Hurricane Dennis Blog

Hurricane Dennis Video Blog Page

7/08/2005 Currently I’m in route to intercept Hurricane Dennis.

7/9/2005 Early Morning. Currently on the coast of Alabama for the night and getting ready to get into position for Hurricane Dennis. Dennis just passed over Cuba and held together while still on its track to slam in to the Gulf Coast of of the United States.

Okay, its not a hurricane chase because you don’t chase them, you intercept them. In Mobile AL with Blake Michaleski and were going to target anywhere from Here to There for the eye wall land fall. For those thinking about coming, Fuel from New Orleans to the east is pretty much gone. We topped off tonight but the first place I topped off at ran out of gas after I paid for gas. When I got into Mobile to top off again, one of the only gas stations I found open that had gas in the area I’m staying in only had the top dollar gas. Most stores are shutting down tomorrow since there is still a big area of where the worst of the storm could hit. The local governments are putting in the mandatory evacuation orders so pretty much only the emergency services, national guard and the media will be on scene. It’s a very good thing that I brought along everything I could need for this chase except water, but I’ll fill up on that later today after I get some sleep.

7/9/2005 9:30 A.M. CST Update.

Hurricane Dennis is still on track for slamming into the AL & FL boarder area of the Gulf Coast. Waiting on the next update from the National Hurricane Center and heading to Pensacola.

7/9/2005 4:50 P.M. CST Update

The first outer band of Hurricane Dennis hit the Pensacola Florida Area this afternoon as people were evacuating and getting last minute fuel supplies at the couple stations that still had fuel.

The National Hurricane Center shows that Hurricane Dennis is still on track for hitting us. We will have to reposition some during the storm due to the fact that the eye of the storm is so small. The National Hurricane Center just upgraded Hurricane Dennis to a Cat 3 Hurricane.

We were out shooting video this afternoon of the outer bands of the hurricane. Click on the video below to watch the raw Hurricane Dennis video of the first bands and evacuation and fuel shortage.

7/9/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video, Stock Footage. Part 1 – Pensacola FL
7/9/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 2, Residents Getting Fuel, Pensacola FL
7/9/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 2, Residents Getting Fuel, Pensacola FL
7/9/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video. Pre Storm Video, Pensacola Beach

Here is some video of the outer bands of Hurricane Dennis moving into Pensacola Beach Florida. I shot some great time lapse hurricane video of the outer band moving into the coastal area along with some final storm prep work and wave footage.

7/9/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video part 5. Clouds and rain moves into Pensacola Beach FL

Here is just the time lapse of this rain band moving in. This really shows the fluid dynamics of the hurricane as they are moving on shore.

7/9/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video, Part 6. Time-lapse Video Pensacola Beach, FL.

We were driving along and looking to top off our fuel as to make sure we had a full tank in the morning when I spotted a fuel truck at a gas station with no cars around. It was topping off their tanks before the storm and not more then a minute or two after we pulled in, people saw we were filling up with fuel and it became a traffic jam of people looking to fill up their tanks and gas cans before the storm.

7/9/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video. Mad Dash For Fuel At Last Gas Station.

7/10/2005 1:50 A.M Hurricane Dennis Video Blog Update.

Were still in Pensacola Florida but Dennis is going to slam into Mobile AL from all data that Blake and I have been looking at. NHC or National Hurricane Center www.nhc.noaa.gov is also showing that storm is about to rape the city of Mobile, so were going to head west in a few hours after a quick nap.

Here are some still photographs of one of the outer bands moving into Pensacola Beach Florida.

7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video From Navarre Beach FL and Gulf Breeze FL

A Sun-Sentinel Photographer caught me out on a pier shooting video of huge waves as the huge waves were smashing into the pier. This photo is copyrighted www.krtdirect.com – Used With Permission.

KRT US NEWS STORY SLUGGED: WEA-DENNIS KRT PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE AMON/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL (MIAMI OUT) (July 9) GULF BREEZE, FL — Doug Kiesling, a freelance photographer from Minnesota, gets video of the crashing waves created by Hurricane Dennis hitting a small pier by the break wall at the causway in Gulf Breeze, Florida, on July 10, 2005. (cdm) 2005

So what was I shooting video of? We were the crew to go out and get the insane footage for The Weather Channel.

7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video From Gulf Breeze Florida.

Here we are in Gulf Breeze Florida as the storm starts to kick up. We were there because we wanted to be able to be mobile if the eye wall shifted east so we could be in the right front quadrant of Hurricane Dennis to shoot video of the most intense winds.

7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 9, Gulf Breeze Florida

After we shot the Hurricane Dennis video in Gulf Breeze, we got it to The Weather Channel fast because the storm was about to slam into us.


Category Three Hurricane Dennis Video From Navarre Beach Florida

Dennis shifted east right before the landfall and the most intense winds hit us in Navarre and Navarre Beach Florida.

7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 10 – Navarre Beach Storm Surge

After not wanting to get stuck in the storm surge, we traveled back across the causeway to ride out the hurricane. The following clips are from the height of the storm.

7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video – Part 11, Hurricane Eye Wall, Navarre, Florida
7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 12, Hurricane Dennis Hits Navarre, Florida
7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 13, In the eye of the Hurricane, Navarre Florida
7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 14, In the eye of the Hurricane, Navarre Florida
7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 15, Driving In The Eye Of Hurricane Dennis
7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 16, Navarre Florida after the eye of the storm

The aftermath of Hurricane Dennis on video. Dennis slammed into the Navarre Florida area and did a lot of damage but not as much as it could have. This video is actually a two part video and includes footage of the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis on Pensacola Beach when we were shown around the area by the sheriffs department.

7/10/2005 Hurricane Dennis Video Part 17, Aftermath from, Navarre Beach to Pensacola, FL

7/11/2005 – After some much needed rest, here are a couple of the better photos that I really liked that pretty much sums it up about how Florida is taking this latest hurricane season…

A house that was destroyed in Hurricane Ivan, now gets hit with Hurricane Dennis. The former owners left a message that tells how they really feel…
A FEMA trailer floats in a spot that was once a home for some residents. Their home was destroyed in Hurricane Ivan. Now there temporary home, the FEMA Trailer, is destroyed in Hurricane Dennis.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I’m back home in Minnesota.

Yes, today is 7/11/2005 and I am back home in Minnesota less then 24 hour’s after intercepting a major hurricane. How did I do it? Oh I’m Good!!! After Blake and I shot the last of the footage in Navarre and then fed the footage off to the networks, all of the networks, the networks were now sending in their own crews to cover the aftermath. So we were not needed anymore.

We headed back to our hotel on the northwest side of Pensacola to find it was without power and I told Blake to call home and see how Mobile Alabama was after Dennis hit the coast. We found out that nothing happened in Mobile so we packed up our stuff and checked out of the hotel and headed west.

We made it back to Blake’s place about 90 minutes later and we started to clean out the truck and get ready to call it a night. Well, I had an idea and I called the airline to see if they could put me on the first flight out since I was stuck in the hurricane zone. Sure enough, they said they could put me on the first flight out of New Orleans and have be back home by Noon.

So now I sit in the comforts of home in Minnesota and I’m watching the footage shot less then hours before in the middle of a disaster, on The Weather Channel.

Damn my life is crazy but I’m never bored.

Here is the Radar loop of the storm.

Hurricane Dennis Radar Video Archive, July 2005