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CNN Saturday Morning News

Texas Fights Flash Floods

Aired June 09, 2001 - 09:49   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: In Houston, Texas, this morning, they are grappling with some serious flash flooding. We were talking with the command center there in Houston for the city, indicating their resources are stretched to the limit as they try to deal with the situation, calling in from -- for help from the governor's office.

In addition, a little further south in Galveston, Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard is busy dealing with this issue. On the line with us right now from Galveston is Lieutenant Mara Booth-Miller to give us the latest from where she sits.

Lieutenant, what is the Coast Guard doing to try and help folks at this juncture?

LT. MARA BOOTH-MILLER, U.S. COAST GUARD: Good morning. The Coast Guard is flying two helicopters in the Houston area. The command post where I am right now has been receiving dozens and dozens of calls, and we're trying to get the helicopters out to help these people just as quickly as possible.

We of course have had some calls with elderly people, people in wheelchairs who are, of course, unable to get away from the flooding. We're trying to help those people, but we are experiencing a lot of people who are trapped on their rooftops, and we're just trying to help people just as quickly as we can and get them to high ground.

O'BRIEN: Aside from the helicopters, what else can the Coast Guard do to help out?

BOOTH-MILLER: At this point, the helicopters are our only resource. The boats, with the way that the water is, it's not deep enough for us to get our boats out to help these folks. So we're trying to get some more helicopters from outside the Houston area to come help us. We're also working hand in hand with the local emergency agencies who have air boats or private watercraft so they can help us if they have flat-bottomed boats. We're asking them to help us to get some of these people to safe areas.

O'BRIEN: I suppose those small inflatable boats that the Coast Guard uses might come in handy.

BOOTH-MILLER: They might. Those are still -- they have too deep of a drought to get into some of these areas where it's just a street that's flooded. So we're relying on our helicopters, since most of these people are on their rooftops or standing on top of cars. We're relying on our helicopters to hoist those people out of those areas and get them to higher ground.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. That's Lieutenant Mara Booth-Miller. She's with the United States Coast Guard outpost in Galveston, Texas. Thanks for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

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