On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being insignificant, this would be like a -179.

But because Hurricane Ike damaged Houston’s Reliant Stadium, the Houston Texans v. Baltimore Ravens game rescheduled for Monday has been moved to November 9th.

This means any Ravens or Texans players you have slated to start on your NFL FFL teams will likely be in the “bye” mode and not score any points for you this week.

So, right after you go to the Red Cross site and give a donation for disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Ike, go to your FFL site and check your rosters.

(Hat tip to Squibkick.com)

Just the addition of one little vowel could have made all the difference with Hurrican Ike this weekend.   Add an “A” and you have Hurricane Ikea, a very different thing.

Here’s a comparison:

I realize this isn’t a Texas-related blog but I do have a bit of a connection to Texas. 

But with Hurricane Ike bearing down on the Texas Gulf coast, I thought a little perspective from someone who’s spent some time there might be interesting.

I am a 1997 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center with an LL.M. in intellectual property law.  I lived almost smack dab in the middle of Houston at Wheeler and Cullen, across from the U of H.

I spent about nine months in Houston earning my degree.  While I’m certainly not a native of the area who knows everything about the place, I enjoyed my time in Houston and got around some.  While not a particularly attractive city, Houstonians are the friendliest people I’ve ever met.  It is a town that is proud of its Texasness, believes it takes a backseat to no one in the arts, and is one of America’s most affordable cities.

It is also as flat as your kitchen table.

There are no hills in Houston.  Small rainstorms can cause big problems with nearly instant flooding.  Highway and Interstate underpasses can fill with water.  Half the town seems to sit on a swamp like my alma mater of UH or it is near a bayou.

Flooding neighborhoods are a Houston TV news staple.

And big rainstorms cause big problems.  When Tropical Storm Allison came through in 2001, it flood the beautiful UHLC O’Quinn Law Library.  Nearly 200,000 volumes were lost.  The place was a mess.  Being below ground—and probably below sea level—didn’t help matters. 

And Ike is a monster in terms of its sheer diameter.  It nearly fills the entire Gulf.

Galveston, about a half hour south at the very end of I-45, is more like the Old South—a little decrepit, a little sleepy, but with a beautiful strand of beach on the Gulf with a number of luxurious hotels, some quaint old homes—and just a few feet above sea level thanks to the seawall on The Strand.

A 1900 hurricane nearly wiped Galveston off the map.  Prior to that, Galveston was one of America’s busiest ports.  After, not so much.

Then the city was essentially at sea level which is not the case today.  But still, it’s basically a few yards of sand, the seawall, the street, then Galveston.

Traffic on a good day in Houston is horrible.  The first time I drove into Houston, it was a Friday at rush hour.  I had never seen such an eight lane parking lot in all my life.  When I would wake up on the mornings, I’d listen to the local traffic reports on the radio and thank God that I could ride my bike to school or just circle around campus in my van and get to class without trouble.  I never, ever went anywhere in Houston during commuting hours.

I can’t imagine what traffic would be like trying to evacuate Galveston or Houston before, during, or after Hurricane Ike. 

It looks like Houston and Galveston are in the bullseye for Ike.  Most people don’t realize it but Houston is the fourth largest city in America.  It makes New Orleans look like a large subdivision in comparison.

Hope and pray that Ike turns down the juice this weekend when it hits the Texas coast.  I fear for what Ike’s furious wind, waves, and water might do to an area that is close to this Northerner’s heart.

Watching the Hurricane Gustav coverage. Mother Nature puts on a helluva show.

In the name of all that is holy, why do reporters who cover hurricanes like Gustav insist that they must, lo, they are pre-ordained to stand out in the rain and the wind and the debris like a fool to show us that, yes, the weather is really, really bad?

Like we couldn't figure that out from the sideways wind, the palm tree tops touching the ground, and sheet metal flying past the screen?

It is a cliche of broadcasting. Or perhaps some sort of fraternity hazing for journalists.

Obviously sitting here in the middle of the country far from the Gulf Coast doesn't exactly put this blog in harm's way of Hurricane Gustav.

However, given that the storm is on track to hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast just three years after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and that the GOP Convention is about to begin, this is a big story with all sorts of weather, political, and human consequences.

So, I've put together several tools at the top right column to help you with coverage of the storm. In particular, read the Twitters of people and the MSM I've aggregated to get a very personal view of how Gustav is impacting people in the Gulf region.

Let's hope the storm peters out and everyone can have a good long and safe weekend and the Republicans can have their convention without interruption.

My left knee that I tore up in taekwando several years ago is hurting like heck. In the past, that has meant some sort of bad weather.

So, I'm pitting my bum knee versus my friends at KELOLAND and predicting a storm tonight or tomorrow.

It's the battle of the titans (but not KSFY's TITAN): Todd's bad ligaments v. the best TV weather technology.

Place your bets!

Technorati Tags: bum knees, weather, technology, South Dakota

We just had a nasty thunderstorm roll through Harrisburg. Above is a photo of the size of the hailstones—over half dollar size. I thought they were going to break a window out of our cars.

Donna had the presence of mind to gather them—not for KELOLAND, who I sent them to and they aired them—but for insurance purposes.

From EqSD PAC:

Contact: Todd Epp FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tel: 605.351.5021 Released June 7, 2008

Email: eqsdpac@gmail.com

LGBT FRIENDLY CANDIDATES WIN PRIMARIES

$5000 in Campaign Contributions is Excellent Investment

Seven of the 11 Lesbian/Gay/Bi-Sexual/Transgender (LGBT) friendly candidates endorsed by EqSD PAC won their primary races on June 3.

Lead Mayor Tom Nelson won the 3 way Republican primary for District 31 Senate with 38% of the vote. He faces Democrat and LGBT friendly candidate Nyla Griffith in the general election.

Four candidates running for House seats were the top vote getters in their districts:

• Darrell Solberg, Sioux Falls Democrat, received 41% of the District 11 votes;
• Martha Vanderlinde, Sioux Falls Democrat, received 56% of the District 15 votes;
• Larry Lucas, Mission Democrat, received 63% of the District 26A;
• Kevin Killer, Pine Ridge Democrat, received 31% of the votes in a 4 way District 27 race.
  

Two EqSD PAC endorsed candidates also move on to the general election:

• Elaine Elliott, Aberdeen Democrat, received 39% of the District 2 votes;
• Jeff Nelsen, Rapid City Democrat, received 40% of the District 33 votes.
  

EqSD PAC will endorse and provide funds to selected legislative candidates in the November general election who it believes have progressive views on LGBT issues. General election candidates have until June 10 to return their surveys to EqSD PAC.

“Our ratio of elective successes to failures seems about right to me,” says PAC member and Republican former legislator Don Frankenfeld of Rapid City. “We could easily have achieved a 100% success rate simply by backing obvious winners. But our goal was to back well-qualified candidates who could be strong advocates for equality in Pierre, and that meant taking some risks. In the general election, we will continue to look for candidates who exhibit courage, leadership and integrity, and we expect that our support will propel some of them to victory.”

EqSD PAC is the political action committee affiliate of Equality South Dakota (EqSD), a South Dakota non-profit corporation. EqSD PAC is a voluntary, non-profit, unincorporated association operating as a separate, segregated organization of EqSD.

# # #

Paid for by Equality South Dakota PAC.

Technorati Tags: EqSD, EqSD PAC, LGBT, GLBT, 2008 election, South Dakota, gay rights

 

All of our recent rain has had one small benefit—the Falls of the Big Sioux in Sioux Falls which would normally be at a trickle this time of the year are roaring like they do during the early spring snow melt.

There is a ton of water going through the falls. I thought you might enjoy some photos. I’ll also be posting some video later.

Technorati Tags: Sioux Falls, Falls of the Big Sioux, South Dakota Sphere: Related Content

A source of mine with a history of reliability poses the following scenario about ex-KELOLAND weathercaster Shawn Cable landing across town at KSFY-TV:

Management moved Patrick (Griesgraber) to weekends with the intent of keeping him and then they will let the new kid go when the time comes with the pretense that he isn’t cutting it and then,…BAM, Shawn does the morning show which will help their ratings. It makes all the sense in the world. Would Cable take the gig? Without a doubt. The other senerio is that by moving Patrick to weekends it would p*ss him off to the point of where he would want to quit thus putting (Derick) Fabert back to weekends and again, Cable goes to mornings. Anyway you cut it………Shawn signs with KSFY. What do you think? His non-compete is over July 31.

My thoughts as a long-ago KSFYer is that maybe KSFY would simply hire Shawn after his non-compete is over and rotate him in and out of the various weather slots like KELOLAND* does with their weathercasters. I’m not sure anyone needs to lose their job, but hey, it is broadcasting.

But I do think KSFY needs to bolster their weather coverage. During Thursday’s stormy night, Chief Meteorologist Phil Schreck was not part of the coverage. I like the KELOLAND Wx guys a lot but I think Phil is the best TV meteorologist in the market. Frankly, they needed Phil’s cool head and great store of knowledge. I got the feeling young Derick Fabert was overwhelmed and needed more help than he was getting.

Also, kid all you want about KELOLAND’s SuperDuper Live Dopper HD 10,000, but their weather graphics and radars are head and shoulder’s above KSFY’s. (KDLT’s weather radar looks like an indistinguishable blob on my 26” HD TV.) Now, is KSFY’s Titan system more accurate than KELO’s? Perhaps. But it looks bad on TV. The resolution is not very high and the colors all seem to blend together. I never had the same sense of where the storms were on KSFY compared to KELO. I also think that side view of Vipr with hail is really cool.

Further, with KELOLAND’s team coverage and better graphics, a stormy night turns into compelling TV. Jay Trobeck and company have been around together long enough now that they work well coordinating the radars, other gizmos, and field reports.

I also really like the live, streaming video from their car-mounted web cams that provide realtime looks at weather on location. Hearing a reporter on the phone is one thing; seeing it on your TV is quite another—and much better.

Do my buddies at KELOLAND go a little overboard at times? Yes. I’ve even been a critic. But I’ve also noticed that they’ve dialed things back a bit and will drop off coverage in a non-impacted areas (i.e., KCLO, KPLO) and return to regular programming once the threat has passed that area.

And my wife and I were no idle watchers Thursday night. Our town of Harrisburg was close to the path of the storms. The sky was about as green and ugly as I’ve ever seen. We were concerned that we could be at risk, so watching the weather coverage was important to us.

KELOLAND’s graphics simply presented the threat we might face in a better manner.  Their coverage was orderly, even among the chaos of a number of storms in various places across the region.

So, just a few thoughts on Shawn Cable (hey, I need the traffic bump) and local weather coverage.

*I am an unpaid blogger on KELOLAND.com.

Technorati Tags: Shawn Cable, Phil Schreck, KSFY, KELOLAND, weather, Jay Trobeck,

While I'm hoping for an adult snow day Monday because of the predicted snow storm here in the Sioux Empire, my guess is that this storm has been over-predicted as all the others this season. My prediction? Some snow but rain that will keep the snow totals down.

But hey, I'm a lawyer not a meteorologist.

Any thoughts?

Technorati Tags: weather, snow, Sioux Empire, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, meteorology

The traffic lights are out at 22d and Minnesota in Sioux Falls this morning. Between the slush and the traffic snarl, you might want to stay away from there for a while.

I'm just sayin'.

Technorati Tags: traffic, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, weather

Ok, I exaggerate.

But there are enormous snowflakes falling in Sioux Falls right now that are about the size of Post Toasties.

Very cool.


Technorati Tags: snow flakes, snow, Sioux Falls

I don’t know what kind of a person Ken Hirsch was.

I only met him briefly once—in 1991 at the 50th anniversary celebration of Mt. Rushmore—he was the event announcer—and he seemed like a nice enough guy.

Like most of you in KELOLAND (and before that, KSFYLAND) all I knew of Ken Hirsch, who recently died from some long illnesses, was what I saw on TV.

When I was in junior high and high school in the 1960s and 70s, our TV was pretty much locked on KSFY-TV (sorry, KELOLAND). They had powerhouse talent—reporter Jane Hansen, who went on to a long career in New York City, Mr. Smooth as Silk Al Edel as news anchor, Mr. Sports Terry Dean, and, of course, Ken Hirsch on weather.

I lived for Ken’s weathercasts. He had a crazy system of ranking the coming day’s weather on a scale of 1-10. It was purely subjective as far as I could tell, but my friends and I were always excited when he predicted a “10.” That meant our track meet, swim meet, football game, or cross country meet would be conducted under pleasant conditions.

Even today, I think the gimmick would work. Everyone loves top ten lists and rating systems. Ken was just ahead of his time.

And he was always hawking those damn rain gauges. I can’t believe everyone in the region didn’t have at least two or three. I begged my parents to buy one. They wouldn’t. I’m still mad that they wouldn’t buy a Ken Hirsch Rain Gauge. It must have been a big part of his salary as he was as ever present as Billy Mays selling his crap today.

And Ken loved to give the weather for pilots, which sounded like a bunch of numbers and letters. But it was cool. No one else did it.

I even remember once when he let a chimp “help” him do the weather. The chimp took his pointer and pounded the living crap out of the weather map. It was side splitting hilarious.

But when there was bad weather, Ken was all business. No screwing around. Just the facts given matter of factly.

What I detected about Ken was that Ken had developed his own unique broadcasting persona. He was not matinee idol handsome. He wasn’t a Stepford Weathercaster. He had, well, personality. A likable on-air personality that was different than any other weatherman’s.

I went into broadcasting largely because I wanted to be like Ken Hirsch. I don’t think I ever approached his style and uniqueness (and certainly not his popularity) as a broadcaster, but for a kid living in a town that picked up four or five TV stations on a blurry 10 inch black and white TV with rabbit ears, Ken was someone I thought I could be.

I’ve never liked a weathercaster quite as much. I think the world of Phil Schreck at KSFY and Jay Trobeck at KELOLAND. I think they are accomplished meteorologists, good guys, and excellent broadcasters.

But no one has ever replaced Ken Hirsch as to who I think of first when I think of a “weatherman.”

Rest in peace, Ken. May every day in heaven be a “10.”

Technorati Tags: Ken Hirsch, Al Edel, Susan Hansen, Terry Dean, KSFY, KELO, KELOALND, weather, weatercasters, weathermen, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, aviation

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As you plan your Christmas/New Years travel, be sure to check out Safe Travel US, which includes a South Dakota map color coded to latest reported conditions.

It also has updated photos along key stretches of I-90 and I-29 across the state.

On a snowy night like this, it is a good place to check if you plan to hit the road.

(Hat tip to City of Sioux Falls website.)

Below: Photo on I-90 west of Sioux Falls from safetravelus.com.



Technorati Tags: traffic cams, traffic cameras, weather websites, traffic websites, South Dakota, SDOT, I-29, I-90

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