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Officials: 500,000 Virginia Homes Have no Power
Aired September 18, 2003 - 14:36 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get down on the ground, shall we, and see how things are going in Virginia Beach. We've had a shift change in Virginia Beach. Kathleen Koch was there.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A little bigger than Kathleen Koch.
O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve has her foul-weather gear on. And I'm not going there.
Jeanne Meserve -- how are things going?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're getting whipped right now here in Virginia Beach. The winds have really picked up, and the water, too.
I'm standing on the Boardwalk here. Ordinarily there is 50 or 75 yards between this seawall and the high tide mark. As you may be able to see, the tide has come right up to this seawall, and it is sweeping over it. My feet have been covered periodically here.
The really question is: What's going to happen when the storm surge comes? This wall was built to withstand a surge of about nine feet, but that's at low tide. So, if the surge comes before low tide, we could definitely have (AUDIO GAP). The water has been coming up (AUDIO GAP)...
O'BRIEN: Oh, is she back? Let's try it one more time. Steve (ph), I think she's back there. There we go.
MESERVE: Have you got me there, Miles?
O'BRIEN: Yes, we've still got you. You're in and out, but keep pressing on.
MESERVE: Oh, OK. OK, I'm sorry. Atlantic Avenue is seeing a little bit of flooding down towards the end especially. There's a pier here, a fishing pier that's (AUDIO GAP) been knocked down. It looks like the rest of the pier is in pretty bad shape.
One of the problems, of course, is electricity. We saw some arcing of electrical lines when we were out driving around a little bit ago. And officials say there are now 40,000 people here in the city of Virginia Beach without power, and if you've lost it, you're not getting it back anytime soon. The power companies say they are not sending anybody out to service lines until the winds go below 50 miles per hour for obvious safety reasons. Ironically, one of the places where they have lost power are some of the shelters Virginia Beach has set up. We just went to one at a high school, and it was kind of eerie. We walked into a gymnasium where a lot of people were resting, and there were just a few flashlights and lanterns in this very darkened room. But people say they're going to stay there, nonetheless, and ride out the rest of this storm.
Another thing that's happened, we started to see roofs going. We were here in the lobby of our hotel. We heard a tremendous racket. We ran outside and saw the roof of the hotel next door flying off. Of course, that debris becomes nothing less than flying missiles. Fortunately, nobody and nothing was hurt, as far as we could tell.
Miles -- back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thanks very much. Hang in there.
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 - 14:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get down on the ground, shall we, and see how things are going in Virginia Beach. We've had a shift change in Virginia Beach. Kathleen Koch was there.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A little bigger than Kathleen Koch.
O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve has her foul-weather gear on. And I'm not going there.
Jeanne Meserve -- how are things going?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're getting whipped right now here in Virginia Beach. The winds have really picked up, and the water, too.
I'm standing on the Boardwalk here. Ordinarily there is 50 or 75 yards between this seawall and the high tide mark. As you may be able to see, the tide has come right up to this seawall, and it is sweeping over it. My feet have been covered periodically here.
The really question is: What's going to happen when the storm surge comes? This wall was built to withstand a surge of about nine feet, but that's at low tide. So, if the surge comes before low tide, we could definitely have (AUDIO GAP). The water has been coming up (AUDIO GAP)...
O'BRIEN: Oh, is she back? Let's try it one more time. Steve (ph), I think she's back there. There we go.
MESERVE: Have you got me there, Miles?
O'BRIEN: Yes, we've still got you. You're in and out, but keep pressing on.
MESERVE: Oh, OK. OK, I'm sorry. Atlantic Avenue is seeing a little bit of flooding down towards the end especially. There's a pier here, a fishing pier that's (AUDIO GAP) been knocked down. It looks like the rest of the pier is in pretty bad shape.
One of the problems, of course, is electricity. We saw some arcing of electrical lines when we were out driving around a little bit ago. And officials say there are now 40,000 people here in the city of Virginia Beach without power, and if you've lost it, you're not getting it back anytime soon. The power companies say they are not sending anybody out to service lines until the winds go below 50 miles per hour for obvious safety reasons. Ironically, one of the places where they have lost power are some of the shelters Virginia Beach has set up. We just went to one at a high school, and it was kind of eerie. We walked into a gymnasium where a lot of people were resting, and there were just a few flashlights and lanterns in this very darkened room. But people say they're going to stay there, nonetheless, and ride out the rest of this storm.
Another thing that's happened, we started to see roofs going. We were here in the lobby of our hotel. We heard a tremendous racket. We ran outside and saw the roof of the hotel next door flying off. Of course, that debris becomes nothing less than flying missiles. Fortunately, nobody and nothing was hurt, as far as we could tell.
Miles -- back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thanks very much. Hang in there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
