HURRICANE HUNTER

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THE NEWS-PRESSSUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2008 | PUBLISHED SINCE 1884 news-press.com FINAL | $1.50

It’ll beslow atairportin Sept.BY LAURA [email protected]

Southwest Florida Internation-al air service in September willnot be “a pretty picture.”

That’s according to CarolObermeier, airport market devel-opment manager.

Airline seat availability —“capacity” in aviation jargon —will drop more than 16 percentyear over year in September,according to an analysis Ober-meier did for The News-Press.

The good news is the pictureappears to improve with eachsuccessive month, culminating ina 6.7 percent capacity increase inflights for December.

At least that’s how it looked asof Friday.

“With the way the economy isgoing now, these numbers changeweek to week,” Obermeier said,

But seat availabilitywill take off soon after

MONSTER IN THE GULFSPECIAL REPORT: HURRICANE GUSTAV

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

¸ Jeffrey Vannor carries belongings while evacuating Saturday at the Greyhound Bus and Amtrak station in New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav approaches. A mil-lion people took to Gulf Coast highways, boarding up homes and businesses and fleeing dangerous Hurricane Gustav by bus and car. Heavy rain

is a drainon BonitaBY DAVE [email protected]

Picture a giant bathtub, filledto the brim.

Despite its enormity, the tubfeatures just one tiny drain. Tocomplicate matters, the faucetwon’t shut off.

Bonita Springs is the drain.The tub is a 315-square-mile

waterlogged region of South-west Florida.

Bonita’s main waterway, theImperial River, is unable tochannel millions of gallons ofrainwater from Tropical StormFay out to sea.

Thirteen years after Bonita’slast major flood, and $106.4 mil-lion later, a bevy of flood controland restoration projects stillcouldn’t stop the water from Fayfrom flooding the same Bonitaneighborhoods.

“The idea is to have multipledrains,” said Phil Flood, directorof South Florida Water Manage-ment District’s lower west coastdivision. “But being one big

¸ PHOTO GALLERIES:View scenes from Cuba as Gustavslams ashore as a Category 4.

¸ PHOTO GALLERIES:View preparation along Gulf Coast,including New Orleans evacuation.

¸ HURRICANE GUIDE 2008:View latest tracking maps, news,preparedness tips for your family.

¸ TEXT MESSAGE ALERTS:Sign up for tropical weather newsat news-press.com/text.

¸ See AIR SERVICE A2¸ Also see local ups, downs A2

¸ WEATHERHigh 88 Low 77Showers and storms,80 percent chance ofrain; forecast B14

INSIDE

Railroad ties to historyA new book by Fort Myers historianGregg Turner details how Florida owesmuch of its history to the railroad.

¸ TROPICALIA

¸ See FLOODS A12¸ Also see Bonita flooding A12¸ Also see Sam Cook columnB1

Cat 4 hurricane slams Cuba, aims at Gulf Coast

Eyeing stormwith those whofly through [email protected]

As Hurricane Gustav strengthens into a mon-ster, Hurricane Hunter aircraft are flying ’round-the-clock into the thick of the storm and straightinto the cauldron of its mysterious eye.

The News-Press flew on the Hurricane HunterFriday as Gustav developed from a youthful trop-ical storm into a mature, powerful hurricane withpotential to devastate life and property.

During the Hurricane Hunter’s flight, wewatched and spoke with the six-member crewand learned about the crew members’ individualjobs. We rode in the cockpit with pilots and navi-gator. Most dramatically, we experienced beakingthrough roiling winds of the eye wall four times tofly across its broad expanse and back out again.

¸ See HURRICANE A11

The News-Press and wire reports

HAVANA — Gustav slammed into Cuba’s tobac-co-growing western tip as a monstrous Category 4hurricane Saturday while both Cubans and Amer-icans scrambled to flee the storm as it roaredtoward the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico and NewOrleans.

Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, onSat-urday night ordered an evacuation of thecity that becomes effective at 8 a.m. today.

Forecasters said Gustav was just short ofbecoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane as ithit Cuba’s mainland Saturday after passing over itsIsla de la Juventud province, where shrieking 150-mph winds toppled telephone poles, mango andalmond trees and peeled back the tin roofs ofhomes.

Isla de la Juventud civil defense chief Ana Islasaid there were “many people injured” on theisland south of mainland Cuba, but no reports ofdeaths. She said nearly all its roads were washedout and some regions were heavily flooded.

“It’s been very difficult here,” she said on statetelevision.

Authorities evacuated at least 300,000 peoplefrom western Cuba, including Isla de la Juventud.

Jaime Iparraguirre’s in-laws, who live on thewest coast of Cuba, have been evacuated becauseof the hurricane.

¸ See GUSTAV A11¸ Also see New Orleans evacuates A4

news-press.com/hurricane: Expanded storm coverage online; view more photos from New Orleans

The wild and dangerous flightprovides continuous, precisemeasurements of atmosphericconditions to the National Hurri-cane Center. That allows the cen-ter, in turn, to more accurately pre-dict the hurricane’s path and pin-point specific areas that will haveto go under mandatory evacuationorders.

The greater accuracy saves themoney and resources of unneces-sary evacuation costs and thenerves of people who otherwisemight have to leave their homes.

For most of the hunters, this iswhat they live for and are willing todie for. They have no parachutes,sinceitwouldbefoolhardytojumpto safety amid hurricane winds. It’sbettertoditch theplaneandrelyonlife vests, lifeboats, and prayer tosurvive the high seas below.

The Hurricane Hunter is flownby the 53rd Weather Reconnais-sance Squadron of the Air ForceReserve. It is a one-of-a kind unitunder the Department of Defense,and has flown into tropical stormsand hurricanes since 1944.

The reservists are part of the403rd Wing based at Keesler AirForce Base in Biloxi, Miss.

But on Friday we flew fromHomestead Air Reserve Base.When we began the flight at 11:15a.m., Gustav’s winds were meas-ured at 65 mph.

During the 101⁄2-hour flight,winds strengthened to a Category1 hurricane at about 72 knots, orabout 83 mph. Since we landed at9:45 p.m. Friday, the storm has cat-apulted into a Category 4 hurri-cane at 150 mph.

Fasten your seat belts. It’s goingto be a bumpy ride.

8:30a.m.:MeetthebossWe get to Homestead well

before our designated arrival timeand have a chance to speak withMaj. Jeff Ragusa, the deployed mis-

sion commander in charge of allhurricane operations flying fromHomestead.

Nobody flies at the top of a hur-ricane, Ragusa said.

“They want to know what hap-pensat thebottomofit,”hesaid.“IfNOAA (National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration) hadits way, we’d fly 4 feet above thewater.”

Instead we’re to fly at 10,000feet, to see where the maximumand most dangerous winds are.The Hunter is a WC-130J aircraft, anewer model of the C-130. Theplane also is newly equipped withthe Stepped-FrequencyMicrowave Radiometer, dubbedSMURF. The technology allowsthe Hurricane Hunters to con-stantly measure surface windsdirectlybelowtheaircraftandhelpincrease the accuracy of theNational Hurricane Center’s fore-casts by 30 percent.

Since it costs $1 million to evac-uate a mile of coastline, theincreased accuracy saves govern-ment dollars as well as helpingpeople know more preciselywhether the storm will hit theirhomes, said Maj. Chad Gibson,spokesman for Keesler Air ForceBase.

The storm’s circulation isalready counter-clockwise, butno well-formed eye is apparentyet, Ragusa said. The Hunter’starget is the western tip ofJamaica. We have to fly over Cubato get there. The State Depart-ment has to secure overflight per-mission from the Cuban govern-ment to do it.

The plane will fly in an X orAlpha pattern, going 105 miles outfrom the outskirts of the storm toits center, then back out again,repeating the pattern for all fourquadrants of the storm.

9:25a.m.:ThebriefingRagusa introduces the six-

member crew at his pre-flightbriefing. They are:

¸ Lt. Col. C. Floyd Plash, aircraftcommander and pilot;

¸ Capt. Nate Gasscock, a pilot;¸ Lt. Col Dan Jones, pilot;¸ Capt. Eileen Bundy, aerial

reconnaissance weather officer;¸ Mike Anderson, navigator;¸ Sgt. Major Justin Jones, the

dropsonde system operator;The dropsonde is the major

measurement instrument thecrewuses to send information directlyto the National Hurricane Center,like air pressure, wind speed andother data. The instrument is asmall cylindrical device with aparachute on the end.

Once released from bottom ofthe aircraft, it floats down 2,500feet a minute and sends back radiodata, Jones said.

Gustav is still a tropical storm atthis point, Ragusa said. The circu-lation of winds is counter-clock-wise but the eye is ragged and notfully formed.

“Every ride is a bumpy ride,” hesaid. “As you walk through the air-craft, always keep an eye out forsomething to grab onto.”

“Just remember, air sickness isjust part of flying,” said Lt. Col.Tom Davis, spokesman for Home-stead Air Reserve Base.

11:05a.m.:TakeoffThis plane is massive, with abil-

ity to plow through winds at morethan 370 mph. But the storm is big-

ger.The inside of the Hunter is like

a giant, stripped-down tin can.The plane’s wiring and insulat-

ed pipes can be seen in the ceiling.The seats are simply red canvasbenches lining either side of thefuselage with a back of red web-bing — something to hang onto.

All of the cargo is tied down,including cardboard boxes full ofthe dropsondes. Sgt. Major JustinJones pulls out five of them inpreparation, large cardboard cylin-ders wrapped in foil and pink bub-ble wrap.

The plane vibrates in place withits brakes on, as the four propellerenginesarerevved.Thenit lurchesforwardat fullspeedon thebumpyrunway.

The claw-like propellersbecome a blur. The noise inside isa steady, high-pitched hum. Davisdistributes earplugs.

The black nose cone lifts intothe air.

Like a flight attendant, MasterSgt. Jonessignals the locationofairsickness bags in little brownenvelopes. He pulls one out anddemonstrates the procedure.

The bathroom is at the back ofthe plane behind a green curtain. Itlooks like the curtained controlroom in Emerald City whereDorothy discovered the hidingWizard of Oz.

1:25p.m.:TheflightThe Hurricane Hunter flies for

about two hours, straight acrossthe olive-green landscape of Cuba.The plane cuts between the citiesof Cabaiguan and Moron, justskirting the city of Ciego De Avila.

As we came off the coast andheaded for Jamaica, just off Mon-tegoBay, the turbulencestarts.Themassive WC-130J was buffeted likea toy. The drops in altitude weresudden — about 200 feet at a time.

Jones ejects the dropsondesfrom the plane about every fiveminutes. Each one is tracked by asatellite frequency and its progressis displayed by a colored graph onhis computer monitor.

They cost $700 each, he says,but the cost is worth the data theyprovide and the lives they save.

The Hunter gets six differentviews of radar from cameras pro-viding different angles. Anotherscreen displays what all fourenginesaredoing, fromhorsepow-er to oil pressure.

Above the emergency exit tothe right of Jones’ computer con-sole is a sign that reads: “groundand ditching use only.”

TheeyeisenteredThe plane shakes and begins to

go from side to side. We must bepenetrating theeyewall forthefirsttime, the roughest point of the trip.

Davis calmly munches oncrackers from a plastic sandwichbag, then kicks back and closes hiseyes for a few minutes.

Thehurricaneeyealmostdefiesdescription.

The eye may be the center of adeadly force of destruction, butwitnessing its scope and majestyinspires awe. The massive ring ofclouds formed the banks of a wide,empty lakeofnothingness,savefora few scudding clouds.

Other images flood the mind: Awhite-coiled snake ready to strike.The crater of a volcano with puffsof cloud floating like steam. Youcan see through them below to theboiling blue lava of a stormy sea.

The eye changed each time weflew through it. At first its curveremained raggedy and the circlewas incomplete. Then it formedinto a rough circle about 25 milesacross.Bythefourthandfinalpass,it became more defined as a small-er, tighter circle.

“Is that the eye wall? It had aninner spiral the last time. Thiscould be the same thing,” saidPlash, the mission commander, asthe Hunter made the final pass-through at 7 p.m..

“Yeah, that’s it,” said Gasscock,the pilot sitting beside him.

The job was done — until theirnext shift 18 hours later. We flewhome.

As the storm strengthens, thecrews’ shifts will shorten to sixhours, then three hours round-the-clock instead of the standard 8-10hours, said Lt. Col. Dan Jones, apilot.

Whyfly?The crew members have differ-

ent reasons for being here. Theyincludepatriotism,fulfillinga long-held dream, trying to conquer achildhood fear of severe weather,or simply working near the placewhere their families live.

“Growing up I was one of thosekids who was afraid of weather,”said Capt. Eileen Bundy, aerialreconnaissance weather officer.

So she went into meteorologyand ended up flying into hurri-canes, “making my mom realhappy,”she joked.

“It’s getting pretty personal tome,”Gasscocksaid.Hiswifeaswellas other families of crew memberswho live near the base in Biloxi arehaving to evacuate in the path ofGustav—whiletheycontinuetofly.

ButGasscockknowstheworkisimportant to keep their families aswell as hundreds of thousands ofother residents safe.

When asked his motivation forbeing a Hurricane Hunter, Gass-cock pointed to his jumpsuitsleeve, where an American flagpatch was sewn.

“Right there,” he said.

¸ Continued from A1

HURRICANE

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PHOTOS BY MARC BEAUDIN/THE NEWS-PRESS

¸ Clouds from Hurricane Gustav form over the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands late Friday, as a Hurricane Hunter plane flies over to collect data for the National Hurricane Center.

¸ Lt. Mike Anderson, a co-pilot, scans the perimeter Friday whileflying a mission in the Caribbean Sea and into Hurricane Gustav.

“Right now they’re staying in ashelter the government is provid-ing,” said Iparraguirre, who is theowner of JJ Habana Cafe in LehighAcres.

On Friday, Iparraguirre’s in-lawstoldhimtheonlyeffectofthestormthey were feeling was rain. But hesaid he was sure conditions wouldbecome different Saturday.

“We’re going to try to talk tothem,” he said.

Bonita Springs resident Ive Val-ladares said she had received an e-mail from one of her aunts wholives in Havana City, Cuba, a fewdays ago, telling Valladares thestorm’seffects,besidesrain,hadyetto reach them.

Valladares said she is worriedabout her family, but understandsthere isn’t much she can do.

“We Cubans are so used to hur-ricanes,” she said. “We just getready and wait.”

Gisel Garcia’s entire family stilllives in thecentralpartofCuba.ButGarcia, who lives inCape Coral,said he wasn’t worried about hisfamily, and said he hadn’t spokenwith them yet.

Garcia said he would probablyget in touch with his family afterthe hurricane had passed throughto make sure they were all right.

“We always start crying whennothing happens,” he said. “Whyshould we start crying before any-thing happens?”

Gustav was projected to plowinto the Gulf of Mexico at fullforce today, and reach the U.S.coast as early as Monday after-noon. A hurricane watch wasissued from Texas to the Florida-Alabama line.

More than a million Americansmade wary by Hurricane Katrinatook buses, trains, planes and cars

as they streamed out of NewOrleans and other coastal cities,where Katrina killed about 1,600people in 2005.

Gustav already has killed 81 peo-ple by triggering floods and land-slides in other Caribbean nations.

The U.S. National HurricaneCentersaidGustavcouldbecomeaCategory 5 hurricane soon, withwinds above 155 mph.

Cuba’s top meteorologist, JoseRubiera, said the hurricane’s mas-sive center made landfall in main-land Cuba near the community ofLos Palacios in Pinar del Rio — aregion that produces much ofCuba’s famed tobacco and cigars.

In Pinar del Rio, the stormknocked down power lines, shat-tered windows and blew the roofsoff some small homes.

Rubiera said the storm wouldbring hurricane-force winds tomuch of the western part ofHavana, Cuba’s capital, wherepower was knocked out as winds

blasted sheets of rain sidewaysthough the streets and whippedangry waves against the famed sea-side Malecon boulevard.

Felled tree branches and largechunks of muddy earth litteredcrowded roads.

Cuba grounded all domesticflights and halted all buses andtrains to and from Havana, wheresome shuttered stores had hand-scrawled “closed for evacuation”signs plastered to their doors.

Authorities boarded up banks,restaurants and hotels, and resi-dents nailed bits of plywood to thewindows and doors of their housesand apartments.

“It’sverybigandwe’vegot togetready forwhat’scoming,”said JesusHernandez, a 60-year-old retireewho was using an electric drill toreinforce the roof of his ricketyfront porch.

The government announced itwas stepping up emergency pro-duction of bread at state-run bak-

eries and lines formed all over thecity as Cubans waited for loaves.

In tourist-friendly Old Havana,heavy winds and rain batteredcrumblinghistoricbuildings.Therewere no immediate reports ofmajor damage, but a scaffoldingerected against a building adjacentto the Plaza de Armas was leaningat a dangerous angle.

Lidia Morral and her husbandwerevisitingCuba fromBarcelona.She said Gustav forced officials toclose the beaches the couple want-ed to visit in Santiago, on theisland’s eastern tip. The storm alsoprevented them from catching aferry from Havana to the Isla de laJuventud on Saturday.

“It’s been following us all overCuba, ruining our vacation,” saidMorral.

By Saturday evening, Gustavwas about 65 miles west-southwestof Havana and was moving north-west at about 15 mph.

Hurricane-force winds extend-

ed out 70 miles in some places.The U.S. Naval base at Guan-

tanamo Bay was hundreds of milesto the east, out of the storm’s path.

As it passes by to the west ofSouthwest Florida today, Gustav isexpected to bring a few downpoursandslightlyhigherwindstothearea.

Meanwhile, the hurricane cen-ter said Tropical Storm Hannawas projected to near the Turksand Caicos Islands late today orMonday, then curl through theBahamas by early next weekbefore possibly threateningCuba.

As it spun over open waters,Hanna had sustained winds near50 mph Saturday evening and thehurricane center warned that itcould kick up dangerous rip cur-rents along parts of the southeast-ern U.S. coast.

— Staff writer Gabriella Souza andThe Associated Press contributedto this report.

¸ Continued from A1

GUSTAV

*** THE NEWS-PRESS, NATION & WORLD, SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2008 | A11

HURRICANE HUNTER

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