Lafayette boy with autism meets Weather Channel's Jim Cantore: 'This is his whole world'

Oct. 9--Carmen Cetnar never imagined that she'd one day camp outside of Jim Cantore's hotel, but that's exactly what she found herself doing Thursday with her 9-year-old son.

Alex, who has autism, has been obsessed with The Weather Channel for about a year. When Cetnar heard Cantore was in the area to cover Hurricane Delta, she took to social media in the hopes that someone could connect her son with the iconic meteorologist.

"I'm not usually a stalker," Cetnar said with a laugh during a phone interview Friday. "But I'll do whatever to make my kid happy."

Alex's latest interest has been anything weather-related. Alex, a third-grader at Broadmoor Elementary School, is specifically obsessed with The Weather Channel and three of the team's meteorologists, including Cantore.

"Sometimes his interests are quick. They'll come and go within a month or so," Cetnar said. "He's been stuck on the weather hardcore for about a year. The TV's almost always on The Weather Channel."

Children on the autism spectrum can have significant social, communicative and behavioral challenges. They often times have obsessions or interests that help them to cope with their surroundings.

Cetnar has used Alex's intense interest in the weather as a teaching tool.

"I'll ask what state The Weather Channel is in," Cetnar said. "Where's Jen Carfagno? Where's Jim Cantore? We'll use that to learn about the cities and the states and the bodies of water and the geography of the area."

This time, The Weather Channel is right in their backyard.

Somebody who came across Cetnar's Facebook post reached out to her Thursday morning to let her know that Cantore was in the nearby city of Breaux Bridge. Cetnar and Alex immediately left their Lafayette home, stopping for a bag of Community Coffee along the way to offer as a gift.

When they arrived in downtown Breaux Bridge, they found out they'd missed Cantore by a few minutes. Somebody told Cetnar what hotel the meteorologist was staying at, and she trekked that way. Sure enough, a Weather Channel van was parked outside of the hotel.

Cetnar took a picture of her son with the vehicle, and she vowed to wait no more than 30 minutes outside of the hotel for Cantore and his team. She wasn't the only one camped out in a vehicle waiting for a chance to meet him.

It only took about five minutes before Cantore left the building for his van.

"He was really good about it," Cetnar said. "It's just a couple of seconds in Jim Cantore's day, but it made Alex's entire day. This is his whole world."

Alex, who is normally not very expressive with people he doesn't know, answered a few questions about his family's plans for the hurricane and gave Cantore the bag of ground coffee.

"Breaux Bridge is my favorite city," Alex said afterward.

The Cetnar family was busy cooking a gumbo Friday ahead of Hurricane Delta's arrival, which they plan to watch coverage of on The Weather Channel.

Cetnar, who works as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse for Ochsner Lafayette General, said this week has been a reminder of the good in the world.

"It was a friend of a friend of a friend who reached out to me to make this happen, someone who could have easily just moved on with their day," Cetnar said. "It just renews your faith in people, especially in this world where there's so much hate."

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