[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 88 (Monday, June 20, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3918-S3919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               WDEV RADIO

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as one born in Montpelier, VT, I 
grew up listening to WDEV in Waterbury. My mother and father were 
friends of the owners of the station and I still remember days as a 
child going to visit.
  Living now in Middlesex, VT, I--like everyone else in our area listen 
to WDEV to find out what is happening throughout central Vermont. At a 
time when more and more radio stations nationwide go to a canned 
format, WDEV is one that has not forgotten over the decades that it is 
a mainstay of the community.
  Recently when we were facing horrible flooding and storms in Vermont, 
the lifeline for all of us was WDEV. Only there could we find out what 
was happening on the weather, what was happening on road conditions, 
and what we would face. Stefan Hard of the Times Argus wrote an 
excellent story about Chris Bouchard and Roger Hill and what they did 
to keep us all safe and informed. I talked with my friend Ken Sauier, 
about what they had done and said I intended to speak on the Senate 
Floor, and now, Mr. President, I ask that the article by Stephan Hard 
be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

                  [From the Times Argus, June 6, 2011]

                             Storm-Centered

                            (By Stefan Hard)

       For weather forecasters Chris Bouchard and Roger Hill, who 
     were on duty May 27, the historic storms of that day quickly 
     pushed their workdays into overdrive and overtime and gave 
     them a first-hand taste of the crazy weather they were 
     reporting on. Looking back, they are both in awe at the level 
     of destruction caused by the storms' related flooding, but 
     are grateful that no one was killed.
       Hill prepares forecasts for Radio Vermont, WDEV, for 
     utility companies, and for his WeatheringHeights.com website; 
     Bouchard is a staff meteorologist at the Fairbanks Museums 
     Eye on the Sky forecast center.
       Both men knew from early in the day, May 27, that the 
     weather could be turning severe.
       ``It was clear to us for several days that there was a 
     possibility for severe weather on Thursday-Friday,'' said 
     Bouchard. ``On the day of the event in the morning, it looked 
     pretty clear that we were going to get supercell 
     thunderstorms, large hail, damaging winds and possibly even 
     tornadoes.'' Bouchard reported as such during his 12:55 p.m. 
     weather report on Vermont Public Radio. The first supercell 
     of the day passed just north of Burlington at about 3p.m. and 
     left large hail on the ground as it passed over Lowell. 
     Bouchard continued his warnings through the afternoon.
       By 6:30 p.m., storms were beginning to hit central Vermont, 
     and power was knocked out at Hill's home and forecast center 
     in Worcester. Hearing tornado warnings on the radio for 
     Caledonia County and without power to run his phalanx of 
     computers, Hill decided to head to the WDEV studios in 
     Waterbury, where the station had back-up power and where Hill 
     could get his own evaluations and warnings directly on the 
     air in the midst of what he had already determined could be 
     life-threatening conditions due to the continued risk of 
     tornadoes, dangerous lightning, and with already-saturated 
     ground from recent rains, a real possibility of catastrophic 
     flash floods. He hopped in his car and headed for Waterbury.
       ``I felt a need and a responsibility to do this,'' said 
     Hill. ``I've haven't had anybody die on my watch and I didn't 
     want that to happen this time,'' he said.
       Hill forgot to take his cell phone charger and didn't leave 
     a note for his wife, Michelle, as to where he was going. ``My 
     wife is very upset with me,'' he said. ``She didn't know 
     where I was until she heard me on the air.''
       Driving through Middlesex, Hill encountered a downed tree 
     across the road and had to reroute and rain and hail fell and 
     tornado warnings continued come across on the crackling 
     radio. When he got to the station offices in Waterbury, the 
     door was locked (after business hours) and his cell battery 
     was dead, so he couldn't call on-air host Lee Kittell to let 
     him inside, and Kittell was unable to check and see emails 
     that Hill was sending from his netbook, which still had a 
     charge. Kittell was very busy and lightning temporarily 
     knocked out the station's computer system. Hill resorted to 
     running down the street to use the phone at a convenience 
     store to call Kittell to let him in. Once inside, Hill and 
     Kittell reported on the storm continuously, except for a 
     half-hour break for the audio track of WCAX-TV news at 11, 
     until 1:45 a.m.
       Callers kept the phone lines lit up all evening with 
     reports of continuous lightning, ball lightning, hail the 
     size of golf balls, trees down, power outages, and worst of 
     all, flash flooding in Barre and Montpelier. Hill, stunned, 
     kept seeing a line of ``training echo'' thunderstorms 
     streaming

[[Page S3919]]

     into central Vermont all night and his on-air voice became 
     increasingly ominous.
       ``I felt stupid, but I got to the point where I was just 
     saying, Oh, my God!''
       Meanwhile, Bouchard had finished his forecasting shift at 
     the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, and had taken to the 
     road, storm chasing, and didn't have the need to let anyone 
     know where he was going. ``I went to Barnet, because that's 
     where it looked like the action was going to be,'' he said. 
     Bouchard stopped in several locations, setting up his tripod 
     just outside his car to get pictures of clouds that might 
     produce tornadoes, and lots of lightning. Bouchard said at 
     one point, he grabbed his tripod and camera and jumped in his 
     car just as lightning bolts crashed to the ground 
     uncomfortably close. Bouchard never saw a tornado, and none 
     were confirmed from that storm outbreak, but he got some 
     striking lighting photos, some of those will part of a show 
     of 32 of his best lightning images at the Fairbanks Museum at 
     the end of the month.
       Hill, his cell battery dead, his netbook battery now dead, 
     and his own batteries running low, headed home from WDEV at 
     about 2 a.m. after receiving, along with Kittell, countless 
     calls from listeners praising the duo for staying on the air 
     with information. Of course, on his way home, Hill couldn't 
     update his wife on his progress through the continuing 
     storms, so, when he finally made it home, he faced a storm of 
     another kind.
       Happily, Hill and his wife, Michelle on Sunday were 
     beginning a belated celebration of their 25th wedding 
     anniversary, taking a few days off, including a little 
     travel. Hill has planned a small detour in their travels to 
     see, first-hand, the level of destruction in Springfield, 
     Mass., where, last week, two tornadoes struck in another 
     example of powerful, training echo thunderstorms.

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