'The eye of the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in recorded history ended up going right over us.' REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Experiencing a direct hit from Dorian. Via ABC's chrisdonato04.
I was asked on a Thursday morning if I could go cover my first hurricane in Florida with ABC Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee. By that evening, I got a phone call saying the plan had changed and I would be covering Hurricane Dorian from the Bahamas instead.The eye of the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in recorded history ended up going right over us.
We made our way to Maxwell's, the large supermarket that served much of the island. Everyone we spoke with there said they weren't worried. One woman told us she planned to sit on her couch with her feet up and watch TV. The eye wall was approaching with wind gusts up to 220 mph. It sounded like a jet. The sky was completely dark. At one point, the winds were so strong we thought the door would blow inside our condo. We grabbed a few items and ran up to the second floor of the condo.Shortly before 1 p.m., the winds were dying down and the sky was getting brighter and our ears popped more frequently. We knew that meant the eye was now over Marsh Harbour. Pretty soon the winds stopped completely.
It wasn't long before the winds began to pick up again. We knew we wouldn't be able to stay on the main floor of our condo like we did before the eye arrived as the winds shifted south. There was a safe room upstairs in our condo -- basically an interior living room without windows. Two people in a condo below us said the utility closet on the second floor had just opened up and would be a safe spot for us to hunker down.
Upstairs, my bedroom was in even worse shape. The window was sucked out of the wall. There wasn't any glass in the room -- the window was gone. There was just a hole in the wall and furniture picked up and thrown around the room. Throughout the day, we experienced on-and-off high winds and strong rain squalls. During those squalls you could barely see a few feet in front of you. Jenise and Brian moved into our condo with us. Scott had the good fortune to bump into a woman named Ashley who still had cell service. He came running back to our condo so he could edit video into 20-second clips and text it from her phone to the New York office.
We made the quarter-mile trek to the helipad together, carrying our bags over trees, around boats and under ropes connecting the boats to what used to be docks.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Woman killed as strong typhoon lashes Tokyo area, cutting power and transportOne of the strongest typhoons to hit the Japanese capital in recent years hit ju...
Read more »
LATEST: The latest from our team in devastated Marsh Harbour on SundayA week after Dorian slammed the islands as the strongest hurricane to hit the Bahamas on record, those remaining said the storm took everything from them.
Read more »
‘Everything’s gone’: In Abaco Islands, lives shattered by Hurricane Dorian’s devastationLATEST: By Sunday, Great Abaco was becoming a ghost town, as thousands of people try to evacuate by plane and boat after Hurricane Dorian. “These clothes on me, that’s all I have.' DaniellaLSilva and thisismariana report from Marsh Harbour on Sunday.
Read more »
Strong typhoon makes landfall near Tokyo, snarling transportOne of the strongest typhoons to hit the Japanese capital in recent years made l...
Read more »
John Reese's Synergy Global Entertainment 'Hit By Perfect Storm,' Files for BankruptcyLawyers for Synergy Global Entertainment, the independent concert promotion company started by Southern California promoter John Reese, have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protect in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in California's Central District.
Read more »