A young East Texan, Michael Vinther, who is an avid storm chaser, went to Louisiana to chase Hurricane Gustav. He is a trained storm spotter through the National Weather Service and is a member of SKYWARN for Nacogdoches county. Below is a sample video from his trip. To see more clips, check out our See It, Snap It, Send It section of KTRE.com. Also, Michael provided a summary of his experience.
"We left Nacogdoches, TX around 7am Monday morning for Lake Charles, LA to intercept hurricane Gustav. It was nearly impossible to find gas anywhere and every city was deserted. When we arrived in Lake Charles, we looked at our Mobile Threat Net radar system and decided to take I 10 to Lafayette, LA. When we got there, the winds picked up and it started to rain (nothing too bad). We were interviewed by a Lafayette TV station. About 15 minutes later, the winds really picked up and the cities power went off. We saw signs and traffic lights sway. Then the winds started to gust to 80-90mph. We saw roofs be ripped off trailers, traffic lights fall down and more. It was amazing how powerful hurricanes can be, and this was only at cat. 2!
The strong wind gusts had ripped the cups off our anemometers and nearly pushed us off the road. After the worst had passed, we helped many people that were injured or having problems with their cars. We returned around 8-9 pm." -- Michael Vinther
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