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American Morning

Tropical Storm Barry Pushing Its Way Through Alabama This Morning

Aired August 06, 2001 - 10:34   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical Storm Barry is pushing its way in wetly all the way through Alabama this morning, bringing some heavy rains and some flood warnings at least right now. Barry came ashore early today, at Santa Rosa Beach in the Florida Panhandle. Its winds were blowing just under hurricane strength. So far, no serious damage or injuries are reported. At its peak, the storm left 37,000 people on the panhandle without electricity, but repair crews have been working throughout this morning to restore the power. Leon:

Let's check in to see thing are in Alabama in morning, right now, which is heavily under the brunt of Barry right now. Let's go to Montgomery, Alabama. Anita Patterson is the director of Montgomery City and County Management.

And, Ms. Patterson, how are thing shaping up right now? It's got to be pretty heavy right now, isn't it?

ANITA PATTERSON, DIR., EMA: The rain is pretty heavy here and there's a wind here to about 30-some miles an hour. We are under a flood watch at this time. And that's what I am concerned about is the flooding. I expect that we will go under a flood warning, I would say by tomorrow some time, because it looks like it's going to continue this heavy rain throughout most of the week. So that's what we're concerned about now. We have not experienced any damage. We've had some power lines down, but not in great numbers.

HARRIS: Not extensively then.

PATTERSON: Not extensively at this time.

HARRIS: OK. Have you had a problem of people actually out and being stuck wherever they happen to be.

PATTERSON: I have not had reports of people being out and can not get to their destinations. However, I do know that it's pretty hectic out on 65, which is coming into Montgomery from the South. And so I know that there's some problems there.

HARRIS: Yes. What are you going to doing in the meantime between now and tomorrow, if you expect the flooding to really be a problem?

PATTERSON: We'll, we're going to be monitoring the situations and working with our maintenance department here in the city, to try to get prepared to take care of some of the flooding that may occur, with some sandbags, or whatever is necessary, and get the people that are in the areas that we know will flood, and make sure that they're alerted and that they will be able to leave, if necessary, before it gets too bad, because we don't want anybody driving in any water that's over the roadways, because that's obviously a very dangerous situation.

HARRIS: Yes, we see pictures on that almost every week or so, people trying to do that sort of thing.

PATTERSON: Right, exactly.

HARRIS: Anita Patterson, we wish you good luck. We've know you've got a little bit of work ahead of you in the next few hours. Good luck to you.

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