Surviving Hurricane Emily

James G. Lea, a television camera man with Outreach Video, chose Lowepro bags because of the abuse and mistreatment of equipment in his profession. But even by his standards, Hurricane Emily was a nightmare.

Lea lives on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He covered the hurricane for national television news. "As the storm approached Hatteras Island, I tried to go north," Lea recalls." But just south of the only bridge off the Island, the road was covered with sand and water. Turning back, I made my way to the nearest town and started shooting the storm."

Things were OK until the water started rising. Lea headed for higher ground. "I didn't make it. The wind and the water swept the car off the road into a deep ditch. I packed what gear and dry clothes I could grab into my Magnum and swam for a house about 300 yards away."After an intense interval in the hurricane, a neighbor spotted Lea inside the house."I opened my soaked Magnum to see the damage. There wasn't any. My clothes were dry. So were my professional microphones, an $1,800 short-wave transceiver and electronic gear. That bag was under water for 5 minutes and pelted with 100-mile-an-hour wind-driven rain for 20 minutes."

Lea washed the bag in the washing machine, and he's still using it. As he says," It's a great camera bag. We don't design Lowepro bags specifically for hurricanes. But we're delighted to hear that the Magnum stood up to the test and that James Lea suffered nothing worse than a soaking.