While some students boarded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Hurricane Hunters” airplane, others loaded into a parked armored tank while still more students walked through an emergency vehicle or met a K-9 law enforcement dog. 

Students from six elementary schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System took part in the Hurricane Preparedness Tour April 28 at the Metropolitan Airport.  Sponsored by Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden and the Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (MOHSEP), the event included hurricane experts like: Ken Graham, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service Office in Slidell; Bill Proenza, director of the National Weather Service’s Southern Region; and Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center.

The highlight, of course, was the tour of the parked WP-3D Orion aircraft that flies missions to monitor storm conditions and collect data for hurricane research.  A typical mission involves the turboprop aircraft slicing through the eye of a hurricane, buffeted by winds, rain and hail before entering the calm of the eye of the storm.  State-of-the-art equipment is then used to probe wind and pressure changes, an effort that is repeated again and again over a 10-hour mission, on average.

Wildwood Elementary School student Kiera Schamburg (first photo, right) talked to a pilot in the cockpit of the Lockheed plane, also named “Kermit the Frog,” while other students visited exhibits during a wait to board the plane (second photo). 

For more information, contact Will White with MOHSEP at (225) 223-9274 (cell) or wwhite@brgov.com.