Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Isidore Brings Strong Winds, Rain
Aired September 26, 2002 - 08:06 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the mess in the South. Tropical storm Isidore washing ashore all across the Gulf Coast at this hour, bringing strong gusts and heavy rain to the region.
Jeff Flock is standing by in New Orleans, where they're already gotten battered with a lot of rain. He joins us now with an update -- good morning, Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
And the small community of what they call Irish Bayou -- perhaps you can see this is Route 11. We're perched out along here. And this is what this storm has wrought, as we said, a lot more rain than wind. And, you know, the effects of this thing, I don't know if you can see right here, but all over, you know, you've got worms coming up out of the ground. I don't know if, can you see that, strike down, if I can get this guy? There you go. There's a little friend for you. Worms like this coming up out of the ground.
The local police told us to beware of snakes, as well. If you take a stroll on over here, perhaps you see just all this sort of debris. The cleanup from this thing is going to be a mess and we're not even done making the mess yet.
I want to take you, also, Paula, to downtown New Orleans, where we've got some pictures of the street flooding there. As you know, New Orleans is a town that is below sea level. So when they get a lot of rain, like 12 inches of rain in 12 hours and pumps that can only pump about a half an inch an hour, you're going to wind up with flooding.
As you can see, it's like -- I don't know if you can spin around. You see this fellow back here? Maybe folks all over New Orleans now doing this. The guy kind of tried to get off at this exit, sees that it's totally cut off here and is going to try to go around it. This is the kind of thing that's been going on, people abandoning cars. At one point yesterday we were traveling down I-10 in New Orleans the wrong way because we were cut off and the water was coming up and cars started turning around and going back eastbound on the westbound lane.
So a real mess. There you go. This is what this tropical storm has wrought -- back to you, Paula.
ZAHN: Well, glad you're holding the worm and not a snake this morning.
Thanks, Jeff. Time to get a little bit more now on Isidore from a different perspective. Chad Myers standing by in a very soggy, different part of New Orleans this morning -- good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little bit farther to the west, Paula. And, yes, it's a lot wetter here than where Jeff was. In fact, we've been getting some squalls here just in the past, I'd say 15 or 20 minutes. The wind has come back around, as they say, because now we're on the other side of the storm. We were on the west side, so the winds were all from the south all night. Then all of a sudden now they've been coming around, coming around, coming around. So we know the center or, if it was a hurricane, it would be called the eye. But it's not really a center, and not really much of an eye. The center of circulation has now just moved by us. And so our winds have actually shifted direction.
Here's what it looks like now on radar. Rain showers all the way from the Florida Panhandle and the red box that you see. That will be the tornado watch that's in effect for most of the day all the way down here across the Gulf Coast. The rain showers as far north as Memphis, as far west as about Nashville, all the way to Cincinnati today. Some very heavy rain.
Here's what the forecast map looks like. The rain is going to be heavy in that darkest, darkest blue area, dark blue green area. That area there could pick up between four and six inches of rainfall, all the way from here, again, back into Louisiana, right on up into the Ohio Valley.
A cold day in New York today. In fact, only in the 60s. Cloud cover, some drizzle. The same rain, the same moisture from Isidore already affecting New York City. Temperatures only into the 60s there. Believe it or not, after we had the rest of the week, last week, back in some spots, 88 degrees last Wednesday. Today only in the middle 60s. So, yes, up and down with Isidore more down this morning, though, the rain coming down and the winds again kicking up as the center of the storm has moved away.
If you want to say it, the eye has moved away and so therefore we're getting the winds from now the other direction -- back to you in New York.
ZAHN: Once again, though, Chad, this doesn't give folks in the south much relief from the drought, right? Because most of this rain is simply going to run off.
MYERS: Yes, a lot of it is. We have flash flood watches, flash flood warnings all the way up and down the Mississippi River Valley. We really would like to slow this down by about maybe two or three times. When the water comes down so heavily, even here in New Orleans, the pumps can't pump it out and obviously the fields can't take it. More water runs off. And we are expecting the Mississippi to come up as the rain from up river then eventually comes back down river. All of that obviously has to go down into the Gulf of Mexico.
ZAHN: Thanks, Chad. Appreciate it. See 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 - 08:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the mess in the South. Tropical storm Isidore washing ashore all across the Gulf Coast at this hour, bringing strong gusts and heavy rain to the region.
Jeff Flock is standing by in New Orleans, where they're already gotten battered with a lot of rain. He joins us now with an update -- good morning, Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
And the small community of what they call Irish Bayou -- perhaps you can see this is Route 11. We're perched out along here. And this is what this storm has wrought, as we said, a lot more rain than wind. And, you know, the effects of this thing, I don't know if you can see right here, but all over, you know, you've got worms coming up out of the ground. I don't know if, can you see that, strike down, if I can get this guy? There you go. There's a little friend for you. Worms like this coming up out of the ground.
The local police told us to beware of snakes, as well. If you take a stroll on over here, perhaps you see just all this sort of debris. The cleanup from this thing is going to be a mess and we're not even done making the mess yet.
I want to take you, also, Paula, to downtown New Orleans, where we've got some pictures of the street flooding there. As you know, New Orleans is a town that is below sea level. So when they get a lot of rain, like 12 inches of rain in 12 hours and pumps that can only pump about a half an inch an hour, you're going to wind up with flooding.
As you can see, it's like -- I don't know if you can spin around. You see this fellow back here? Maybe folks all over New Orleans now doing this. The guy kind of tried to get off at this exit, sees that it's totally cut off here and is going to try to go around it. This is the kind of thing that's been going on, people abandoning cars. At one point yesterday we were traveling down I-10 in New Orleans the wrong way because we were cut off and the water was coming up and cars started turning around and going back eastbound on the westbound lane.
So a real mess. There you go. This is what this tropical storm has wrought -- back to you, Paula.
ZAHN: Well, glad you're holding the worm and not a snake this morning.
Thanks, Jeff. Time to get a little bit more now on Isidore from a different perspective. Chad Myers standing by in a very soggy, different part of New Orleans this morning -- good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little bit farther to the west, Paula. And, yes, it's a lot wetter here than where Jeff was. In fact, we've been getting some squalls here just in the past, I'd say 15 or 20 minutes. The wind has come back around, as they say, because now we're on the other side of the storm. We were on the west side, so the winds were all from the south all night. Then all of a sudden now they've been coming around, coming around, coming around. So we know the center or, if it was a hurricane, it would be called the eye. But it's not really a center, and not really much of an eye. The center of circulation has now just moved by us. And so our winds have actually shifted direction.
Here's what it looks like now on radar. Rain showers all the way from the Florida Panhandle and the red box that you see. That will be the tornado watch that's in effect for most of the day all the way down here across the Gulf Coast. The rain showers as far north as Memphis, as far west as about Nashville, all the way to Cincinnati today. Some very heavy rain.
Here's what the forecast map looks like. The rain is going to be heavy in that darkest, darkest blue area, dark blue green area. That area there could pick up between four and six inches of rainfall, all the way from here, again, back into Louisiana, right on up into the Ohio Valley.
A cold day in New York today. In fact, only in the 60s. Cloud cover, some drizzle. The same rain, the same moisture from Isidore already affecting New York City. Temperatures only into the 60s there. Believe it or not, after we had the rest of the week, last week, back in some spots, 88 degrees last Wednesday. Today only in the middle 60s. So, yes, up and down with Isidore more down this morning, though, the rain coming down and the winds again kicking up as the center of the storm has moved away.
If you want to say it, the eye has moved away and so therefore we're getting the winds from now the other direction -- back to you in New York.
ZAHN: Once again, though, Chad, this doesn't give folks in the south much relief from the drought, right? Because most of this rain is simply going to run off.
MYERS: Yes, a lot of it is. We have flash flood watches, flash flood warnings all the way up and down the Mississippi River Valley. We really would like to slow this down by about maybe two or three times. When the water comes down so heavily, even here in New Orleans, the pumps can't pump it out and obviously the fields can't take it. More water runs off. And we are expecting the Mississippi to come up as the rain from up river then eventually comes back down river. All of that obviously has to go down into the Gulf of Mexico.
ZAHN: Thanks, Chad. Appreciate it. See 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
