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American Morning
Isabel Nears
Aired September 18, 2003 - 07:31 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: They say we're going to be feeling some winds here in New York City a bit later today. We'll see if, indeed, that forecast follows. But the top story this morning, Hurricane Isabel is now here.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And, in fact, here is the latest on Hurricane Isabel. States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, in Virginia, in West Virginia, in Maryland, in Delaware and in Washington, D.C. in advance of the storm.
At last report, the category two storm is just about 150 miles offshore. The next report from the National Hurricane Center will be in just about 30 minutes.
Isabel is expected to bring storm surges of up to 11 feet of water to coastal areas. Lots of damage expected there -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. A number of reporters throughout the area covering this, the arrival of Isabel. From North Carolina, Brian Cabell is in Kill Devil Hills; Jeff Flock is in Atlantic Beach; in Elizabeth City, we find CNN's John Zarrella, Gary Tuchman is in North Topsail Beach; and from Virginia Beach, Virginia, Kathleen Koch.
So we will check in with our reporters again in the next 30 minutes and let you know what they're experiencing right now.
First, though, he's Chad again with a look outside -- Chad, what do you have?
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
They're all battening down the hatches now, I'm afraid.
I want to give you what we had here. This is the five o'clock advisory. Then I'm going to contrast that to what we'll get here at eight o'clock, a little bit before eight.
It was 155 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, moving to the northwest at 14. Almost two and a half hours ago is what these number was made. So you multiply that by two and a half hour's worth of movement, this could now be about 125 miles to the south-southeast of Cape Hatteras and it's moving right here to almost Cape Lookout.
The winds right now are still 105 miles per hour. It's still a category two, but a category three is 111. So let's not split hairs here. We also have two concentric eye walls here, or at least some kind of fill in here, something spinning around across the outer eye wall. The yellow areas here that you see, the thunderstorms embedded in this eye wall, embedded in this hurricane, could also produce some tornadoes. We have to watch out for that. We don't have a tornado watch out and I'm kind of surprised about that, but as it comes out later today we'll let you know when it does.
Big storms now from Cape Hatteras right on down to Cape Lookout, including Morehead City.
As the storm comes onshore, you talked about storm surge. You just said it, Soledad. What it is, is that this storm has been acting like a vacuum cleaner now for 10 days. It's been out there, category five, four, five, three, two and maybe even one by the time it hits shore. I still don't think so. I think it'll still be a cat two.
But it's been sucking water underneath it and there's a bubble of water underneath it because all of this wind has been flowing under the storm. And as that bubble hits the land, the land gets in the way and then that land actually gets covered up by that bubble of water, as the wind just blows that bubble right onshore.
The problem today, high tide in these areas right at two o'clock. Eye making land fall two o'clock. That's never a good thing. Seven to 10 foot storm surge, plus a three foot high tide, now we're talking 10 to 13 feet, and many of those islands out there, many of those, all the way from about Oprakoke (ph) back over to Cape Hatteras, they're not even 13 feet tall, even with the dunes. They may be only 10 feet tall. Many of those islands are going to completely over washed with water -- back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, can I ask you a quick question?
MYERS: Sure.
O'BRIEN: You talked a little bit about concentric eye walls. What's an eye wall and when you talk about two concentric eye walls, is that unusual?
MYERS: It is a little unusual. Sometimes it indicates a storm that's not very organized because you want to see one -- well, you don't really want to see it -- but if you want it to get stronger, you want to see one eye wall. An eye wall, Soledad, is the outside of the inner part of the hurricane. It's where you're supposed to look down from the satellite here and see water.
Well, we can't see water this morning. We've had blow off thunderstorms in here. We could only see more thunderstorms here in the middle. If you have -- and this storm, if I back this satellite up another seven days, this storm had an eye wall that looked like this. It looked like a doughnut right on the water and you could actually see the blue right underneath it.
That's when it was a category five. The eye wall is where all of that up and down transition is going on, and that's what the hurricane hunter aircraft tries to fly into. And the eye wall is where the strongest wind of a hurricane is. And if you have two of them, they're sharing that wind. Rather than just getting one big storm, we've almost got two little storms fighting for dominance in here. But it does look like the eye wall is getting smaller, the outside eye wall here getting smaller. That is just like a ballerina or like an ice skater. When she brings her arms in, she goes a lot faster. When the eye wall gets smaller, this storm goes faster, too, and we really don't want that now that it's heading on land.
These storms fluctuate up and down, up and down. It's just called cycling. It's just what they do. Sometimes they can be big, sometimes they can be small, just like a tornado in the Plains. It doesn't stay on the ground all the time. It'll skip, it'll get big, it'll get small, it'll get big, it'll small. Hurricanes do the same thing -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, great, Chad, thanks for that clarification.
HEMMER: Yes, we -- we're watching an evacuation list, too. It's rather substantial. North Carolina, 150,000 people have gotten out as of yesterday; Virginia, 100,000. So you've got a quarter of a million people heading inland and probably it's pretty good advice if you watched that satellite image that Chad was showing us.
O'BRIEN: Yes. No question.
HEMMER: Back to our reporters in a moment.
First, let's get to our news alert at this hour.
(BREAK IN COVERAGE FOR THE TOP STORIES AT THIS HOUR)
HEMMER: The airlines getting ready for Isabel and the affect on travel. The major carriers are letting passengers reschedule and in some cases cancel without a penalty. Yesterday, U.S. Airways was the first to cancel flights, more than 400 of them, in Virginia and in the Carolinas. We're also told United may clear out its planes at Reagan National down in D.C., depending on which way this storm, Isabel, goes.
O'BRIEN: Well, of course, Hurricane Isabel is our top story, so we want to take you now to North Carolina, where Katie Marzullo, who is an affiliate reporter with News 14 Carolina, is in Morehead City this morning.
Katie, update us on exactly how it looks where you are.
KATIE MARZULLO, NEWS 14 CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, it looks worse and worse with each passing minute. Let me get out of the way. Take a look behind us on the water on this bay, which divides Morehead City, where we are, and Atlantic Beach, which is the island community that was evacuated yesterday, the bridge between us that closed down last night.
So the rain coming down in heavier and heavier sheets as the morning goes on and the wind getting stronger and stronger as the morning goes on, as well. So definitely signs of what is to come later on this morning. The eye of the storm still expected to reach us here in Morehead City by about noon.
So we are definitely bracing ourselves for the worst still.
O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit, Katie, about the folks in Morehead City. Are you seeing most people getting out of the way? Are there still people who are staying in their homes?
MARZULLO: There are definitely people here in Morehead City staying in their homes. But what's interesting, I guess, is people have definitely come across the bridge to get out of Atlantic Beach, but some aren't going any further than Morehead City. So for some, this is their evacuation spot. But then there are those who live here who are evacuating further, to Raleigh and to different places more off the coast.
But there are shelters set up here. The hotels are absolutely booked. So some people have decided this is their safe spot and some people have gone even further. But beyond that, the residents of Atlantic Beach are allowed, still, to come and go if they choose. But technically they are under mandatory evacuation.
O'BRIEN: All right, Katie Marzullo updating us from News 14 Carolina.
Thanks for that update and we'll continue to check in with you.
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 - 07:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: They say we're going to be feeling some winds here in New York City a bit later today. We'll see if, indeed, that forecast follows. But the top story this morning, Hurricane Isabel is now here.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And, in fact, here is the latest on Hurricane Isabel. States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, in Virginia, in West Virginia, in Maryland, in Delaware and in Washington, D.C. in advance of the storm.
At last report, the category two storm is just about 150 miles offshore. The next report from the National Hurricane Center will be in just about 30 minutes.
Isabel is expected to bring storm surges of up to 11 feet of water to coastal areas. Lots of damage expected there -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. A number of reporters throughout the area covering this, the arrival of Isabel. From North Carolina, Brian Cabell is in Kill Devil Hills; Jeff Flock is in Atlantic Beach; in Elizabeth City, we find CNN's John Zarrella, Gary Tuchman is in North Topsail Beach; and from Virginia Beach, Virginia, Kathleen Koch.
So we will check in with our reporters again in the next 30 minutes and let you know what they're experiencing right now.
First, though, he's Chad again with a look outside -- Chad, what do you have?
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
They're all battening down the hatches now, I'm afraid.
I want to give you what we had here. This is the five o'clock advisory. Then I'm going to contrast that to what we'll get here at eight o'clock, a little bit before eight.
It was 155 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, moving to the northwest at 14. Almost two and a half hours ago is what these number was made. So you multiply that by two and a half hour's worth of movement, this could now be about 125 miles to the south-southeast of Cape Hatteras and it's moving right here to almost Cape Lookout.
The winds right now are still 105 miles per hour. It's still a category two, but a category three is 111. So let's not split hairs here. We also have two concentric eye walls here, or at least some kind of fill in here, something spinning around across the outer eye wall. The yellow areas here that you see, the thunderstorms embedded in this eye wall, embedded in this hurricane, could also produce some tornadoes. We have to watch out for that. We don't have a tornado watch out and I'm kind of surprised about that, but as it comes out later today we'll let you know when it does.
Big storms now from Cape Hatteras right on down to Cape Lookout, including Morehead City.
As the storm comes onshore, you talked about storm surge. You just said it, Soledad. What it is, is that this storm has been acting like a vacuum cleaner now for 10 days. It's been out there, category five, four, five, three, two and maybe even one by the time it hits shore. I still don't think so. I think it'll still be a cat two.
But it's been sucking water underneath it and there's a bubble of water underneath it because all of this wind has been flowing under the storm. And as that bubble hits the land, the land gets in the way and then that land actually gets covered up by that bubble of water, as the wind just blows that bubble right onshore.
The problem today, high tide in these areas right at two o'clock. Eye making land fall two o'clock. That's never a good thing. Seven to 10 foot storm surge, plus a three foot high tide, now we're talking 10 to 13 feet, and many of those islands out there, many of those, all the way from about Oprakoke (ph) back over to Cape Hatteras, they're not even 13 feet tall, even with the dunes. They may be only 10 feet tall. Many of those islands are going to completely over washed with water -- back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, can I ask you a quick question?
MYERS: Sure.
O'BRIEN: You talked a little bit about concentric eye walls. What's an eye wall and when you talk about two concentric eye walls, is that unusual?
MYERS: It is a little unusual. Sometimes it indicates a storm that's not very organized because you want to see one -- well, you don't really want to see it -- but if you want it to get stronger, you want to see one eye wall. An eye wall, Soledad, is the outside of the inner part of the hurricane. It's where you're supposed to look down from the satellite here and see water.
Well, we can't see water this morning. We've had blow off thunderstorms in here. We could only see more thunderstorms here in the middle. If you have -- and this storm, if I back this satellite up another seven days, this storm had an eye wall that looked like this. It looked like a doughnut right on the water and you could actually see the blue right underneath it.
That's when it was a category five. The eye wall is where all of that up and down transition is going on, and that's what the hurricane hunter aircraft tries to fly into. And the eye wall is where the strongest wind of a hurricane is. And if you have two of them, they're sharing that wind. Rather than just getting one big storm, we've almost got two little storms fighting for dominance in here. But it does look like the eye wall is getting smaller, the outside eye wall here getting smaller. That is just like a ballerina or like an ice skater. When she brings her arms in, she goes a lot faster. When the eye wall gets smaller, this storm goes faster, too, and we really don't want that now that it's heading on land.
These storms fluctuate up and down, up and down. It's just called cycling. It's just what they do. Sometimes they can be big, sometimes they can be small, just like a tornado in the Plains. It doesn't stay on the ground all the time. It'll skip, it'll get big, it'll get small, it'll get big, it'll small. Hurricanes do the same thing -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, great, Chad, thanks for that clarification.
HEMMER: Yes, we -- we're watching an evacuation list, too. It's rather substantial. North Carolina, 150,000 people have gotten out as of yesterday; Virginia, 100,000. So you've got a quarter of a million people heading inland and probably it's pretty good advice if you watched that satellite image that Chad was showing us.
O'BRIEN: Yes. No question.
HEMMER: Back to our reporters in a moment.
First, let's get to our news alert at this hour.
(BREAK IN COVERAGE FOR THE TOP STORIES AT THIS HOUR)
HEMMER: The airlines getting ready for Isabel and the affect on travel. The major carriers are letting passengers reschedule and in some cases cancel without a penalty. Yesterday, U.S. Airways was the first to cancel flights, more than 400 of them, in Virginia and in the Carolinas. We're also told United may clear out its planes at Reagan National down in D.C., depending on which way this storm, Isabel, goes.
O'BRIEN: Well, of course, Hurricane Isabel is our top story, so we want to take you now to North Carolina, where Katie Marzullo, who is an affiliate reporter with News 14 Carolina, is in Morehead City this morning.
Katie, update us on exactly how it looks where you are.
KATIE MARZULLO, NEWS 14 CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, it looks worse and worse with each passing minute. Let me get out of the way. Take a look behind us on the water on this bay, which divides Morehead City, where we are, and Atlantic Beach, which is the island community that was evacuated yesterday, the bridge between us that closed down last night.
So the rain coming down in heavier and heavier sheets as the morning goes on and the wind getting stronger and stronger as the morning goes on, as well. So definitely signs of what is to come later on this morning. The eye of the storm still expected to reach us here in Morehead City by about noon.
So we are definitely bracing ourselves for the worst still.
O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit, Katie, about the folks in Morehead City. Are you seeing most people getting out of the way? Are there still people who are staying in their homes?
MARZULLO: There are definitely people here in Morehead City staying in their homes. But what's interesting, I guess, is people have definitely come across the bridge to get out of Atlantic Beach, but some aren't going any further than Morehead City. So for some, this is their evacuation spot. But then there are those who live here who are evacuating further, to Raleigh and to different places more off the coast.
But there are shelters set up here. The hotels are absolutely booked. So some people have decided this is their safe spot and some people have gone even further. But beyond that, the residents of Atlantic Beach are allowed, still, to come and go if they choose. But technically they are under mandatory evacuation.
O'BRIEN: All right, Katie Marzullo updating us from News 14 Carolina.
Thanks for that update and we'll continue to check in with you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
