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American Morning
Isabel Pushes a Little Bit Closer
Aired September 17, 2003 - 08:01 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn now and get the latest on where Hurricane Isabel is going and when it's expected to arrive.
Chad Myers at the CNN Center for us -- hey, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys.
Yes, now a serious storm, 110, maybe even 115 miles per hour the latest, though, at the 8:00 advisory. Kept it at 110 miles per hour, very -- now you can begin to see a very well defined eye, an eye that we could not find yesterday. It was really sheered apart. Couldn't really see much dimension to this storm. But now it's all coming back together and the hurricane hunter did find a lower pressure than it found just four hours ago.
From Cape Fear here, all the way up to Chincoteague and also to Smith Point, this is in the Chesapeake Bay, hurricane warnings in effect. I think land fall will be very close to Moorehead City here in North Carolina.
But don't focus on that. The storm is so wide that hurricane winds are going to be all the way to Chincoteague, tropical storm force winds maybe all the way up to New Jersey. And then as that storm tracks right over Richmond, Virginia and then to the west of Washington, D.C., those hurricane winds are only going to be decreasing maybe five or 10 miles every 20 or 30 miles or so.
So, yes, storm surge down here across the southern Outer Banks, very high surf, an awful lot of beach erosion on those beaches that they try so hard to keep sand on. They put that beach plan back into motion every year, throwing sand back on there. Then Mother Nature takes it away. And there you go, wind damage all the way up to D.C., to Richmond, to Williamsburg, Petersburg, even Fredericksburg possible here, too.
So this entire swath right through North Carolina and Virginia going to be affected significantly in the next 24 hours.
Landfall is at about noon to 2:00 tomorrow so far. But hurricane force winds will be on land by 7:00 tomorrow morning -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.
Let's go to the North Carolina coast now and the scene as Isabel pushes a little bit closer.
Brian Cabell is live for us in Kill Devil Hills -- Brian, good morning.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
We just talked to police about a half hour ago. They said it was a very quiet night here on the Outer Banks. Yesterday, a very quiet morning, as you might expect. We talked to emergency management officials. They are just now wrapping up their meeting, final preparations for the oncoming hurricane.
But the problem they're having today, no doubt, is the same they had as yesterday, and that is that people, those who have stayed behind are waking up and looking at blue skies, sunny skies. The waves, frankly, don't look any bigger than they were yesterday. The winds no more brisk than they were yesterday. So people may be waking up saying it doesn't look all that bad.
At street level, you can see that most people, in fact, have left town. Most of the buildings here, the restaurants, the businesses, the homes, most of them are boarded up. It is something of a ghost town at this point. And a problem for those who are staying behind, for now, is that once the storm does hit, there will be a storm surge and we're told that most of these streets likely will be flooded. It will be impossible to get out of town.
But for right now, there are a number of people still in town. I'd say maybe 10 percent of the population is still in town waiting to see. And they are adopting a wait and see attitude at this point -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Brian Cabell, as we are, as well, adopting a wait and see attitude.
Thanks for that.
Even a downgraded Isabel is still very powerful.
Edward Rappaport is tracking the storm at the National Hurricane Center.
He's live for us in Miami with more.
Good morning.
Nice to see you again.
Thanks for joining us.
EDWARD RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Isabel has gone from a category five to a category three, still very strong, obviously. So give me a sense of what kind of damage a category three could do in an area where we saw Brian, Virginia, North Carolina, that whole area, when it slams into the coast?
RAPPAPORT: Right. Isabel did weaken over the last few days. It is now towards the upper end of a category two hurricane. That could cause still widespread to extensive damage. Two primary concerns. The first is with storm surge along the coast. We could see waters rise as much as 11 feet near and just to the north where the center comes ashore. And right now we're talking about the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
Then once the center moves inland, there's a wide area that could experience flooding from rains that could be as much as six to 10 inches.
O'BRIEN: So give me a sense of when the effects will first be felt. We've been talking to people in these regions. The weather looks, you know, absolutely beautiful. When will they first start really feeling the storm in advance of it actually making land fall?
RAPPAPORT: Well, the first indications are that when you'll see some clouds coming at you. Right now the highest clouds are beginning to come over the Outer Banks.
However, the weather is going to really deteriorate in the p.m. hours today. We would expect that tropical storm conditions will be arriving on the Outer Banks probably by midnight, hurricane force winds by morning and then the brunt of the core area on Thursday afternoon.
O'BRIEN: How will you know when, what the actual path of the hurricane is going to be or that there's still an opportunity for Isabel to veer off?
RAPPAPORT: Well, we've been pretty much locked in on a track forecast that's taken the center of the hurricane up into the Outer Banks now for the last two days, and we think that's going to persist. You want to keep in mind here, though, that it's a relatively large storm, that hurricane force winds do extend out about 100 miles to the east and the north of the storm. So there will be a broad area that's affected and we do have hurricane warnings now from Cape Fear all the way up to Chincoteague, including the southern part of Chesapeake Bay.
O'BRIEN: And then how far, looking at that map, how far inland will the effects be felt? Or does it slow down so significantly that inland the effects won't be so bad?
RAPPAPORT: Well, the winds will begin to decrease as the center moves ashore. But we could have tropical storm conditions perhaps as far inland as the capital area. We are going to see a lot of rain associated with Isabel. As I said, there will be some fresh water flooding inland.
O'BRIEN: All right, Edward Rappaport is the director -- deputy director of the National Hurricane Center.
Thanks, Edward, for updating us.
And as you well know, we're going to continue to check in with you over the next, you know, 24 to 32 hours.
Appreciate it.
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 17, 2003 - 08:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn now and get the latest on where Hurricane Isabel is going and when it's expected to arrive.
Chad Myers at the CNN Center for us -- hey, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys.
Yes, now a serious storm, 110, maybe even 115 miles per hour the latest, though, at the 8:00 advisory. Kept it at 110 miles per hour, very -- now you can begin to see a very well defined eye, an eye that we could not find yesterday. It was really sheered apart. Couldn't really see much dimension to this storm. But now it's all coming back together and the hurricane hunter did find a lower pressure than it found just four hours ago.
From Cape Fear here, all the way up to Chincoteague and also to Smith Point, this is in the Chesapeake Bay, hurricane warnings in effect. I think land fall will be very close to Moorehead City here in North Carolina.
But don't focus on that. The storm is so wide that hurricane winds are going to be all the way to Chincoteague, tropical storm force winds maybe all the way up to New Jersey. And then as that storm tracks right over Richmond, Virginia and then to the west of Washington, D.C., those hurricane winds are only going to be decreasing maybe five or 10 miles every 20 or 30 miles or so.
So, yes, storm surge down here across the southern Outer Banks, very high surf, an awful lot of beach erosion on those beaches that they try so hard to keep sand on. They put that beach plan back into motion every year, throwing sand back on there. Then Mother Nature takes it away. And there you go, wind damage all the way up to D.C., to Richmond, to Williamsburg, Petersburg, even Fredericksburg possible here, too.
So this entire swath right through North Carolina and Virginia going to be affected significantly in the next 24 hours.
Landfall is at about noon to 2:00 tomorrow so far. But hurricane force winds will be on land by 7:00 tomorrow morning -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.
Let's go to the North Carolina coast now and the scene as Isabel pushes a little bit closer.
Brian Cabell is live for us in Kill Devil Hills -- Brian, good morning.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
We just talked to police about a half hour ago. They said it was a very quiet night here on the Outer Banks. Yesterday, a very quiet morning, as you might expect. We talked to emergency management officials. They are just now wrapping up their meeting, final preparations for the oncoming hurricane.
But the problem they're having today, no doubt, is the same they had as yesterday, and that is that people, those who have stayed behind are waking up and looking at blue skies, sunny skies. The waves, frankly, don't look any bigger than they were yesterday. The winds no more brisk than they were yesterday. So people may be waking up saying it doesn't look all that bad.
At street level, you can see that most people, in fact, have left town. Most of the buildings here, the restaurants, the businesses, the homes, most of them are boarded up. It is something of a ghost town at this point. And a problem for those who are staying behind, for now, is that once the storm does hit, there will be a storm surge and we're told that most of these streets likely will be flooded. It will be impossible to get out of town.
But for right now, there are a number of people still in town. I'd say maybe 10 percent of the population is still in town waiting to see. And they are adopting a wait and see attitude at this point -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Brian Cabell, as we are, as well, adopting a wait and see attitude.
Thanks for that.
Even a downgraded Isabel is still very powerful.
Edward Rappaport is tracking the storm at the National Hurricane Center.
He's live for us in Miami with more.
Good morning.
Nice to see you again.
Thanks for joining us.
EDWARD RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Isabel has gone from a category five to a category three, still very strong, obviously. So give me a sense of what kind of damage a category three could do in an area where we saw Brian, Virginia, North Carolina, that whole area, when it slams into the coast?
RAPPAPORT: Right. Isabel did weaken over the last few days. It is now towards the upper end of a category two hurricane. That could cause still widespread to extensive damage. Two primary concerns. The first is with storm surge along the coast. We could see waters rise as much as 11 feet near and just to the north where the center comes ashore. And right now we're talking about the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
Then once the center moves inland, there's a wide area that could experience flooding from rains that could be as much as six to 10 inches.
O'BRIEN: So give me a sense of when the effects will first be felt. We've been talking to people in these regions. The weather looks, you know, absolutely beautiful. When will they first start really feeling the storm in advance of it actually making land fall?
RAPPAPORT: Well, the first indications are that when you'll see some clouds coming at you. Right now the highest clouds are beginning to come over the Outer Banks.
However, the weather is going to really deteriorate in the p.m. hours today. We would expect that tropical storm conditions will be arriving on the Outer Banks probably by midnight, hurricane force winds by morning and then the brunt of the core area on Thursday afternoon.
O'BRIEN: How will you know when, what the actual path of the hurricane is going to be or that there's still an opportunity for Isabel to veer off?
RAPPAPORT: Well, we've been pretty much locked in on a track forecast that's taken the center of the hurricane up into the Outer Banks now for the last two days, and we think that's going to persist. You want to keep in mind here, though, that it's a relatively large storm, that hurricane force winds do extend out about 100 miles to the east and the north of the storm. So there will be a broad area that's affected and we do have hurricane warnings now from Cape Fear all the way up to Chincoteague, including the southern part of Chesapeake Bay.
O'BRIEN: And then how far, looking at that map, how far inland will the effects be felt? Or does it slow down so significantly that inland the effects won't be so bad?
RAPPAPORT: Well, the winds will begin to decrease as the center moves ashore. But we could have tropical storm conditions perhaps as far inland as the capital area. We are going to see a lot of rain associated with Isabel. As I said, there will be some fresh water flooding inland.
O'BRIEN: All right, Edward Rappaport is the director -- deputy director of the National Hurricane Center.
Thanks, Edward, for updating us.
And as you well know, we're going to continue to check in with you over the next, you know, 24 to 32 hours.
Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
