Hurricane Hunters make stop in Myrtle Beach

Two members of the Hurricane Hunters’ C-130J and Gulfstream IV jet who live their dreams every day brought their expertise and passion to Myrtle Beach on Wednesday.

Leesa Froelich, a weather officer on the C-130J, and Lt. David Cowan, a pilot for the Gulfstream IV, each dreamed of being in the air as children.

The duo was among about a dozen members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on one of two planes that were either members of flight crews or National Hurricane Center specialists.

The crews gather data during flights through and around hurricanes and the specialists use it to warn and evacuate coastal residents during the tropical systems as they move ashore.

Froelich has flown into 17 storms since she began her career on one of the Hurricane Hunter planes, which has been on an East Coast hurricane awareness tour this week.

The tour had stops in six cities to increase awareness about preparedness for hurricane season, officials said. This tour is the first time two planes made stops together along the coast and it ends Friday in Marathon, Fla.

The Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

As a young girl growing up in Tampa, Froelich said she saw a news story about the hurricane hunters and decided her career path right then.

“That’s what I wanted to do and nobody believed me,” she said Wednesday at Myrtle Beach’s general aviation terminal where she gave tours to dozens of school children and later area residents who came to see the two Hurricane Hunter planes.

Officials noted the Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand areas have not experienced a direct hit from a hurricane for a number of years and residents should be preparing now for such an event.

“Nothing has happened seriously in South Carolina for a while. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to do what we are doing today, to reduce the complacency. It has to raise levels of awareness,” said Kim Stenson, director of the state’s Emergency Management Division. “We are very confident that if something happens in South Carolina, we will be prepared. We spend most of our time planning, training and exercising.”

Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center, said he hoped Wednesday’s visit to Myrtle Beach would spur area residents to get ready for the upcoming hurricane season.

“I want people see all this and realize there’s something I need to do to get prepared,” Knabb said and noted families should find out if they live in an evacuation zone and what to do if they do; go shopping for supplies they need if a storm does hit; talk with their insurance agent about coverage; and strengthen or reinforce their home to withstand a storm.

“If you do those things . . . It’s a good way to reduce stress level and when a hurricane comes you’ve already thought about what you are going to do,” Knabb said and noted NOAA’s seasonal forecast for the number of storms expected will be issued later this month.

On the planes, Cowan flies one of the Gulfstream IV jets that accompanies the C-130J, which Froelich rides in during hurricanes and tropical storms. Cowan and his crew of up to nine people fly above and around the storms at 45,000 feet, while Froelich and the C-130J crews fly through the storms at 10,000 feet.

“We’re on the outside of the storm and above the storm. It’s like a rough airline flight but for the most part it’s rather smooth,” Cowan said of the jet that has a radar in its nose and tail along with a port to deploy Dropsondes that measure pressure, temperatures, humidity, wind speed and direction and transmit that back to the aircraft.

“We help the scientists and meteorologists build and improve on what we have. Every year we improve on the forecast,” said Cowan, who is in his sixth year flying for NOAA.

Lt. Col. Keith Gibson, who is a pilot of the C-130J that Froelich rides on through the storms, said his crew follows a tropical system from “cradle to grave” providing data about the storm to National Hurricane Center forecasters.

“We provide the data to the National Hurricane Center which enhances their forecasts. We want to let [residents] know the data we provide is really accurate. We are flying into these storms real-time and we’re providing the data via satellite,” said Gibson, who is the director of operations for the Hurricane Hunters. “We want people to know these forecasts need to be heeded, listened to. They need to heed these warnings.”

With the C-130J, which is 19-years-old, parked behind him, Gibson said he was preparing for his third hurricane season on the plane.

“It can be a tough mission,” Gibson said of flying for six hours at a time through the storms at 10,000 feet. “We see the direct results. It feels good that data we provide to the National Hurricane Center is actually helping people. It’s surreal as you are flying into the storm. If it’s bad up there, you know it’s worse on the surface.”

How does it feel?

“It’s not always what you think of turbulence feels like,” Gibson said.

He described it being similar to a tower of terror ride where the bottom drops out when they hit down or updrafts inside the storm.

“We don’t fly over land because that’s when you get tons of updrafts and debris,” Gibson said and noted typically there are five people on the plane, a pilot, copilot, navigator, Dropsonde operator and weather officer.

On both planes there are people who deploy Dropsondes, which cost $700 each and are made of reinforced cardboard. On a typical flight the Gulfstream drops 25 to 30 per flight while the C-130 crews may drop 15 to 20 to gather weather data from a storm, officials said.

From that data collected, National Hurricane Center specialists or forecasters like John Cangialosi use the information to see where the storm is going, its strength and how large it could be, he said. They then issue watches and warnings for areas to be impacted by the storm.

“Our job is to paint the big picture about hurricanes . . . that data is invaluable,” Cangialosi said. “Regardless of what the hurricane season is like, it only takes one to cause problems.”

This story was originally published May 6, 2015 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Hurricane Hunters make stop in Myrtle Beach."