Tropical Depression 9 is bearing down on Corpus Christi, Texas, but storm chaser Mike Scantlin reports from the scene that locals aren't too concerned.
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00:00 We're also tracking these new storms on the ground,
00:02 including one that's gonna be impacting us here,
00:05 that it should become tropical storm Herald by tomorrow
00:08 as it eyes landfall in South Texas.
00:10 Storm chaser Mike Scantlin joins us now
00:12 from North Padre Island, Texas.
00:14 Mike, can you set the scene for us there
00:16 on that barrier island of South Texas?
00:19 Give us an update on the current conditions.
00:21 - Yes, good evening.
00:23 Well, you can see it seems to be just a normal day
00:25 at the beach for most people here.
00:27 Most people that I've talked to
00:28 actually have a couple of raindrops
00:30 that just started falling on me here.
00:31 So the outer bands of this storm
00:33 are starting to move in just off shore here.
00:35 You can see this line right here
00:37 of developing cumulonimbus here,
00:39 but there's people fishing,
00:40 you got people jogging up and down,
00:41 you got people walking their dogs.
00:43 It's just another day,
00:44 just another Monday evening here on the North Padre.
00:47 - All right, Mike.
00:48 Well, so from what you say there,
00:50 people aren't really too worried right now,
00:52 but how are the locals that maybe you've talked to
00:55 preparing for this tropical system?
00:57 I mean, there is likely to be multiple types of flooding
01:00 with the coastal threats a little bit different
01:02 from what might happen farther inland.
01:04 - That's true.
01:06 We are gonna see a little bit of one to three foot storm surge
01:10 you know, for a tropical system coming in this time of year,
01:13 this is about as good as you could hope for.
01:15 But you know, this area is in a severe drought.
01:18 They need the rain really badly.
01:20 And fortunately the storm is moving just fast enough
01:23 to not really develop into anything stronger,
01:25 but slow enough to cause some issues
01:28 with that active weather storm max total
01:30 of up to 12 inches in those localized areas.
01:33 So I haven't seen anybody really preparing for anything.
01:36 I've talked to a couple of people
01:37 who are worried about this area
01:39 because it is mostly,
01:41 this coastal area is a lot of low lying areas,
01:44 a lot of just barely above sea level areas.
01:46 So this area is prone to flooding, aerial and flash flooding.
01:50 So that's gonna be the main issue here
01:52 and people aren't too worried about it.
01:54 - Okay, Mike, that's good to hear.
01:56 What are your plans during the storm?
01:57 You must have a plan in place to stay safe
02:00 while at the same time documenting the storm's impacts.
02:02 - Well, I'm kind of an extreme storm chaser at heart.
02:07 So I wanna go South to get into the main core
02:10 if it does manage to develop into something stronger,
02:13 but there's really not much South up here
02:15 between Corpus Christi and South Padre Island,
02:18 a lot of marshy areas, not a lot of roads.
02:20 Barrier Islands are just,
02:21 the roads are just barely above sea level.
02:23 So I'm not gonna chance it,
02:24 but I'll be up here covering mostly the flooding impacts
02:27 and then tomorrow we could also see some supercells
02:29 coming in on those bands as the storm moves West inland.
02:33 - That's a good point, Mike.
02:35 It's not just the tropical system itself.
02:37 It often will bring those severe thunderstorms with it.
02:40 Storm chaser, Mike Scanlon,
02:41 thank you very much for that live report
02:44 from the coast of Texas.
02:45 We appreciate it.
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