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CNN Live Sunday
Midwesterners Pick Up the Pieces After Devastating Tornadoes
Aired May 11, 2003 - 19:07 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 ANCHOR: Weather forecasters say this is peak season for tornado activity, and those who live in the Midwest know all too well it is important to be on their guard. But of course, knowing about the threat and actually experiencing a tornado are two entirely different things. Brian Cabell found a -- has a ground level report now on some of this week's storms and the people left to pick up the pieces.
(VIDEOTAPE BEGIN)
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was a week for the Midwest that ended as nightmarishly as it had started. Almost 400 tornadoes so far this month. Twisters carved a path 130 miles long through central Illinois Saturday night, slamming into 20 towns, injuring dozens, and damaging scores of homes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were there, we all huddled in a group. We were -- had our arms around each other. The girls were screaming and crying, and we just held them as a sign of security. We tried to keep them from being scared.
My garage is gone. My little girl's bedroom looks like it is going to cave in, and the whole side of my house is gone.
CABELL: Sunday morning brought with it a better view of the damage that had been done. And still vivid memories of an eerily frightening night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just real quite, and then all of a sudden you couldn't hear any wind or anything, and then it just got real windy and, you know, it was over before it started.
CABELL: The line of tornadoes swept through Iowa, Missouri, and Kentucky as well. By Sunday morning, in the town or Rineyville, Kentucky, population 400, residents who were awakened at 4:0 a.m. by a tornado found several houses destroyed and several people injured. Friends and relatives tried to help victims clean up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They pretty much destroyed everything that they had except the house. It just went right over the house and it is just hard to believe.
CABELL: Residents of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area are still having a hard time believing their city could be hit twice by tornadoes in two days, Thursday and Friday. But by the weekend, mother nature had turned kinder. What was left was cleanup, clearing the streets, the downed power lines, and battered homes. More than 300 houses and three dozen businesses were destroyed here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty years of my life has gone down the tubes, gone with my mom's, and just kind of sad.
CABELL: Hope lies ahead though. Insurance adjusters are already picking through the debris, and since it has been declared a disaster area, federal aid will soon come pouring in.
(on camera): The money is fine, Midwest residents say, but what they would really appreciate finally is a break in the weather.
Brian Cabell, CNN, Moore, Oklahoma.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Tornadoes>
Aired May 11, 2003 - 19:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Weather forecasters say this is peak season for tornado activity, and those who live in the Midwest know all too well it is important to be on their guard. But of course, knowing about the threat and actually experiencing a tornado are two entirely different things. Brian Cabell found a -- has a ground level report now on some of this week's storms and the people left to pick up the pieces.
(VIDEOTAPE BEGIN)
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was a week for the Midwest that ended as nightmarishly as it had started. Almost 400 tornadoes so far this month. Twisters carved a path 130 miles long through central Illinois Saturday night, slamming into 20 towns, injuring dozens, and damaging scores of homes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were there, we all huddled in a group. We were -- had our arms around each other. The girls were screaming and crying, and we just held them as a sign of security. We tried to keep them from being scared.
My garage is gone. My little girl's bedroom looks like it is going to cave in, and the whole side of my house is gone.
CABELL: Sunday morning brought with it a better view of the damage that had been done. And still vivid memories of an eerily frightening night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just real quite, and then all of a sudden you couldn't hear any wind or anything, and then it just got real windy and, you know, it was over before it started.
CABELL: The line of tornadoes swept through Iowa, Missouri, and Kentucky as well. By Sunday morning, in the town or Rineyville, Kentucky, population 400, residents who were awakened at 4:0 a.m. by a tornado found several houses destroyed and several people injured. Friends and relatives tried to help victims clean up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They pretty much destroyed everything that they had except the house. It just went right over the house and it is just hard to believe.
CABELL: Residents of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area are still having a hard time believing their city could be hit twice by tornadoes in two days, Thursday and Friday. But by the weekend, mother nature had turned kinder. What was left was cleanup, clearing the streets, the downed power lines, and battered homes. More than 300 houses and three dozen businesses were destroyed here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty years of my life has gone down the tubes, gone with my mom's, and just kind of sad.
CABELL: Hope lies ahead though. Insurance adjusters are already picking through the debris, and since it has been declared a disaster area, federal aid will soon come pouring in.
(on camera): The money is fine, Midwest residents say, but what they would really appreciate finally is a break in the weather.
Brian Cabell, CNN, Moore, Oklahoma.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Tornadoes>
