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CNN Live Today

Interview of Kurt Pickering, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency

Aired March 20, 2002 - 10:22   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: They are bracing for more rain and flooding in parts of Kentucky. The high water already has damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and flood warnings are in place in several counties, and a lot of schools are closed, too.

Heavy rain in Tennessee has killed seven people. Three people have drowned and four others were killed in accidents on rain-slick roads, and the rain just keeps coming. The problem is there is just nowhere for the water to go, so the ground is already saturated from four days of rain. What can you do?

For more now on the flooding in Tennessee, we are joined on the phone by Kurt Pickering from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Kurt, good morning. What is the situation there right now?

KURT PICKERING, TENNESSEE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: At this moment, we have damage in East Tennessee and scattered damage around Middle Tennessee, and (AUDIO GAP) little in West. It hasn't been terribly bad. Of course, if it is your property, then it is terribly bad, if you know what I'm saying. But it has been scattered (AUDIO GAP) some serious stuff, particularly in the east part of the state, but when we look at where we were forecast (AUDIO GAP) a few days ago, we are probably in as good a position as we might have thought we were going to be at that point.

LIN: I heard there is flooding going on where it has never flooded before, and that actually, some rescue workers were having a hard time getting to people. What's the situation there?

PICKERING: We have had that happen. In fact, in Sevier County, there was one point -- I believe it was Sunday or possibly Monday morning, when there were 120 people who had either been evacuated or were unable to get either in or out of their homes. That was in one county over around Knoxville. That situation will probably get no worse because we don't look for a lot more rain there today. Now, if the rain will not be too much more, we will come out of this okay. We have been looking (ph) at more rain than we are actually going to get, and that's -- a good thing that it didn't happen as bad as we thought it was going to.

LIN: Well, that's fortunate, Kurt. But is anybody in danger right now? Doesn't sound like it. PICKERING: Not that we are aware of. Not that we are aware of. The biggest problems we are having right now are traffic related where we have whole areas of roadways (AUDIO GAP) sink holes that have opened up under roadways, a mountainside that collapsed on the roadway in Anderson County. Those are the biggest problems we perceive (ph) right at this moment.

LIN: Here is what I don't get. People know that the flood waters are rising, and yet they still get in their cars and try to take their chances. Is it just that the water is moving in so quickly?

PICKERING: I think people -- particularly people in SUVs and four-wheel drives get a little bit overconfident with that. We had one of our fatalities was a situation where an individual drove up to water on the road, got out, looked at it, tested the waters, so to speak. Got back in the vehicle, tried to drive through, and didn't make it.

LIN: Oh.

PICKERING: I don't know how many times we have told people not to do that.

LIN: Yeah.

PICKERING: Never try to go over water over the road.

LIN: Yeah, but having been in a flood though, myself, up in North Dakota a few years back, I realize how quickly those waters move in. You are driving down a dry road and all of a sudden you are surrounded by water.

PICKERING: That's right, that's right. People (AUDIO GAP) water it takes to slow (ph) the vehicle, in terms of height.

LIN: What, about 12 inches, right?

PICKERING: Well, that is a factor, but the number will vary because the other factor is how fast is the water moving.

LIN: Yeah.

PICKERING: People rarely ask about that, but if you have rapidly flowing water, a couple of inches could take the vehicle off course (ph).

LIN: All right. Thank you very much. Kurt Pickering with the emergency management situation in the state of Tennessee.

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