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Tornado Warnings For Ga., S. Carolina; Funnels Spotted
Aired May 06, 2003 - 15:01 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 WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, new storm warnings have been posted for some of the same areas battered by heavy rains last night and by those deadly tornadoes the night before. The cleanup and recovery operation just getting under way in places like Pierce City, Missouri and Jackson, Tennessee, where entire city blocks were wiped out by the storm.
The death toll now stands at 38 across three states, and as many as a dozen more are listed as missing. Federal emergency officials have arrived in the area. They are expected to declare disaster areas in multiple counties across several states.
Well, our Jacqui Jeras is keeping an eye on all the storms and she joins us now live from the CNN Weather Center -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Judy, I was noticing in one of those live pictures you just saw some clouds. They look like little pillows, kind of little curled looking pillows. Not that one. It was the other one. We call them mamaxus clouds. And there you can see a little bit of them. They're just -- if we can pan the other way. They were on the right-hand side of the screen there. But they're sign of a very -- quite a bit of turbulence in the upper atmosphere. So we could get a lot of mixing taking place and some very strong winds that come out of these thunderstorms.
Now most of the warnings, the one you see right there for Gwinnett County, just expired at the top of the hour. And as of this time, we just have Abbyville County, which is in upstate parts of South Carolina. It's just to the southeast of Interstate 85, which is a very well traveled interstate that moves from the Atlanta area on towards Anderson, South Carolina.
There you can see it here on our radar picture. And these storms continue to move due east around 45 miles per hour. So they're very, very quick moving thunderstorms, and we just have a brand new tornado watch, which is going to include parts of South Carolina, that will go on until 8:00 local time. So we're watching the progression of these storms pulling off to the east. And there have been some signs in northern, especially northwestern suburbs of Atlanta that things are starting to weaken a little bit. But still some development into Alabama and we'll continue to see this be a very serious situation throughout the afternoon.
Also keeping an eye from Kansas City down towards Joplin into northwestern parts of Arkansas. The same areas that got hit very, very hard on Sunday, Judy, could very likely be hit hard again this afternoon.
WOODRUFF: All right. Well, Jacqui Jeras, we're going to be coming back to you regularly because there's so many different places to keep track of.
JERAS: Right.
WOODRUFF: Thank you very 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 May 6, 2003 - 15:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, new storm warnings have been posted for some of the same areas battered by heavy rains last night and by those deadly tornadoes the night before. The cleanup and recovery operation just getting under way in places like Pierce City, Missouri and Jackson, Tennessee, where entire city blocks were wiped out by the storm.
The death toll now stands at 38 across three states, and as many as a dozen more are listed as missing. Federal emergency officials have arrived in the area. They are expected to declare disaster areas in multiple counties across several states.
Well, our Jacqui Jeras is keeping an eye on all the storms and she joins us now live from the CNN Weather Center -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Judy, I was noticing in one of those live pictures you just saw some clouds. They look like little pillows, kind of little curled looking pillows. Not that one. It was the other one. We call them mamaxus clouds. And there you can see a little bit of them. They're just -- if we can pan the other way. They were on the right-hand side of the screen there. But they're sign of a very -- quite a bit of turbulence in the upper atmosphere. So we could get a lot of mixing taking place and some very strong winds that come out of these thunderstorms.
Now most of the warnings, the one you see right there for Gwinnett County, just expired at the top of the hour. And as of this time, we just have Abbyville County, which is in upstate parts of South Carolina. It's just to the southeast of Interstate 85, which is a very well traveled interstate that moves from the Atlanta area on towards Anderson, South Carolina.
There you can see it here on our radar picture. And these storms continue to move due east around 45 miles per hour. So they're very, very quick moving thunderstorms, and we just have a brand new tornado watch, which is going to include parts of South Carolina, that will go on until 8:00 local time. So we're watching the progression of these storms pulling off to the east. And there have been some signs in northern, especially northwestern suburbs of Atlanta that things are starting to weaken a little bit. But still some development into Alabama and we'll continue to see this be a very serious situation throughout the afternoon.
Also keeping an eye from Kansas City down towards Joplin into northwestern parts of Arkansas. The same areas that got hit very, very hard on Sunday, Judy, could very likely be hit hard again this afternoon.
WOODRUFF: All right. Well, Jacqui Jeras, we're going to be coming back to you regularly because there's so many different places to keep track of.
JERAS: Right.
WOODRUFF: Thank you very 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
