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Tornadoes Hit Indiana and Kentucky; 19 Active Tornado Warnings
Aired March 02, 2012 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So we don't normally put our anchors in the middle of areas in the country where there are tornado warnings, but Ashleigh Banfield, she just so happened to be on her way back home with her producer Melissa Morgan.
They were reporting on the ground in the last couple of days from hard hit Harrisburg, Illinois for her show "EARLY START". They found themselves in the middle of one.
And the CNN Weather Team, they've been reporting all morning that severe weather was expected in the Midwest and parts of the south today. So we're going to show you this video. We'll just set up a little bit.
As Melissa, she's the one driving. They're driving toward St. Louis, Missouri, actually records this rain, the hailstorm, the wind they actually had to drive through that in the area at the time was under a threat from tornadoes. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We got a call from our weather team that's ahead of us telling us that we have entered into an area that's considered under a tornado warning.
And so we're watching it extremely carefully and following behind a semi, and we're looking for an underpass. And I can hear the hail now. The hail is starting to fall hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They knew nothing about a storm until the ceiling in their bedroom fell onto them in their bed. And if you can believe it...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So that was Ashleigh Banfield as she was heading with her producer to Saint Louis, and that is what they saw, the rain and the hail.
We were talking about our storm chaser, Jeff Piotrowski, who was driving straight through it and saw the wall cloud and the tornado. And so I just want to play a little bit of it as Chad and I were talking to him minutes ago. OK. We're going to stand by for that.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
BALDWIN: We do have that -- now that piece of sound when we were talking to Jeff. So let's roll that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF PIOTROWSKI, STORM CHASER: We have a tornado that's tracked anywhere from about 50 miles west of west Evansville up toward Wadesville.
There is damage about 30 miles to 35 miles northwest Evansville. A tornado was on the ground. We did (INAUDIBLE) it for about five minutes coming down Highway 64 the tornadic storm that is producing tornadoes. And it is tornadoes. Right now, it's on Highway 64 just to the north of (INAUDIBLE) and it's heading toward the general director Lynnville.
This is going to be Indiana, southwest Indiana here, so the area to the north-northeast of Evansville is under -- we have multiple tornadoes tracking through this area right now. There is damage. And these tornadoes are becoming very large and violent at this time. So we're under a tornado outbreak at this time (INAUDIBLE) in Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee Valley, as well as Kentucky.
We're at high risk and tornadoes are well under way. We also want to report there is a significant tornado that came out of Missouri. It's tracking toward the Paducah area. This has had a history for three hours producing very long track, violent tornadoes. This tornado is going to track back toward the Paducah area and it has a history of producing significant damage in southeast Missouri. That storm also needs to be watched as it tracks (INAUDIBLE)
BALDWIN: So you said three hours. And before Chad jumps in, just so I'm clear, the picture we're looking at, this is a live picture, I'm presuming, from your car.
PIOTROWSKI: Yes. I'm going 60. Yes, I'm going east. The tornado is literally to my left. If I turn the camera around (INAUDIBLE) you see cars in front of me stopping. There is a significant tornado to the left. I will do that here. Let me try to see if I can do this here live out the window here. It's also left of the road.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Please be safe, though. Be safe.
(CROSSTALK)
PIOTROWSKI: Yes, I am. I'm not driving.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: You're not driving, OK.
PIOTROWSKI: Yes. See. And we have got a large wall cloud of tornadoes on ground way left.
(CROSSTALK) BALDWIN: Oh, my goodness.
PIOTROWSKI: Yes. You can see it now.
BALDWIN: We see it. Chad, jump in.
(CROSSTALK)
PIOTROWSKI: This is a tornado that is tracking along 64.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I just looked at some of the things out of Evansville, and there was a chaser report that it was 300 yards wide. Was that your report?
PIOTROWSKI: No, it was not.
When I saw the tornado, it was only maybe about 100 yards wide. And it was very small and very weak at the time. It was weakening. When I got to the tornado, it had been on the ground for about a long time even before I got to it.
But it did a recycle. Now it's back on ground to my north, and these storms are cyclic. They will tornado for an hour or 30 minutes, and then they kind of gust out and recycle. And that's what happened right now, as this tornado continues to track off to the east along Highway 64 here.
It went from Evansville back down to Paducah. This is (INAUDIBLE) is in a tornado outbreak at this time. There are numerous tornadic storms developing at this time.
MYERS: This is also about to go over I-164 as well, which is a north/south road.
Jeff, the producers would like you, as long as you're not driving, to turn that camera back around. I see some type of an appendage right in front of you. Is that another anything you see there is that just a scud?
PIOTROWSKI: No, that's another storm due east of me that is off to -- that is the storm that came out of Evansville that also is severe and has a tornadic circulation as well.
And I'm looking at radar now. I have got close to six tornadic storms coming at me. There's two of them to my east, and there's one immediately to my west/northwest, which I'm just talking about.
And I have four more tornadoes back southwest-east 40 miles moving at me at 65 miles an hour. These are very fast-moving tornadoes and will produce a lot of damage across southern Indiana and central and northern Kentucky, as well as Tennessee and Alabama as we get in the evening hours.
BALDWIN: Jeff, do us a favor. Turn the camera around. We're just going to do all this on the fly here live on CNN. And if I can just ask, why do you do what you do, being a storm chaser? PIOTROWSKI: Just like the April 22 last year, the Joplin day, we chased that tornado into the city.
And a lot of times, with these fast-moving tornadoes like we have today, every second counts, so that every second you can get a warning out to the Weather Service as far as, heads up, the tornado is on the ground.
Parts of the town is hit or it's crossing the interstate so the highway patrol can close the road ahead. That's what we're seeing out here. My first priority is to notify 911 and the Weather Service and communications -- Weather Service through spotter net and as well transmitting those reports in real time every second, because these storms at 50 and 60 miles an hour are moving a mile a second.
And these tornadoes on the ground, you have very little few seconds to make that life-and-death decision of taking shelter, and that's (AUDIO GAP) happening today. As you can see, this is a very large wall cloud. And there is a tornado in the middle of that picture back to the north. It's probably two to three miles to the north of the interstate now of Highway 64, tornadoes on the ground in the middle of that wall cloud.
It's in the trees back there. You can see it.
(CROSSTALK)
PIOTROWSKI: But that continues to track to the east.
MYERS: Jeff, is that the Wadesville storm? It was south of Poseyville?
PIOTROWSKI: That is the storm that right now is going to be -- let me pull up a town. Yes, that is...
MYERS: Yes. That's the same storm. That was a large appendage on that storm, and I knew that that storm was on the ground for quite some time.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: You're kind of getting converged here on, and I need you to be safe out there. I know you and I have been chasing since 1989 and you have had your share of close calls.
You also saved quite a few lives in Joplin when you told them a maxi tornado was headed that way. I appreciate your work, but there's a lot of stuff out there and these roads are tough in Indiana. They all don't go in a square like we like to drive around in Oklahoma.
PIOTROWSKI: Exactly.
There are tornadoes now near Spurgeon. It's tracking up towards Spurgeon is where this is heading right now, and then almost due east just north of Highway 64.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Yes.
PIOTROWSKI: ... Holland and the area tracking toward Louisville or Lexington as we get later in this evening. That area is going to be under the gun as these tornadic storms are heading that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So that was Jeff Piotrowski. And that was a conversation he had with Chad and myself some time last hour as he is driving along 64 and you saw what he saw as it was happening live on our air.
We're going to keep watching that storm system as it moves eastward, as this story is breaking right now.
We have also learned, though, there is some significant damage in the Hamilton County, Chattanooga, Tennessee, area. We have just learned that Rob Marciano has just called in. He's in that neck of the woods. He's going to describe specific what he is seeing, what people need to know there.
Breaking news in the weather world, we're all over it. Got to get a quick break in. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Back here, breaking weather news on CNN.
We're about to talk to Rob Marciano on the ground in Chattanooga.
Quickly, though, I'm just looking at my e-mail, we can confirm here -- this is Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management. So this is Tennessee, some injuries there. They are reporting six to eight critical injuries, 10 minor injuries. No confirmed fatalities. This is in some areas where about 20,000 people live. So as we're culling through some of this information as far as injuries, where the storms are, Chad, I'm going to pass it off to you and you can talk to Rob.
MYERS: Brooke, here's what we're looking at and what have been talking about for quite a long time here.
The storms that are here to the west of Cincinnati and kind of the west of Louisville moving through Paducah. But there are many more storms now that are firing into Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. This is now the first evidence that we have that this watch box, a watch box, is going to get validated. There will be tornadoes on the ground here, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee as well.
Earlier today, not that far northwest of Atlanta, a storm rolled right through it to the northwest of Huntsville. We have talked to the mayor of Huntsville, and we have talked to a lot of people, but it also went very close to Chattanooga.
And that is at least close to where our Rob Marciano is.
And, Rob, I guess you already have damage.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes, there is damage, as you mentioned, just north and east of the Chattanooga area.
There is a lake up here near Harrison. And the tornado, no doubt about it, crossed that lake. And just managed to get to the scene here, where not only is there a tremendous amount of structural damage. I'm looking at a home right now where the roof is completely torn off, collapsed in on itself, and then pretty much this entire neighborhood of well-structured, substantial homes with a tremendous amount of damage.
As Brooke mentioned, injuries, yes, there are some. As a matter of fact, I came upon an EMT who was setting up a triage area at a makeshift convenience store where they were exiting one of the neighborhoods that was close to damage. And they're still pulling people out and treating them as the injured continue to roll in.
No confirmed reports of any fatalities, but judging from the destruction I'm seeing around me, injuries certainly will continue to pour in here, hopefully nothing too terrible.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Describe the damage, Rob. Describe what you're seeing to the house. The roof gone, the shingles gone, parts of the outside walls missing? What do you see?
MARCIANO: Well, first of all, as far as trees, they are old growth trees. And this gives you an idea, 30-, 40-, 50-year-old trees snapped in half in some cases or uprooted in the direction of the home itself.
The homes, as I mentioned, brick and mortar homes with substantial woodwork, in some cases two, three stories high with foundations, including basements. These are not your run-of-the-mill homes. And in many cases, the roofs are completely either torn off or collapsed. And walls have collapsed in on themselves.
The width of this thing, from what I can see right now, I'm kind of in an open area, the width of it could be as much as a few hundred yards wide, maybe more than that, Chad.
MYERS: Wow.
MARCIANO: So it's a wide one, it was a big one, and certainly it was on the ground for at least a mile here just north and east of Chattanooga.
MYERS: Hey, Rob, they're talking in my ear. I didn't hear when you stopped talking there.
But I know another storm is coming this way, and now you have got people out there trying to clean up. Their houses are torn apart. There is going to be a lot more weather tonight. Are they ready for this?
MARCIANO: They're taking care of this right now, and there is definitely some urgency, especially amongst the sheriff's department and the fire department and the paramedics that are on the scene right now.
They're not thinking about what is to come later on, although there is this eerie sense -- this storm came through. And typically after a bad thunderstorm when severe weather would come through, there would be some cooling and some calm.
The winds are still blowing, as you can probably hear through my earpiece, and the temperatures are still well into the 70s. It's juicy. And there is no doubt in my mind and likely the people here that don't want to think about it that this weather event is not over for eastern Tennessee.
MYERS: Yes, it's not. And if you can, if travel is safe for you, a trip over to the northeastern tip of Alabama will also reveal quite a bit of damage as well.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
MYERS: Brooke, I understand you have Jeff Piotrowski back on the phone.
BALDWIN: Yes. We have got Jeff Piotrowski, our storm chaser, as we're looking at pictures, by the way, speaking of Louisville, from WDRB, our affiliate there.
This is Jeff's camera. Jeff, tell me where you are right now.
PIOTROWSKI: I'm in Louisville. I'm in Louisville at this time on the northwest side of Louisville.
We have a large, destructive tornado confirmed on the ground. And the tornado is crossing Louisville I-65 just north of me about eight miles. We have -- this is breaking news, breaking, this is major breaking news. We have two large destructive tornadoes doing major damage 15 to 20 miles to the northwest and west of Louisville, northwest of Louisville.
Both of these tornadic storms are tracking to the north of Louisville. The latest report is we have multiple injuries, people trapped in houses. Near (INAUDIBLE) reported a tornado with injuries. Major damage being reported in the Saltsburg (ph) area.
We have just large, destructive tornado that just came in about one minute ago, reports, large, multiple vortex, large, destructive tornado heading toward I-65. This is going to be about 10 miles north of Louisville crossing 65.
We're on the northwest outskirts. I'm on live feed now. We're about ready to turn north on 65. The tornado is crossing 65 about eight miles north of me. We have a second tornado behind that one, which is about 20 miles northwest of Louisville. That also is going to track across I-65 and is also producing major damage, so we have two very destructive tornadoes northwest of Louisville, tracking east at 65 to 70 miles an hour. We have confirmed injuries and major damage northwest of my location at this time.
BALDWIN: We're talking -- as I'm talking to my producers, I know we're working on getting someone on the phone from Louisville, perhaps someone in the emergency management office, someone who can also talk to us a little bit more about those injuries that you're citing there, Jeff.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Just to confirm, two, two tornadoes here, two tornadoes northwest of Louisville.
PIOTROWSKI: Two large tornadoes. And they're about 15 miles behind each other.
One is the lead storm. And another breaking report here, we have a report of a large multiple vortex tornado west of Saltsburg (ph) across I-65 doing major damage. A new report says -- dangerous -- is located near Oregon Springs also moving east at 65 miles an hour.
So both storms are continuing. A tornado, it produced damage and injuries as tornadoes continue to track. Brand-new update. A tornado has now crossed I-65 and it's heading northeast at 65, and is doing damage across I-65.
That is just about 10 miles north of my location right now. It just crossed just north of me about eight miles. We're getting ready to turn north, as you look at live cam there. We're going to turn north on 65, and it's just north of me here. We have got major damage just north of my location.
BALDWIN: Jeff, I'm surprised. And I know you're a professional, you're a storm chaser, you know what you're doing, you have been doing this for years, but I'm surprised to be seeing all these cars. You mentioned a tornado eight miles ahead of you. Are you with me, Jeff?
PIOTROWSKI: Hello?
BALDWIN: Jeff, are you with me?
As we try to get Jeff back, Chad, I'm looking at all these cars, right, traveling over bridges, the fact that they're out there, that close.
MYERS: Brooke, this isn't the worst part.
What we're seeing here is actually OK. What really concerns any meteorologist is when people are traveling on an interstate. They don't know what county they're in. They're driving from Chicago to somewhere else. They're driving from Atlanta to somewhere else.
You drive up I-65, you drive up 75, 85, whatever, you don't know what county you're in. And a tornado warning is issued and you drive into a tornado on the interstate. Your car gets blown off the road. You're in danger because now your car -- when a tornado is done with your car, smashing it, there's no room for you in it.
That's how a tornado will tear up a vehicle. And tractor- trailers get knocked over. And the fact that this maxi tornado -- this is an F-4 tornado that Jeff is talking about. This is a 200-mile -- almost 200-mile-per-hour tornado, circulation tornado that just traveled across I-65.
These are the two storms that Jeff and I have been talking about. This is the New Pekin storm. We know that there has been injuries and damage in New Pekin. And the storm behind it that he's talking about, that was his old bird's-eye tornado. He left it. He went ahead trying to catch the bigger storm ahead, but these storms are traveling at 65 miles per hour. To catch the next storm, you got to travel 90 or 100.
And storm chasers do this just for the protection of public. They want to report this, so that the public knows, so that they can get this to the National Weather Service. The National Weather Service can make better forecasts.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: So important to explain why he's doing what he's doing.
MYERS: I know they seem like cowboys and hot shots and all that, but they are not. They are helping the National Weather Service do what they do and how to protect people at home.
I just don't want people to think that they can go out in their cars today and go chase like Jeff is, because you just can't do it. You need a lot of help at home. He has a radar in his truck. He knows where these storms are.
BALDWIN: That's how he's getting the updates so quickly.
MYERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: Yes.
MYERS: So he has all this data coming down in his vehicle right now. You can't just go out in your pickup truck or your suburban and blazer and go out and start looking for tornado damage, because these storms are so big, they will kill you.
BALDWIN: Got to get a break in.
Large, multiple vortex tornado right around Louisville, Kentucky. Chad and I will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Back to the breaking news here, and we are just rolling right along with these storms live on air here at CNN. Just to back up and explain to you, we're talking multiple tornadoes spotted in multiple states. In total today, both this afternoon and tonight, 17 states, 75 million people are facing some kind of severe weather. We have a double box on the screen right now.
These are -- guys, tell me if this isn't anymore. OK. It's Louisville or Indiana, the skies that we're looking at right now very, very ominous. On the left-side of the screen, we have Jeff Piotrowski, and he has live streaming pictures as he's driving near Louisville, Kentucky.
Jeff, I want to bring you -- Clark County, Tennessee, I'm told, on the right side of your screen and we have Jeff Piotrowski on the left-hand side.
Jeff, where are you and what do you see?
PIOTROWSKI: Yes. Well, at this time I'm just north of Louisville on 65.
I'm near the town of Memphis. About four miles ahead of me, we had a large destructive tornado cross near Henryville (INAUDIBLE) in Underwood, which is about eight miles in front of me. We have major damage north of Louisville. I have a large number of reports that have come in from the Weather Service and storm chasers, county sheriffs, EMA is reporting multiple injuries, people trapped in houses and buildings northwest of Louisville here.
The town of (INAUDIBLE) got it. We have numerous towns have been hit by a large destructive tornado that has now crossed I-65 and continues as a tornado. Last report, when it crossed I-65, it was a large multiple vortex tornado a half a mile wide doing major damage. It has crossed 65.
Traffic is backing up northbound on 65. And I understand that we have a second tornado. It's back to my west. It's also going to track across 65. Momentarily, we may have that live shot for you as it crosses in front of us. It's literally only about five miles in front of me is the next tornado coming in across I-65. We do have major damage just ahead of us.
BALDWIN: Jeff, when we talk about -- as you're mentioning these large multiple vortex tornadoes, how destructive, how large, how fast is this kind of tornado?
(CROSSTALK)
PIOTROWSKI: They're a quarter- to a half-mile-wide. So the surface area, they're covering a very large.
But what makes them so bad and deadly is that you have -- they're moving at 60, 65 miles an hour. A tornado is a quarter- or half-mile- wide. Even if you had the straight-line winds off of that, it could do produce significant damage just for the forward movement of the storm called a rear flank outflow. But this tornado, I'm coming up on the damage here. It looks like a couple miles now. I'm closing in very quickly on the damage, and there is the second -- we have a tornado on the ground (INAUDIBLE). I don't see a tornado on the ground. I have got another tornado coming.
There's the funnel. There's the funnel west of me. I have got a new tornado coming at me just to my northwest now. You will see it on the live stream here momentarily. It's a new wall cloud with a funnel just west of me.
We will turn the camera. It's just left of the camera. You are going to see a new possible tornado come across the interstate in front of me here momentarily.
But these tornadoes are very destructive, a large multiple vortex, a lot of suction spots and as well as other tornadoes rotating around the large tornadoes, what they describe, crossing I-65 up here. Momentarily, in the next five or 10 minutes, I think we will find a really bad scene up here ahead of me, based on all the reports I'm seeing coming in on the wires.
BALDWIN: So what you're describe as you're driving along here -- and I'm being told this is Henryville, Indiana -- you're going along on the interstate.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Jeff, you with me? We might have lost him again.
As we work to get Jeff back up, so he's talking just a couple miles ahead of him and he was pointing out on the screen, and we still have the picture up, again, the wall cloud and this massive funnel.
MYERS: Brooke, this was a 180- to 200-mile-per-hour tornado that just crossed the interstate very close to Henryville, Indiana. We are going to see pictures and we're going to stay with this as long as we can.
We're going to see unbelievable pictures. The people will already be out helping other people, but this is over for them. The scary part is, literally, 15 minutes west of them is another cell headed their way with another tornado headed on the ground.
BALDWIN: Why are these people on the road? We understand Jeff is a storm chaser, but you saw that tractor-trailer? Why aren't they pulling over?
MYERS: Well, because you're on the road. You don't even know a tornado warning is up there. Maybe you can have your radio on, but it will say blah, blah, blah, Putnam County. What county am I in? I don't even know.
This is what is being developed. This is the new technology that will save people's lives in the future. It will know where your iPhone is, it will know where your BlackBerry is, it will know all this stuff, and it will be able to triangulate, and you will be in the box or you won't.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Your iPhone will go off. It will tell you there's a tornado where you are, take cover. You will be able to pull over and stop and at least get someplace a little bit more structured than your car.
BALDWIN: But that's in the future. In the meantime...
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Well, it's not that far in the future, but just people don't have it.
It's not like we don't know where the cars are. We have GPS. GPS knows where you are, and you should be able to triangulate where these tornadoes are. It's just very difficult to do.
There's Louisville and the storms are up to the north of Louisville. I think we lost Jeff. Jeff, that signal might have just frozen.
BALDWIN: We lost him.
I was just told we have John Gordon on the phone with the National Weather Service.
John, you with me?
JOHN GORDON, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: Yes, I am. Hi, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Hey, John. Where are you?
GORDON: I'm in Louisville at the Weather Service. We have got a bunch of -- 12 people working on warnings for the protection of life and property from the Weather Service headquarters here.
BALDWIN: And so from what we just heard, there was this multiple vortex tornado passing north-northwest of Louisville.
Is it correct to assume that Louisville will not directly get hit?
GORDON: Well, not by this storm.
There's a series of tornadoes across southern Indiana that have been going across this boundary to the north of us from about Evansville up to Henryville. We have had at least 12 reports of tornadoes on the ground, golf-ball-sized and higher hail. And we're hearing reports of significant damage which we're still trying to get ahold of.
BALDWIN: Do you have -- as we're also working the phones, as far as injuries go, do you know anything about that? GORDON: We're hearing a lot of people were evacuating. They're getting ready to come out because there is a second storm right behind it.
The same town of New Peak could actually get hit twice. There is a storm that's about 15 miles behind the first one. The first one is predicting tornadoes in the Henryville area. The one behind it is likely to produce tornadoes again to the same areas that are under threat so we can't get the confirmation right now.
BALDWIN: How many tornadoes at the time do we have? How many are we talking about?
GORDON: Across Kentucky right now, there could be up to a half a dozen tornadoes across the commonwealth right now. There is a bunch coming out of western Kentucky right now. We just heard reports in Webster and Davis County. The weather service in Paducah has issued a warning as well right now. This is an enormous outbreak that's going on right now in Kentucky and across the mid-south.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Hey, John, it's Chad Myers here.
GORDON: Hey, Chad.
MYERS: When the (INAUDIBLE) went over New Peak, I was very concerned. That looked like, you know, EF-3 and higher, and then it got worse as it got over toward Henryville. What are you hearing from up there, anything yet?
GORDON: We're just hearing about a lot of damage, Chad. I think we're going to see some incredible damage once we can evaluate that. They're waiting for that second cell to come through.
MYERS: Absolutely.
GORDON: After that, they may be able to give us a lot more reports for you and CNN and at the weather service. But we can issue a lot of warnings and we anticipate for the next three to four hours or a lot more tornado warnings to come out of our office.
MYERS: Yes, that storm behind it went through bird's eye. We had view of that. We actually had that live on TV as it went through bird's eye, and now the people in Henryville that got hit so hard are in the way of another storm that's on the ground.
GORDON: I know, it's crazy. It's just nuts right here. There are people there, lives are in danger here with these storms, these rotating storms and these tornadoes that are coming down. All the right conditions. As you know, Chad, we've been advertising this for the last week.
MYERS: You bet. You expect that in Wichita Falls. You know, they got those double tornadoes 20 minutes apart. I don't expect that in southern Indiana, I guess. Now let's talk about the storms that did go through Paducah that will really make a run at Louisville here in the next hour or so. Tell me what you see on these storms now.
GORDON: Well, each one of them is rotating. We're getting good signatures, gate to gate velocity signatures. We have the right stability. The wind sheer, the mid-level jets coming through. Everything is, you know, Chad, is coming through right now so we anticipate a ton more warnings, both severe thunderstorm warnings for large hail and also tornado warnings over the next hour until 3 hours ahead.
MYERS: Are the kids out of school in Louisville? Did Louisville city schools let the kids go home?
GORDON: Yes, University of Louisville dismissed early. A bunch of schools dismissed early. There are people getting kids out of schools. We're hearing all over the area right now and closing activities for Friday night. And that we're good. We did a conference call today. We had 250 emergency managers and me on the call. So we tried to get the word out ahead for people to have a plan of action.
MYERS: I just don't want people going to get their kid 20 minutes before the storm arrives, you know that. It's just dangerous.
GORDON: Well, they are hopefully getting kids on the eastern side area of Lexington, is what we're hearing.
MYERS: Awesome. Good stuff.
BALDWIN: OK, thank you so much. John Gordon, you know, John Gordon himself saying this is absolutely crazy, so we're going to let him put the phone down and he can keep doing his job.
MYERS: Thank you, John.
BALDWIN: I do want to, as I'm looking over here at my e-mail, we've gotten some pictures in from Vivian Kuo. She is one of our producers.
Guys, let's go ahead and pull up Vivian's pictures. Vivian is in -- and forgive me --
MYERS: Vivian is with Rob Marciano.
BALDWIN: In Tennessee, in a town -- forgive me if I'm botching this -- Ottawa, Tennessee. And these are, this is near Chattanooga and these are some of the pictures they have.
MYERS: Right along I-75. And we think that the tornado did go over 75 as well. Again, that you're driving in it, you don't even know it's there. All of a sudden you're in it. It was a crazy day out there, and it's going to get worse. This is just the beginning.
BALDWIN: You talked to Rob. Rob mentioned injuries. I'm just pulling this other email because we have more information from the Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management.
So she was reporting, this was about an hour ago, six to eight critical injuries, ten minor injuries. Thank goodness no fatalities thus far. She mentioned in one particular area, this Short Tail Springs Road, 20 homes ripped down to the foundation, and then on Island Cove Marina, houseboats, houseboats significantly damaged. This is in the Marina where people live, and they've had people trapped in the docks, but she says everyone is accounted for.
MYERS: Well, everyone is not going to be accounted for in Indiana for quite some time. If you lost connection to your loved ones there, let me tell you that these power lines no longer exist in these towns. The trees are down. The phone lines are going to be a mess. Cell towers have now disappeared. That's how big these tornadoes were.
And as it crossed I-65 there, north of Louisville, 15 miles north of Lhasa. If you have loved ones in Louisville, they're not yet affected. But as John from the weather service there, which was telling us, there are storms to the west that will get to them that now are rotating and have tornadoes on the ground.
BALDWIN: Half a dozen, he said.
MYERS: And you don't know. You can't predict those storms will still be rotating in an hour from now, but they could be rotating worse in an hour from now.
BALDWIN: Chad, join me in this. Bill Tittle is on the phone. He is, we are just talking about Hamilton County, Tennessee. He is the chief EMS there.
Bill Tittle, talk to me about what kind of damage you, guys, are seeing, and also, I'm just mostly concerned about injuries.
BILL TITTLE, CHIEF OF EMS, HAMILTON COUNTY, TENNESSEE: I'm chief of Emergency medic, but we've had -- so far we've had about 24 injuries in Hamilton county. We don't think any of those are life threatening.
We don't have any reports of fatalities, but we have not made access to all the damaged area. A lot of trees down. A lot of roads are blocked. We have numerous crews, fire, EMS, police, rescue, the power service, others with chain saws accessing the areas, but we have not reached all of the homes.
We feel like that we have about so far about between 40 and 50 homes with significant damage that we know about. You mentioned the Shorttail Springs Area. There were 30 homes along that road alone with significant damage. And we think that as we get into other areas that we will have many other homes with significant damage. We've had numerous homes that have collapsed with cave-ins, and we've had to get the families out and that's where some of the injuries have come from.
TITTLE: Bill, how long ago did the storm blow through? BALDWIN: It came through just before 1:00 this afternoon. We have been watching since Monday the system, and we've had warnings from the National Weather Service that we can have significant weather later this evening, and we've been watching that.
We've had weather briefings from them. This storm popped up and surprised them and us. You watch it building, but you don't know exactly what it's going to do. The weather service called us, called our cell phones, we put the word out. And it just rolled in, it came over the Huntsville, Alabama area up through northeast Alabama and then rolled over the hills here in east Tennessee and landed in that one area, the Harrison Bay Ottawa area of Hamilton County.
MYERS: Hey, Bill, it's Chad Myers. You had a run-in with Mother Nature on the Tuscaloosa Day. Described this damage compare to that day.
TITTLE: Well, that was more widespread, and that probably was on the ground for a longer area. Unfortunately, we had nine fatalities out of that storm. So thank goodness we've had none out of this. But we're still watching the system, Chad, that's coming up now. It's building to the southwest, and we're concerned about that. And the weather service has warned us that between 6:00 and 8:00 tonight, we could have more significant storms to be concerned about.
MYERS: Yes. Even though they canceled your first tornado watch, they'll definitely going to be back in again to win it tonight.
TITTLE: Right.
MYERS: The people need to know if they're out trying to clean things up that more storms are on the way.
TITTLE: Correct.
BALDWIN: Bill Tittle, thank you so much. And best of luck to you. I'm sure it's such a challenge, you know, as you mentioned. And you saw the pictures of these, you know, roads absolutely blocked. And as chief of emergency management, you want to get out and want to help these people. Your hands are kind of tied at some point in time. Bill Tittle, thank you.
We do have multiple storm chasers, I was just told, on the ground in Indiana. So we're going to get a quick break. More of our breaking news, these tornadoes, have a dozen, we just heard in parts of Kentucky alone. We're going to talk about this after the quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: OK, so we are coming up with some live pictures. As we continue to follow this breaking news story here. We're talking about severe weather in multiple states, multiple tornadoes. We just heard, at least half a dozen tornadoes spotted in and around the Kentucky area. So as we keep looking at these live pictures, I just wanted to take you and just walk with me, as we're walking from the studio right here into essentially the center, the epicenter of the weather, folks. So walk with me Rocky. And these are our multiple producers working on days like this. Very, very busy, obviously.
This is Sean Morris who is producing. I just want to talk to you, Sean. Do you have a microphone, on?
SEAN MORRIS, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, I have a microphone on.
BALDWIN: So explain to me, how you're able to track these kinds of storms. You're the one, you built the graphics.
MORRIS: Right. So we have several tools here in the weather center. We're using what we call GR Level X. This gives us a look into the storm. We can see not only the heavy rainfall and the rain wrapping around the tornadoes, we can see the velocity signatures, we can see really strong signature moving through southern Indiana here.
There are actually two tornadoes in these two storms, so it's highly likely that the cities being hit by the first tornado are going to see a second tornado go through within about five or ten minutes. So that's not good news at all.
BALDWIN: Not good news.
MORRIS: No.
BALDWIN: We are hearing, who was I just talking to, the chief of Emergency Management in Hamilton County in Tennessee. He was talking, I think he mentioned 24 injuries. We're watching injuries. We're watching damage. We were talking to Rob Marciano and Vivian Kuo, they had pictures in Chattanooga of the damage there.
What's the biggest challenge, though, for you as a weather producer on days like this when you're talking multiple states, multiple tornadoes?
MORRIS: Right. That is the challenge because you're trying to monitor several states. Storm reports are constantly coming in. You have to know what counties they're in and what states, and sometimes that's difficult to sort out. So, yes. But we're well equipped to cover an event like this.
BALDWIN: I would say you all are doing a fine job. Chad Myers, I'm walking back over here to you.
MYERS: This is my nerve center. When I run away from you, and then give the commercial break...
BALDWIN: This is where he go.
MYERS: This is where I run.
BALDWIN: This is the cube. MYERS: Because you can't get any information out there. I'm standing out there in front of a camera. I can't look at my computer. So I run here to see where is the next tornado coming from. Is it going to -- and I'm really worried about Cincinnati at this point. We haven't talk a lot about those.
BALDWIN: Let's talk about some of that.
MYERS: But those storms that rolled over Henryville, and two of them, literally, in tandem, are going to go over the Ohio river and into northern Kentucky, Boone County, Kentucky and Kenton County and then into Cincinnati proper, in addition of Port Hamilton, possibly.
But we have so many storms with tornadoes on the ground. We literally can't talk about all of them. We get to as many of the big ones as we can, but trust me, there is probably F-0s and F-1s right now that I haven't looked at because I'm looking at these f-4s. The big, big tornadoes today.
BALDWIN: And when we were talking Cincinnati, when we're talking Louisville, a moment ago, and that whole system is roaring through there, the point that you all made earlier is there is going to be an entire other system coming through on the back end of it later on today.
MYERS: And we're seeing that on the top side, on the Indiana- Illinois, Kentucky side, but there is going to be more into Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, even here in Georgia, roll on up even into the east coast, up into Virginia, West Virginia, and maybe even into high country, upstate South Carolina. So many states.
BALDWIN: And, again, in terms of the climate, whether it's warmer, whether it's cooler, what's the best? And really, it's the worst time of day?
MYERS: Well, I would say 5:00 is the biggest bogey. That is when the air will be the warmest. That is when things will be bubbliest. Now there is a difference here. If it rains a lot at 11:00 in the morning, and you get a lot of cloud cover, we call that gunge. These were inside terms because we're inside. And that gunge will stop the sun from coming down and that will stop the tornado. That will stop the entire day.
And sometimes on high risk days like we have today, it's a big bust. There's just nothing out there because it rained a lot in the morning and the sun never came out anywhere. This doesn't look like that. The sun is out, it's 80 degrees, the relative humidity is high. There is a cold front coming. Everything is in place.
BALDWIN: Chad, stand by. We're going to get a quick break in as we talk about multiple states, multiple tornadoes here. And we have Rob Marciano, our weather crews, whether they are here or they are on the ground, sort of looking at some of the aftermath and in anticipation of the next round of storms. We're going to talk to Rob. He is in and around the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. We'll get some of their pictures after this quick break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Breaking news. 17 states facing some sort of severe weather through this afternoon and into tonight. What an afternoon it has been as we've been following these tornadoes as they've been ripping sort of eastward. We've been watching them all the way from Indiana, thanks to Jeff Patrowski, one of our storm chasers there on the ground.
This is tape from earlier as he was watching in Louisville, chasing these tornadoes, seeing some of them touching the ground. We talked to John Gordon with the National Weather Service, talking about how, to quote him, "it's just crazy right now." Talked about half a dozen tornadoes just in Kentucky alone.
And I want to bring in Doug Hamilton. He's the director of emergency management in Louisville, Jefferson County.
And, sir, just tell me what you know, tell me what kind of damage you're seeing.
DOUG HAMILTON, DIRECTOR, LOUISVILLE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (via telephone): What we're seeing is a lot of reports from southern Indiana. We're in a very uncomfortable position. We're watching a storm track here, knowing full well that we're next and not knowing exactly what's going to happen to us once it gets here. But we can see from the reports in Indiana, from Henryville, they've had some tornado activity of some kind, so that's what we're to expect. We're just bracing now for this storm to be hitting us in the next 30 minutes or less.
BALDWIN: So you are part of the waiting game here. We were talking to the storm chaser, and he told us that there were these two tornadoes that are passing essentially northwest of Louisville and then there was going to be a second batch of storm, I presume that's what you're waiting for. And as you sit and wait, what kind of information for people who actually have power right now. What information you like to relay to them?
HAMILTON: Well, obviously, we hope that they heeded some of our earlier warnings to make sure they have a safe place in their home. The more walls in the room that they choose, the better off they're going to be. If they have a basement, that would be their first choice. If not a bathroom or laundry room with again, more walls, the better.
If they live in a trailer park, we tried to get out enough information earlier to have them seek shelter and alternative places. Big box stores, places like that have good storm plans and will open their doors for people from homes that may not have places like that. We've got several hours' notice and have been pushing information all day, hoping people have paid attention to the preparedness message that we've been putting out.
BALDWIN: Well, Doug Hamilton, and I mean this in the nicest way, but I hope we don't have to talk to you later today. I hope that -- HAMILTON: Yes, me neither. I feel very vulnerable right now.
BALDWIN: Yes. I can imagine how you feel as you are watching these tornadoes sort of rip through parts of the country and you are not next. But you are part of that path, so I'm going to let you go and get back to your job. And best of luck to you, Doug Hamilton, Jefferson County, Louisville, Kentucky.
We do have Rob Marciano back up for us. In fact, I believe he's on the phone.
Rob, you are in Chattanooga, where you are already seeing the destruction after an apparent tornado there. Tell me what you are seeing.
Guys, do we have Rob? Rob, can you hear me?
MARCIANO: Can you hear me, Brooke?
BALDWIN: Hey. Yes, you're with me. You're live on CNN. Go for it. What do you see?
MARCIANO: Yes. You questioned whether or not this was a tornado. It definitely was.
BALDWIN: Definitely.
MARCIANO: It was at least 200 yards wide. I'm assuming the damage northern Alabama, and injuries are (INAUDIBLE). We've got at least six serious injuries, as many as ten not so serious. But as we passed by, there were basically two axis points to some of the harder- hit communities. The first access point, nobody is allowed access and there is emergency personnel going in and out of there. And at last check they were setting up a triage area to treat some of the injured that were being pulled from that area.
We are set up a little bit farther down the road, and a substantially damage subdivision as well. There's been some injuries here. I'm looking across a small lake at a home that's completely destroyed where a woman was airlifted earlier before we got here. But I'm assuming this -- the area I'm standing in is not quite as bad as the area that they're pulling the injured out of right now.
Substantial damage in this town called Ottawa, it's twice number of people with a nice, nice suburb basically just north and east of Chattanooga, and without a doubt they are rattled here, Brooke, and afraid for what's still to come.
Because there's a warm, humid breeze happening, not like one you would typically see after a thunderstorm. And they know that the forecast is for storms in the coming, and there's debris everywhere. And they're working frantically to try to clear some of the roadways with both heavy and light equipment to make this place at least passable.
BALDWIN: OK, the calm before the next storm. Rob Marciano for us there on the ground in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We are now getting word there are 19, 19 tornado warnings, Chad Myers, in six states.
MYERS: That's a little sobering, isn't it? Because we've been talking a lot about Indiana, and eventually now towards Cincinnati. But storms are firing in Tennessee, each one by itself, its own little super cell, each one rotating.
So we go from here, Columbus, Ohio, tornado warning for Richmond, the big RV center there. Here is Cincinnati, Ohio. Look at all these tornado warnings coming your way. Here is Louisville, a storm to the west, not really rotating. A warning is lining it. I'm expecting that to be more of a wind event, at least for right now for Louisville, but you get back down to the west of Nashville, north of Huntsville, again. Rob is right there. Another storm, tornado to the north of him by about 20 miles, and one way up here in the northeast section of Georgia.
So let's kind of go in and kind of do all this together, because I'd like to at least show you, at least a little bit closer here what we have. Here's I-70 out of Columbus, and there's Dayton. Dayton right there. This could be Richmond in the end. They're pop out right there. Tornado warning for you.
Now, I'm going to pan down a little bit. You kind of get a feel. You have to stay with me here. Keeping watching, because Cincinnati is here, storms and tornadoes coming in, probably on up toward Hamilton, as this one comes across the Indiana border into Ohio.
Here's the Ohio River. And now storms have crossed the Ohio River in Milton, Kentucky. We know that fire station number 2, according to EMS has been destroyed as the storm came across the rivers. More storms here will come across the river head towards Florence, Independence, into Cincinnati and then on up toward I-71 as we go.
We're going to pan here to the north, into Louisville. Here's the storm to your west. It's really right now a wind event. No circulation. Tornado warning for you soon, though, Louisville. That's because you could easily see 80 to 90-mile-per-hour winds with this, whether it's a tornado or not. That's still a big storm.
To the south of there, down here around Owensboro, storms have finally move through Madison. Look at every one of these pink boxes, every pink box is a tornado warning. So now here Jackson now. We're into Nashville, south of Nashville here from Fayette to Winchester, all these pink boxes, storm that's rotating, because they're all by themselves.
You see what's happening. Here's what's happening. You have that cell by itself. It's going to tornado. That cell is not attached to a line. It's going to tornado. That cell is going to tornado. That cell is going to tornado. When you get them all clustered together, then they stop tornadoing, but when they're all by themselves today, each one of these cells is going to make a tornado, or at least a very, very strong storm with a lot of rotation.
It's a big day. And 19 tornadoes in six days, right now that number could easily go up because now we're getting to that heat of the day. Remember you asked me what's the worst part of the day, 5:00, we're getting close.
BALDWIN: We're approaching. We have to get a break in. I hate to pull away and do this, but we have to get a break in. So a quick break. More on our breaking news. 19 tornado warnings in six separate states. Back in 90 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: OK, I'm running this down here. Chad Myers, joining me as we are watching these tornadoes.
And we have now videos. This is from our affiliate WFIE. As we were talking, six different tornadoes within Kentucky. Moments ago, we have video of something, if we can just take a look at it. Here we go.
This is north of Louisville from our affiliate. We know a tornado has not hit the city of Louisville.
MYERS: Correct.
BALDWIN: We know it was north or west?
MYERS: Correct, but there are still storms west of Louisville moving to the east. So, Louisville, you're not out of it yet. And you're not in a warning yet, but expect it in the next 15 to 20 minutes.
BALDWIN: So how many hours are we talking, as we look ahead as far as potential tornadic activities. So are we talking through midnight?
MYERS: I think so. And maybe a little bit later than that with hail and severe winds. But tornadoes will start to calm down after dark. They want that heat. So even though it's dark at 6:00, it's not cool yet at 6:00. It may not cool down under 9:00 or 10:00. And at 10:00, that's when the tornadoes may start to get a little bit smaller, but for now it's a mess out there. And that storm that we're looking at, there was tornado video there. That was the Indiana storm that we were looking at that Jeff Petrowski was on. We are following his live for a long time. Now we're back working into Kentucky.
BALDWIN: This is what I'm told. Carroll County, Tennessee. These are pictures, and when you look at this, I mean, just obviously, the wipers are on, it's raining, you were talking early in some parts of these states, tennis ball-size hail?
MYERS: I think that's certainly possible. A lot of, some of these, these watches are -- talking about 2-1/2 inch hail. That's bigger than a baseball. And we have very -- we have a certain level of watch. You have a severe thunderstorm watch, a tornado watch and then a PDS watch, which means particularly dangerous situation. It's the next step to a tornado watch and that's what we're getting now. And warnings, of course. 19 of them.
BALDWIN: I'm going to let you catch your breath, because you're going to turn around, I imagine, and continue talking about this on "THE SITUATION ROOM." I have to say good bye. Thank you so much for watching. We're all over this breaking weather news here. "THE SITUATION ROOM" starts now.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, thanks very much.
