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CNN Live Saturday
Interview With Floramae Price
Aired May 10, 2003 - 14:27 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush has declared Oklahoma a major disaster area after a series of funnel clouds touched down this week causing millions of dollars in damages. In the Oklahoma City area alone, people are cleaning up after being hit by two twisters in as many days. Jason Bellini is watching the cleanup in Bethany, Oklahoma, just outside Oklahoma City -- Jason.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, one of the remarkable things in all of this has been the fact that no one has been killed by the tornadoes Thursday night or Friday night, despite the millions of dollars in damage that's now just beginning to be assessed.
Now, with me I have someone who's very special and who perhaps contributed to making this happen so that no one died in these storms. This is Floramae Price. And you asked me to call you grandma, so I'll call you grandma.
FLORAMAE PRICE, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Thank you.
BELLINI: Now, last night, you had some strangers who were with you seeking shelter from the storm. Can you tell me a little bit about that, please?
PRICE: We had 15 people down in our storm shelter, and one dog. We can't leave the dog out. I have a nice-sized storm shelter in my back yard. And anybody's welcome to come. If I'm not home, and there is a storm, come down, it's never locked. And four people came down last night that I had never seen before in my life.
BELLINI: They just came off the street?
PRICE: They are around here somewhere. I don't know. I think my grandson just told them to go down and seek shelter. And that's just fine. That's what we're for.
BELLINI: You know, your daughter -- your granddaughter, rather, she says that you're a hero for doing that. You may have saved some lives?
PRICE: It's possible. But I'm not a hero. I'm just a mother and a grandmother and a friend, and a neighbor.
BELLINI: What did it sound like when you were inside that storm shelter? PRICE: When it hit, you could tell when it went over. And I didn't hear a roar, but it sounded like a bunch of just large rocks or pebbles hitting the top of that iron cellar, in the cellar. And just a whole punch of them hitting it real hard. And that's what I heard. Now, I don't know whether anybody else heard a roar or not, but that's...
BELLINI: Now, one last thing I wanted to ask, you were telling me earlier that you lost a relative in last Sunday's storm?
PRICE: My daughter, my youngest daughter had an aunt and uncle by marriage that was killed, in Kansas, about 14 miles out of (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Missouri, and they was blown out of their house and was found in a tree. I think the tree was about a half a mile from their house. But that couple was up high in a tree. And they had their arms around each other, and they was dead. They had to be sawed down from the tree. And my daughter just lost everything.
BELLINI: Well, grandma, you have a lot of people who are very proud of you here. You know that?
PRICE: I'm proud of everybody here. And I want to thank you all for coming to our state.
BELLINI: You bet.
PRICE: I hope you come back sometime, but not for this kind of a reason.
BELLINI: And we just might do that.
Fredricka, back to you. But there a lot of people here who are feeling very lucky, and thanks to people here like grandma.
WHITFIELD: All right, well, that's good news, that's good news indeed. Thanks a lot, Jason.
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 - 14:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush has declared Oklahoma a major disaster area after a series of funnel clouds touched down this week causing millions of dollars in damages. In the Oklahoma City area alone, people are cleaning up after being hit by two twisters in as many days. Jason Bellini is watching the cleanup in Bethany, Oklahoma, just outside Oklahoma City -- Jason.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, one of the remarkable things in all of this has been the fact that no one has been killed by the tornadoes Thursday night or Friday night, despite the millions of dollars in damage that's now just beginning to be assessed.
Now, with me I have someone who's very special and who perhaps contributed to making this happen so that no one died in these storms. This is Floramae Price. And you asked me to call you grandma, so I'll call you grandma.
FLORAMAE PRICE, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Thank you.
BELLINI: Now, last night, you had some strangers who were with you seeking shelter from the storm. Can you tell me a little bit about that, please?
PRICE: We had 15 people down in our storm shelter, and one dog. We can't leave the dog out. I have a nice-sized storm shelter in my back yard. And anybody's welcome to come. If I'm not home, and there is a storm, come down, it's never locked. And four people came down last night that I had never seen before in my life.
BELLINI: They just came off the street?
PRICE: They are around here somewhere. I don't know. I think my grandson just told them to go down and seek shelter. And that's just fine. That's what we're for.
BELLINI: You know, your daughter -- your granddaughter, rather, she says that you're a hero for doing that. You may have saved some lives?
PRICE: It's possible. But I'm not a hero. I'm just a mother and a grandmother and a friend, and a neighbor.
BELLINI: What did it sound like when you were inside that storm shelter? PRICE: When it hit, you could tell when it went over. And I didn't hear a roar, but it sounded like a bunch of just large rocks or pebbles hitting the top of that iron cellar, in the cellar. And just a whole punch of them hitting it real hard. And that's what I heard. Now, I don't know whether anybody else heard a roar or not, but that's...
BELLINI: Now, one last thing I wanted to ask, you were telling me earlier that you lost a relative in last Sunday's storm?
PRICE: My daughter, my youngest daughter had an aunt and uncle by marriage that was killed, in Kansas, about 14 miles out of (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Missouri, and they was blown out of their house and was found in a tree. I think the tree was about a half a mile from their house. But that couple was up high in a tree. And they had their arms around each other, and they was dead. They had to be sawed down from the tree. And my daughter just lost everything.
BELLINI: Well, grandma, you have a lot of people who are very proud of you here. You know that?
PRICE: I'm proud of everybody here. And I want to thank you all for coming to our state.
BELLINI: You bet.
PRICE: I hope you come back sometime, but not for this kind of a reason.
BELLINI: And we just might do that.
Fredricka, back to you. But there a lot of people here who are feeling very lucky, and thanks to people here like grandma.
WHITFIELD: All right, well, that's good news, that's good news indeed. Thanks a lot, Jason.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
