Yesterday we went to Pass Christian, Mississippi to see their brand new harbor, rebuilt from Katrina, newly finished with it’s Shrimp boats now sitting in the middle of the road, a sail boat parallel parked next to the curb and a beautiful SUV half buried in the sand courtesy of Gustav.  Apparently the SUV had been parked in the parking lot before the storm with a flat tire.  The security guard for the Harbor was not a fan of the media, he told me where I could go and couldn’t.  I asked if I could speak to the person in charge, I was quickly told they would be coming to see me, but the guard had no earthly idea when.  While we were still shooting our video, five gentlemen were beginning to leave the harbor and I asked if anyone in charge could talk to me.  A rather stately man came right up to me and said “Hi, my name is Roger Wicker, will I do?”  Well, yes sir Senator Wicker, I suppose we can talk to you.

The Senator had spent the day touring the Mississippi Gulf Coast from west to east and had just finished looking over the Pass Christian Harbor.  He proudly announced President Bush’s Declaration of Disaster areas for Coastal Mississippi.  Mississippi is heaving a big sigh of relief right now, thankful the storm wasn’t any worse than it was, thankful the preps since Katrina seemed to work out as planned, thankful everyone evacuated, thankful for the help everyone north of here has given them.

The News Channel 3 Hurricane Gustav Storm Team is thankful for all the assistance we got down here, from the hotel staff at Gulf Hills where we stayed, to the cops in Ocean Springs, Biloxi and even Pass Christian, to our staff and management back at News Channel 3 in Memphis who prepared well with food, water and cash to getting our stories on the air.  Many of us think we’ll be back to this part of the Gulf Coast on our own time, not working a hurricane, but enjoying this really lovely part of Mississippi.

And for all you readers who commented on previous blogs about taking care of you friends and relatives on the News Channel 3 Hurricane team, let me tell you, they can take care of themselves.  And I mean that as a professional compliment.  Kelli Rabon was calling Mississippi Highway Patrol and hotels on the way down here and didn’t stop until last night.  Kristen Jones was barking orders at me like a Drill Sargent.  We’ll have to send an additional member of our team next time just to give me a break from these women.

Thanks for watching and reading.  Honey, I’ll be home to kiss the kids goodnight.

Jim J.

Ocean Springs came through Gustav relatively o.k.  Relative to Katrina.  Relative to Katrina a car wreck is relatively o.k. as  long as you don’t get maimed or killed.  It’s still no fun.  What worries the National Hurricane Center, FEMA, MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency), Ocean Springs city officials and television meteorologists is that people who evacuated for Gustav, and didn’t have everything they own wiped away by Gustav, may not be so anxious to evacuate for Hanna, or Ike, or Josephine, or the next storm next year.  They get tired of evacuating and say to themselves, their families and their friends “Well, Gustav didn’t wipe everything out, why leave for the next hurricane that isn’t a Category 3, or 2 or 1.

As good as the National Hurricane Center is, and I can tell you, they are good, they will be the first to admit a hurricane can still throw them a curve ball.  Gustav zagged off course a few miles to hit Jamaica straight on.  Hanna to trying to do a loop de loop right now in the Bahamas.  Have you ever seen a hurricane forecast track from the National Hurricane Center that loop de loops?  No, you haven’t.  To let your guard down is to invite another Katrina into your life, your city, your state, your country.

What to do?  Do you evacuate for every hurricane that comes your way?  Yes, you do.  Do you put your life on hold, spend a load of cash on gas, food, motel and lose the salary from those days lost at work.  If you want to see your grand-kids you do.  Will everyone who evacuated for Gustav evacuate for the next storm?  The Alderman from Ocean Springs says yes.  Me, a normally optimistic person, says, no.  I may not know the Alderman’s constituents as well as he does, but I say no.  The next time, fewer people will evacuate.  The next time even fewer.  The next time, most people will stay.  Let’s examine the logic closely here.  Unless my house is wiped away, or severely damage or someone loses a life or limb, nearly every time, or at least most of the time, then I am not going to evacuate every time.  I didn’t say the logic was logical, only that is was the logic that is used.  I’ve heard lots of people say they’ve lived through a hurricane.  Heck, I just lived through a hurricane today.  Hurricane force winds gusted in Ocean Springs today while I was outside.  I’m not sure that really is living through a hurricane.  I think that’s what I would call lucky, being brushed by a passing hurricane, not living through one.  Unfortunately, we have got to have consistency in our lives, even I want the same pattern to exist in my day so I can know what my response will be.

But while hurricane forecasters are getting much better at predicting the track and intensity of tropical storms, they are still, at times, unpredictable.  I think people may be more predictable.  Certainly not completely predictable, but perhaps more predictable than hurricanes.  If my brother evacuates his family from their home for two to three days for flooding six times and each time his house does not get flooded, the next time he is asked to evacuate, he probably won’t.  He’ll play the odds. It just doesn’t make sense to interrupt not only his life, but his wife and kids lives for days at a time when there is no payoff.  No perceivable benefit.  I don’t blame him, I might be tempted to do the same.  I also predict if my brother’s house get flooded each of those six times, he will move his family to higher ground.  There’s a big payoff there.

I don’t have an answer to this paradox, I’m just down here in Ocean Springs as an reporter/observer.  But I can tell you the lady I intereviewed at the gas station meat counter on Sunday that worked all day selling, meat, sandwiches and food to evacuating residents of Ocean Springs was going home at 9PM, to her house 1 and 1/2 blocks from the beach.  She was tired that nght.  I was at the beach today, her house was underwater.

Be safe.

Jim J.

Not the case this morning as nearly all the roads from our hotel were either flooded over or had trees and power lines blocking them. We went down to the beach where we were last night, but this morning we couldn’t get within 100 yards of where I was standing just 12 hours ago. Ocean Springs has battened down their hatches and either evacuated or stayed indoors. There are a few sightseers, like the Baker Family from Memphis who I saw on a local television channel last night who drove down to Gulf Shores to let their kids play in the surf kicked up by Gustav. They thought they were going home last night, I think they may have had some trouble.

I may not be in the eye of the storm, but it’s hard to tell. Rain isn’t falling as much as it’s shooting across, nearly horizontal to the ground. I was the chauffeur for our crew around this morning, every time I started driving down hill, I held my breath hoping not to find the road covered with flood waters.

City and County officials are keeping a close tab in the situation. We saw several driving around last night and today, checking on flooding and damage, anxious and ready to get out and clean up once the Gustav moves out of the way.

I’m also fielding lots of phone calls from family and friends worried for my safety. Where are all these people when I’m riding my bike on the road for 333 miles for LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center. Sure Jim, ride in the street on your bike, but don’t go into a hurricane. The odds are in my favor in a hurricane.

Got to run to meet a Noon News Deadline. I’ll try to check in with you a couple more times today. Todd Demers tells me the rain is headed your way pretty soon Memphis.

Jim J.

We’ve been watching Gustav with great interest here at News Channel 3.  Not just because of all the rain Fay brought us last week, but because of the potential of this storm.  Katrina not only affected Mississippians and New Orleanians, but if affect all of the Mid South when the storm not only brought it’s rain and wind, but also the thousands of evacuees.

I’ve had the opportunity to visit hurricane landfalls after the fact.  Just a few years ago, News Channel 3 sent my into the last flight the Hurricane Hunters made into Ivan as it slammed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast where the Hurricane Hunters are based at Keesler Air Force Base.  But I’ve never been on the ground when the storm makes landfall.  You can only learn so much from satellite pictures and radar echoes over the years.  Sometimes you just have to ground truth, as my Graduate School Geography Professors would say at what was then Memphis State University.  Gotta visit the site, talk to the residents, get a feel for what is really happening.

Once again, News Channel 3 is sending me into the heart of the storm, a real thrill for a meteorologist.  It’s what I want, it’s what I asked for.  Not only are they sending me, but a host of real television professionals.  Kelly Rabon, one of our newest bright stars on our reporting staff; our Chief Photographer, Scott Sutherland, a real Hurricane Veteran; Satellite Operator, Dennis Harris, another Hurricane Veteran; Ron Guidry, one tough photographer and a native of southwest Louisiana and my 5PM Producer Kristen Jones.  Please don’t be offended if I call Kristen “My Producer”, I am just as much “Her Weatherman”.

Kelly has already proving her worth by booking us into the only hotel in Pascagoula, Mississippi that didn’t get flooded by Katrina, has back up power generators and office space for us to work out of.

I’ve called my friends and peers who might have ever “Chased Hurricanes” asking for whatever tidbits of tips they can clue me in on.  Mike Seidel of the Weather Channel was kind enough to share his Tropical Experience.  I’m already planning a trip to a sporting goods store to buy my obligatory set of swim goggles.  Dennis tells me the stinging sand and salty water make it worth looking like Jim Cantore. 

So I’m packing the GoreTex, sleeping bag, beef jerky and bottled water.  Swim Trunks aren’t optional, they’re mandatory.  I’m looking for an experince of a lifetime, and once again, News Channel 3 is giving it to me. And I get to take you along with me, but you don’t have to wear your swimming goggles.

Thank you Boss.

Jim Jaggers

AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist

WREG TV/DT

News Channel 3