All language subtitles for In the Eye of the Storm S01 E04_track3_[eng]

[foreboding music playing]

[man speaking]

[man] Tractor trailer
right here!

[thunder rumbling]

[man speaking]

[man speaking]

[water gushing]

[electric sparks]

[man speaking]

[radio chattering]

[man screams]

[thunder rumbling]

This morning,
ahead of Hurricane Ida,

it is an absolute ghost town
on Bourbon Street.

This is the French Quarter.

So the hope is

that these buildings
will be able to survive

what could be
the worst hurricane

ever to make landfall

in the state of Louisiana.

I'm Jonathan Petramala

and I'm a documentarian
journalist for 20 years.

I focus on extreme weather.

Hurricane Ida is heading
towards New Orleans,

part of the country
that I have a huge place

in my heart for,

and it makes you hurt
because you know

that that place that you love

is not going to be
the same the day after.

My partner, Brandon and I
get there beforehand

to document what's happening.

[Steve]
We are west of the storm.

We have ominous news coming
from the hurricane hunters

as they continue
to track Hurricane Ida.

It is strengthening.

It has sustained winds

at 150 miles per hour.

[Jonathan] As a journalist,

you don't wanna
scare anybody.

But we have seen
what can happen

with Hurricane Katrina.

And you have a hurricane
stronger than Katrina

heading for that same spot.

It's terrifying.

[Pastor Durant]
I was born in New Orleans.

And since Katrina, you know,
we kind of learned

to just ride storms out.

My kids and my wife,
we stayed in New Orleans.

-[girl 1] Look what I do.
-[girl 2] Let's go now.

That morning, kids kind of was
running around, still playing.

And then you see people
making last preparations.

You see people boarding up
their houses

and, you know, starting
to get a little quiet.

You know, it started
to get a little dark,

the sky started
to get a little dark.

You can feel
the wind blowing.

But we figured, "Hey, this
storm can't be a Katrina."

[news reporter] All right.
Now, we just got
the 11:00 a.m. update.

Landfall will probably happen
a little bit before noon

with a Category 4,
185 mile per hour winds.

Those 185 mile per hour winds
are gonna be right in here.

And that is gonna just hammer
Port Fourchon and Grand Isle.

[suspenseful music playing]

[man 1 speaking]

[Jamie speaking]

[Jamie Lyons]
It was the morning
of the storm.

We were watching
our local news.

And we would just
slowly watch it

getting closer and closer

and closer to us.

Once the power was out,
we were just left
in the dark.

Things started
slowly intensifying.

And I had my Nikon cameras,
so I just was like,

"Man, I'll just take
a couple of videos

to show people
what these storms are about."

We made the last minute
decision to stay.

It was just a... It was
a split second decision.

We weren't prepared for it.

But of course
we thought we were,

but you really can't prepare
for something like that.

[people screaming]

[Jamie speaking]

-[woman speaking]
-[Jamie speaking]

[woman speaking]

[Jamie speaking]

[woman] Oh, no.
That can't be good.

[Jamie speaking]

[television chattering]

[Jamie speaking]

The storm kept getting
stronger and stronger.

If this house falls down,
I'm gonna get hurt for sure.

[news reporter
speaking indistinctly]

[Jamie speaking]

[news reporter
speaking indistinctly]

[Jamie speaking]

All you could do
is just really hunker down

and just pray for the best,
you know?

Oh, my God.

[man speaking]

[Jonathan] The hurricane
is making its way

from the coast up towards
where we are in New Orleans.

I already see
the outer band's here.

Hurricane Ida,

these clouds are moving around
in that cyclonic action,

might be one of the worst days
in history

for Louisiana or New Orleans.

We're constantly scanning
through radar

as well as satellite
because these storms

make little adjustments
on their path.

[man speaking]

Oh, oh.

Oh.

[man speaking]

[Jonathan] Hurricane Ida
is a major hurricane

and it's heading right towards
the biggest population center

in the State of Louisiana.

Because New Orleans
is essentially in a bowl,

the most dangerous part
of a hurricane

is not the wind,
it's the water.

So this is the storm reduction
system behind me.

You can see the floodgate
blocking the highway.

This is Highway 90 and you
can see what's ahead of me,

the storm surge,
just the beginning of it.

This is what these levees
were rebuilt for.

Hurricane Ida is gonna be
the first real test

this has had since they
were rebuilt after Katrina.

[news anchor] Possibility
of 15 to 20 inches of rain

in New Orleans,
your concerns about that?

We are seeing life-threatening
flash flooding

from this intense rainfall,

life-threatening
storm surges.

[Jonathan]
My partner, Brandon and I,

we wanna go closer

to where the core
of the storm is.

We know we are driving
into danger.

It's kind of like
an apocalyptic movie.

That water was really high.

So I was fully expecting

to come across a corpse
in that car.

[Brandon speaking]

It's the most scared
I've ever been in a hurricane

because I don't know
what I'm going to see.

I don't know
what I'm gonna come across.

Am I going to be
physically in danger

by this water myself?

Then I look over to my left
and I see

more cars and more people

and I know more people
are in trouble.

[woman screaming]

[Jonathan speaking]

[woman screaming]

[Jonathan speaking]

[sobbing]

[Jonathan speaking]

[indistinct chatter]

[Jonathan] These people were
trapped and the hurricane

still blowing,
the water still rising.

We got them
around the deep water.

We were able to give them
a little bit of shelter
from the wind.

[Jonathan] We called 911.

And so we're doing all we can

to get them out of this wind,

out of this rain, out of this
dangerous situation.

We planned on hunkering down.

We didn't plan
on leaving at all.

You know, half the building
had came down,

and so of course, the wife
and kids wanted to leave.

The storm was still going on.

Now, the winds
are still at probably

about 100 miles an hour,
gusts,

you know, the roads flooded.

We get to that underpass.

And we couldn't go
any further on I-10.

I heard people screaming,

people saying,
"Help, help, help, help."

I just took my shoes off
and I just took off

running out on the highway
to see who needed help.

I look up and I notice

the man was unconscious

and so, hey,

you got to try
to save his life.

[phone ringing]

[dispatcher speaking]

[Pastor Durant speaking]

I'm explaining to 911,

"Hey, man, you guys gotta get
some help out here."

[man speaking]

[Pastor Durant speaking]

It was bad.

It didn't matter
what I had to do.

I wanted to save him.

[wind gushing]

[Pastor Durant speaking]

I noticed the gentleman laying
in the center of I-10.

I ran over,

started doing CPR on him.

Some other people came.

They helped.

I was on the phone with 911,

and I was trying to give them
the location.

They sent one guy out
in an ambulance.

[sirens wailing]

He checked his pulse.

I wanted him to live.

I wanted him to be alive.

[somber music playing]

[Pastor Durant] I went in my
van and got a white sheet

and covered him up
with a white sheet,

said a prayer over him.

And so I sat out there
with them.

I can just see
the sheet just...

[makes sound]

Finding James that night,

I got this real sad,
eerie feeling.

I think about him every day,
every day.

That was a scary night.

That was a scary night.

[tense music playing]

[Jonathan]
New Orleans is not the same.

You're seeing this beautiful
city torn to shreds.

It was like the entire place
was a water world.

[Derick] Southeast Louisiana
is composed of swamps

and wetlands,
and it's also saturated

from heavy repetitive rain.

That gave Ida its energy
source that allowed it

to maintain its structure
and its power.

We started seeing reports
from New Orleans,

and it was just devastating,

the destruction
that we saw there.

As the hurricane
was making its way up

through Mississippi,
people in Louisiana were left

picking up the pieces

and desperately searching
for survivors.

[Jonathan] And in New Orleans,
they have a pumping system

and the flood
protection walls.

Unfortunately,
the entire coast of Louisiana

doesn't have the levee
protection system

like New Orleans does.

[tense music playing]

[Vincent speaking]

I was born and raised
in Lafitte, Louisiana.

My community raised me.

The bayous raised me,

the marshes, the swamps.

When a hurricane comes,
we all work together.

Me and my buddy Evan,
we had one mission, go in,

help our neighbors,
help whoever we can.

[Evan speaking]

[Vincent speaking]

There's an elderly woman,
Ms. Emily,

who's on oxygen
and they haven't heard

from her since yesterday.

Her daughter reached
out to me.

[Vincent speaking]

[woman speaking]

[Vincent speaking]

[woman speaking]

[Vincent speaking]

It all happened so fast.

When I've seen where
she was located,

I knew it was gonna be bad

because that's where
it hit the worst at.

[Vincent speaking]

-[Evan speaking]
-[Vincent speaking]

[Evan speaking]

[Vincent speaking]

Lord, please let her
have found a way out,

because if she's in this
house, it ain't good.

[Evan speaking]

[Vincent speaking]

[Evan speaking]

[Vincent speaking]

-[Evan speaking]
-[Vincent speaking]

[panting]

[dogs barking]

[Vincent speaking]

We decided to get out
the house

and go talk to the neighbor.

[Vincent speaking]

-[man speaking]
-[Vincent speaking]

[man speaking]

[Vincent speaking]

[tense music playing]

[Vincent]
We're looking for Ms. Emily.

Looking and I guess
about 15 minutes goes by,

felt like a lifetime.

It's like she never left.
She's in there.

We gotta find her.

I was afraid of what
we might find, you know.

We flipped every piece
of furniture over

and really tear
this house apart.

And my buddy Evan,
when he looked down,

she was right down
between, like,

the kitchen cabinets
and the refrigerator.

She had unfortunately
passed away.

We just felt like
what if we could've got there

a little bit sooner?

I instantly thought
of how it might have been

for her in those
last few moments.

[dramatic music playing]

[Nora] She was just such
an amazing person

that she tried
to help out anybody

and everybody she could.

I just want my mom back.

And I'm sorry
she had to suffer.

[dramatic music playing]

But then I told my buddy,
you know, we gotta go back.

And then we went
and get her dogs

and brought them
to a relative,

a family member of Ms. Emily.

We couldn't make it in time
for Ms. Emily but being able

to get those dogs back to her
family was a good feeling.

That's just what we do
down there.

We help each other.

[Derick] Two days
after Ida made landfall

and we're still tracking it
as it's heading our way.

As Ida made its way over
Mississippi and West Virginia,

it started to lose
some of its strength.

But then things
start to change.

You've got this hot storm

coming from the Caribbean

colliding with a cold front
from Canada

and it really turns into
a completely different animal.

What was even scarier
was that this storm

was now headed on up
to Pennsylvania,

New Jersey, and New York.

[reporter speaking]

Impact in 14.0--

This has now created a storm
that is much more powerful.

What that's going to mean
is torrential downpours

of flooding, even tornadoes.

[thunders crashing]

[man speaking]

[Mike]
Where we are in South Jersey,

there's no thought to, well,
there's gonna be something

really big coming through,
'cause this is South Jersey.

Nothing usually happens

in South Jersey.

[alarm blaring]

[Mike speaking]

-[Joanne speaking]
-[Mike speaking]

[Joanne speaking]

[Mike speaking]

[Mark speaking]

[alarm blaring]

[Mark speaking]

We got into the basement with
less than 10 seconds to spare.

[Mike speaking]

[Joanne speaking]

I didn't really grasp what was
going on until we went down,

and within seconds later,

we heard the freight train
come through.

The most ominous sound
you could ever imagine.

[Mark speaking]

[Derick] This is a terrifying
situation

for people in New Jersey.

This is not just any tornado.

This is EF3 with wind speeds

of up to 150 miles an hour.

[Mike]
When we were in the basement,

we could hear the tornado
hitting our house.

It was just this sickening,
crunching, ripping sound.

[Mark speaking]

[objects clattering]

[Mark speaking]

And then there
was complete silence.

I come up the steps
and I look,

and we looked up
and all we saw was the sky.

And I just kinda sat
on the foyer floor

and I started to cry
'cause I couldn't believe

what my eyes were seeing.

When we walked outside,
it was like a warzone.

There were just debris
everywhere.

You do realize that was
probably not very survivable.

[Derick] Very shortly
after Ida hits New Jersey,

it's classified as one of the
deadliest weather disasters

in the state's history

with several fatalities
already reported.

In Cranford,
just like some of the other
towns around it,

residents there are being
taken by surprise

by the rapid flash flooding.

[tense music playing]

[Janice] I live with my
husband and my four boys.

We went to bed around 11:30,

and around 2:30
in the morning,

my son came running in
and told me

that water was coming
through the basement window.

The water was just pushing
through and my two boys

have their bedrooms
down there,

so we just tried to pick
things up off the floor.

And then by 4:00
is when everything changed.

[water crashes]

[Joel] Mom! Mom!

Mom! Mom!

Mom!

Mom! Mom!

We heard the wall
and the foundation just break.

-[water crashes]
-[Joel] Mom!

Mom! Mom!

[Janice] All I could hear
was the crashing of the water

and screaming.

My son was just yelling.

[Joel] Mom! Mom!

[Janice]
I was in the utility room.

When I opened my eyes, I had
about four inches to breathe.

That's how high the water
was to the ceiling.

Me and my son, Joel,
were trapped down there.

And I can't swim.

I definitely thought
I was going to die.

My husband decided
he would go outside

so that maybe
he could pull us out
through one of the windows.

Joel had to like
swim a little bit

and then he eventually did
pull him out.

My husband then went
to go look for me.

He grabbed me by my arms
and just slid me out

onto the ground,

and he just held me.

I said, "I can't believe
you saved me."

And my son looks over,
my second son, Mateo,

and he looks at me
and he says,

"Mom, you're alive?"
And I said, "Yes."

And the four of us
just hugged each other.

[boat engine rumbles]

[Janice] In that moment,
the firemen pulled up

in like a raft
and took us away.

[train horn honks]

[Derick] We're starting
to get reports that people

living in these densely
populated areas

in river or floodplains

are in grave danger.

Some towns are seeing

10 inches of rain
in just a few hours.

[Mitesh]
I was a retail pharmacist.

And even with the storm
approaching,

it wasn't even on my mind
'cause I was so focused

on what I had to do at work.

I lived in Rahway, New Jersey
with my wife Nirali.

And we just had a newborn
called Anjeli.

My wife and child were at home
at that time.

[Nirali speaking]

[Mitesh] My wife had called
and said that

the water was approaching
our steps.

My wife did send me
a few videos.

And then one of the videos
she had sent was our basement.

[Nirali speaking]

As the hours progressed,

my sump pumps...
I have two sump pumps

and a French drain
and all the things

to stop flooding
coming into my home,

those all started to break
one by one.

Some pipe or some line
must have gotten loose

from one of the walls
and leaked

and caused the gas
to fill up our home.

[tense music playing]

[Nirali speaking]

There was water coming out
from the windows

of the basement.

And around that time

is when I made the decision

to leave because it was
just too much.

Leaving at that moment
felt dangerous.

Never in a million years

would I have expected

what happened to my home.

[explosion]

[Justin] 19.
Yeah, I'm on foot.

Yeah, I'll keep calling
for help.

It was my day off

but I knew it in my heart
that no matter what,

I was gonna go to work
because I know

I could be a help
to maybe one person.

-[woman speaking]
-[Justin speaking]

-[woman speaking]
-[Justin speaking]

-Yes.
-[Justin speaking]

Yes. [woman speaking]

[Justin speaking]

You could tell she was like

really struggling to hold on.

I heard the fire trucks come.

They sent swift
water rescue guys.

[man 1 speaking]

[man 2 speaking]

They get her across safely.

That was my sigh of relief.

If we didn't go try
and help her,

she could have died.

It's just very emotional.

[tense music playing]

[Nirali] When I left
after grabbing everything

and putting it into the cars,

I really did think
I made the wrong decision.

I thought that
I was being a baby

and I thought that I could
have handled this, you know?

[explosion]

It was one of those moments

where you wake up
and you're like,

"Wow, I'm so thankful."

[thunder rumbling]

[Derick] I'm in New York
and, basically, it's like

a tsunami hitting the city.

The National Weather Service
office in New York declared

its first-ever
flash flood emergency.

[tense music playing]

[woman 1 speaking]

[woman 2 screams]

[woman 3] Oh. Oh, God.

[woman 4 speaking]

[woman 5 speaking]

[man speaking]

We were dispatched
to a neighborhood in Queens

where there were reports
of basements flooding.

Officers are called
to a flooded basement

apartment in Queens
where they tried

to rescue a young couple
and their two-year-old son.

Unfortunately,
the family didn't make it.

[car horn honking]

[thunder rumbling]

[Derick] I remember
interviewing a woman

who was in her apartment,
in her basement apartment,

the water is rushing in,
flooding down the stairs.

She's screaming for help.

She finally gets
a neighbor's attention.

I remember talking to her
a couple of hours

after that rescue
and she was just in tears.

[Amrita] We have lost a son.

We have lost a sister.

This is... Yeah, we...
I cannot comprehend.

No one... The emotions here.

I can't speak for everyone.

There is only sadness,

and it's just overwhelming.

I've never seen anything
like that when we got there

and saw the sheer terror
that these people felt

in the final moments
of their lives.

It is something
that will stick with me

for the rest of my life.

[melancholic music playing]

Hurricane Ida was the most
scared I've ever been
in a hurricane.

And I just did
the best I could.

Hurricane Ida cost lives
of folks all the way

from Louisiana
into New Jersey.

Lives and families
that are gonna be impacted

for generations because
of what one storm caused.

I think about
what would have happened

if we stayed a lot.

I don't think
I would be here.

I'm so thankful my daughter
is able to see another day.

Those are moments
where I'm like...

I'm just grateful.

[Mitesh]
There really was nothing
salvageable from the home.

Everything material is lost.

But...

I didn't lose my family
that day.

I was just so thankful
that we were all okay.

It really makes you
understand

and appreciate
everything you have

and realize that the little
things, they don't matter.

[melancholic music playing]

That night was life-changing

for me and for my family.

I ended up moving
to Galveston, Texas.

And now I have my own church.

Galveston is hurricane-prone,
you know,

and so I've already
told my wife,

I said, "I'm not leaving.

If a hurricane come,
I'mma stay here

and I'm gonna help people.
You guys go,

but I'm gonna stay here.
That's my mission."

[melancholic music playing]