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American Morning

More Severe Weather in Midwest

Aired May 12, 2003 - 08:00   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Our top story at this hour, however, more severe weather in the Midwest. No laughing matter about that. Just a little more than 24 hours after a devastating tornado tore through the Oklahoma City area, another twister touched down. Now, dozens of planes were damaged when the tornado passed over an airport about seven miles northwest of downtown Oklahoma City. Most of the hangars were hit.
A high school was also damaged. A lot of people suffering there. Interstate 35 was shut down for a time after power lines fell across it. Despite all the damage, there was no -- there were no deaths and just one serious injury. The twister moved east, touching down in a Tulsa suburb, causing no significant damage there.

Now, CNN's Jason Bellini is surveying some of the damage in the suburb of Bethany, Oklahoma, and he joins us now -- Jason, good morning.

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.

Well, since we last spoke with you, the sun's come up. So we're getting a better look at the damage around here. And we met someone who's been up all night surveying the damage who can tell us a little bit more about what this tornado did just a few hours ago. His name is David Beck. He's the deputy fire chief here in Bethany.

And, David, the first thing I want to ask you is, you know, what's, what have you seen? What's the biggest devastation that you've seen so far?

DEPUTY CHIEF DAVID BECK, BETHANY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, most of the devastation has been to commercial business. Fortunately, most of the residential structures have minor to significant damage. But no homes were totally destroyed and we only had a couple of residents that had to seek shelter in another location overnight. BELLINI: OK. What's, what have you guys been doing all night? Now, I heard that you had power lines down and that's still a big concern for you. BECK: We've been monitoring the power lines. As the electric company comes through and turns the power on, we have to be ready to respond in case any of those downed power lines become live and become potential dangers. BELLINI: Now, I personally find it really remarkable that, you know, looking at all this, that no one has died. Do you find that surprising at all? BECK: What was more surprising was that, that we had no injuries that required transportation. BELLINI: None? BECK: None. Absolutely none. We had seven or eight ambulances here ready to take people to the hospital and we did not transport one person. BELLINI: Wow. And tell me why you think that happened. BECK: It had to be the warning, the pre-tornado warnings. The media here in the Oklahoma City area does such a fantastic job of reporting the weather to us that we had literally hours of a warning to prepare. BELLINI: Right. Thank you.

Deputy Fire Chief David Beck, thanks so much for speaking with us this morning.

Well, we're going to take more of a look around. There's an airport just across the road, where we understand that a number of planes have been damaged. The hangar was destroyed. We'll have more on that for you later this morning -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Jason Bellini, thanks very much.

We'll check back in with you shortly.

We want to toss it to Orelon Sidney and get a quick check of the forecast out there -- Orelon.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks a lot.

We still have a risk of severe thunderstorms today for the Plains. Now, Oklahoma City was in the moderate risk area the past couple of, actually, the past several days. It's in the slight risk area for today, but a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms covers most of the Great Lakes and the upper Midwest. And then we get back to a slight risk across parts of the eastern U.S.

It does look like Indianapolis, Chicago will be some of the areas were most concerned with. This is the radar picture from the past 12 hours. You can see thunderstorms there that blew up and moved across Oklahoma City. Now continuing to head northeastward. Look back to the west, though. Snowfall in Denver this morning after tornadoes or funnel clouds were sighted there on Thursday.

These are your current watches. We still have a tornado watch in effect until 9:00 a.m. Central Time. I think this is going to get peeled off, though, as most of the thunderstorms are now moving to the northeast. Watch out in Columbia and St. Louis. You've got thunderstorms heading towards you with gusty winds up about 38 miles an hour. The skies will be sunny in the West and it's going to be hot here in the South and Southeast. In fact, temperatures approaching 90 degrees today across much of the South.

That sets the stage for this cold front finally to move on towards the Gulf of Mexico. We could see severe thunderstorms tomorrow across the mid-Atlantic, but cooler, milder air will be settling in and things will be much, much quieter going into the early part of the week. Still warm, though, for much of the South -- Arthel. Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Orelon, thanks very much.

Now, you can get the latest on this devastate season of storms on our Web site. And while you're at cnn.com/weather, you can also check out the forecast for any of 10,000 cities. The AOL keyword there is CNN.

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 12, 2003 - 08:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Our top story at this hour, however, more severe weather in the Midwest. No laughing matter about that. Just a little more than 24 hours after a devastating tornado tore through the Oklahoma City area, another twister touched down. Now, dozens of planes were damaged when the tornado passed over an airport about seven miles northwest of downtown Oklahoma City. Most of the hangars were hit.
A high school was also damaged. A lot of people suffering there. Interstate 35 was shut down for a time after power lines fell across it. Despite all the damage, there was no -- there were no deaths and just one serious injury. The twister moved east, touching down in a Tulsa suburb, causing no significant damage there.

Now, CNN's Jason Bellini is surveying some of the damage in the suburb of Bethany, Oklahoma, and he joins us now -- Jason, good morning.

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.

Well, since we last spoke with you, the sun's come up. So we're getting a better look at the damage around here. And we met someone who's been up all night surveying the damage who can tell us a little bit more about what this tornado did just a few hours ago. His name is David Beck. He's the deputy fire chief here in Bethany.

And, David, the first thing I want to ask you is, you know, what's, what have you seen? What's the biggest devastation that you've seen so far?

DEPUTY CHIEF DAVID BECK, BETHANY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, most of the devastation has been to commercial business. Fortunately, most of the residential structures have minor to significant damage. But no homes were totally destroyed and we only had a couple of residents that had to seek shelter in another location overnight. BELLINI: OK. What's, what have you guys been doing all night? Now, I heard that you had power lines down and that's still a big concern for you. BECK: We've been monitoring the power lines. As the electric company comes through and turns the power on, we have to be ready to respond in case any of those downed power lines become live and become potential dangers. BELLINI: Now, I personally find it really remarkable that, you know, looking at all this, that no one has died. Do you find that surprising at all? BECK: What was more surprising was that, that we had no injuries that required transportation. BELLINI: None? BECK: None. Absolutely none. We had seven or eight ambulances here ready to take people to the hospital and we did not transport one person. BELLINI: Wow. And tell me why you think that happened. BECK: It had to be the warning, the pre-tornado warnings. The media here in the Oklahoma City area does such a fantastic job of reporting the weather to us that we had literally hours of a warning to prepare. BELLINI: Right. Thank you.

Deputy Fire Chief David Beck, thanks so much for speaking with us this morning.

Well, we're going to take more of a look around. There's an airport just across the road, where we understand that a number of planes have been damaged. The hangar was destroyed. We'll have more on that for you later this morning -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Jason Bellini, thanks very much.

We'll check back in with you shortly.

We want to toss it to Orelon Sidney and get a quick check of the forecast out there -- Orelon.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks a lot.

We still have a risk of severe thunderstorms today for the Plains. Now, Oklahoma City was in the moderate risk area the past couple of, actually, the past several days. It's in the slight risk area for today, but a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms covers most of the Great Lakes and the upper Midwest. And then we get back to a slight risk across parts of the eastern U.S.

It does look like Indianapolis, Chicago will be some of the areas were most concerned with. This is the radar picture from the past 12 hours. You can see thunderstorms there that blew up and moved across Oklahoma City. Now continuing to head northeastward. Look back to the west, though. Snowfall in Denver this morning after tornadoes or funnel clouds were sighted there on Thursday.

These are your current watches. We still have a tornado watch in effect until 9:00 a.m. Central Time. I think this is going to get peeled off, though, as most of the thunderstorms are now moving to the northeast. Watch out in Columbia and St. Louis. You've got thunderstorms heading towards you with gusty winds up about 38 miles an hour. The skies will be sunny in the West and it's going to be hot here in the South and Southeast. In fact, temperatures approaching 90 degrees today across much of the South.

That sets the stage for this cold front finally to move on towards the Gulf of Mexico. We could see severe thunderstorms tomorrow across the mid-Atlantic, but cooler, milder air will be settling in and things will be much, much quieter going into the early part of the week. Still warm, though, for much of the South -- Arthel. Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Orelon, thanks very much.

Now, you can get the latest on this devastate season of storms on our Web site. And while you're at cnn.com/weather, you can also check out the forecast for any of 10,000 cities. The AOL keyword there is CNN.

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