Speaker 1: I'm Rory O'Neill, and for more than twenty years I've
Speaker 1: been a radio reporter in Florida covering rocket launches, Florida
Speaker 1: Man and yes, hurricanes, lots and lots of hurricanes. So
Speaker 1: here's what we know about Hurricane Dorian right now. It
Speaker 1: did wipe out the northern Bahamas, it brushed the eastern
Speaker 1: coast of Florida, and it's hit in the Carolinas as
Speaker 1: a Category one storm and is pulling off the coast.
Speaker 1: Soon it will be Canada's problem, but Nova Scotia in particular,
Speaker 1: and by then it should be an extra tropical storm
Speaker 1: and not caused too much damage. So now attention turns
Speaker 1: to the Bahamas, which is still in search and rescue mode,
Speaker 1: not recovery mode just yet. The US Coastguard among the
Speaker 1: first agencies to respond. Yesterday, there was little pockets, i
Speaker 1: would say, of devastation. You had some places that looked
Speaker 1: like they had seen small parts of the storm, and
Speaker 1: other places where you had homes that were completely leveled
Speaker 1: and still floated as of yesterday. Today, we were tasked
Speaker 1: with trying to find smaller islands that were kind of
Speaker 1: out of touch. They got some coordinates from another helicopter.
Speaker 1: We came across the island and they were about fifty
Speaker 1: people on the island. It was completely devastated. All the
Speaker 1: homes were completely flattened, vegetation gone, and when we got
Speaker 1: there they were there had already been about ten or
Speaker 1: fifteen people met invact and when we got there there
Speaker 1: were ten people roughly with varying injuries um, some possible fractures,
Speaker 1: some people so that their homes had fallen on them. UM.
Speaker 1: So our main priority was getting the most injured out.
Speaker 1: And that's the problem when places are really just decimated.
Speaker 1: You were working from the ground up. In one case.
Speaker 1: You know they're trying to make rescues, but they can't
Speaker 1: even see. They're limited to daytime operations because there's no electricity,
Speaker 1: and when there's no electricity, there's no light head of
Speaker 1: public works. And the Bahamas was on ABC's Good Morning
Speaker 1: America for Life, but it's dark to community gets she
Speaker 1: was down. Um, we don't know what it's going on
Speaker 1: right now. There's a Florida lawmaker named Chevron Jones. He's
Speaker 1: Bahamian and he was able to contact a cousin who
Speaker 1: was actually part of the search and rescue effort. He
Speaker 1: actually posted the phone call, he recorded it and put
Speaker 1: it on Twitter. Search and rescue is still going on
Speaker 1: with trying to still trying to account for for folks,
Speaker 1: for families. Um, we're just the airplanes that are going
Speaker 1: in and carrying you know, food and water and emergency supplies,
Speaker 1: you know, to keep you know, to keep them going,
Speaker 1: you know, while we get all of the people that
Speaker 1: really really need to get out of there out. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of injured people. Um, we're just trying
Speaker 1: to you know, we're doing roachations right now getting them out,
Speaker 1: and you're exactly right. I think next week will be
Speaker 1: a better time. You know, at least the emergency effort
Speaker 1: should have died down. But right now some of the
Speaker 1: first people going in are members of an urban search
Speaker 1: and rescue team that's based out of the city of Miami.
Speaker 1: The city dipping into its own resources, they'll pick up
Speaker 1: the tab for this project. He said. You know, the
Speaker 1: Bahamas is so close there, their neighbors, and they couldn't
Speaker 1: really resist helping. When we see suffering, We've experienced it firsthand,
Speaker 1: and that in essence is frustrating for us, but we
Speaker 1: also recognize that the response is important, and we have
Speaker 1: to do whatever we can in order to support, especially
Speaker 1: a community that's so close to us now in Broward County,
Speaker 1: that's where Fort Lauderdale is, and other big cities like Parkland.
Speaker 1: They're gonna take in a lot of these Bahamian people
Speaker 1: who now have nowhere else to go, and so you're
Speaker 1: bringing in adults, trying to find them housing and even jobs.
Speaker 1: Perhaps they're actually foreign citizens, so there's a whole set
Speaker 1: of issues there. Now. The school superintendent in Broward County,
Speaker 1: Robert Runs, says they're actually getting ready to take in
Speaker 1: some of the kids who are gonna need to learn reading, writing,
Speaker 1: and arithmetic. I think we have a moral responsibility at
Speaker 1: this moment, given the fact that we have been spared
Speaker 1: the worst of the hurricane, to help our families, our
Speaker 1: friends that are in the Bahamas. But all that's part
Speaker 1: of the long term recovery. At the moment, it's still
Speaker 1: search and rescue a bote. Now there are supplies being
Speaker 1: brought to the islands by cruise ships. They're discouraging private
Speaker 1: boat owners from making the trip because well, really they
Speaker 1: could just get in the way. The storm has kicked
Speaker 1: up so much debris caused so much new debris it
Speaker 1: actually shifts the sands, and they have to make sure
Speaker 1: port markers are accurate, and the port markers and Booey's
Speaker 1: that didn't get blown away have to be reset. So
Speaker 1: the Coast Guard wants private boats to stay out of
Speaker 1: the way unless they've gotten specific permission to go inside.
Speaker 1: So the recovery effort is just beginning. Lots and lots
Speaker 1: of money is going to be needed. So how do
Speaker 1: we get here? Is this Hurricane Dorian all part of
Speaker 1: global warming or is it just a fluke. Well, it's
Speaker 1: the second year in a row we've had a landfall
Speaker 1: by a Category five hurricane. That's pretty rare. It's also
Speaker 1: the most powerful Cat five storm ever recorded in that
Speaker 1: part of the Atlantic, so it is a history making storm.
Speaker 1: Phil Klotzbock used to work with the late Dr William
Speaker 1: Gray at Colorado State University. Actually hurricane experts, yes, based
Speaker 1: in Colorado, but they're hurricane experts and Phil and Phil
Speaker 1: is part of the team that releases one of those
Speaker 1: annual hurricane predictions like is it going to be busy
Speaker 1: this year, is in an active season? Etcetera, etcetera. You know,
Speaker 1: there are more of these forecasts coming out every year,
Speaker 1: but Dr Gray started back in the nineteen eighties. Bill
Speaker 1: says these forecasts are important and they can help communities
Speaker 1: like the Bahamas no if it's going to be extra busy.
Speaker 1: You know, the thing we always say with all the
Speaker 1: seasonal forecast is it's, you know, our best estimate at
Speaker 1: any particular time of how active this season is going
Speaker 1: to be. But we can't say where the storms are
Speaker 1: going to go, and so obviously you just need to
Speaker 1: be prepared the same for every hurricane season. You know,
Speaker 1: hopefully it won't be as bad as last year's was,
Speaker 1: but you know, even if we only get one significant
Speaker 1: hurricane all year, you know that that significant hurricane hits you,
Speaker 1: it's an active season for you. I usually interview Phil
Speaker 1: once or twice this season, and it's funny that he
Speaker 1: can recall numbers and dates and years and which storm
Speaker 1: and which letter and I can't remember lunch yesterday. You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. So Dr A like when we when we
Speaker 1: first met it, we just talking about baseball statistics, and
Speaker 1: remember he used to rattle off the stats of all
Speaker 1: the hurricane seasons and I was like, how does you
Speaker 1: know this stuff? But then once you will with it
Speaker 1: every day, you know, it just kind of becoming like
Speaker 1: it's like baseball stats, like you know, Ted Williams in four.
Speaker 1: So we don't know how bad it really is. And
Speaker 1: the Bahamas yet, Yeah, there's been some helicopter footage that
Speaker 1: shows communities wiped out and that death toll is continuing
Speaker 1: to climb. But the cost of rebuilding is really unknown
Speaker 1: as the environmental impact is still being measured. We've seen
Speaker 1: video of oil tanks and chemical tanks just spilled open,
Speaker 1: so we don't know the damage it's being done on
Speaker 1: the water, in the water under the water, let alone
Speaker 1: the foliage that just looks like it's been ripped away
Speaker 1: and we'll have to be replanted. So the cost of
Speaker 1: rebuilding all this is one thing. And then what do
Speaker 1: you rebuild? Do you make it like it was before
Speaker 1: it didn't look very hurricane improof then? And do we
Speaker 1: get more of these Cat five storms? And how should
Speaker 1: we make these things be sturdier for the future. And
Speaker 1: that's called mitigation. That an important point that we try
Speaker 1: to emphasize as you know, mitigation and trying to take
Speaker 1: proactive measures um because since we've seen huge increases in
Speaker 1: damage um and yet we've seen no increasing landfalls. And
Speaker 1: that's just because we have more people and more stuff,
Speaker 1: which because what happened in the Bahamas really could have
Speaker 1: happened to Florida. The initial forecast, yes, that one the
Speaker 1: President drew the sharpie around allegedly. Uh that initial forecast
Speaker 1: did have Dorian coming right through Florida like a steam engine,
Speaker 1: right through the heart of Orlando over Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 1: Imagine that all the tours and a Cat five storms
Speaker 1: storming and rolling overhead for days because it was a
Speaker 1: slow mover. Well, luckily that didn't happen. But the problem
Speaker 1: with mitigation is a big one. Those expensive high rises.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to live on the coast, but no one
Speaker 1: wants to pay for it, especially insurance companies that seem
Speaker 1: to pay for it over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: And that bill somehow gets shifted down to the taxpayers
Speaker 1: through FEMA, which has to pay for it over and
Speaker 1: over and over again. So the relief efforts are underway
Speaker 1: in Bahamas. It's gonna take a long time. It looks
Speaker 1: like Florida missed the worst of it. It will cost
Speaker 1: tens of millions of dollars to clean up all the
Speaker 1: damage along the whole Florida coastline. And we're still not
Speaker 1: sure of what the storm reports will be from the Carolinas,
Speaker 1: but they'll need to be cleaned up to and we're
Speaker 1: all gonna pitch in through tax dollars and through insurance premiums.
Speaker 1: But that's the way the system works, because we'll also
Speaker 1: pay for it through our generous contributions charities, churches, and
Speaker 1: the human spirit. I'm Rory O'Neill.