The Christmas Week Snow Storm; 7-feet in 5 days.

Radar shows with winds out of the SW why Buffalo gets hammered

 Buffalo, NY;  December 25-30, 2001  – 7-FEET OF SNOW IN 5 DAYS:

When it comes to Lake Effect no week stands out more to me than Christmas week 2001.   As of Monday December 24th, Christmas Eve, Buffalo hadn’t had any snow for the season, not even a trace.  It was the first year on record the city had gone that long without a flake.  Later that night the snow started falling and when it ended Christmas Day we had around 25″ on the ground. 

We became the talk of the country and on Wednesday we found ourselves doing extra live shots for the network and other stations on the Christmas Snow.  The sun was out much of the day though in Buffalo as the band drifted north into Niagara County and was hitting them hard and giving us a chance to dig out.  

By 4 a.m. Thursday though it drifted south and was back on top of us dropping snow at the rate of 3″ an hour again.  Once again we were the talk of the country (remember no real news happens during Christmas week so the networks loved it.) 

My wife and I were doing live shots for just about every network (even the financial ones) and tons of local stations around the country.   (One of the live shots she did was for a station here in Cleveland and from that came a job offer and that’s how we ended up moving to less snowy side of the Lake.)

My wife of CNN

The storm hit during a time in my career where in addition to anchoring WKBW’s morning show I was a fill-in weather person pushed into full time duty because the station had only one meteorologist working that week.  He handled the late shows I handled the early.  

Between live shots they asked me to a phone interview with Sam Donaldson on his national radio show.  I thought sure I can do this one from my desk where it’s warm.   As I waited his producer asked me if I could wait a minute or two, there were some new developments out of Afghanistan that morning and Sam wanted to get a quick update.  I said no problem, I’m good on time.   I sat at my desk with my coat on trying to warm up and actually starting to dose off a little as I waited.  I hear Sam come on and talk about what happened with Al Quaida that morning.  Then I heard him say “joining me now with more on this is John Kosich, President of the National Institute of Military Justice.”   Like a kid called on in class by the teacher the adrenaline rush shot through me “oh crap” I thought.  I can talk about Travel Bans not the Taliban.  A heartbeat later Sam recognized his mistake, corrected himself and said “I’m sorry Eugene Fidell, President of the…”  Needless to say when Sam came to me a minute or two later I was awake.

Me digging out my car 12/29/2001

When the snow ended Friday we had 84″ of it in five days.  Saturday was spent just trying to first find my car then dig it out for the third time this week.

The biggest problem with 7-feet of snow is where do you put it?  Buffalo has huge trash cans, I’d fill one up, roll it to an empty spot, dump it, then repeat the process.

Oh and if you wondered what 7-feet of snow looks like? It actually looks like three or four feet because it’s constantly packing down under it’s own weight.

We couldn’t get out of town for New Years until Sunday and even then it wasn’t easy, then as we got 20-30 miles out of town there was hardly any snow, the joy of Lake Effect.

The most awesome thing about that year was the fact that we basically had winter in a week.  We had nothing leading up to that storm, we got walloped and then we really had very little snow after it.  Maybe one or two 6″ storms but nothing huge.

Christmas Song Worth Catching; “O Holy Night”

 

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was a short lived TV show that followed the behind the scenes going ons of a fictional Saturday Night Live type show.

After Hurricane Katrina they featured a group of New Orleans musicians playing a classic that has quickly become my favorite.

If you like Jazz you’ll like the “City of New Orleans” ensemble and one of the most moving renditions of “O Holy Night” you’ll ever hear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khSml43oKJQ

Thank You Dave Roberts!

John Kosich & Dave Roberts "Live on City Line" January 1987

As Broadcast Pioneer Dave Roberts prepares to call it a career I simply cannot express in words the thanks I owe to this man who, especially in the early days of my career, was always just a phone call away with advice, support and a positive attitude that was nothing short of contagious.

Dave Roberts at the old magnetic 5 Day Forecast board.

I first met Dave in January of 1987 when I became an intern in the sports department of WPVI-TV, he made a point to go out of his way to say hello and strike up a conversation with the quiet but inquisitive Temple University student, just overwhelmed by actually being in this place he had daily watched his whole life.

It was actually the night the above picture outside was taken.  I brought my camera into the station that day and while taking a picture of Dave he asked me to help build a snowman in between his weather hits.  I was ecstatic to help and even more happy to capture the end result on film.

 We quickly hit it off and whenever I could, I would sneak away from the sports department and take advantage of the opportunity to pick the brain of this man who had done it all in this business.

When I took my first job at KQTV in St. Joseph, Missouri, Dave was one of the first I called and when I returned on my first vacation home from St. Joe, Dave was one of the first I visited. 

Tape in hand he sat down with me and one by one went over a handful of my first stories. 

Looking back on them today they were absolutely brutal but not to Dave, he let  me know everything that I was doing right and what I might want to try differently.  Note it’s not what I was doing wrong, you see Dave always stressed the positive.  He might say  ‘that was good but next time why don’t you try it this way.’  

Dave Roberts & John Kosich August, 1987

Before long I was home from Missouri working as the 11 p.m. anchor at WMGM-TV in Atlantic City and one of the ways that was great for me was the fact Dave was now just up the Expressway and believe me I took advantage of that.  

After four years at the shore I was offered a job at WNEP-TV in Scranton.  As I drove back to the shore from the interview after accepting the job the first stop I made was WPVI, I couldn’t wait to tell Dave.  I would now be working with Nolan Johannes, who together with Dave, helped shape Buffalo television at WKBW-TV.  

Dave was as proud as a father at that and even more so when I was named to replace Nolan as 11 p.m. anchor when he announced his retirement.  The positive reinforcement was always there and before long Dave wasn’t just singing my praises to me but to his bosses and trying to get me a job at Channel 6.

Rob Jennings, Scott Palmer & Dave Roberts in a break.

That was something though that never happened and from WNEP I retraced Dave’s footsteps to Buffalo when I joined WKBW-TV as morning anchor.  I was there about a year and a half when Dave was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame.  During his time there Dave Thomas, as he was known, became a household fixture for kids in Western New York and Southern Ontario for his role on Rocketship 7.

 Many in Buffalo knew Dave but there was nobody else that I was going to let do the story on his return and honor.

This was that story.

After all the accolades Dave will be remembered by most for his work in television, I will remember him though for the person he was off the air.   Anyone who likely ever received a card or letter from him had included on it the same smiley face that appeared nightly on his hand drawn weather clouds.  That was just the positive attitude of the man, there’s no question to him the glass was always more than half full.

A favorite memory for me was one Friday night when I was an intern and my father came to pick me up.  My mother was out of town and my Dad, who had to rise early for work during the week didn’t have to get up the next day so I asked him if he wanted to come in to sit in on a newscast.  Jim Gardner and Don Tollefson couldn’t have been nicer to him but it was Dave who came over and made a fuss over my Dad telling him how proud he must be.   My Dad sat there that night with a smile a mile wide.  Years later Dave would still ask ‘how’s your Dad?’   And when my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary Dave was one of the first to step up and send me a video greeting which I included in a special video I put together for them.

The best Dave Roberts story I heard isn’t one that involved me.  It came, oddly enough, from the funeral of a very good friend’s mother.   In a eulogy her daughter told the story of a Birthday card she once received. 

Her mother it seems was writing out the card while watching Dave’s weather one night.  Well instead of signing it “Love Mom & Dad” she accidentally  signed it “Love Mom & Dave.”

Like so many Dave was like a member of their family and I’ve been so very proud to count him in an extended way as a member of mine.   And retirement to me Dave means your just easier to reach when I need some advice!

Jim Gardner, Don Tollefson, Dave Roberts in a commercial break

The old weather magnets

If you look closely you can see the weather info written out on the white board since the sun glare on City Line made it tough to see the monitor.

LAKE EFFECT NIGHTMARES;

Me on CNN, December 27, 2001

In the interest of full disclosure, I love Lake Effect Snow.  It is the most unpredictable of snow storms hitting one area with 3″ an hour blizzard like conditions while the sun shines 10 miles away.   My love of Lake Effect was born in Buffalo where I lived for three years prior to moving to Cleveland (a move which was the result of Lake Effect snow – more on that in part two.) In the three years I was in Buffalo I experienced three of their five biggest snowfalls of all time, two of which occurred during Christmas week of 2001 when we had 7-feet of snow in five days. 

When Cleveland gets Lake Effect Snow, the winds tend to be out of the NNW so the moisture they pick up is limited.  When Buffalo gets hammered it’s because the winds are out of the SW.  That means those winds travel the length of the lake, all 250-miles of it and when they hit Buffalo watch out.

Buffalo November 20, 2000

NOVEMBER 20, 2000:

The first biggie was November 20, 2000.  It was a Monday and it just snowed about 10″ the day before.  The forecasters were calling for additional Lake Effect but nothing major.   Around 11 am. the winds set up out of the SW and the snow started falling and falling hard at about 3″ an hour.  My wife and I were done work at WKBW-TV after the noon show at 12:30.   We were lucky, we were able to navigate the quickly snow filling roads on the 2.5 mile trip home.   We slid into a spot across the street and went into our apartment thinking this can’t last.  It did.  

Because it caught everyone off guard the schools didn’t let out early.  So at 2:30 the loaded school buses hit the street at the same time the city and county governments shut down and just about every business let their employees go.  All of a sudden the streets were gridlocked,  the plows couldn’t get anywhere, the cars couldn’t and the buses couldn’t.  Bottomline where you were at 4 in the afternoon is where you would be at 4 the next morning.  

That meant there were school kids stranded on buses throughout the city.  They ended up spending the night at whatever Hospital, Church, Fire Station or fast food restaurant they were near.

What made it so neat when it got dark was the thunder and lightning that accompanied the snow.  After it got dark at 5 the lightning would reflect off the falling snow looking like the world’s largest flashbulb.  The snow stopped around 6:30  p.m. but by this time the damage was done and the plows were stuck with the cars many of which now sat abandoned. 

I anchored the morning show at WKBW-TV and in order to get to work at 3 a.m.  I had to walk the 2.5 miles down Delaware Avenue, a four lane road lined with cars.  The atmosphere was one I’ll never forget, those who stayed with their cars bought every ounce of beer they could find and made a party of it.  I was offered the equivalent of a six pack by the time I made it to work.  (I didn’t take any – at least that’s the story I’m sticking with.)

Delaware Avenue, these were the cars I walked around going to and from work that day.

The city remained shut down all of Tuesday.  When I walked home along Delaware Avenue the tow trucks were still removing the cars but they could only go so fast.  I got home to dig out my car.  As I rounded the corner it dawned on me it was towed because it wasn’t there.  As I got closer though I saw the rear view mirror sticking out of the white, crap it was plowed under.

The state of emergency was lifted on Wednesday morning which was also the day before Thanksgiving.  The supermarkets were unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life and likely will never see again.  People looking to not only restock after the storm but get everything they needed for Thanksgiving the next day.

What made it awesome was the way people came together, opened up their houses and went out of their way to help each other out.

The Crash of AA Flt. 587 November 12, 2001

When American Airlines Flight 587 crashed shortly after takeoff from New York’s JFK Airport, the nation stopped dead in its tracks.  Afterall it was two months and a day after 9/11.   Were we under attack again? 

On this the eigth anniversary of that crash it has faded from our memories because it was not terrorist related.  Even still it remains the second deadliest U.S. aviation crash in history,  260 people on board were killed, five people on the ground.

Crash site of AA Flt. 587 Belle Harbor, NY

I arrived on the scene early that evening after coming in from Buffalo.  Having left immediately after learning of the crash I saw little TV coverage and didn’t know what to expect when I got there.  When I arrived I was floored by how small an area had been impacted by such a massive jet.  Afterall this was an Airbus A-300.  What was overwhelming was the smell of the Jet fuel that lingered in the air.  The jet crashed 103 seconds after takeoff so it was loaded with fuel.

What I quickly learned about Belle Harbor was this was a community of hard working men and women that was absolutely devastated by the attacks of September 11th with just about every resident either losing a member of their own family or a neighbor in the terrorist attacks.

I remember standing the next morning outside St. Francis DeSales Catholic Church on the edge of the crash site, where 9 a.m. mass was packed with a Sunday sized crowd.  This is a church that had been the site of almost daily funerals, 30 to date at that point, as the victims of 9/11 were identified.

John Heffernan, FDNY Killed 9/11

Outside I met Mary Heffernan, a woman with a brogue as thick as could be, who rode her bike down to see for herself what had happened to her neighborhood.  In talking with her I quickly learned that Mary had lost her son John, a New York City firefighter in the September 11th attacks.  I remember being struck by just how calm she was in all this but in reality like so many people here she wasn’t so much calm, she was just  numb.  These people at this time just had to be thinking why us?  How much more can we endure?

The cause of the crash was quickly ruled not another terrorist attack but a takeoff that followed too closely the takeoff of another jet causing extreme turbulence which in a nutshell led to the crash.

Anyway as we look back on that day here’s the piece I put together that night for WKBW-TV on the people of Belle Harbor.

Celebrating the Accordion! (Seriously)

Ask me to pick one story over the last 20 years that stood out among the rest and I’d make a strong case for this one shot in Buffalo celebrating of all things, the accoridon.

Take a look.

I loved this story because I certainly did not anticipate meeting someone like Edwin when I set out to do it, he was enough to carry the story alone.

 Then when I borrowed one of his accoridons to talk with people I did so thinking that I’ll approach people with a big accordion around my neck, ask them to guess which musical instrument we’re celebrating this month, then be totally surprised when they all guess correctly the accordion.  

The only problem?  No one got it, no one put two and two together.  ABC’s World News This Morning ran the story as a kicker which prompted Barry Mitchell (he of World News Polka fame) to send along a… well… interesting autographed photo which if I can find…and am allowed to post… I will.

VOTE YES ON ISSUE 44 & 1/4

A vote yes for Issue 44 & 1/4  is a vote not only for Ohio’s future but our past present.

Issue 44 & 1/4 will;

- Create Jobs – Lower Taxes

- Raise property values

- Reduce our dependence on imported beer

- Improve education

- Take inches off our waists

- Make our streets safer, cleaner and self repairing

- Put a chicken in every pot

- Make our children respectful

- Restore pride

- End male pattern baldness

- Give us a lush, green, fuller lawn

- Make us the envy of the other 49 states. (Guam, Puerto Rico & American Samoa too.)

DON’T BE FOOLED: Those who oppose Issue 44 & 1/4 are mean hateful people who live out of state, never call their mothers and don’t like puppies, kittens or small children.

Ohio the time is now to stand up and be counted. On the 12th of Never vote YES on Issue 44 & 1/4, You deserve it!

-The preceding message was furnished by the Council of Confusion Over All Issue Ads. – I.B. Baffled, Treasurer

Cleveland Browns; The Pittsburgh Jinx

Cleveland Browns Stadium (where the Steelers are 9-1)

Since the Cleveland Browns returned to the pro football scene in 1999 (I know many would argue if they’ve actually returned) much and I mean much has been made about their inability to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The next chapter in this decades long saga will be written October 18 at Heinz Field.  Recently a co-worker, photographer Tom Livingston, asked me to make a copy on DVD of some old stories he did at WEWS-TV when he was first starting out here in 1980-’81.

A number of those stories caught my eye and ear for being timeless but none more so then the one I post below from October of 1981.  It was after a heartbreaking 13-7 loss to the Steelers in Three Rivers Stadium.  The story by reporter Allen Davis looks at the Browns inability to win in Pittsburgh and raises the question of some sort of jinx.  (Which then head coach Sam Rutigliano does his best to shoot down.)  28-years later though the discussion continues.

Ohio Issue 3; What to expect.

As the debate over Ohio’s Issue 3 heats up I felt the need to re-post these two pieces I did on Atlantic City in 2001.  I covered the casino industry there  for four years and put these stories together when New York State was about to dive into the waters of casino gambling.

This piece looks at the unanticipated consequences when gambling came to Atlantic City.

This piece picks the brains of those who saw Atlantic City through those difficult days to see what they think any state looking at gambling should or shouldn’t include and what they need to be prepared for.

Issue 3 Debate; Gambling in Ohio

I’m not taking a stand either way on Issue 3, the proposal to bring free standing Las Vegas style casinos to Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo, so don’t take it as such.

But what caught my ear in a commercial the other day was what opponents of Issue 3 claim as one of it’s downfalls.  That at no time will it create 34,000 jobs for Ohioans.  That many of those jobs will go to highly skilled workers from other parts of the country rather than taking the time to train Ohio workers.

Would I like to see Ohioans in those jobs? Absolutely 100%.  But let’s not forget that we as a state and especially in Northeast Ohio are hemorrhaging residents.  In fact in a story I did on the subject in 2008 I pointed out that  in a 7 year period the city of Cleveland alone lost an average of 15 people a day.

 So is it necessarily a bad thing that people will actually move to Ohio for jobs?  That they’ll maybe buy up some of our housing stock and pump their savings (earned elsewhere) here into Ohio?

The debate on gambling is a great one with many great back and forth’s to come, arguments that hopefully create more of a discussion than this one.