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American Morning
Devastating Series of Tornadoes and Storms
Aired May 06, 2003 - 07:37 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A devastating series of tornadoes and storms. Residents now in the mid section of the country recovering and in many cases literally rebuilding their lives starting today. As they dig through the rubble of homes and businesses, the president already says disaster relief is on the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: State and local authorities need to know the federal government will be moving as quickly as we possibly can to provide help where help is needed and where help is justified.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known as FEMA, getting a firsthand look at the storm damage again today.
He's now live in Kansas City, Missouri.
Michael, good morning to you.
MICHAEL BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: Good morning, Bill.
How are you?
HEMMER: I'm doing just fine, thank you, much better than the folks living in that part of the country, I am certain of that.
You have seen some devastation. Describe to us where you've been and what you've seen.
BROWN: Well, let me first say on behalf of the president and Secretary Ridge, our deep condolences and our sympathies for the victims of these storms. It's so easy to think in America that we're so safe and secure and we suddenly realize that our lives can be totally disrupted by Mother Nature. And so on behalf of the president, we just really want to say that our sympathy and our prayers go out to all of those who have lost loved ones or whose lives have been totally disrupted.
HEMMER: Michael, in a disaster of this magnitude, where do you start?
BROWN: Well, the first thing we did was when we saw that the storms were this widespread, we literally put people on the ground from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA immediately to start doing preliminary damage assessments. We started leaning forward as much as we could to do things like providing generators for some of the local governments so they could get their water plants back up and running to get water to people.
So we take the president's orders very seriously when he says find aid that is justifiable and is necessary and move quickly, that's what we're trying to do is to get the aid down here as quickly as possible.
HEMMER: Yes, how do you define quickly in this case, Michael? Can you?
BROWN: Well, actually, for us quickly means the minute the storm hits we start immediately activating people, deploying people and deploying resources, because we have such good folks that can kind of forecast the magnitude of these storms and the likely damage that is to occur that we can already start moving things that we know are going to have to, that are going to be needed.
And the minute we heard, for example, that one community was without power, the water power -- at a water plant, we immediately sent a generator down to get that water plant back online.
So when we talk about immediately, we're talking about actually doing it as things are happening.
Now, long-term we will certainly take requests from the governors for declarations and if those are approved by the president, start putting money on the ground for individual assistance, start putting money out to help state and local governments augment their resources, doing everything we can to help them and help these folks recover.
HEMMER: Michael, a couple of seconds left here. I need some quick answers.
BROWN: Sure.
HEMMER: Do you know how many people are missing right now in the four state area?
BROWN: No, we don't, and that's one thing we're going to work on with people here to find out.
HEMMER: Another question, do you know how many are homeless at this point?
BROWN: Well, we understand that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people homeless and part of our job is to get them shelter as quickly as possible.
HEMMER: Best of luck to you.
You've got your work cut out for you.
Michael Brown live today in Kansas City, Missouri. BROWN: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: Sure thing -- Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go ahead and find out where these storms are moving.
We'll get the very latest now from Chad Myers.
He's at the CNN Center with the very latest on the forecast -- hi, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
Things are still actually moving this morning. Still a kind of fluxing situation here for Pulaski in Tennessee and also moving toward the town of Fayetteville, Tennessee now, a tornado warning for that area until 7:15 local time. It would be a good idea, there is a large storm right over Pulaski. If you are in that vicinity or east of there, you may not even want to put the kids out on the school bus right now, on the school bus stop, because it is going to actually be a very strong cell here, moving over that area in the next 25 to 30 minutes, a tornado warning in effect.
Here we go, from Nashville, very heavy rainfall. In fact, six to eight inches of rain over almost the entire southern two thirds of the state last night. A lot of flooding going on. You need to be very careful. Many of the roadways are flooded over parts of Tennessee, northern Alabama, northern Mississippi and into northern Georgia.
If you're traveling today, the I-75, all of the interstates across Tennessee are going to be very difficult. If you're flying, you're going to be in a little bit better shape, though. Things look pretty good. New York City going to be a little bit slow. Philadelphia slow, as well. Even Atlanta, thunderstorms are going to pop up this afternoon and slow down the afternoon commute. And even this morning as I was driving in, Heidi, you could really see the low hanging clouds on all the tall buildings in Atlanta, and that usually slows down Hartsfield. So get on your computer and log on if you have some flights this morning -- back to you.
COLLINS: All right, very good.
Chad Myers, thanks so much.
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 6, 2003 - 07:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A devastating series of tornadoes and storms. Residents now in the mid section of the country recovering and in many cases literally rebuilding their lives starting today. As they dig through the rubble of homes and businesses, the president already says disaster relief is on the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: State and local authorities need to know the federal government will be moving as quickly as we possibly can to provide help where help is needed and where help is justified.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known as FEMA, getting a firsthand look at the storm damage again today.
He's now live in Kansas City, Missouri.
Michael, good morning to you.
MICHAEL BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: Good morning, Bill.
How are you?
HEMMER: I'm doing just fine, thank you, much better than the folks living in that part of the country, I am certain of that.
You have seen some devastation. Describe to us where you've been and what you've seen.
BROWN: Well, let me first say on behalf of the president and Secretary Ridge, our deep condolences and our sympathies for the victims of these storms. It's so easy to think in America that we're so safe and secure and we suddenly realize that our lives can be totally disrupted by Mother Nature. And so on behalf of the president, we just really want to say that our sympathy and our prayers go out to all of those who have lost loved ones or whose lives have been totally disrupted.
HEMMER: Michael, in a disaster of this magnitude, where do you start?
BROWN: Well, the first thing we did was when we saw that the storms were this widespread, we literally put people on the ground from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA immediately to start doing preliminary damage assessments. We started leaning forward as much as we could to do things like providing generators for some of the local governments so they could get their water plants back up and running to get water to people.
So we take the president's orders very seriously when he says find aid that is justifiable and is necessary and move quickly, that's what we're trying to do is to get the aid down here as quickly as possible.
HEMMER: Yes, how do you define quickly in this case, Michael? Can you?
BROWN: Well, actually, for us quickly means the minute the storm hits we start immediately activating people, deploying people and deploying resources, because we have such good folks that can kind of forecast the magnitude of these storms and the likely damage that is to occur that we can already start moving things that we know are going to have to, that are going to be needed.
And the minute we heard, for example, that one community was without power, the water power -- at a water plant, we immediately sent a generator down to get that water plant back online.
So when we talk about immediately, we're talking about actually doing it as things are happening.
Now, long-term we will certainly take requests from the governors for declarations and if those are approved by the president, start putting money on the ground for individual assistance, start putting money out to help state and local governments augment their resources, doing everything we can to help them and help these folks recover.
HEMMER: Michael, a couple of seconds left here. I need some quick answers.
BROWN: Sure.
HEMMER: Do you know how many people are missing right now in the four state area?
BROWN: No, we don't, and that's one thing we're going to work on with people here to find out.
HEMMER: Another question, do you know how many are homeless at this point?
BROWN: Well, we understand that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people homeless and part of our job is to get them shelter as quickly as possible.
HEMMER: Best of luck to you.
You've got your work cut out for you.
Michael Brown live today in Kansas City, Missouri. BROWN: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: Sure thing -- Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go ahead and find out where these storms are moving.
We'll get the very latest now from Chad Myers.
He's at the CNN Center with the very latest on the forecast -- hi, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
Things are still actually moving this morning. Still a kind of fluxing situation here for Pulaski in Tennessee and also moving toward the town of Fayetteville, Tennessee now, a tornado warning for that area until 7:15 local time. It would be a good idea, there is a large storm right over Pulaski. If you are in that vicinity or east of there, you may not even want to put the kids out on the school bus right now, on the school bus stop, because it is going to actually be a very strong cell here, moving over that area in the next 25 to 30 minutes, a tornado warning in effect.
Here we go, from Nashville, very heavy rainfall. In fact, six to eight inches of rain over almost the entire southern two thirds of the state last night. A lot of flooding going on. You need to be very careful. Many of the roadways are flooded over parts of Tennessee, northern Alabama, northern Mississippi and into northern Georgia.
If you're traveling today, the I-75, all of the interstates across Tennessee are going to be very difficult. If you're flying, you're going to be in a little bit better shape, though. Things look pretty good. New York City going to be a little bit slow. Philadelphia slow, as well. Even Atlanta, thunderstorms are going to pop up this afternoon and slow down the afternoon commute. And even this morning as I was driving in, Heidi, you could really see the low hanging clouds on all the tall buildings in Atlanta, and that usually slows down Hartsfield. So get on your computer and log on if you have some flights this morning -- back to you.
COLLINS: All right, very good.
Chad Myers, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
