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Interview With Mike Satterfield, Emergency Director, Hall County, Ga.
Aired May 06, 2003 - 14:53 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us on the line right now is Mike Satterfield, who is with the Hall County Fire Department, the chief of that department.
Chief Satterfield, tell us what you know and tell us how the kids are.
MIKE SATTERFIELD, EMER. DIR., HALL CO., GA.: So far, we've managed to go without any significant damage or injuries.
But about 1:15 this afternoon, we had a storm to enter our county. A tornado was indicated on radar. We do not feel like we had a touchdown, but we had a tremendous thunderstorm that came through. Very high winds. Tremendous amount of rain. Hail was associated with that in several different parts of our county. We did have a lot of trees that were blown down and uprooted, power lines down, some of our streets were blocked because of these power lines and trees down. We had some of our students -- one of our -- in fact, two of our middle schools, we had to go to where we actually had children who were hysterical, became ill, hyperventilating, things of that nature.
As you know, our history here, we've had some severe tornadoes to come through our county in years past. And some of these students and children have experienced that. So when our tornado sirens go off, they become hysterical very quickly and in some cases uncontrollable. And so while we didn't have a storm, just the mere threat of it and the presence of this severe thunderstorm has created a big problem for us.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Now are you advising the schools to keep the children inside the confines of the school until this passes?
SATTERFIELD: We did, and of course that storm has passed for the most part. It has traveled -- traveling now a new storm to the south of our county.
Of course, the storms that are hitting in South Carolina and into the eastern part of Georgia is the storm that came through our area earlier. And it does pack a punch. So I'm sure those counties are now experiencing those same kind of effects that we had here.
O'BRIEN: All right. Mike Satterfield. Hopefully the worst of it over for you in Hall County, Georgia. Thanks very much for your time. I know you're rather busy at the moment.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
County, Ga.>
Aired May 6, 2003 - 14:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us on the line right now is Mike Satterfield, who is with the Hall County Fire Department, the chief of that department.
Chief Satterfield, tell us what you know and tell us how the kids are.
MIKE SATTERFIELD, EMER. DIR., HALL CO., GA.: So far, we've managed to go without any significant damage or injuries.
But about 1:15 this afternoon, we had a storm to enter our county. A tornado was indicated on radar. We do not feel like we had a touchdown, but we had a tremendous thunderstorm that came through. Very high winds. Tremendous amount of rain. Hail was associated with that in several different parts of our county. We did have a lot of trees that were blown down and uprooted, power lines down, some of our streets were blocked because of these power lines and trees down. We had some of our students -- one of our -- in fact, two of our middle schools, we had to go to where we actually had children who were hysterical, became ill, hyperventilating, things of that nature.
As you know, our history here, we've had some severe tornadoes to come through our county in years past. And some of these students and children have experienced that. So when our tornado sirens go off, they become hysterical very quickly and in some cases uncontrollable. And so while we didn't have a storm, just the mere threat of it and the presence of this severe thunderstorm has created a big problem for us.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Now are you advising the schools to keep the children inside the confines of the school until this passes?
SATTERFIELD: We did, and of course that storm has passed for the most part. It has traveled -- traveling now a new storm to the south of our county.
Of course, the storms that are hitting in South Carolina and into the eastern part of Georgia is the storm that came through our area earlier. And it does pack a punch. So I'm sure those counties are now experiencing those same kind of effects that we had here.
O'BRIEN: All right. Mike Satterfield. Hopefully the worst of it over for you in Hall County, Georgia. Thanks very much for your time. I know you're rather busy at the moment.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
County, Ga.>
