Jeff Hawkins
EF3
Helping a newbie
I just now came to Stormtrack to view threads about the storms yesterday on 6/7 in MO, and saw the yellow notice at the top of front page, and I am just CRUSHED!!!!! I am beside myself! I just returned from Missouri this morning, after chasing this weekend alone, when I was supposed to have met up with Fabian and friends and follow them. While out chasing, I went expecting to connect with Fabian and join him and friends chasing. Fabian never contacted me as planned, and I never got a call back from him after leaving him several voice mails on his cell this weekend.
I had no idea what happened, I thought maybe his cell phone battery died, or he couldn't get a signal, or worse (which made no sense) he was blowing me off...I made every effort to contact him to meet up, but got no response, and that made NO sense. But now, very sadly, it does.
He'd contacted me last Thursday evening (6/4), asking me if I wanted to join him and some others over the weekend, to make up for a missed chase I was to join him on 1 week earlier. I emailed him back saying "yes", and said I'd contact him on Saturday afternoon after I could firm up the forecast, before making a commitment. Here is a copy of our communications.
>>>>>>>>>
From Fabian:
----- Original Message -----
From: [Fabian]
To: [Jim]
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2009 10:24:17 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: this weekend chase...
Hi Jim,
Just thought I would let you know that I am most likely going to chase this Saturday in South-Central Nebraska and Sunday in South-Central Iowa and then high tail it back to Chicago after Sunday's chase. I will be meeting up with Craig Maire, a fellow storm chaser and friend in Des Moines, and crashing at his place. We'll head to Nebraska sometime early Saturday afternoon. I have a seat available in the car so if you are interested in a weekend marathon chase then let me know. I'll be leaving on Friday night about 10:00 PM from Chicago.
Fabian
My reply:
In a message dated 6/4/2009 10:58:48 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [Jim] writes:
Hi Fabian, thanks SO much for thinking of me! I will be working Saturday, a commitment I can't get out of unfortunately, but was thinking of leaving Sat. evening and driving out to IA for chasing on Sunday, and driving back Sunday evening. If this Sunday forecast holds firm on Saturday by 2pm, I'll commit, rent a car and head out. My first actual chase was on Monday on the KS/NE state line, and while there were no tornadoes, it was a good learning experience just working on positioning and how to use radar to safely maneuver from the north to the south side of a squall, and saw some good shelf cloud structures as well as lightning. I also ran into a group of UW-Madison students who were also chasing for their coursework, and they let me follow them a bit.
I did put out a 2nd call for a chase partner [for the first chase trip] and got a response from a ST member, only to find out at the last minute they were only 17 years old, and I quickly and gently declined their offer (for multiple ethical reasons), so running into the UW students was quite fortuitous.
I'll contact you by phone if I'm out that way and perhaps we can hook up.
Jeff
Fabian's reply on 6/5 at 7:04 AM:
Sounds good, Sunday might be good in iowa...
>>>>>>>>>>
I left a voice mail on his phone Saturday afternoon after seeing the favorable forecast, but didn't hear back. I decided to go ahead and get things reserved so I could go, and figured he was probably out in the corn fields where he couldn't get a signal, but would call back and we'd talk once he was back at a hotel room on Saturday evening.
On the road, I tried twice or 3 times more to reach him, with no luck. Eventually, calling his cell number didn't even ring. It just jumped right to his voice mail message.
This was odd, but I figured there had to be a logical reason.
I got out to the chase target area Sunday midday, and still no response from Fabian.
I was perplexed now, but figured there was a reason, and would find out after I got home.
I even went to the ST site, monitored my private messages to see if he'd responded, to no avail.
There was nothing on the site to suggest anything like a death. Just this evening is the first time I see the notice.
Needless to say, I'm heartbroken, and at a loss for words.
I never met Fabian face to face, but what contact I've had with him show he was passionate about chasing, and obviously a great friend to those who knew him.
A donation will be made in his honor.
Jim Hawkins
I just now came to Stormtrack to view threads about the storms yesterday on 6/7 in MO, and saw the yellow notice at the top of front page, and I am just CRUSHED!!!!! I am beside myself! I just returned from Missouri this morning, after chasing this weekend alone, when I was supposed to have met up with Fabian and friends and follow them. While out chasing, I went expecting to connect with Fabian and join him and friends chasing. Fabian never contacted me as planned, and I never got a call back from him after leaving him several voice mails on his cell this weekend.
I had no idea what happened, I thought maybe his cell phone battery died, or he couldn't get a signal, or worse (which made no sense) he was blowing me off...I made every effort to contact him to meet up, but got no response, and that made NO sense. But now, very sadly, it does.
He'd contacted me last Thursday evening (6/4), asking me if I wanted to join him and some others over the weekend, to make up for a missed chase I was to join him on 1 week earlier. I emailed him back saying "yes", and said I'd contact him on Saturday afternoon after I could firm up the forecast, before making a commitment. Here is a copy of our communications.
>>>>>>>>>
From Fabian:
----- Original Message -----
From: [Fabian]
To: [Jim]
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2009 10:24:17 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: this weekend chase...
Hi Jim,
Just thought I would let you know that I am most likely going to chase this Saturday in South-Central Nebraska and Sunday in South-Central Iowa and then high tail it back to Chicago after Sunday's chase. I will be meeting up with Craig Maire, a fellow storm chaser and friend in Des Moines, and crashing at his place. We'll head to Nebraska sometime early Saturday afternoon. I have a seat available in the car so if you are interested in a weekend marathon chase then let me know. I'll be leaving on Friday night about 10:00 PM from Chicago.
Fabian
My reply:
In a message dated 6/4/2009 10:58:48 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [Jim] writes:
Hi Fabian, thanks SO much for thinking of me! I will be working Saturday, a commitment I can't get out of unfortunately, but was thinking of leaving Sat. evening and driving out to IA for chasing on Sunday, and driving back Sunday evening. If this Sunday forecast holds firm on Saturday by 2pm, I'll commit, rent a car and head out. My first actual chase was on Monday on the KS/NE state line, and while there were no tornadoes, it was a good learning experience just working on positioning and how to use radar to safely maneuver from the north to the south side of a squall, and saw some good shelf cloud structures as well as lightning. I also ran into a group of UW-Madison students who were also chasing for their coursework, and they let me follow them a bit.
I did put out a 2nd call for a chase partner [for the first chase trip] and got a response from a ST member, only to find out at the last minute they were only 17 years old, and I quickly and gently declined their offer (for multiple ethical reasons), so running into the UW students was quite fortuitous.
I'll contact you by phone if I'm out that way and perhaps we can hook up.
Jeff
Fabian's reply on 6/5 at 7:04 AM:
Sounds good, Sunday might be good in iowa...
>>>>>>>>>>
I left a voice mail on his phone Saturday afternoon after seeing the favorable forecast, but didn't hear back. I decided to go ahead and get things reserved so I could go, and figured he was probably out in the corn fields where he couldn't get a signal, but would call back and we'd talk once he was back at a hotel room on Saturday evening.
On the road, I tried twice or 3 times more to reach him, with no luck. Eventually, calling his cell number didn't even ring. It just jumped right to his voice mail message.
This was odd, but I figured there had to be a logical reason.
I got out to the chase target area Sunday midday, and still no response from Fabian.
I was perplexed now, but figured there was a reason, and would find out after I got home.
I even went to the ST site, monitored my private messages to see if he'd responded, to no avail.
There was nothing on the site to suggest anything like a death. Just this evening is the first time I see the notice.
Needless to say, I'm heartbroken, and at a loss for words.
I never met Fabian face to face, but what contact I've had with him show he was passionate about chasing, and obviously a great friend to those who knew him.
A donation will be made in his honor.
Jim Hawkins
