The Day The Winds Changed

This is a very short retrospective article over at Accuweather.com, looking back at the lessons learned during the tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011.

It’s worth a read on its own merits, but I’m sharing because of the personal connection I have to both of the key players.

James Spann:

“You go back and look at my twitter feed from that day, it’s stunning,” he said. “Some of these people had medical emergencies, some of these people were still trapped under rubble and their battery was still working, and they hit me up on twitter and I didn’t know what to do. It was overwhelming.”

I worked alongside James at ABC 33/40 for more than seven years. I couldn’t begin to keep up with his schedule. It’s the manic plan of a man who loves what he does so much that he can’t do anything else. He brings a servant’s heart to the air every day, and it shows. (and to be honest, so does everyone else in that job down here. weather isn’t a job, it’s a calling in Alabama.)

I also had the privilege of working with Wendy Harman:

“This particular tornado outbreak marked the first time we were able to get structured needs from people on social media into the hands of decision makers in the Emergency Operations Center in Alabama.”

Wendy is the Director of Social Strategy at the American Red Cross. She has made the impossible possible, injecting the values and benefits of social media into the DNA of a conservative and traditional corporate culture. She’s weathered internal changes, the challenges of training a vast army of volunteers, keeping them all up to speed on the rapidly evolving social landscape — oh, and there is also that little matter of succeeding in both realms: the real-time adrenaline roller-coaster that is disaster, and the daily drudge of operational organizational maintenance. (few people can master both — and even fewer can toggle between he two with such grace and humility.)

So what do they both have in common? They are doing it all for the love of the mission. Wendy could probably name her salary in the for-profit world. James dipped a toe in large-market TV and came back to Birmingham to stay. I’m blessed to know a lot of people like that, I suppose…