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American Morning
The Big Uneasy
Aired October 03, 2002 - 09:32 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: The mayor of New Orleans, a man fresh to the scene, Mayor C. Ray Nagen is with us as well. Mayor, can you hear me? Can you see me?
Good morning. That's great.
Conditions now are what?
MYR. C. RAY NAGEN, NEW ORLEANS: Conditions now are somewhat improving. There are still gale-force winds in New Orleans. Lots of wind. Not as much rain as we experienced with Isidore. We're still advising our residents to stay off the streets, if necessary. And, things -- we dodged the bullet, thank God.
HEMMER: You think so, all right?
NAGEN: The storm is hitting right now about 100 to 120 miles west of New Orleans. So we're out of the window, out of the range, if you will, where hurricane force winds hit New Orleans so we're going to ride it out over the next couple of hours, and I think, you know, tomorrow -- what historically happens with hurricanes, after it passes, sunshine, it's beautiful, and New Orleans will be back to business.
HEMMER: I bet it will be. Pick up on a story we heard yesterday afternoon, the number of people cramming the roads, trying to get out of places like New Orleans. At one point, we're told, that people were essentially told to stop and go back, because they were worried that residents getting out would be stuck on these roads when the biggest part of the storm hit. What happened there, and what's your read on that, mayor?
NAGEN: Well, you know about 10:00 last night, the storm started to wobble a little bit, and you couldn't really tell whether it was going due north, where it's right under New Orleans or whether it was going to continuing the westerly path, and I think some residents, you know, some procrastinators, so we started to leave at the last minute, and the highways jammed up pretty good. And around noontime, we were scheduled to start experiencing gale-force winds, and even some winds that were pretty close to hurricane-force winds. So at that point in time, the state police started to encourage people not to come out, as well as myself, and turned some people around.
HEMMER: Understand you're new on the job, is that right.
NAGEN: Yes, I've been on the job about five, six months, and, you know, lo and behold, I've had back to back hurricanes within 10 days or so, so I'm having a blast.
HEMMER: Got it. You might want to buy a lottery ticket today, too.
NAGEN: I think I'm going to do that in between eating some...
HEMMER: The numbers in your favor. Hang in there. Listen, I know the storm is not completely through just yet, but as you pointed out, well east of the eye and the major force of those winds.
Mayor C. Ray Nagen from New Orleans. Thank you, mayor.
NAGEN: Thank you so much.
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 - 09:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The mayor of New Orleans, a man fresh to the scene, Mayor C. Ray Nagen is with us as well. Mayor, can you hear me? Can you see me?
Good morning. That's great.
Conditions now are what?
MYR. C. RAY NAGEN, NEW ORLEANS: Conditions now are somewhat improving. There are still gale-force winds in New Orleans. Lots of wind. Not as much rain as we experienced with Isidore. We're still advising our residents to stay off the streets, if necessary. And, things -- we dodged the bullet, thank God.
HEMMER: You think so, all right?
NAGEN: The storm is hitting right now about 100 to 120 miles west of New Orleans. So we're out of the window, out of the range, if you will, where hurricane force winds hit New Orleans so we're going to ride it out over the next couple of hours, and I think, you know, tomorrow -- what historically happens with hurricanes, after it passes, sunshine, it's beautiful, and New Orleans will be back to business.
HEMMER: I bet it will be. Pick up on a story we heard yesterday afternoon, the number of people cramming the roads, trying to get out of places like New Orleans. At one point, we're told, that people were essentially told to stop and go back, because they were worried that residents getting out would be stuck on these roads when the biggest part of the storm hit. What happened there, and what's your read on that, mayor?
NAGEN: Well, you know about 10:00 last night, the storm started to wobble a little bit, and you couldn't really tell whether it was going due north, where it's right under New Orleans or whether it was going to continuing the westerly path, and I think some residents, you know, some procrastinators, so we started to leave at the last minute, and the highways jammed up pretty good. And around noontime, we were scheduled to start experiencing gale-force winds, and even some winds that were pretty close to hurricane-force winds. So at that point in time, the state police started to encourage people not to come out, as well as myself, and turned some people around.
HEMMER: Understand you're new on the job, is that right.
NAGEN: Yes, I've been on the job about five, six months, and, you know, lo and behold, I've had back to back hurricanes within 10 days or so, so I'm having a blast.
HEMMER: Got it. You might want to buy a lottery ticket today, too.
NAGEN: I think I'm going to do that in between eating some...
HEMMER: The numbers in your favor. Hang in there. Listen, I know the storm is not completely through just yet, but as you pointed out, well east of the eye and the major force of those winds.
Mayor C. Ray Nagen from New Orleans. Thank you, mayor.
NAGEN: Thank you so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
