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CNN Saturday Morning News
Two Nights of Tornadoes Devastate Oklahoma City Area
Aired May 10, 2003 - 07:19 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.
ARTHELL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, two days in a row, and Oklahoma just isn't getting a break. Things are anything but OK in Oklahoma. Two nights and back-to-back tornadoes for the Oklahoma City area. Then last night's storms skipped on to the Tulsa area.
CNN's Jason Bellini is on the scene in the Oklahoma City suburb of Bethany. Jason, good morning.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Arthel, a second night in a row that people here were clobbered in parts of Oklahoma City. The tornadoes last night, they kind of hopscotched around. There were several of them. They caused some pretty severe damage in certain places. I spoke with a police officer who told me that where it touched down, it destroyed, and it bounced over the rest.
What you're looking at here, this is a -- this was a lawn mower repair shop, which obviously sustained some pretty heavy damage. The roof of this shop is about 100 yards down the street.
Now, obviously, nothing here is probably salvageable. Last night the owner of this shop spoke, and he said, "Everything I've worked for for the last three years is down on the ground."
So a big mess. Also, just across the street from me there's an airport, a commuter airport, where 40 hangars were destroyed.
Now, this storm, remarkably, and like the one just before it, killed no one. It's pretty amazing when you look at the damage caused in certain places. There were more injuries, approximately 130 of them, and 300 houses sustained damage, some of them some very serious damage.
But again, people here are focusing on the positive that no one died, that people are heeding the warnings that you hear on the TV. Last night we were watching the local news, and it was very dramatic as they were calling street by street where the tornado was going and telling people, OK, if you're on this street, you better take cover right now, because it's going to be heading over you in just a few hours.
I think people here are beginning to get used to this pattern each night, watching the news and seeing what they need to do, and if their part of town is going to be hit, Arthel. NEVILLE: Jason, unfortunately, Orlen Siddy (ph) just us earlier that there is going to be some more bad weather probably overnight there.
I know you were saying that people are watching this kind of play by play on the news, if you will. But are people evacuating?
BELLINI: Are people evacuating?
NEVILLE: Yes. I mean, why wait for it to hit? You kind of know it's coming. Are they just getting out of town?
BELLINI: No, people are staying. And even last night, during the storm, we saw the highway, and there were cars on the highway. It looked like a normal evening. And we assume people are listening to the radio, and they were hearing, OK, it's on the north side of town. So we're in the south. So we're OK.
That said, there were some cars on the highway that got tossed around. So not the best place to be. But people are dealing with it by just listening. They're trusting the newscasts, newscasters who are really have -- very detailed. They have local stringers who are out tracking these storms and saying, Oh, it just hit the ground, you better watch out if you're in this neighborhood, Arthel.
NEVILLE: Oh, Jason Bellini, thank you very much for that update.
And I guess they are in a catch-22, because you're right, I mean, if you're -- if you don't have a safe room...
COOPER: Right.
NEVILLE: ... then you really can't be out on the road in the car. But I don't know.
COOPER: They've also learned so much since the huge tornadoes back in May of 1999.
NEVILLE: Ninety-nine.
COOPER: I talked to the Oklahoma governor last night, and he said, Look, you know, after '99 we really learned a lot of lessons, and particularly these air-raid sirens, and we've gotten much better tracking these things and using the media to really get the message out, to really inform people.
But the bottom line, he says, Look, you live in Oklahoma, people know...
NEVILLE: They kind of expect it.
COOPER: ... this is what happens, and, you know, we're tough, we just deal with it.
NEVILLE: Boy.
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 10, 2003 - 07:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHELL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, two days in a row, and Oklahoma just isn't getting a break. Things are anything but OK in Oklahoma. Two nights and back-to-back tornadoes for the Oklahoma City area. Then last night's storms skipped on to the Tulsa area.
CNN's Jason Bellini is on the scene in the Oklahoma City suburb of Bethany. Jason, good morning.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Arthel, a second night in a row that people here were clobbered in parts of Oklahoma City. The tornadoes last night, they kind of hopscotched around. There were several of them. They caused some pretty severe damage in certain places. I spoke with a police officer who told me that where it touched down, it destroyed, and it bounced over the rest.
What you're looking at here, this is a -- this was a lawn mower repair shop, which obviously sustained some pretty heavy damage. The roof of this shop is about 100 yards down the street.
Now, obviously, nothing here is probably salvageable. Last night the owner of this shop spoke, and he said, "Everything I've worked for for the last three years is down on the ground."
So a big mess. Also, just across the street from me there's an airport, a commuter airport, where 40 hangars were destroyed.
Now, this storm, remarkably, and like the one just before it, killed no one. It's pretty amazing when you look at the damage caused in certain places. There were more injuries, approximately 130 of them, and 300 houses sustained damage, some of them some very serious damage.
But again, people here are focusing on the positive that no one died, that people are heeding the warnings that you hear on the TV. Last night we were watching the local news, and it was very dramatic as they were calling street by street where the tornado was going and telling people, OK, if you're on this street, you better take cover right now, because it's going to be heading over you in just a few hours.
I think people here are beginning to get used to this pattern each night, watching the news and seeing what they need to do, and if their part of town is going to be hit, Arthel. NEVILLE: Jason, unfortunately, Orlen Siddy (ph) just us earlier that there is going to be some more bad weather probably overnight there.
I know you were saying that people are watching this kind of play by play on the news, if you will. But are people evacuating?
BELLINI: Are people evacuating?
NEVILLE: Yes. I mean, why wait for it to hit? You kind of know it's coming. Are they just getting out of town?
BELLINI: No, people are staying. And even last night, during the storm, we saw the highway, and there were cars on the highway. It looked like a normal evening. And we assume people are listening to the radio, and they were hearing, OK, it's on the north side of town. So we're in the south. So we're OK.
That said, there were some cars on the highway that got tossed around. So not the best place to be. But people are dealing with it by just listening. They're trusting the newscasts, newscasters who are really have -- very detailed. They have local stringers who are out tracking these storms and saying, Oh, it just hit the ground, you better watch out if you're in this neighborhood, Arthel.
NEVILLE: Oh, Jason Bellini, thank you very much for that update.
And I guess they are in a catch-22, because you're right, I mean, if you're -- if you don't have a safe room...
COOPER: Right.
NEVILLE: ... then you really can't be out on the road in the car. But I don't know.
COOPER: They've also learned so much since the huge tornadoes back in May of 1999.
NEVILLE: Ninety-nine.
COOPER: I talked to the Oklahoma governor last night, and he said, Look, you know, after '99 we really learned a lot of lessons, and particularly these air-raid sirens, and we've gotten much better tracking these things and using the media to really get the message out, to really inform people.
But the bottom line, he says, Look, you live in Oklahoma, people know...
NEVILLE: They kind of expect it.
COOPER: ... this is what happens, and, you know, we're tough, we just deal with it.
NEVILLE: Boy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
