Nash Says
We knew this from Nash Roberts. Nash Roberts is a veteran New Orleans TV weatherman who is low-tech, at least by way of presentation, and always right. Nash was broadcasting from his own house, it looked like, tracing the hurricane with a grease pencil on a sheet of Plexiglas or a pad of paper, I forget which, while the other channels' meteorologists were using all manner of laser pointers and rear-projected electronic schematic representations of the area. You couldn't tell what in the world Nash was scribbling with the grease pencil, but as usual he wasthe first to make the call, this one's going to miss us, and he was on the money.
Roy Blount, Jr.: Rambles around New Orleans
It sounds goofy, sentimental and made-up but I remember Nash Roberts, his white boards and plexiglas (it's not that simple, deeper, more primal) and everyone listened to Nash Roberts. Whatever he said went and usually bore out. When I watched the weather Saturday afternoon, August 27, I did think, "Nash Roberts." Everybody always wanted to know what he thought (his last post-retirement appearance on WWL-TV was in 2001) and I especially wanted to know then. Turns out even Nash evacuated for Katrina. Would some have changed their minds if they'd heard him say he was on I-10 headed out?
G Bitch at 9:27 PM
5 Comments:
I had the same thought about Nash evacuating especially when you consider so many of our elderly stayed put against the wishes of family members. I can't help but think that some of them who had put years of trust in Nash would have gone along with their childrens' requests to leave had they heard the words "But Mama, Daddy, I heard Nash is evacuating.." Maybe the elderly death toll wouldn't have been so high.
In our house growing up we always watched WWL every night, 'cause we needed our Cronkite and our Garland & Angela. But when hurricanes were coming, we switched over to Nash.
I remember the day someone told me about Nash Roberts being the only guy anyone listened to. All the high tech radar and satellite imagery, but what people wanted to see was Nash drawing it out with a grease pencil. He just knew the way tropical systems operated in a city on the edge of the continental shelf. That was the day I sank a little deeper roots in New Orleans, and then, when the next hurricane was headed this way (I think it was George), they brought out Nash with his grease pencil. He said it would be close, but nowhere close enough to leave. I stayed, and it was sunshine the whole time.
Take all your ultra-mega-uber doppler whatever, and gimme Nash and a grease pencil. The man knows his storms, and knows the bathymetry of the Gulf.
And yeah, I think if WWL would have had a camera go out to Nash's place and he said "I'm evacuating", then EVERYBODY would have found a way out.
Yeah you right
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