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CNN Live At Daybreak
Cleanup Begins, Mourning Continues
Aired May 05, 2003 - 05:02 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 start in the Midwest, shall we? The cleanup has begun, the mourning continues. At least 28 are dead, 34 others injured after tornadoes swept across four states. And the death toll keeps climbing this morning. Eastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri are hardest hit. In Lawrence County, Missouri alone, officials estimate a dozen people were killed and there are additional fatalities reported in other parts of the state.
A police officer says the tornado stayed on the ground for half an hour, passing through the heart of Pierce City. He describes the downtown area as wiped out.
Now, the governor of Kansas has declared seven counties disaster areas. Nearly two dozen people were injured and many homes are described as damaged or destroyed. And there's also destruction in Arkansas. Emergency management officials there say the storm destroyed 10 to 14 homes about 70 miles northeast of Little Rock.
In Dyre County, Tennessee, officials say one person was killed when a twister hit a trailer park. Several homes also destroyed. The National Guard armory and the Madison County emergency management office were damaged. We'll get a much better assessment of damage when the sun comes up later this morning.
Let's head up to the weather center now.
A tornado stays on the ground for a half hour?
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It sure can.
COSTELLO: How unusual is that?
MYERS: That's very unusual. That is obviously the F3 to F4 type, maybe even an F5 at times, to stay on the ground, have that much energy for that long of a time. Typically they'll kill themselves. They'll wrap in enough rain or they'll wrap in enough cold air and the storm will not stay on the ground. It could dance for a while, but dancing storms are typically F1s and F2s, which means, you know, winds up to 150 miles per hour. Yes, it's going to ruin your life, possibly, for a couple of days, taking limbs off trees and even roofs off. But I'll tell you what, those threes and fours, those storms that are on the ground for a long time and for a long distance, those are the ones that are really, really painful, Carol.
And, in fact, 82 tornadoes now officially yesterday. That number may come down a little bit because as one spotter sees it from what he thinks as East Memphis and another spotters sees it as he's thinking Paduca, they're looking at possibly the same storm, but that goes on here as one or as two storms, rather, than one. So we'll have to see how many storms actually were on the ground at the same time.
But obviously the fatalities that you were talking about quite amazing. A major outbreak considering that on Friday we talked about this, that there were 168 tornadoes in April and there were no fatalities. And all of a sudden over the weekend, oh, boy, did Mother Nature put a squash on that.
Here's some amateur video from Baxter Springs, Kansas. Pretty good video there. That's obviously on the ground. The funnel stays up in the sky, but this funnel, it's all the way down to the ground. You can begin to see the debris on the ground, that's what we call it. Even if you can't see sometimes the tornado all the way on the ground, you start to see insulation getting picked up or little pieces of debris like this getting thrown up into the air, you know that debris is coming from the ground. And this was obviously on the ground for quite some time.
There were tornadoes in Missouri, in Nebraska, in Kansas, all the way up into South Dakota, Arkansas and now we have a tornado warning for Desoto County, Mississippi.
It isn't even over yet this morning, guys. We still have these warnings going on and watches going on. The boxes you see here, including Memphis, including Nashville this morning, and the storms going to continue to rotate through. This is going to be an area of energy concern today. It's going to heat up with the sunshine, not going to get a lot of heat up here across parts of Ohio, Cincinnati and Indiana, just because it's raining right now and it has no intention of stopping.
But down here not raining yet. The sun's going to come out. You're going to heat the ground up just like we heated the ground up yesterday, and that's why we had so many tornadoes yesterday.
Here you go zooming in a little bit on some of the heavier rain. We're going to have to watch out for flooding through this area, through the Ohio Valley. Notice that it was raining in Indianapolis and it stopped. And now another batch of heavy rain coming in, many areas up here picking up between four and six inches of rainfall, and that's enough to get the creeks and streams out of their banks and obviously many of the roadways very awash in water this morning. So be careful out there.
I'll have more coming up -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, thank you, Chad.
Now, for more now on the deadly tornadoes, Jim Charrier of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency joins us live by phone from Jefferson City.
Good morning.
JIM CHARRIER, MISSOURI EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Good morning. COSTELLO: Assess the damage for us.
CHARRIER: We have extensive damage throughout 16 counties in Missouri and we have some, we have counties that haven't reported in yet. So that figure may climb.
COSTELLO: And what are your people doing right now?
CHARRIER: Right now we have pretty much taken care of the -- the primary focus is always going to be the life safety issues and finding shelter for those who need it. At this particular point, we're being hindered by the darkness. So as far as doing any kind of accurate damage assessment, we are not really in a position where we can do a lot at this point. So we're waiting for first light and we have teamed, we have coordinated efforts with the FEMA Region 7 as well as the state teams and we'll be sending out damage assessment folks as soon as possible, as soon as we have enough light to work with.
COSTELLO: Can you tell us how many people were killed by these killer storms?
CHARRIER: At this point in our office we have nine confirmed fatalities in six counties, the majority of which are coming from the southwestern portion of the state.
COSTELLO: Tornadoes are not unusual in this part of the country, but this particular storm, did that seem unusual to you?
CHARRIER: I moved to Missouri in 1982 and I don't believe I've seen anything quite this extensive.
COSTELLO: What made it different?
CHARRIER: The sheer volume and number of tornadoes and the fact that so many of them stayed on the ground for so long.
COSTELLO: You know, we saw home video and people out shooting these tornadoes. It always amazes me that people don't go somewhere to safety.
Was that a problem in this storm? Was that why so many people were injured?
CHARRIER: I'm not really in a position to comment on that. I know of some of the jurisdictions, we've gotten more information from than others, due to better communications. Some of our counties, the communications systems were hit particularly hard by the storms. But I do know that there are several jurisdictions that had significant property damage, but didn't have the fatalities that we would expect with the amount of property damage they suffered.
So I think our communications systems worked fairly effectively.
COSTELLO: So people got early warning, I mean, warnings in time to get to safety? CHARRIER: Well, I believe so. But warning is always difficult with tornadoes because they come down on us so quickly. But we've had a major effort in the past few years of trying to do early warning systems and through the, radio, you know, the radio systems and to new towers. And it's, I think it had some positive impact.
COSTELLO: All right, Mr. Charrier, we'll let you get back to work.
Many thanks for joining us live this morning by phone.
And we want to continue more on those killer tornadoes. In Kansas, dozens of homes were knocked off their foundations and flattened, cars tossed around like toys, trees splintered like toothpicks. Some residents say they took cover just in the nick of time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN VULGAMORE, WITNESS: You had some funnel clouds over here and then they backed south and landed right over there and started coming through. And my nephew and I were on the back deck and I said that's going to hit us. And he says you think? I said oh yes, that's going to hit us. And we stood there until it got about 100 years. I mean it hit that brush right there and we went down in the basement and it just tore the roof off and went right through that way. I didn't have time to be scared. And it just, it happened so fast that you didn't have time for much of anything.
Fortunately nobody was hurt here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Kansas emergency officials say four tornadoes touched down in the state yesterday afternoon alone.
For more detailed information on the storm and descriptions of storm intensity, just log onto our Web site at cnn.com, AOL keyword: 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
Aired May 5, 2003 - 05:02 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 start in the Midwest, shall we? The cleanup has begun, the mourning continues. At least 28 are dead, 34 others injured after tornadoes swept across four states. And the death toll keeps climbing this morning. Eastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri are hardest hit. In Lawrence County, Missouri alone, officials estimate a dozen people were killed and there are additional fatalities reported in other parts of the state.
A police officer says the tornado stayed on the ground for half an hour, passing through the heart of Pierce City. He describes the downtown area as wiped out.
Now, the governor of Kansas has declared seven counties disaster areas. Nearly two dozen people were injured and many homes are described as damaged or destroyed. And there's also destruction in Arkansas. Emergency management officials there say the storm destroyed 10 to 14 homes about 70 miles northeast of Little Rock.
In Dyre County, Tennessee, officials say one person was killed when a twister hit a trailer park. Several homes also destroyed. The National Guard armory and the Madison County emergency management office were damaged. We'll get a much better assessment of damage when the sun comes up later this morning.
Let's head up to the weather center now.
A tornado stays on the ground for a half hour?
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It sure can.
COSTELLO: How unusual is that?
MYERS: That's very unusual. That is obviously the F3 to F4 type, maybe even an F5 at times, to stay on the ground, have that much energy for that long of a time. Typically they'll kill themselves. They'll wrap in enough rain or they'll wrap in enough cold air and the storm will not stay on the ground. It could dance for a while, but dancing storms are typically F1s and F2s, which means, you know, winds up to 150 miles per hour. Yes, it's going to ruin your life, possibly, for a couple of days, taking limbs off trees and even roofs off. But I'll tell you what, those threes and fours, those storms that are on the ground for a long time and for a long distance, those are the ones that are really, really painful, Carol.
And, in fact, 82 tornadoes now officially yesterday. That number may come down a little bit because as one spotter sees it from what he thinks as East Memphis and another spotters sees it as he's thinking Paduca, they're looking at possibly the same storm, but that goes on here as one or as two storms, rather, than one. So we'll have to see how many storms actually were on the ground at the same time.
But obviously the fatalities that you were talking about quite amazing. A major outbreak considering that on Friday we talked about this, that there were 168 tornadoes in April and there were no fatalities. And all of a sudden over the weekend, oh, boy, did Mother Nature put a squash on that.
Here's some amateur video from Baxter Springs, Kansas. Pretty good video there. That's obviously on the ground. The funnel stays up in the sky, but this funnel, it's all the way down to the ground. You can begin to see the debris on the ground, that's what we call it. Even if you can't see sometimes the tornado all the way on the ground, you start to see insulation getting picked up or little pieces of debris like this getting thrown up into the air, you know that debris is coming from the ground. And this was obviously on the ground for quite some time.
There were tornadoes in Missouri, in Nebraska, in Kansas, all the way up into South Dakota, Arkansas and now we have a tornado warning for Desoto County, Mississippi.
It isn't even over yet this morning, guys. We still have these warnings going on and watches going on. The boxes you see here, including Memphis, including Nashville this morning, and the storms going to continue to rotate through. This is going to be an area of energy concern today. It's going to heat up with the sunshine, not going to get a lot of heat up here across parts of Ohio, Cincinnati and Indiana, just because it's raining right now and it has no intention of stopping.
But down here not raining yet. The sun's going to come out. You're going to heat the ground up just like we heated the ground up yesterday, and that's why we had so many tornadoes yesterday.
Here you go zooming in a little bit on some of the heavier rain. We're going to have to watch out for flooding through this area, through the Ohio Valley. Notice that it was raining in Indianapolis and it stopped. And now another batch of heavy rain coming in, many areas up here picking up between four and six inches of rainfall, and that's enough to get the creeks and streams out of their banks and obviously many of the roadways very awash in water this morning. So be careful out there.
I'll have more coming up -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, thank you, Chad.
Now, for more now on the deadly tornadoes, Jim Charrier of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency joins us live by phone from Jefferson City.
Good morning.
JIM CHARRIER, MISSOURI EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Good morning. COSTELLO: Assess the damage for us.
CHARRIER: We have extensive damage throughout 16 counties in Missouri and we have some, we have counties that haven't reported in yet. So that figure may climb.
COSTELLO: And what are your people doing right now?
CHARRIER: Right now we have pretty much taken care of the -- the primary focus is always going to be the life safety issues and finding shelter for those who need it. At this particular point, we're being hindered by the darkness. So as far as doing any kind of accurate damage assessment, we are not really in a position where we can do a lot at this point. So we're waiting for first light and we have teamed, we have coordinated efforts with the FEMA Region 7 as well as the state teams and we'll be sending out damage assessment folks as soon as possible, as soon as we have enough light to work with.
COSTELLO: Can you tell us how many people were killed by these killer storms?
CHARRIER: At this point in our office we have nine confirmed fatalities in six counties, the majority of which are coming from the southwestern portion of the state.
COSTELLO: Tornadoes are not unusual in this part of the country, but this particular storm, did that seem unusual to you?
CHARRIER: I moved to Missouri in 1982 and I don't believe I've seen anything quite this extensive.
COSTELLO: What made it different?
CHARRIER: The sheer volume and number of tornadoes and the fact that so many of them stayed on the ground for so long.
COSTELLO: You know, we saw home video and people out shooting these tornadoes. It always amazes me that people don't go somewhere to safety.
Was that a problem in this storm? Was that why so many people were injured?
CHARRIER: I'm not really in a position to comment on that. I know of some of the jurisdictions, we've gotten more information from than others, due to better communications. Some of our counties, the communications systems were hit particularly hard by the storms. But I do know that there are several jurisdictions that had significant property damage, but didn't have the fatalities that we would expect with the amount of property damage they suffered.
So I think our communications systems worked fairly effectively.
COSTELLO: So people got early warning, I mean, warnings in time to get to safety? CHARRIER: Well, I believe so. But warning is always difficult with tornadoes because they come down on us so quickly. But we've had a major effort in the past few years of trying to do early warning systems and through the, radio, you know, the radio systems and to new towers. And it's, I think it had some positive impact.
COSTELLO: All right, Mr. Charrier, we'll let you get back to work.
Many thanks for joining us live this morning by phone.
And we want to continue more on those killer tornadoes. In Kansas, dozens of homes were knocked off their foundations and flattened, cars tossed around like toys, trees splintered like toothpicks. Some residents say they took cover just in the nick of time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN VULGAMORE, WITNESS: You had some funnel clouds over here and then they backed south and landed right over there and started coming through. And my nephew and I were on the back deck and I said that's going to hit us. And he says you think? I said oh yes, that's going to hit us. And we stood there until it got about 100 years. I mean it hit that brush right there and we went down in the basement and it just tore the roof off and went right through that way. I didn't have time to be scared. And it just, it happened so fast that you didn't have time for much of anything.
Fortunately nobody was hurt here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Kansas emergency officials say four tornadoes touched down in the state yesterday afternoon alone.
For more detailed information on the storm and descriptions of storm intensity, just log onto our Web site at cnn.com, AOL keyword: 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
