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American Morning
Izzy's Coming
Aired September 25, 2002 - 07:16 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Three hundred thousand people left homeless in Mexico. Tropical Storm Isidore now bearing down on the U.S., expected to make landfall sometime overnight and into the morning hours.
Isidore is huge, covering almost the entire Gulf of Mexico. It may pick up strength as it approaches, and now Louisiana and Mississippi bracing for the arrival of that storm.
Jeff Flock is already there, and joins us live this morning in New Orleans, where the rain is already coming down.
Jeff -- good morning.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's always fun standing out in the rail, Bill. But this one certainly could be a lot worse. As Chad was talking about earlier, not as powerful a storm as perhaps we had thought, although I'll tell you, if you're walking and take a look. A lot of rain has already been falling, and as you know, New Orleans is a town that essentially is built in a bowl. And so, water draining, as it is right here, is already problem.
So, perhaps you're looking out at a dark Mississippi River, but as we look at that, I also want to show you the scene not too far from here. It's a place called Grand Isle. It's one of the barrier islands, and Grand Isle is under now a mandatory evacuation. A lot of people boarding up there, a lot of people are already gone. And the reason for that is there is one road in and out of Grand Isle, and if that goes under water, which we are told it is now dangerously close to doing as we speak this morning, you can't get in or out until after the storm is gone. And while it doesn't look like an intense storm at the moment, if for some reason it were to intensify and you have made the decision to stay on Grand Isle, you're going to have to stay. You're going to have no choice to be able to change your mind.
As Chad pointed out also, this is a very disorganized storm, and one of the reasons -- or one of the out-faults (ph) from that is that you get a lot of weather out ahead of it. The circulation is now, you know, 300 plus miles at the center of circulation, but we are already seeing the effects of it here in terms of the rain.
Wind, not so bad yet, but of course, we'll watch it. It's not even supposed to get here until tomorrow.
That's the latest from what they call the Moonwalk, Bill.
HEMMER: Hey, Jeff. Yes, before we let you go, when you say about 24 hours away, how -- those people in that part of the country are no strangers to storms, especially these that are rolling in right now as we see. Have they told you about how much concern they have right now, Jeff?
FLOCK: Well, you know, these guys are not tremendously concerned. I don't know you folks are able to see out to one of the ferry boats out in the middle of the Mississippi River. A lot of boat traffic still out there, so it's not the lead-up to a major, heavy storm.
Of course, the guys that live in New Orleans have a lot of experience with storms, and so they're ready with a hurricane party at this point. Nothing too serious.
HEMMER: A lot of those in New Orleans. Thank you, Jeff -- Jeff Flock again in the rain this morning in New Orleans, and we'll certainly keep track of that. Isidore and the "Izzy watch" continue.
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 25, 2002 - 07:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Three hundred thousand people left homeless in Mexico. Tropical Storm Isidore now bearing down on the U.S., expected to make landfall sometime overnight and into the morning hours.
Isidore is huge, covering almost the entire Gulf of Mexico. It may pick up strength as it approaches, and now Louisiana and Mississippi bracing for the arrival of that storm.
Jeff Flock is already there, and joins us live this morning in New Orleans, where the rain is already coming down.
Jeff -- good morning.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's always fun standing out in the rail, Bill. But this one certainly could be a lot worse. As Chad was talking about earlier, not as powerful a storm as perhaps we had thought, although I'll tell you, if you're walking and take a look. A lot of rain has already been falling, and as you know, New Orleans is a town that essentially is built in a bowl. And so, water draining, as it is right here, is already problem.
So, perhaps you're looking out at a dark Mississippi River, but as we look at that, I also want to show you the scene not too far from here. It's a place called Grand Isle. It's one of the barrier islands, and Grand Isle is under now a mandatory evacuation. A lot of people boarding up there, a lot of people are already gone. And the reason for that is there is one road in and out of Grand Isle, and if that goes under water, which we are told it is now dangerously close to doing as we speak this morning, you can't get in or out until after the storm is gone. And while it doesn't look like an intense storm at the moment, if for some reason it were to intensify and you have made the decision to stay on Grand Isle, you're going to have to stay. You're going to have no choice to be able to change your mind.
As Chad pointed out also, this is a very disorganized storm, and one of the reasons -- or one of the out-faults (ph) from that is that you get a lot of weather out ahead of it. The circulation is now, you know, 300 plus miles at the center of circulation, but we are already seeing the effects of it here in terms of the rain.
Wind, not so bad yet, but of course, we'll watch it. It's not even supposed to get here until tomorrow.
That's the latest from what they call the Moonwalk, Bill.
HEMMER: Hey, Jeff. Yes, before we let you go, when you say about 24 hours away, how -- those people in that part of the country are no strangers to storms, especially these that are rolling in right now as we see. Have they told you about how much concern they have right now, Jeff?
FLOCK: Well, you know, these guys are not tremendously concerned. I don't know you folks are able to see out to one of the ferry boats out in the middle of the Mississippi River. A lot of boat traffic still out there, so it's not the lead-up to a major, heavy storm.
Of course, the guys that live in New Orleans have a lot of experience with storms, and so they're ready with a hurricane party at this point. Nothing too serious.
HEMMER: A lot of those in New Orleans. Thank you, Jeff -- Jeff Flock again in the rain this morning in New Orleans, and we'll certainly keep track of that. Isidore and the "Izzy watch" continue.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
