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CNN Live Event/Special
Indiana's Water Blues
Aired July 11, 2003 - 20:27 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 ANCHOR: In northern and central Indiana, hundreds of people want nothing more this weekend than to basically just dry out. Six days of heavy rain sent rivers pouring over their banks, 25 counties in northern Indiana already declared disaster areas. Nine more could soon be added to the list. Forecasters now say dryer weather is on the way from parts of Indiana. That is welcome news.
CNN's Jeff Flock has more now from the flood zone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Doug Hackbarth (ph) wades in to check the damage to his nursery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll bet that's fried. This computer screen has no pictures. And it is on.
FLOCK: He shows us equipment drowned, plants floating in muddy brown water, greenhouses swamped, his cooler flooded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we can open it.
FLOCK: Just one of hundreds of businesses and homes wrecked in the disaster area that is now Indiana.
What a week it has been, fort Wayne residents awakened and driven from their homes in the middle of the night Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't expect for it to get this bad.
FLOCK: To the south, in Bluffton, 350 buildings damaged, sandbag levees everywhere. Across the border in Wilshire, Ohio, more levees, not enough to save this grocery store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, they asked me about the dumpster. I said, we'll just bring dump trucks down and start hauling it.
FLOCK: This was the sandbag scene in Decatur, Indiana, where volunteers poured in as fast as the water, one man moved by the kindness of strangers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People who don't even know me are following me home to help me unload.
FLOCK: And the fight continues, success stories side by side with disaster. (on camera): You've been running this night and day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I have.
FLOCK: And, as a result of that, you've been able to pump the water out on this side and keep this side dry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we have kept the neighborhood from going under.
FLOCK (voice-over): A whining pump and leaky blue hose keep one side of this Fort Wayne street dry, while, across the way, houses closer to the river are lost behind a white sandbag Levy. That is Deborah Englehart's (ph) house over there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we didn't have enough people. We just couldn't keep up with it. It came too fast for us.
FLOCK: Just as the cleanup figures to be all too slow.
I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 July 11, 2003 - 20:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: In northern and central Indiana, hundreds of people want nothing more this weekend than to basically just dry out. Six days of heavy rain sent rivers pouring over their banks, 25 counties in northern Indiana already declared disaster areas. Nine more could soon be added to the list. Forecasters now say dryer weather is on the way from parts of Indiana. That is welcome news.
CNN's Jeff Flock has more now from the flood zone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Doug Hackbarth (ph) wades in to check the damage to his nursery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll bet that's fried. This computer screen has no pictures. And it is on.
FLOCK: He shows us equipment drowned, plants floating in muddy brown water, greenhouses swamped, his cooler flooded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we can open it.
FLOCK: Just one of hundreds of businesses and homes wrecked in the disaster area that is now Indiana.
What a week it has been, fort Wayne residents awakened and driven from their homes in the middle of the night Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't expect for it to get this bad.
FLOCK: To the south, in Bluffton, 350 buildings damaged, sandbag levees everywhere. Across the border in Wilshire, Ohio, more levees, not enough to save this grocery store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, they asked me about the dumpster. I said, we'll just bring dump trucks down and start hauling it.
FLOCK: This was the sandbag scene in Decatur, Indiana, where volunteers poured in as fast as the water, one man moved by the kindness of strangers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People who don't even know me are following me home to help me unload.
FLOCK: And the fight continues, success stories side by side with disaster. (on camera): You've been running this night and day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I have.
FLOCK: And, as a result of that, you've been able to pump the water out on this side and keep this side dry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we have kept the neighborhood from going under.
FLOCK (voice-over): A whining pump and leaky blue hose keep one side of this Fort Wayne street dry, while, across the way, houses closer to the river are lost behind a white sandbag Levy. That is Deborah Englehart's (ph) house over there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we didn't have enough people. We just couldn't keep up with it. It came too fast for us.
FLOCK: Just as the cleanup figures to be all too slow.
I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
