Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Many Residents, Visitors Keeping Watchful Eye on Claudette

Aired July 15, 2003 - 05:31   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: Many residents and visitors were keeping a watchful eye on Claudette.
Patty Shea (ph) of our CNN affiliate KRIV in Houston tells us about preparations for the first hurricane of the season.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERRY PRENTIS, HOMEOWNER: We're boarding up the windows to protect against flying debris.

PATTY SHEA, KRIV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jerry Prentis and his wife Jeannette have been building their beach house for two years. Now, the Austin couple hopes Mother Nature won't tear it down.

JERRY PRENTIS: All these chairs and all this sort of thing with 80 or 90 mile an hour winds will become flying objects.

JEANNETTE PRENTIS, HOMEOWNER: Most of these houses are just getaway places. So they're not here, you know? Like the people across the street are from Fort Worth.

SHEA: The strip along the shore is dotted with homes whose owners couldn't get here to board them up or simply chose not to. Melissa Payda (ph) decided not to take any chances. But after the Victoria resident boarded her Port O'Connor home, she decided to fish.

MELISSA PAYDA: They say that the big fish usually come in about this time. So we thought we'd give it a try.

SHEA: There's no R&R for Coast Guard members. They're getting ready to take three of their boats to the Victoria airport for safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because the hurricane is threatening our coastline, we are going to step up to hurricane four, which was, over this past weekend we were stepped up to hurricane four and now we're in hurricane condition three. We're just standing by to be in condition two and condition one is the most serious.

SHEA: But it appears some people aren't taking it too seriously. All day Monday, people in bathing suits played along the shore. But not the Prentises. Once their work is done, they're out.

JEANNETTE PRENTIS: I've never been anywhere near a hurricane. So I don't know that -- I think I would be afraid.

JERRY PRENTIS: Well, I'd like to stay and see the elements at work, but I don't think I will. I think I'll go ahead and bail out.

JEANNETTE PRENTIS: I just hope we're doing this for nothing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right, we want to check in with our friends across the country.

That, of course, was Patty Shea of our affiliate KRIV in Houston.

Now we want to check with KRIS out of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Jason Gough is a meteorologist there and a good friend of mine.

Good morning, Jason.

JASON GOUGH, KRIS-TV METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Carol, a very good morning to you, as well.

COSTELLO: How is it going there in Corpus Christi? What's the weather like now?

GOUGH: Well, you know what? It's deceptively quiet here right now. I got into work this morning right around 11:30, or 11:30 last night, that is, and -- my days are all back to front over the last few days. But the night was beautiful, with a lot of clear skies. We just had a couple of high clouds just starting to spill in now. Most of the rain, as Chad was just showing us a little while ago, is well to our north and east.

But, so it is the proverbial calm before the storm.

COSTELLO: Oh, you're not kidding.

I want to bring in Chad -- Chad, are you there?

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am, Carol.

COSTELLO: Talk to Jason. Give us some meteorological talk.

MYERS: Good morning, Jason.

Actually, I want to talk to you about the shoreline itself, because, you know, we get these Rand McNally maps and they help us only so much. But from, let's say, Aransas Pass all the way up to San Jose Island, Matagora Island, are the homes on those islands or are those, that's all the state park where there are no houses at all?

GOUGH: Well, there's kind of a mix of both of those, Chad. We have, right around Rockport, where it appears to be right now kind of the southern fringe of where the eye of the hurricane may go early this afternoon, it may pass a little bit further to the north, up toward Port O'Connor. But there are actually some big time homes up in Rockport. In fact, George Strait and a few others have some multi- million dollar houses there. It's actually kind of extended out into a key, out into one of the bays there. So some of these places are going to be under the gun as we head through a little bit later on this morning and into early this afternoon.

COSTELLO: And, you know, Jason, I was reading about the Red Cross and the depletion of its disaster funds. They're down to $1.5 million. How much help will the folks along the coast of Texas need if this thing really hits, or a big storm surge happens?

GOUGH: Well, unfortunately, you know, with land falling hurricanes and the forward speed of this thing, this is going to do a fair amount of damage. The houses right along the coast obviously are going to be under the gun, too. In fact, on our morning newscast this morning, we're going to have one of the directors from the Red Cross here to kind of talk about this.

But we're mainly concerned about the folks that are going to be right along the coast and we are going to need some loot. That is for sure. And, as you said, the Red Cross is depleted quite a bit. They've been asking for money for a while and have not been able to generate some.

COSTELLO: All right, Jason Gough, thanks for joining us this morning because I know you have a very busy morning there in Corpus Christi, Texas.

But he is a good friend of mine.

Thank you, too, Chad.

You can track Claudette on our Web site as well as view an animation on how hurricanes form plus get a special report on the hurricane season. It's all right there. Just log onto cnn.com/weather.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Claudette>


Aired July 15, 2003 - 05:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Many residents and visitors were keeping a watchful eye on Claudette.
Patty Shea (ph) of our CNN affiliate KRIV in Houston tells us about preparations for the first hurricane of the season.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERRY PRENTIS, HOMEOWNER: We're boarding up the windows to protect against flying debris.

PATTY SHEA, KRIV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jerry Prentis and his wife Jeannette have been building their beach house for two years. Now, the Austin couple hopes Mother Nature won't tear it down.

JERRY PRENTIS: All these chairs and all this sort of thing with 80 or 90 mile an hour winds will become flying objects.

JEANNETTE PRENTIS, HOMEOWNER: Most of these houses are just getaway places. So they're not here, you know? Like the people across the street are from Fort Worth.

SHEA: The strip along the shore is dotted with homes whose owners couldn't get here to board them up or simply chose not to. Melissa Payda (ph) decided not to take any chances. But after the Victoria resident boarded her Port O'Connor home, she decided to fish.

MELISSA PAYDA: They say that the big fish usually come in about this time. So we thought we'd give it a try.

SHEA: There's no R&R for Coast Guard members. They're getting ready to take three of their boats to the Victoria airport for safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because the hurricane is threatening our coastline, we are going to step up to hurricane four, which was, over this past weekend we were stepped up to hurricane four and now we're in hurricane condition three. We're just standing by to be in condition two and condition one is the most serious.

SHEA: But it appears some people aren't taking it too seriously. All day Monday, people in bathing suits played along the shore. But not the Prentises. Once their work is done, they're out.

JEANNETTE PRENTIS: I've never been anywhere near a hurricane. So I don't know that -- I think I would be afraid.

JERRY PRENTIS: Well, I'd like to stay and see the elements at work, but I don't think I will. I think I'll go ahead and bail out.

JEANNETTE PRENTIS: I just hope we're doing this for nothing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right, we want to check in with our friends across the country.

That, of course, was Patty Shea of our affiliate KRIV in Houston.

Now we want to check with KRIS out of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Jason Gough is a meteorologist there and a good friend of mine.

Good morning, Jason.

JASON GOUGH, KRIS-TV METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Carol, a very good morning to you, as well.

COSTELLO: How is it going there in Corpus Christi? What's the weather like now?

GOUGH: Well, you know what? It's deceptively quiet here right now. I got into work this morning right around 11:30, or 11:30 last night, that is, and -- my days are all back to front over the last few days. But the night was beautiful, with a lot of clear skies. We just had a couple of high clouds just starting to spill in now. Most of the rain, as Chad was just showing us a little while ago, is well to our north and east.

But, so it is the proverbial calm before the storm.

COSTELLO: Oh, you're not kidding.

I want to bring in Chad -- Chad, are you there?

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am, Carol.

COSTELLO: Talk to Jason. Give us some meteorological talk.

MYERS: Good morning, Jason.

Actually, I want to talk to you about the shoreline itself, because, you know, we get these Rand McNally maps and they help us only so much. But from, let's say, Aransas Pass all the way up to San Jose Island, Matagora Island, are the homes on those islands or are those, that's all the state park where there are no houses at all?

GOUGH: Well, there's kind of a mix of both of those, Chad. We have, right around Rockport, where it appears to be right now kind of the southern fringe of where the eye of the hurricane may go early this afternoon, it may pass a little bit further to the north, up toward Port O'Connor. But there are actually some big time homes up in Rockport. In fact, George Strait and a few others have some multi- million dollar houses there. It's actually kind of extended out into a key, out into one of the bays there. So some of these places are going to be under the gun as we head through a little bit later on this morning and into early this afternoon.

COSTELLO: And, you know, Jason, I was reading about the Red Cross and the depletion of its disaster funds. They're down to $1.5 million. How much help will the folks along the coast of Texas need if this thing really hits, or a big storm surge happens?

GOUGH: Well, unfortunately, you know, with land falling hurricanes and the forward speed of this thing, this is going to do a fair amount of damage. The houses right along the coast obviously are going to be under the gun, too. In fact, on our morning newscast this morning, we're going to have one of the directors from the Red Cross here to kind of talk about this.

But we're mainly concerned about the folks that are going to be right along the coast and we are going to need some loot. That is for sure. And, as you said, the Red Cross is depleted quite a bit. They've been asking for money for a while and have not been able to generate some.

COSTELLO: All right, Jason Gough, thanks for joining us this morning because I know you have a very busy morning there in Corpus Christi, Texas.

But he is a good friend of mine.

Thank you, too, Chad.

You can track Claudette on our Web site as well as view an animation on how hurricanes form plus get a special report on the hurricane season. It's all right there. Just log onto cnn.com/weather.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Claudette>