Hurricane Ike DVD review

[Bill Hark]

DVD Review Hurricane Ike

As the SDS sets in and I realize there is little chance for severe weather until next Spring, I sit back and watch storm chaser DVD’s. I had the chance to watch Hurricane Ike, a documentary style highlights video compilation by edited by Jim Edds and including footage by Jeff Piotrowski and Chris Collura. This is a very well done history of Hurricane Ike with video from both the Florida Keys and the Galveston area. The DVD starts with Jim Edds filming the periphery of Hurricane Ike as it nears the Keys, then as he travels to Galveston and meets with chasers Jeff Piotrowski and Chris Collura. There are very nice scenes of massive waves pounding the shore and the unusually early storm surge. There is nice close video from a “surge-camâ€￾. Conditions deteriorate with increasing winds and flooding. There are also nice shots of wind-driven fires as they destroy houses. At night, there are nice shots of a flooded parking garage with a boat floating inside. I didn’t know that car lights often turn on due to shorts as a car is flooded. They managed to be inside the eye with calm winds. At one point, one can hear the approaching winds from the other side of the eye wall yet it is still calm. The next day, there is terrible damage across Galveston. They film the helicopter rescue of some folks on a rooftop who stayed in a building directly on the water. The surge had almost completely removed the first floor. Luckily the building was still standing are those folks would have gotten Darwin awards. There is also some aerial rescue and damage video from the coast guard. I was saddened to see people walking along carrying their belongings through flooded streets. The DVD ends with some before an after aerial images of Galveston. The DVD is well-organized and narrated by Jim Edds. In addition to video, Jim has included nice shots of radar, satellite and maps to illustrate the progress of Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike may now be forgotten by the news but it was a very devastating hurricane for that area. I definitely recommend checking out this video. As I have said before, the best hurricane DVD’s are made from compiling more than one chaser’s footage. This includes footage from three of the best.

http://www.extremestorms.com/

Bill Hark

 

[Mark Sudduth]

Ike DVD

Bill is spot on. The DVD produced by Jim Edds is professional from start to finish. He weaves together the video from his own shots with those from Chris and Jeff.

One thing Bill mentions is the fact that Ike has mostly left the news scene. I really think we are entering a time when natural disasters have to "one-up" each other and raise the bar from the last one. Katrina set that bar and as we saw even in that historic year, hurricanes like Rita and Wilma were almost irrelevant in the national media- once the winds died down. Ike has left an enormous amount of Louisiana and Texas coastline in ruin. The surge alone was phenomenal- spreading inland for many miles. I hope that Jim can sell many DVDs to people all around the world so that they can get a feel for what Ike was like and what it left behind. His DVD would make for a great Xmas present to the weather buff who is hard to shop for!

 

[Jeff Gammons]

Hey Gang,

Revived my copy of Jim Edds new Hurricane Ike DVD release this week, and what a hurricane DVD it is! I wrote a review post on my blog if your interested. Defiantly worth getting for your personal collection. Unfortunately for myself, I couldn’t chase Ike due to travel restraints, but the DVD helped make up for it.