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CNN Sunday Morning

Pennsylvania Fights Severe Flooding

Aired June 17, 2001 - 09:02   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour, though, in Pennsylvania, where remnants of Tropical Storm Allison have resulted in flash flood warnings. In the area Philadelphia yesterday, torrential rains turned streets into canals and forced residents to evacuate several homes and apartment buildings. More than 350 people had to find emergency shelter. The storm was scary and dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get pinned against that guardrail it just puts you right underwater and then you're gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I want to do is get home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Police in Bucks County say dozens of people had to be rescued from cars that stalled on flooded roads. Parts of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was closed and at one point more than 50,000 customers were without power.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: And for the latest on the flooding Pennsylvania Marko Bourne joins us by phone from Harrisburg. He's the spokesman for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. Mr. Bourne, thank you for being with us this morning.

MARKO BOURNE, PEMA: Good morning, Brian.

NELSON: I take it there's some relief now taking effect in that area from the storm. You have a flash flood warning in effect only for another hour -- is that right?

BOURNE: That's correct. We do expect the main creek that's been causing most of the flooding -- the Misshaminy (ph) Creek -- to be in crest there shortly or within the next hour. And then the levels should begin to fall but it is definitely gone well above it's previous high, which was back in 1993.

NELSON: Is the rain still coming down?

BOURNE: There has been off and on rain this morning -- another band went through about an hour and a half ago. We hopefully have seen the last of the rain as the system starts to move out. But certainly everybody in that whole area is watching closely to make sure that any additional rainfall doesn't cause more problems.

NELSON: I understand this has echoes of Hurricane Floyd -- am I right?

BOURNE: Many of the same areas that got hit in Hurricane Floyd are effected by this. Bucks County and it's neighboring county, Montgomery, many of the communities that appear to have some significant flooding this morning were hit in Hurricane Floyd in 1999. And, actually, many of those same communities in Bucks County were hit last summer with a -- when a strong single cell storm went through and dropped about eight inches in about a five hours period.

NELSON: Some of these pictures we're looking at while we're talking to you are rather dramatic -- people having to be rescued in knee-high water. Have to had to evacuate whole communities because of the storm?

BOURNE: A lot of the local communities have evacuated in the immediate area of the Misshaminy Creek. Overnight there were a little more than 100 people in Bucks County that went into shelters. I'm not sure of the total numbers of evacuees at this point because many people evacuate to friends or relatives or hotels. But that general area has been flooded before. People move out pretty quickly when this happens.

NELSON: Is the region -- once this is all over, the rains have stopped, the water subsides -- is the region going to be able to get back to some semblance of normality pretty quickly or is there going to be a lot of residual damage?

BOURNE: A lot of it depends on how high the flooding got and how much damage was actually done. Certainly the Misshaminy Creek setting whatever record it did set today is going to cause some significant problems in many of those homes. That's going to take time. And we've got damage assessment teams that are working very closely with the county emergency management officials and the local officials right now to go in, begin a preliminary assessment just to see how widespread this is and how devastating the damage might be and then we'll have a better handle on it before the end of the day.

NELSON: Mr. Bourne, are there any deaths and injuries associated with this storm?

BOURNE: There have been none reported to us at this time and certainly information coming out of the counties is more on rescues and trying to make sure that the flood waters don't effect as many homes as possible -- try to get these people out of the area. So I think it will be awhile before we know for sure but at this point there have been none reported to us.

NELSON: Well, let's hope it says that way. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Marko Bourne from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

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