While Frank Billingsley’s forecasts during floods and hurricanes are what many of us will remember when he retires next month, he says the memory that impacted him the most is tied to a tornado in 1992.
On that November day when the twister struck, Billingsley said a big college football game, Texas A&M vs TCU, was on TV. He knew viewers watching the game might be unhappy, but he interrupted programming to warn people in the Channelview area to take cover.
The tornado, which was later determined to be a powerful F4, caused widespread destruction, but no deaths were reported.
In the aftermath, a reporter covering the damage talked to a couple who credited Billingsley’s mid-game message with saving their lives. They heard Billingsley describe what a tornado would sound like and acted on his message about seeking shelter. Their home was destroyed, but they survived.
Billingsley said he knows meteorologists save lives with their work, but they don’t often get to hear real-life examples of it, and he said it’s something he will never forget it.
Share your fondest memories of KPRC 2 meteorologist Frank Billingsley (click2houston.com)
On Houston Life, Billingsley shared that story and reminisced about other key points of his career, like touring Bolivar Peninsula from the air after Hurricane Ike in 2008. Two days later he toured Galveston’s West End allowing homeowners to call into the station and talk to him while he was in the helicopter. With a compassion Billingsley became known for, he gave them their first look at how their houses had fared.
You can watch Houston Life’s special coverage with Billingsley, which includes a video tribute highlighting his career as well as key moments in his personal life, in the video player above.