The Hurricane | Teen Ink

The Hurricane

June 18, 2011
By coolstudygirl GOLD, Vermilion, Ohio
coolstudygirl GOLD, Vermilion, Ohio
16 articles 0 photos 38 comments

Hurricane James was coming to Georgia according to Mike Flatley meteorologist for the local news station Atlanta Tornado news. Hurricane James is a category 3 hurricane right now and expected to straighten overnight to a category 4. Then the next day his boss sent him and three other people to do live reports before, during, and after James. Nobody knew that this was going to be his last report ever.

Mike Flatley arrived at Destin Beach where he and his partner Stephanie Webb were just a year earlier having fun. James was a category 5 when he arrived and was scheduled to hit in two days. He interviewed some of the locals there and they said that they were going to stick it out and told Mike their plans on how they were going to stick it out. He was disappointed that there were people that were planning to stay. His first live report was for Crystal Jesson and Al Cantore. He talked about where he was staying which was a hotel that was very sturdy and shouldn’t have any problem standing up to the storm.

The storm was starting to make landfall the next day at 9:00 p.m. Mike and his crew was talking to Stephanie Webb who was in Alabama at the time. The worst part was near Mike even though he had trouble standing up during it he stood up fine. And his shelter started to sustain serious damage on the roof but it was still safe to be outside during it for now because it was downgraded to a category 3 hurricane which he was through a lot of.

So at 7:00 a.m the next day he was reporting live and was talking to Stephanie he heard Stephanie and his cameraman tell him to watch out for a car coming his crew ran away just in time but not Mike the car hit him in his face and was knocked down while his crew tried to bring him back to the hotel. He unfortunately died instantly. Stephanie was very heartbroken when she heard when he died and couldn't believe that she witnessed it. By noon the news spread around the whole nation. He was a very popular weatherman and the footage of his death was never shown on the news nor the internet.

Stephanie was in her shelter crying and after the hurricane his crew directly came back to Atlanta. Everyone else also came back and they held a memorial service that was public for him. When they were still grieving for him they devoted a whole week filled with the best moments of Mike’s life from his early broadcasting days, till his last. It was the saddest week of their lives at the news station.

The next year Stephanie gave birth to a son and got married and named her son Mike after her colleague Mike. And at a young age Mike liked weather a lot and eventually became a meteorologist at the station.

The author's comments:
Seeing the meteorologists on tv reporting during the hurricanes and stuff.

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