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CNN Saturday Morning News

Atlantic Hurricane Season Starts Today

Aired June 01, 2002 - 08:11   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.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today is June 1 and that's the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. I want to start you off by showing you our current satellite loop in the Caribbean and into the eastern Atlantic and show you we've got a little bit of activity. Look for the bright orange cloud cover. You can see it south of central Cuba. That's one area of disturbed weather.

Right now we've got a lot of sheer, or what we call it in the upper atmosphere, so conditions are not all that favorable for development. And also take a look south of Brownsville. A little bit of enhancement there in the Gulf of Mexico. This one could blossom up a little bit. We don't expect it to reach tropical levels. We don't think it will turn into a tropical storm or a hurricane. However, it could bring some significant rainfall along the coastline. Today we think all of that rain will be offshore.

Now, what can you normally expect in a hurricane season? Well, we usually see about 10 named storms. Six of them generally become hurricanes and three of those generally become major hurricanes and this year NOAH is predicting that we'll see a slightly above average year in terms of land fall.

Now, we have seen the last two years none of the hurricanes have made land in the United States and we're hoping that doesn't mean that people are a little complacent.

And joining us now live from south Florida is CNN's Miami bureau chief John Zarrella -- and, John, people getting ready already?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jacqui, this is the time to get ready. You know, the Home Depot down here in Cutler Ridge, Florida is hosting a home -- a hurricane expo today. All kinds of folks going to be here to tell people and show people what they need, what they need to do. And down here they have good reason to be concerned.

Ten years ago, August 24, Hurricane Andrew blew through here. In fact, some pictures of this Home Depot. It had only been open three days when Hurricane Andrew tore it apart, literally cut this Home Depot in two.

Now, we want to give you an idea of some of the things -- it's June 1. The Red Cross did a survey about a year ago and they found that 50 percent of the people who live from Maine to Texas in the areas most likely to get hit by a hurricane don't have an evacuation plan, don't have a hurricane plan.

If you're out there folks, listen up. These are the things you need to get. Obviously, you've got to get your batteries for your transistor radios, anything that you work off of batteries. Now, caulking, use this in your bathtub. Caulk the bathtub so that when you fill it with water, it won't leak out. Caulk the drain. If you get roof leaks, you've got to have buckets. People don't remember those basic things.

Get this Vis Queen (ph) plastic sheeting. If you get a hole in the roof, what are you going to cover it with after the hurricane has passed? Come a hurricane, you won't find this kind of stuff anywhere when you're looking for it.

Obviously, you've got to have flashlights because the electricity is likely to go out. Over on this side, we're going to give you a quick look. You want to keep some of your appliances running, maybe the refrigerator? You've got to get a generator. But that's only if you insist that that's, you know, that you want to make sure you get stuff running.

Now, one of the big things, shutters. If you don't have aluminum panels or steel paneled shutters, you're going to be going to plywood. Now, back during Hurricane Floyd three years ago, what happened? At Home Depot they generally sell 28,000 sheets of plywood every two days. Three years ago, they sold 600,000 sheets of plywood in two days during Hurricane Floyd.

Bob Russell is here with us from Home Depot.

Bob, people tend to buy just about anything they can get their hands on at the last minute, which is not good. Give us a quick look at what you've got here, what they should buy and what they shouldn't buy.

BOB RUSSELL, HOME DEPOT: What we have here today is 5/8 CDX. It's a 4x8 sheet. It's a really strong product because it's laminated so that it holds -- the plywood stays together in conditions where it's wet, where it's windy. It needs to be bolted with the correct fasteners into the house so that it doesn't get pried loose by the winds.

ZARRELLA: So you need to pre-do it? You should be out there measuring, get your plywood now and go ahead and have holes predrilled if you're going to use plywood?

RUSSELL: Yes, you need to have it.

ZARRELLA: And you don't want to buy this, right? Not for hurricane use. It's good for a lot of things, but not for shutters.

RUSSELL: Not for particle board. The minute the water hits it it's going to get sponged up. It's going to get bad. It's not going to be strong as the plywood behind it.

ZARRELLA: 5/8 inch, though, is about what they say is the minimum thickness to go with plywood, right?

RUSSELL: That's what the county recommends.

ZARRELLA: And once you get a little thicker, then you get real heavy and it's tough to deal with. We can show the people real quick the size of this piece of plywood. I mean this is a big sheet of plywood so it's tough to handle, you know, particularly if you've got big, big windows, right, Bob?

RUSSELL: Yes. It is heavy. You probably want to do it ahead of time, like you said, and react early. It is heavy. You're probably going to need a helper. A lot of neighborhoods they get together and all do it as a community project to prep their houses.

ZARRELLA: Bob, thanks very much for taking some time.

Again, today is June 1. This is the time that everybody needs to start thinking about it. Generally speaking, as everybody knows, the worst part of the season is August, September and into early October. But you can't wait until the last minute or you're really going to end up stuck if you're not ready to go when that big one is bearing down on you.

So this is John Zarrella reporting live from Cutler Ridge -- Jacqui.

JERAS: All right, John, thanks very much.

And, John, those are all great tips and really good advice. How many days, reasonable, do you think people need to be prepared for in terms of having enough of everything?

ZARRELLA: Everybody tells you that you need to make sure that you're ready for your electricity to be out for at least a week, sometimes two weeks. But at least make sure you've got enough supplies for your entire family, whether it's a medical kit for a good week, your canned goods, at least a week's supplies.

JERAS: All right, great.

Thanks very much.

John Zarrella reporting live this morning.

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