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CNN Live Today
East and Southeastern Coastline Fretting Over What They See As Recipe for Disaster
Aired June 04, 2002 - 10:43 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to talk weather and hurricane season. It is only a few days old, but already leaders along the development-packed east and southeastern coastline are fretting over what they see as a recipe for disaster. There is too many people, too few evacuation routes, and too little time to get everyone out to safety.
More now from our Miami bureau chief John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Hurricane Floyd moved north along the Atlantic coast, cars didn't move at all.
In 1999, Floyd triggered the largest evacuation in U.S. History. From Florida to the Carolinas, millions left their homes, only to sit in gridlock.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's taken us 4 1/2 hours to go eight miles!
ZARRELLA: Many weren't asked or ordered to leave, but were afraid to stay. They added to the bumper-to-bumper mess.
Floyd weakened before striking land, but next time might be different.
MAX MAYFIELD, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: I really fear that some day we're going to have people stuck in their cars in a gridlock as the core of a major hurricane moves on shore. If they're stuck in their car and that storm surge comes in, they'll be loss of life from drowning.
ZARRELLA: Hundreds, perhaps thousands, may feel fears.
(on camera): Storm surge is a wall of water. Sometimes 50, even 100 miles long, and perhaps 20 feet high, it sweeps inland as the eye of a hurricane makes landfall.
(voice-over): And since the average error in forecasting hurricane landfall is 100 miles, no one knows where the worst storm surge will hit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, 24 hours, I can't tell if it's going to hit here, or here, or down here somewhere.
ZARRELLA: That's why emergency managers overevacuate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got to worry about the southwest corridor.
ZARRELLA: August 22nd, 2000: Hurricane Debbie is close enough to the Florida Keys that emergency manager Billy Wagner is worried. He's come to the National Hurricane Center in Miami for the latest information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the thing is, I need to respond to a major hurricane. I can't hesitate.
ZARRELLA: Within minutes, Wagner learns evacuation is not possible. The only two roads out of the keys are blocked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got a jack-knifed truck on Car Sound (ph), and a tanker truck they got to drill holes in to off-load the fuel on US-1.
ZARRELLA: The next day, the roads cleared, Wagner orders a phase-one evacuation, tourists and non-residents. Then, Hurricane Debbie unexpectedly falls apart.
A generation ago, evacuation worked pretty well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: back in the '40s, and '50s and '60s, if we gave people 12 hours of warning, that was sufficient.
ZARRELLA: Not anymore. There are simply too many people, too many cars, often more than the roads can handle. Many cities now plan to make highways one way out, but experts say that's not a solution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I'm saying is, every new community that goes up, whenever you give the permitting for this development, they ought to be required to have a shelter right on site.
ZARRELLA: So for now, evacuation gridlock remains the nightmare scenario, so much so, one Florida county is looking for a spot along Interstate 75 -- a parking lot of last resort, where people stuck in their cars can pull into, and hopefully survive the big one.
John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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