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American Morning

North Carolina Governor Discusses Snows

Aired January 04, 2002 - 09:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: North Carolina is still recovering from its first winter storm of the season. It dumped as much as 14 inches of snow on parts of the state, and that snow is making folks weary, causing hundreds of wrecks of thousands of power outages.

And now there is word of another storm being on the way.

Joining us now is North Carolina's Gov. Michael Easley. He is in Raleigh this morning.

Good morning, sir, how are you?

GOV. MICHAEL EASLEY (D), NORTH CAROLINA: I'm doing fine. I hope you are.

HARRIS: I'm doing well, thank you very much for asking.

How do things look for you this morning?

EASLEY: We still have a lot of ice. What happens in the South when you have snow is it tends to melt a little bit in the day and then refreezes at night. So it is still a sheet of ice out there on the highways. If we can just keep people off the road for another day, I think we'll be all right.

HARRIS: Are folks really following that advice? We've been getting some live reports for the last couple of days, and in each of our reporter's locations, we've seen cars traveling behind them. Are folks taking your advice and staying home, or what?

EASLEY: People do a little bit better this year. They remember the storm that we had in 2000, which was about 20 inches. And as a result of that, I think they were prepared. They had four or five days notice. They haven't had to go to the stores to get groceries. They pretty much stayed in.

We are worried about the travelers more than anything else, those people who are travelling the main highways, because that ice is really built up right now.

HARRIS: Give us a report, then, on the interstates: How are they shaping up?

EASLEY: The interstates, 95 and 40, have really turned into a sheet of ice overnight. I got a report from the Highway Patrol this morning that there are a lot of cars that overnight just sort of appeared stuck off the side of the road, in the ditch; if we can just keep people off the road today. Stay home, have fun, build a snowman, go sledding with the kids. By probably 11:00 tomorrow, things ought to be OK.

HARRIS: How about the airports?

EASLEY: The airports are open. There's one runway closed at Raleigh Durham, but the 12 major airports are open. There are some delays, and people are going to have to be patient. But they're open today.

HARRIS: That's good. Delays are much better than a total shutdown. I'm sure folks will be happy to hear that.

What do you do to prepare for the storm that's on the way? We had our Orelon Sidney check in a little while ago, and she was saying there may be another snow-maker on the way.

EASLEY: We think this is going to clear up, based on reports we are getting, with some 30s today. We'll get some melting, and then some ice overnight. Hopefully, that will clear up as we get into the 40s tomorrow. So by mid-morning, we hope we can travel. And then it will give us all day Sunday to have this melt up, until maybe Sunday night we might get a little bit more.

So hopefully, if people need anything from the stores, or what have you, they will go out and get it Sunday afternoon, once it's cleared up and then be prepared for Monday, in the event that we do get some more ice.

HARRIS: Good deal.

What are you going to be doing in the meantime?

EASLEY: I have a little work to do. I am mainly concerned about the safety of people on the roads. We have had two troopers who have been pretty seriously injured now. It's not necessary for that to happen if people would just stay off the road. And we still have 6,000 to 10,000 people with power outages; we want to make sure that we get the services to them. I think they will have it back before the day the over. But we've got to make sure we are taking care of them.

And the third thing we worry about is travelers coming through. We have some 27 centers for them to go to, and they are now staying there until they can get back on the road.

HARRIS: I'll tell you, all things considered, we know this is nothing like what happened in 2000. We covered that quite extensively here. And I have to remember those power outages you had last time around were incredible, and you don't have that worry this time around, so perhaps you are out of the woods, or close to it.

We certainly wish you luck. Gov. Easley, good luck, and safe and careful travels to you as you go about your duties for the next couple of days.

Thank you.

EASLEY: Just stick with us. We'll be out of this pretty quick.

HARRIS: You got it. Good luck.

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