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American Morning

Tornado Rips Through Wisconsin Town

Aired September 03, 2002 - 07:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get our attention now back on Wisconsin, the small town just devastated by a tornado yesterday. Some say it looks like a bomb has been dropped there, the words from one official.
A tornado ripped through the small town of Ladysmith yesterday, touched down with little or no warning, leveling homes and injuring dozens there.

Tim Sherno, KMSP, is on the scene in Ladysmith to tell us what he is seeing today.

Tim, good morning to you.

I guess with the sun up right now you can see again today the devastation there. How's it look?

TIM SHERNO, KMSP CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Bill.

As you said, it's severe. The main street that runs through town is Lake Avenue, also known as Highway 8. And the tornado pretty much followed that path. Some of the statistics from this tornado so far, we know that there are 43 people who have been confirmed as being hurt by the tornado, two serious enough to be airlifted to a hospital (AUDIO GAP)...

HEMMER: All right, our apologies there. Apparently we lost him.

Let's try and give it a second or see if Tim comes back.

Tim, are you still there?

Tim Sherno, a reporter there on the scene, KMSP in the town of Ladysmith, Wisconsin, as we continue to track that from yesterday.

Is he gone?

All right, our apologies to our viewers. Sorry about that. But tough.

I mean you can see from the videotape there that small town with no warning the amount of devastation that came in through there. Dozens have been injured. No one killed.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: That is amazing to me.

HEMMER: Yes. ZAHN: I mean you look at the pictures and see the devastation it wrought, it is extraordinary that no one was killed.

HEMMER: Yes, and we, you know, we mentioned, it's near Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I don't know if many of our viewers are familiar with that town there or not, but Ladysmith has not been on our map for very long. But it was as of yesterday at four o'clock in the afternoon.

Tim, you're back now, pal.

Sorry we lost you there.

Continue with your report, please.

SHERNO: That's OK.

HEMMER: We're looking at some of the devastation here. More facts as you know it today, or what?

SHERNO: OK, well, I'll tell you, as you drive up to a small town you'll always see the sign on the outskirts of town that lists the population. The sign on Ladysmith says 3,932 people. The sheriff's department went door to door yesterday, as they will again today, to check door to door to make sure that every single one of the people, the residents, are accounted for.

As I said, 43 hurt, two airlifted, no word on their conditions so far. Phone service knocked out. Power knocked out. Crews are working right now to restore power, hopefully to the western side of town, as soon as possible. Wisconsin Governor Scott McCallum declaring this a disaster area already. Sixty homes destroyed.

This basically plowed straight down main street, destroyed, as we're told, destroyed as many as 50 percent of the businesses here this morning. And people are beginning to turn up to volunteers.

You may recall last year Siren, Wisconsin, just a short drive away, the folks in this town helping out that town. We were told by the sheriff this morning that the folks in Siren were the very first people on the phone to Ladysmith, Wisconsin offering anything that they could do to help them as they begin the rebuilding process that will start this morning on, after, following what could be called the Labor Day tornado.

Also, I might note that there were two festivals outside of town that drew many of the residents outside of town and it seems out of harm's way. The sheriff said he thinks it's a miracle that no one was killed in this tornado -- Bill.

HEMMER: It could have been a life saver.

Thank you, Tim.

And thanks for hanging in there, too.

The town of 3,900, no one dead from that tornado yesterday.

Appreciate the report, Tim.

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