By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell News Bureau
SLIDELL –After working for 33 years as a Meteorologist first and now as a Hydrologist with the National Weather Service (NWS), it’s easy for retirement to float in and out of Pat Brown’s mind.
“I believe I will work here for at least 35 years, if not more. I do think about retiring and doing other things though,” the still young 56-year-old Slidell woman said.
But for Brown, the word “retirement” hardly carries the connotation it might with some others.
Guided by an early influence her parents gave her about life—“worshipping God first, then family, and then education”—Brown’s idea of retirement might see her hang up the Hydrologist hat, only to face a choice of putting on one of many other hats that tell the story of her life.
Perhaps best known in the Slidell public world as a Realtor for 16 years, Brown’s real career has quietly been at the National Weather Service, where she is a key member of the staff. There she is responsible for managing the Weather Office’s Hydrology Program for 22 Louisiana parishes and 8 Mississippi counties, including the Lower Pearl River Basin.
That means she is the one who analyzes data and offers valuable information for the public in Southeast Louisiana and beyond about flooding potential from rains, overflowing rivers, hurricanes and more.
“The responsibility we have at the National Weather Service encompasses more than just hurricanes or heavy rains that might bring flooding,” she explained. “We are responsible for all phases of weather, decision support during critical man-made and natural disasters, and anything that has to do with water in this area—dams, levees, lakes, rivers. We have to monitor the weather and natural hazards to keep the public informed, 365 days of the year – 24 hours a day.”
But Brown has hardly allowed her busy professional life to be all she does. Quite the contrary, it’s hard to understand where the woman finds the time to remain as busy as she is.
Contributing at her home church, Macedonia Baptist in Slidell, she is part of the Trustee Board, works and teaches in the Mission Department, and teaches Sunday school. Outside of the church walls, Brown has been a two-year Rotary Club member, works with Slidell Empowering Ladies and Families (SELF), Safe Harbor, the Gulf States Leadership Institute, and has gone through the nine-month Leadership Northshore program. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
“I don’t watch much TV and never have,” she said. “I am a person who really likes to stay busy, and to me, it’s more fun to be involved in activities and groups where you can do things to help others.”
“I’ve never been the stay-at-home mom type, though I have enormous respect for that profession!” she added with a smile.
She especially likes her involvement with groups that offer the chance to mentor others, particularly young women and children.
“I had some fantastic mentors when I was younger and now I want to pass that along and help others,” she said. “I’m passionate about helping people get where they want to go—especially to help women get established in what they want to do professionally and financially.”
That approach to life was clearly instilled in her at a young age, first from her parents, then from several mentors in the world of weather and the greater Jackson community.
Her mother was a teacher in the Jackson (MS) Public School System. Her father was the High School Principal at the Mississippi School for the Blind. As she is today, her parents were both active at their Baptist church.
“Both my parents were very involved in the community, professional organizations, fraternal organizations, and their church,” she said. “The three values in my home were God first, then family, and then education. Those things remain paramount in my life, and my parents were the ones who taught that to me first.”
Brown said she had a relative who was “the first black lawyer I knew and I liked what appeared to be the power he had being an attorney. He was articulate and successful; that did get my attention. After seeing him and loving Perry Mason, I was sure that I wanted to be a lawyer.”
Heading off to college after growing up in Jackson, Brown started at Jackson State University as a junior in high school. She loved her math and science classes so much that she excelled at a high level, earning her invites to the Massachusetts Institute for Technology for two summers in a row after her freshman and sophomore years. It was her proficiency in math and science that drew educators at Jackson State University to recruit her as a student for the new Meteorology Department, which the school started 40 years ago in 1975, as result of the vision of Dr. John Peoples, Dr. Theodore Fajita, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“I always loved weather, just as everyone is fascinated by it,” she said. “I loved watching storms brew. I always remember seeing the damage in the Seventh Ward from Hurricane Betsy and along the Gulf Coast and across Marion County from Hurricane Camille. It was so incredible to see the massive damage that hurricanes could do.”
She worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO as a junior and immediately after graduating from Jackson State. There Brown worked as a research assistant for Dr. Warren Washington, a black scientist who has since received the President’s Medal of Honor for his pioneering work and research in Atmospheric Science.
“Dr. Washington really encouraged me and taught me so much regarding atmospheric research. I will never forget him,” Brown said. “He inspires me to this day to help others achieve their goals.”
In 1980, Brown became the first graduate in Meteorology in the State of Mississippi. Brown left Jackson for Atlanta, GA, where she entered Georgia Institute of Technology and studied Atmospheric Science and Technology and Science Policy.
Brown was hired at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Atlanta in 1981. After serving as an intern there, she continued to advance to various levels within the agency. Brown served as the Warning and Preparedness Meteorologist for the State of Georgia, before she was promoted to a senior position at the West Gulf River Forecast Center at Fort Worth, TX in 1993. She later worked in Jackson until 2003, when she was brought to Slidell as the Senior Service Hydrologist with the Weather Forecast Office at New Orleans/Baton Rouge. In 1999, she was honored with a Bronze Award for her work.
“I think everyone is so interested in the weather because it affects us all in some direct way on a daily basis. It’s one of the great equalizers. It’s everybody’s business to talk about weather – from truckers to park rangers” she explained.
Brown works in south Louisiana now as a key member of the staff that reviews and gathers information for the Pearl River Basin, a huge, complicated river system that plays a key role in flooding for this region. Brown emphasized that her role is to provide up-to-date weather data, information, and forecasts for individuals, officials, and government agencies, in an effort to protect American lives and property.
“We’re not here to tell people where they should build or not. Depending on flooding potential, the role of the NWS is to provide accurate weather information so that people can make informed decisions. I do believe the NWS can play some part in future planning for a region. We provide the data that can help communities and organizations understand where the higher potential for flooding exists,” she said.
Brown said the biggest problem for a low-lying region like south Louisiana and Mississippi is that as growth continues all over, every new development changes drainage patterns.
“When you build in areas that used to have dense trees and vegetation or could absorb flood waters, clearing trees and adding concrete can dramatically change the way the water will drain. Depending on building patterns, this could put water in areas that previously would not have been impacted. In essence, smart development must consider potential flooding patterns and impacts and try to mitigate any potentially adverse results.” she added.
Consequently, Brown believes governments would do well to utilize NWS data when they do their long-range planning and zoning work.
“In south Louisiana, everything is about drainage,” she said. “Our job is to educate the public with the data we have, disseminate it everywhere we can, and let the agencies make their decisions about where they want to allow building or not,” she said. “It pains me to see the poorest people in a flood plain. I would love to see as much consideration of flooding as possible in development process.”
As for her future, she said the NWS work will become history for her within a few years. She expects to focus more on her real estate business and the host of civic and community groups in which she assists.
“My motto right now is to do one good deed a day, no matter what it might be. That might only mean letting someone in while I’m driving,” she said. “I’ve been so fortunate to grow up around people who helped me learn and thrive. I hope to leave that same kind of legacy myself.”
Brown is single with one 11-year-old son, Zane Jones.