Q&A: Former Clayton Patch Meteorologist Covers Hurricane Irene

As Hurricane Irene drenched the East Coast this weekend, a recently relocated Claytonian was keeping people on Maryland's eastern peninsula updated on the storm's path.

A few months ago Gina De Vecchio was forecasting the weather here in , before landing a job with WMDT47 in Salisbury, MD. Last week, De Vecchio reported on a weather system that, not surprisingly, never came up during her time with Clayton Patch — a hurricane.

As exciting as it was covering the weather in Clayton, hurricanes weren't something you had to worry about. Was this first time you had to forecast a hurricane? As a meteorologist, was it exciting? 

I did some hurricane forecasting in college, but that was nothing compared to Hurricane Irene. This was the most exciting week of my life, as I have always wanted to professionally forecast such a powerful force of nature. As excited as I was, I began to grow worried for my new community. We have a lot of low-lying and coastal areas which were at great risk of flooding and storm surge during this storm. As much water as there was, we had only one fatality in the area and it was unrelated to water. I feel that I succeeded in getting the message across for people to evacuate when they told, and that was rewarding!

What was the damage like in Salisbury, MD? How did your station cover the hurricane? What was your role?

My city of Salisbury is more inland on the peninsula so we were relatively safe here. The entire news team came in Saturday and was prepared to stay throughout the weekend, or longer, if needed. We had beds, blankets, clothes, games, food, water and, most importantly caffeine. Fortunately the flooding wasn't too bad, so it was drivable and not many people had to stay at the station throughout the entire duration of the storm.

I personally had to come in before 7 a.m. to do all of the morning weather for Good Morning America cut-ins. Then it was my responsibility to interrupt the regular programming to warn the public of the approaching storm and new threats, such as flood and tornado watches and warnings. We did have a few tornadoes touch down. 

Then the other two meteorologists came in and we worked together for the rest of Saturday. I was lucky enough to go home and sleep late Saturday night before coming in again Sunday. It was a very stressful environment but it was a great experience to work under such high stress.

Overall, going from the West Coast to the East Coast, has it been difficult adjusting to the weather patterns? What have you done to become an expert as quickly as possible?

Before I left California, I had people warning me of the terribly high humidity, but I responded that I love humidity! They said to try living in it. Well, I've lived here all summer and still love humidity, as well as the afternoon thunderstorms!

I hate to say it, but it's much more exciting than the sunshine in Clayton. But with exciting weather comes a lot of science. I started reading up on weather that I didn't have much experience forecasting (e.g., hurricanes). I'm sure glad I did,  because it definitely did me some good while forecasting Irene.

The other tricky part of being in a brand-new place is not only learning the towns and counties but learning how to pronounce them properly on air. I stared at maps on my flight over and the first few days of work. Then I got in my car and drove to many of the places so I could visualize the areas with the names.

You had to move across the country by yourself to a place you have never been and didn't know anybody. How has the transition gone? What's been most difficult?

It was so new and exciting at first, so I was handling it rather well. I was working my dream job in an ideal location. My personal goal of my first job was anything east of the Rockies and I pretty much got as far east as possible. I'm still very happy in my new place as everyone is so friendly. However, now I'm missing my friends, family and home town more and more each day.

Is there anything you miss about Clayton?

Haha. I think the real question is: Is there anything I don't miss about Clayton? I've lived there my whole life (except when attending San Jose State, but I came home often so that I could feel the quaintness and warmth of the City of Clayton). It's a wonderful place to live and I hope to end up back there someday. I won't allow myself to return to California though until I have lived in at least four more states. So it may be a while until I live there again, but I willl definitely be back to visit often!