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CNN Saturday Morning News

Severe Storms Sweep Southeast U.S.

Aired April 08, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Dozens of tornadoes and at least 11 deaths reported so far in the Southeast and the danger is far from over. Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama and Florida all remain in harm's way. Man, good morning.
On this, the eighth day of April, from the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And what an April it's been.

HARRIS: Yes.

NGUYEN: Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. We'll have live reports across the Southeast for you this morning. But first though, we want to give you a look at some of the other stories happening right now.

Well, no relief in sight for water-logged Northern California. Rivers and levees are straining with as much water as they can handle. Now comes a new warning: a major storm system predicted to hit early next week could combine with heavy snow melt, overloading rivers and levees.

HARRIS: The winds in West Texas aren't whipping quite as much today, and high humidity is helping to cut the danger of more wildfires. They scorched about 40,000 acres in the Texas panhandle this week.

And they're watching the weather at the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, this morning. Concern about the severe storms in the Southeast delayed the opening of the gates for spectators. The first golfer is scheduled to tee off in about 40 minutes. We'll go live to Augusta National later this hour.

NGUYEN: Well, the South gets slammed by severe storms and deadly tornadoes. The violent weather hit Huntsville, Alabama overnight. The area was pelted with hail more than four inches in diameter. The storm swept through metropolitan Atlanta early this morning. Homes and business in several counties were damaged but no injuries were reported.

That was not the case, though, in Tennessee. At least 11 deaths are blamed on the tornadoes and strong storms. It is the second time in less than a week that deadly storms have hit that state.

Well, the stormy weather in the South has left tens of thousands of people in the dark. Georgia Power says the storm's knocked out electricity to 44,000 of its customers, mostly in the Atlanta area. More than 3,000 people are still without power in and around Nashville.

HARRIS: Well, we talked about Augusta, which is east and a touch south of Atlanta, where they're playing the Masters Golf Tournament and might be in the line for these storms.

NGUYEN: Rain for sure.

HARRIS: Why don't we check in with Reynolds Wolf now in the CNN Weather Center for the latest. Reynolds, good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Tennessee looks like ground zero in this latest round of tornadoes and storms. The violent weather took a deadly toll on the state. One of the hardest-hit areas is in Gallatin, Tennessee, northeast of Nashville.

Jonathan Freed joins us live from that scene. And, Jonathan, we're going to put some pictures up -- some aerial pictures -- of some of this devastation, so talk us to about what you've seen and also what is being done for folks who have found themselves without homes and displaced.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

We are now a couple of blocks up from where we last joined you. We had to move because of what you just asked me. What's being done is the crews are out, various kinds, trying to restore power and utilities, of course, aside from providing comfort to the families who have lost their homes.

But we had to move to this position further north from those car dealerships, and you can see these piled at the edge of the parking lot, this is basically what's left of their shop. And employees are milling around, doing what they can. Some of them had actually been here all night.

And if you look a little bit further back, you can see some heavy equipment back there. And, Tony, we have seen them moving the cars around. Some of them are just stacked up on top of each other. You can see that white one over there. It's unbelievable.

I mean, you always hear the warnings. You know, we were listening to Reynolds yesterday talking about, reminding people don't stay in your car. Well, this is a perfect example of why you should not stay in your car. It's unbelievable.

We saw a two by four that just plowed right into, punched a hole in the side of a car door, Tony, and it just -- it really takes your breath away. Every time you've seen everything covering these storms year after year, there's always something that just sort of snaps your head around and reminds you about how volatile these situations are.

HARRIS: And in your travels, have you seen that -- you know, that familiar picture of folks walking through what's left of their homes, looking like the lost?

FREED: That's right. It's -- we've been trying to get into the areas where the homes are, but right now police are keeping media and everybody else out of there, understandably. It's not surprising.

HARRIS: People can't even get back to their homes right now.

FREED: I'm sorry, Tony?

HARRIS: So people can't even get back to their homes in a lot of cases right now.

FREED: Yes. It's very often difficult for people to do that. There are downed powerlines, they're doing what they can to try to contain the area before they determine whether or not it's safe for people to go certain places. And the media sometimes is the last to get access to that kind of an area.

HARRIS: These are -- you can't see these pictures, but you've seen them. This is just devastating. Jonathan, we appreciate it. Thanks for all of your reporting on this.

FREED: Thanks.

NGUYEN: Well, these powerful storms roared into Georgia early this morning and we're getting a better look now at the extent of the damage.

Tony Thomas of our affiliate WAGA joins us live from Marietta, just north of Atlanta. Tony, I'm looking at the debris behind you. My goodness. Walk us through what you're seeing.

TONY THOMAS, WAGA REPORTER: This is the second floor of what was a two-story building, Betty. There's not extensive damage throughout this northern suburb, but in scattered spots it was either a tornado or straight-line winds -- we haven't been told which by the National Weather Service yet -- that came through here.

As we said, this was a concrete, brick, two-story building. It housed a tax preparer's office. That's Nicole (ph) who owned the building, and the tax preparer's office back there. Some of her other tenants there, going through this building now, some six hours after this storm hit as they were trying to find any of their belongings that they can in there.

The damage came through here knocking about 45,000 people out of power. We see a lot of scenes like this throughout the northern suburbs. Trees, powerlines are down. The local power company says they're doing their best. They believe they're going get a lot of people up pretty soon.

NGUYEN: Hey, Tony, do this for me. Can you try to get the owner of that building?

THOMAS: Yes.

NGUYEN: Can you get an interview with her and see ...

THOMAS: Yes, we'll try to get her attention here in a second. We've been talking to her several times here. She says she's found most of the belongings, she believes, through here and has been -- she'll be able to get her tax preparation business back up and running.

I just heard her tell somebody that -- we're trying to get through the debris here. Tell somebody that she'll get to them maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. Nicole, you've been looking around here now for some of your stuff. How's it sinking in?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, I'm really not concerned. I just want to get personal effects and I want to get -- we've been here for a long time so we have a lot of personal items here, pictures, things from my mother, things from my family, my sisters. This was a family business.

THOMAS: We see your building now spread out across the parking lot. Describe what it was before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a two-story building. It had offices upstairs and it had the tax office and my dad's office down here. And we had just got done remodeling, new carpet, new furniture. It was like a three-year process. And so, we -- it's kind of ironic but ...

THOMAS: You had said this was a pretty sturdy building. I mean, concrete.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Concrete, yes.

THOMAS: It cracked right through your concrete beams and everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It took the -- whatever that is, the rebarb or whatever, it just pulled it straight out of the ground. So yes, I mean, that was in about eight or 10 inches into the ground, and now it's gone.

THOMAS: One week before the tax deadline. How are you going to handle this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hopefully my clients, you know, will stick with me through this. I think they will. If they don't, then, you know, I encourage them if they need to get it done to go to another preparer and hopefully they'll be back next year, but I'm strong. I'll handle it.

THOMAS: Strong woman. Thank you very much. That's the stories we're hearing out here.

We -- just over our shoulder we had a truck driver who was in the cab of his truck when this storm came. It knocked it over. He says he's fine. They just uprighted that cab, but the flowers he had in the back of that truck are spread all across this neighborhood right now.

He was shaken up, but he had no injuries. The cleanup -- the sun's been up through the clouds at least a couple of hours now. Cleanup just beginning here in Marietta, Georgia. Back to you guys.

NGUYEN: Oh, and a lot of cleanup they have to do. I think what's really striking in all of this, you see the devastation to that business there, yet you look around it and there are buildings that seem almost untouched.

THOMAS: A lot of the businesses are untouched. We have got some signs thrown around right behind us, a Church's Chicken sign that came a couple of yards. This billboard, this is right on the side of I-75 freeway here. That billboard up there -- I don't know if you can tell on the bottom left hand side, there's a big fan just stuck ...

NGUYEN: Yes, we can see it.

THOMAS: ... into the billboard there and for the people at least who live in the Southeast, familiar with the restaurant chain Chick- fil-A, and their billboards that have the plastic cows that stick up off the billboards, there was one of those plastic cows up on that billboard.

We are told it is now about 300, 400 yards across the major freeway back into the neighborhood as it was blown through. Some trees down in this area, but -- power's out but most of the buildings untouched. It's just very isolated areas.

NGUYEN: Yes, a lot of damage and apparently flying cows in Marietta, Georgia. Tony Thomas with affiliate WAGA, thank you for showing us through all of that -- just really devastation that we're seeing there on the ground. Appreciate it.

Unfortunately, from the tragedies like the Tennessee tornadoes comes images like this. Take a look. A man used his cell phone to record this image of a tornado that touched down in Gallatin. Pretty amazing. Weather forecasters say tornadoes were spotted in 10 Tennessee counties yesterday.

Now, if you caught any amazing images on your cell phone or digital cameras, e-mail us those pictures, our address weekends@CNN.com. We'll put it on the air.

We are definitely your severe weather headquarters right here at CNN. You'll want to stay with us all day long for the latest on these storms. Our reporters and meteorologists are tracking the developments, and as soon as we get any new information or video, we're going to bring it to you.

HARRIS: There were some early-morning weather questions for fans at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia. Tee-off is set for -- oh, I guess about 30 minutes from now, and we'll take you to Augusta live.

NGUYEN: Plus we're going to show you how to track the storms yourself on CNN.com. Veronica de la Cruz is ahead, and she's going show you how to do just that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A huge storm system pushing through the Southeast is leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. For the second time in less than a week, Tennessee was in the eye of the storm. One of the hardest-hit areas is Gallatin, northeast of Nashville.

High humidity and calmer winds are cutting the fire danger in Texas. The firefighters have contained at least two blazes in the Texas panhandle. Brushfires scorched about 40,000 acres this week.

In Venezuela, take a look at this. That's the U.S. ambassador's convoy getting pelted with eggs and tomatoes in Caracas. And the State Department says local officials were in on it. Venezuela's ambassador in Washington was told that there would be severe diplomatic consequences if something like that happens again.

Let's go upstairs now to Betty and Reynolds in the Weather Center.

NGUYEN: Hi, Tony, I'm up here in the Weather Center because I want the latest from Reynolds Wolf on where these storms are, because, as we know, they have been just devastating, especially to Tennessee.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely.

NGUYEN: Eleven people killed just yesterday in the storms. But as you step outside today -- here's something that I noticed -- it's a lot cooler and that's actually a good thing.

WOLF: Absolutely. And right behind us, you'll notice, Betty, we're showing a temperature map and a lot of people may be wondering, why in the world would you show temperatures when you're talking about severe weather?

Well, remember what we were talking about, about an hour ago, Betty? The contrast in temperatures, the different air masses, when you have the cool, dry air invading parts of the Southeast, you have the moist air at the surface right ahead of it. When you have those two air masses coming together, you have a lot ...

NGUYEN: Not a good thing.

WOLF: Exactly. You have a lot of instability. Things just really go nuts and that was the situation last night for Tennessee, definitely for here in Georgia.

NGUYEN: Right.

WOLF: And it's something we can still see today in parts of the Florida panhandle, south Alabama, and maybe even southern Georgia.

NGUYEN: OK, so it's not over.

(WEATHER REPORT) HARRIS: Well, so far, it certainly looks like Tennessee was hit hardest by the powerful storms. Take a look at this. The damage is -- I don't know, hard to take for homeowners and emotions are running pretty high right now. We'll get the latest from Tennessee coming up.

Veronica, good morning.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.

You know, we have a lot of resources available at CNN.com as well when it comes to tracking the storms. I'll have the details from the .com desk when CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN ANCHOR: Spring is here, and before you know it, summer heat will be on your doorstep. Be ready for that first heat wave with an energy efficient air conditioner.

The first step, clean or replace the filter. Dirty filters will block the air flow and cause the compressors to run hotter and longer. If you're buying a new air conditioner, make sure that it's the right size for your room. A bigger A.C. won't cool your room faster and you'll spend more on electricity.

Use a fan with your air conditioner to spread cool air throughout your home and keep lamps and TVs away from your thermostat. The heat they produce will cause your air conditioner to run longer than it needs to.

I'm Gerri Willis with "Your Energy Tip."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK. CNN.com is also tracking the storm online this morning. Our Veronica de la Cruz joins us now to show us how you can maneuver the site.

Veronica, good morning. What are you going to show us?

DE LA CRUZ: Good morning to you. And, actually, you know, you can find a wealth of weather information by typing in CNN.com/weather into your browser. For instance, Tony, I'm going to need your help here. You can get a personalized forecast. And, Tony, what's your zip code?

HARRIS: Let's about with 30080.

DE LA CRUZ: No, that doesn't sound right to me. We're going to go with 30308, OK?

HARRIS: OK.

DE LA CRUZ: I think that's Atlanta and it's right there. You get your forecast, and right now it shows that it is mostly cloudy skies, 57 degrees. You can also get the five-day by scrolling down. Tomorrow and Monday looks as though it will be OK, sunny skies.

HARRIS: OK, OK. Hang on, don't fly through this. So now, when you go to the site you can actually put in your home zip code.

DE LA CRUZ: You can.

HARRIS: And you can get kind of a tailored forecast for your neighborhood essentially?

DE LA CRUZ: You sure can, and every day that you go back to the page CNN.com/weather, it will be there for you.

HARRIS: OK, great.

DE LA CRUZ: So now, Tony, I wanted to show you how else you can use this site. You can actually take a look at these maps. Let's go ahead and click on the satellite map, and this is what we're looking at right now. We can also take a look at the radar and I don't exactly know what I'm looking at.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: You don't need to know that. But you can see the way the storm line is.

DE LA CRUZ: I want to go ahead and bring in our own Reynolds Wolf because he's a popular guy today and he's going to tell us what we're looking at right now. I know that red is not good. I know that much, Reynolds. What else can you tell us?

WOLF: Absolutely. What you're seeing, just some scattered showers that are actually just moving right through Georgia and moving through Alabama and moving parts of the South Carolina, even up in the Northeast. It's a pretty good way to track it yourself. It's very simple to do, as you've shown.

And on top of that, all of the cool kids are doing it. So how can you not? Go and enjoy this incredible weather resource and you're right. It's got everything from the surface map to satellite images to temperatures to radar. It's the full deal if you're watching out for severe weather and just trying to plan your day and what you can expect for the picnic.

DE LA CRUZ: That's right, Reynolds. And it's in real-time. It shows that it was last updated at 10:00 a.m.

WOLF: Indeed.

DE LA CRUZ: So you can not only take a look at those maps, but you can also sign up for severe weather alerts. So if we go right back to CNN.com/weather you scroll down the right side of the page.

Let's say we want to get alerts on tornadoes. Click there, click on activate and fill out that form. We're not going to do that right now, but that will give you severe weather alerts when it comes to tornadoes. There's one last thing I wanted to show you, Tony, because we didn't get to cover it in the last hour. That's a special we have on tornadoes right now. CNN.com/tornado or tornadoes. You know what? I'm going to go back ...

HARRIS: There you go.

DE LA CRUZ: ... to extreme weather. Here's an easier way to find it. Scroll down to tornadoes, click, and here's the special. It's a great special. It shows you all the latest news and video as far as the storms are concerned.

Also, you can learn about the Fujita scale, which rates tornadoes as well as you can click through all the galleries to take a look at all the damage and devastation throughout the southeast. So again, you can find it all online by going to CNN.com/weather or CNN.com/tornadoes.

HARRIS: OK, now, do we have tips on that site? We need real takeaways. I know we've got video. I know we've got pictures of storms. I know -- do we have tips for folks.

DE LA CRUZ: We sure do. It is all there, CNN.com/weather. It's a great resource.

HARRIS: Veronica, good stuff. Thank you.

NGUYEN: All of that just goes to show that this is your center for severe weather coverage.

HARRIS: And Betty, we are heading live to Tennessee when we come back, but first of all, let's check some stories right now in the news. Obviously a string of powerful storms devastated Tennessee for a second time in a week. Eleven people are dead, dozens of homes are damaged. At least 60 people in the Nashville area alone are hospitalized, some of them in critical condition. Firefighters have brought in equipment and dogs to search for anyone who may be trapped.

NGUYEN: They're also watching the weather and levees in parts of California. Officials are bracing for the possibility of levee failures and the threat of more flooding. Rivers have swollen by more than a month of rain and some already spilling over the banks. More storms are in the forecast.

HARRIS: Officials in Texas are blaming wildfires for the death of a man near San Antonio. The man was discovered a few yards away from his bulldozer. They think he was killed by fast-moving flames while trying to protect his property. Wildfires have scorched tens of thousands of acres in Texas.

NGUYEN: As we've been telling you, the south is getting slammed with severe storms and deadly tornadoes. The violent weather hit Huntsville, Alabama overnight. The area was pelted with hail more than four inches in diameter. The storm swept through metropolitan Atlanta early this morning. Homes and businesses in several counties were damaged but no injuries were reported. That was not the case, though in Tennessee. At least 11 deaths are blamed on the tornadoes and strong storms. It's the second time in less than a week that deadly storms have hit the state.

As we've been telling you, Tennessee got whacked hard for the second time in a week. Charlotte about 50 miles west of Nashville took a severe hit. CNN's Amanda Rosseter joins us live from there to talk about the devastation right behind her. It's pretty enormous, Amanda -- Susan.

AMANDA ROSSETER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, being out here all this morning it's been an incredible sight as the sun has come up. We've been able to see just how much damage there is to all of these buildings. And I'd like to introduce you to the homeowner of this building. Patricia Hunter has lived in this neighborhood for 25 years. Patricia, thank you so much for join us this morning. Tell me what you saw. You actually saw this tornado coming up the hill toward your house, didn't you?

PATRICIA HUNTER, HOMEOWNER: Well, I saw - we ran to try to get into a safe place. I looked out and everything was going up in the air when I looked out. And it was so loud, we had to scream at each other to make each other hear.

ROSSETER: And when that happened, where did you go?

HUNTER: To the laundry room because it's a small room and that's as far as I got and I couldn't go any further because I was screaming.

ROSSETER: So you knew what to do. You've lived here a long time. Have you ever seen anything -- Tennessee is known for its tornadoes. Have you ever seen anything like this?

HUNTER: No, never, never in my whole life and I lived -- when I was a child I lived where a lot of tornadoes come through and I never seen one until now.

ROSSETER: Talk to me about the damage that you have, your house. You just had a new roof put on which helped you a good bit. That was a blessing.

HUNTER: I've got doors that are out and the windows are out. The porch has got to be fixed and just a lot of things missing around the house. We're trying to get out, find them down there now.

ROSSETER: But to clarify, the storage building that you have behind us. Talk to me about that.

HUNTER: The barn, it's pretty well gone. It's pretty well gone. I think the boat's tore up and I hope the tractor down there is all right. I hope.

ROSSETER: But everyone in your family is OK?

HUNTER: Yes, yes.

ROSSETER: Patricia, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

HUNTER: You're welcome.

ROSSETER: Betty, back to you.

NGUYEN: Just devastation there. Amanda Rosseter, CNN there in Charlotte -- in Charlotte, Tennessee, thank you for that.

So a lot to tell you about. The visuals really though Tony, say it all.

HARRIS: OK. And here's what I'd like to attempt to do here. We're going to bring Reynolds Wolf in and Reynolds, here's my question. Now I want to try to put this into some kind of context here. If you're in Tennessee, if you're in Atlanta right now, it's pretty much a cleanup effort right now.

WOLF: No question.

HARRIS: You're picking up pieces and you're cleaning up. You're assessing the damage in your life right now and if you're east of Atlanta, say Augusta and perhaps maybe south Savannah, South Carolina.

NGUYEN: And just getting some of that rain.

HARRIS: What are you seeing?

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Some small technical difficulty. We'll blame it on the weather at this point.

WOLF: We can do that.

HARRIS: As soon as we make that connection we'll come back with you.

NGUYEN: We'll get back with you.

WOLF: We can always talk about -- sure is timely (ph).

HARRIS: OK. Take a look at these pictures. The pictures you're seeing, it gives you the impression things are pretty bad. But we got to tell you that things are getting a whole lot better for Texas today. High humidity and calmer winds are cutting the danger of more wildfires there. They scorched about 40,000 acres of the Texas panhandle this week.

Rain, cooling temperatures have helped firefighters in Oklahoma as we triple box it for you and they got the upper hand on the blaze, firefighters did in southwest Oklahoma City. And on two other brushfires, a wildfire near Fayetteville, North Carolina, forced some evacuations of more than 50 homes and a day care center, but there are no reports of any injuries or structures lost. Good news there.

NGUYEN: Here are some other stories making news across America today. A U.S. Airways pilot suspected of drinking alcohol before a flight will not face charges. LAX police say they gave the pilot a sobriety test that determined he was not legally intoxicated. The pilot wasn't allowed to fly the plane and the airline says it is still investigating.

A police officer just happened upon a smooth-talking prison escapee down in Louisiana and you're not going to believe how this one turned out. Richard Lee McNair is a convicted killer. He had no identification. He told the officer he was staying in a local hotel. This exchange was captured on tape by the squad car's dash cam. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF OFFICER CARL BORDELON, BALL, LOUISIANA POLICE: Step out. I know. I'm not -- you wouldn't believe what some guys do. They got years and years to think about how they're going to do it. When I crossed the tracks down there I saw you running and I said -- well how much can I be?

RICHARD MCNAIR: No, no, no, I'm not no prison escapee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: My goodness.

NGUYEN: Here is the rest of the story, Tony, you go ahead with that.

HARRIS: Well, the officer eventually let McNair go about his business.

Now the police chief said at the time McNair was questioned well, well police had only a poor-quality photograph of the escapee and he's still out there somewhere.

NGUYEN: It was caught on tape and he's still out there somewhere.

Well, in Florida, a middle school teacher is facing six counts of bribery -- listen to this -- for allegedly letting students sit out gym class if they paid her a dollar a day. The teacher resigned before a warrant was issued for her arrest. A former teacher at the same school was arrested in February accused of the same scheme.

In Denver, it is looking like the transit strike will soon be over. Bus drivers, train operators and mechanics have overwhelmingly approved a new contract. If it's finalized, workers could be back on the job by Monday.

HARRIS: And with the push of a button and a few hundred sticks of dynamite, let's take a look at this. Come on, there it is. A parking garage in Orlando comes tumbling down, there it is. Want to read it and look at it at the same time. The implosion ...

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: You really do. It makes way. The building comes down to make some room for the rebuilding of a highway interchange.

All right. We want to take you back and bring you the latest on the storm systems that have rolled through the southeast and we want to get a sense of the picture here in the Atlanta area. Tony McNary is with our CNN affiliate WGCL and, Tony, last time we talked, Tony, you were in the Marietta area of Cobb County which is north of Atlanta. Is that still where you are?

TONY MCNARY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm still here, correct.

HARRIS: OK.

MCNARY: A lot of cleanup is underway at this time. As you can see these power crews, this power crew behind me, they have replaced one of the stop lights that was dangling over one of the wires here when the storm hit. These businesses, this row of businesses, if you'll pan down, Mark.

Look at this row of businesses. You can see business owners. We hear the sounds of people sweeping glass, boarding up busted out windows, that one on the corner there. A thrift shop, at least four to five windows there busted out, but a lot of damage as I showed you earlier.

If you will back up I want to show you this billboard that completely toppled on to this fire engine. This is actually a used car lot. This fire truck here was just sitting here and this billboard completely toppled on top of this fire truck. There are several trees near the billboard as well, snapped, broke, a lot of debris in the area, a lot of activity with utility crews trying to restore power in this area. Police have actually closed off -- I'm on Roswell Street, Roswell and Aviation between Gresham.

Police have closed this street off so power crews can restore the power to this area. At least we've seen at least 18 of those massive utility trucks come through here. You're looking at, I believe this utility pole, one of the utility poles in this area that completely snapped in half. These power lines are holding part of the pole up which is on the side of the road. The other side of the pole is still sticking out of the ground.

But let me show you the big problem that I told you about earlier Tony in this area is this tower here, this electric tower. I found out this tower is about 90 to 100 feet. It stands that tall. Some 200,000 volts of electricity go through those wires. That tower is completely toppled.

If you can see that and so that's massive. It's a huge restoration effort underway here in the Marietta area at this time, a lot of debris. Police are pretty much and utility crews have pretty much cleaned up most of the debris that's been in the street, but business owners, residents are cleaning up. Utility crews are trying to restore power. At last count we were told about 36,000 customers were without power. Tony?

HARRIS: Tony, I'm assuming that the power has been cut to that tower because certainly, you're there, your crew is there and I see some people walking around the storefronts there as well, so I'm assuming that power has been cut to that tower?

MCNARY: Yes, I spoke to one of the utility crews earlier and because we were so close to that utility pole that I told you about, I asked them if it was still hot and they told me no, it was cut immediately during the brunt of the storm. They cut most of the power to the area.

HARRIS: OK. Tony, I appreciate your time this morning. Tony McNary from our Atlanta affiliate, WGCL. Tony, thanks again.

MCNARY: You're welcome.

NGUYEN: I have an updated number you on those power outages. We are learning at CNN that some 44,000 people are without power in and around the Atlanta area. So a lot of clean up and a lot of restoration to be done today.

HARRIS: A lot of areas impacted. A lot of areas affected. One of the areas that we're looking at right now is Augusta, Georgia. We're wondering if the Masters golf tournament, the first major of the year for the men will be impacted by the storm. Of course it will be. We'll take you to Augusta in just a couple of minutes. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF: Hi, folks. Welcome back. I'm meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. We've been watching just an incredible weather event just over the last 24 to 36 hours make its way across the eastern third of the country leaving a lot of damage in its wake, especially in places like Nashville, north Alabama, obviously through Atlanta, Georgia and still the storm system is rumbling to the southeast. We were talking with Dan McCarthy from the storm prediction center earlier this morning. We've got Dan back with us. Dan, are you with us?

DAN MCCARTHY, NOAA: I'm right here.

WOLF: OK, Dan, great to have you with us. Are you still awake?

MCCARTHY: I'm still awake. I got more coffee now. I'm better than ever.

WOLF: Just keep telling yourself man, coffee is my friend. That's what I do. Dan, I wanted to ask you, can you tell me the primary components that not necessarily make these storms, but make this entire outbreak possible. What happened? How did this happen?

MCCARTHY: Well, first of all, you need to have moisture and we get moisture in the form of dew points moving up from the Gulf of Mexico. So you need water vapor in the form of moisture and you need very warm temperatures. Those are the first two things that you need in order so that when the air is forced upward, it condenses rapidly into the big thunderstorms.

The second thing you really need is a mechanism that lifts them and in this case it's the dry line or a cold front that moved ahead of a very strong low pressure system in the upper atmosphere that was moving out of Oklahoma and is located this morning over the lower Mississippi Valley.

Then the other thing that you need is wind shear and what I mean by wind shear is a change of direction towards clockwise so it can stop near the surface to more westerly, the upper levels of the atmosphere and then an increase in that speed so that you can impart rotation on the thunderstorms that you have with building into the area. That forces them to rotate which creates the tornado.

WOLF: Dan, you know, last year at this time we had only 90- something tornadoes. This year from the beginning of the severe weather season to now we've had over 400. Many people are out there and they're scratching their heads. They're wondering why so many this year? What's the big deal?

MCCARTHY: What a difference a year makes, actually what a difference a couple of years makes. Because when you go back to 2003, our severe weather season got started in early May when we had 11 straight days of severe weather. Then when we got to 2004, we didn't get started until late May and then last year we really didn't get started until early June.

So this year with warmer temperatures and a warmer or milder winter across the south central U.S. and the southwest. And that extended into the western half of the gulf. The skin (ph) temperature of the Gulf of Mexico really didn't have a chance to cool like in previous years because of a very strong cold front so it would make it late in the winter season or early in the spring.

WOLF: Well, Dan, I got to tell you, we've just ran out of time, but I have to thank you so much for getting these watches out to help warn these people. I know we lost a lot of lives to the storm, but it could have been far worse without the forecasting stills that you have in the storm prediction center and we certainly thank you very much for that. Folks, you're watching CNN. We're going to have more coming up of course in your news, in sports, in weather. All of that is coming up in just moments.

HARRIS: Thanks Reynolds.

NGUYEN: Speaking of sports, the masters should be underway right about now. We're going to head out to Augusta and CNN's Larry Smith and see what situation is out there. Larry is joining us live with that. Hey, Larry. They were supposed to tee of about 10:40, I don't know, about what 11 minutes ago. Any idea if this game is going to get underway this morning?

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I don't know. We've been plugged in here about the past 15 minutes waiting to do this report and since that time, we do believe Jim Furyk was going to tee off at 10:40. We have no confirmation because we're here just outside the gate. But in the past 30 seconds, the rain just opened back up again. The sky's been clear.

The sun was out maybe 20 minutes ago, so very strange weather. Now the gates were supposed to open at 8:00 a.m. today, but that was delayed an hour because of some thunderstorms that came through the area, lightning in the area. Any time that happens, they will clear the course, but in this case they kept the gates closed, told everyone to stay in their cars and try to stay inside. So I'm sure a massive logjam of cars just outside the gate here at Augusta National here in Georgia.

Now play again, supposed to resume here at 1:40. We do know that there is some more storms expected between 1:00 and 4:00 today. That's in the middle of play and so everyone's watching the radar right now, watching all the reports to find out what is going to happen and again, if they have to suspend play at that point. Not since 1999 has the masters enjoyed a weather-free week. Once again it appears that that streak is going to continue.

We should mention now the leader board. Let's check out who will be playing when we finally do get things going. Chad Campbell is scheduled to tee off, along with Rocco Mediate who was tied for second place at 2:50 Eastern time. Again that's if there are no delays, but we're not very optimistic that that's going to happen right now. And you see Tiger Woods is in the hunt.

Phil Mickelson also there and Freddy Couples, 46 years old. He and Ben Crenshaw have a shot at passing Jack Nicklaus as the oldest Masters champion ever. Jack was 46 when he won his sixth green jacket back in 1986. That's the story now from a very soggy Augusta, Georgia. Let's go back to you.

NGUYEN: You know it's going to be good once it does get underway. And I tell you, those are some high-dollar tickets. We know that and you can tell the fans are coming out rain or shine. Larry, we'll talk to you later.

HARRIS: We're going to go to break right now, but as we do, we want to show you some pictures, an aerial look at some of the damage in and around Atlanta today. Live pictures from our CNN affiliate WAGA. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

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HARRIS: OK, Reynolds, thank you.

WOLF: You bet.

HARRIS: Come on, Betty, are you with me?

NGUYEN: There's a lot -- let me tell you for you folks watching you have no idea, there's a lot going on here.

HARRIS: There are pieces, parts flying all over the place.

NGUYEN: But we do want to invite you to stay with CNN because we're going to stay on top of this severe weather all morning long. Although it seems like it's pretty much going to be a rain event, but not the case. Look at these pictures coming right now, this video of devastation. Tennessee really hit hard by these storms. We're going to continue to track it along the eastern seaboard as they move across.

HARRIS: Also, CNN is keeping them honest next hour in St. Bernard Parish after hurricane Katrina roared ashore. Local officials moved fast to try and meet the needs of the storm's victims, but now the FBI is asking critical questions about some of the deals those officials made and we'll have that story when CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues.

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