Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby continues to follow the impacts of Helene, from landfall in Florida to destruction in Georgia to ongoing flooding emergencies in North Carolina and Tennessee
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00:00Our team coverage continues right now with storm chaser Aaron Rigsby. Aaron has been in a lot of different situations lately.
00:07Aaron, in the past few days, well, you were right there at landfall as tremendous storm surge flooding came in.
00:14And now you're on your way up to be, at least cover some of the flooding in the southern Appalachians, ultimately into eastern Tennessee.
00:22So right now, you're in Macon. What's this storm been like?
00:25I know you've covered a variety of weather events over the past decade or two, decade plus.
00:30When it comes to storm surges and landfalling hurricanes, what's this one like compared to others?
00:37Yeah, good evening, Jeff. So the interesting thing that stands out about this one is, one, the forward speed of the hurricane
00:43and how far inland those hurricane force winds fell, all the way up to almost near here in Macon, Georgia.
00:49And the other thing that's going to stand out is how fast the storm surge came in.
00:53Some of these hurricanes, there can be kind of a gradual buildup and then like a wall of water kind of comes roaring in behind it.
01:00That wasn't the case with this one. In about 10 to 15 minutes, we went from grass and bare concrete to walking upstairs to change our batteries
01:07to looking out the window and a wall of storm surge just roaring in with at least two feet of water
01:12and watching it rapidly climb up to almost 15 feet as it just kept creeping up the steps.
01:18So there's so many aspects of this that's going to be remembered for years to come.
01:22And that's going to include that flash flooding that's unfortunately going on in North Carolina, Tennessee state line area.
01:28It's something that's been well forecasted. But unfortunately, we did see those catastrophic results
01:33and it did end up on the higher end of those totals. And we've seen the damage left behind from those.
01:37And that's exactly where I'm going to be headed next, because those stories need told and we need that ground truth
01:42to exactly how bad it's going to be up there in the situation that they're going to be dealing with for days and weeks to come.
01:48And when you were in the middle of your situation last night, you had a very sturdy structure to be at least to protect yourself in.
01:55But the water entered that structure there on the ground floor. What was that like to be part of that?
02:02Yeah, there was so many logistics that went into riding out the hurricane in a safe location out there in general.
02:08We felt confident in our structure because it was reinforced concrete.
02:11There was steel beams that went completely down into the ground.
02:15And we were kind of away from the really big waves, which put a lot of pressure underneath of the structures that can break them away and carry them off.
02:22Despite being in the ground, we felt confident that we were high enough off the ground to be in a safe location.
02:28But the thing that was a little nerve wracking is the footage that you're showing right here is that those structures that broke free and started floating
02:34were actually starting to bobble into our structure, damaging the side of it.
02:38So we were a little concerned that we might end up getting some damage in ours.
02:42And then that wind kind of gets through when it's compromised and we'd be in a really bad situation.
02:46Thankfully, that wasn't the case. But these are things when you're going to be chasing what we call the dirty side of the hurricane with the storm surge,
02:52that you have to consider. You have to consider every variable possible to be in a safe location and be able to document this correctly,
02:59which we were fortunate to be able to do with this one.
03:01And Aaron, there have been so many different reports in western North Carolina, northwest South Carolina, western Virginia and eastern Tennessee
03:09involving some of the severe damage. Where is your specific target area for the recovery and the footage that you're going to shoot tomorrow?
03:18And what what motivated you to go to that spot as opposed to another?
03:23Well, that's been the interesting thing to kind of narrow down is it's been so widespread that it's honestly kind of hard to narrow down a worst hit area.
03:31So I'm going to kind of play it by ear in the morning and kind of, I think, start from the south and then work my way up north.
03:37But that's going to depend on a lot of the roadways that have been washed out and closed.
03:40So there's only going to be so much that I have to be able to work with tomorrow.
03:43So it's going to be kind of a play by play.
03:45But right now, I'm going to get ahead of that river flooding that's all flowing downstream into southern North Carolina and into eventually South Carolina
03:53and then document some of the stories that have come from those catastrophic dam failures closer to the Tennessee state line and I-40,
04:00which a section of it did wash out near the state line.
04:05Dave, my family and another family we're close with spent a four day trip in the Fleetwood area there in Ash County,
04:11the northwesternmost county of North Carolina. Beautiful real estate there.
04:14Very difficult things in these situations in that community and many others right now.
04:19That's Aaron Rigsby in Macon, Georgia, northbound.
04:22And Helene has caused dangerous flash flooding in many of these areas in Tennessee.
04:27Here's Irwin, Tennessee, and this is where 50 people were left stranded on the roof of a hospital amid massive, massive flooding.
04:35Look at how wide this river became.