All language subtitles for Violent Earth with Liev Schreiber S01E05 1080p WEB h264-BAE (1)_track3_[eng]

Woman: Almost the
entire state of florida

Is bracing for the impact of
hurricane ian, a monster storm

Stretching 700 miles across
and getting stronger.

Derek van dam: Miles
matter in a storm.

They can wobble back and forth.

That means one town
can be obliterated

And one town can be saved.

For anybody who decided
to ride out this storm,

It is time to be
in your safe place.

Because right now,
minutes matter,

And this storm is coming.

One of the things
that we emphasize

Is that you can
hide from the wind,

But you really need
to run from the water.

About 90% of the deaths in a
hurricane come from the water.

There is a lot of
anecdotal evidence

That with the approach of
hurricanes, animals who

Can sense that a hurricane
is coming, by the winds,

By the barometric
pressure, they can take

Steps to protect themselves.

There's some
evidence that sharks

And fish head to deeper water.

So it's not surprising
that animals, which

Are very sensitive
to their environment,

Could pick up the cues that
a hurricane or a bad storm

Was on the way and
get out of the way.

But that doesn't mean
they're all successful.

[thunder crashes]

Hurricanes are an organized
mass of thunderstorms.

It's an enormous
release of heat.

Eric jay dolin: They generally
form where the ocean's top layer

Reaches the trigger
temperature of 80 degrees

Fahrenheit or higher, and that
creates the massive amounts

Of heat energy.

Derek van dam: Hurricane impacts
are worsening with an increase

In our ocean temperatures.

A seemingly harmless
tropical storm

Can erupt into a major
category 5 hurricane.

Michael brennan:
Rapid intensification

Is exactly what it says.

A storm intensifies,
strengthens very quickly, a 30-

To 35-mile-per-hour
increase into sustained

Winds within about 24 hours.

And that can result in some
of the most dangerous storms

That we've seen.

Allison chinchar: Hurricane
patricia, back in 2015,

Was the most intense
tropical cyclone on record

In the western hemisphere.

It went from a tropical
storm to a category

5 hurricane in just 24 hours.

Watch out.

Holy crap.

[thunder crashes]

We see that lightning
activity tends

To become frequent right before
a storm is going to intensify.

[thunder crashes]

Imagine a fireworks show and
you see all of the fireworks

Popping, popping.

And that has been
something of an indicator

That that storm may
rapidly intensify.

[thunder crashes]

Derek van dam: No, we're not
necessarily getting an increase

In the number of hurricanes,
but the proportion

Of the most severe hurricanes
is becoming more frequent.

Michael brennan: Warmer
atmosphere holds more moisture,

And storms are going to get
worse as the climate continues

To warm.

Paul flaherty: Water temperature
is the fuel for hurricane.

But winds is what most
people think about when

It comes to hurricanes.

Max olson: The
wind is the one you

Think of first because the
wind damage is dramatic.

Derek van dam: The wind
can make projectiles

Of the most simplest thing.

Think about if you've
got a piece of wood

From the side of
a house, a coconut

That had fallen off of a tree--

Whoa!

Derek van dam:
--And that thing's

Flying at a hundred
miles an hour.

That's going to be lethal.

Max olson: My least favorite
thing in a hurricane

Are-- you know those stoplights
that hang on like a cable?

Those things are,
like, 300 pounds each.

[music playing]

Eric jay dolin: Hurricanes have
an eye, which is a calm center,

And then the eyewall, which
has the strongest winds of all.

Max olson: That area
directly surrounding the eye,

The eyewall, is
where those extremely

Catastrophic winds are.

I've been storm-chasing
since I was nine years old.

I started with my father.

Ok, we have a big
storm right over there

That is tornado-warned.

After years and years
of being obsessed

With primarily tornadoes,
hurricane harvey was going

To be my first hurricane chase.

We decided that rockport, texas,
was going to be ground zero.

It looked like it was going
to be a lower-end storm.

And then it just went
all downhill from there.

Man: Oh, my god.

Harvey was insane.

The winds start
really picking up.

We get our first
hundred-mile-per-hour gust,

And things start just
whipping down the road.

There's sheet metal
flying down the road.

There's branches falling.

Man: Oh, my god.

Max olson: And it's
just pure chaos outside.

Man 1: Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Man 2: What was that?

Where'd that come from?

Man 3: I have no clue.

And then at one point, we
hear this really loud boom.

[violent rattling]

The whole building
just completely shook.

[rattling continues]

Oh, my god.

The whole [bleep] wall is gone.

The storm had completely
ripped the wall

Off from the fourth floor all
the way down to the first floor.

And we basically just look out
and all you see is blackness.

We can see there's
absolutely nothing left.

This is incredible.

That was shocking, and that
was kind of my first taste to--

Ok, these things are
legit, and you have

To take these things seriously.

Allison chinchar: These storms
can cause such force within

The ocean that they can
uncover long-buried shipwrecks,

Like this ship from
the 1800s, found

Off the coast of
florida after the 2022

Hurricanes ian and nicole.

Shirley murillo: We
categorize hurricanes based

On the saffir-simpson scale.

It looks at damage
caused by wind.

Eric jay dolin:
And that's how we

Have category 1 through 5, which
starts at 74 miles per hour

For a category 1 hurricane.

Up to anything above 157 miles
per hour is a category 5.

Category 5, it'll seem
apocalyptic because the power

Is just intense.

Man: Oh, man.

Shirley murillo:
The first storm I

Weathered as a
child was hurricane

Andrew in south florida.

Was a powerful category 5 storm.

Derek van dam: Hurricane
andrew, in 1992,

Was one of the most intense
category 5 hurricanes

To ever strike
the united states.

It started out as this
little incipient whirl.

But with every day the
hurricane got stronger.

And then when it finally
hit the florida coast,

It was a category 5 hurricane
with sustained winds of 165.

Man (on phone): It's
just-- just all hell

Is breaking loose right now.

I didn't realize this thing was
going to be as bad as it is.

Jack parrish: Hurricane
andrew did hit at night.

You can't see much
even in the daylight.

But at night, you can't see
anything, and all you can do

Is hear.

And what you hear is that
horrible screaming of the wind.

[wind whistling]

Extremely scary night.

Scary enough in the day.

Max olson: Andrew changed
south florida forever.

Eric jay dolin: 160,000 people
were made homeless overnight.

You can take a look at
before the hurricane

Struck, with all the houses.

And then after the
hurricane struck,

Half of the houses or maybe
3/4 or all of the houses

Have been totally wiped away.

Reporter: The
pictures of buildings

Splintered and cracked
open by the storm

Convey more than
words can ever tell.

[music playing]

John cangialosi: Hurricane ian,
category 3 hurricane, starting

To pull away from western cuba.

Maximum winds near
115 miles an hour.

[music playing]

Rebecca van fossen: And
dave had gotten a heads-up

From the dock master
that the marina

Would have to be evacuated.

The intention was to get
the boat out of harm's way.

[music playing]

Kevin trueblood: And
everybody in southwest

Florida got a wake-up
call at 5:00 am,

With their phones going off.

And it was that the
hurricane warnings

Had shifted further south.

We think the
worst area is going

To be in this red hatched area.

So we're talking more or
less the fort myers area.

The angle of approach
put them dead square

In the center of the
worst possible impacts

From hurricane ian.

It really, really
strengthened this monster.

[music playing]

Rebecca van fossen: The
storm was turning east,

And it was heading
towards fort myers,

Which is where dave was headed.

It was so scary.

Allison chinchar: Many
people think of hurricanes

And tornadoes as
separate entities,

But, actually, many tornadoes
can form inside of a hurricane.

Jack parrish: Normally,
the kind of tornadoes

That a hurricane will spawn
are in the outer rain bands.

So probably some hundred,
hundred-twenty miles

From the center, the outer
periphery of the storm.

Allison chinchar: And
hurricanes are not

Exclusive to the planet earth.

Jupiter actually has a
hurricane, which has been

Going on for over 300 years.

It can be seen as the
red spot on the planet.

An average hurricane season
in the atlantic ocean

Produces a total
of 14 named storms.

Eric jay dolin:
Centuries ago, they just

Called hurricanes after
the year that they hit

Or the location they hit.

Like, there was
the 1900 hurricane

In galveston, which is the
deadliest natural disaster

In american history.

It killed as many
as 10,000 people.

But then there was the change.

In 1979, the world
meteorological organization

Had hurricanes named
after men and women

In an alternating basis.

Michael brennan: When a
storm has done enough damage

Or caused enough
fatalities that could

Be traumatic for the
area being affected,

The name needs to be retired.

Storms going back to
andrew or hugo or katrina.

Derek van dam: When hurricane
katrina came ashore in florida,

It was a relatively minor storm.

All of that changed in
the blink of an eye.

Michael brennan:
Every 20 or 30 years,

You'll have a significant
storm surge event that can kill

Hundreds or thousands
of people, and katrina

Turned into one of those.

We knew all the
pieces were there

For-- for katrina to become
an incredibly strong storm.

I had that gut feeling that
this was going to be really bad.

Jack parrish: Katrina
intensified to a cat 5.

And then it started to spread
out and it increased in size.

Very, very large.

Allison chinchar: What's
interesting about katrina

Specifically is that it
had a rare double eyewall.

And that is significant
because the eyewall is

Known for being the
part of the storm

That causes the most damage.

So having a second, larger
eyewall meant more places

Sustained that
catastrophic damage.

Jack parrish: It was a cat
3 when it made landfall.

It wasn't a cat 5.

But it didn't matter
because it built

Up this huge, huge storm surge
and wiped out that whole coast.

And then, of all things, it
flooded lake pontchartrain,

And those barriers in the
city of new orleans failed.

Man: I started taking videos
of the water coming up

And told my wife that things
are not looking real good.

The next thing, the water
was pouring into the house.

Woman: I didn't want
to go into that water

Alone and not ever
see him again.

When I called 911, I was
thinking that they would

Just come and find our bodies.

Man: When the levees were
breached, 80% of the entire city

Was under water.

The new orleans we
have been seeing scenes

Of just incredible rescues
of people literally--

Their lives hanging
in the balance,

Being plucked from the
roofs of their homes.

Rescuer: Can you all
get to that flat roof?

Man: Which one?

Rescuer: This one right here.

[helicopter whirring]

Officer: As old as I get, the
emotions become stronger when

You see what you see, you know.

Ultimately, 1,800 people gave
their lives during that storm.

And you see that kind of
devastation, it is just amazing.

[music playing]

Ying]

Max olson: With a hurricane, the
storm is very slow to approach.

You know it's coming.

You might not know
exactly how intense it's

Going to be when
it makes landfall,

Winds start really picking
up and getting worse.

Man: Whoa.

Max olson: It's just
dumping all this rain.

You then may get trapped
trying to escape.

Man 1: Here we go.

Man 2: Uh-oh.

Oh.

Whoa.

Goodness gracious.

[music playing]

Rebecca van fossen: Fans of
rain were coming through.

[residents exclaiming]

And we were getting
weather alerts,

Tornado alerts on our phones.

The whole family's like,
have you heard from dave?

Have you heard from dave?

No one-- oh, I haven't
heard from dave.

But I don't-- I've called
him probably a hundred times,

But it's not answering.

[thunder crashes]

Allison chinchar: We use the
term the "cone of uncertainty."

It's sort of a
big-picture overview

Of where the center of
the storm is expected

To go or is likely to go.

But those forecasts
are not perfect.

Jack parrish: The
cone can give you

Such a bad sense of
impending doom or "I'm safe."

And in both cases,
you can be dead wrong.

David littlefield:
I'm alone on the boat.

I'm approaching fort myers.

Boat's rocking and rolling,
and the wind's howling.

And all of a sudden, wind
and waves, hurricane force,

Blow the boat over on
its starboard side,

Rolled it 90 degrees.

[music playing]

I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe that
even hurricane-force

Winds could roll a 22-ton boat.

I look in the engine room,
and there's a big hole

In the side of the boat.

And water starts coming in.

And I'm like, this is not good.

I got on the radio, and
I sent out a mayday.

Hopefully someone heard me.

[thunder crashes]

The only two doors
were both underwater.

[waves crashing]

And I was like, god, I
wonder if I can do this.

[waves crashing]

We have 120-mile-per-hour
winds with gusts of 150,

Winds that are going to be
relentless for hours on end.

Robert campbell: I was worried
more about the wind damage

Than I was water, not
knowing that the surge

Was going to be 14 feet tall.

Man: Surge is coming in.

Let's hope for the best.

Mitch was a prolific
user of facebook.

And every now and then, he would
get up and go to the window,

And he would post something.

Man: 16 years, never seeing
a river on our street.

Michelle schuline:
I was watching

My dad post on facebook.

I knew it was getting
pretty bad when

Some of the bar and such
underneath their house

Started floating away.

I knew he was going
to be devastated.

Allison chinchar:
A major hurricane

Can unleash up to 2 trillion
gallons of rain a day

And release the energy of 10
atomic bombs every second.

Max olson: There's
two types of water

That you have to contend with.

You have the fresh
water flooding

That can happen after
the storm makes landfall,

And it's just dumping
all this rain.

With hurricane
harvey, for example,

More than 50 inches of
rain fell within the span

Of about a day and a half.

It was so heavy, the rain
in just the houston area,

That the crust of the earth in
that area sank by about an inch.

20 trillion
gallons of water will

Fall on the southeastern
portions of texas

And into louisiana over
the next couple of days.

[waves crashing]

Max olson: Storm surge is
probably the scariest, though.

Storm surge is literally the
ocean being pushed inland,

And it can happen very
quickly, especially

With those intense hurricanes.

Michael brennan: Storm
surge is getting worse

Because sea level is rising.

It's not just this slow,
steady rise of water.

It's a violent push of water
with catastrophic wave action

On top that can destroy houses.

Storm surge has the
potential to kill the largest

Number of people of any
of the hurricane hazards

In a single day.

[music playing]

I had been texting back
and forth with marty and bob.

Marty was still in her house,
and she sent me a text.

My house is
collapsing around me.

And within probably
a very few minutes

Of my last text with
marty, her house collapses.

Derek van dam: Fort myers
beach, in particular,

Was in a very
unfortunate position.

Max olson: Fort myers
beach, it's flat.

There's no seawall.

There's little to no elevation.

There's nothing protecting that
whole community from the water.

It was going to receive the
full effects of hurricane ian.

Derek van dam: All
the water pushed up

From the gulf of mexico into
fort myers and just getting

Deeper and deeper and deeper.

Mary wojciechowski: And
once that water started,

It was all over with.

It just kept coming and coming.

Man: It gets a little higher,
and I have to go on the roof.

The water was coming up,
and the roof was coming off.

And everything was gone.

I mean, the [sniffles] balcony
and the stairs and everything.

We knew that house
was going to sink.

And I knew we were in trouble
because there was no help.

Man: This could be the
storm that we've hoped

Would never come to our shores.

Air station clearwater
is the primary air

Station that responds to
hurricanes in the gulf.

David mckinley: The thing the
coast guard's most known for is

Our search-and-rescue mission.

Around midnight, we got the
call for an epirb activation

Near the fort myers area.

Megan howard: Epirb is
the emergency device

That broadcasts your position.

Jethro hauser: It transmits
a signal over the radio

That we can locate
and then hone in on.

David mckinley: We
knew it would be bad.

Thunderstorms, high
winds, turbulence,

And complete darkness.

Jethro hauser: You just
start seeing explosions,

And it was the electrical
transformers blowing up.

It was like-- it was crazy.

Never seen anything like it.

We had the location.

Epirb was going off, so
we were trying to find it.

The vessel was a 44-foot boat.

So it's a fairly
decent-sized vessel,

And it was completely
on its side.

And you could clearly see
someone crawling around it.

He was pretty much laying
on the side of his boat.

Jethro hauser: So that
was our first glimpse

Of mr. Littlefield.

And all of a sudden, I
hear helicopter rotors.

And sure enough, here comes
a coast guard helicopter.

Out jumps jethro, and he's
making his way towards the boat.

Jethro climbs on board, and
he did a real quick triage.

Are you ok?

Can you walk?

Are you injured?

And I said, no.

Let's get the hell out of here.

I can't begin to imagine what
he had gone through that night.

David littlefield: The
wind was blowing so hard,

And the waves were so high.

Rolled the boat 90 degrees.

And I got my two life jackets,
my personal locator beacon.

So I squeezed out the window.

I clip on my epirb, and
now it's transmitted.

I'm outside, and I'm exposed to
the full force of the hurricane.

The sun goes down,
and, of course,

The temperature goes down, too.

[helicopter whirring]

David mckinley: Jethro
had to actually fashion

A little rappelling system
out of some dark lines

To safely get david down off
the boat and into the water.

Megan howard: And once
he got him in the water,

I sent the basket down,
and mr. Littlefield

Climbed in the basket.

And I hoisted him
up to the cabin.

And I could hear him, you know,
yelling out to me, thank you.

Thank you.

David littlefield:
Mother nature, she

Is a force to be reckoned with.

She took 150 people's lives.

By the grace of god,
I wasn't one of them.

By the grace of god
and the coast guard.

Derek van dam: The coast
guard saved over 300

People, a hundred pets.

Sadly, not everybody
was that fortunate.

[music playing]

Robert campbell: The
wind was quite strong.

A section of the
front roof detached,

And I heard it crashing.

But that's crazy.

You know, that took a
hundred-mile-an-hour

Gust to do that.

Our street was
underwater, and there were

Cars floating out on the road.

Surge was still-- it was
over my 6-foot privacy fence.

I went in to the bathroom.

The toilet lid popped
open, and water gushed

And nearly hit the ceiling.

And that's when all
hell broke loose.

It went from seemed like--

That 6-foot, 7-foot mark
to 10 feet within minutes.

We're going to have to jump.

We're going to have
to get in the water.

The plan was for
mitch to go first.

But mitch can't swim.

When I opened the
door, a wave came by,

And it knocked him down.

So mary and I helped him up, and
I lowered myself into the water.

And I was holding on
to where the door was.

I lost my grip, and I was gone.

Mary wojciechowski: I said,
come on, mitch, we gotta go.

And then I tried to get out,
and part of the ceiling hit me.

Mitch was sitting at the
couch, and me on the arm chair.

I go, we gotta go.

We gotta go.

Come on.

And so then us, I and lulu--

I went into the water.

I was already in there.

And I went into the water, and
lulu jumped out of my arms.

And I thought, ok,
well, she's gone.

I turned around.

I said, mitch, come on.

And then the next thing
I knew, the roof fell.

I didn't see him.

I called him.

I didn't hear him, and so then
I don't know what happened.

[sniffles] but then
the water took me.

Robert campbell: The street
was like a whitewater rapid.

And that's when I realized
that I'm probably going to die.

Reporter: Good
evening from florida.

A state under attack
by mother nature.

Man: Check it out.

Whoa, man.

Oh, man

Man: Oh!

Oh, my god.

Eric jay dolin: It
used to be, you know,

Centuries ago, nobody knew
a hurricane was coming

Unless there was maybe
a red sky in the morning

Or there were long
swells or you saw

Massive clouds in the distance.

Then there was a massive
breakthrough in the early 1900s.

Radio came into being.

And this was great because ships
could be sending reports back

To meteorologists on land,
telling them where hurricanes

Or disturbances were at sea.

Then in the 1940s,
we started with

Our hurricane-hunting plane.

[music playing]

Paul flaherty: We actually
hunt in that very center

Of the storm, and
that helps us draw

A full picture of the storm.

Michael brennan: We detect
storms now that we didn't

Detect 20 or 30 years ago.

Brett copare: Flying in
the storms, you go through,

You know, a
hundred-plus-mile-an-hour winds,

Going through the eyewall.

And then you get to
the center, and it's

Just this calm, eerie moment.

[wind gushing]

[music playing]

I went down once into
the water underneath.

I crawled up on what happened
to be our floating balcony.

I just held onto the railing.

[sniffles] and I just told
myself, there's no way

I'm letting this kill me.

Robert campbell: I
grabbed on to a tree.

It was just an amazing stroke of
luck that this tree was there.

I looked around and saw no
sign of mitch at that point,

And her house was gone.

It was just not visible.

Oh, my god.

[music playing]

Max olson: There's
boats on top of houses.

There's cars flipped over.

It's crazy.

It's so surreal to see a
place for the first time,

And then 24 hours later,
see that exact same spot,

And it's just gone.

Robert campbell: 6 o'clock,
the first light, I went back

Where our house used to be.

There was still a
few pilings standing.

And that's when we found lulu.

Lulu was in the bar,
looking around like,

Where the hell is everyone?

I ran back and got mary.

Mary, we have lulu.

I just cried.

Robert campbell:
That was amazing.

We went on a search, you know,
yelling for marty and mitch.

For mitch, it was several days
before they found his body.

With my sister, it was 10 days.

Marty and I, we saw
each other every day.

We ate together.

We drank wine
together at sunset.

We were buddies.

Marty loved florida.

She lived there for
30 years, year round.

And that's where
she wanted to die.

Mary wojciechowski: I never
thought I'd lose mitch that way.

It was our dream to go there.

And we made it our home.

I still can't believe he's gone.

Oh, god, I miss him so much.

Robert campbell: Not a day goes
by I don't think about mitch

And mary and my sister.

And the storm.

Liev schreiber: Hurricane ian
caused a staggering $114 billion

In damage and took
more than 150 lives,

Including marty campbell
and mitch pacyna.

In April 2024, 18
months after his death,

Mitch was posthumously awarded
the citizen of the year

By the fort myers beach chamber
of commerce for his dedication

To the community.

And the video of the storm
surge flooding fort myers beach,

Captured by max olson, is now
being used by the national

Hurricane center to educate
the public about what happened,

Why it happened, and how
we might be able to prevent

It from happening again.

For more information on what you
can do in a hurricane and how

To help combat the growing
climate crisis, please

Go to cnn.Com/violentearth.

I'm liev schreiber.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.