On the night of April 26th, 2011, I was having dinner with my family. My wife knew that I had been concerned for days about the upcoming weather pattern for the next day. She asked me, “What do think about tomorrow?”. I told her, “It’s the same as I felt the day before Hurricane Katrina…..this system could be very bad”. She knew I was serious. When I worked in Mobile, AL, she and my sons had to evacuate north 3 times in one year due to the strong hurricanes of 2004-2005. Hurricane Katrina being the worst. She knew that we could not really evacuate for something like this. So, we spent the length of our dinner discussing the safety plan for our house and made sure my sons were clear on what to do. Likewise, the bulk of my broadcast time that Tuesday night was spent urging viewers to do the same. Be Prepared and Stay Alert!
Meteorologists can get a gauge of the “potential” energy within a developing storm system by looking at various computer model indices. One such equation or index is called the SWEAT index which stands for “Severe Weather Threat” index. It takes into account the stability of the atmosphere and the wind profile. A SWEAT index of over 400 means that supercell storms are likely with some that could produce strong tornadoes. The projected SWEAT index for April 27th was 527! Two different computer model runs on April 26th yielded totals above 500. I then emailed my boss, Tom Henderson, to give him a brief on my thoughts for the next day. I told him exactly what I told my wife…”I have never seen anything like this set up before locally and it could be very bad”. I closed the email with this quote…”I hope I am wrong”. If there was ever a forecast when I wanted to be wrong, it was this one.
The next day saw our weather team stay on the air continuously for nearly 18 hours. Only having a short 15 minute break after 1pm. Bill Race had done a tremendous job during the morning hours. It was like watching an aerial assault unfold. A conveyor belt of supercells constantly moving in from the southwest. I cannot tell you how many times we said “hunker down” or “get to your safe place”….for you can never say it enough in this type of situation. Jason Disharoon and I spent those long hours analyzing those storms right down to street level to be as detailed as possible on what areas could be affected. Often times there would be several warnings in effect at the same time. Our newsroom staff likewise worked the same long hours gathering information from across the viewing area. Some out in the elements covering the damage as storms continued to move through.
At around 6pm I sent a text to my wife urging her to get to the basement as yet another supercell was sprinting toward downtown Chattanooga and our house on Missionary Ridge. I received a reply from her stating…”OK, we are in the basement”. 30 minutes later, Tom Henderson motioned for me to step off camera and for Jason to take over. Tom told me that he had just received a phone call from my neighbor that a tree had struck our house. I knew immediately which tree it was. It was the huge oak tree in my neighbor’s yard that had a natural lean toward my house. I immediately called my wife and with each ring I kept saying “pick up…pick up…pick up”. She finally answered in a chipper voice and said “hey”. I said, “are you all ok?”. She assured me that they were fine, but she knew nothing about the tree. They had heard nothing. I asked her to take a look upstairs and upon getting there she confirmed that the tree had indeed sideswiped the house puncturing the roof. She said that the house was still fine, but the roof was leaking. I wanted to go home and check on them, but she told me that they would be okay and to keep broadcasting. It was a brief sense of relief, because I knew that the storms continued to rage and lives were at risk.
It was truly painful watching these monster storms roll over our local communities. We kept pleading for folks to get to safety and take these warnings seriously. With each passing storm we were getting the dreadful news of damage and injuries. And, it only escalated through the night. The last Tornado Warning expired shortly after midnight. We then broadcasted our normal 11pm newscast at that time. I sat at the news desk with Kim Chapman and Calvin Sneed. We rolled on some raw video of the damage in Ringgold. They both asked me my thoughts. I simply could not speak. Emotionally drained and tears welling up, there were just no words. Taking a deep breath and gaining my composure I had to get right back to the task of discussing the current radar trends and detailing when all the storms would end.
Our marathon storm coverage ended after 1am. Time was still spent updating our web site and making sure every square mile of our viewing area was out of danger. I was finally able to go home around 2am. It was a silent drive home with periods of trembling lips and tears. I arrived home to a dark house because of no power. Everyone was asleep in the den so as to stay together. I just sat there in the dark watching them all sleep. For as thankful as I was for their safety, I felt guilty. I knew that many others were not as fortunate. I never slept…