infancy of research where we are having larger global issues request blocking patterns related to climate. it s going to be interesting over the next couple of years where we are going to be seeing or having much more research on this and we are going to be talking at it for many more years to come, but that s just in the infancy. michelle, thanks so much. let s go to david gurra. david, what are you seeing there? reporter: they were intermittent bouts of intensity, heavy rain, high winds. when the bands came through nag s head where i am. things changed in the morning as that storm came closer to cape lookout, hatteras just south of where i m standing. over the course of the morning until an hour ago there has been a lot of wind and rain. i m standing outside a condominium complex not unlike what you see up and down the outer banks. the roof slid off.
whole a.c. units fell from the roof down to the parking lot, and insulation covers the parking lot like snow. is there is real damage here. we are beginning to assess that after the wind died down. we are able to move about and see what happened here. the real area of concern is here 60 miles south as you make your way down the islands that are the outer banks. hatteras, at the bottom and then oaker coke the island you can reach only by a ferry ride. there are reports from the governor that there are hundreds of residents from that island that decided to weather the storm. that island just a spit of land between the ocean and the sound. it will be very important for rescuers to get there as soon as possible. but of course with the surf as it is now, still roiling, it
could be some time before that ferry service is resumed. the big concern here, as it has been since the first forecast of the storm came into play, is what happens to highway 12. called a highway. just a two-lane road. as you know, the only way to get to hatteras. that could be washed out by the storm waters, can be washed out by sand and sea grass. in storms past it s taken days or weeks for residents to get to those communities to the south. certainly our three and ouou with our friends and family back home. with dorian away from the bahamas we are getting a sobering look at the damage left in his wake. late thursdays the official death toll rose to 30 with thousands more missing. the bahamas health minister told rachel maddow that number will raise even higher. a number of deaths. we have been somewhat slow to
destroyed. we have nowhere to go. destroyed everyone s life. that s what it did. we don t know what to do now. we got nothing to do. joins me now tracking the storm, nbc s michelle grossman and in nag s head, david. michelle, what can we expect as the hurricane dorian starts to hit the coast? day 15 of this storm. nine days as a hurricane. the good news is we are finally starting to see it kbexit to th right and moving at a quick pace. we are still seeing heavy rain in some spots. . latest stats. 2:00 advisory came in just a few minutes ago. 90 miles per hour. still a category 1 storm. 125 miles northeast of cape hatteras. that s a big difference. it s because it s moving so much faeser. remember, over the bahamas it s stationery. finally at 21 miles per hour and
right now? reporter: i asked the very question when i had to chance to miss marsh harbor yesterday, on the island that took the brunt of dorian. we landed a few hours after the airport opened. time and time again when i asked people there what do you need the most, the answer was almost always the same everything. they need everything they can get right now after the storm levelled the neighborhood after neighborhood. and leahas left so many people stranded. clean drinking water in short supply. a woman nursing a young boy, an infant said she hadn t had a real meal since before dorian hit. we know they have been take ton nassau to be take ton hospitals for help, but one of the growing problems we are seeing is those who aren t injured by stranded in the hard to reach areas that are growing more dehydrated, fatigued by the day and you can see it in the faces of the