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American Morning

Storm's Fury

Aired September 22, 2003 - 09:05   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: This morning, two more deaths were blamed on Hurricane Isabel, raising the death toll from the storm to 33. Along the Mid-Atlantic coast things are far from normal after the hurricane. A federal state of emergency has been declared for three states, and the District of Columbia, as well. And nearly 2 million people in eight states are still without power. President Bush will visit Richmond, Virginia today to assess the damage. We turn now to North Carolina, where residents of the Outer Banks there were hit by the full force of Isabel's wrath.
Susan Candiotti is live for us in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where residents truly, I guess, Susan, are out there assessing the damage, and it is pretty massive.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, and it's important to learn from these storms, as we know, Soledad. So here's another example of what about a 10 to 15 foot storm surge, plus 20 foot waves can do. These pilings, a house used to be on top of them, the house that's right over here just beside them, and the storm surge swept them off. So that shows you how powerful these storms can be.

Joining us now is Captain Mike Carver of the Kitty Hawk Police Department.

You've seen a lot during the storm and the aftermath. Tell me some of the more unusual things you have found that you were able to recover from the storm.

CAPT. MICHAEL CARVER, KITTY HAWK POLICE DEPT.: Well, next to a pile of debris from some of the houses we found a whole chicken egg, not a crack in the shell, fresh egg, and it was just kind of amazing that in all that destruction, you can have something as fragile as an egg without even a crack.

CANDIOTTI: That's true. And while some homes were destroyed, others are perfectly fine.

Let's talk about the streets. Now Kitty Hawk runs about five miles, north to south. About four miles is buried under sand. But taking a look at the work that's going on there, tell us about what's happening.

CARVER: Well, we have some places that the road was completely washed out. And DOT is building a road base now to repair the road and then clear the sand from the road, so we can try to open 12 back up as soon as possible.

CANDIOTTI: How deep is some of that sand?

CARVER: Probably three to four feet in some areas.

CANDIOTTI: And finally, tell us about some of the really heartbreaking stories, the people you've met along the way who have come back and seen their homes gone?

CARVER: We had a little lady yesterday whose home, the only thing left was one pylon standing. And she wanted her son just to pull two nails from the pylon so she could save them, because her father had built the house. She had a nail from her grandfather's barn, and now she has a nail from a house her father built, and that meant more her to her than all the other things of the house.

CANDIOTTI: Are people behaving themselves as they come back to make repairs? Are there any problems with looting, for example?

CARVER: We haven't had any looters that we're aware of at this time. And everybody has been real cooperative with us. They've done what we've asked them to do. And as we police the area, they abide by what we're asking them to do. And sometimes they don't like it, but they do it.

CANDIOTTI: Captain Mike Carver of the Kitty Hawk Police Department, thanks very much for joining us. A lot of work to be done, an estimated $200 million of damage here.

Back to you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Susan. And that's just the beginning figure. Thanks for that update. Appreciate it.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As that cleanup just gets started along the coast, it was a far different scene last week when the eye of the storm hit Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Our next guest was there to witness it and record it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PHELPS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There it is, the eyewall, coming in. Look at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: The images you're watching are from meteorologist Mike Phelps rather who found himself in the middle of the story and the middle of that storm. he's here to talk about not just his experience, but also the videotape and what he captured there live at the CNN Center.

Nice to see you, Mike. Glad you're OK.

PHELPS: Nice to be here. Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: Why did you pick that point for the storm? PHELPS: It appeared a couple of days in advance before the storm made landfall that it was going to hit the Outer Banks. So what we did was we placed ourselves nice and early before the storm even came onshore. We were actually in location, at location by Monday, scouting out high spots and areas where we could get some really good video of the storm surge and still be safe. That's the main thing.

HEMMER: Let me ask you a stupid question, what were you doing there?

PHELPS: We were documenting the storm surge. As a meteorologist since 1989, what I've done is I've went out and photographed and videotaped severe and unusual weather events in all seasons, to better understand these events. What we will do is we will give this video to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other organizations who are interested in seeing just how a storm surge behaves, because it's a rare event to actually capture on video.

HEMMER: Listen, we are going to pause just for a moment here. Not only are we watching the images, but we want to hear your narration a little bit, too. At one point in your experience, it got pretty hairy.

Let's listen now.

PHELPS: It really did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHELPS: OK, it's time to get the Hell out of here. Time to get the Hell out of here. Back to high ground, folks. This is it, what it's all about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Where was the high ground? What did you do next?

PHELPS: Yes, the high ground was about 200 yards back behind me. What I had done was I had -- I knew I had a certain amount of time to stay in the location I was at. But I couldn't stay too long or I'd be trapped. So at that point, when it got really bad, when you saw that surge just coming in at a very intense rate, I knew I had to get out of there to get back to my vehicle. We had parked it up about 20 feet high, which put us up above the storm surge, so we needed to get back at that point. I made it back, and fortunately, my buddy, who was also with me, had to stay for another three or four hours, and he made his way out after the storm surge had weakened and receded slightly.

HEMMER: Mike, I was reading some of your comments, and two things I want to get to. It was a category 2 storm.

PHELPS: Right.

HEMMER: Obviously, we saw the path of this storm do amazing damage to the Hatteras village and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. You say you were amazed that a category 2 storm could change the landscape that it did. How did it change?

PHELPS: Oh, absolutely. What we witnessed was with the birth of an island. The storm cut three distinct inlets into the Outer Banks, and created an island, now Hatteras Village, which was a part of Hatteras Island, is in itself its own island. The force of this storm surge coming in at high tide, which amplified the effect of the storm surge, actually cut three distinct inlets in the island, in the Outer Banks, it created an island, unbelievable. And this is only a category 2. Can you imagine what a three, or four or five would do? Just unbelievable.

HEMMER: Also in the village itself of Cape Hatteras, you made another interesting observation. The homes there and the buildings are not constructed on stilts.

PHELPS: Right.

HEMMER: Had that situation been different, would that village have survived?

PHELPS: Many of the homes are on stilts, but the particular businesses that were taken out appeared to be constructed on foundation. And had they been on stilts, yes, this was only about a five to as much as eight foot storm surge. You can get a house or a business up above that storm surge by putting it on stilts. If it's not on stilts, what happens -- and it's amazing the force of water, just three to five feet of water will float a building, and that's what happened. Several of the motels along the beach floated inland and took out several houses along the way.

HEMMER: Listen, thanks for sharing, and glad to know you're OK. Brave man caught up in the middle of that ocean. I'm certain that you've never seen an ocean behave like that before, and possibly never again.

PHELPS: It was something else.

HEMMER: Thank you, Mike. Mike Phelps there at the CNN Center, meteorologist and a weather chaser, too, from last week.

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 22, 2003 - 09:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, two more deaths were blamed on Hurricane Isabel, raising the death toll from the storm to 33. Along the Mid-Atlantic coast things are far from normal after the hurricane. A federal state of emergency has been declared for three states, and the District of Columbia, as well. And nearly 2 million people in eight states are still without power. President Bush will visit Richmond, Virginia today to assess the damage. We turn now to North Carolina, where residents of the Outer Banks there were hit by the full force of Isabel's wrath.
Susan Candiotti is live for us in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where residents truly, I guess, Susan, are out there assessing the damage, and it is pretty massive.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, and it's important to learn from these storms, as we know, Soledad. So here's another example of what about a 10 to 15 foot storm surge, plus 20 foot waves can do. These pilings, a house used to be on top of them, the house that's right over here just beside them, and the storm surge swept them off. So that shows you how powerful these storms can be.

Joining us now is Captain Mike Carver of the Kitty Hawk Police Department.

You've seen a lot during the storm and the aftermath. Tell me some of the more unusual things you have found that you were able to recover from the storm.

CAPT. MICHAEL CARVER, KITTY HAWK POLICE DEPT.: Well, next to a pile of debris from some of the houses we found a whole chicken egg, not a crack in the shell, fresh egg, and it was just kind of amazing that in all that destruction, you can have something as fragile as an egg without even a crack.

CANDIOTTI: That's true. And while some homes were destroyed, others are perfectly fine.

Let's talk about the streets. Now Kitty Hawk runs about five miles, north to south. About four miles is buried under sand. But taking a look at the work that's going on there, tell us about what's happening.

CARVER: Well, we have some places that the road was completely washed out. And DOT is building a road base now to repair the road and then clear the sand from the road, so we can try to open 12 back up as soon as possible.

CANDIOTTI: How deep is some of that sand?

CARVER: Probably three to four feet in some areas.

CANDIOTTI: And finally, tell us about some of the really heartbreaking stories, the people you've met along the way who have come back and seen their homes gone?

CARVER: We had a little lady yesterday whose home, the only thing left was one pylon standing. And she wanted her son just to pull two nails from the pylon so she could save them, because her father had built the house. She had a nail from her grandfather's barn, and now she has a nail from a house her father built, and that meant more her to her than all the other things of the house.

CANDIOTTI: Are people behaving themselves as they come back to make repairs? Are there any problems with looting, for example?

CARVER: We haven't had any looters that we're aware of at this time. And everybody has been real cooperative with us. They've done what we've asked them to do. And as we police the area, they abide by what we're asking them to do. And sometimes they don't like it, but they do it.

CANDIOTTI: Captain Mike Carver of the Kitty Hawk Police Department, thanks very much for joining us. A lot of work to be done, an estimated $200 million of damage here.

Back to you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Susan. And that's just the beginning figure. Thanks for that update. Appreciate it.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As that cleanup just gets started along the coast, it was a far different scene last week when the eye of the storm hit Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Our next guest was there to witness it and record it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PHELPS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There it is, the eyewall, coming in. Look at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: The images you're watching are from meteorologist Mike Phelps rather who found himself in the middle of the story and the middle of that storm. he's here to talk about not just his experience, but also the videotape and what he captured there live at the CNN Center.

Nice to see you, Mike. Glad you're OK.

PHELPS: Nice to be here. Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: Why did you pick that point for the storm? PHELPS: It appeared a couple of days in advance before the storm made landfall that it was going to hit the Outer Banks. So what we did was we placed ourselves nice and early before the storm even came onshore. We were actually in location, at location by Monday, scouting out high spots and areas where we could get some really good video of the storm surge and still be safe. That's the main thing.

HEMMER: Let me ask you a stupid question, what were you doing there?

PHELPS: We were documenting the storm surge. As a meteorologist since 1989, what I've done is I've went out and photographed and videotaped severe and unusual weather events in all seasons, to better understand these events. What we will do is we will give this video to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other organizations who are interested in seeing just how a storm surge behaves, because it's a rare event to actually capture on video.

HEMMER: Listen, we are going to pause just for a moment here. Not only are we watching the images, but we want to hear your narration a little bit, too. At one point in your experience, it got pretty hairy.

Let's listen now.

PHELPS: It really did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHELPS: OK, it's time to get the Hell out of here. Time to get the Hell out of here. Back to high ground, folks. This is it, what it's all about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Where was the high ground? What did you do next?

PHELPS: Yes, the high ground was about 200 yards back behind me. What I had done was I had -- I knew I had a certain amount of time to stay in the location I was at. But I couldn't stay too long or I'd be trapped. So at that point, when it got really bad, when you saw that surge just coming in at a very intense rate, I knew I had to get out of there to get back to my vehicle. We had parked it up about 20 feet high, which put us up above the storm surge, so we needed to get back at that point. I made it back, and fortunately, my buddy, who was also with me, had to stay for another three or four hours, and he made his way out after the storm surge had weakened and receded slightly.

HEMMER: Mike, I was reading some of your comments, and two things I want to get to. It was a category 2 storm.

PHELPS: Right.

HEMMER: Obviously, we saw the path of this storm do amazing damage to the Hatteras village and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. You say you were amazed that a category 2 storm could change the landscape that it did. How did it change?

PHELPS: Oh, absolutely. What we witnessed was with the birth of an island. The storm cut three distinct inlets into the Outer Banks, and created an island, now Hatteras Village, which was a part of Hatteras Island, is in itself its own island. The force of this storm surge coming in at high tide, which amplified the effect of the storm surge, actually cut three distinct inlets in the island, in the Outer Banks, it created an island, unbelievable. And this is only a category 2. Can you imagine what a three, or four or five would do? Just unbelievable.

HEMMER: Also in the village itself of Cape Hatteras, you made another interesting observation. The homes there and the buildings are not constructed on stilts.

PHELPS: Right.

HEMMER: Had that situation been different, would that village have survived?

PHELPS: Many of the homes are on stilts, but the particular businesses that were taken out appeared to be constructed on foundation. And had they been on stilts, yes, this was only about a five to as much as eight foot storm surge. You can get a house or a business up above that storm surge by putting it on stilts. If it's not on stilts, what happens -- and it's amazing the force of water, just three to five feet of water will float a building, and that's what happened. Several of the motels along the beach floated inland and took out several houses along the way.

HEMMER: Listen, thanks for sharing, and glad to know you're OK. Brave man caught up in the middle of that ocean. I'm certain that you've never seen an ocean behave like that before, and possibly never again.

PHELPS: It was something else.

HEMMER: Thank you, Mike. Mike Phelps there at the CNN Center, meteorologist and a weather chaser, too, from last week.

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