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Hurricane Dennis
Storm's messenger harnesses airwaves
The National Hurricane Center's director uses live TV to warn viewers about the dangers of hurricanes.
By TAMARA LUSH
Published July 11, 2005
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[Times photo: James Borchuck]
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MIAMI - It's 2:59 Sunday afternoon and Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Center, sits at his desk with a red pencil in his right hand and a little cord snaking into his left ear.
Behind him, a large TV and an oversized computer screen display the ominous in bright colors: Hurricane Dennis swirling toward the Florida Panhandle.
The doughnut of deadly winds surrounding the hurricane's eye is bearing down on Santa Rosa Island with 110 mph winds, and Mayfield is preparing to explain this to a national TV audience.
"You ready?" a TV producer asks Mayfield. He nods. "Good afternoon," Mayfield says with a smile.
Mayfield never forgets to smile, even during the worst moments of the worst storms.
3:05 p.m.
A cluster of hurricane specialists peers at one of the dozen computer screens in the room. Mayfield walks over.
"We got one shot to get this right," he says. Dennis is about to make landfall. But where?
One forecaster huddles over a map, plotting the hurricane's coordinates with rulers and protractors. They talk some more, look at the swirling maps on the computer screens and make a decision.
Mayfield pulls out his cell phone and dials state meteorologist Ben Nelson. He has a map in his right hand, the phone in his left.
"Hey, how about this?" Mayfield asks Nelson. "What if we say landfall on Santa Rosa Island, between Pensacola Beach and Navarre? Does that work?"
Pause.
"Yeah, hey, you guys are doing a great job," Mayfield says. His accent is a little Oklahoma, where he grew up, and a little Alabama, where he served in the military.
"Is the governor happy?" Mayfield asks. "Well, not happy but at least not surprised?"
Pause.
"Thank you," he says.
3:14 p.m.
Mayfield is back at his desk, in front of the screens and the TV cameras.
"Whom am I going to be speaking with?" Mayfield asks. He always asks that so he can say the TV anchor's name while giving his forecast.
The hurricane center is housed in a new hurricane-proof building in southwest Miami-Dade County.
The forecasters are in the middle, the safest part the building, separated from the news media by a large sliding glass door that is never closed.
The media side of the room is littered with cameras, cables, food wrappers and small TV sets. The forecaster side is clean, except for a few maps and papers scattered around. The reporters and photographers work on carpet. The forecasters work on tile, allowing their wheeled chairs to slide from one computer to the next with ease.
The air conditioner is cranked up.
Mayfield has worked for the National Hurricane Center for 33 years. He is 56 and thinks the most important part of his job is to make sure people know how dangerous hurricanes can be. So he never passes up an opportunity to go on live TV.
He tells his TV audience that the eye of Hurricane Dennis is just off the coast of Pensacola, and reminds everyone there to be careful.
"You don't have to have high force winds to do a lot of damage," he says.
Pause.
"This is a tad academic, but it looks like we're just minutes away," he says. "The center of the eye will move over Santa Rosa Island."
3:24 p.m.
Mayfield is on with CNN. His voice is measured, calm. The forecasters behind him are silent, still looking at their computers.
"This is a tad academic, Miles, but the core of the eye is moving over Santa Rosa Island," he says. "We're confident that it's a Category 3."
3:35 p.m.
TV news crews start packing up, and Mayfield says goodbye. Everyone has a sense, though, that this won't be their last visit before hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
Even before Dennis made landfall, forecasters were monitoring a tropical wave 1,000 miles east of the Caribbean.
It could be headed toward South Florida, but Mayfield isn't prepared to make that forecast yet. So he smiles and says goodbye.
"I'll see you soon," he tells a TV photographer.
"We're just getting warmed up, I'm afraid."
[Last modified July 11, 2005, 07:34:32]
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