Hurricane Irene In Myrtle Beach
Huricane Irene left millions without power, billions of dollars in damage, and more than 25 people dead as she churned up the east coast of the United States. While the Myrtle beach area was spared as the most powerful part of the storm stayed around 100 miles off shore, Irene still had some impacts on the area.
It was quite an eventful week to say the least, between the meetings to discuss how our news station would handle the hurricane to getting personally prepared to face to the worst, everything revolved around Irene. At the beginning of the week, it appeared that the South Carolina coast may take a direct hit from a major hurricane, prompting people ( including myself) to start getting supplies and thinking about boarding up. Once Wednesday came around, it seemed almost certain that the Myrtle Beach area would be spared the worst while Irene was poised to make landfall in eastern North Carolina. Thursday evening ,the entire Grand Strand was placed under a Tropical Storm Warning as Irene moved closer. Friday morning I packed some food and clothes as I knew I likely wouldn’t be back home until sometime on Saturday. The first bands of Irene came ashore around noon on Friday and of course I went straight to the beach to check it out. At around 2:30 in the afternoon I arrived at work to find out engineers boarding up our windows. It was non-stop Irene coverage from there on out as tropical storm force winds howled outside the studio. At around 11 that night, I took out the WMBF Storm Chaser and headed down to Ocean Boulavard. By this time, sustained winds were in the high 30s while I began to record gusts in the 50s with the highest being 60 mph. I saw transformers blowing as the wind speeds picked up so I took off in the direction of the flashes. I quickly realized that there were quite a few downed trees in the area along with tree limbs all over the roads. I later headed back to the station with video and reports on the road conditions. The next morning, I again headed out in the Storm Chaser to relay road conditions back to the station and out to our viewers. By that time, most of the large debris had been cleared and we even began seeing a few peaks of sunshine. The Myrtle Beach area saw over 12 hours of tropical storm force winds and nearly 20 hours of persistant rain bands from Hurricane Irene.
It was quite an eventful week to say the least, between the meetings to discuss how our news station would handle the hurricane to getting personally prepared to face to the worst, everything revolved around Irene. At the beginning of the week, it appeared that the South Carolina coast may take a direct hit from a major hurricane, prompting people ( including myself) to start getting supplies and thinking about boarding up. Once Wednesday came around, it seemed almost certain that the Myrtle Beach area would be spared the worst while Irene was poised to make landfall in eastern North Carolina. Thursday evening ,the entire Grand Strand was placed under a Tropical Storm Warning as Irene moved closer. Friday morning I packed some food and clothes as I knew I likely wouldn’t be back home until sometime on Saturday. The first bands of Irene came ashore around noon on Friday and of course I went straight to the beach to check it out. At around 2:30 in the afternoon I arrived at work to find out engineers boarding up our windows. It was non-stop Irene coverage from there on out as tropical storm force winds howled outside the studio. At around 11 that night, I took out the WMBF Storm Chaser and headed down to Ocean Boulavard. By this time, sustained winds were in the high 30s while I began to record gusts in the 50s with the highest being 60 mph. I saw transformers blowing as the wind speeds picked up so I took off in the direction of the flashes. I quickly realized that there were quite a few downed trees in the area along with tree limbs all over the roads. I later headed back to the station with video and reports on the road conditions. The next morning, I again headed out in the Storm Chaser to relay road conditions back to the station and out to our viewers. By that time, most of the large debris had been cleared and we even began seeing a few peaks of sunshine. The Myrtle Beach area saw over 12 hours of tropical storm force winds and nearly 20 hours of persistant rain bands from Hurricane Irene.
One Hail of a Day: May 10, 2011
Conditions were once again prime for severe weather, especially for a widespread large hail event. As the day went on, large, damaging hail seemed like a good bet so the Storm Team decided it was time to send out the WMBF Storm Chaser.
Around 2:30 in the afternoon, I packed up the Storm Chaser with our laptop equipped with advanced radar ( GR-Level 3 for any fellow weather geeks), GPS system, and our sometimes trusty webcam. I headed west towards Florence to wait for the storms to start firing.
By 4 in the afternoon, the atmosphere had become very unstable so we knew it was only a matter of time before things got going, and we were right. I parked just west of Florence and kept an eye on the radar, watching growing storm clouds to my east. At 4:15 PM, WMBF Storm Team Doppler radar indicated just one lightning strike in the Florence area. By 4:30 PM, a severe thunderstorm warning was posted for a supercell producing large hail and damaging winds on the same storm.
Keep in mind, this is around the same time that the supercell in Horry County went tornado warned so Jessica and Rob also hit the road just north of Myrtle Beach to see what conditions were like in the path of this one. They got in touch with me as we were both trying to coordinate the best place for us to get information back to the Storm Center and out to our viewers.
I started driving south toward the Pamplico area to get ahead of the storm, watching the radar as the hail core became more and more intense ( of course this is when I lost internet service, hence the lack of webcam footage). I came to Highway 378 between Johnsonville and Lake City and pulled into a gas station, figuring this would be the best and safest place to be. The wind and lightning picked up in intensity and before I knew it, the hail started pouring down. It started out at around pea-size, then quickly grew to quarter and even golf ball-sized as I pulled out my camera to start filming.
Not wanting to damage our nearly brand new Storm Chaser, I backed up under the cover at the gas station to join other motorists who had also made the wise decision to seek shelter. A few minutes passed by and the storm moved on. I stepped out of my protective shell and took some pictures of the ground now covered in hail.
Next, I decided to head west where I was once again forced to pull over as another cell had developed leaving me with more quarter-sized hail. I called into the Storm Center where Jamie and Marla advised me to head towards Conway where they were experiencing hail up to the size of baseballs.
I arrived well after the storm had passed but tennis ball-sized hail was still widespread on the ground. I spoke with some residents there who had received extensive damage to their cars and even some damage to their homes. I then headed back to WMBF with video, pictures, and reports from residents.
Overall it was a very eventful day and I want thank everyone in the affected areas who were willing to share their stories with me.
Around 2:30 in the afternoon, I packed up the Storm Chaser with our laptop equipped with advanced radar ( GR-Level 3 for any fellow weather geeks), GPS system, and our sometimes trusty webcam. I headed west towards Florence to wait for the storms to start firing.
By 4 in the afternoon, the atmosphere had become very unstable so we knew it was only a matter of time before things got going, and we were right. I parked just west of Florence and kept an eye on the radar, watching growing storm clouds to my east. At 4:15 PM, WMBF Storm Team Doppler radar indicated just one lightning strike in the Florence area. By 4:30 PM, a severe thunderstorm warning was posted for a supercell producing large hail and damaging winds on the same storm.
Keep in mind, this is around the same time that the supercell in Horry County went tornado warned so Jessica and Rob also hit the road just north of Myrtle Beach to see what conditions were like in the path of this one. They got in touch with me as we were both trying to coordinate the best place for us to get information back to the Storm Center and out to our viewers.
I started driving south toward the Pamplico area to get ahead of the storm, watching the radar as the hail core became more and more intense ( of course this is when I lost internet service, hence the lack of webcam footage). I came to Highway 378 between Johnsonville and Lake City and pulled into a gas station, figuring this would be the best and safest place to be. The wind and lightning picked up in intensity and before I knew it, the hail started pouring down. It started out at around pea-size, then quickly grew to quarter and even golf ball-sized as I pulled out my camera to start filming.
Not wanting to damage our nearly brand new Storm Chaser, I backed up under the cover at the gas station to join other motorists who had also made the wise decision to seek shelter. A few minutes passed by and the storm moved on. I stepped out of my protective shell and took some pictures of the ground now covered in hail.
Next, I decided to head west where I was once again forced to pull over as another cell had developed leaving me with more quarter-sized hail. I called into the Storm Center where Jamie and Marla advised me to head towards Conway where they were experiencing hail up to the size of baseballs.
I arrived well after the storm had passed but tennis ball-sized hail was still widespread on the ground. I spoke with some residents there who had received extensive damage to their cars and even some damage to their homes. I then headed back to WMBF with video, pictures, and reports from residents.
Overall it was a very eventful day and I want thank everyone in the affected areas who were willing to share their stories with me.