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Hurricane Florence Makes Landfall on Coast of North Carolina; Cities Evacuated Ahead of Hurricane Florence; Interview with Brock Long; Hurricane Florence Makes Landfall In Wrightsville Beach. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 14, 2018 - 8:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This will be going on for some time hours and hours, if not days. It's the rain following at three inches her hour, which will fall like this again for days, 22 inches of rain already recorded in Atlantic Beach about 70 miles from where I am. Another 20 could fall. And then the storm surge. The storm surge because this storm is so immense, it is breadth is pushing the water up into the rivers. The city of New Bern, again, about 80 miles from where I am a crisis situation overnight. More than 100 rescues. We understand there are many more people still in need of rescuing.

And even though it is so dangerous that rescue crews should not be out and they are risking their lives to do so, they have been staging rescues where they can and when they can to help the people in need. Part of the story of this storm is it's pace. It is moving so slowly down the coast as it knocks out power, some 420 thousand people without power in North Carolina, thousands more in South Carolina. And this is just the beginning. We are in for much, much more of this as this storm passes through.

Let's get a sense of where things are going. It's here where I am in North Carolina right now. Not too long, later today, it will head down toward north Myrtle Beach. That's where CNN's Chris Cuomo is at this moment. Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You are our future, John. You have doing a brilliant job of letting people know what the experience is there. We still don't know the toll. First responders have made rescues. But the bulk of their work has yet to begin. Having the sun come up is going to make a big difference for them in terms of assessment. Hurricane Matthew was a deadly storm a couple years ago, did not have a lot of the factors and certainly the duration that this storm does. So God willing we're going to get through this OK.

Down here about 45 miles an hour gusts. We're finally entering the Florence actual weather pattern. The real deal is just starting now. We've had power outages. The word from the officials are about 6,000, but we just had several blocks go down during our last break. So I don't know what the numbers are. But we're going to have conditions like this, and getting into 80, 85 miles an hour winds, maybe six feet of storm surge. We'll have two high tides before then, and that's going to be a big determining factor.

This is just the beginning of a high tide here. We don't know what's going to happen when the wind shifts and comes back the other way, John. This is a mandatory evacuation zone. Not everybody left. So we're just starting to get into it here, and we're watching you as a window into the future.

BERMAN: Chris Cuomo down in north Myrtle Beach. It is very unsettling to me, Chris, that you can see, but I can't see you. But I appreciate the concern, and this is coming your way not too long from now.

Emergency management in North Carolina imploring people, by the way, don't drive through this. Do not drive through this just yet because it is not over and it is not safe. Let's go to the weather center now. Chad Myers is there for a sense of where this storm is. Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is right over Wrightsville Beach, right over to the south of you here from Seagate down to Myrtle Grove. This is where the storm is at this point. You are here, Wilmington. You are getting the northern eye wall. And eventually as this system is sagging slowly to the southwest, you're going to get the eastern eye wall. So no soup for you, John, now eyewall for you. It is going to be farther to the south. In fact, our Derrick Van Damn, has a live shot down here in Carolina Beach. He will in fact get the calm in the storm, may even see the sunshine through the clouds down there.

But notice the eye itself. You have to use your time lapse sense here. The eye is getting smaller, which means the winds are getting bigger, they're getting tighter, kind of like the ice skater analogy again. I won't go through it, but you get the idea of an Olympic skater bringing her arms in. She goes faster. If you bring your arms in a hurricane, you will get faster winds. And that's exactly where we're going right now.

So here really what we have for the next few hours is this surge of water on up here toward the east and north of the eye. That's the biggest threat right now is the water coming onshore. Here down where you are, it's the wrap-around rain from Wilmington back over to the Wrightsville Beach. That's where the eye made landfall about 47 minutes ago. And there it goes. This is now a forecast radar what it should look like over the next 18 hours. And eventually the eye will get all the way down to Chris Cuomo at north Myrtle Beach. But in that same 18 hours, the wind and the rain and the surge is going to continue north of here. I suspect many of these islands here, these barrier islands, are getting over-washed by these 15-foot waves and seven to eight or nine foot surge. A lot of these islands are going to be wet and the sand is going to be gone even some of the buildings may not survive.

[08:05:06] BERMAN: All right, Chad Myers, thanks so much for that. If we can now, I want to go to the National Hurricane Center. Ken Graham, the director, joins. us now. And Ken, I can give you a forecast for a sense of the weather for a change. It's raining here, and the wind is blowing fiercely in Wilmington, North Carolina. What else can you tell us about the track of this storm?

KEN GRAHAM, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: I'll tell you, the track, just like forecast, really slow track. So we just made landfall at 7:15. The National Ocean Surface Observation, made landfall near Wrightsville Beach. But look at this. It's prolonged. You have seen the eye wall in Wilmington for a long period of time, so that's just dangerous. It's not about just the winds but how long these winds occur. And the longer we hang around, the longer we start seeing these rain bands push that water in. It is just a very dangerous situation when it comes to the wind, but the water, 90 percent of the fatalities occur because of the water, and that's something we're hitting as hard as we can here at the hurricane center.

BERMAN: You are talking about the duration. How much longer for people in this eyewall or under this eyewall in the Wilmington area?

GRAHAM: When we look at that forecast, it is such a slow progression. I do want to show it here because if you really look at it, there is not a lot of geography that's going to be covered now through this Saturday afternoon. So we're talking about now through all day today and looking at tonight, not getting inland around South Carolina until tomorrow afternoon. So we're talking another day and a half of some of this. so that's significant. The eyewall will slowly move inland. So just because you are not on the coast doesn't mean you're going to see some big-time impacts as this thing slowly tracks westward.

BERMAN: Some of the areas of biggest concern overnight was up in New Bern. They had a storm surge there, six to 10 feet of flooding they were telling us in some places, rescues overnight. Do they have more coming their way? Will they have another round of surge?

GRAHAM: Yes. Let's talk about it because that's something we have been looking at for a while. This is what's happening. You have your storm surge sometimes miles inland where the water gets pushed in. You are talking about the Pamlico River, you're talking about the Neuse River where normally that's used to drain all the rain out. But here's the problem that we have. The water comes in the storm surge, it piles up around New Bern. The other problem we have is all that rainfall that we've been forecasting, potentially 20 to 30 to 40 inches in that area. It can't drain because the storm surge is blocking that. So you're going to have flooding miles and miles inland. So it's going to be a while before that wind shifts, the continual onshore flow is going to continue to push this water inland.

BERMAN: How far inland are we talking? Are we talking all the way as far as Charlotte? I was talking to former governor Pat McCrory. He was saying he was expecting 12 inches of rain up there.

GRAHAM: Yes, that's the problem. Some of these coastal rivers you're going to back up the problem with the rain. Let's really look at that rain in addition to the storm surge. If you look at it, even Charlotte could get 10 to 15 inches of rain possible. So if you look at this well inland, especially with the terrain, Charlotte 10 to 15. You look at Roanoke, places like that, anywhere from high levels of water six to 10 and four to six inches. And this could shift a little bit. So it's not just the coastal issue. With those type of rainfall forecast, those rivers could be in flood for a week, long after we see the hurricane out of the area. BERMAN: Our Chad Myers was talking about the barrier island out on

the coast a short time ago and fear that some of those might be over- washed. What is the concern there?

GRAHAM: Absolutely. And we have had some of the reports of that happening. Actually, probably a good way to illustrate that is to go to the storm surge forecast. So what happens is the water comes it, and it's a violent amount of water. It pushes hard. This storm surge could actually destroy buildings and destroy structures. And it over- washes the barrier islands, and really covers them. You can get this over-wash, you can get cuts. And it keeps ongoing. The longer you have those winds you start stacking it up. So really what the water does is it comes inland, finds a place where the channel narrows or a river narrows, and what happens is it just piles up at that location. So your highest values might not be on those barrier islands. The highest values could be miles inland.

BERMAN: All right, Ken Graham, the National Hurricane Center, thank you so much for your work. You predicted this.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, everybody. As you can see the technology gods have been stalled for a second by hurricane Florence. You can see just the battering that the area that John Berman has been standing for us all morning for us that he's been taking. John has been reporting 92 miles an hour winds there, just incredible torrential rain. Here are the surf that's been churned up. All of the waves there, it is just what we expected and what forecasters have been promising, and what John Berman has been experiencing, and hoping that there is no one else there where he is in North Carolina.

[08:10:06] Let's go to Brock Long now. He of course is the director of FEMA. He's at the headquarters in Washington, D.C. Mr. Long, great to have you here. Tell us what you are seeing from your vantage point and what you're working on.

BROCK LONG, DIRECTOR, FEMA: Ken Graham has done a phenomenal job of letting America know what's coming for over the last week, and unfortunately Florence is doing exactly as predicted. The most devastating part of this hazard is the storm surge, and because of the expansive wind field and the slowdown in the forward speed, we're seeing a lot of flooding back in the back way and the inland areas like in the town of New Bern, which is unfortunately causing a lot of search and rescue efforts underway. We will continue with that as this system pushes through.

CAMEROTA: So tell us what kind of resources you have deployed throughout the North Carolina and South Carolina coast?

LONG: It is a combination. It is not just us. This is a partnership all the way down to the state and local level. And right now, for example, we're focused really on safety and security and rescue missions. We have over, I think it's close to 1,300 search and rescue assets. People and assets on the ground from South Carolina to the District of Columbia, they were prepositioned based on -- we have to take the forecast the National Hurricane Center gives us, understand where the storm is going to strike first and preposition them. And so you're already see that play out. For example, in New Bern our search and rescue guys are supporting the local first response heroes down there to try to get people out if they can reach them.

CAMEROTA: Yesterday and today what our meteorologist Chad Myers has been warning about of course is storm surge. That is what he predicted would be deadly if people had stayed behind, and the estimates this morning were a seven to 11 foot storm surge. And yesterday at least Chad Myers was showing us this graphic of what would happen to homes along the coast and even inland if there were just a four-foot storm surge. So this obviously is doubled. Is that your biggest concern today?

LONG: Storm surge has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of destruction. And unfortunately, if I remember correctly from the forecast, high tide is going to occur somewhere between 11:00 and 12:00 p.m. today. So it's only going to get worse as the system continues to file back.

And this is a problem. We really need the media's help to help create a culture of preparedness and help to educate citizens about specific hazards because when people don't realize when they are asked to evacuate it is primarily because of storm surge and coastal flood inundation, not based on what the winds are necessarily. I've often said the storm surge is the unforgiving hazard. If you look at Katrina, if you look at Camille in 69, you had I think in Katrina, 270 people died in Mississippi largely from storm surge. And the reason we don't learn that lesson is because nobody that goes through it lives to tell about it. There is nobody to interview about what it is like to go through storm surge. And that's why we ask people to get off the coast when these things occur.

CAMEROTA: We have definitely been trying to sound that alarm for these past 48 hours as well because, as you say, that's the leading cause of death. Flooding is the second leading cause of death. And that's the problem with hurricane Florence, as we understand it, is that, yes, right now we're looking at pictures of John Berman who is being buffeted around by all of the 95 miles per hour winds. But this storm because it is going to park itself along the coast, then the risk just is amplified for the next days and hours here. So are the locals on the ground telling you whether or not they think that people have left, or will they be having to do some search and rescues in these hours?

LONG: So we have great communication. I've been in touch with Director Mike Sprayberry in North Carolina and South Carolina division of emergency management. And I specifically asked Mike Sprayberry yesterday if they were getting good evacuation participation rates. And he and the local governments are reassuring that for a typical storm and a typical evacuation that the rates seem to be pretty high. But there's always people that you're never going to be able to get out for various reasons. And that's just truly unfortunate. As I said, we have got to do a better job of helping people understand the hazards collectively and building that culture of preparedness that doesn't exist in this country.

CAMEROTA: So what's different about how you all have prepared with this storm because of its particular elements of going so slowly and sticking around for a long time?

LONG: Right. Let's use the current power outage situation. That's a great question. As a result of what we learned last year and what the nation learned is that FEMA doesn't own the infrastructure. For example, we don't own these power grids. These power grids are privately owned by companies. The communications backbone that you depend on for your cell phone is privately owned as well. And what we are rerouting our response plans to put the private sector in the front, in the front seat to tell us how we can help them.

[08:15:00] BROCK LONG, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: You know, so it's a coordinated effort. You know, you can't just send power crews in right now to fix it. Obviously the storm is still creating damage. But as it passes, you know, it's our job to help local and state governments get the roads open so you can get the power crews in.

But let's set the expectations. This is not something where the lights are going to come back on. The lights are going to be off for many days, if not weeks. And that's why we call them disasters. The infrastructure breaks and recoveries are very frustrating process.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That is such a good message for people to understand. Right now the lights will be off for many days, possibly many weeks. We just don't know what the electricity situation is going to be. And so in terms of all the people who evacuated, what messages are you getting from those evacuation centers and if they can accommodate everybody?

LONG: Yes, so there are several hundred shelters open from South Carolina to Virginia, as I understand. I think the last shelter number I saw was 14,000. We're in shelter in several states. The Shelter Mission is a locally executed mission. It's state managed as well. And we federally support that. So we have -- we work very closely with our nongovernmental organizations like the Red Cross, or Badges Relief, (INAUDIBLE) organization, faith-based organizations to be able to go in.

FEMA's role is to provide logistical support if they ran out of food and water. We have the capability to push forward or help them with managing those facilities. But FEMA doesn't run the shelters. We actually support them from the federal government and help those states and local government to execute the mission. So we -- and here's the expectation on that.

If you've been displaced from the coast and you're in a shelter, you may not be able to return home for quite some time as well. And so we are working around the clock. The people you see behind me, this first desk is dedicated to individual assistance in that shelter mission. They are keeping track of it from the federal government standpoint and trying to understand how we need to get resources in place to support the state and local mission on doing that.

As the system pushes through, we'll be concentrating on getting people out of shelters and in more temporary housing situations. But hopefully they'll be able to go home. But that just won't be reality for some of the people that have been evacuated based on the damage we're seeing.

CAMEROTA: Well, Brock Long, we appreciate how busy it is there behind you in the headquarters there and for you to take time out of your very busy day ahead to talk to us and get all these messages out. Thank you very much.

LONG: Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it.

CAMEROTA: OK. So let's go back to -- if we see John Berman there who is in Wilmington, North Carolina. He has been braving the winds and the rain.

John, it has been incredible to watch you reporting through all of this. I know it's hard. And I know that you've said that it's 92- mile-per-hour wind gusts. How are you feeling now?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, I'm always happy to be a visual aid for your interview with Brock Long so that felt good, Ali.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: No, look, you know, the wind is fierce here. The wind is -- you know, we're getting these 90-mile-an-hour wind gusts in Wilmington, North Carolina. But that isn't even really the story of the real threat of Hurricane Florence. The real threat is the water. It is the storm surge. It is the rain, which, you know, 22 inches already in Atlantic Beach and still more to come. It has already caused some damage up the coast -- severe damage, I should say, up the coast from where we are right now.

Up in Jacksonville there was a roof collapse at a hotel causing evacuations. Our Ed Lavandera is there.

Ed, tell us what happened.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we have experienced these winds for not just a short while. It's been going on here since early evening last night. So it is the intensity and the prolonged nature of how long this storm is taking to come ashore. It's just a relentless feeling here throughout the night. We experienced the high winds, the heavy rains just coming and coming and coming. So that is eventually -- you know, the materials around here get stressed out and give in. That's what we're seeing in a lot of places.

But it's that flooding concern here on the north side. We are on the north side, the top side of Hurricane Florence where we have seen these winds and the relentless rain that really started midday yesterday. So you can sense just how dramatic and problematic the continued rainfall that has already been going on here for nearly 24 hours. It will be as the situation continues to worsen and compound itself, that's what we're dealing with right now, John.

BERMAN: All right. Ed Lavandera up in Jacksonville. Ed, thanks so much for that report.

Again, you know, the eye made land fall at 7:15 a.m. Eastern Time Wrightsville Beach about six miles from where I'm from. But you know the eye wall landing doesn't tell the story of this storm.

[08:20:02] It is the size of the storm Ed Lavandera, miles from where I am, 60 miles or so where I am. He's feeling hurricane force winds. We're getting it down here. It's moving so slowly that it will be here for some time. Imagine having to withstand this if you are in a structure by the water for six, seven, eight hours. It's a real problem.

All right. Our special live coverage of Hurricane Florence continues after this. We're going to speak to an official from New Bern where they've been staging rescues overnight. People trapped inside their home. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Welcome back. John Berman here in Wilmington, North Carolina. Again, Hurricane Florence it made land fall. The eye wall made land fall about six miles in Wrightsville Beach six miles from here. In Wrightsville Beach that happened at 7:15 a.m.

The eye wall may not mean much given how big this storm is and how broad the damage being done from this storm is. President Trump just tweeted moments ago, sending out a statement to those -- really a message to those helping out here. I'll paraphrase, I can't read it from my phone, it says something to the effect of, incredible job being done by FEMA, first responders and law enforcement all. Thank you.

Again, we have been getting reports all night, 911 calls, people asking for help, especially up near New Bern where people have been trapped in their homes due to the rising flood waters there.

[08:25:07] And people have been helping out where they can. When it is safe enough to go out and stage a rescue, they have done so. In other cases they're simply staging to get out when it is safe to do so.

Joining me now is Coleen Roberts, public information officer up in the city of New Bern.

Coleen, if you can hear me, we've been hearing stories all night of people trapped inside their homes. Can you tell us what the latest status is?

COLEEN ROBERTS, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, NEW BERN: Sure. We have about 150 people still awaiting rescue. Flood waters came in very quickly overnight. We were able to get about 200 people out and to our shelters. We still are prioritizing the remaining 150. Conditions still pretty tricky out there. We have seen the storm surgery deuce a little bit from 10.5 feet down to just over 8.

That is largely due to some tidal changes in the river. And when the tide comes back up around noon, we will be inundated with additional storm surge. So we really have a new hustle this morning to get the rest of those 150 people out. BERMAN: You say there are 150 people who have called in, are waiting

to be rescued. Do you know what situation they're in, how dire their need is?

ROBERTS: That is part of several questions that we ask them when they call. For instance, you have mobility issues. Is there a way you can go to a second floor in the home or to an attic, make sure the attic had a second way of getting out so no one gets trapped in an attic. And we encourage them to let us know what their situation is like. We tell them to remain calm, not to panic. We will rescue them.

Again, we're having to be strategic about it. We now have citizen groups who have come out with their own personal water craft offering to help us with these rescues. We are not turning away that help. We are organizing and staging those folks out of our fire rescue department downtown. So anybody who, you know, wants a trailer or a boat and can get us into the water under some creative circumstances because they are no more in both ramps. We are not turning away that help to get in order to get these people out of rising flood waters and compromising situations.

BERMAN: That's really incredible when you think about it. It is not just the official measures, the official channel but you have volunteers putting their own lives on the line to go out and help where they can. And I know the conditions are not good. I know you don't like to be out there when the wind speeds are north of 45 miles per hour, 50 miles per hour in some cases. What are the dangers that your first responders are facing?

ROBERTS: We're seeing sustained winds of about 38 miles an hour. The gusts are certainly 55, 57, 60. So dangerous situations for rescue crews to be out. Those winds are blowing the waters and very swift currents in every direction. So of course we want minimal risk to life and safety certainly for our staff, but also for those residents who are still waiting for evacuations. We have 100 percent of our utility customer base is still out of power. Thankfully it is daylight again to we can see better of the impacts of the storm overnight.

But it is a lot of power lines down, a lot of trees down, snapped power polls, damages to businesses and homes and, you know, we have all these beautiful southern homes in our historic district downtown. And they have really tall steps getting up to the front door. We had a couple of folks snap pictures last night. And it looks like those homes are sitting directly on the water. There are no more steps going up to the front door. The water was that high.

So really challenging conditions for us out there. But we're telling the citizens who call, we will get to you no matter the cost. It just make take a while.

BERMAN: Colleen Roberts, public information officer from New Bern.

Listen, thank you so much. The first official information we are getting from your town. 150 people waiting to be rescued. Some 200 rescued overnight. Thank you so much for the work you are doing and thank you so much for the volunteers who were risking their own lives to save people in need. Thanks, Colleen.

ROBERTS: Thank you.

BERMAN: As we go to break, we're getting some new pictures in -- we're getting some new pictures in from the outskirts of Wilmington, North Carolina, where I am right now be it involving vehicle just outside. The city getting a fresh look at some of the damage that has been done already even as --

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