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More Bad Weather Expected for Areas Hit by Tornadoes

Aired May 07, 2003 - 14:33   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: Digging out and vowing to rebuild. We're seeing this in town after town that had been touched by the tornadoes as they have swept through.
CNN's David Mattingly is in hard-hit Pierce City, Missouri. Jennifer Coggiola is in Jackson, Tennessee. Let's start -- we should go ladies first, but it's not my choice. Are we going to start with Jennifer? What are we going to do? I'm sorry. We have to go to David first, but that's not my choice, OK, David? I'm sorry, I thought we were going to go to Jennifer first.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, you weren't my first choice either.

O'BRIEN: Take it away, David.

MATTINGLY: Just kidding. Just kidding.

The people who survived this tornado caught in its path say when it came down Main Street here, it only took about 30 seconds. It tore down the street and literally tore up every single building on it. Well, today you can see what kind of progress is being made, and how slow it's going to clean all of this up.

It's taken all day so far to clean up about half of the street. The bulldozers, funded by all the money that is coming from federal disaster relief right now are cleaning up all the piles of debris that were on the side of the road, loading them up, and shipping them out of here so people can actually get back in to some of this property and start going through their belongings.

And just take a look at what's inside some of these buildings. This is one of those old buildings that people are so heartbroken to see torn up, this part of the town more than a century old.

Very much a tourist attraction with all the stores that they had put in here, and now there is talk that almost all of these buildings may have to be torn down. They were just too old. The storm was just too strong for them to survive, and now they're just so structurally weak, they're worried that if any more severe weather comes through here, that the winds might actually blow these down before there is a chance to even demolish them.

Right now, folks are just hoping they have enough time to get inside and claim whatever they can of their belongings to get out of here right now. And right now, the city council here has found out it's going to be up to them to ultimately decide which buildings stay up, which ones go down, and they're going to be relying very heavily on professional engineers to tell them which buildings can be saved.

It's so serious right now that they're looking at salvaging just small parts of these buildings, the architectural things that make them unique, and maybe incorporate that into new construction in the future, so they're trying to save whatever they can to keep that old- time look, and that old-time feel to this town that they have turned into such a successful economic base for them -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. CNN's David Mattingly, joining us from Pierce City, Missouri.

Now let's cast our focus on Jackson, Tennessee. Jennifer Coggiola is there, and the attempt to pick up the pieces, I guess, is made more urgent by the fact that there is more bad weather headed your direction. That just -- it almost -- it has got to be really depressing, I guess, for the people there.

JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, and this morning we caught a glimpse of it. There was incredibly heavy rain throughout most of the evening and this morning, so when we got up, all recovery and clean-up basically had to halt until that was done. Since about 11:00 this morning, we've actually had clear skies.

It's incredibly hot, though, which is not good news for those 12,000 residents without any power or air conditioning.

But like you said, we are expected to see rain up through the weekend, so flooding and additional water damage is a big concern.

For residents here, the conditions are improving a bit, though, they do have clean, running water, which is, of course, the most important.

Also, the sewer system is back up. Phones are not up yet, but according to the Red Cross, there are about -- more than 2,000 families that are still needing assistance, including food and shelter.

I spoke with Suzanne Hogan from the Red Cross, who told us that it could be quite a while before residents here begin to get their life back to normal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE HOGAN, RED CROSS: We're at the very beginning stages of this operation. Additional resources, obviously, will be rolling in all through the week. We expect this will be a long-term operation. This is the second time this community has been hit in three years. So, most certainly, it's a little bit more traumatizing to those folks who have been affected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COGGIOLA: Suzanne told us also it was just the beginning of the storm season, so if these tornadoes are any indication, residents here could be bracing for a very difficult summer -- Miles. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. CNN's Jennifer Coggiola joining us from Jackson, Tennessee.

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 7, 2003 - 14:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Digging out and vowing to rebuild. We're seeing this in town after town that had been touched by the tornadoes as they have swept through.
CNN's David Mattingly is in hard-hit Pierce City, Missouri. Jennifer Coggiola is in Jackson, Tennessee. Let's start -- we should go ladies first, but it's not my choice. Are we going to start with Jennifer? What are we going to do? I'm sorry. We have to go to David first, but that's not my choice, OK, David? I'm sorry, I thought we were going to go to Jennifer first.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, you weren't my first choice either.

O'BRIEN: Take it away, David.

MATTINGLY: Just kidding. Just kidding.

The people who survived this tornado caught in its path say when it came down Main Street here, it only took about 30 seconds. It tore down the street and literally tore up every single building on it. Well, today you can see what kind of progress is being made, and how slow it's going to clean all of this up.

It's taken all day so far to clean up about half of the street. The bulldozers, funded by all the money that is coming from federal disaster relief right now are cleaning up all the piles of debris that were on the side of the road, loading them up, and shipping them out of here so people can actually get back in to some of this property and start going through their belongings.

And just take a look at what's inside some of these buildings. This is one of those old buildings that people are so heartbroken to see torn up, this part of the town more than a century old.

Very much a tourist attraction with all the stores that they had put in here, and now there is talk that almost all of these buildings may have to be torn down. They were just too old. The storm was just too strong for them to survive, and now they're just so structurally weak, they're worried that if any more severe weather comes through here, that the winds might actually blow these down before there is a chance to even demolish them.

Right now, folks are just hoping they have enough time to get inside and claim whatever they can of their belongings to get out of here right now. And right now, the city council here has found out it's going to be up to them to ultimately decide which buildings stay up, which ones go down, and they're going to be relying very heavily on professional engineers to tell them which buildings can be saved.

It's so serious right now that they're looking at salvaging just small parts of these buildings, the architectural things that make them unique, and maybe incorporate that into new construction in the future, so they're trying to save whatever they can to keep that old- time look, and that old-time feel to this town that they have turned into such a successful economic base for them -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. CNN's David Mattingly, joining us from Pierce City, Missouri.

Now let's cast our focus on Jackson, Tennessee. Jennifer Coggiola is there, and the attempt to pick up the pieces, I guess, is made more urgent by the fact that there is more bad weather headed your direction. That just -- it almost -- it has got to be really depressing, I guess, for the people there.

JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, and this morning we caught a glimpse of it. There was incredibly heavy rain throughout most of the evening and this morning, so when we got up, all recovery and clean-up basically had to halt until that was done. Since about 11:00 this morning, we've actually had clear skies.

It's incredibly hot, though, which is not good news for those 12,000 residents without any power or air conditioning.

But like you said, we are expected to see rain up through the weekend, so flooding and additional water damage is a big concern.

For residents here, the conditions are improving a bit, though, they do have clean, running water, which is, of course, the most important.

Also, the sewer system is back up. Phones are not up yet, but according to the Red Cross, there are about -- more than 2,000 families that are still needing assistance, including food and shelter.

I spoke with Suzanne Hogan from the Red Cross, who told us that it could be quite a while before residents here begin to get their life back to normal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE HOGAN, RED CROSS: We're at the very beginning stages of this operation. Additional resources, obviously, will be rolling in all through the week. We expect this will be a long-term operation. This is the second time this community has been hit in three years. So, most certainly, it's a little bit more traumatizing to those folks who have been affected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COGGIOLA: Suzanne told us also it was just the beginning of the storm season, so if these tornadoes are any indication, residents here could be bracing for a very difficult summer -- Miles. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. CNN's Jennifer Coggiola joining us from Jackson, Tennessee.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com