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CNN Live Saturday

Tropical Storm Barry Threatens the Gulf of Mexico

Aired August 04, 2001 - 16:00   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: After bullying South Florida, Tropical Storm Barry sizes up the Gulf Coast. Storm warnings are up for New Orleans and surrounding areas. A tropical storm watch is in place eastward to panama City, Florida. Barry didn't move much overnight, but its 40 mile-per-hour winds are expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours.

The National Weather Service predicts coastal flooding in the warning area, with seas one to three feet above normal. And our CNN meteorologist Kevin Corriveau is with us now with more on the Barry. What's likely to happen?

KEVIN CORRIVEAU, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, not much happened last night, and not much happened today. It has been basically stationary all day. Winds haven't changed too much over the last couple of days. It is, well, 40 miles per hour right now, and we are going to possibly see this system start to move north. And by Monday, that's when it starts to get interesting.

As we take a look at the radar summary -- let's take a look at the radar summary before we take a look at those watches -- we are starting to pick up a little bit more activity coming in on those radar sites from the northern coast here of Florida and also into Mississippi. We are seeing the system start to make its way a little bit more to the northwest, and we are only seeing that slightly, but you can really see this system on the satellite image. Look at how all these orange colors have really boomed up over the last six or so hours.

We are going to start to see this system, like I said, move more to the north, and we do have warnings out. Now, warnings -- excuse me -- in effect -- excuse me -- for Pearl River all the way down to Grand Isle, and we also have watches that are out anywhere from Panama City area, Florida and into Morgan City.

Now, this system, like I said, it's going to start to move north, and by Monday morning, we are going to see Barry possibly hit as a tropical storm the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This means strong winds, also potentially localized flooding.

Now, as we put this map in motion, you can see we bring it in to parts of Southern Mississippi. New Orleans is not out of the woods yet, because one little turn to the west could bring a lot more precipitation and also storm surges, and pushing out water up into these rivers by Monday.

As we take a look at the rest of the timeframe, Monday we are going the system here, a lot more rain showers for parts of the Southeast, and on Tuesday, we are going to drop the intensity on this, we are going to make it down to a tropical depression, but a whole lot of rain shower activity for the Southeast. Donna, that's your national weather and we'll take a little bit more of a look at the weather in a couple more minutes.

KELLEY: OK, Kevin, thanks very much.

Joining us now on the phone from New Orleans is Jeff Moore, he is spokesman for Chevron, a company with oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jeff, can you hear me?

JEFF MOORE, CHEVRON SPOKESMAN: Yes, I can.

KELLEY: Hi, thanks. Can you tell us how many workers you're trying to get out of there?

Well, Donna, since Thursday, we've evacuated just over 1,300 employees and contractors from the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, our primary concern in a situation such as this is the safety of our employees and contractors and ensuring that all of our facilities are less than in a safe condition.

KELLEY: And 1,300, are those all of your employees, or are those nonessential employees?

MOORE: Those are primarily nonessential employees, although I would say that...

KELLEY: And how do you distinguish that? Can you explain that to us?

MOORE: Well, basically, essential employees are going to be personnel that are -- that are required to stay to ensure production continues. However, it is a -- it's a balance that we take very seriously, and what we strive to do is we don't want to keep anybody out too long. So, we certainly are going to err on the side of safety. We still have about 300 employees out there, and we have plans in place where we can quickly get them off and within a few hours should this storm pose to be more threatening.

KELLEY: That's just what I was going to ask you, Jeff, how quickly you could get them in. And how do you get them in? Do you just take them in on a boat?

MOORE: Usually in a situation like this, early on we can use -- we can rely on watercraft, our lift boats. However, as the sea state begins to deteriorate, when storms become stronger, we then rely almost solely on our aircraft, and we operate a fleet of 29 helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico.

And as I said, we have 300 personnel still out there right now. We are very concerned for their safety. We're watching the storm closely. And we have got plans in place where we know that we can use our aircraft fleet and get them off safely within a matter of hours.

KELLEY: You bet. How about the oil rigs? What do you do to protect them?

MOORE: Well, the drilling rig that we have in the gulf have basically ceased operations and have moved to safe locations. The production platforms, where the oil and gas are actually produced before being sent to shore, of course they are in place. And those are the -- some of those structures are manned and many more of them are not manned. They are much smaller structures.

So, our concerns in a time like this are to ensure that everything is working well, that the structures are ready for the storm, and that we begin to get our people off so that they are safe.

KELLEY: OK, Jeff Moore, who is a spokesman for Chevron. Thanks very much. Appreciate your time in talking with us.

MOORE: You're welcome.

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