Harrowing Hurricane Michael 911 Calls Tell Us Why To Evacuate In Hurricanes

LeClaire Bryan, in red shirt, mother of country singer Luke Bryan, is
overwhelmed after seeing her home, wrecked by Hurricane Michael
last October. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Atlantic hurricane season got off to its official start on Saturday, June 1. Already, we've had brief Subtropical Storm Andrea, and there is some sort of tropical system trying to bubble up off the southern Mexican coast.

Despite all the predictions, we can't tell for sure how this hurricane season will play out. After the 2017 and 2018 seasons, we can only hope this year is a dud. That's only hope, though.

To give you a preview of how harrowing these hurricanes are, the Tampa Bay Times put out an article and released audio of 911 calls at the height of Hurricane Michael last October in the Florida panhandle.  

They're hard to read and even harder to listen to. But you ought to, as they give you a very good motivation to do what meteorologists and emergency managers tell you to do in a weather emergency, be it a hurricane, tornado, flood, winter storm, or whatever other bad stuff comes our way.

You can listen to some parts of the calls in the videos at the bottom of this post, but even the text is scary. People were calling 911, but no paramedics, no ambulance, no firefighters, no police could come to the rescue. The winds were too relentless, too powerful, too dangerous.

Says the Tampa Bay Times:

"A man stuck in a collapsing trailer begged for help. 'Please come get me, ma'am.'  The dispatcher broke down, sobbing. A colleague took over for her. 'Sweetie, I would come and get you right now if I could, I swear. I need you to just stay with me.'"

The man later cries out, "Oh my God, help me please!"  The dispatchers could do nothing but urge him to find a (probably nonexistent) interior room in the trailer.

Another 911 caller said, "There's 10 of us in here and the roof's gone."  The dispatcher could only tell the to move into an interior space near a load bearing wall. The dispatcher said the calm eye of the storm would move over the caller's location in minutes, but the 10 people had to stay put anyway. There was no time to flee to another shelter before the winds came roaring back.

Another caller was outside, in the terrible storm, on the phone tellling dispatchers a man - his neighbor - had collapsed. He didn't think he was breathing.  Didn't know if the man's heart was still beating. Dispatchers tried to coach the caller with CPR and mouth to mouth resuscitation.  The caller tried.

We later learn the man who collapsed didn't make it.  The 911 caller who tried to help the dying man survived.

It's unclear what happened to the man in the collapsed trailer, or the ten people in the roofless house.

All this is to say: Even if the storm doesn't look bad on paper, that you think you'll be fine, do what the weather people and the emergency workers tell you. If they told you to leave, do it.   If they tell you to hunker down, do it. If they tell you to hide in the basement, do it. If they tell you the roads are too dangerous to drive on, stay home.

The hardest part of all this to take is reading the comments section of the Tampa Bay Times article. As many commenters pointed out, lots of people don't have the money or the means to evacuate. So they hunker down and pray for the best. I wish we were better at making all socio-economic classes safe in emergencies.

Here are some of the audio tapes. They should all scare you straight. Remember them the  next time you face a weather emergency, be it a hurricane or anything else.

The first one is the man in the collapsing trailer, and the sobbing dispatcher and the rising panic in the man's voice, as the trailer blows away and he's out in the storm. I wish I knew what happened to him. Listen:



This next one is the 10 people in the roofless house. The caller asks if they can make a run for it when the eye comes. Should they try piling into a four-wheel drive vehicle and go somewhere?   The dispatcher adamantly (and correctly) urges them to stay put in an interior room, even though the roof is goine. Load bearing walls would help. Still sounds awfully scary, though:



Finally, this one is the caller trying to help the dying man with coaching from 911 dispatchers:

Some Severe Weather Today; Atlantic Tropics Bubbling

Brief funnel cloud over Potsdam, New York Friday during
a severe thunderstorm. Via Richard O'Hanlon on Twitter.

The theme of today's post is "As Expected."
Up here in New England, a cold front is coming in today, as expected. 

And, as expected, there is a chance of some severe thunderstorms, though I don't think they will be widespread.

There were scattered severe thunderstorms in New York State yesterday, but nothing major in Vermont. That was also pretty much as expected.

The timing of the cold front is such that the best chance of strong to locally severe thunderstorms this afternoon is from the Green Mountains east, and in southern New England. This is in line with what forecasters were thinking yesterday. So yes, as expected.

By the way, this won't be a mega-outbreak of severe weather. There will probably be just a few reports. Most of you who actually get a thunderstorm won't get anything too traumatic. And I'm sure several places won't get thunder at all.

We'll clear up tonight, and Sunday is going to be largely sunny and cool-ish.

Meanwhile, hurricane enthusiasts are watching the tropical Atlantic Ocean, as things seem to be coming to life there. It's August, and tropical storm chances usually ramp up about now. So yeah, say it with me: As expected.

They're watching two areas: One in the central Caribbean, the other way out over the eastern Atlantic.

Nobody is really sure if either of these two systems will develop into a tropical storm or hurricane. If they do, nobody is sure whether they will hit land anywhere. That - ugh, is to be expected. You usually can't tell what a wannabe tropical storm will do before it develops.

So ignore those people on line who take one of dozens of forecasting models, an outlier, that shows one of these things developing into a monster hurricane hitting the U.S.  That's just clickbait. People trying to get attention and possibly money.

Don't worry about either wannabe tropical system unless and until the National Hurricane Center gets a handle on how they will develop and where they will go. They'll issue warnings and alerts if need be.

Tropical Trouble: The Latest On A Now Busy Atlantic Hurricane Season

Tropical Depression Fiona looked, well, depressing
Tuesday morning, taking the form of just a few
thunderstorms over the open Atlantic. 

Yesterday, I noted how we shouldn't trust long range forecasts for tropical storms and hurricanes because a lot can change.

Of course I stand by that, but since there is a lot of activity in the Atlantic Ocean right now, I should give an update.

FIONA:

Tropical Storm Fiona weakened to a tropical depression yesterday and was still barely hanging on as a depression as of early this morning, says the National Hurricane Center.

Strong upper level winds keep tearing apart any efforts by Fiona to generate new thunderstorms, and dry air surrounding the storm - if you can really call it a storm.

The strong upper level winds are going to weaken, says the NHC, which might suggest Fiona would want to make something of a comeback. But it's still going to be embedded in dry air, which would make regeneration that much harder.

Fiona is headed toward the northwest, and theoretically it could reach North Carolina eventually,  but at this point at least, it doesn't look like it will turn into much of anything.

Unlike, say Tropical Storm Gaston

GASTON

Tropical Storm Gaston didn't look like a classic
hurricane yet Tuesday morning, but you can see
it has lots of vigorous thunderstorms and it
is spinning up pretty well.  

Ever since it emerged off the African coast the other day, what would become Tropical Storm Gaston looked like it really had a future and still does.

Gaston has been developing rapidly, and looks great on satellite imagery.

 By great I mean well organized. And it's already trying to develop an eye, which is impressive since the storm was still a 50 mph tropical storm Tuesday morning.

The bad news is Gaston looks like it has the potential at least to grow into a powerful hurricane. The good news at this point is it looks like, at least for now, Gaston is going to avoid hitting land.

Gaston wants to head toward the northwest, into the middle of the open Atlantic Ocean.  Given the uncertainly of long range forecasts, there's a slight chance it could slightly impact New England or maybe more so eastern Canada eventually, but that's a long shot. Don't hold your breath on this one, especially you New Englanders.

I won't hazard a guess on whether Gaston will have any effect on North America or not. But the southeast coast, and the islands in the Caribbean are safe from Gaston, I'm pretty sure of that.

Unlike something else brewing down in the Atlantic.

NO-NAME DISTURBANCE

There's a disorganized area of showers and thunderstorms heading westward toward the Leeward Islands. This is the disturbance that's generating all the Internet clickbait.

That's because a few models have this thing growing into a hurricane that would hit somewhere in the southeastern United States.

This big patch of thunderstorms heading westbound
toward the Leeward Islands could develop
into a tropical storm later this week.  

Don't count on that. Especially not yet. It's still highly uncertain how big this disturbance will get and where it will head.

Right now, the National Hurricane Center says environmental conditions are good enough so that it might slowly develop into a tropical depression or tropical storm in the next few days.

It's heading in a direction such that regardless of how strong it gets, it has a good shot of dumping heavy rain and possible flash floods on the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

From there, what could become a tropical storm or even hurricane might threaten the Bahamas or the southeastern United States in a week or so.

Again, that's not a promise or a guarantee. It could move harmelessly out to sea, or not develop much or do any number of things. It's just something to keep an eye on, in case it does become a threat to the United States

Yet ANOTHER Early Tropical Storm Might Form

That patch of clouds in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico
on Sunday could become Tropical Storm Danielle 

UPDATE Mon. Morning:

This disturbance did indeed strengthen to Tropical Storm Danielle early this morning.

As I noted Sunday, this is the earliest the fourth tropical storm of the year has formed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Danielle remains weak and disorganized. Top sustained winds are 40 mph, making it barely tropical storm strength.

It'll move inland today and then dissipate, causing some flash flooding in parts of Mexico in the process.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

There's an area of disturbed weather in the Bay of Campeche, off Mexico's east coast that could become a tropical storm by Monday.

If it does become a tropical storm, it will easily be the earliest on record the fourth tropical storm of the year formed in the Atlantic Basin. If it becomes a tropical storm, they'll name it Danielle.

The would-be tropical storm was an area of showers and thunderstorms in the far western Gulf of Mexico Sunday afternoon.

The storms were slowly becoming more organized, and the National Hurricane Center gave it an 80 percent chance of becoming at least a tropical depression.

A tropical depression is a weak version of a tropical storm, and are not given names. If sustained winds with this thing go up to 39 mph or more, it'll become Tropical Storm Danielle.

Wannabe Danielle doesn't have much time to strengthen before it makes landfall in Mexico Monday. Once it comes ashore, it'll dissipate, but not before dropping heavy rains that could lead to flash floods.

The chances of wannabe Danielle reaching hurricane strength -75 mph winds - is almost nil.  This storm will also not affect weather in the United States to any great extent.

Just because the start of the Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season has been very busy doesn't necessarily mean this will be a blockbuster year for such storms.

The National Hurricane Center is predicting an average year for hurricanes and tropical storms. El Nino, which tends to suppress Atlantic tropical storm activity is dead, and probably will be replaced by La Nina.

La Nina is a cool patch of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean that influences weather patterns and can make Atlantic Ocean tropical storms and hurricanes more likely. But again, we're not looking at an extreme year.

Still, it only takes one powerhouse of a hurricane hitting the United States to cause an epic disaster.

We've gone a record number of years without a major hurricane striking the U.S. coast, so we're way overdue.

A major hurricane is one with sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

Plus, it doesn't take a major hurricane to cause epic damage.  Superstorm Sandy in 2012 was transitioning into a non-tropical storm, but caused an immense disaster along the East Coast.

In 2011, Hurricane Irene became a tropical storm with winds dropping below 75 mph soon after landfall on the East Coast, but still caused record flooding and lots of deaths in New York and Vermont.

Danielle won't be much of a threat to the United States, but we still need to keep an eye out for dangerous tropical storms and hurricanes, especially as the hurricane season ramps up in August and September.