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American Morning
People from Louisiana to Pennsylvania Picking Up After Two Days of Deadly Tornadoes
Aired November 12, 2002 - 08:05 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: People from Louisiana all the way to Pennsylvania are looking for survivors and lost possessions two days, after two days of deadly tornadoes. And from the hard hit town of Van Wert, Ohio, we are joined by Jeff Flock to bring us up to date on what people are up against there -- good morning, Jeff.
Boy, that looks nasty behind you.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
Indeed. But it doesn't take them long. Take a look at that. This is the industrial park, one of the hardest areas hit in town. And it doesn't take them long to start the cleanup. This grappler here has been going since before dawn this morning, trying to take what has left of this, it was the trucking company and a warehouse business that existed right here, completely leveled. And boy, look at that thing. Isn't that something? Their vision is to get this cleaned up as quickly as possible and they're really on it.
Of course, the other big story here, I heard you and Bill talking about it, that's that movie theater. I want to give you the picture from over there. And as we do, perhaps we'll take a walk here. That movie theater, the Van Wert Cinemas, they had about five screens going, about 60 people, 60 to 70 people left inside. And the warning came on one of those weather radios. This is a county where, you know, the radio goes off in places like, you know, hospitals and schools and movie theaters and they got the warning. They got everybody in the bathrooms and they got them in the hallways and miraculously almost no one hurt, no one killed. A lot of good news.
This is, as we said, this is what it looks like when you try to rip the rest of this out and begin to clear this out of here. And this is already going great guns, Paula -- back to you.
ZAHN: Tell us a little bit more about the people you've had a chance to talk with and how they plan to go about rebuilding their lives, some of them completely wiped out.
FLOCK: Well, that's true. And we talked to some of those people that, you know, were in that theater yesterday. I talked to a 16- year-old girl. You know, I have a 16-year-old daughter and she's sort of like my daughter. She had no concept of what she'd been through. I said well, what was this like? Do you believe that you survived? And she said well, you know, I really didn't know how bad it was. We were all in the bathroom and we were all piled on top of each other. And then when we walked out we go oh my god, what happened? So they really didn't even, you know, know how serious a scene that they were in. So, I'll tell you, it's funny, Jeff, come with me one second, as we're talking here, Paula, they've just ripped this out. It looks like they've just broken a water pipe through here. I think you can see it. This is the hazard when you go through trying to tear stuff out of here. It is a big job and this will be going on for a while.
ZAHN: And are there any people still missing from this area?
FLOCK: No. Fortunately here they nailed this all down pretty well and no one's still missing. As we said, this was an automotive parts warehouse and take a look. You can get cogs or fly wheels. I'm not sure what that is, Paula, but you can get a bunch of them. I saw a pile over, yes, over there. Look at that. All of this automotive parts pretty much strewn everywhere across here this morning. What a mess.
ZAHN: What a mess. Not the way you want to get one of those cogs.
Thank you so much, Jeff Flock. Appreciate the live update -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of folks thanking many different people for helping save their lives, not just in Ohio, but also a number of places through Tennessee and Alabama. And those who did survive those tornadoes still a bit shaken today. Most, though, as we mentioned, grateful that they have a new day in their own life.
Have a listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just knew something was wrong that I didn't like. So I barely got into the closet with her. And I thank the lord.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been terrible. I've never been through nothing like this. I'm still in a state of shock. It's awful. And I couldn't even find my house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The appliances, our furniture, the house, we were tossed, turned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just, we made it. We made it. We're still here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got each other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what matters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard about a family down the road, Brian Leffer (ph), his son. His grandma and his dad were all killed in the basement. It flattened their house. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have hardly anything. I have nothing. And it's like you've got to start your life all over again. But we're alive and that's all that matters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Going forward now, the Red Cross without question will play a large part in the effort of restoring and rebuilding.
Mossy Grove, Tennessee this morning is where we find Scott Davis from the Red Cross -- Scott, good morning to you.
SCOTT DAVIS, RED CROSS: Good morning to you.
HEMMER: Tell us what you need there today.
DAVIS: You know, where do you begin? We have multiple states affected. We've got hundreds of volunteers trying to provide assistance. We have an outpouring of generosity already from the local community. We have multiple states and we're coming up to a holiday season. We've already been asked, you know, what can we do by individuals just driving by. And we're trying to remind people because of the upcoming holiday and we don't, again, the uncertainty of disaster at any time, whether today or tonight or even tomorrow, is to donate to 1-800-HELPNOW and donate to the national disaster relief fund.
HEMMER: Scott, tell me, what can you do today, what can you do this week for these people there?
DAVIS: You know, we're doing a lot already. We're providing hot meals and we're providing refreshments. The most important thing is we're providing a shoulder to lean on so they can tell their story. And by the information that we gather through interviewing, through mental health and in walking up and down the streets and doing our damage assessment and whatnot, we gather a sense of, you know, what they're going to need to meet their emergency based needs and then to go on to long-term recovery needs.
Time will tell. These are a resilient folk and they're really great people. You know, we drive through communities like this every day out in the country and don't realize that it is, in fact, a community where people live. They're really, they're more worried about their friends and families so much more than themselves.
HEMMER: Hey, Scott, I'm not sure if you could answer this question or not, but the number of missing has fluctuated between 12 and 14 today. I'm not sure if you have a firmer number on that or not.
DAVIS: I still am waiting to hear the same information as you are right now. And, you know, because, you know, the tornado was on Sunday, there's still, they want to make sure that, you know, the numbers are correct and the best possible numbers. And if individuals, we've heard reports of individuals may be reluctant to let people know where they are because they've probably left the community and they have nothing.
So I know that county officials are asking individuals here in this county to contact either the county or the local Red Cross to let them know where they're at, so that way they can get a better handle on some of those numbers of the missing.
HEMMER: Hey, good luck, OK, Scott?
DAVIS: Thank you very much.
HEMMER: Scott Davis with the Red Cross in Mossy Grove.
You put out the number, I'll say it again, 1-800-HELPNOW for those who want to get in touch with the Red Cross if you want to lend a hand there, be it financial or otherwise.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Days of Deadly Tornadoes>
Aired November 12, 2002 - 08:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: People from Louisiana all the way to Pennsylvania are looking for survivors and lost possessions two days, after two days of deadly tornadoes. And from the hard hit town of Van Wert, Ohio, we are joined by Jeff Flock to bring us up to date on what people are up against there -- good morning, Jeff.
Boy, that looks nasty behind you.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
Indeed. But it doesn't take them long. Take a look at that. This is the industrial park, one of the hardest areas hit in town. And it doesn't take them long to start the cleanup. This grappler here has been going since before dawn this morning, trying to take what has left of this, it was the trucking company and a warehouse business that existed right here, completely leveled. And boy, look at that thing. Isn't that something? Their vision is to get this cleaned up as quickly as possible and they're really on it.
Of course, the other big story here, I heard you and Bill talking about it, that's that movie theater. I want to give you the picture from over there. And as we do, perhaps we'll take a walk here. That movie theater, the Van Wert Cinemas, they had about five screens going, about 60 people, 60 to 70 people left inside. And the warning came on one of those weather radios. This is a county where, you know, the radio goes off in places like, you know, hospitals and schools and movie theaters and they got the warning. They got everybody in the bathrooms and they got them in the hallways and miraculously almost no one hurt, no one killed. A lot of good news.
This is, as we said, this is what it looks like when you try to rip the rest of this out and begin to clear this out of here. And this is already going great guns, Paula -- back to you.
ZAHN: Tell us a little bit more about the people you've had a chance to talk with and how they plan to go about rebuilding their lives, some of them completely wiped out.
FLOCK: Well, that's true. And we talked to some of those people that, you know, were in that theater yesterday. I talked to a 16- year-old girl. You know, I have a 16-year-old daughter and she's sort of like my daughter. She had no concept of what she'd been through. I said well, what was this like? Do you believe that you survived? And she said well, you know, I really didn't know how bad it was. We were all in the bathroom and we were all piled on top of each other. And then when we walked out we go oh my god, what happened? So they really didn't even, you know, know how serious a scene that they were in. So, I'll tell you, it's funny, Jeff, come with me one second, as we're talking here, Paula, they've just ripped this out. It looks like they've just broken a water pipe through here. I think you can see it. This is the hazard when you go through trying to tear stuff out of here. It is a big job and this will be going on for a while.
ZAHN: And are there any people still missing from this area?
FLOCK: No. Fortunately here they nailed this all down pretty well and no one's still missing. As we said, this was an automotive parts warehouse and take a look. You can get cogs or fly wheels. I'm not sure what that is, Paula, but you can get a bunch of them. I saw a pile over, yes, over there. Look at that. All of this automotive parts pretty much strewn everywhere across here this morning. What a mess.
ZAHN: What a mess. Not the way you want to get one of those cogs.
Thank you so much, Jeff Flock. Appreciate the live update -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of folks thanking many different people for helping save their lives, not just in Ohio, but also a number of places through Tennessee and Alabama. And those who did survive those tornadoes still a bit shaken today. Most, though, as we mentioned, grateful that they have a new day in their own life.
Have a listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just knew something was wrong that I didn't like. So I barely got into the closet with her. And I thank the lord.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been terrible. I've never been through nothing like this. I'm still in a state of shock. It's awful. And I couldn't even find my house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The appliances, our furniture, the house, we were tossed, turned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just, we made it. We made it. We're still here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got each other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what matters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard about a family down the road, Brian Leffer (ph), his son. His grandma and his dad were all killed in the basement. It flattened their house. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have hardly anything. I have nothing. And it's like you've got to start your life all over again. But we're alive and that's all that matters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Going forward now, the Red Cross without question will play a large part in the effort of restoring and rebuilding.
Mossy Grove, Tennessee this morning is where we find Scott Davis from the Red Cross -- Scott, good morning to you.
SCOTT DAVIS, RED CROSS: Good morning to you.
HEMMER: Tell us what you need there today.
DAVIS: You know, where do you begin? We have multiple states affected. We've got hundreds of volunteers trying to provide assistance. We have an outpouring of generosity already from the local community. We have multiple states and we're coming up to a holiday season. We've already been asked, you know, what can we do by individuals just driving by. And we're trying to remind people because of the upcoming holiday and we don't, again, the uncertainty of disaster at any time, whether today or tonight or even tomorrow, is to donate to 1-800-HELPNOW and donate to the national disaster relief fund.
HEMMER: Scott, tell me, what can you do today, what can you do this week for these people there?
DAVIS: You know, we're doing a lot already. We're providing hot meals and we're providing refreshments. The most important thing is we're providing a shoulder to lean on so they can tell their story. And by the information that we gather through interviewing, through mental health and in walking up and down the streets and doing our damage assessment and whatnot, we gather a sense of, you know, what they're going to need to meet their emergency based needs and then to go on to long-term recovery needs.
Time will tell. These are a resilient folk and they're really great people. You know, we drive through communities like this every day out in the country and don't realize that it is, in fact, a community where people live. They're really, they're more worried about their friends and families so much more than themselves.
HEMMER: Hey, Scott, I'm not sure if you could answer this question or not, but the number of missing has fluctuated between 12 and 14 today. I'm not sure if you have a firmer number on that or not.
DAVIS: I still am waiting to hear the same information as you are right now. And, you know, because, you know, the tornado was on Sunday, there's still, they want to make sure that, you know, the numbers are correct and the best possible numbers. And if individuals, we've heard reports of individuals may be reluctant to let people know where they are because they've probably left the community and they have nothing.
So I know that county officials are asking individuals here in this county to contact either the county or the local Red Cross to let them know where they're at, so that way they can get a better handle on some of those numbers of the missing.
HEMMER: Hey, good luck, OK, Scott?
DAVIS: Thank you very much.
HEMMER: Scott Davis with the Red Cross in Mossy Grove.
You put out the number, I'll say it again, 1-800-HELPNOW for those who want to get in touch with the Red Cross if you want to lend a hand there, be it financial or otherwise.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Days of Deadly Tornadoes>
