Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Tropical Storm Isidore Comes Ashore on Louisiana Coast
Aired September 26, 2002 - 05:02 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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical storm Isidore came ashore on the Louisiana coast about two and a half hours ago. But the storm's effects are being felt all along the Gulf Coast this morning. Isidore didn't regain hurricane strength, as forecasters believed it might, before hitting the United States. And without the eye wall linked to a strong hurricane, storm surges are only expected to be about three to six feet.
Rain will be quite a problem, though, and not just on the coast. Parts of the Southeast could receive as much as 10 to 20 inches in the next few days. Wow. And it has been raining in New Orleans for about 14 hours straight, and that's a major concern for a city that's six feet below sea level.
CNN's John Zarrella is in the Crescent City.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You don't often see the city of New Orleans, particularly the French Quarter, deserted, but that's exactly how it is this morning. No one, very few people, in fact, on the streets of New Orleans. The reason is because the mayor ordered a curfew from 10:00 p.m. local time to 6:00 a.m. local time to get the folks off the street because this is the time when Isidore is making landfall here in the Louisiana area.
Now, you can't diminish this storm just because it's a tropical storm. There have been some serious effects from Isidore already. On Interstate 10 last night, part of the highway was shut down because of serious flooding. In fact, there were hundreds of cars stuck on the highway, some of them stuck in the flood waters. Most of the people, all of the people got out of their cars, left the highway and were rescued. But many of the cars ended up submerged in the water.
Shelters were opened. About 33 shelters remained open here throughout the night in the Louisiana area. But very few people took advantage of the shelters, most of them preferring to hunker down in their homes and ride it out.
Now, a lot of people chose to ride it out in some of the bars near here. This bar just closed a little while ago. It's called The Corner Bar and Grill. Hurricane party, Isidore, here they say they don't run from hurricanes, they drink hurricanes, and they partied past the curfew hours here in New Orleans and only left when the management finally kicked them out and closed down the restaurant.
But for the most part, reports are some storm surge flooding along Lake Pontchartrain, street flooding in the New Orleans area. But no reports of any serious injuries. John Zarrella, CNN, New Orleans.
COSTELLO: That is good news, isn't it?
ARCH KENNEDY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
COSTELLO: Raining for 14 hours straight, though. That's something else.
KENNEDY: I tell you, yes. They're going to continue to get this, it looks like, probably through the morning hours here. And then we're going to push some, you know, we've got to look at the good side to this, too. A lot of the Southeast is going to get some beneficial rain. You know, we've been in major drought across the area. So we'll continue to watch the progression of Izzy and, yes, it's moved on shore this morning. You see there a satellite picture showing it moved on with 65 mile per hour winds. It didn't make it to hurricane strength. That was the good news.
Again, it has been, they have been getting pounded, really, across the New Orleans area this morning, continuing to see tropical storm force winds, gusts even higher. And you can see plenty of moisture here as the system continues to move onshore.
Now, rainfall amounts have been incredible across the region into south and east Louisiana. And along with this rain, it is not unlikely to see isolated tornadoes. So we still have, or actually we have a brand new tornado watch box in effect here -- you see that outlined in red here -- across parts of extreme southern Mississippi into the Florida Panhandle.
Look at the tremendous amount of rain, though, moving all the way up into Mississippi, Alabama and into a lot of the Tennessee Valley.
We want to expand out farther this morning and show you all the rain. Again, flooding conditions. We have a lot of flash flood warnings going on here into parts of Louisiana, into the Gulf Coast region. And a lot of this moisture continuing to push up into the Tennessee Valley, the mid-Atlantic region into the Carolinas.
Now, we want to show you, later today, this is as the system moves on as a depression over southern Mississippi. We're looking at rainfall amounts up into the Tennessee Valley here, six inches or greater. So a lot of other areas are going to begin to get affected here as we head through your Thursday afternoon and evening.
Carol, we'll have more on the national forecast in just a couple of minutes.
COSTELLO: OK, Arch, thanks a lot.
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 26, 2002 - 05:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical storm Isidore came ashore on the Louisiana coast about two and a half hours ago. But the storm's effects are being felt all along the Gulf Coast this morning. Isidore didn't regain hurricane strength, as forecasters believed it might, before hitting the United States. And without the eye wall linked to a strong hurricane, storm surges are only expected to be about three to six feet.
Rain will be quite a problem, though, and not just on the coast. Parts of the Southeast could receive as much as 10 to 20 inches in the next few days. Wow. And it has been raining in New Orleans for about 14 hours straight, and that's a major concern for a city that's six feet below sea level.
CNN's John Zarrella is in the Crescent City.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You don't often see the city of New Orleans, particularly the French Quarter, deserted, but that's exactly how it is this morning. No one, very few people, in fact, on the streets of New Orleans. The reason is because the mayor ordered a curfew from 10:00 p.m. local time to 6:00 a.m. local time to get the folks off the street because this is the time when Isidore is making landfall here in the Louisiana area.
Now, you can't diminish this storm just because it's a tropical storm. There have been some serious effects from Isidore already. On Interstate 10 last night, part of the highway was shut down because of serious flooding. In fact, there were hundreds of cars stuck on the highway, some of them stuck in the flood waters. Most of the people, all of the people got out of their cars, left the highway and were rescued. But many of the cars ended up submerged in the water.
Shelters were opened. About 33 shelters remained open here throughout the night in the Louisiana area. But very few people took advantage of the shelters, most of them preferring to hunker down in their homes and ride it out.
Now, a lot of people chose to ride it out in some of the bars near here. This bar just closed a little while ago. It's called The Corner Bar and Grill. Hurricane party, Isidore, here they say they don't run from hurricanes, they drink hurricanes, and they partied past the curfew hours here in New Orleans and only left when the management finally kicked them out and closed down the restaurant.
But for the most part, reports are some storm surge flooding along Lake Pontchartrain, street flooding in the New Orleans area. But no reports of any serious injuries. John Zarrella, CNN, New Orleans.
COSTELLO: That is good news, isn't it?
ARCH KENNEDY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
COSTELLO: Raining for 14 hours straight, though. That's something else.
KENNEDY: I tell you, yes. They're going to continue to get this, it looks like, probably through the morning hours here. And then we're going to push some, you know, we've got to look at the good side to this, too. A lot of the Southeast is going to get some beneficial rain. You know, we've been in major drought across the area. So we'll continue to watch the progression of Izzy and, yes, it's moved on shore this morning. You see there a satellite picture showing it moved on with 65 mile per hour winds. It didn't make it to hurricane strength. That was the good news.
Again, it has been, they have been getting pounded, really, across the New Orleans area this morning, continuing to see tropical storm force winds, gusts even higher. And you can see plenty of moisture here as the system continues to move onshore.
Now, rainfall amounts have been incredible across the region into south and east Louisiana. And along with this rain, it is not unlikely to see isolated tornadoes. So we still have, or actually we have a brand new tornado watch box in effect here -- you see that outlined in red here -- across parts of extreme southern Mississippi into the Florida Panhandle.
Look at the tremendous amount of rain, though, moving all the way up into Mississippi, Alabama and into a lot of the Tennessee Valley.
We want to expand out farther this morning and show you all the rain. Again, flooding conditions. We have a lot of flash flood warnings going on here into parts of Louisiana, into the Gulf Coast region. And a lot of this moisture continuing to push up into the Tennessee Valley, the mid-Atlantic region into the Carolinas.
Now, we want to show you, later today, this is as the system moves on as a depression over southern Mississippi. We're looking at rainfall amounts up into the Tennessee Valley here, six inches or greater. So a lot of other areas are going to begin to get affected here as we head through your Thursday afternoon and evening.
Carol, we'll have more on the national forecast in just a couple of minutes.
COSTELLO: OK, Arch, thanks a lot.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
