Blizzard of 2009 & Tornado Road Deadend
What an amazing storm system!! Here in Amarillo, we have 10-11 inches of snow on the ground with 3-4 foot drifts common and some even to 6 feet. In parts of NW Oklahoma, they reported 17 inches and in Kansas, 25 inches!!!
Every major road to the west, north and east of Amarillo was shut down including I-40. Although this stranded many travellers here, at least they are in safe, warm shelter and not stuck out in the middle of nowhere in their vehicles or worst yet, a major accident. I covered a big 20-30 vehicle pileup on I-40 yesterday on the far east side of Amarillo. According to reports, whiteout conditions with zero visibility was the culprit. Why is it people will continue to drive 30-40 mph (or more!) when they can barely even see the front of their hoods is a deep mystery to me. Where in the hell is common sense nowadays?
Anyway, the sun is out as I will be here shortly. My streaming video through ChaserTV yesterday was a big hit. I will be doing that again this morning as I survey the area. After about 2pm, I'm calling it quits to attend to other matters such as getting ready to start work Monday. :-)
On an amusing note, the much heralded show on NBC called "Tornado Road" has been officially cancelled.....not surprsingly. Not only was this hastily put together by perhaps the most inept and scatter-brained production company I've ever heard of, there were also some solid rumors of behind-the-scenes antics of one particular individual in railroading other experienced, seasoned veteran chasers that actually live in tornado alley year round in favor of his own posse who are lucky to make it out on the plains two weeks per year to chase. The production company was too stupid to figure that out.
If you are going to do a show about stormchasers, do it about the ones that live in tornado alley year round and chase often throughout the entire season. Discovery Channel certainly figured that one out with their excellent "Stormchasers" series last fall with Reed and Joel the stars. And yes, I'm pissy about it since I was one of the ones who got screwed last year after busting my butt to make arrangements to head out to the plains for Tornado Road only to get railroaded in the end (pun intended). In hindsight, I'm quite thankful I didn't try to be part of the show. In any event, it's nice to see karma finally come around with the demise of this fiasco. I feel sorry for some of the "good guys" that were going to be on that show though. But, another season of opportunity is around the corner. :-)
Okay, enough venting. Headed out the door to play in the snow!!
Every major road to the west, north and east of Amarillo was shut down including I-40. Although this stranded many travellers here, at least they are in safe, warm shelter and not stuck out in the middle of nowhere in their vehicles or worst yet, a major accident. I covered a big 20-30 vehicle pileup on I-40 yesterday on the far east side of Amarillo. According to reports, whiteout conditions with zero visibility was the culprit. Why is it people will continue to drive 30-40 mph (or more!) when they can barely even see the front of their hoods is a deep mystery to me. Where in the hell is common sense nowadays?
Anyway, the sun is out as I will be here shortly. My streaming video through ChaserTV yesterday was a big hit. I will be doing that again this morning as I survey the area. After about 2pm, I'm calling it quits to attend to other matters such as getting ready to start work Monday. :-)
On an amusing note, the much heralded show on NBC called "Tornado Road" has been officially cancelled.....not surprsingly. Not only was this hastily put together by perhaps the most inept and scatter-brained production company I've ever heard of, there were also some solid rumors of behind-the-scenes antics of one particular individual in railroading other experienced, seasoned veteran chasers that actually live in tornado alley year round in favor of his own posse who are lucky to make it out on the plains two weeks per year to chase. The production company was too stupid to figure that out.
If you are going to do a show about stormchasers, do it about the ones that live in tornado alley year round and chase often throughout the entire season. Discovery Channel certainly figured that one out with their excellent "Stormchasers" series last fall with Reed and Joel the stars. And yes, I'm pissy about it since I was one of the ones who got screwed last year after busting my butt to make arrangements to head out to the plains for Tornado Road only to get railroaded in the end (pun intended). In hindsight, I'm quite thankful I didn't try to be part of the show. In any event, it's nice to see karma finally come around with the demise of this fiasco. I feel sorry for some of the "good guys" that were going to be on that show though. But, another season of opportunity is around the corner. :-)
Okay, enough venting. Headed out the door to play in the snow!!
posted by Steve Miller TX at 3/28/2009 09:30:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home