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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Larry Leinhauser

Aired June 22, 2003 - 11:20   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: After a week of heavy rain, today at least 500 homes near the Manatee Dam near Tampa, Florida are being evacuated. Apparently, one of the spill gates is malfunctioning, and the dam is expected to breach. Joining us by phone is Captain Larry Leinhauser with the Manatee County Department of Public Safety.
Thanks very much for joining us. What are the water levels right now? How much of a threat is it that these spill gates just might give way?

CAPT. LARRY LEINHAUSER, MANATEE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: Right now we're just under 43 feet, and it's normally 38 feet.

WHITFIELD: And this is a 50-foot high dam, correct? All together?

LEINHAUSER: That is correct, yes.

WHITFIELD: Well, how serious a threat are we talking about when we evacuate some 500 homes in the area? You feel pretty certain that it just might break and cause some danger for people who live there?

LEINHAUSER: We don't fear the dam itself will break. We fear that -- we've never had to execute the spillways, which is basically the backup design if such an occurrence like this happens, they're designed to handle the overflow and they've never been tested, because we've never had the water that high before.

WHITFIELD: So you have a malfunctioning spill gate, what does that mean? How do you know that it's not quite working properly, and, you know, is there maintenance that leads up to it that perhaps could have given the red flag that it just might not work when needed to?

LEINHAUSER: We got notified 11:30 last night from utility operations that one of the three gates locked down when they went to raise them up and it remain seized until just a few minutes ago. I just got word that the gate is open and water is flowing out of it, which is very good news for us. But it was locked down since about 11:30 last night.

WHITFIELD: How much time do you need to give it before you allow people to start returning to their homes, or, maybe before that, start assessing whether there's any real potential danger in the area? LEINHAUSER: It's very, very early to tell that right now. No one is going to be suggested that they come back to their residences at this time, because we still are expecting two to four inches of rain on top of what we already had. The ground's already saturated, so what we want to do right now is mitigate the water at the dam and the river and the lake, and then when we feel it safe for the public, we'll bring them back to their homes.

WHITFIELD: All right. Captain Larry Leinhauser, thanks very much for joining us. We appreciate it, know you're very busy, and you've got to get back to work. Thanks very much.

All right. So some good news there, coming from the Captain, that one of the spill gates, one of three spill gates at that Manatee Dam is now working after malfunctioning most of the morning and threatening at least 500 homes in the area. Which is why they had an evacuation, but still too soon to allow people to return to their homes.

Let's check in with Rob Marciano, because, as we heard from the Captain, they're still expecting about two inches of rain, maybe today, alone.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's raining out there right now, and in this part of the world when it rains, it rains real hard.

Thunderstorms in and around the Tampa area. This is where the dam is, just south of St. Petersburg. And this is going to fill in the radars over the next several hours. Similar conditions exist tomorrow. I do think we will dry - actually, most of that will push down to the south. Today will be the wettest day for that flood-prone area.

A quick check on the northeast weather, rain there, but it will taper off as we go through the afternoon. Also the potential for some thunderstorms rolling through, well, Omaha, Nebraska, at this hour, just about to make their way into Kansas city. Des Moines, Iowa, maybe Minneapolis, some could be on the strong side.

Daytime highs. Where it is raining, obviously it is cool, 70, if you're lucky in New York, 90 in Miami, 84 degrees in Chicago, 86 degrees in Denver. 60s across the west coast, and we're going to dry things out as we go through tomorrow. Much of the east coast rain down to the south of Florida will continue to sink down to the south. And finally, some heat, summertime heat will be making its way into the northeast tomorrow and on Tuesday. Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Rob, thanks very much.

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 June 22, 2003 - 11:20   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: After a week of heavy rain, today at least 500 homes near the Manatee Dam near Tampa, Florida are being evacuated. Apparently, one of the spill gates is malfunctioning, and the dam is expected to breach. Joining us by phone is Captain Larry Leinhauser with the Manatee County Department of Public Safety.
Thanks very much for joining us. What are the water levels right now? How much of a threat is it that these spill gates just might give way?

CAPT. LARRY LEINHAUSER, MANATEE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: Right now we're just under 43 feet, and it's normally 38 feet.

WHITFIELD: And this is a 50-foot high dam, correct? All together?

LEINHAUSER: That is correct, yes.

WHITFIELD: Well, how serious a threat are we talking about when we evacuate some 500 homes in the area? You feel pretty certain that it just might break and cause some danger for people who live there?

LEINHAUSER: We don't fear the dam itself will break. We fear that -- we've never had to execute the spillways, which is basically the backup design if such an occurrence like this happens, they're designed to handle the overflow and they've never been tested, because we've never had the water that high before.

WHITFIELD: So you have a malfunctioning spill gate, what does that mean? How do you know that it's not quite working properly, and, you know, is there maintenance that leads up to it that perhaps could have given the red flag that it just might not work when needed to?

LEINHAUSER: We got notified 11:30 last night from utility operations that one of the three gates locked down when they went to raise them up and it remain seized until just a few minutes ago. I just got word that the gate is open and water is flowing out of it, which is very good news for us. But it was locked down since about 11:30 last night.

WHITFIELD: How much time do you need to give it before you allow people to start returning to their homes, or, maybe before that, start assessing whether there's any real potential danger in the area? LEINHAUSER: It's very, very early to tell that right now. No one is going to be suggested that they come back to their residences at this time, because we still are expecting two to four inches of rain on top of what we already had. The ground's already saturated, so what we want to do right now is mitigate the water at the dam and the river and the lake, and then when we feel it safe for the public, we'll bring them back to their homes.

WHITFIELD: All right. Captain Larry Leinhauser, thanks very much for joining us. We appreciate it, know you're very busy, and you've got to get back to work. Thanks very much.

All right. So some good news there, coming from the Captain, that one of the spill gates, one of three spill gates at that Manatee Dam is now working after malfunctioning most of the morning and threatening at least 500 homes in the area. Which is why they had an evacuation, but still too soon to allow people to return to their homes.

Let's check in with Rob Marciano, because, as we heard from the Captain, they're still expecting about two inches of rain, maybe today, alone.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's raining out there right now, and in this part of the world when it rains, it rains real hard.

Thunderstorms in and around the Tampa area. This is where the dam is, just south of St. Petersburg. And this is going to fill in the radars over the next several hours. Similar conditions exist tomorrow. I do think we will dry - actually, most of that will push down to the south. Today will be the wettest day for that flood-prone area.

A quick check on the northeast weather, rain there, but it will taper off as we go through the afternoon. Also the potential for some thunderstorms rolling through, well, Omaha, Nebraska, at this hour, just about to make their way into Kansas city. Des Moines, Iowa, maybe Minneapolis, some could be on the strong side.

Daytime highs. Where it is raining, obviously it is cool, 70, if you're lucky in New York, 90 in Miami, 84 degrees in Chicago, 86 degrees in Denver. 60s across the west coast, and we're going to dry things out as we go through tomorrow. Much of the east coast rain down to the south of Florida will continue to sink down to the south. And finally, some heat, summertime heat will be making its way into the northeast tomorrow and on Tuesday. Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Rob, thanks very much.

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