hurricane alex video

Hurricane Alex was the first storm of 2010. There was a good chance it was going to hit Brownsville, TX and like I always say, If you don't go you got nothing! The only problem with going to Brownsville was the long drive - not too bad for me but really a long way for my partner Jeff Gammons with Storm Visuals in South Florida. The above Hurricane Alex video shows it was well worth the drive. We found a nice area where the waves were really slamming against the shore by the causeway.

We worked it for a few hours and as Hurricane Alex came closer to the Mexican coast, well, the waves got bigger where we were. I decided to venture out near the rocks for some of my signature up close shots. At some point a beefy wave came in and hit me by surprise. It was a low wave with lots of extra water behind it. I honestly didn't see it coming until a second before impact. It hit me in the gut and carried me for about 50 yards just missing this telephone pole. Hum, note to self: make sure there are no telephone poles downstream next time. Jeff was about 50 yards away and managed to swing his camera around to catch my ride. He was on higher ground but this was the biggest wave of the day and it got him too. Nothing like a little excitement to get the adrenalin going.

We did get into a little bit of trouble when exiting the area - water covered up a big hole in the road and while trying to avoid a wave I drove right into the hole and buried the left front tire to the axel. I was stuck and there was no way I could go forward. I quickly put it in reverse and the vehicle I was in pulled me right out of the ditch. Whew! That was a close one. I didn't think we were going to get out of this one. I could feel a totally loss of control and it wasn't a good feeling. Jeff didn't know how bad it really was until he got out and walked around the side and saw the huge hole we drove into. This area was really getting hammered so we decided to move on to higher ground. You really have to pay attention so that your escape route isn't cut off.