Post by Zack Fradella on Jan 23, 2008 23:13:00 GMT -6
The new director of the National Hurricane Center likely will be introduced within the next two weeks and a leading contender is veteran forecaster Bill Read, The Miami Herald has learned.
Read, 58, a 30-year veteran of the National Weather Service, began serving as the hurricane center's interim deputy last August in the wake of the tumultuous ouster of director Bill Proenza.
Other finalists for the highly visible job include Richard Knabb, one of six senior hurricane specialists at the center, and Charles ''Chip'' Guard, a veteran government meteorologist and tropical weather specialist in Guam.
Read said Wednesday that he felt ''confident'' in the wake of his interviews for the job, but there has been no official word from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the National Weather Service and the hurricane center.
''Everybody else is trying to tell me that it's me, but they're doing it completely by the book,'' Read said. ``I've been told that they're hoping to have a decision and announcement next week or the following week.''
Knabb and Guard said they had not been notified that a selection was made. ''Until these things are done, you can't take anything for granted,'' Knabb said.
Dennis Feltgen, the hurricane center's spokesman, confirmed that an announcement was expected soon, but declined to comment about the likely appointee. The job pays between $111,676 and $168,000 per year.
''The process is still moving forward,'' Feltgen said Wednesday.
Before arriving in South Florida, Read ran the weather service's Houston-Galveston office. Earlier in his career, he served as a U.S. naval officer, often participating in hurricane hunter missions.
Highly regarded by his peers and by emergency managers, Read has lengthy experience dealing with hurricanes in Texas. In addition, he occasionally has augmented the staff of the hurricane center in West Miami-Dade County.
During his interim assignment as deputy director, Read has used the director's office while acting director Ed Rappaport -- who chose not to apply for the permanent position -- remained in the smaller deputy director's office.
After a new director is named, Rappaport, 50, is expected to return to his previous post as deputy director.
If he is named to the top job, Read said, he plans to model his approach on that of Max Mayfield, who held the position for seven years before retiring last January.
''I like a lot of Max's philosophy, which is to be calm in the heat of the battle,'' Read said. ``And I like the approach that the forecasters are taking and that will not change.''
That is a key point, given the tumult that convulsed the hurricane center last year.
Proenza, a 40-year weather service veteran but at the hurricane center only six months, was placed on leave in July after a staff mutiny and repeated confrontations with his bosses in Washington.
He ultimately was reassigned to his previous position as director of the weather service's southern region, based in Fort Worth, Texas.
James Franklin, a senior hurricane specialist, said that Read seemed to have the right approach.
''We've been working with Bill for a few months and he seems very knowledgeable and has been easy to work with so far,'' Franklin said Wednesday. ``I think he'll do a good job if it's him.''
Read, 58, a 30-year veteran of the National Weather Service, began serving as the hurricane center's interim deputy last August in the wake of the tumultuous ouster of director Bill Proenza.
Other finalists for the highly visible job include Richard Knabb, one of six senior hurricane specialists at the center, and Charles ''Chip'' Guard, a veteran government meteorologist and tropical weather specialist in Guam.
Read said Wednesday that he felt ''confident'' in the wake of his interviews for the job, but there has been no official word from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the National Weather Service and the hurricane center.
''Everybody else is trying to tell me that it's me, but they're doing it completely by the book,'' Read said. ``I've been told that they're hoping to have a decision and announcement next week or the following week.''
Knabb and Guard said they had not been notified that a selection was made. ''Until these things are done, you can't take anything for granted,'' Knabb said.
Dennis Feltgen, the hurricane center's spokesman, confirmed that an announcement was expected soon, but declined to comment about the likely appointee. The job pays between $111,676 and $168,000 per year.
''The process is still moving forward,'' Feltgen said Wednesday.
Before arriving in South Florida, Read ran the weather service's Houston-Galveston office. Earlier in his career, he served as a U.S. naval officer, often participating in hurricane hunter missions.
Highly regarded by his peers and by emergency managers, Read has lengthy experience dealing with hurricanes in Texas. In addition, he occasionally has augmented the staff of the hurricane center in West Miami-Dade County.
During his interim assignment as deputy director, Read has used the director's office while acting director Ed Rappaport -- who chose not to apply for the permanent position -- remained in the smaller deputy director's office.
After a new director is named, Rappaport, 50, is expected to return to his previous post as deputy director.
If he is named to the top job, Read said, he plans to model his approach on that of Max Mayfield, who held the position for seven years before retiring last January.
''I like a lot of Max's philosophy, which is to be calm in the heat of the battle,'' Read said. ``And I like the approach that the forecasters are taking and that will not change.''
That is a key point, given the tumult that convulsed the hurricane center last year.
Proenza, a 40-year weather service veteran but at the hurricane center only six months, was placed on leave in July after a staff mutiny and repeated confrontations with his bosses in Washington.
He ultimately was reassigned to his previous position as director of the weather service's southern region, based in Fort Worth, Texas.
James Franklin, a senior hurricane specialist, said that Read seemed to have the right approach.
''We've been working with Bill for a few months and he seems very knowledgeable and has been easy to work with so far,'' Franklin said Wednesday. ``I think he'll do a good job if it's him.''