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CNN Live At Daybreak
Hurricane Alert: Lili Takes Aim at Louisiana
Aired October 03, 2002 - 05:40 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: Well New Orleans is bracing for another bashing thanks to Hurricane Lili. All the experts are saying this hurricane will be much worse than Tropical Storm Isidore, which hit just last week.
Meteorologist Chad Myers -- our own Chad is in New Orleans. He was there for Isidore, he's back for Lili, and it looks worse there than it does in Lake Charles.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I believe it is because we have one of those outer bands. We have one of those fingers that the storm is coming around now. As you see, it almost looks like a buzz saw. We're in one of the teeth of the buzz saw and that's where some of the wind gusts get really very strong. In fact, we had a gust here about 60 miles per hour about five minutes ago and we lost satellite communication with you guys because the truck was shaking so bad.
And we are protected here in the French Quarter, basically in a big canyon with all the buildings and all the streets going this way. Also here we're in Jackson Square. This entire area very protected from the wind. So the 60 mile per hour wind gusts now coming up to maybe 65 or 70 at times. I still don't see any areas here yet without power and that's good news, because the folks here -- you know when a hurricane comes to New Orleans, that's just a good excuse to drink.
We went down here about a block and a half, almost to Bourbon Street, found Johnny White's Bar, and they are drinking already. Well I guess -- I guess maybe they're still drinking because they've been drinking all night long. They've been drinking Hurricanes, $3 specials at the bar, like $1 drafts. And if you know a town that wants to party, this is the one. We even found some guys that came all the way from Scotland just to party in a hurricane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: So you guys -- first, you guys are from Scotland?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're here for the hurricane, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MYERS: What do you think of this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love it. Go -- Chris (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love the rain. It makes us feel so much like it's at home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's summer back home but it's...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... winter here. We don't understand it.
MYERS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all complain about the rain, but it's nice here. I don't...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes us feel like we're home.
MYERS: All right, 110 kilometers an hour, that's pretty fast, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... that's a summer day us (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's our summer. We love it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get five days of sun a year so this is nice. This is nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: And I think that's the main consensus here, at least we didn't get the eye, at least we're not in the category three part of this storm. Even if we do get hurricane strength winds, and right now it appears like we're getting close, we'll...
COSTELLO: Chad, look behind you.
MYERS: ...at least we'll weather this storm an awful lot better back...
COSTELLO: Chad, look behind you.
MYERS: What? What? What? What? What?
COSTELLO: You missed those guys running through the water frolicking.
MYERS: Oh, I didn't see it. Yes, that's how much water's back there.
COSTELLO: Oh it was funny. I'm sorry to interrupt.
MYERS: Here we go. You got one here. Wait, wait, here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
COSTELLO: There we go. MYERS: Oh, he wimped out. He's -- he ran on the curb. Come on, right there in the water.
COSTELLO: Hey, does he have an open container?
MYERS: I believe he does. Right through, buddy, right through the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's going on?
MYERS: Show me how deep it is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty deep.
MYERS: It's pretty deep he said.
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: Yes, you can't get away with that on Wolf Blitzer's show can you?
COSTELLO: No, I don't think so.
MYERS: Back to you -- Paula.
COSTELLO: Paula. You're all messed up now.
MYERS: I know. I know you're Carol. I've been working with you long enough. Hey good stuff, I'll be back in a few minutes.
COSTELLO: I think he's been celebrating with those people in the French Quarter. No, I'm just kidding. That was funny. We needed some comic relief this morning.
OK, let's settle down now and get more on the situation in Lafayette, Louisiana. Lafayette is potentially in the direct path of Hurricane Lili.
Mike Zientek of CNN affiliate KHOU is in Houston, Texas. No, are you in Lafayette or Houston, tell me?
MIKE ZIENTEK, KHOU-TV REPORTER: I'm in Lafayette, Carol, and I can tell you that we're really starting to feel the affect of Lili now. The rain and the wind began picking up about midnight and it's gotten stronger ever since. This is probably about the strongest the rain and the wind have been since we've been out here for the last couple of hours.
Lafayette, as you mentioned, it's about 50 miles inland, so the folks who are on the coast are feeling it a lot worse than we are right now. However, a lot of the people who live down there decided they would come out here to ride out the storm because even though, as you can see, conditions are getting worse here, they figured it'd be better to ride out the storm in Lafayette than back home. In fact, there were mandatory evacuations for four parishes down along the coast. COSTELLO: As you can see, we've lost our signal from our affiliate out of Houston; and our affiliate, of course, is in Lafayette, Louisiana. The winds are blowing and it blows that mast around on top of the live truck and you never know when you're going to lose them. We'll try to get back to that as soon as we can.
Of course we have been tracking the path of Hurricane Lili throughout the morning here on CNN DAYBREAK. We've even got an eye in the sky look at this monster storm. This is a satellite image showing the scale of the storm. There you can see it. Winds from a category three storm can reach speeds of 130 miles per hour.
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 October 3, 2002 - 05:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well New Orleans is bracing for another bashing thanks to Hurricane Lili. All the experts are saying this hurricane will be much worse than Tropical Storm Isidore, which hit just last week.
Meteorologist Chad Myers -- our own Chad is in New Orleans. He was there for Isidore, he's back for Lili, and it looks worse there than it does in Lake Charles.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I believe it is because we have one of those outer bands. We have one of those fingers that the storm is coming around now. As you see, it almost looks like a buzz saw. We're in one of the teeth of the buzz saw and that's where some of the wind gusts get really very strong. In fact, we had a gust here about 60 miles per hour about five minutes ago and we lost satellite communication with you guys because the truck was shaking so bad.
And we are protected here in the French Quarter, basically in a big canyon with all the buildings and all the streets going this way. Also here we're in Jackson Square. This entire area very protected from the wind. So the 60 mile per hour wind gusts now coming up to maybe 65 or 70 at times. I still don't see any areas here yet without power and that's good news, because the folks here -- you know when a hurricane comes to New Orleans, that's just a good excuse to drink.
We went down here about a block and a half, almost to Bourbon Street, found Johnny White's Bar, and they are drinking already. Well I guess -- I guess maybe they're still drinking because they've been drinking all night long. They've been drinking Hurricanes, $3 specials at the bar, like $1 drafts. And if you know a town that wants to party, this is the one. We even found some guys that came all the way from Scotland just to party in a hurricane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: So you guys -- first, you guys are from Scotland?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're here for the hurricane, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MYERS: What do you think of this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love it. Go -- Chris (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love the rain. It makes us feel so much like it's at home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's summer back home but it's...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... winter here. We don't understand it.
MYERS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all complain about the rain, but it's nice here. I don't...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes us feel like we're home.
MYERS: All right, 110 kilometers an hour, that's pretty fast, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... that's a summer day us (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's our summer. We love it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get five days of sun a year so this is nice. This is nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: And I think that's the main consensus here, at least we didn't get the eye, at least we're not in the category three part of this storm. Even if we do get hurricane strength winds, and right now it appears like we're getting close, we'll...
COSTELLO: Chad, look behind you.
MYERS: ...at least we'll weather this storm an awful lot better back...
COSTELLO: Chad, look behind you.
MYERS: What? What? What? What? What?
COSTELLO: You missed those guys running through the water frolicking.
MYERS: Oh, I didn't see it. Yes, that's how much water's back there.
COSTELLO: Oh it was funny. I'm sorry to interrupt.
MYERS: Here we go. You got one here. Wait, wait, here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
COSTELLO: There we go. MYERS: Oh, he wimped out. He's -- he ran on the curb. Come on, right there in the water.
COSTELLO: Hey, does he have an open container?
MYERS: I believe he does. Right through, buddy, right through the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's going on?
MYERS: Show me how deep it is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty deep.
MYERS: It's pretty deep he said.
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: Yes, you can't get away with that on Wolf Blitzer's show can you?
COSTELLO: No, I don't think so.
MYERS: Back to you -- Paula.
COSTELLO: Paula. You're all messed up now.
MYERS: I know. I know you're Carol. I've been working with you long enough. Hey good stuff, I'll be back in a few minutes.
COSTELLO: I think he's been celebrating with those people in the French Quarter. No, I'm just kidding. That was funny. We needed some comic relief this morning.
OK, let's settle down now and get more on the situation in Lafayette, Louisiana. Lafayette is potentially in the direct path of Hurricane Lili.
Mike Zientek of CNN affiliate KHOU is in Houston, Texas. No, are you in Lafayette or Houston, tell me?
MIKE ZIENTEK, KHOU-TV REPORTER: I'm in Lafayette, Carol, and I can tell you that we're really starting to feel the affect of Lili now. The rain and the wind began picking up about midnight and it's gotten stronger ever since. This is probably about the strongest the rain and the wind have been since we've been out here for the last couple of hours.
Lafayette, as you mentioned, it's about 50 miles inland, so the folks who are on the coast are feeling it a lot worse than we are right now. However, a lot of the people who live down there decided they would come out here to ride out the storm because even though, as you can see, conditions are getting worse here, they figured it'd be better to ride out the storm in Lafayette than back home. In fact, there were mandatory evacuations for four parishes down along the coast. COSTELLO: As you can see, we've lost our signal from our affiliate out of Houston; and our affiliate, of course, is in Lafayette, Louisiana. The winds are blowing and it blows that mast around on top of the live truck and you never know when you're going to lose them. We'll try to get back to that as soon as we can.
Of course we have been tracking the path of Hurricane Lili throughout the morning here on CNN DAYBREAK. We've even got an eye in the sky look at this monster storm. This is a satellite image showing the scale of the storm. There you can see it. Winds from a category three storm can reach speeds of 130 miles per hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
