Photo By Ryan Labadens | Maj. Sean Cross (left), 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters"...... read more read more
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BILOXI, MISS. -- Two members of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters" and one retired member took part in the Katrina +10 event held at the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of art here May 31.
According to Vincent Creel, public affairs manager for the City of Biloxi, Katrina +10 is a six-month event designed to raise awareness for the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall August 29, 2005, and to examine the destruction, relief efforts and recovery associated with this devastating storm. Exhibits at the museum include displays and speakers from local news crews who covered the story and Mississippi Power Company, who helped restore electricity in the gulf coast areas days after the storm.
More than 60 attendees showed up at the museum to listen to the Hurricane Hunters tell their professional and personal accounts of the Katrina story. Lt. Col. Jon Talbot, 53rd WRS chief meteorologist, presented pictures, video and satellite imagery showing the storm's size and path, flooding and destruction that took place during and after Katrina at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, where the Hurricane Hunters are stationed.
Talbot mentioned that even though much of base flooded, the Hurricane Hunter's building did not receive any rising water. Rain did leak in through the roof, but Hurricane Hunters were still able to use the building after the storm and continue operations out of there.
Over the Gulf of Mexico, Katrina reached a Category 5 storm but only made landfall as a Category 3, said Talbot. Even though it was a weaker storm when it landed, much of the damage that occurred was from the storm surge, which had already been churned up by the previous Category 5 winds when the storm was still over water.
"We live in an area here on the gulf coast that has some of the worst storm surges in the world, which has to do with our coastal geography, the way the land is shaped and the shallowness of the water out there in the Gulf of Mexico," said Talbot. "(The National Hurricane Center) was calling for 24 to 28 feet (of storm surge), and that's about what the average was."
Lt. Col. Rich Harter, a 53rd WRS aerial reconnaissance weather officer who retired in September 2014, spoke to the curious effects of the surge, as he witnessed when he returned to his own home after the storm. He said that while his house was still standing, and no windows or doors were busted open, it was obvious about four feet water had run his home.
"It was all topsy-turvy. Stuff from one room was in another, and I guess it's because of the way the water went in and then came back out. It had swirled around and put all our stuff in different rooms," said Harter.
Major Sean Cross, 53rd WRS instructor pilot, flew the first mission into Katrina August 26, 2005, out of the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport in St. Croix, where the Hurricane Hunters usually deploy to fly Atlantic and Caribbean storms during the hurricane season, which lasts from June 1 through November 30. At the time the storm was only a Category 1, but during his several recurring missions into the Katrina he told attendees how he witnessed the growing strength of the storm over the short span of those three days until it hit land.
Having seen the power of this storm from the air and observing the destruction it caused along the gulf coast, Cross stressed the importance of heeding warnings from the National Hurricane Center and local authorities regarding evacuating ahead of these storms. He believes events like are excellent venues for helping raise awareness for the impact of these storms.
"It's all about educating the public, which is what we do, on how powerful and how massive these storms are," said Cross. "The most importance thing is that when the experts out there in civil defense are on the media, and they give a warning or a forecast, you really need to pay attention to these individuals. If they tell you to evacuate, then evacuate. You can replace a house, you can replace a car, but you can't replace a human life."
Katrina +10 began March 1 and is scheduled to last until Labor Day 2015, September 7.
| Date Taken: | 05.31.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.30.2016 10:21 |
| Story ID: | 219018 |
| Location: | BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 18 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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