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CNN Live At Daybreak
In Russia, Hostage Takers Firing Grenade Launchers From Inside School; Hurricane Frances Bearing Down on Florida
Aired September 03, 2004 - 06:00 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to let you break away so you can get more information for us and bring back in our senior international editor, Eli Flournoy.
It seems to have died down, at least the gunfire portion of this drama this morning. We don't know exactly what that means, though.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right. Exactly. The big unanswered question is are there still rebels holding children and adults in some other part of the school? Clearly, a part of the school, at least, was stormed. We can see the pictures of people carrying children out. There's a makeshift field hospital, if you like, that's set up on school grounds, which would have been essentially a battleground before. So they obviously feel secure enough to set that up there to treat women and children.
You can see here the pictures from earlier of Russian soldiers and adults leading children out from the school area.
But, again, we were talking about, according to women who were released earlier from the school, that there may be 1,000 or more people in the school. And we're, we've seen pictures, obviously, of dozens, maybe a hundred or so. But we haven't seen that many people.
COSTELLO: The situation is still ongoing.
FLOURNOY: Exactly.
COSTELLO: We're going to take a short break.
For those domestic viewers just joining us for DAYBREAK, this is the situation right now. Gunfire and explosions around that elementary school in Russia. We understand that Russian soldiers did open fire and at some point some children managed to run from the school.
The hostage takers opened fire on the children. We understand 10 people have been wounded. We don't know how many of them were children.
We're going to take a short break.
We'll be back with much more on DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello.
You're joining DAYBREAK right now.
And we have been covering breaking news out of Russia all morning long. You're looking at pictures near that elementary school in Russia where hostage takers took hundreds of children hostage on Wednesday. Well, there was a change in the situation this morning. Apparently the hostage takers were firing grenade launchers from inside the school. Now, Russian soldiers were firing back.
During all of this time, these children managed to run from the school somehow, some way. You look at them and they're in their underwear. We're not exactly sure why most of them don't have many clothes on. Some say it was because it was hot. Others say because they weren't allowed to use the bathrooms inside and it was just easier to handle that way in some way.
But these children were running from the school. We understand now at least 10 people have been injured, including a photographer and at least one 17-year-old boy. We don't know how many more of those 10 were children. We're going to keep you updated on the situation throughout the morning on DAYBREAK, but there is much news to cover this morning, including news in our own country, in the United States.
We must talk about Hurricane Frances now. She is bearing down on Florida.
Let's go to the forecast center and Rob Marciano right now.
He's tracking the storm.
Chad Myers is in Melbourne, Florida right now. He's going to bring us up to date on the situation there.
But I'd like to start with Rob to tell us exactly where this hurricane is.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol.
The spiral bands ahead of this system already showing up on the Florida radar scope and probably will be affecting Fort Lauderdale down to Miami here before the morning is out in the form of some rains and gusty winds. Already, from Chad's live shots earlier, we're starting to see some gusty winds as far north as Daytona Beach.
Hurricane force gusts in Nassau. So the Bahamas are getting it at this hour, as this now category three storm takes aim at Florida.
It has decreased in intensity. That's, of course, always good news. But it is a very big storm, a very large storm, where hurricane force winds extend out about 85 miles on either side of this thing. Winds to 120 miles an hour. It makes it still a category three, still a major hurricane. Its movement is to the west-northwest, and that is toward the Florida coastline. When these things decrease in intensity like this and when they're as big as they are, they sometimes have difficulty regaining strength.
However, as it gets closer to the Florida coastline and gets into the Gulf Stream, which has winds -- has water temperatures easily over 80 degrees, which is conducive for the development.
So there is some question as to how strong it will get or if it will decrease in intensity.
But this is what the forecast track is out of the National Hurricane Center as we roll it, as a category three storm here over the next 48 hours and move it toward the Florida coastline, over Freeport, just north of Miami, making landfall somewhere between Miami and Daytona Beach here, and probably tomorrow afternoon, still as a major hurricane.
So this thing is doing its own sort of deal as it heads toward the Florida coastline.
This particular system, which has moved through the Pacific Northwest, is going to be the steering mechanism as we go through the next couple of days, but it's still far away. And hurricane Frances is getting closer to the Florida Keys, Carol, or to south Florida, I should say, Carol. And it's a category three storm. It has decreased in intensity. What it does, does it strengthen? Does it weaken further? There are still some questions. But what has not changed is that it's moving to the Florida coastline and moving, taking aim, actually, at Chad, who's, I believe, in Melbourne Beach this morning.
COSTELLO: Go ahead, Chad.
I know you have a question for Rob.
I see you have your anemometer up and working this morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I do. I have this so I know how fast when I'm running, Carol. But right now the winds are going 24 miles per hour. And all of you that know, I don't jog.
It's going about 24, maybe 27 miles an hour at times. So things are getting gusty here.
But my question for Rob is that I saw the official National Hurricane Center forecast on your map there. Now, I saw it. It goes back up to 140, Rob.
What are they saying about that? What are they saying? Why is it going to increase? The warm water?
MARCIANO: The warm waters, exactly. And it's going to slow down, Chad. So, as you know, you spend any more long time over that warm water, it will increase in intensity.
There is some sheer, meaning there's, you know, Chad, there's that westerly component to the wind at the upper levels. It will tend to knock things down. But it's stalling over that warm water and they think it may strengthen.
And one of the last things they say, Chad, in that discussion is that confidence is low as to what the intensity of this thing will be when it makes landfall.
MYERS: Yes.
MARCIANO: So we just have to keep you on your toes and focus on the track.
MYERS: That's always the case.
Hey, you know, another thing, if this thing really slows down, Rob, there's going to be a huge flood potential with this, no?
MARCIANO: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, it's still forecast to come in as a category three storm. So the storm surge with that could easily be over 10 feet and probably where you're standing right now, you know, much of the State of Florida, especially along the coastline, at sea level or slightly above it. So it doesn't take much to get inland areas flooded, as well.
Lake Okeechobee is under the hurricane warning, as well, because of its low sea level.
COSTELLO: And, Chad, bring us...
MYERS: We always talk about the coast -- go ahead.
COSTELLO: I'm sorry, Chad.
Bring us up to date about what's happening now in Melbourne. You said before it was a ghost town. Tell our viewers about that.
MYERS: It, you know, I'll tell you, I haven't seen more plywood in my entire life. These folks are prepared. They must have started literally on Tuesday. They have done a fabulous job here. Every single building up and down the beach, some kind -- either the metal corrugated that they've screwed to the walls or else the plywood that they have obviously gone to stores and bought the stores out.
I will say, though, that I went to a Wal-Mart, I went to a Home Depot and I went to a Lowe's yesterday. There wasn't one roll of duct tape anywhere to be found. Plywood was going out as fast as they could possibly do it.
And so even though we always talk about the coast, because you always send your reporter to the beach, everybody that's inland also knows it's coming. This thing may not slow down, maybe 20, 30 miles per hour. So as it gets inland, even 30 or 40 miles, the winds there could still be 120 if they're 140 here on the coast, as the forecast center, the hurricane forecast center is forecasting -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes. Chad, we're going to break away from you and go to West Palm Beach and talk to John Zarrella.
He's at a shelter there.
And -- John, just the pictures of the roadways, I-95, I-75, yesterday, as you know, the evacuation went out for 2.5 million people to get the heck out of there.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. People certainly in Florida, with memories of Charley only three weeks ago and memories of hurricane Andrew for the folks who live down in south Miami, no one taking any chances. You know, the gas lines have been absolutely incredible down here. And, you know, as we drove around last night heading up here to West Palm, you're passing gas station after gas station. All of the pumps are dry and most gas stations don't even have fuel anymore. We saw one gas station here in Palm Beach open yesterday. That's because people are filling up their cars because if electricity goes out and you're in the area that gets hit, they can't pump gasoline after the storm.
And, again, those people that filled up and decided to head inland and move away from the storm did so. Two and a half million people ordered to evacuate. Over a million of them did so. Of course, you can't force people to leave. You can tell them to leave, but you can't force someone out of their homes. So there are certainly some who are battening down the hatches and planning to, as they say, ride out the hurricane.
You know, Chad was talking about the boarding up. And, of course, you see that all up and down the east coast of Florida. Even as far north as Jacksonville, the lumber yards were packed with people buying whatever pieces of plywood they could get their hands on to get those windows and doors protected before this storm comes inland, perhaps some time tomorrow afternoon, maybe later, depending on exactly what the track is, you know?
And here at this particular shelter, the Charley factor played a great role. People came in early. This place opened at 2:00 yesterday afternoon and by noon yesterday, there were people lined up to get into this shelter.
Now, we're in the cafeteria. You don't see just a few people here. And that's because the Red Cross treats shelters as a person's home away from home, their right to privacy. So they're all in other buildings, lining the hallways, sleeping on mattresses outside of classrooms and in the auditorium.
So those areas are off limits, and rightfully so, to just about any of us who want to come to these shelters. But this is the cafeteria. People will be coming in here later to get food. And this is one of 28 shelters. They have 19 in Palm Beach County. Nineteen hundred people are in this shelter, perhaps more than any other shelter in Palm Beach County. They have a total capacity here in Palm Beach County of 47,000. And, of course, many more people, as the storm gets closer today, Carol, will be coming into the shelters to seek protection -- Carol.
COSTELLO: John Zarrella reporting live from West Palm Beach, Florida this morning.
We want to take you high above this storm right now, because Frances is massive. It's the size of the State of Texas.
Orelon Sidney is in a plane right now high above the storm with some storm trackers, some scientists tracking this huge storm -- Orelon, are you with us?
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Carol.
Good morning.
COSTELLO: So tell me what you're seeing from high above the storm.
SIDNEY: Well, at this point we're about 43,324 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. We're just now passing, I think it's Puerto Rico is just beneath us. We're just passing the north coast of Hispaniola. We've been out ever since 1:30 this morning and about an hour, about an hour and a half ago, we made our closest pass to what used to be the eye of the storm. It was extremely ragged, showing up on the radar not nearly as symmetrical and divine as we saw it on the satellite pictures yesterday.
The storm has, indeed, weakened. We've been taking dropsondes readings all morning. We've taken 17 of those so far. We've got 23 to complete the mission. But we have definitely seen the sheer of the storm starting in the northern portion of the storm, just to the north of -- northeast of Jacksonville. And then as we continue down to the south, we have definitely noticed the storm experiencing some sheer.
But I'll tell you, just from a non-scientific perspective, it is absolutely beautiful up here. The sun has just come up. The sun is off to my left. And I'm looking southward now over Hispaniola. And you can see the rain bands just like a textbook, the big thunderstorms that are poking up into the atmosphere; the very symmetrical rain bands extraditing outwards and the beautiful cirrus that just beneath -- that makes the top of the hurricane. It's so hard to believe that this is a destructive storm, because from up here, Carol, it's absolutely beautiful.
COSTELLO: That's just amazing.
Orelon Sidney, thank you so much for giving us that perspective, from 42,000 feet up in the air.
We've been talking about breaking news all morning coming out of Russia. Russian soldiers, I think, have stormed that elementary school after receiving fire from inside the school. Dozens and dozens of children have managed to escape.
Our Ryan Chilcote has been on the scene all morning long.
He has an update for us now -- Ryan, give us that update.
CHILCOTE: Well, Carol, sure.
Carol, Russian forces say they are in full control of the school now. This is coming from the Interfax News Agency there, saying that they are in full control of School Number One.
Well, we have small arms fire in this area. Small arms fire here. They are obviously not in full control of the area yet. We've heard other reports that five of the hostage takers were killed in the storming of the school.
Now, the question, of course, is where are the other hostage takers? Russian authorities thought that they were up against between 16 and 20 hostage takers, two of them perhaps female suicide bombers.
So right now reports that Russian forces are in control of the school, but there's still small arms fire right behind me here.
COSTELLO: Do we know, Ryan, how many people are still inside the school?
CHILCOTE: No, we don't know. We have seen several people evacuated from the school, wounded people. I saw some boys who were evacuated from the school. We've seen some men that appeared to have been evacuated from the school, although they could have been involved in a firefight on the street in front of the school.
We have heard reports that 30 children escaped, but, Carol, those reports came about an hour ago and the situation has changed dramatically since then. I can recap and explain how we believe we got there if you'd like.
COSTELLO: Sure. Go ahead.
CHILCOTE: Well, this all began with two very large explosions. And what we now understand is that Russian authorities had been negotiating with the hostage takers to recover the bodies of some people who had been killed, some bystanders who had been killed on the first day, when the school was seized.
The Russian authorities finally got permission to recover those bodies after two days from in front of the school, from the hostage takers.
And it was during that recovery, according to Russian wire reports, that a group of the armed men inside the school broke out of it, guns blazing, and started to make their way out of the school. We then understand, from Russian wire reports, that a small group of children followed them.
It was then that the remaining hostage takers inside the school opened fire on the children. Then, of course, we heard with our own eyes -- we heard with our own ears and saw with our own eyes a very sustained gun battle. It went on for about 45 minutes. It involved grenades fired. It involved lots of explosions. It involved small arms fire. The Russians has an attack helicopter on station, a cargo helicopter on station. And we saw about 10 people being evacuated from the building.
Now, some of the other information we have is that the building, the roof of this building -- and this is coming from the Interfax News Agency -- collapsed during this attack.
It's not clear exactly how this began, who started shooting first. But it is now clear, according to the Interfax News Agency, that Russian forces are in complete control of the school. We can tell you, though, from the small arms that were fired that we're hearing from around the area that they're not in complete control of the area yet.
COSTELLO: Yes, I just wonder, Ryan, if they're actually inside that school, going through the hallways, looking for those hostage takers.
CHILCOTE: Yes, well, they thought that there were 16 to 20 people, 16 to 20 hostage takers inside the school. And, you know, they thought that two of them were female suicide bombers. We're hearing reports that five of the hostage takers were killed. The question, of course, is where are the remaining hostage takers?
The hostage takers had also threatened to mine the school and blow it up if there was any attempt to storm it. So obviously Russian forces inside there right now are going to be very careful in looking for booby traps that might have been left behind by the hostage takers.
It's a very delicate situation, you know, with a mined school.
COSTELLO: Ryan Chilcote reporting live in Russia near the Chechen border at that elementary school where things seem to be calming down.
I want to bring in our international editor, Eli Flournoy, right now.
Of course, we don't know that for sure.
FLOURNOY: Right. Exactly. There are many things that we're not exactly clear there. And it's important to point out that, once again, what we were hearing from people who had been released about eight hours ago from the school, that there were a thousand or more people in there. Of course, we're seeing more and more pictures of people coming out. But it still could be that there are many unaccounted for people.
And, of course, just as Ryan is reporting there, as we heard, there is gunfire still going on from the area. So the interest that's coming out from official Russian forces, there may be a lag or a disconnect between what's actually happening in that school. And so we still don't know how many people were wounded, where were all the children, were they all being held in the same school building? There are multiple buildings, as you could see from some of the wide shots. And just exactly how many hostage takers were there?
COSTELLO: All right, and, of course, you'll be following this story, trying to get us that information.
Eli, we appreciate it.
We're going to take a short break.
We'll be back with much more on DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
COSTELLO: And, of course, the breaking news we've been covering all morning is happening in Russia, near the Chechen border, at that elementary school.
Early this morning, I would say about 5:00 a.m. Eastern, we heard loud explosions near the school. It happened to be grenade launchers being fired from that school. And then we heard small arms fire. And then the roof collapsed on the school. And all of a sudden, we saw dozens of children running, nearly naked, from the school to safety.
Ten people have been wounded. We did see one photojournalist being shot and carried away by ambulance. We don't know casualty figures exactly yet and we don't know if any people died on this day.
Let's take you live to Moscow now and our correspondent there, Jill Dougherty, to talk more about this.
We do understand that Russian troops may have stormed the school eventually.
Is that what you're hearing in Moscow this morning?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol. In fact, that's really the breaking news here, that the troops now have stormed the building. And the latest reports are, again unconfirmed, but sounding good, that most of the children are OK.
Now, what happened today? We've been seeing some dramatic pictures of what happened. It started about an hour and a half ago. And don't forget, this has been going on since Wednesday and it is now Friday afternoon Moscow time. So basically two and a half days.
It started about an hour and a half ago, where the hostage takers allowed some Russian troops to come in and take some dead bodies, people who had been killed in the initial situation back two days ago.
As they were coming in, all of a sudden some of those terrorists tried to escape and they came out, we are told, guns blazing. And at that point, some of the hostages tried to escape.
So it was a melee and you had children in their underwear, parents collapsing and trying to run from the building, along with the terrorists trying to escape. And the Russian troops who were ringing this building, trying to fire very carefully and protect those children, but also not let the terrorists escape.
After the hostages came out, there was gunfire back and forth for quite a long time, probably about an hour to an hour and a half. People taken away in ambulances. Some of them did look as if they were wounded.
The reports coming from Russian media are that five hostage takers were killed. Now, there were a total of 16 to 20 hostage takers, so that would mean five of them, the latest reports, were killed.
Now, also reports coming out that the rebels, I should say, the hostage takers took off. Some of them took off their uniforms, tried to dress in some type of civilian clothes and run away, blending into the crowd. But we are told the Russian troops are pursuing them.
So, again, a chaotic situation, but it looks as if now the Russian troops have gotten into that school and that most of the children are OK -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, Jill, we're seeing pictures of those children right now and they are, indeed -- actually, we were just a short time ago -- but they are, indeed, in their underwear and they're drinking a lot of water.
Why are they in their underwear?
DOUGHERTY: Well, that's anybody's guess. But, you know, it's pretty hot down there. They were inside a school for two and a half days. They had no water, no food. And so perhaps just to kind of keep cool. I do not know the answer to that, but that would have been my surmisal.
The terrorists, again, said right from the beginning we do not want any supplies, although toward the end they were beginning to negotiate to try to get some type of supplies in to the people.
But if you look at some of the parents who are coming out, they were exhausted. One woman I saw completely collapsing, probably from the strain of this and from trying to escape with her life.
COSTELLO: Jill...
DOUGHERTY: It was a very, very bad situation right from the beginning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Jill, we have some live pictures to show people, very near the school, and we want to let people listen to the small arms fire that's occurring there now.
Let's listen.
And, you know, Jill, we can hear the helicopters overhead. And I know they're Russian assault helicopters. And the roof did collapse on that school and we're just trying to figure out how.
DOUGHERTY: Well, that's the report. Now, we have to see whether that is really confirmed, that the roof did collapse. The terrorists had taken mines, apparently, with them; some type of explosive devices, and said that they were mining the school. So that would be a question, did that happen because of what they did? Did it actually happen? Or was there some other reason?
That, Carol, so far is unclear.
COSTELLO: Who are these people inside the school? Are they Chechen rebels? And what exactly do they want?
DOUGHERTY: Well, that's a very good question, because that is an unanswered question. But it obviously appears that they are Chechen, as we call them, Chechen fighters or Chechen terrorists. Of course, in this situation, they are terrorists. They are a group, as a group, they tend to be a combination of people who want independence for Chechnya and then you also have an international terrorist contingent, as well.
Sometimes it's hard to define exactly who is doing it, but it is believed that it was associated with the biggest warlord and rebel of them all right now, Shamil Basiath (ph). He has done this type of thing before. He's been responsible for terrorist acts in the past, and he is ruthless. And that was the fear that something terrible would happen.
This is, of course, a very, very bad situation. But if it turns out that the children are OK inside of that building, then that would be good news indeed.
But as I began to say, Carol, it was a very bad situation right from the beginning, because don't forget, there have been other hostage-takings before, like the one here in Moscow two years ago by Chechen terrorists. And they knew -- in that case the Russians pumped in gas that put people to sleep. In this case, the well-organized fighters who took over that school knew that that was a possibility. So, they reportedly had sniffer dogs with them, who would be aware if anything should happen. They were well-prepared to do this.
And the government, President Putin made it very clear that he did not want to storm the building; that the most important thing was the security of those children. And once you say that, you limit some of the things that you could do.
In this case, it appears that the terrorists began this particular situation by running out and firing, and then the Russian troops having to return fire.
COSTELLO: Jill, you talk about the connection to the theater there in Moscow two years ago. But is this situation also connected to the two airplanes that were downed recently in Russia?
DOUGHERTY: You would have to -- of course, this is speculation. But you would have to think that, yes, they are probably connected. It is too coincidental to have three major terrorist activities in Russia in just what? Eight to nine days? Just a little over a week.
Remember going back, you started out and you had the two planes that were brought down by, we believe, explosives, apparently by women suicide bombers in some fashion blowing up those planes.
Then you had the woman here in Moscow, who was a suicide bomber, who approached a Metro, a subway entrance. And she looked suspicious. They turned her away. And she detonated her bomb, killing herself and nine other people.
And now you have this.
So, these are a series of attacks. And don't forget that Shamil Basiath (ph), the terrorist, had made it very clear that he was not anymore going to limit his activities to the area around Chechnya, et cetera; that he was coming after Russia proper.
And so, you've had -- if this is his work, you've had exactly that happening. It's very worrisome.
COSTELLO: Jill Dougherty live in Moscow, thank you so much for helping us understand what's happening this morning.
And just to bring our viewers up-t-date, that Russian elementary school, Russian soldiers are now inside. We understand that, oh, several -- five of the hostage-takers have been killed by Russian soldiers. We understand that dozens and dozens of children have managed to run out of that school. They have managed to escape.
What we don't know right now is how many more children are still inside that elementary school.
We'll be keeping you up-to-date on this.
When DAYBREAK comes back, we're also going to bring you up-to- date on Hurricane Frances. We've got reporters everywhere. Chad is in Florida. We have our John Zarrella in West Palm Beach. And we have Rob Marciano in the forecast center right now, as you look at the sun coming up in Florida this morning.
We'll be right back.
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Aired September 3, 2004 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to let you break away so you can get more information for us and bring back in our senior international editor, Eli Flournoy.
It seems to have died down, at least the gunfire portion of this drama this morning. We don't know exactly what that means, though.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right. Exactly. The big unanswered question is are there still rebels holding children and adults in some other part of the school? Clearly, a part of the school, at least, was stormed. We can see the pictures of people carrying children out. There's a makeshift field hospital, if you like, that's set up on school grounds, which would have been essentially a battleground before. So they obviously feel secure enough to set that up there to treat women and children.
You can see here the pictures from earlier of Russian soldiers and adults leading children out from the school area.
But, again, we were talking about, according to women who were released earlier from the school, that there may be 1,000 or more people in the school. And we're, we've seen pictures, obviously, of dozens, maybe a hundred or so. But we haven't seen that many people.
COSTELLO: The situation is still ongoing.
FLOURNOY: Exactly.
COSTELLO: We're going to take a short break.
For those domestic viewers just joining us for DAYBREAK, this is the situation right now. Gunfire and explosions around that elementary school in Russia. We understand that Russian soldiers did open fire and at some point some children managed to run from the school.
The hostage takers opened fire on the children. We understand 10 people have been wounded. We don't know how many of them were children.
We're going to take a short break.
We'll be back with much more on DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello.
You're joining DAYBREAK right now.
And we have been covering breaking news out of Russia all morning long. You're looking at pictures near that elementary school in Russia where hostage takers took hundreds of children hostage on Wednesday. Well, there was a change in the situation this morning. Apparently the hostage takers were firing grenade launchers from inside the school. Now, Russian soldiers were firing back.
During all of this time, these children managed to run from the school somehow, some way. You look at them and they're in their underwear. We're not exactly sure why most of them don't have many clothes on. Some say it was because it was hot. Others say because they weren't allowed to use the bathrooms inside and it was just easier to handle that way in some way.
But these children were running from the school. We understand now at least 10 people have been injured, including a photographer and at least one 17-year-old boy. We don't know how many more of those 10 were children. We're going to keep you updated on the situation throughout the morning on DAYBREAK, but there is much news to cover this morning, including news in our own country, in the United States.
We must talk about Hurricane Frances now. She is bearing down on Florida.
Let's go to the forecast center and Rob Marciano right now.
He's tracking the storm.
Chad Myers is in Melbourne, Florida right now. He's going to bring us up to date on the situation there.
But I'd like to start with Rob to tell us exactly where this hurricane is.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol.
The spiral bands ahead of this system already showing up on the Florida radar scope and probably will be affecting Fort Lauderdale down to Miami here before the morning is out in the form of some rains and gusty winds. Already, from Chad's live shots earlier, we're starting to see some gusty winds as far north as Daytona Beach.
Hurricane force gusts in Nassau. So the Bahamas are getting it at this hour, as this now category three storm takes aim at Florida.
It has decreased in intensity. That's, of course, always good news. But it is a very big storm, a very large storm, where hurricane force winds extend out about 85 miles on either side of this thing. Winds to 120 miles an hour. It makes it still a category three, still a major hurricane. Its movement is to the west-northwest, and that is toward the Florida coastline. When these things decrease in intensity like this and when they're as big as they are, they sometimes have difficulty regaining strength.
However, as it gets closer to the Florida coastline and gets into the Gulf Stream, which has winds -- has water temperatures easily over 80 degrees, which is conducive for the development.
So there is some question as to how strong it will get or if it will decrease in intensity.
But this is what the forecast track is out of the National Hurricane Center as we roll it, as a category three storm here over the next 48 hours and move it toward the Florida coastline, over Freeport, just north of Miami, making landfall somewhere between Miami and Daytona Beach here, and probably tomorrow afternoon, still as a major hurricane.
So this thing is doing its own sort of deal as it heads toward the Florida coastline.
This particular system, which has moved through the Pacific Northwest, is going to be the steering mechanism as we go through the next couple of days, but it's still far away. And hurricane Frances is getting closer to the Florida Keys, Carol, or to south Florida, I should say, Carol. And it's a category three storm. It has decreased in intensity. What it does, does it strengthen? Does it weaken further? There are still some questions. But what has not changed is that it's moving to the Florida coastline and moving, taking aim, actually, at Chad, who's, I believe, in Melbourne Beach this morning.
COSTELLO: Go ahead, Chad.
I know you have a question for Rob.
I see you have your anemometer up and working this morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I do. I have this so I know how fast when I'm running, Carol. But right now the winds are going 24 miles per hour. And all of you that know, I don't jog.
It's going about 24, maybe 27 miles an hour at times. So things are getting gusty here.
But my question for Rob is that I saw the official National Hurricane Center forecast on your map there. Now, I saw it. It goes back up to 140, Rob.
What are they saying about that? What are they saying? Why is it going to increase? The warm water?
MARCIANO: The warm waters, exactly. And it's going to slow down, Chad. So, as you know, you spend any more long time over that warm water, it will increase in intensity.
There is some sheer, meaning there's, you know, Chad, there's that westerly component to the wind at the upper levels. It will tend to knock things down. But it's stalling over that warm water and they think it may strengthen.
And one of the last things they say, Chad, in that discussion is that confidence is low as to what the intensity of this thing will be when it makes landfall.
MYERS: Yes.
MARCIANO: So we just have to keep you on your toes and focus on the track.
MYERS: That's always the case.
Hey, you know, another thing, if this thing really slows down, Rob, there's going to be a huge flood potential with this, no?
MARCIANO: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, it's still forecast to come in as a category three storm. So the storm surge with that could easily be over 10 feet and probably where you're standing right now, you know, much of the State of Florida, especially along the coastline, at sea level or slightly above it. So it doesn't take much to get inland areas flooded, as well.
Lake Okeechobee is under the hurricane warning, as well, because of its low sea level.
COSTELLO: And, Chad, bring us...
MYERS: We always talk about the coast -- go ahead.
COSTELLO: I'm sorry, Chad.
Bring us up to date about what's happening now in Melbourne. You said before it was a ghost town. Tell our viewers about that.
MYERS: It, you know, I'll tell you, I haven't seen more plywood in my entire life. These folks are prepared. They must have started literally on Tuesday. They have done a fabulous job here. Every single building up and down the beach, some kind -- either the metal corrugated that they've screwed to the walls or else the plywood that they have obviously gone to stores and bought the stores out.
I will say, though, that I went to a Wal-Mart, I went to a Home Depot and I went to a Lowe's yesterday. There wasn't one roll of duct tape anywhere to be found. Plywood was going out as fast as they could possibly do it.
And so even though we always talk about the coast, because you always send your reporter to the beach, everybody that's inland also knows it's coming. This thing may not slow down, maybe 20, 30 miles per hour. So as it gets inland, even 30 or 40 miles, the winds there could still be 120 if they're 140 here on the coast, as the forecast center, the hurricane forecast center is forecasting -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes. Chad, we're going to break away from you and go to West Palm Beach and talk to John Zarrella.
He's at a shelter there.
And -- John, just the pictures of the roadways, I-95, I-75, yesterday, as you know, the evacuation went out for 2.5 million people to get the heck out of there.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. People certainly in Florida, with memories of Charley only three weeks ago and memories of hurricane Andrew for the folks who live down in south Miami, no one taking any chances. You know, the gas lines have been absolutely incredible down here. And, you know, as we drove around last night heading up here to West Palm, you're passing gas station after gas station. All of the pumps are dry and most gas stations don't even have fuel anymore. We saw one gas station here in Palm Beach open yesterday. That's because people are filling up their cars because if electricity goes out and you're in the area that gets hit, they can't pump gasoline after the storm.
And, again, those people that filled up and decided to head inland and move away from the storm did so. Two and a half million people ordered to evacuate. Over a million of them did so. Of course, you can't force people to leave. You can tell them to leave, but you can't force someone out of their homes. So there are certainly some who are battening down the hatches and planning to, as they say, ride out the hurricane.
You know, Chad was talking about the boarding up. And, of course, you see that all up and down the east coast of Florida. Even as far north as Jacksonville, the lumber yards were packed with people buying whatever pieces of plywood they could get their hands on to get those windows and doors protected before this storm comes inland, perhaps some time tomorrow afternoon, maybe later, depending on exactly what the track is, you know?
And here at this particular shelter, the Charley factor played a great role. People came in early. This place opened at 2:00 yesterday afternoon and by noon yesterday, there were people lined up to get into this shelter.
Now, we're in the cafeteria. You don't see just a few people here. And that's because the Red Cross treats shelters as a person's home away from home, their right to privacy. So they're all in other buildings, lining the hallways, sleeping on mattresses outside of classrooms and in the auditorium.
So those areas are off limits, and rightfully so, to just about any of us who want to come to these shelters. But this is the cafeteria. People will be coming in here later to get food. And this is one of 28 shelters. They have 19 in Palm Beach County. Nineteen hundred people are in this shelter, perhaps more than any other shelter in Palm Beach County. They have a total capacity here in Palm Beach County of 47,000. And, of course, many more people, as the storm gets closer today, Carol, will be coming into the shelters to seek protection -- Carol.
COSTELLO: John Zarrella reporting live from West Palm Beach, Florida this morning.
We want to take you high above this storm right now, because Frances is massive. It's the size of the State of Texas.
Orelon Sidney is in a plane right now high above the storm with some storm trackers, some scientists tracking this huge storm -- Orelon, are you with us?
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Carol.
Good morning.
COSTELLO: So tell me what you're seeing from high above the storm.
SIDNEY: Well, at this point we're about 43,324 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. We're just now passing, I think it's Puerto Rico is just beneath us. We're just passing the north coast of Hispaniola. We've been out ever since 1:30 this morning and about an hour, about an hour and a half ago, we made our closest pass to what used to be the eye of the storm. It was extremely ragged, showing up on the radar not nearly as symmetrical and divine as we saw it on the satellite pictures yesterday.
The storm has, indeed, weakened. We've been taking dropsondes readings all morning. We've taken 17 of those so far. We've got 23 to complete the mission. But we have definitely seen the sheer of the storm starting in the northern portion of the storm, just to the north of -- northeast of Jacksonville. And then as we continue down to the south, we have definitely noticed the storm experiencing some sheer.
But I'll tell you, just from a non-scientific perspective, it is absolutely beautiful up here. The sun has just come up. The sun is off to my left. And I'm looking southward now over Hispaniola. And you can see the rain bands just like a textbook, the big thunderstorms that are poking up into the atmosphere; the very symmetrical rain bands extraditing outwards and the beautiful cirrus that just beneath -- that makes the top of the hurricane. It's so hard to believe that this is a destructive storm, because from up here, Carol, it's absolutely beautiful.
COSTELLO: That's just amazing.
Orelon Sidney, thank you so much for giving us that perspective, from 42,000 feet up in the air.
We've been talking about breaking news all morning coming out of Russia. Russian soldiers, I think, have stormed that elementary school after receiving fire from inside the school. Dozens and dozens of children have managed to escape.
Our Ryan Chilcote has been on the scene all morning long.
He has an update for us now -- Ryan, give us that update.
CHILCOTE: Well, Carol, sure.
Carol, Russian forces say they are in full control of the school now. This is coming from the Interfax News Agency there, saying that they are in full control of School Number One.
Well, we have small arms fire in this area. Small arms fire here. They are obviously not in full control of the area yet. We've heard other reports that five of the hostage takers were killed in the storming of the school.
Now, the question, of course, is where are the other hostage takers? Russian authorities thought that they were up against between 16 and 20 hostage takers, two of them perhaps female suicide bombers.
So right now reports that Russian forces are in control of the school, but there's still small arms fire right behind me here.
COSTELLO: Do we know, Ryan, how many people are still inside the school?
CHILCOTE: No, we don't know. We have seen several people evacuated from the school, wounded people. I saw some boys who were evacuated from the school. We've seen some men that appeared to have been evacuated from the school, although they could have been involved in a firefight on the street in front of the school.
We have heard reports that 30 children escaped, but, Carol, those reports came about an hour ago and the situation has changed dramatically since then. I can recap and explain how we believe we got there if you'd like.
COSTELLO: Sure. Go ahead.
CHILCOTE: Well, this all began with two very large explosions. And what we now understand is that Russian authorities had been negotiating with the hostage takers to recover the bodies of some people who had been killed, some bystanders who had been killed on the first day, when the school was seized.
The Russian authorities finally got permission to recover those bodies after two days from in front of the school, from the hostage takers.
And it was during that recovery, according to Russian wire reports, that a group of the armed men inside the school broke out of it, guns blazing, and started to make their way out of the school. We then understand, from Russian wire reports, that a small group of children followed them.
It was then that the remaining hostage takers inside the school opened fire on the children. Then, of course, we heard with our own eyes -- we heard with our own ears and saw with our own eyes a very sustained gun battle. It went on for about 45 minutes. It involved grenades fired. It involved lots of explosions. It involved small arms fire. The Russians has an attack helicopter on station, a cargo helicopter on station. And we saw about 10 people being evacuated from the building.
Now, some of the other information we have is that the building, the roof of this building -- and this is coming from the Interfax News Agency -- collapsed during this attack.
It's not clear exactly how this began, who started shooting first. But it is now clear, according to the Interfax News Agency, that Russian forces are in complete control of the school. We can tell you, though, from the small arms that were fired that we're hearing from around the area that they're not in complete control of the area yet.
COSTELLO: Yes, I just wonder, Ryan, if they're actually inside that school, going through the hallways, looking for those hostage takers.
CHILCOTE: Yes, well, they thought that there were 16 to 20 people, 16 to 20 hostage takers inside the school. And, you know, they thought that two of them were female suicide bombers. We're hearing reports that five of the hostage takers were killed. The question, of course, is where are the remaining hostage takers?
The hostage takers had also threatened to mine the school and blow it up if there was any attempt to storm it. So obviously Russian forces inside there right now are going to be very careful in looking for booby traps that might have been left behind by the hostage takers.
It's a very delicate situation, you know, with a mined school.
COSTELLO: Ryan Chilcote reporting live in Russia near the Chechen border at that elementary school where things seem to be calming down.
I want to bring in our international editor, Eli Flournoy, right now.
Of course, we don't know that for sure.
FLOURNOY: Right. Exactly. There are many things that we're not exactly clear there. And it's important to point out that, once again, what we were hearing from people who had been released about eight hours ago from the school, that there were a thousand or more people in there. Of course, we're seeing more and more pictures of people coming out. But it still could be that there are many unaccounted for people.
And, of course, just as Ryan is reporting there, as we heard, there is gunfire still going on from the area. So the interest that's coming out from official Russian forces, there may be a lag or a disconnect between what's actually happening in that school. And so we still don't know how many people were wounded, where were all the children, were they all being held in the same school building? There are multiple buildings, as you could see from some of the wide shots. And just exactly how many hostage takers were there?
COSTELLO: All right, and, of course, you'll be following this story, trying to get us that information.
Eli, we appreciate it.
We're going to take a short break.
We'll be back with much more on DAYBREAK.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
COSTELLO: And, of course, the breaking news we've been covering all morning is happening in Russia, near the Chechen border, at that elementary school.
Early this morning, I would say about 5:00 a.m. Eastern, we heard loud explosions near the school. It happened to be grenade launchers being fired from that school. And then we heard small arms fire. And then the roof collapsed on the school. And all of a sudden, we saw dozens of children running, nearly naked, from the school to safety.
Ten people have been wounded. We did see one photojournalist being shot and carried away by ambulance. We don't know casualty figures exactly yet and we don't know if any people died on this day.
Let's take you live to Moscow now and our correspondent there, Jill Dougherty, to talk more about this.
We do understand that Russian troops may have stormed the school eventually.
Is that what you're hearing in Moscow this morning?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol. In fact, that's really the breaking news here, that the troops now have stormed the building. And the latest reports are, again unconfirmed, but sounding good, that most of the children are OK.
Now, what happened today? We've been seeing some dramatic pictures of what happened. It started about an hour and a half ago. And don't forget, this has been going on since Wednesday and it is now Friday afternoon Moscow time. So basically two and a half days.
It started about an hour and a half ago, where the hostage takers allowed some Russian troops to come in and take some dead bodies, people who had been killed in the initial situation back two days ago.
As they were coming in, all of a sudden some of those terrorists tried to escape and they came out, we are told, guns blazing. And at that point, some of the hostages tried to escape.
So it was a melee and you had children in their underwear, parents collapsing and trying to run from the building, along with the terrorists trying to escape. And the Russian troops who were ringing this building, trying to fire very carefully and protect those children, but also not let the terrorists escape.
After the hostages came out, there was gunfire back and forth for quite a long time, probably about an hour to an hour and a half. People taken away in ambulances. Some of them did look as if they were wounded.
The reports coming from Russian media are that five hostage takers were killed. Now, there were a total of 16 to 20 hostage takers, so that would mean five of them, the latest reports, were killed.
Now, also reports coming out that the rebels, I should say, the hostage takers took off. Some of them took off their uniforms, tried to dress in some type of civilian clothes and run away, blending into the crowd. But we are told the Russian troops are pursuing them.
So, again, a chaotic situation, but it looks as if now the Russian troops have gotten into that school and that most of the children are OK -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, Jill, we're seeing pictures of those children right now and they are, indeed -- actually, we were just a short time ago -- but they are, indeed, in their underwear and they're drinking a lot of water.
Why are they in their underwear?
DOUGHERTY: Well, that's anybody's guess. But, you know, it's pretty hot down there. They were inside a school for two and a half days. They had no water, no food. And so perhaps just to kind of keep cool. I do not know the answer to that, but that would have been my surmisal.
The terrorists, again, said right from the beginning we do not want any supplies, although toward the end they were beginning to negotiate to try to get some type of supplies in to the people.
But if you look at some of the parents who are coming out, they were exhausted. One woman I saw completely collapsing, probably from the strain of this and from trying to escape with her life.
COSTELLO: Jill...
DOUGHERTY: It was a very, very bad situation right from the beginning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Jill, we have some live pictures to show people, very near the school, and we want to let people listen to the small arms fire that's occurring there now.
Let's listen.
And, you know, Jill, we can hear the helicopters overhead. And I know they're Russian assault helicopters. And the roof did collapse on that school and we're just trying to figure out how.
DOUGHERTY: Well, that's the report. Now, we have to see whether that is really confirmed, that the roof did collapse. The terrorists had taken mines, apparently, with them; some type of explosive devices, and said that they were mining the school. So that would be a question, did that happen because of what they did? Did it actually happen? Or was there some other reason?
That, Carol, so far is unclear.
COSTELLO: Who are these people inside the school? Are they Chechen rebels? And what exactly do they want?
DOUGHERTY: Well, that's a very good question, because that is an unanswered question. But it obviously appears that they are Chechen, as we call them, Chechen fighters or Chechen terrorists. Of course, in this situation, they are terrorists. They are a group, as a group, they tend to be a combination of people who want independence for Chechnya and then you also have an international terrorist contingent, as well.
Sometimes it's hard to define exactly who is doing it, but it is believed that it was associated with the biggest warlord and rebel of them all right now, Shamil Basiath (ph). He has done this type of thing before. He's been responsible for terrorist acts in the past, and he is ruthless. And that was the fear that something terrible would happen.
This is, of course, a very, very bad situation. But if it turns out that the children are OK inside of that building, then that would be good news indeed.
But as I began to say, Carol, it was a very bad situation right from the beginning, because don't forget, there have been other hostage-takings before, like the one here in Moscow two years ago by Chechen terrorists. And they knew -- in that case the Russians pumped in gas that put people to sleep. In this case, the well-organized fighters who took over that school knew that that was a possibility. So, they reportedly had sniffer dogs with them, who would be aware if anything should happen. They were well-prepared to do this.
And the government, President Putin made it very clear that he did not want to storm the building; that the most important thing was the security of those children. And once you say that, you limit some of the things that you could do.
In this case, it appears that the terrorists began this particular situation by running out and firing, and then the Russian troops having to return fire.
COSTELLO: Jill, you talk about the connection to the theater there in Moscow two years ago. But is this situation also connected to the two airplanes that were downed recently in Russia?
DOUGHERTY: You would have to -- of course, this is speculation. But you would have to think that, yes, they are probably connected. It is too coincidental to have three major terrorist activities in Russia in just what? Eight to nine days? Just a little over a week.
Remember going back, you started out and you had the two planes that were brought down by, we believe, explosives, apparently by women suicide bombers in some fashion blowing up those planes.
Then you had the woman here in Moscow, who was a suicide bomber, who approached a Metro, a subway entrance. And she looked suspicious. They turned her away. And she detonated her bomb, killing herself and nine other people.
And now you have this.
So, these are a series of attacks. And don't forget that Shamil Basiath (ph), the terrorist, had made it very clear that he was not anymore going to limit his activities to the area around Chechnya, et cetera; that he was coming after Russia proper.
And so, you've had -- if this is his work, you've had exactly that happening. It's very worrisome.
COSTELLO: Jill Dougherty live in Moscow, thank you so much for helping us understand what's happening this morning.
And just to bring our viewers up-t-date, that Russian elementary school, Russian soldiers are now inside. We understand that, oh, several -- five of the hostage-takers have been killed by Russian soldiers. We understand that dozens and dozens of children have managed to run out of that school. They have managed to escape.
What we don't know right now is how many more children are still inside that elementary school.
We'll be keeping you up-to-date on this.
When DAYBREAK comes back, we're also going to bring you up-to- date on Hurricane Frances. We've got reporters everywhere. Chad is in Florida. We have our John Zarrella in West Palm Beach. And we have Rob Marciano in the forecast center right now, as you look at the sun coming up in Florida this morning.
We'll be right back.
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