Archive of the September 2011

• September 9, 2011

  10 years later. A look back.

  Janice Dean | Meteorologist

  Hi everyone

  It’s a somber time here in New York.  With all of the 10th anniversary preparations underway for this Sunday, it’s hard not to get caught up in the emotion that seems so raw again.  10 years later.

  I’ve been thinking alot about my life a decade ago. 

  Looking back now, 9-11 brought a clarity to my life.  I was living in Houston, Texas.  I was on the air that morning, doing my radio show with my partner Mike.  We were wrapping up our shift,  when someone came in and told us to look at the television screen.    News bulletins were coming in by the second on my computer.  We were trying to deliver the news to our listeners and at the same time figuring out in our own minds what the hell was going on.   Why were there airplanes going into buildings?  Is this really happening? 

  Meanwhile, my future husband was rushing back to his firehouse on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to get his gear on and hitch a ride on an EMS truck to try and help his fellow firefighters who were on their way down to the Trade Center.  Sean had the day off, and had gone to get his drivers license renewed.  (His license would read 09/11/01 for several years).  Once he found out what had happened, he immediately went down to try and help.   He arrived just as the second tower fell.   He spent the rest of the day, then weeks, trying to find his friends, coworkers, and brothers.  12 of them didn’t make it out alive.

  A few weeks after 9-11 I made a huge life change.    I decided to pack my bags and leave Houston.  I left a great job and very close friends to go back home to Canada.   Why did I leave?  Well, back then I just felt I needed to figure out my life.  I was 31 and had recently had my apartment broken into.   I felt disconnected.  There was something truly “missing” in my life.  I just couldn’t figure out what it was.

  So I went back home – lived with my mom for a little while and got a job with a local radio station.  A few months went by, when a co-worker of mine told me about a job opportunity he saw and thought I would be good at.  It was for a radio station here in New York as a news editor/reader and entertainment reporter for a very well known personality.  I laughed, and said there is no way I would ever even get an interview for such a job.   But, I decided what the heck – I would send my resume and tape for the fun of it.  

  A few days later I got a call back from the program director at WFAN here in New York.  He asked if I could come for an interview and audition.  I got the job, amazingly.

  I packed up my stuff again and moved to New York.  I couldn’t believe my luck.   But I also wondered why on earth I had even been considered for such a job?  

  Looking back now,  I realize that it wasn’t the job that brought me to New York.  It was the man I was destined to meet a few months later…. 

  It was September 2002.  Exactly a year after 9-11.   I was moving to New York City to start a new life, and begin my true path to happiness.

  So how did I meet Sean?  Another amazing story.  Back home in Canada, my girlfriend Lianne and her husband Tony had gotten back from their honeymoon in Hawaii.  She called me after they got back because she had just met this wonderful firefighter named Sean while they were on their trip.   He was on a hike that day with them, and they got to know each other on the trail.  They had dinner together, and Lianne had asked him for his email to eventually pass on to me.   She urged me to contact him.   I told her I was too over my head with work, trying to find a place to live, and generally wondering why the heck I had done such a crazy thing with my life.  She kept telling me I needed to meet him.  There was just something about him.  Sean later told me he went to Hawaii to live out a life -long dream for him after a year of hell.  He went by himself to surf the waves of Hawaii.  The day he met Lianne and Tony, the surf was too dangerous, so he had decided at the last minute to go on a hike instead.   Another moment of fate.

  So I reached out to him, and we decided to meet.    We had breakfast together in December of 2002.  And the rest, they say, is history.

  I am a firm believer in destiny and fate.  If 9-11 had not happened, I doubt very much I would’ve had the urge to change my life.    And when my husband sometimes wonders why he was spared that day when the rest of his brothers died, I tell him it’s because we were meant to be together.  Our two boys were meant to be born.   I sometimes wonder if our boys are destined to do something great in their lives.  I hope so.

  Sunday my husband and I will be at his old firehouse to remember the families, the friends and his comrades that for some reason were taken from us that day 10 years ago.    I feel so blessed for my life, my husbands and the children we share.  Those men and women that died are now angels that continue to watch over us and guide us along the path of life. 

  As I look back 10 years ago, I am filled with so much emotion.  It is certainly a sad and horrific day in our Nation’s History.  But for many of us, it was a big turning point.  A wake-up moment to do something better with out lives.  To live it to the fullest.  Yesterday’s history.  Tomorrow’s a mystery.    Today is all we have.

  Hug the ones you love.  Hug them tighter this weekend especially.  I know I will.

  

  JD

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• September 8, 2011

  Historic Northeast Floods, and Nate, Maria and Katia

  Janice Dean | Meteorologist

  Hi everyone.  Another busy day in the extreme weather center as we’re seeing record floods across the Northeast and the tropics are very active.

  The remnants of Lee along with a stationary front is bringing historic flooding to the Mid Atlantic States up into southwestern New England.   Life threatening flash flooding and mudslides are a huge threat especially across Maryland into eastern Pennsylvania, and southern New York. 

  

  The Susquehanna River at Binghamton is at its highest flood height since records have been kept back in the 1800s.  the river is expected to overtop the flood walls this afternoon protecting the city.

  

  Additional amounts of 2-4 inches with isolated amounts of 6 inches are possible on top of the rainfall already received over the last 24 hours.

  The rest of the country is quiet thankfully – however, we’re still into a high fire danger across the Southern Plains where dry, warm weather persists.

  Looking at the tropics, Hurricane Katia will not come ashore along the U.S. coast, but there will be rough surf and rip currents over the next several days.

  

  Tropical Storm Maria could threaten the Leeward Islands tomorrow and perhaps other land areas this weekend – including parts of the Bahamas. 

  

  

  Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Nate is a bit of a wild-card.  Models don’t have a handle on what Nate will do – but some of them include a northward path towards the U.S this weekend:

  

  We’ll continue to keep everyone up to date. 

  Be safe everyone!

  JD

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• September 7, 2011

  Keeping track of the tropics!

  Janice Dean | Meteorologist

  Hi everyone!

  Hope you had a great long weekend!  We took Matthew to his first day of “school” yesterday.   It’s a program in our neighborhood where he goes twice a week for two hours without mom or dad.  We went for “orientation” and as soon as we got into the classroom, Matthew dove for the toys and forgot quickly about us in the corner.  We went out into the gymnasium to talk with the teachers while sneaking little peaks to see how he was doing without us, and he was a a wonderful little student!  Listening to the teachers – sitting nicely a the table to eat a snack and drink his juice, sharing toys with the other kids.   He made us proud.  (And a little sad too as he is growing up too fast!)    I’m going to take a few Mondays off work to take him to school and pick him up.  Mom’s having a harder time adjusting to him going to school than he is!

  So back to work today, and if I had a dime for everyone telling me how sick of the rain they are in the Northeast I’d definitely have lunch money today.  Boy would I love to donate all of this rain to Texas where an extraordinary drought continues.  The wildfires are heartbreaking outside of Austin, but calmer winds should help firefighters start to get a handle on the situation.

  The heavy rain across the Northeast is not good news for those still trying to pump out the water from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene a week and a half ago.  Look at some of the rainfall totals:

  

  

  And the tropics have gone crazy.  We’re watching Katia and now Maria in the Atlantic.  Katia won’t affect any land, but will bring huge waves and dangerous rip currents to the coastline.

  

  

  We’ll have to watch the path of Maria as we have a lot of uncertainty as to where the storm will evenutally head, and at what intensity.

  

  

  There’s also a healthy wave in the Gulf of Mexico that could also develop in the next day or so.

  

  Wow.  That’s a lot of weather.  Hope you guys are doing great.  I can’t believe it’s already September.  My little Theodore turns 7 months this week! 

  Talk to you soon!

  jd

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• September 2, 2011

  Latest on Lee and Katia...

  Janice Dean | Meteorologist

  Hi everyone

  Heading into a Long Labor Day weekend, and I wish weather was a little quieter, but we’re getting into peak hurricane season, and boy are things busy.

  We’re watching that Tropical Storm Lee which could be very bad news for New Orleans where some forecast models are showing the potential for close to 2 feet of rain.  I’m not sure if the city can take so much rain in such a short period of time…

  

  

  

  Ask the folks in Houston about Tropical Storm Allison back in 2001 – that storm was just a remnant low when it brought over 40 inches of rain and caused dozens of deaths as well as massive destruction of the city.

  And Hurricane Katia is also a little concerning since some of the reliable computer models are now showing the storm coming very close to land next weekend.  We still have many days to watch the path of Irene, but we need to keep a very close eye on the forward progression of this hurricane.

  

  

  In other news, since we are coming up to the anniversary of September 11th, I wanted to pass on a link to a story that features one of our good friends, Ray Pfeifer.   Ray and my husband worked in the same Firehouse on 9/11, and they still work together today.  Ray is one of the finest men I have ever met, and is beloved in the Fire Department.   He has been a huge comfort and liason to all of the families that lost their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers that day.   We need more people like Ray on this earth.

  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/01/eveningnews/main20100679.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.0%3Ftag%3Dfacebook

  That’s all for now.  Have a great weekend, everyone.  Hug the ones you love!

  jd

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• September 1, 2011

  Possible Gulf Storm could bring flooding rains...

  Janice Dean | Meteorologist

  Good morning everyone!

  I see there’s a lot of discussion about who has the worst weather on the blog.   One thing I will say, from the severe drought across the Southern Plains to the extreme flooding over the Northeast, many cities and towns are suffering greatly right now, and there will always be complaints as to why the cable news outlets are not covering someone else’s neighborhood.  

  This weekend I think the story will shift to the Gulf Coast where we have a tropical wave that may or may not develop. 

  

  Regardless of if it does become a depression/storm or even a hurricane, we could see a tremendous amount of rain in a very short period of time across the Coast.  Some of the computer models are showing over a foot of rain to coastal Louisiana  over the weekend.  So while we don’t want to hype or scare anyone, we want people to be prepared if they live in this area.   Flash flood watches are already posted in anticipation of this storm.  Here’s a look at some of the forecast models as we head into the Labor Day weekend:

  

  

  

  As for Katia, we do think Katia wills strengthen into a major hurricane over the next few days, but at this time will not threaten any land. 

  

  Here’s the track:

  

  We’ll keep you posted on all of the immediate developments across the Gulf in the next few days.  Be safe everyone.

  JD

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