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CNN Sunday Morning

Tropical Storm Barry Is Expected to Make Landfall in Northern Gulf Coast

Aired August 05, 2001 - 08:01   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.
REA BLAKEY, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with Tropical Storm Barry, which is taking aim at the northern Gulf Coast this morning. The storm, which has more rain than wind, has been meandering the Gulf of Mexico for days. It's creeping northward toward land at a snail's pace, we're told, and that slow speed is causing a big concern.

CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us live from Daphne, Alabama, where Barry is expected to make landfall. Ed, any idea when that might happen? What can you tell us?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from the early indications from what we're hearing at this hour, is that tropical storm Barry could make landfall sometime late this evening into early Monday morning. It's a spectacular morning here on the Gulf Shores of the southern coast of Alabama.

This is Mobile Bay behind me, across the water is downtown Mobile, Alabama. This is the little town of Daphne and it's a spectacular morning, bright, sunny and just a few clouds in the sky. It's hard to imagine that tropical storm Barry is out in the gulf waters trying to figure out where it wants to make landfall.

This is the part of Alabama that is very accustomed to dealing with tropical storms and hurricanes. There are indications and reports of some people just heading to some of the stores around town, gathering up a few necessities just in case, trying to get ready for this storm in anticipation of what it might bright.

The main concern is really flooding. Not too many people concerned about high winds or heavy rains, but just a consistent amount of rain is what people are worried about. Some people here are preparing for possible flash flooding. We have seen, as we mentioned, people around town. Not a lot of people terribly worried about it. This is also a part of Alabama that is a popular tourist spot and you don't really see the roads filled with people trying to evacuate and get out of this storm's way.

Yesterday, this Tropical Storm Barry had a lot of people kind of guessing as to what exactly might happen. You might remember, early indications were pointing toward that this storm might hit Louisiana, and as Tropical Storm Barry started changing course throughout the day yesterday, it kind of created a domino effect along the Gulf Coast as emergency management offices kind of jumped into action as the course started getting -- was being plotted further east along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Mississippi and the emergency management office here in Mobile has opened, we understand, at 7:00 AM.

It's just minimal staffing, just kind of going to play it by ear, they tell us, as this day moves forward and as they try to figure out exactly what Tropical Storm Barry is going to do.

BLAKEY: Ed, it sounds as if the folks there are not necessarily taking this lightly, but it's certainly not a huge ordeal for them. They've sort of been through this heavy rain business before.

LAVANDERA: Yeah, they've actually dealt with this several times, especially in the last few years. I think, you know, they are definitely concerned about it, but we don't see many indications of people leaving the area. But, of course, tropical storm Allison, as you might remember, hit the Houston area a few weeks ago and that was the first major tropical storm of the season and that caused millions of dollars of damage, and that caught a lot of people off-guard, and that was because of the flooding.

And although those people didn't have to deal with that kind of -- that storm here, directly, we suppose or imagine that that storm is in the back of a lot of people's minds.

BLAKEY: All right. Maybe the folks in Daphne will take a lesson from Allison's previous adventures. Ed Lavandera, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Now, for the latest coordinates on Barry and its projected track let's go down to Max Mayfield, who is the director of the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Good morning, Max.

MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Good morning, Brian.

NELSON: Where do you see the storm hitting now, and is New Orleans off the hook?

MAYFIELD: It looks like New Orleans is getting off the hook. Brian, we have some very significant information to pass on. We have a new Air Force plane that is just now flying into Barry. It's really reporting a very low pressure. If we get the winds to go along with that pressure, we think that we will very shortly issue a hurricane warning.

We've been forecasting this to be 70 miles per hour tropical storm. It looks like it's going to be stronger than that. So, we do have some very significant changes here, just in the last few hours. We'll be putting out a special advisory within an hour or so.

NELSON: Is the advisory in an hour expected to include an upgrade to hurricane status, or later in the day?

MAYFIELD: We'll either forecast it to a hurricane, or we might even make it a marginal hurricane right now. The main thing, we really want people, especially in that Florida Panhandle area, to start preparing for a hurricane.

NELSON: Now, how big a hurricane do you think this might grow into? The threshold is 74 miles an hour. What are the winds now?

MAYFIELD: Well, the plane is just now getting in there, so we need to wait another 30 or 45 minutes to get some additional information there, but I think we have -- if we don't have a category I hurricane, it's almost there. We've been forecasting this to strengthen, you know, for about three days now, and it just hasn't done anything.

Well, finally, in the last six hours or so, the last airplane we had in there was about 2:00 Eastern time and the pressure has really dropped significantly and even on the satellite imagery behind me you can see it's much more symmetric-looking and for the first time, that center is up, within that big coastal thunderstorm.

So, it looks like we're in business here and we should see some additional strengthening. We'll have to wait until we get all the information from the plane to make the next forecast, but this is some breaking news and we really need to let people know that we are forecasting this to become a hurricane and we are going to upgrade the tropical storm warning to a hurricane warning.

NELSON: All right, Max, would you go ahead and remind us again, warn us, what are the dangers of a hurricane, how soon you might expect this to make landfall and how strong a hurricane?

MAYFIELD: OK. We have all the hazards that you normally have with a hurricane; the storm surge, now, we're more concerned about that than before. The winds go counterclockwise around the center of the storm, so near into the right, where the center crosses the coast, will be where the highest storm surge valleys are. We'll probably bump that up to four to six feet, with some dangerous (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on top of that.

The winds will likely be upgraded to around 75 or 80 miles per hour. We also have been talking about the rainfall for several days, and that's still a very big concern. We're saying 5 to 10 inches. I would expect some locally heavier amounts, and especially, as I said, as it moves inland, if it does slow down, like we're forecasting, I think we'll be talking about this for several more days.

NELSON: All right. Thank you, Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Center.

And just to update you once again, Tropical Storm Barry is expected to be upgraded to a hurricane in a very short time, so those living along the north Gulf Coast should be very careful about that this morning, and stay tuned to CNN as we continue to provide you updates.

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