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CNN Saturday Morning News

Severe Storms And Tornadoes Pummel Tennessee Valley

Aired April 08, 2006 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Severe storms and tornadoes pummel the Tennessee Valley. A huge storm system is pushing through the southeast leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. Storms killed 11 people in Tennessee that makes 35 storm deaths in Tennessee since last Sunday.
Heavy storms hit the Atlanta area earlier today as the system plowed eastward. Doppler radar identified tornadoes on the ground in four counties northwest of Atlanta, falling trees, downed power lines, leaving thousands of Georgia power customers in the dark and the storm is headed east into the Carolinas.

Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome back. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen here in the Weather Center room talking a lot about weather today. It is 9:00 a.m. Eastern. Good morning, Tony.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey good morning Betty. I'm Tony Harris, thank you for being with us; we'll have live reports from Gallatin Charlotte, Tennessee in a couple of moments -- Betty.

NGUYEN: But first let's get to right to where the storm is now as we are speaking. It's caused devastation in Tennessee, Georgia, a lot of areas heavily affected by this. Reynolds Wolf has been watching these storms and he joins us with the latest on where they are and where they're headed.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: OK Betty. The latest where we have on these storms, they are making the way through parts of Georgia, through Alabama, that is at least where the heaviest activity is taking place.

Here's Atlanta just to the northeast of the city, back over here you have Greenwood and where you happen to see the red, you happen to see the yellows that indicates increased amount of precipitation, some stronger storms south of La Grange and also the north end to the northwest of Columbus at this hour. We're seeing some of the cells develop.

These storms are significantly weaker than they were just a matter of hours ago and certainly much weaker than they were during the overnight hours. It is the same line of storms that you see here from Warner Robins back up into the Carolinas, that came through Atlanta and brought in a great deal of severe weather, the possible tornadoes and the storm damage we've been showing you throughout the morning. The second line you see a little bit farther back out towards the north, certainly that will cause a lot of fear for people. The skies are going to darken and you'll see scattered showers there as well and certainly not as strong as the original line that first came through.

As we make our way farther up into parts of the Carolinas from Augusta northward all the way into parts of Virginia, you'll notice the storm system is a miss. Much weaker the farther north you go but still it goes all of the way up to New York to Bridgeport, even up to Danbury, Connecticut and again from high above you can see that second line now moving into Alabama as well as northern Georgia. We're going to watch that for you very carefully but we are not expecting anything quite as severe with that line as it comes on through.

So to say the least, this has been a very significant event, Betty, but in comparison with other storms like this at this time of year, it certainly isn't unusual. Back in April third and fourth of 1974 we had the greatest tornado outbreak in history, 174 tornadoes in 13 states killed over 300 people. So, of course, this event was a big one, but there have been much bigger ones.

NGUYEN: Yes but if you look at the sheer numbers what 400 tornadoes reported already this season?

WOLF: That is completely ridiculous for this time of year. It is amazing to see, last year the same time. I believe there were 90 or so.

NGUYEN: Yes, 90 to 100.

WOLF: You have all of the components adding up. All season long we've had a lot of that moisture coming in from the Gulf. The front come right on through the central Plains and the jet stream has been cooperating and it's been making a perfect combination for those storms to form. We don't want to see them.

NGUYEN: It's not the kind of recipe we want to see.

WOLF: Of course not.

NGUYEN: What is it about this year? What's causing all of this? Can you pinpoint anything or is it that these things are aligning and that's what's happening with the atmosphere.

WOLF: Earlier we were talking with Dan McCarthy from the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma. The answer he gave to the same question is this year we've been able to see the fronts move across the northern Plains, nothing to stop them at all.

The year before we had a lot of blockers, if you will, a lot of high pressure in the eastern third of the country which kept us pretty dry but this year the door is wide open for those storms to form and we're hoping that they're going to edge off, but still the components are there for this to happen again.

NGUYEN: It's not just out in the east. Out in California they've had record rainfall; all kinds of flooding there, levees could possibly break.

WOLF: Hawaii as well.

NGUYEN: Seeing enough of this as well but we haven't even begun to talk about hurricane season. So it's just -- I just can't believe it's already so busy.

WOLF: Oh I know. You just want to slow things down and just say one thing at a time but again, tornadoes that's the big story and it's going to prove to be a big story, I'm afraid for weeks to come.

NGUYEN: And this is something that is -- it's springtime.

WOLF: Absolutely.

NGUYEN: So it's something that's expected.

WOLF: Oh yes, its not unusual to see this time of year. When you have the transition say going from winter to spring, you have all these air masses. Folks, when I say air masses that sounds like the strange thing to talk about, when you have really moist air coming in from the Gulf and you have the exact opposite the colder air coming in from the north, those two air masses do not get along and when they clash you have the type of wreckage that we are seeing here.

NGUYEN: It's devastating looking at the pictures. So really all you can do is try to prepare as best you can. A weather radio is really got to be a necessity.

WOLF: No question about it. And also a lot of times if you're not near your television, everyone has to be their own forecast, when you see the skies grow dark. As soon as you see lightning or hear thunder, you need to take shelter immediately. That's the best thing you possibly could do.

NGUYEN: Information is key. Thank you Reynolds. We'll be talking to you all morning long obviously about these storms. I mean the pictures, Tony, is really remarkable and it really hits home the effect of storms like this what they can do to buildings, to homes to lives.

HARRIS: We're going to take you to one of those really hard-hit areas. Boy you said it, Betty. It is the second wave of violent weather to hit Tennessee this week. Gallatin is in the eye of the storm eight people killed in that area, and 11 reported dead across central Tennessee and we can tell you that we are just getting word that we're standing by for a news conference. We're awaiting a news conference from officials in Sumner County, Gallatin is in Sumner County, Tennessee, and Jonathan Freed is in Gallatin with the latest. Jonathan good morning to you.

Let me do something different this time. Let me have you put this week of yours in perspective. You were in Dyer county earlier this week in Dyersburg, if I remember correctly, which was devastated and now here you are in Gallatin, give us a sense if you would and take a moment and walk us through the sites and the scenes that you've witnessed this week.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll do you one better than that Tony. I started in Taylorville, Illinois, about 25 miles south from Springfield. We drove there Sunday evening when we got the first word of the storms. We are of course based in Chicago, I am and the crew I was with at the time.

We ended up in Taylorville, Illinois overnight as the sun came up there on Monday morning. We were looking at it, it wasn't clear whether or not a tornado touched down there, but severe wind damage and one person had been killed in East St. Louis when a clothing store collapsed on him.

That was in Illinois then at the end of that day we headed down as you pointed out, to Dyer County in northwestern, Tennessee, and that's where an f3 tornado, anywhere from a quarter of a mile to half a mile wide cut a 20-mile swathe, damaged some 1800 buildings and 24 people confirmed dead in Dyer County, Tennessee, from that storm. That community just devastated, rocked to its foundations.

And once you get through that and before I left that county, Tony, we were talking to the people at FEMA. We went to an emergency management meeting where you saw everybody getting together, trying to be as proactive as possible, get ahead of things and anticipate how many requests they would have for various types of assistance.

As that was gearing up, we head down to Memphis because of the new storm system that was coming in and we drove through the night last night and slept for, you know, barely a couple of hours and here we are today in Sumner County and we're looking around and it's the same scene again. It has been an unbelievable, unrelenting week.

HARRIS: You are truly seeing some things. Jonathan Freed, we appreciate it. Jonathan thanks. Right now we'll go to reporter Tony McNary. He is with our Atlanta affiliate WGCL. Tony good to see you. Where are you? Are you in Marietta? Are you on Roswell Road and of course all of this is north of Atlanta. Where exactly are you Tony?

TONY MCNARY, WGCL: I'm in Marietta, I am on Marietta Street -- I'm sorry on Roswell Street at the corner of Roswell Street and Aviator. This, from what I'm told is one of the hardest areas hit in this area and I've also been told this the highest point in Marietta.

Let me get out of the way and show you some of the damage. Right across the street you're looking at a shopping center, business owners are here assessing the damage. You can see windows busted out of that thrift shop there. Incredible damage at this area.

Mark if you'll pan over this way. Look at the intersection. Look at the streetlights. The streetlights are dangling from the wires here at the corner of Roswell Street and Aviation. And traffic is really starting to pick up at this time. People are being careful. If we pan over this way some more, Mark, let me show you some more of the damage.

This is a billboard on top of a fire truck. This billboard completely toppled over. The rod -- the towers holding it up, bent. You can see the trees behind the billboard. They are -- they have been toppled as well. As we make our way down Roswell Street, I'm going to show you this electrical tower that is completely bent and if it's not for these power lines it would probably be on its side as well.

Look at that tower up there. That's an electrical tower. Completely bent over. The lines are holding that tower up. There's even more damage to show you. Pan over this way, Mark. This is what's really bad. This utility crews are here now, this utility pole completely snapped. Half of the pole is in the street. Again, the same situation with that tower there, the power lines are holding this pole up. If it was not for the power lines the pole would be in the street and cars would not be able to come through here.

Utility crews are on the scene. They're just now starting to arrive. We've been here since around 4:00 this morning and when it was dark it was eerie because you knew there was a lot of damage out here, you just couldn't get a feel of it, but as the sun started to come up you could really see the amount of damage out here in this area. There is good news. We do not have any reports of any injuries here in this area at this time.

HARRIS: That's terrific.

MCNARY: Yes.

HARRIS: Let me sort of recap this thing with you. You have some kind of transmission tower.

MCNARY: It's called -- that is down, exactly. I was told by one of the crews, I'm going to talk to a guy. I see him walking this way. Show us this tower again, Mark and there's a utility guy coming here and I'm going to ask him to explain it to us.

HARRIS: Maybe we can find out whether or not, have you heard any word of power outages, how many customers are without power in that area?

MCNARY: The last word we got, 36,000 people, some 36,000 people are without power in the metro Atlanta area. Specifically targeted to this area, we don't know -- OK, this is a Georgia power crew. They actually own that line. Let me walk over here.

HARRIS: OK, we will stay with you.

MCNARY: Excuse me, can you explain something to me, what is this big tower, as soon as these trucks go by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as the FedEx truck clears.

MCNARY: What is that big tower called and how serious is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was struck with 215 lines, 115,000 lines.

MCNARY: Really? It would take something serious to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. Probably heavy wind took it down, maybe a tornado, who knows?

MCNARY: About how many residents, businesses would you say feed off that line?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. This is not my area up here, but it feeds substations and residents and it all goes out to substations. Right now we're working on getting that thing back up.

MCNARY: Thanks a lot.

HARRIS: Good stuff Tony.

MCNARY: OK, Tony.

HARRIS: We'll continue to follow the story and if you have a moment I know you're doing your work for Helen and everybody back at WGCL. If you get a moment give us a shout and we'll talk to you some more.

MCNARY: OK, I will do.

HARRIS: All right. Tony McNary with our Atlanta affiliate WGCL, power lines.

NGUYEN: Up to 30,000 people without power and you are seeing a substation being affected because of that one down line. We have a lot to tell you about in relation to the storm. Much of the south is keeping a weary eye on these storms that are tracking to the east this morning. Here's a look at some of that damage, too.

HARRIS: Betty, we are also looking west. A live report from hard-hit Charlotte, Tennessee, that is straight ahead we are back with more of CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We are continuing to follow the storms that blew through yesterday and parts of this morning still causing some rain in many areas. We'll keep on top of that, but looking ahead to tomorrow, singer, songwriter and award winner, Natalie Grant.

Nice piano I want to hear her sing. She's not just another gospel vocalist, but a woman on a mission. We will hear more about her spiritual awakening. That's tomorrow in our "Faces of Faith."

And Massachusetts takes major steps toward healthcare for everyone. It is a prescription or could it be a prescription that could come to your state? Join us Sunday morning starting at 7:00 a.m. Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, parts of the southeast just hammered by severe weather this morning. I want to give you some live pictures from some of the damage that we've been seeing in and around the area. You're looking at radar right now where you can tell there's still rain in the Atlanta area.

Now we're looking at some pictures from WKRN out of Nashville. Oh, my goodness, look at the devastation caused by the storms that blew there. A lot of people will tell you that indeed it was a tornado that touched down. Still waiting for official word on that. But in the meantime let's take a listen to their local coverage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously we could have been dead; there is no doubt about that.

STEPHANIE LANGSTON, WKRN REPORTER: Even the minister here for fourteen years, his building has only been here for four years. So you guys are going to pick up whatever's left over this morning and move over to the Christian Academy where you're holding services.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to have services in the morning at 10:30 in the other facility. We have a large Christian school over there so we'll just have it in the gym at the other property over in Madison.

LANGSTON: Well we are glad you are with us this morning to share your story. Thank goodness you all are safe. Sounds like you guys were obviously prepared for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew it was coming and we actually saw it through the window, I don't know how you prepare for something like that but so we saw it coming.

LANGSTON: Obviously someone is watching over you. Thank you so much for this story. We'll have more coming up later, reporting live, Stephanie Langston, News 2.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Many people calling it a miracle. None of those children or any one else in the church were hurt. Thanks Stephanie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is now 18 minutes past 8:00 here on this Saturday Morning. We'll have more of our storm coverage coming up for you after a short break here, but we do ...

NGUYEN: Obviously, we are going to continue following this. We are not going to go to a break right now. There is so much damage to show you as light is beginning to shed on a lot of these areas. The sun has risen so a lot of people affected by these storms are getting a good look at the extent of the damage.

HARRIS: Emily, is that press conference underway right now?

Let's take you down to Sumner County, Tennessee for a press conference that is underway right now. Shortly we are going to hear from Scott Foster, who is the mayor of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Let's listen in. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just about the entire district has been devastated by this disaster and I just want everyone to know that Senator Black and I have asked the governor's office to declare this a disaster area. I'd like to ask everyone to please keep the people who lost their lives, their families, the folks who have lost their homes and the businesses, please, everyone, keep them in your prayers. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do want to make mention that we do have information that the drinking water is safe. You do not have to boil your water. They do have generators running and purifying the water and there really has not been a time when it has not been safe. There has been a water supply issue because of the lack of electricity in purifying the water, but the generators are up and running and there are an adequate supply of fresh water at this point in time.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe all over the county. I know that the concern was mainly heard in Gallatin, but that water supply is safe.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not necessary. No, it is not necessary. The water supply is safe.

HARRIS: All right. Just listening to a press conference. We thought we would hear from the mayor of Hendersonville, Tennessee, which is where?

NGUYEN: Eighteen miles northeast of Nashville.

HARRIS: Not sure who these ladies are but the one bit of good information for the people there in Hendersonville is that the water is safe. The water supply is safe and has been throughout all of this violent weather.

NGUYEN: And we have been told that those are state Senators in the area who are giving an update on the situation as far as the water is concerned. Again, Hendersonville, Tennessee is 18 miles northeast of Nashville. We'll bring in our own Reynolds Wolf to talk about the damage in that area. Looking at the picture, it is quite devastating, Reynolds.

WOLF: Oh absolutely. The people are still wondering were they tornadoes, were they streamlined winds. At this point it doesn't really matter. The devastation is just unbelievable and lives have been lost and I'll tell you, folks, they're it could have been a lot worse. They're very fortunate just to have the damage they got because I'm telling you, these storms are really intense.

Just to give you an idea of how strong these storms were, there were hailstorms in that part of Tennessee from there to other parts of Nashville back over to Memphis. Reports of hailstorms the size of softballs, the reason why it's important to talk about the size of the hailstorms, that tells you how strong the updrafts were in these storms which of course tells you how strong the storms themselves were.

We saw these again starting yesterday morning and all of the way into the early afternoon and they began to intensify. You're looking at some of the video there in the bottom corner of the screen. We had two individual cells that moved to the north of the city causing that devastation. And a few that slipped farther to the south. There is they're still sifting through and will still sift through for days to come.

Right now the heaviest weather, the roughest tough now moving through Georgia and Alabama. Thankfully, we don't have anything severe in terms of thunderstorms at this point. You're watching CNN. We'll have more coming up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Tornadoes and storms hard -- or they hit Tennessee very, very hard for the second time in less than a week as if they hadn't had enough. Some of the worst damage though was around the Nashville area. CNN's Amanda Rosseter joins us from Charlotte, Tennessee about 50 miles west of Nashville. I know you've been speaking to people on the ground. They must have some stories to tell.

AMANDA ROSSETER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty I will tell you what the people here are just amazing. Their spirits are resilient. They knew the storm was coming through again just five days after the one came through on Sunday. One homeowner last night told us it's so hard to know that it's coming and to never think it will happen to you. You've worked your whole life to build something and have it gone in just a few minutes.

I want to take just a couple of seconds to show you something behind me now that the sun is up and we can truly see. We are standing in front of the path where the tornado came up this hill. And as you can see it uprooted these enormous trees moving some cars down into the gully and then right closer to me here, not even touching these larger vehicles.

This van and this truck were here, they weren't even moved and the tornado came on up this hill and we have the garage that's behind me and it was knocked off its foundation it went over the hill and took out more homes and in one case a motor home on top of a truck and people are now returning to their homes this morning, trying to assess the damage. They really don't even know what they have left yet, Betty.

NGUYEN: Looking behind you that person doesn't have much left with that storage area. And the damage truly just speaks for itself. Susan Rosseter in Charlotte, Tennessee, about 50 miles west of Nashville. A hard-hit area obviously. Thank you for that.

HARRIS: Let's see if we can squeeze in another quick weather hit with our Reynolds Wolf from the CNN Weather Center. Reynolds good morning. WOLF: Good morning. We are still watching the same line of storms that brought all the rough stuff to the Atlanta area now continues its march into South Georgia and into southern Alabama. This is the end of it, folks. This will be the last bit of this storm system that's been giving us all kinds of issues during yesterday afternoon through the evening and, of course, this morning.

Heaviest activity well to the south of Atlanta and Birmingham now making it's way to part of Panhandle. But still, every single mile, every inch of the storm continues to march to the south, the southeast and it is getting weaker and weaker and it will be primarily a rain event.

Later on today we're expecting drier air to move in and a much better situation, but still a lot of wreckage to deal with in many places in the southeast and the Midwest. We'll have to keep a close eye on this and, of course, once the storm system leaves and of course, we're in the spring season and there's always the possibility of more situations like this to pop up. So we always have to be aware and always have to stay on our toes.

Back to you.

HARRIS: Great advice.

NGUYEN: CNN is your severe weather headquarters. Reynolds, we'll be talking with you shortly. You'll want to keep it here for the latest news about this deadly and fast-moving storm. As soon as we have more information or video, you know we'll bring it to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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