2008 DVD now on YouTube

[hurricanetrack]

Hello - Happy New Year. Just wanted to let you all know that I have posted our 2008 DVD, in its entirety, on our YouTube channel. It features all of the landfalling events that Jesse Bass, Mike Watkins and myself encountered, including the devastating hurricane Ike in Texas. Hope you enjoy!

Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16HG_S6OCU

Part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeFCrE6Ipio

[Macrocane]

It's a great video, I've only watched part 1 but tomorrow I will watch the other part. I've noticed just one mistake, that in the description of the video it says that Cristobal is covered but actually it's Hurricane Dolly.

[hurricanetrack]

The very begining to the program is about TS Cristobal on the NC Outer Banks. Believe me, it was nothing to write home about, but we were there and got to literally dust off the equipment at least. Watch part one again, it's at the beginning with the wind tower shots, the Tahoe and the Trailer. Thanks for watching by the way. Part two is some of our best work to date.

[Macrocane]

I've watched Part 2 today and it's an excelent video, congratulations! And about Part 1 I think I need to pay more attention

[JtSmarts]

Just wanted to say that the DVD was excellent and I've been watching your web videos since Alex in 2004. Still waiting to buy the 2004 and 2005 DVDs when I have some extra money to burn.

[hurricanetrack]

Thank you for the compliments. I am going to put the 2004 and 2005 DVDs on to YouTube shortly. They actually generate revenue there which is nice. I will always have them available on DVD for people who want their own personal copy but I love it that I can share our work to many more people on YouTube. Now- let's see what, if any, projects we have for this hurricane season. Time will tell.

[Aquawind]

Thanks for sharing!

[hurricanetrack]

You bet, I have a feeling that it will be continued this season after having 2009 "off".

[Johnny]

I'd have to agree with you...Part 2 was down right awesome! I only watched 45 minutes (fixing to watch the rest) of it last night with the family but man, that is hands down the best footage I have seen of Ike. The sound of the wind cutting throug the cracks of the hotel was pretty darn eery wasn't it?

I remember Ike like it was yesterday. I live just north of Houston in the Conroe area and we got hit HARD. Trees down as far as the eye could see all up and down the road I live on. Their's nothing like the humming of a generator to put you to sleep at night.



It looks like y'all could be very busy this coming up season. Remember, their is no sleep for the weary.

[hurricanetrack]

Johnny- the sound was so out of this world! I wish we had recorded it with some kind of HD sound recorder like Ben Burtt uses for Star Wars stuff. What does NOT translate to video at all is the shaking of the building. When a monster gust would hit, the entire building would shudder and sway some. You could feel it - like an earthquake. Imagine THAT much energy exerted on a building the size of the San Luis. Now- imagine what a truly intense, 150 mph hurricane would be like there! No thanks. Pass.

I appreciate the compliments- both Mike Watkins and I both. Please feel free to pass around the link to the video to anyone you wish. That is why we put it on YouTube.

As for this year- we are ready. It could be long, we are about to find out.

[SETXWXLADY]

Good Ike footage. Where you were for Rita got the offshore winds. But she did to SW LA what Ike did to Bolivar. And her wind damage in both states was insane. There also wasn't an out pouring of sympathy or interest following Rita either. Must be something about Texas. Like Rita I evacuated for Ike and the empty roads gave me a sad feeling. Because I knew what those empty roads meant. The footage at the Hotel was great! The best argument I've seen yet that vertical evacuation is a bad idea. For some reason we always get the night crawlers come through here. I know it was frustrating for you filming. But it's also frustrating not knowing what the he.. went on. But I'm not curious enough to stick around in person to find out. The aftermath is bad enough. Great footage. And please don't take offense when I say I hope you're no where around here come this summer.

[hurricanetrack]

I am going to post my Rita video on YouTube next week. That was an incredible experience for me on so many levels. I will probably write up a blog post about it when I upload the video. So much goes on behind the scenes that no video could ever capture. I was very lucky with Rita as I was by myself. Not a good idea, ever. More on that next week.

Thanks for all of the feedback. Glad people find value in this kind of work.

[Javlin]

To be honest Mark I have not watched a full video of Katrina till today(I liked it and informative).Oh I watched little clips here and there but how many memories were swept away in that one day when I saw some of the landmarks..

[SETXWXLADY]

I am going to post my Rita video on YouTube next week. That was an incredible experience for me on so many levels. I will probably write up a blog post about it when I upload the video. So much goes on behind the scenes that no video could ever capture. I was very lucky with Rita as I was by myself. Not a good idea, ever. More on that next week.

Thanks for all of the feedback. Glad people find value in this kind of work.

Looking forward to your Rita video and blog. And yes there is a lot of value in your work. As you stated in your film if you could get a landfalling hurricane on video we could probably all learn something. However, it's not important enough for you to sit through another Rita alone or otherwise. I'm glad you made it through ok. Hopefully you'll be able to set up your equipment and leave town next time.

[Johnny]

Just got through watching your Hurricane Charley video with my son. Dude, that was INTENSE on so many levels! Insane footage but I bet you won't be putting yourself in the eye of a cat. 4 anytime soon huh?

[hurricanetrack]

Nope- after Charley, we decided to move ahead with the idea of coming up with a remote camera system to record intense hurricanes at point blank range. Max Mayfield strongly encouraged this- as you could imagine. By the time we got to Frances and then Ivan, we had a prototype system in place using our old Isuzu Rodeo as an un-manned recording platform. Ivan destroyed it, as planned. (Both Frances and Ivan are on our YT channel).

Then, in 2005, we figured out how to use Storm Cases (water tight military style cases) to house the laptop, battery, etc. needed to do this more efficiently (cannot keep putting vehicles out there). First tried it during Dennis in FL. Then, went public with it for Katrina and the rest is history. Have captured some incredible footage, mainly of storm surge and signs blowing down, etc. with the remote cams. It's only a matter of time until we get the Holy Grail shot of an entire hurricane landfall event from a fixed camera location- in the day time. We might get that chance this year. Then, using time lapse, as we do so often, we can speed up the event and look for patterns as to HOW the damage happened. Then, if we can match this video data up with wind tower data from our own 5 meter tower, plus the towers deployed by universities, we can begin to piece together the science behind the devastation. And of course, we document all of this and stream it live as it is happening- technology is absolutely amazing! Bottom line, our system now keeps us safer than ever!

[MGC]

How many of the cases did you recover from Katrina? Did it yield any data of value?.......MGC