Rescue over the Rainbow (Part X)

part 10 of the storm chaser saga [fiction ripped from the headlines]:

©Mark H. Pillsbury

Rescue over the Rainbow (rating: PG-13)

Comparing these two free-spirits to some sort of weather phenomena would be too simple; a spring breeze blowing hard, unpredictably, and fresh; or a fierce hurricane gale with wet fury and the damaging ebb and flow of a storm surge. Weather metaphors don’t do justice to the mercurial ways of the two young storm chasers trapped in the east Texas wilderness during the massive wildfires of summer 2011.

Certainly they lived an exciting, romantic life on the road; except summers which were usually reserved for relaxation and retrospective of a successful spring of capturing tornadoes on video, preferably reminiscing with an icy-cold drink in their hand. The “long way” through Texas had proven to be an egregious error, one for which they might pay with their lives.

Jessica caught the breaks growing up, being smart, perky, and curious, the constant-learner of her friends, popular and yet more mature in many ways than her high-school crowd. She was beautiful but never dressed to draw in the boys like a siren; she was smart but never too cool or too busy studying to have fun with the rest of her gang. Her interest in weather came from Jessica's relationship with her father, who taught not be afraid of the big storms that raged through the Midwest, taking her outside even as debris flew through the air during a storm. His calm demeanor and respect for the power of God shown in nature was at the root of her curiosity, and it gave Jessica the confidence to study what could never be controlled or reduced to something stared at through a microscope. Meteorology was majestic, mysterious, meticulous, but at the same time it was grandiose.

On the other hand, Rick was the average all-American daredevil Oklahoma show-off, under-sized and a bit geeky for his contemporaries growing up in the rural state north of Texas. He never cared much for sports in a town ravenous for football glory, just one of the ways in which he felt misunderstood. He would sooner study on Saturday than waste the whole day in the scorching sun without being able to “move.” Even though Rick never really competed in sports, he was as mobile as a point-guard, aggressive as a middle-linebacker, and as swift as a soccer-midfielder attacking the ball. Rick poured his time into studying meteorology because he had a plan: follow big storms until he got close enough to record HD video, which he could sell like Blue Fin Tuna off Cape Cod, premium catch paying premium dollars.

There are thousands of so-called “storm-chasers,” just like thousands who think they can make money playing golf. However, being a “professional” storm-chaser takes the same stamina, will, and accuracy of a man who shapes a 7-iron tee shot from 200 yards, placing a tiny white ball on a postage-stamp green; with the cameras rolling! It takes skill, preparation, planning, intuition, courage, luck, and patience to go to the right point and wait for a hurtling freight-train without tracks to barrel toward your intersection when everyone else in the county is running for cover. Guessing the direction of a mesocyclone is tricky business, staying put so it comes to hit you square in the mouth is an act of bravado or insanity, whichever way you look at it. But Rick was willing to take just about any chance to nail the “money clip,” as they called the short snippet of footage networks and news agencies were willing to buy for large coinage.

They worked so hard together chasing weather for about a year that love had a hard time squeezing in between Rick and his mistress, Miss Tornado Alley. He sought the next storm with a relentless fervor, as if pursuing a lover. Jessica followed along as an able assistant, good at whatever she was asked to do; but never with the intensity of the president and CEO of T&A, Rick Tarleton, the rising entrepreneur of extreme weather. As they grew to rely on each other more, and when the money was short in the first few months, Jessica thought it was alright to stay with Rick in one motel room on the road. Infrequently they would also have a trail car of some OU-meteor buddies, the “subs” as Rick affectionately called them, however he would never let on that they were an item; she had to get her own room on those occasions. Their liaisons were physical and inconsistent, yet they deeply cared for each other in an immature way. They were too busy to define their relationship or really talk about what was coming next; which is why this vacation was pivotal in the evolution of their lives. Jessica was ready to take their connection to the next level, but she was uncomfortable with an existence on the road chasing tornadoes.

She felt some independence with the extra pay she received doing the weekend weather on the local FOX TV affiliate, channel 25. It was nice being a small-town celebrity, but how much creativity went into reporting Oklahoma weather? Really, it was hot for so long, then bitter cold reigned for 3 months bringing some snow, finally the excitement of spring showed Okies the only extreme weather drama they could see in a year. Once again, her reporting returned to the dust-bowl heat of the 6-month drought known as summer. Jessica wanted people to be happy, so she treasured the few times when her enthusiasm for weather was a positive force in the community on a beautiful weekend. She enjoyed telling her neighbors to go out and make it a great weekend when she knew the weather would cooperate, and just the fact of her being on TV made her, unnatural as it was, bigger-than-life. Jessica treated that role with honor and respect, like a rainbow. Maybe in the background, Rick was a little bit jealous.

Their mission was to slowly make it to the new cruise ship terminal at the Port of Houston known as Barbours Cut, then taking a “party boat” out into the Caribbean Sea, where Rick and Jessica loved to scuba dive. It gave them the same thrill as chasing God’s creation above the ocean surface. Stopping in Liberty County was a chance detour, but Rick wanted to see his cousin Clay who had some land, a pond on which to fish, and a small bunkhouse. The wildfires were uninvited guests. Actually, they listened to country music driving down through east Texas, and did not pay attention to the headlines about the massive Texas drought or the local fire plague. This was a lazy time of year when they both decided to “unplug.” As quickly as a tornado strikes an unsuspecting town asleep during an unstable spring evening, wildfires have consumed over 3 million acres of Texas forest almost 16 thousand times in separate incidents of reported fires. Almost every Texas County had a burn ban, rural areas a tinderbox for indiscriminate flames.

Strangely, Rick used none of the tools of his previous success reacting to this emergency. Clay was forceful and confident but ultimately he did not stay together with the team during the most critical time of their escape. Jessica, dutifully compliant and contrite until overcome by smoke and exhaustion, was this tragedy’s character least likely to take risks or ignore the danger in which they found themselves. Wildfires seem isolated and small compared to a tornado’s fury, but their lack of respect for the power of fire put them in a compromised position: it was like someone thinking that staying underneath a beach umbrella will keep them from getting sunburned; at the end of the day, without sunblock, the heat, pain, and burning sensation can ruin a vacation!

This was the same consistently smart, diligent, serious young lady she had always been, even though Jessica had avoided dozens of close scrapes with menacing threats over the years since the tranquil days at OU. Inexplicably, she found herself boarding a yellow fire helicopter with her boyfriend Rick, lacking control, disoriented by the past few hours of running, and weakened to the point of giving up; however, even at the last minute as she boarded, Jessica flashed her 1000-watt smile to the pilot which gave him the little boost of courage he needed to perform under such harrowing circumstances, under which he had never before flown. Finally, everything was going to be alright. They were rising upward, soaring, pulling ascendant against gravity to the heavens, away from the fiery furnace below.

to be continued in chapter XI...

©Mark H. Pillsbury (2011)


[Legal disclaimer: no part of this blog, any idea, line of fictional characters, or publication of written materials (a/k/a "intellectual property" or IP) may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form. It is arguable whether in fact, any permission in advance is even possible within the legal "fair use doctrine." The full extent of the law may be used in defending copyrights and trademarks, if necessary. Therefore, copying, quoting, crediting, or any reference to this IP, is permissible only under certain circumstances but should be done carefully after consulting legal counsel. Thank you, but a lawyer friend suggested this could be a problem if the storm chaser saga really went viral, or "caught fire," pardon that pun. You gotta keep your sense of humor when dealing with the Law?]

The Creator's Tool (Part 5)

The Creator’s Tool (Part 5 of the storm-chaser saga):

Nature uses colossal mega-fires of great size and strength to drive biodiversity, but these behemoths also create dangerous winds and micro-bursts just like thunderstorms. The storm-chasers typically would be in control and excited about this phenomena, however today circumstances dictate they run rather than pursue.

Technologically “out-gunned” and blind to satellite imagery showing the progression of the heat, the progression of the fire, the magnitude of the blaze; the storm-chasers and their friend travel a road to nowhere, unless they make the right turn.

“My phone is not helping us, Rick,” Jessica complained about coverage but at least she had battery power; his was dead. “As soon as I get a bar of reception, I am going to call the sheriff or someone around here. The look of the sky has me worried!”

“You guys just stay on my tail; I think we need to go down to the bottom where this road intersects that one, and take a right,” Clay pointed, commanding. “We just need to get out of this area and we’ll be fine; don’t get all freaked on me.” Unlike Clay, Rick had nausea in his gut because he was not in control. This was a weather war he was losing, and he felt it deeply.

photo credit: Georgia

Firefighters extinguish 95% of wildfires each year before they get out of control, indeed only weather changes really affect the giant fires like those in Texas. Smoke sometimes billows up, making pyrocumulus clouds 40,000 feet high, reaching into the troposphere/stratosphere. Some experts contend that the ecological transformation due to huge wildfires is actually a good thing.

image: AP

The bright red, orange line of flames encircling Rick, Jessica, and Clay did the real snap, crackle, and pop that early morning in Liberty County. Smoke and heat seeped closer to their crossroads, reminding them of the gravity of their situation. This was not so much a natural disaster as a human disaster during an extreme natural disturbance.

After a few more zig-zags through the web of country roads, they started to become disoriented. Each turn in the maze routed them closer to disaster, as they generally moved westward into the worst section of the wildfire; by now engulfing hundreds of thousands of acres. Fire season in southwestern United States lasts 61% longer today than 25 years ago, and unfortunately 8-million more homes have been built in fire zones since 1970. This is sure to be a 10 million-acre fire season, Texas hit as hard as any state.

Stopping later on the shoulder of a farm-to-market road, the crew decided they were lost. “Gotta tell ya Rick, I don’t feel like we're going in the right direction, do you?” Jessica was closing down.

“It just keeps getting worse,” Rick answered back. “But I don’t know where to go either, I’m usually able to pull up something on my up-link, but we aren’t able to boot it right now. The way the winds swirl, I've no way to know which direction this is coming from! It feels like the heat is bearing down from all directions!” Rick said in anguish, “what the ?$#! should we do?” He asked the smoky sky.

(to be continued in Part VI... fiction ripped from the headlines)

©Mark H. Pillsbury (this is a work of fiction, any similarity to real or created characters of other type, either in print, TV or film, is merely a coincidence,
14 July 2011)