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American Morning
Interview with Randy Roach
Aired October 03, 2002 - 08:22 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: This is Morgan City, Louisiana, just about in the center part of the southern half of Louisiana. Jeff Flock brought us these pictures about 30 minutes ago. Some damage quite evident there with the telephone lines down in the southern part of the state, as the hurricane, again, Lili, downgraded to a category two storm. That happened overnight into the morning hours. It was a category four, but certainly that is good news.
Nonetheless, though, Gulf Coast communities will not escape the total wrath of Lili, still a category two hurricane, packing powerful winds, about 110 miles per hour, still dangerous, too.
The mayor in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is just west of the area we talked about, Randy Roach, is with us this morning.
Mr. Mayor, good morning to you.
I know that we had our reporter out there just about 15 minutes ago to talk about conditions. An update from you right now?
MAYOR RANDY ROACH, LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA: Well, actually things are working out pretty well for us. You know, we're on the west side of the eye and as the eye moves towards the coast it looks like it's going to break down even more. And so we should, we should escape this without any major problems.
HEMMER: You think that at this point, huh?
ROACH: Well, we're pretty optimistic right now. We've been in touch with the National Weather Service. I was out there this morning at about five o'clock and we were looking at the radar. So we're keeping our fingers crossed, but hopefully we won't see much more than we're seeing about right now. Maybe some more rain, maybe a little bit more wind gusts and that kind of thing. But we've been through that before and we can handle that pretty well.
HEMMER: In fact, you were through that just about a week ago with Isidore.
It appeared from the distance that a lot of folks did not take Izzy very seriously. What is your estimation about how folks responded this time around?
ROACH: Bill, here in Southwest Louisiana, we've got quite a history with hurricanes. Back in 1957, hurricane Audrey came up almost identical to the same way in which hurricane Lili approached the Gulf Coast here. But it came up from the Bay of Campici (ph) almost due south of us and it went straight north. And when it hit the Cameron Coast, it came up with about a 20 foot storm surge or higher, and about 500 people were killed.
I noticed earlier on your list of deadly storms, hurricane Audrey ranks up there as number six. And that was in 1957.
HEMMER: It does, that's right.
Listen, quickly here on the evacuation procedure. It was said late yesterday that some of the roads and arteries leading out of some of the southern cities in Louisiana were so clogged that they essentially told folks to stop and go back because they did not want them to be trapped along the road. Is that an accurate assessment?
ROACH: Bill, that was in the Lafayette area. Here in our area we did have some pretty bad traffic congestion north of us. We have two lane roads moving north of Lake Charles and that's been sort of an issue as far as we're concerned. But, yes, we did have some traffic congestion, but no -- we allowed, the people from our area were able to proceed north to Alexandria and to Leesville.
HEMMER: Thank you, Mayor. Hang in there, OK? I hope you're writing your prediction, too.
Randy Roach, the mayor in Lake Charles, Louisiana, joining us live this morning.
More on this now. Here is Jack looking at a few other things.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Remarkably calm, the waters behind the picture.
HEMMER: They are.
CAFFERTY: It's, the difference between a category four and a category two hurricane is the difference between night and day. And the fates, at least with this storm, are working in favor of the people in the path of that hurricane.
The storm was expected to hit land as category four. That's a killer storm capable of loss of life and property damage that is almost unlimited.
What, in fact, has happened is it's moving ashore as a category two storm, not to be taken lightly, but certainly much less of a threat than a category four storm. And for a primer on what happened in terms of the downgrading of this hurricane, Miles O'Brien is standby for us in Atlanta this morning.
Good news for the people along the Gulf Coast -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So far so good. They've got to watch that storm surge. Very important, because the storm surge is much more of a problem when you have a very gentle, sloping continental shelf, as you do in the Gulf of Mexico. First of all, let's go 250 miles above us. These are pictures from the space shuttle taken of typhoon Winny, not one that you probably remember. But I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about how these tropical cyclones -- a typhoon is a hurricane in the Pacific, a tropical cyclone either way -- how they form and how they rotate.
In this case, if it's in the northern hemisphere, it rotates in a counter-clockwise fashion. The closer you get to the center, the faster that wind is moving. Think of spinning a yoyo on your finger. As it gets closer and closer to your finger, it goes faster and faster. That's exactly what you need to remember, the closer you are to that eye, the stronger the winds.
Let's talk a little bit about the origins of a hurricane. It all begins, believe it or not, south of the Sahara. What happens is trade winds which go across the African continent above and below the equator strike some mountainous areas in this area right here. It causes wrinkles in the wind. And as that wrinkled wind enters the Atlantic Ocean, that's when the trouble begins, when the water is warm. Eighty degrees Fahrenheit is the magic number.
Let's take a look at how a hurricane fuels up. Well, of course, it doesn't start as a hurricane. It starts as that wrinkle we just told you about. But as you look at some 3D models, which has been acquired by some NASA satellites, you can get a real sense of how it draws power from the Atlantic Ocean, from the warm waters, beginning that cyclonic activity. And once a tropical depression begins, about 38 miles an hour, as it picks up steam, almost quite literally, it becomes a tropical storm and then on into a hurricane once it's 73 miles an hour, feeding off that warm water.
That's why the hurricane season is June 1 through November 30, warm water in the Atlantic.
Let's take a look at the global view, big picture of exactly how these hurricanes do their flow. We told you about those trade winds which send the hurricanes across the Atlantic in a westerly direction that way. Well, what happens when they get close to the United States is it's, it runs into some competing winds, which eventually are the jet stream. The jet stream sends it back around and that's what gives it that kind of flow across the Atlantic and oftentimes up the coast, sometimes, of course, as we see here, into the Gulf of Mexico.
You can see here, this was a year when we had a series of tropical storms and hurricanes kind of stacked up as if it was airplanes landing at Hartsfield Airport. Following that pattern, picking up steam, coming across the Atlantic and then encouraging that jet stream, sending the weather pattern back in the other direction.
Now, there's lots of good places to go and take a look at these kinds of -- for information on this. One of the best places we like is the National Hurricane Center, in addition to our cnn.com site.
I just want to show you one thing here. What this shows is that orange dot. We've been showing you this all morning. It's very important to focus on that, not just for the winds. That storm surge is a big problem because, of course, as we all know, New Orleans, in many places, and parts of the Louisiana coast, are at or even below sea level. And as that storm comes across, even as it diminishes, that storm surge or the pushing of the water, can cause some real problems -- Jack.
CAFFERTY: Fascinating stuff. Technology is pretty amazing, those satellite pictures.
Miles O'Brien in Atlanta, thank you.
HEMMER: So Lili is lilting for now?
CAFFERTY: Good, yes. That's alliteration, I think.
HEMMER: That is true.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome.
HEMMER: See you later.
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 - 08:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This is Morgan City, Louisiana, just about in the center part of the southern half of Louisiana. Jeff Flock brought us these pictures about 30 minutes ago. Some damage quite evident there with the telephone lines down in the southern part of the state, as the hurricane, again, Lili, downgraded to a category two storm. That happened overnight into the morning hours. It was a category four, but certainly that is good news.
Nonetheless, though, Gulf Coast communities will not escape the total wrath of Lili, still a category two hurricane, packing powerful winds, about 110 miles per hour, still dangerous, too.
The mayor in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is just west of the area we talked about, Randy Roach, is with us this morning.
Mr. Mayor, good morning to you.
I know that we had our reporter out there just about 15 minutes ago to talk about conditions. An update from you right now?
MAYOR RANDY ROACH, LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA: Well, actually things are working out pretty well for us. You know, we're on the west side of the eye and as the eye moves towards the coast it looks like it's going to break down even more. And so we should, we should escape this without any major problems.
HEMMER: You think that at this point, huh?
ROACH: Well, we're pretty optimistic right now. We've been in touch with the National Weather Service. I was out there this morning at about five o'clock and we were looking at the radar. So we're keeping our fingers crossed, but hopefully we won't see much more than we're seeing about right now. Maybe some more rain, maybe a little bit more wind gusts and that kind of thing. But we've been through that before and we can handle that pretty well.
HEMMER: In fact, you were through that just about a week ago with Isidore.
It appeared from the distance that a lot of folks did not take Izzy very seriously. What is your estimation about how folks responded this time around?
ROACH: Bill, here in Southwest Louisiana, we've got quite a history with hurricanes. Back in 1957, hurricane Audrey came up almost identical to the same way in which hurricane Lili approached the Gulf Coast here. But it came up from the Bay of Campici (ph) almost due south of us and it went straight north. And when it hit the Cameron Coast, it came up with about a 20 foot storm surge or higher, and about 500 people were killed.
I noticed earlier on your list of deadly storms, hurricane Audrey ranks up there as number six. And that was in 1957.
HEMMER: It does, that's right.
Listen, quickly here on the evacuation procedure. It was said late yesterday that some of the roads and arteries leading out of some of the southern cities in Louisiana were so clogged that they essentially told folks to stop and go back because they did not want them to be trapped along the road. Is that an accurate assessment?
ROACH: Bill, that was in the Lafayette area. Here in our area we did have some pretty bad traffic congestion north of us. We have two lane roads moving north of Lake Charles and that's been sort of an issue as far as we're concerned. But, yes, we did have some traffic congestion, but no -- we allowed, the people from our area were able to proceed north to Alexandria and to Leesville.
HEMMER: Thank you, Mayor. Hang in there, OK? I hope you're writing your prediction, too.
Randy Roach, the mayor in Lake Charles, Louisiana, joining us live this morning.
More on this now. Here is Jack looking at a few other things.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Remarkably calm, the waters behind the picture.
HEMMER: They are.
CAFFERTY: It's, the difference between a category four and a category two hurricane is the difference between night and day. And the fates, at least with this storm, are working in favor of the people in the path of that hurricane.
The storm was expected to hit land as category four. That's a killer storm capable of loss of life and property damage that is almost unlimited.
What, in fact, has happened is it's moving ashore as a category two storm, not to be taken lightly, but certainly much less of a threat than a category four storm. And for a primer on what happened in terms of the downgrading of this hurricane, Miles O'Brien is standby for us in Atlanta this morning.
Good news for the people along the Gulf Coast -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So far so good. They've got to watch that storm surge. Very important, because the storm surge is much more of a problem when you have a very gentle, sloping continental shelf, as you do in the Gulf of Mexico. First of all, let's go 250 miles above us. These are pictures from the space shuttle taken of typhoon Winny, not one that you probably remember. But I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about how these tropical cyclones -- a typhoon is a hurricane in the Pacific, a tropical cyclone either way -- how they form and how they rotate.
In this case, if it's in the northern hemisphere, it rotates in a counter-clockwise fashion. The closer you get to the center, the faster that wind is moving. Think of spinning a yoyo on your finger. As it gets closer and closer to your finger, it goes faster and faster. That's exactly what you need to remember, the closer you are to that eye, the stronger the winds.
Let's talk a little bit about the origins of a hurricane. It all begins, believe it or not, south of the Sahara. What happens is trade winds which go across the African continent above and below the equator strike some mountainous areas in this area right here. It causes wrinkles in the wind. And as that wrinkled wind enters the Atlantic Ocean, that's when the trouble begins, when the water is warm. Eighty degrees Fahrenheit is the magic number.
Let's take a look at how a hurricane fuels up. Well, of course, it doesn't start as a hurricane. It starts as that wrinkle we just told you about. But as you look at some 3D models, which has been acquired by some NASA satellites, you can get a real sense of how it draws power from the Atlantic Ocean, from the warm waters, beginning that cyclonic activity. And once a tropical depression begins, about 38 miles an hour, as it picks up steam, almost quite literally, it becomes a tropical storm and then on into a hurricane once it's 73 miles an hour, feeding off that warm water.
That's why the hurricane season is June 1 through November 30, warm water in the Atlantic.
Let's take a look at the global view, big picture of exactly how these hurricanes do their flow. We told you about those trade winds which send the hurricanes across the Atlantic in a westerly direction that way. Well, what happens when they get close to the United States is it's, it runs into some competing winds, which eventually are the jet stream. The jet stream sends it back around and that's what gives it that kind of flow across the Atlantic and oftentimes up the coast, sometimes, of course, as we see here, into the Gulf of Mexico.
You can see here, this was a year when we had a series of tropical storms and hurricanes kind of stacked up as if it was airplanes landing at Hartsfield Airport. Following that pattern, picking up steam, coming across the Atlantic and then encouraging that jet stream, sending the weather pattern back in the other direction.
Now, there's lots of good places to go and take a look at these kinds of -- for information on this. One of the best places we like is the National Hurricane Center, in addition to our cnn.com site.
I just want to show you one thing here. What this shows is that orange dot. We've been showing you this all morning. It's very important to focus on that, not just for the winds. That storm surge is a big problem because, of course, as we all know, New Orleans, in many places, and parts of the Louisiana coast, are at or even below sea level. And as that storm comes across, even as it diminishes, that storm surge or the pushing of the water, can cause some real problems -- Jack.
CAFFERTY: Fascinating stuff. Technology is pretty amazing, those satellite pictures.
Miles O'Brien in Atlanta, thank you.
HEMMER: So Lili is lilting for now?
CAFFERTY: Good, yes. That's alliteration, I think.
HEMMER: That is true.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome.
HEMMER: See you later.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
