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The Role of Our Local Meteorologists
By ROD WALLINE

The last time a major hurricane made its way directly over Brazos County, John F. Kennedy was president, Dan Rather was a fledgling reporter in Galveston and our local meteorologist, Bob French, was in elementary school. Times have certainly changed since September 1961 and so has the threat from large storms.

Bob French, Chief Meteorologist for the Severe Weather Team at KBTX, along with Mark Edwards, Rodney Harris and Blake Mathews, deliver quality weather reports to ensure the safety of the community during severe weather.

French’s earliest memory of a severe storm and playing weatherman was his witnessing of hurricane Audrey in 1957 in Beaumont, Texas. “I remember seeing houses washed away from the storm and cows floating around. I was just a kid,” recalls French.

In high school, although French was a talented musician studying both piano and guitar, it was his senior math teacher that helped him realize he also had a knack for predicting the weather when the teacher asked French to draw a weather map and predict Hurricane Edith’s path. That experience ultimately directed him towards a career in meteorology.

French began studying weather at Texas A&M University and finished his education at Lamar University in Beaumont. In 1990, French returned to the Bryan/College Station area with his family to work with the Severe Weather Team at KBTX.

French’s role at KBTX as Chief Meteorologist also to serves to mentor those learning the trade. “I stay young because I hang with people like Rodney Harris,” says French of the 22 year old weather anchor. Over the years, French has mentored more than fifty university students.

Staying young also means keeping up with state-of-the-art weather technology. KBTX will soon roll out a new system called “Weather Central 3D Live” which will allow KBTX to get severe weather information out even faster and with more exciting predictive capabilities than ever before. The system will provide 3D computer modeling that coordinates pressure and wind field data graphically with other unique real-time content and cutting edge mapping tools specific to the community and surrounding areas.

Meteorologist do not just predict weather patterns. French emphasizes the importance for a meteorologist on air is to remind people of the persisting dangers after a severe storm; Lightning strikes continue, downed power lines on the ground can still be live, snakes and other animals may enter neighborhoods and homes for refuge, and creeks and rivers flood beyond their normal capacity. “People should stay completely away from the banks of streams because the muddy surface is very slippery which may cause a person to fall into a dangerous flow of water,” recommends French. Often tragedy strikes two or more persons at a time because when an person becomes at risk, other heroic individuals, not capable of safely offering help, may also become victims.

French also stresses that when severe weather hits or threatens, people need to stock up on non-perishable items like canned or dried foods, powdered milk, canned drinks, paper products and batteries to last a day or two leaving enough for others in the community. In an event of an extended power failure, the perishables will go to waste anyway due to lack of refrigeration.

Water sources can also be at risk so having at least 5 gallons of drinking water for a family of 4 is a good idea. French recommends filling a clean bath tub with water for cleaning purposes and to save drinking water for drinking. It is also very important to use flashlights and not candles. In almost every major storm there are at least one or two house fires that result from a candle during a power outage.

The hurricane that formed some of French’s earliest memories also caused about 1 billion dollars in damages [adjusted to 2005 dollars] and 419 fatalities. Just a few years later, another category 4 hurricane, Carla, hit the Texas coast but then tracked right into the Brazos Valley causing the evacuation of over 500,000 people and over 2 billion dollars worth of damage [adjusted to 2005 dollars]. With damaging winds reaching as far as Dallas, a 22ft high storm surge just off-shore and 26 landfall tornadoes, Hurricane Carla was one of the most intense storms ever to hit Texas. Surprisingly, few people lost their lives relative to the size of the area and population affected.

Marked increases in population over the last few decades and more expensive modern infrastructure at risk to weather damage make today’s major storms much more of a concern for those who monitor the weather and try to head off disaster-related losses. “During hurricane Rita, we experienced thousands of stranded evacuees along Texas Avenue with no place to go for shelter. A storm with the intensity of Carla would have made a really bad situation for those already stranded here much worse,” said French.

Recognizing the complexity of evacuating millions of people in a short period of time, Federal, County and City governments have made several emergency management changes as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The role of broadcasters has also changed. One important change allows state governors to activate the Emergency Alert System (EAS) locally. Previously, only the President of the United States could activate the EAS. Because the news industry does so well in correctly disseminating emergency information in a timely fashion, the cooperation between government officials and broadcast providers is still largely voluntary. “It’s what we do. It’s our role in the community to report quickly and accurately on storm threats in the area,” said French.