Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Interview with Max Mayfield
Aired September 24, 2002 - 14:12 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The winds and rains of Isidore already are being felt along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Folks there are busy stocking up, boarding up, and packing up, just in case.
But, Isidore is not the only tropical storm coastal residents have to worry about.
CNN's Mark Potter is at the National Hurricane Center in Miami -- Mark, good to see you.
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the forecasters here at the National Hurricane Center are actually watching three storms, two are of concern.
Let's go right to the man who is in charge of it all, Max Mayfield, the director here. Let me ask you first about Storm Isidore. What is going to happen there?
MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, that is the immediate concern obviously, and the center is now back over the Gulf of Mexico, but this is no where near the hurricane that we had a few days ago. It was a very powerful category 3 hurricane when it slammed into the Yucatan. This has been very, very bad news for the folks on the Yucatan Peninsula, the fact that it sat over them for several days now, but it is almost good news for the United States, because it has weakened the maximum sustained winds down to about 60 miles per hour. It has moved to the north now, and we do expect it to continue towards the north-central Gulf Coast. We are forecasting to become a hurricane, but not a major hurricane at this time.
POTTER: So a category 1, most likely?
MAYFIELD: That is what we are forecasting right now, and I don't want to underdo this either, and this is really all about saving lives. If we are smart about this, we've got some time, we've got a big concern with the storm surge near and to the east of where the center crosses the coast, and it is my understanding that some people are already being told to evacuate, and people need to listen very carefully to what local officials tell them to do.
POTTER: And what's the time frame?
MAYFIELD: We're really talking about sustained, probably storm- force winds tomorrow afternoon, and then the core of the hurricane, by then, will be moving on the coast very, very early, Thursday morning. Now the forecast can still do this, but we do have...
POTTER: It is a hurricane. They do that.
MAYFIELD: ... a hurricane watch out from Cameron, Louisiana over to Pascagoula, Mississippi.
POTTER: Now, as if that is not enough, there is Lili out there. What is it doing?
MAYFIELD: Lili is actually getting a little bit stronger, and the message here is that any time we have a strengthening tropical storm in the Caribbean, in the peak of the hurricane season, we need to watch it very carefully. On the projected path we have the Caribbean in a couple days time, we do have a tropical storm watch out for the southern coast of both Hispaniola and Haiti, and then we'll see whether it gets closer to eastern Cuba or stays down near Jamaica, the Malta (ph), kind of doing this to us right now, but we do have some time to watch that one.
POTTER: And somebody in Florida, or elsewhere, worrying about that, what you would tell them?
MAYFIELD: Just watch it very, very carefully. Again, that is the message you have any time you have something headed in our general direction.
POTTER: All right, Max, thank you very much for your time and best wishes to you.
MAYFIELD: Sure.
POTTER: And there is that other storm out there, it is Tropical Storm Kyle, but we are told that it is not a concern. It is way out in the Atlantic, and it not going to threaten anything -- Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Mark Potter, thanks so much,
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 September 24, 2002 - 14:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The winds and rains of Isidore already are being felt along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Folks there are busy stocking up, boarding up, and packing up, just in case.
But, Isidore is not the only tropical storm coastal residents have to worry about.
CNN's Mark Potter is at the National Hurricane Center in Miami -- Mark, good to see you.
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the forecasters here at the National Hurricane Center are actually watching three storms, two are of concern.
Let's go right to the man who is in charge of it all, Max Mayfield, the director here. Let me ask you first about Storm Isidore. What is going to happen there?
MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, that is the immediate concern obviously, and the center is now back over the Gulf of Mexico, but this is no where near the hurricane that we had a few days ago. It was a very powerful category 3 hurricane when it slammed into the Yucatan. This has been very, very bad news for the folks on the Yucatan Peninsula, the fact that it sat over them for several days now, but it is almost good news for the United States, because it has weakened the maximum sustained winds down to about 60 miles per hour. It has moved to the north now, and we do expect it to continue towards the north-central Gulf Coast. We are forecasting to become a hurricane, but not a major hurricane at this time.
POTTER: So a category 1, most likely?
MAYFIELD: That is what we are forecasting right now, and I don't want to underdo this either, and this is really all about saving lives. If we are smart about this, we've got some time, we've got a big concern with the storm surge near and to the east of where the center crosses the coast, and it is my understanding that some people are already being told to evacuate, and people need to listen very carefully to what local officials tell them to do.
POTTER: And what's the time frame?
MAYFIELD: We're really talking about sustained, probably storm- force winds tomorrow afternoon, and then the core of the hurricane, by then, will be moving on the coast very, very early, Thursday morning. Now the forecast can still do this, but we do have...
POTTER: It is a hurricane. They do that.
MAYFIELD: ... a hurricane watch out from Cameron, Louisiana over to Pascagoula, Mississippi.
POTTER: Now, as if that is not enough, there is Lili out there. What is it doing?
MAYFIELD: Lili is actually getting a little bit stronger, and the message here is that any time we have a strengthening tropical storm in the Caribbean, in the peak of the hurricane season, we need to watch it very carefully. On the projected path we have the Caribbean in a couple days time, we do have a tropical storm watch out for the southern coast of both Hispaniola and Haiti, and then we'll see whether it gets closer to eastern Cuba or stays down near Jamaica, the Malta (ph), kind of doing this to us right now, but we do have some time to watch that one.
POTTER: And somebody in Florida, or elsewhere, worrying about that, what you would tell them?
MAYFIELD: Just watch it very, very carefully. Again, that is the message you have any time you have something headed in our general direction.
POTTER: All right, Max, thank you very much for your time and best wishes to you.
MAYFIELD: Sure.
POTTER: And there is that other storm out there, it is Tropical Storm Kyle, but we are told that it is not a concern. It is way out in the Atlantic, and it not going to threaten anything -- Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Mark Potter, thanks so much,
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
