Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

New Bern Gets Hit Hard; Homes Being Ripped Apart By Hurricane Winds; 22 Foot Waves From Florence. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 14, 2018 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:00:00]

CHRIS CUOMO, NEW DAY HOST: in terms of the expected duration of effect. 430,000 plus customers. Who know how many people are in each household that is called a customer. 432,000 of them without power. Storm surge has become a reality up to 11 feet. What does that mean in terms of flooding? Different things in different places, calls by hundreds and hundreds for help from first responders.

We brought you one of those people earlier. Perry (ph) - what was her name, Hobbie (ph)? Peggy Perry (ph), she was in New Bern. She was in a really bad situation that we brought to you. Many of you were concerned and talking about in social media. She's been rescued.

Her family called and let us know that she's OK. She was in there with a few kids. Got into a very familiar situation - water out of nowhere up to chest depth. They went up and up. Wound up in an attic where there was only one small window. They didn't know what to do. They called 911. Even in horrible conditions, first responders went out and did their job.

Now, here's the problem. Everything I've told you to this point is not unfamiliar to you in terms of what happens with hurricanes, but we are not used to seeing these types of conditions endure for as long as they will. We're talking not six hours or nine, but maybe 30. A day and a half.

Here we are in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We already have close to 6,000 people without power, and we've just started to see a taste of it. Let's bring in meteorologist Chad Myers. We're getting gusts of 40, 45 miles an hour they tell us, but -

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: - for hours, it's been going on, and it's going to go on all day. And shingles are starting to come loose and root systems are getting soft. We don't even have high tide yet. We're not used to predicting what time will do to impact, and we're going to learn at this time, my friend.

MYERS: And what you should have noticed, too - and I know you did. You talked about this earlier - the wind is offshore. The wind is not onshore. You are not getting surge yet. You're getting inverse surge. The wind's getting pulled out of your rivers, pulled away from your beach, and it is moving away from you. That's the opposite thing that's happening up here in Surf City, in Topsul, up toward Emerald Isle. That's where the surge now is running almost 11 feet.

Some of the islands up there don't even have anything above 11 feet, so just about everyone's seeing something wet, and now we know - we've just looked at one of the buoys offshore - 22 foot waves.

So here we go. Chris, you've got water all the way up to every house and waves splashing over that water, coming over the dunes. You called the dunes yesterday, I thought it was very appropriate. You called it landscaping because they're not dunes like we know in the northeast where, you know, they can be hundred yards wide and 30 feet tall. You can't even see over them.

What you have there in Myrtle and some places up and down the North Carolina coast as well is three or four foot of rise and a few sea oats and some seagrass and that's it, but that's what's splashing over right now on the north side of this storm.

Just give you an idea. There's - let's give you a dot so I can draw on it. There is right - Topsul, there we go. Topsul Beach all the way down to Myrtle Grove, all the way down to Carolina Beach. Our Derek Van Dam is right there trying to get a shot up. There right there is John Berman trying to get his shot back because everything is wet, but this is the bad side of the storm.

I know we've been showing what's happening to John all day, but that's not what we're so, so worried about. We're worried about this east side of the storm. This is a forecast radar and it's not perfect, but it will forecast the next 16 hours what that radar should look like.

And Chris, all of the weather that is anywhere from Wilmington eastward to Morehead City, Atlantic Beach, and New Bern, which is right there just not on the map, it's still going to be there in 16 hours. So these rescuers trying to get to these people are going to be in this 55 mile per hour wind event trying with their little rubber boats to get people in the high-water rescues. That's why some people, they just cannot go out yet, and it's not stopping. There may be 10 more hours of that weather for those New Bern people.

And the storm hasn't really gone down much either. The pressure is very close to where were yesterday even though two days ago we were cat three, the pressure's not much different than that cat three. It's because we don't have a middle eye wall that did have the 115 or 20 mile per hour winds. We just have a giant storm that's hitting everybody, hitting everybody that almost from the Outer Banks all the way back down into about Charleston as we go.

One interesting thing earlier today because we're watching the water go on up toward Washington, kind of go on up toward New Bern and all these little estuaries here. There was no water on the inside of Pamlico Sound. There was no water here. It's like Jubilee and Fair Hope, Alabama. The water got completely pushed up into these rivers and it was dry

here. You could have walked on where there should have been water, and it's still that way because the wind is blowing that water right into these people that are trying to get out of their flooded houses. Chris -

[07:05:00]

CUOMO: All right, well we'll stay with you. I want to go to Ken Graham right now from the National Weather Center. Thank you very much for joining us. I know that you guys are really busy. We want people to get the information of what the latest is. What have you seen so far? What's the assessment of how these communities are holding up, sir? Ken Graham, can you hear us? All right, we'll try to get with him again.

KEN GRAHAM, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER DIRECTOR: I can hear you now. Yes.

CUOMO: None of this is unusual. Oh, good. Our communications are back up? Great. Ken, the question is - thank you for joining us - what are you seeing in terms of the effect of Florence so far. How is it meeting expectations?

GRAHAM: Well, there's really actually - this is what we expected. I mean, we've been calling this for days, and, you know, hearing about New Bern and listening to the broadcast, I mean, we've been talking about New Bern for two to three days, maybe even four days.

But look, we're almost making landfall here, really close to landfall. Wilmington's seeing the eye wall and the expanse of the winds is just incredible and that's pushing all that water in, and that's part of the problem.

You're seeing the water pushed in. Look, the storm surge could be miles and miles inland because the winds are so strong it's piling up that water.

CUOMO: We're in North Myrtle Beach, OK, so we're still waiting for the future here in terms of what happens. We have about 40, 45 mile an hour gusts. It's starting to loosen some things up. We haven't even dealt with a high tide. The water's actually getting forced by the winds here away from the shore, so we'll see what kind of slingshot there is.

But where John Berman, the anchor of this show, where he is in Wilmington, he's getting the worst of it. Now, while we're waiting for him to get his shot back up, how many hours of the worst of it will people in and around that area have to endure? I think the audience can see John' shot right now. How long will it be like that for those good people?

GRAHAM: Look at this forecast. We've been advertising this slow down, and that's been part of the problem here. You've got a large, slow storm, and those are the storms that are a nemesis. The slow ones, independent of a category, it really is about the speed and the size.

And look at this forecast. Here we are right about to make landfall, and by Saturday afternoon, that's all the movement. Now through Saturday, that's not a lot of geography there, so we're not moving very far, so we're going to have to endure this through today and much of tonight and even inland you still have that flow, and that could - a lot of times, that could keep your water still high.

CUOMO: All right. Thank you very much for that. I want to get one more quick update from you and then I want to get back to John Berman who's in the thick of it. Tornado warnings, are those for real, where are you hearing about them, and what can people know about that?

GRAHAM: What you really, really need to know is a lot of times on the right-hand side you can get a threat of tornadoes, and usually those occur in these rain bands. See, these really strong rain bands, a lot of times you'll see some of those tornadoes and they're fast moving. They're quick. They're in and out and the winds could be even be intense. You have intense winds already with the hurricane. It can even be higher in these tornadoes.

CUOMO: All right, people will have to keep an eye out for that. One more reason to stay put, shelter in place if you must. Graham, thank you very much for being with us. Appreciate it. Now let's get back to John Berman. He's in Wilmington. The storm has just come ashore. He's now dealing with that wall of the eye. John, if you can hear me, please, tell us how you're doing.

BERMAN: We're dealing with it the best we can right now, Chris. It's doing a number on our communication systems here. The eye on the shore - the outer eye wall directly over Wilmington, North Carolina where I am. Chad Myers telling me we're getting three inches of rain per hour. It feels like that, and it feels like it's coming right in our face from every single direction. The wind is whipping it around every which way.

Wind gusts, Chad was telling us, of 90 miles per hour. Behind me is the Northeast Cape Fear River. I can't even turn around to look at it because the wind is coming off so fiercely it's throwing water right in your face if you turn around. The Northeast Cape Fear River, it flows down past Wilmington into the sea.

The Cape Fear River over there, there is concern that the storms surge could push these rivers back up into Wilmington even as this tremendous rainfall, three inches of rain per hour creates a flooding situation with the water coming down these rivers.

We've heard more than 400,000 customers now in North Carolina without power all morning long. We've seen the blue transformer explosions, bursts of light that indicates people will lose power and lose power quickly. As Chad was saying, the outer eye wall over us right now in Wilmington, and we are feeling it. The wind is coming down.

What happens is our satellite loses the feed. The rain falling so much sometimes we have a hard time getting those communications out. I've been telling you all morning long that the camera that I'm using is only about 50 feet away from where I'm standing, and even now that it's daylight, even now that the light has come up, I still can't see the camera. There's so much rain falling between me and the camera just 50 feet away I can't even make out where my team is standing.

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: And even now that its daylight. Even now that the light has come up I still can't see the camera. There's so much rain falling between me and the camera just 50 feet away.

I can't even make out where my team is standing right now. Now the wind is blowing off the river. Again it's hard to tell what direction is blowing because it's whipping around so much. But the water, the bulk of the water is coming off the north east Cape Fear River which is right behind me.

We've been speaking to the river masters. The river masters on these rivers, one of their biggest concerns with the flooding, and it will flood at 10 feet about the stage they're at right now. We're expecting 22 feet on the Cape Fear River. That's extreme flooding, there's a lot of concern about he debris, and the situations around those rivers. North Carolina a big hog farming community, these hog lagoons, the hog waste could wash into the river upstream. Flow downstream here to the cities.

This storm is a triple threat. It's the wind. Category wind force, about 90 miles per hour right now. It's the rain. Three inches of rain per hour, some 20-40 inches of rain total by the end of this weekend. And then the storm surge. The storm surge has created the most acute danger so far. A storm surge of six to 10 feet in New Bern about 80 miles from where I'm standing has lead to all kinds of rescues overnight.

More than a 100 rescues overnight in New Bern. Some forced evacuations that we learned about overnight as well for the people who could get out. And even more calls coming in even as we speak. I think we have Diane Gallagher, CNN's Diane Gallagher who spent the night. Braved the storm up in New Bern overnight to get a sense of the situation there on the ground, Diane what do you see?

DIANE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. Our situation doesn't look like yours right now. We're getting a break from the weather, but not from the water. At this point I can tell you we don't have any power but that is not preventing people from at least using their phones to call 911. And they are busy here in Craven County.

At least 200 rescues already performed, more than 150 people still waiting to be rescued. John we are seeing fire trucks, and police officers, and large vehicles going along these roads this morning just before the sun came up with their sirens trying to get to people who are trapped in their homes. The stories that we are hearing from people at our hotel, because we're on higher ground, we had to evacuate twice from where we were in downtown New Bern because the water was rising so quickly.

The stories from people in our hotel who have all evaluated as well are absolutely heart breaking. Their voices are cracking, they are tearing up talking about friends they can't get in contact with, people who are sitting on their roof top hoping to be rescued. Not sure if that house is even there anymore because the water has risen so quickly.

In the New Bern area we have seven inches of rain and nearly a 10 foot storm surge. We witnessed that happening John. It was intense, it was fast, but it was not unpredicted. They knew this was going to happen. The county had issued an emergency - an evacuation back on Monday telling people to start leaving. Two day's ago they called it a mandatory evacuation. They began bussing people out to shelters that we're further inland.

We spoke to one woman, she's from a community called River Bend, Annette Callahan (ph). Her neighbors did not evacuate. She showed us they have got water in their entire first floor of their home. They are staying in a room above their garage right now, hoping that it either recedes or their able to be rescued because they can't get down. And a lot of people are in that situation.

John the Cajun Navy is in Craven County. They're going to be assisting with these rescues. They have two FEMA rescue teams as well. But now that it's light outside, it's going to be a little easier. So they can see if the power lines are down, where the trees are, and try to get to those people John.

BERMAN: All right, Diane Gallagher - Diane Gallagher up in New Bern North Carolina. Again I'm having a hard time with my audio here, the water and the wind working wonders on the equipment. I'm getting word that the eye of the storm is about to make landfall at Wrightsville Beach, Wrightsville Beach right of the coast, right across the inter- costal waterway from Wilmington.

Chad Myers if you're with me give me the latest on that.

MYERS: Yes, John. What you have here, you were almost out of the worst of it. You truly were. You were almost into the eye itself. But then there's another messel board to see (ph) that just developed there near Kirkland and Kings Grant, it's going to slam you again. And that may be the highest wind gusts so far.

That may have something over 100, because of the way it's positioned inside the eye that's spinning. The angular momentum, the closer you are the middle of the eye, the faster the wind speed is. We just got word from Wilmington that the wind gusts that they just had at 92 was the fastest wind gust they've had on record since 1960.

[07:15:00]

So this is a big storm already. We knew it, but right now what you're seeing is another piece where you were almost out of it. And now you're back in it.

BERMAN: All right, Chad Myers telling me that we're getting wind gusts of 92 miles and hour, which I absolutely believe based on what I'm feeling here, getting kicked around here on the docks here. Again the wind isn't even the worst part of this story. Obviously the storm surge, and the extreme flooding as we've seen up the coast in New Bern. That's a much greater concern, people needing to be rescued right there.

This wind of 90 miles per hour is bad. It is dangerous. But it's not the worst of it. And this speed will not last for hopefully that much longer, maybe a few hours. Again on the phone with us right now the Mayor of this city of Wilmington, North Carolina, Bill Saffo. Mayor Saffo I have had a chance to speak to you a few times over the last few days. You are preparing for this moment. Please give us a sense of how the city is doing.

BILL SAFFO, MAYOR WILMINTON NC: Well we've got power outages, for the most part the entire cities out of power. Trees are down. I mean we're getting these wind gusts now that are coming in at 90 miles an hour. A lot of calls for emergencies, but we're not able to get these first responders out.

I know these men and women are going to get out there as quickly as they can. They want to get out there. They're going to assess the issue as this thing moves further along, because we're going to see if we can get out there to help some folks. But you know we're getting the flooding. We're getting exactly what meteorologists say we're going to get. And it's a big storm. It's moving very slow. So this is going to be upon us for another possibly 16 hours.

And I've never - and I've lived here all my life. I have never seen a hurricane that is literally going to be with us for two days.

BERMAN: Yes, and the problem is the duration here is moving so slowly at this glacial pace which means that this rain, this here inches of rain, this torrential rain, it's three inches of rain per hour that's falling will be with us here in Wilmington for some time.

We were speaking with the fire department a short time ago. And they pointed out just what you did. That in many cases it's too dangerous to get out and help people who need it. They'll get out where they can. They'll do what they can, but if the winds too strong, if the streets were clogged there's not that they can do. What is your message to people who are in their homes right now who need help?

SAFFO: We're going to get to you. We're going to assess each of one these emergencies. Obviously we've got trees that are coming down all over the place. And what we're afraid of is these trees will fall on our emergency personal and kill them. So we have to assess it before we can get out there.

But I can tell you there coming in here. The calls are coming in. For those folks that are heading the advice of the emergency operators, and got out of harms way as we wanted them to do. But for those who road the storm out, we knew that we we're going to have these kinds of situations. But we're going to get out there as quickly as we possibly can. These men and woman are dedicated to saving these peoples lives. And that's what we're going to do.

BERMAN: Mayor Saffo, I understand you received a call from the President of the United States last night. What could you tell us about that?

SAFFO: Well he was very gracious. He just let me know that the - all of the assets of the United States Federal Government were are our disposal. That - to let us know what we needed. That they were there for us, they've been monitoring the situation on the daily basis and that he just wanted to assure the they will be there for us.

BERMAN: We did see so many federal resources staging getting ready for this storm. Just part of the first responders that will be there after the worst of this passes, and there will be much need. Day's of need. Mayor I've been talking all morning. I'm actually standing right by the convention center by the north east Cape Fear River, on the water here.

The flooding that could come from these rivers could be a day or two away. With the amount of rainfall that we're expecting, maybe 20 more inches. What's your concern from these rivers from upstream?

SAFFO: We're going to have a significant about of inland flooding and from what I've been told the river is going to crest on Tuesday at 25 - so we know we're going to have a lot inland flooding that are going to be 10 miles, 15 miles from the city center in the rural area's.

And that's what we're afraid of. We know that we're going to have a lot of rescues in those areas. Plus a lot of people felt that they would be safer - in the coast. And they may end up in a much more - in much more dire situation than if they were here. So we saw with Matthew two years ago, we lost a few people that were killed trying to transverse water that was - that they thought that they get through with their cars or their trucks, and drowned.

[07:20:00]

So we want people to be vigilant, because this is going to be upon us for a couple more hours and -- which is going drop a tremendous amount of water, and that water is going to come into those rivers and creeks and they are going to rise quickly. You know we're concerned with the flooding that's going to take place not only inland but also in the Wilmington area.

BERMAN: As we said, the outer eyewall of the storm passing over us right now in Wilmington. People can see me, and they can hear you. One more message we we'll let you send to the people of Wilmington who are riding out the storm, what do you want the people here to know?

SAFFO: I want -- John, I just want them to know that, you know, this storm, we're going to get through it, we're going to get past the storm but please stay in and let us assess what the damages are, let us get out there and clean the roadways up, get the power lines back up. That's another fear that we have, a lot of people will come across a downed power line and electrocute themselves, so we don't want that to happen. So let us get out there, assess the damage, get it cleaned up as quickly as we can so you can transverse the street, get the power back on . And also we have a lot of personnel and assets coming into the area that have been staging about 100 miles outside of the side, waiting for them to get in to help us out. Emergency personnel waiting to get in and help us out.

BERMAN: Mayor Bill Saffo, the mayor of Wilmington, North Carolina, our host -- our kind host right now in this city. Mayor Saffo, thanks so much for being with us, we appreciate the work you are doing.

SAFFO: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: All right, just to give people another sense of the situation, you can see it all around me right now, this is the eyewall, outer eyewall of Hurricane Florence passing over Wilmington. There were whirlwind gusts here measured a short time ago, the weather service tells at 90 miles per hour. That is highly believable, I can tell you, I believe that. The rain is falling at three inches per hour, and there could be 20 more inches of this rain. The duration of the storm that is the threat. They'll be feeling tropical storm force winds for hours and hours more. The story of Hurricane Florence is just beginning. A crisis situation in many communities on the coast. This is CNN's special live coverage. Much more after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

CUOMO: All right, you're watching a special edition of "New Day." Hurricane Florence is just about on land near Wilmington, North Carolina. That's where John Berman is, the anchor of the show. We're waiting for his shot to come back up. He's been reporting all morning long from there, and they are in the thick of it right now.

The rain is so thick, the wind whipping it around. With such ferocity, you literally can see him on camera. As soon as he gets back up, we'll go right to him. But right now we want to go to a storm hunter in Wilmington, North Carolina, Kyle Bauer. Kyle, can you hear us? How's your shot?

KYLE BAUER: I can hear you loud and clear.

CUOMO: Great, give us the situation.

BAUER: Absolutely. We just spent the entire eyewall at Wrightsville Beach. Upon the eye coming over us, we came back to our hotel to seek some drier clothes and to settle down for a moment. On the way back into Wilmington, we're right here on the northeast side, a lot of trees down, a lot of power lines down. We've got shingles flying off of roofs right now. I can see it out the window. Hurricane Florence is definitely letting its impact show right now.

CUOMO: All right, so we're in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We know there are already upwards of 6,000 people without power. We're just in the gusting phase, the gusts here about 40, 45 miles per hour. How long will you have to deal with the kinds of conditions you are seeing right now in Wilmington, and how long until we start getting the same?

BAUER: Yeah, we had started the day off early this morning with about 40-mile-per-hour sustained winds, and (inaudible) gusts right around 100 with the same, probably, somewhere around 80. Obviously I would expect that to continue as the eye goes past us. We're going to get the second round of the eyewall and should make its (inaudible) later on today.

CUOMO: All right, and while you're talking, while we're talking about what is going on, Jake, show them what's happening on the beach just from these gusts of 45 miles per hour. There's actually somebody down there, obviously high on the ill-advised list of activities during a coming hurricane, but you'll see, this is just 45-mile-per-hour gusting winds at the most, right?

The sustained winds are around 30 miles per hour. And this is ocean in the tide turning phase. It's just starting to come in here, so we haven't seen any surge. The wind is forcing water away from the shore. So what can we expect when things reverse and we start getting much stronger winds, tidal flow and surge?

BAUER: Yeah, now we -- we're just about to have the same thing happen, (inaudible) the second portion of the eyewall start moving into our area. As you know (inaudible) of water and that will be reinforced by more water by the hurricane-force winds and gusts pushing it on the coastline.

CUOMO: All right, thank you very much. When you get a chance to let us know new information, obviously rest and get your team right and then please give us information and we'll get it out to people, but I appreciate your checking with us. Thank you for checking in with us very much.

Now we want to go to Scott in Oberle. They are hunkering down in Wilmington, North Carolina, I believe. Do I have that right? I'll assume I do. All right, so can you hear me right now?

[07:30:00]