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American Morning

Heavy Rains Drench South

Aired June 08, 2001 - 11:09   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.
CHAD MEYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yesterday, we talked to some guys in New Orleans. Today, I want to take you to Houston.

Chuck George from our affiliate KPRC joins us now.

Chuck, you guys probably haven't been sleeping for the past 36 or 48 hours, and you're still getting rainfall. What's it like there?

CHUCK GEORGE, KPRC METEOROLOGIST: It has been a long 48 hours, Chad, you've got that right.

As you've said, that thing just keeps moving back and forth. When Tropical Storm Allison formed just a couple of days, we thought, hey, it's going to move in. When it formed so quickly, we had no warning. We thought it will move inland and everything will be OK because it's so weak.

Well, it moved inland, but then it came back for another visit yesterday. On our southwest side, Chad -- you and I were talking about this a little bit ago -- our southwestern suburb is called Sugarland, and they have had incredible amounts of rain. These totals that you're looking at are really two day totals, but Chad, most of this fell within four hours yesterday morning.

Sugarland, on the southwest side, had 11 inches of rain. In general, across the metro area, Bush Intercontinental Airport, up to the north, has between eight and 11 inches of rain, depending upon where you measure it at the airport. Between five and seven inches in downtown so far. Pasadena is a southeastern suburb; it's had 10 inches of rain. Friendswood, down on the southeast side, a foot of rain.

Chad, you and I were also talking about that area of low pressure and what will happen to it over the weekend. I think I agree with you. This thing is dropping to the south to around Corpus Christi. Once it gets there, if it forms another area of low pressure in the gulf, we could see it reintensify, which would not be good news for us this weekend.

MEYERS: Chuck, our Orelon Sidney worked in Houston, Texas, a very long time, and she told me yesterday that when it rains, there are very few places for that water to go. It just comes up.

GEORGE: Yes, our drainage system is made for about a 25-year storm, instead of a 50-year storm, like we've been having the past couple of days.

MEYERS: And you guys are seeing more rainfall, obviously, coming in. We showed you the radar a second ago. I'm sure you guys are watching on your local Doppler, as well.

GEORGE: We sure are, and as a matter of fact, if we could, we'll take a quick look at our local Doppler and show you.

MEYERS: Sure, go right ahead.

GEORGE: All of this stuff over toward Beaumont and Port Arthur -- that line of storms was in our metro area this morning, which would have been horrible news if it moved right over the city of Houston, but fortunately for us, it shifted on off to the east.

MEYERS: Those folks over near Sabine Pass and Port Arthur are just getting hammered this afternoon, just inches and inches of rain on training storms. That's what you guys really had yesterday. The storm's not moving. Inches and inches of rain, hour after hour after hour.

GEORGE: About three inches of rain per hour at its peek, and it lasted for almost four hours in Sugarland.

MEYERS: Chuck, thank you very much for your time today.

GEORGE: You bet, Chad.

MEYERS: I'm sure all the folks there will be watching you all afternoon long.

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