Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Hurricane Isabel: Storm Arrives
Aired September 18, 2003 - 07:01 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to get you to all of our reporters throughout the morning here, reporters across the Atlantic.
In North Carolina, Gary Tuchman is in North Topsail Beach this morning. Jeff Flock is in Atlantic Beach, Brian Cabell, Kill Devil Hills, Elizabeth City, John Zarrella. In Virginia, Virginia Beach, Kathleen Koch is watching it from there.
Let's start with Brian in Kill Devil Hills.
Brian -- how are conditions? Good morning there.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, conditions have worsened somewhat, Bill, over the last hour. So, take a look out here. This is a panorama of Kill Devil Hills you're looking at.
Let me give you a sense of where we are and what you're looking at. We are five stories up, relatively well-protected from the rain and the wind. I'd say the winds now are gusting up to about 40-45 miles per hour. The rains from time to time are heavy. Sometimes they will let up.
We are told this highway out here, Highway 12, will be flooded over before this morning is over with.
But, again, we are five stories up, so we're well above where the storm surge should hit. We're expecting a storm surge perhaps of 10 feet, but there will be what they call ocean over-wash, which means the roads will be flooded.
We're in a hotel, where most of the media have hunkered down. We've got about 10 or 12 satellite trucks here that are simply sitting against a wall, trying to get some sort of protection from the winds.
Now, let me switch you over to the other side of the hotel, where you can see the seas, the angry seas at this point. We are told to expect waves somewhere in excess of 15 to 20 feet later on today. Right now, it's kind of difficult to tell exactly how big they are. They have not washed out the beach yet, but we are told that will happen before too long.
Again, right now, Kill Devil Hills, we've had about 30,000 people evacuated from the entire Outer Banks from north to south. About 100,000 tourists were here three or four days ago. They are also gone. All that's left basically are the media, law enforcement and a few hardy residents -- Bill.
HEMMER: Brian, thanks.
More now with Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jeff Flock is live for us in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.
Jeff -- give me a sense of what it looks like where you are. It's not looking very good.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not, Soledad. Of course, (AUDIO GAP) I'll just try to communicate in real time for you. But right now, we're really starting to get the effects of it here. This is probably right up there with the worst we've seen so far.
This, of course, is the first opportunity we've had with the sun a little bit up, and maybe you can see, at least you see a little bit about what's going on here.
I want to take you over. You know, we've been all week here introducing you to these hurricane chasers and researchers, and they have put us, we think, right in the right spot. We do think that perhaps later today, we will get right in the eye.
So, let me go up and ask Mark Sudduth (ph) if anything's changed with his plans. (AUDIO GAP).
Hey, Mark, you've got the latest radar there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sure do.
FLOCK: What are you seeing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, there is the eye, and we call it the eyehole. That's it.
FLOCK: Say that again. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's the eye right there. There's the center of Isabel.
FLOCK: Where are we?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are right up here in eastern Carter (ph) County. Look at all of that heavy stuff coming on right on queue here it is, 35, 40, 50 mile-per-hour winds.
FLOCK: All right, we're going to let you go. We're going to let you go.
We'll be with these guys throughout the day this morning. We'll see how it changes and intensifies, which is what we expect...
O'BRIEN: And obviously, that was Jeff Flock for us reporting in Atlantic Beach, and clearly we're losing his satellite. I expect that's something we're going to see really all morning, Bill, because as the conditions deteriorate, obviously our ability to get some of those shots out is going to be...
HEMMER: We ask our viewers to be patient.
O'BRIEN: No question.
HEMMER: We're doing our best there.
Kathleen Koch is in Virginia Beach.
Kathleen -- how are things there?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, as you can see, the winds are blowing pretty strongly here. We're having gusts of about tropical-storm-force 40 miles per hour. So, they say, of course, those winds will double by the end of the day when this storm rolls in.
Now, pan up to the hotels here. This is a resort community, a beach-front community. It has pretty much emptied out to this point. They have asked most hotel guests to leave. At this point, it's mostly the media here in town. They have a lot of concerns about whether or not these windows will be blown out, and the impact that could have on the economy of this area, because none of the hotel windows have been boarded up. There are just too many, and they are too massive. So, everyone is just keeping their fingers crossed.
Now, we are on the Boardwalk here at 21st Street in Virginia Beach. You can see it's pretty empty. We just saw a couple of people there walking down the beach, really, the only people we've seen out here all morning besides the media.
Now, this Boardwalk was especially designed to be hurricane- resistant. They built it over the last couple of years with $125 million in local and in federal monies. They added about 300 feet of beach. You can see those waves crashing in now, and they are getting closer and closer by the minute. But adding the 300 feet of beach, building a concrete, a taller seawall, and then this wide concrete Boardwalk, they figure it gives them some sort of a buffer. They say that they can handle seas of about nine feet here.
Now, we are expecting by the end to have a storm surge of five to nine feet. So, whether or not we're going to be under water, at least part of us, at some point here is still open to question. But we're going to keep our fingers crossed on that one.
Our hotel is also a couple of feet above the Boardwalk, so we're betting we'll be safe.
Back to you -- Bill.
HEMMER: Do that. Thanks, Kathleen. We'll check in a bit later this hour -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Storm trackers at the National Hurricane Center are watching Isabel's every move. And joining us now from Miami with the latest is Deputy Director Edward Rapport. It's nice to see you. Thanks again for joining us.
EDWARD RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Let's first talk about the timing and the latest data that you have about landfall.
RAPPAPORT: Well, the center of the hurricane now is about 150 miles offshore. We expect the center to come onshore during the afternoon, the early afternoon today.
However, the focus doesn't need to be on that center, because this is a very broad hurricane with hurricane-force winds out about 100 miles. So, there's going to be a large part of the coast that has category 1 conditions over spread it, and then some patches of category 2 embedded as well.
O'BRIEN: As Bill mentioned a few minutes ago, "USA Today" reports -- or predicts -- I guess is a better word -- maybe 50 million people affected in 13 states. Do you think that's a fair assessment? And give me a sense of the timing for everyone else who is not in the direct path of the storm, when they will be infected -- affected, rather, by the heavy winds and the rains.
RAPPAPORT: Well, it is a very large hurricane, and so we are going to see a large part of the eastern United States affected. The forecast track takes the center inland, and then the center of the hurricane will weaken. And we're going to have a rainfall threat all the way up through eastern North Carolina, through Virginia and then northward, perhaps 6 to 10 inches of rain. And so, there is a potential for flooding that could affect many people.
O'BRIEN: How far inland do you think that flooding could affect folks?
RAPPAPORT: Well, we're talking about perhaps several hundred miles inland along the track. Now, the winds will die down, but we still think there could be at least gusts of hurricane-force perhaps 100 to 150 miles inland.
O'BRIEN: Can you predict at this time exactly what will happen when it makes landfall? When it hits, you say it slows down. Could it potentially change direction once it hits land?
RAPPAPORT: Well, that's very unlikely. We've been locked on a forecast track that's shown the Outer Banks in North Carolina for two to three days now. We don't expect that to change. It's a large storm. The changes we'll see as it moves inland are that the winds will die down, but the rains will not. And so, the flooding potential spreads inland.
O'BRIEN: How strong will the winds be when it actually does hit land?
RAPPAPORT: I think the maximum winds will be around 100 miles per hour. But there will be a large area of category 1 conditions along the Outer Banks of North Carolina spreading a little bit inland, and, as I said, a few patches of category 2 embedded.
O'BRIEN: So, are you predicting then that the most harm will be done right in the path of the eye? Or are you saying that because there will be such strong effects outside of the eye everybody really needs to be worried about the effects?
RAPPAPORT: Well, normally for a very intense hurricane, the worst of the weather is concentrated in the core area right around the center. But in this case, that core area isn't very strong. Instead, we have a spread-out hurricane with a lot of winds and a lot of rain over a large area.
O'BRIEN: All right, Ed Rappaport, thanks for joining us with that update. And as you well know, we're going to continue to check in with you throughout the day. Appreciate it, Ed.
HEMMER: Yes, Soledad, the area we're concentrated on primarily today is what's known as the Crystal Coast of North Earolina, the eastern edge of that very large state. Gary Tuchman live in North Topsail Beach, checking in with us for the first time here on this day.
Gary -- how goes it?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, we are just south of where the eye is expected to cross. And I want to show you something significant. Watch this vegetation. You see how far that blew? It's the direction that it blew that's significant, towards the ocean. Because these people are south of the eye, the counter-clockwise winds are swirling the winds towards the water. Therefore, they don't expect to get much flooding.
We come to you from a dune that is protecting the beach here. And Topsail Beach, North Carolina, this island gets severe flooding in even the most minor storms. So, people here are very grateful that they're not expected to get much flooding because of the direction of the wind.
Nevertheless, they're very concerned about the possible wind damage. Right now, the gusts are up to 50 miles per hour. Of course, as the hours go by, they're expecting hurricane-force winds here.
They've had five hurricane hits or near hits since 1996 in this area alone, including in 1996 when Hurricane Fran came, which is the fourth costliest hurricane in U.S. history -- $3.2 billion worth of damage.
There are many homes on this fragile, slender island. The island is only three blocks wide. You cross a bridge and then you go onto the mainland. So, there's a lot of concern here, 3,000 year-round residents, most of them are now gone.
Bill -- back to you.
HEMMER: Gary, thanks. We will not be far. Gary Tuchman in North Topsail Beach there in North Carolina. 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 - 07:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to get you to all of our reporters throughout the morning here, reporters across the Atlantic.
In North Carolina, Gary Tuchman is in North Topsail Beach this morning. Jeff Flock is in Atlantic Beach, Brian Cabell, Kill Devil Hills, Elizabeth City, John Zarrella. In Virginia, Virginia Beach, Kathleen Koch is watching it from there.
Let's start with Brian in Kill Devil Hills.
Brian -- how are conditions? Good morning there.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, conditions have worsened somewhat, Bill, over the last hour. So, take a look out here. This is a panorama of Kill Devil Hills you're looking at.
Let me give you a sense of where we are and what you're looking at. We are five stories up, relatively well-protected from the rain and the wind. I'd say the winds now are gusting up to about 40-45 miles per hour. The rains from time to time are heavy. Sometimes they will let up.
We are told this highway out here, Highway 12, will be flooded over before this morning is over with.
But, again, we are five stories up, so we're well above where the storm surge should hit. We're expecting a storm surge perhaps of 10 feet, but there will be what they call ocean over-wash, which means the roads will be flooded.
We're in a hotel, where most of the media have hunkered down. We've got about 10 or 12 satellite trucks here that are simply sitting against a wall, trying to get some sort of protection from the winds.
Now, let me switch you over to the other side of the hotel, where you can see the seas, the angry seas at this point. We are told to expect waves somewhere in excess of 15 to 20 feet later on today. Right now, it's kind of difficult to tell exactly how big they are. They have not washed out the beach yet, but we are told that will happen before too long.
Again, right now, Kill Devil Hills, we've had about 30,000 people evacuated from the entire Outer Banks from north to south. About 100,000 tourists were here three or four days ago. They are also gone. All that's left basically are the media, law enforcement and a few hardy residents -- Bill.
HEMMER: Brian, thanks.
More now with Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jeff Flock is live for us in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.
Jeff -- give me a sense of what it looks like where you are. It's not looking very good.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not, Soledad. Of course, (AUDIO GAP) I'll just try to communicate in real time for you. But right now, we're really starting to get the effects of it here. This is probably right up there with the worst we've seen so far.
This, of course, is the first opportunity we've had with the sun a little bit up, and maybe you can see, at least you see a little bit about what's going on here.
I want to take you over. You know, we've been all week here introducing you to these hurricane chasers and researchers, and they have put us, we think, right in the right spot. We do think that perhaps later today, we will get right in the eye.
So, let me go up and ask Mark Sudduth (ph) if anything's changed with his plans. (AUDIO GAP).
Hey, Mark, you've got the latest radar there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sure do.
FLOCK: What are you seeing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, there is the eye, and we call it the eyehole. That's it.
FLOCK: Say that again. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's the eye right there. There's the center of Isabel.
FLOCK: Where are we?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are right up here in eastern Carter (ph) County. Look at all of that heavy stuff coming on right on queue here it is, 35, 40, 50 mile-per-hour winds.
FLOCK: All right, we're going to let you go. We're going to let you go.
We'll be with these guys throughout the day this morning. We'll see how it changes and intensifies, which is what we expect...
O'BRIEN: And obviously, that was Jeff Flock for us reporting in Atlantic Beach, and clearly we're losing his satellite. I expect that's something we're going to see really all morning, Bill, because as the conditions deteriorate, obviously our ability to get some of those shots out is going to be...
HEMMER: We ask our viewers to be patient.
O'BRIEN: No question.
HEMMER: We're doing our best there.
Kathleen Koch is in Virginia Beach.
Kathleen -- how are things there?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, as you can see, the winds are blowing pretty strongly here. We're having gusts of about tropical-storm-force 40 miles per hour. So, they say, of course, those winds will double by the end of the day when this storm rolls in.
Now, pan up to the hotels here. This is a resort community, a beach-front community. It has pretty much emptied out to this point. They have asked most hotel guests to leave. At this point, it's mostly the media here in town. They have a lot of concerns about whether or not these windows will be blown out, and the impact that could have on the economy of this area, because none of the hotel windows have been boarded up. There are just too many, and they are too massive. So, everyone is just keeping their fingers crossed.
Now, we are on the Boardwalk here at 21st Street in Virginia Beach. You can see it's pretty empty. We just saw a couple of people there walking down the beach, really, the only people we've seen out here all morning besides the media.
Now, this Boardwalk was especially designed to be hurricane- resistant. They built it over the last couple of years with $125 million in local and in federal monies. They added about 300 feet of beach. You can see those waves crashing in now, and they are getting closer and closer by the minute. But adding the 300 feet of beach, building a concrete, a taller seawall, and then this wide concrete Boardwalk, they figure it gives them some sort of a buffer. They say that they can handle seas of about nine feet here.
Now, we are expecting by the end to have a storm surge of five to nine feet. So, whether or not we're going to be under water, at least part of us, at some point here is still open to question. But we're going to keep our fingers crossed on that one.
Our hotel is also a couple of feet above the Boardwalk, so we're betting we'll be safe.
Back to you -- Bill.
HEMMER: Do that. Thanks, Kathleen. We'll check in a bit later this hour -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Storm trackers at the National Hurricane Center are watching Isabel's every move. And joining us now from Miami with the latest is Deputy Director Edward Rapport. It's nice to see you. Thanks again for joining us.
EDWARD RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Let's first talk about the timing and the latest data that you have about landfall.
RAPPAPORT: Well, the center of the hurricane now is about 150 miles offshore. We expect the center to come onshore during the afternoon, the early afternoon today.
However, the focus doesn't need to be on that center, because this is a very broad hurricane with hurricane-force winds out about 100 miles. So, there's going to be a large part of the coast that has category 1 conditions over spread it, and then some patches of category 2 embedded as well.
O'BRIEN: As Bill mentioned a few minutes ago, "USA Today" reports -- or predicts -- I guess is a better word -- maybe 50 million people affected in 13 states. Do you think that's a fair assessment? And give me a sense of the timing for everyone else who is not in the direct path of the storm, when they will be infected -- affected, rather, by the heavy winds and the rains.
RAPPAPORT: Well, it is a very large hurricane, and so we are going to see a large part of the eastern United States affected. The forecast track takes the center inland, and then the center of the hurricane will weaken. And we're going to have a rainfall threat all the way up through eastern North Carolina, through Virginia and then northward, perhaps 6 to 10 inches of rain. And so, there is a potential for flooding that could affect many people.
O'BRIEN: How far inland do you think that flooding could affect folks?
RAPPAPORT: Well, we're talking about perhaps several hundred miles inland along the track. Now, the winds will die down, but we still think there could be at least gusts of hurricane-force perhaps 100 to 150 miles inland.
O'BRIEN: Can you predict at this time exactly what will happen when it makes landfall? When it hits, you say it slows down. Could it potentially change direction once it hits land?
RAPPAPORT: Well, that's very unlikely. We've been locked on a forecast track that's shown the Outer Banks in North Carolina for two to three days now. We don't expect that to change. It's a large storm. The changes we'll see as it moves inland are that the winds will die down, but the rains will not. And so, the flooding potential spreads inland.
O'BRIEN: How strong will the winds be when it actually does hit land?
RAPPAPORT: I think the maximum winds will be around 100 miles per hour. But there will be a large area of category 1 conditions along the Outer Banks of North Carolina spreading a little bit inland, and, as I said, a few patches of category 2 embedded.
O'BRIEN: So, are you predicting then that the most harm will be done right in the path of the eye? Or are you saying that because there will be such strong effects outside of the eye everybody really needs to be worried about the effects?
RAPPAPORT: Well, normally for a very intense hurricane, the worst of the weather is concentrated in the core area right around the center. But in this case, that core area isn't very strong. Instead, we have a spread-out hurricane with a lot of winds and a lot of rain over a large area.
O'BRIEN: All right, Ed Rappaport, thanks for joining us with that update. And as you well know, we're going to continue to check in with you throughout the day. Appreciate it, Ed.
HEMMER: Yes, Soledad, the area we're concentrated on primarily today is what's known as the Crystal Coast of North Earolina, the eastern edge of that very large state. Gary Tuchman live in North Topsail Beach, checking in with us for the first time here on this day.
Gary -- how goes it?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, we are just south of where the eye is expected to cross. And I want to show you something significant. Watch this vegetation. You see how far that blew? It's the direction that it blew that's significant, towards the ocean. Because these people are south of the eye, the counter-clockwise winds are swirling the winds towards the water. Therefore, they don't expect to get much flooding.
We come to you from a dune that is protecting the beach here. And Topsail Beach, North Carolina, this island gets severe flooding in even the most minor storms. So, people here are very grateful that they're not expected to get much flooding because of the direction of the wind.
Nevertheless, they're very concerned about the possible wind damage. Right now, the gusts are up to 50 miles per hour. Of course, as the hours go by, they're expecting hurricane-force winds here.
They've had five hurricane hits or near hits since 1996 in this area alone, including in 1996 when Hurricane Fran came, which is the fourth costliest hurricane in U.S. history -- $3.2 billion worth of damage.
There are many homes on this fragile, slender island. The island is only three blocks wide. You cross a bridge and then you go onto the mainland. So, there's a lot of concern here, 3,000 year-round residents, most of them are now gone.
Bill -- back to you.
HEMMER: Gary, thanks. We will not be far. Gary Tuchman in North Topsail Beach there in North Carolina. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
