Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Isidore Washes Ashore
Aired September 26, 2002 - 07:03 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical Storm Isidore washing ashore all across the Gulf Coast at this hour, bringing strong gusts and heavy rain to the region. It's nowhere near the fearsome hurricane that had been anticipated, but the huge, lumbering mass is causing major floods and has already spawned tornadoes as it plows inland.
We have reports from some of the places that have been hardest hit. Let's start with Brian Cabell in Biloxi, and then we'll go over to the Riverwalk along the banks of the Mississippi to Chad Myers.
Let's start with Brian this morning.
Good morning -- Brian.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
It is bad here in Mississippi, but it could be a lot worse. The winds right now only about 30, maybe 40 miles per hour. The rains have been fierce overnight, but they are not, frankly, bad at all right now, but we have a lot of water on the ground.
We've had evacuations from low-lying areas from two counties and the coastal Mississippi. We had 1,000 to 4,000 people evacuated from the town of Biloxi, because they are in low-lying areas in the backwater region of Biloxi.
Let's take a look out at the beach right now. As best we can show you, you can see some waves out there. There is normally a beach out there probably about 30 to 40 yards wide. It has been overrun by the surf. There is a road -- a coastal rode along there. You might be able to see that car driving along it. It has not been washed over yet. It may not be, which would be good news. That's Highway 90.
Back behind there, you see that well-lit, whitish building. That is a casino. That is 1 of 30 casinos that was closed down yesterday at 10:00 in the morning by the Mississippi Gaming Commission. All of them closed down as a precaution. They are supposed to be able to withstand winds up to 155 miles per hour. We are presuming they did all right overnight.
We don't know if this is the worst of it yet, Paula, but so far, not too bad. I was out on the street just a little while ago. There are some tree limbs on the ground. There is some debris. There are some boat docks that have washed up on shore. But so far, not all that bad.
The curfew has just been lifted here. We are not seeing any major destruction whatsoever yet.
Back to you.
ZAHN: And of course, these residents have become pretty accustomed to these storms over the years, haven't they?
CABELL: They have. They are used to a category 1, category 2 hurricane. Of course, this isn't even that. So, they are used to it. There are shelters open. They know what to do when a storm comes ashore.
ZAHN: All right, thanks so much, Brian.
Let's go on to Chad Myers, who is standing by with the very latest from there.
Good morning -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Paula.
Standing here at the Riverwalk in New Orleans right on the levee, and what's really odd about looking at New Orleans from the top here, from the top of what we used to call the dyke here, if you look down to the river, it's only about 4 feet down. You look down to the city, and it's 12 feet down, which lets you know that the city is below river level. It's below sea level in some spots by 8 to 12 feet. So, when it rains in the city, they have to take the pumps, turn them on and pump the water up and over the levee and then into the Mississippi River.
And the problem yesterday, the rain came in so fast, the pumps couldn't handle it. For the first hour, when it first starts to rain, the pumps can handle one inch. And then after that, the pumps get a little bit slower, they get a little bit bogged down. Then, they can only handle one-half inch of rain per hour.
And it was coming down so hard yesterday, Paula, I could not see out of the hotel room. I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me. And the pumps couldn't keep up, and the water came up.
And this is what downtown New Orleans looked like. Many of the businesses in the French Quarter were absolutely shut down, tape on the windows, plywood on the windows as well, and even sandbags along the doors. Now, I'm not talking five feet of sandbags, but at least a couple of feet, because the folks here know and they recognize that when the water comes into the street, it can't go down, because there's no place for it to drain. It has to be pumped up, and then back out into the ocean., and so, that's what we experience here.
And although it doesn't make good TV this morning, we are actually in the center of the storm. Not the eye, because it isn't a hurricane. But we're in the center of the storm. The winds are shifting direction on us, and they have been all morning long, only about 10 or 15 miles per hour. But as the storm center moves to our north, the winds are going to come in and blast us from the other direction and probably 30 to 45 miles per hour again later this morning into this afternoon, where yesterday, our wind gusts were well in excess of 65 miles per hour.
The forecast now for, though, the rest of the country, rain showers all the way up and down from Isidore. Rain showers all the way from Louisiana right on up into Memphis. Some of those areas are going to pick up between three and six inches of rain today.
And high temperatures all across the northeast is going to be kept down, because of the cloud cover today.
The rain showers and the red box that you see there, that's the tornado watch box still in effect. We even had some tornado damage around the areas yesterday in those boxes, where the warnings were actually posted, simply because we saw some F1 and F2 tornadoes come on shore. That was basically the heaviest damage that we had all day.
80 degrees in St. Louis today, 88, Dallas, 80 in Los Angeles. The forecast temperatures, though, across the northeast you can see only in the 60s and the 70s, because of the cloud cover today, so get ready for that. And the rain showers as close as Pittsburgh, as close as Philadelphia, all the way through the Finger Lakes by late tomorrow.
Back to you in New York.
ZAHN: Thanks, Chad. Sorry to hear that this amount of water is not going to solve the drought conditions, because I guess the little bit is going to be absorbed there. Check in with you a little bit later on this morning.
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 - 07:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical Storm Isidore washing ashore all across the Gulf Coast at this hour, bringing strong gusts and heavy rain to the region. It's nowhere near the fearsome hurricane that had been anticipated, but the huge, lumbering mass is causing major floods and has already spawned tornadoes as it plows inland.
We have reports from some of the places that have been hardest hit. Let's start with Brian Cabell in Biloxi, and then we'll go over to the Riverwalk along the banks of the Mississippi to Chad Myers.
Let's start with Brian this morning.
Good morning -- Brian.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
It is bad here in Mississippi, but it could be a lot worse. The winds right now only about 30, maybe 40 miles per hour. The rains have been fierce overnight, but they are not, frankly, bad at all right now, but we have a lot of water on the ground.
We've had evacuations from low-lying areas from two counties and the coastal Mississippi. We had 1,000 to 4,000 people evacuated from the town of Biloxi, because they are in low-lying areas in the backwater region of Biloxi.
Let's take a look out at the beach right now. As best we can show you, you can see some waves out there. There is normally a beach out there probably about 30 to 40 yards wide. It has been overrun by the surf. There is a road -- a coastal rode along there. You might be able to see that car driving along it. It has not been washed over yet. It may not be, which would be good news. That's Highway 90.
Back behind there, you see that well-lit, whitish building. That is a casino. That is 1 of 30 casinos that was closed down yesterday at 10:00 in the morning by the Mississippi Gaming Commission. All of them closed down as a precaution. They are supposed to be able to withstand winds up to 155 miles per hour. We are presuming they did all right overnight.
We don't know if this is the worst of it yet, Paula, but so far, not too bad. I was out on the street just a little while ago. There are some tree limbs on the ground. There is some debris. There are some boat docks that have washed up on shore. But so far, not all that bad.
The curfew has just been lifted here. We are not seeing any major destruction whatsoever yet.
Back to you.
ZAHN: And of course, these residents have become pretty accustomed to these storms over the years, haven't they?
CABELL: They have. They are used to a category 1, category 2 hurricane. Of course, this isn't even that. So, they are used to it. There are shelters open. They know what to do when a storm comes ashore.
ZAHN: All right, thanks so much, Brian.
Let's go on to Chad Myers, who is standing by with the very latest from there.
Good morning -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Paula.
Standing here at the Riverwalk in New Orleans right on the levee, and what's really odd about looking at New Orleans from the top here, from the top of what we used to call the dyke here, if you look down to the river, it's only about 4 feet down. You look down to the city, and it's 12 feet down, which lets you know that the city is below river level. It's below sea level in some spots by 8 to 12 feet. So, when it rains in the city, they have to take the pumps, turn them on and pump the water up and over the levee and then into the Mississippi River.
And the problem yesterday, the rain came in so fast, the pumps couldn't handle it. For the first hour, when it first starts to rain, the pumps can handle one inch. And then after that, the pumps get a little bit slower, they get a little bit bogged down. Then, they can only handle one-half inch of rain per hour.
And it was coming down so hard yesterday, Paula, I could not see out of the hotel room. I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me. And the pumps couldn't keep up, and the water came up.
And this is what downtown New Orleans looked like. Many of the businesses in the French Quarter were absolutely shut down, tape on the windows, plywood on the windows as well, and even sandbags along the doors. Now, I'm not talking five feet of sandbags, but at least a couple of feet, because the folks here know and they recognize that when the water comes into the street, it can't go down, because there's no place for it to drain. It has to be pumped up, and then back out into the ocean., and so, that's what we experience here.
And although it doesn't make good TV this morning, we are actually in the center of the storm. Not the eye, because it isn't a hurricane. But we're in the center of the storm. The winds are shifting direction on us, and they have been all morning long, only about 10 or 15 miles per hour. But as the storm center moves to our north, the winds are going to come in and blast us from the other direction and probably 30 to 45 miles per hour again later this morning into this afternoon, where yesterday, our wind gusts were well in excess of 65 miles per hour.
The forecast now for, though, the rest of the country, rain showers all the way up and down from Isidore. Rain showers all the way from Louisiana right on up into Memphis. Some of those areas are going to pick up between three and six inches of rain today.
And high temperatures all across the northeast is going to be kept down, because of the cloud cover today.
The rain showers and the red box that you see there, that's the tornado watch box still in effect. We even had some tornado damage around the areas yesterday in those boxes, where the warnings were actually posted, simply because we saw some F1 and F2 tornadoes come on shore. That was basically the heaviest damage that we had all day.
80 degrees in St. Louis today, 88, Dallas, 80 in Los Angeles. The forecast temperatures, though, across the northeast you can see only in the 60s and the 70s, because of the cloud cover today, so get ready for that. And the rain showers as close as Pittsburgh, as close as Philadelphia, all the way through the Finger Lakes by late tomorrow.
Back to you in New York.
ZAHN: Thanks, Chad. Sorry to hear that this amount of water is not going to solve the drought conditions, because I guess the little bit is going to be absorbed there. Check in with you a little bit later on this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
