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CNN Live Today
Russian Commandos Storm School; Hurricane Frances Prompts Most Massive Evacuation in History of Florida
Aired September 03, 2004 - 10:00 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: And for that, our Daryn Kagan is watching that at the CNN center. I'll be with Daryn again as we go to the next hour, the 10:00 a.m. Eastern hour.
And Daryn, Happy Friday. Good morning to you there.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: You, too. And that rest Kelly was suggesting? Not going to happen anytime soon for you.
HEMMER: Ain't going to be one. You're right.
KAGAN: Especially over the next couple of hours. Bill, we're back to you many times over the next couple of hours to check in on Frances.
Back to Bill in just a minute.
It is, simply said, an extremely busy news day. Events unfolding on several big stories from Florida, where Bill Hemmer is, to Russia. And as you just saw, out on the campaign trail as well.
Let's get started with the headlines happening now in the news beginning with Frances, a dangerous hurricane flowing before an expected hit on Florida's east coast. Forecasters say that Hurricane Frances is now a Category 3 storm. It could strengthen again, however, before coming ashore.
Residents in parts of a dozen counties have been told to evacuate. Frances is more than twice the size of Hurricane Charley, which slammed into Florida's southwest coast three weeks ago. Forecasters predict the storm could drop up to 20 inches of rain and cause massive power out outages.
Victims from a two-day-old hostage situation are carried out of a school in southern Russia. Russian Special Forces troops stormed the school just a few hours ago and they freed a number of hostages. Some hostage takers escaped and apparently are still holed up in the building.
The final two-month push toward Election Day is under way. Hoping to capitalize on momentum from his GOP convention speech, President Bush, who you see there, in a live picture, is reaching out to voters in Scranton, Pennsylvania this morning. The president also attends rallies today in Wisconsin and Iowa. Mr. Bush formally accepted his party's nomination last night and outlined 15 domestic initiatives for a second term. And Iraqi firefighters are battling an enormous oil pipeline fire from 40 miles from Kirkuk. Insurgents detonated explosives on the line late Thursday, stopping exports. Iraqi officials say it was the most serious attack on the oil industry in the north since the war began.
We move on now on to the tragic scene in Russia. Bursts of gunfire, the thunder of explosions, the sounds of terrorism at a schoolhouse. Russian commandos stormed the school where hundreds of parents and children have been held for nearly three days. The casualty count today is staggering. Hundreds injured, possibly more than 100 killed. A reporter, in fact, for Britain's ITV says that as many as 100 bodies have been found in the smoldering ruins of the school gymnasium, where many of the hostages were corralled during the standoff. And the violent finish took place about five hours ago.
Our Ryan Chilcote was on hand for the siege and he joins us with more via videophone -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this all began, Daryn, about five hours ago. That was when Russian forces -- Russian authorities, I should say, sent four members of their emergency team to the school to collect the bodies of some individuals that had been killed. Twenty bodies that had been killed, both when the school was seized two days ago, and were killed over the basically over the sporadic fighting over the last couple of days. They had removed two of the bodies as part of an agreement between the hostage takers and Russian authorities to allow these individuals to come in to collect these bodies. They removed two of the 20 bodies from the scene.
When there was a very loud explosion on the other side of the school and that was when a group of the hostages, that were inside the gymnasium, decided to use that as an opportunity to flee the school. When the hostage takers saw that happening, they opened fire on those fleeing children. And the Russian forces returned fire. And that's how this all began.
Six hours later now, they are still shooting. About an hour ago, on the school grounds, in the gymnasium where all of the hostages were is still a smoldering fire. There's a smoldering fire going on inside of that gymnasium. The roof has collapsed. There are some firefighters trying to put, you know, the rest of that blaze out. And then in the rest of the school, there's still a very serious firefight under way. Russian forces clearing it room by room, getting the wounded out as they can -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And so the search and hunt still goes on for the militants who conducted this?
CHILCOTE: That's right. There's still fighting in the school. There are still militants in the school. There are still many, many dead hostages and wounded hostages inside of the school. And they're going room by room to get them out. There's a team of people standing by on the outside of the school with stretchers. As soon as the Russian soldiers have cleared a room, they call them over. They're removed by stretchers to ambulances waiting nearby, and they're whisked away.
And this process goes on and maybe, you know, one casualty, one wounded or dead person taken away, as I was watching, every couple of minutes. I saw a boy. I saw a woman. It just keeps going on and on, and on amidst very serious fighting inside the school.
KAGAN: Ryan Chilcote in Beslan, Russia. Thank you.
And we focus on our other big developing story right here in the U.S. We have CNN correspondents posted all along the projected path and periphery of Hurricane Frances. You saw Bill Hemmer at the top of the hour. He and Chad Myers are in Melbourne. Our Karl Penhaul is in Freeport in the Bahamas. Sean Callebs, at a shelter in West Palm Beach. Kathleen Koch in St. Augustine. And our Orelon Sidney is at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
It could be the most powerful storm to slam into the state in more than a decade. It has prompted the most massive evacuation in the history of Florida.
Our Bill Hemmer is our point man on the story. He joins me now from Melbourne, southeast of Orlando now.
Bill, good morning once again.
HEMMER: Hey, Daryn. Good morning to you as well. The surface really starting to get a charge in the hour, the past 90 minutes or so. Not a whole lot of people around to see it, though. The warnings for the evacuation went out two days ago and again yesterday. And based on what we can tell with the deserted beach here and the hotels up and down the surf here, we are not seeing many people at all. It appears that most of those people have taken heed of the warnings and they have gone north and inland to get away from the storm.
Live pictures now from the Bahamas. And Daryn, this is really the best way we can gauge the strength of Frances at this point. We talked about the slow -- the storm slowing down. We talked about the strength of the storm dropping from a Category 4 to a Category 3. Still, though, at 120-mile-an-hour sustained winds and gusts much higher than that, this is a fierce storm for the islands of the Bahamas.
In the Bahamas now for us, by way of videophone, Karl Penhaul joins me live.
And Karl, if you can hear me, conditions are what -- Karl?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill. Well, again The Bahamas is a string of 700 islands. So what's happening in one part of The Bahamas isn't necessarily what's happening where we are in Grand Bahama. Grand Bahama about 100 miles from the coast of Florida.
Now, from what we understand, what meteorologists have told us, the impact of the hurricane right now is being felt on the island of Eleuthra and also on New Providence. That's where the capital Nassau is. Those are really getting a battering now by this hurricane. And we understand from the meteorologist that winds -- sustained winds of about 120 miles an hour right now.
Now, here in Freeport on Grand Bahama, we're expecting those hurricane winds to start blowing in around 2:00 this afternoon. Right now, what we're getting is a constant picking up of the wind. We're getting gusts, heavy gusts and also a lot of rain now is starting. But still, we're not into those hurricane force winds. So we would expect those in the course of the afternoon.
Now, because of the warnings that are out, most of the islanders here have moved in from the ocean side into the interior of the island, three or four miles inland. We've also obviously heeded those warnings, Bill. We've moved inland as well away from the ocean, because meteorologists are predicting a tidal surge of anything between 14 and 18 feet. And that on an island that is flat as Grand Bahama could be absolutely disastrous. And that, in fact, is what the meteorologists here that we've been talking to are saying. They're saying that this hurricane could be almost catastrophic to the Grand Bahama. They're saying that it's probably the worst hurricane the Bahamas has seen in its history, Bill.
HEMMER: Yes. Karl, as you're watching there, and watching along for us, you're really the only eyes and ears we have on the ground in there in Freeport. By way of damage, can you get a gauge or reading at this point?
PENHAUL: Certainly here in Freeport and in Grand Bahama, no damage just yet, because that's to say the full hurricane force isn't being felt here yet. But a few moments ago, we were in the Incident Center here in Freeport. They've got communications throughout the Bahamas. And they're saying that surprisingly so far, they haven't had any reports of major structural damage.
They are saying yes, particularly on Cat Island and on Eleuthra they have reports of roofs being blown off. Power lines are down, the fixed telephone lines down, the landlines down. But some of the cell telephone operators are still continuing to work. But certainly they say no loss of life has been reported. No injuries to people. But chief meteorologists here on Grand Bahama do say that they are expecting a lot of flooding. They say they are expecting severe structural damage. And they say there could even be loss of life -- Bill.
HEMMER: And Karl, just to be clear here, you're saying the eye is not expected until 4:00 your time, which is about six hours from now. Is that right?
PENHAUL: Not even then necessarily, Bill. There's a number of varying reports from the Incident Center and also from the meteorologists here on the island in Grand Bahama. What's confusing the feature a little bit is, as you know, the hurricane has slowed down. At one stage it was moving about 17 miles an hour. Now it's moving at less than 10 miles an hour. And so, what the Incident Room here is telling us is that the edge of the hurricane is expected here about 2:00 p.m. And the meteorologists are telling us that the eye of the storm could be over Grand Bahama around as late as midnight -- Bill. HEMMER: Wow! OK. Karl, thanks for that clarification. And well noted, too. Thanks, Karl, by way of videophone in Freeport. We're going to keep that image on the screen for our viewers at home.
And also by telephone, I want to bring in Orelon Sidney, a meteorologist here with CNN also. Earlier today, Orelon had the -- well, I guess, in the meteorology world, she has the privilege of going into the storm with the Hurricane Hunters.
And Orelon, what did you see above the storm earlier today?
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Bill, good morning. It was actually quite an interesting flight. We were very high up over the storm, flying a pattern, kind of a jagged pattern all around Frances and sampling the atmosphere around it. That's one of most important things you can do is to sample the near atmosphere of a hurricane, especially when you're looking at forecasts greater than 24 hours.
Believe it or not, it was amazingly smooth. The Hurricane Hunters that do the low-level flights from the surface to 10,000 feet, those are the guys that really get bumped around. We were at about 40,000 feet and up. It was smooth, uneventful ride. I think we had more turbulence on the flight from Atlanta to Tampa than we had in the flight over the hurricane.
But the view of the hurricane was absolutely spectacular. You could see the towering tops, especially on the outer edges of the storm. We passed by a very ragged eye about 5:00 a.m., and we could see it on radar. But unfortunately, it was still too dark to look out a plane and see it. But about sunrise we past over the northern portion of Hispaniola and we saw the sun rise over Hispaniola as we were looking to the south with those feeder bands that you're seeing now on the satellite picture. You could still some of those very high cloud tops and it was absolutely spectacular.
Hard to believe that the storm is as damaging on the surface when it's as beautiful as it is from above.
HEMMER: You know, Orelon, you describe the eye as being ragged. Was there an explanation given to you as to why the eye has lost its shape somewhat? Why the storm has decreased, not only in its strength of the storm, but also in the speed by way -- by which it's moving now?
SIDNEY: Well, the best guess on the speed is that the ridge of high pressure to the north of the storm that was forecast to hold the storm a little bit more to the south, is holding it also from moving forward very rapidly.
The thing about the intensity is the Hurricane Hunters did pick up quite a bit of shear all around the storm. There's only one area of the storm, you can see it on your satellite picture now, where there's a lot of red and oranges, that northeast quadrant. That's the only area that has a good outflow. And outflow is essential for a hurricane. It's like a chimney. And if you can't get that exhaust out away from the hurricane, you're just going to choke that eye off. And the eye pressure will start to rise. And that's exactly what we've seen happen.
Some good news is I talked to the Hurricane Hunter meteorologist that I was with. And they seem to be pretty optimistic that this storm may remain on the lower side of Category 3. We certainly have the potential for it to increase in strength. And I don't want anybody to think that it couldn't. Don't let your guard down at all because three is still a dangerous storm. But we may be getting lucky if this sheer holds out. Perhaps we could hold it at 120 miles an hour, or thereabouts.
HEMMER: Yes, hopefully the form and description you provided is indeed the case for all the folks living down here in Florida. Orelon Sidney, thanks.
Orelon flying earlier today with the Hurricane Hunters, as she mentioned before, daybreak earlier today.
We will continue to track it here, Daryn. We are live just north of Melbourne, Florida. And again, it looks like a pretty beautiful day so far. Stiff wind throughout the morning here. The surface becoming greater, but based on the descriptions from Orelon and Karl Penhaul, there are still some wide-open questions right now from where this storm goes from here, and how strong Frances becomes or does not.
Back to you now in Atlanta, Daryn. Talk to you again in a couple of minutes.
KAGAN: Bill, amazing description from Orelon, didn't you think, when she talked about the beauty of the storm from the top? Hard to believe how much destruction it can cause from underneath.
HEMMER: So true.
KAGAN: Absolutely. We will be back to you very soon.
And we will not be leaving this story. As Floridians brace for Hurricane Frances, we're going to bring you everything you need to know.
Also, the latest job numbers shows a bit of a bright spot in the economy. How will the campaigns be playing that?
And later, look who's joining me. Clint Eastwood joins me to talk about an opportunity for almost 80 junior golfers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Show you a live picture from I-95 from Florida. As we mentioned, some 2.5 million people are under evacuation orders in Florida. By the looks of the highway, a lot of them already got out of Dodge. They are streaming out of at least 22 different counties. This is the largest evacuation order ever in the history of Florida.
Let's look at the counties. Seventeen or at least parts of them are under mandatory evacuations. Those are considered at high risk. They include folks living on Barrier Island, in low-lying flood prone areas, and residents living in mobile homes and houses that have already been damaged by Hurricane Charley. Five other counties have issued voluntary evacuation orders.
As we've been mentioning throughout the morning, we have crews from CNN posted all along Florida's east coast. Many of them virtually alone on vast stretches of abandoned coastline.
Let's go back to Bill Hemmer. He is in Melbourne, about 750 miles southeast of Orlando.
Bill, hello once again.
HEMMER: Hey, Daryn. Yes. Good morning again. Yes, pretty well deserted here. We've seen a few people coming up and down the beach for a morning walk here. But for the most part, listen, people have heeded the warnings and they have cleared out and the evacuations went out.
Daryn, if you think about it, three weeks ago to the day today, on the west coast of Florida is when Charley hit here and really put a sting into this state. Twenty-seven people killed, upwards of $7 billion in damage. And really, the hangover is quite clear. Up around the Orlando area, there were still reports even today of debris still being in the yards of private homes.
The governor earlier today in Tallahassee, Jeb Bush, he's had a very busy time, yet again, dealing with a second of two storms now coming in within a three-week period here. Talking earlier today about his warnings, what Floridians need to know now. Here's the governor in Florida now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: Frances is now, as you all know, is now a Category 3 storm. And it has slowed. And I hope people don't take comfort in the fact that that has occurred. The storm is very unpredictable. While the cone has probably narrowed a bit as we -- as it comes closer to the coast, we still don't know exactly where landfall will be. And we don't know whether or not the storm will strengthen. In fact, there's some indications as it slows down, it might gather steam and also gather strength.
If you're on a Barrier island, or in a low-lying area, and you haven't left, now's the time to do so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Again, Florida Governor Jeb Bush talking about the Barrier Islands at the end of that comment there. It's the same thing that the city manager in Melbourne told us an hour ago. That was his greatest concern about the outer areas here along the Florida coast, seemed to be the area which could be the most precarious place when this storm eventually comes onshore here in the southeast.
Chad Myers also here with me here, CNN meteorologist. And Chad, let me go back to Karl Penhaul's comments a short time ago, his report in Freeport in the Bahamas. We can show our viewers the videotape yet again. Based on what he was describing, what was your take away from Karl's report?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: My take away was that he was already getting, or pretty close to hurricane strength winds. And that storm may still be almost a 100 miles from him. So I think Floridians are going to feel the same thing. Even as that storm is only 100 miles from the shore, the winds around it are so large.
Typically, we focus on the eye because that's where the big numbers are. But if you have hurricane force winds that extend 70, 80, 100 miles away from the eye, then that eye lingers over your area for 12 hours. You're looking at 75, 80-mile-per-hour winds for half a day. And then as the eye gets closer, they could go higher than that. That's what kind of strikes me as significant. The size of the hurricane, the size of the wind field, as we call it, rather than just focusing on that eye itself.
HEMMER: Yes. The other thing the governor is talking about is if this storm continues to move as slowly as it is right now -- I say slowly only because it moved quicker before and now it's down around nine to 10 miles an hour. He's sending out a warning right now, that if this storm comes onshore at that speed, this could be a tremendous rainmaker in Florida.
MYERS: Oh, yes. A huge flood maker, Bill. As it comes onshore -- and another thing, too, when storms slow down, they become more unpredictable. When they've got a good steering current, it's almost like a car. It's got a lot of momentum. It's hard to turn that car if it's doing 90. That car wants to go straight. You slow that car down to 10; it's easier to turn the car. And a hurricane is easier to turn, too. So we could see a left or right turn with it. We just have to obviously watch the radar and watch the satellites very carefully.
Otherwise, as the storm stops -- if you remember Hurricane Agnes back in 1972, it stopped right over the Susquehanna River Valley and all the way from Binghamton, Elmira, Corning, right on down through Roxbury and Scranton, and then all the way down to Harrisburg. Significant flooding as that rain -- as that storm just stalled. And it rained for days.
And I'm concerned that if it comes over here and even rains for a full day, we could get 8 to 12 inches of rain in a full day. And there's nowhere for that water to go. It's saturated from Charley.
HEMMER: I thought it was interesting listening to Orelon when she flew with the Hurricane Hunters, how calm she described the flight. Because you know in storms past, a lot of times when reporters are on those flights, they get roughed around for hours at a time.
The other thing she pointed out, in the upper right-hand corner of every hurricane, we know that's the strongest area when the winds whip around, that's strongest area and the highest and most intense winds you're going to find. But what Orelon was describing is the shearing effect right now that's taking place that is making the eye become, in her words, "ragged."
MYERS: Ragged. A hurricane likes to be all by itself, with nothing taking the tops of the storms off. If you look at a major tornado maker in Oklahoma, you want a jet stream over the top of that thing going 100 miles an hour. And it blows that storm and it makes hail, it makes tornadoes. Hurricanes can't have any of that. They want no wind at all up there, so that they can just sit there and do their own thing. They just want to sit there and swirl.
It's like, you know, you take the top out of the drain, the drain out of your sink and it kind of spins around. Well, if you put your finger in it, it's going to stop swirling. So if you kind of push it around with your hand, it's going to stop swirling. Well, the winds kind of give it a little bat in the eye here. And it kind of stopped swirling a little bit, down 120. Still obviously swirling, a Category 3, though -- Bill.
HEMMER: Yes, that it is. Hopefully -- I mean listen, we can be optimists out here. Hopefully it continues to die down and the folks here get a bit of a breather as well.
The other thing that strikes me -- and listen, you came in yesterday. I came in late last night. The thing that strikes me is the presence and the ever-presence of Charley. We're only 21 days removed from that storm. And if you talk to anyone up and down this coast, they're thinking about that storm. Would you agree with that?
MYERS: I would agree with that. Bill, you couldn't drive around Orlando if you didn't know where you were going, because the signs are all blown down. I mean -- and this was how far from landfall? It made landfall at Punta Gorda. It's 100 miles from Punta Gorda. And you say oh, when the storm hits land, it's going to die. It's not going to affect me. Well, it hit the other side.
This one is coming in this way. Orlando is only about 40 miles up the coast in a straight line, as the crow flies. So, yes, those folks up there were ready. They were at the stores. They bought everything. They bought things they didn't need. The stores were jammed yesterday. And all I was doing just trying to get some water and some duct tape. I couldn't find duct tape to save my life.
HEMMER: Wow. Thank you, Chad. We'll talk to you again throughout the morning here.
And by the way, seeing our first surfer out there, just now leaving the surf here as it continues to kick up. It's a beautiful day so far. A good stiff breeze blowing. But we all wait now for about 24 hours to find out the fate of Frances here in Florida.
Let's get a break here. Back in a moment live in Florida. Also live with Daryn Kagan at the CNN center after this.
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Aired September 3, 2004 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: And for that, our Daryn Kagan is watching that at the CNN center. I'll be with Daryn again as we go to the next hour, the 10:00 a.m. Eastern hour.
And Daryn, Happy Friday. Good morning to you there.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: You, too. And that rest Kelly was suggesting? Not going to happen anytime soon for you.
HEMMER: Ain't going to be one. You're right.
KAGAN: Especially over the next couple of hours. Bill, we're back to you many times over the next couple of hours to check in on Frances.
Back to Bill in just a minute.
It is, simply said, an extremely busy news day. Events unfolding on several big stories from Florida, where Bill Hemmer is, to Russia. And as you just saw, out on the campaign trail as well.
Let's get started with the headlines happening now in the news beginning with Frances, a dangerous hurricane flowing before an expected hit on Florida's east coast. Forecasters say that Hurricane Frances is now a Category 3 storm. It could strengthen again, however, before coming ashore.
Residents in parts of a dozen counties have been told to evacuate. Frances is more than twice the size of Hurricane Charley, which slammed into Florida's southwest coast three weeks ago. Forecasters predict the storm could drop up to 20 inches of rain and cause massive power out outages.
Victims from a two-day-old hostage situation are carried out of a school in southern Russia. Russian Special Forces troops stormed the school just a few hours ago and they freed a number of hostages. Some hostage takers escaped and apparently are still holed up in the building.
The final two-month push toward Election Day is under way. Hoping to capitalize on momentum from his GOP convention speech, President Bush, who you see there, in a live picture, is reaching out to voters in Scranton, Pennsylvania this morning. The president also attends rallies today in Wisconsin and Iowa. Mr. Bush formally accepted his party's nomination last night and outlined 15 domestic initiatives for a second term. And Iraqi firefighters are battling an enormous oil pipeline fire from 40 miles from Kirkuk. Insurgents detonated explosives on the line late Thursday, stopping exports. Iraqi officials say it was the most serious attack on the oil industry in the north since the war began.
We move on now on to the tragic scene in Russia. Bursts of gunfire, the thunder of explosions, the sounds of terrorism at a schoolhouse. Russian commandos stormed the school where hundreds of parents and children have been held for nearly three days. The casualty count today is staggering. Hundreds injured, possibly more than 100 killed. A reporter, in fact, for Britain's ITV says that as many as 100 bodies have been found in the smoldering ruins of the school gymnasium, where many of the hostages were corralled during the standoff. And the violent finish took place about five hours ago.
Our Ryan Chilcote was on hand for the siege and he joins us with more via videophone -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this all began, Daryn, about five hours ago. That was when Russian forces -- Russian authorities, I should say, sent four members of their emergency team to the school to collect the bodies of some individuals that had been killed. Twenty bodies that had been killed, both when the school was seized two days ago, and were killed over the basically over the sporadic fighting over the last couple of days. They had removed two of the bodies as part of an agreement between the hostage takers and Russian authorities to allow these individuals to come in to collect these bodies. They removed two of the 20 bodies from the scene.
When there was a very loud explosion on the other side of the school and that was when a group of the hostages, that were inside the gymnasium, decided to use that as an opportunity to flee the school. When the hostage takers saw that happening, they opened fire on those fleeing children. And the Russian forces returned fire. And that's how this all began.
Six hours later now, they are still shooting. About an hour ago, on the school grounds, in the gymnasium where all of the hostages were is still a smoldering fire. There's a smoldering fire going on inside of that gymnasium. The roof has collapsed. There are some firefighters trying to put, you know, the rest of that blaze out. And then in the rest of the school, there's still a very serious firefight under way. Russian forces clearing it room by room, getting the wounded out as they can -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And so the search and hunt still goes on for the militants who conducted this?
CHILCOTE: That's right. There's still fighting in the school. There are still militants in the school. There are still many, many dead hostages and wounded hostages inside of the school. And they're going room by room to get them out. There's a team of people standing by on the outside of the school with stretchers. As soon as the Russian soldiers have cleared a room, they call them over. They're removed by stretchers to ambulances waiting nearby, and they're whisked away.
And this process goes on and maybe, you know, one casualty, one wounded or dead person taken away, as I was watching, every couple of minutes. I saw a boy. I saw a woman. It just keeps going on and on, and on amidst very serious fighting inside the school.
KAGAN: Ryan Chilcote in Beslan, Russia. Thank you.
And we focus on our other big developing story right here in the U.S. We have CNN correspondents posted all along the projected path and periphery of Hurricane Frances. You saw Bill Hemmer at the top of the hour. He and Chad Myers are in Melbourne. Our Karl Penhaul is in Freeport in the Bahamas. Sean Callebs, at a shelter in West Palm Beach. Kathleen Koch in St. Augustine. And our Orelon Sidney is at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
It could be the most powerful storm to slam into the state in more than a decade. It has prompted the most massive evacuation in the history of Florida.
Our Bill Hemmer is our point man on the story. He joins me now from Melbourne, southeast of Orlando now.
Bill, good morning once again.
HEMMER: Hey, Daryn. Good morning to you as well. The surface really starting to get a charge in the hour, the past 90 minutes or so. Not a whole lot of people around to see it, though. The warnings for the evacuation went out two days ago and again yesterday. And based on what we can tell with the deserted beach here and the hotels up and down the surf here, we are not seeing many people at all. It appears that most of those people have taken heed of the warnings and they have gone north and inland to get away from the storm.
Live pictures now from the Bahamas. And Daryn, this is really the best way we can gauge the strength of Frances at this point. We talked about the slow -- the storm slowing down. We talked about the strength of the storm dropping from a Category 4 to a Category 3. Still, though, at 120-mile-an-hour sustained winds and gusts much higher than that, this is a fierce storm for the islands of the Bahamas.
In the Bahamas now for us, by way of videophone, Karl Penhaul joins me live.
And Karl, if you can hear me, conditions are what -- Karl?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill. Well, again The Bahamas is a string of 700 islands. So what's happening in one part of The Bahamas isn't necessarily what's happening where we are in Grand Bahama. Grand Bahama about 100 miles from the coast of Florida.
Now, from what we understand, what meteorologists have told us, the impact of the hurricane right now is being felt on the island of Eleuthra and also on New Providence. That's where the capital Nassau is. Those are really getting a battering now by this hurricane. And we understand from the meteorologist that winds -- sustained winds of about 120 miles an hour right now.
Now, here in Freeport on Grand Bahama, we're expecting those hurricane winds to start blowing in around 2:00 this afternoon. Right now, what we're getting is a constant picking up of the wind. We're getting gusts, heavy gusts and also a lot of rain now is starting. But still, we're not into those hurricane force winds. So we would expect those in the course of the afternoon.
Now, because of the warnings that are out, most of the islanders here have moved in from the ocean side into the interior of the island, three or four miles inland. We've also obviously heeded those warnings, Bill. We've moved inland as well away from the ocean, because meteorologists are predicting a tidal surge of anything between 14 and 18 feet. And that on an island that is flat as Grand Bahama could be absolutely disastrous. And that, in fact, is what the meteorologists here that we've been talking to are saying. They're saying that this hurricane could be almost catastrophic to the Grand Bahama. They're saying that it's probably the worst hurricane the Bahamas has seen in its history, Bill.
HEMMER: Yes. Karl, as you're watching there, and watching along for us, you're really the only eyes and ears we have on the ground in there in Freeport. By way of damage, can you get a gauge or reading at this point?
PENHAUL: Certainly here in Freeport and in Grand Bahama, no damage just yet, because that's to say the full hurricane force isn't being felt here yet. But a few moments ago, we were in the Incident Center here in Freeport. They've got communications throughout the Bahamas. And they're saying that surprisingly so far, they haven't had any reports of major structural damage.
They are saying yes, particularly on Cat Island and on Eleuthra they have reports of roofs being blown off. Power lines are down, the fixed telephone lines down, the landlines down. But some of the cell telephone operators are still continuing to work. But certainly they say no loss of life has been reported. No injuries to people. But chief meteorologists here on Grand Bahama do say that they are expecting a lot of flooding. They say they are expecting severe structural damage. And they say there could even be loss of life -- Bill.
HEMMER: And Karl, just to be clear here, you're saying the eye is not expected until 4:00 your time, which is about six hours from now. Is that right?
PENHAUL: Not even then necessarily, Bill. There's a number of varying reports from the Incident Center and also from the meteorologists here on the island in Grand Bahama. What's confusing the feature a little bit is, as you know, the hurricane has slowed down. At one stage it was moving about 17 miles an hour. Now it's moving at less than 10 miles an hour. And so, what the Incident Room here is telling us is that the edge of the hurricane is expected here about 2:00 p.m. And the meteorologists are telling us that the eye of the storm could be over Grand Bahama around as late as midnight -- Bill. HEMMER: Wow! OK. Karl, thanks for that clarification. And well noted, too. Thanks, Karl, by way of videophone in Freeport. We're going to keep that image on the screen for our viewers at home.
And also by telephone, I want to bring in Orelon Sidney, a meteorologist here with CNN also. Earlier today, Orelon had the -- well, I guess, in the meteorology world, she has the privilege of going into the storm with the Hurricane Hunters.
And Orelon, what did you see above the storm earlier today?
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Bill, good morning. It was actually quite an interesting flight. We were very high up over the storm, flying a pattern, kind of a jagged pattern all around Frances and sampling the atmosphere around it. That's one of most important things you can do is to sample the near atmosphere of a hurricane, especially when you're looking at forecasts greater than 24 hours.
Believe it or not, it was amazingly smooth. The Hurricane Hunters that do the low-level flights from the surface to 10,000 feet, those are the guys that really get bumped around. We were at about 40,000 feet and up. It was smooth, uneventful ride. I think we had more turbulence on the flight from Atlanta to Tampa than we had in the flight over the hurricane.
But the view of the hurricane was absolutely spectacular. You could see the towering tops, especially on the outer edges of the storm. We passed by a very ragged eye about 5:00 a.m., and we could see it on radar. But unfortunately, it was still too dark to look out a plane and see it. But about sunrise we past over the northern portion of Hispaniola and we saw the sun rise over Hispaniola as we were looking to the south with those feeder bands that you're seeing now on the satellite picture. You could still some of those very high cloud tops and it was absolutely spectacular.
Hard to believe that the storm is as damaging on the surface when it's as beautiful as it is from above.
HEMMER: You know, Orelon, you describe the eye as being ragged. Was there an explanation given to you as to why the eye has lost its shape somewhat? Why the storm has decreased, not only in its strength of the storm, but also in the speed by way -- by which it's moving now?
SIDNEY: Well, the best guess on the speed is that the ridge of high pressure to the north of the storm that was forecast to hold the storm a little bit more to the south, is holding it also from moving forward very rapidly.
The thing about the intensity is the Hurricane Hunters did pick up quite a bit of shear all around the storm. There's only one area of the storm, you can see it on your satellite picture now, where there's a lot of red and oranges, that northeast quadrant. That's the only area that has a good outflow. And outflow is essential for a hurricane. It's like a chimney. And if you can't get that exhaust out away from the hurricane, you're just going to choke that eye off. And the eye pressure will start to rise. And that's exactly what we've seen happen.
Some good news is I talked to the Hurricane Hunter meteorologist that I was with. And they seem to be pretty optimistic that this storm may remain on the lower side of Category 3. We certainly have the potential for it to increase in strength. And I don't want anybody to think that it couldn't. Don't let your guard down at all because three is still a dangerous storm. But we may be getting lucky if this sheer holds out. Perhaps we could hold it at 120 miles an hour, or thereabouts.
HEMMER: Yes, hopefully the form and description you provided is indeed the case for all the folks living down here in Florida. Orelon Sidney, thanks.
Orelon flying earlier today with the Hurricane Hunters, as she mentioned before, daybreak earlier today.
We will continue to track it here, Daryn. We are live just north of Melbourne, Florida. And again, it looks like a pretty beautiful day so far. Stiff wind throughout the morning here. The surface becoming greater, but based on the descriptions from Orelon and Karl Penhaul, there are still some wide-open questions right now from where this storm goes from here, and how strong Frances becomes or does not.
Back to you now in Atlanta, Daryn. Talk to you again in a couple of minutes.
KAGAN: Bill, amazing description from Orelon, didn't you think, when she talked about the beauty of the storm from the top? Hard to believe how much destruction it can cause from underneath.
HEMMER: So true.
KAGAN: Absolutely. We will be back to you very soon.
And we will not be leaving this story. As Floridians brace for Hurricane Frances, we're going to bring you everything you need to know.
Also, the latest job numbers shows a bit of a bright spot in the economy. How will the campaigns be playing that?
And later, look who's joining me. Clint Eastwood joins me to talk about an opportunity for almost 80 junior golfers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Show you a live picture from I-95 from Florida. As we mentioned, some 2.5 million people are under evacuation orders in Florida. By the looks of the highway, a lot of them already got out of Dodge. They are streaming out of at least 22 different counties. This is the largest evacuation order ever in the history of Florida.
Let's look at the counties. Seventeen or at least parts of them are under mandatory evacuations. Those are considered at high risk. They include folks living on Barrier Island, in low-lying flood prone areas, and residents living in mobile homes and houses that have already been damaged by Hurricane Charley. Five other counties have issued voluntary evacuation orders.
As we've been mentioning throughout the morning, we have crews from CNN posted all along Florida's east coast. Many of them virtually alone on vast stretches of abandoned coastline.
Let's go back to Bill Hemmer. He is in Melbourne, about 750 miles southeast of Orlando.
Bill, hello once again.
HEMMER: Hey, Daryn. Yes. Good morning again. Yes, pretty well deserted here. We've seen a few people coming up and down the beach for a morning walk here. But for the most part, listen, people have heeded the warnings and they have cleared out and the evacuations went out.
Daryn, if you think about it, three weeks ago to the day today, on the west coast of Florida is when Charley hit here and really put a sting into this state. Twenty-seven people killed, upwards of $7 billion in damage. And really, the hangover is quite clear. Up around the Orlando area, there were still reports even today of debris still being in the yards of private homes.
The governor earlier today in Tallahassee, Jeb Bush, he's had a very busy time, yet again, dealing with a second of two storms now coming in within a three-week period here. Talking earlier today about his warnings, what Floridians need to know now. Here's the governor in Florida now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: Frances is now, as you all know, is now a Category 3 storm. And it has slowed. And I hope people don't take comfort in the fact that that has occurred. The storm is very unpredictable. While the cone has probably narrowed a bit as we -- as it comes closer to the coast, we still don't know exactly where landfall will be. And we don't know whether or not the storm will strengthen. In fact, there's some indications as it slows down, it might gather steam and also gather strength.
If you're on a Barrier island, or in a low-lying area, and you haven't left, now's the time to do so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Again, Florida Governor Jeb Bush talking about the Barrier Islands at the end of that comment there. It's the same thing that the city manager in Melbourne told us an hour ago. That was his greatest concern about the outer areas here along the Florida coast, seemed to be the area which could be the most precarious place when this storm eventually comes onshore here in the southeast.
Chad Myers also here with me here, CNN meteorologist. And Chad, let me go back to Karl Penhaul's comments a short time ago, his report in Freeport in the Bahamas. We can show our viewers the videotape yet again. Based on what he was describing, what was your take away from Karl's report?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: My take away was that he was already getting, or pretty close to hurricane strength winds. And that storm may still be almost a 100 miles from him. So I think Floridians are going to feel the same thing. Even as that storm is only 100 miles from the shore, the winds around it are so large.
Typically, we focus on the eye because that's where the big numbers are. But if you have hurricane force winds that extend 70, 80, 100 miles away from the eye, then that eye lingers over your area for 12 hours. You're looking at 75, 80-mile-per-hour winds for half a day. And then as the eye gets closer, they could go higher than that. That's what kind of strikes me as significant. The size of the hurricane, the size of the wind field, as we call it, rather than just focusing on that eye itself.
HEMMER: Yes. The other thing the governor is talking about is if this storm continues to move as slowly as it is right now -- I say slowly only because it moved quicker before and now it's down around nine to 10 miles an hour. He's sending out a warning right now, that if this storm comes onshore at that speed, this could be a tremendous rainmaker in Florida.
MYERS: Oh, yes. A huge flood maker, Bill. As it comes onshore -- and another thing, too, when storms slow down, they become more unpredictable. When they've got a good steering current, it's almost like a car. It's got a lot of momentum. It's hard to turn that car if it's doing 90. That car wants to go straight. You slow that car down to 10; it's easier to turn the car. And a hurricane is easier to turn, too. So we could see a left or right turn with it. We just have to obviously watch the radar and watch the satellites very carefully.
Otherwise, as the storm stops -- if you remember Hurricane Agnes back in 1972, it stopped right over the Susquehanna River Valley and all the way from Binghamton, Elmira, Corning, right on down through Roxbury and Scranton, and then all the way down to Harrisburg. Significant flooding as that rain -- as that storm just stalled. And it rained for days.
And I'm concerned that if it comes over here and even rains for a full day, we could get 8 to 12 inches of rain in a full day. And there's nowhere for that water to go. It's saturated from Charley.
HEMMER: I thought it was interesting listening to Orelon when she flew with the Hurricane Hunters, how calm she described the flight. Because you know in storms past, a lot of times when reporters are on those flights, they get roughed around for hours at a time.
The other thing she pointed out, in the upper right-hand corner of every hurricane, we know that's the strongest area when the winds whip around, that's strongest area and the highest and most intense winds you're going to find. But what Orelon was describing is the shearing effect right now that's taking place that is making the eye become, in her words, "ragged."
MYERS: Ragged. A hurricane likes to be all by itself, with nothing taking the tops of the storms off. If you look at a major tornado maker in Oklahoma, you want a jet stream over the top of that thing going 100 miles an hour. And it blows that storm and it makes hail, it makes tornadoes. Hurricanes can't have any of that. They want no wind at all up there, so that they can just sit there and do their own thing. They just want to sit there and swirl.
It's like, you know, you take the top out of the drain, the drain out of your sink and it kind of spins around. Well, if you put your finger in it, it's going to stop swirling. So if you kind of push it around with your hand, it's going to stop swirling. Well, the winds kind of give it a little bat in the eye here. And it kind of stopped swirling a little bit, down 120. Still obviously swirling, a Category 3, though -- Bill.
HEMMER: Yes, that it is. Hopefully -- I mean listen, we can be optimists out here. Hopefully it continues to die down and the folks here get a bit of a breather as well.
The other thing that strikes me -- and listen, you came in yesterday. I came in late last night. The thing that strikes me is the presence and the ever-presence of Charley. We're only 21 days removed from that storm. And if you talk to anyone up and down this coast, they're thinking about that storm. Would you agree with that?
MYERS: I would agree with that. Bill, you couldn't drive around Orlando if you didn't know where you were going, because the signs are all blown down. I mean -- and this was how far from landfall? It made landfall at Punta Gorda. It's 100 miles from Punta Gorda. And you say oh, when the storm hits land, it's going to die. It's not going to affect me. Well, it hit the other side.
This one is coming in this way. Orlando is only about 40 miles up the coast in a straight line, as the crow flies. So, yes, those folks up there were ready. They were at the stores. They bought everything. They bought things they didn't need. The stores were jammed yesterday. And all I was doing just trying to get some water and some duct tape. I couldn't find duct tape to save my life.
HEMMER: Wow. Thank you, Chad. We'll talk to you again throughout the morning here.
And by the way, seeing our first surfer out there, just now leaving the surf here as it continues to kick up. It's a beautiful day so far. A good stiff breeze blowing. But we all wait now for about 24 hours to find out the fate of Frances here in Florida.
Let's get a break here. Back in a moment live in Florida. Also live with Daryn Kagan at the CNN center after this.
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