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CNN Saturday Morning News
Floods Disrupt Travel in Midwest, Northeast
Aired September 01, 2001 - 09:07 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: People in the Midwest and Northeast have been swamped by heavy rains and some major flooding. In Cleveland, Ohio, up to four inches of rain fell yesterday, closing parts of interstates and flooding homes and low-lying roads. And down South, Texas is trying to dry out from a day of heavy rain. Some roadways turned into small rivers and forced residents from their homes.
Joining us live from Pearland, Texas, is Jason Whitely of our affiliate KHOU.
What's the latest, Jason?
JASON WHITELY, REPORTER, KHOU: Marty, right now, it's just started to sprinkle since you've done the intro there. The dawn of a new day is not bringing a lot of relief. Look back towards the west here, some dark clouds are already starting to form, not bringing a lot of relief in sight to the folks who live in this suburb just south of Houston called Pearland.
After flash floods drenched this southern suburb of Houston yesterday, meteorologists predicted clouds would darken again today. Let's take a look at what happened yesterday.
About five inches of rain fell in Pearland, Texas, on Friday, and after a week of rain, the ground was so saturated the water started flooding streets, lawns, and some homes. Firefighters rescued 10 people and their pets yesterday from the rising water. Fortunately, none of them were emergencies, firefighters say, they were just situations where folks went to seek higher ground just in case the weather started getting any worse than it was yesterday.
Several dozen homes did get flooded in this suburb. And what makes this worse is that many Houstonians are enduring their flood of the summer. Tropical storm Allison came through here back in June and flooded massive parts of northern, eastern, and southern Houston. This time only southern Houston is getting wet from the storms this week.
And as many people in Pearland started replacing their homes and -- repairing their homes, rather, the storm came in. Here comes the rain again. You can never predict it down here. It's been raining pretty hard all week, and looks like folks down here are going to have to endure quite a bit more until this system finally leaves us. Marty, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jason, thanks so much.
WHITELY: All right.
Well, that's OK, I said "Proland," and it's Pearland, so I guess he can call me Marty.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Sure.
PHILLIPS: That's a fair deal.
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