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CNN Live At Daybreak
Escaping a Hurricane
Aired September 11, 2001 - 08:34 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.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: This week is the peak of hurricane season. We're doing a series of reports we call "The Eye of the Storm." Today, evacuation gridlock, and we start with CNN's John Zarrella in the Florida Keys live this morning.
John is with us. Good morning, John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Vince.
Let me tell you, emergency managers and hurricane forecasters will always tell you, you can run from the water and you can hide from the wind. That means you got to get out of the way for storm surge, but you can usually hide from the wind.
But let me show you the Florida Key here. This is Islamarada. That one road is a two-lane road. So here in the Florida Key, you've got to run from the water and run from the wind both. You really don't have a lot of options.
But no matter where you live, if you are ordered to evacuate, it may be far more difficult than you think.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): As Hurricane Floyd moved north along the Atlantic coast, cars didn't move at all. Two years ago, Floyd triggered the largest evacuation in U.S. history. From Florida to the Carolinas, millions left their home, only to sit in gridlock.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Taken us four and a half hours to go eight miles.
ZARRELLA: Many weren't asked or ordered to leave, but were afraid to stay, and they added to the bumper-to-bumper mess. Floyd weakened before striking land, but next time might be different.
MAX MAYFIELD, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: I really fear that someday we'll have people stuck in the cars in a gridlock as the core of a major hurricane moves onshore. If they're stuck in the car and that storm surge comes in, there will be loss of life from drowning.
ZARRELLA: Hundreds, perhaps thousands may feel fears.
(on camera): Storm surge is a wall of water, sometimes 50, even 100 miles long and perhaps 20 feet high. It sweeps inland as the eye of a hurricane makes landfall.
(voice-over): And since the average error in forecasting hurricane landfall is 100 miles, no one knows where the worst storm surge will hit.
MAYFIELD: Again 24 hours, I can't tell if it's going to hit here or here or down here somewhere.
ZARRELLA: That's why emergency managers overevacuate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to worry about the southwest quarter.
ZARRELLA: August 22nd, 2000: Hurricane Debbie is close enough to the Florida Keys that emergency manager Billy Wagner is worried. He's come to the National Hurricane Center in Miami for the latest information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The thing is I need to respond to a major hurricane.
ZARRELLA: Within minutes, Wagner learns evacuation is not possible. The only two roads out of the keys are blocked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A jackknifed truck on car sound, and a tanker truck they have to drill holes in to offload the fuel on U.S. 1.
ZARRELLA: The next day the roads cleared. Wagner orders a phase-one evacuation, tourists and nonresidents, then hurricane Debbie unexpectedly fall apart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As Carla moves slowly in from the gulf.
ZARRELLA: A generation ago evacuation worked pretty well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back in the '40s and '50s and '60s, if we gave people 12 hours of warning, that was sufficient.
ZARRELLA: Not anymore. There are simply too many people and cars. Often more than the roads can handle. Many cities now plan to make highways one way out. But experts say that's not a solution.
BOB SHEETS, FORMER NOAA SCIENTIST: What I'm saying is every new community that goes up, whenever you give the permitting process for this development, they ought to be required to have a shelter right on site.
ZARRELLA: So for now, evacuation gridlock remains the nightmare scenario. So much so, one Florida county is looking for a spot along interstate 75, a parking lot of last resort, where people stuck in cars can pull into, and hopefully survive the big one.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: If you are ordered to evacuate, the one piece of advice, evacuate early. Do not wait until the last minute and risk getting stuck in gridlock.
This is John Zarrella, reporting live from Islamarada in the Florida Keys.
CELLINI: Thank you very much, John Zarrella. Wow, great pictures there to illustrate the power of the storm.
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