the 80mph gusts, then decided to head back to Houston to ride it out in a parking garage. We had decided against going to Galveston with the experienced Cane chasers, as all 4 of us were newbs. We found a sturdy 4 story parking garage and set up shop there around midnight of the 13th. We put on our rain gear, and headed out on foot to film downtown being pummeled by the now Cat 2 hurricane. With the now 70mph sustained winds, things were starting to get interesting. Since it was dark, we missed a lot of the action. There was some tree damage beginning and small debris starting to blow around, but it was still less intense than we had expected. After being harassed by some security guards for filming on "private property" we decided to go back to the garage and wait for the winds to pick up. Around 3, the winds picked up to about 80mph sustained with gusts up to around 95, and we decided to head out again. Trees were starting to come down, and it was getting pretty interesting. We spent much of the time on the top of the garage, feeling the wrath of the storm. We had a blast playing around in the wind and rain. It was amazing. I had never felt winds like this for more than a few seconds at a time. We had been hearing some extreme damage being done all throughout the downtown area. I decided to watch for small spin-up tornadoes and I believe we hay have seen one about a mile North of our location. I saw what looked to be a cone tornado with 4 power-flashes illuminating the funnel. There was never any report of damage by this so I decided not to count it. Around 4AM, the EyeWall was making landfall so we decided to head out in our trucks to survey the damage that had been done, and see if we could catch some video of the carnage taking place. Large trees were being uprooted, even larger trees were being blown completely over, and the streets were littered with debric from the buildings sawying around us. Office windows were being shattered by the 110mph gusts, and office supplies were raining from above. We drove around for about 20 minutes, then glass and debris from the Chase tower starting falling onto our vehicles so we headed back to the garage again. After a quick power-nap, the sun was rising and we decided to venture out and take a peek at the damage. It was complete destruction. Stop lights laying everywhere, every tree blown over, every building missing all of the windows, and major flooding of most of the bridges in the area. Our original route out of town had 5 feet of water over it. After taking pictures of the wreckage, we decided to try to find a way back to Barts Uncle's house in North Houston. The whole area sustained heavy wind damage. We get back to the house around 8am and decided to catch some sleep before the drive home.

1114 miles.

2007 year in review

Well, I didn't keep track of statistics this year as well as I would have liked. I guess that's a good New Years resolution. So I'm going to try off the top of my head.

CHASE days: 9
MILES: ~?
TORNADO DAYS: 4
TORNADOES: 11(3 on March 28th, 1 on April 12th, 2 on April 21st, 5 on May 4th)
STATES CHASED: KS,OK,NE,TX
TORNADO STATES: KS, TX
TORNADO MONTHS: March, April, May.

Summary: Started the year off with a bust on Feb 24th. I had some buddies with me and we messed around in OKC for too long, left late, and missed the tornado.
3-28: Chased with Tyler Costantini and Chris Wilburn. Saw my first tornado near the town of Hedley, and saw 2 more as we were repositioning. Probably missed a few this day due to bad contrast and nightfall. Saw some really cool funnels out of the side of the updraft as well as "anvil zit" lightning. it was very eerie.
4-11: Wasn't a tornado chasing day, but we wanted to take a shot at lightning photography, so we went to the Childress area. Met Tony on a dark side road. They stayed in Wichita Falls, we went to Decatur(My Moms).
4-12: Chased with my partner Randy Rhea. Missed the Seymour tornado as we were too far East. Caught the line just west of Decatur. Got chased to Denton, we screamed East, to drop south in front of the weird Sup that was not really imbedded, but within the line. Intercepted a "cell" just East of Lake Ray Hubbard. Called in a bowl-shaped lowering with powerflashes. Confirmed damage to barns and a fence. Pretty disappointing for a High Risk. But I'll take what I can get.
4-21: Chased with Joey, Russel Parsons, and Chris Wilburn. Got on a good looking storm near Hereford, couldn't produce. Headed north to 40 to see if we could catch another storm. I was taking pictures out the window of a weird cloud structure, and later that night, when looking over the pictures, saw what seemed to be a tornado in a rain curtain. When we got to 40, we headed East, everyone lost Radar data, drove threw some small hail, then a tornado hit us. It was weak. once we got the hell out of there, i took a picture looking back. scroll down to see that picture on the 4-21 summary. Then we regained our composure, Caught an LP cell, drove home in a squall line.
5-4:Waited around in SC KS. Got gas in Greensburg. Went East to Medicine Lodge for Wifi, turned our asses around when we saw the Greensurg cell getting cookin. Got our first glimpse at the Tornado(es) just N of Coldwater. Took pictures as we mosey'd N on 183. Didn't know the town took a direct hit, but knew there would be damage so we tried to take a clay road around town. Got stuck. Got unstuck. Decided not to go to Greensburg thinking that we would only hamper rescue efforts. I regret that decision EVERY DAY and will probably regret it every day for as long as I live. The next day at work, I found out about the town being completely destroyed.
5-6: local chase. not looking for naders. Got my best lightning shot ever.(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ke/mike005.jpg)
5-29: Chased with Tyler Costantini, and his nephew. Messed around all day. I was in a goofy mood and I think I pissed Tyler off by being goofy all day. Finally got on a storm late in the evening out in BFE in the OK panhandle. Good lightning, decent rotation for about 10 minutes. Then we came home.
6-6: Met up with Bart Comstock and Chris Wilburn in NE. Targeted Broken Bow. later met up with Eric Flescher. Saw really nice structure, repositioned, more good structure. Saw a horse-shoe vortex on top of a roll cloud. that was cool. They all got the last 2 rooms at a hotel in Grand Island, i went down the street. Randy Hicks and Lisa stayed with me.
6-7: Parted ways with everyone in the morning and I headed home. Hoped for a storm to go up in KS, but didn't happen. Got home, took some buddys on a local chase, hoped for a storm to go up west of Henrietta, OK. Got free root beer floats at sonic. went to the Skatepark and did some tricks on the fruitboots. No storms. Did see a ton of good lookin girls at WalMart with goofy looking guys.


No real chases since June. Depressing. Come on Spring!!!