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American Morning

Lili Strikes

Aired October 03, 2002 - 07:03   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, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Lili now, that huge storm right now, hitting the Gulf Coast at this hour; strong winds and a massive storm surge as well. Louisiana said to be hit the hardest. About 850,000 people -- that's 20 percent of the population in the entire state -- are ordered to get out.
We have live reports up and down the Gulf Coast there. I want to start this morning, though, with Chad Myers, who is in New Orleans, right there around the French Quarter. He has been monitoring things for the past three hours or so.

Chad -- good morning. How are conditions now?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Bill.

The winds have died off a little bit, but the rain has really picked up really in the last 15 minutes. And if you remember from Isidore, the town can only hold and only handle one-half of an inch of rain per hour, and then the pumps don't work well enough to pump it up and over the levee and then back into the Gulf of Mexico or back into the Mississippi River.

So, as the rain picks up and the wind is at about 25 miles per hour right now, they start to blow in more rain as we get one of these other feeder bands to wrap around us. We are going to see the potential for some street flooding.

As I look down, if you know what the French Quarter looks like, you probably don't recognize it. The lights are off. Everybody has packed it in for the night. They were still partying at 3:00 or 4:00 when we arrived here. They are not partying now. They are battening down.

This is probably a little stronger than they were anticipating. They were thinking maybe 35, 45 miles per hour, and we've had gusts, Bill, to now 55 and almost 60 right down here in the French Quarter, right there by Jackson Square.

And one more thing. Remember that $3 umbrella I bought in New York?

HEMMER: Yes.

MYERS: Well, here it is, buddy. Well, here it is, buddy. Let's see if it holds up to Lili. See that?

HEMMER: And it's early. MYERS: No.

HEMMER: There's not going...

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: ... New York, my friend.

HEMMER: ... not going to be much of that left over.

MYERS: It's good stuff.

HEMMER: Hey, Chad, I know you're a meteorologist, and we were talking earlier today about landfall somewhere around 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Is that still the track right now?

MYERS: You know, landfall down there is a relative thing, because land is basically a bunch of weeds in the water. There is very little land between, let's say what you see as coastline in Louisiana and New Iberia or Lafayette. So, you're really going to see the land or the line -- the coastline that you see -- there's not a beach in Louisiana. It just kind of starts out as swamp, and it gets a little bit higher and higher ground until you can actually put buildings on it.

So, yes, I would suspect that that's exact time of landfall, but the exact time of maximum winds for some of those cities will vary, obviously, from where the eye is compared to where those cities are located.

HEMMER: Good deal. Chad, thank you -- Chad Myers in New Orleans.

MYERS: All right.

HEMMER: Let's move further west right now. Jeff Flock is in Morgan City, Louisiana.

Jeff -- how are things there?

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Chad makes a good point, Bill, that, you know, we're 20 miles from the coastline. So, you know, we're a ways off, but really surrounded by water down here. It's very low down here.

And, in fact, you can see if we take a look up, the wind-driven rain is really coming down right now. We looked on the radar, and have some sense that we're close to one of the pretty solid bands.

And if we shine our beam off, you know, you can begin to see some of the wind and the trees blowing right now. I don't know how well we can see off with the rain in the way, but we're over here not too far -- well, maybe you can see it now blowing pretty good.

We're here, near a construction site, which is probably not going to be the best place to be. Tom, if you're able to pan around here, maybe we can see. This is a construction site. They tried to batten down just a little bit ago, trying to keep, you know, this stuff from blowing off. But who knows?

If you look at the wind in the trees -- Tom, I don't know if you can see off to the right there -- the wind blowing in the trees pretty good right now. And once we get this storm a little bit closer, I think we're going to, you know, see some debris start to get launched around here, even though, you know, they're downgrading. Anytime you're looking at 100-mile-an-hour winds, and we are very, very close to where the eye will be coming across, it's going to be something.

It's going to be an interesting morning.

Bill -- back to you.

HEMMER: That it will, Jeff. Thanks you much -- Jeff Flock standing by there.

To further west now, Ed Lavandera is also in Louisiana, in the town of Lake Charles, further west, we mentioned, a little more inland than Chad and Jeff.

How are things there? Ed -- good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, things are relatively calm here at this point, but just a little bit of a drizzle here falling, a little more than a drizzle falling. But the winds aren't that strong at this point.

Well, we're in Lake Charles, where the Harrah's Riverboat Casino is along Interstate 10. You can see the rain that is falling here. The winds have picked up slightly over the course of the last couple of hours here this morning.

We've had a chance to speak with emergency officials, who were starting to get the indication about 3:00 this morning that Hurricane Lili would be downgraded from a Category 4 to what is now a Category 2 storm. But the emergency officials here stress that they are not going to change any of their emergency plans that are already in place, and will not change them throughout the day. They want people to remain alert and to be aware of what this storm can do.

We also called down to Cameron, Louisiana just a short time ago, and the folks there are reporting about 50-mile-an-hour winds and steady rain falling.

The eye of this hurricane is expected to pass about 50 miles to the east of where we are. So, a lot of the folks in those communities as well just battening down the hatches. Of course, we've talked about flooding is really the major concern in this part of Louisiana, because throughout most of the state, much of this area is in low- lying areas. So, that's why you have seen so many communities closer to the Gulf Coast evacuating, and many of those people are already in shelters tonight.

Bill -- back to you.

HEMMER: Ed, thank you.

Gary Tuchman is on the border with Texas, the southeastern edge of that state, Port Arthur, where a number of shelters have been set up. We are told thousands have sought shelter there.

Gary is with us live this morning as well.

Gary -- hello.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning to you.

It's supposed to be 91 degrees and mostly sunny here tomorrow, but tomorrow seems a long way away.

We are in Port Arthur, Texas. This is the Cajun capital of Texas right next to the state of Louisiana. They say they throw Mardi Gras parties here just as good as their brother in Louisiana. And right now, they're about to share a hurricane with the state of Louisiana.

This is the westernmost point of the hurricane warning zone, and the rains literally just started coming down about 30 minutes ago, and the winds are just starting to pick up.

In this county, Jefferson County, and the neighboring county, Orange County, 330,000 people have been told to evacuate. It's a voluntary evacuation. In other words, you won't get in trouble if you don't do it, but many of the people seem to have left. We've been here now for about 14 hours here in Port Arthur, population 58,000, the streets -- well, it's like a ghost town right here.

We expect that the winds will start picking up to about 70 miles per hour, they are saying, by late morning or early afternoon.

And one thing to keep in mind, this is the first time in three years a hurricane will hit the United States, which means literally, it's the first hurricane in the United States in the 21st century.

Bill -- back to you.

HEMMER: Gary, thank you.

Gary Tuchman, Ed Lavandera, Chad Myers, Jeff Flock -- they will all be standing by throughout the morning here.

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 - 07:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Lili now, that huge storm right now, hitting the Gulf Coast at this hour; strong winds and a massive storm surge as well. Louisiana said to be hit the hardest. About 850,000 people -- that's 20 percent of the population in the entire state -- are ordered to get out.
We have live reports up and down the Gulf Coast there. I want to start this morning, though, with Chad Myers, who is in New Orleans, right there around the French Quarter. He has been monitoring things for the past three hours or so.

Chad -- good morning. How are conditions now?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Bill.

The winds have died off a little bit, but the rain has really picked up really in the last 15 minutes. And if you remember from Isidore, the town can only hold and only handle one-half of an inch of rain per hour, and then the pumps don't work well enough to pump it up and over the levee and then back into the Gulf of Mexico or back into the Mississippi River.

So, as the rain picks up and the wind is at about 25 miles per hour right now, they start to blow in more rain as we get one of these other feeder bands to wrap around us. We are going to see the potential for some street flooding.

As I look down, if you know what the French Quarter looks like, you probably don't recognize it. The lights are off. Everybody has packed it in for the night. They were still partying at 3:00 or 4:00 when we arrived here. They are not partying now. They are battening down.

This is probably a little stronger than they were anticipating. They were thinking maybe 35, 45 miles per hour, and we've had gusts, Bill, to now 55 and almost 60 right down here in the French Quarter, right there by Jackson Square.

And one more thing. Remember that $3 umbrella I bought in New York?

HEMMER: Yes.

MYERS: Well, here it is, buddy. Well, here it is, buddy. Let's see if it holds up to Lili. See that?

HEMMER: And it's early. MYERS: No.

HEMMER: There's not going...

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: ... New York, my friend.

HEMMER: ... not going to be much of that left over.

MYERS: It's good stuff.

HEMMER: Hey, Chad, I know you're a meteorologist, and we were talking earlier today about landfall somewhere around 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Is that still the track right now?

MYERS: You know, landfall down there is a relative thing, because land is basically a bunch of weeds in the water. There is very little land between, let's say what you see as coastline in Louisiana and New Iberia or Lafayette. So, you're really going to see the land or the line -- the coastline that you see -- there's not a beach in Louisiana. It just kind of starts out as swamp, and it gets a little bit higher and higher ground until you can actually put buildings on it.

So, yes, I would suspect that that's exact time of landfall, but the exact time of maximum winds for some of those cities will vary, obviously, from where the eye is compared to where those cities are located.

HEMMER: Good deal. Chad, thank you -- Chad Myers in New Orleans.

MYERS: All right.

HEMMER: Let's move further west right now. Jeff Flock is in Morgan City, Louisiana.

Jeff -- how are things there?

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Chad makes a good point, Bill, that, you know, we're 20 miles from the coastline. So, you know, we're a ways off, but really surrounded by water down here. It's very low down here.

And, in fact, you can see if we take a look up, the wind-driven rain is really coming down right now. We looked on the radar, and have some sense that we're close to one of the pretty solid bands.

And if we shine our beam off, you know, you can begin to see some of the wind and the trees blowing right now. I don't know how well we can see off with the rain in the way, but we're over here not too far -- well, maybe you can see it now blowing pretty good.

We're here, near a construction site, which is probably not going to be the best place to be. Tom, if you're able to pan around here, maybe we can see. This is a construction site. They tried to batten down just a little bit ago, trying to keep, you know, this stuff from blowing off. But who knows?

If you look at the wind in the trees -- Tom, I don't know if you can see off to the right there -- the wind blowing in the trees pretty good right now. And once we get this storm a little bit closer, I think we're going to, you know, see some debris start to get launched around here, even though, you know, they're downgrading. Anytime you're looking at 100-mile-an-hour winds, and we are very, very close to where the eye will be coming across, it's going to be something.

It's going to be an interesting morning.

Bill -- back to you.

HEMMER: That it will, Jeff. Thanks you much -- Jeff Flock standing by there.

To further west now, Ed Lavandera is also in Louisiana, in the town of Lake Charles, further west, we mentioned, a little more inland than Chad and Jeff.

How are things there? Ed -- good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, things are relatively calm here at this point, but just a little bit of a drizzle here falling, a little more than a drizzle falling. But the winds aren't that strong at this point.

Well, we're in Lake Charles, where the Harrah's Riverboat Casino is along Interstate 10. You can see the rain that is falling here. The winds have picked up slightly over the course of the last couple of hours here this morning.

We've had a chance to speak with emergency officials, who were starting to get the indication about 3:00 this morning that Hurricane Lili would be downgraded from a Category 4 to what is now a Category 2 storm. But the emergency officials here stress that they are not going to change any of their emergency plans that are already in place, and will not change them throughout the day. They want people to remain alert and to be aware of what this storm can do.

We also called down to Cameron, Louisiana just a short time ago, and the folks there are reporting about 50-mile-an-hour winds and steady rain falling.

The eye of this hurricane is expected to pass about 50 miles to the east of where we are. So, a lot of the folks in those communities as well just battening down the hatches. Of course, we've talked about flooding is really the major concern in this part of Louisiana, because throughout most of the state, much of this area is in low- lying areas. So, that's why you have seen so many communities closer to the Gulf Coast evacuating, and many of those people are already in shelters tonight.

Bill -- back to you.

HEMMER: Ed, thank you.

Gary Tuchman is on the border with Texas, the southeastern edge of that state, Port Arthur, where a number of shelters have been set up. We are told thousands have sought shelter there.

Gary is with us live this morning as well.

Gary -- hello.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning to you.

It's supposed to be 91 degrees and mostly sunny here tomorrow, but tomorrow seems a long way away.

We are in Port Arthur, Texas. This is the Cajun capital of Texas right next to the state of Louisiana. They say they throw Mardi Gras parties here just as good as their brother in Louisiana. And right now, they're about to share a hurricane with the state of Louisiana.

This is the westernmost point of the hurricane warning zone, and the rains literally just started coming down about 30 minutes ago, and the winds are just starting to pick up.

In this county, Jefferson County, and the neighboring county, Orange County, 330,000 people have been told to evacuate. It's a voluntary evacuation. In other words, you won't get in trouble if you don't do it, but many of the people seem to have left. We've been here now for about 14 hours here in Port Arthur, population 58,000, the streets -- well, it's like a ghost town right here.

We expect that the winds will start picking up to about 70 miles per hour, they are saying, by late morning or early afternoon.

And one thing to keep in mind, this is the first time in three years a hurricane will hit the United States, which means literally, it's the first hurricane in the United States in the 21st century.

Bill -- back to you.

HEMMER: Gary, thank you.

Gary Tuchman, Ed Lavandera, Chad Myers, Jeff Flock -- they will all be standing by throughout the morning here.

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