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Twister Tears Through Palm Beach County
Aired August 08, 2003 - 15:33 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: Some folks in Florida are picking up the pieces this afternoon from a powerful tornado. It flattened parts of northern Palm Beach County.
Dave Kartunen of CNN affiliate WSVN reports from Riviera Beach, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVE KARTUNEN, WSVN CORRESPONDENT: We're getting a better look now that day has broken.
This is the Pepsi plant in Riviera Beach, one of the hardest hit places in Palm Beach County when this tornado rolled through at around 5:13 Thursday afternoon. This is a piece of the roof that I picked up just next to our truck, just a couple of yards away, ostensibly about 100 or so feet from this plant. Please pieces of debris are all over here in this empty lot, including two tractor trailers. This one empty, waiting in line to go into the plant, knocked over on its side and another one just to its left deep into the canal that they're going to have to pull out.
We have some pictures from yesterday . The tornado, as told to us by the National Weather Service, touched down for about 27 minutes yesterday, knocking out power to about 21,000 homes. Only minor injuries reported. Thankfully, no one was killed in this tornado.
There was the threat of looting, and police in the area blocked off several side streets to make sure no one was getting in, not even residents. Hundreds of people closed off to their home; a trailer park was one of the hardest hit places as well. There were some reports of looting; there was some reports of some arrests, and the mayor of Riviera Beach has declared a state of emergency in his city.
Again, only minor injuries and no deaths reported at this time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: And thanks very much to our affiliate in Miami, WSVN, for that report.
Let's send it upstairs now to the Weather Center. Orelon Sidney, give us a sense of what happened and what might, in fact, lie ahead. There's been some rough weather there again today, hasn't there?
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's amazing to look at the radar. It's really lit up like a Christmas tree from the Florida Keys northward all the way into about Cape Cod.
This is what happened yesterday. We did have an area of thunderstorms move through, very indistinct on the radar and probably didn't look all that impressive on the radio velocity, which is what we sometimes use, of course, to show thunderstorms are rotating. These are very localized thunderstorms, but we did manage to get that storm cell moving through Riviera Beach yesterday, about this time -- actually, about 23 hours ago.
Now there is a new tornado warning. That is for West Palm Beach County, but it's out to the west, around Lake Okeechobee. The closest town there is a point is a Canal Point, in fact, population 525. That warning is in effect until the top of the hour.
And all the way up the coast, you continue with these thunderstorms. Any one of these could be potentially severe, but there are no tornado watches in effect. No severe thunderstorm watches either. These are very localized storms. Going to have to keep an eye on this really up the East Coast, probably throughout the evening -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Is -- so this is apparently part of some kind of pattern that's setting up, maybe?
SIDNEY: It's not typically a real pattern. It's a sense that you've got very humid air across the region. You do have a little bit of a boundary from some colder thunderstorms and colder air yesterday. And we also have daytime heating. That kicks up thunderstorms this time of year. Any one of those storms individually could be strong.
O'BRIEN: Orelon Sidney in the Weather Center, thank you.
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 August 8, 2003 - 15:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Some folks in Florida are picking up the pieces this afternoon from a powerful tornado. It flattened parts of northern Palm Beach County.
Dave Kartunen of CNN affiliate WSVN reports from Riviera Beach, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVE KARTUNEN, WSVN CORRESPONDENT: We're getting a better look now that day has broken.
This is the Pepsi plant in Riviera Beach, one of the hardest hit places in Palm Beach County when this tornado rolled through at around 5:13 Thursday afternoon. This is a piece of the roof that I picked up just next to our truck, just a couple of yards away, ostensibly about 100 or so feet from this plant. Please pieces of debris are all over here in this empty lot, including two tractor trailers. This one empty, waiting in line to go into the plant, knocked over on its side and another one just to its left deep into the canal that they're going to have to pull out.
We have some pictures from yesterday . The tornado, as told to us by the National Weather Service, touched down for about 27 minutes yesterday, knocking out power to about 21,000 homes. Only minor injuries reported. Thankfully, no one was killed in this tornado.
There was the threat of looting, and police in the area blocked off several side streets to make sure no one was getting in, not even residents. Hundreds of people closed off to their home; a trailer park was one of the hardest hit places as well. There were some reports of looting; there was some reports of some arrests, and the mayor of Riviera Beach has declared a state of emergency in his city.
Again, only minor injuries and no deaths reported at this time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: And thanks very much to our affiliate in Miami, WSVN, for that report.
Let's send it upstairs now to the Weather Center. Orelon Sidney, give us a sense of what happened and what might, in fact, lie ahead. There's been some rough weather there again today, hasn't there?
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's amazing to look at the radar. It's really lit up like a Christmas tree from the Florida Keys northward all the way into about Cape Cod.
This is what happened yesterday. We did have an area of thunderstorms move through, very indistinct on the radar and probably didn't look all that impressive on the radio velocity, which is what we sometimes use, of course, to show thunderstorms are rotating. These are very localized thunderstorms, but we did manage to get that storm cell moving through Riviera Beach yesterday, about this time -- actually, about 23 hours ago.
Now there is a new tornado warning. That is for West Palm Beach County, but it's out to the west, around Lake Okeechobee. The closest town there is a point is a Canal Point, in fact, population 525. That warning is in effect until the top of the hour.
And all the way up the coast, you continue with these thunderstorms. Any one of these could be potentially severe, but there are no tornado watches in effect. No severe thunderstorm watches either. These are very localized storms. Going to have to keep an eye on this really up the East Coast, probably throughout the evening -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Is -- so this is apparently part of some kind of pattern that's setting up, maybe?
SIDNEY: It's not typically a real pattern. It's a sense that you've got very humid air across the region. You do have a little bit of a boundary from some colder thunderstorms and colder air yesterday. And we also have daytime heating. That kicks up thunderstorms this time of year. Any one of those storms individually could be strong.
O'BRIEN: Orelon Sidney in the Weather Center, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
