Students get in on the fun, too! Research students from the the University of Alabama measure wind speeds as Hurricane Isaac makes landfall Wednesday in New Orleans, La. Isaac was packing 80 mph winds, making it a Category 1 hurricane. It came ashore early Tuesday near the mouth of the Mississippi River, driving a wall of water nearly 11 feet high inland and soaking a neck of land that stretches into the Gulf.
There is apparently a hurricane that is just sitting over the coast of Louisiana right now. How do I know this? Not from satellites or radar or weather observation stations. I know there is a hurricane because an army of intrepid reporters is bravely standing on the empty streets of New Orleans and on the beach in Gulfport, wobbly and soaking wet, screaming over the wind caused by
Hurricane Isaac.
I know it’s important to some people to have people on the scene to show what conditions are like, but it’s not worth it to have people standing in 80 mph winds, ignoring everyone heading away from the coast.
However, it
is worth it for us to see these poor reporters being blown every which way, fall over and tumble down the street. (That leads me to today’s vocabulary word, kids:
Schadenfreude.)
So, from the comfort and dryness of our offices in downtown Tulsa, we have scoured the internet to find some of the best videos of these poor reporters, braving it all to tell us what we can see from an observation station and a security camera. Most of these videos have that “wait for it” moment, so be sure to wait for it.
(All that being said, and in the interest of full disclosure, I would like to ride out a little hurricane or tropical storm at some point in my lifetime. You know, a decent distance inland and fully stocked and prepared. Could be an adventure!)
For a primer on Hurricane Isaac, here is the latest from the Associated Press (remember: wait for it)
Here, famed weather reporter Jim Cantore does some “
tebowing” during Isaac today.
That WAS a heck of a gust!
“Look at the boat, not me falling down like a clown!”
DEBRIS! We have debris!
The legendary Al Roker/Mike Sidel bromance
Jim, it’s incredible what the power of the water is doing to your poor cameraman
OK, this one is just adorable.
--Jerry Wofford
