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CNN Live Today
Lili Brings Rain, Winds to Coastal Areas
Aired October 03, 2002 - 10:00 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: This right now is the view in Louisiana as the weakened Hurricane Lili buzz-saws into the southern part of the state. It charged ashore riding 100 mile an hour winds, as we said, and a wave of relief as well. The storm had been a Category 4 just a matter of five hours ago.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I know, it is hard to believe.
HARRIS: Now, we have got CNN troops posted all along Lili's advancing front line this morning.
Our Jeff Flock, as you may know, is a veteran of many hurricanes. We got him standing by in Morgan City, Louisiana, and our meteorologist Chad Myers is in New Orleans this morning, and Ed Lavandera is Lake Charles.
Now, let's begin in Morgan City. Jeff Flock riding out the storm there -- Jeff, how is it looking?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boy, it is raining like -- it is raining right now, it's really raining is what I can tell you here, and according to the mayor, not the worst of it yet here in Morgan City. A lot of water coming through right now.
We have been trying to get out some residents around here have been coming out, taking a look at their homes. This man here -- now, this is not your home, is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it is not. This is my wife's office building.
FLOCK: Now, where do you live?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I live on the other end of Morgan City. In a mobile home.
FLOCK: But you stayed here last night. Why was that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to get out of the mobile home.
FLOCK: Didn't want to weather it there. Looks like things have held pretty well. We have got a construction site over here, and I don't know if Spike (ph) is able to pan around to it, but you were concerned about some of these boards flying off and maybe coming through your windows or something?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. I wasn't sure if they would withstand the winds, so that was my only concern right around here.
FLOCK: Yes. Now, this is where your wife works, I take it. Now, if Spike (ph) is able to come back around -- that is asking an awful lot, but I tell you, she does not have one of your rain suits, this is your wife. Can you see through there? I don't know if you can -- but you guys were holed up in here, and you felt pretty secure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. We felt pretty safe. This withstood Andrew, so we felt pretty safe staying here.
FLOCK: There you go, and as it turned out, that's the way.
Although, Leon, I can show you some damage, maybe if -- again, Spike (ph) is able to got off to the left, you see a couple of telephone poles, one that got pulled down, another one that got sheered off.
So clearly, at this point, minor damage, but it still a pretty good blow, and again, according to the mayor, we have got another hour or so to go before we have seen the worst of it. C.J. (ph), thanks.
There you go, Leon.
HARRIS: All right. Good deal. Thanks, Jeff. We will check back with you later.
All right. Let's hop over to the Big Easy right now. Chad Myers has got the view for us from New Orleans this morning -- Chad, what's the word?
CHAD MYERS, CNN WEATHER: Not so easy here, Leon. The rain is back. Think of this storm really like a buzz saw, like a saw with saw blades. We have been out of these blades, where in between the blades, there has been nothing. In fact, we had the sun about ten minutes ago, and then, when one blades come over, one of the fingers, if you will, because really -- as it comes over, we're really seeing some very heavy rainfall, wind gusts here just about 10 minutes ago to 45 miles per hour, and this is what Bourbon Street looks like, the French Quarter, as we look down here. We're very close to the levee. We stayed away from the levee just because we really needed to keep our satellite truck out of the wind. As the wind shakes the satellite truck, the satellite dish goes like this, and we are not able to use it, you are not able to use our signal.
When we got here, though, at 3:00 this morning, the wind was already blowing, it was maybe 35 miles per hour, and we heard music. So me, you know, I went down to see what was going on. We found these guys reveling at the bar. They were drinking hurricanes, they were drinking like dollar pitchers, so I'm not even sure if the managers were there, but the bars were still open, and these folks were having fun. We even found two guys that came to town from Scotland.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: You're open 24 hours, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
MYERS: 24 hours in a row, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, 24 hours. We only close for Christmas, and that's about eight hours.
MYERS: So you guys -- you guys are from Scotland?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're here for the hurricane.
MYERS: What do you think of this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love the rain, it makes us feel so much at home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's summer back home, but it is winter here. We don't understand it. You all complain about the rain, but it's nice here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes it feel like home.
MYERS: 110 kilometers an hour, that's pretty fast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a summer day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's our summer, we love it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get five days of sun a year, so this is nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: And as you probably can tell, Leon, they probably had a couple too many hurricanes before we went into the bar and found them.
I think they were drinking all night. But they say a hurricane in New Orleans is just a good excuse for a party, I guess.
HARRIS: I suppose so. I can tell they had their fun there. Thanks, Chad. Try to get dry, and be careful. We'll check back with you in just a bit -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's move a couple hundred miles west to Lake Charles, Louisiana and find out if our Ed Lavandera there is staying dry or if the outer bands have at all hit you.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, staying dry and clearly not having as much fun as those guys in New Orleans, we are seeing some of the strongest winds we have experienced all morning long here in Lake Charles. But saying that, we have got to admit that this isn't very strong, in fact, it hasn't rained for at least like the last hour or so.
I spoke with the mayor here in Lake Charles just a little while ago, and he says that he has got a feeling that perhaps they have seen the worst of this storm.
This is Lake Charles, the Harrah's casino river boat, just in the distance there, and they have shut down shop here at least for today, but everything looking very good at this point, and no serious reports of damage. We so understand there are about 100,000 people without power between Lake Charles and Baton Rouge, and that emergency crews are being sent out and electrical crews are being sent out to repair those problems.
But on the west side of Hurricane Lili, things looking good so far. Also had a chance to speak now with folks down along the coast as well and they are saying that everything is holding up very well as hurricane Lili has come along shore here, and you can see the wind situation not incredibly strong, and not a lot of rain that has fallen here, or as much rain as we have anticipated, perhaps, so things looking very good so far here in Lake Charles -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, Ed, everyone in Lake Charles, though, was under an evacuation order?
LAVANDERA: A lot of the folks that were actually south of Lake Charles, a lot of folks came here that I had a chance to speak with yesterday, and then there were also a lot of people who evacuated even further north from here. So, this is kind of a point -- a point where people south of here came to stay with family and friends, or came here and stayed in hotels that they could find. But this has seemed to be a pretty good place to escape from this storm.
WHITFIELD: All right. Ed Lavandera from Lake Charles. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Stay dry if you can.
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 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: This right now is the view in Louisiana as the weakened Hurricane Lili buzz-saws into the southern part of the state. It charged ashore riding 100 mile an hour winds, as we said, and a wave of relief as well. The storm had been a Category 4 just a matter of five hours ago.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I know, it is hard to believe.
HARRIS: Now, we have got CNN troops posted all along Lili's advancing front line this morning.
Our Jeff Flock, as you may know, is a veteran of many hurricanes. We got him standing by in Morgan City, Louisiana, and our meteorologist Chad Myers is in New Orleans this morning, and Ed Lavandera is Lake Charles.
Now, let's begin in Morgan City. Jeff Flock riding out the storm there -- Jeff, how is it looking?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boy, it is raining like -- it is raining right now, it's really raining is what I can tell you here, and according to the mayor, not the worst of it yet here in Morgan City. A lot of water coming through right now.
We have been trying to get out some residents around here have been coming out, taking a look at their homes. This man here -- now, this is not your home, is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it is not. This is my wife's office building.
FLOCK: Now, where do you live?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I live on the other end of Morgan City. In a mobile home.
FLOCK: But you stayed here last night. Why was that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to get out of the mobile home.
FLOCK: Didn't want to weather it there. Looks like things have held pretty well. We have got a construction site over here, and I don't know if Spike (ph) is able to pan around to it, but you were concerned about some of these boards flying off and maybe coming through your windows or something?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. I wasn't sure if they would withstand the winds, so that was my only concern right around here.
FLOCK: Yes. Now, this is where your wife works, I take it. Now, if Spike (ph) is able to come back around -- that is asking an awful lot, but I tell you, she does not have one of your rain suits, this is your wife. Can you see through there? I don't know if you can -- but you guys were holed up in here, and you felt pretty secure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. We felt pretty safe. This withstood Andrew, so we felt pretty safe staying here.
FLOCK: There you go, and as it turned out, that's the way.
Although, Leon, I can show you some damage, maybe if -- again, Spike (ph) is able to got off to the left, you see a couple of telephone poles, one that got pulled down, another one that got sheered off.
So clearly, at this point, minor damage, but it still a pretty good blow, and again, according to the mayor, we have got another hour or so to go before we have seen the worst of it. C.J. (ph), thanks.
There you go, Leon.
HARRIS: All right. Good deal. Thanks, Jeff. We will check back with you later.
All right. Let's hop over to the Big Easy right now. Chad Myers has got the view for us from New Orleans this morning -- Chad, what's the word?
CHAD MYERS, CNN WEATHER: Not so easy here, Leon. The rain is back. Think of this storm really like a buzz saw, like a saw with saw blades. We have been out of these blades, where in between the blades, there has been nothing. In fact, we had the sun about ten minutes ago, and then, when one blades come over, one of the fingers, if you will, because really -- as it comes over, we're really seeing some very heavy rainfall, wind gusts here just about 10 minutes ago to 45 miles per hour, and this is what Bourbon Street looks like, the French Quarter, as we look down here. We're very close to the levee. We stayed away from the levee just because we really needed to keep our satellite truck out of the wind. As the wind shakes the satellite truck, the satellite dish goes like this, and we are not able to use it, you are not able to use our signal.
When we got here, though, at 3:00 this morning, the wind was already blowing, it was maybe 35 miles per hour, and we heard music. So me, you know, I went down to see what was going on. We found these guys reveling at the bar. They were drinking hurricanes, they were drinking like dollar pitchers, so I'm not even sure if the managers were there, but the bars were still open, and these folks were having fun. We even found two guys that came to town from Scotland.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: You're open 24 hours, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
MYERS: 24 hours in a row, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, 24 hours. We only close for Christmas, and that's about eight hours.
MYERS: So you guys -- you guys are from Scotland?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're here for the hurricane.
MYERS: What do you think of this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love the rain, it makes us feel so much at home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's summer back home, but it is winter here. We don't understand it. You all complain about the rain, but it's nice here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes it feel like home.
MYERS: 110 kilometers an hour, that's pretty fast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a summer day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's our summer, we love it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get five days of sun a year, so this is nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: And as you probably can tell, Leon, they probably had a couple too many hurricanes before we went into the bar and found them.
I think they were drinking all night. But they say a hurricane in New Orleans is just a good excuse for a party, I guess.
HARRIS: I suppose so. I can tell they had their fun there. Thanks, Chad. Try to get dry, and be careful. We'll check back with you in just a bit -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's move a couple hundred miles west to Lake Charles, Louisiana and find out if our Ed Lavandera there is staying dry or if the outer bands have at all hit you.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, staying dry and clearly not having as much fun as those guys in New Orleans, we are seeing some of the strongest winds we have experienced all morning long here in Lake Charles. But saying that, we have got to admit that this isn't very strong, in fact, it hasn't rained for at least like the last hour or so.
I spoke with the mayor here in Lake Charles just a little while ago, and he says that he has got a feeling that perhaps they have seen the worst of this storm.
This is Lake Charles, the Harrah's casino river boat, just in the distance there, and they have shut down shop here at least for today, but everything looking very good at this point, and no serious reports of damage. We so understand there are about 100,000 people without power between Lake Charles and Baton Rouge, and that emergency crews are being sent out and electrical crews are being sent out to repair those problems.
But on the west side of Hurricane Lili, things looking good so far. Also had a chance to speak now with folks down along the coast as well and they are saying that everything is holding up very well as hurricane Lili has come along shore here, and you can see the wind situation not incredibly strong, and not a lot of rain that has fallen here, or as much rain as we have anticipated, perhaps, so things looking very good so far here in Lake Charles -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, Ed, everyone in Lake Charles, though, was under an evacuation order?
LAVANDERA: A lot of the folks that were actually south of Lake Charles, a lot of folks came here that I had a chance to speak with yesterday, and then there were also a lot of people who evacuated even further north from here. So, this is kind of a point -- a point where people south of here came to stay with family and friends, or came here and stayed in hotels that they could find. But this has seemed to be a pretty good place to escape from this storm.
WHITFIELD: All right. Ed Lavandera from Lake Charles. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Stay dry if you can.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
