Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / ‘Not over yet’ Top weather official stresses caution over Hurricane Isaias

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‘Not over yet’ Top weather official stresses caution over Hurricane Isaias · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: We are joined now live on the phone by the
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  Speaker 1: National Weather Service Director for NOAA, Ken Graham.
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  Speaker 2: He joins us.
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  Speaker 3: Mr.
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  Speaker 2: Graham, thank you so much for coming on. It appears
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  Speaker 2: to me that this thing.
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  Speaker 1: Kind of went exactly as the plan said it was
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  Speaker 1: four or five days ago. It came in as a
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  Speaker 1: strong Category 2. What's your biggest concern right now, Mr.
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  Speaker 3: Graham? I think one of the biggest things, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I've been doing this for 32 years. One of the
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  Speaker 3: biggest concerns I'm hearing on your show so far is
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  Speaker 3: the winds will come down. You know, the thing will
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  Speaker 3: continue to move inland. It's just not over yet. I
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  Speaker 3: think the biggest thing is it's just not over yet.
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  Speaker 3: We still expect to have... winds, tropical storm force strength,
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  Speaker 3: even in the northern portions of Alabama. So you're going
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  Speaker 3: to have power outages, trees down for the next 24 hours,
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  Speaker 3: and the rainfall is just going to be torrential. A
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  Speaker 3: lot of these storms at the nighttime hours will try
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  Speaker 3: to shrink up and actually produce more rainfall. So we've
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  Speaker 3: got issues with rain, 48 inches of rainfall, maybe up
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  Speaker 3: to 15 in some areas coastal. But Folks inland have
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  Speaker 3: to pay attention to the storm. It's not just a
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  Speaker 3: coastal issue. A lot of times more people are killed
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  Speaker 3: with inland-type flooding and inland effects than even on the coast.
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  Speaker 3: So not over yet.
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  Speaker 2: So, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Grammar, are we looking at the same kind of risk
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  Speaker 1: that we had along the coast?
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  Speaker 3: It's a very similar risk. You have your storm surge
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  Speaker 3: right along the coast, but inland you'll have your gusty winds.
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  Speaker 3: You'll have trees down. But the biggest part we have
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  Speaker 3: to talk about is so many fatalities can occur inland
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  Speaker 3: because of the rainfall. So you look at areas. stretching
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  Speaker 3: through Alabama into Georgia, even into portions of the Carolinas,
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  Speaker 3: especially the mountains. I've got a big concern starting to
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  Speaker 3: look at some of the western portions of North Carolina
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  Speaker 3: and some of the mountains where you get these tropical
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  Speaker 3: type of rains. Any one of those areas can get
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  Speaker 3: one of these rain bands that set off and produces
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  Speaker 3: way too much rainfall, and you start to get into
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  Speaker 3: a situation where you get the flooding. So just urging
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  Speaker 3: everybody listening, especially inland, if this storm continues to move
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  Speaker 3: over the next couple days inland, You know, have that
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  Speaker 3: NOAA weather radio on. You know, have the information on
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  Speaker 3: to get the warnings throughout the night, especially when the
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  Speaker 3: floods occur at the nighttime hours. It's particularly dangerous. You
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  Speaker 3: just can't see what to drive it into. So just
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  Speaker 3: listen to local officials. Stay off the roads and just
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  Speaker 3: urging everybody to pay attention.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's a very good warning, and I'm wondering,
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  Speaker 1: do you worry because we have been through these many,
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  Speaker 1: many times, and when you don't see these winds, these amazing,
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  Speaker 1: powerful winds like we have not been seeing so far
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  Speaker 1: along the coast, people tend to let their guard down
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  Speaker 1: a little further inland.
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  Speaker 2: That's also got to be a concern, Ken.
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  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. I mean, every one of these storms
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  Speaker 3: I've seen over the years, you know, there's some coastal
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  Speaker 3: impacts and inland, you know, we just underestimate what these
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  Speaker 3: storms do inland. So, you know, you think about anybody
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  Speaker 3: listening in Alabama, Georgia, into the Carolinas, this is far
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  Speaker 3: from over. I mean, we're still forecasting tomorrow morning, still
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  Speaker 3: a tropical storm in central portions of Alabama. And then
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  Speaker 3: even tomorrow, you know, looking at tropical storm force winds,
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  Speaker 3: tomorrow evening in the northern part of Alabama. So with
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  Speaker 3: time through Tennessee and Kentucky and that right-hand side of
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  Speaker 3: the storm, you can see some of the heaviest rainfall.
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  Speaker 3: So we always tend to just forget that some of
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  Speaker 3: the biggest impacts can often be some of that rainfall inland.
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  Speaker 3: So folks, just got to pay attention to this. We're
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  Speaker 3: not even close to being done with some of the
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  Speaker 3: big impacts from ECS.
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  Speaker 1: And would you categorize this right now?
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  Speaker 2: We talk about the wind, we talk about the rain.
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  Speaker 1: Would you categorize this more right now as a wind
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  Speaker 1: event or a water event? Are we still kind of
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  Speaker 1: on the cusp of it being both?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely both of the current time because, you know, 9.30 p.m.
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  Speaker 3: making landfall, you know, you start looking at that part
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  Speaker 3: of it, a storm surge. You're still going to have
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  Speaker 3: some of the backwater areas along the coast when the
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  Speaker 3: winds shift. You know, the one side gets all the
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  Speaker 3: storm surge, and once the winds shift, you can get
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  Speaker 3: some of these bays and inlets where the other side
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  Speaker 3: gets the northerly winds that push that water back on
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  Speaker 3: the other side. So you're still not done with some
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  Speaker 3: of the storm surge and You look at the winds overnight,
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  Speaker 3: you know, hurricane force gusts, hurricane force, tropical storm force.
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  Speaker 3: You're going to have major wind issues overnight, more power
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  Speaker 3: outages and trees down. And then gradually with time start
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  Speaker 3: transitioning to this rainfall event as it travels northward. And
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  Speaker 3: that's what I'm urging people. You know, you start looking
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  Speaker 3: at inland, the wind, the rain, that combination of saturating
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  Speaker 3: the ground. That's when you start getting the trees to
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  Speaker 3: come down, the power lines to come down, especially when
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  Speaker 3: you start saturating the soils.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a daughter in Birmingham, Alabama. I told her, listen,
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  Speaker 1: stay inside, stand your ground. That advice should be heeded
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  Speaker 1: by a lot of people in the path of this storm.
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  Speaker 2: Ken Graham, great information as always. Thank you, sir. We'll
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  Speaker 2: get back to you as the news warrants.