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CNN Saturday Morning News
Tornadoes Continue to Devastate the Midwest
Aired May 10, 2003 - 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Our top story at this hour, however, more severe weather in the Midwest. No laughing matter about that. Just a little more than 24 hours after a devastating tornado tore through the Oklahoma City area, another twister touched down. Now, dozens of planes were damaged when the tornado passed over an airport about seven miles northwest of downtown Oklahoma City. Most of the hangars were hit.
A high school was also damaged. A lot of people suffering there. Interstate 35 was shut down for a time after power lines fell across it. Despite all the damage, there was no -- there were no deaths and just one serious injury. The twister moved east, touching down in a Tulsa suburb, causing no significant damage there.
Now, CNN's Jason Bellini is surveying some of the damage in the suburb of Bethany, Oklahoma, and he joins us now -- Jason, good morning.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.
Well, since we last spoke with you, the sun's come up. So we're getting a better look at the damage around here. And we met someone who's been up all night surveying the damage who can tell us a little bit more about what this tornado did just a few hours ago. His name is David Beck. He's the deputy fire chief here in Bethany.
And, David, the first thing I want to ask you is, you know, what's, what have you seen? What's the biggest devastation that you've seen so far?
DEPUTY CHIEF DAVID BECK, BETHANY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, most of the devastation has been to commercial business. Fortunately, most of the residential structures have minor to significant damage. But no homes were totally destroyed and we only had a couple of residents that had to seek shelter in another location overnight. BELLINI: OK. What's, what have you guys been doing all night? Now, I heard that you had power lines down and that's still a big concern for you. BECK: We've been monitoring the power lines. As the electric company comes through and turns the power on, we have to be ready to respond in case any of those downed power lines become live and become potential dangers. BELLINI: Now, I personally find it really remarkable that, you know, looking at all this, that no one has died. Do you find that surprising at all? BECK: What was more surprising was that, that we had no injuries that required transportation. BELLINI: None? BECK: None. Absolutely none. We had seven or eight ambulances here ready to take people to the hospital and we did not transport one person. BELLINI: Wow. And tell me why you think that happened. BECK: It had to be the warning, the pre-tornado warnings. The media here in the Oklahoma City area does such a fantastic job of reporting the weather to us that we had literally hours of a warning to prepare. BELLINI: Right. Thank you.
Deputy Fire Chief David Beck, thanks so much for speaking with us this morning.
Well, we're going to take more of a look around. There's an airport just across the road, where we understand that a number of planes have been damaged. The hangar was destroyed. We'll have more on that for you later this morning -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Jason Bellini, thanks very much.
We'll check back in with you shortly.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 10, 2003 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Our top story at this hour, however, more severe weather in the Midwest. No laughing matter about that. Just a little more than 24 hours after a devastating tornado tore through the Oklahoma City area, another twister touched down. Now, dozens of planes were damaged when the tornado passed over an airport about seven miles northwest of downtown Oklahoma City. Most of the hangars were hit.
A high school was also damaged. A lot of people suffering there. Interstate 35 was shut down for a time after power lines fell across it. Despite all the damage, there was no -- there were no deaths and just one serious injury. The twister moved east, touching down in a Tulsa suburb, causing no significant damage there.
Now, CNN's Jason Bellini is surveying some of the damage in the suburb of Bethany, Oklahoma, and he joins us now -- Jason, good morning.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.
Well, since we last spoke with you, the sun's come up. So we're getting a better look at the damage around here. And we met someone who's been up all night surveying the damage who can tell us a little bit more about what this tornado did just a few hours ago. His name is David Beck. He's the deputy fire chief here in Bethany.
And, David, the first thing I want to ask you is, you know, what's, what have you seen? What's the biggest devastation that you've seen so far?
DEPUTY CHIEF DAVID BECK, BETHANY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, most of the devastation has been to commercial business. Fortunately, most of the residential structures have minor to significant damage. But no homes were totally destroyed and we only had a couple of residents that had to seek shelter in another location overnight. BELLINI: OK. What's, what have you guys been doing all night? Now, I heard that you had power lines down and that's still a big concern for you. BECK: We've been monitoring the power lines. As the electric company comes through and turns the power on, we have to be ready to respond in case any of those downed power lines become live and become potential dangers. BELLINI: Now, I personally find it really remarkable that, you know, looking at all this, that no one has died. Do you find that surprising at all? BECK: What was more surprising was that, that we had no injuries that required transportation. BELLINI: None? BECK: None. Absolutely none. We had seven or eight ambulances here ready to take people to the hospital and we did not transport one person. BELLINI: Wow. And tell me why you think that happened. BECK: It had to be the warning, the pre-tornado warnings. The media here in the Oklahoma City area does such a fantastic job of reporting the weather to us that we had literally hours of a warning to prepare. BELLINI: Right. Thank you.
Deputy Fire Chief David Beck, thanks so much for speaking with us this morning.
Well, we're going to take more of a look around. There's an airport just across the road, where we understand that a number of planes have been damaged. The hangar was destroyed. We'll have more on that for you later this morning -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Jason Bellini, thanks very much.
We'll check back in with you shortly.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
