this is a special edition of new day. i m john berman in jensen beach, florida. alisyn camerota in new york. we are tracking the path of hurricane dorian. it is inching, inching past the bahamas where it has created an unprecedented weather event where people who have been on the islands have experienced really something no one on earth has ever experienced before in recorded history. a powerful, what began as a category 5 storm just sitting over that island for days, days on end, and it is still affecting the people there. meanwhile, it is inching closer toward florida where i am right now. so much of the florida coastline waiting in anticipation of what could be hurricane strength impacts and certainly dangerous storm surge as well. i m standing right on the intercoastal waterway in jensen beach, and you can see the water
here just kicking up already. not high tide yet, a long way to go for this water. the rain comes in in bands, like you can see right now. it comes in strong. the consistent wind speeds are around 30, 35 miles an hour. expected to rise throughout the next 24 hours. so there s a long, long way to go with this storm, alisyn. john, you ll be monitoring it for us from florida all morning long. please be careful. okay. this storm has already left at least five people dead. so we will check back with you throughout the program. but of course, meanwhile, there s other news to get to. we have developments on a story that we first told you about yesterday. it s just this horrible, horrible boat accident off the coast of southern california. the body count, the amount of people killed on this dive boat has just been shocking. so we will get more details on how this tragedy unfolded.
roof. we have been told by people they only escaped their house because they cut out the roof with axes, th hatchets, that they had to cut a hole in the roof to climb out because the water it reached, completely covered their home, so, you know, i said it yesterday, it doesn t seem like an exaggeration, the bahamas is katrina, you have seen the government and the state break down, not be able to offer and at least two islands. a lot ft of services that we all depend on. so while you hope a lot of services that we all depend on. so while you hope, at least right now, things are getting worse, not better. reporter: patrick, it sounds harrowing. i know the situation there has been very difficult for you and your team because the hurricane has essentially been over you for 36, 48 hours. have you been able to get out at all? is there any infrastructure left from what you can see from your
window? reporter: there is here on the coastline, you know, we can see hotels that survived. our building was fine. i don t think we lost a window, which is amazing, but i know just down the road, someone s house got completely washed away, a pretty big house, and they escaped, you know, barely with their life, and i know there are other people who have not been so fortunate. i think as well, what s really been shocking for most people is how quickly the water rose. we re hearing about an animal shelter in town that is completely under water. we don t know if people there were able to get any of the animals put there for the storm out in time if they re able to open the cages of the people we helped last night, to give them water and towels. they realized the water was rising by the time it was on their steps. by the time they got everybody together to leave with the things they needed, the water,
over. i can t breathe. reporter: 33 passengers were asleep on the bottom deck when the flames consumed the ship, just before 3:30 in the morning on monday. five crew members were able to jump off ship, and were helped to safety by good samaritans on board a nearby ship. i wish i could have picked all 35 of them up, all of them, i got the space, you know, if they could have all just gotten in the water, i could have got them out of there. reporter: as the boat burned, frantic dispatchers tried to regain communication with the ship, desperate for more information. roger are they locked inside the boat, roger, can you get back on board and unlock the boat, unlock the door so they can get off? roger, you don t have any fire fighting gear at all, no fire extinguishers or anything. but no response heard on the recording. fire crews and emergency responders tried to battle the flames but it was too late. the fire was so intense that