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All eyes are on the Gulf Coast tonight
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as people prepare for a life-threatening,
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Category Four storm.
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And the mayor of New Orleans
has been warning people to get out now.
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Hurricane Ida developed
more rapidly than anyone was prepared for.
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And Hurricane Ida
represents a dramatic threat
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to the people of the city of New Orleans.
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Time is not on our side.
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This is a very dangerous
and a very real situation.
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Something just blew up.
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There's parts of buildings
flying everywhere in front of my face.
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Oh, shit!
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Hurricanes are
nature's most powerful storms.
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And they're becoming stronger,
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faster and pushing further inland.
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In 2021,
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a single storm revealed
the stark realities of climate change.
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This is the story of Hurricane Ida.
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Chasing hurricanes,
I love that. I feed off that energy.
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As far back as I can remember,
I've had a fascination with the sky.
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It's kind of a twofold thing
for me and my chase partner, Jeff.
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Any time there's a storm around,
there's just something that pulls us in.
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With a hurricane,
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you're driving into a
200-to 300-mile-wide storm,
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and you're in the storm for hours.
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Jeff and I have been chasing since 2013.
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My role as a storm chaser
is not to collect scientific data.
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It's not to bring
weather instruments into these storms.
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My purpose
is essentially storm journalism.
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We care about people.
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We hate to see what's happening to people,
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and I think that's a large reason
why we document the damage.
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When people are fleeing storms, we're
the ones that go into them and take video
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and audio and bring other people
the sense that they're there with us.
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But it's not just an adventure.
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There's a real serious side to it.
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Winds are at 90 miles an hour!
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And that's the destruction
that these storms can cause.
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On their own,
storms are not an evil thing.
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When they intersect with humanity,
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that's when it becomes tragic.
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August 23rd, 2021.
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An atmospheric
depression enters the Caribbean.
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Three days later,
it becomes a tropical storm.
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The birth of Ida.
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Much of the Louisiana
and Mississippi Gulf Coast is bracing
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for what could be
a major hurricane this weekend.
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Tropical storm Ida
is moving toward the Gulf of Mexico
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and is expected
to make landfall on Sunday.
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At this point in the 2021 hurricane
season, we hadn't chased a storm yet.
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We were holding tight,
we were being patient.
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But this looked like the storm.
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Yeah, I have a grab bag.
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And then when
it's a green-lit chase, I grab that bag.
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Four days worth of water and food,
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gasoline, safety gear, and I head out.
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Surprisingly, my oldest daughter
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became very emotional
when I was saying goodbye to her.
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This had never happened before.
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It really, uh,
it shook me. It caught me off guard.
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I made the hard call to walk out
the door and chase this hurricane but
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that moment never left me
for the whole chase.
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August 27th.
Ida passes over Cuba.
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As it accelerates towards the US,
it becomes a Category One hurricane.
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The categories
of a hurricane, are based on wind speed.
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And structural damage.
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Ranging from moderate...
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to complete destruction.
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A hurricane,
in order for it to grow,
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it's kind of like a recipe or something.
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Everything has to be
kind of in the right balance.
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They get most of their energy
from warm ocean water.
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Once the ocean gets above 26 degrees,
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that's when the storms can form.
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Warm ocean air is moist.
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Moist air weighs less than dry air.
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That causes this upward motion
that creates a vacuum, essentially.
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You take the air
that's there, you lift it up,
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and all that air on
the sides comes rushing into the center.
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That inward air starts rotating
around that low-pressure center.
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That's what we know is the,
structure of the hurricane.
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On average, 80 hurricanes
form across the world every year.
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00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,920
In the Indian Ocean,
they're known as cyclones.
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00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:35,760
In the Atlantic, hurricanes.
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And in the Western Pacific, typhoons.
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Over the last three decades,
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the number of Category Four and Five
hurricanes has almost doubled.
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The warm water increases
the intensity of the storm.
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And the warmer and warmer it gets,
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the more available energy
there is to power a storm.
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00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:16,960
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan
slammed into the Philippines,
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producing record winds, 195 miles an hour.
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It's feared
that super typhoons like Haiyan
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will become more common
as global temperatures rise.
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Good evening. Hurricane Ida
is just hours from roaring ashore,
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and right now it's a Category Two storm,
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but it's expected to grow into a
life-threatening Category Four hurricane.
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00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:02,680
At this point, the hurricane is just
feeding off that warm eddy.
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00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:05,840
That warm, uh, warm water over the Gulf,
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and will do so for
the next day and a half.
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00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:12,120
And if you're not sure really
what that means for a hurricane,
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it's like a, uh...
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it's like a hungry kid being at a buffet.
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00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:23,280
When I was driving in
on Interstate Ten,
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every road that was going away from
Louisiana was basically a parking lot.
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Everyone was trying to get away from
the coast and towns like New Orleans.
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Ida is bearing down on The
Big Easy and could make landfall 16 years
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to the day after Hurricane
Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.
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Hurricane Katrina was one
of the most impactful and strongest storms
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that hit the United States of America,
and it hit us 16 years ago.
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It was a Category Five hurricane.
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Wind forces over 170 miles per hour.
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An entire ward
of the city, the Ninth Ward,
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appears to be up to its rooftops in water.
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00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:29,120
Two and a half million people
are without power tonight.
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Over 43,000 people in Red Cross shelters.
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Our city sat in flood waters
for over a three week plus period.
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80% of the city was underwater.
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People stranded
on rooftops without water and food.
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911, what's your emergency?
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I'm stuck in the attic with me
and my little sister and my mom
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and we got water in the whole house.
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And we lost over 1800 lives.
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The levee failure was
the most significant impact of Katrina.
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Seeing Hurricane Ida,
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one of the strongest storms
that come our way since Katrina,
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clearly we were
bracing ourselves for whether or not
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they were going to fail or not.
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If that happens again,
it will devastate this community.
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00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:42,120
As Ida approaches
the Louisiana coastline,
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wind speeds increase dramatically.
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It's about, a little after
04:30 in the morning, and um,
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yeah a very concerning situation.
134
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We are in Houma, Louisiana,
which is predicted to be ground zero.
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00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:10,200
Uh, Jeff is, behind me here,
still asleep in his vehicle.
136
00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:13,120
Good morning.
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00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:14,200
Morning.
138
00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:16,000
What are we looking at?
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Well.
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00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:22,040
Hurricane Ida, according
to the hurricane hunters,
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went straight from a CAT2 to a CAT4,
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- within one and a half hours.
- My gosh.
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Insane.
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That's called rapid intensification.
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That's a dangerous storm, man.
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00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:39,600
When a tropical system
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intensifies at least
35 miles-per-hour of wind speed
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over the course of 24 hours, that's
classified as rapid intensification.
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00:12:51,560 --> 00:12:54,840
This is something that's
been happening more and more.
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00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:03,760
And in 2021, the entire Gulf
of Mexico was just, it was boiling.
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Not literally, but it was basically
boiling water for this hurricane.
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We call it nightmare fuel.
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And the warmest waters
is right on the coastline.
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So as it approached the coast, we were
expecting it to intensify even further.
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This is the time to stay inside.
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Do not venture out.
No sight seeing. This is very serious.
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My worst fears for the city
was not wanting to lose life.
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Shelter in place.
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Hunker down. It is vitally important.
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00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:46,040
I wanted to make sure that our people
was as prepared as possible
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and that was going
to be a sheltering-in-place model,
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which was not
the model during Hurricane Katrina.
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We need you to stay
in from this point forward.
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All morning. All afternoon. All evening.
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00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,560
The protection
of your people is the top priority.
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00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:09,640
Not having your people staged
on an interstate in harm's way,
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especially when the storm is moving fast.
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00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:17,000
Mandatory evacuation was not an option.
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00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:23,560
It takes 72 hours
to evacuate a city safely.
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Hurricane Ida has intensified so rapidly,
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there's no time
to enact the evacuation plan.
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People in Louisiana have
to stay put and hope for the best.
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Something like half the
world's population lives at the coast.
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And we know that people
continue to move to the coast.
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This is going to be
problematic in the long term.
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50, a 100 years from now. Will it even be
possible to evacuate the way we do today?
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00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:21,520
In a laboratory,
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it's possible to assess
the potential damage to housing
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caught in the crosshairs of the storm.
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00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:32,960
With the onset of strong wind,
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we begin to see somewhat
cosmetic damage to the structure.
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So we'll see water
ingress through the building.
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But as the wind speeds pick up,
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they might cause a breach
in the building envelope.
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Say a window breaking
or a door blowing in.
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And ultimately it sets
the structure up for a cascading failure.
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00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:09,200
The simplest way
to think about wind loads on a structure,
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00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:11,016
is, imagine that time
when you've had your hand
189
00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:13,120
stuck out the car
and you're driving down the road,
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00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:16,680
say it's 70 miles per hour. Well,
suddenly that car accelerated to 140.
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00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:19,240
The loads that act
on your hand, they wouldn't double.
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00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:20,520
They would actually quadruple.
193
00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:25,200
Because wind forces increase
with the square of the wind speed.
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00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:29,560
So even a small change in wind speed,
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can lead to a large change in
the performance of that structure.
196
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,120
So when you see
a Category One or Category Two,
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00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:42,816
you see, you know,
a fair amount of damage.
198
00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,720
But when you get to
that Category Three, Four and Five,
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that's when we begin to see extreme damage
200
00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:50,200
because these loads are so intense.
201
00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:18,480
The scene here in the next hour
or two is going to deteriorate rapidly.
202
00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:21,520
Um, tropical storm force winds here.
203
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:25,920
Already seeing small branches
and little pieces of debris blow by.
204
00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:33,800
As a storm chaser,
there's a lot of mixed emotions there.
205
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,216
Because you're going to experience
something that Mother Nature throws out
206
00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:39,560
that most people don't get to experience.
207
00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:42,920
But then, there's a reality
that people's lives
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00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,600
and businesses
are going to be changed forever.
209
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:53,640
August 29th. 11:55 a.m.
210
00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:57,200
Ida tears into the Louisiana coastline.
211
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:09,440
A Category Four storm with
winds gusting 150 miles an hour.
212
00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:15,040
Whoa. Whoa!
213
00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:18,880
It's so strong
214
00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:22,840
it temporarily reverses the flow of
the Mississippi River.
215
00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:41,920
There was a point where
we were back at the parking garage
216
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,640
and Jeff knew he needs
to go out and shoot some stuff
217
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:47,680
and decided to head out
in a separate vehicle.
218
00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:51,440
And this allows us as a team
219
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,400
to get multiple stories
going on at the same time.
220
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And so I drove up
to the top level of the parking garage
221
00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:03,320
to experience the strength of this
storm before it gets too dangerous.
222
00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:14,840
Gabe Cox from
the outer eye wall of Hurricane Ida.
223
00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:19,400
I'm about to step outside so you guys
can get a sense for how strong it is.
224
00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:21,440
Uh, here we go.
225
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,040
I'm leaning at a 45 degree angle.
226
00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,680
My feet were beginning
to slide back behind me.
227
00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:49,680
At that point, the tree behind me snaps.
228
00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:56,960
Holy cow!
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00:19:57,920 --> 00:19:59,720
I decided to duck behind the car.
230
00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:01,800
Oh, shit.
231
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:04,600
This wind was screaming by me.
232
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,520
We probably had wind gusts in excess
of 100 miles an hour at that point.
233
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:10,240
Here we go.
234
00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:17,120
Phew!
235
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:18,800
That was more than I bargained for.
236
00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:24,400
I texted Jeff to see where he was,
237
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:27,880
and he told me,
"I'm getting some amazing footage.
238
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,080
I'm going to hold tight
for just a little bit longer."
239
00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:35,800
The next text that I get from Jeff is that
he was actually trapped at his location.
240
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:39,080
And he has no way to get back.
241
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:42,960
And his phone's dying and it won't charge.
242
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,560
Hi, you've reached Jeff,
you know what to do.
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00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:56,560
I'm imagining
a worst case scenario.
244
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:02,240
I was completely convinced
245
00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:07,520
that I was going to have plenty of time
to go document some minor winds,
246
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:09,880
and then be able
to get back to our home base.
247
00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,480
Uh, but things
started turning pretty quickly.
248
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:17,600
Holy cow.
249
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,400
I thought, "Hey, I'm going to go
and get to the south side of this building
250
00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:25,080
and hide behind it.
251
00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:26,040
I'm going to document this roof
252
00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:29,680
because I think this roof is going
to come toppling over pretty soon."
253
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:34,080
Oh, my gosh.
254
00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:41,520
Huge pieces of wood and tin are
literally scraping the front of my car.
255
00:21:44,120 --> 00:21:47,440
All it takes is a part
of a roof coming through your windshield.
256
00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:54,160
You can feel the vibrations from your car
257
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,560
being moved to the left and
to the right and forward and backwards.
258
00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:04,240
You can smell lumber
that's being taken up and thrown around.
259
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:09,000
It's an absolutely terrifying situation.
260
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:15,680
I'm just kind of
hunkered down into my car, just praying.
261
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:20,080
"God, please give me five minutes.
Give me five minutes where I can breathe,
262
00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:22,800
I can look, and maybe
I can drive somewhere more safely."
263
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,880
I can't hang here forever
because this building is coming apart.
264
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:33,000
Oh, my gosh.
265
00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:39,800
Oh, shoot!
266
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:51,720
There was a, I would call it
a random break in the wind speed.
267
00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:55,600
I knew that was my one chance.
268
00:22:58,000 --> 00:22:59,360
My phone is dead at this point.
269
00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:03,000
And I couldn't remember how to get back.
270
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:05,880
Street signs are gone.
271
00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:12,400
The landscape of the town
looks drastically different.
272
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:22,560
So I'm going up and down streets
that don't look recognizable.
273
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,600
Certain landmarks,
they're not there anymore.
274
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:37,760
I found myself trying
to avoid power lines, flood waters.
275
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:43,720
Pieces of roofs all over the place.
And so I don't want to get a flat tire.
276
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:46,200
There's just so much anxiety.
277
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:51,960
I finally figured out where I was
278
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:56,360
when I got to the center
of the town and remembered, "Okay, uh,
279
00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:00,320
if I take two more turns, I will
finally be back to where I need to be."
280
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,040
I pulled in, and to me,
it was complete silence.
281
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:16,000
I had spent five and a half
to six hours with my ears popping.
282
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:22,200
It was like being at a rock concert
and you are so used to the loud noise,
283
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:25,680
you don't hear the same.
That's exactly what it felt like.
284
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,560
And lo and behold,
right in front of me, there's Gabe.
285
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:38,240
I just saw him wide-eyed, pulling into the
parking garage like, he had seen a ghost.
286
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:40,440
And you could tell
that he had been through
287
00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:44,040
just a crazy ordeal,
just by the look on his face.
288
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,080
He just turns around at me,
289
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,720
goes, "What in the world?"
I was like, "I don't know."
290
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,200
And I was so exhausted. I could have
slept for about 24 hours at that point.
291
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:02,680
It was utter relief,
to see my friend again.
292
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:05,720
Things were right in the world again.
293
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,680
The storm
leaves a trail of destruction.
294
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,600
In Louisiana,
a million people are without power,
295
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:39,520
six hundred thousand without water,
296
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,840
and thousands are left homeless.
297
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,080
Um, this is Larose, Louisiana.
298
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:54,160
This is my apartment. I've been
here for like, going on two years.
299
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,560
It's been a year
and like six months I've been here.
300
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:01,680
And it's, this is just devastating.
301
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:04,360
I just had a baby.
My baby is eight months old.
302
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,920
It's just devastating.
And this is our home.
303
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,640
I ain't never been
through nothing like this.
304
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:15,760
If you come upstairs, be careful.
305
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:19,080
I don't want nothing to come falling.
306
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,400
Oh! It's dry rotting and dropping.
307
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,880
This is my room right here.
308
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,920
Um, you can't even
get in there, as you can see.
309
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:42,320
And if you come
this way, this is my baby's room.
310
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,000
This was my baby's room.
311
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:52,800
If I can even get right there.
312
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:56,080
Try to take what I can take.
313
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:00,880
Brand new clothes.
314
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:06,440
I ain't trying to fall.
315
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:09,920
At least I saved something.
316
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:12,840
Hold on.
317
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,400
We haven't talked to no one.
We don't know who gonna help.
318
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,320
But I'm not trying to sit around and wait.
319
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:32,080
If I gotta go move and find me a job
elsewhere, that's what I'm gonna do.
320
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:43,480
In the US,
321
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:47,880
hurricanes cause almost 50 billion
dollars worth of damage every year.
322
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:56,160
But it's not the wind
that's the biggest problem.
323
00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:04,720
It's the storm surge
and the flooding that follows.
324
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:18,080
As the storm came in,
the water got almost to the power line.
325
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:24,040
I'd say right up here. I'm 5'9" so...
326
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:26,080
About,
327
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,680
ten feet above my hand.
328
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,760
It blew windows out. It blew steps away.
329
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:37,280
All this stuff
that you see now is replaced.
330
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:43,880
Water is very powerful,
especially when it comes in, like,
331
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:47,880
through a storm,
with winds on top of 100 miles an hour.
332
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:50,840
Came in from the southeast.
333
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:12,080
It used to be that you can
buy something and build, like this shed,
334
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,080
and expect, uh, your grandkids to live in.
335
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:17,480
Now, you don't
know if it's going to make a year.
336
00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:21,160
You don't know if it's going
to make hurricane season.
337
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,800
We got to put our heads
together and think, and think quick.
338
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:38,200
Not a 100 years from now,
because we just don't have time.
339
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:54,320
The interaction of wind and
water can be studied in a giant wave tank,
340
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,920
simulating the effects of a storm surge.
341
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:04,360
We're sitting on
the top of this sustained tank
342
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:10,360
and that is a 75-feet-long facility
where we can create the conditions
343
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,680
like what you see at the ocean surface
344
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:15,840
in a really intense
Category Five hurricane.
345
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:29,160
In the Northern Hemisphere,
346
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:32,200
hurricanes spin
in a counterclockwise direction.
347
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:35,160
So we talk about
the dirty side of the storm
348
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:38,160
that's being on the right side,
where all the onshore winds are coming.
349
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,360
Those can drive tremendous surges inshore.
350
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,760
Elevations of water level
as much as, say 20 feet.
351
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:54,040
You think about a Category Five storm
on a 155 mile an hour wind,
352
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:58,680
it's pushing in tremendously
large waves into your coastal properties,
353
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,640
into upper decks of elevated houses even.
354
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:05,080
Like a bus hitting a building repeatedly.
355
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:12,040
The best defense
against a storm surge
356
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:17,960
is to build houses taller,
on stilts, above the flood level.
357
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:22,800
Elevation will give you a lot.
That'll help out a lot.
358
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,240
But if a storm surge brings those waves up
359
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:27,480
high enough
that you can reach to the elevated levels,
360
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:32,000
then you can get catastrophic
damage even to elevated structures.
361
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:35,120
It's a real problem.
362
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:57,080
The US Coast Guard are first
to see the full extent of the damage.
363
00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:01,120
By flying over the path of Hurricane Ida.
364
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:08,040
Regardless of the number
of hurricanes you fly through
365
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:09,880
as a Coast Guard Aviator,
366
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:11,880
every hurricane
still affects you emotionally,
367
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:13,920
just by seeing
the destruction of the storms.
368
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,280
This whole town is flooded.
369
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:20,360
It took some damage.
370
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:22,800
It's unfortunate.
371
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:25,080
Yeah.
372
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:30,920
It became clear
that New Orleans may have been spared,
373
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:35,080
but some of the outlying
parishes may not have been so lucky.
374
00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:44,240
The storm surge definitely
makes it very hard to differentiate
375
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:47,400
what used to be and what is now.
376
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:49,600
What we're used
to seeing as like swamplands
377
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:52,520
and fields and marsh is now just water.
378
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:55,800
It looked like the Gulf of Mexico.
379
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:02,040
The roofs
are missing on the right side.
380
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:07,600
Somebody's got their work cut out
for them fixing all those power lines.
381
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,680
Grand Isle
had been severely damaged.
382
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,680
Homes were either
leveled or uninhabitable.
383
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:22,880
This is a total loss.
384
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,480
Grand Isle's pretty much a total loss.
385
00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:44,520
My name is David Camardelle.
I'm the mayor of Grand Isle.
386
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,560
Born and raised here.
Wouldn't live nowhere else.
387
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:54,400
Grand Isle is just unique.
388
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:58,240
It's the only human inhabited
island right here in Louisiana.
389
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:01,240
It's paradise.
390
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,320
So what happened is, the water
came in from the back of the island.
391
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:10,920
And then you're gonna start seeing sand
just levelled from one end to the other,
392
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,280
and just trash going in the back.
You see the trash going to the levee.
393
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:18,000
And just, all this sand just...
You couldn't even find the road.
394
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:20,920
And all the power lines
were just crossways
395
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,719
in different parts of the road.
396
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,440
And then when you get
that type of wind,
397
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,920
what it did,
it just brought a wall of water
398
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:33,840
and it just gushed on this side
399
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,120
and it just pushed
it all the way across the island.
400
00:34:36,199 --> 00:34:37,376
And all them bays in the back,
401
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,360
all them canals with them camps,
it just wiped out everything.
402
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:43,120
Bullseye.
403
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:50,159
Out of 2800 hundred homes,
we had about 700 destroyed.
404
00:34:51,199 --> 00:34:52,719
It was nothing but devastation.
405
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:02,960
One comment, one of the papers
said, "Is it worth saving Grand Isle?"
406
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:05,200
Let me tell you something.
407
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:08,720
As long as there's one grain of sand
408
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:11,240
to plant the American flag,
409
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:14,440
we ain't going nowheres.
410
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,000
What you see in the field
stays with you.
411
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,920
It motivates everything
that you do back in the laboratory.
412
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:38,960
This is not acceptable.
413
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,440
Anybody who lives on
a hurricane prone coast
414
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:46,600
should be very concerned
about what happened here in Grand Isle.
415
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,480
Because this
will not be an isolated event.
416
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,760
Here we see a home that survived
perfectly intact following Hurricane Ida.
417
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:58,840
And its performance gives us hope that
we can engineer buildings to withstand
418
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,240
Category Four or Category Five hurricanes.
419
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:07,520
You can see the massive timber
pilings supporting the entire house.
420
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:11,000
You could see
a significant elevation difference
421
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:14,680
between the ground and the bottom
of the living residence.
422
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:16,280
22 feet, I'm told.
423
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:19,520
We also have this lateral bracing,
424
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:23,000
which provides
significant resistance to the wind
425
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:24,920
and wave loads
that would act on the structure.
426
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:29,080
It has impact resistant windows
and storm shutters.
427
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,160
And a metal roof that will be just as
good 20, 30, 40, 50 years down the road.
428
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:42,160
Such solutions are expensive
and the bill will only keep growing
429
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,160
as hurricanes become more powerful.
430
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:53,120
The only other option
is to let nature take its course
431
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:58,200
and abandon places like Grand Isle.
432
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:14,960
From Louisiana,
Ida pushes northeast.
433
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:18,840
Traveling across eight other states.
434
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:23,360
It is now an extratropical storm.
435
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:28,080
But it is still
dangerously saturated with moisture.
436
00:37:29,720 --> 00:37:33,960
What's important to understand
in a climate-changed environment,
437
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,400
we expect more intense hurricanes,
438
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:40,680
but we also have more water vapor
available to the atmosphere to tap into,
439
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,000
that ultimately
reaches the ground as rainfall.
440
00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:49,680
And in fact,
what we see is significant floods
441
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,000
in places we don't normally see them.
442
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:57,600
Many of these regions
don't have the infrastructure or policies
443
00:37:57,680 --> 00:37:59,720
that prepare them for hurricanes.
444
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:02,680
And so we have a problem.
445
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:14,360
Four days later,
Ida hits New York,
446
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,720
A thousand miles
from where it first made landfall.
447
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,640
And still it's dumping
huge amounts of rain.
448
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:29,360
It's a weird feeling
to know that you've escaped with your life
449
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:31,120
from a storm in Louisiana,
450
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:34,680
three, four, five days later you see the
storm still churning. It hadn't stopped.
451
00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:42,440
The day that Ida hit,
452
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:48,280
I was sitting at home with my wife when,
at about a quarter to ten,
453
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:53,680
I started to get calls
from our MTA subway management team.
454
00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:57,880
The numbers are extraordinary.
455
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:01,960
Three point five inches
of rain fell between nine and ten p.m.
456
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:07,720
The largest one hour rainfall
in New York City recorded history.
457
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:14,480
When it hit, we had about a dozen
trains that ended up being stranded.
458
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:21,000
Basically, if the MTA's not operating,
the city's not operating, full stop.
459
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,400
Our bus drivers were heroic.
460
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:34,680
They kept operating right
through the storm and in many cases,
461
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:39,920
they were picking up people who were stuck
and didn't have any other way to get home.
462
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:44,680
We became almost a door to door service
463
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,840
for a lot of people through
the use of our incredible bus system.
464
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:03,720
What we're experiencing now is that
the climate is so different than it was,
465
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:07,480
you know, in that 100-year-ago time
when the subway system was built.
466
00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:13,400
And we're having to adjust
to the new reality of climate change.
467
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:21,800
By early September,
468
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:25,280
Ida has moved over
the cooler waters of the North Atlantic.
469
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:31,120
Starved of energy, it weakens and dies.
470
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:43,600
The storm has caused
75 billion dollars worth of damage...
471
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:47,280
and taken 95 lives.
472
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:55,040
Think about this.
473
00:40:55,720 --> 00:40:58,520
We were talking several days prior
474
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:03,920
about an innocent looking tropical
wave off the coast of Venezuela.
475
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:08,160
And now we transition
to a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico
476
00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:10,240
with dire implications.
477
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:14,040
Followed by the remnants
of that storm, impacting people
478
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:17,880
literally hundreds to thousands
of miles away from where it was birthed.
479
00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:27,080
This was one storm.
Imagine a year with 20 storms like this.
480
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,360
Hurricane season just ended.
481
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:47,320
But it's not a break to sit back and wait.
482
00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:49,040
It's a break to work.
483
00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:51,760
To do more in preparation
484
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:55,560
for the next hurricane season
that could be unprecedented,
485
00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:58,680
like I've experienced
the last two to three.
486
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:06,320
Climate change is happening.
487
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:10,480
It's not something in the future. It's not
just about polar bears or the year 2080.
488
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:13,040
We are living
climate change right now and hurricanes
489
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,440
are manifesting
themselves within that environment.
490
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:21,040
I think the average person
on the street sees that,
491
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:23,800
and understands
that something's different.
492
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:29,000
Hurricane Ida
is a wake-up call.
493
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:37,320
Billions of dollars are needed to shore up
defenses before the next hurricane,
494
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:39,400
cyclone or typhoon.
495
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:46,880
As the speed of climate change
accelerates, so do the challenges.
496
00:42:47,720 --> 00:42:49,040
For all of us.
497
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,640
Subtitle translation by: Antoinette Smit
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