When severe weather breaks, we fix it

OK, so everyone in the business knows the term "weather woodie." But, for those of you not in this wild world we call broadcast journalism, (you know, TV) I'll tell you what a weather woodie is. OK, for the adults, you know what a woodie is. Well, meteorologists get one when the weather heats up.

We had a severe case of weather woodies popping up today as the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy came through our area. I was dispatched with my running mate, Brent Campbell to "DRIVE TO YADKIN COUNTY! THERE'S A TORNADO WARNING!" as soon as I walked in the door shortly after nine in the A-M. After a quick glance at my own favorite weather website, www.wunderground.com, I predicted we'd be WAY behind the storm if we went to Yadkinville in the middle of the county. So up highway 67 to get more "into" the storm around the northern county town of Boonville. No luck, storm gone and nothing to show for it.

So, on up highway 601 towards Dobson and Mount Airy, Andy Griffith's hometown and the model for Mayberry. I digress. Once in Mount Airy we hook up with John Shelton, the nicest, most media friendly EMS Director in the Piedmont. The Surry County Director showed us around their Emergency Dispatch Vehicles and the command post where they track storms and flood potentials. While we're there we spot a storm headed our way from the south. Brent and I both look at each other and say, "see ya later guys, we've got a storm to catch."

On the way down I-77 we see the rain pick up in intensity and recall what we'd just heard from Shelton's assisant Tony, who watches the storms on his computer. He described how you'll face light rain, heavy rain, then small hail. Finally, if you see large hail you'd better get out of that oversized billboard known as a live truck and get in a ditch because a tornado is probably not far behind. We figured we better save the truck and find a good spot to watch and listen to the scanner for info. So while shooting some video of the rain coming in sheets and the winds going from fierce to quite calm we start hearing scanner chatter talking about a possible tornado coming through Dobson. We just happened to be sitting about 3 miles west of Dobson. Then a voice comes through the scanner saying there was rotation over the Citgo. Ummmmm, one thing. WHICH CITGO?!?! We're sitting at a CITGO! And while the sky did do some funky things, we never saw any rotation over our heads.

So, now that the storm looks to have moved of to our north and east, and we confirm this with some in the newsroom watching the radar and listening to the non-stop coverage from our team of meteorologists (well, today it was pretty much Emily Byrd as the rest of the "team" was on vacation) we decide to drive in behind it again to see if there's any damage. We hear some chatter about something on Redbrush Road in Mount Airy and decided to head that way. On the way there we hear Shelton's voice come through stating that he can see roation looking to touchdown. He then states something that I'll never forget, "the rotation is coming down on South Franklin at Bleumont." One problem, we're driving on South Franklin. Where? No lie, we look at the next cross street and you guessed it, Bleumont! I yelled at Brent, "we're in it!" After driving a few more blocks and turning around to see this horrific event take place in front of our eyes, we see nothing. It seems the rotation never made it to the ground.

Something did make it to the ground in our home county of Forsyth. While we don't know if it was straightline winds or a tornado ther was significant damage in northwestern Winston-Salem. Many trees came down on houses and power lines. Unfortunately, there are still close to 10,000 homes without electricity. Fortunately however, no reports of injuries.

So, that's what it was like in the day of a weather woodie. Now we'll just sit back and wait until Dennis comes through this weekend.