Florida Braces For Coastal Flooding And Heavy Rain From Tropical Depression Two

[00:00:00]There is uh and you know it's it's incredible how quickly uh things can change. Just 5 minutes ago uh it looked like a beautiful sunny day behind me there and the Gulf of America, Fort Walton Beach, uh Dest Beach. Uh and then all of a sudden, boom, Ian, look at this behind us. Wind kicked up and some rain showers in and everybody on the beach just ran for cover. Uh so there you go.

[00:00:22]Uh that's how quick all this can change as we await uh for this system to potentially develop right into tropical uh storm Bertha uh as the wind continues to kick up. But I I want to focus on something as we are in the Florida panhandle. Uh look at this video from Louisiana, the coast of Louisiana. I shot this uh several years ago uh on a tropical storm. That's not hurricane video. That is a tropical storm. I mean, you see the surge moving into some of those low-lying areas uh in southern Louisiana. And you know, what are we expecting, right? 2 to four feet potentially. That's according to National Hurricane Center as this system moves uh to the west over the course of the next few days. And you know, uh the barrier islands uh and the coastal areas of Louisiana are fragile as we speak.

[00:01:10]They've been eroding for well dozens and dozens and decades of years. Uh and you know, Hurricane Katrina put a real stamp on one of those barrier islands, the Chandelure Islands, which uh actually this system, if it continues on its track, will go right over the Chandelure Islands, which is about 35 miles off the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana and heads directly uh past that into southern Louisiana. It's a speed bump for tropical storms and systems. But to explain all this a little bit more and how it affects what may happen in the coming days, watch this.

[00:01:48]>> These are the eastern most lands in the state of Louisiana and these barrier islands are are important in so many ways. Uh specifically, you mentioned about uh storm protection. Um they are the first line defense between our tropical storms, between our hurricanes.

[00:02:04]Uh, and they're helping protect us, not only our marshes, but our metropolitan areas and New Orleans and St. Bernard, Plaeman's Parish.

[00:02:16]The chain of islands is about 2,000 years old. It was created by the reworking of sediment deposited at the mouth of an ancient easterly course of the Mississippi River.

[00:02:28]>> These islands provide [music] a speed bump. They take off some of the surge and they definitely knock down the big storm waves. And so these islands are very dynamic, driven by storms. And so the more frequent the storms impact the island, the more the uh sand it's moving. And if there's not much time between two storms, um that what happens is the islands don't have time to recover.

[00:02:48]>> In recent history, major hurricanes [music] have ripped apart the chain, including Andrew in 1992 and Katrina in 2005, which created a new cut separating the southern and northern ends of the islands.

[00:03:09]This chain of violence is incredibly important for the community of New Orleans. Um, this is a break for the storms when they come in. Uh, and we're very concerned not just about Fish and Wildlife Service resources, but about coastal communities and the resilience of those coastal communities, which makes this island imperative [music] to restore and have longevity beyond its current years. if we do nothing.

[00:03:33]>> And back here live. I tell you what, Ian, we just had sun while we were showing that story and now the rain spitting back again. The eb and flow, right? Look, uh what I just showed you is very important to the way that water will flow into southern Louisiana. And like you heard uh US Department of Fish and Wildlife, all that flows into New Orleans. We're going to watch this very carefully. Uh, nonetheless, those barrier islands uh help create that speed bump for the surge and the push of water that comes in. We hope it's not too bad, obviously, but you know, they're going to get some impacts.

[00:04:06]That's for sure in the coming days, Ian.

[00:04:08]>> Yeah. And as you pointed out, just over the last 15 minutes or so, that's the full Gulf Coast experience uh this time of the year when you're in a a tropical environment, one that becomes a little bit increasingly tropical in the short term. That's Fox Weather senior correspondent, Robert Ray. Robert, we'll be checking back with you next hour.