Page 6 - Oyster Shells News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Cnn's derek van dam is live with it all from apalachicola. good morning, derek. >> reporter: good morning, christine. it takes one foot of rushing water to pick up a truck and move it down river, per ase. look at one foot of storm surge. it can take semi trucks and flip on the sides. you can see the debris leftover on the oyster shells. this is near the apalachicola river and fishing areas. the high water mark gives you an indication of the storm surge. to put it in perspective, we did a live shot at the height of hurricane michael. a truck behind us submerged by the rising seawater. that truc...

He joins us from apalachicola with the latest. derek, good morning. what are you seeing? >> reporter: good morning, dave. we're about 30 miles east from where hurricane michael made landfall and the full fury of the powerful storm surge is on display behind me. i want to put it in reference for you. what you are looking at is the high water level behind me which is the debris of the high oyster shells. the land slopes all the way to the apalachicola river which is about 200 yards to my left. the power of storm surge is so incredible. it only takes one foot of moving water to pick up a vehicle ...

155-winds. we're not sure. we don't know what happened to this building as it was blown into smither raepbz. chad was talking about the damage. one of the areas that got hit of the problem, apalachicola, our derek van dam, you were watching in the thick of it yesterday, and he joins us this morning. how are you doing? >> we're doing okay. everybody is safe, john. thank you for asking. what you are looking at behind me is a pile of oyster shells where in an area near the apalachicola river that has fishing businesses that line the region, but what is important is the high watermark behind may, ...

Point where he rode out the storm. phil? >> shep, we're just across the bridge here at east point. the damage is extensive according to sheriffs. it's worse over here than in apalachicola or st. georges island. this is an oyster processing facility. four or five foot storm surge. breaking the back door and crumbled the walls. the dock was picked up by the water. here's the family restaurant. it's trashed at this point. it will take months to get that fixed up. the biggest concern is getting laborers around here to help him put it back together. here's his son in the backhoe. this is what he's ...

I just hope they don't start flying off causing even further damage, if not injury. this is not a safe place to be yet by any stretch. this is water street. lining water street, the sidewalks aren't made out of concrete. they're made out of all those oyster shells. kind of cute. but we were talking about what a juggernaut that industry is down here, this apalachicola bay. that is the truth. you can also see how dramatically the river, the apalachicola river, no longer really being surged by the really strong hurricane winds, storm surge from the gulf of mexico up north. it's all flattened out ...