Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Hurricane Hunters Get First Up Close Look at Storm

Aired September 23, 2002 - 05:06   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.


CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane hunters get the first up close look at a storm and they pass on all the crucial data to the meteorologists and the coastal communities.
And CNN's Jason Bellini took a ride with hunters spotting Isidore.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we're at the center of the storm.

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The flight deck on board a hurricane hunter mission heading towards the fierce and fast growing hurricane Isidore...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm not seeing anything else.

BELLINI: ... is busy, noisy, somewhat tense and carefully coordinated.

MAJ. CHRISTA HORNBAKER, WEATHER OFFICER: Basically, once we're in the storm environment, I'm the mission director, if you will. I'm talking to the hurricane center.

BELLINI (on camera): So you're telling these guys what to do?

HORNBAKER: They won't say that. But...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Careful.

HORNBAKER: We're a team here.

BELLINI (voice-over): The goal is to pierce the storm at just the right angle so the plane flies directly through the eye of the hurricane, not an easy task when hundred plus mile an hour winds are pulling the C-130 prop plane whichever direction the hurricane decides to go.

(on camera): Is this considered dangerous flying, doing this job?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can be.

BELLINI (voice-over): Dangerous to do but more dangerous not to do.

HORNBAKER: They really need us to be in there to gather that information, things like the temperature at the core of the storm and the pressure at the core of the storm.

BELLINI (on camera): Days ago when Isidore was but a young and wild tropical storm, the hurricane hunters monitored its progress, but less frequently.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But as it gets stronger and closer to shore, we're going to overlap that. We're going to have one plane coming in as the other one's going out and there will be constant coverage at that point.

BELLINI (voice-over): Each mission lasts between 10 and 14 hours. Our flight began at 9:30 a.m., perfect weather taking off from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. The better part of the day we spent flying in and out of the storm, a total of four times.

(on camera): We spent most of the flight back here in the cargo area of the C-130 aircraft. I have to say, it's been a fairly comfortable ride, much better than I was expecting. We'd been warned beforehand that you might get motion sickness, that you might be tossed around and if you're not strapped in, the turbulence can get so bad that it'll toss you to the ceiling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes it's no worse than an airline trip to New York, you know? And one pass to the next can be very different.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the strongest hurricanes can sometimes be the smoothest ride and yet some of the mildest tropical storms out there as you fly through them could be the roughest rides.

BELLINI (voice-over): By the time we headed back from Isidore, it was sunset. The hurricane had offered plenty of data, but on this day, little hint of its future plans.

HORNBAKER: A big part of what we do is give them the wind field on the entire storm so that when they put out a warning, they can keep it as small as possible but still safe. It costs about a million dollars a mile, they estimate, to evacuate businesses, lost business, all those sorts of things. So they really do try to keep that area as small as possible. So the bottom line is when they tell you to evacuate, they usually mean it.

BELLINI: If Isidore decides to head north, towards the U.S. coastline, flights home this week won't be so pretty.

Jason Bellini, CNN, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 23, 2002 - 05:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane hunters get the first up close look at a storm and they pass on all the crucial data to the meteorologists and the coastal communities.
And CNN's Jason Bellini took a ride with hunters spotting Isidore.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we're at the center of the storm.

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The flight deck on board a hurricane hunter mission heading towards the fierce and fast growing hurricane Isidore...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm not seeing anything else.

BELLINI: ... is busy, noisy, somewhat tense and carefully coordinated.

MAJ. CHRISTA HORNBAKER, WEATHER OFFICER: Basically, once we're in the storm environment, I'm the mission director, if you will. I'm talking to the hurricane center.

BELLINI (on camera): So you're telling these guys what to do?

HORNBAKER: They won't say that. But...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Careful.

HORNBAKER: We're a team here.

BELLINI (voice-over): The goal is to pierce the storm at just the right angle so the plane flies directly through the eye of the hurricane, not an easy task when hundred plus mile an hour winds are pulling the C-130 prop plane whichever direction the hurricane decides to go.

(on camera): Is this considered dangerous flying, doing this job?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can be.

BELLINI (voice-over): Dangerous to do but more dangerous not to do.

HORNBAKER: They really need us to be in there to gather that information, things like the temperature at the core of the storm and the pressure at the core of the storm.

BELLINI (on camera): Days ago when Isidore was but a young and wild tropical storm, the hurricane hunters monitored its progress, but less frequently.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But as it gets stronger and closer to shore, we're going to overlap that. We're going to have one plane coming in as the other one's going out and there will be constant coverage at that point.

BELLINI (voice-over): Each mission lasts between 10 and 14 hours. Our flight began at 9:30 a.m., perfect weather taking off from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. The better part of the day we spent flying in and out of the storm, a total of four times.

(on camera): We spent most of the flight back here in the cargo area of the C-130 aircraft. I have to say, it's been a fairly comfortable ride, much better than I was expecting. We'd been warned beforehand that you might get motion sickness, that you might be tossed around and if you're not strapped in, the turbulence can get so bad that it'll toss you to the ceiling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes it's no worse than an airline trip to New York, you know? And one pass to the next can be very different.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the strongest hurricanes can sometimes be the smoothest ride and yet some of the mildest tropical storms out there as you fly through them could be the roughest rides.

BELLINI (voice-over): By the time we headed back from Isidore, it was sunset. The hurricane had offered plenty of data, but on this day, little hint of its future plans.

HORNBAKER: A big part of what we do is give them the wind field on the entire storm so that when they put out a warning, they can keep it as small as possible but still safe. It costs about a million dollars a mile, they estimate, to evacuate businesses, lost business, all those sorts of things. So they really do try to keep that area as small as possible. So the bottom line is when they tell you to evacuate, they usually mean it.

BELLINI: If Isidore decides to head north, towards the U.S. coastline, flights home this week won't be so pretty.

Jason Bellini, CNN, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com