JULY 1 2009
AMERICANWAY 45
“Heonly says it once, andhe talks so fast,
you have to record it and listen to it later,”
says White, holding up a small digital re-
corder. “I use him all the time. But if you
bughim toomuch, he’ll just ignore you.”
In November 1999, Hurricane Lenny
developed south of Cuba and then moved
west to east, the first Caribbean tropical
storm in recordedhistory todo so. Itwould
eventually smash through several islands,
causing hundreds of millions of dollars in
damage. Herbwas in contact with a num-
ber of boats in the danger zone and imme-
diately directed them around the Category
4 storm. Except one.
“There was one guy just sitting north of
Puerto Rico,” Herb Hilgenberg recalls. “A
Swiss couple and their dog. I talked to him
and said, ‘You’re gonna have a hurricane in
front of you, and it’s gonnaapproach you in
thenext sixhours.’”
The sailor radioed back, saying, “I need
to get off the boat; I can’t make it. My en-
gine’s not working.” In six hours, he, his
wife, and their dog were going to get rav-
agedbyahurricanewithwindspeedsof 150
miles per hour and be pounded to pieces.
And they couldn’tmove.
Herb called the U.S. Coast Guard based
inPuertoRico, but theyhad already lashed
down all their helicopters for the storm.
They managed to establish contact with a
nearby commercial vessel, and it was able
to approach the boat and rescue the couple
and theirdog.
Herb says he averages 20 to 30 life-or-
death cases each year. He has been provid-
ing this service since 1987— for free. And
he does it all fromhis home outsideToron-
to, Canada.
The reasonherb Tookup
this fore-
casting hobby is simple: The now-retired
engineerwasonce therehimself. In1982,he
and his wife and two children set sail from
North Carolina to the Caribbean, comfort-
edby aperfectweather forecast. Or so they
thought. Nomore than fivemiles offshore,
their boat and 14 others were hammered
by extraordinarywinds, and the next thing
theyknew, theywere trapped instorm-force
conditions in the Gulf Stream, tossing and
churning forfive very longdays.
They finally arrived safely at St. Thom-
as, Virgin Islands, and were brave enough
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