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CNN Saturday Morning News

Hurricane Frances Lumbers Slowly Towards Coastline

Aired September 04, 2004 - 11:00   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.


STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Frances still a long way offshore in Florida, but already more than 40,000 homes and businesses have lost power. And we understand now some very dramatic scenes from Miami, Florida recorded for us by our affiliate, WFOR, of the effects of that when power lines go down. Let's have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) me, back over here, just take a look, unbelievable. This thing continues to pop. That is extremely dangerous. Firefighters want you to stay away. I'm now joined by an official just to explain what exactly is going on here. This is breaking right now as we speak, please; first of all, state your name for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lieutenant Joseph

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lieutenant Joseph, what's going on here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we have here is a broken power line that powers the building here. From the strong winds, it has snapped and it is arching on some of the other power lines that rear here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. And what -- we just got here -- rushed here immediately after I saw this. What street are we at? Just what's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the 500 block of Borden Avenue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Borden Avenue. As soon as we saw the smoke up in the air from Sunrise and A1-8 (ph), we immediately jumped in our car and came here. Just look at it, just let it run, this thing just keeps on popping. Sir, what would happen -- how many volts is that? That's amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not really sure. It's definitely high voltage though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what -- as you look right over here -- Joaquin (ph), take a cam there -- there's some spectators who are seeing it as well, a guy drinking his coffee. What would happen, sir -- are they allowed to come over and get as close as we are to see this thing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your concern about them over there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing really with them over there as far as the power, but my concern is the buildings here starting to catch on fire from the live wire there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, on behalf of CBS-4, our anchors, Angela Ray (ph), Eliana Borello (ph), we want to thank you, for, you know, allowing us to get so close to share this with our viewers. And this is exactly why officials strongly recommend that you be careful. That's why we have the mandatory evacuations, according to Broward officials. Why, because things like this can happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: All right, thanks to our friends at WFOR in Miami for bringing us that sign. And as you saw, the wind wasn't too strong in the fronds of the palm trees behind those folks who were showing us that. Much stronger about an hour 20 minutes north in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Sean Callebs has been tracking what is probably the most furious part of the storm to come ashore so far and is still there -- Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Stephen, we can tell you the winds still remain very steady, the gusts very punishing at times. The rain is coming down now, blowing almost sideways in a very punishing fashion, really stinging once it hits. But this is the real drama. If you look behind me -- remember the yacht, the Explorer I -- we just had a crew go over and take some pictures of the side of it where it is continuing to slam against the docks, the cement jetty and the pilings as well. There are two holes that are said to be probably about as big as a bowling ball, but they are above the waterline. So at this point the craft is not taking on any water.

We do know that the captain we talked to a while ago, Hening Hehman (ph), is now back on that vessel as well. His mate, who cut her hands as she was trying to get off -- to give you an idea. If you can look down here, the very top of this railing, you see almost a fleur de lis looking pointed sharp area. Well, the yacht gate was locked. So she tried to climb over. And as she was climbing over, she slipped, grabbed that, and actually punctured her hand. It went into it. She has two pretty big, deep punctures in her hand, which she's getting treated right now. But she's going to need some medical treatment for that.

But the captain is back on that yacht, and we talked to him earlier. He kind of explained to us what he was able to do. He lost one engine, lost a generator, so he really did what a lot of people who are familiar with boating said was just an amazing job, to keep that large vessel from floating down and slamming into the bridge and able to pull it into this jetty. I don't know -- we may have some sound from that earlier interview. I'm sorry. We do not have that sound at this time. But he is now back on that yacht doing what he can, trying to protect it.

But there have been a number of boats, Stephen, that have come down through this way. We saw another sailboat just a short while ago, go down through -- making its way toward that bridge. All sailboats we have seen have been able to go down, bend down and then pop up on the other side. They've been OK, Stephen.

FRAZIER: I'm sorry, Sean, we weren't ready with that interview that you were calling for. But we do remember how dramatic it was. And for me, the key line that that skipper told us is he had two anchors out and was really dug in strong before losing his purchase on the ground because of the force of the wind there. Very dramatic for him.

CALLEBS: Exactly, and with driving up and down this area and the intercoastal, we saw a number of boats that were anchored. They would -- did have moorings down in there very deep. And I'm just told that this is something that's very routine in a storm like this. They try and ride it out as fast as possible, but once those anchors just kind of lost their grip, losing the power from the engine, this guy was really fighting the elements and did an amazing job just to get that craft where it is.

Stephen, back to you.

FRAZIER: All right, Sean Callebs learning so much about the Marine navigation. He'll be commissioned as a lieutenant in the Navy before this storm is over. Sean, thanks for joining us. We'll see you a little later on.

We are learning that at least one person has been killed getting ready for the storm in Bahamas, apparently electrocuted in advance where Hurricane Frances has been soaking the islands since yesterday and where our Karl Penhaul is there with the latest from Freeport.

Hello again, Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Stephen. Yes, that one death coming in Nassau yesterday morning. As far as we understand, that young man, 18 years old was preparing a generator when he was electrocuted. That's the only death that we know of so far related to this storm. Authorities on the island this morning, of Grand Bahama, say they have no reports of casualties or deaths there.

What they are saying though is that there has been widespread flooding both from the north and the south of the island in areas -- residential areas even up to six feet of water, and that has meant people overnight taking to the roofs of their houses trying to escape from the rising waters. And in the earlier hours of this morning, fire trucks and other four-wheel drive vehicles have been pressing to service and travel to those residential areas to rescue those people.

The area where I'm standing now is along a major highway, a few moments ago, the scene of intense activity as police and fire engine were pulling up to 200 people out from a residential area a few miles south. And now, though, as the winds are building up once again, the police have said no, the storm is coming back, and they've all hightailed back to safer areas. They say that what was happening, of course, in the last few hours was that Freeport was in the eye of the storm. That led to a decrease in the wind speed, but now as the tail end comes through, once again the winds are building up.

Now, we talked to weather experts this morning. They weren't though at the weather center. The weather center out at the airport here in Grand Bahama was flooded after 5:00 last night. The weather experts tell me the last wind speed reading they got was 86 miles an hour. After that, the winds just ripped all their reading equipment -- all their monitoring equipment off the roof at the airport, and no more of that. But they say 86 miles an hour was the last recorded wind speed. But obviously in the course of the night, estimated wind speeds of over 120 miles an hour, Stephen.

FRAZIER: Very frightening conditions there. We're glad for that update. Karl Penhaul, thank you for joining us from Freeport in the Bahamas.

Rob Marciano can give us a sense of what Karl is about to face there as the storm comes back.

Rob, thanks for all the power or those tools you got behind you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I got some proof for you again, Stephen. This is a three- dimensional look at radar imagery, which shows you the expanse of this eye. Here is Freeport, still in the eye. The eye, as of the latest RECOM aircraft that went through here, is 70 nautical miles wide. I mean that is just unbelievably large. And it's moving unbelievably slow. So when people ask, you know, when is this thing going to make landfall? When's it going to make landfall? It could take, if it's going five to, say, eight miles an hour, it could take 10 hours just for the eye to go through. I mean that's crazy.

Anyway, the west side of this thing is definitely well developed. You can see the vertical structure, the brighter colors indicating the heavier rain. This band, when it does come it, will certainly bring hurricane force sustained winds. We've already seen hurricane force gusts up to 91 miles an hour at Jupiter inlet. And this thing isn't even close to that area just yet.

All right. We'll flip it on it side now -- by the way, the latest advisory just came out from the National Hurricane Center -- this is now a two dimensional shot. We're looking down. Melbourne to Fort Pierce down to West Palm Beach, and again the eye -- and there's Grand Bahama still in the center of that 70-mile eye. This is satellite imagery. Look at the size of this thing. It goes all the way up to South Carolina pretty much and then down towards the south.

Forecast track, Hurricane Frances, a category 2 storm right now. That has not changed. The track really hand changed. We expect it to go just to the north of West Palm Beach towards Melbourne and then drive to the south of Orlando. Orlando could see hurricane force wind again like they saw through Charley, probably not that strong, but certainly will see some gusty winds. And the big player is going to be the rainfall here because it's moving so slowly. At 8:00 in the morning on Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center of Forecast Track, brings it to the panhandle. So that's 48 hours from now, we have this thing to go through. Again, expect it to continue to be a category 2 storm and what that means is we'll see some coastal storm surge, probably four to six, maybe seven feet, and that could be damaging to some coastal areas especially in the eastern flank. Right now, we're seeing northerly winds and the southern flank of those areas seeing the damage. Doors, windows, some roof damage, already seeing that and this thing hasn't even reached inland. Because it's moving so slow, not only will it batter the coastline with the wind, with the waves, but really the thing that is going to be easy to forecast is the amount of rain. These tropical systems have a tremendous amount of rain and because it's moving so slowly, we have flood watches out. And we could see -- Stephen, we could see 15 inches of rainfall. Some of our computer models indicating that and the National Hurricane Center is saying hey, maybe even 20 inches in some spots. So on top of that, the size of this thing, 100 miles to the north down about 60 miles of the south. So about 160 miles wide of hurricane force winds. It's a much larger storm than Charley was even though it's theoretically weaker.

Back to you in the studio.

FRAZIER: Rob, let me ask you a couple of landlubber questions before we leave you there. Floridians may know this, but why is this storm staying so organized? Why isn't it just spinning itself in a tangent since it's not going anywhere?

MARCIANO: Well, it's -- for one thing, just offshore in Florida, I mean the temperature has to be above 80 degrees for any hurricane or tropical system to sustain. Some of the buoy reports 85, 86 degrees out here. So that's some juice, that's some fuel for the fire for one thing. And we don't have a really strong westerly winds to tear this thing apart. So in order for a system like this to die, you need either a strong westerly wind aloft kind of ripping the top off the thing or you need it to come onshore. And these islands just aren't big enough, Stephen, to really knock it down much very much. So that's -- for that reason, it hasn't weakened much more than it already has. It's got some juice here to deal with.

So I think that's the reason the National Hurricane Center is keeping it as a category 2 status, not really weakening it much more until it eventually hits landfall, which again -- it's not going to happen here for another -- couple of three hours. And then the process of the eye, the western flank and then the eastern flank eventually moving over any one particular spot could take six to eight, maybe even 10 hours for that process to happen. So this is kind of a crazy storm. And it's interesting nonetheless. And folks along the south central coast of Florida are being hammered with it now and will continue to do that throughout the afternoon unfortunately.

FRAZIER: And that extended period you just mentioned leads us to the other question I had, which is about, you know, the concern always that one of these storms will come ashore during high tide and will add to it the effect of this surge, which isn't just wind-driven water, but the effect of low pressure actually sucking water up. There could be a couple of those with this storm? MARCIANO: I guess -- you know that's a good point. I mean if this thing moves so slowly, we could hit two high tides at any one time. But as it does that, it's tough to get an easterly wind going, you know, for more than 12 hours and you'd have to do that to get -- to nail two high tides. On top of that, as far as the low pressure sucking the water up, it really only -- that only accounts for about maybe 15 to 20 percent.

So we're still looking at storm surges four to six feet above high tide. Not that much -- not as much of a concern as it was, say, coming on the -- through the Gulf of Mexico because there, Stephen, it's a little bit different layout as far as what's going on underneath the water, a little more shallow, a little bit more prone to pile up that water. And because it's moving slower, that push of the water up against the land isn't quite as great. We will see a storm surge and it will be interesting to see if we can hit two high tides. I'm not sure that will happen, but we'll certainly look out for that. And I'm sure emergency managers across a lot of those coastal towns are looking out for that as well.

FRAZIER: We're hoping that's not the case. Well, Rob, thank you. I hope I wasn't too much like Mr. Wizard there, but we really appreciate the clarity of those explanations. Please stand by for more questions like that. Rob Marciano up in our weather center.

We are talking a look too, when we come back from a break, at what life is like right now in Orlando, Florida, hit so hard by Charley just a short time ago, still trying to recover from that and now directly in the path of Frances. So stay with us for insights from there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: Well, here's the latest look at what Hurricane Frances is doing to the intracoastal waterway in West Palm Beach. These waves that look like they belong off Diamondhead in Honolulu, surfers' delight but really Mariners' nightmare and a nightmare for homeowners and for rescue workers too, as winds move from north to south with the leading edge of Frances blowing directly down the intracoastal waterway that separates the Barrier Islands of Florida from the mainland there.

Our CNN's Sean Callebs is keeping abreast of that, and we'll be visiting with him throughout the day.

Here's a recap though of what the storm is doing in general. It's moving very, very slowly now, continuing its trek towards Florida at only about 4 or 5 miles an hour. In an update we received just moments ago from the National Hurricane Center; we learned that the storm sustained winds are still topping out at just over 100 miles an hour. Its eye is now 70 miles in diameter and it is parked right over Freeport in the Bahamas right now.

In the meantime, hundreds of residents of Florida, hundreds of thousands of residents and tourists who are down there for the Labor Day weekend are on the run as the hurricane draws closer. The state, a long time ago, issued the biggest evacuation order in its history, almost two-and-a-half million people told to get away from the coast. Many of them in shelters now. And as we mentioned, Frances has already battered the Bahamas, leaving much of Nassau under five to six feet of water. And there's not much high ground there. There is at least one storm-related death reported in the Bahamas. A young man electrocuted as he fired up a generator to try to make sure his power would continue through the storm.

Looking back now, one of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Charley last month now finds itself squarely in the path of today's hurricane and CNN's Orelon Sydney has the latest from Orlando.

ORELON SYDNEY, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Orlando is starting to get some showers and thunderstorms move through. The rainfall is coming down pretty heavy for a second there, so we couldn't operate our satellite truck. But the winds have picked up. It looks like -- we've seen some gusts, I'd say, up around 35 miles per hour, probably sustained at 20. And we're getting some real squally weather. It was raining pretty hard for about three, four, five minutes and now the rain has let up substantially and the wind as well. But we're going to see that continuing throughout the afternoon. Then as we go into the twilight hours and overnight, I expect to see those winds increase.

The current forecast is for tropical storm force winds of about 60 miles an hour tonight and tomorrow. And probably looking at those gusting, I would imagine some of the gusts could be close to hurricane force. But it will be pretty widely scattered, I think.

Again, I think the main thing here is going to be the rainfall. And if I was hearing you correctly in the last report, its eye is indeed 70 miles wide. That's just unbelievable. It's just absolutely incredible. And that's just further indication to me how disorganized the storm has become. We can only hope that it continues to be disorganized and perhaps even diminish a little bit more before it makes a really erratic, it looks like, path towards the Florida coast -- back to you.

FRAZIER: Orelon, the last time we actually saw you on the air, you were standing in front of what looked to be a very sunny, almost a blue sky. So this change dramatic and pretty sudden.

SYDNEY: It was very dramatic. I suppose it's sudden in the sense it looked like one of those big thunderstorms -- I'm from Texas, and it looked like one of those big thunderstorms that comes in with a cold front from the west. You'll see those big, dark clouds build up and then the rain comes and blows through. It was much like that. Most of the morning, it was just gorgeous. We got outside about 4:00, partly cloudy skies. Of course, the sun rose, and we did have some blue skies with quite a bit of cloudiness. You could see some very gusty winds just above the surface, a couple of thousand feet with the clouds moving very rapidly.

But the outer rain bands of Frances have finally started to move in to the central part of the state. And of course my concern is that it has started raining now, but I don't think it's going to stop until probably late Sunday at the earliest. Monday is more likely, so it certainly is something to watch. There's still people out. I've seen some people walking. I wouldn't want to be out doing that, I'd say, within the next hour or so. But things are certainly going to get worse here before they get better.

FRAZIER: All right, we're glad for those early insights into what it's like there. Orelon Sydney, thanks for making time for us.

Last month, of course, Charley hit Florida on Friday the 13th and now here comes Frances as some families are still struggling to recover from that first storm. CNN's Jonathan Freed gives us a sense of what life is like for some people in Orlando.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Any other hurricane season Mike Gault would be just cleaning up after last month's storm, but this isn't any other hurricane season.

MIKE GAULT, HURRICANE VICTIM: It split the chimney apart. It sucked the flute right out of the chimney.

FREED: The Gault family is now boarding up their windows bracing for Frances, the second major storm in just three weeks.

M. GAULT: And it's like, well, what's left for it to take?

FREED: When Hurricane Charley hit, Mike and Jody Gault and their three children were huddled in this bedroom closet and can now tell you what $10,000 in roof damage sounds like.

JODY GAULT, HURRICANE VICTIM: The shingles were being torn off one by one. It sounded like 100 soldiers up there. It was like you could hear every single shingle at each moment being ripped off the roof. That was the scariest.

M. GAULT: My daughter's bedroom is here just to the left of this boarded-up window and the closets actually collapsed inside. And it was just like -- it was like a stream.

J. GAULT: This -- a whole part in the ceiling just collapsed. It was so wet, it just fell in.

FREED: This Orlando community is still littered with debris from Charley, and many people like the Gaults haven't even settled with their insurance companies yet. Frances is just fueling frustration.

(on camera): With Frances bearing down now, was it hard for you to imagine a time when your house is going to look normal again?

M. GAULT: Well, I'm probably looking at a year.

FREED (voice-over): Mike Gault has decided to ride out the coming storm at home, determined to protect his property. His family is equally determined to protect him.

J. GAULT: I don't want him to be alone. I can't leave him.

FREED: So the Gaults are praying that bedroom closet will keep them safe one more time.

J. GAULT: I've had my moments where I've had some silent tears, but I have faith that everything's going to be OK.

FREED: Jonathan Freed, CNN, Orlando.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: Let's pass on words from rescue officials in Florida that if you're walking around up on your roof now, you should get down and get ready for this storm.

We're going to take a break here, catch our breath. And when we come back, another look at how Melbourne, Florida, a little farther up the coast, is feeling the effects of Hurricane Frances. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: All right, just an update now, Frances developing a huge eye now, about 70 miles in diameter, and the clouds a little more organized, maybe an eye wall forming. And here's the effect at Juno Beach in Florida. Let's take the coverage now of our affiliate WSBN.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... right here where we're walking right now. That's what it was just a few minutes ago. And you see things flying through the air every now and again. We don't know what it is, you know, sometimes it's a leaf; sometimes it's a piece of somebody's property. And we're taking you down now to get you a look at the ocean. And again, watch out for that at your feet. We're getting -- sorry, we're having some problems with the cables here. This is not made for TV, this kind of weather, that's for sure.

And look at this, folks, Juno Beach, Labor Day weekend. This place would normally be packed today with people having a great weekend, and this is what we've got instead, the ocean just boiling, just white and boiling. If you guys have any questions, I'll be happy to entertain them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're right on the western edge of a very strong circulation center now. This thing looks like it's wrapping up a little bit, and the thunderstorms are increasing. I think the rain squalls are going to get a lot...

FRAZIER: All right, just a sense there of what effects are like in Juno Beach where the storm is so strong and so large it blew a British correspondent onto the beach in Florida somehow.

All right, let's go to somebody who's got a little more of an American accent. Gary Tuchman is standing by at Fort Pierce. This is where forecasters now believe the eye of the storm will pass directly overhead. We can already see the effects on Gary's rain gear there. And he's on our videophone to give us an update -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Stephen, an American accent, about but saltwater on my tongue. We are in Saint Lucie County right now, in the city of Fort Pierce. This is the Fort Pierce marina. Saint Lucie County, this is very interesting, has not been hit by a hurricane more powerful than a category 1 in recorded weather history. It's been hit by two category 1 hurricanes but not since 1933 and 1933. And now this is considered the bull's-eye area, Fort Pierce, which is in the northern part of this county.

We are standing right now near a marina here at Fort Pierce. There are about 90 boats that are out on the water here and we're anxious to see what happens to these boats as the day wears on. In the last hour, these winds have picked up tremendously here. And obviously, the size of this hurricane, they're expected to cause some severe damage here in Saint Lucie County.

There has been a curfew strictly enforced in this county between 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. We have seen nobody on the roads. I have very rarely seen, probably never seen in all the hurricanes I've covered, people really take the instructions from the authorities very seriously and leave the area. We see virtually nobody in the evacuation areas here in Saint Lucie County. There are 5,000 people in this county, which is 60 miles north of West Palm Beach, Florida, in the shelters. Now, the total population here in Florida is 13,000, so eventually, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) people in this county are in shelters ready to ride this out.

Stephen, we just want to say one more thing before we go. We are use a videophone technology. That's why the picture isn't as good as usual, but it allows us to pick up very quickly and move when the weather gets particularly treacherous, and allows us to be in places we normally wouldn't be in with the huge satellite trucks that we bring -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: Gary, we're glad to have that technology. We're glad you can move fast. If the storm surge comes ashore there, and it's predicted to be very high, how far inland would you have to go or people there have to go to find some high ground?

TUCHMAN: Well, that's a major concern, because Lake Okeechobee, which is inland, is one of our follow-up places in the state of Florida. Back in 1928, more than 2,000 people were killed in a hurricane, most of them near Lake Okeechobee when a huge hurricane came through Palm Beach County and flooded that area. Now, a series of levies and dikes that have been built since then have made it much safer, but inland is very dangerous, too. And I will tell you here in Fort Pierce, in this city, they are very concerned about their downtown going partially underwater from this hurricane.

FRAZIER: And what happens if people are found to be violating that curfew that you reference there, Gary?

TUCHMAN: The first thing they get from the police is a warning. The second thing they get from the police if they're being obstinate is to be taken to jail. Police don't want to do that. They have better things to do, but they are very serious. I think these people walking around between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., they're not going to tolerate.

FRAZIER: And just before we leave you, Gary, give me a sense now of what's behind you. Are we looking at the coastline there or rather a marina on the intracoastal waterway?

TUCHMAN: This actually behind me -- I'm going to give you a clear look now -- is the Indian River, which is part of the intracoastal waterway. We are just a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. Normally, you can see the land mass on the other side of this river. That's Hutchinson Island and Hutchinson Island is on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean. So we're one mile away from the ocean and right here on the intercoastal, and that's why this downtown of this city of 39,000 people is so vulnerable, because it's so close to the ocean. And the intracoastal literally is wrapped onto it.

FRAZIER: All right. Good explanation there, glad you're safe. Gary Tuchman, thank you for joining us. We'll talk with you through the day.

Rob Marciano has been tracking the storm and also keeping updated with what the National Hurricane Center has been saying. They talked in their latest advisory about an eye wall forming. And some of us don't really know what that would mean for the folks on shore and we're not even sure whether that's a big headline, Rob.

MARCIANO: Well, it's a headline for us in that it's very, very wide. It's 70 miles wide. And typically, when a storm is getting stronger, say like Charley was, it had a pretty small eye wall, and it was a category 4 when it came in. So when an eye wall gets bigger, it doesn't necessarily mean that that storm is getting, you know, stronger. It's like -- it spins -- tightens up like a figure skater when they pull their arms in, you know, that actually helps them go -- helps them go faster.

So getting a larger eye wall doesn't necessarily mean oh my God, it's a much worse storm. Probably the headline from this storm is that it such a big storm and not a major hurricane. It's a category 2. It has to be a category 3 to be a major hurricane. But it's such a wide storm, 100 miles to the north to 60 miles to the south. I mean almost a 200-mile swath of hurricane force winds with this thing.

And as we look at this eye, which you can see the outer rain band because I -- actually, let's switch to PA-7 and I've got some cool Doppler radar imagery for you. This is level 2 actual live Doppler imagery. If we could switch to PA-7 -- there it is. As opposed to seeing some of that -- it's just a few minutes old. These are actually the swaths coming from Melbourne and then there's the radar site down there in Miami crisscrossing this particular storm. So you're seeing the radar beams actually as they cut through the storm. And there is the eye, the western and northwest flank of the eye actually seeing the most amount of convection, where the heaviest rains are and that's where Melbourne, south to west Palm Beach is getting hit right now and with the gusty winds as well. But so this 70-mile-an-hour eye is not moving that fast. I mean it's only drifting at like four to five miles an hour. So just to get this whole thing over here and then get it through is pretty much going to take all day long. So if there's a headline here, it's that the eye is so big it's going to take a good 10 hours just for the eye to go through. So a meteorological point-of-view, that's phenomenal.

All right, let's go back to the other graphics if we could and then we'll blow through some stuff for you. Here you go. Up to South Carolina, the cloud canopy, down through almost Cuba, that gives you an idea of the size of this storm as it continues its trek. All right, so what this means, I mentioned the swath of winds expected from this, it is a category 2, west-northwesterly movement expected and then a 105 mile wind, Stephen.

This red area, as it slowly moves on shore is, you know, again, 150 to 200 miles wide. Melbourne to West Palm Beach, hurricane-force winds expected for a pretty long period of time throughout this afternoon. And as you know, they're already seeing that and we're seeing it live here on the air throughout the morning. And it will continue this afternoon and evening unfortunately.

FRAZIER: Well, we are glad to have your explanation of what's driving all of this. And now, let's take a look at what the effects look like in Pompano Beach where look, there's just a perfect curl there. This is what surfers dream about. And in fact, we're told by our affiliate friends from WFOR that there is a surfer out there somewhere looking for the perfect wave. And this is common place in a storm. There's something about the ions in the air and the low pressure that excites people who like to spend time on the water. If you look beneath the pier there, a little bit to the left of your screen, we think we got a glimpse of a very brave surfer or foolhardy, it depends on your point-of-view, who's trying to take advantage of the winds coming ashore and hitting the shore break there in a way that's pretty consistent. You can see the waves build up. They start breaking and they go from left to right. So if he rides the waves right, he'll get a pretty nice ride if he stays alive through all of this.

Rescue authorities hate to see this sort of thing. And it may be the case that before he's done, this gentleman will be arrested for breaking curfew and for potentially putting rescue workers at risk themselves worrying about him. But this is a pier where surfing is practiced in Pompano Beach, Florida, but where they would kill for waves like this under normal circumstances. Not something we would recommend to our viewers. It doesn't look like he's having much luck actually getting up and getting one of these things either. So it may not be as much fun as he's hoping. But in any event, we don't want anybody else to mimic this young surfer in the water near the pier at Pompano Beach. And our thanks to WFOR for keeping an eye on folks there.

Sean Callebs is in West Palm Beach keeping an eye on about half of the watercraft that have been drifting by and also tracking some very, very heavy wind and rain blowing horizontally about now at this point -- Sean. CALLEBS: Yes, Stephen, you've got that right. The winds have picked up. The gusts are really coming in. They're getting significantly stronger. And earlier, we talked to you about the wind actually coming in from the south. Well, now, it's definitely coming in from the northwest and it's getting significantly worst here in the past several minutes or so.

We heard Rob Marciano talk about just the enormous size of the eye and how it's going to just punish a large area of this state for a number of hours, perhaps 10 to 12 hours. Now, earlier during a briefing, state officials say that while this may only be -- only be a category 2 hurricane, they said that perhaps a category 4 hurricane with winds of 100 miles-per-hour or greater coming through for an hour, hour and a half will do some significant damage. But the fact that this will be so prolonged is going to do perhaps even more damage. And you talked about the watercraft. I want to take you back out there. There's good Samaritans who came out to help the skipper of the Explorer I. They were able to tie it off a little bit better within the last hour or so. It really isn't moving very much at all. However, this luxury million dollar craft continues to slam against the pilings. It continues to hit the cement jetty. So it's doing some damage, but mostly it appears it's just kind of superficial damage to the outside of the craft. There's no puncture that we know of below the water level. And we're told that craft is not taking on water.

For those of you who missed it, it was rather dramatic. This boat was anchored in the middle of the intracoastal waterway trying to ride out the storm. It came down through. The skipper lost one engine, lost a generator and by all accounts from all of the spectators who are familiar with boating, he did an amazing job to secure that boat where he is. We were able to talk with him right after he docked.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was anchored out. I anchored up to two anchors yesterday. We sat there all night beautifully and then a big -- one of the big band lines came through, gave us about, I guess, over 90-knot winds. And I think we broke lose the anchors and they never hooked up again. Then I lost an engine, then I lost a generator that runs the bow thruster. And the engine that I lost was the one that runs the steering. So I was just kind of, you know, up shit's kitty.

CALLEBS (on camera): And you also mentioned that one of the props was damaged as well? So you were...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't think one of the props was damaged.

CALLEBS: So what were you thinking as you came down here? You made one run. You tried to tie off. And at the piling, the pole simply ripped out. Was there a point you thought this boat is too big, the conditions are just too much?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I just had to put it in differently.

CALLEBS: You make it sound like it was so easy. But from people standing here and all the other people who are familiar with it, they said you did an amazing job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, thanks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: A bit of a cowboy, but he has a story to tell. He also had a female on board who was a crew member. We want to show you what happened to her. She actually punctured her hand in two areas and is now receiving medical treatment. Once that ship -- boat was able to dock, she scampered down the dock to try to get out; however, the gate at the end was locked. When you look at the top, those fleur de lis looking items that are extremely sharp, as she was trying to climb over between the wind and the rain and the fact that that thing is simply soaked, she slipped and her hand came down right on top of it. It was a pretty ugly little cut.

One other item, Stephen, we talked about the amount of rainfall that this storm is expected to bring, perhaps as much as 20 inches of rain. We want to show you what the streets are looking like here in West Palm Beach. You can see that a decent amount of water is already building up. And just look down that way because you can see the wind and rain blowing down. So we're starting to see some low level flooding in this area. So clearly, this is a situation that is getting quite nasty, and it's still early in this hurricane. Things are going to blow around a lot more before it gets any better -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: Your interview, Sean, with the skipper of that yacht demonstrated the kind of cascade of little problems that build up to total disaster. He talked about losing the anchors, then losing one engine, it was the engine that drove his steering, then the bow thruster that helps him steer also went out. And that happens to home owners and to motorists and to everybody in this kind of storm.

CALLEBS: Exactly. Clearly, you know a lot more about boats than I do, but he says that -- the skipper told us that it's pretty common to try to ride out a storm by anchoring deep inside the intracoastal, but basically the anchors were just dragging down. A couple times he tried to make a run to go back up the area, but he could only go 100 feet or so and then basically had to turn around. So he was quite lucky to be able to wedge that boat in when he did or else it would have been disastrous.

We've also seen about four sailboats that have come off their moorings as well. They've drifted down. They've hit this bridge down here that connects West Palm to Palm Beach. All of those have been able to somehow get under the bridge and just keep going. We know that there's been some damage to the masts, but this is the kind of thing that apparently officials were worried about. We're told that some of the piers down in this area where boats tie off, some of the docks are beginning to fragment somewhat just by the punishment of the waves and winds -- Stephen. FRAZIER: Very dramatic illustration. Sean Callebs, thanks very much, and we will be checking in with you through the day. Be safe, please.

Let's talk about a much small water craft now. We had pictures a few moments ago from Pompano Beach, Florida, of a surfer trying to ride the best waves they've seen there in a long time courtesy of Hurricane Frances. We understand he's out of the water now. We may have some images of his departure from the water. I'm not sure. But he apparently is all right, and is able to get out of the water under his own power, carry his board away, too. I wonder if he had a board leash on it to keep it from flying away. We may be able to show you that a little bit later.

In the meantime, let's talk about the effort to get back on your feet. Many Floridians are attempting that now after Hurricane Charley never mind Frances. Dick Keen joins us from Punta Gorda, which, as you remember, was the absolute epicenter of Charley and where it did a lot of damage.

Dick, are you there?

DICK KEEN, HURRICANE CHARLEY SURVIVOR: I certainly am.

FRAZIER: Can you give us a sense of how well things have been rebuilt or are they out, you know, under tarps or are they still being constructed and wide open to more damage now?

KEEN: Well, around here it's called blue roofs, because so many homes have the blue roofs that the U.S. corps. of engineers have put on homes, as well as citizens themselves.

FRAZIER: And the blue roof is just a blue plastic tarpaulin, right? I mean it's not really a roof.

KEEN: Right. No, it's just a tarp. It's nailed down in places. You know the devastation from Charley in this part of Florida was just unbelievable. And it's been raining a great deal since Charley, and so we've had an awful lot of water damage. When you look around at the piles of debris, they're now covered with people's beds and couches and other furnishings. And so in some ways, for a lot of people, the damage has continued, and of course with Frances coming and adding to the rainfall, a great deal of concern.

FRAZIER: I know the effort is always to try to close things up as soon as your home is open to the weather, but wasn't there a shortage of even plywood to do that much at first?

KEEN: At first, it was, but the recovery efforts have just been unbelievable. I remember the first day I actually got out of my home and drove around just a little bit trying to get back to my office on Sunday after Charley, I was just shocked at the level of damage, and I honestly thought that we wouldn't have power for months. And yet, within less than 10 days, most power within this area was restored. The effort of the utility workers, the FEMA people, the folks from the state of Florida have been unbelievable. But at the same time, you know, three weeks is the time that the psychologists say that that's when people begin hitting the wall, and that happened just as Frances is knocking on the doorstep.

FRAZIER: So we have a double whammy here, a meteorological and an emotional whammy too.

KEEN: That's certainly the case.

FRAZIER: All right, Dick Keen, thank you for those insights into life there. And we hope you're safe as Frances approaches Punta Gorda.

There's a new advisory out at this hour from the National Hurricane Center. Ed Rappaport is deputy director of the center and he joins us now from Coral Gables with the latest. Thank you for joining us.

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, good morning.

FRAZIER: So what is happening to the story now?

RAPPAPORT: The hurricane is moving very slowly towards the Florida coast. It's now centered at about 80 miles offshore from Palm Beach. Very large hurricane with hurricane force winds extended over an area of about this size. Since it's moving also slowly, it's going to take a long time for this area of rough weather to cross the state.

FRAZIER: So what does that mean, then, that slowness?

RAPPAPORT: Well, the slowness in terms of the forward speed means a prolonged impact on the state of Florida, a long period of winds of over hurricane force, particularly along the Florida east coast, the central part of that, spreading inland as well where there are warnings in the inland counties for hurricane force winds too. And most considerably, we are going to have a long period of heavy rain, perhaps seven to 12 inches, and of course, the local flood threat from that.

FRAZIER: There's talk too of the time spent over warmer water, Ed, letting the storm regenerate a little bit. Any indication of that happening yet?

RAPPAPORT: There is some indication that the center is becoming better developed. There's only about 12 hours left before that center makes landfall and there's some competing influences as well in that we've had wind shear and other factors. So we think that this will be a category 2 hurricane at landfall, perhaps it could strengthen a little bit more than what we have now.

FRAZIER: Are there planes up there in the middle of this one again?

RAPPAPORT: Yes. The NOAA and the Air Force have reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft that fly around the storm to sample the environment to help us learn where the hurricane is going to go, and they fly through the storm to tell us how strong it is. FRAZIER: Let me ask you one final warning or advisory for residents who are trying to ride this one out who haven't evacuated right now. What can you tell them to do, the best bit of advice?

RAPPAPORT: For everybody now, it's patience. Hopefully, everybody's in a safe place. But this is going to be one of the longer sieges of tropical storm and hurricane force winds that we're had in Florida in many years just because of how big the hurricane is and how slow it's going to move across us.

FRAZIER: All right. Coral Gables just south of Miami, not in the worst of it all, but we're glad you're there and to give us an update, Ed Rappaport from the National Hurricane Center. We'll talk with you later on in the course of the day.

Pompano Beach, again, we apparently do now have the images of that surfer who was riding the waves near the pier in spite of the warnings that people give to stay away from this sort of thing. About a six or 7-foot peak there and a lot of talent to ride the wave for all it's worth. We think that's his last though. We're told he came out of in one piece, maybe not.

It may be an effort to get back out there, which would not be wise. And the rescuers hate to see this sort of thing, as fun as it was to watch, because along with the big waves, a storm like this produces very dramatic rip currents, riptides, that can pull you to the side or pull you under even if you're an experienced surfer or swimmer as this fit young person appears to be. But anyway, he's out now in one piece and he's still lashed to his board. And we're glad he's OK. It looked like a lot of fun.

We'll be taking a break now for a couple minutes. And when we're back, we'll have the latest on Frances and all of the other stories of the day. It's a very busy news day around the world, so stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: Rob Marciano has been watching pictures of our intrepid surfer and the waves there and he has a surf update for us now --Rob.

MARCIANO: I guess though they just can't keep themselves from a good swell, I suppose. Anyway, I'm glad to see he made it out all right, but that's certainty not recommended not only across Florida, but up the Carolina coastline as well we're seeing a heavy surf and that will cause riptides and even as far north as the Jersey shore and maybe even Long Island.

All right, here's that eye again. Here's Grand Bahama. You heard Ed Rappaport mention that the eye is showing some signs of getting better organized, and you can see how this confection is trying to wrap around the southern edge of it and even starting to see some convention closer into the eye. So that's probably what he's talking about and that may lead to further strengthening. But really the main concern of these really heavy rain bands that are about to move into Fort Pierce south towards West Palm Beach, heavy rain and gusty winds. All right, I want to show you one other thing. This is what's actually happened or at least the past 20 minutes to half an hour. This is what our rainfall forecast is through tomorrow morning, and this white on the legend indicates 10 to 15 inches of rainfall, and that's really with the eye probably getting -- about right here because our forecast is bringing into the Gulf of Mexico by late tomorrow and then into Monday. Because of that, we have flood watches out pretty much for the entire state of Florida. Ten to 15, maybe even 20 inches of rain possible as this thing just creeps along the state.

Here's a satellite picture. And again, the size of this thing is what's probably the most impressive. You go north to the center a 100 miles, you've hurricane force winds. If you go south of the center by about 60 miles, you still have hurricane force winds. So we're talking about a wide swatch that's going to be affected.

This red area, hurricane force winds, and here's the forecast from the National Hurricane Center: category 2 status right now drifting. It will eventually pick up steam out of west-northwest, 5 miles an hour, and I don't want to say accelerate, but kind of meander its way towards the coastline. So just north of West Palm Beach to about Daytona is where you're going to see those hurricanes force winds. And then, by the time it gets to Orlando, it will start to weaken maybe to tropical storm force by that time. But the size of this thing, Stephen, the amount of rain that it's going to dump, those are probably the two most impressive factors. And then unfortunately for Florida residents, the fact that it's moving so slowly, it's going to be a headache all weekend long and then probably cleaning up next week.

FRAZIER: Indeed. Rob Marciano, thanks. And all that rain, we should point out, falling on a state that was pretty well soaked earlier. So the ground doesn't have a lot of room to soak up water.

The other big story we've been following is that of former President Clinton. He is in a New York City hospital this morning where he'll undergo heart bypass surgery early next week. He checked himself into a hospital after experiencing chest pain and some shortness of breath. That usually means that a main artery has a blockage of at least 70 percent. The former president called CNN from his hospital bed last night.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've had some difficulty ever since I got out of the White House in getting my distance up and running. And I just had a feeling a couple days ago I had to have it checked when I finally got some tightness in my chest and I hadn't done any exercising. This is the first time that ever happened to me. And we did the angiogram and found out I had blockage that was too significant to open and put a stent in. We had to do the whole surgery, so I'm trying to get my head in the game.

(END AUDIO CLIP) FRAZIER: CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is joining us now to give us a little bit more of what this procedure that the former president faces is like, and also to give us a sense of how this happens. I mean he's been out on a book tour. So one day he's signing books, and the next day he's learning that he needs bypass surgery. It seems awfully sudden. Is this common place?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It does seem sudden. And in fact, when he had that exclusive conversation with Larry King last night, Larry King said that to him. He said, "What happened?" And he gives the answer that we just heard. And what he had is he had some tightness in his chest, he had some shortness of breath. He went in and he did that angiogram that we just mentioned. What that means is that a catheter was spread up -- as thread up rather through his body from his groin, probably, up to his heart. And they can actually make a map, a road map of the heart and they see where the blockages are. And then once -- apparently, they saw that those blockages could not be handled with a stint. You heard the president use the word stint, and that means is a stint would be sort of like this mesh scaffolding that would open the artery. But apparently the blockages were too extensive for that and so, he had to go and have this bypass surgery.

Now, we asked some cardiologists is this the way it happens, you feeling OK one day and then the next day you need surgery? And they said yes, that does happen. And he's actually one of the lucky ones. Many people, they feel it, and unfortunately, in the event of a heart attack. And there's not much they can do.

FRAZIER: Right. We did hear from David Letterman that that was the effect for him, too.

All right, well, we're eager to hear more of how this goes. We're running out of time on this break, but we'll be talking throughout the today and of course, next week too for progress reports on the president's operation and his post-op condition.

COHEN: OK.

FRAZIER: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for joining us.

COHEN: Thanks.

FRAZIER: More on the president's condition, on Hurricane Frances, on the aftermath of a deadly school siege in Russia, and all the other day's news after this. So stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired September 4, 2004 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Frances still a long way offshore in Florida, but already more than 40,000 homes and businesses have lost power. And we understand now some very dramatic scenes from Miami, Florida recorded for us by our affiliate, WFOR, of the effects of that when power lines go down. Let's have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) me, back over here, just take a look, unbelievable. This thing continues to pop. That is extremely dangerous. Firefighters want you to stay away. I'm now joined by an official just to explain what exactly is going on here. This is breaking right now as we speak, please; first of all, state your name for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lieutenant Joseph

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lieutenant Joseph, what's going on here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we have here is a broken power line that powers the building here. From the strong winds, it has snapped and it is arching on some of the other power lines that rear here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. And what -- we just got here -- rushed here immediately after I saw this. What street are we at? Just what's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the 500 block of Borden Avenue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Borden Avenue. As soon as we saw the smoke up in the air from Sunrise and A1-8 (ph), we immediately jumped in our car and came here. Just look at it, just let it run, this thing just keeps on popping. Sir, what would happen -- how many volts is that? That's amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not really sure. It's definitely high voltage though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what -- as you look right over here -- Joaquin (ph), take a cam there -- there's some spectators who are seeing it as well, a guy drinking his coffee. What would happen, sir -- are they allowed to come over and get as close as we are to see this thing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your concern about them over there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing really with them over there as far as the power, but my concern is the buildings here starting to catch on fire from the live wire there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, on behalf of CBS-4, our anchors, Angela Ray (ph), Eliana Borello (ph), we want to thank you, for, you know, allowing us to get so close to share this with our viewers. And this is exactly why officials strongly recommend that you be careful. That's why we have the mandatory evacuations, according to Broward officials. Why, because things like this can happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: All right, thanks to our friends at WFOR in Miami for bringing us that sign. And as you saw, the wind wasn't too strong in the fronds of the palm trees behind those folks who were showing us that. Much stronger about an hour 20 minutes north in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Sean Callebs has been tracking what is probably the most furious part of the storm to come ashore so far and is still there -- Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Stephen, we can tell you the winds still remain very steady, the gusts very punishing at times. The rain is coming down now, blowing almost sideways in a very punishing fashion, really stinging once it hits. But this is the real drama. If you look behind me -- remember the yacht, the Explorer I -- we just had a crew go over and take some pictures of the side of it where it is continuing to slam against the docks, the cement jetty and the pilings as well. There are two holes that are said to be probably about as big as a bowling ball, but they are above the waterline. So at this point the craft is not taking on any water.

We do know that the captain we talked to a while ago, Hening Hehman (ph), is now back on that vessel as well. His mate, who cut her hands as she was trying to get off -- to give you an idea. If you can look down here, the very top of this railing, you see almost a fleur de lis looking pointed sharp area. Well, the yacht gate was locked. So she tried to climb over. And as she was climbing over, she slipped, grabbed that, and actually punctured her hand. It went into it. She has two pretty big, deep punctures in her hand, which she's getting treated right now. But she's going to need some medical treatment for that.

But the captain is back on that yacht, and we talked to him earlier. He kind of explained to us what he was able to do. He lost one engine, lost a generator, so he really did what a lot of people who are familiar with boating said was just an amazing job, to keep that large vessel from floating down and slamming into the bridge and able to pull it into this jetty. I don't know -- we may have some sound from that earlier interview. I'm sorry. We do not have that sound at this time. But he is now back on that yacht doing what he can, trying to protect it.

But there have been a number of boats, Stephen, that have come down through this way. We saw another sailboat just a short while ago, go down through -- making its way toward that bridge. All sailboats we have seen have been able to go down, bend down and then pop up on the other side. They've been OK, Stephen.

FRAZIER: I'm sorry, Sean, we weren't ready with that interview that you were calling for. But we do remember how dramatic it was. And for me, the key line that that skipper told us is he had two anchors out and was really dug in strong before losing his purchase on the ground because of the force of the wind there. Very dramatic for him.

CALLEBS: Exactly, and with driving up and down this area and the intercoastal, we saw a number of boats that were anchored. They would -- did have moorings down in there very deep. And I'm just told that this is something that's very routine in a storm like this. They try and ride it out as fast as possible, but once those anchors just kind of lost their grip, losing the power from the engine, this guy was really fighting the elements and did an amazing job just to get that craft where it is.

Stephen, back to you.

FRAZIER: All right, Sean Callebs learning so much about the Marine navigation. He'll be commissioned as a lieutenant in the Navy before this storm is over. Sean, thanks for joining us. We'll see you a little later on.

We are learning that at least one person has been killed getting ready for the storm in Bahamas, apparently electrocuted in advance where Hurricane Frances has been soaking the islands since yesterday and where our Karl Penhaul is there with the latest from Freeport.

Hello again, Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Stephen. Yes, that one death coming in Nassau yesterday morning. As far as we understand, that young man, 18 years old was preparing a generator when he was electrocuted. That's the only death that we know of so far related to this storm. Authorities on the island this morning, of Grand Bahama, say they have no reports of casualties or deaths there.

What they are saying though is that there has been widespread flooding both from the north and the south of the island in areas -- residential areas even up to six feet of water, and that has meant people overnight taking to the roofs of their houses trying to escape from the rising waters. And in the earlier hours of this morning, fire trucks and other four-wheel drive vehicles have been pressing to service and travel to those residential areas to rescue those people.

The area where I'm standing now is along a major highway, a few moments ago, the scene of intense activity as police and fire engine were pulling up to 200 people out from a residential area a few miles south. And now, though, as the winds are building up once again, the police have said no, the storm is coming back, and they've all hightailed back to safer areas. They say that what was happening, of course, in the last few hours was that Freeport was in the eye of the storm. That led to a decrease in the wind speed, but now as the tail end comes through, once again the winds are building up.

Now, we talked to weather experts this morning. They weren't though at the weather center. The weather center out at the airport here in Grand Bahama was flooded after 5:00 last night. The weather experts tell me the last wind speed reading they got was 86 miles an hour. After that, the winds just ripped all their reading equipment -- all their monitoring equipment off the roof at the airport, and no more of that. But they say 86 miles an hour was the last recorded wind speed. But obviously in the course of the night, estimated wind speeds of over 120 miles an hour, Stephen.

FRAZIER: Very frightening conditions there. We're glad for that update. Karl Penhaul, thank you for joining us from Freeport in the Bahamas.

Rob Marciano can give us a sense of what Karl is about to face there as the storm comes back.

Rob, thanks for all the power or those tools you got behind you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I got some proof for you again, Stephen. This is a three- dimensional look at radar imagery, which shows you the expanse of this eye. Here is Freeport, still in the eye. The eye, as of the latest RECOM aircraft that went through here, is 70 nautical miles wide. I mean that is just unbelievably large. And it's moving unbelievably slow. So when people ask, you know, when is this thing going to make landfall? When's it going to make landfall? It could take, if it's going five to, say, eight miles an hour, it could take 10 hours just for the eye to go through. I mean that's crazy.

Anyway, the west side of this thing is definitely well developed. You can see the vertical structure, the brighter colors indicating the heavier rain. This band, when it does come it, will certainly bring hurricane force sustained winds. We've already seen hurricane force gusts up to 91 miles an hour at Jupiter inlet. And this thing isn't even close to that area just yet.

All right. We'll flip it on it side now -- by the way, the latest advisory just came out from the National Hurricane Center -- this is now a two dimensional shot. We're looking down. Melbourne to Fort Pierce down to West Palm Beach, and again the eye -- and there's Grand Bahama still in the center of that 70-mile eye. This is satellite imagery. Look at the size of this thing. It goes all the way up to South Carolina pretty much and then down towards the south.

Forecast track, Hurricane Frances, a category 2 storm right now. That has not changed. The track really hand changed. We expect it to go just to the north of West Palm Beach towards Melbourne and then drive to the south of Orlando. Orlando could see hurricane force wind again like they saw through Charley, probably not that strong, but certainly will see some gusty winds. And the big player is going to be the rainfall here because it's moving so slowly. At 8:00 in the morning on Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center of Forecast Track, brings it to the panhandle. So that's 48 hours from now, we have this thing to go through. Again, expect it to continue to be a category 2 storm and what that means is we'll see some coastal storm surge, probably four to six, maybe seven feet, and that could be damaging to some coastal areas especially in the eastern flank. Right now, we're seeing northerly winds and the southern flank of those areas seeing the damage. Doors, windows, some roof damage, already seeing that and this thing hasn't even reached inland. Because it's moving so slow, not only will it batter the coastline with the wind, with the waves, but really the thing that is going to be easy to forecast is the amount of rain. These tropical systems have a tremendous amount of rain and because it's moving so slowly, we have flood watches out. And we could see -- Stephen, we could see 15 inches of rainfall. Some of our computer models indicating that and the National Hurricane Center is saying hey, maybe even 20 inches in some spots. So on top of that, the size of this thing, 100 miles to the north down about 60 miles of the south. So about 160 miles wide of hurricane force winds. It's a much larger storm than Charley was even though it's theoretically weaker.

Back to you in the studio.

FRAZIER: Rob, let me ask you a couple of landlubber questions before we leave you there. Floridians may know this, but why is this storm staying so organized? Why isn't it just spinning itself in a tangent since it's not going anywhere?

MARCIANO: Well, it's -- for one thing, just offshore in Florida, I mean the temperature has to be above 80 degrees for any hurricane or tropical system to sustain. Some of the buoy reports 85, 86 degrees out here. So that's some juice, that's some fuel for the fire for one thing. And we don't have a really strong westerly winds to tear this thing apart. So in order for a system like this to die, you need either a strong westerly wind aloft kind of ripping the top off the thing or you need it to come onshore. And these islands just aren't big enough, Stephen, to really knock it down much very much. So that's -- for that reason, it hasn't weakened much more than it already has. It's got some juice here to deal with.

So I think that's the reason the National Hurricane Center is keeping it as a category 2 status, not really weakening it much more until it eventually hits landfall, which again -- it's not going to happen here for another -- couple of three hours. And then the process of the eye, the western flank and then the eastern flank eventually moving over any one particular spot could take six to eight, maybe even 10 hours for that process to happen. So this is kind of a crazy storm. And it's interesting nonetheless. And folks along the south central coast of Florida are being hammered with it now and will continue to do that throughout the afternoon unfortunately.

FRAZIER: And that extended period you just mentioned leads us to the other question I had, which is about, you know, the concern always that one of these storms will come ashore during high tide and will add to it the effect of this surge, which isn't just wind-driven water, but the effect of low pressure actually sucking water up. There could be a couple of those with this storm? MARCIANO: I guess -- you know that's a good point. I mean if this thing moves so slowly, we could hit two high tides at any one time. But as it does that, it's tough to get an easterly wind going, you know, for more than 12 hours and you'd have to do that to get -- to nail two high tides. On top of that, as far as the low pressure sucking the water up, it really only -- that only accounts for about maybe 15 to 20 percent.

So we're still looking at storm surges four to six feet above high tide. Not that much -- not as much of a concern as it was, say, coming on the -- through the Gulf of Mexico because there, Stephen, it's a little bit different layout as far as what's going on underneath the water, a little more shallow, a little bit more prone to pile up that water. And because it's moving slower, that push of the water up against the land isn't quite as great. We will see a storm surge and it will be interesting to see if we can hit two high tides. I'm not sure that will happen, but we'll certainly look out for that. And I'm sure emergency managers across a lot of those coastal towns are looking out for that as well.

FRAZIER: We're hoping that's not the case. Well, Rob, thank you. I hope I wasn't too much like Mr. Wizard there, but we really appreciate the clarity of those explanations. Please stand by for more questions like that. Rob Marciano up in our weather center.

We are talking a look too, when we come back from a break, at what life is like right now in Orlando, Florida, hit so hard by Charley just a short time ago, still trying to recover from that and now directly in the path of Frances. So stay with us for insights from there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: Well, here's the latest look at what Hurricane Frances is doing to the intracoastal waterway in West Palm Beach. These waves that look like they belong off Diamondhead in Honolulu, surfers' delight but really Mariners' nightmare and a nightmare for homeowners and for rescue workers too, as winds move from north to south with the leading edge of Frances blowing directly down the intracoastal waterway that separates the Barrier Islands of Florida from the mainland there.

Our CNN's Sean Callebs is keeping abreast of that, and we'll be visiting with him throughout the day.

Here's a recap though of what the storm is doing in general. It's moving very, very slowly now, continuing its trek towards Florida at only about 4 or 5 miles an hour. In an update we received just moments ago from the National Hurricane Center; we learned that the storm sustained winds are still topping out at just over 100 miles an hour. Its eye is now 70 miles in diameter and it is parked right over Freeport in the Bahamas right now.

In the meantime, hundreds of residents of Florida, hundreds of thousands of residents and tourists who are down there for the Labor Day weekend are on the run as the hurricane draws closer. The state, a long time ago, issued the biggest evacuation order in its history, almost two-and-a-half million people told to get away from the coast. Many of them in shelters now. And as we mentioned, Frances has already battered the Bahamas, leaving much of Nassau under five to six feet of water. And there's not much high ground there. There is at least one storm-related death reported in the Bahamas. A young man electrocuted as he fired up a generator to try to make sure his power would continue through the storm.

Looking back now, one of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Charley last month now finds itself squarely in the path of today's hurricane and CNN's Orelon Sydney has the latest from Orlando.

ORELON SYDNEY, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Orlando is starting to get some showers and thunderstorms move through. The rainfall is coming down pretty heavy for a second there, so we couldn't operate our satellite truck. But the winds have picked up. It looks like -- we've seen some gusts, I'd say, up around 35 miles per hour, probably sustained at 20. And we're getting some real squally weather. It was raining pretty hard for about three, four, five minutes and now the rain has let up substantially and the wind as well. But we're going to see that continuing throughout the afternoon. Then as we go into the twilight hours and overnight, I expect to see those winds increase.

The current forecast is for tropical storm force winds of about 60 miles an hour tonight and tomorrow. And probably looking at those gusting, I would imagine some of the gusts could be close to hurricane force. But it will be pretty widely scattered, I think.

Again, I think the main thing here is going to be the rainfall. And if I was hearing you correctly in the last report, its eye is indeed 70 miles wide. That's just unbelievable. It's just absolutely incredible. And that's just further indication to me how disorganized the storm has become. We can only hope that it continues to be disorganized and perhaps even diminish a little bit more before it makes a really erratic, it looks like, path towards the Florida coast -- back to you.

FRAZIER: Orelon, the last time we actually saw you on the air, you were standing in front of what looked to be a very sunny, almost a blue sky. So this change dramatic and pretty sudden.

SYDNEY: It was very dramatic. I suppose it's sudden in the sense it looked like one of those big thunderstorms -- I'm from Texas, and it looked like one of those big thunderstorms that comes in with a cold front from the west. You'll see those big, dark clouds build up and then the rain comes and blows through. It was much like that. Most of the morning, it was just gorgeous. We got outside about 4:00, partly cloudy skies. Of course, the sun rose, and we did have some blue skies with quite a bit of cloudiness. You could see some very gusty winds just above the surface, a couple of thousand feet with the clouds moving very rapidly.

But the outer rain bands of Frances have finally started to move in to the central part of the state. And of course my concern is that it has started raining now, but I don't think it's going to stop until probably late Sunday at the earliest. Monday is more likely, so it certainly is something to watch. There's still people out. I've seen some people walking. I wouldn't want to be out doing that, I'd say, within the next hour or so. But things are certainly going to get worse here before they get better.

FRAZIER: All right, we're glad for those early insights into what it's like there. Orelon Sydney, thanks for making time for us.

Last month, of course, Charley hit Florida on Friday the 13th and now here comes Frances as some families are still struggling to recover from that first storm. CNN's Jonathan Freed gives us a sense of what life is like for some people in Orlando.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Any other hurricane season Mike Gault would be just cleaning up after last month's storm, but this isn't any other hurricane season.

MIKE GAULT, HURRICANE VICTIM: It split the chimney apart. It sucked the flute right out of the chimney.

FREED: The Gault family is now boarding up their windows bracing for Frances, the second major storm in just three weeks.

M. GAULT: And it's like, well, what's left for it to take?

FREED: When Hurricane Charley hit, Mike and Jody Gault and their three children were huddled in this bedroom closet and can now tell you what $10,000 in roof damage sounds like.

JODY GAULT, HURRICANE VICTIM: The shingles were being torn off one by one. It sounded like 100 soldiers up there. It was like you could hear every single shingle at each moment being ripped off the roof. That was the scariest.

M. GAULT: My daughter's bedroom is here just to the left of this boarded-up window and the closets actually collapsed inside. And it was just like -- it was like a stream.

J. GAULT: This -- a whole part in the ceiling just collapsed. It was so wet, it just fell in.

FREED: This Orlando community is still littered with debris from Charley, and many people like the Gaults haven't even settled with their insurance companies yet. Frances is just fueling frustration.

(on camera): With Frances bearing down now, was it hard for you to imagine a time when your house is going to look normal again?

M. GAULT: Well, I'm probably looking at a year.

FREED (voice-over): Mike Gault has decided to ride out the coming storm at home, determined to protect his property. His family is equally determined to protect him.

J. GAULT: I don't want him to be alone. I can't leave him.

FREED: So the Gaults are praying that bedroom closet will keep them safe one more time.

J. GAULT: I've had my moments where I've had some silent tears, but I have faith that everything's going to be OK.

FREED: Jonathan Freed, CNN, Orlando.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: Let's pass on words from rescue officials in Florida that if you're walking around up on your roof now, you should get down and get ready for this storm.

We're going to take a break here, catch our breath. And when we come back, another look at how Melbourne, Florida, a little farther up the coast, is feeling the effects of Hurricane Frances. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: All right, just an update now, Frances developing a huge eye now, about 70 miles in diameter, and the clouds a little more organized, maybe an eye wall forming. And here's the effect at Juno Beach in Florida. Let's take the coverage now of our affiliate WSBN.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... right here where we're walking right now. That's what it was just a few minutes ago. And you see things flying through the air every now and again. We don't know what it is, you know, sometimes it's a leaf; sometimes it's a piece of somebody's property. And we're taking you down now to get you a look at the ocean. And again, watch out for that at your feet. We're getting -- sorry, we're having some problems with the cables here. This is not made for TV, this kind of weather, that's for sure.

And look at this, folks, Juno Beach, Labor Day weekend. This place would normally be packed today with people having a great weekend, and this is what we've got instead, the ocean just boiling, just white and boiling. If you guys have any questions, I'll be happy to entertain them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're right on the western edge of a very strong circulation center now. This thing looks like it's wrapping up a little bit, and the thunderstorms are increasing. I think the rain squalls are going to get a lot...

FRAZIER: All right, just a sense there of what effects are like in Juno Beach where the storm is so strong and so large it blew a British correspondent onto the beach in Florida somehow.

All right, let's go to somebody who's got a little more of an American accent. Gary Tuchman is standing by at Fort Pierce. This is where forecasters now believe the eye of the storm will pass directly overhead. We can already see the effects on Gary's rain gear there. And he's on our videophone to give us an update -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Stephen, an American accent, about but saltwater on my tongue. We are in Saint Lucie County right now, in the city of Fort Pierce. This is the Fort Pierce marina. Saint Lucie County, this is very interesting, has not been hit by a hurricane more powerful than a category 1 in recorded weather history. It's been hit by two category 1 hurricanes but not since 1933 and 1933. And now this is considered the bull's-eye area, Fort Pierce, which is in the northern part of this county.

We are standing right now near a marina here at Fort Pierce. There are about 90 boats that are out on the water here and we're anxious to see what happens to these boats as the day wears on. In the last hour, these winds have picked up tremendously here. And obviously, the size of this hurricane, they're expected to cause some severe damage here in Saint Lucie County.

There has been a curfew strictly enforced in this county between 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. We have seen nobody on the roads. I have very rarely seen, probably never seen in all the hurricanes I've covered, people really take the instructions from the authorities very seriously and leave the area. We see virtually nobody in the evacuation areas here in Saint Lucie County. There are 5,000 people in this county, which is 60 miles north of West Palm Beach, Florida, in the shelters. Now, the total population here in Florida is 13,000, so eventually, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) people in this county are in shelters ready to ride this out.

Stephen, we just want to say one more thing before we go. We are use a videophone technology. That's why the picture isn't as good as usual, but it allows us to pick up very quickly and move when the weather gets particularly treacherous, and allows us to be in places we normally wouldn't be in with the huge satellite trucks that we bring -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: Gary, we're glad to have that technology. We're glad you can move fast. If the storm surge comes ashore there, and it's predicted to be very high, how far inland would you have to go or people there have to go to find some high ground?

TUCHMAN: Well, that's a major concern, because Lake Okeechobee, which is inland, is one of our follow-up places in the state of Florida. Back in 1928, more than 2,000 people were killed in a hurricane, most of them near Lake Okeechobee when a huge hurricane came through Palm Beach County and flooded that area. Now, a series of levies and dikes that have been built since then have made it much safer, but inland is very dangerous, too. And I will tell you here in Fort Pierce, in this city, they are very concerned about their downtown going partially underwater from this hurricane.

FRAZIER: And what happens if people are found to be violating that curfew that you reference there, Gary?

TUCHMAN: The first thing they get from the police is a warning. The second thing they get from the police if they're being obstinate is to be taken to jail. Police don't want to do that. They have better things to do, but they are very serious. I think these people walking around between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., they're not going to tolerate.

FRAZIER: And just before we leave you, Gary, give me a sense now of what's behind you. Are we looking at the coastline there or rather a marina on the intracoastal waterway?

TUCHMAN: This actually behind me -- I'm going to give you a clear look now -- is the Indian River, which is part of the intracoastal waterway. We are just a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. Normally, you can see the land mass on the other side of this river. That's Hutchinson Island and Hutchinson Island is on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean. So we're one mile away from the ocean and right here on the intercoastal, and that's why this downtown of this city of 39,000 people is so vulnerable, because it's so close to the ocean. And the intracoastal literally is wrapped onto it.

FRAZIER: All right. Good explanation there, glad you're safe. Gary Tuchman, thank you for joining us. We'll talk with you through the day.

Rob Marciano has been tracking the storm and also keeping updated with what the National Hurricane Center has been saying. They talked in their latest advisory about an eye wall forming. And some of us don't really know what that would mean for the folks on shore and we're not even sure whether that's a big headline, Rob.

MARCIANO: Well, it's a headline for us in that it's very, very wide. It's 70 miles wide. And typically, when a storm is getting stronger, say like Charley was, it had a pretty small eye wall, and it was a category 4 when it came in. So when an eye wall gets bigger, it doesn't necessarily mean that that storm is getting, you know, stronger. It's like -- it spins -- tightens up like a figure skater when they pull their arms in, you know, that actually helps them go -- helps them go faster.

So getting a larger eye wall doesn't necessarily mean oh my God, it's a much worse storm. Probably the headline from this storm is that it such a big storm and not a major hurricane. It's a category 2. It has to be a category 3 to be a major hurricane. But it's such a wide storm, 100 miles to the north to 60 miles to the south. I mean almost a 200-mile swath of hurricane force winds with this thing.

And as we look at this eye, which you can see the outer rain band because I -- actually, let's switch to PA-7 and I've got some cool Doppler radar imagery for you. This is level 2 actual live Doppler imagery. If we could switch to PA-7 -- there it is. As opposed to seeing some of that -- it's just a few minutes old. These are actually the swaths coming from Melbourne and then there's the radar site down there in Miami crisscrossing this particular storm. So you're seeing the radar beams actually as they cut through the storm. And there is the eye, the western and northwest flank of the eye actually seeing the most amount of convection, where the heaviest rains are and that's where Melbourne, south to west Palm Beach is getting hit right now and with the gusty winds as well. But so this 70-mile-an-hour eye is not moving that fast. I mean it's only drifting at like four to five miles an hour. So just to get this whole thing over here and then get it through is pretty much going to take all day long. So if there's a headline here, it's that the eye is so big it's going to take a good 10 hours just for the eye to go through. So a meteorological point-of-view, that's phenomenal.

All right, let's go back to the other graphics if we could and then we'll blow through some stuff for you. Here you go. Up to South Carolina, the cloud canopy, down through almost Cuba, that gives you an idea of the size of this storm as it continues its trek. All right, so what this means, I mentioned the swath of winds expected from this, it is a category 2, west-northwesterly movement expected and then a 105 mile wind, Stephen.

This red area, as it slowly moves on shore is, you know, again, 150 to 200 miles wide. Melbourne to West Palm Beach, hurricane-force winds expected for a pretty long period of time throughout this afternoon. And as you know, they're already seeing that and we're seeing it live here on the air throughout the morning. And it will continue this afternoon and evening unfortunately.

FRAZIER: Well, we are glad to have your explanation of what's driving all of this. And now, let's take a look at what the effects look like in Pompano Beach where look, there's just a perfect curl there. This is what surfers dream about. And in fact, we're told by our affiliate friends from WFOR that there is a surfer out there somewhere looking for the perfect wave. And this is common place in a storm. There's something about the ions in the air and the low pressure that excites people who like to spend time on the water. If you look beneath the pier there, a little bit to the left of your screen, we think we got a glimpse of a very brave surfer or foolhardy, it depends on your point-of-view, who's trying to take advantage of the winds coming ashore and hitting the shore break there in a way that's pretty consistent. You can see the waves build up. They start breaking and they go from left to right. So if he rides the waves right, he'll get a pretty nice ride if he stays alive through all of this.

Rescue authorities hate to see this sort of thing. And it may be the case that before he's done, this gentleman will be arrested for breaking curfew and for potentially putting rescue workers at risk themselves worrying about him. But this is a pier where surfing is practiced in Pompano Beach, Florida, but where they would kill for waves like this under normal circumstances. Not something we would recommend to our viewers. It doesn't look like he's having much luck actually getting up and getting one of these things either. So it may not be as much fun as he's hoping. But in any event, we don't want anybody else to mimic this young surfer in the water near the pier at Pompano Beach. And our thanks to WFOR for keeping an eye on folks there.

Sean Callebs is in West Palm Beach keeping an eye on about half of the watercraft that have been drifting by and also tracking some very, very heavy wind and rain blowing horizontally about now at this point -- Sean. CALLEBS: Yes, Stephen, you've got that right. The winds have picked up. The gusts are really coming in. They're getting significantly stronger. And earlier, we talked to you about the wind actually coming in from the south. Well, now, it's definitely coming in from the northwest and it's getting significantly worst here in the past several minutes or so.

We heard Rob Marciano talk about just the enormous size of the eye and how it's going to just punish a large area of this state for a number of hours, perhaps 10 to 12 hours. Now, earlier during a briefing, state officials say that while this may only be -- only be a category 2 hurricane, they said that perhaps a category 4 hurricane with winds of 100 miles-per-hour or greater coming through for an hour, hour and a half will do some significant damage. But the fact that this will be so prolonged is going to do perhaps even more damage. And you talked about the watercraft. I want to take you back out there. There's good Samaritans who came out to help the skipper of the Explorer I. They were able to tie it off a little bit better within the last hour or so. It really isn't moving very much at all. However, this luxury million dollar craft continues to slam against the pilings. It continues to hit the cement jetty. So it's doing some damage, but mostly it appears it's just kind of superficial damage to the outside of the craft. There's no puncture that we know of below the water level. And we're told that craft is not taking on water.

For those of you who missed it, it was rather dramatic. This boat was anchored in the middle of the intracoastal waterway trying to ride out the storm. It came down through. The skipper lost one engine, lost a generator and by all accounts from all of the spectators who are familiar with boating, he did an amazing job to secure that boat where he is. We were able to talk with him right after he docked.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was anchored out. I anchored up to two anchors yesterday. We sat there all night beautifully and then a big -- one of the big band lines came through, gave us about, I guess, over 90-knot winds. And I think we broke lose the anchors and they never hooked up again. Then I lost an engine, then I lost a generator that runs the bow thruster. And the engine that I lost was the one that runs the steering. So I was just kind of, you know, up shit's kitty.

CALLEBS (on camera): And you also mentioned that one of the props was damaged as well? So you were...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't think one of the props was damaged.

CALLEBS: So what were you thinking as you came down here? You made one run. You tried to tie off. And at the piling, the pole simply ripped out. Was there a point you thought this boat is too big, the conditions are just too much?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I just had to put it in differently.

CALLEBS: You make it sound like it was so easy. But from people standing here and all the other people who are familiar with it, they said you did an amazing job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, thanks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: A bit of a cowboy, but he has a story to tell. He also had a female on board who was a crew member. We want to show you what happened to her. She actually punctured her hand in two areas and is now receiving medical treatment. Once that ship -- boat was able to dock, she scampered down the dock to try to get out; however, the gate at the end was locked. When you look at the top, those fleur de lis looking items that are extremely sharp, as she was trying to climb over between the wind and the rain and the fact that that thing is simply soaked, she slipped and her hand came down right on top of it. It was a pretty ugly little cut.

One other item, Stephen, we talked about the amount of rainfall that this storm is expected to bring, perhaps as much as 20 inches of rain. We want to show you what the streets are looking like here in West Palm Beach. You can see that a decent amount of water is already building up. And just look down that way because you can see the wind and rain blowing down. So we're starting to see some low level flooding in this area. So clearly, this is a situation that is getting quite nasty, and it's still early in this hurricane. Things are going to blow around a lot more before it gets any better -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: Your interview, Sean, with the skipper of that yacht demonstrated the kind of cascade of little problems that build up to total disaster. He talked about losing the anchors, then losing one engine, it was the engine that drove his steering, then the bow thruster that helps him steer also went out. And that happens to home owners and to motorists and to everybody in this kind of storm.

CALLEBS: Exactly. Clearly, you know a lot more about boats than I do, but he says that -- the skipper told us that it's pretty common to try to ride out a storm by anchoring deep inside the intracoastal, but basically the anchors were just dragging down. A couple times he tried to make a run to go back up the area, but he could only go 100 feet or so and then basically had to turn around. So he was quite lucky to be able to wedge that boat in when he did or else it would have been disastrous.

We've also seen about four sailboats that have come off their moorings as well. They've drifted down. They've hit this bridge down here that connects West Palm to Palm Beach. All of those have been able to somehow get under the bridge and just keep going. We know that there's been some damage to the masts, but this is the kind of thing that apparently officials were worried about. We're told that some of the piers down in this area where boats tie off, some of the docks are beginning to fragment somewhat just by the punishment of the waves and winds -- Stephen. FRAZIER: Very dramatic illustration. Sean Callebs, thanks very much, and we will be checking in with you through the day. Be safe, please.

Let's talk about a much small water craft now. We had pictures a few moments ago from Pompano Beach, Florida, of a surfer trying to ride the best waves they've seen there in a long time courtesy of Hurricane Frances. We understand he's out of the water now. We may have some images of his departure from the water. I'm not sure. But he apparently is all right, and is able to get out of the water under his own power, carry his board away, too. I wonder if he had a board leash on it to keep it from flying away. We may be able to show you that a little bit later.

In the meantime, let's talk about the effort to get back on your feet. Many Floridians are attempting that now after Hurricane Charley never mind Frances. Dick Keen joins us from Punta Gorda, which, as you remember, was the absolute epicenter of Charley and where it did a lot of damage.

Dick, are you there?

DICK KEEN, HURRICANE CHARLEY SURVIVOR: I certainly am.

FRAZIER: Can you give us a sense of how well things have been rebuilt or are they out, you know, under tarps or are they still being constructed and wide open to more damage now?

KEEN: Well, around here it's called blue roofs, because so many homes have the blue roofs that the U.S. corps. of engineers have put on homes, as well as citizens themselves.

FRAZIER: And the blue roof is just a blue plastic tarpaulin, right? I mean it's not really a roof.

KEEN: Right. No, it's just a tarp. It's nailed down in places. You know the devastation from Charley in this part of Florida was just unbelievable. And it's been raining a great deal since Charley, and so we've had an awful lot of water damage. When you look around at the piles of debris, they're now covered with people's beds and couches and other furnishings. And so in some ways, for a lot of people, the damage has continued, and of course with Frances coming and adding to the rainfall, a great deal of concern.

FRAZIER: I know the effort is always to try to close things up as soon as your home is open to the weather, but wasn't there a shortage of even plywood to do that much at first?

KEEN: At first, it was, but the recovery efforts have just been unbelievable. I remember the first day I actually got out of my home and drove around just a little bit trying to get back to my office on Sunday after Charley, I was just shocked at the level of damage, and I honestly thought that we wouldn't have power for months. And yet, within less than 10 days, most power within this area was restored. The effort of the utility workers, the FEMA people, the folks from the state of Florida have been unbelievable. But at the same time, you know, three weeks is the time that the psychologists say that that's when people begin hitting the wall, and that happened just as Frances is knocking on the doorstep.

FRAZIER: So we have a double whammy here, a meteorological and an emotional whammy too.

KEEN: That's certainly the case.

FRAZIER: All right, Dick Keen, thank you for those insights into life there. And we hope you're safe as Frances approaches Punta Gorda.

There's a new advisory out at this hour from the National Hurricane Center. Ed Rappaport is deputy director of the center and he joins us now from Coral Gables with the latest. Thank you for joining us.

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, good morning.

FRAZIER: So what is happening to the story now?

RAPPAPORT: The hurricane is moving very slowly towards the Florida coast. It's now centered at about 80 miles offshore from Palm Beach. Very large hurricane with hurricane force winds extended over an area of about this size. Since it's moving also slowly, it's going to take a long time for this area of rough weather to cross the state.

FRAZIER: So what does that mean, then, that slowness?

RAPPAPORT: Well, the slowness in terms of the forward speed means a prolonged impact on the state of Florida, a long period of winds of over hurricane force, particularly along the Florida east coast, the central part of that, spreading inland as well where there are warnings in the inland counties for hurricane force winds too. And most considerably, we are going to have a long period of heavy rain, perhaps seven to 12 inches, and of course, the local flood threat from that.

FRAZIER: There's talk too of the time spent over warmer water, Ed, letting the storm regenerate a little bit. Any indication of that happening yet?

RAPPAPORT: There is some indication that the center is becoming better developed. There's only about 12 hours left before that center makes landfall and there's some competing influences as well in that we've had wind shear and other factors. So we think that this will be a category 2 hurricane at landfall, perhaps it could strengthen a little bit more than what we have now.

FRAZIER: Are there planes up there in the middle of this one again?

RAPPAPORT: Yes. The NOAA and the Air Force have reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft that fly around the storm to sample the environment to help us learn where the hurricane is going to go, and they fly through the storm to tell us how strong it is. FRAZIER: Let me ask you one final warning or advisory for residents who are trying to ride this one out who haven't evacuated right now. What can you tell them to do, the best bit of advice?

RAPPAPORT: For everybody now, it's patience. Hopefully, everybody's in a safe place. But this is going to be one of the longer sieges of tropical storm and hurricane force winds that we're had in Florida in many years just because of how big the hurricane is and how slow it's going to move across us.

FRAZIER: All right. Coral Gables just south of Miami, not in the worst of it all, but we're glad you're there and to give us an update, Ed Rappaport from the National Hurricane Center. We'll talk with you later on in the course of the day.

Pompano Beach, again, we apparently do now have the images of that surfer who was riding the waves near the pier in spite of the warnings that people give to stay away from this sort of thing. About a six or 7-foot peak there and a lot of talent to ride the wave for all it's worth. We think that's his last though. We're told he came out of in one piece, maybe not.

It may be an effort to get back out there, which would not be wise. And the rescuers hate to see this sort of thing, as fun as it was to watch, because along with the big waves, a storm like this produces very dramatic rip currents, riptides, that can pull you to the side or pull you under even if you're an experienced surfer or swimmer as this fit young person appears to be. But anyway, he's out now in one piece and he's still lashed to his board. And we're glad he's OK. It looked like a lot of fun.

We'll be taking a break now for a couple minutes. And when we're back, we'll have the latest on Frances and all of the other stories of the day. It's a very busy news day around the world, so stay with us.

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FRAZIER: Rob Marciano has been watching pictures of our intrepid surfer and the waves there and he has a surf update for us now --Rob.

MARCIANO: I guess though they just can't keep themselves from a good swell, I suppose. Anyway, I'm glad to see he made it out all right, but that's certainty not recommended not only across Florida, but up the Carolina coastline as well we're seeing a heavy surf and that will cause riptides and even as far north as the Jersey shore and maybe even Long Island.

All right, here's that eye again. Here's Grand Bahama. You heard Ed Rappaport mention that the eye is showing some signs of getting better organized, and you can see how this confection is trying to wrap around the southern edge of it and even starting to see some convention closer into the eye. So that's probably what he's talking about and that may lead to further strengthening. But really the main concern of these really heavy rain bands that are about to move into Fort Pierce south towards West Palm Beach, heavy rain and gusty winds. All right, I want to show you one other thing. This is what's actually happened or at least the past 20 minutes to half an hour. This is what our rainfall forecast is through tomorrow morning, and this white on the legend indicates 10 to 15 inches of rainfall, and that's really with the eye probably getting -- about right here because our forecast is bringing into the Gulf of Mexico by late tomorrow and then into Monday. Because of that, we have flood watches out pretty much for the entire state of Florida. Ten to 15, maybe even 20 inches of rain possible as this thing just creeps along the state.

Here's a satellite picture. And again, the size of this thing is what's probably the most impressive. You go north to the center a 100 miles, you've hurricane force winds. If you go south of the center by about 60 miles, you still have hurricane force winds. So we're talking about a wide swatch that's going to be affected.

This red area, hurricane force winds, and here's the forecast from the National Hurricane Center: category 2 status right now drifting. It will eventually pick up steam out of west-northwest, 5 miles an hour, and I don't want to say accelerate, but kind of meander its way towards the coastline. So just north of West Palm Beach to about Daytona is where you're going to see those hurricanes force winds. And then, by the time it gets to Orlando, it will start to weaken maybe to tropical storm force by that time. But the size of this thing, Stephen, the amount of rain that it's going to dump, those are probably the two most impressive factors. And then unfortunately for Florida residents, the fact that it's moving so slowly, it's going to be a headache all weekend long and then probably cleaning up next week.

FRAZIER: Indeed. Rob Marciano, thanks. And all that rain, we should point out, falling on a state that was pretty well soaked earlier. So the ground doesn't have a lot of room to soak up water.

The other big story we've been following is that of former President Clinton. He is in a New York City hospital this morning where he'll undergo heart bypass surgery early next week. He checked himself into a hospital after experiencing chest pain and some shortness of breath. That usually means that a main artery has a blockage of at least 70 percent. The former president called CNN from his hospital bed last night.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've had some difficulty ever since I got out of the White House in getting my distance up and running. And I just had a feeling a couple days ago I had to have it checked when I finally got some tightness in my chest and I hadn't done any exercising. This is the first time that ever happened to me. And we did the angiogram and found out I had blockage that was too significant to open and put a stent in. We had to do the whole surgery, so I'm trying to get my head in the game.

(END AUDIO CLIP) FRAZIER: CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is joining us now to give us a little bit more of what this procedure that the former president faces is like, and also to give us a sense of how this happens. I mean he's been out on a book tour. So one day he's signing books, and the next day he's learning that he needs bypass surgery. It seems awfully sudden. Is this common place?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It does seem sudden. And in fact, when he had that exclusive conversation with Larry King last night, Larry King said that to him. He said, "What happened?" And he gives the answer that we just heard. And what he had is he had some tightness in his chest, he had some shortness of breath. He went in and he did that angiogram that we just mentioned. What that means is that a catheter was spread up -- as thread up rather through his body from his groin, probably, up to his heart. And they can actually make a map, a road map of the heart and they see where the blockages are. And then once -- apparently, they saw that those blockages could not be handled with a stint. You heard the president use the word stint, and that means is a stint would be sort of like this mesh scaffolding that would open the artery. But apparently the blockages were too extensive for that and so, he had to go and have this bypass surgery.

Now, we asked some cardiologists is this the way it happens, you feeling OK one day and then the next day you need surgery? And they said yes, that does happen. And he's actually one of the lucky ones. Many people, they feel it, and unfortunately, in the event of a heart attack. And there's not much they can do.

FRAZIER: Right. We did hear from David Letterman that that was the effect for him, too.

All right, well, we're eager to hear more of how this goes. We're running out of time on this break, but we'll be talking throughout the today and of course, next week too for progress reports on the president's operation and his post-op condition.

COHEN: OK.

FRAZIER: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for joining us.

COHEN: Thanks.

FRAZIER: More on the president's condition, on Hurricane Frances, on the aftermath of a deadly school siege in Russia, and all the other day's news after this. So stay with CNN.

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