Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
More Than A Week After Hurricane Isabel Thousands Still Without Power After
Aired September 27, 2003 - 14:29 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.
JUDY FORTIN, CNN ANCHOR: More than a week after Hurricane Isabel, thousands are still in the dark. More than 227,000 customers are without power in Virginia. More than 8,800 in North Carolina, and there are scattered outages in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Along with blackout conditions, some unseen health dangers also exist.
CNN's Christy Feig is live from Washington with more. What are some of the biggest dangers, Christy?
CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, when Hurricane Isabel came through Alexandria, Virginia last week, a nine and a half foot flood storm poured into these local homes and businesses. And with that, came the potential for disease. That's because any place water stands for a day or two without drying is a place for mold and bacteria to grow.
Bacteria causes acute respiratory infections. Mold causes severe allergic reactions, especially in people who have allergies and asthma. So what health experts are doing here is stressing people how they need to clean this properly.
Anything that was porous material, whether it's upholstered furniture, drywall, insulation, that all needs to be ripped out and thrown away. It cannot be saved. The hard surfaces, the areas behind that insulation and drywall needs to be cleaned very well with soap and water and washed again with bleach then dried completely before it's covered back up. If it's covered back up to too early, mold and bacteria can still grow there.
But the problem isn't just indoors. There's standing water outdoors from the flooding. We've already had a lot water here before the hurricane hit. Now there's a lot of flooding.
With that is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. And this is the peak of West Nile Virus season. So local environmental specialists here are going around and testing these pools of water for the type of mosquitoes that carry this West Nile Virus. They're spreading pesticides wherever they need to.
But, in the meantime, health experts say if you feel wheezy, if you feel coughing, if you have congestion in your chest, flu-like symptom, you need to get to your doctor. Especially if it happens in the next couple of weeks -- Judy.
FORTIN: Christy, how big a danger are some of the physical hazards like broken glass, nails, and some of the other things because of the damage from the storm?
FEIG: Well, that was all initial threat, especially whenever the floodwaters were really high. They were saying, be careful, don't go into thee waters without protective boots, with gloves. Because if you have a cut on your fingers, for example, the bacteria, the sewage from the water can get in there.
Tetanus is a risk, Hepatitis A is a risk, if it's present. You know you can get infections in your sores from that.
So all of that was an initial threat. What they really are concerned about now is, as the floodwaters are abating, as people are getting cleaned up, as the power is coming back on, some of these more hidden threats people aren't necessarily thinking about. And they kind of think they're out of the woods.
FORTIN: I would imagine parents with children in those areas are especially concerned with no power. There may not be school or a place to send their kids. What are some of the challenges they're facing?
FEIG: Oh, there's a lot, because the river here really is high. These homes and businesses, especially right up against the river, do have a lot of water still around them. The ground is very wet.
Things have been washed out of the river. I mean, the water was as high as where I'm standing now. So a lot of stuff washed up.
Kids can come down here, they can get themselves in trouble if they get cut. It's not clean. They can get infections of all sorts, they can, you know, sprain their ankle or anything. There are just things where it's not supposed to be.
A lot of debris is washed up from the water. And a lot of that is around where it's not -- where it isn't usually, and a lot of kids will think that's interesting and fun and get in it and cause trouble.
FORTIN: Yes. Little do they know, making a bad situation even worse. Christy Feig, thank you very much for that update.
Now, an outage in the northeast that has nothing to do with Isabel. Several hundred people are without power in Connecticut after a gas tank explosion. Authorities in Newtown say the truck was struck head-on by a sport utility vehicle that crossed the center line. Several hundred gallons of gas leaked into neighborhoods, forcing evacuations. Environmental officials have been removing contaminated soil to prevent gas from harming water supplies.
The tanker's driver suffered minor injuries. The SUV driver is hospitalized with serious injuries.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Without Power After>
Aired September 27, 2003 - 14:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY FORTIN, CNN ANCHOR: More than a week after Hurricane Isabel, thousands are still in the dark. More than 227,000 customers are without power in Virginia. More than 8,800 in North Carolina, and there are scattered outages in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Along with blackout conditions, some unseen health dangers also exist.
CNN's Christy Feig is live from Washington with more. What are some of the biggest dangers, Christy?
CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, when Hurricane Isabel came through Alexandria, Virginia last week, a nine and a half foot flood storm poured into these local homes and businesses. And with that, came the potential for disease. That's because any place water stands for a day or two without drying is a place for mold and bacteria to grow.
Bacteria causes acute respiratory infections. Mold causes severe allergic reactions, especially in people who have allergies and asthma. So what health experts are doing here is stressing people how they need to clean this properly.
Anything that was porous material, whether it's upholstered furniture, drywall, insulation, that all needs to be ripped out and thrown away. It cannot be saved. The hard surfaces, the areas behind that insulation and drywall needs to be cleaned very well with soap and water and washed again with bleach then dried completely before it's covered back up. If it's covered back up to too early, mold and bacteria can still grow there.
But the problem isn't just indoors. There's standing water outdoors from the flooding. We've already had a lot water here before the hurricane hit. Now there's a lot of flooding.
With that is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. And this is the peak of West Nile Virus season. So local environmental specialists here are going around and testing these pools of water for the type of mosquitoes that carry this West Nile Virus. They're spreading pesticides wherever they need to.
But, in the meantime, health experts say if you feel wheezy, if you feel coughing, if you have congestion in your chest, flu-like symptom, you need to get to your doctor. Especially if it happens in the next couple of weeks -- Judy.
FORTIN: Christy, how big a danger are some of the physical hazards like broken glass, nails, and some of the other things because of the damage from the storm?
FEIG: Well, that was all initial threat, especially whenever the floodwaters were really high. They were saying, be careful, don't go into thee waters without protective boots, with gloves. Because if you have a cut on your fingers, for example, the bacteria, the sewage from the water can get in there.
Tetanus is a risk, Hepatitis A is a risk, if it's present. You know you can get infections in your sores from that.
So all of that was an initial threat. What they really are concerned about now is, as the floodwaters are abating, as people are getting cleaned up, as the power is coming back on, some of these more hidden threats people aren't necessarily thinking about. And they kind of think they're out of the woods.
FORTIN: I would imagine parents with children in those areas are especially concerned with no power. There may not be school or a place to send their kids. What are some of the challenges they're facing?
FEIG: Oh, there's a lot, because the river here really is high. These homes and businesses, especially right up against the river, do have a lot of water still around them. The ground is very wet.
Things have been washed out of the river. I mean, the water was as high as where I'm standing now. So a lot of stuff washed up.
Kids can come down here, they can get themselves in trouble if they get cut. It's not clean. They can get infections of all sorts, they can, you know, sprain their ankle or anything. There are just things where it's not supposed to be.
A lot of debris is washed up from the water. And a lot of that is around where it's not -- where it isn't usually, and a lot of kids will think that's interesting and fun and get in it and cause trouble.
FORTIN: Yes. Little do they know, making a bad situation even worse. Christy Feig, thank you very much for that update.
Now, an outage in the northeast that has nothing to do with Isabel. Several hundred people are without power in Connecticut after a gas tank explosion. Authorities in Newtown say the truck was struck head-on by a sport utility vehicle that crossed the center line. Several hundred gallons of gas leaked into neighborhoods, forcing evacuations. Environmental officials have been removing contaminated soil to prevent gas from harming water supplies.
The tanker's driver suffered minor injuries. The SUV driver is hospitalized with serious injuries.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Without Power After>
