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CNN Saturday Morning News

Tropical Storm Batters Gulf Coast

Aired June 09, 2001 - 08:00   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 along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas and Louisiana, where heavy rain in the wake of a tropical storm, Allison, triggering dangerous flooding this morning. In Houston, streets and roads are now rivers washing into houses and apartments. We get more from Robert Arnold (ph) of our affiliate, KPRC.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT ARNOLD, KPRC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chaos on the freeways as fire engines and ambulances crisscross under lightning filled skies, first I-10 at McCardy swamped, stopping traffic. Once that opens, 610 under I-10 then has traffic at a standstill and has swamped several cars.

UNIDENTIFIED MOTORIST: We've been out here three, four hours.

ARNOLD (on camera): How long?

UNIDENTIFIED MOTORIST: Four hours.

ARNOLD: How is your car doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MOTORIST: Oh, it's, it's totaled. It's totaled.

ARNOLD: How much water?

UNIDENTIFIED MOTORIST: It's up to the windows.

ARNOLD (voice-over): Sharon Stevens (ph) is one of dozens stuck in this lagoon, which is 610 underneath I-10, forced to take shelter under the overpass.

UNIDENTIFIED MOTORIST: But there's people with kids here and there's been no emergency vehicles being able to get in or out to get anybody out.

ARNOLD: That's because even this city fire truck couldn't escape the flood waters.

UNIDENTIFIED MOTORIST: You all need someone over there?

ARNOLD: A nearly impossible task and with the rain showing no signs of letting up, none of these people will be getting home any time soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MOTORIST: Four hours on the freeway.

ARNOLD (on camera): Not the way you wanted to spend your Friday, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED MOTORIST: Not at all. We're taking somebody home. We got stranded. Our brother.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That report, once again, from Robert Arnold of our affiliate KPRC in Houston. Let's send it up to Jill Brown in the weather center.

What's the outlook, Jill?

JILL BROWN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Miles, that last woman looked pretty upbeat considering the circumstances. It doesn't look so great here, really dire across the Houston area. All of these dark green shaded counties have flood warnings, meaning flooding is occurring or is imminent, as you can see from the video.

Basically it's occurring everywhere. Some of the heaviest rain came during the overnight hours. We may see that continue today, another five inches possible. Take a look at the Doppler estimate. Where you see the reds and the pinks on this map, if you look at our legend here, that's six to 12 inches of rain.

So as you can see, it's really been concentrated in one fairly small area, almost exactly right over Houston. But we've had some of those flooding rains extend over into Louisiana for the last five days and it looks like it will continue, much of the southeast getting some needed rain. It's not all bad news. Across Alabama, Georgia and Florida we could use more. I notice Florida still pretty dry. It looks like a stationary front will be draped across the Gulf Coast and pick up some of that tropical moisture this weekend.

So we'll continue to see some rain through here, although it doesn't look like anything real serious. Unfortunately with the low that is the remnants of Allison only drifting to the south, Houston will continue to see it and you're just really right in it, the heaviest rain right through here.

So there's your forecast, five inches or more of rain here, some fairly heavy rain across the rest of the southeast. It looks like that front will drift a little bit father south. But places like Atlanta and Birmingham should clear out, if not today, then for Sunday. But I wish we could say that for Houston. It doesn't look too promising, at least through the weekend -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Jill.

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