Isaias Gave Us Hurricane TV's Best Walk-On Cameo

Every Florida hurricane has a supporting cast: the plywood, the Publix sub line, the guy who fills four gas cans. Isaias added a new one Friday night, the Calm Walker.

Hurricane Isaias came ashore near Destin around 8:30 PM CDT Friday as a Category 2 with 105 mph winds. Up there it was serious business. On live TV, it also gave us one of the great split screens of the season, and creator Jack Mac spotted it right away.

The setup: a network correspondent in Destin, hood cinched and hand clamped to his head, leans into the storm like he's pushing a stalled car up a hill. Behind him, a civilian just... walks through. No lean. No visible struggle. Jack's on-screen caption sums it up better than any of us could: "Weather man mogged by civilian enjoying his walk." His one-word caption, "Unreal.," also matches the face every Floridian made watching it.

Jack's reaction is the best part. He doesn't add anything mean. He just gives the clip the same look you'd give a neighbor who mows the lawn during a lightning delay. It's quick, it's warm, and it's very much worth following @jackmacbarstool for.

A field guide to hurricane live-shot body language

• The Lean. About 40 degrees forward. Means "I respect the wind."
• The Hand-on-Hood. Means "this jacket was not built for the job it now has."
• The Calm Walker. Somewhere between "I've lived here 30 years" and "I really need to get to that dog."
• The Sarasota Version. We weren't in the cone, so ours is mostly porch-sitting, checking the radar and saying "glad it went north" while holding a coffee.

Credit where it's due: reporters who stand out there are doing a hard job so the rest of us know what's coming, and the walker looked like he knew his block. We all just loved seeing both at once.

The serious part: Isaias is now post-tropical and moving north over Alabama, but flooding and coastal flood advisories in the Panhandle aren't done. Please don't copy the walk. If you've got family up there, point them to the National Hurricane Center and their county emergency management office, and stay off flooded roads. Turn around, don't drown.

Down here we'll keep the porch warm. Stay safe, Panhandle.

— Sandy