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Hurricane Isabel Shuts Down Federal Government, Airports
Aired September 18, 2003 - 13:33 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Talking about keeping one step ahead in New York, they're keeping one step ahead in Washington, also. Isabel has shut down Washington federal offices, I mean, congressional leaders canceling votes, so lawmakers could leave town., even the National Gallery of Art keeping its collection off limits to visitors today.
Our Barbara Starr reporting from the Pentagon.
A little different, not really talking military affairs, but hurricane affairs today.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed.
Everybody appears to be on the weather watch. Almost the entire Pentagon has actually emptied out by now, Kyra. All 17.5 miles of corridors inside this building are empty. They have gone home. Indeed, as you say, really, all of the nation's capital has shut down. President Bush has gone to Camp David. Congress has gone home. The airports are going to halt flights later today, they tell us, when the weather gets really bad.
The Metro, the public transportation system, the subway and bus system, shut down. That's pretty much what participated the decision by the federal government to shut down. So things are really very quiet here in town. Almost everybody is home waiting for the storm to approach.
Now, on a lighter note, here at the Pentagon, of course, they never really shut down. The essential personnel reported here this morning. And there was a lot of eyeballing in the corridors to see who showed up and who didn't, a lot of joking amongst some of the military officers. The Navy and the Marine Corps showed up, a lot of questions about where some of the other services are.
But on a very serious note, of course, the military is keeping a very close eye on this hurricane. Down the hall from me, at the National Military Command Center, of course, they are 24/7. And they have a small team of experts keeping an eye on the weather, ready to stand by and offer military assistance, if it is asked for -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, so, Barbara, let me get this right. We've got some of the Navy, some of the Marines, and we have you running the Pentagon right now?
STARR: Well, no. Everybody's here, but a little bit of joking in the hallways earlier this morning.
PHILLIPS: All right, Barbara Starr there at the Pentagon, she's got her bag packed. She's ready to stay there for a while. We'll check in with you.
Thanks, Barbara -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly runs things for us there, that's for sure. Barbara Starr, thank you very much. She doesn't miss a day of work.
Now, when you combine 66 miles an hour of wind with 105 pounds of Kathleen Koch, suddenly, you fall in love with a lamppost, as we're discovering right now.
Kathleen Koch in Virginia Beach.
Hello. How's it going there?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, actually, we have a pretty serious situation. Things have gotten worse since you last saw me hugging that planter out front.
The area where I was standing just then is now covered with the debris of the roof next door, the Seahawk Motel. We're at 26 street in Virginia Beach. And about five minutes ago, I was standing out in front of our hotel, the Holiday Inn, and I heard a loud explosion. And we all looked to the left and just saw the roof of this hotel, an older hotel, peel back and fly apart.
That's why I'm not standing over there by the planter, because that area is now incredibly dangerous. I'm watching right now pieces of the roof flying off. You can't see them from our camera position, but I can see them from here. So I'm watching them.
What you can see is the ocean. The waves are crashing over the boardwalk just down to the right of me. I don't know if the camera can pan down there. And, as you can see, believe it or not, there are the curiosity-seekers, still out here, watching the hurricane roll in, oblivious to how truly dangerous it is. I mean, the roof blowing off the hotel next door is just a prime example.
You just have no idea when things are going to start coming apart and flying around. We've seen small things. We've seen stove pipes and different sorts of ventilation popping off of roofs a couple of hours ago. But now we're actually seeing entire roofs come off.
So, Miles, it's a pretty bad situation here. Again, I just hope that most of these folks get inside very soon.
O'BRIEN: Kathleen, I don't know. Are you close enough to talk to those people and ask them why they're out? Yes, could you...
KOCH: Yes, I could. I could run
(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Yes, go run over there. Ask them why the heck they're out there.
KOCH: Excuse me. Hi there. What's your name? Where are you from? And why are you out here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Alex (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Dara (ph). We live right on 27th and Baltic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just looking at the ocean to see what's going on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have nothing better to do. We have no electricity.
KOCH: Did you realize that the roof just blew off the Seahawk Hotel there about five minutes ago?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we didn't see that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can see it right now a little coming up.
There's a couple people's houses with broken windows and things. And our neighbor's tree fell right on their house, right on the side of their house.
KOCH: And you still think it's safe to be out here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not really.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you're out here!
(LAUGHTER)
KOCH: Any precautions? Have you boarded up your windows and taped them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got all that.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got all the food and everything.
KOCH: Now, what about what they said? If you're going to stay here, the police have advised you, write on your forearm your name and the name of next of kin. Have you gone that far?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got permanent markers ready. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We heard that on the radio. So...
KOCH: So you're not afraid. Have you ridden out other storms?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I've been here for the past eight years. So I've seen them all.
KOCH: So you were here for Bonnie. Bonnie was the last one that rolled in. That was a Category 1.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then there was, what, Floyd in '99. What category was that? I'm not sure.
KOCH: That was much bigger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it was much bigger. We're all blowing over.
KOCH: So I think you guys ought to get to safe shelter pretty soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're just going to take a look and go back.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we're going to head back up soon.
KOCH: Now, this storm, I don't know if anybody at home knows this, but this storm wall, this sea wall was built to withstand hurricane-force winds and seas, up to 9 feet. What do you think of what you're seeing here right now? It's lapping at the boardwalk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's amazing. It's amazing. It's never this high. But the boardwalk I think goes 15 feet deep into the sand. So, even if it does wash away a considerable amount of sand, it should be fine, I think.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we'll be safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As long as nothing flies out of the water and breaks anybody, the windows.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... confident staying out here.
KOCH: All right, thanks a lot. Well, get in out of the storm. And I'm going to do the same -- Miles, back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kathleen Koch. The response of the day, was, hey, you're out here. What do you say to that?
All right, be safe out there, please.
And we'll send it over to Kyra. PHILLIPS: All right, we're going to take you now to live pictures in North Carolina. This, actually, specifically is Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
What you're looking at is -- I mean, you're just starting to see the damage caused by these winds. This is the side of a hotel. Do we know what hotel this is, by chance, Brian? Do we -- yes, do we know what hotel this is? No, we don't. OK. We're being told this is the Holiday Inn in Kill Devil -- oh, the Ramada Inn, which is actually not far from the Holiday Inn. This is the Ramada Inn in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
Starting to see the damage on the side there, the strength of the winds. You can see down there, also, near the cars just things starting to blow around, the winds picking up. Hurricane Isabel has just pushed a massive surge. We're told 68 miles per hour right now, winds are being clocked here in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, the hurricane pushing a surge of water on to the beaches of North Carolina's Outer Banks and causing this storm, with winds now at 68 miles an hour here specifically near the Ramada Inn hotel.
And we're told the National Weather Service showed that the eye of the storm centered near the Outer Banks and the mainland part of the eastern North Carolina coast. Now we're seeing the result of these heavy winds. We're going to continue to follow developments out of Kill Devil Hills, also, Virginia Beach, where Kathleen Koch was, and our Jeff Flock up there along the coast also in Topsail Beach.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk air traffic again for just a minute.
The airlines these days, they don't necessarily even wait for the storm to hit. Just the forecast that we've been telling them about is enough to change the flight schedules, because, of course, they don't want to overnight aircraft or have aircraft stuck on the ground when something like this comes ashore.
CNN's Patty Davis is in Herndon, Virginia, where the FAA keeps a look at the air traffic control system nationwide. And she has the latest from there. Are things flying smoothly elsewhere? Let's put it that way first. Except for the East Coast, is everything going OK?
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is.
It's looking pretty good when you go west of where all this weather is. We're not seeing any delays at this point. It's a nasty picture, though, when you're looking at the East Coast. Now, as you said, Miles, this is the command center for the FAA's air traffic control operations in Herndon, Virginia.
They've been planning what to do about this storm for the past two weeks. And what they've been doing mostly at this point is rerouting traffic. They also have put in some delay programs at certain airports. Right now, you're seeing minimal operations and indefinite delays at these airports: Myrtle Beach; Wilmington, North Carolina; Raleigh-Durham; Norfolk; and Richmond, Virginia, airports. But as far as the FAA is concerned, it is delaying flights now. Coming into La Guardia, we're seeing almost 2.5-hour delays because of wind gusts on final approach. You're also seeing some real problems with the weather there when you come in. So they're delaying flights coming in there. Philadelphia almost an hour and a half delays, that put in by the FAA, as it tries to deal with these weather and winds.
Now, Reagan National Airport, we have some live video of that for you. Washington-area airports, Reagan National, as well as Dulles airports, most airlines, we are told, have canceled all operations coming in and out of these airports. Last count at Reagan National, for instance, there were only about a dozen planes on the ground, a lot of airlines just trying to get those planes out of there before these winds reach the area.
Now, one interesting side note here. The federal air marshal service is also very closely monitoring Hurricane Isabel, because it, too, has people in the air. It's got its air marshals it needs to reroute and move around. So this storm, they're watching very closely as well, Thursday the busiest travel day of the week. And it looks volume much decreased today because of this storm -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Patty Davis at the FAA command center in Herndon, Virginia, keep us posted there, please -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, the winds just keep getting stronger in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. That's where we find our Jeff Flock, sort of swinging himself. I don't think he needs to head over to those swings behind him.
Jeff, I'm told we can't even tell our viewers the wind speed, because we can't clock it. The device is not working. As you try to...
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: I know, I've got -- I've got our hurricane guys, Kyra, who are give me a sense of the wind speed.
What are we at right now? It seems like it's really blowing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of those were in the 50s that blew you there. And we had a gust of 64 just a little while ago. It's still not hurricane force here, though.
FLOCK: I know. Isn't this amazing, that we're not -- I mean, this is, in some sense, to you guys, this is nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
If you remember back, in Hurricane Bertha in 1996, with you in Carolina Beach, those were probably 60-, 70-per-mile-hour winds that people saw you in. Then that eye wall came ashore, burst up to 105 real quick, because the thunderstorms grew. With this one, it has been status quo, ho hum, 100 miles per hour, but above the surface, not making it down to where we are.
FLOCK: I hear you, Mark (ph).
And, John (ph), give me a sense of what else you have been seeing out there as you've been traveling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't seen a whole lot of damage. We saw some signs down. We saw a couple of power lines, a couple of phone lines down. The water was coming up in some of the trailer parks we went into.
FLOCK: John Van Pelt (ph) also part of the hurricane intercept research team. Can't even talk here with the wind blowing into my mouth here. That was -- what was that one, Mark?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-six as you were talking.
FLOCK: That was 46. And, of course, these are the roof-mounted anemometers.
Jesse Bass (ph), have they held on pretty well?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they have. They've done real good today.
FLOCK: And before we get away, quickly, you said that -- obviously, the hurricane center was saying, we thought, in the eye wall, maybe 100-mile-an-hour winds. But you've been observing, haven't seen anything like that. Maybe the 100-mile-an-hour winds didn't get down to the surface.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly right. And they have described that in some of the their discussions that those winds may not make it down to the surface. And they haven't done that here. But on Ocracoke Island, apparently, they did have it sustained at 75 miles an hour, gusting to 105. (OFF-MIKE)
FLOCK: Really? That's a pretty good blow.
Good guys. Appreciate it. Thank you very much for the info.
Well, you see it, Kyra. Not anywhere bad as it could be, but it's still a pretty good blow out here on the Carolina coast.
PHILLIPS: Now, Jeff, I hope you can hear me OK. You've been spending a lot of time with these guys, the storm chasers. Kind of give a sense to our viewers what exactly these guys are doing out here, besides telling you -- oh, here we go. We're kind of -- we're losing signal in and out.
Maybe you can still tell us if you hear me, Jeff, about these...
FLOCK: I hear you.
PHILLIPS: OK -- these storm chasers and what exactly they're doing besides clocking the winds.
FLOCK: Well, it's funny. What they do is, up on top of this vehicle, in addition to the two you see mobile anemometers that you see up there...
PHILLIPS: Incredible.
There we go. He's back.
(CROSSTALK)
FLOCK: This is another (AUDIO GAP) so they don't have to get out of the vehicle and take pictures.
This is another -- another thing, you see it up on top, looks like a radiator-type device. That does dew point, barometric pressure. And what they do is, they report their findings to the National Hurricane Center. That report that you just heard that Mark talked about, that came from another hurricane observer, some guy you set out on Ocracoke, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
FLOCK: Who had also made an observation, who has data, the ability to measure -- gosh, darn it.
(CROSSTALK)
FLOCK: What was that one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was 56 right when you
(CROSSTALK)
FLOCK: That one in my face was 56?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that, right there, 49, 46, 50. That was 54. Real-time wind right here on live TV.
FLOCK: Like the radar from the state trooper here shooting at -- thanks, guys.
Well, there you go. That's kind of what they're doing. As I said, Kyra, they're reporting this back. They just (AUDIO GAP) for one, and for two, (AUDIO GAP) learn something about hurricanes, so that maybe the next ones come along, they do a better job of forecasting.
O'BRIEN: Hey, Jeff. It's Miles.
FLOCK: Yes. Hey, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Where do they keep the flux capacitor?
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Lost him.
PHILLIPS: We just lost his flux capacitor.
O'BRIEN: We're just completely lost on him at this point.
PHILLIPS: He's looking for it.
O'BRIEN: He's looking for his flux capacitor.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: All right, well, don't worry about it, Jeff. It was my lame attempt at humor.
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 - 13:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Talking about keeping one step ahead in New York, they're keeping one step ahead in Washington, also. Isabel has shut down Washington federal offices, I mean, congressional leaders canceling votes, so lawmakers could leave town., even the National Gallery of Art keeping its collection off limits to visitors today.
Our Barbara Starr reporting from the Pentagon.
A little different, not really talking military affairs, but hurricane affairs today.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed.
Everybody appears to be on the weather watch. Almost the entire Pentagon has actually emptied out by now, Kyra. All 17.5 miles of corridors inside this building are empty. They have gone home. Indeed, as you say, really, all of the nation's capital has shut down. President Bush has gone to Camp David. Congress has gone home. The airports are going to halt flights later today, they tell us, when the weather gets really bad.
The Metro, the public transportation system, the subway and bus system, shut down. That's pretty much what participated the decision by the federal government to shut down. So things are really very quiet here in town. Almost everybody is home waiting for the storm to approach.
Now, on a lighter note, here at the Pentagon, of course, they never really shut down. The essential personnel reported here this morning. And there was a lot of eyeballing in the corridors to see who showed up and who didn't, a lot of joking amongst some of the military officers. The Navy and the Marine Corps showed up, a lot of questions about where some of the other services are.
But on a very serious note, of course, the military is keeping a very close eye on this hurricane. Down the hall from me, at the National Military Command Center, of course, they are 24/7. And they have a small team of experts keeping an eye on the weather, ready to stand by and offer military assistance, if it is asked for -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, so, Barbara, let me get this right. We've got some of the Navy, some of the Marines, and we have you running the Pentagon right now?
STARR: Well, no. Everybody's here, but a little bit of joking in the hallways earlier this morning.
PHILLIPS: All right, Barbara Starr there at the Pentagon, she's got her bag packed. She's ready to stay there for a while. We'll check in with you.
Thanks, Barbara -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly runs things for us there, that's for sure. Barbara Starr, thank you very much. She doesn't miss a day of work.
Now, when you combine 66 miles an hour of wind with 105 pounds of Kathleen Koch, suddenly, you fall in love with a lamppost, as we're discovering right now.
Kathleen Koch in Virginia Beach.
Hello. How's it going there?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, actually, we have a pretty serious situation. Things have gotten worse since you last saw me hugging that planter out front.
The area where I was standing just then is now covered with the debris of the roof next door, the Seahawk Motel. We're at 26 street in Virginia Beach. And about five minutes ago, I was standing out in front of our hotel, the Holiday Inn, and I heard a loud explosion. And we all looked to the left and just saw the roof of this hotel, an older hotel, peel back and fly apart.
That's why I'm not standing over there by the planter, because that area is now incredibly dangerous. I'm watching right now pieces of the roof flying off. You can't see them from our camera position, but I can see them from here. So I'm watching them.
What you can see is the ocean. The waves are crashing over the boardwalk just down to the right of me. I don't know if the camera can pan down there. And, as you can see, believe it or not, there are the curiosity-seekers, still out here, watching the hurricane roll in, oblivious to how truly dangerous it is. I mean, the roof blowing off the hotel next door is just a prime example.
You just have no idea when things are going to start coming apart and flying around. We've seen small things. We've seen stove pipes and different sorts of ventilation popping off of roofs a couple of hours ago. But now we're actually seeing entire roofs come off.
So, Miles, it's a pretty bad situation here. Again, I just hope that most of these folks get inside very soon.
O'BRIEN: Kathleen, I don't know. Are you close enough to talk to those people and ask them why they're out? Yes, could you...
KOCH: Yes, I could. I could run
(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Yes, go run over there. Ask them why the heck they're out there.
KOCH: Excuse me. Hi there. What's your name? Where are you from? And why are you out here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Alex (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Dara (ph). We live right on 27th and Baltic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just looking at the ocean to see what's going on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have nothing better to do. We have no electricity.
KOCH: Did you realize that the roof just blew off the Seahawk Hotel there about five minutes ago?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we didn't see that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can see it right now a little coming up.
There's a couple people's houses with broken windows and things. And our neighbor's tree fell right on their house, right on the side of their house.
KOCH: And you still think it's safe to be out here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not really.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you're out here!
(LAUGHTER)
KOCH: Any precautions? Have you boarded up your windows and taped them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got all that.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got all the food and everything.
KOCH: Now, what about what they said? If you're going to stay here, the police have advised you, write on your forearm your name and the name of next of kin. Have you gone that far?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got permanent markers ready. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We heard that on the radio. So...
KOCH: So you're not afraid. Have you ridden out other storms?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I've been here for the past eight years. So I've seen them all.
KOCH: So you were here for Bonnie. Bonnie was the last one that rolled in. That was a Category 1.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then there was, what, Floyd in '99. What category was that? I'm not sure.
KOCH: That was much bigger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it was much bigger. We're all blowing over.
KOCH: So I think you guys ought to get to safe shelter pretty soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're just going to take a look and go back.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we're going to head back up soon.
KOCH: Now, this storm, I don't know if anybody at home knows this, but this storm wall, this sea wall was built to withstand hurricane-force winds and seas, up to 9 feet. What do you think of what you're seeing here right now? It's lapping at the boardwalk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's amazing. It's amazing. It's never this high. But the boardwalk I think goes 15 feet deep into the sand. So, even if it does wash away a considerable amount of sand, it should be fine, I think.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we'll be safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As long as nothing flies out of the water and breaks anybody, the windows.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... confident staying out here.
KOCH: All right, thanks a lot. Well, get in out of the storm. And I'm going to do the same -- Miles, back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kathleen Koch. The response of the day, was, hey, you're out here. What do you say to that?
All right, be safe out there, please.
And we'll send it over to Kyra. PHILLIPS: All right, we're going to take you now to live pictures in North Carolina. This, actually, specifically is Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
What you're looking at is -- I mean, you're just starting to see the damage caused by these winds. This is the side of a hotel. Do we know what hotel this is, by chance, Brian? Do we -- yes, do we know what hotel this is? No, we don't. OK. We're being told this is the Holiday Inn in Kill Devil -- oh, the Ramada Inn, which is actually not far from the Holiday Inn. This is the Ramada Inn in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
Starting to see the damage on the side there, the strength of the winds. You can see down there, also, near the cars just things starting to blow around, the winds picking up. Hurricane Isabel has just pushed a massive surge. We're told 68 miles per hour right now, winds are being clocked here in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, the hurricane pushing a surge of water on to the beaches of North Carolina's Outer Banks and causing this storm, with winds now at 68 miles an hour here specifically near the Ramada Inn hotel.
And we're told the National Weather Service showed that the eye of the storm centered near the Outer Banks and the mainland part of the eastern North Carolina coast. Now we're seeing the result of these heavy winds. We're going to continue to follow developments out of Kill Devil Hills, also, Virginia Beach, where Kathleen Koch was, and our Jeff Flock up there along the coast also in Topsail Beach.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk air traffic again for just a minute.
The airlines these days, they don't necessarily even wait for the storm to hit. Just the forecast that we've been telling them about is enough to change the flight schedules, because, of course, they don't want to overnight aircraft or have aircraft stuck on the ground when something like this comes ashore.
CNN's Patty Davis is in Herndon, Virginia, where the FAA keeps a look at the air traffic control system nationwide. And she has the latest from there. Are things flying smoothly elsewhere? Let's put it that way first. Except for the East Coast, is everything going OK?
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is.
It's looking pretty good when you go west of where all this weather is. We're not seeing any delays at this point. It's a nasty picture, though, when you're looking at the East Coast. Now, as you said, Miles, this is the command center for the FAA's air traffic control operations in Herndon, Virginia.
They've been planning what to do about this storm for the past two weeks. And what they've been doing mostly at this point is rerouting traffic. They also have put in some delay programs at certain airports. Right now, you're seeing minimal operations and indefinite delays at these airports: Myrtle Beach; Wilmington, North Carolina; Raleigh-Durham; Norfolk; and Richmond, Virginia, airports. But as far as the FAA is concerned, it is delaying flights now. Coming into La Guardia, we're seeing almost 2.5-hour delays because of wind gusts on final approach. You're also seeing some real problems with the weather there when you come in. So they're delaying flights coming in there. Philadelphia almost an hour and a half delays, that put in by the FAA, as it tries to deal with these weather and winds.
Now, Reagan National Airport, we have some live video of that for you. Washington-area airports, Reagan National, as well as Dulles airports, most airlines, we are told, have canceled all operations coming in and out of these airports. Last count at Reagan National, for instance, there were only about a dozen planes on the ground, a lot of airlines just trying to get those planes out of there before these winds reach the area.
Now, one interesting side note here. The federal air marshal service is also very closely monitoring Hurricane Isabel, because it, too, has people in the air. It's got its air marshals it needs to reroute and move around. So this storm, they're watching very closely as well, Thursday the busiest travel day of the week. And it looks volume much decreased today because of this storm -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Patty Davis at the FAA command center in Herndon, Virginia, keep us posted there, please -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, the winds just keep getting stronger in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. That's where we find our Jeff Flock, sort of swinging himself. I don't think he needs to head over to those swings behind him.
Jeff, I'm told we can't even tell our viewers the wind speed, because we can't clock it. The device is not working. As you try to...
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: I know, I've got -- I've got our hurricane guys, Kyra, who are give me a sense of the wind speed.
What are we at right now? It seems like it's really blowing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of those were in the 50s that blew you there. And we had a gust of 64 just a little while ago. It's still not hurricane force here, though.
FLOCK: I know. Isn't this amazing, that we're not -- I mean, this is, in some sense, to you guys, this is nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
If you remember back, in Hurricane Bertha in 1996, with you in Carolina Beach, those were probably 60-, 70-per-mile-hour winds that people saw you in. Then that eye wall came ashore, burst up to 105 real quick, because the thunderstorms grew. With this one, it has been status quo, ho hum, 100 miles per hour, but above the surface, not making it down to where we are.
FLOCK: I hear you, Mark (ph).
And, John (ph), give me a sense of what else you have been seeing out there as you've been traveling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't seen a whole lot of damage. We saw some signs down. We saw a couple of power lines, a couple of phone lines down. The water was coming up in some of the trailer parks we went into.
FLOCK: John Van Pelt (ph) also part of the hurricane intercept research team. Can't even talk here with the wind blowing into my mouth here. That was -- what was that one, Mark?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-six as you were talking.
FLOCK: That was 46. And, of course, these are the roof-mounted anemometers.
Jesse Bass (ph), have they held on pretty well?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they have. They've done real good today.
FLOCK: And before we get away, quickly, you said that -- obviously, the hurricane center was saying, we thought, in the eye wall, maybe 100-mile-an-hour winds. But you've been observing, haven't seen anything like that. Maybe the 100-mile-an-hour winds didn't get down to the surface.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly right. And they have described that in some of the their discussions that those winds may not make it down to the surface. And they haven't done that here. But on Ocracoke Island, apparently, they did have it sustained at 75 miles an hour, gusting to 105. (OFF-MIKE)
FLOCK: Really? That's a pretty good blow.
Good guys. Appreciate it. Thank you very much for the info.
Well, you see it, Kyra. Not anywhere bad as it could be, but it's still a pretty good blow out here on the Carolina coast.
PHILLIPS: Now, Jeff, I hope you can hear me OK. You've been spending a lot of time with these guys, the storm chasers. Kind of give a sense to our viewers what exactly these guys are doing out here, besides telling you -- oh, here we go. We're kind of -- we're losing signal in and out.
Maybe you can still tell us if you hear me, Jeff, about these...
FLOCK: I hear you.
PHILLIPS: OK -- these storm chasers and what exactly they're doing besides clocking the winds.
FLOCK: Well, it's funny. What they do is, up on top of this vehicle, in addition to the two you see mobile anemometers that you see up there...
PHILLIPS: Incredible.
There we go. He's back.
(CROSSTALK)
FLOCK: This is another (AUDIO GAP) so they don't have to get out of the vehicle and take pictures.
This is another -- another thing, you see it up on top, looks like a radiator-type device. That does dew point, barometric pressure. And what they do is, they report their findings to the National Hurricane Center. That report that you just heard that Mark talked about, that came from another hurricane observer, some guy you set out on Ocracoke, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
FLOCK: Who had also made an observation, who has data, the ability to measure -- gosh, darn it.
(CROSSTALK)
FLOCK: What was that one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was 56 right when you
(CROSSTALK)
FLOCK: That one in my face was 56?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that, right there, 49, 46, 50. That was 54. Real-time wind right here on live TV.
FLOCK: Like the radar from the state trooper here shooting at -- thanks, guys.
Well, there you go. That's kind of what they're doing. As I said, Kyra, they're reporting this back. They just (AUDIO GAP) for one, and for two, (AUDIO GAP) learn something about hurricanes, so that maybe the next ones come along, they do a better job of forecasting.
O'BRIEN: Hey, Jeff. It's Miles.
FLOCK: Yes. Hey, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Where do they keep the flux capacitor?
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Lost him.
PHILLIPS: We just lost his flux capacitor.
O'BRIEN: We're just completely lost on him at this point.
PHILLIPS: He's looking for it.
O'BRIEN: He's looking for his flux capacitor.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: All right, well, don't worry about it, Jeff. It was my lame attempt at humor.
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