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American Morning

Lili Makes Landfall

Aired October 03, 2002 - 08:35   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.


BILL HEMMER, ANCHOR: We heard from the National Hurricane Center. About every three hours, they put out new coordinates and new numbers, and Max Mayfield was detailing what he has right now, about 30 minutes ago. Mark Potter, too, standing by down there to gauge reaction and pick up more on what's being talked about.
Mark, good morning.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Perhaps the man you just referred to, Max Mayfield, is the one who said it best, in his words, we are so lucky, I hope people know how lucky they are. He, of course, is talking about the downgrading of Hurricane Lili, which last night was a very dangerous category 4 with winds of 145 miles an hour. It has been diminished, downgraded to a category 2 with winds of about 100 miles an hour. And they are expected to continue to weaken.

Right now, according to Max Mayfield, the storm has made landfall in an area called Marsh Island. It's a wildlife refuge in central Louisiana in an area called Vermilion Bay. That's south of Lafayette and New Iberia. This is still considered a major storm. The biggest concern is a 10-14-foot storm surge in the Vermilion Bay area, but it won't be nearly as bad as predicted last night. They also are fearing heavy rains and tornadoes. Why did the storm blow up overnight and just as quickly diminish? Hurricane forecasters say they don't know why it became a category 4 last night, but their best guess right now as to why it diminished is dry air came in from the west, it mingled with the storm and helped to weaken it.

Bill, back to you.

POTTER: Mark, thanks. Mark Potter in Miami. We'll be back in touch, Mark. Appreciate it.

Back to Louisiana in Morgan City. We're joined by the city's mayor right now. Tim Tregle is with us.

Good morning.

MYR. TIM TREGLE, MORGAN CITY, LOUISIANA: Good morning.

POTTER: What are you hearing, what are you seeing right now regarding damage?

TREGLE: We have quite a few power poles down and trees , and just during the time we were setting up for this camera shot, the wind has gotten a little worse.

POTTER: Which direction are you feeling the wind now?

TREGLE: It feels like it's coming from the southeast at this moment.

POTTER: And that will shift throughout the morning as the storm gets closer, correct?

TREGLE: Yes, sir.

POTTER: What are you hearing about evacuations? How seriously were they taken?

TREGLE: I believe that the citizens took it very serious. We had a steady stream of people leaving all day yesterday and we're very happy that they responded to that and, of course, the folks that stayed have been very cooperative with city personnel in doing their duties.

HEMMER: If you look at the map, sir, just west of you is where Max Mayfield says essentially the storm is coming on shore. Since you are just east of there, you are in that upper right hand quadrant, where the winds tend to be the highest and the most dangerous. Have you thought about that?

TREGLE: We were very concerned about that. And just left riverfront before I came here and the river has surged to about 3 1/2 feet, which is well below what we were worried about. So far, so good. We are very pleased that the storm downgraded and has spared us that tremendous storm surge.

HEMMER: So far, it has. Two storms in a week, what did you do differently with Lili as opposed to Isidore a week ago?

TREGLE: Well, we did a lot more preparations for this storm, because we knew we would bear the brunt of it. And we closed our flood gates earlier, and have citizens, have sandbags that were available. And so we were taking this one more like an Andrew preparation.

HEMMER: Listen, good luck. Hang in there. I can see some gusts behind you. Hopefully, it won't get too precarious in Morgan City.

Mayor Tim Tregle, good luck to you.

TREGLE: We thank you for all of the people's support, and prayers and best wishes. Thank you very much.

HEMMER: Sounds good. Thank you good.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 3, 2002 - 08:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, ANCHOR: We heard from the National Hurricane Center. About every three hours, they put out new coordinates and new numbers, and Max Mayfield was detailing what he has right now, about 30 minutes ago. Mark Potter, too, standing by down there to gauge reaction and pick up more on what's being talked about.
Mark, good morning.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Perhaps the man you just referred to, Max Mayfield, is the one who said it best, in his words, we are so lucky, I hope people know how lucky they are. He, of course, is talking about the downgrading of Hurricane Lili, which last night was a very dangerous category 4 with winds of 145 miles an hour. It has been diminished, downgraded to a category 2 with winds of about 100 miles an hour. And they are expected to continue to weaken.

Right now, according to Max Mayfield, the storm has made landfall in an area called Marsh Island. It's a wildlife refuge in central Louisiana in an area called Vermilion Bay. That's south of Lafayette and New Iberia. This is still considered a major storm. The biggest concern is a 10-14-foot storm surge in the Vermilion Bay area, but it won't be nearly as bad as predicted last night. They also are fearing heavy rains and tornadoes. Why did the storm blow up overnight and just as quickly diminish? Hurricane forecasters say they don't know why it became a category 4 last night, but their best guess right now as to why it diminished is dry air came in from the west, it mingled with the storm and helped to weaken it.

Bill, back to you.

POTTER: Mark, thanks. Mark Potter in Miami. We'll be back in touch, Mark. Appreciate it.

Back to Louisiana in Morgan City. We're joined by the city's mayor right now. Tim Tregle is with us.

Good morning.

MYR. TIM TREGLE, MORGAN CITY, LOUISIANA: Good morning.

POTTER: What are you hearing, what are you seeing right now regarding damage?

TREGLE: We have quite a few power poles down and trees , and just during the time we were setting up for this camera shot, the wind has gotten a little worse.

POTTER: Which direction are you feeling the wind now?

TREGLE: It feels like it's coming from the southeast at this moment.

POTTER: And that will shift throughout the morning as the storm gets closer, correct?

TREGLE: Yes, sir.

POTTER: What are you hearing about evacuations? How seriously were they taken?

TREGLE: I believe that the citizens took it very serious. We had a steady stream of people leaving all day yesterday and we're very happy that they responded to that and, of course, the folks that stayed have been very cooperative with city personnel in doing their duties.

HEMMER: If you look at the map, sir, just west of you is where Max Mayfield says essentially the storm is coming on shore. Since you are just east of there, you are in that upper right hand quadrant, where the winds tend to be the highest and the most dangerous. Have you thought about that?

TREGLE: We were very concerned about that. And just left riverfront before I came here and the river has surged to about 3 1/2 feet, which is well below what we were worried about. So far, so good. We are very pleased that the storm downgraded and has spared us that tremendous storm surge.

HEMMER: So far, it has. Two storms in a week, what did you do differently with Lili as opposed to Isidore a week ago?

TREGLE: Well, we did a lot more preparations for this storm, because we knew we would bear the brunt of it. And we closed our flood gates earlier, and have citizens, have sandbags that were available. And so we were taking this one more like an Andrew preparation.

HEMMER: Listen, good luck. Hang in there. I can see some gusts behind you. Hopefully, it won't get too precarious in Morgan City.

Mayor Tim Tregle, good luck to you.

TREGLE: We thank you for all of the people's support, and prayers and best wishes. Thank you very much.

HEMMER: Sounds good. Thank you good.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com