04/16/09 EPIC CHASE FAIL

Yesterday was quite possibly the worst chase day I have ever had.   I started off running late anyway, then I needed to run by the TV station to do a couple of things before heading out.  So off the bat I was neglectful in doing things I normally do like posting a forecast on the blog here.

For those of you watching my live stream, you were probably wondering what happened to me after you got the ride to the shop on the back of the wrecker! (I forgot and left the live camera on!)

So I finally am out and running and moving to position for the storm developing and heading towards Lubbock to cover for the TV station, and while heading up I27, a truck with industrial pallets on the back of it ahead of me, had one blow off that landed in the road right in front of me.  By the time I realized what was going on, I only had a second to try and swerve and hit it full on 65 mph with both left tires!

Immediately the front tire sounded like it was blown out and I got over to the side quickly, but only made it as far as the exit ramp.  Once I got out I saw two flat tires!  Noooooooo….!!

Meanwhile severe and even tornadic storms are erupting across the south plains and the one heading for Lubbock is getting worse.  I got on the phone to our News Director who got me a wrecker out STAT (thanks Benji!) who took me over to the nearby Walmart since I have road hazard coverage there on my tires.  I’m thinking I’ll be back on the road in an hour tops.

So we get there and they get it in the bay and pull the front wheel off, and well, you can see it in the picture above.  My heart sank!

Myself and the guys in the shop start scrambling to find a replacement wheel.  It was getting close to closing time for most places too, and the storm was getting WORSE, oh no a TORNADO WARNING! I see on the radar a big hook over south Lubbock.  I’m thinking, “This is SO not happening to me!”  A tornado ripping through Lubbock, the area I chase for my station here and here I am broke down!”  A worst nightmare!  It started hailing and of course what did I do?  Grabbed the video camera and shot the vehicles  in the parking lot getting pounded!

So the guys come back with info from the dealer.  The wheel was going to cost $515.17!!  HOLY CRAP!  Better news…they don’t have them and have to order them.  You have GOT to be kidding me!  About this time we discovered the back one was busted too.  I decide it’s time to call the insurance for an accident on this one.  So she’s going through all the normal stuff you have to do for a claim and I am getting more and more agitated because we have a tornadic storm overhead and here I am stuck at Walmart, the absolute WORST place to try and take shelter.

Meanwhile, the service guys located some of the stock steel wheels (not the alloy ones I have).  At this point I’m taking any option that gets me on the road.  But the salvage yard can’t get them off the donor car!  Why?  Because it’s hailing there! Oh Bob Saget!!

So then the guys suggest we try some spare wheels they had there.  Sure enough one fits the bolt pattern! YEAH!   What?  Oh holy crap!  The center hole in the wheel is like 1/4″ inch too small for the wheel to fit properly!  You have SERIOUSLY GOT to be kidding me!

Well what can you do, clearly the salvage guys can’t get out there and get it off today, everyone is closing, and this chase vehicle isn’t going back on the road until the next day. moan

So the insurance offers up a rental car!  Oh great!  From Enterprise even, only a few blocks away, and they will come pick me up!  SOLUTION!

So I call over to arrange the pickup while insurance sends the reservation info over.  What? Because of the weather they suspended doing pickups!  Oh, and by the way, we close in 30 minutes.  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????  I CANNOT CATCH A BREAK HERE!

The service manager at the Walmart Auto Center generously offered to take me over to pick up the car. Oh excellent!  I want to pause a moment here and highly recommend the service guys at the Walmart at Ave. Q and the Marsha Sharp Freeway in Lubbock.  These guys went above and beyond the call of duty last night, in the middle of a tornadic supercell storm no less, trying to get me back on the road.  In the end when it was all said and done I wasn’t even charged a single dime.  If you live in Lubbock, go there to get your tires, oil change or whatever!

So we are off to get the rental car.  I get there only to discover they just took their whole fleet on the lot out of service.  WHY?  Hail damage!  They couldn’t let them go out until they were inspected.  OH FOR THE LOVE OF CATS AND DOGS! Can anything else POSSIBLY go wrong today?

At this point, I am already exhausted, have a major headache and surprised I haven’t had an aneurysm yet.  Thankfully the storm at least had moved on at this point and I was so disorganized I wasn’t sure what else was going on weather wise.  To top it off, there seemed to be a lot of fire trucks and ambulances running around Code 3.  I was just sure a tornado had hit in Lubbock.

Then this black Toyota SUV pulls up.  I asked if that was a return?  He said yeah but it probably has hail damage and can’t go back out.  They quickly inspect it but NO hail damage!  FINALLY a break!

So in a few minutes I am off,  I scurry over to Walmart and quickly transfer the essential equipment over and I was back chasing in 20 minutes!

Of course by then things had generally turned into a mess but I was still able to get some reporting done.  Ended up meeting up with Ben Holcomb who was down from Michigan to chase and we followed some damage reports around for a while and found some EF0 tornado damage north of Lubbock and ended up with dinner/breakfast at IHOP in Plainview.

In the end there ended up not having been a tornado in Lubbock, but I felt terrible not being able to do my part covering the threat for them chasing the storm.

So today I located on Ebay a replacement wheel the guy wanted $55 shipped (an excellent price!) and I asked if he had two and YES he does, and he will take $90 shipped for both!  Most excellent!  I ordered those and talked with insurance and worked out with them that I would save them some money and just pay for those if they would cover the rental, so all is good there.

Then I headed up to the salvage yard, picked up the bland steel wheels (which had some darn nice tires on them I am going to put on my trailer) and headed over to Walmart to get it back on the road.  By the time I had my equipment back in, and returned the rental and they brought me back over, the guys there had me ready to go!  I’ll have to go visit them again in a week or so when the proper wheels come in to get them switched out.

I almost headed out to go chase by Childress, as I got done just in time, but I just decided I was exhausted and needed some down time and headed home, still deciding on if I want to chase tomorrow or hold off for the next setup.

In retrospect, that whole thing could have turned out MUCH worse than what it did.  It could have bounced up and came through the windshield.  I could have crashed and rolled. I could have hit someone else.  While I waited for the wrecker two other cars coasted up to where I was with flats as well.

Well, now you know, the rest of the story…

Tags: busted wheels, epic fail, lubbock, Storm Chasing, texas, walmart