ASCENT DESIGNING WITH PRECAST ® INSIGHT IN THE EYE OF THE STORM Doug Kiesling doesn’t have a desk job, and that’s perfectly fine with him. After all, being a storm chaser is as far from a desk job as you can get. “I started storm chasing back in 1988,” Kiesling says. “Watching weather has always fascinated me since I was a young child, so it’s kind of like doing what you’re called to do. That old saying, ‘do what you love to do, and you’ll never work a day in your life,’ is true.” It’s not just a hobby or passing interest. Kiesling owns and operates stormchasingvideo. com LLC, a video production company that supplies storm footage to the press and to movie and television productions. That’s why he found himself near Creole, La., on October 9, 2020, as Hurricane Delta’s 100-mph winds battered the coastline. When the Weather Channel, television networks, and storm chasers show up to capture footage of a hurricane, they search for a strong building nearby where they can take shelter when the fiercest part of the storm strikes. In addition to saving life and limb, thousands of dollars in equipment must be kept safe. With Hurricane Delta nearing, Kiesling and colleagues Simon Brewer and Michael Gordan spotted the Cameron Parish School District Warehouse. “We saw it and said that would be a great place to take shelter,” Kiesling recalls. “Storm chasers always look out for a strong concrete parking ramp or structure,” he says. “A concrete structure is definitely one of the first options to look for.” There was another reason finding that precast concrete structure was com-forting: the three men knew that the building had survived Hurricane Laura. That storm’s 150-mph winds struck only 13 miles away just five weeks ear-lier. “We saw that it survived Laura and we knew it would be fine,” he explains. A resident of Minnesota, Doug While a hurricane’s winds usually capture atten-Kiesling bundles up for the winter. tion, meteorologists and storm chasers know that Photo: Doug Kiesling. the storm surge kills more people and causes more damage close to a coastline. “We had to get above the water,” he recalls. “We were only a half-mile from the coastline. A wall of water was rushing nearby and was pretty much push-ing everything out of the way.” The three men stayed in the precast concrete shelter for about two hours, including the time when Hurricane Delta’s eye passed overhead, providing an eerie, short-lived calm. Several months later, Kiesling is still thankful for finding a precast concrete shelter in the storm. “When we got in there, it was like being on an island with the surge all around,” he says. See page 14 to learn from the precast concrete producer how the Cameron Parish School District Warehouse survived the storm. See the video Doug Kiesling took that day at https:// youtu.be/ZqiVJPfCKHE . TOM BAGSARIAN ASCENT EXECUTIVE EDITOR PCI EDITORIAL CONTENT MANAGER Tom Bagsarian is the executive editor of Ascent .
Ascent Summer 2021: Page 4
