CYCLONE: SECOND
WAVE
Script Verbatim
Feb 15, 2007
(open – contemplative dramatic music,
rain images)
(soundbites under video)
“The car stalls
out, the water’s rising…..”
“….I can’t call
nobody, I don’t have no phone….”
“This could be
dangerous”
“The rain just
kept coming and coming…one hour, two hours, three hours…it’s been five years
and I’m still not over it.”
IT CAN BE THE
MOST UNPREDICTABLE OF DISASTERS
Edith
Linton/5:44:36 “I didn’t really believe it was a storm until our lights went out.”
Russell
Hill/5:57:37 “…and about three oclock four oclock, man water was
everywhere….before you know it.
EVEN WHEN A
HURRICANE WEAKENS….AND THE WINDS DIE DOWN TO A BREEZE ……A SIGNIFICANT THREAT
REMAINS.
Bill Wheeler 06:24:12 you literally couldn't breath there
was so much water in the air
EVERY YEAR
HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS CLAIM LIVES AND CAUSE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN
DAMAGES DUE TO FLOODING AS THE SYSTEMS MOVE INLAND. THIS IS THE SECOND WAVE.
THE TOLL LED
NOAA’S NATIONAL WEATHER TO TARGET THE THREAT.
(Footage of hurricane evacuation/natural sound bed of weather forecaster talking of the threat and warnings)
SHOW OPEN
(Natural Sound/Weathercasters talking of
hurricane warning – opening shot is time lapse of Houston Skyline)
WHEN A CYCLONE
SENDS IT CALLING CARD, HOUSTONIANS TAKE THE THREAT SERIOUSLY….AS PROVEN BY THE
EVACUATION PRIOR TO RITA’S ARRIVAL IN 2005.
(Natural sound inserts from file footage)
TYPICALLY,
HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS ANNOUNCE THEIR PRESENCE LONG BEFORE THEY THREATEN
LANDFALL, ALLOWING PLENTY OF TIME FOR PREPARATION. BUT OCCASSIONALLY, NATURE
BRINGS A SURPRISE.
THAT WAS THE
CASE THE FIRST WEEK OF JUNE IN 2001.
(introduce calendar element, music swells and then calendar moves into the day)
{-------}
Bill Read 851/34
“…during the day on that
Tuesday, we went from expecting a lot of
thunder storms and heavy rain and some elevated tide to actually having a
tropical storm making landfall in less than twelve hours.”
{----------}
THE
NEWLY-CHRISTENED TROPICAL STORM ALLISON CAME ASHORE WITH AVERAGE WINDS OF ONLY
50 MILES PER HOUR. THEN IT STALLED,
TRAPPED BETWEEN TWO HIGH PRESSURE SYSTEMS.
(interwoven nats from broadcasters
talking about storm)
ALLISON DRIFTED
BACK AND FORTH ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS FOR FOUR STRAIGHT DAYS.
(nats pop)
FINALLY…ON
FRIDAY…THE SUN SHOWED ITS FACE.
{--------}
Bill Read
08:56:37
Every other day
that week the skies had been cloudy, well those clear skies were a little
misleading. It was just as humid, just
as tropical as before, but now we're getting the daytime heating that further
destabilized the atmosphere
David Schwertz -
Senior Service Hydrologist 09:21:14
And that's what
a lot of people were saying, "Oh, it's nice and clear, we're
done." Well, no, not really. So yeah, that’s a false sense of security so
to speak.
{--------}
IN THE NATIONAL
WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE 20 MILES
SOUTH OF DOWNTOWN HOUSTON,
METEOROLOGIST-IN-CHARGE BILL READ AND HYDROLOGIST DAVID SCHWERTZ REALIZED BY MID-AFTERNOON THAT NIGHTFALL
WOULD BRING WITH IT A GRAVE THREAT.
{-------}
Schwertz 918/00
it looked like we were going to really get hammered.
Bill Read
09:10:54 We had conference calls at least twice and I think maybe three times
during the day on Friday that brought all the emergency managers and weather
people and river forecast people together around the phones to discuss the
uncertainties, the what-might-happens
{--------}
THE
TROPICAL STORM UNLEASHED A DELUGE .
{--------}
Russell
Hill “The wind was blowing and everything, you know we thought it was a
tornado, but everything was flooded over.
The water came up to here – this high.”
Diann
Porter “It was the sound, like the
heavens opened up. Water was standing on
the patio about one or two inches above the concrete, and I knew then that I
was in trouble.
{---------}
IN
THE NORTHEAST PART OF THE CITY, DIANN PORTER QUICKLY REALIZED CHANGE WAS
COMING.
{---------}
Diann
Porter …and I said it’s going to flood.”
{---------}
PORTER WAS SUPPOSED TO PICK UP HER SISTER FROM ST LUKE’S
HOSPITAL DOWNTOWN.
{---------}
Diann Porter
“She called us and we told her we couldn't get to her”
{--------}
THROUGHOUT THE
AFTERNOON AND EVENING, THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FIRED OFF WARNINGS AS
BAYOUS OVERFLOWED THEIR BANKS.
THE FAST RISING
FLOOD WATERS EXPOSED AN ACHILLES HEEL.
{--------}
Judge Eckels 08:07:20 We found during Allison, that in spite of all
the technology, the media // once people get water in their house there is no
television, there is no radio, there is no telephone
Diann Porter
06:01:36 And the feeling of, you're trapped... If it had happened in the
daytime, you could see. But it was at
night, and you couldn't see anything, and you didn't know what was going on
down the street or around the corner
{--------}
THE STORM WAS
DUMPING AS MUCH AS FIVE INCHES OF RAIN EVERY HOUR.
{---------}
Bill Wheeler 06:25:53 (Audio under
Video) Tropical Storm Allison snuck up on you.
{---------}
BILL WHEELER
RUNS THE TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER’S EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM, WHICH IS CHARGED
WITH PROTECTING THE 43 BUILDINGS THAT COMPRISE THE COMPLEX, INCLUDING THE
HOSPITAL WHERE PORTER’S SISTER HAD UNDERGONE SURGERY.
{--------}
Dain Porter
“they lost power, they didn’t have any food and there’s nothing you can do
because we couldn’t get to her.”
Bill Wheeler “Power's your lifeline. Especially with water rising at this rate,
all of your electrical infrastructure and your emergency power systems
eventually failed .
(Music/night storm pictures)
I was standing
in the street in the middle of Downtown Houston at 2:15 on a Saturday morning
in a torrential rain and watched a five million population city downtown area
completely go in the dark. It blinked
twice and went in the dark. It was the
first time I was ever fearful for my life
{--------}
LARGE SECTIONS
OF THE NATION’S FOURTH LARGEST CITY WERE UNDERWATER. NO ONE KNEW WHAT SATURDAY MORNING WOULD
BRING.
(insert time bug Saturday morning)
Greg
Kilgore 09:55:50 just watching the news and hearing reports there
was lots of flooding, mainly up in the north, north side of town, we figured
we'd be pretty busy
{-----------}
COAST GUARD PETTY OFFICER GREG KILGORE TOOK OFF AT DAYBREAK ON ONE
OF MORE THAN A DOZEN CHOPPERS THE CITY
CALLED TO HELP RESCUE THE THOUSANDS WHO WERE STRANDED.
{-----------}
Kilgore 09:56:29 people were on the
rooftops, cars were kinda floating down the street, the water was up to the
roof-line on most of the houses
{----------}
MORE THAN A MILLION PEOPLE HAD BEEN
IMPACTED OVER AN ESTIMATED 130 SQUARE MILE AREA. IN THE HARDEST-HIT NEIGHBORHOODS FLOODWATERS
REACHED A DEPTH OF 10 FEET. BY SATURDAY
AFTERNOON, EMERGENCY WORKERS IN THE AIR
AND ON LAND HAD RESCUED ALMOST 7-THOUSAND PEOPLE.
{---------}
Wheeler “You have to understand this is the first
time in 50-60 years that the health care infrastructure was brought to its
knees.”
{---------}
AT THE TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER, A
FRANTIC DAY’S WORK BEGAN TO PAY OFF.
{----------}
Bill Wheeler
06:34:04 // I think it was at 1700 hours on Saturday when some facilities got
some minimal power back.
{----------}
THAT SAME
AFTERNOON, DIANN FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH HER SISTER.
{----------}
Diann Porter 606/57 It's
been five years and I'm still not over it. // You are concerned every time it
rains longer than an hour.
{---------}
THE DISASTER
DROVE HOME THE IMPORTANCE OF HOUSTON’S WATERWAYS IN HELPING TO REDUCE FLOOD
DAMAGE.
(motion graphic )
AN AMAZING 3000
MILES OF STORM DRAINAGE SYSTEMS CRISS CROSS THE AREA, TYING INTO 22 BAYOUS AND
WATERSHEDS AS WELL AS BOTH FORKS OF THE SAN JACINTO RIVER. IN THE FIVE YEARS FOLLOWING TROPICAL
STORM ALLISON, LOCAL…STATE…AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES INVESTED $856
MILLION DOLLARS IMPROVING THIS NETWORK.
{------}
Wheeler 637/26 “ the
whole community’s come together.
//637/42 “uh huge tunneling and drainage projects around the system.”
//on cam 637/35 “to carry the water flow away from here, away from coastal
communities and put it in the Gulf of Mexico.”
{-------}
THIS IS ONE OF
THE FASTEST GROWING REGIONS IN THE COUNTRY.
URBANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT BRING THEIR OWN UNIQUE CHALLENGES.
{--------}
Eckels 08:11:48
For example in Brays Bayou, I lived in Sharpstown, and the neighbors complained
so they fixed the street. They
eliminated the benefit of fifty acre-feet of detention space we had built and
wound up causing water to go into the homes of Meyerland
Bill
Read 09:15:07 malls, subdivisions, tennis courts, you name
it, all kinds of things are being built out there that change how the water
reacts when it falls on the surface.”
Eckels “We practice and plan every
year, but then we have an event and go back and analyze it and look at what
we’ve done right and what we’ve done wrong.
Tropical Storm Allison gave us a new impetus to move quicker on the
planning and flood control efforts. We
work closely with the Weather Service on modeling and what could happen in
various events.”
{---------}
HOUSTON’S HOPE IS THAT POST-ALLISON
IMPROVEMENTS WILL PREVENT THE NEXT STORM FROM PARALYZING THE CITY.
BECAUSE
NATURE…ONE DAY…IS CERTAIN TO ISSUE ANOTHER CHALLENGE.
{----------}
Gary Carter
00.00.21 Inland flooding is a very significant risk. In the last twenty years, we’ve averaged 4
billion dollars a year in average damages to inland flooding and 90
fatalities.”
{----------}
ALLISON KILLED
24 PEOPLE IN TEXAS AND LOUISIANA. 17
MORE DIED AS THE STORM MOVED ACROSS THE UNITED STATES BEFORE DISSAPATING IN
PENNSYLVANIA.
WHEN WE COME
BACK, AN ENORMOUS HURRICANE LEAVES ITS MARK ON NORTH CAROLINA, AND IS THE
CATALYST FOR A NEW FLOOD WARNING SYSTEM.
ACT III
WHEN HURRICANE
FLOYD BEGAN TO MOVE INTO NORTH CAROLINA, FORECASTERS AT THE NATIONAL HURRICANE
CENTER IN MIAMI ACTUALLY FELT RELIEVED. ….. THIS STORM, WHICH AT ONE POINT WAS
ALMOST 600 MILES WIDE, SUDDENLY LOST STRENGTH JUST BEFORE LANDFALL…DROPPING
FROM A CATEGORY FIVE TO A CATEOGRY TWO.
{---------}
Ed Rappaport/
844 “…so the winds came down and the storm surge was not as great as they could
have expected otherwise, came ashore category two intensity, but still was a
very large hurricane, brought a lot of moisture and heavy rainfall and
associated floods into the eastern part of the united states.
{--------}
AS THE WIND CAME
OFF THE WATER, IT SLAMMED THE TIDE INTO BEACHFRONT HOMES AND PUSHED THE STORM
SURGE INTO SEASIDE COMMUNITIES BUT IT APPEARED NORTH CAROLINA LARGELY WOULD BE
UNHARMED. THEN FLOYD MOVED INLAND AND
STALLED. IT DUMPED
19 INCHES OF
RAIN ON A STATE WHERE THE GROUND WAS STILL SATURATED FROM HURRICANE DENNIS,
WHICH HAD HIT TWO AND A HALF WEEKS
EARLIER.
{---------}
Etheridge “So as
a result of that, we just had a devastating flood.”
{---------}
IN WASHINGTON,
NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSMAN BOB ETHERIDGE
REALIZED THE THREAT AND RUSHED HOME.
{--------}
Etheridge
“Looking back, probably wasn’t the smartest thing we could do, but it was the
only way to get home -- no planes were flying, we just decided we’d drive in.
///And the situation was probably one of the most catastrophic events in terms
of flooding that we had dealt with in the United States at that point.
{--------}
EVEN THOUGH THE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ACCURATELY PREDICTED THE FLOOD RISK DAYS BEFORE FLOYD
CAME ASHORE, THE STORM TOOK MANY RESIDENTS BY SURPRISE. THE HEAVIEST RAINS OCCURED UP TO 105 MILES INLAND, WHERE PEOPLE
THOUGHT THEY WOULD BE SAFE.
(Motion graphic showing flooding rivers)
INSTEAD, RIVERS
IN THE EASTERN PART OF THE STATE OVERFLOWED. WATER SLOWLY PUSHED ITS WAY
DOWNSTREAM.,,,INUDATING EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH. SOME REGIONS DIDN’T EVEN BEGIN TO FLOOD
UNTIL ALMOST TWO WEEKS AFTER THE HURRICANE.
{--------}
(sound/video from Hurricane Floyd tape)
"that's
main street there ....the blue area of this map indicates what's currently
underwater as of yesterday evening...changing day to day -- from hour to hour
now.....what was accessible yesterday afternoon is not now
{--------}
THE DISASTER
DAMAGED 55 THOUSAND HOMES AND 12 THOUSAND BUSINESSES. CROP AND LIVESTOCK LOSSES REACHED NEARLY
ONE BILLION DOLLARS. PARTS OF NORTH
CAROLINA WERE FOREVER CHANGED.
{---------}
Etheridge “I
think the thing that still affects me was the people. You know you see people all ages, people who
worked all their lives, their home, all that they had acquired in a whole
lifetime in a lot of cases. And it was
all gone. Hard to believe looking back
how devastating it was but then we started working on a new index.
{---------}
FOR 30 YEARS,
FORECASTERS HAVE USED THE SAFFER-SIMPSON SCALE TO ASSESS HURRICANE INTENSITY.
(Sound montage of forecasters talking
about categories of storms)
THE CATEGORIES
ARE BASED ON WIND SPEED. BUT WITH
FLOODING, THE IMPACT DEPENDS ON A REGION’S TOPOGRAPHY. A GENERALIZED SCALE LIKE THE SAFFER SIMPSON
WON’T WORK BECAUSE EACH THREAT IS LOCAL.
{----------}
Gary Carter
1131/20 you have to know the extent of the river and its depth and its
banks, and the nearby terrain, you have to know how populated the area is and
whether it’s urban or whether it’s farmland and the different soil conditions,
whether there’s trees or grasses or that sort of thing that will absorb water.
Graziano
00:04:55 Five feet above flood stage at
Rocky Mount, North Carolina is going to have a significantly different impact
than five feet above flood stage at Tarboro
{---------}
CONGRESSMAN
ETHERIDGE championed LEGISLATION
TO IMPROVE THE SYSTEM.
{---------}
Etheridge: you would say, “Well, you’re going to have a
flash flood.” Well, what does that
really mean? Are you going to have six
inches of water, you going to have ten inches of water, or are you going to
have ten feet?
{---------}
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE USES A 3-TIER IMPACT BASED severity
scale THAT CATEGORIZES A FLOOD AS EITHER minor, moderate, OR major.
{---------}
Graziano “People understand the scale, they like the
scale but we learned we need to find better ways to communicate the risk
associated with flooding in the scale itself”
{---------}
NOAA HAS STARTED
WORKING WITH FEMA, THE US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, AND NATIONAL AND STATE AGENCIES TO
DEVELOP LIBRARIES OF INUNDATION MAPS FOR RIVER FORECAST LOCATIONS ACROSS THE
COUNTRY. THE MAPS, LAYERED WITH AERIAL
PHOTOGRAPHS, WILL BE AVAILABLE TO ANYONE WITH INTERNET ACCESS. TO THE LEFT OF EACH PAGE, A SCALE LISTS RIVER
HEIGHT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO FLOOD STAGE.
AS USERS SCROLL, THEY CAN SEE HOW A SPECIFIC REGION WILL BE IMPACTED. IN THIS CASE, FOR EXAMPLE, THE MAP SEQUENCE
DRAMATICALLY ILLUSTRATES HOW FLOYD TURNED A PENINSULA……INTO AN ISLAND….BEFORE
SWALLOWING IT COMPLETELY.
{---------}
Graziano
00:08:49 essentially what someone could do is they could go to our forecast
site, drill down, look at a hydrograph, look at a 24, 72, 96 hour forecast, see
at what level the river is going to crest, click on that hydrograph and be able
to pull up an inundation graphic that depicts again the area which will be
impacted by the flood waters.
Carter 5:36 I think the big impact is that we’ve found a
way to more clearly convey which areas will be flooded, when they’ll be
flooded, and how long they’ll be flooded and get that out quickly in a way that
people can easily understand and interpret.
{----------}
During the next few years, in coordination with state and federal
partners, NOAA will provide on-line access to map inundation libraries for
several RIVER FORECAST locations in North Carolina and ALONG THE Gulf
Coast. THE AGENCY’S GOAL IS TO
EVENTUALLY COVER THE ENTIRE NATION.
(Tease transition)
WHEN WE COME BACK
….
{--------}
“I started
coming over this way and drove right into the ditch, didn’t know it was a
ditch, thought it was the road…”
{---------}
A NEW PROGRAM
ATTACKS THE MOST LIFE-THREATENING ASPECT OF A FLOOD.
{--------}
Hector Guerrero/103/15 we needed
something, because obviously each year people drown.
ACT
III
IN ANALYZING
TROPICAL STORM ALLISON, EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANNERS REALIZED THAT OF THE 22
PEOPLE WHO DIED IN THE GREATER HOUSTON AREA, 16 WERE IN THEIR CARS.
{---------}
Bill Read 09:00:46
people who have been out to a movie, or dinner, or a show,
or other activities come out see all this really nasty weather going on. Now let's say you're a parent and you got
your five and seven year old kid at home with the babysitter. What's your first reaction going to be? Get home to my family. Worst possible thing they could do
{----------}
(3D Animation to illustrate the paragraph
below)
AS LITTLE AS TWO FEET OF WATER IS ENOUGH TO FLOAT A
VEHICLE. ITS OFTEN DIFFICULT FOR
DRIVERS TO ASSESS THE DEPTH OF THE WATER AND WHETHER THE ROAD BED HAS BEEN
WASHED AWAY, WHICH MAY CREATE A HIDDEN
DROPOFF. IF A CAR STALLS, IT CAN
QUICKLY BE PUSHED DOWNSTREAM.
(Back
to video from San Angelo)
THAT VERY SCENARIO UNFOLDED NEAR THE WEST TEXAS TOWN OF SAN
ANGELO. ON THE NIGHT OF JUNE 11TH,
1999 RUNOFF FROM JUST FIVE INCHES OF
RAIN TURNED THIS ROAD INTO PART OF A RIVER.
IN A MATTER OF MINUTES, THE DRIVER OF A LARGE PICKUP TRUCK FOUND HIMSELF
SUSPENDED SEVERAL FEET ABOVE THE FAST-MOVING WATER.
{--------}
Todd Sanford 01;49:47
“you're talking about people that's driven through water numerous times
in their lives and they go, "Well it's no big deal."
{--------}
SAN ANGELO WATER RESCUE SPECIALIST TODD SANFORD.
{--------}
Sanford cont: So you
drive right into it, you're car is low to the ground, it gets stalled out cause
water hits the engine and cuts the engine off, well then you're stuck. And as that water is rising, as it's moving
faster, you just went from "Well I've driven through this place a hundred
times" to "Now I'm actually trapped here in middle of a fast moving
current.
Hector Guerrero01:03:34
why are people driving into these flooded low water crossing
areas and why aren't they avoided them?
{--------}
IN THE SAN ANGELO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE, HECTOR
GUERRERO MET WITH LOCAL RESCUE WORKERS TO DRAW UP A PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN TO
COMBAT THE PROBLEM…..FIRST, THEY NEEDED A CATCHY TITLE
{---------}
Hector Guerrero
01:002:00 “Somebody shouted out from the group, "Don't drown, turn
around," I said, "Hey I like that."
{-------}
GUERRERO TWEAKED
THE WORDING AND CAME UP WITH “TURN AROUND, DON’T DROWN. IN 2003, THE PHRASE WAS ADOPTED BY THE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, THE FEDERAL ALLIANCE FOR SAFE HOMES, AND OTHER
PARTNERS AS A NATIONAL SAFETY CAMPAIGN.
{------}
(Sound from PSA) “…More than half of flood related deaths
are from people drowning when they drive on flood-related roads.”
Tom
Graziano00:11:58
We’re developing
public service announcements, we’ve developed posters, we’ve developed
brochures, we’ve even worked with the National Safety Council and the
Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration to develop a new
road sign that local officials will deploy in situations where we’ve got
water-covered roadways.
{-------}
THE SIGN IS
BRIGHT PINK, AND HAS BEGUN TO SHOW UP AT LOW WATER CROSSINGS ACROSS THE
COUNTRY.
{-------}
Guerrero
107/40 “anybody can come up with an idea.
And thank god we came up with one we think is effective and it's already
helping to save lives.
{---------}
(Tease Bumper)
(Class) “Turn around don’t drown.”
{--------}
WHEN
WE COME BACK...EDUCATING THE NEXT GENERATION OF DRIVERS.
ACT IV
NOAA’S NATIONAL
WEATHER SERVICE AND ITS PARTNERS CONTINUE TO SEARCH FOR WAYS TO SAVE LIVES WHEN
SEVERE WEATHER HITS. THE EFFORT’S DRIVEN
IN PART BY TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES, LIKE THOSE USED IN THE INUNDATION
MODELING…AND IN PART BY COMMUNITY OUTREACH.
{---------}
Carter “We’re working all the time in
our local communities, going and giving talks and outreach in the schools…”
(Teacher) “Can
you tell me one thing you remember from our last class?
(Class) “Turn around don’t drown.”
{-------}
TURN AROUND
DON’T DROWN IS NOW BEING TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS ACROSS THE COUNTRY (nats pop)
WITH THE HOPE OF INFLUENCING THE NEXT GENERATION OF DRIVERS.
{--------}
“Water is really
strong”
“I wouldn’t take
any risk”
Carter “We know
we’re reaping benefits, we’re getting the message across, people are becoming
more educated, but it’s a big big task.”
{---------}
WE MAY NOT BE
ABLE TO CONTROL NATURE, BUT WE CAN REDUCE THE IMPACT OF FLOODS ON THOSE WHO
LIVE IN THE PATH OF A STORM.
STAY TUNED, YOUR
LOCAL ON THE EIGHTS IS NEXT.