NOAA Heritage Week: Displaying the Force of Nature

Ed Levy
NOAA Office of Communications

March 27, 2009 — To prove his point about the destructive power of storms, Ken Graham, meteorologist –in-charge at the National Weather Service forecast office in New Orleans, played a video of a ‘small’ tornado as it entered a parking lot.  The storm picked up and tossed the cars as if it were a giant toddler tired of his playthings.  In a matter of seconds, everything in sight was damaged beyond repair.

Graham was speaking to a full house in the NOAA Science Center in Silver Spring, Md., as part of NOAA Heritage Week 2009. Each year, NOAA Heritage Week features a variety of speakers, films, and exhibits that are open to the public.  The program’s goal is to educate citizens about the work NOAA does to protect and preserve lives, natural resources, and property.  Graham was introduced by Bill Zahner of NMFS, one of a large number of passionate NOAA volunteers who made the event possible.

Graham told the crowd that each year the United States faces an average of seven hurricanes, more than 1,000 tornadoes; 5,000 floods; 10,000 violent thunderstorms; 36,000 fires; and 25 million lightning strikes. 

 

Graham has worked for the NWS for 15 years, following time as a television weathercaster.  He describes the life-altering event, which led him to change careers.  One day, Graham was live on air warning his viewers of an oncoming tornado.  His assistant insisted that he go off camera to take a phone call.  The caller asked Graham’s help to determine whether the tornado was heading for the trailer where the caller and his family were located.  After a quick calculation, Graham told the man to move his family immediately; they were directly in the path of the tornado.  Thirty minutes later, Graham was called off the air to take another call.  It was the same man reporting that his trailer was destroyed, but he and his family had survived – thanks to Graham’s timely warning. 

Graham told the audience “you can’t stop a storm, but you can limit the damage.”  The massive storm that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900 surprised the town and left 8,000 people dead.  Hurricane Ike followed a similar path in 2008 and again destroyed most of the town. However, the NWS was able to provide the town ample warning.  Most people evacuated and deaths were limited to an estimated 50 people.

It is the feeling of accomplishment at times like these that make Graham and his colleagues proud to serve and protect the American public.

Videos of this and other Heritage Week presentations can be found at: http://www.preserveamerica.noaa.gov/videos/welcome.html