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CNN Live At Daybreak
Interview With Bruce Konviser
Aired August 13, 2002 - 06:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We'll get right to Chad. You have a busy morning, don't you?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I have a busy morning. We have some dramatic pictures, and a guy on the phone here that we want to talk to with some flooding in some of the prettiest parts of Europe.
BRUCE KONVISER, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC: Hello?
MYERS: And, you know, we talked about all of this. We talked about Austria, the Czech Republic, Bohemia.
KONVISER: Hello?
MYERS: We have been seeing an awful lot.
Hey, can you hear us? We hear you.
KONVISER: Very low, very low.
MYERS: Good, good. Bruce Konviser here now joining us from this very flooded area. We were talking about hundreds of thousands of people now displaced, a lot of rain, 75 people killed, including those in Europe.
What can you tell us about the latest on this flooding in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic?
KONVISER: Well, here in Prague, at least, it seems to be coming down to the zero hour. Sometime in the next 30 to 90 minutes, officials here expect Prague's Vltava River to crest. Now, it's going to reach a level perhaps of 30 times its normal level, the highest level in over 100 years.
Police officials have issued evacuation warnings for tens of thousands of people here in Prague. The city is divided into 10 sections, and those evacuation orders go to various parts of seven sections of the city. Police -- or officials, rather, are quite concerned, though, that many people are not heeding the evacuation warning. Many simply don't believe that they'll be flooded, because they've never seen the water this high.
In addition, there are also concerns about their property, and whether or not looting will occur, and officials are trying to assure them that police and army people will be patrolling to ensure security. Let's see -- also, public transportation is free today, as a means of trying to encourage people to evacuate, but it's free for everybody. They expect flooding in the Old Town Square, part of the historic district, and also part of the Jewish Quarter.
And police are also beginning to clear bridges here in the center. Until now, people have been milling on the bridges, and journalists have been using it as reporting posts. But the water is approaching the actual bridge level now, and police are beginning to clear those areas -- Chad.
MYERS: Bruce, we're hearing about the potential for some of these dams. They are right really at their bursting level here, and that's what caused all of the loss of life in Russia as one dam left and just had a rush of water.
What are you hearing? Any alerts or warnings about the potential for dams breaking yet?
KONVISER: I didn't quite hear all of the question, but I caught the end there. And I don't know that the dams are going to break, but they are actually -- they've been open. They are wide open. And
MYERS: Oh, OK.
KONVISER: And in fact, the water upstream seems to have -- it's going over the dams anyway. There's just that much water -- Chad.
MYERS: Yes. Well, many times, though, when water goes over a dam, it could begin to lose the sides of the dam.
Bruce Konviser from Prague, thank you very much.
Some disturbing pictures there from a beautiful part of the world. They are calling this a 250-year flood, and we had a 100-year flood on the Mississippi River, you know -- what -- seven or eight years ago. We know what that did to the farmlands there.
COSTELLO: Awful.
MYERS: And this is the area, you think about Bohemia, you think about Pilsner Beers, you think about all of those things that are in this Bohemian area, just picturesque across the country. Not that I've ever been there, but someday on a beer tour, I will probably head to that area. And we just saw pictures of it.
COSTELLO: Yes, it's funny that they're having the opposite problem that we are with the drought.
MYERS: Yes. I'd sure like to spread that rain around for a while, wouldn't you? But we just can't do it. Mother Nature just not cooperating this year yet.
COSTELLO: No, she is not. She does she wants.
MYERS: All right. And thank you again, Bruce. COSTELLO: Thanks, Chad.
MYERS: Sure.
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