we can also tell you that your window of time is closing. it is rapidly closing. and just like we said yesterday, by the time you go to bed tonight you need to be where you intend to ride this storm out. reporter: unfortunately, this area is no stranger to strong hurricanes. they are very familiar, of course, benchmark storms being katrina. we can t forget about the year of 2020 where four named storms wreaked havoc on the state of louisiana. remember that completely altered the natural barriers and defenses along the coastline of louisiana. that makes more storm surge a threat, especially where i m standing now. where the water comes in, it really has nowhere to go but sit here and pond and flood. so that is our concern. i am only standing at ten feet above sea level, of course, you can do the math there, phil and christi, a dangerous place to
there s a lot of benchmark storms that people from providence, rhode island remember, we had gloria in 1985, bob in 1991 and sandy back in 2012. that is a storm that people like to compare it to because of its impacts but look at this aerial footage of the fox point hurricane barrier. this is something they put in place to try to prevent storm surge from impacting this particular region. a good safeguard here because this can protect up to 20 feet of potential storm surge which is a threat. that surely is unique to a lot of other cities, hopefully that is what s going to help them out significantly. derek van dam thank you so much. providence, rhode island, appreciate it. mark pompas directs the emergency management agency. good so see you. how are average citizens preparing? what are they doing? are they sandbagging?
it s larger than hazelle was when it hit in 54. those are the two benchmark storms for the carolinas. so just because you ve seen a little bit of weakening in the winds doesn t mean those wind fields aren t growing larger and going to affect a larger land mass. this is still a serious storm, a dangerous threat as we go into the next couple of days. all right. i have sam champion here. what do you have for brett adaire? so, brett, i think you made a huge point for these people because there is only one time that i have ever been forced out of a shelter, and that was a category 1 storm, brett. it s exactly what you just said. is that it stayed over us for 20 hours. the building was fine, secure, the roof was fine. this was a great place to be for the storm. but 20 hours of being in a blender took the windows out, took the walls down, took the roof out. it s the kind of thing that prolonged damage can be worse than that initial hit. so, brett, are you hearing that people are relaxing
checking the storm out. to us basically, a stall-out on the coast line would be a worst case situation because you re going to see those hurricane force impacts be felt here in wilmington and along the beaches here for a much longer period of time as well as that inland heavy rainfall threat. plus you ve got the storm surge. and then you ve got the waves on top of the storm surge so we re very concerned for this area no doubt. what s next for you in terms of what you want to see with this storm? well, chris, we re really just monitoring the situation. we want everyone here to understand just because we have seen maybe what they would call a weakening of the storm, just because the winds are down below 120 miles an hour, that means nothing. this storm is massive. it is much larger than hugo was when it hit this area in 89. it s larger than hazelle was when it hit in 54. those are the two benchmark storms for the carolinas. so just because you ve seen a little bit of weakening in t