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CNN Saturday Morning News

2002 Hurricane Season Opens Today

Aired June 01, 2002 - 09:54   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: 2002 hurricane season opens today. Already there are a couple of suspicious areas in the tropics to keep an eye on, nothing major yet, though. Hurricane experts are predicting a busier-than-usual season this year, though. They're forecasting six to eight hurricanes, three may be classified as major.

Miami bureau chief John Zarrella is at the Home Depot this morning. The place will be humming once the first storm takes aim at Florida, and I'm sure everyone's getting prepared, John. We know the drill.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Boy, they sure know the drill down here. I know you talked about the hurricane season, a busier than active year. When in 1992, 10 years ago, when Hurricane Andrew struck here, there were only six main storms that year, well below average.

But Hurricane Andrew, of course, the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, natural disaster.

Now we're at the Home Depot here, and they know what a hurricane can do, what Andrew can do. Take a look at the video from 10 years ago of what this Home Depot, which had only been open three days, looked like right after Hurricane Andrew hit. It had torn this place apart, absolutely split it in two.

Now they're hosting a hurricane expo here, and obviously they know about hurricanes. You can see that all kinds of vendors here, from the Energizer Bunny and Eveready to people from the Red Cross, people selling shutters and awnings, and you've got insurance companies represented here.

Now, some of the things, this is June 1, if you're one of the 85 million people who live in the coastal counties from Maine to Texas, 85 million, if you're not ready, this is the time to get ready.

Some of the things you need to do, Radio Shack has a weather radio with an alert system that will tip you to tornadoes, any kind of weather emergency, severe thunderstorm. These are the kinds of things you should be going out and purchasing now. Get those kinds of things right away so that you're ready.

Want to walk out here and take a quick look at some basic items that you need to get now to be ready for the big time of the season. Here you go, you've got a flashlight, you've got some caulk, you got the bucket in case you got a roof leak. So there's lots of basic things you can get now to be ready when the major part of the hurricane season begins in August.

This is John Zarrella reporting live from Cutler Ridge -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, John, thank you so much.

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