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CNN Live At Daybreak

Hurricane Isabel Coming Ashore

Aired September 18, 2003 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to bring people live to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, Chad. We've been listening to Jeff Flock all morning long. He's with some hurricane trackers, and things are getting pretty dicey there.
Good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol.

The hurricane trackers abandoned me here for the moment. They decided to go over on the sound side, because, you know, we're getting this wind off of the sound. They thought they'd go over there and get some better readings if they went right there without any kind of obstructions in their way.

This is not even the strongest of the wind, because we've got, like, a hotel blocking us and the whole rest of the island blocking us. They left one of their storm tracker vehicles there. I don't know if you're able to see that, Spike (ph). That's one of their vehicles that are taking some remote measurements here, but they think they're going to get better readings on the other side.

Now, you know, you were talking, Chad, that there's not a whole lot of water associated with this storm. But, you know, we've had a pretty good rain here. It's funny. Take a look at this. It's just interesting to show you, because it's kind of an odd thing. This is the drain for the parking lot of the hotel we're in right here. This is just out on the beach, and you can see the water spewing out of this thing. It's kind of an interesting sight.

I don't know that we've had any further intensification here since we last talked. But obviously we're prepared for it here. As I said, out here on the beach, this isn't the strongest of the winds. We're really pretty well protected when we get here out here on the beach.

And, again, just to look out at that pier, those breakers out there are really, really rolling in.

And so, next hour we're going to be back, and in about maybe 25 minutes or so we're going to have the storm trackers back here. It will be interesting to hear what their wind readings are on the other side. I heard what you said about the winds...

COSTELLO: Yes, and, Jeff...

(CROSSTALK) FLOCK: ... around the edge of this.

COSTELLO: Jeff...

FLOCK: Yes, Carol.

COSTELLO: Chad has some information on you as to whether part of the eye will hit you. Chad, can you tell Jeff that again?

Chad, are you there with us? OK, Chad says that part of the eye will probably hit where you are.

FLOCK: Wow!

COSTELLO: How will that storm tracker vehicle survive in that?

FLOCK: How -- what was that, Carol?

COSTELLO: The storm tracker vehicle, because the winds will be, what, 100 miles per hour?

Oh, we're going to lose Jeff Flock. We don't have Chad, but we do have someone else...

FLOCK: Oh, I'm sorry.

COSTELLO: All right, we're going to get back to you, Jeff, so we're going to leave you now. We're going to go to...

FLOCK: Oh, sorry, Carol. Sorry. Sorry.

COSTELLO: Jeff is back, and that's OK. We understand the wind is blowing things around out there.

Chad tells us...

FLOCK: I think we'll be OK in those winds, though.

COSTELLO: Oh, you will be.

FLOCK: I really do. I do.

COSTELLO: Well, we hope so.

FLOCK: I think those vehicles are suited to that -- are built to take that kind of a pounding. You know, you get beyond that, it's a different story maybe. But I think we're going to be OK in the kind of winds that we're in.

COSTELLO: That's what we like, positive thinking. All right, we're going to leave Jeff Flock.

We're going to go a little south in North Carolina to Topsail Beach and Gary Tuchman.

Gary -- what are conditions like there?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, I do want to try to answer your question you just asked Jeff about how a vehicle like that would survive the winds. During hurricane Fabian in Bermuda two weeks ago, we actually had hired a taxi to get us around. It was a tax van. And the taxi van actually parked on the beach where we were doing our live reports and the winds were 115 miles per hour sustained with gusts of up to 140, and it was rocking back and froth, but it survived as well. These vehicles are hardily built. So, if it was a category 5 or a category 4 that would probably be a whole different story, and those guys in that hurricane vehicle would have to figure out what to do. But in a category 2, they'll probably be able to handle it just fine.

We're getting ready now for the sunrise here, but it will be a sunrise in name only. We're not going to see any sun here in Topsail Island, North Carolina, population 3,000. The winds have started to pick up within the last 30 minutes. We're now experiencing sustained winds of 35 miles per hour with gusts of up to 50 miles per hour, which is tropical-storm strength. But, of course, as Chad has been telling us all that later this morning, early this afternoon, it will get much more serious.

We can tell you one of the most dangerous parts of a hurricane, and why we always tell people who are curiosity seekers to get out of the way, is that chance that a tree or a light post or a flagpole will come down. And that's where a lot of the fatalities come from in hurricanes, such as this one. And that's why we, when we do these live reports, we stay open areas. It looks like we're on the moon right now, but we stay in open areas away from anything that can fall on top of us while we're covering this.

Most of the people here are gone. They have evacuated. There are some hardy souls left wanting to protect their homes. This is really not a lot you can do to protect it, though, if the winds, the hurricane-force winds and the rains come through. But people stay anyway.

Carol -- back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, many thanks. Gary Tuchman live from Topsail Beach, North Carolina.

Let's head to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, Brian Cabell five floors up. And you have quite a view -- Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the skies are starting to brighten here a little bit, Carol, so you can see a little bit more, something of a panorama of Kill Devil Hills.

Let's take a better look at that, as a matter of fact. The sound is probably a mile or so away, so eventually the sound, which is behind this island, will flood. We will flood on this side. So, we may well be an island unto ourselves before too long.

But as you can see right now, the winds are whipping up. The rain is coming in from the north, but it is whipping around from various directions. You can see those street lights over there in the -- about 200 yards away. They are swinging back and forth. Not too serious, the winds so far, but we expect that to pick up throughout the morning on into the afternoon. We're expecting the worst of the winds perhaps 100 miles per hour sometime around 2:00 or 3:00 this afternoon.

A little bit of activity out here, not an awful lot. Thirty thousand full-time residents here on the Outer Banks here, but what you see right now are mostly TV people. The 30,000 residents, most of them have left. They had something in the neighborhood of 100,000 tourists here a couple of days ago, but most of them were ushered out of here over the last couple of days as well.

A lot of people were especially concerned when we were talking about 150-mile-per-winds. Now, we're talking more like 100-mile-per- hour winds. A number of residents, even though you see some houses shuttered up, they are staying. I would say probably 90 percent of the Outer Banks have been evacuated.

Let's take a quick look now on the other window we're looking out of at the ocean. Just to remind you, this is a shot from inside the window, because if we were outside, all you'd see would be water on the lens.

Again, the waves are picking up there. We're expecting waves of somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 feet high sometime later on this afternoon.

Right now, it's simply an angry sea. And, as I say, out here right now, we have whipping winds, we have rain. The rain is not all that heavy yet, but we're expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 inches, Carol, later on today.

COSTELLO: All right, many thanks, Brian Cabell.

Let's go farther up the coast now to Kathleen Koch. She has been keeping an eye on this storm in Virginia Beach, Virginia. And it looks pretty nasty there.

Good morning -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do have some good news, Carol. For the most part here in Virginia Beach, the power is still on. There are some scattered outages, but, you know, the power company has some 7,000 workers on standby to deal with those outages when they occur.

Lots of people have ended up in shelters. They do have emergency generators. So, if the power goes out, they should be fine.

A lot of concern, though, in this resort community about the hotels. There are hotels that line the ocean front. We're panning up now to show you the hotel where we're staying. This is the Holiday Inn that's on 21st Street. And the windows have not been boarded up, but there are a lot of towels, there are a lot of wedges in those windows and doors to keep them safe. Now, the last storm to hit this -- the last hurricane to hit this town head-on was Bonnie in '98. It was a category 1. It came in with winds of just over 100 miles an hour. And we're dealing with a category 2 here. So, there is a lot of concern. That storm alone caused more than $22 million damage in the Hampton Roads area -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Kathleen Koch live from Virginia Beach, Virginia this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired September 18, 2003 - 06:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to bring people live to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, Chad. We've been listening to Jeff Flock all morning long. He's with some hurricane trackers, and things are getting pretty dicey there.
Good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol.

The hurricane trackers abandoned me here for the moment. They decided to go over on the sound side, because, you know, we're getting this wind off of the sound. They thought they'd go over there and get some better readings if they went right there without any kind of obstructions in their way.

This is not even the strongest of the wind, because we've got, like, a hotel blocking us and the whole rest of the island blocking us. They left one of their storm tracker vehicles there. I don't know if you're able to see that, Spike (ph). That's one of their vehicles that are taking some remote measurements here, but they think they're going to get better readings on the other side.

Now, you know, you were talking, Chad, that there's not a whole lot of water associated with this storm. But, you know, we've had a pretty good rain here. It's funny. Take a look at this. It's just interesting to show you, because it's kind of an odd thing. This is the drain for the parking lot of the hotel we're in right here. This is just out on the beach, and you can see the water spewing out of this thing. It's kind of an interesting sight.

I don't know that we've had any further intensification here since we last talked. But obviously we're prepared for it here. As I said, out here on the beach, this isn't the strongest of the winds. We're really pretty well protected when we get here out here on the beach.

And, again, just to look out at that pier, those breakers out there are really, really rolling in.

And so, next hour we're going to be back, and in about maybe 25 minutes or so we're going to have the storm trackers back here. It will be interesting to hear what their wind readings are on the other side. I heard what you said about the winds...

COSTELLO: Yes, and, Jeff...

(CROSSTALK) FLOCK: ... around the edge of this.

COSTELLO: Jeff...

FLOCK: Yes, Carol.

COSTELLO: Chad has some information on you as to whether part of the eye will hit you. Chad, can you tell Jeff that again?

Chad, are you there with us? OK, Chad says that part of the eye will probably hit where you are.

FLOCK: Wow!

COSTELLO: How will that storm tracker vehicle survive in that?

FLOCK: How -- what was that, Carol?

COSTELLO: The storm tracker vehicle, because the winds will be, what, 100 miles per hour?

Oh, we're going to lose Jeff Flock. We don't have Chad, but we do have someone else...

FLOCK: Oh, I'm sorry.

COSTELLO: All right, we're going to get back to you, Jeff, so we're going to leave you now. We're going to go to...

FLOCK: Oh, sorry, Carol. Sorry. Sorry.

COSTELLO: Jeff is back, and that's OK. We understand the wind is blowing things around out there.

Chad tells us...

FLOCK: I think we'll be OK in those winds, though.

COSTELLO: Oh, you will be.

FLOCK: I really do. I do.

COSTELLO: Well, we hope so.

FLOCK: I think those vehicles are suited to that -- are built to take that kind of a pounding. You know, you get beyond that, it's a different story maybe. But I think we're going to be OK in the kind of winds that we're in.

COSTELLO: That's what we like, positive thinking. All right, we're going to leave Jeff Flock.

We're going to go a little south in North Carolina to Topsail Beach and Gary Tuchman.

Gary -- what are conditions like there?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, I do want to try to answer your question you just asked Jeff about how a vehicle like that would survive the winds. During hurricane Fabian in Bermuda two weeks ago, we actually had hired a taxi to get us around. It was a tax van. And the taxi van actually parked on the beach where we were doing our live reports and the winds were 115 miles per hour sustained with gusts of up to 140, and it was rocking back and froth, but it survived as well. These vehicles are hardily built. So, if it was a category 5 or a category 4 that would probably be a whole different story, and those guys in that hurricane vehicle would have to figure out what to do. But in a category 2, they'll probably be able to handle it just fine.

We're getting ready now for the sunrise here, but it will be a sunrise in name only. We're not going to see any sun here in Topsail Island, North Carolina, population 3,000. The winds have started to pick up within the last 30 minutes. We're now experiencing sustained winds of 35 miles per hour with gusts of up to 50 miles per hour, which is tropical-storm strength. But, of course, as Chad has been telling us all that later this morning, early this afternoon, it will get much more serious.

We can tell you one of the most dangerous parts of a hurricane, and why we always tell people who are curiosity seekers to get out of the way, is that chance that a tree or a light post or a flagpole will come down. And that's where a lot of the fatalities come from in hurricanes, such as this one. And that's why we, when we do these live reports, we stay open areas. It looks like we're on the moon right now, but we stay in open areas away from anything that can fall on top of us while we're covering this.

Most of the people here are gone. They have evacuated. There are some hardy souls left wanting to protect their homes. This is really not a lot you can do to protect it, though, if the winds, the hurricane-force winds and the rains come through. But people stay anyway.

Carol -- back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, many thanks. Gary Tuchman live from Topsail Beach, North Carolina.

Let's head to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, Brian Cabell five floors up. And you have quite a view -- Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the skies are starting to brighten here a little bit, Carol, so you can see a little bit more, something of a panorama of Kill Devil Hills.

Let's take a better look at that, as a matter of fact. The sound is probably a mile or so away, so eventually the sound, which is behind this island, will flood. We will flood on this side. So, we may well be an island unto ourselves before too long.

But as you can see right now, the winds are whipping up. The rain is coming in from the north, but it is whipping around from various directions. You can see those street lights over there in the -- about 200 yards away. They are swinging back and forth. Not too serious, the winds so far, but we expect that to pick up throughout the morning on into the afternoon. We're expecting the worst of the winds perhaps 100 miles per hour sometime around 2:00 or 3:00 this afternoon.

A little bit of activity out here, not an awful lot. Thirty thousand full-time residents here on the Outer Banks here, but what you see right now are mostly TV people. The 30,000 residents, most of them have left. They had something in the neighborhood of 100,000 tourists here a couple of days ago, but most of them were ushered out of here over the last couple of days as well.

A lot of people were especially concerned when we were talking about 150-mile-per-winds. Now, we're talking more like 100-mile-per- hour winds. A number of residents, even though you see some houses shuttered up, they are staying. I would say probably 90 percent of the Outer Banks have been evacuated.

Let's take a quick look now on the other window we're looking out of at the ocean. Just to remind you, this is a shot from inside the window, because if we were outside, all you'd see would be water on the lens.

Again, the waves are picking up there. We're expecting waves of somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 feet high sometime later on this afternoon.

Right now, it's simply an angry sea. And, as I say, out here right now, we have whipping winds, we have rain. The rain is not all that heavy yet, but we're expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 inches, Carol, later on today.

COSTELLO: All right, many thanks, Brian Cabell.

Let's go farther up the coast now to Kathleen Koch. She has been keeping an eye on this storm in Virginia Beach, Virginia. And it looks pretty nasty there.

Good morning -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do have some good news, Carol. For the most part here in Virginia Beach, the power is still on. There are some scattered outages, but, you know, the power company has some 7,000 workers on standby to deal with those outages when they occur.

Lots of people have ended up in shelters. They do have emergency generators. So, if the power goes out, they should be fine.

A lot of concern, though, in this resort community about the hotels. There are hotels that line the ocean front. We're panning up now to show you the hotel where we're staying. This is the Holiday Inn that's on 21st Street. And the windows have not been boarded up, but there are a lot of towels, there are a lot of wedges in those windows and doors to keep them safe. Now, the last storm to hit this -- the last hurricane to hit this town head-on was Bonnie in '98. It was a category 1. It came in with winds of just over 100 miles an hour. And we're dealing with a category 2 here. So, there is a lot of concern. That storm alone caused more than $22 million damage in the Hampton Roads area -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Kathleen Koch live from Virginia Beach, Virginia this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.