Intercepting Sandy

[ncforecaster89]

I am positioned several hundred feet from the west end of the bridge on Hy 72 that goes over to

Ship Bottom, NJ. This is several miles ESE of Manakawkir. Estimated gusts of 55 now, and water is approximately 4 ft. deep in the housing development just off to my south.

More later.

TB

[ncforecaster89]

Hey everyone,

I apologize for being unable to post any additional updates during the storm. If I had, here is the information and details I would have shared.

Let me begin by stating that I left Wilmington, NC around 830 pm EDT on October 28, 2012. Initially, I had hoped to document hurricane-force conditions on the NC Outer Banks, but had to alter those plans when Hurricane (H) Sandy tracked a little farther eastward of the NC coast than had been forecast. Since it appeared that the center of "Sandy" would likely come ashore somewhere along the coast of central NJ, I selected Long Branch, NJ as my new target location. By the time I arrived in northern NJ-around 630 am EDT on October 29-I began to seriously consider relocating to Stanton Island, NY. I was determined to position myself in the NE quadrant of Sandy, with a desire to document the most intense conditions that this historic storm had to offer.

When it became obvious that H Sandy was taking a pretty sharp turn back toward the coast, increasing the apparent threat to central NJ, I decided to travel back south along the immediate coastline. Conditions continued to deteriorate. Rain was increasing and wind gusts were in the 45-50 mph range. Along the way, I unexpectedly plowed into 3 feet of standing ocean water that had accumalated in a low elevation area just off a bridge (near Point Pleasant Beach). I ultimately chose Long Beach Island as my desired intercept location. Unfortunately, I arrived too late (around 1130 am EDT), and wasn't allowed access onto the barrier Island itself.

Consequently, I settled on the mainland side of the bridge, and would document the effects of "Sandy" in Beach Haven West, NJ. My exact intercept position was 39.6710 N and 74.2252 W. The winds were gusting to 55 mph, and the water had risen to about 4 ft. in the housing development to my south-right on the bay itself. Even where I was parked, the water was 2 ft. deep. About the time of the radar image posted above, the fire chief approached my vehicle and made sure I was willing to accept responsibility for my own safety. I assured him I was willing to take the risk. With that, he and the other emergency vehicles departed the area-leaving one solitary township worker behind to block access to the immediate bayfront.

Image courtesy of KRTV news in MT.

After my only live-event posting, the winds continued to intensify during the next hour-although the aforementioned significant storm surge flooding diminished some with the receding tide. As you can see in the radar image displayed below, some of the heaviest convection moved into my intercept location beginning around 230 pm EDT. At the time, wind gusts had increased to about 65-70 mph, accompanied by heavy horizontal rain.

I will have to continue this recounting of my "Sandy" intercept at a later time. That said, I will simply state that the conditions continued to become dramatically more intense as the afternoon and evening progressed. I hope to share those details with you very soon. In the meantime, I hope each of you have a great rest of the weekend!

Most sincerely,

Tony (TB)

[Ellinwood]

Any video?

[ncforecaster89]

Any video?

 

Hi Ellinwood.  Yes, I did film the entire event beginning around 12 pm EST on the 29th.  Due to the tremendous destruction, mostly related to the storm surge, I chose to stay a full week documenting the aftermath and helping the community recover.  The damage I observed in the areas around Beach Haven West, Manahawkin, West Creek, Tuckerton, and Mud City, NJ  was very similar to the destruction I witnessed along the west side of Galveston Bay, during my H Ike intercept in 2008.

 

Right now, I am still trying to find time to edit the 7 hours worth of footage I gathered during the H "Sandy" intercept.  When I have completed this task, I will do my best to post some video I captured during this historic event.

 

Thanks for the post, and I hope you have a great rest of the night.

[HurricaneJosh]

Tony, I sense you really dread the editing process, because I notice you're always really backlogged with it.  

 

I hate it, too.  There's something painful about editing-- because editing means axing footage and making hard choices.  But it's a really important part of your life as a chaser-- otherwise, you never get to share your work.

 

One thing that's really helped me:  working with an editing partner.  For each project (i.e., each video about a chase), we give ourselves one weekend to get it done.  During the week before, I go through the footage alone and get a feel for what I want to keep, and I list the time codes for all the clips that are contenders. Then, starting Saturday morning, my partner and I are in the editing room, laying it all onto a timeline and chopping it down to tighten the flow. Although I drive the process and make all final decisions, it really helps just having a second opinion Re: which clips to keep.  More importantly, when you're working with another person, you can't just sit there and obsess-- you have to make decisions and keep the process moving, because there's another person waiting for you.  It's always a grueling process and I hate it, but by Sunday night we're all done and I feel relieved and excited that I have edited product ready to share.

 

This system has really helped me.  I've shot 12 hurricanes since 2005, and I'm 100% up to date on all of my footage-- it's all edited and viewable, and it's not piling up.  I start each season fresh, with no backlogging.

 

Just my two cents!

[Ellinwood]

Tony, I sense you really dread the editing process, because I notice you're always really backlogged with it.  

 

I hate it, too.  There's something painful about editing-- because editing means axing footage and making hard choices.  But it's a really important part of your life as a chaser-- otherwise, you never get to share your work.

 

One thing that's really helped me:  working with an editing partner.  For each project (i.e., each video about a chase), we give ourselves one weekend to get it done.  During the week before, I go through the footage alone and get a feel for what I want to keep, and I list the time codes for all the clips that are contenders. Then, starting Saturday morning, my partner and I are in the editing room, laying it all onto a timeline and chopping it down to tighten the flow. Although I drive the process and make all final decisions, it really helps just having a second opinion Re: which clips to keep.  More importantly, when you're working with another person, you can't just sit there and obsess-- you have to make decisions and keep the process moving, because there's another person waiting for you.  It's always a grueling process and I hate it, but by Sunday night we're all done and I feel relieved and excited that I have edited product ready to share.

 

This system has really helped me.  I've shot 12 hurricanes since 2005, and I'm 100% up to date on all of my footage-- it's all edited and viewable, and it's not piling up.  I start each season fresh, with no backlogging.

 

Just my two cents!

That's a pretty good process. I don't have someone else edit with me since I can usually pick clips fairly well without spending too much time figuring what to cut and what to keep. Like you, I also just dedicate one chunk of time to do all the editing. I shoot a bunch of smaller clips, so instead of grabbing timestamps I just go through which clips had highlight moments and import and cut just those files.

Backlogging is the worst, especially when another event comes along and now you have to dedicate the time for two events instead of one.

[HurricaneJosh]

That's a pretty good process. I don't have someone else edit with me since I can usually pick clips fairly well without spending too much time figuring what to cut and what to keep. Like you, I also just dedicate one chunk of time to do all the editing. I shoot a bunch of smaller clips, so instead of grabbing timestamps I just go through which clips had highlight moments and import and cut just those files.

Backlogging is the worst, especially when another event comes along and now you have to dedicate the time for two events instead of one.

 

That process makes sense.  I sometimes have very long raw clips-- if I'm staying in one place and the wind's really ripping, I'll just let the camera roll for minutes at a time-- whereas my edited videos tend to have short clips, since I liked to keep the "story" moving-- so this means I inevitably need to cut pieces out of larger raw clips.

 

The other person is definitely helpful to me.  The main thing is that he's almost like a cop:  when I start to get bogged down, comparing two similar clips over and over to decide which to keep, he'll just be like, "Come on, dude-- make up your mind," or he'll say, "The second one has a little more energy-- use that one."  I just feel if I were alone, I'd get lost in the details-- my editing partner forces me along.

 

But, yeah, backlogging sucks!  I had that problem in 2008, when I went on a couple of chases (Gustav and Ike) within two weeks of each other.

[ncforecaster89]

Tony, I sense you really dread the editing process, because I notice you're always really backlogged with it.

I hate it, too. There's something painful about editing-- because editing means axing footage and making hard choices. But it's a really important part of your life as a chaser-- otherwise, you never get to share your work.

One thing that's really helped me: working with an editing partner. For each project (i.e., each video about a chase), we give ourselves one weekend to get it done. During the week before, I go through the footage alone and get a feel for what I want to keep, and I list the time codes for all the clips that are contenders. Then, starting Saturday morning, my partner and I are in the editing room, laying it all onto a timeline and chopping it down to tighten the flow. Although I drive the process and make all final decisions, it really helps just having a second opinion Re: which clips to keep. More importantly, when you're working with another person, you can't just sit there and obsess-- you have to make decisions and keep the process moving, because there's another person waiting for you. It's always a grueling process and I hate it, but by Sunday night we're all done and I feel relieved and excited that I have edited product ready to share.

This system has really helped me. I've shot 12 hurricanes since 2005, and I'm 100% up to date on all of my footage-- it's all edited and viewable, and it's not piling up. I start each season fresh, with no backlogging.

Just my two cents!

Hey Josh, I really appreciate you and Ellinwood sharing about the processes you each employ to edit your own chase footage.

You are absolutely correct in suspecting that I don't necessarily enjoy the editing process, myself, for the reasons you articulated in your post. On the other hand, the main detriment to getting this task completed in a timely manner has been some very difficult and time-consuming personal circumstances that have materialized in my own life during the past few years-which have taken precedent over everything else. That said, I am hopeful that these unfortunate circumstances will come to a positive resolution sometime within the new few months.

As you noted, I am extremely backlogged with footage dating back to my very first hurricane chase in August of 2004 (Alex). As time and circumstances permit, I still need to edit footage for each of these hurricanes and strong tropical storms:

a) H Alex '04 (Cedar Island, NC)

** H Charley '04 (Wrightsville Beach, NC)

c) H Jeanne '04 (Daytona Beach, Fl.)

note: This chase was more or less a bust as I left too late to make it far enough south.

d) H Dennis '05 (40 miles inland at the Fl./Al. panhandle border in Escambia county)

e) H Katrina '05 (60 miles inland in South Hattiesburg, MS.)

f) H Ophelia '05 (Carolina Beach/Wrightsville Beach/Morehead City/Atlantic Beach, NC)

g) H Wilma '05 (South Naples/Everglades City, Fl.)

h) TS/H Ernesto '06 (Surf City, NC)

i) TS/H Hanna '08 (Oak Island/Wrightsville Beach, NC)

j) H Ike '08 (Bacliff/W Galveston Bay, TX)

k) H Earl '10 (South Nags Head, NC)

l) H Irene '11 (Morehead City state ports/Atlantic Beach/New Bern, NC)

m) H Sandy '12 (Beach Haven West, NJ)

note: I listed "Sandy" as a H, since it still maintained that classification when I felt the worst effects.

So, right now, I am backlogged a full 13 storms! As I mentioned to Ellinwood, I will do my very best to get some video of my "Sandy" intercept uploaded and posted, as soon as I can reasonably do so. I would be remiss if I didn't note that you did an excellent job putting together a video trailer of our hurricane Wilma intercept from 2005-from the footage you had taken.

Thanks again Josh, for your thoughtful post, and I hope you have a great rest of the day!