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American Morning

Powerful Weather in the Midwest

Aired May 21, 2001 - 11:06   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: Parts of the Midwest have a lot of cleaning up to do after getting pounded by violent weather. A fast moving storm packing high winds, heavy rain and snow blew across Colorado yesterday. More than 30,000 people lost power. The bad weather caused major flight delays at Denver International Airport. Tornadoes skipped across parts of Oklahoma and in eastern Oklahoma one of the storms blew over this truck and damaged storage sheds in Macintosh County.

Several homes and schools were damaged in a neighboring county. At least four tornadoes touched down and northwestern and central Kansas. The high winds damaged a farm, but there's no word yet of any injuries.

Well, the start of this year's Atlantic hurricane season is just days away and if experts are on target, it will be a normal season with fewer storms than the last three years. That's good news. CNN's Patty Davis joins us now from Reagan National Airport in Washington -- hi, Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

I have one of the planes behind me. This is the WP3 that actually flies into a hurricane. You know, and it's interesting to note that this is the sister to the EP-3. That is the plane that went down to the Chinese air force base and, in fact, is still on that base in China. Those 24 crewmen and women held last month for over a week.

Now, this is not a surveillance plane. This is a weather plane, not a spy plane. Actually flies into the hurricane itself, into the eye over and over. They make passes about every two hours when a hurricane is taking place.

Now, we're joined by Brigadier General Jack Kelly. Now, you have to admit that this is a pretty risky flight there. Have you ever lost a plane?

BRIG. GEN. JACK KELLY, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Actually, in the '50s we lost a navy plane that was penetrating a hurricane in the Caribbean and in the '70s the air force lost three WC130s. But since the '70s we've not lost any aircraft.

DAVIS: Now, tell us about your forecast. The 2001 forecast is out today. What are we expecting in terms of hurricane activity specifically on the hurricane front?

KELLY: We expect a normal season and by normal I mean about 10 tropical storms will develop. Six will turn into hurricanes and two will be in the major category. But the key thing to remember is we ought not to focus on numbers. It'll just take one hurricane to hit the city you live in to complicate your life.

DAVIS: So you're telling people to be focused on what? What's the message here today?

KELLY: Be ready for the possibility of a tropical storm or a hurricane making land fall if you live along the Gulf Coast or the East Atlantic coast of the United States.

DAVIS: All right, now what's changed this year is there is no la nina, no el nino and the weather patterns have changed, therefore making it more normal activity. This is Hurricane Awareness Week, hurricane season starting June 1st and going all the way through November 30th -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, Patty Davis, thanks so much.

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