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CNN Live Today

Tropical Storm Isidore Washes over Gulf Coast

Aired September 26, 2002 - 10:05   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right now along the Gulf Coast we are closely following an epic battle of man, machine and nature. Tropical storm Isidore washed ashore less than eight hours ago, and it's already dumped more than a foot of rain in some areas. Emergency officials in New Orleans say that pumps designed to keep the low-lying city above water are simply unable to keep up with the deluge.
Now we have CNN crews out at various points of Isidore's assault this morning. And meteorologist Chad Myers is in New Orleans and just north of Chad we find our Jeff Flock out there still being blown around today. So let's begin with him first.

Jeff, good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Leon.

We're finally beginning to get some conditions that are approximating a tropical storm here, obviously. You know it comes through in waves, but we're really starting to get some real wash off of Lake Pontchartrain right now. Perhaps you can see this is the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and I am standing right on...

HARRIS: Wow!

FLOCK: ... essentially Route 11. This is State Road 11, and this is a bridge that runs over -- causeway that runs over Lake Pontchartrain. We're beginning to really see some wash right here. And this portion of Route 11 is now pretty well closed to most traffic, although we did see a guy with an extremely large monster truck essentially make it through here.

You know throughout the night, you know, and it come in various different waves, and nothing really though that really approximated what we see right now. This is in some sense probably about the worst of it as we see this wash across off of Lake Pontchartrain.

So that is the latest from here. We, of course, continue to watch it; but it seems now it is moving off to the east of us, but at least we are finally getting something that approximates, as we said, a real storm.

What do you think, Chad, how is it where you are in New Orleans -- Chad Meyers?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: But really, obviously, you said that it just wasn't the storm that it could have been had it not hit the Yucatan Peninsula. And we have 300,000 people without homes in the Yucatan Peninsula, but I can imagine what the storm with the category three or category four storm could have been here if it would have been here now, obviously, at 140 miles per hour.

Sixty-five miles per hour, that's all we got to yesterday. That's what the official forecast track is right now. That makes it now still three years that the United States has not been hit by a hurricane. It was a strong tropical storm but officially not on land as a hurricane.

The wind still gusting here. I can feel them doing about 25 to 30 miles per hour and at times we get higher gusts. But other than that, folks here really did luck out with this storm system. A lot of rain. In fact where Jeff was, that was called City Park, although you really couldn't see the park, 23.5 inches of rainfall in the past 48 hours right there on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain.

HARRIS: Wow!

MYERS: That's all I have from here. Back to you guys.

HARRIS: That is phenomenal. Chad, listen, since we've got you and Jeff, you as well, it looks for some reason like the winds are a heck of a lot worse where Jeff is than they are where you are -- Chad.

MYERS: Right.

HARRIS: And there's only a couple of miles difference between the two of you. What explains all that -- Chad?

MYERS: I think he's right there on the lake and so there is very little in the way of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) resistance. I have some buildings around me,...

HARRIS: OK.

MYERS: ... although not many. Here are the French Quarter, probably two or three stories, and a couple of hotels here. We're on top of the levy, and down behind me here you see down about 4 or 5 feet is the Missouri River -- Mississippi River, and then down here about 12 feet is the French Quarter. So we're actually in a little bit of a hole here so that's why Jeff is seeing so much more than we are.

HARRIS: And, Jeff, you are getting beat...

FLOCK: And actually,...

HARRIS: Go ahead -- Jeff.

MYERS: He's getting pounded.

FLOCK: Yes, I was going to say, and actually we're about maybe -- we're on the very edge of New Orleans. We're almost to Slidell here. So we're quite a -- quite a ways away from where Chad is and it seems like it's really come over Lake Pontchartrain here, this edge of it anyway, so... HARRIS: All right.

FLOCK: ... that partly explains it also.

HARRIS: All right. Well that's good. And it's also good to know that, Jeff, you won't get electrocuted by holding that mike in the middle of all that water too. That looks kind of scary, but I'm glad to see you're going to be OK buddy. All right.

FLOCK: Well you know, I'm glad we finally got some wind. I hate those hurricanes that just have water and you know I -- it's nice to get a little breeze going, so that's nice.

HARRIS: Nice to learn that Jeff Flock is a hurricane snob. Thank you very much, Jeff. All right.

MYERS: He always likes to get wet, doesn't he?

HARRIS: Yes, he does, doesn't he. All right. We'll let you guys go and take cover for a bit. And we'll get -- check back with you all later on.

Daryn, over to you.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I told you, hurricane hog heaven.

HARRIS: He's a nut.

KAGAN: He's a gormal (ph) when it comes...

HARRIS: I guess so.

KAGAN: ... to hurricanes. And he's -- they're being safe which is good.

HARRIS: Very good. That's exactly right.

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 - 10:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right now along the Gulf Coast we are closely following an epic battle of man, machine and nature. Tropical storm Isidore washed ashore less than eight hours ago, and it's already dumped more than a foot of rain in some areas. Emergency officials in New Orleans say that pumps designed to keep the low-lying city above water are simply unable to keep up with the deluge.
Now we have CNN crews out at various points of Isidore's assault this morning. And meteorologist Chad Myers is in New Orleans and just north of Chad we find our Jeff Flock out there still being blown around today. So let's begin with him first.

Jeff, good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Leon.

We're finally beginning to get some conditions that are approximating a tropical storm here, obviously. You know it comes through in waves, but we're really starting to get some real wash off of Lake Pontchartrain right now. Perhaps you can see this is the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and I am standing right on...

HARRIS: Wow!

FLOCK: ... essentially Route 11. This is State Road 11, and this is a bridge that runs over -- causeway that runs over Lake Pontchartrain. We're beginning to really see some wash right here. And this portion of Route 11 is now pretty well closed to most traffic, although we did see a guy with an extremely large monster truck essentially make it through here.

You know throughout the night, you know, and it come in various different waves, and nothing really though that really approximated what we see right now. This is in some sense probably about the worst of it as we see this wash across off of Lake Pontchartrain.

So that is the latest from here. We, of course, continue to watch it; but it seems now it is moving off to the east of us, but at least we are finally getting something that approximates, as we said, a real storm.

What do you think, Chad, how is it where you are in New Orleans -- Chad Meyers?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: But really, obviously, you said that it just wasn't the storm that it could have been had it not hit the Yucatan Peninsula. And we have 300,000 people without homes in the Yucatan Peninsula, but I can imagine what the storm with the category three or category four storm could have been here if it would have been here now, obviously, at 140 miles per hour.

Sixty-five miles per hour, that's all we got to yesterday. That's what the official forecast track is right now. That makes it now still three years that the United States has not been hit by a hurricane. It was a strong tropical storm but officially not on land as a hurricane.

The wind still gusting here. I can feel them doing about 25 to 30 miles per hour and at times we get higher gusts. But other than that, folks here really did luck out with this storm system. A lot of rain. In fact where Jeff was, that was called City Park, although you really couldn't see the park, 23.5 inches of rainfall in the past 48 hours right there on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain.

HARRIS: Wow!

MYERS: That's all I have from here. Back to you guys.

HARRIS: That is phenomenal. Chad, listen, since we've got you and Jeff, you as well, it looks for some reason like the winds are a heck of a lot worse where Jeff is than they are where you are -- Chad.

MYERS: Right.

HARRIS: And there's only a couple of miles difference between the two of you. What explains all that -- Chad?

MYERS: I think he's right there on the lake and so there is very little in the way of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) resistance. I have some buildings around me,...

HARRIS: OK.

MYERS: ... although not many. Here are the French Quarter, probably two or three stories, and a couple of hotels here. We're on top of the levy, and down behind me here you see down about 4 or 5 feet is the Missouri River -- Mississippi River, and then down here about 12 feet is the French Quarter. So we're actually in a little bit of a hole here so that's why Jeff is seeing so much more than we are.

HARRIS: And, Jeff, you are getting beat...

FLOCK: And actually,...

HARRIS: Go ahead -- Jeff.

MYERS: He's getting pounded.

FLOCK: Yes, I was going to say, and actually we're about maybe -- we're on the very edge of New Orleans. We're almost to Slidell here. So we're quite a -- quite a ways away from where Chad is and it seems like it's really come over Lake Pontchartrain here, this edge of it anyway, so... HARRIS: All right.

FLOCK: ... that partly explains it also.

HARRIS: All right. Well that's good. And it's also good to know that, Jeff, you won't get electrocuted by holding that mike in the middle of all that water too. That looks kind of scary, but I'm glad to see you're going to be OK buddy. All right.

FLOCK: Well you know, I'm glad we finally got some wind. I hate those hurricanes that just have water and you know I -- it's nice to get a little breeze going, so that's nice.

HARRIS: Nice to learn that Jeff Flock is a hurricane snob. Thank you very much, Jeff. All right.

MYERS: He always likes to get wet, doesn't he?

HARRIS: Yes, he does, doesn't he. All right. We'll let you guys go and take cover for a bit. And we'll get -- check back with you all later on.

Daryn, over to you.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I told you, hurricane hog heaven.

HARRIS: He's a nut.

KAGAN: He's a gormal (ph) when it comes...

HARRIS: I guess so.

KAGAN: ... to hurricanes. And he's -- they're being safe which is good.

HARRIS: Very good. That's exactly right.

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