Hurricane Nate Makes Second Landfall on Gulf Coast
TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: -- hurricane making landfall in the U.S., this is the longest drought in history and we're making up for lost time. But, Brooke, believe it or not, Nate is the ninth consecutive named storm to make it to hurricane strength. You've got to be kidding me.</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Crazy.</s>SATER: Yes. And that has only happened once before in 1893 but they didn't even have satellites back then so how did they know they were all hurricanes? Definitely since the satellite era, this is a record. But if we have hurricane force winds in Mississippi and Alabama, it's only the second time in history that all of the Gulf Coastal states this year have had hurricane force winds. We've already had some hurricane gusts there, of course, in parts of Louisiana, Plaquemines Parish, Venice is the name of the town there, and now we're definitely going to have some hurricane winds as we have landfall in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Doesn't look impressive. Right? The system has been moving so fast, hurricanes do not like to move this fast because they cannot generate any intensity. They like to move slow over the warm water. So that actually has been a good thing. And notice how we're losing the colors here, dry air has been trying to infiltrate the system and it's been doing that almost all day long, but there are still some color on this infrared satellite imagery which tells us hey, it still has a little bit of strength. But here's why New Orleans was saved, these are the computer models, we talk about the U.S. model, the GFS in red. The European model in blue which have been handling these hurricanes beautifully, but again both of them, the last couple of days were right over New Orleans, the center of the storm moved off to the east sparing them. Now the only threat that they have is really a north wind on Lake Pontchartrain. But the system picks up in speed and that's good and bad because we're going to find several states dealing with some pretty strong winds and that's going to mean more than significant flight delays in the days ahead. Notice the tornado watch. We have seen several warnings, the sirens have been going off. We've had waterspouts making its way on shore. But again we're looking at a possibility of a landfall in about an hour, hour and a half right around Biloxi. In fact, most likely that will be the case. It's been hard to find an eye on satellite imagery, radar has even been tough. But the last couple of hours you kind of get a good indication of what we're looking at here. So again our landfall not too far in the distant future and then with that tornado warnings. You start to see them here in purple. So just to the west of Pensacola, into Mobile Bay, most likely the sirens are going off. But this is the area of surge. All of the wind threat really is from the core east ward and that's where we're going to have the surge. These are high tide times and they are not going to go well with this timing here because notice in Biloxi 12:22 a.m., that's not going to be good news when landfall moves in because it's going to be significantly higher. Mobile, almost 1:00 in the morning. Pensacola 12:19. So it'd be nicer if the storm would move in first and then you have high tide but things don't always work out. The good news is we have lost some of the watches in the western part of Louisiana, the warning in red and a tropical storm watch has been canceled in downtown Atlanta. When Irma moved through, over a million and a half people lost power in the state of Georgia alone. There still will be some power outages. Here's an area of what we're watching. The brighter colors here the better chance of getting some tropical storm force winds and it extends upward north of Birmingham. By this time tomorrow, Brooke, Nate is going to be in Kentucky so it's really picking up in speed. So as we look at the track, this is what something everyone should know here. You take the speed of the core of the winds, all right, sustained winds, and then you couple that with its forward movement. So there could still be some snapped branches, some downed power lines, debris flowing around in all the neighborhoods along this track and to the east. And then by the time this moves up into the northeast we're going to have significant flight delays I think that are going to be hanging around parts of all day Monday and maybe into Monday night. So the good news is it's not a category two, it's breaking down, the core energy is the problem, it's a small area concern but really it's going to be about the storm surge threat and we'll dig into that deeper I think in the next 30 minutes, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: All right. So it's the next hour, hour and a half.</s>SATER: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: And we're talking landfall in those various locations and the storm surge that you will hone in on in just a little bit. Tom, thank you so much for now. I'm going to come back to you. But let's go to Biloxi now to Martin Savidge. He is in Biloxi, Mississippi, near where that second landfall that Tom was just talking about, you know, will be happening very, very soon. And so, Martin, let's just begin with conditions where you are right now. How's it looking?</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke. Well, the city just tweeted out that they anticipate the worst conditions are going to start up right about now. So just as Tom has said, they are seeing the natives knocking on the door here. Their real concern, they don't think the winds are going to get above hurricane strength. They're not sure. Certainly some of the gusts might, but for the most part they think they're going to be OK when it comes to wind. They're really worried about the water because the water begins just where those lights end. Highway 90 is right in between them. They do believe that with that high tide coming and with the storm surge here which they're thinking seven to 11 feet, it likely will cover that roadway. There is a curfew that's in effect primarily because of that reason, runs from 7:00 p.m. all the way until 9:00 in the morning. And for the most part it looks like people are adhering to it. About the only traffic you see out here are the emergency first responders, police still checking on the roadways here to make sure they're clear. Fire trucks have gone by, even some ambulances but it appears that they're on patrol, no one's out on any sort of emergency run. They did put in a mandatory evacuation for Harrison County Beach and anything south of the sea wall that pretty much just affects the direct waterfront but that 12 casinos and hotels here in Biloxi also had to pretty much close down because they didn't want crowds of people gambling and having a good time when you've got Nate coming ashore. So it was out of a still real strong -- real strong sense of concern, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>SAVIDGE: But right now they're feeling like they're doing OK.</s>BALDWIN: Good, good, good. Yes. Out of abundance of caution as we have seen these last couple of hurricanes. Martin, thank you so much. And as you mentioned that curfew in place there for Biloxi until 9:00 a.m. We'll check back with you. Meantime, in Alabama, nearly 7,000 people are already without power at this moment. Ed Lavandera is in Mobile for me. I hear and see that rain coming down. Is it getting worse for where you are at?</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is by far, Brooke, the strongest rain band we've seen throughout the night here in the city of Mobile. We're just on the northern edge of the bay. And as you see behind me, everything going on your screen from right to left is south to north, and we have seen the bay water here really getting pushed up where that kind of speaks to that storm surge concern. And as the high tide approaches here about 1:00 in the morning Central Time, that storm surge obviously is of great concern. And you can definitely see even though this is a small and not terribly powerful storm by hurricane standards, but it is bringing a great deal of pressure, that water pressure moving, getting pushed north. So we'll continue to monitor that. That's why those concerns and those warnings have gone out, especially to those low-lying areas. People who live near creeks, tributaries, bayous, that that could be a concern. But, you know, the winds haven't been terribly strong throughout the night either, but this is definitely one of the strongest rain bands that we've seen and it's been going on for probably the last 10 minutes or so. Sometimes they'll die off and then pick back up again. But this is really the most we've seen. You know, if this is the way it remains for the next couple of hours, that in many ways will be really good news for this part of Alabama, there's been a great deal -- I don't know whether to characterize it as complacency or just a very relaxed attitude about the storm. But you know, we haven't seen many people throughout the day that were flocking to board up their homes or businesses and windows and that sort of thing. Many people expecting that kind of doing the bare minimum would be able to -- would be enough to withstand the worst of the storm, and perhaps, you know, they're going to be right at the end of the day. But the real concern is as this storm makes landfall here through the overnight hours is really that urge to tell people to stay inside, back down, really no reason to be out and about on the streets. And those severe storm warnings, tornado warning that have popped up throughout the night here in southern Alabama is also a concern not just on the coastal areas close to where we are, but also further inland as the storm moves inland. And of course all of this taking place in the middle of the night, that adds an extra layer of concern as, you know, the visibility is obviously dark and incredibly hard to make out exactly if a tornado were to dip down out of the sky, very hard to see. That adds another layer of concern and makes those situations, you know, much more dangerous and concerning. Especially for first responders here. So you can see how just here in the last 10 seconds or so how the rain has come down a little bit. But we expect these bands to intensify here over the next couple of hours -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Ed Lavandera, you have really been in it. Of course this hurricane season, go get dry. We'll talk to you in just a little bit there in Mobile. Thank you very much. Let's bounce back to Biloxi. I've got Mike Theiss back with us. He's a storm chaser. And, you know, Mike, we're still about an hour ahead of time for those storm surges. I can see them over your shoulder, though, is it picking up where you are?</s>MIKE THEISS, STORM CHASER: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. If you saw that last wave that just came in, the surge is starting to come up pretty fast here in Biloxi. This parking lot is fully engulfed now and you see the next wave that comes in, it's a little higher than the waves before. So it's starting to make its presence felt for sure. I don't know how much higher it's going to get, maybe a couple feet here, but it's definitely coming up right now in Biloxi.</s>BALDWIN: How intense is the wind?</s>THEISS: I'd say it's maybe across the storm force right now. I don't think this is the strongest of it yet. Maybe 50 miles per hour gusts, but I think the big story here is going to be the storm surge for sure.</s>BALDWIN: How high are you guessing?</s>THEISS: Maybe six to seven feet here in Biloxi area, maybe a little bit lower.</s>BALDWIN: Let me ask you --</s>THEISS: It's hard to say. Yes.</s>BALDWIN: No, it's hard to say for sure that's what we were just looking at some of the models earlier, they were saying that if not a little bit higher. Do you -- this your job, right? You chase storms. I was talking to our meteorologist Tom Sater about what happened this year, I mean, between Harvey and Irma, Maria, now, you know, Nate to a lesser extent. What's going on?</s>THEISS: That's the same question I have. This has been a crazy year, it kind of reminds me of 2004 and 2005 where once the hurricanes got going they just didn't stop, they kept coming one after the other. So the ingredients are definitely in place for hurricanes this season and we were there to cover all of them to share with everybody. Unfortunately it was a sad story in the islands and the Florida Keys and those areas, but we will bounce back and get over it. I've got some rain on my lens. There we go.</s>THEISS: Yes, it's up to my ankles now and I'm going to go ahead and retreat back in the parking garage where it's a little safer.</s>BALDWIN: OK. Please do. Mike, we'll check in. Thank you so much in Biloxi. We've got you covered tonight with special Hurricane Nate coverage but we're also covering some other stories including out in Las Vegas, cryptic numbers deciphered. Investigators figured out what a notepad, some numbers etched on it. It was left inside that Las Vegas shooter hotel room. What it actually means? Can it help determine the motive in this mass murder? You're watching CNN.