Page 238 - Elevation News Today

One thing about this storm, everyone is concerned about other hurricane florence. in modern history it is the highest elevation storm surge we ever had. we had 10.3 feet in 1955. this one was higher. it has people concerned. the hurricane did the most damage was hurricane hazel in 1954, category 4. the history of new bern is we get category 4s which is wind damage and storm surge. the most important thing is first responders, keeping us safe, we want them safe. we were fortunate last time, no lo...

What are you doing? >> reporter: there have been 47 and a year ago hurricane florence devastated the area with storm surge and category one winds. this time around the main thing we are doing, we are working on a resiliency plan to encourage builders on elevation. heather: has you completely recovered from florence? >> we are probably still two or three years away from recovery. we are down 300 affordable units as far as we lost 108 units in the most affordable rate townhomes. right now we are t...

And it is still there. so, and we wont really know -- >> as youre watching this from the eye of a rescuer, what worries you the most? >> the thing that worry ies me e most is the storm surge. and that because it is just a matter of math. you know, if you have a storm surge and youre only talking about a very low elevation of the land, in the island, it is, you know, it is a real problem. when i i was in key west, key ws only 8 feet above sea level, and that, so if you have a 10-foot tidal surge....

Hour. i just measured this. this is about 35 to 40 degrees difference from land to the eye of the storm. so thats just too close. well continue to watch that. it will continue to make its way offshore. the surge here, what you need to know here two to four feet storm surge. rain accumulation. three to six inches potentially. then high tide. thats going to come in for west palm around 5:15. you add that altogether. west palm to ft. lauderdale. were talking about an elevation about 13 to nine feet...

The northern bahamas for over 24 hours. we havent seen anything like this if you remember hurricane harvey. over texas. and louisiana. that stalled out for two days. but the elevation for texas is over 100 feet. for the bahamas, theyre at sea level. this is absolutely devastating. the geography of the mass area of land is just going to be forever changed. now our current radar you can see the bands that are making their bay on shore from west palm beach to fort pierce. that will continue through...

Wednesday. sustained winds of 125 miles per hour. i know were not thinking about a land fall. but this is too close for comfort for me. for the carolina coast. this is outer banks. 105 miles per hour for thursday. if we can escape that, it will make its way offshore. a difference here, jersey. youll feel the left overs of hurricane dorian. so well see the storm surge. i want to mention here west palm the elevation in this area is 13 feet. a storm surge of two to four feet on top of a high tide t...

Live in. many of them put out the evacuation areas but a little shock and awe is to go around and mark what the 8 foot looked like in the communities you live in. every community is built at a little different elevation. you might be well on the coast line but inland you may not have 8 foot at the front door of your house. so you need to walk out there with your iphone, stand on the front step, and see the elevation to your home. and if it is below that you need to move now. >> good advice. and ...

Elevation into the four feet and more to the north of us. so -- and then theres waves on top of that. and the -- during a hurricane, as you might imagine, the waves are pretty high. this can be quite devastating. i dont want to be in that situation and -- but we can only control what we can control. we do the things, we follow through on our plan, listen to the officials. if youre east of u.s. 1, you are supposed to evacuate. if you are in a mobile home or low lying area, youre supposed to evacu...

So lets take a look, 155 miles per hour, thats a very powerful storm still, wind and rain machine, seeing that still over the next five days. moving still at 1 mile per hour, moving very, very slowly. i want to talk about the movement. its terrible for the bahamas. its a nightmare situation. its a better situation, though, that is moving slowly for florida because that allows the players to get in place. the steering mechanisms that will hopefully turn it off to the north and also the west. lets...

Hopefully many have left at this point. we have to wait and see as to what happens after the storm has cleared. how quickly will people be able to get back to the island to see whats happened and what damage has been sustained? at what point will the storm move past -- will dorian move past the bahamas? >> you were talking about sustained winds, we saw gusts yesterday of 220 miles per hour. and the problem here is that its stalling out. so its going to sit across the grand bahamas. its out of ma...