Chapter 25: The Storm Still Churns

August 12, 2004

1:35 PM

I sat at the front of the auditorium. In seats beside me were my family and my chasing team. I wasn't in so much a seat as I was in a wheelchair. My legs were still mending after my legs were shattered last April.

Since then, all of F6 had been busy analyzing the data we had gotten from the Assboat. Four months later, we had about 10 of it completed. We estimated that it would take us about three or four years to fully understand what the Assboat had recorded. We had already found out the reasons why tornadoes form and how to predict when they will form. This would be the biggest revolution in tornado forecasting since 1953, when for the first time, a tornado warning came out from the National Weather Service.

As for me, I spent the next five weeks after the tornado in the hospital. During that time, another tornado outbreak hit the Dakotas, killing 4 people. I passed the time mostly by reading, sleeping, and watching TV. I finished Ulysses in 6 days, then Invisible Man, in 4. After that I went through several spy thrillers, a murder mystery or two (or three or four), and reread Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. On June 1, 2004, I was released from the hospital to my home in New Orleans, but I would be in a wheelchair until September. I was coping fine with the wheelchair, although I would be glad when I could piss standing up again.

David returned to school after his ten-day suspension, and passed his junior year the same way he passed all his other grades. He did terribly the whole year, but aced the finals. Thus, David would be a senior now.

Rick Sharon had spent the next month longing to chase again, after I announced I was retiring from storm chasing. He assembled a ragtag team of friends, and started his own storm-chasing group. As of now, August 12th, his team and he were still trying to decide on a name. But they were right next to me right now.

Martin Warren, having had enough action, went back to his job at the car company. His boss was so impressed by his actions during the tornado outbreak that he got promoted to the board of executives of the company. Fortunately, the group was moving their headquarters from Vermont to New Orleans. Martin was happy, as he said he really didn't need to experience a Vermont winter.

Floyd Palms ended up at the forefront of the recovery effort in Arkansas. He met with governor Huckabee and took him on a tour of the devastation in Ft. Smith. He had since halted all pickets and reformed his church to doing good for the world, instead of picketing various events deemed "antichristic".

The final death toll of the tornadoes in Arkansas and Mississippi was 234. 122 of those deaths occurred in Ft. Smith, another 82 in Jonesboro. 28 more were killed in various places in Arkansas and 2 more were killed in Mississippi. Over 10,000 people were injured in what would be the deadliest tornado outbreak in 30 years, and the deadliest in Arkansas's history. As mentioned on , the Ft. Smith tornado was the first single tornado since 1953 to kill more than 100 people. It would be three months before the funerals in Ft. Smith ended. One of those funerals was for Matthew Palms. Floyd Palms spoke at that one, and broke down in tears during the speech. Over 30,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the outbreak, and an estimated 2 billion dollars of damage was done. In the days after the outbreak, Ft. Smith and Jonesboro, and quite frankly, all of Arkansas, tried to recover from the outbreak. Insurance companies experienced a nightmare scenario, much like what happened in Florida after Hurricane Andrew. Floyd Palms ended up putting up a cross at the site of his destroyed church with the word "Hope" on it. A picture of this cross ended up on the cover of Time magazine. On May 3, 2004, President Bush toured the Ft. Smith and Jonesboro areas.

Where am I now? Right now, at 1:35 PM on August 12, 2004, I am in an auditorium in Christchurch, New Zealand. A world weather conference has been held here to talk about the progress made in the field of weather forecasting. I am the speaker of honor. The Assboat is now a household name among meteorologists.

"And now, we wish to announce the person responsible for quite possibly the greatest achievement in the field of weather forecasting this decade, please welcome Michael Hilter." The man speaking said. I wasn't sure what his name was. Michelle rolled my wheelchair up the ramp on the stage, and I got to the microphone. Time to speak.

"Hello." I said. "My name is Michael Hilter. You probably have heard my name after the whole disaster in Arkansas last April. First, a little about myself. You know my name, but I am 45 years old, and a former storm chaser. Before I introduce my findings, I wish to thank some people for their efforts in this whole situation. I want to thank my wife Michelle, for her love and support during my time of crisis. I also wish to thank my children, David, for his support of F6, and for saving our lives in the church in Ft. Smith. I also want to thank my daughter Katie for her love and kindness. Without them, this project would never have happened. I also want to thank the doctors for putting up with my constant book requests. And finally, I want to thank Ricard Sharon, Martin Warren, and the late Matthew Palms for their contributions to F6 and effort, which will save so many future lives, and hopefully prevent another Ft. Smith." I decided to get to the point.

"Anyway, we are still working on analyzing the data. As you can imagine, it will take several more years with several meteorological institutes before we fully understand what we have recorded in the tornado in Mississippi. So much news coverage went to the disaster in Arkansas, that our achievements are practically a secret, thankfully." Well, I thought, the last thing I need is reporters hounding me before we have any of the data analyzed.

"Personally, I'd rather our success not get much notice until we get everything done. Then, we can start reaping the rewards of the Assboat. I'm not sure how to end this speech. I feel bad for some things, like losing Matthew Palms. Nothing can replace him. Sure, some hated him, some thought he was a religious fundamentalist, but he was a great person, and I imagine everyone who died in Arkansas was a good person." I didn't want to say that statistically, not everyone who dies in something like this is a good person. "But think of what lives can be saved with the Assboat. We have done great things together, me, Rick, David, Martin, and Matt. We've tried to deploy the Assboat many times, with no success. We've saved lives, we've seen towns ripped apart, houses falling like they were made of decks of cards. We've seen dead bodies. We've seen overturned cars. We've seen things that belong in some awful Jerry Bruckheimer flick. Nature is a powerful beast, and no Assboats, no storm chasers, no radar, no cars, no nothing will change that. But we can save lives. We can do what we can to help those afflicted by nature. And that is why I feel so good about the Assboat." And now for the questions round, I thought.

"Excuse me, Mr. Hilter." A voice from the back said. "But when can we expect the data to be figured out?"

"Years. My estimate is we will have it all finished by the end of 2007."

Another question piped up. "Mr. Hilter, are you retired from storm chasing? I heard your legs were broken in the effort to deploy the Assboat, but are you going to chase again next season?"

"Michelle made me promise not to, so probably not."

"How did you break your legs, anyway?" The same person asked.

"I rode the tornado in a car, and got caught in the vortex. The car was spun everywhere, and landed in a farm."

"Are you serious?" The man asked.

"You bet. I've always been a rather reckless storm chaser."

Another question. "Mr. Hilter, you said one of your members died in the process of deploying the Assboat. Is that true?" The questioner was a tall man with black hair.

"Yes, that's true." I said.

"Do you think it was worth his loss to deploy the Assboat? Do you think it was worth all of the loss of life in Arkansas to deploy the Assboat." I groaned, I knew I would get asked this.

"Well, I don't like that a lot of people died, but the Assboat could have been deployed just as easily in a tornado that hit only farms and didn't kill anyone. So asking if it is worth a loss of life is rather irrelevant in my mind." So there, you damn troll, I thought.

That was all the questions.

"And now, time for a lunch break and intermission." The host said. Michelle wheeled me off the stage, and outside. Katie was by my side, and David was outside. We went outside, and looked around. It was snowing heavily, which is normal for New Zealand in August. I looked down the hill the building was on. A crashed sled lay at a tree. From behind the tree, David ran out, to the delight of several kids at the top of the hill. He ran up with the sled, and talked to the kids.

"And now, here's another good move. I'm going to ride the sled like a surfboard." David said.

"You are a silly guy, David." A kid said. David stood up on the sled, and rode it down. About halfway down the hill, David fell off and rolled down the hill, and hit the tree with his hips. The kids laughed.

"Smash-up." Katie said.

"I always hated that book." I said.

I watched David continue his tomfoolery. He would deliberately crash the sled into the tree, he would ride it backwards, he would spin it. I had to laugh. So far, he seemed uninjured.

"So what now?" Michelle asked.

"I don't know. I figure we could go get some lunch. I'm starving. Just gather up David's remains from his last nutty sled ride." Michelle went down the hill to get him. I had a few moments to ponder my thoughts when Katie came to me.

"Daddy." She said. "Are you going to do any more storm chasing? I like having you be safe."

"I'll be safe. I'm not going to chase anymore." I said.

But inside, so very deep inside, the storm still churned.