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CNN Live At Daybreak
People Picking Up Following Some of Most Damaging Storms in Years
Aired November 12, 2002 - 05:04 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, from the Great Lakes into the South, people are picking up following some of the most damaging storms in years.
And here's Miles O'Brien bringing us the chilling story of lives lost and lives damaged.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two weeks before Thanksgiving is not the season for tornadoes. But don't bother telling that to folks who live in Mossy Grove, Tennessee or Walker County, Alabama or Van Wert, Ohio. In those places, it is now the day after. The sun rose this morning on a season of sadness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't know what to think when you see it. It's just, you think well, it didn't happen to you, but you pray for the people it did happen to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have nothing. And it's like you've got to start your life all over again. But we're alive. That's all that matters.
O'BRIEN: Thirty-six people are now confirmed dead, dozens injured, many others missing in the wake of a storm that swept from north to south across the eastern half of the country, spurning no less than 50 funnel clouds, some of them spinning at better than 200 miles an hour, flattening, uprooting or snapping just about anything in their path.
GOV. DON SIEGELMAN, ALABAMA: The outlying parts of the county, the houses are totally annihilated, devastated. I mean it's like somebody, you know, wrapped up sticks of dynamite and just blew these things, these homes into little tiny pieces.
O'BRIEN: As is always the case, the damage was capricious and the stories of survival seemingly miraculous. In Van Wert, Ohio, 60 movie watchers walked away unscathed because they were warned and got out of their seats before the theater became a drive-in. But in places where tornadoes are rare, there was less warning. In Morgan County, Tennessee, where they have seen only three tornadoes in 53 years, one of the worst sights of death and destruction. Seven were killed in Mossy Grove alone, a community so small it does not appear on most maps. Now it is struggling to rebuild.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody's hugging each other and just glad to see that everybody's all right. And everybody's checking on everybody.
O'BRIEN (on camera): People here may be checking out for each other, but authorities are taking no chances. They have cordoned off areas like this one, hardest hit by the storms, to ensure that looters do not take advantage of the lack of power.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Mossy Grove, Tennessee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLAWAY: And coming up in the next hour of DAYBREAK, we'll take you live to two communities where residents are still trying to put the pieces back together. Jeff Flock is going to join us from Ohio and Gary Tuchman is going to be in Mossy Grove, Tennessee. And we have extensive coverage of those killer storms on our Web site. Our address is cnn.com. The AOL keyword is CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
in Years>
Aired November 12, 2002 - 05:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, from the Great Lakes into the South, people are picking up following some of the most damaging storms in years.
And here's Miles O'Brien bringing us the chilling story of lives lost and lives damaged.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two weeks before Thanksgiving is not the season for tornadoes. But don't bother telling that to folks who live in Mossy Grove, Tennessee or Walker County, Alabama or Van Wert, Ohio. In those places, it is now the day after. The sun rose this morning on a season of sadness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't know what to think when you see it. It's just, you think well, it didn't happen to you, but you pray for the people it did happen to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have nothing. And it's like you've got to start your life all over again. But we're alive. That's all that matters.
O'BRIEN: Thirty-six people are now confirmed dead, dozens injured, many others missing in the wake of a storm that swept from north to south across the eastern half of the country, spurning no less than 50 funnel clouds, some of them spinning at better than 200 miles an hour, flattening, uprooting or snapping just about anything in their path.
GOV. DON SIEGELMAN, ALABAMA: The outlying parts of the county, the houses are totally annihilated, devastated. I mean it's like somebody, you know, wrapped up sticks of dynamite and just blew these things, these homes into little tiny pieces.
O'BRIEN: As is always the case, the damage was capricious and the stories of survival seemingly miraculous. In Van Wert, Ohio, 60 movie watchers walked away unscathed because they were warned and got out of their seats before the theater became a drive-in. But in places where tornadoes are rare, there was less warning. In Morgan County, Tennessee, where they have seen only three tornadoes in 53 years, one of the worst sights of death and destruction. Seven were killed in Mossy Grove alone, a community so small it does not appear on most maps. Now it is struggling to rebuild.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody's hugging each other and just glad to see that everybody's all right. And everybody's checking on everybody.
O'BRIEN (on camera): People here may be checking out for each other, but authorities are taking no chances. They have cordoned off areas like this one, hardest hit by the storms, to ensure that looters do not take advantage of the lack of power.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Mossy Grove, Tennessee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLAWAY: And coming up in the next hour of DAYBREAK, we'll take you live to two communities where residents are still trying to put the pieces back together. Jeff Flock is going to join us from Ohio and Gary Tuchman is going to be in Mossy Grove, Tennessee. And we have extensive coverage of those killer storms on our Web site. Our address is cnn.com. The AOL keyword is CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
in Years>
