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CNN Live At Daybreak
Many Tornadoes Sweep Across Kansas
Aired May 09, 2003 - 06:23 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: This twister tape coming to us from Kansas. It was shot from the dashboard of a police cruiser on the road near Wichita. This was one of just, of course, many tornadoes to sweep across the Jay Hawk State on Thursday.
Is there more of that in store for that area, for Kansas, for Oklahoma?
Chad is here to take a look at that for us -- hi, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hard to say that. That was a monster tornado.
KAGAN: That was huge.
MYERS: That was really big. That was a four or a five. Now, we won't really know until they get down to the ground and see how much damage it actually caused. But a wedge like that is much different from those little tiny little rope tornadoes that you might see on pictures sometimes. That was pretty monstrous.
Here, let's go back to last night. This was about six o'clock. We see the tornado watch box ix already in effect. All of these little squares all tornado watch boxes, a very large cell over Oklahoma City. And it ended up on the ground, Midwest City, Dell City and then finally moving off to the east of Oklahoma City.
More big cells, going forward now to about nine Oklahoma City, big cells to the southeast of Kansas City right through Kansas City, even on up into parts of Nebraska.
And then moving you farther ahead, almost to midnight, storms popping up in Missouri, also popping up in Illinois. And then you see some weather across parts of Kentucky.
Moving it ahead to right now, the storms are just about done.
Now, we still have one severe thunderstorm watch box here for Indianapolis right on into about, oh, Columbus, Ohio. And we'll have more on that coming up in just a second -- Daryn, back to you.
Daryn?
KAGAN: All right, Chad, we have our Keith Oppenheim. He's standing by in Lawrence, Kansas, home of K.U., the Jay Hawks, the University of Kansas. But also the home of some tornadoes overnight and -- or actually yesterday, and telling us the latest from there -- Keith.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi, Daryn.
It's really been quite a crazy week for residents in Kansas, as well as in nearby or next door Oklahoma. Last night was just a time to wait and see where the tornadoes would strike. The good news is people took cover.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): It was a repeat of just five days ago. Eastern Kansas once again got walloped by tornadoes. One of the hardest hit came to the southwestern corner of Lawrence, where a roof to an airport complex was blown away. There were no serious injuries and compared to the damage from last Sunday, the overall toll was smaller in scale.
Still, this was the first time in 20 years a tornado hit Lawrence.
But in Moore, Oklahoma, it was the second time in just four years that a twister struck. A powerful tornado tore into some of the same neighborhoods devastated in May of 1999. Many residents were prepared.
FRANCES CLARK, MOORE RESIDENT: And I told my husband it was coming. And he said no, it's going to bypass us. I went to the closet. At that time I didn't care if he made it or not. He came in and just as he got the mattress pulled over us, it took our roof and the force knocked him down onto me.
OPPENHEIM: That force is revealed in the aftermath. Cars flipped, signs twisted, buildings flattened. In all, 300 homes destroyed and at least 300 more damaged.
Oklahoma's governor made a quick appeal for federal aid.
GOV. BRAD HENRY, OKLAHOMA: 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM: Daryn, fortunately we have no deaths to report in either Kansas or in Oklahoma, although there were at least 125 people injured yesterday in the state of Oklahoma.
Now, officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be inspecting the damage today and that certainly has been a continuing story in what has been one of the worst and most active tornado weeks in U.S. history.
Reporting live in Lawrence, Kansas -- Daryn, back to you.
KAGAN: Absolutely incredible pictures. Keith Oppenheim, thank you for that.
Well, as you've no doubt figured out by now, severe weather is the big story again this Friday. We're going to have more on the storms in the next half hour, including record flooding in Tennessee. We'll take you live to a very soggy Chattanooga.
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 - 06:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: This twister tape coming to us from Kansas. It was shot from the dashboard of a police cruiser on the road near Wichita. This was one of just, of course, many tornadoes to sweep across the Jay Hawk State on Thursday.
Is there more of that in store for that area, for Kansas, for Oklahoma?
Chad is here to take a look at that for us -- hi, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hard to say that. That was a monster tornado.
KAGAN: That was huge.
MYERS: That was really big. That was a four or a five. Now, we won't really know until they get down to the ground and see how much damage it actually caused. But a wedge like that is much different from those little tiny little rope tornadoes that you might see on pictures sometimes. That was pretty monstrous.
Here, let's go back to last night. This was about six o'clock. We see the tornado watch box ix already in effect. All of these little squares all tornado watch boxes, a very large cell over Oklahoma City. And it ended up on the ground, Midwest City, Dell City and then finally moving off to the east of Oklahoma City.
More big cells, going forward now to about nine Oklahoma City, big cells to the southeast of Kansas City right through Kansas City, even on up into parts of Nebraska.
And then moving you farther ahead, almost to midnight, storms popping up in Missouri, also popping up in Illinois. And then you see some weather across parts of Kentucky.
Moving it ahead to right now, the storms are just about done.
Now, we still have one severe thunderstorm watch box here for Indianapolis right on into about, oh, Columbus, Ohio. And we'll have more on that coming up in just a second -- Daryn, back to you.
Daryn?
KAGAN: All right, Chad, we have our Keith Oppenheim. He's standing by in Lawrence, Kansas, home of K.U., the Jay Hawks, the University of Kansas. But also the home of some tornadoes overnight and -- or actually yesterday, and telling us the latest from there -- Keith.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi, Daryn.
It's really been quite a crazy week for residents in Kansas, as well as in nearby or next door Oklahoma. Last night was just a time to wait and see where the tornadoes would strike. The good news is people took cover.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): It was a repeat of just five days ago. Eastern Kansas once again got walloped by tornadoes. One of the hardest hit came to the southwestern corner of Lawrence, where a roof to an airport complex was blown away. There were no serious injuries and compared to the damage from last Sunday, the overall toll was smaller in scale.
Still, this was the first time in 20 years a tornado hit Lawrence.
But in Moore, Oklahoma, it was the second time in just four years that a twister struck. A powerful tornado tore into some of the same neighborhoods devastated in May of 1999. Many residents were prepared.
FRANCES CLARK, MOORE RESIDENT: And I told my husband it was coming. And he said no, it's going to bypass us. I went to the closet. At that time I didn't care if he made it or not. He came in and just as he got the mattress pulled over us, it took our roof and the force knocked him down onto me.
OPPENHEIM: That force is revealed in the aftermath. Cars flipped, signs twisted, buildings flattened. In all, 300 homes destroyed and at least 300 more damaged.
Oklahoma's governor made a quick appeal for federal aid.
GOV. BRAD HENRY, OKLAHOMA: 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM: Daryn, fortunately we have no deaths to report in either Kansas or in Oklahoma, although there were at least 125 people injured yesterday in the state of Oklahoma.
Now, officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be inspecting the damage today and that certainly has been a continuing story in what has been one of the worst and most active tornado weeks in U.S. history.
Reporting live in Lawrence, Kansas -- Daryn, back to you.
KAGAN: Absolutely incredible pictures. Keith Oppenheim, thank you for that.
Well, as you've no doubt figured out by now, severe weather is the big story again this Friday. We're going to have more on the storms in the next half hour, including record flooding in Tennessee. We'll take you live to a very soggy Chattanooga.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
