Johann Huntera
@chattwjonathan.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.3K following 6.6K posts
Meteorologist & car safety systems. husband, father, Chattahooligan. He/him Retweets are only endorsements if weather. You can like bad weather posts, it doesn't make you a bad person
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Reposted by Johann Huntera
virginiagewin.bsky.social
Journalist here

I’m interested in talking to a federal agency scientist who was fired, then rehired. I can keep you anonymous. I’m on Signal ginnyg.04

Reposts are appreciated!
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Or in the car of broth, pull the meat out of the bones!
Reposted by Johann Huntera
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Yes, his girlfriend who was sleeping and planning on driving the night shift.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Yes, his girlfriend who was sleeping and planning on driving the night shift.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Thank a professional at some point, I guess. I downplay my impact because I'm not acting for you, but want to be told that I help, and that you took specific action because of what I said.

It helps cope with the frustration.

You never know what you stopped from happening. The little wins are
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
There's no moral of the story. We won.

But Goddamn what a flailing dumbass. And yet we have to try to break through to this person. He would have taken his codriver down with him with his dumb-assery!

And you had better believe he would have been the first to sue if he got hurt. Ugh.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Fucking guy has every resource:

-Local news for a week from his home
-Messages from us (he got all of them)
-Florida light boards about hurricane michael
-personal phone calls from a professional
-a fucking cell phone!
-a codriver who can help

And he does his best to put himself in harm's way.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Go get Cindy again and she gets him on the phone AGAIN. Asks him why he's going back on what she told him.

"It's not that bad"

(Oh yeah, 155mph winds have now been recorded on the coast)

I honestly couldn't listen in on the conversation. I'm just seeing red.

She did it, he went north. idk.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
AND THEN HE UPDATES AGAIN HEADING WEST AGAIN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Called him again, and he said, well the GPS is pointing me to Marianna it's shorter anyway.

NO. NO. NO.
What does he need? Money? Guarantees? What can I do to make you turn this truck around?

He's pissed. AT ME!
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
And so I grab his fleet Manager, who is herself and old school truck driver. I need help.

She calls him up. It's another 5 minutes before she can get him to take an exit and stop. Just to talk.

After that he's headed back east.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Him: Well, I don't know how to get back to I-75. I'm just going to stop in Marianna.

Me: Just pull off the next exit and get back on I-10 East. It's paid miles to go through Atlanta! We're trying to pay you to stay safe!

Him: I'll figure it out at Marianna.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Me: Right. It's going to be bad. Like BAD BAD - blow you off the road bad. No one coming to rescue you bad.

Him: I'm making good time I'll be alright. And if it gets bad I'll just wait it out. I'm stopping for fuel in Marianna FL

Me: Marianna is expecting 110mph winds in less than 2 hours.
View of a destroyed gas station after Hurricane Michael
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
"This is a Category 5 Hurricane, the strongest type and you are about to meet it head on. I need you to turn back around and take I-75 to Atlanta - we sent it on your load information."

Him: You should have said something. Anyway, it's shorter to go this way and it's not bad out here at all.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
And he says that the weather is fine and he can go full speed and there isn't much traffic.

I'm like, "Dude, it's hurricane Michael, the one from the news, and it's making landfall in like an hour."

And I kid you not the guy says, "Oh I've been off at home in Tampa for the week. What do you mean?"
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
It is NOON now.

It's raining and gusty (not fun, but not terrible) in Lake City. INNER BANDS OF CAT 5 MICHAEL are about to reach the beach.

Panic messages to the truck, and more attempts to call. And he finally picks up the phone.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
But they're not answering their phone.

Which is understandable - they're driving - and even with a headset, it's a distraction.

We send custom message to them (the messages are read aloud) directing them to head to Atlanta and west from there.

....and then this truck turns W on I-10 at Lake City.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
And this one truck is heading up I-75 from Tampa is one on our lookout. Going to California, but has been given a waypoint of Atlanta.

Truck drivers are paid by the mile, so the waypoint is important. We tell him to go there, and he gets paid for that extra miles.

Safer trip, more pay. Good deal
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
On the morning of the 10th, we are monitoring traffic around the area - lot of people using the designated inland detours. Fielding some individual questions. A few drivers just stopping to wait it out. No problem, normal stuff.

Calling drivers to make sure they understand.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
In addition to that, for the 3 days leading up to the storm, alerts are updated twice daily to any truck within 200 miles of the area - and any truck approaching gets the latest alert.

Alerts describe getting through, severity of the storm, and timing on when we will shut off traffic.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
With a load list, we identified incoming loads, moved everything coming through after midnight on the 10th away from the coast - because if you happen to break down, you are now in a life-threatening situation.

If the drivers don't want to reroute, there's planned stops, and we started monitoring.
chattwjonathan.bsky.social
Hurricane Michael was a top notch prediction by the NHC. Michael's potential was identified as soon as it was identified.

Forecasts were issued, landfall locations identified, and we starting planning for our truckers well in advance - and identified I-10 as a no-go 2 days in advance.
Google MyMaps view of Hurricane Michael zones that I identified as no-go zones with needs for routing around or stopping incoming traffic