AccuWeather's Bill Wadell gives an update from Bethany Beach, Delaware, just one of the coastal towns with flooding and howling winds.
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00:00 Now we do have teams up and down the East Coast as we continue to track Ophelia.
00:04 We are also keeping tabs on severe weather in the plains with meteorologist Tony Labak
00:10 and Dr. Reed Timmer. We'll be checking in with them later on this morning.
00:14 But for now we want to check in with AccuWeather's Bill Waddell who is still live in Bethany Beach,
00:19 Delaware for us this morning. That's just one of the many coastal towns dealing with flooding,
00:24 Bill. We can see all that flood water behind you.
00:28 Yeah, that's right, Ariella, Bernie. Good morning to you. We're getting a break from the worst of
00:32 the wind and rain that we've seen. Not too bad at this moment, but you can still hear just the wind
00:37 howling as it goes between the buildings. And there are a number of streets here on the north
00:41 side of Bethany Beach that have gone underwater, including this stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue that
00:46 is flooded for several blocks. This is from all of the rain that's been drenching Delaware since
00:51 late last night. And we've also seen utility crews out just a few blocks away. They're checking on
00:56 neighborhood power outages. Now check out this video from early this morning right around high
01:01 tide at 3 a.m. You could see the rough surf and the wind hammering the boardwalk at Bethany Beach.
01:07 We only saw a handful of places that actually rolled out or put up storm shutters before
01:12 Ophelia arrived. Now up in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, you could see the wind and the rain
01:17 blowing between some of the buildings. High tide brought rough surf up the beach and not far from
01:24 the edge of the boardwalk at points. More than 4,000 homes and businesses across Delaware have
01:30 lost power. Now we spoke with firefighters before this storm hit. They told us they knew that some
01:35 of these streets in Bethany Beach and honestly all up and down the Delaware coast could be flooded.
01:41 And they are urging people if they stayed here for the weekend or visitors that came in yesterday
01:45 hoping for a beach weekend, at this point you'll want to hunker down. Hopefully your car is parked
01:50 in a good point. That's why guys yesterday we told you if you're in town visiting ask the locals
01:55 where to park because unfortunately some people are waking up and finding out that their car is
01:59 surrounded by water this morning. Bill the other concern as we go forward today, our next high
02:06 tide in the early afternoon and there's lots of information say that for some spots this could
02:12 be a top five record high tide as we continue to have that onshore flow. Yeah and what we saw this
02:20 morning we made the drive from Ocean City Maryland up to Rehoboth Beach and we did see crews out
02:25 burning with spotlights in the dark checking some of the dunes those potential weak points because
02:31 a lot of these beaches they were hit hard by lee when it passed by just a few weeks ago. Some of
02:35 the restoration projects they hauled in tons of sand just washed away. So again the high tide at
02:40 3 a.m. as you say beat up some of these beaches and they're going to be keeping a very close eye
02:44 on the next high tide that you said later on this afternoon. I believe right around four o'clock.
02:48 Yeah yeah. Atkiller's Bill Waddell reporting live for us in Bethany Beach,
02:52 Delaware this morning. We'll be checking in with you all morning long. Stay safe.