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American Morning
Mt. Etna Eruption
Aired October 31, 2002 - 06:38 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: Let's head over to Chad with a quick look at the weather -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.
You know, behind me, I've zoomed into a really random picture here, a European satellite. Here is Italy, the boot that you always talk about. There's the heel, there's the toe.
And here is Sicily, and near Mt. Etna, you can see just a little bit of a smoke trail right there. That's Mt. Etna. That is the volcano.
And in fact, our Chris Burns is there right now. Had a little communication problem with an earthquake on the mainland of Italy, but now Chris is back.
You were, what, 5.5 or something like that, Chris, on the mainland of Italy?
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chad; 5.5.
MYERS: Wow!
BURNS: And it raised a lot of panic among people in Naples, because that's, of course, living in the shadow of Pompeii...
MYERS: Sure.
BURNS: ... of Vesuvius. And however, a volcanologist I just talked to said the earthquake has nothing to do with Vesuvius. But of course, the people in Naples aren't going to believe that at this moment.
MYERS: Not buying that one, no.
BURNS: They're still very nervous. That's right.
MYERS: Tell me a little bit now about Mt. Etna. How close are you?
BURNS: Well, pretty close, close enough to get rained on by the ash, very, very thick, dark clouds over my head, changing the weather over here. It's a very, very cold weather. And at the same time, the rescue authorities, the civil defense authorities, have been sending planes and helicopters dropping water on the forests that have been set afire by the advancing lava. Now, they have been halted by this cloud...
MYERS: Wow?
BURNS: ... because of the security. The planes would not be able to get enough oxygen to fly.
MYERS: Yes.
BURNS: At the same time, also, there was a quake this morning, 2.4 on the Richter Scale, not very big, but big enough to fray and shake some nerves after a couple of days ago, when they had some -- at least four 4 pointers that shook apart a number of homes and left about a thousand people homeless.
The efforts here are continuing, however, on the ground, where I talked to the mayor of Lingua Glosa (ph), which means "tongue of lava" in Italian. He's trying to get bulldozers to show up some advancing lava as a precaution, just to make sure there's not advance toward his town, which was nearly overrun back about 80 years ago, and they're afraid of that happening again.
So, a lot of nervousness here among the townspeople. However, volcanologists and officials ensuring that at this point, anyway, it's not dangerous. But you never know.
MYERS: Chris, sometimes we hear about the lethal gases that come from volcanoes. Have you been told about that at all to stay away from one side of the volcano or another?
BURNS: Absolutely. The lethal gases we were very close to, walking around some of the freshly-poured lava in the last couple of days, and we had to stay not too close to it, because it was pretty heavy. And I've been through that before also in the Congo in one of these volcanoes a few months ago. The same thing, you had to be very careful.
But the ash itself is dangerous, and they're telling young people, children and elderly people to stay inside, and those who are going out over long periods to wear masks, because it is very thick. It also gets in your eyes, I can attest to that.
MYERS: Well, Chris, be very careful out there.
Our meteorologists here, especially down at CNNI, our international group, saying that the winds were out of the north, now that they're out of the west. All of that smoke and all of that debris and ash and obviously the gases are moving off to the east as the wind blows from west to east. So, be careful out there this afternoon.
We'll hear more from you, though, later today. Thanks for your report.
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 31, 2002 - 06:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head over to Chad with a quick look at the weather -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.
You know, behind me, I've zoomed into a really random picture here, a European satellite. Here is Italy, the boot that you always talk about. There's the heel, there's the toe.
And here is Sicily, and near Mt. Etna, you can see just a little bit of a smoke trail right there. That's Mt. Etna. That is the volcano.
And in fact, our Chris Burns is there right now. Had a little communication problem with an earthquake on the mainland of Italy, but now Chris is back.
You were, what, 5.5 or something like that, Chris, on the mainland of Italy?
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chad; 5.5.
MYERS: Wow!
BURNS: And it raised a lot of panic among people in Naples, because that's, of course, living in the shadow of Pompeii...
MYERS: Sure.
BURNS: ... of Vesuvius. And however, a volcanologist I just talked to said the earthquake has nothing to do with Vesuvius. But of course, the people in Naples aren't going to believe that at this moment.
MYERS: Not buying that one, no.
BURNS: They're still very nervous. That's right.
MYERS: Tell me a little bit now about Mt. Etna. How close are you?
BURNS: Well, pretty close, close enough to get rained on by the ash, very, very thick, dark clouds over my head, changing the weather over here. It's a very, very cold weather. And at the same time, the rescue authorities, the civil defense authorities, have been sending planes and helicopters dropping water on the forests that have been set afire by the advancing lava. Now, they have been halted by this cloud...
MYERS: Wow?
BURNS: ... because of the security. The planes would not be able to get enough oxygen to fly.
MYERS: Yes.
BURNS: At the same time, also, there was a quake this morning, 2.4 on the Richter Scale, not very big, but big enough to fray and shake some nerves after a couple of days ago, when they had some -- at least four 4 pointers that shook apart a number of homes and left about a thousand people homeless.
The efforts here are continuing, however, on the ground, where I talked to the mayor of Lingua Glosa (ph), which means "tongue of lava" in Italian. He's trying to get bulldozers to show up some advancing lava as a precaution, just to make sure there's not advance toward his town, which was nearly overrun back about 80 years ago, and they're afraid of that happening again.
So, a lot of nervousness here among the townspeople. However, volcanologists and officials ensuring that at this point, anyway, it's not dangerous. But you never know.
MYERS: Chris, sometimes we hear about the lethal gases that come from volcanoes. Have you been told about that at all to stay away from one side of the volcano or another?
BURNS: Absolutely. The lethal gases we were very close to, walking around some of the freshly-poured lava in the last couple of days, and we had to stay not too close to it, because it was pretty heavy. And I've been through that before also in the Congo in one of these volcanoes a few months ago. The same thing, you had to be very careful.
But the ash itself is dangerous, and they're telling young people, children and elderly people to stay inside, and those who are going out over long periods to wear masks, because it is very thick. It also gets in your eyes, I can attest to that.
MYERS: Well, Chris, be very careful out there.
Our meteorologists here, especially down at CNNI, our international group, saying that the winds were out of the north, now that they're out of the west. All of that smoke and all of that debris and ash and obviously the gases are moving off to the east as the wind blows from west to east. So, be careful out there this afternoon.
We'll hear more from you, though, later today. Thanks for your report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
