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American Morning

Ellicott, Colorado Recovers Following Major Storm

Aired May 29, 2001 - 11:04   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We head now to fires burning out of control in the West. The town of Ellicott, Colorado, it's coping with a disaster.

Actually, we'll get to the fires in a moment. We are talking tornadoes now. A tornado swept through Ellicott, Colorado last night, injuring at least 19 people. Fierce winds smashed mobile homes, damaged a school and knocked out power to the area.

Reporter Greg Nieto, with our affiliate KWGN, joining us from the Ellicott with the latest.

Greg, we've seen a lot of things from Colorado. Tornadoes is not what we usually see from your state there.

GREG NIETO, KWGN REPORTER: I will tell you what, it's been definitely a madness in the month of May, when you consider a lot of the storms that we have had, and now this tornado that touched down here in this area, about 15 miles east of Colorado Springs.

You know, ordinarily when you talk about a tornado, the symbol is usually a lot of the homes. In this case, the symbol is that roof directly behind me in the distance. It almost looks like an aluminum can, or, if you didn't know any better, a downed plane. It is a roof that is a symbol of this particular tornado. And if you follow the trail of that roof, you will you see that it will lead you to, of all places, the local high school here in the area.

It's a roof that was shattered and completely thrown off from yesterday's tornado. And like with any other tornado, it kind of chooses and picks and chooses what it wants to hit and what it wants to release. And it hit that high school, but it leaves these other homes completely untouched. I want to take you back to yesterday, some video from directly really right after this tornado touched down here late yesterday afternoon, local time.

We are talking about the town of Ellicott, which, again, is about 15 miles east of Colorado Springs. It is a town that really only houses some 6,100 people. Now, the good news to report here is that nobody was killed. Once again, you had mentioned some 19 people have been injured -- the most serious, an individual with a broken leg.

The American Red Cross is telling us some nine homes were severely damaged. That is the worst news of all -- but best news, obviously, that nobody was killed, considering an area here that really is susceptible to some bad weather at times, not necessarily in the month of May. But they are no stranger to massive flooding here in this area, kind of a flat-range region, area -- once again, about 55 miles southeast of the Denver.

If you come back out here, you can see still more of the wreckage out here -- the big concern now for local authorities here are a number of propane tanks that they are finding in the area. The big concern now is to try to drain those tanks, because the big concern remains that there is the possibility that some of those tanks could still explode here in the area.

They evacuated about 34 people from this area here. Most of those have since gone back to their homes. About four or five still remain in local Red Cross shelters. But, again, the good news here: Nobody was killed, especially when you consider some of the damage that is around us.

We are live this morning here in El Paso Country Colorado -- Greg Nieto -- back to you in Atlanta.

KAGAN: Greg, thanks a lot for sharing the story and the pictures as well.

NIETO: You're welcome.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Another person that has been following the conditions, all the severe weather and the tornadoes: our Chad Myers.

KAGAN: Hi, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you are watching, of course, around the globe.

You have a strange situation in Colorado. And I heard you guys talking to the reporter about: You don't expect storms in Colorado.

But when you have winds blowing up the slope -- obviously, lower elevations here in Kansas, higher elevations, mountains in Colorado -- when that wind blows up the slope, that's just like a cold front taking that moisture and pushing it like a bulldozer. When the air gets pushed like a bulldozer, those puffy clouds get pushed up into the air.

There's no bulldozers out here, but there's that mountain going up. So when you take the wind and you blow it up slope, it's just like having a cold front. And that's why the storms fired yesterday. And, in fact, they're still rolling. Now, there's no tornadoes in here anymore -- not even any severe thunderstorm warnings going on.

But, later today, guess what? Although the storms are going this way, when they get up in the atmosphere, they get in the jet stream. The jet stream is going this way. Later today, the storm is going to refire again, because the winds are going to blowing back up the slope. We have the same chance of the same severe weather in the same places, from Denver all the way down to Amarillo, as the wind blows up the slope -- low-pressure system developing here.

Here is the problem: winds going this way, going this way, and then there they go, back up the wrong way. It's what happens the same time in the wintertime. You get a lot of snow in the mountains. In the springtime, you get quite a bit of severe weather.

We will keep watching it for you -- no watches in effect right now. But when the sun comes up and starts to heat stuff up, I am sure we will get some later today.

More on that a little bit later -- back to you guys.

KAGAN: Chad, thank you.

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