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American Morning

Surviving the Terror

Aired May 06, 2003 - 09:10   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The night of the tornadoes began like most evenings. For many people in Missouri, it was dinner time when the storm struck. My next guests were sitting down at their table when they realized what was about to happen. When they emerged from their basement, their home and their town has been destroyed. Amber and James Economou of Pierce City, Missouri are here now with their story.
Good morning to both of you. So glad that you're safe, guys.

I want to know, how much warning did you have before it hit? Can you talk to us about that for a little bit?

AMBER ECONOMOU, HOME DESTROYED: We had been watching the TV and saw that a storm was coming but the weather was fine outside, just a little overcast. And about three or four minutes before it hit, we were watching the clouds and they just started to swirl around and not look right, and I went down stairs, and he stayed upstairs for another minute or so.

JAMES ECONOMOU, HOME DESTROYED: I didn't really believe it, I wanted to keep looking out of the window, because the bulk of the storm was north of us, so we weren't getting much rain or anything like that. We were just on tail end of it, so.

But I saw the tornado come over the horizon, and I joined the girls and Jackson downstairs.

A. ECONOMOU: And it hit about a minute later.

COLLINS: About a minute later. All right, so you were down in the basement, and I understand that you say it lasted for about four minutes. You came up from the basement. What did you see?

J. ECONOMOU: Well, I came up first, and I just opened the door and where the end of the house was, was gone, and her car that was in the garage, the garage was gone, smashed up against the house, so the car was right there. The barn was gone. The shop was gone. I was worried about the dogs, because they were in the house, but they made it, so all three dogs were good.

COLLINS: I know that you are your missing cat. Have you had any luck finding the cat?

J. ECONOMOU: Not yet. But you know -- cats, they can -- they are pretty crafty. He'll come back, I think, if he made it. Might take a day or two. COLLINS: They are. Wish you luck with that as well.

What are your plans? Do you have to rebuild? And how soon can you think about doing that?

J. ECONOMOU: Well, we need to hear from the insurance company first. We haven't even had a guy come out to adjust our property, so we're lucky, we're one of the lucky people that do have insurance. So we're going to go from there. We have to see what builders are like, how long that will take. What kind of power services we can get back up on the property. We've rented a little apartment in Monette (ph), but we're just kind of hanging on until we can assess all of our options.

COLLINS: What do you guys need most help with right now? It sounds like those concerns about rebuilding and all that are a little bit distant to you. What do you need right now at this moment?

J. ECONOMOU: Do you want me to answer that? Or do you want to answer that?

A. ECONOMOU: I can't think of anything. I think we have power in Monette today, and that's what we were waiting for, was services, you know, to be able to buy gas and go to the grocery store.

J. ECONOMOU: And I've got family flying from Salt Lake City, my two nephews, my brother-in-law, my sister. I've got family in Rogersville, Missouri. They've all has been out. I've got generators out there. Trucks and tractors and chainsaws, everybody is just swarming around there. So I feel very lucky that we -- we've had a lot of laughs, too. We cry all of the time, but we've had some good humor and been pulled together as a family. So it's...

COLLINS: And that sounds like to be the lesson you can take from this hopefully. Again, so glad that you are safe. Your spirits are amazing and we appreciate this morning, and we appreciate you're being here with us.

Amber and James Economou from Pierce City, Missouri. Thanks again, guys.

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 May 6, 2003 - 09:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The night of the tornadoes began like most evenings. For many people in Missouri, it was dinner time when the storm struck. My next guests were sitting down at their table when they realized what was about to happen. When they emerged from their basement, their home and their town has been destroyed. Amber and James Economou of Pierce City, Missouri are here now with their story.
Good morning to both of you. So glad that you're safe, guys.

I want to know, how much warning did you have before it hit? Can you talk to us about that for a little bit?

AMBER ECONOMOU, HOME DESTROYED: We had been watching the TV and saw that a storm was coming but the weather was fine outside, just a little overcast. And about three or four minutes before it hit, we were watching the clouds and they just started to swirl around and not look right, and I went down stairs, and he stayed upstairs for another minute or so.

JAMES ECONOMOU, HOME DESTROYED: I didn't really believe it, I wanted to keep looking out of the window, because the bulk of the storm was north of us, so we weren't getting much rain or anything like that. We were just on tail end of it, so.

But I saw the tornado come over the horizon, and I joined the girls and Jackson downstairs.

A. ECONOMOU: And it hit about a minute later.

COLLINS: About a minute later. All right, so you were down in the basement, and I understand that you say it lasted for about four minutes. You came up from the basement. What did you see?

J. ECONOMOU: Well, I came up first, and I just opened the door and where the end of the house was, was gone, and her car that was in the garage, the garage was gone, smashed up against the house, so the car was right there. The barn was gone. The shop was gone. I was worried about the dogs, because they were in the house, but they made it, so all three dogs were good.

COLLINS: I know that you are your missing cat. Have you had any luck finding the cat?

J. ECONOMOU: Not yet. But you know -- cats, they can -- they are pretty crafty. He'll come back, I think, if he made it. Might take a day or two. COLLINS: They are. Wish you luck with that as well.

What are your plans? Do you have to rebuild? And how soon can you think about doing that?

J. ECONOMOU: Well, we need to hear from the insurance company first. We haven't even had a guy come out to adjust our property, so we're lucky, we're one of the lucky people that do have insurance. So we're going to go from there. We have to see what builders are like, how long that will take. What kind of power services we can get back up on the property. We've rented a little apartment in Monette (ph), but we're just kind of hanging on until we can assess all of our options.

COLLINS: What do you guys need most help with right now? It sounds like those concerns about rebuilding and all that are a little bit distant to you. What do you need right now at this moment?

J. ECONOMOU: Do you want me to answer that? Or do you want to answer that?

A. ECONOMOU: I can't think of anything. I think we have power in Monette today, and that's what we were waiting for, was services, you know, to be able to buy gas and go to the grocery store.

J. ECONOMOU: And I've got family flying from Salt Lake City, my two nephews, my brother-in-law, my sister. I've got family in Rogersville, Missouri. They've all has been out. I've got generators out there. Trucks and tractors and chainsaws, everybody is just swarming around there. So I feel very lucky that we -- we've had a lot of laughs, too. We cry all of the time, but we've had some good humor and been pulled together as a family. So it's...

COLLINS: And that sounds like to be the lesson you can take from this hopefully. Again, so glad that you are safe. Your spirits are amazing and we appreciate this morning, and we appreciate you're being here with us.

Amber and James Economou from Pierce City, Missouri. Thanks again, guys.

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