Pat Shingleton for Sept. 5, 2012

My son Michael was covering post-storm recovery efforts in St. James and St. John parishes. Upon interviewing Serena Taylor, a storm victim who lost everything due to flooding, she commented, “You look like a crazy weatherman I watched in Pittsburgh!” Michael filled in the blanks and confirmed his relationship to me, noting I left Pittsburgh in 1981 to return to Baton Rouge. Serena’s daughter met and married a young man from Louisiana; she followed them here and arrived just before Hurricane Katrina in 2004. She also remembered my famous, or not so famous, “finger” arrow I hid in my coat during my weather presentations and used to point weather features and weather systems “in the right direction.” Storms are tough as Serena and I can attest to — either snowstorms or tropical storms. Fastcast: Hot as pepper.