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American Morning

Snowstorms Create Danger for Oklahoma City Residents

Aired November 28, 2001 - 09:25   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're back to talk about the weather. Boy did Jack Frost pay a visit to Minnesota and then some. Central Minnesota is digging out today after a pre-winter storm dumped up to 30 inches of snow, and it is still snowing in some places. At times the snow fell at a rate of two to three inches per hour.

Now in the west, four days of snow is good and bad, bad for the driver of this sport utility vehicle but very good news for some ski resorts. And crews triggered their own avalanches, not here but I think in this next shot, to help guard against unexpected snow slides. There I think you'll see that in the background. We'll come back to -- ooh, this is tough work.

Well, you can build up your heart rate doing that, can't you, gentlemen?

That same snowstorm is being blamed for at least one death in Oklahoma. Parts of the Sooner State could get more snow and ice today. For more on that, let's quickly go to reporter Steve Voelker from our CNN affiliate KOCO in Oklahoma City.

You look cold.

STEVE VOELKER, KOCO-TV REPORTER: Yes, it's freezing here, Paula. Fortunately we haven't had 30 inches of snow, even 4 yet here in Metro Oklahoma City. But what we have had has certainly make roads treacherous.

As you can see behind me here, this is an overpass that this morning we've seen three spin outs on this particular overpass. You can see some of the buildup from some of the snow. We'll pan off to the right here and show you the rest of this street, and Oklahoma City trucks have been dumping salt throughout the night. You can see here comes a couple of blades and trucks right here. So they have been busy throughout the night to make sure the morning commute is not too bad.

They did a pretty successful job. Traffic's been moving along pretty good. However, there again is slick spots. There's areas where the road looks clear but then drivers will come along, some black ice and some stretches of ice that'll send them into the ditch, into the median. We have seen some of that this morning.

Let's just kind of come over here, Mark (ph), and show them the Lake Hefner (ph) Parkway. This is Lake Hefner Parkway through Oklahoma City. Oh about an hour ago there was five-car pileup on this particular highway as drivers tried to negotiate those slick spots. So you can see right now they're moving along all right, but if people have to suddenly stop or slow down, if they're on a slick spot, they're going to have a tough time. So there are accidents here. People trying to negotiate this storm. So far so good, though.

Reporting live in Oklahoma City, I'm Steve Voelker.

Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Thanks, Steve. I hope they let you come inside at some point today, and I think you're very lucky you didn't get what Minnesota got. Thank you, again, for your report. I hope people stay safe out there.

Of course as I check in with jack and Andy Serwer, comes to mind, you know it's -- I lived in Texas for a short period of time. Well not so short, four years. And it's always you get a little bit of snow and ice like that and it's so treacherous because people aren't using their --...

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

ZAHN: ... used to driving in those kinds of conditions.

CAFFERTY: People don't think about it either, but the southwest, Texas and Oklahoma, they get a lot of winter down there despite the fact that they're in the southern part of the geography of the country. It gets nasty.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Yes, and the municipalities don't spend any money on snowplows. See, that's the other thing, so they have no way of cleaning it up.

CAFFERTY: But that one in Minnesota with the guy stepping in the hole, he's got snow up to here.

ZAHN: It's a horrible job.

CAFFERTY: Snow sucks.

ZAHN: Someone's got to do it.

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