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American Morning

Texas Recovering From Massive Tropical Storm

Aired June 12, 2001 - 10:19   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: Parts of Texas are recovering from their brush with Tropical Storm Allison. Heavy rain caused major flooding, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes. Our national correspondent Brian Cabell joining us from Houston with the latest -- Brian, still a lot more to clean up, I imagine?

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is an awful lot to clean up. In fact, it's been more than three days since the worst of the floods came through here and life really isn't getting much better. On Friday night, there was literally a wall of 10 to 15 feet high that came from the bayous or the Greens Bayou right over here, about 100 yards away, and this is what is left of a subdivision, not an awful lot.

The homes are uninhabitable. There's washing machines out in the street. People are not living here. There's no plumbing. There's no electricity, no phone service. We're not going to have people living here any time soon. Now, one of the residents is with us here right now. His name is Chuck Burns. He lives in this home that is now sitting out in the middle of the street, as a matter of fact. Chuck, where were you on Friday night?

CHUCK BURNS, FLOOD VICTIM: Swimming.

CABELL: Swimming?

BURNS: Yes. I can't really say a whole lot except we were trying to get out. That's all I can say.

CABELL: You had a dog inside here as well, right?

BURNS: Yes, I did.

CABELL: Now, what happened to him?

BURNS: He's no longer alive.

CABELL: Did you try to get him out or what happened?

BURNS: No, because when I left we didn't think it was going to get as high as it did. So we put him inside. When we left, we thought that the water would maybe get in the trailer, but we didn't know it was going to go over the trailer and move the trailer. So when we came back, whenever we could get here, the dog was inside. It wasn't alive.

CABELL: Were you able to salvage anything inside your trailer?

BURNS: Nothing. Nothing. Not anything.

CABELL: You have insurance?

BURNS: Yes. Yeah, I do have the insurance.

CABELL: Have they shown up yet?

BURNS: Nope, they haven't.

CABELL: What about FEMA?

BURNS: Nothing.

CABELL: Red Cross?

BURNS: Nothing.

CABELL: This seems to be the worst hit area of Houston as far as we can see. Are you surprised that more officials haven't been out here?

BURNS: We got a little bit of help as far as like water and stuff like that. But as far as any other kind of help, nothing.

CABELL: What are you going to do?

BURNS: I'm just going to wait, let everybody get all their other stuff over with and then I'll come in from behind.

CABELL: You're going to have to move this out of the road, aren't you?

BURNS: Somebody's going to have to. I can't pay for it.

CABELL: Are you going to stay living here?

BURNS: No.

CABELL: Where are you going from here?

BURNS: Probably to relatives or friends, you know, just for a little while until we can get everything sorted out.

CABELL: How are you doing emotionally? This is kind of a tough time for you, isn't it?

BURNS: No.

CABELL: Why not?

BURNS: Well, I'm just not like that. I'm alive, that's all that matters. CABELL: Thank you very much.

That's Chuck Burns, one of the survivors. Fortunately, everybody was a survivor here except for a few dogs. But as you can see, the devastation is almost total in this subdivision.

I'm Brian Cabell, CNN, live in Houston.

KAGAN: Brian, thank you.

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