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CNN Live At Daybreak
Week of Dangerous, Deadly Weather
Aired May 09, 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it has been a week of dangerous and deadly weather. Since Sunday, tornado packed storms have swept across the country from Oklahoma to Virginia. At least 42 people in four states lost their lives. Yesterday, tornadoes dealt punishing blows to the nation's solar plexus. Homes were flattened and vehicles scattered from central Oklahoma to eastern Kansas. More than 100 people were injured when a tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City area.
The suburb of Moore sustained extensive damage. The west wall of the huge General Motors plant was simply peeled off. And in Kansas, officials say at least seven tornadoes touched down last night. One of them ripped roofs off homes and buildings in Lawrence. That, of course, is where K.U., the University of Kansas, is located.
Still a lot more weather to keep an eye on today, and that's why we have Chad up nice and early to do that for us -- Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As always.
Good morning, Daryn.
Welcome to the early part of the day.
KAGAN: So glad to be here.
MYERS: I know.
KAGAN: Yes.
MYERS: Right. We'll get the truth later.
OK, good morning.
And good morning, everyone.
Things a lot calmer today. We are seeing rain showers and thunderstorms now farther east than we've seen in the past couple of days. Some big thunderstorms there down into parts of eastern Tennessee. Also heavy rain moving into Detroit. A slow rush hour in Chicago and then rain all the way up to Minneapolis. This is all part of the system that just wrapped itself around and through the Midwest last night.
Here's a radar loop now. I've stopped this map at about six o'clock last night. Storms were firing here from west of Kansas City right on down through Oklahoma City, very strong cells. I'm going to highlight a couple of them for you, right up on into Nebraska. This entire zone right through here was the battle zone between the dry air coming out of the mountains and a very moist air that was already here.
Tornadoes on the ground in Oklahoma City, Midwest City, Dell City, also up here to Noble, which was hit by an F5 when I lived in Oklahoma City about 10, 12 years ago. A very strong cell right here. Tornado on the ground as you get east of Wichita, the picture that you saw from that police cruiser there and then back on up into Kansas City.
Now, I'll let it go all the way through here as another storm pops up into parts of Missouri, but now that cell and all of that weather, all of the energy is just worn out and the storms are not really firing like they were earlier. They're just much, much less intense and we only have severe thunderstorm watches, not tornado watches. The only bad news is we're going to fire this up again tonight, Daryn, after midnight for parts of western Kansas, western Oklahoma, parts of the Texas Panhandle and even into Nebraska. And it rolls all the way through tomorrow morning in the same places that had the storms yesterday.
KAGAN: And, Chad, I just want to ask you about one little statistic I saw out there, that this first week of May the most tornadic, if that's the right way to say it...
MYERS: The right way, yes.
KAGAN: ... since they started keeping records back in 1950?
MYERS: That's probably right. Absolutely.
KAGAN: Incredible.
MYERS: You know, we have more people in those areas now seeing more tornadoes.
KAGAN: Yes, that's true.
MYERS: So, you know, that number could be a little bit artificially high. But we had 48 tornadoes yesterday and the four days before that 195. Add that together in quick math and that's something like 243 tornadoes in five days.
KAGAN: Yes. It adds up to way too many for folks in that area.
MYERS: Wow, yes.
KAGAN: Chad, we'll be back to you in a little bit.
Right now we want to head back to Oklahoma City and that area for a moment.
Those storms seemed to follow the same path of a deadly tornado back in 1999 that gutted Oklahoma City's suburbs. Homes and buildings were flattened, vehicles were toppled or tossed off roads and trees were uprooted across the city's suburbs.
The town of Moore suffered the most damage. We were mentioning this. About 300 homes destroyed. Hundreds of others were damaged.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BRAD HENRY, OKLAHOMA: The best news is that in all of the fairly extensive damage, there are no confirmed fatalities. There are about slightly more than 100 confirmed injuries as a result of the tornado that struck this afternoon, but no confirmed fatalities, and we are very happy to report that.
We've asked the president to expedite the emergency declaration and we expect that that will be honored, in particular because of the recent tornado, tornadoes and other storms in this region, this region of states over the past week or so. They are well aware and they're ready to respond quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Now, let's go ahead and take a look at some of the areas that are still underwater from this week's drenching thunderstorms.
Here in Georgia, the Chattahoochee River is rising to its highest level in decades. Part of Interstate 85 was closed near the Alabama- Georgia line. Hundreds of people had to be evacuated from their homes and businesses in Troop County (ph). And in Alabama, water is rising in at least seven counties. The Birmingham area got nearly a foot of rain in two hours. Dozens of roads were washed out by flash flooding. Authorities had to evacuate residents from three communities.
You can get up to the minute looks at severe weather when you live on our Web site. Just click onto cnn.com/weather. Everything you need to know is right there.
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 9, 2003 - 05:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it has been a week of dangerous and deadly weather. Since Sunday, tornado packed storms have swept across the country from Oklahoma to Virginia. At least 42 people in four states lost their lives. Yesterday, tornadoes dealt punishing blows to the nation's solar plexus. Homes were flattened and vehicles scattered from central Oklahoma to eastern Kansas. More than 100 people were injured when a tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City area.
The suburb of Moore sustained extensive damage. The west wall of the huge General Motors plant was simply peeled off. And in Kansas, officials say at least seven tornadoes touched down last night. One of them ripped roofs off homes and buildings in Lawrence. That, of course, is where K.U., the University of Kansas, is located.
Still a lot more weather to keep an eye on today, and that's why we have Chad up nice and early to do that for us -- Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As always.
Good morning, Daryn.
Welcome to the early part of the day.
KAGAN: So glad to be here.
MYERS: I know.
KAGAN: Yes.
MYERS: Right. We'll get the truth later.
OK, good morning.
And good morning, everyone.
Things a lot calmer today. We are seeing rain showers and thunderstorms now farther east than we've seen in the past couple of days. Some big thunderstorms there down into parts of eastern Tennessee. Also heavy rain moving into Detroit. A slow rush hour in Chicago and then rain all the way up to Minneapolis. This is all part of the system that just wrapped itself around and through the Midwest last night.
Here's a radar loop now. I've stopped this map at about six o'clock last night. Storms were firing here from west of Kansas City right on down through Oklahoma City, very strong cells. I'm going to highlight a couple of them for you, right up on into Nebraska. This entire zone right through here was the battle zone between the dry air coming out of the mountains and a very moist air that was already here.
Tornadoes on the ground in Oklahoma City, Midwest City, Dell City, also up here to Noble, which was hit by an F5 when I lived in Oklahoma City about 10, 12 years ago. A very strong cell right here. Tornado on the ground as you get east of Wichita, the picture that you saw from that police cruiser there and then back on up into Kansas City.
Now, I'll let it go all the way through here as another storm pops up into parts of Missouri, but now that cell and all of that weather, all of the energy is just worn out and the storms are not really firing like they were earlier. They're just much, much less intense and we only have severe thunderstorm watches, not tornado watches. The only bad news is we're going to fire this up again tonight, Daryn, after midnight for parts of western Kansas, western Oklahoma, parts of the Texas Panhandle and even into Nebraska. And it rolls all the way through tomorrow morning in the same places that had the storms yesterday.
KAGAN: And, Chad, I just want to ask you about one little statistic I saw out there, that this first week of May the most tornadic, if that's the right way to say it...
MYERS: The right way, yes.
KAGAN: ... since they started keeping records back in 1950?
MYERS: That's probably right. Absolutely.
KAGAN: Incredible.
MYERS: You know, we have more people in those areas now seeing more tornadoes.
KAGAN: Yes, that's true.
MYERS: So, you know, that number could be a little bit artificially high. But we had 48 tornadoes yesterday and the four days before that 195. Add that together in quick math and that's something like 243 tornadoes in five days.
KAGAN: Yes. It adds up to way too many for folks in that area.
MYERS: Wow, yes.
KAGAN: Chad, we'll be back to you in a little bit.
Right now we want to head back to Oklahoma City and that area for a moment.
Those storms seemed to follow the same path of a deadly tornado back in 1999 that gutted Oklahoma City's suburbs. Homes and buildings were flattened, vehicles were toppled or tossed off roads and trees were uprooted across the city's suburbs.
The town of Moore suffered the most damage. We were mentioning this. About 300 homes destroyed. Hundreds of others were damaged.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BRAD HENRY, OKLAHOMA: The best news is that in all of the fairly extensive damage, there are no confirmed fatalities. There are about slightly more than 100 confirmed injuries as a result of the tornado that struck this afternoon, but no confirmed fatalities, and we are very happy to report that.
We've asked the president to expedite the emergency declaration and we expect that that will be honored, in particular because of the recent tornado, tornadoes and other storms in this region, this region of states over the past week or so. They are well aware and they're ready to respond quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Now, let's go ahead and take a look at some of the areas that are still underwater from this week's drenching thunderstorms.
Here in Georgia, the Chattahoochee River is rising to its highest level in decades. Part of Interstate 85 was closed near the Alabama- Georgia line. Hundreds of people had to be evacuated from their homes and businesses in Troop County (ph). And in Alabama, water is rising in at least seven counties. The Birmingham area got nearly a foot of rain in two hours. Dozens of roads were washed out by flash flooding. Authorities had to evacuate residents from three communities.
You can get up to the minute looks at severe weather when you live on our Web site. Just click onto cnn.com/weather. Everything you need to know is right there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
