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CNN Saturday Morning News

Hurricane Frances nearly the Size of Texas

Aired September 04, 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.


BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Putin is this morning visiting the Southern town where terrorists mounted a siege on the first day of school. Russian news reports say it ended with more than 250 hostages killed, many of them children.
Now back home. New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says her husband will be back in fighting form before long. Bill Clinton is to undergo heart bypass surgery early next week at a New York hospital. The former president has told CNN's Larry King Live that he feels, quote, "Great."

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: And in politics, a bounce, and a big one, for President Bush. "Time Magazine"'s survey of likely voters showing President Bush getting 52 percent support and Senator John Kerry 41 percent in a poll taken during the Republican National Convention. Experts say that could have skewed the results in favor of the incumbent.

To the big story of this Labor Day weekend. Along Florida's eastern coast something wicked this way comes from Harry Potter. Its name is Frances. Hurricane warnings posted from Florida City north to Flagler Beach. The latest advisory showing the storm downgraded last night to a Category 2 hurricane, 45 miles east-southeast of Freeport, 125 miles east-southeast of West Palm Beach, Florida. Mandatory evacuations across much of the east coast of Florida with two and a half million people effected by the state's largest ever evacuation order.

NGUYEN: So the big question for Floridians is, of course, "Where will Frances come ashore?" The best guess is somewhere along the central coast. The outer bands are already bringing rain, wind and surf. We want to go now to CNN's Sean Callebs who is in West Palm Beach, about 120 miles from the storm and Sean, you've been there since Wednesday. Are people heeding the warnings and taking this very seriously?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I would say Wednesday and Thursday people were taking this extremely seriously as we actually landed in Orlando and as we drove down the Turnpike North and I 95 simply bumper to bumper. People trying to get out of the path of Frances. But as we've seen during the past 24 hours, there's been a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. You can see it on their faces. These are people who saw what Charley did to the other side of the state, so perhaps they tried an extra-wide berth knowing that this was a hurricane that could wobble, it could change its path, it could do all kinds of damage. There is some frustration building. There is no question. We were at a shelter yesterday and there had been a couple of shoving matches the night before, arguments over turf space, "I'm gonna sleep here." "No, you're going to sleep here." That kind of thing. And a lot of people have boarded up their houses now for 48, 72 hours. They thought the storm would be here and now they know it's moving what, 6 miles an hour, so it could be 12, 18 more hours before the storm moves its way through. So it's been a long few days for people, especially in this area of the state.

NGUYEN: Sean, you mention some problems at the shelters, people shoving each other, frustration there. Is it because the shelters are just getting overcrowded?

CALLEBS: No, I wouldn't say that. The shelter we were at, there are 25 here in Palm Beach County. We were at one that's capable of holding close to 4,000 people. They had about 1900. But they were sleeping in the hallways, in the gym, in an auditorium. They were trying to keep people out of classrooms, concerned that maybe their could be some damage to some of the classrooms if it got really crowded in there. But they said here in this county they could put something like 40,000 people in shelters, but keep in mind, Palm Beach County has 1.3 million people. A lot of people simply are trying to get out as best they can, and we talked about it earlier, the gas shortage that people are feeling in this area of the state really making its presence known as well.

NGUYEN: Talking about the winds just real quickly. Are they picking up any right now? Because when we spoke with you earlier, they picked up and they slowed down. What is the situation?

CALLEBS: Well, for the last, I'd say, 25, 30 minutes, it had been extremely calm, almost even a lot warmer than it had been, significantly warmer than it had been in the last couple of hours, but within the last few minutes the winds starting to pick up a little bit more. You can't see it through the lens but right now the cloud cover isn't as heavy as it was, so clearly these bands that have been shredded are moving ashore right now and the wind, the intensity, the rain, certainly not what it was one hour ago.

NGUYEN: All right, CNN's Sean Callebs in West Palm Beach, Florida, this morning. Thank you.

GRIFFIN: And Kathleen Koch is in St. Augustine. This is on the northern edge of the warning. How is it going there, Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, this is a very historic city. The oldest city in the nation, founded by Spain way back in 1565 and you know they have ghost tours here, they have certified haunted houses, but I'll tell you, this is a true ghost town this morning. We were just chatting with a police officer who is driving by. He said, "I can't believe there is no one out. There is nothing going on." And again, this hurricane isn't even here yet. People have been-as you can see the building behind me-have been boarding up for days. Have began the sandbagging yesterday and they're sick of it. As the sign said, "Fickle Frances, please make up your mind." People here simply want to get this ordeal over with and again, going back to this police officer, we are expecting quite an ordeal here. He was mentioning when Hurricane Floyd just brushed by here, I guess maybe it was '99 year on that one. He said this entire old downtown area, surrounded on three sides by water, it's a peninsula, was completely flooded. At least two feet of water. What they are talking about here is perhaps five to seven foot storm surge. Now that's nothing compared to what happened with Hurricane Dora, the eye came right over this city 40 years ago, 40 years ago next week and then they had 125 mile an hour winds, even deeper flooding in the down town. They lost power here for six days. So there is a lot of concern about what will happen to residents who are dependent upon electricity. They are part of that group that they recommended to voluntarily evacuate both out of St. Augustine and throughout St. John's County. A county of about 150,000 residents. But again, no mandatory evacuation. You hear we are just on that northeast edge. One source of concern, though, is when you're on the northeast edge of a big hurricane like this is the chance that it will spawn tornadoes, that's the quadrant where you usually see them, so they're going to be expecting that, looking for that, not much you can do in the way of preparation for a tornado, but, again, very, very worried about the rain, about the prodigious amounts of rain. Again, we're hearing maybe as much as 20 inches in some areas and that could really impact this city.

GRIFFIN: OK, Kathleen Koch from a spooky St. Augustine. Watch out for the ghosts there, Kathleen. Betty?

NGUYEN: Well, it's been a violent, uneasy night for folks hunkered down in the Bahamas. The storm has not yet relinquished its grip on the chain of islands and this morning it is pounding Grand Bahama, the northernmost island. Damage is said to be widespread, with trees and power lines toppled, both snapped from their moorings and some buildings battered. At least one death is blamed on the storm, a Nassau teenager who was electrocuted while trying to fix a generator.

GRIFFIN: Our team of meteorologists watching this from many angles this morning. Rob is here with us.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Drew, Betty.

NGUYEN: Good morning. It's slow moving.

MARCIANO: Yes, it's slow moving. We've got Chad down on the seen. We've got Orelon on the seen and you've got me sitting here jealous of them, not being there. Anyway, Orelon Sidney not only down in Florida awaiting the storm, she had a rare chance yesterday, and that is to fly in a hurricane hunter aircraft. Orelon, before you tell me what's going on in Orlando, just give us a brief description of what it was like to fly in that high tech jet yesterday.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is only one word for it, and that was, "Really cool." It was a lot of fun. I think the most fun, really, wasn't so much the flight itself but just being with the meteorologists and the pilots and the engineers onboard. They're really fascinating people. The meteorologists are so smart and it makes me not want to call myself a weather person, because these people are so smart and so dedicated to what they do. But the flight was just amazing, the sunrise, we were traveling across the Dominican Republic, across the coast at sunrise and it was just absolutely spectacular looking out and seeing the rain bands and then the tall thunderstorm tops off in the distance. It's a pretty amazing sight. Very few people get to see it from the perspective.

MARCIANO: How high up where you, and as you got closer to the center, I mean, did you have to fly around the thing? Or how high were the cloud tops close to the center?

SIDNEY: Well, most of the cloud tops I saw were underneath us. We were flying about 42,000 feet most of the time and the difference between the NOAA mission, this particular mission, and a lot of the ones people think about is this is a high altitude mission. And what you do is you go, fly around the periphery of the storm in the high altitudes, take instrument readings of the environment around the storm. The folks that do the low level flights, those are the ones that get the bump and grind, as you would, going through the eye of the storm in the center. So it was much quieter for us. The flight- literally, the flight from Atlanta to Tampa was bumpier than the hurricane flight last night.

MARCIANO: Well, if anyone's going to fly a first class hurricane hunter mission it would be Orelon Sidney. I'm kidding. Hey listen...

SIDNEY: It was like the diva hurricane hunter.

MARCIANO: I can just see you up there. Well, we're all jealous in the weather department. You brought us back some good information, it's a great video as well. You're sitting there in Orlando, Florida. As you know, just a few weeks back, Charley went through their with some big winds, over 100 miles an hour even as far inland as Orlando. I bet you the people are sick of talking about hurricanes, aren't they?

SIDNEY: Well, you know, I think everybody, as we were talking, I think Kathleen Koch said people are really ready for this to be over and it's kind of like-I imagine it's kind of like being in labor. The baby's not going to come until it gets here, and that's just the way it is now. The steering currents, as you talked about earlier, have really weakened, the storm is moving barely six miles an hour. It's going to take a while. But folks here in Orlando, I've noticed, there's not a lot of boarding up, this is one of the few places we found that actually boarded up. This morning a lot of the places where we are were kind of in Kissimmee people didn't board up but we noticed a lot of the stores are closing, a lot of the convenience stores are not going to have gasoline after about 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. this morning and so people are kind of hunkering down, but there's not a lot of battening down the hatches and I think it's because we're not on the coast and people a little bit inland perhaps aren't expecting as much wind and again, as I said earlier, the wind is not going to be the story here. You may see some trees go down, there may be some power lines down and outages, but the story here, Rob, as I'm sure you would agree, is going to be the rainfall.

MARCIANO: It is and you'll be feeling it probably not for several hours to come yet, Orelon. Hang out there, we appreciate your reports and congratulations on a safe flight yesterday, we'll talk to you in a little bit.

Alright, we'll be right back, we're going to talk hopefully to the hurricane center in Miami, Florida in just a little while. CNN Sunday-or Saturday morning continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Frances is now a Category II hurricane. The Saffir- Simpson hurricane scale which is now the standard list to hurricane strength, from I to V. Category II windspeed. Anywhere from 96 to 110 miles per hour. Able to push a storm surge of six to eight feet and causing damage to roofs, doors and windows.

NGUYEN: All up and down the east coast, the hurricane has snarled travel on this Labor Day weekend, which is usually one of the state's biggest tourism holidays. Airports in Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Melbourne are all closed, Miami, Jacksonville and West Palm Beach airports are operating on a reduced schedule, so check your flight.

GRIFFIN: Frances hours away from landfall, a lot of people up and down the coast uneasy about the wait. One city that is waiting and waiting and waiting is West Palm Beach, Florida. The mayor of that city is on the phone now, Lois Frankel. Mayor, good morning to you.

LOIS FRANKEL, MAYOR, WEST PALM BEACH: Good morning.

GRIFFIN: I guess your crews do have a little bit of extra time to prepare, but are you prepared and what do you expect from Hurricane Frances?

FRANKEL: Well, it has been a long wait and we are expecting a lot of rain and a lot of wind. It is growing out there now. It's really, even though we don't expect a landfall for another twelve hours or so, or maybe even longer than that. It is not safe, really, to be outside right now because we are getting gusts. I rode in this morning, I was on the streets and there were some trees down so it's getting dangerous.

GRIFFIN: Mayor Frankel, are there troops standing by in terms of setting up the electricity, mostly, the electricity lines that will be coming down because of-you get the saturated ground and then the winds and then the ground can no longer hold the palm trees.

FRANKEL: Well, there's been a full complement of emergency personnel, county and also our city and many of the other municipalities but all we can really do is wait. We do, of course, have FP&L, who is our power source here and they are on notice that the federal government and state governments are waiting. But really, were just in a wait and see mode. We know we are going to get hit, to the degree, we won't know again for another 12-14 hours or longer.

GRIFFIN: The downgrading of this storm and the slowing of this storm, I imagine there's a lot of frustration on the people who did leave. What are you saying to your constituents, who are maybe in Orlando, but a hotel room or up here in Atlanta at a hotel room wanting to know if they should come back.

FRANKEL: Well they've done the right thing to leave. You know, for some people, for some distract(ph) destruction is really not much different whether the winds are 140 miles an hour, 110 miles an hour because most homes out here are not built to withstand more than 75 mile an hour winds anyway and so people should just stay put, ride this out and we'll hope for further downgrading, but right now it's still a serious situation and everybody should stay put.

GRIFFIN: And the homes in West Palm Beach, I assume, are safe. Is there a curfew on right now?

FRANKEL: We have a curfew that really, we've asked everybody to stay off the streets until the National Weather Service has cleared us and there is an 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew, however, I would not advise anybody to go out today at all.

GRIFFIN: OK. Mayor Lois Frankel. We certainly wish you and your city the best of luck in the coming day, day and a half. Thank you.

NGUYEN: Rob Marciano joins us now to talk about Hurricane Frances. Not only is it moving slow, but is there a possibility, like Charley, it's going to jet elsewhere really quickly?

GRIFFIN: Well, the problem with some of these storms is that they don't have a really good path. If you're just boogying down the highway at 100 miles an hour, stop to turn the car, but if you're going slower it has a greater chance of going off course, so there's always the challenge with the forecasting track, and also, when it sits over warm water, which it will, it could strengthen when it does that. Slowing down is never a good thing for a forecast. I'll tell you that. So here you go. And it's not a good thing for the folks in northwestern Bahamas, because they want to get rid of this thing. Yesterday they had winds gusting to 115 miles an hour in some spots when it was a Category III storm. Before that a Category IV storm. So certainly we'll take the weakening as time goes along. If we can get this thing on land below major hurricane status, which would be a Category I or II, then we'll take it at this point, because it could have been a lot worse. OK, there you go. Here's where that warm water is right there. Some of the buoys just offshore are 84, 85 degrees Fahrenheit. So that is some serious fuel for the fire. If you get temperatures, 80 degrees is the threshold to fuel a hurricane. You get up 84, 85, that's worse than bath water, and that's not very refreshing if you're trying to cool off and the temperatures outside are 90 degrees.

Alright, rain bands are spiraling in south of Daytona Beach, Titusville, Ft. Meyers and down towards Ft. Lauderdale as well. Center of this thing down out near Grand Bahama, near Freeport and most of the stronger winds are to the north of the system, but it is a very wide system, unlike Charley, this thing is large in its strength as far as the winds go. They extend out to 105 miles an hour- hurricane force winds out to 105 miles an hour-that's a wide swath of potentially damaging winds. Also, as this thing moves slowly, we have flood watches out for the entire eastern shoreline and even well inland for the Florida peninsula. With these tropical systems they always have a ton of rain. If they come through quickly, it's over and done with and the rainfall is not that big of a deal. That's what happened with Charley. We only had rainfalls of 3, 4, 5, 6 inches in some spots because it moved through pretty rapidly. But if this thing kind of lumbers on shore and then takes a good day, day and a half to get over to the Gulf of Mexico, we could be talking about 10 to 15 inches of rainfall, maybe even higher than that in some case.

Its movement is slow, northwesterly at 6 miles an hour, winds at 105. Drew and Betty read the limitations there. 110 miles an hour, you go up to 111 and we're looking at a category III storm, so this is a strong category II storm. It will have battering wind and waves as it moves onshore. A storm surge of about four to six feet and some lightly structured buildings some damaging winds as well. So this thing is definitely a formidable storm at this point. We'll keep you updated throughout the morning. In the meantime, Drew and Betty, we'll toss it back to you at the desk.

NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Rob.

Well, top stories this Saturday morning, up to 20 inches of rain, that's what Hurricane Francis could dump on parts of Florida. The storm is nearing the coast, as Rob just mentioned, and it could hit by tonight. Frances has lost some of its punch but its winds are still topping 100 miles an hour. Now to New York. Bill Clinton is facing heart bypass surgery next week but he says he is ready for it. The former president tells CNN's LARRY KING LIVE that he feels great. Clinton went to the hospital after having mild chest pains and being short of breath.

Turning now the Russia and the aftermath of that terrorist siege at a school. President Vladimir Putin has visited the southern town where it happened. The two day ordeal ended in a shootout between Russian troops and the hostage-takers. Russian news reports say more than 250 hostages were killed and dozens of them were children. Mr. Putin says nobody wanted to use force, but there was no choice.

More on former President Clinton's health as he wakes up this morning in a New York City hospital room. We'll go there live with the latest diagnosis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: It's a special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING. And Rob Marciano is front and center.

MARCIANO: Hey Drew, Betty. Some folks are making my job a lot easier. When it comes to hurricane season, the folks at the National Hurricane Center. So they are the experts and we always like to chat them up and get their opinion on what's going on in this particular case. Ed Rappaport joins us from Miami, the National Hurricane Center, I know it's been a long couple of days for you, Ed. This thing put the brakes on just like you guys said it would. What kind of problems does that pose now as a forecaster when it starts to slow down like this?

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, two sets of problems. One for us and of course one for the people that are there. Dealing with the latter first, this has been hammering the northwestern Bahamas now for more than twelve hours. Very rough conditions. For the forecasters it is difficult when a storm stops because you don't know which direction it will resume, usually. We do think that the hurricane will pick up a west-northwest track over the next six hours or so and then continue to move towards the Florida east coast. It's going to be a long day in Florida, and over night as well.

MARCIANO: A lot of folks like to make comparisons to the most recent storm that rode through their, obviously on the other side of the peninsula, that would be Charley. Try to compare them for us. This thing is completely different as far as the size, isn't it?

RAPPAPORT: You're absolutely right. It's completely different in multiple ways. It's much bigger than Charley, but it's not as intense in its inner core. Perhaps the best comparison is with Hurricane Isabel which people may remember from last year hitting the Mid Atlantic. A very large hurricane but not an intense inner core. Still a lot of problems with flooding, downed trees and storm surge.

MARCIANO: Flooding the main issue, you think, with this thing? Or do you expect to maybe an increase back to major hurricane status?

RAPPAPORT: We don't know that it will increase back to major hurricane status. There is a brief window where the hurricane could strengthen as it moves over warmer waters just off the Florida east coast and if the wind shear dies down a little bit. There will be some wind damage with this. With 105 mile per hour sustained wind we can expect that. The prolonged rain, though, is a very serious consideration.

MARCIANO: I read that you have those hurricane force winds out to 105 miles from the center. I presume that's north and east of the center? Why don't you describe that for us, where the most damaging winds are in this storm.

RAPPAPORT: Yes, the strongest of the winds and the greatest extent are occurring to the north and to the east of the center, you're right, 105 miles out for hurricane force winds. But there are hurricane force winds on the south side, as well, and they extend out about 60 miles, so this is going to be a very broad swath of hurricane to near hurricane force winds come across the Florida east coast and spread some inland as well.

MARCIANO: All right. Well, give us some timing, I know it's tough because it has slowed down. Give us some sense of timing and maybe a couple of cities and set up some field goals for us where you think this thing may make landfall later today.

RAPPAPORT: Well, again, the specific point of landfall isn't as critical in this case because it is a spread out wind field, but we think the entire pattern will be shifting to the west-northwest in through the area Miami northward up through the Cape Canaveral area. The towns, of course, are Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beach, Ft. Pierce, and all these areas are going to get hurricane force or near-hurricane force winds.

MARCIANO: Ed, we know you're a busy man. Thank you very much for your time this morning. We hope to catch up with you later in the day.

RAPPAPORT: Thank you.

MARCIANO: That's Ed Rappaport, the National Hurricane Center. They do a great job and they make our job a lot easier.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. And just looking, though, at the radar and the size of that storm.

MARCIANO: It takes up the entire state.

NGUYEN: The size of Texas?

MARCIANO: Pretty much, the size of Texas, and from north to south in Florida, I mean, cloud to cloud, it's definitely going to affect the entire state.

NGUYEN: Well be watching. Thank you, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

GRIFFIN: Another big story we are following is President Clinton's condition. He is awaiting heart bypass surgery. We'll go to New York outside his hospital next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Roughly the size of Texas, lumbering toward Florida, Hurricane Frances approaching the state which is already seeing churning waves and gusty winds.

NGUYEN: Welcome back, I'm Betty Nguyen.

GRIFFIN: I'm Drew Griffin. We are at CNN global headquarters in Atlanta. Here is what is happening "Now in the News".

Florida won't be seeing a lot of sunshine today. High winds already lashing Florida southeastern coast. Hurricane Frances is crawling closer. The storm, now, raking the Bahamas and could hit the Florida coast late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Overseas, President Vladimir Putin says all of Russia is grieving. Mr. Putin, this morning visited the southern town where terrorists mounted a siege on the first day of school. Russian news reports say it ended with more than 250 hostages killed, many of them children. The terrorists may have been storing guns in that school for days.

Back home, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says her husband will be back in fighting form before long. Bill Clinton to undergo heart bypass surgery early next week at New York Hospital. Former president has told CNN's "Larry King Live" that he feels great.

And, speaking of feeling great, President Bush may be this morning, a new poll indicating a bounce for him. "Time" magazine survey of likely voters showing President Bush getting 52 percent support and Senator John Kerry has 41 percent.

The poll taken during the Republican National Convention, and experts say that may have skewed the results in favor of President Bush.

NGUYEN: Hurricane Frances, of course, our top story this morning. We want to check back in now with our Sean Callebs, who is in West Palm Beach, with the latest.

Sean, you have been there since Wednesday, but now the winds have really started picking up.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Betty. By virtually all accounts, if you listen to forecasters, Frances is a storm that could remembered for the amount of rainfall that it brings to the State of Florida, but for the past several hours we have just felt these steady winds. Probably between 20, 25 m.p.h., at times gusting a little bit more.

Certainly making its presence known as these bands begin filtering in, coming to this portion of the state.

But a lot of people here, in this area, have already headed the mandatory evacuation notice; 2.5 million people in the state have been asked to move out of the storm's path. But a lot of people say, where exactly is that?

You have touched on it, it is a massive storm of some 300 miles of Florida could be affected to some degree. And think about the way the winds are spreading out from the eye. So, even though the eye is probably at least 12 hours away from making landfall, here in Florida, people are going to feel the effects of this storm long before that, long before that.

And it is certainly expected, Betty, that Frances is going to bring a storm surge and perhaps spawn tornadoes, once the real strength of this storm begins to hit the state.

NGUYEN: Sean, you say people have headed the warnings, taken shelter, not seeing anyone in the streets behind you. It is pretty much a ghost town right about now?

CALLEBS: It really is. We were here yesterday, all day, and we could tell you the people that live in this house right here and the house next to them, they both plan on riding out the storm. They have their windows boarded up, they have those metal shutters that are going to protect the glass as best as possible from the punishing effects of the hurricane. But some 80,000 people in Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, many of those people have long since gone. It is interesting there was one kind of bar/place to get something to eat, that was open last night. And the owner actually came out at about 8 o'clock, when we were trying to get something to eat, and said that the police chief and the mayor had asked him to shut down, because of all the notices and concerns about safety.

So, as far as we know, that was about the last place open. So, it truly is a ghost town at this hour.

NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Sean Callebs in West Palm Beach, stay safe.

Thank you, Sean.

GRIFFIN: Let's move up the coast to St. Augustine, that is where Kathleen Koch is standing by.

Kathleen, the conditions there?

KOCH: Well, Drew, as you can see this building behind me, everything is buttoned up, locked down, getting ready for the storm. This is actually a store and a deli. And they have been boarding up really since Thursday. They put the sandbags up yesterday.

So, we're going to be in the sort of same situation as Sean Callebs in that it is going to be very hard to find anything open in this historic old city.

Now, they were planning a huge party today, celebrating their 439th birthday. That was to take place in this historic plaza that is in front of me. They were going to have reenactments. They were going to have a concert. All of that canceled today.

Obviously, the city, it is the oldest one in the country, it is replete with historic buildings. They line the streets. Built in the 1600, 1700, 1800s. Now, nearly 40 of them are run by the city of St. Augustine for the state.

So, they have spent days boarding up the historic buildings, taking down artwork, moving priceless artifacts and furniture up onto the second levels, the second stories of these buildings, because they really are expecting such severe flooding here. Part of that is due to the fact that the drainage system in the city is about as old as many of these buildings and it just simply can't accommodate the amount of rain that we are expecting here, as much as 20 inches -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Thank you, Kathleen.

NGUYEN: Residents in Florida calling it Fickle Frances, so we want to know, Rob, is it still headed toward West Palm Beach? Is that the area where it is expected to make landfall?

MARCIANO: I would say that is probably the southern part of the zone that is under the gun, yes. West Palm Beach and north toward, even as far north as Daytona Beach. And if this thing stalls anymore, who knows what will happen.

It is starting to pick up a little bit more steam, moving northwest at 6 miles an hour. Mentioned that it is a Category 2 storm, with winds sustained at 105 miles an hour. You get them up to 110, 111, then we get a Category 3 status.

Here's the forecast track, here you go, there is West Palm Beach. Just north of there, to just south of Daytona Beach. Likely landfall, late tonight or early tomorrow, because it is moving so slow. It is still over 100 miles due east of West Palm Beach.

As we go through Sunday and then into early Monday, it may reemerge in the Gulf or Mexico, but by then only a tropical storm. Because it is moving so slowly the main effect out of this thing is going to be heavy rains and the potential for flooding as well. But if it does strengthen anymore, then the winds are going to be damaging. Even Category 2 winds will do some damage to trees, to signs and to structures that are not really made all that great.

Flagler Beach, south to Florida City, we still have hurricane warnings up in the Bahamas, where they just want to get rid of the hurricane and the hurricane warnings. They're still up as this thing slowly makes it way toward the north and west.

Rain bands form this thing, you saw Sean Callebs getting battered around just a bit. Melbourne just to the south, you go towards Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, that is where the rain bands are starting to increase.

Center of it? Right there. Most of the rain, most of the -- not only heavy rain but the gusty winds are north of this system. So, Miami, south to the Florida Keys won't nearly the effects of this thing, if it takes expected track, as say folks who live up towards Melbourne, Titasville (ph), and even Daytona Beach.

So, a wide storm, this thing is huge, even compared to Charley, which was a stronger storm, effected less people, this thing is going to effect more people. And the biggest threat looks like it is going to be flooding. So, flood watches are up for pretty much the entire eastern half of the State of Florida, as this thing makes its slow march across the state. We could see 10 to 15, maybe in some cases, 20 inches of rainfall as this thing makes its way off toward the north and west.

Right now, not a bad looking day in Tampa. Not a bad looking day in Key West, but it is not going to be a great looking day up towards Melbourne, and even south towards Miami, as well.

Hurricane Frances, a Category 2 storm at this time, Drew and Betty. And probably not going to strengthen, but when it makes landfall later on tonight -- I mean, it is still 12 hours, or better, away from the Florida coastline. Because it is moving so slowly, not only the wind but the before it weakens, before it moves inland, it is going to batter the folks along the east coast of Florida, central coast especially.

So, we're going to unfortunately talking about this for a couple of days. Not the greatest Labor Day weekend for the folks in Florida.

NGUYEN: Not at all.

GRIFFIN: Certainly not. Thank you for the forecast.

NGUYEN: All right, well, Bill Clinton says Republicans aren't the only ones who want four more years. The former president joked from a New York hospital, where he will have heart bypass surgery early next week.

Our Maria Hinojosa joins us now from New York this morning, with the latest on the president and his condition.

Sounds like he is in a pretty good, Maria.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pretty good. You know, there is a line of live trucks here, about a block long, that is the amount of attention the former president is getting here from the news media.

But it was actually 24 hours ago, that the former president was in the hospital, in Westchester, where yesterday at 6 o'clock in the morning he went to get some tests, because he was feeling a little bit of tightness in his chest and shortness of breath and it was there where they performed the angiogram. And there is when the found out he had a problem.

They brought him by ambulance, here, to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, which is about 40 blocks north of the president's office in Harlem. He is saying that he is optimistic, the bypass surgery has been postponed until sometime early next week. We don't know what day and we have been told that we won't be getting any updates until after the surgery is preformed.

But knowing about the outpouring of concern, about him on a national level, the former President Called into CNN Last night and spoke to Larry King, saying that there are probably genetics that he can blame on this, but that he must take some of the blame himself for some of his careless eating, that he put an extra 10 pounds in the past several months, when he was on his book tour.

He said, he was a little bit scared about the operation, but not too much. And then went on to give a little bit of advice to listeners on "Larry King".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think if people have a family history there, and high cholesterol and high blood pressure, they ought to consider the angiogram even if they don't have the symptoms I had. There is some chance of damage there, but it is like one in a thousand.

I really think it probably saved my life and I'm very grateful my physicians, Doctor Bardock (ph) and all the great people in Westchester County who did that, and then these people at Columbia Presbyterian. LARRY KING, HOST, LARRY KING LIVE: Thank you.

CLINTON: I feel just grateful. I guess I'm a little scared, but not much. I'm looking forward to it. I want get back to -- I want to see what it is like to run five miles again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: You can get a sense, just hearing his voice, there is a little bit of weakness. He probably spent much of the day yesterday undergoing more tests.

Now, New York Senator Hillary Clinton was here yesterday. Said that the former president beat her and Chelsea at card games, which is what he's doing to keep himself entertained here at the hospital.

President Bush calling him from Air Force One, where he was at a stop in Wisconsin, saying that he is holding President Clinton in his thoughts and prayers. And Senator John Kerry at an event in Ohio saying that he also extends his best wishes and prayers for the former president.

Now, the operation, usually they ask the patients to stay in the hospital for about three to five days, but then want them to get back into pretty much activity. That doesn't mean, though, that he is going to be cleared to get back out on the campaign trail for Senator John Kerry -- back to you.

NGUYEN: And that operation expected to take place sometime early next week. CNN's Maria Hinojosa in New York. Thank you, Maria.

GRIFFIN: Much more live coverage ahead as Frances continues the slow march to Florida. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: It is the worry before the wrath, for Florida residents bracing for blows from Hurricane Frances. The question of where, when and how it will roar through the state has people on edge as they play the waiting game. Here's our Bruce Burkhart.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RADIO ANNOUNCER: Some 5,700 people are in shelters this morning around the state. Nearly 100 shelters are open from Daytona Beach south to Miami.

BRUCE BURKHART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The bent over palm trees might get all the publicity, but this is as much a part of the hurricane experience as anything else, the waiting.

And with Frances and her stubborn ways, inching slowly along, it is even worse. More time to wait, means more time to worry.

BURKHART (on camera): What about your house? You worried about your house? (voice over): The shelter here a Brevard Community College is nearly full with 1,000 people. Twin sisters, Doris Bustamante (ph) and Frances Boodin (ph), who is visiting from England, got here yesterday and they have time, time to worry about the cat they left at home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody would take him and I couldn't bring him here. And I left a ton of food. He's a beauty -- you know, Morris that used to be on TV? He's a second Morris.

BURKHART (on camera): What are you going to do here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. Nothing.

BURKHART (voice over): What else can you do while you wait? Well, you can buy plywood, like these folks in line here at a Lowe's store in Rockledge, Florida. Even though they have a 10 sheet per customer limit, they are going to run out before they get to the end of this line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should have bought plywood three weeks ago, and had it all cut, in the garage.

BURKHART: But elsewhere, time can be a good thing. Time to fill up a few sandbags on the beach, because the lines at the fire station were too long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're playing in the sandbox today, because we're bored.

BURKHART: And time to take advantage of waves that only come at times like this.

(SIREN SOUNDS)

And time is a good thing, too. When you need to evacuate 85 patients from Woostoff (ph) Memorial Hospital in Rockledge, to a newer, sturdier hospital in Melbourne.

For a young mom, it is time to get to know her one-day old daughter.

And what about politicians? Well, it is time to get rid of them. At least get rid of their signs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there are a lot of political signs that are stuck in the ground that are going to be projectiles in this wind.

BURKHART: Waiting and killing time. Sometimes nearly as hard as going through the storm itself.

Bruce Burkhart, CNN, Melbourne, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: The path of the storm Frances is drenching the Bahamas now, Florida next in her sights. Frances is 125 miles east of West Palm Beach, it should read. It could finally reach Florida late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

The storm already bringing big waves to Florida, as you have seen already. They are going to get bigger. Forecasters expect the storm surge up to 12 feet above normal levels. Few people will see what Frances does. Florida has ordered the biggest evacuation in its history, covering nearly 2.5 million people.

Airports in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Melbourne are all closed this morning. Well, 60, 80, 100 m.p.h. winds, we'll get a unique measure of what they feel like, as our Hurricane Frances Special Coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Hurricane Frances just now trying to come ashore in Florida. We understand in Melbourne the wind has arrived and now the rain is starting to pour.

GRIFFIN: Meteorologist Rob Marciano is tracking this slow-moving storm.

Rob, what is the latest?

MARCIANO: They are getting the rain bands in and with those rain bands they are getting winds that are gusting to over 30 m.p.h. So, definitely some squally weather moving into the southern and central part of Florida.

From Fort Lauderdale up, especially up through Fort Pierce and Vero Beach, that is where the heavier bands have been -- look in through here -- through the Everglades, seeing some of those showers extend into the central part of the state.

So, we've been mentioning how slow moving this storm is, also how large it. And even though it has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, it has a huge rain field, especially to the north of the storm. And a huge wind field with hurricane force winds that extend up to over 100 miles from the center. To give you and idea, Hurricane Charley, which was a Category 4 storm, that tore apart Fort Myers.

By the way, I've been saying Fort Myers all morning long and I've been meaning to say Fort Pierce, for whatever reason. Just waking up I suppose.

Anyway, Charley, that moved through just north of Fort Myers and through Punta Gorda, that was a Category 4 storm. But it had winds that were really close to the center of it. This storm is so much wider, we have winds that extend out to over 100 miles so it is going to affect a larger amount of folks and because it is moving so slowly the rains are going to be an issue as well. So, flooding concerns abound, up and down the State of Florida.

And landfall estimates right now for sometime after 6 o'clock, closer to midnight, probably it is moving so slowly.

All right, guys. Who are going next to? NGUYEN: We are going to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is in Melbourne, Florida, where we have been talking about the rain that has hit.

Dr. Gupta, what are you seeing out there?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is a lot of what we're seeing so far out here, is rain. You are getting gusts up to about 40, 45 m.p.h.

The reason we're down here, you might be asking, is we wanted to find out how you can medically prepare for something like this. Visit the hospitals, visit all the doctors. It is really a sort of situation. What they do at a lot of these hospitals, they sort of embed. People sort of came to the hospitals last night. They are planning on staying there for two to three days, just going to bring all their food, their water, their supplies. And they are waiting it out.

Now, we are getting gusts, as I said, about 40, 45 m.p.h., or so out here. What is sort of interesting, what I learned, people may not be surprised by this is that when the winds get over 50 to 55 m.p.h. or so, the ambulance crews, the EMS crews, the disaster management crews, they are all going stop. They don't work through a hurricane for obvious reasons. It is only when afterwards, that they actually try search and rescue teams.

Now, again, about 40, 45 m.p.h. you can see the impact of that, about 10 miles faster and all of that is going to stop.

GRIFFIN: We saw with Hurricane Charley that it was, indeed, after the storm that people started coming to the hospital. A lot of lacerations, a lot of crush injuries, I think. Is this what hospitals are gearing up for?

GUPTA: There are several different things. And it does change as you guys know. Primary injuries, just being blown around, literally. You could be launched and that is a primary injury. Secondary injuries are where things that are launched such as branches, debris, hit you. Those are the secondary sort of injuries during the storm itself.

As you guys have been saying all morning, because this is a slow- moving storm, now, the biggest concern here is rain and flooding. And there are other concerns like the power is going out, and you lose your air conditioning. Elderly people might suffer from heat exhaustion, or heat stroke, things like that.

So, they really have to prepare for just about anything. Wires come down, sometimes that can cause electrocution injuries. It is storms like this that you get the biggest variety of injuries.

Right now, they haven't seen much, thankfully. But there is sort of preparing for all of that.

NGUYEN: Yes, and as people start to prepare, as a doctor, what kind of advice to you have for them, whether they are hunkered down at home or in the shelters. What should they do to prepare so that flying debris doesn't come close to them?

GUPTA: Well, the biggest piece of advice and all the doctors say this is their best prevention, is obviously to get out of harm's way. A lot of people have evacuated this town of about 70,000. They think more than half the people have evacuated, especially areas like this were you have lots of water.

Second thing is, obviously, to stay indoors to avoid that debris. You'd be surprised at how quickly debris can get launched. Anything, anything, you'd be surprised, can become a missile in a situation like this. So, stay out of there.

Finally, food and supplies. You need to get those things now. You could be hunkered down for a few days. You don't want to suffer from heat exhaustion. You don't want to suffer from heat stroke or dehydration, either.

GRIFFIN: Doctor, I want to ask you about the people in the shelter -- well, two things, actually. One, people in the shelter, some of these people are old people. This is stressful conditions. They're worried about their homes. They're not sleeping in their beds. Probably not getting a lot of sleep. Number one, do you see any increased stress related injuries or heart attacks.

And number two, is there any truth to the rumor that babies are more likely to be born during a hurricane, because of the pressure situation?

GUPTA: Yes, I haven't heard about the babies being born during a pressure situation, if you meant barometric pressure. Certainly anxiety can induce labor and sometimes that does happen.

Now, I'll tell you about, the anxiety is a very good point. Because this can be a very anxiety producing sort of situation. And compound that on top of the fact that a lot of people forget their medications when they leave home in a hurry. They board up the homes, they take off, they forget their medications.

Those are two things the doctors were telling us about that can be of concern. You are already anxious, you forgot your medications. You have to remember those things. Again, best advice that we're getting is to get out of there and to get yourself out of the sort of anxious situation. It is going to get a little worse here.

NGUYEN: So, why don't you take that advice, that you just gave out, and get out of the wind and rain. We'll talk to you a little bit later.

GRIFFIN: I know. We need you.

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: OK, thanks.

GRIFFIN: Stay around we need you.

NGUYEN: All right, Doctor Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

And we will continue with our coverage of Hurricane Frances.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired September 4, 2004 - 06:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Putin is this morning visiting the Southern town where terrorists mounted a siege on the first day of school. Russian news reports say it ended with more than 250 hostages killed, many of them children.
Now back home. New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says her husband will be back in fighting form before long. Bill Clinton is to undergo heart bypass surgery early next week at a New York hospital. The former president has told CNN's Larry King Live that he feels, quote, "Great."

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: And in politics, a bounce, and a big one, for President Bush. "Time Magazine"'s survey of likely voters showing President Bush getting 52 percent support and Senator John Kerry 41 percent in a poll taken during the Republican National Convention. Experts say that could have skewed the results in favor of the incumbent.

To the big story of this Labor Day weekend. Along Florida's eastern coast something wicked this way comes from Harry Potter. Its name is Frances. Hurricane warnings posted from Florida City north to Flagler Beach. The latest advisory showing the storm downgraded last night to a Category 2 hurricane, 45 miles east-southeast of Freeport, 125 miles east-southeast of West Palm Beach, Florida. Mandatory evacuations across much of the east coast of Florida with two and a half million people effected by the state's largest ever evacuation order.

NGUYEN: So the big question for Floridians is, of course, "Where will Frances come ashore?" The best guess is somewhere along the central coast. The outer bands are already bringing rain, wind and surf. We want to go now to CNN's Sean Callebs who is in West Palm Beach, about 120 miles from the storm and Sean, you've been there since Wednesday. Are people heeding the warnings and taking this very seriously?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I would say Wednesday and Thursday people were taking this extremely seriously as we actually landed in Orlando and as we drove down the Turnpike North and I 95 simply bumper to bumper. People trying to get out of the path of Frances. But as we've seen during the past 24 hours, there's been a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. You can see it on their faces. These are people who saw what Charley did to the other side of the state, so perhaps they tried an extra-wide berth knowing that this was a hurricane that could wobble, it could change its path, it could do all kinds of damage. There is some frustration building. There is no question. We were at a shelter yesterday and there had been a couple of shoving matches the night before, arguments over turf space, "I'm gonna sleep here." "No, you're going to sleep here." That kind of thing. And a lot of people have boarded up their houses now for 48, 72 hours. They thought the storm would be here and now they know it's moving what, 6 miles an hour, so it could be 12, 18 more hours before the storm moves its way through. So it's been a long few days for people, especially in this area of the state.

NGUYEN: Sean, you mention some problems at the shelters, people shoving each other, frustration there. Is it because the shelters are just getting overcrowded?

CALLEBS: No, I wouldn't say that. The shelter we were at, there are 25 here in Palm Beach County. We were at one that's capable of holding close to 4,000 people. They had about 1900. But they were sleeping in the hallways, in the gym, in an auditorium. They were trying to keep people out of classrooms, concerned that maybe their could be some damage to some of the classrooms if it got really crowded in there. But they said here in this county they could put something like 40,000 people in shelters, but keep in mind, Palm Beach County has 1.3 million people. A lot of people simply are trying to get out as best they can, and we talked about it earlier, the gas shortage that people are feeling in this area of the state really making its presence known as well.

NGUYEN: Talking about the winds just real quickly. Are they picking up any right now? Because when we spoke with you earlier, they picked up and they slowed down. What is the situation?

CALLEBS: Well, for the last, I'd say, 25, 30 minutes, it had been extremely calm, almost even a lot warmer than it had been, significantly warmer than it had been in the last couple of hours, but within the last few minutes the winds starting to pick up a little bit more. You can't see it through the lens but right now the cloud cover isn't as heavy as it was, so clearly these bands that have been shredded are moving ashore right now and the wind, the intensity, the rain, certainly not what it was one hour ago.

NGUYEN: All right, CNN's Sean Callebs in West Palm Beach, Florida, this morning. Thank you.

GRIFFIN: And Kathleen Koch is in St. Augustine. This is on the northern edge of the warning. How is it going there, Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, this is a very historic city. The oldest city in the nation, founded by Spain way back in 1565 and you know they have ghost tours here, they have certified haunted houses, but I'll tell you, this is a true ghost town this morning. We were just chatting with a police officer who is driving by. He said, "I can't believe there is no one out. There is nothing going on." And again, this hurricane isn't even here yet. People have been-as you can see the building behind me-have been boarding up for days. Have began the sandbagging yesterday and they're sick of it. As the sign said, "Fickle Frances, please make up your mind." People here simply want to get this ordeal over with and again, going back to this police officer, we are expecting quite an ordeal here. He was mentioning when Hurricane Floyd just brushed by here, I guess maybe it was '99 year on that one. He said this entire old downtown area, surrounded on three sides by water, it's a peninsula, was completely flooded. At least two feet of water. What they are talking about here is perhaps five to seven foot storm surge. Now that's nothing compared to what happened with Hurricane Dora, the eye came right over this city 40 years ago, 40 years ago next week and then they had 125 mile an hour winds, even deeper flooding in the down town. They lost power here for six days. So there is a lot of concern about what will happen to residents who are dependent upon electricity. They are part of that group that they recommended to voluntarily evacuate both out of St. Augustine and throughout St. John's County. A county of about 150,000 residents. But again, no mandatory evacuation. You hear we are just on that northeast edge. One source of concern, though, is when you're on the northeast edge of a big hurricane like this is the chance that it will spawn tornadoes, that's the quadrant where you usually see them, so they're going to be expecting that, looking for that, not much you can do in the way of preparation for a tornado, but, again, very, very worried about the rain, about the prodigious amounts of rain. Again, we're hearing maybe as much as 20 inches in some areas and that could really impact this city.

GRIFFIN: OK, Kathleen Koch from a spooky St. Augustine. Watch out for the ghosts there, Kathleen. Betty?

NGUYEN: Well, it's been a violent, uneasy night for folks hunkered down in the Bahamas. The storm has not yet relinquished its grip on the chain of islands and this morning it is pounding Grand Bahama, the northernmost island. Damage is said to be widespread, with trees and power lines toppled, both snapped from their moorings and some buildings battered. At least one death is blamed on the storm, a Nassau teenager who was electrocuted while trying to fix a generator.

GRIFFIN: Our team of meteorologists watching this from many angles this morning. Rob is here with us.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Drew, Betty.

NGUYEN: Good morning. It's slow moving.

MARCIANO: Yes, it's slow moving. We've got Chad down on the seen. We've got Orelon on the seen and you've got me sitting here jealous of them, not being there. Anyway, Orelon Sidney not only down in Florida awaiting the storm, she had a rare chance yesterday, and that is to fly in a hurricane hunter aircraft. Orelon, before you tell me what's going on in Orlando, just give us a brief description of what it was like to fly in that high tech jet yesterday.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is only one word for it, and that was, "Really cool." It was a lot of fun. I think the most fun, really, wasn't so much the flight itself but just being with the meteorologists and the pilots and the engineers onboard. They're really fascinating people. The meteorologists are so smart and it makes me not want to call myself a weather person, because these people are so smart and so dedicated to what they do. But the flight was just amazing, the sunrise, we were traveling across the Dominican Republic, across the coast at sunrise and it was just absolutely spectacular looking out and seeing the rain bands and then the tall thunderstorm tops off in the distance. It's a pretty amazing sight. Very few people get to see it from the perspective.

MARCIANO: How high up where you, and as you got closer to the center, I mean, did you have to fly around the thing? Or how high were the cloud tops close to the center?

SIDNEY: Well, most of the cloud tops I saw were underneath us. We were flying about 42,000 feet most of the time and the difference between the NOAA mission, this particular mission, and a lot of the ones people think about is this is a high altitude mission. And what you do is you go, fly around the periphery of the storm in the high altitudes, take instrument readings of the environment around the storm. The folks that do the low level flights, those are the ones that get the bump and grind, as you would, going through the eye of the storm in the center. So it was much quieter for us. The flight- literally, the flight from Atlanta to Tampa was bumpier than the hurricane flight last night.

MARCIANO: Well, if anyone's going to fly a first class hurricane hunter mission it would be Orelon Sidney. I'm kidding. Hey listen...

SIDNEY: It was like the diva hurricane hunter.

MARCIANO: I can just see you up there. Well, we're all jealous in the weather department. You brought us back some good information, it's a great video as well. You're sitting there in Orlando, Florida. As you know, just a few weeks back, Charley went through their with some big winds, over 100 miles an hour even as far inland as Orlando. I bet you the people are sick of talking about hurricanes, aren't they?

SIDNEY: Well, you know, I think everybody, as we were talking, I think Kathleen Koch said people are really ready for this to be over and it's kind of like-I imagine it's kind of like being in labor. The baby's not going to come until it gets here, and that's just the way it is now. The steering currents, as you talked about earlier, have really weakened, the storm is moving barely six miles an hour. It's going to take a while. But folks here in Orlando, I've noticed, there's not a lot of boarding up, this is one of the few places we found that actually boarded up. This morning a lot of the places where we are were kind of in Kissimmee people didn't board up but we noticed a lot of the stores are closing, a lot of the convenience stores are not going to have gasoline after about 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. this morning and so people are kind of hunkering down, but there's not a lot of battening down the hatches and I think it's because we're not on the coast and people a little bit inland perhaps aren't expecting as much wind and again, as I said earlier, the wind is not going to be the story here. You may see some trees go down, there may be some power lines down and outages, but the story here, Rob, as I'm sure you would agree, is going to be the rainfall.

MARCIANO: It is and you'll be feeling it probably not for several hours to come yet, Orelon. Hang out there, we appreciate your reports and congratulations on a safe flight yesterday, we'll talk to you in a little bit.

Alright, we'll be right back, we're going to talk hopefully to the hurricane center in Miami, Florida in just a little while. CNN Sunday-or Saturday morning continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Frances is now a Category II hurricane. The Saffir- Simpson hurricane scale which is now the standard list to hurricane strength, from I to V. Category II windspeed. Anywhere from 96 to 110 miles per hour. Able to push a storm surge of six to eight feet and causing damage to roofs, doors and windows.

NGUYEN: All up and down the east coast, the hurricane has snarled travel on this Labor Day weekend, which is usually one of the state's biggest tourism holidays. Airports in Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Melbourne are all closed, Miami, Jacksonville and West Palm Beach airports are operating on a reduced schedule, so check your flight.

GRIFFIN: Frances hours away from landfall, a lot of people up and down the coast uneasy about the wait. One city that is waiting and waiting and waiting is West Palm Beach, Florida. The mayor of that city is on the phone now, Lois Frankel. Mayor, good morning to you.

LOIS FRANKEL, MAYOR, WEST PALM BEACH: Good morning.

GRIFFIN: I guess your crews do have a little bit of extra time to prepare, but are you prepared and what do you expect from Hurricane Frances?

FRANKEL: Well, it has been a long wait and we are expecting a lot of rain and a lot of wind. It is growing out there now. It's really, even though we don't expect a landfall for another twelve hours or so, or maybe even longer than that. It is not safe, really, to be outside right now because we are getting gusts. I rode in this morning, I was on the streets and there were some trees down so it's getting dangerous.

GRIFFIN: Mayor Frankel, are there troops standing by in terms of setting up the electricity, mostly, the electricity lines that will be coming down because of-you get the saturated ground and then the winds and then the ground can no longer hold the palm trees.

FRANKEL: Well, there's been a full complement of emergency personnel, county and also our city and many of the other municipalities but all we can really do is wait. We do, of course, have FP&L, who is our power source here and they are on notice that the federal government and state governments are waiting. But really, were just in a wait and see mode. We know we are going to get hit, to the degree, we won't know again for another 12-14 hours or longer.

GRIFFIN: The downgrading of this storm and the slowing of this storm, I imagine there's a lot of frustration on the people who did leave. What are you saying to your constituents, who are maybe in Orlando, but a hotel room or up here in Atlanta at a hotel room wanting to know if they should come back.

FRANKEL: Well they've done the right thing to leave. You know, for some people, for some distract(ph) destruction is really not much different whether the winds are 140 miles an hour, 110 miles an hour because most homes out here are not built to withstand more than 75 mile an hour winds anyway and so people should just stay put, ride this out and we'll hope for further downgrading, but right now it's still a serious situation and everybody should stay put.

GRIFFIN: And the homes in West Palm Beach, I assume, are safe. Is there a curfew on right now?

FRANKEL: We have a curfew that really, we've asked everybody to stay off the streets until the National Weather Service has cleared us and there is an 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew, however, I would not advise anybody to go out today at all.

GRIFFIN: OK. Mayor Lois Frankel. We certainly wish you and your city the best of luck in the coming day, day and a half. Thank you.

NGUYEN: Rob Marciano joins us now to talk about Hurricane Frances. Not only is it moving slow, but is there a possibility, like Charley, it's going to jet elsewhere really quickly?

GRIFFIN: Well, the problem with some of these storms is that they don't have a really good path. If you're just boogying down the highway at 100 miles an hour, stop to turn the car, but if you're going slower it has a greater chance of going off course, so there's always the challenge with the forecasting track, and also, when it sits over warm water, which it will, it could strengthen when it does that. Slowing down is never a good thing for a forecast. I'll tell you that. So here you go. And it's not a good thing for the folks in northwestern Bahamas, because they want to get rid of this thing. Yesterday they had winds gusting to 115 miles an hour in some spots when it was a Category III storm. Before that a Category IV storm. So certainly we'll take the weakening as time goes along. If we can get this thing on land below major hurricane status, which would be a Category I or II, then we'll take it at this point, because it could have been a lot worse. OK, there you go. Here's where that warm water is right there. Some of the buoys just offshore are 84, 85 degrees Fahrenheit. So that is some serious fuel for the fire. If you get temperatures, 80 degrees is the threshold to fuel a hurricane. You get up 84, 85, that's worse than bath water, and that's not very refreshing if you're trying to cool off and the temperatures outside are 90 degrees.

Alright, rain bands are spiraling in south of Daytona Beach, Titusville, Ft. Meyers and down towards Ft. Lauderdale as well. Center of this thing down out near Grand Bahama, near Freeport and most of the stronger winds are to the north of the system, but it is a very wide system, unlike Charley, this thing is large in its strength as far as the winds go. They extend out to 105 miles an hour- hurricane force winds out to 105 miles an hour-that's a wide swath of potentially damaging winds. Also, as this thing moves slowly, we have flood watches out for the entire eastern shoreline and even well inland for the Florida peninsula. With these tropical systems they always have a ton of rain. If they come through quickly, it's over and done with and the rainfall is not that big of a deal. That's what happened with Charley. We only had rainfalls of 3, 4, 5, 6 inches in some spots because it moved through pretty rapidly. But if this thing kind of lumbers on shore and then takes a good day, day and a half to get over to the Gulf of Mexico, we could be talking about 10 to 15 inches of rainfall, maybe even higher than that in some case.

Its movement is slow, northwesterly at 6 miles an hour, winds at 105. Drew and Betty read the limitations there. 110 miles an hour, you go up to 111 and we're looking at a category III storm, so this is a strong category II storm. It will have battering wind and waves as it moves onshore. A storm surge of about four to six feet and some lightly structured buildings some damaging winds as well. So this thing is definitely a formidable storm at this point. We'll keep you updated throughout the morning. In the meantime, Drew and Betty, we'll toss it back to you at the desk.

NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Rob.

Well, top stories this Saturday morning, up to 20 inches of rain, that's what Hurricane Francis could dump on parts of Florida. The storm is nearing the coast, as Rob just mentioned, and it could hit by tonight. Frances has lost some of its punch but its winds are still topping 100 miles an hour. Now to New York. Bill Clinton is facing heart bypass surgery next week but he says he is ready for it. The former president tells CNN's LARRY KING LIVE that he feels great. Clinton went to the hospital after having mild chest pains and being short of breath.

Turning now the Russia and the aftermath of that terrorist siege at a school. President Vladimir Putin has visited the southern town where it happened. The two day ordeal ended in a shootout between Russian troops and the hostage-takers. Russian news reports say more than 250 hostages were killed and dozens of them were children. Mr. Putin says nobody wanted to use force, but there was no choice.

More on former President Clinton's health as he wakes up this morning in a New York City hospital room. We'll go there live with the latest diagnosis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: It's a special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING. And Rob Marciano is front and center.

MARCIANO: Hey Drew, Betty. Some folks are making my job a lot easier. When it comes to hurricane season, the folks at the National Hurricane Center. So they are the experts and we always like to chat them up and get their opinion on what's going on in this particular case. Ed Rappaport joins us from Miami, the National Hurricane Center, I know it's been a long couple of days for you, Ed. This thing put the brakes on just like you guys said it would. What kind of problems does that pose now as a forecaster when it starts to slow down like this?

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, two sets of problems. One for us and of course one for the people that are there. Dealing with the latter first, this has been hammering the northwestern Bahamas now for more than twelve hours. Very rough conditions. For the forecasters it is difficult when a storm stops because you don't know which direction it will resume, usually. We do think that the hurricane will pick up a west-northwest track over the next six hours or so and then continue to move towards the Florida east coast. It's going to be a long day in Florida, and over night as well.

MARCIANO: A lot of folks like to make comparisons to the most recent storm that rode through their, obviously on the other side of the peninsula, that would be Charley. Try to compare them for us. This thing is completely different as far as the size, isn't it?

RAPPAPORT: You're absolutely right. It's completely different in multiple ways. It's much bigger than Charley, but it's not as intense in its inner core. Perhaps the best comparison is with Hurricane Isabel which people may remember from last year hitting the Mid Atlantic. A very large hurricane but not an intense inner core. Still a lot of problems with flooding, downed trees and storm surge.

MARCIANO: Flooding the main issue, you think, with this thing? Or do you expect to maybe an increase back to major hurricane status?

RAPPAPORT: We don't know that it will increase back to major hurricane status. There is a brief window where the hurricane could strengthen as it moves over warmer waters just off the Florida east coast and if the wind shear dies down a little bit. There will be some wind damage with this. With 105 mile per hour sustained wind we can expect that. The prolonged rain, though, is a very serious consideration.

MARCIANO: I read that you have those hurricane force winds out to 105 miles from the center. I presume that's north and east of the center? Why don't you describe that for us, where the most damaging winds are in this storm.

RAPPAPORT: Yes, the strongest of the winds and the greatest extent are occurring to the north and to the east of the center, you're right, 105 miles out for hurricane force winds. But there are hurricane force winds on the south side, as well, and they extend out about 60 miles, so this is going to be a very broad swath of hurricane to near hurricane force winds come across the Florida east coast and spread some inland as well.

MARCIANO: All right. Well, give us some timing, I know it's tough because it has slowed down. Give us some sense of timing and maybe a couple of cities and set up some field goals for us where you think this thing may make landfall later today.

RAPPAPORT: Well, again, the specific point of landfall isn't as critical in this case because it is a spread out wind field, but we think the entire pattern will be shifting to the west-northwest in through the area Miami northward up through the Cape Canaveral area. The towns, of course, are Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beach, Ft. Pierce, and all these areas are going to get hurricane force or near-hurricane force winds.

MARCIANO: Ed, we know you're a busy man. Thank you very much for your time this morning. We hope to catch up with you later in the day.

RAPPAPORT: Thank you.

MARCIANO: That's Ed Rappaport, the National Hurricane Center. They do a great job and they make our job a lot easier.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. And just looking, though, at the radar and the size of that storm.

MARCIANO: It takes up the entire state.

NGUYEN: The size of Texas?

MARCIANO: Pretty much, the size of Texas, and from north to south in Florida, I mean, cloud to cloud, it's definitely going to affect the entire state.

NGUYEN: Well be watching. Thank you, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

GRIFFIN: Another big story we are following is President Clinton's condition. He is awaiting heart bypass surgery. We'll go to New York outside his hospital next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Roughly the size of Texas, lumbering toward Florida, Hurricane Frances approaching the state which is already seeing churning waves and gusty winds.

NGUYEN: Welcome back, I'm Betty Nguyen.

GRIFFIN: I'm Drew Griffin. We are at CNN global headquarters in Atlanta. Here is what is happening "Now in the News".

Florida won't be seeing a lot of sunshine today. High winds already lashing Florida southeastern coast. Hurricane Frances is crawling closer. The storm, now, raking the Bahamas and could hit the Florida coast late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Overseas, President Vladimir Putin says all of Russia is grieving. Mr. Putin, this morning visited the southern town where terrorists mounted a siege on the first day of school. Russian news reports say it ended with more than 250 hostages killed, many of them children. The terrorists may have been storing guns in that school for days.

Back home, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says her husband will be back in fighting form before long. Bill Clinton to undergo heart bypass surgery early next week at New York Hospital. Former president has told CNN's "Larry King Live" that he feels great.

And, speaking of feeling great, President Bush may be this morning, a new poll indicating a bounce for him. "Time" magazine survey of likely voters showing President Bush getting 52 percent support and Senator John Kerry has 41 percent.

The poll taken during the Republican National Convention, and experts say that may have skewed the results in favor of President Bush.

NGUYEN: Hurricane Frances, of course, our top story this morning. We want to check back in now with our Sean Callebs, who is in West Palm Beach, with the latest.

Sean, you have been there since Wednesday, but now the winds have really started picking up.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Betty. By virtually all accounts, if you listen to forecasters, Frances is a storm that could remembered for the amount of rainfall that it brings to the State of Florida, but for the past several hours we have just felt these steady winds. Probably between 20, 25 m.p.h., at times gusting a little bit more.

Certainly making its presence known as these bands begin filtering in, coming to this portion of the state.

But a lot of people here, in this area, have already headed the mandatory evacuation notice; 2.5 million people in the state have been asked to move out of the storm's path. But a lot of people say, where exactly is that?

You have touched on it, it is a massive storm of some 300 miles of Florida could be affected to some degree. And think about the way the winds are spreading out from the eye. So, even though the eye is probably at least 12 hours away from making landfall, here in Florida, people are going to feel the effects of this storm long before that, long before that.

And it is certainly expected, Betty, that Frances is going to bring a storm surge and perhaps spawn tornadoes, once the real strength of this storm begins to hit the state.

NGUYEN: Sean, you say people have headed the warnings, taken shelter, not seeing anyone in the streets behind you. It is pretty much a ghost town right about now?

CALLEBS: It really is. We were here yesterday, all day, and we could tell you the people that live in this house right here and the house next to them, they both plan on riding out the storm. They have their windows boarded up, they have those metal shutters that are going to protect the glass as best as possible from the punishing effects of the hurricane. But some 80,000 people in Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, many of those people have long since gone. It is interesting there was one kind of bar/place to get something to eat, that was open last night. And the owner actually came out at about 8 o'clock, when we were trying to get something to eat, and said that the police chief and the mayor had asked him to shut down, because of all the notices and concerns about safety.

So, as far as we know, that was about the last place open. So, it truly is a ghost town at this hour.

NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Sean Callebs in West Palm Beach, stay safe.

Thank you, Sean.

GRIFFIN: Let's move up the coast to St. Augustine, that is where Kathleen Koch is standing by.

Kathleen, the conditions there?

KOCH: Well, Drew, as you can see this building behind me, everything is buttoned up, locked down, getting ready for the storm. This is actually a store and a deli. And they have been boarding up really since Thursday. They put the sandbags up yesterday.

So, we're going to be in the sort of same situation as Sean Callebs in that it is going to be very hard to find anything open in this historic old city.

Now, they were planning a huge party today, celebrating their 439th birthday. That was to take place in this historic plaza that is in front of me. They were going to have reenactments. They were going to have a concert. All of that canceled today.

Obviously, the city, it is the oldest one in the country, it is replete with historic buildings. They line the streets. Built in the 1600, 1700, 1800s. Now, nearly 40 of them are run by the city of St. Augustine for the state.

So, they have spent days boarding up the historic buildings, taking down artwork, moving priceless artifacts and furniture up onto the second levels, the second stories of these buildings, because they really are expecting such severe flooding here. Part of that is due to the fact that the drainage system in the city is about as old as many of these buildings and it just simply can't accommodate the amount of rain that we are expecting here, as much as 20 inches -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Thank you, Kathleen.

NGUYEN: Residents in Florida calling it Fickle Frances, so we want to know, Rob, is it still headed toward West Palm Beach? Is that the area where it is expected to make landfall?

MARCIANO: I would say that is probably the southern part of the zone that is under the gun, yes. West Palm Beach and north toward, even as far north as Daytona Beach. And if this thing stalls anymore, who knows what will happen.

It is starting to pick up a little bit more steam, moving northwest at 6 miles an hour. Mentioned that it is a Category 2 storm, with winds sustained at 105 miles an hour. You get them up to 110, 111, then we get a Category 3 status.

Here's the forecast track, here you go, there is West Palm Beach. Just north of there, to just south of Daytona Beach. Likely landfall, late tonight or early tomorrow, because it is moving so slow. It is still over 100 miles due east of West Palm Beach.

As we go through Sunday and then into early Monday, it may reemerge in the Gulf or Mexico, but by then only a tropical storm. Because it is moving so slowly the main effect out of this thing is going to be heavy rains and the potential for flooding as well. But if it does strengthen anymore, then the winds are going to be damaging. Even Category 2 winds will do some damage to trees, to signs and to structures that are not really made all that great.

Flagler Beach, south to Florida City, we still have hurricane warnings up in the Bahamas, where they just want to get rid of the hurricane and the hurricane warnings. They're still up as this thing slowly makes it way toward the north and west.

Rain bands form this thing, you saw Sean Callebs getting battered around just a bit. Melbourne just to the south, you go towards Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, that is where the rain bands are starting to increase.

Center of it? Right there. Most of the rain, most of the -- not only heavy rain but the gusty winds are north of this system. So, Miami, south to the Florida Keys won't nearly the effects of this thing, if it takes expected track, as say folks who live up towards Melbourne, Titasville (ph), and even Daytona Beach.

So, a wide storm, this thing is huge, even compared to Charley, which was a stronger storm, effected less people, this thing is going to effect more people. And the biggest threat looks like it is going to be flooding. So, flood watches are up for pretty much the entire eastern half of the State of Florida, as this thing makes its slow march across the state. We could see 10 to 15, maybe in some cases, 20 inches of rainfall as this thing makes its way off toward the north and west.

Right now, not a bad looking day in Tampa. Not a bad looking day in Key West, but it is not going to be a great looking day up towards Melbourne, and even south towards Miami, as well.

Hurricane Frances, a Category 2 storm at this time, Drew and Betty. And probably not going to strengthen, but when it makes landfall later on tonight -- I mean, it is still 12 hours, or better, away from the Florida coastline. Because it is moving so slowly, not only the wind but the before it weakens, before it moves inland, it is going to batter the folks along the east coast of Florida, central coast especially.

So, we're going to unfortunately talking about this for a couple of days. Not the greatest Labor Day weekend for the folks in Florida.

NGUYEN: Not at all.

GRIFFIN: Certainly not. Thank you for the forecast.

NGUYEN: All right, well, Bill Clinton says Republicans aren't the only ones who want four more years. The former president joked from a New York hospital, where he will have heart bypass surgery early next week.

Our Maria Hinojosa joins us now from New York this morning, with the latest on the president and his condition.

Sounds like he is in a pretty good, Maria.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pretty good. You know, there is a line of live trucks here, about a block long, that is the amount of attention the former president is getting here from the news media.

But it was actually 24 hours ago, that the former president was in the hospital, in Westchester, where yesterday at 6 o'clock in the morning he went to get some tests, because he was feeling a little bit of tightness in his chest and shortness of breath and it was there where they performed the angiogram. And there is when the found out he had a problem.

They brought him by ambulance, here, to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, which is about 40 blocks north of the president's office in Harlem. He is saying that he is optimistic, the bypass surgery has been postponed until sometime early next week. We don't know what day and we have been told that we won't be getting any updates until after the surgery is preformed.

But knowing about the outpouring of concern, about him on a national level, the former President Called into CNN Last night and spoke to Larry King, saying that there are probably genetics that he can blame on this, but that he must take some of the blame himself for some of his careless eating, that he put an extra 10 pounds in the past several months, when he was on his book tour.

He said, he was a little bit scared about the operation, but not too much. And then went on to give a little bit of advice to listeners on "Larry King".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think if people have a family history there, and high cholesterol and high blood pressure, they ought to consider the angiogram even if they don't have the symptoms I had. There is some chance of damage there, but it is like one in a thousand.

I really think it probably saved my life and I'm very grateful my physicians, Doctor Bardock (ph) and all the great people in Westchester County who did that, and then these people at Columbia Presbyterian. LARRY KING, HOST, LARRY KING LIVE: Thank you.

CLINTON: I feel just grateful. I guess I'm a little scared, but not much. I'm looking forward to it. I want get back to -- I want to see what it is like to run five miles again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: You can get a sense, just hearing his voice, there is a little bit of weakness. He probably spent much of the day yesterday undergoing more tests.

Now, New York Senator Hillary Clinton was here yesterday. Said that the former president beat her and Chelsea at card games, which is what he's doing to keep himself entertained here at the hospital.

President Bush calling him from Air Force One, where he was at a stop in Wisconsin, saying that he is holding President Clinton in his thoughts and prayers. And Senator John Kerry at an event in Ohio saying that he also extends his best wishes and prayers for the former president.

Now, the operation, usually they ask the patients to stay in the hospital for about three to five days, but then want them to get back into pretty much activity. That doesn't mean, though, that he is going to be cleared to get back out on the campaign trail for Senator John Kerry -- back to you.

NGUYEN: And that operation expected to take place sometime early next week. CNN's Maria Hinojosa in New York. Thank you, Maria.

GRIFFIN: Much more live coverage ahead as Frances continues the slow march to Florida. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: It is the worry before the wrath, for Florida residents bracing for blows from Hurricane Frances. The question of where, when and how it will roar through the state has people on edge as they play the waiting game. Here's our Bruce Burkhart.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RADIO ANNOUNCER: Some 5,700 people are in shelters this morning around the state. Nearly 100 shelters are open from Daytona Beach south to Miami.

BRUCE BURKHART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The bent over palm trees might get all the publicity, but this is as much a part of the hurricane experience as anything else, the waiting.

And with Frances and her stubborn ways, inching slowly along, it is even worse. More time to wait, means more time to worry.

BURKHART (on camera): What about your house? You worried about your house? (voice over): The shelter here a Brevard Community College is nearly full with 1,000 people. Twin sisters, Doris Bustamante (ph) and Frances Boodin (ph), who is visiting from England, got here yesterday and they have time, time to worry about the cat they left at home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody would take him and I couldn't bring him here. And I left a ton of food. He's a beauty -- you know, Morris that used to be on TV? He's a second Morris.

BURKHART (on camera): What are you going to do here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. Nothing.

BURKHART (voice over): What else can you do while you wait? Well, you can buy plywood, like these folks in line here at a Lowe's store in Rockledge, Florida. Even though they have a 10 sheet per customer limit, they are going to run out before they get to the end of this line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should have bought plywood three weeks ago, and had it all cut, in the garage.

BURKHART: But elsewhere, time can be a good thing. Time to fill up a few sandbags on the beach, because the lines at the fire station were too long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're playing in the sandbox today, because we're bored.

BURKHART: And time to take advantage of waves that only come at times like this.

(SIREN SOUNDS)

And time is a good thing, too. When you need to evacuate 85 patients from Woostoff (ph) Memorial Hospital in Rockledge, to a newer, sturdier hospital in Melbourne.

For a young mom, it is time to get to know her one-day old daughter.

And what about politicians? Well, it is time to get rid of them. At least get rid of their signs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there are a lot of political signs that are stuck in the ground that are going to be projectiles in this wind.

BURKHART: Waiting and killing time. Sometimes nearly as hard as going through the storm itself.

Bruce Burkhart, CNN, Melbourne, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: The path of the storm Frances is drenching the Bahamas now, Florida next in her sights. Frances is 125 miles east of West Palm Beach, it should read. It could finally reach Florida late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

The storm already bringing big waves to Florida, as you have seen already. They are going to get bigger. Forecasters expect the storm surge up to 12 feet above normal levels. Few people will see what Frances does. Florida has ordered the biggest evacuation in its history, covering nearly 2.5 million people.

Airports in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Melbourne are all closed this morning. Well, 60, 80, 100 m.p.h. winds, we'll get a unique measure of what they feel like, as our Hurricane Frances Special Coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Hurricane Frances just now trying to come ashore in Florida. We understand in Melbourne the wind has arrived and now the rain is starting to pour.

GRIFFIN: Meteorologist Rob Marciano is tracking this slow-moving storm.

Rob, what is the latest?

MARCIANO: They are getting the rain bands in and with those rain bands they are getting winds that are gusting to over 30 m.p.h. So, definitely some squally weather moving into the southern and central part of Florida.

From Fort Lauderdale up, especially up through Fort Pierce and Vero Beach, that is where the heavier bands have been -- look in through here -- through the Everglades, seeing some of those showers extend into the central part of the state.

So, we've been mentioning how slow moving this storm is, also how large it. And even though it has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, it has a huge rain field, especially to the north of the storm. And a huge wind field with hurricane force winds that extend up to over 100 miles from the center. To give you and idea, Hurricane Charley, which was a Category 4 storm, that tore apart Fort Myers.

By the way, I've been saying Fort Myers all morning long and I've been meaning to say Fort Pierce, for whatever reason. Just waking up I suppose.

Anyway, Charley, that moved through just north of Fort Myers and through Punta Gorda, that was a Category 4 storm. But it had winds that were really close to the center of it. This storm is so much wider, we have winds that extend out to over 100 miles so it is going to affect a larger amount of folks and because it is moving so slowly the rains are going to be an issue as well. So, flooding concerns abound, up and down the State of Florida.

And landfall estimates right now for sometime after 6 o'clock, closer to midnight, probably it is moving so slowly.

All right, guys. Who are going next to? NGUYEN: We are going to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is in Melbourne, Florida, where we have been talking about the rain that has hit.

Dr. Gupta, what are you seeing out there?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is a lot of what we're seeing so far out here, is rain. You are getting gusts up to about 40, 45 m.p.h.

The reason we're down here, you might be asking, is we wanted to find out how you can medically prepare for something like this. Visit the hospitals, visit all the doctors. It is really a sort of situation. What they do at a lot of these hospitals, they sort of embed. People sort of came to the hospitals last night. They are planning on staying there for two to three days, just going to bring all their food, their water, their supplies. And they are waiting it out.

Now, we are getting gusts, as I said, about 40, 45 m.p.h., or so out here. What is sort of interesting, what I learned, people may not be surprised by this is that when the winds get over 50 to 55 m.p.h. or so, the ambulance crews, the EMS crews, the disaster management crews, they are all going stop. They don't work through a hurricane for obvious reasons. It is only when afterwards, that they actually try search and rescue teams.

Now, again, about 40, 45 m.p.h. you can see the impact of that, about 10 miles faster and all of that is going to stop.

GRIFFIN: We saw with Hurricane Charley that it was, indeed, after the storm that people started coming to the hospital. A lot of lacerations, a lot of crush injuries, I think. Is this what hospitals are gearing up for?

GUPTA: There are several different things. And it does change as you guys know. Primary injuries, just being blown around, literally. You could be launched and that is a primary injury. Secondary injuries are where things that are launched such as branches, debris, hit you. Those are the secondary sort of injuries during the storm itself.

As you guys have been saying all morning, because this is a slow- moving storm, now, the biggest concern here is rain and flooding. And there are other concerns like the power is going out, and you lose your air conditioning. Elderly people might suffer from heat exhaustion, or heat stroke, things like that.

So, they really have to prepare for just about anything. Wires come down, sometimes that can cause electrocution injuries. It is storms like this that you get the biggest variety of injuries.

Right now, they haven't seen much, thankfully. But there is sort of preparing for all of that.

NGUYEN: Yes, and as people start to prepare, as a doctor, what kind of advice to you have for them, whether they are hunkered down at home or in the shelters. What should they do to prepare so that flying debris doesn't come close to them?

GUPTA: Well, the biggest piece of advice and all the doctors say this is their best prevention, is obviously to get out of harm's way. A lot of people have evacuated this town of about 70,000. They think more than half the people have evacuated, especially areas like this were you have lots of water.

Second thing is, obviously, to stay indoors to avoid that debris. You'd be surprised at how quickly debris can get launched. Anything, anything, you'd be surprised, can become a missile in a situation like this. So, stay out of there.

Finally, food and supplies. You need to get those things now. You could be hunkered down for a few days. You don't want to suffer from heat exhaustion. You don't want to suffer from heat stroke or dehydration, either.

GRIFFIN: Doctor, I want to ask you about the people in the shelter -- well, two things, actually. One, people in the shelter, some of these people are old people. This is stressful conditions. They're worried about their homes. They're not sleeping in their beds. Probably not getting a lot of sleep. Number one, do you see any increased stress related injuries or heart attacks.

And number two, is there any truth to the rumor that babies are more likely to be born during a hurricane, because of the pressure situation?

GUPTA: Yes, I haven't heard about the babies being born during a pressure situation, if you meant barometric pressure. Certainly anxiety can induce labor and sometimes that does happen.

Now, I'll tell you about, the anxiety is a very good point. Because this can be a very anxiety producing sort of situation. And compound that on top of the fact that a lot of people forget their medications when they leave home in a hurry. They board up the homes, they take off, they forget their medications.

Those are two things the doctors were telling us about that can be of concern. You are already anxious, you forgot your medications. You have to remember those things. Again, best advice that we're getting is to get out of there and to get yourself out of the sort of anxious situation. It is going to get a little worse here.

NGUYEN: So, why don't you take that advice, that you just gave out, and get out of the wind and rain. We'll talk to you a little bit later.

GRIFFIN: I know. We need you.

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: OK, thanks.

GRIFFIN: Stay around we need you.

NGUYEN: All right, Doctor Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

And we will continue with our coverage of Hurricane Frances.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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