Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Lili Downgraded to Category 2

Aired October 03, 2002 - 06:53   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: And we want to go on with our coverage of hurricane Lili right now. We just got word from Jacqui Jeras that the hurricane has now been downgraded to a category two and that is such good news.
We want to head to CNN's Ed Lavandera. He is live in Lake Charles, Louisiana -- Ed, I guess people must be ecstatic there, although the worst isn't over yet, is it?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, what we're being told here is that the brunt of the storm, the stronger parts of the storm is probably still about two or three hours away from its arrival here. We're in Lake Charles, which is on the, going to end up being on the west side of this storm. But also the information that this hurricane has been downgraded to a category two really matches what officials on the ground have been told over the course of the last two hours, as well.

When we first started working this morning, the emergency officials here in Lake Charles had said when it had been downgraded to a category three storm that they anticipated that it would also be dropped down another notch, as hurricane Lili was losing some of its strength as it was coming onshore.

But they do emphasize beyond that that they're not going to change any of their emergency plans so far and that they had no plans to do anything differently than when hurricane Lili was a category four storm and approaching quickly on the Louisiana coastline.

So, still, a lot of people remain in shelters here tonight. The rain here in Lake Charles is starting to fall, as you can tell here, it's actually in pretty good shape. The wind isn't that strong yet. The rain is kind of off and on in terms of its intensity. But by no means is this a very severe storm that we're seeing so far here in Lake Charles.

But as you mentioned off the top, this storm is still a few hours away from, you know, we're here at the Harrah's Riverboat Casino location along Interstate 10 in Lake Charles. And you can see the conditions that are out here, rain steadily falling but nothing severe at this point. So folks here continuing to monitor the situation and they'll continue to do so throughout the day and they urge people to do the same and to keep aware of what hurricane Lili is doing, but not to let their guard down just because this hurricane has dropped two notches here in the morning hours -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you for that live report.

A category two hurricane, exactly what does that mean? Our own meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, will be along after the break to tell you. Stick around.

COMMERCIAL

COSTELLO: And we want to head up to the weather center right now to check in with Jacqui Jeras.

This thing is now a category two. What does that mean?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Basically, it means that it's continuing to weaken, Carol, in a nutshell for you. Winds are now 100 miles per hour, so that's down quite a bit, but still in the middle of category two status, which where winds are between 96 and 110 miles per hour.

So we're watching for Lili to continue to weaken here. But still, there is a big threat. And storm surge is expected to be still between 10 and 14 feet, which is actually more indicative of what you normally see with a category three hurricane. So that's very significant, as well.

Having storm surge and the wind will be our primary factors with this storm for today. Rainfall a secondary factor, where we're expecting anywhere between about six and 10 inches within the path of the storm today.

The other threat in addition to the rainfall will be severe weather in the form of tornadoes. A tornado watch remains in effect for all of southern Louisiana and southern parts of Mississippi. Clusters of very strong thunderstorms have been moving in across the Louisiana, or New Orleans area, rather, all morning long. We had some tornado warnings earlier. All of those have expired at this time, but don't be surprised if we see some new warnings here later on today.

There you can see the eye. It's about 70 miles away from New Iberia at this hour. So we're anticipating landfall within the next two hours. So we are getting very close to that happening. And, again, as I mentioned, the storm surge, that's going to be a big deal here, 10 to 14 feet above normal with a lot of flooding. Hurricane force winds expected to move out about 100 miles from the coastline and we're going to show you more information about the rainfall extremes and the force winds that we're going to be expecting coming up on AMERICAN MORNING in just another few minutes -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jacqui, thank you very much for all your efforts this morning. We sure appreciate it.

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 - 06:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And we want to go on with our coverage of hurricane Lili right now. We just got word from Jacqui Jeras that the hurricane has now been downgraded to a category two and that is such good news.
We want to head to CNN's Ed Lavandera. He is live in Lake Charles, Louisiana -- Ed, I guess people must be ecstatic there, although the worst isn't over yet, is it?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, what we're being told here is that the brunt of the storm, the stronger parts of the storm is probably still about two or three hours away from its arrival here. We're in Lake Charles, which is on the, going to end up being on the west side of this storm. But also the information that this hurricane has been downgraded to a category two really matches what officials on the ground have been told over the course of the last two hours, as well.

When we first started working this morning, the emergency officials here in Lake Charles had said when it had been downgraded to a category three storm that they anticipated that it would also be dropped down another notch, as hurricane Lili was losing some of its strength as it was coming onshore.

But they do emphasize beyond that that they're not going to change any of their emergency plans so far and that they had no plans to do anything differently than when hurricane Lili was a category four storm and approaching quickly on the Louisiana coastline.

So, still, a lot of people remain in shelters here tonight. The rain here in Lake Charles is starting to fall, as you can tell here, it's actually in pretty good shape. The wind isn't that strong yet. The rain is kind of off and on in terms of its intensity. But by no means is this a very severe storm that we're seeing so far here in Lake Charles.

But as you mentioned off the top, this storm is still a few hours away from, you know, we're here at the Harrah's Riverboat Casino location along Interstate 10 in Lake Charles. And you can see the conditions that are out here, rain steadily falling but nothing severe at this point. So folks here continuing to monitor the situation and they'll continue to do so throughout the day and they urge people to do the same and to keep aware of what hurricane Lili is doing, but not to let their guard down just because this hurricane has dropped two notches here in the morning hours -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you for that live report.

A category two hurricane, exactly what does that mean? Our own meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, will be along after the break to tell you. Stick around.

COMMERCIAL

COSTELLO: And we want to head up to the weather center right now to check in with Jacqui Jeras.

This thing is now a category two. What does that mean?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Basically, it means that it's continuing to weaken, Carol, in a nutshell for you. Winds are now 100 miles per hour, so that's down quite a bit, but still in the middle of category two status, which where winds are between 96 and 110 miles per hour.

So we're watching for Lili to continue to weaken here. But still, there is a big threat. And storm surge is expected to be still between 10 and 14 feet, which is actually more indicative of what you normally see with a category three hurricane. So that's very significant, as well.

Having storm surge and the wind will be our primary factors with this storm for today. Rainfall a secondary factor, where we're expecting anywhere between about six and 10 inches within the path of the storm today.

The other threat in addition to the rainfall will be severe weather in the form of tornadoes. A tornado watch remains in effect for all of southern Louisiana and southern parts of Mississippi. Clusters of very strong thunderstorms have been moving in across the Louisiana, or New Orleans area, rather, all morning long. We had some tornado warnings earlier. All of those have expired at this time, but don't be surprised if we see some new warnings here later on today.

There you can see the eye. It's about 70 miles away from New Iberia at this hour. So we're anticipating landfall within the next two hours. So we are getting very close to that happening. And, again, as I mentioned, the storm surge, that's going to be a big deal here, 10 to 14 feet above normal with a lot of flooding. Hurricane force winds expected to move out about 100 miles from the coastline and we're going to show you more information about the rainfall extremes and the force winds that we're going to be expecting coming up on AMERICAN MORNING in just another few minutes -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jacqui, thank you very much for all your efforts this morning. We sure appreciate it.

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