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CNN Sunday Morning

Flooding Paralyzes Houston, Texas

Aired June 10, 2001 - 09:01   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour in southeastern Texas where the nation's fourth largest city is virtually paralyzed by rising floodwaters and a deepening crisis. At least three people have died in the flood-ravaged city of Houston and it's suburbs. Some areas are reporting nearly three feet of rain since tropical storm Allison charged ashore on Tuesday.

As the storm moved in and stalled, as many as 17,000 families packed up and moved out. Floodwaters swamped the tens of thousands of homes and chased people into emergency shelter. But many roads only led to more trouble. Floodwaters swallowed highways and byways and brought even commercial traffic to a soggy standstill.

Emergency crews mobilized boats and helicopters to pluck stranded motorists from the rising waters. President Bush, formerly the state's governor, of course, has declared 28 counties in Texas a federal disaster area.

For the latest in the emergency efforts we turn now to a spokesman for the Texas division of Emergency Management, Don Rogers, on the line for us. Don, bring us the latest.

DON ROGERS, TEXAS DIVISION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Good morning, Mr. O'Brien.

O'BRIEN: How are you?

ROGERS: I'm good, thank you -- a little bit dryer than yesterday.

O'BRIEN: All right. Tell us what the outlook is right now as we begin efforts to try to recover from all of this?

ROGERS: Well, as you -- as you just mentioned, the president's action makes federal funding available to both individuals and local government in the 28 counties that have been catastrophically effected. At the current time we have state assets in the Houston area that include everything from the Texas Army National Guard -- with over 250 soldiers and 75 high profile vehicles -- to Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Engineering Service, General Land Office, Texas Department of Transportation, Salvation Army and even the U.S. Coast Guard because of our friends at FEMA we've been able to tap into some of their resources to help the folks down in that area. O'BRIEN: Mr. Rogers, just looking at the pictures we're showing right now as we're talking to you, you get the sense that the task is very large indeed. Despite all you just said, do you need some more help?

ROGERS: Well, here's the situation -- and as far as help and I'm glad you asked that question. Often times particularly in floods, what happens is you get a different view than you do in a tornado or a hurricane because the floodwaters, of course, take longer to recede. Those folk who might want to donate, what we would strongly recommend that they do is call their local Red Cross chapter.

Don't just haphazardly come down to the Texas area or get in a car or truck and come down to help. Call their local Red Cross or their local public service agency and find out what they can do or what they can donate because sometimes the donations become the second disaster in the disaster.

O'BRIEN: And just put this into some historical perspective for us. Houston, of course, of the years has been, as you alluded to, hit with some serious hurricanes. How does this flood rate compared to some of these previous natural disasters along the Gulf Coast of Texas?

ROGERS: Well, we never really compare one disaster to another because it really depends on whether or not it's individually effected you or not. However, I will say this, that with the amount of rain that they've had, they've had the larger population in the Houston metropolitan, Houston area, it's certainly going to effect a number of people.

O'BRIEN: Don Rogers is with the Division of Emergency Management for the State of Texas as we look at some live pictures courtesy of our affiliate KPRC hovering over parts of Houston right now. Thanks for being with us, Mr. Rogers, and we wish the folks in Houston good luck as they try to recover from this terrible flood.

And let's turn it now to Jill Brown who's in the weather center with the latest on the forecast. Jill, what's ahead for folks in Houston and elsewhere?

JILL BROWN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Miles, it looks a little bit better and you can tell that from looking at the satellite picture here. As you can see, the clouds -- the thickest clouds -- are out over the gulf. That's where the center of circulation is. That's just remnants of Allison. You wouldn't think that something that latest as a tropical storm for such as short time could cause so many problems but it's just the slow movement of this one.

So we may associate some showers or even thundershowers and downpours around Houston today. But we think that they'll be minimal compared to what we had the last few days. And you can see here just a few showing up -- some sprinkles. And there are many flash flooding warnings in effect -- no flash flooding, the flooding that's there obviously still a problem. So the waters aren't rising in this location but they'll stick around and it may be awhile before they recede.

It could be a different story in Louisiana. Look at this heavy rain coming in toward you in New Orleans. We've already had tremendous amounts of rain. Baton Rouge has had over 18 inches of rain -- a five-day total, which doesn't compare to the 35 inches that we've had in some parts around the Houston area. But still some problems are expected in Louisiana with some of this heavy rain that will be coming in.

So if you take a look at our 24 hour totals, the heaviest now has been just on the east side of Houston and stretching over into Louisiana. Over the next 24 hours anyway, Louisiana will probably see the heaviest rain. And then we can see a decent soaking across the rest of the southeast over the next few days but nothing compared to what we've seen in Houston.

So Houston I think the worst is over and it's going to be awhile before those floodwaters begin to recede. Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jill Brown in the Weather Center -- we'll check in with here a little bit later.

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