Christmas in August

The e-mail had an urgent tone to it. It's not often that Tony Castrilli one of our newsroom managers intones panic in his e-mails. But this was as close to panic as you can get. The e-mail talked about Christmas and today. What does August 18Th have to do with Christmas. Well I'll let you read part of the e-mail.

"I have a rare question for you. As you know next week is the most requested vacation week of the year other than Christmas. As we confirmed you are off on Monday-Wednesday. I desperately need am anchor help on Saturday 8/18. This is the show from 6a-8a on Saturday mornings."

Just how desperate was Tony? I won't let you read the rest of the e-mail, but trust me he was ready to deal to get me to sit in this chair and anchor and blog on a Saturday. Normally I'm up at 2:30 in the morning during the week. So with a start time of 6 am instead of 5am I figured I'd get a little bit more sleep...why not go for it. Plus I get the pleasure of sitting next to one of the easiest going guys in this business Tony Pann.

Tony is a fantastic guy. But you know what I have to tell you the whole weather team is tops here. All of them are easy to work with and I count them among my friends here on the staff.

But while I sit here my thoughts are elsewhere. I am thinking about the friends I made in New Orleans earlier this year as I helped with relief efforts there. I heard on the radio as I drove in to work this morning that people in New Orleans are bracing for Hurricane Dean as it roars towards the Gulf Coast.

Right now TonyPann says it is likely to hit Texas, but hurricanes are unpredictable So the jittery people in New Orleans aren't taking any chances. Officials don't want a repeat of Katrina. So they are issuing warnings. Repairs have been made in the Crescent City. But it is far from being ready for another big strike.

If you spend any time in the Crescent City you hear the same refraim. Please don't forget us. I have not, so my thoughts will be in New Orleans this weekend. I will worry about those friends I made who are still trying to recover from the devastation of Katrina. If you'd like to see my reports on New Orleans here are the links.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=59181

http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=59230