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Bill Kamal, at WSVN-Fox 7, worked 145 hours in eight consecutive days for Frances and went on the air more than 300 times.

Miami Herald
Hurricane season floods weathermen with fatigue

TV FORECASTERS

Hurricane season floods weathermen with fatigue

For television meteorologists, a busy hurricane season is a love-hate thing. It’s their time to shine, but there’s little time to eat or sleep.

BY DANIEL de VISE AND JAY WEAVER

ddevise@herald.com

Bryan Norcross pumped two bursts of analgesic spray into his mouth as the news-station theme music swelled and the 5 o’clock advisory, his moment, arrived.

”This is a whole different animal than Hurricane Frances,” he said, gravely, to those souls who had ignored the evacuation orders. “This is the time, right this very second, while there’s still an opportunity, to climb into your cars and head to the mainland.”’

Television meteorologists in Florida have never, in careers that span 20 and 30 years, worked such a hurricane season.

Norcross, at WFOR-CBS4, slept on the general manager’s couch in the West Miami-Dade offices of his station for two nights during Hurricane Frances. He expected to spend the night for Jeanne, as well. He nurses his shredded vocal cords — they never really recovered after Hurricane Andrew — with rotating doses of spring water, lemon herb tea and Chloraseptic.

Bill Kamal, at WSVN-Fox 7, worked 145 hours in eight consecutive days for Frances and went on the air more than 300 times.

Amy Sweezey, at the NBC affiliate WESH in Orlando, covered Jeanne up until Wednesday and then reported to the hospital Thursday night to have a baby.

‘Somebody said to me, `Boy, you must really be stressed,’ ” said Dave Marsh, dean of the weather staff at WESH. “I don’t have any stress left.”

HIGHS AND LOWS

Meteorologists are both elated and exhausted by a good hurricane season. When a hurricane nears, news directors give them the run of the station and viewers hang on their every word. But the hours, and the strain of relentless news cycles, inevitably catch up with them.

”When the storm hits, I crash, because that’s when my work is done,” said Kamal, who added: “News is news after it happens, weather is news before it happens.”

Norcross, at CBS4, opened one Saturday afternoon segment with a breathless commentary on a slight northward nudge in Jeanne’s path. Then he was scrawling, John Madden-like, on a radar image, scribbling blunt arrows to show the storm’s possible tracks. Then he was questioning Max Mayfield, at the Hurricane Center, on a giant video screen.

”It is going to happen, and really go downhill here, in the next hour or two,” he said.

Norcross became a celebrity after Andrew because of his calm bedside manner with families trapped in their crumbling South Dade homes.

The letters and phone calls — and, now, e-mails — pour in again this summer. Viewers thank him for the forecasts and urge him to put some honey in the lemon tea.

Norcross has two children in New Hampshire and a father in New Jersey, and he normally visits all of them once a month. This summer, he has missed two months straight.

He arrived for work at 10 a.m. Saturday and planned to spend the night.

”The main thing to do is find a quiet room that has carpet on the floor,” he said. “I just put some pillow down.”

Craig Setzer, another WFOR meteorologist, moved from a remote house to an apartment near the office after Frances, mostly to be closer to work.

LONG WORK WEEKS

”The last 10 weekends, I’ve had two weekends off,” he said.

With Jeanne, he hoped for the best. His forecast: “It’s not going to be a change-of-clothes type of storm. You keep the deodorant in the drawer, just in case.”

While Marsh headed for work at the Orlando station, his wife went to stay with their grown daughter in Plantation in advance of Jeanne so that the two could keep each other company. Marsh reported for work after 3 p.m. Saturday for a marathon session.

”I plan on working, well, the rest of the night till late tomorrow, tomorrow night, without a break,” he said. “If there’s one good thing about Jeanne, it’s moving right along. Frances, you just wanted to kick it in the butt and get it moving.”

At WPLG-ABC 10, chief meteorologist Don Noe has ”a little area where he camps,” said Bill Pohovey, news director. ”He’s got himself a couch and a shower.” He and fellow meteorologist Trent Aric ”kind of take turns sleeping and performing,” Pohovey said.

”I’ve been through several hurricane scares — certainly nothing like this year,” said Noe, who has been able to take some breaks because of backup from Aric. “The fatigue factor is there.”

But it will all be over soon. Right?

Norcross, marshaling more statistics, points out that the season is a couple months from over. “And the most likely month to have a hurricane, historically, is October.”