Devastation on the Horizon | Gathering Storm MEGA Episode | National Geographic

Oh, yeah, Creeko, let's just put you in the middle of a hurricane.

Somebody get me in the middle of a water

I'm going to die. Grand Isle Paradise.

Off the coast of Texas,

veteran Captain Carl Robie,

on board the fishing boat Cynthia Renee,

is hauling his first catch of the day. Come on, fish.

Got snapper on the deck.

Yeah, Carl up here doing multiple things,

driving the hauling the gear.

So, he's a man of many

The Cynthia Renee has been at sea

for 8 days during the hottest June on record.

Carl, we might get a little bit of rain today.

It'd be a welcome

change after all these scorching hot days.

Commercial fishing in the Gulf of Mexico

generates $900 million a year.

But for almost half the year,

boats operate under a constant threat.

June 1st is the start of hurricane season.

The Gulf Coast is home to 15

million Out in the ocean

are 3 and 1/2 thousand oil platforms.

All in one of the most notorious

hurricane hotspots in the world.

Now, some of these platforms,

as well as cargo ships,

government vessels, and fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico

will carry National Geographic

cameras for an entire

hurricane season to document

one year's storms across

our changing planet's on a scale never seen before.

Hello, my name is Kenneth McQuarter.

I ran out 22 Lima platform.

Cox Oil is one of the privately owned oil companies in the Gulf,

operating more than 500

platforms stretching from Florida to Texas.

All right, we're going to get on the helicopter.

We're going to go up here and meet Mr. Danny Domain.

There he is right there.

Takes care of all

our safety issues and compliance

In hurricane season, all eyes are fixed on the skies

to the southeast, towards the Atlantic and Caribbean.

This is the usual

route in for But just a few weeks into the season,

meteorologists have spotted a threatening

weather pattern coming from the opposite direction, the north.

Tim, what are you looking at here?

This is not where hurricanes usually come from.

If the system hits the Gulf,

high sea temperatures could cause it to intensify,

becoming a hurricane in less than a day.

Just let me know when we're almost to our turn.

We're almost to our turn.

220 miles off the Texas coast,

United States Coast Guard Cutter Cypress

is en route to a designated

location in the middle of the Gulf.

We've got this sling ready to go.

All right, we'll hook you to everything up. I'll climb.

The Cypress has a specialist

role among Coast Guard ships.

They work with the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,

or NOAA, to maintain

their network of ocean weather monitoring buoys.

Pretty important buoys, they provide

data in the Gulf of Mexico

to give early warning of storms.

A lot of commercial traffic goes through

um Gulf of Mexico.

It's in the trillions of dollars in terms of commercial industry, so pretty important mission.

Today, the crew of the Cypress

are deploying a weather buoy

that will give NOAA

live wind and wave data from more than 200 miles offshore.

But the weather will play a big part in determining

how smoothly this operation

We'll try to give you the best ride we can.

I'm not sure how much of a lee we'll be able to give you.

Conditions are going to pick up. All right.

They will be setting

a 4-ton concrete 12,000

feet of cable, and a fragile half-million-dollar weather buoy.

Even in calm weather,

this is a precarious operation.

There's weather coming in, Tim.

Is it coming fast,

or what they say? Pretty fast. It's raining.

We're seeing the buoy out. Yeah.

Hopefully just in time before it starts pouring down rain, cuz it's coming.

The storm has turned south

and is approaching the warm seas of the Gulf.

The National Weather Service issues coastal forecasts,

and now they're preparing

to announce storm warnings.

One reason we're getting concerned as it gets into the Gulf of Mexico, it's

going to start getting into this much warmer air.

So, these reds here

are much warmer water off the Louisiana

coast over the next few days,

where the upper level shear will become more favorable

for intensification and development.

Almost as soon as the system reaches the warm seas of the Gulf,

it intensifies to a sustained

wind speed of 40 mph,

making it officially a tropical storm

and earning it a name,

How would you say it?

It's been down raining pretty hard out See there?

There it is on the radar

out I'm just going to take this camera outside

so we all can see what it's like out there second gear and just

count Oh, yeah, boat needed a bath anyway.

Across the Gulf, ships

carrying our cameras are seeing the skies change above them.

It's clear this way.

Well, it don't look clear this way.

Feel the coolness air.

Got a big storm coming right now.

In the middle of the ocean,

the oil platforms are exposed.

Increasing winds are a big concern.

Hey, this is Devon,

electrician here at Grand Isle 22.

Got a little storm setting in leaning over Grand

Take a look at it.

We've kind of ducked behind the building

over here trying to stay out of the

Probably got 25-knot wind right now.

A powerful hurricane could completely

destroy an oil platform,

taking its crew down with it.

If Cox Oil feel the incoming

system is a threat,

they'll shut down the rigs,

seal the wells, and evacuate the workers.

Safety of the crews

and safety of the environment are paramount.

But a shutdown can cost millions

of dollars in lost oil revenues.

Hello, James Maroon, lead operator.

Mark Poitier, field foreman, 361, area two. Here we go.

We got tropical storm, possible hurricane evacuations.

Fixing to have a meeting about it.

In New Orleans, Louisiana,

Cox Oil's senior management

have all rig supervisors on the line.

They must decide if

and when to initiate

an All right, gentlemen,

you know, we all know the drill, we all know the exercise.

The final decision rests with Cox Oil President Rodney Dykes.

The main reason I wanted to get everybody together this afternoon

is to get everybody on task and everybody

We anticipate that we will have to take some sort of evacuation.

>> But hopefully we plan for the worst and don't have to execute.

All right, gentlemen, y'all have a good day and let's talk at 3:00.

Hurricanes can be devastating for the rigs.

Across the Gulf, Hurricane Katrina

destroyed 46 oil platforms

and damaged 100 pipelines.

Oil spills from damaged platforms

prompted strict new regulations,

enforcing costly measures in the face of a hurricane threat.

Rig operators now face

some tough It's walking up on the main.

uh weather they're talking about

is Waves are just way too rough.

We won't be able to get out on the boat. Hook. Hook.

Coming up on five. They need help. There we go. There we go. Hang on. Hold. Hold. Hold.

The The Guard crew

trying to deploy the buoy before the bad weather hits.

But this is not a job easily rushed.

>> The buoy smashing into the ship

could be a half million dollar mistake.

>> The buoy lands in the water

just as the rain and winds hit.

The buoy is surging

away from the ship on the wind and waves.

But the line is tangled

putting the deck crew at risk of being caught and pulled overboard.

The sudden arrival of a storm

has made the job of deploying

a weather buoy a lot more difficult.

Working in the daylight,

the Coast Guard crew unsnagged the line.

Once all the line is out,

the crew drops the anchor.

A four-ton block of concrete

which will take almost 15 minutes to reach the ocean floor.

We are already receiving

real-time information from it.

We got the buoys in.

They're working Everybody's getting the data that they need and

they're spitting it out to the

Data from the buoys

is invaluable to forecasters

trying to predict the path

and intensity of storms.

But it's not enough on its own.

The call has gone out to launch one of NOAA's Hurricane Hunters.

The specially equipped Lockheed

Orion P-3 aircraft fly from NOAA's Aircraft

Operations base in North Florida

and they're carrying our cameras.

So we are buckling

up because we're about to get into

some chop on our way to Tropical Storm Barry.

Almost as soon as they're airborne,

they're into rough weather.

On the ground near the Florida Panhandle

and the center of the ever-building

storm, the marine units of the Okaloosa

County Sheriff's Office is responding

to a distress call.

An inshore leisure boat has been caught in the rapidly growing ocean swell.

Tropical Storm Barry is churning up the

The stranded boat may be in real

The small sheriff's boat is immediately

getting knocked around by the waves.

On board the fishing boat Cynthia Renee,

Carl and his crew have also hit serious

My hydraulics are hooked to the main

So if I don't have main engine,

I don't have hydraulics.

Without hydraulics, I can't lift my gear back up.

His engine has shut off

right in the middle of fishing

and he can't get it started again.

No engine, no power.

The Cynthia Renee is a sitting duck

in front of the rapidly

building storm A tropical

storm watch has been issued.

Tropical cyclone expected to form by Thursday

over the north central Gulf of Mexico. That's us.

Coming right up our

Of course it is.

Of course it is.

My name is Danny Domangue.

I am the compliance technician.

We're in right here. Big lightning.

This is how fast a storm can pop up in the Gulf of Mexico.

On the oil platforms

in the path of Tropical Storm Barry,

Cox Oil must now decide

if they are going to shut down production and evacuate.

This is our production foreman, Larry Pickens.

He is getting on a hurricane

call and possible evacuation. Mr.

Larry, may I pass?

NOAA's forecasters now expect

intensifying Storm Barry to become a hurricane within days.

Cox Oil has taken the big decision to shut down production,

seal oil wells, and evacuate

51 platforms in the storm's

We're still seeing, you know,

4 to 5 We're going to stand by.

Coming up hard on the left.

In Destin, Florida, Tropical Storm Barry is making the seas rougher by the

I want to stand by.

It won't be long before the stranded

boat starts to succumb to the waves. You okay? Yeah. Did that hurt?

A freak wave has crashed

through the screen showering

the driver with glass.

He's still conscious, but he and his passenger

both need medical attention.

The Coast Guard are already on their way,

but for now, the pontoon

boat must face the waves alone.

Mhm, maybe a hurricane.

We got to go get him.

We got a man sitting out there right now that can't even crank his boat up.

He's drifting east right now as we

and then knowing you got tropical

weather coming at you?

Not good at all.

Hey everybody, change of plans.

We got to go help Carl.

In Dulac, Louisiana, Captain Donny of the fishing boat Intrepid

II has received Carl's distress call.

Carl's boat has been adrift in the open ocean for more than 24 hours.

It's 140 miles offshore

and it will take Donny at least another day to reach them.

They're in the life of a fisherman.

They're in the Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah, surface low center

just off our left wing about 10 miles.

In the skies above the Gulf,

NOAA 42 is beginning another run into the center of Tropical Storm Barry.

Radio transmitters fitted with temperature,

pressure, and wind speed monitors

are dropped into the storm

to give a real-time

cross-section of the intensifying cyclone.

Tropical Storm Barry is picking up power

We're just east of the storm track, but we're certainly feeling a little bit

of it, I think, right now.

It's still a little rough, a little choppy out.

And I broke down.

And I drifted all the way over here.

Carl Robichaux has been adrift

for 3 days without an engine,

and he continues to film on our cameras.

There it comes, All over the Gulf of Mexico,

vessels carrying our cameras

alter their course, doing what they can to avoid the worst

of the incoming storm.

But the Intrepid II

has other The fishing vessel Cynthia Renee

we're towing a friend Carl.

We're having to tow him back in the Dulac, Louisiana.

We towed his little fellow over 100 miles

and uh Donny and the crew of the Intrepid II

found the Cynthia Renee

not a moment too

We got a hurricane

coming, it looks Getting pretty nasty already.

Barry is now within 24

hours of the Louisiana coast.

Tropical Storm Barry is about to come come ashore tomorrow.

Uh I'm just coming here to check up on my boat.

Make sure it's all good.

Ron Dufrene, owner of the shrimp boat Mr.

Jug, should have been halfway across the Gulf of Mexico by now.

This is some of the feeder bands.

It's out here right now.

Once it gets south of us, the wind's going to shift and start coming

from that from that direction.

The Texas shrimping season starts in a few days.

Ron had hoped to be there,

but with a brewing hurricane

now just offshore, it's too dangerous

to They have a season that's opening up,

and I'm 3 days away from that tomorrow.

It doesn't take me 3 days to get to where I want to be.

So, if I have any intent to make it down there, I'm going to

have to leave as soon as possible.

Slack off on the bow, please.

The crew of the Intrepid II

have arrived in Dulac, Louisiana,

their rescue mission that's the boat we towed in. The Cynthia Renee.

He drifted 3 days before we went and got I owe him. I owe him.

Or else I'd be drifting around out there right now.

With a freaking hurricane coming this way and drifting? No, thank you.

But despite now being tied up at the dock,

Carl and his crew are not clear of danger yet.

Some of the models

in particular showing upwards of 20 inches of rainfall

for for isolated locations.

So, the flash flood risk is really ramping up with this system.

Could be some catastrophic

uh life-threatening flash flooding.

The other issue is it slowed down as we're looking at 3 to 6

ft of storm surge.

So, uh that and battering waves on top of that.

So, it's something we really are concerned about

along the Louisiana coast.

Major system bearing down on the US, the Gulf bracing.

Mandatory evacuations have now been ordered for parts of the coast.

3 hours before landfall,

wind speeds hit 75

mph, and Tropical Storm Barry becomes Hurricane Barry.

It's blowing about 70 knots right here. Holy cow.

It is blowing now.

Get where we are. Dulac, Louisiana. Dulac, Louisiana. It's coming in.

The hurricane is hitting here.

As night falls on southern Louisiana,

Category 1 Hurricane Barry arrives.

Here, you might as well cuz I'm going inside.

Yeah, I'm staying out. Yeah, I am. I am. There goes Cam.

We're in the hurricane. Oh, you.

It's not blowing in here. Blowing nothing.

Carl Robichaux and his crew

are just thankful they're not still at sea.

Blowing about 80 knots right

It's not a lot of wind. It is blowing.

It's coming ashore right now.

Hurricane Barry's bizarre track continues

the next day as it moves north

into Arkansas, almost making a complete

and breaking rainfall records as it

The tail end of Barry brings

a new Storm surge.

Coastal areas experience almost

8 ft of Okay,

yeah, we on our way to boat this morning,

Sunday morning after Hurricane

The bayou coming over the banks.

Just when you think you got it bad, it could be worse.

It could be these poor souls,

Barry, Ron Dufrene can't afford to wait for the winds to completely pass.

We're heading out into the Gulf. Headed to Texas.

Got uh 400 miles to go to where I want to be.

The Texas shrimping season opens in 2 days,

and Ron is 3 days away.

It's a little choppy, but it's going okay.

Offshore, rig workers can begin to make their way back to their platforms.

The shutdown has already cost the Gulf of Mexico

oil industry almost a billion

They're not wasting any time getting back online.

You kind of see how the weather affects our work.

The hottest summer on record passes

with no more hurricanes in the Gulf.

It's been an absolutely beautiful day.

Like calm, no wind, very hot.

As October begins, marine workers can start to hope that they may have got

But sea temperatures are still alarmingly high.

Extremely hot outside today. Water temperature 89°.

It's so damn hot,

the sea goes, I have to put my ass in the water just to cool down.

Warm seas mean hurricane

formation is always a threat,

and 2 weeks into October,

it's becoming a reality.

>> A build-up of clouds

by the Yucatan Peninsula,

Mexico, is moving slowly

If it develops into a storm,

it has a run of more than a thousand

miles over warm ocean

toward America's Gulf Coast.

These are ideal conditions

for a It's another day

on board Saipem 7000,

and a breezy day, I would say.

In the Bay of Campeche,

west of the Yucatan,

the 190,000-ton Saipem 7000,

the third largest semi-submersible

crane ship in the world,

is building an oil platform,

and they're carrying our cameras.

As the growing storm approaches,

Saipem 7000 has to detach

from the platform for safety reasons.

The weather is getting a bit more fresh.

Winds are 18 knots.

she's a powerful lady, this ship.

So, we can really withstand

not really a storm,

6 7 Beaufort scale,

yeah, we can stay in position quite quite well.

They get the ship clear of the platform just in time.

That is actually the platform that we just built.

The incoming weather is almost on them.

If faced with hurricane force winds, the ship could be smashed

into the new platform.

They're safer battling the storm alone.

Luckily, we're out cuz this storm is coming in

with some strong winds and heavy rains.

We're just right in time.

It's getting wet, so we'll be right

I'll be right back up at the bridge. Come back. Come back.

Did you say 22

pallets on the wrist truck.

We need every net out. Good boy.

On the Texas coast,

skies are clear, but forecasts

are now showing increasing

winds and cloud beginning to build.

This morning, we have a little bit of a snafu.

We have a lot more

equipment than what we thought we were going to have going out.

This is the mad dash.

Winds supposed to get up to 30 to 40 mph.

So, uh we're going to be running pretty hard trying to get it all

out to Outside most major ports,

there is an offshore

anchorage where incoming cargo ships queue for a space to unload

and outgoing ships can drop anchor and await their next instructions.

Ryan Marine operates a delivery

and supply service to ships anchored outside Houston's ports.

Radios on, radars checked.

We're good to If a hurricane

develops, deliveries to ships

will be cut off.

They need supplies immediately.

But the bigger the waves,

the trickier the operation becomes.

I'm going to have blood all over the

Sea conditions in the northern Gulf of Mexico

are much worse than forecasts suggested this morning.

It's swinging back this way now.

So, I'm having to run away from him.

The wind has got this ship

swinging back and forth

on its anchor chain.

>> So, it's going back and forth about

30° on each side.

Now, it's going the other way, so I got to chase him.

Now, it's going back. Holy moly.

I've got about 2 more hours of this.

I'm going to go ahead and shut off the camera now.

Save some of the battery for

We've seen some pretty strong winds from the radar.

In fact, we've seen

nearly hurricane force winds

uh from the radar.

John Zawislak, field operations

director of NOAA's Hurricane

Research Division, is closely

watching the latest data on the storm as it comes in.

At this point, the Hurricane Center still expect those winds to increase kind of

in the next 12 hours or so as it heads towards its landfall.

You know, this is the kind of storm that it doesn't look

like a hurricane, doesn't look like a tropical storm on on satellite, and it

might fool some people, but it does have strong winds.

The weather system is building,

but its irregular shape

means it's not yet classified

as a tropical storm,

and storm warnings are not being issued.

John will now head to NOAA's

Aircraft Operations Base in Lakeland, Florida

to fly with the hurricane hunters

into the eye of the storm

to find out just how bad it really is.

Pretty clear circulation center we saw earlier today.

Plenty of precipitation up to the north,

there's a lot of slop out there in in the Gulf of Mexico,

but going to quickly move

uh northeast over the next 24 to 36 hours and accelerate

towards towards the uh US Gulf Coast.

The storm is heading for the US.

The question now is how powerful

it will be when it gets there.

Got a push boat coming. No traffic inbound.

In Louisiana, the fishing boat Saucy Wench

is heading to sea

despite the incoming storm.

We're heading down the bayou now after

being stuck on land for 4 days due to repairs

for our uh autopilot system.

I got some risks

uh risks that trip might not be profitable

cuz we might not have enough time to put enough fish on the boat.

The other risk we have is there's the big storm coming this weekend.

The path of the storm puts them on a collision course for now.

But Shawn and his first mate, Creco,

are gambling on being able to skirt around

the worst of it. All right.

It's all good because we can make money off of this trip if we

can catch some fish.

We're going to make some money.

Got our first couple of sets out.

See, it's already a little choppy out here.

Tropical Depression off of Mexico

is uh working its way up here.

Looks like projected path is going to hit Alabama, just missed Louisiana.

Well, that's what we're dealing with, so

maybe we'll get some

uh storm action this trip.

Show you what it's like to be on the back deck. Oh, man.

Pretty rough out there.

200 miles south, the approaching

weather system is still disorganized,

but it now has sustained

winds over 40 mph

and is upgraded to Tropical

Storm All these lightning storms.

I don't even know if they're real, are

Those who have chosen

to stay at sea

must now live with their decisions.

It's too late to turn back.

The Cox Oil rigs

are now bracing for

Uh let's just hunker down and ride this thing out.

It does look like it's moving pretty quickly.

You guys in Mobile,

Main Pass, West Delta, Front Channel, stay safe.

Don't take any chances.

We're not looking for any heroes.

This is Bill Hill. It's October 18th.

We got a tropical storm coming through.

And uh it should be

hitting us in about 3 hours.

We're going to have a meeting

about what we're going to do out here.

Weather's looking pretty rough, though.

Waves just started picking up.

Out here in Mobile 916,

watching the seas roll in, the clouds roll in from Tropical Storm Nestor.

We got uh 8-ft

seas, uh roughly 40 mph winds.

As you can see, all

to the southwest, uh the dark clouds rolling in

from the leading edge of it.

8-ft waves are hitting the base of platform

Mobile 916, but the center of Nestor

is still 3 hours away.

In Lakeland, Florida, the hurricane

hunters are preparing to get airborne.

John will be leading the data gathering.

Storm is moving north.

Uh seeing decent tropical storm winds.

We're going to leave out here in Lakeland.

Uh a lot of weather en route.

There's a lot of that rain

in the storm is on the actually the east side between us and the

center, so we're going to be

trying to get through that.

The vast reach of Nestor

is still impacting the Saipem 7000. No way.

As the storm rages,

their vessel becomes a shelter

for an unlikely visitor.

The ship is so huge

that a flock of exhausted

birds have landed on it looking to hide from the storm.

Look at these guys. The birds.

Look at these guys. Poor guys.

I think they have to get inside the electrical store. It's happening here.

Hundreds of tiny birds

migrating from the US

to South America are now perched

on any available surface of the ship.

On the back side.

Definitely some really strong

thunderstorms out to our east right now.

We're getting a lot of lightning.

John and the Hurricane Hunter flight

are now in Nestor.

Yeah, still seeing 50-55 knot surface winds.

We're getting a significant

wave We're really interested in these wave heights near the center to the north

and the east because that's what's about to be experienced

in the Florida panhandle.

The flight will provide essential

data for forecasters to predict what ships in the Gulf

and Florida residents can expect to face in the morning.

Nestor is showing no sign of weakening.

I'm going to do a testimonial

with the to see what he thinks about this

So, Cap, what do you think about this

Uh well, it's nice in the cabin here.

Sadly, the crew can't stay in the cabin.

They have 4 mi

of line to haul in.

What the about 30 knots?

You can pick that one up too, even though it's raining hard.

You wouldn't think you could pick up one in the rain,

but it's so windy right

The wind is gusting

harder and harder, hurling

rain sideways into the boat.

It's really cold and stinging.

Very cold, it's blowing.

50 degrees, 50 degrees.

Wow, this is 40 knots right now.

Can you get it out of here?

Can you get it out of here?

You can feel the pressure drop.

You know something's not right.

You got to try not to panic.

There might be a bit of a waterfall. Hold on! Hold on! Hold on, sir!

The wind is getting stronger. the binding. Watch the binding.

I'M GOING TO THIS IS GOING TO BE GOOD.

OH, YEAH, CREEKO, I think we're putting them in a hurricane.

We had a lot of gear in the water.

Thousands of dollars worth of gear

and thousands of >> dollars worth of fish on that gear.

I couldn't take a chance of leaving it out there like that and losing

all of Hold it.

Don't let it go.

After 45 minutes, Creeko and the crew start to emerge

on the other side of the Watch your fingers. Watch your fingers.

You're staring in the face of death at that point. Hold with that.

We got A BOTTOM FLOWER. I MADE IT.

Pressed by a cold front to the north,

Tropical Storm Nestor was unable

to form the circular

shape of a conventional

hurricane, preventing it from

But it still brought 4 ft of storm surge to parts of the Florida

coastline and a deluge of rainfall.

And in the Tampa region,

a tornado outbreak in Nestor's

outer bands caused damage valued

at over $100 million.

This hurricane season will be remembered

in the Gulf for weird,

unruly storms and hurricanes that defied prediction.

But as the world's climate shifts

further from its baseline

level, this season of surprises

looks like a forerunner

of much more yet to come.

Outside, it is pretty much flat calm.

But by tomorrow, it's not going to be pretty.

A hurricane force storm warning is in effect for the Bering Sea.

Extreme caution is advised for all shipping.

Wind, 55 knots, increasing to 70 knots.

Waves, 33 ft, building to 47 ft by 1800.

This is our boat, the Aleutian Lady.

She's been in our family since 1989.

Very strong, very stout,

very So, this is our beautiful little girl.

Captain Rick Shelford is a veteran fisherman

working out of Dutch Harbor,

As he prepares to head into the most notoriously

dangerous fishing ground on Earth,

Rick has been given a camera

by National Geographic to show us his

My kids are going to get a kick out of this.

I don't even take selfies

on the my phone.

Let's try this out.

Let's hope it works. Here we go.

I'm Captain Rick of the Aleutian Lady

we are getting ready to go out and fish

the 2019 red king crab season.

I hope I don't make a fool out of myself. >> So, all right.

I will chat at you here later

and have a good day.

The camera with Captain Rick is one of a thousand

that National Geographic placed

with people who work at sea

for one typhoon season

wherever storms might strike.

What Captain Rick doesn't know

is that soon he'll be heading into one of the biggest

and most powerful storms in history.

Good afternoon, COJ tops JTWC.

Starting in the upper levels in the northern hemisphere,

uh on the IR shot, we were seeing some extra spinning.

At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,

home port for the US Navy's Pacific

the Joint Typhoon Warning Center

is tracking a storm in the western Pacific.

This just came in.

All right, forecast intensity.

That has increased significantly.

Hurricane force storms in this area are called typhoons.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center

is there to alert US military

assets if one is considered a threat.

The new storm is still a long way from land,

but its behavior is troubling.

It's intensified far more rapidly

than Predicted to pass safely to the north of

it's heading west towards Asia.

The officer on duty is Lieutenant Caitlin Fine.

If this really is rapidly intensifying,

our next warning will likely be more intense.

It's terrifyingly rapid growth has marked this typhoon

as a special case

and even inspired its name,

a Filipino word meaning speed.

As they watch the intensification

becomes even more explosive.

And it's just getting started.

We see rapid intensification

pretty frequently, but this degree of rapid intensification

was really, really fast.

This is Tropical Storm Hagibis

at 50 knots on the 6th of October at 0600 Zulu.

And you can see

that it's wrapping, but it's not that well organized.

It's not that strong.

24 hours later, at 0600

on the 7th of October,

it is 150 and then

160 knots, and then 165 knots.

Overnight, Hagibis has undergone

some of the most rapid intensification

ever Its maximum wind speeds have increased

by 100 mph, making Hagibis

a category 5 super

the most powerful storm of the year anywhere on Earth.

At 950 mi across,

it is one of the largest

typhoons ever In a matter of days,

this mega storm could make landfall in East Asia.

Around the world, our cameras

are with forecasters as they battle to predict where Hagibis

will go and who lies in its path.

So, just 1 day later, and the model guidance has shifted significantly from from this. Bigger spread.

Our model guidance showed us a straight northward path

there at the end through 120 hours.

Then, 1 day later,

model guidance has shifted

showing a more pronounced

recurve and landfall on Tokyo.

The forecasts are unanimous.

In less than 3 days' time,

Hagibis will make a direct hit on Tokyo,

Japan, one of the most populated

regions on As Hagibis

bears down on Japan,

vessels filming for National Geographic

must react fast to the news it's headed their way. Good morning, everyone.

BW Shinano at Kashima Port.

Well, you can see the

seas are not so bad at the moment,

but in next 2 days' time,

it would be very, very bad weather over here.

And probably the port would be closed down.

Oil tanker the BW

Shinano is heading from Kashima

near Tokyo to China,

but her planned route would put her on a collision course with Hagibis.

Instead, Captain Talati makes the decision

to depart immediately and head north

and then west to put the Japanese

islands between her and the typhoon.

Hagibis is now less than 24 hours from Japan.

Japan bracing as a powerful

typhoon is expected to make landfall

in the coming Japan has issued its highest

possible level of warning

with 1/3 of its entire population

advised to evacuate or move to a higher floor.

Everybody is quite concerned

with the strength of what's about to hit us.

Those that remain are racing

to board up their houses

and businesses, and the nation's many fishermen

are moving their boats as far inland

as they The water

in the river is moving faster than normal,

and apparently there's going to be huge storm surges,

and I'm a little

curious to see what effect that will have on this river.

Like, is it going to overflow?

Shinano's detour into the Sea of Japan

means she is more than 400

mi from the heart of Hagibis,

but still experiencing its effects. Captain reporting.

Overcast skies, strong winds,

rough This is the effect

of the storm Hagibis.

Had she not moved,

it could have been much worse.

As Hagibis meets cooler water and hits

its winds de-intensify to the equivalent

of a category 2 hurricane,

but not enough to make Japan safe.

As it makes landfall,

the supercell thunderstorms from inside

the typhoon spawn a violent tornado.

Hagibis' large size and the long time it's spent over open ocean

means it is carrying

an unprecedented volume of water,

which falls as rain.

As its core crosses

Japan's main island of Honshu,

some areas receive 3 ft of rainfall

in just 24 hours.

Rivers burst their banks,

and mudslides engulf houses.

Catastrophic flooding, rather than high winds,

have become the killer

in this Hagibis causes

$15 billion worth of

and 98 people tragically

lose their As Hagibis

leaves behind a broken

Japan, forecasters fear it may not be the end of this rule-breaking monster.

Thousands of miles away,

our cameras are with crab fishermen

in the Aleutian chain

waiting to start their season.

But Hagibis is about to change everything.

It's going to be

a heck of a blow with a lot of wind and a lot of waves.

After devastating Japan, Typhoon Hagibis is mutating.

Having made landfall in Tokyo,

we determined that it was extratropical.

And in this infrared image

here at 1000 Z on the 13th of October,

um you can see

all the convection is displaced

as it's being blown away

by the jet at the upper levels of the

As it leaves behind

the warm waters that birthed it,

Hagibis is undergoing a

No longer drawing energy from the heat of the tropical waters,

it is now powered by the extreme

difference in temperature where hot and cold air meet

to become an extratropical cyclone.

Less organized, more chaotic,

and much, much bigger.

It's going to head northeast

carried along by the jet

into the Bering Sea.

Certainly, you know, it's still moving on with a lot of energy.

In its extratropical form,

Hagibis has entered the jet stream

and is being catapulted

northeast, directly towards the Aleutian Islands chain

and the Bering Sea,

home of the Alaskan king crab fleet. Good morning.

We're going to do a briefing at the lead desk.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The Aleutians are west of the Alaska

The National Weather Service in Anchorage

call an urgent briefing

to issue warnings for the fishing fleet

that Hagibis is coming.

Let's uh take a quick look at what's going on on satellite

here, and uh things are relatively quiet out

our windows, but uh out over the Bering, things are starting to

take shape with the remnants of Hagibis.

And so, that is kind of our forecast

uh problem of the day.

In under 48 hours,

Hagibis will enter the Bering Sea,

bringing with it waves in excess

of 40 ft right where the crab boats will be

The weather service issued urgent warnings to the fleet

to change their departure plans

and avoid the Bering

The vessels carrying our cameras

must make a choice their lives

could depend To ride out the storm at sea and risk being rolled by

a wave, or to crowd into the port

>> where winds could smash their boats

Security call of Carib Sea outbound east channel.

Observe her opposing traffic.

Channel 16, channel 9. Carib Sea.

The possibility of 40 to 50-ft

seas, 70-knot winds, it's just

it's not worth the risk.

With just 12 hours before Hagibis

the Carib Sea Marie and dozens of other crab boats

will take shelter in Dutch Harbor. We're in.

It's a tight squeeze, but we got it.

this is us getting the boat ready

for really bad weather in Dutch Harbor.

We don't want to part any lines.

We don't want to break free.

We want to stay secure,

safe, so we can sleep at night and not get woke up at 3:00 a.m. to fix stuff. Tie-up job.

With so many vessels now in port,

one boat coming loose in the typhoon

could destroy half the fleet. Right there. They're good? You're even.

We pull the lines even,

so they pull at the same time and get tied at the same time.

Then, it's twice as

The king crab season opens tomorrow.

Under normal circumstances, boats would race to be first

onto the best crab grounds,

saving time and money.

But the 40-ft waves

predicted from could sink a crab boat at sea.

The Pinnacle is using her time in port

to pre-bait her pots.

Yeah, there's a bunch of us here.

Crabbers are waiting for this to pass through.

So, we're uh still on a little pre-bait.

Normally, we do this on the way up to the grounds,

but it's going to be kind of rough on the way out, so the

guys are doing this here in town.

He is stirring up some herring and some

Hagibis is now within 500

mi of Dutch Outside,

it is pretty much flat calm,

the calm before the storm. Beautiful evening.

Crew is able to work still out on deck,

doing their gear work.

Not much wind at all,

but by tomorrow, it's not going to be pretty.

The US Coast Guard has a specialist

asset in the Bering Sea,

a powerful ex-salvage cutter, the Alex Haley.

One of the big challenges

with this particular super typhoon

is the way that it's going across the entire Bering

and Gulf of Alaska.

As we look at the Bering Sea,

this whole uh is going to be affected by super typhoon Hagibis.

To provide cover for any crab boats that opted to weather the storm at

Commander Go Lightly needs to move his vessel towards the storm.

Search and rescue is always a mission for the Coast Guard.

>> Um and up there with the fishing fleet, a $6.4

billion industry, um we're there to help protect that fishing fleet.

Hagibis is less than 8 hours away. Dutch Harbor's here.

Most of this storm is going to be really

pretty nasty in this area.

Um I'm going to go around the corner here to Beaver Inlet,

and basically position the ship in there.

Um the fishing fleet, as they go up and operate, are primarily going to

probably be maybe up in this area when they're looking for the crabs.

Um and so, if we needed to, we can get out

and get up to try and help them, but we're going to have to

bang into some pretty heavy seas to to get Roger 32.

The Alex Haley needs to move now

in order to be in position

to protect herself and the fishing fleet.

The 40-ft waves expected

from Hagibis could overwhelm

her if she was caught in the open.

We are, as you can see by the bulldog,

we are the bulldog of the Bering Sea.

That's what we've nicknamed ourselves, and we're pretty proud about that.

On route to her new location,

the Alex Haley has a chance to practice the helicopter

maneuvers required to undertake search and rescue in a storm.

Winds over 30 to 35

knots, seas over 8 to 10 ft.

My ability to launch a helicopter is significantly degraded.

So, we're constantly training and trying to build in that that expertise.

Alaska warning point, Anchorage weather.

Uh good afternoon, sir.

We've issued uh correction, we've upgraded

our high wind watch

to a high wind warning for zone 195.

We're to looking at winds of

55 to 65 with gusts to 75 mph. Roger that. Anchorage weather, clear.

At the National Weather Service in Anchorage,

the forecast is rapidly

Hagibis is moving further north,

but it's grown so huge,

it's pulling in another storm

and steering it towards the Aleutians.

Up here in the infrared

imagery, we can see Hagibis.

And this is our next

uh storm moving into the Bering.

When two large storms

come within 1,000 mi,

they can begin to circle one

This rare phenomenon can alter the tracks of both storms

in a way that's dangerously unpredictable.

As it approaches the Bering Sea,

Hagibis has sucked in a second

major storm system from Russia

and sent it spinning

in a completely new direction.

You can see the circulation

center of Hagibis starting to move ashore along the Siberian

coast, and it's helping funnel down some colder air from Siberia.

And then with this storm getting started to get really wrapped up, that's helping

pull the dry air in even more.

That's why the hurricane force winds will continue

to track across the southern Bering.

Due to the power of Hagibis,

the second storm, which would have passed

safely over the western Aleutians,

is now heading directly

towards the crab fleet.

They lucked out and and missed the worst conditions yesterday.

Uh that's not going to be the case with this storm.

It's going to come right across them.

For one hurricane season,

National Geographic gave 1,000

cameras to fishing boats and ships working in the world's stormiest seas.

Right now, some of those vessels

are in the path

of the biggest storm

of the One of our cameras

is riding on board the tanker

Ardmore Dauntless, taking a load of canola

oil from Portland, Oregon to South Korea.

Ahead lie vast storms

stirred up in the fallout from Typhoon Hagibis.

Despite her high-tech weather systems

and route advice from Ardmore HQ,

there's no escape from the giant seas.

Captain Isaac is faced by bad weather on all sides.

The weather facts we have received now and discovering almost entire Pacific region.

So, there is no option of altering

and getting away from this

We are expecting the wave heights to be hitting around 6 to 7 m.

And as per our company policy,

we have to avoid

the waves of more than 5 m.

With bad weather in every direction,

the Ardmore Dauntless is facing waves of more than

22 ft as she picks a route

right through the storm.

One of the world's busiest

shipping lanes passes right through the Bering Sea,

the great circle route

connecting the USA with Asia.

Great circle route is essentially

like a highway on water,

where you're going to just have a lot of marine traffic.

And you get one of these systems coming through there

with significant winds and waves,

it poses an inherent

hazard to not only the vessels

themselves, but the crews on board.

As she travels further west,

the waves striking the Dauntless

are getting The safety of the crew is paramount.

Watch out for the high waves which are going to

hit us from the beam.

A ship being hit by waves from the side,

or its beam, is vulnerable

to taking on water and even sinking.

We'll be passing south of Aleutian Islands,

and we have extremely

bad weather conditions in

entire Pacific region now.

The Dauntless is now 250

mi south of the Aleutian Islands chain,

and the ocean is becoming ever more turbulent.

We are expecting wave heights to hit almost 7 to 8 m,

winds to go to 40

50 The Dauntless is now facing

waves up to 30 ft.

Bering Sea mariners know this shipping

has ended in disaster in the past.

In 2004, the merchant ship Selendang

Ayu was caught in a storm

attempting this passage between the USA and Asia.

She ran aground and started to break apart.

The vessel that came to her rescue

was US Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley.

If you end up in the water, it's minutes

of survival, and even with a dry suit and proper gear,

um it's a few hours.

They were able to rescue 20 of the crew

but ship, cargo, and six mariners

were Lessons from selling

IU are always in the back of your mind.

Just kind of showing that this could happen again. Good morning.

Probably look like hell. Didn't sleep well.

Hurricane hit you this

has come to Dutch Harbor in force.

Super Typhoon Hagibis, the largest

and most destructive storm on Earth so far this year,

has caused chaos in the Bering

sucking in a second major storm system,

and hurling it right towards

the king crab fleet

hiding out in Dutch Harbor.

We keep blowing out our buoys

because we're searching into the boat next to us.

So, we got to keep adding buoys so we don't

uh smash into the other boat.

But, it is gnarly.

There was recorded winds this

of 97 and it is just about kicker.

A few hundred miles to the south,

the oil tanker Dauntless

has reached the halfway point between the USA and Asia.

Her route has taken her directly

into storms south of the Aleutians.

This far north, storms

bring not only high winds and waves,

but also ice, snow, and freezing waters.

Dauntless is dangerously I'm expecting

the temperature to be dropping to minus two, minus three almost,

and that will be sub-zero,

and we have to ensure

all our lines are properly drained.

This is a snow storm coming now.

Extreme cold temperatures can ruin her cargo of canola oil.

They can also freeze firefighting

and lifeboat rigs, rendering

life-saving equipment useless right when it's needed

Dauntless still has 10 days

and 2,000 miles in front of her before she reaches

How was it back there?

It was very windy. Very cold.

Pretty nautical this morning.

Well, we did this good.

There goes my hat.

The transit of Hagibis

through the Bering Sea

has forced the Dutch Harbor fishermen

to miss the start of the king crab season.

Having paid out for fuel,

bait, and food, they need to fill their quotas with the best crab

if they're going to make a profit.

Faster we get this done,

faster I get to go home to my family,

my wife, three kids.

Waiting for this wind to die down here for going on 3 days now, I guess.

So, anyway, I think

uh we're about ready to take off.

But, the sea is dangerously unsettled.

The effect of Hagibis,

followed by the second storm it attracted,

is that major waves

are now expected in the Bering.

We are weighting our stack down.

You get movement and the pots are swaying back and forth.

It makes the boat roll.

And if we have a loose stack

and we're rolling, we'll be good when we uh get out.

The There's a chance that the boat will

Capsizing is the biggest killer of Bering Sea fishermen,

and the reason this is the most dangerous job in America.

It can get pretty nasty out there, so we try to do everything we

can ahead of time at the dock here

to make sure it's stable and secure.

With the pots secure,

they head out into the freezing

Bering for the overnight

journey to their fishing grounds.

They are about to find out what Hagibis

has done to the Bering.

So, weather started to pick up even more.

Uh we're getting gusts up to 45,

seas up to 16 ft.

So, we are going to jog tonight,

try to get to sleep.

Now, with the boat moving and slamming around,

not looking forward to it.

It's going to be brutal.

So, all right, I'm going to bed.

All across the Pacific,

ships are filming for National

Geographic as they feel the fallout from Hagibis.

The ship's direction given the increase uh sea state spray,

and the relative winds proceeding to 55 knots over the deck

that place the Ever Next out of bounds, sir. Copy. All right, sir.

The Canadian Navy vessel

HMCS Ottawa is heading home from Hawaii

to British Columbia after a long tour in the western Pacific

enforcing sanctions on North Korea.

The ship's steer 045.

But, her route has her on a collision course with the shock waves

of the Aleutian storms.

Okay, what you got this morning?

Lots of weather, sir.

Uh here's some of the systems that are affecting us.

There's this low pressure system just in the Aleutians,

and it's got that

pretty tight pressure gradients with the strong winds

pushing a lot of seas towards us.

To get home on time,

they have no choice

but to push through the waves.

The closer they get to home,

the worse the conditions will get.

We sort of got one route to get us home on time.

Uh so, we'll be going through some of that weather.

So, we're looking at upwards

of 6 m, possibly

more for seas as we transit home.

Navy frigates are huge and heavy.

Instead of being thrown

up and down on top of the swell,

their size allows them to punch through waves

coming straight at the bow.

But, carrying out routine work always becomes much more challenging

in heavy Here we have the latest surface analysis.

Impacts, basically just uh strong winds and

projected 4 to 5 m seas.

They could still build from now, but

still severe impact on operations.

Not really good for launching the boats or anything. Any questions, sir? No. Okay, thanks. Thank you. Eight systems engaged. Shoot. Roger.

You find that they're a little short?

They They were, for sure.

For an active warship,

the building seas offer a chance to practice

range accuracy in rough conditions.

If they have to do this for real,

it won't be in perfect Cease fire. Make guns safe. Roger, red range. Roger, red range. Shoot us, please.

In the Aleutians, Captain Rick has finally

been able to start fishing.

It is so amazing

to be off the dock.

We have been tied up for way too long.

So, time to play and have some fun.

Every time I leave the dock, it's exciting.

It's a new adventure.

It's part of my blood.

It's part of my soul,

it's being out at sea.

They are fishing 170

miles northeast of Dutch Harbor.

But, Super Typhoon Hagibis

has brought havoc across the entire

Bering Sea, churning out giant waves

and winds still gusting at hurricane force.

Mike four, chief engineer.

We are king crab fishing in this nasty

Probably blowing about 45

right now, 20-ft seas.

It's a real trick for the captain to drive up on the gear. Very specifically.

Let's go ahead and grab

Throw the hook out straight.

After capsizing, falling overboard

is the most common cause of death for crab

Accidents on the deck

also account for a high number of fatalities.

Okay, I'm going to walk around here, do some work. Coiling the line.

And slowly throws the hook.

He's been here 8 years. That's Noah.

Noah has been here 6 years.

Right now, he's on the hydraulic

Very important that he does it right.

He's got to be down. And wide.

The passage of the typhoon

has caused an unexpected problem.

Warmer water swept in from the tropics with the storm

can cause king crab to shift hundreds of miles,

making them harder to find.

The Aleutian Lady is turning up a lot

of undersized crab, which must be thrown

If she can't make up for lost time now,

the risks will have been for nothing.

The Ardmore Dauntless has been pushing through 20-ft

waves for over a week.

Drawing on his experience,

Captain Isaac orients the Dauntless

to avoid taking waves

side on and steers

a more sheltered route

in the lee of the Kuril Islands.

After 18 consecutive stormy days,

Captain Isaac delivers her safely

to her destination in South Korea,

a little late, but with crew and cargo intact.

We reduced our speed

and we took waves on the safest side

and we arrived finally

for the next destination very safe.

And that is always a relief to do so.

Deep in the Bering Sea,

Captain Rick is hauling his crab pots.

Hampered by the storm,

his first 108 pots

have caught only 78 crab.

If I mess up

and I don't find the crab,

it's just like, man,

I failed my guys.

I failed my crew.

It's such a huge responsibility.

My hands hurt really bad.

Everything on this boat is hard.

Cold, wet, tired, worn out.

You got to pick it up and always know that there's tomorrow.

I mean, you really never know

whether half mile away, 1 mile away, you're going to have the mother lode

and you just have to keep on going.

This is a big one.

He probably weighs 10

I know that we're getting $9

a pound for this.

This guy is worth almost $100.

Where's the crab in the tank? Tank's full.

There's probably 70,000 lb in there.

Just always got to stay positive

cuz you don't know

what the next day is going to be, what the next string is going

to be, what the next pot's going to be.

And lo and behold,

I think we nailed it right on them.

HMCS Ottawa is taking a direct line home through the shock waves of the

Alaskan storm We're warship.

We can't let a little bad weather stop us from getting to where we want to go.

It's like going through the car wash.

Taking waves on the bow

is the safest but will burn up to 20%

more fuel and it won't be a comfortable ride.

It just makes life a little bit harder for people

getting out of bed,

uh walking down the the flats

or what we That's what we call the hallways

in the ship or even just

standing in a shower

and trying not to bounce off the sides of the shower

as you're trying to rinse the soap out of your eyes as you're bouncing back and forth.

We're just going to stay similar sea state to this Okay.

for the next few

In the Bering Sea,

Captain Mark Casto and the crew of the Pinnacle

are still fishing in treacherous conditions.

It's 12:37 in the afternoon. Pretty good storm. Stephen Jamison, Anacortes.

It's a little breezy

out, so we'll try to take you out there and see what happens.

Veteran fishermen like Stephen

know all too well the risks of the job.

Constantly stormy weather in the Bering

increases the risk of swells

interacting to form freak giant waves.

>> That's a lot of low rollers coming in.

Once the crabs are removed,

the pots have to be stacked

and tied down so the boat can move to the next location.

On the Pinnacle, it's Stephen's

job to secure them

so they don't risk rolling the boat over.

To balance on top of the rolling stack

with no harness and only a life jacket for protection

is to take your life in your hands.

Falling into the freezing

water would mean almost certain death.

After 5 days of fishing in the shadow

of Typhoon Hagibis, the Aleutian Lady is about to make dock

with her cargo of

It was a fair getting in here.

The wind was blowing off soft the dock, but we got in and I'm

going to take a walk around and show you what we accomplished

the past 5 days.

Hey, Bullet, grab a big one. That's the baby. There we go.

Both you guys hold them up. Big old spiders. These spiders.

The Aleutian Lady was the most successful

boat that went out

as Hagibis passed over the Bering.

Hagibis finally dissipated over eastern Siberia

as it approached the Arctic Circle.

It will go down in history

as a record breaker

for its flood damage in Japan.

Hagibis went from tropical

storm strength to a category

5 typhoon in less than a 24-hour period.

The most costly typhoon of all time.

Its impact felt thousands

of miles from its tropical birthplace,

threatening lives and livelihoods across the Pacific.

In a world of accelerating

change, as storms become more powerful

and less Hagibis was a warning,

summoned from the deepest

and largest ocean on Earth.

Just really dangerous, really dangerous now.

He's very frightened to open his

Screaming and whistling from this typhoon is unbelievable.

We all have been praying that this wind stop. So much.

The sea is nuts.

Giant waves smashing the

seawall and the building.

Mitch here, American Sharter.

Mitch Torres is on the motor vessel Dorado,

shipping supplies from Guam

to its neighboring Pacific island of Rota.

A storm is brewing.

About 2:00 in the morning,

I just left the dock

about 30 minutes ago.

it's about to be a little bit more rough. Feel on back.

We're getting about 18

to 27 knots of wind

and about 5 to 7 ft swells.

So, we are heading into the weather office.

This is my third night shift of the week.

Meteorologist Landon Aydlett is with NOAA,

the US government weather agency.

We've been watching this

tropical cyclone in the forecast

models for over a week now.

It could become a typhoon.

Located 4,000 mi west of Hawaii,

Guam is in the Northern Mariana Islands.

The new storm is rising

in a region of ocean known

as the breeding ground

of With winds now over 40 mph,

it's classed as a tropical storm

and given a name,

Roger, casting off all lines.

In Guam's port, Apra Harbor,

boats stand by to take evasive action. It's 1:22 a.m.

in the morning and see you.

Wind picked up a little bit. 6:00 p.m.

We'll check it out.

These men are among more than a thousand

marine workers given cameras by National

Geographic at the start of the costliest

Pacific storm season on record

to film storms wherever they strike

right around the globe

on a scale never seen before.

Got some swells coming in from the north.

they're caught in the path

of a killer Pacific typhoon.

On the US territory

of Guam, the NOAA weather station

watches over the most active tropical storm zone on the planet. How's it going?

Is it a typhoon yet?

Still in the area.

Typhoon is the name used in the Pacific

for a major cyclone

known in the Atlantic as a hurricane.

All eyes are on the new storm,

150 mi from Guam

and already making its presence felt.

The sea heights are really

shot up, and it's keeping very much in line with what the models have been forecasting.

In the last half hour,

we've shot up to nearly

20-ft seas out there.

If people are not away from the coast right now, they need to be

because even when I was out there earlier, we were looking at seas between

10 and 12 ft.

almost doubled since 5 hours ago.

As storm Kammuri demonstrates

its growing power, Guam goes on standby.

So, I'm the man,

the captain of Leatherneck for tonight.

You told me Brad, he's my deckhand.

Justin Reyes is captain of crew boat

The wind is coming from the east side.

Large ships must be ready to leave port ahead of the storm.

All crew who had gone ashore are urgently recalled.

Justin's job is to ferry them on the Leatherneck

back to their ships.

In 10-ft swells, it's an operation

that requires a steady nerve

and some split-second timing.

We need to put on a 200 100 run.

Definitely winds have increased across the region,

and it's going to get a little noisy out there.

So, if the windows and doors have been

they're going to shake pretty good when this passes over.

Guam has a higher risk of typhoon

or hurricane strike than any other US

In the open ocean between the island and its neighbor Rota,

the swell is Good morning.

It's about 6:30 now in the morning.

I'm still on our way to Rota.

It's a little bit more rough.

If I go any faster,

we're going to start taking waves over the bow.

And I don't want that right now. Good morning, everybody. Carry on, please.

On Guam, Captain Chris Chase,

US Coast Guard Sector Commander,

must keep a close watch on the looming storm.

We've got a timeline on the seas and the winds.

The port of Guam

is the lifeblood of not only this island,

but all of the islands throughout the regions.

Guam's 210 sq mi of US soil is home to a military

base of vital strategic

Restricting the potential for damage during a storm is critical.

In the port, the last resort is to shut down,

sending ships to seek safety at

We haven't closed the port officially yet,

but the worst thing that could happen is if we leave the ships in

port and something drastic happens and one of them sinks at the port, that's

going to impact the ability to get cargo in and out of the port.

>> Sector 753, our operations

are verifying the harbor

over A Coast Guard response

boat assesses the changing sea state.

On board, Chris Grimes.

Yeah, we just uh headed outside of the harbor,

Apra Harbor, where our

station's located, just to

evaluate the conditions past the breakwater.

We're just looking at

uh the sustained winds and swell direction