Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast 17 years ago today. We reflect on the upheaval this disaster caused in the region, and get hurricane forecast/ communication tips from Chris Franklin, Chief Meteorologist of WWLTV, in New Orleans.

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Transcript:

00;00;00;01 - 00;00;02;07
Hal Needham
Coming up next on the GeoTrek podcast.

00;00;02;17 - 00;00;25;10
Chris Franklin
We were far more on edge. We were watching any and all threats because now New Orleans had seen what these storms could do prior to that. You have to go back to a generation when my parents were younger in Betsy. Camille more so. Betsy More so for New Orleans and then Camille more so for the Mississippi coast. You know, it was a whole generation where we didn't really see what these storms could do.

00;00;25;18 - 00;00;38;27
Chris Franklin
Katrina showed us we are vulnerable to the waters of the Gulf. We can see this water come surging in. We can see the winds rip apart the Superdome and rip apart some of the places that we thought we could evacuate to and be safe.

00;00;40;09 - 00;01;09;09
Hal Needham
17 years ago today, Hurricane Katrina slammed the northern Gulf Coast with a horrific catastrophe. Many people died in metro New Orleans when the levees failed and saltwater blasted into the city. In coastal Mississippi, Katrina generated the highest storm surge on record in the Western Hemisphere, reaching 28 feet in Hancock County. The massive coastal flood inflicted severe damage on the Alabama coastline and produced the fourth highest water level on record.

00;01;09;17 - 00;01;33;29
Hal Needham
Up to that time, all the way east in Pensacola, Florida. Hey, everyone, this is Dr. Howell, host of the GEO Track podcast. Last week, Chris Franklin, chief meteorologist of WWL TV in New Orleans, joined us to look back at Katrina in geography podcast number 42. Chris was a young meteorologist, only one year out of college and working in New Orleans when Katrina struck.

00;01;34;12 - 00;02;01;26
Hal Needham
He shared about how he forecasted Katrina's landfall from Mobile, Alabama, and then eventually made his way back in to New Orleans after spending some extended time in northern Mississippi with family. He reflected about living and working in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions back in post-Katrina New Orleans. This included working behind armed guards when his building got power back and was able to accommodate the new staff where he worked at WVU TV.

00;02;02;17 - 00;02;24;07
Hal Needham
This is Geo Trek Podcast 43 and episode number two and a two part series with Chris Franklin. In this episode, he continues to reflect on how he survived and adapted to life in New Orleans post-Katrina. He also shares insights about how forecasting weather has changed over the past 17 years, as well as how response to storms in metro New Orleans has changed.

00;02;24;19 - 00;02;44;14
Hal Needham
If you have not yet listened to episode 42, I'd recommend that you start there to get to know Chris's backstory and how he ended up forecasting the weather in post-Katrina New Orleans. Before we get to this episode, I wanted to tell you a bit about the podcast. Geo Trek travels the World to find stories about the relationship between people and nature.

00;02;44;25 - 00;03;04;23
Hal Needham
Our stories investigate the impact of extreme weather, disasters and hazards on both individuals and communities. Our goal is to help you understand better how the world works so you can take actions to make yourself, your family and your community more resilient from all the extremes that Mother Nature can throw at us. Hey, and one more thing, a quick favor to ask you.

00;03;04;23 - 00;03;30;26
Hal Needham
We'd really appreciate if you would subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Your subscription helps us mark progress, which enables us to make more professional partnerships moving forward and ensures many more episodes of the Geo Trek podcast in the future. Now we're going to join Chris Franklin back in New Orleans. We actually overlapped about 45 seconds of audio from last week's podcast, so you can reestablish the context of our conversation.

00;03;31;01 - 00;03;51;01
Chris Franklin
Enjoy the following months and years after Katrina, you were reminded of that storm every single day, and it was really years until we were no longer reminded on a daily basis of just how bad it was and what we had all gone through. I mean, it was definitely a a mental health concern as well here, because it was it rained on you.

00;03;51;01 - 00;04;11;25
Chris Franklin
And this wasn't one of those storms where it moves in, it moves out. It passes a couple of days later, you clean up your front lawn and you're you're back to normal and you've completely forgotten about it, which is really been our history since the sixties with hurricanes. And now here we have Katrina, which then we're kind of reminded of on a on a daily basis for many years of just just what we went through.

00;04;12;13 - 00;04;30;29
Hal Needham
Chris, your story, the personal part of your story that stands out, it's so much like so many other people's story that have a deep connection with New Orleans. They want to be there. But then there's this upheaval and this period of uncertainty of I'm leaving, I don't know for how long I want to come back. It could be weeks, it could be months, it could be longer.

00;04;31;11 - 00;04;45;11
Hal Needham
It sounds like you got back after Thanksgiving that year. You know, then you continued to provide weather coverage for the city. Beyond that, did you find other meteorologists, other news journalism people? Were there many that left and never came back?

00;04;45;26 - 00;05;10;20
Chris Franklin
A lot. And most of the ones that that did I don't think were I'm trying to think off the top of my head how many of them had left. There weren't a lot that were local. May have been a couple that just had had. And there were that you know, and the but beyond the journalism news newsgroup, there were a lot of people that evacuated to Atlanta, Houston, and still to this day there.

00;05;10;20 - 00;05;29;14
Chris Franklin
Oh, that was a Katrina baby. They were evacuated, born in New Orleans, but we stayed in Houston and they grew up in Houston. And we consider ourselves Houston's, but we still have that New Orleans connection. So there were still definitely a lot of folks that that just couldn't handle coming back. And to be honest, there are a lot of folks that just don't have the means of coming back.

00;05;29;14 - 00;05;47;14
Chris Franklin
Whatever they were able to collect and insurance and whatnot, they were able to make a life for themselves outside of New Orleans. And they knew trying to come back and rebuild their home would have just been too cost prohibitive. And they did stay away. But we definitely saw a decline. I mean, we've seen a decline in just our population in general.

00;05;47;14 - 00;06;14;28
Chris Franklin
So definitely in our smaller news community, there were a lot of folks that that that left just after what we saw, what we experienced, and they just couldn't imagine handling it. Now, I will say, you know, at the age now of 40 with my family and two young kids, if I had gone through Katrina now and having lost my home, it it may have been I don't know, it may be tough to to say, yeah, let's rebuild everything and let's start over from scratch.

00;06;14;28 - 00;06;34;15
Chris Franklin
I don't know, as a as a 23 year old with an apartment that I'm renting and no real personal responsibility at that age. It was easy. M To stay at my apartment was fine. I, you know, wasn't that bad. I can sleep on a floor somewhere for months on end and I can work in a drafty building for a while and use the bathroom outside.

00;06;34;15 - 00;06;52;04
Chris Franklin
It's not a big deal. But, you know, some of the older folks that they did or kind of used that opportunity to say, hey, you know what? I think this is a great time to retire. I've this this was my my cornerstone type storm or my pinnacle. And I think I'm good. I'm done here. So we definitely saw some.

00;06;52;04 - 00;07;09;08
Hal Needham
Of that for sure. And then, you know, when you have kids in the mix, a lot of times people say, well, I want to stay, but my kids need to be in school. And, you know, we could go and live near family and they could be in school next week. Right. If we stay in the city. I mean, that just it really shook everything up for really months to year.

00;07;09;08 - 00;07;09;16
Hal Needham
Right.

00;07;09;29 - 00;07;36;00
Chris Franklin
All of my brothers were you know, I was I'm the oldest of the four boys and all my brothers were in school at the time. And their schools all flooded. Where we went to high school is in Gentilly. It flooded Brother Martin. And so for a time, my brothers were at school and Baton Rouge. And then when we finally did come back to New Orleans, they had what was called a transitional school.

00;07;36;00 - 00;08;07;04
Chris Franklin
And the Archdiocese of New Orleans, we got the Catholic school set up satellite schools at the other schools that weren't flooded, mainly in Jefferson Parish. And so they would go to school in the morning and the the students of that school would then go to school that evening and night. So it would almost be a, you know, 18 hour school day for one half of the school and then the other half of the school, we all went to either all male or all female schools out in New Orleans.

00;08;07;04 - 00;08;30;04
Chris Franklin
And so they were mixing the the genders as well. It was just basically, how do we get these kids in school and have somewhat of a normal year? But even now it was, oh, that they were the Katrina class, they graduated in Katrina or they had their school year just completely screwed up by by Katrina. And I, I was glad that I was already out of school because I don't know if I would have been able to.

00;08;30;06 - 00;08;49;01
Chris Franklin
And what's interesting is so many of the colleges then started doing remote classes. Yeah. And and a lot of them stuck with that for a while to get out. What it ended up turning out to where maybe it was we were ahead of the times because then suddenly COVID we were all doing remote everything but in New Orleans was like, Oh, you have done this before.

00;08;49;01 - 00;08;54;09
Chris Franklin
This wasn't that bad at all. It's like, Oh, I got to stay home and go to class. You have already done this. This was a.

00;08;54;23 - 00;09;12;28
Hal Needham
I've met a lot of people. I've met a lot of people in Baton Rouge. I'd say, Yeah, I did my junior year of high school in Baton Rouge and then, you know, went back to New Orleans. And it just it just really it just forced people to really have this, you know, experience where they're they're uprooted and upheaval in their life.

00;09;13;02 - 00;09;28;28
Hal Needham
You know, when people move to the Gulf Coast, they often think the problem with hurricanes is the day of the storm, a tree is going to fall on you or you're going to be drowned in flood water. For a lot of people, the day of the storm was in the worst part. It's the months and years afterwards that your whole life has been changed in an instant, right?

00;09;29;17 - 00;09;31;23
Hal Needham
Where you go to school, where you work, where you live.

00;09;32;11 - 00;09;50;09
Chris Franklin
And, you know, and like we said, for most of our recent history, before Katrina, it was just that it was it was kind of a minor inconvenience. There were no upheavals of schools, upheavals of neighborhoods. That was an inconvenience. For a couple of days. You had friends that, oh, my God, yeah, they had a tree on their house.

00;09;50;10 - 00;09;50;29
Chris Franklin
It wasn't life.

00;09;50;29 - 00;09;51;17
Hal Needham
Altering.

00;09;51;25 - 00;10;18;26
Chris Franklin
Right? And it it wasn't the widespread life altering. And I think as of now and it's what's been interesting about having been in New Orleans growing up before Katrina and then in the professional capacity after people here take the storms far more seriously than we ever did before. And there is kind of that more laissez casual way about New Orleans that it's it's, oh, you call me when it's a Cat three, then maybe I'll be worried about it.

00;10;18;26 - 00;10;32;03
Chris Franklin
Now, wait, there's a thunderstorm in the Gulf. Where is this going? Well, how is it how bad is going to be? People are far more maybe not worrisome, but they're far more they pay more attention to these these type of storms now, which they didn't before.

00;10;32;05 - 00;10;47;20
Hal Needham
Chris, I wanted to ask you about that. I moved to the Gulf Coast, to south Louisiana in 2008. I had been there less than a month. And here comes Hurricane Gustav. I was with the LSU hurricane team. We were going out to deploy centers in the path of the storm. We went down I-10 and we get to the Gramercy exit.

00;10;48;02 - 00;11;09;14
Hal Needham
The cops are closing it, not to sit, not to protect us because there was contraflow. There were, you know, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people coming out of metro New Orleans. Mandatory evacuation. The response was huge. This was a Cat two hurricane, three years after Katrina. It sounds like you're saying the response to these storms post-Katrina was a lot different than maybe pre-Katrina.

00;11;10;05 - 00;11;34;06
Chris Franklin
Perhaps? No question. I think more folks, especially Gustav, where we're only three years removed, we were far more on edge. We were watching any and all threats because now New Orleans had seen what these storms could do prior to that. You have to go back to a generation when my parents were younger in in Betsy, Camille, more so Betsy, more so for New Orleans and then Camille more so for the Mississippi coast.

00;11;34;15 - 00;11;55;01
Chris Franklin
But, you know, it was a whole generation where we didn't really see what these storms could do. Katrina showed us we are vulnerable, vulnerable to the to the waters of the Gulf. We can see this water come surging in. We can see the winds rip apart the Superdome and rip apart some of the places that we thought we could evacuate to and be safe.

00;11;55;16 - 00;12;13;24
Chris Franklin
And so I think a lot more folks were on edge. And certainly with Gustav, we took that storm more seriously. And I still think we are we are kind of being removed from that a little bit. But I think Ida was was kind of that eye opening experience that, folks, we didn't enact any kind of evacuation. Ida was one of those unique storms.

00;12;13;24 - 00;12;34;06
Chris Franklin
We talked about this at the hurricane conference, the tropical weather conference that, you know, we didn't get a whole lot of heads up. And maybe had we known a day earlier with Ida, maybe an evacuation would have been ordered and maybe would have gone through contraflow. But I know for me, people ask, what would you do? Or what if what would you do if you were me?

00;12;34;06 - 00;12;50;25
Chris Franklin
And I said, Well, I can't tell you what to do. What I can tell you is that I'm advising my family to evacuate. Sure. And so I think folks took that and said, okay, we're leaving. Because when I told my wife and kids, you know, you need to go other folks, that's what I said on air. I said, people want to know what to do.

00;12;51;03 - 00;13;02;08
Chris Franklin
I'll tell you what I'm telling my family to do and I'm telling them to leave. And so I think folks are taking these storms a little more seriously than maybe the more casual approach we had had for decades before Katrina.

00;13;02;08 - 00;13;24;26
Hal Needham
To catch our listeners up, a little bit of housekeeping here. Katrina was 2005. Gustav Cat two made landfall out by Grand Isle onto in 2008. We had a storm, Isaac some some big flood issues in the west end of Lake Pontchartrain and different areas on and in 2012, on the same day of Katrina's landfall, August 29th and then also August 29th, 2021, Hurricane Ida.

00;13;24;26 - 00;13;47;13
Hal Needham
I want to talk a little bit about this with you now. We already touched base on it, but again, it was August 29th, 2021, that that same date, Ida, was different, though. It really blew up rapidly intensified. I think the winds increased by 55 miles an hour in that last 24 hours. So it made landfall out by Grande Grand Isle as a Cat four in parts of, I guess the western part of metro New Orleans, there were sustained hurricane force winds.

00;13;47;13 - 00;13;47;27
Hal Needham
Is that right?

00;13;48;12 - 00;14;07;01
Chris Franklin
Yes, the what we call the river parishes. So that's a little bit beyond for me what the geography of Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish, that are right along the lakefront, although Jefferson Parish actually extends down to the coast and Grand Isle, then as you continue westward, you have Saint Charles, Saint John, Saint James Parish, as you're headed toward Baton Rouge.

00;14;07;09 - 00;14;29;08
Chris Franklin
And those are the river parishes. That's where the storm Ida passed right over still as a weakening three to a two. So you still had significant hurricane force winds in that area. And thankfully, the wind field was rather small. We did not have hurricane force sustained winds in metro New Orleans from Jefferson Parish to Orleans. We had some damage, but we did not have the hurricane force winds.

00;14;29;18 - 00;14;52;07
Chris Franklin
That storm surge and flooding wasn't as much of an issue with this because it was such a short duration storm from the time it, you know, the genesis to landfall. Now, in that time, it was able to rapidly intensify. What we've kind of learned is that it takes longer for that storm surge to really build. And that was what the the issue with Katrina was.

00;14;52;16 - 00;15;14;11
Chris Franklin
It had a couple of days where just sat off of the coast to build up that just record storm surge. So we did not have that in IDA, which is another reason why we could probably touch on this in a whole new other podcast is why you can't compare storms and each one is completely different. So yeah, but, but with Ida it was kind of that here we go again off the Louisiana coast, a rapidly intensifying storm.

00;15;15;11 - 00;15;38;07
Chris Franklin
You know, I've done a few talks just about the short window from the time that it was just an investor of the time. It's making landfall and it was about five days and it was about three, 2 to 3 days out. So you're looking at 48 to 72 hours. And we finally had that that more certainty that this is going to be a major hurricane at landfall 4 to 5 days out.

00;15;38;07 - 00;15;56;11
Chris Franklin
We mentioned it could it certainly is a possibility. Some of the models were indicating that the hurricane center was still a little bit more conservative with that. But we were mentioning that it is certainly a possibility. But the problem now is we may not get these huge days of a heads up if this is going to be a major hurricane at landfall.

00;15;56;11 - 00;16;19;26
Chris Franklin
So, you know, the city, the state may have to start issuing these evacuation orders, possibly just under the under the the guise of of it's a possibility. Maybe it's not a major hurricane right now, but it could be or it's a high probability that it will be. And so we need to to air on the the assumption that it will be a major hurricane at landfall.

00;16;19;26 - 00;16;40;18
Chris Franklin
Like with Katrina, we could see this becoming a five, three, 4 to 5 off the coast. This is the time to leave now with Ida. We didn't have that that that long window of opportunity to to leave. So it was a it was a quick storm. It was a rapidly intensifying storm. But as we were talking before the forecast from the computer models on the National Hurricane Center are almost spot on.

00;16;41;02 - 00;16;56;28
Chris Franklin
Once the models were really able to grab what Ida was going to do, they locked in on that. That worked for Sean to two Grand Isle landfall. They locked in on this, intensifying right up to the point of landfall. And that is exactly what happened with the storm.

00;16;56;28 - 00;17;13;29
Hal Needham
So it sounds like you're saying we didn't have the lead time with Ida that we did in a Katrina or some of these other storms where you have your 72 hour window or something like that. By the time it locked in, I'm thinking that's why they did not do the mandatory evacuation. They just probably felt like they didn't have time to get everyone out.

00;17;14;09 - 00;17;14;19
Hal Needham
All right.

00;17;14;20 - 00;17;40;10
Chris Franklin
Well, and I don't know if the talks were, you know, the 42 hours of. Well, yeah, the hurricane Center and the forecasters saying it might be a major hurricane, but we don't know for certain if it's going to be. So we're going to hold back on issuing a mandatory evacuation now or lower lying areas, the areas near the coast and outside of our hurricane risk reduction system, the levee system, those were evacuated.

00;17;41;00 - 00;18;01;22
Chris Franklin
But for the city itself, you know, kind of look back on it, as I said, if we had had maybe one more day lead time, then perhaps we would have seen those mandatory evacuations issued. I do think even without the mandatory evacuation issued, I still think a vast majority of our population have not seen the numbers of the estimates of how many actually evacuated.

00;18;02;04 - 00;18;22;13
Chris Franklin
But I would say the majority of the city, more than 50%, certainly did evacuate from IDA. We didn't see. And an idea was completely different. With that said, I was completely different from Katrina. So we weren't getting reports of posting need to be rescued. Knowing who was still in the city. It was more of the inconvenience of folks saying, When are we going to get power back on?

00;18;22;14 - 00;18;36;26
Chris Franklin
When are we going to get power back on? That was probably the biggest issue for Metro New Orleans. And then, of course, down the bayou, as you get toward home and to the coast and the river parishes, the main issue was that you had a major hurricane just pass right over you.

00;18;37;16 - 00;19;03;07
Hal Needham
Chris. The last five hurricane in the last five hurricane seasons, there have been five hurricanes that rapidly intensified in the last 24 hours before landfall. By that, I mean winds increased by at least 40 miles an hour in that in that last 24 hours. So we're seeing this in all five of those were along the Gulf Coast. Has that changed, do you think, the way, you know, people are forecasting, communicating or even responding to to these storms?

00;19;03;07 - 00;19;26;11
Chris Franklin
Certainly, I think communicating and responding. I think we now, whereas maybe in the past we would be a little bit more hesitant on jumping on to the couple of computer models indicating that this could be a major hurricane. It may be something that, yeah, we'll see if more of the model runs are saying the same thing. We'll kind of back off on that for now.

00;19;26;11 - 00;19;45;16
Chris Franklin
I'm trying to remember what storm it was. It may have been more of that when one of the first models was indicating, you know, a strengthening in the Gulf that I kind of jumped on and said, now this this might be and whereas maybe before I was maybe a bit more conservative with that. Sure. Sure. I think I'm starting to kind of highlight those possibilities sooner.

00;19;45;16 - 00;20;11;22
Chris Franklin
And I don't think residents here with the means to evacuate. Evacuating is an expensive task and not everyone can do it. But I think those that that can, I think are maybe heeding that warning a little bit more so than than ever before. And as I said, our technology has gotten better. I will say just watching this past weekend in West 98, the models did a fantastic job indicating it was not going to do much of anything right off the coast of Texas.

00;20;11;22 - 00;20;32;19
Chris Franklin
And just as it moved inland, it actually started to get that Bertha convection near the center and had this sat over the Gulf, maybe another maybe 5 hours at that. You know, at minimum, we could have maybe seen this be a named a depression just before moving inland. So the model and I will say this is as of Friday, the models had been indicating that.

00;20;32;19 - 00;20;56;24
Chris Franklin
So the computer model, the guidance or technology is far superior than where we were back in 2005. And so the models and the meteorologists are much better with this. So I do think we've really stressed out. I think the public has seen that not just with the tropics, but just in our daily forecasting. Sure. And so I think now when they see us mentioning four days out, hey, just want to let you know this might not be the official forecast.

00;20;56;24 - 00;21;02;22
Chris Franklin
And by think what's coming in from the hurricane center, this is what the models are indicating. This this does need to be taken seriously.

00;21;03;05 - 00;21;25;21
Hal Needham
Chris a few times you mentioned the word possibility. And I like that because you're talking likeliness, right? I mean, we all love certainty. It's great to say this is probable, this is likely this will happen. It sounds like you're saying talking about some possibilities and maybe clearly communicating. This is not an official forecast. There's still a lot of uncertainty with it, but just tipping off people with to give them a little more lead time.

00;21;26;01 - 00;21;40;20
Hal Needham
Maybe something's possible in the three or four or five day range out. It sounds like you're saying maybe weather communication, including some of these possibility feeds, could could maybe help people say, hey, we don't maybe need to do a mandatory evacuation right now, but this is something that should be on your radar, right?

00;21;41;05 - 00;22;08;18
Chris Franklin
Absolutely. And, you know, after the tropical conference are getting to really have a little bit more one on one time with the folks at the Hurricane Center. These guys are great. They are the best in the business. And so when you see us on air and we're talking about the official forecast of the hurricane center and and not not disagreeing, but I think what we do on television is, is the reason why you don't just go to your phone, look at that cone and and leave it at that.

00;22;08;18 - 00;22;32;21
Chris Franklin
We we provide more in-depth detail and the weather. And while the hurricane center gives their detailed discussion, sometimes that may be over the heads of the folks in the community. So we try and bring that down a little bit, explain it a little bit more in more understandable terms, but also discuss other possibilities. And I mean, you know, weather is not certain by any means.

00;22;33;10 - 00;22;54;07
Chris Franklin
And we've seen storms and that that every model said it was going to do this, every all the guidance that it was going to do this. And for whatever reason, you know, post analysis, it didn't do that. And so there is almost never going to be a certainty what storms. But when you look at models and maybe they keep trending one way, that's when you talk about a high probability possibility.

00;22;54;18 - 00;23;18;26
Chris Franklin
And that certainly needs to be discussed. And I know one of the speakers at that tropical conference was talking about the best way of of explaining these storms and their potential impact. And he was talking about, you know, why the cone we need so much more than just the cone. And I agree we do. But I don't know if that that could be answered in just one graphic.

00;23;18;26 - 00;23;49;29
Chris Franklin
I think it needs the the broadcast meteorologist to discuss it with with multiple graphics, discussing all of the possibilities and all of the potential impact from the storm. One thing that was fascinating in the post IDA report is that the hurricane center at the end of the report discussed how if the storm had jogged just 15 miles to the east, we would have put a far more strain on our West Bank levee system and the high likelihood that we would have seen water overtopping those West Bank levees.

00;23;49;29 - 00;24;16;20
Chris Franklin
Now, the Corps of Engineers assures us that even though those those levees would have been overtopped, they would have been structurally sound. So they would not have failed. They would have been overtopped. They're designed to be overtopped. They're designed to then, you know, maintain their strength. But it's just interesting that the Hurricane center says a 15 mile jog while would have still been an excellent forecast, would have been completely different for parts of metro New Orleans.

00;24;16;20 - 00;24;34;21
Chris Franklin
So, you know, our levee system, despite what some leaders may say, was not put to the test in IDA, this was not IDA was not a New Orleans storm. We did not feel the brunt. As I said, we did not get hurricane force sustained winds and we did not see the storm surge that really would have put our levee system to the test.

00;24;34;21 - 00;24;53;07
Chris Franklin
So something that we really tried to emphasize after the storm to to folks is that no metro New Orleans, you did not survive a Category four storm. So for folks that looked at the next major hurricane and say, well, I went through it in my house in New Orleans, we were fine. We didn't get anything that that wasn't a test.

00;24;53;07 - 00;24;57;06
Chris Franklin
And we said before, every storm is completely different.

00;24;57;21 - 00;25;13;10
Hal Needham
You know, Chris, that work that you and other broadcast meteorologists are doing, it really helps interpret these storms. You know, how should we think about them? The one we just went through, but also the one in the future when you can help people see as bad as that was, that was not hurricane force winds sustained in metro New Orleans.

00;25;13;10 - 00;25;23;20
Hal Needham
Right. So if a Cat two is coming right for New Orleans, don't think, oh, this is this is like another Ida. It could be substantially worse. It sounds like you can help provide some interpretation for the local population.

00;25;23;24 - 00;25;44;16
Chris Franklin
And I think that that really comes down to probably are most important role. There's the daily forecast that we give you. Is it going to rain on my kid's birthday? Yeah, we do that. But I think it's at interpreting and also building on the information from the, you know, the one or two graphics that are issued by the National Hurricane Center that we show.

00;25;44;16 - 00;26;04;14
Chris Franklin
But it's the the addition of the the the the surge models, the the wind forecast models, the the just talking of experience of saying, hey, yeah, this isn't just this is that was a great presentation by Ken Graham, who at the time was director of the National Hurricane Center that there is no just hurricane or storm out there.

00;26;04;14 - 00;26;29;03
Chris Franklin
Each one can do something completely different. We're talking about we were talking about Isaac. Isaac was a one, yet it flooded the river parishes because of the way it made landfall and the speed at which with which it moved. So for folks that that flooded in Laplace from Ida wasn't just a category one, you know, for for so many storms for for Houston, Allison wasn't just a tropical storm.

00;26;29;03 - 00;26;43;24
Chris Franklin
You know, there's no just a type storm. And I think that I think that the public is now maybe more aware of that than than ever before or with with maybe a little bit more how in depth we get into these discussion.

00;26;43;25 - 00;27;06;28
Hal Needham
That's true. I mean, every hurricane, every tropical system is different. We have wind, rain and saltwater storm surge, different combinations of each. And like you said, your neighborhood might actually get a worse impact from a tropical storm. That's like a Category zero hurricane, basically compared to a higher category system that didn't put the floodwater in your neighborhood. So every storm's different, different geographical patterns and that's where the the work you're doing.

00;27;06;28 - 00;27;24;16
Hal Needham
Chris, I think it's really valuable to help interpret this for the local audience to understand what's going to happen in this storm and how is that different from the ones before. So, Chris, I wanted to wrap up by asking you, you know, going into the tropical weather seasons now, what does your engagement look like with your audience? Are you on social media or are you more on TV?

00;27;24;16 - 00;27;31;11
Hal Needham
What what is the interaction look like? Is it very interactive? How is it different today than maybe back in the times of Hurricane Katrina?

00;27;31;23 - 00;27;56;09
Chris Franklin
Because it's it is completely different. As I said, Katrina, it was the infancy of our website. There was no engagement with the public on our website. We didn't really update manually anything. Our our systems would take satellite radar, temperature maps and you could go to view those online. And that was about it. You know, for there was no social media five, no social media, or it was really in its infancy.

00;27;56;09 - 00;28;22;19
Chris Franklin
As a matter of fact, when I got back to Mobile and having gone to college, I was able to meet up with friends and they were the ones that said, Oh, you got to get on the Facebook and I want to do that. And they helped me create a Facebook account that I never did anything with for a while, you know, coming to the 2021 season and even the past several seasons, social media and our our website, social media in particular is sometimes a double edged sword.

00;28;22;19 - 00;28;49;16
Chris Franklin
It gives us a great outlet for discussing these really in depth forecasts. I mean, I can go more in-depth online with viewer engagement than I can on air. You know, if we're doing maybe hourly updates on a storm that may be threatening or maybe just of of an interest to the public, we may do these extended 510 minute weather forecasts on on air with no with no public interaction.

00;28;50;04 - 00;29;11;09
Chris Franklin
But then I may take that 10 minutes and then say, hey, we're going to cut back to programing. But if you'd like to join us, we're going to go on to Facebook Live and continue the discussion. I may continue that discussion for another hour and a half with folks to where you get just massive amounts of viewer, just those curious and watching from all over the world.

00;29;11;20 - 00;29;36;01
Chris Franklin
So those that, as I said, really weather savvy, are asking very detailed questions to where then? I'm Well, hold on a second. Let me scramble and get over to the vorticity map and show you what I was talking about. People now people are interested. Let me show you the 500 humidity and they they love that. And so we get to maybe kind of turn a hurricane weather nerd a bit here and go back to our days of, you know, college level forecasts.

00;29;36;01 - 00;29;55;28
Chris Franklin
And we're doing these detailed briefings from professors. But people are fascinated by that. And I think they like seeing that more behind the scenes of what really goes into our forecast. You know, for decades, people have seen what the meteorologist does on television. Once we've done all of our forecasting, condense those, that's really 4 hours of work to 30 minutes on air.

00;29;55;28 - 00;29;56;12
Chris Franklin
The cleaned.

00;29;56;12 - 00;29;57;04
Hal Needham
Up version. Right.

00;29;57;19 - 00;30;23;01
Chris Franklin
They see that. They see the abbreviated, succinct version of what I've just spent hours doing. But I really think with impactful weather, winter weather, severe weather, tropical weather, they like to see these real detailed forecast. And I will say there are a lot more fun to do when I know we are not at risk. If I'm discussing something that looks like it's going to stay over the East Coast and Atlantic, storm the Caribbean for sure, not impacting us at all.

00;30;23;19 - 00;30;54;26
Chris Franklin
You can kind of take the more scientific approach to the discussion when it's kind of shifted a bit. When we know we may be impacted by this, we then shift from the the meteorology and have to find a kind of a balancing act of the meteorology, but also the impacts and then the impacts of the populous storm that really stands out in my mind is, you know, after seeing what happened in Katrina, again, I still think back on that of being young, naive and maybe not fully grasping what had happened to you then.

00;30;54;26 - 00;31;19;29
Chris Franklin
Hurricane Michael, Category five, Panama City. I was sent out because Panama City is a big vacation spot for a lot of New Orleanians. So I was sent out there for the landfall of the storm. And this is now I'm married, older, with two kids at home. And you saw these families living in tents. I was there for the landfall state a few days after for some of the beginnings of the recovery.

00;31;20;09 - 00;31;45;27
Chris Franklin
And then we went back a month later. And it I mean, there were a couple of times that I would need you to hold back tears. And sure, you're talking to these families that, you know, young kids that same age as my kids living in a tent because their home was destroyed and not getting the response from emergency officials, from insurance folks to get their lives back on on, you know, on it's still moving.

00;31;46;09 - 00;32;03;03
Chris Franklin
And so I think these these past few storms that I've been able to experience as well even since Katrina, have given me more of the perspective of the human impact. And that's what something I would stress that some of the younger meteorologists who get all excited about social media about another storm, and here's where it may be going.

00;32;03;03 - 00;32;25;02
Chris Franklin
And it's like you need to take a step back and realize that you're forecasting a storm that may change the lives of of of That's right. Of your followers that people are maybe following you on Twitter or Facebook and your your your then, you know, possibly discussing something that is a life changing event for them. It goes beyond just the excitement of meteorology at that point.

00;32;25;05 - 00;32;47;27
Hal Needham
Chris, I've noticed living in south Louisiana eight years and now in Galveston, Texas, is the deadliest natural disaster in US history. Happened right in my neighborhood. I've noticed if I can keep things factual, what we're expecting from wind and storm surge, I think some of these, especially younger meteorologists that are coming from different regions, you know, sometimes I've picked up in excitement or almost they're rooting for a big landfall with big impacts.

00;32;47;27 - 00;33;05;10
Hal Needham
It's like you need to come to our neighborhoods for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. And this is going to affect someone's grandma and someone's daughter, right? I mean, these are these are big life altering storms. So I think that is an advantage of living in these communities that have gone through these things. We it's very personal for us.

00;33;05;10 - 00;33;21;11
Hal Needham
We I root every year for the storms to stay out to see it. You know, I'm fascinated by meteorology. I know. And I'm sure you do, too, once you've seen people go through a lot of hardship and not just storms. Right? We've just had a pandemic and financial issues and terrorism and all these other things. People are going through a lot.

00;33;21;12 - 00;33;51;05
Hal Needham
The last thing they need is a roof off their house. But I think for a lot of us that have experience and live in these areas, I think for us it helps us shift to be more factual. And just that, you know, this is what we're looking at and if anything, we're rooting for low impacts. And and if you mention as far as this being personal for people, do people ever reach out to you with, you know, should I get flood insurance or should I evacuate or do you do people interact on that level with you of asking help on how to make personal decisions?

00;33;51;05 - 00;33;52;25
Hal Needham
And then how do you handle that?

00;33;53;15 - 00;34;16;24
Chris Franklin
It they they do. And, you know, it's almost like in the beginning I can handle a few, you know, half a dozen, dozen individual, what should I do Type II questions And you are able to maybe get a little bit more in-depth to say, I'm in this neighborhood and I don't know what I should do. And I could tell them, Hey, look, you're on high ground.

00;34;17;06 - 00;34;46;22
Chris Franklin
If you're comfortable with, you know, possibly weeks of no power, You have food and water. You're comfortable with the forecast. Then by all means, stay. You know, it's an expensive you know, I don't recommend that everybody leave for all storms. Sure. It is an expensive task and it's and it's draining. I mean, there are elderly and and those, you know, kind of at risk that that cannot survive for ten plus hours on the road.

00;34;46;23 - 00;34;48;28
Hal Needham
Very stressful evacuation.

00;34;48;28 - 00;35;08;13
Chris Franklin
It is a very stressful time. And so I kind of advise like if you have these set of criteria, you're comfortable with the forecast, you are on high ground. You don't think the wind is going to be a major issue in terms of trees around your property with a lot of areas on the north shore with pine trees that sure snap in a good breeze and can come right on to your home.

00;35;09;07 - 00;35;26;08
Chris Franklin
You are you have the ability to have power in your home or you're comfortable without, then by all means, stay. Now, of course, areas along the coastline there are areas that you're going to have to leave every time no matter what. But but I kind of advise, no, you don't have to leave or I advise. Yeah. You know what?

00;35;26;11 - 00;35;44;27
Chris Franklin
My family is in that same part of town and I've told them to leave. I don't know if I necessarily want to take on the responsibility of. Well, Chris Franklin told us. Sure, sure. After you evacuate. So all I can do is, as you said, give them the factual information that here's what you could see in terms of impact.

00;35;45;05 - 00;36;07;22
Chris Franklin
If you're fine with that, then then you make that decision. However, I'm advising my family to leave. I can't leave, but I'm telling them to go. And you know where we are in Jefferson Parish now, where high ground really don't have any trees, That would have been a major issue. I think we would have been fine structurally. And then thank goodness our home was structurally fine.

00;36;07;27 - 00;36;21;23
Chris Franklin
But I have two young kids. I know if we lost power, first off, I really can't come home for a few days and to I don't want to have my wife in a hot house with two kids shared out of their mind. So it was more of a no. As far as the kids go, you need to leave with them.

00;36;21;23 - 00;36;33;18
Chris Franklin
And so I advise that I said, Look, I got two young kids. We have young kids, older parents, older adults living in your home or those that just need, you know, they're on oxygen or they should be after electricity. No, you need to go, Chris.

00;36;33;18 - 00;36;58;01
Hal Needham
I really like that approach because you're not telling people what to do, but you're arming them with information and helping them think through some possibilities. Like you said, there might be even two people on the same street. You know, one is caring for their elderly grandfather who's on oxygen, losing power. It can be a huge issue. But then maybe you have a college student who says, hey, I can eat canned tuna fish for a couple of days, you know, So it it seems like you're arming people with information.

00;36;58;01 - 00;37;04;27
Hal Needham
And I've noticed I feel like people usually make the best choice for themselves in their in their family if they're making an informed decision.

00;37;05;11 - 00;37;25;12
Chris Franklin
Right. And, you know, one thing that was different from Katrina is that for many storms after a couple of days of no power, you can then make the decision, hey, you know, this is pretty uncomfortable. Our our energy officials, Entergy here is saying it may be another couple of weeks before we get power back on. I'm going to leave now.

00;37;25;21 - 00;37;44;12
Chris Franklin
Well, with Katrina, obviously, with the flooding, that wasn't an option. So we do discuss that as a possibility that, hey, look, if the flooding becomes more additional, thankfully, I'd never really look like there's going to be a surge and flooding from from from Gulf saltwater intrusion as much as other storms. So that was never really much of a worry.

00;37;44;12 - 00;38;04;11
Chris Franklin
So we did say, look, if it gets uncomfortable after a few days, you probably will still be able to leave if you need to. But obviously with Katrina, that was not the case, which is why, you know, we have to treat every storm differently. Cat five, Hurricane Michael in Panama City, just because of their terrain, flooding and because of how fast it developed, surge wasn't much of an issue for them.

00;38;04;11 - 00;38;18;05
Chris Franklin
So it was kind of the same thing. If you think you're in an area that you want to ride it out, then by all means ride it out. But if you realize after a couple of days it's miserable, at least you do have the ability to leave. However, with that said, New Orleans is a city surrounded by water.

00;38;18;13 - 00;38;34;21
Chris Franklin
There is always the possibility of some of our our exit routes of going under or sustaining damage where that that suddenly isn't a possibility. After Katrina, the twin span failed and the causeway went underwater. We kind of lost a couple of our routes to even leave the city as you stayed.

00;38;35;06 - 00;38;47;03
Hal Needham
Chris, what about a rapidly intensifying hurricane 80 miles east of where I to track something like that, where it is a big hit on New Orleans. But again, you don't have the 72 hour lead time.

00;38;47;19 - 00;39;08;21
Chris Franklin
And it's it's it's it's one of those that's well, it's the you know, remain in place. This is this is why we advise to having supplies at your home ready to go for the entirety of a hurricane season to where, hey, look, if you can't get out, you might have a few hour window. After that, you're better off just remaining in place and having the supplies that you need.

00;39;09;04 - 00;39;31;20
Chris Franklin
Obviously, one major expense is is getting these whole home generators. They're great to have. But we do reports all the time about these generators and how many folks die from carbon monoxide or just not using the generator properly. So while they can be lifesaving for folks that need the power or just the comfort of having some electricity, they they, too, are very dangerous.

00;39;31;20 - 00;39;52;21
Chris Franklin
And so, you know, we treat every storm completely different. The the areas to evacuate to. We do a I do a map and I say where to go. Each storm is going to have different evacuation points or something. I stresses have an idea of kind of northwest and east of where you could go in a storm because there may be routes north and west just based on the track of a storm.

00;39;52;21 - 00;40;10;05
Chris Franklin
But those are off limits right now. Your best bet is going east. When I would with Ida, I told my family, go to the Florida beaches are like really? And I said four inches will be fine. As a matter of fact, they went up. They were a little bit beyond Destin. The kids were able to play in a pool The day I was making landfall.

00;40;10;05 - 00;40;30;00
Chris Franklin
For them, it was nothing going on. They were fine. And so at least having a basic plan is probably the least you can do in preparation for hurricane season. Then it's just that personal responsibility of I'm going to give you all the facts, as you said, armed with the facts, to then make that decision, which is best for you and, those that you may be taking care of.

00;40;30;09 - 00;40;47;18
Hal Needham
Yeah, like you said, having supplies so that you're not having to go to the store the day before or, you know, as the rush is on for water and food and because like you said, some storms are going to probably shelter in place, other ones you're going to evac, there may be multiple evacuation possibilities. It sounds like you're on the air trying to help guide people.

00;40;47;18 - 00;40;50;03
Hal Needham
The best you can and to these different possibilities.

00;40;50;03 - 00;41;20;11
Chris Franklin
And that that window becomes small or the number of options maybe becomes smaller when you have these rapidly intensifying. Sure, you don't have the days notice. You know the options. We're not tracking a storm necessarily off the African coast for the last two weeks. We know exactly it's going and you've had plenty of lead time. That's right. The ones that just spin up in the Caribbean or the Gulf or just, you know, off the east coast of Florida like Katrina, we don't really get that that mass of lead time that people think we're going to have.

00;41;21;01 - 00;41;32;14
Hal Needham
Chris, really appreciate you coming on the Geo Track podcast. Are there any last any last thought you'd like to share just on Hurricane preparedness, what you want people to You know, one last thought to take home as we go into the heart of this hurricane season.

00;41;33;02 - 00;41;52;13
Chris Franklin
Yeah, well, I guess really, as far as this season goes, you know, it's been quiet. I've done a few talks back to early July that I had a graphic where I listed the three storms that we've had so far this season, talking about how they were all shorties, less than 48 hours and knowing I had a few other talks coming up and thought, Oh, I'm going to update that graphic before my next talk.

00;41;52;13 - 00;42;19;01
Chris Franklin
And here we are mid-August, and I haven't had a day of anything to that graphic. Still the same in terms of our numbers as we were in early July. That does not bode for a quiet season. And as we know we might if we saw more storms this season, the three that we've had, and one more. But that one more became a five in the Gulf and hits Houston, Texas, 2002 was a substantial and significant year for hurricanes.

00;42;19;01 - 00;42;44;12
Chris Franklin
It only takes that one. So even with these lulls, even with the slow season, that's why I'm never a huge fan of the seasonal forecasts while they have their place. You look at 2019, very active season. U.S. was almost not impacted at all. It was it was minimal. You know, then you have the seasons of the 2021, 2022 or 20, 20, 2021 that were obviously very impactful, especially to southeast Louisiana.

00;42;44;12 - 00;43;12;01
Chris Franklin
But then you look back at history, the, you know, the season 92 with Andrew, that was a slow season. You look back at some of the other major impactful storms that happened in slow seasons to where just because a season has this this lull or we're expecting it to be below average, I think your your awareness and your preparation needs to be the same each and every season, which is why, you know, we ever get a below average season forecast again, hopefully soon.

00;43;12;12 - 00;43;33;09
Chris Franklin
I don't want that to be the, you know, all clear the season. I go ahead and don't worry about anything because we're not expecting that many storms. It it only takes one I think it's become kind of cliche but I think it's still very important to to stress of of of as far as the tropical threats, it it only takes one obviously, with 2019 and 2020 2021.

00;43;33;09 - 00;43;41;07
Chris Franklin
It only takes what, like eight or nine threats that we had year, that it was just miserable. But, you know, it just takes that long to completely ruin your year.

00;43;41;10 - 00;43;55;04
Hal Needham
Chris, That's a great reminder. You know, 92 is such a great example. Andrew was such a high impact storm coming in. Really the southern part of Miami has a Cat five then over to Louisiana, but that was a storm in late August, right?

00;43;55;11 - 00;44;16;15
Chris Franklin
It was the first storm in a slow season that had a slow start. Right. But it was that was the first or you look at the impact of Betsy and Camille, those were the second and third storms of the season that were still early in the season itself as far as the names go. So it doesn't take the late letters that can be the powerhouses.

00;44;16;15 - 00;44;22;23
Chris Franklin
It can be these early season, the first storms that that become the life changing storms.

00;44;23;02 - 00;44;37;13
Hal Needham
Yeah, for sure. That's a really good reminder. We have to stay vigilant, have to stay prepared. And like you said, it only takes one. Well, I'm hoping this year I know Louisiana has had so many impacts in recent years. I'm really hoping you all get a break. I hope all of the US gets a break. We'll just have to watch and see.

00;44;37;13 - 00;44;51;23
Hal Needham
But just appreciate the good work you're doing. I know the folks there in south Louisiana appreciate it, too. And I'll be following you through this hurricane season and just really appreciate you coming on the podcast. You provided us with a lot of great insights, education and some of these amazing stories of what you've lived through.

00;44;52;09 - 00;45;08;05
Chris Franklin
How I appreciate it. You know, I think this far removed from Katrina, it doesn't bring back too many memories. There's actually a show on Apple TV five days, a memorial about what happened at the Memorial Hospital. And folks have said, oh, can you? I said, I don't know if I can watch it. I don't know if I can truly relive some of that.

00;45;08;05 - 00;45;27;16
Chris Franklin
But looking back on some of the stories that we can learn from it, I you know, it's a little easier to share. But but some of those more just devastating type stories from Katrina or are still even this far removed, not too hard to relive and bring back a little bit of PTSD. Not not the extent of what some folks went through.

00;45;27;16 - 00;45;31;12
Chris Franklin
But it certainly is still a harsh reminder for folks here.

00;45;32;19 - 00;45;58;26
Hal Needham
Wow, such deep insights from Chris on these two podcasts. He touched on a few really important points about disaster recovery in this episode. Something that really stood out to me is the upheaval people endure when going through a major natural disaster. He mentioned how his high school, the school where his brother still attended, was flooded and how his brothers had to transfer to school in Baton Rouge, more than 70 miles away from New Orleans.

00;45;59;11 - 00;46;21;24
Hal Needham
When I lived in south Louisiana, I came across many stories like this. People would reflect and say things like I did my sixth grade year in Baton Rouge or some other city in the region. Some of them eventually returned to New Orleans. Others did not. I would hear stories of people who worked in the same restaurant for 25 years and then Katrina destroyed it and they weren't really sure what they should do next.

00;46;22;13 - 00;46;42;13
Hal Needham
Nearly all of these people were displaced at least for weeks to months and sometimes years or longer. So the first action item we can take from this podcast is to look out for such people, especially if you live nearby a location that's hard hit by a major disaster. We might see refugees from, the disaster relocating to your city.

00;46;43;05 - 00;47;07;01
Hal Needham
We often think about giving money or donation to storm victims, but when people are displaced, their world has been turned upside down. Sometimes a really big way we can help is by providing a listening ear and trying to help ease their transition. In the restaurant I gave, maybe you have a friend or family member that works in a restaurant that could connect the Storm refugee with a possible job lead.

00;47;07;12 - 00;47;31;00
Hal Needham
Sometimes even just a few minutes of your time can help revolutionize the life of a storm victim. I also wanted to share that when people move to a disaster prone area like a coastline, vulnerable to hurricanes, they often expect the day of the disaster is the biggest test. But long term residents know it's the weeks, months and years after the disaster that are usually the hardest part.

00;47;31;07 - 00;47;59;03
Hal Needham
As long as nobody in their family or friends suffered injury or death in the storm itself, it's been well documented that indirect accidents kill more people than direct storm damage in hurricanes. Indirect accidents include electrocution, carbon monoxide poisoning from unventilated generators and poisonous animal bites like snake bites. Many of these fatalities occur in the days and weeks after the storm compared to direct storm impacts.

00;47;59;03 - 00;48;29;29
Hal Needham
A tree falling on someone that happens on the day of the storm. Be aware of this. If you're new to say, hurricane prone coastline, the weeks and months after the storm can be grueling. It will go better for you if you have all the supplies you need and adequate insurance and have your documentation organized. So, for example, if you have flood insurance, all these different types of insurance, if you have everything organized and you can contact your insurance company right after the event, that's going to help you get back on your feet a lot quicker.

00;48;30;06 - 00;48;48;24
Hal Needham
Also, obviously, having supplies like water and food and all these things that you need to survive maybe without power for a long period of time. Also, if you have a friend or family member impacted by a hurricane, follow up with them weeks to months after the storm, their phone will be blowing up on the day of the storm.

00;48;48;24 - 00;49;12;04
Hal Needham
Everyone sharing their concerns. But most people will soon forget about them as the news moves on. You'll make a huge impact in their lives if you reach out to them a few weeks or months after the storm to see what they need. I also really love Chris's approach to talking people through decision making before a storm strikes. He said he gets a lot of inquiries from people looking for guidance about if they should evacuate or not.

00;49;12;17 - 00;49;44;08
Hal Needham
He reflected that he will not tell people what they should do, but he will try to help them understand potential impacts. People will often make the best choice for themselves and their family if they're aware of the impacts and are making informed decisions. Forecasters can help people out by sharing insights on the likeliness of storm impacts, like the depth of potential floodwater, strength of winds, likeliness of power outages, or a tree falls to people in the same area may make different evacuation decisions based on their life circumstances.

00;49;44;18 - 00;50;05;15
Hal Needham
Another way, Chris said that he worried such responses is by sharing what he and his family are deciding to do. That's just factual information that does not imply what others should or shouldn't do, but it can help people in their own decision making. So, for example, he'll say, Hey, my family's going to evacuate for this storm. That's a decision we're making and I can help others make decisions, too.

00;50;05;29 - 00;50;30;03
Hal Needham
I often hear about people who do not live in hurricane prone areas, questioning why more people in hurricane zones don't evacuate. But after 14 years living along the upper Texas coast in south Louisiana, I get it now. Evacuation is expensive and extremely stressful. Hotels can be filled up for hundreds of miles and gas stations can run dry. Evacuation traffic can become gridlock.

00;50;30;03 - 00;50;47;20
Hal Needham
And many of the shelters don't take pets. The list goes on and on. There are many reasons why people do not evacuate and add to the fact that people may have evacuated several times already. And when they got back home, their store, their home was not damaged. So they thought, you know, I've unnecessarily evacuated before. I'm not going to do it again.

00;50;48;01 - 00;51;07;28
Hal Needham
All these factors can lead to people staying home and riding up the storm right where they're at. If you're a young meteorologist or a science communicator, you can provide a steady voice in your community by sharing a factual message that's not overly emotional and is in line with the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service forecast or other credible sources.

00;51;08;08 - 00;51;28;14
Hal Needham
Why is veterans of Gulf Coast hurricanes have advised me to give a buffer and always plan for winds one category higher than forecast and flood water a little deeper than forecast. Chris, thank you so much for coming on this podcast. We wish you the best. And most of all, we're wishing that Louisiana can catch a break this hurricane season after two consecutive seasons.

00;51;28;23 - 00;51;53;05
Hal Needham
When upper level Cat four hurricanes with 150 mile an hour winds made landfall in the Bayou State, we're really interested to watch your coverage on WWL TV. If any storms threaten the Gulf this year, you're such a great science and weather communicator. I think it's really going to help us all by staying tuned to your forecast. We've been reflecting on Hurricane Katrina, which struck the northern Gulf Coast 17 years ago today.

00;51;53;17 - 00;52;15;19
Hal Needham
On August 29th, 2005, impacting people from south Louisiana all the way to the Florida Panhandle. And, of course, our friends in Mississippi and south Alabama as well. Hey, everyone, stay safe out there and remain prepared for natural disasters in your community. This is Dr. Howell signing off. I'll catch you on the next episode of the GEO Track podcast.

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