00:00Been a long night. We still got a long night ahead of us here, Bernie.
00:03Winds still roaring here on the backside.
00:06I'm just going to step out.
00:07Hopefully the picture brightens up a little bit here.
00:09You can see some folks are already out here with their flashlights and their spotlights.
00:14These are some of the businesses that are boarded up and that were closed for Hurricane Isaiah.
00:19So again, the property owners and managers coming out here just to check the status of what's going on.
00:24We've seen some police officers out here.
00:26And this water that you're seeing that's pooled and flooded from the parking lot, Bernie, that is fresh water flooding.
00:32To our knowledge and vantage point, this does not appear to be storm surge flooding because, you know,
00:38earlier when that western side of the storm rolled in, I mean, we had a ton of rain coming down.
00:42So we're going to take a slow look over to the right.
00:45And we do. It's going to be tough to see without power here and without lights.
00:49But you can see we've got a gas station over here.
00:51It looks like there's some damage to the canopy.
00:53And you may be able to hear in the wind we've got some metal signs rattling, some debris starting to
00:58roll around here.
00:59And then also just looking over to the right with this high rise.
01:02I mean, that is not a strobe light party going on.
01:04I mean, those are fire alarms going off in some of these high rises.
01:08You could hear the alarms going off.
01:10So some of the people here who stayed in these hotels, I've been through that a number of times through,
01:16you know,
01:17these larger hotels that, you know, you're hearing those sirens and the strobe lights going off all night.
01:23So this is just a preview of some of the damage, Bernie.
01:26We made it about a whopping three blocks from where we saw you earlier.
01:31There are metal street signs down.
01:34There's some metal debris on the roads.
01:35Again, we are protected here on this side from the worst of the wind, not going very far at all
01:41here in the dark.
01:42We've seen police officers going out here.
01:44So unfortunately, you know, this is more of the fortified, built up side of town with these stronger hotels.
01:50You go a mile or two farther east, you know, down the road, a lot more houses, you know,
01:57and some of the buildings and businesses that may not be, you know, as strong and reinforced.
02:01So tough to make out just how far and widespread extensive the damage is here.
02:06But we are definitely seeing wind damage here, powers out in Pensacola Beach, and some debris, you know,
02:12all over the roads, which would be expected after a storm, especially with so much wind that we saw here
02:17on the western side.
02:18Bill, when you were panning over to your right before, I saw a lot of flashlights.
02:23It seems like, are people out assessing the damage right now?
02:29Because, yeah, there we go.
02:30I see that.
02:31Is that police or people just assessing any problems?
02:38Yep, that does appear to be police or property security here.
02:42So they are going in some of the buildings and checking things out.
02:45We've only seen a handful of people out here burning, mostly in uniform with the flashlights, which is good, right?
02:51Law enforcement, police have just been urging people, hunker down, stay put.
02:55That's pretty much what we're doing here as well.
02:57I mean, we're in one of the hotels where just about everybody in there is either, you know, a member
03:03of the media,
03:04they're a first responder who came in from out of town and they pre-stitched here,
03:07or they're the power crews who came in from out of state.
03:10They've got all the utility trucks there.
03:13And, you know, they can't head out with the bucket trucks yet for obvious reasons, right?
03:17We've still got some pretty substantial wind gusts going on here on the backside of the storm.
03:22And that's one of the things that the utility crews have to manage and determine, right,
03:26is watching the storm as it's pushing inland.
03:28We're still getting some good winds back here.
03:30So they're going to be dealing with the wind and then, you know, the recovery, trying to get the work.
03:35That's going to be pretty tough to do before the sun gets up.
03:38We didn't see any of those utility trucks moving just yet for obvious reasons.
03:41But, yeah, it appears that we do have police here just going door to door, checking the status of these
03:46buildings.
03:46And you could just see some of the metal debris and things flying down.
03:49There was a stop sign right on a metal pole that ripped right off.
03:53Do we have glass blown out?
03:54Yeah, so we do have glass blown out on some of these businesses as well.
03:57Okay, that would make sense.
03:58That's why they're checking to make sure everything is okay with the glass out.
04:02So the, you know, Allie Reed was in downtown.
04:06And, boy, there, she was at a hotel that just, the whole roof was just blown apart.
04:13Extensive, it seems like, extensive damage around the downtown area.
04:17Now, you're more on closer to the Barrier Island side, correct?
04:23That's right.
04:24I mean, we are, this is the main road, right?
04:25This is the main road.
04:26We are on Pensacola Beach.
04:27This is the main road.
04:29Yep, that is the main road right off of, yeah, Three Mile Bridge.
04:33Now, down there, is there a lot of businesses, it seems like, and so it looks like, based on what
04:39we're seeing, that there's at least some damage.
04:45Yes, definitely seeing some damage here at the businesses.
04:48And, again, these are mostly the business stretches, and then we've got the bigger hotels on this side.
04:53And I was sending in video, or we were sending in video earlier today.
04:56You go two to three miles down the road, you know, and then you get mostly residential.
05:00A lot of the homes are raised.
05:03They're raised, right, okay.
05:04They're a few in ground level.
05:05And, again, Bernie, yeah.
05:07And, again, here on this side with this storm, for us at Pensacola Beach, this was a windstorm.
05:13That's the big story.
05:14So, at least from what we've seen so far, surge was not the big concern here.
05:18It is the wind damage.
05:20And we know that there were some reports right down the road a few miles of substantial roof damage.
05:24And you've been through this before that you know, as bad as it may look now, when the sun comes
05:31up is when you're going to get the true indication.
05:37Absolutely.
05:38And when the winds die down, when the sun goes up, when we're able to get the drone up in
05:43the air, you know, that vantage point from up above.
05:45You may be looking at some of these businesses and thinking, oh, window blown out, you know, obviously some flooding,
05:51but it doesn't look all that bad.
05:52As soon as the sun comes up and we get our drone in the air, you're able to see that
05:56vantage point.
05:57And that's what really gives us a very rapid indication how many roofs are damaged, how much water was pouring
06:04into those businesses and those homes, right?
06:06I know our crew, our team at AccuWeather is likely going to be working on that damage estimate.
06:10And, you know, we all send back visuals as quickly as possible.
06:13You could tell, very tough to do here in the dark.
06:15Like, even if we got a drone up in these winds, you're not seeing much or anything at all.
06:19So, yeah, within a couple hours right after daylight, that's where we're going to get a clear look at what's
06:23going on,
06:23be able to look from up above, you know, how substantial is that roof damage?
06:28Because we did get a good amount of rain here on the side of the storm as well.
06:32And it doesn't take much roof damage to have water pouring in.
06:35All right, Bill Waddell reporting from Pensacola.
06:41A lot of damage, Bill. Thanks.
