Of all the people who had dialed up WFLA-AM 970 during its around-the-clock hurricane coverage, this caller was one of the most difficult to handle. She's a mother of a three who has lost all the food in her refrigerator because of a power outage.
Robert Pankau does his best to soothe her concerns. He directs her to the proper authorities with a calming tone. Speaking both from knowledge and experience, he is able to lend a degree of understanding. He never loses his composure.
Inside, it tears him apart. Pankau gets a little choked up in just recalling the story.
"I have empathy for anyone in that situation," said Pankau, who was covering the National Hurricane Center for ABC News in 1992 when two of his cars and a portion of his Homestead home were destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.
"I've been a victim like everyone else. I know how difficult it can be to get back on your feet. I use that experience to try and help people before, during and after the storm."
Even without pictures of rain-soaked reporters and wind-blown debris, radio coverage during a storm can be as fascinating as what you see on television. Callers, many of whom are relying solely on battery-powered radios, phone in with all kinds of comments and requests.
Some just want to talk, and their questions often can border on the ridiculous.
A few become amateur reporters, speaking of flood water on the Intracoastal or about the Chinese place in Treasure Island that specializes in serving meals during hurricanes.
Others are irate. They've been without power for hours, they can't reach anyone at the electric company, so they call WFLA and vent to whoever answers the phone.
All the on-air folks at WFLA are good about dealing with such diverse calls, but Pankau seems ideally suited for the role. "It's not something you can read about. You have to have first-hand experience or have talked to someone whose had first-hand experience," he said. "I just try to pass that experience along so they too can survive."
Pankau is known in broadcast circles as the "storm chaser," and he confesses to having a fascination with hurricanes since he endured Donna as a child growing up in Orlando. As a reporter, he first covered a major storm when Gilbert came across the Caribbean in 1988 and struck Texas, where he was working in Houston.
"It's something we have little or no control over," Pankau said of his interest. "It's the one of the rawest forms of power from Mother Nature. Having been through some of these myself, it becomes kind of a shared experience."
With Frances, he spent a good part of the weekend in Stuart, north of West Palm Beach, before being called back to Tampa. He fortunately found a gas station owner in Port St. Lucie nice enough to let him get a half of tank of gas even though he was saving reserve supplies for emergency vehicles. And his four-wheel drive SUV managed to get through 4 feet of water on State Road 60.
Through the various experiences, Pankau has gathered a wealth of experience about hurricanes. Not only can he call upon the harrowing first-hand days of Andrew, but he has an extensive knowledge of preparation, survival and recovery. He's on a first-name basis with members of the national hurricane center and the well-known Colorado State University forecast team, as well as emergency officials from across Florida.
Yet Pankau seems genuinely concerned about helping others, not building his reputation. His greatest satisfaction comes when people, like the survivors of Hurricane Charley, tell him it was his warnings that gave them just enough time to move out of harm's way.
Pankau raves not about some great interview or scoop but about the humanity the storms have brought out in Floridians. He's seen Hurricane Andrew survivors grilling food for the Hurricane Charley victims in Charlotte County. He's seen folks who live paycheck to paycheck survive because of the help of volunteers.
And while we never see him, his voice is one that has risen above the sea of storm coverage reporters.
