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CNN Live At Daybreak
Ivan's Destructive Path; Jamaican Fishing Village Mourns Hurricane Victims; Semi-Automatic Weapon Ban Effects?
Aired September 13, 2004 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you.
From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Now in the news, U.S. warplanes strike in the heart of Iraq's Fallujah today. Hospital officials there say at least 10 people have been killed, several more wounded. It comes a day after at least 65 people were killed across Iraq.
Right now, Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting with his cabinet, the nation's governors and key security officials. They're discussing how to deal with Russia's recent terrorist attacks.
In the United States, the so-called assault weapons ban is set to expire at midnight, 19 hours from now. Unless Congress passes an extension, the current ban on the manufacture of 19 different weapons comes to an end.
And in the Caribbean, residents of Cuba are bracing for a monster Hurricane Ivan. At this minute, the powerful hurricane is southeast of western Cuba, scouring the Caribbean with 160 mile per hour winds. Got that right -- Chad?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Pretty close. You bet. Yes, it's the -- the eye itself now, you can see it again. It kind of lost some definition as it moved right over Grand Cayman. The eye itself about 30 or 40 miles just offshore of Grand Cayman. That's the good news. The bad news is all the people up here in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman that thought it was coming their way actually evacuated to Grand Cayman and then the storm got very close.
It didn't hit Jamaica, either. It moved to the south. Not a direct hit, but certainly there folks are cleaning up from winds at 100 to 120 miles per hour. The good news is the eye wall had winds to 160. At least they didn't get the eye wall.
Now this eye is forecast to actually get here into the Yucatan Channel and then back up into the Gulf of Mexico. And as that happens, that's going to cause the storm to continue to move to the north and to the northwest, but also it's going to encounter a little bit of sheer. Notice the winds, now 160, 155, 150 and then down to 140 by 2:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, or just a little bit after midnight on Tuesday night.
Winds gusting to 140, 165 not out of the question, a Category 4 storm. The eye forecast now somewhere between Mobile and Pensacola or very close to the Pensacola area right now, Carol. But obviously still 24 hours away.
We're narrowing the focus. If you remember, this time last week, we were saying anywhere from about Galveston to Tampa. Well, Florida pretty -- at least the peninsula of Florida, pretty much out of the woods right now.
COSTELLO: It's just the poor people on the panhandle.
MYERS: We just hope they don't get back in the woods.
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Hurricane Ivan did leave a path of destruction. A total of 42 people died throughout the Caribbean because of this storm, 17 of them in Jamaica alone.
CNN's Karl Penhaul is in Jamaica and has the story of one village that felt the full effect of Ivan's fury. A warning for you this morning -- some of these pictures are disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The storm has passed, but the time for grieving is just beginning. Minutes before we reached the fishing community at Portland Cottage, villagers had just found three more bodies, killed when Hurricane Ivan whipped up a tidal surge. One of the dead, two-year-old Lissan Thompson, was snatched right out of her mother's arms by the raging floodwaters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A big water come again and flush him out of me hands and as it comes, he disappear out of me hands. I couldn't find him because it is night. The place is very dark. I couldn't find him.
PENHAUL: Her husband Leroy was carrying their other daughter, Tiffany. She drowned, too, when the tide dragged her from her father's arms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had three babies, one on my right arm and me have a little girl on me left arm. She was behind me and had a little baby in her arm.
PENHAUL: Through their tears and pain, the true horror of that night becomes clear.
(on camera): Imagine this -- it's pitch black outside, close to midnight and the floodwaters are already waist high. And then a huge wave comes rushing in from the sea.
(voice-over): This is what's left of the village. Edwards and her husband take us back to the ruins of their wood home. She finds her only surviving son, Jerome, playing in the receding floodwaters. Their possessions were wrecked by the wind lashed waves. A Ziploc bag failed to protect the birth certificates of her dead daughters. Tiffany and Lissan's tiny shoes still lay in the corner.
Neighbor Dawn Williams also tried to flee to safety the night the hurricane struck. She survived; her eight-year-old son, Antowain, drowned.
DAWN WILLIAMS, MOTHER OF HURRICANE VICTIM: The water was high, high, high. So, we still don't know what to do. So, we was trying to turn that, but the water was coming very fast. And I have my little boy in my hand, holding him very tight. And a wave of water come splash him away out of my hands.
PENHAUL: She says she spent eight hours in the water clinging to a tree branch, holding on for dear life. Her mother drowned. The police come and stretcher away the corpses. Nobody seems to know what's next for the living or the dead.
Karl Penhaul and the camera of Neil Holdsworth, CNN, Portland Cottage, Jamaica.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: In other news this morning, at midnight tonight, the 10-year-old assault weapons ban will expire, and Congress has no plans to make an eleventh-hour save. But will this lead to a glut of automatic weapons on the streets?
CNN's Ceci Rodgers takes a look at that for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CECI RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gun manufacturers have been gearing up for this day. Despite pleas from police agencies, politicians and gun control groups, Congress is letting a decade long ban on military style, semi-automatic weapons, expire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The American public needs to know and understand that the assault weapons are coming -- AK-47s, Uzis and clips of up to 100 rounds back on our city streets.
RODGERS: But gunmakers like Mark Westrom, who's preparing to manufacture the so-called pre-banned rifles as early as Tuesday, say they're seeing a trickle, not a surge, in orders from their customers.
MARK WESTROM, PRESIDENT, ARMALITE INC.: The up tick of interest that we're seeing is not enough to bring us back to last year's sales level. So, it's, you know, the people who think that there's going to be a sudden rush and an outpouring of firearms onto the streets are absolutely incorrect. It's not happening.
RODGERS: Armalite expects to ship about 30 of the pre-banned rifles a day, beginning some time this week. (on camera): One of the main reasons that Armalite is not seeing a huge surge in demand is that its semi-automatic rifles, like this one, were still on the market the past 10 years, in a stripped down version that met the letter of the law.
(voice-over): The law banned 19 specific models, large capacity ammunition magazines and other weapons with certain military features.
WESTROM: The pre-banned guns could have five features not allowed during the post-ban period -- a flash suppressor or a grenade launcher mounted up here, a bayonet lug, a pistol grip and a collapsing butt stock.
RODGERS: The National Rifle Association calls it a "cosmetic ban." It was easy to get around and Armalite did, producing more of the rifles than ever before in the past decade. Similar to a hunting rifle, collectors and serious target shooters bought them.
WESTROM: Ten years ago, misuse of rifles of any sort, especially of our type, was vanishingly small. It still is.
RODGERS: So, what happens next in the battle over guns? Both those for and against gun bans say it likely hinges on who wins the White House in November.
Ceci Rodgers, CNN Financial News, Geneseo, Illinois.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Now we want to hear what you think. Our e-mail "Question of the Morning" is: Should the ban on assault weapons continue? Send us your responses. Send us your e-mails to daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com.
Now to the war in Iraq. It has been the issue in the presidential campaign. Was there a link between Iraq and the September 11th attacks?
Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed that on the Sunday talk show circuit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We know that there had been connections and there had been exchanges between al Qaeda and the Saddam Hussein regime and those have been pursued and looked at. But I have seen nothing that makes a direct connection between Saddam Hussein, that awful regime and what happened on 9/11.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: John Kerry pounced on that statement. He says that as recently as last week, Vice President Dick Cheney contradicted Powell and suggested there is a link between Iraq and 9/11. In a written statement, Kerry praises Powell for coming clean. He says, and I quote, "Secretary Powell has told the truth," Kerry's statement treads. "It's wrong for others in this administration to continually mislead the American people about a link that does not exist."
So, let's put it all in context. It began in Wisconsin on Friday when Cheney was asked if U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq is because of oil. While Cheney didn't explicitly link the U.S. invasion of Iraq to 9/11, he strongly implied it. He said, "We didn't do anything to provoke the attack of 9/11. We were attacked by the terrorists and we've responded forcefully and aggressively."
In the meantime, the casualty count in Iraq is climbing after some very intense fighting. Hospital officials and witnesses say U.S. bombs killed at least nine people in Fallujah today. Iraqi officials say a total of 78 people have been killed and 204 wounded in violence across Iraq in the past 24 hours.
We'll have a live report for you out of Iraq at the half hour.
So, did North Korea explode a nuclear bomb last Thursday? North Korea's foreign minister says it was a planned demolition of a hydroelectric project, not a nuclear test.
But as our White House correspondent Dana Bash reports, that may not be the final word on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In an unannounced visit to the Russian Embassy, the president signed a condolence book for hundreds killed by terrorists who seized a school last week.
GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The killers once again remind us of the duties we have as free people, to work in concert, to work in unity, to make this world a better place.
BASH: In another dangerous part of the world, North Korea, top Bush advisors said so far there's no evidence a mysterious explosion there was nuclear, but concede there is intelligence Pyongyang may be preparing a nuclear test.
POWELL: It could be that. It could be they're doing some test preparations, or it could be just some maintenance is going on. So it's not conclusive, and we continue to examine it and study it on a regular basis.
BASH: The U.S. does periodically receive reports North Korea wants to test its nuclear capability, but senior officials say the reclusive regime's plans are hard to decipher. The national security advisor suggested Kim Jong-il's motive for any nuclear test could be to affect the U.S. elections.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: The North Koreans would only succeed in isolating themselves further if they're trying to gain negotiating leverage or their own October surprises.
BASH: So-called October surprises have been engineered before, timed for the closing days of U.S presidential races.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS, (R) CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Kim Jong-il would think in some deranged way that if he had some kind of test that he would affect the U.S. election.
BASH: The motive? Mr. Bush is holding out for verifiable dismantlement. North Korea may think John Kerry would be different.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Their immediate call is to hope that Senator Kerry prevails because they think he would be a more flexible negotiating partner.
BASH: In a statement late Sunday, Senator Kerry said, "Because of the Bush North Korea policy" a potential root to a nuclear 9/11 is clearly visible. A Kerry advisor argued attacking Iraq has emboldened Pyongyang.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: They get the wrong message out of Iraq. You know we invade countries that don't have nuclear weapons, and we don't invade those that do.
BASH (on camera): Senator Kerry accused the president of taking his eye off the ball with North Korea, which the CIA thinks already has a handful of nuclear weapons. The White House insists diplomacy is still the best strategy, though officials say the president never takes military options off the table.
Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And still ahead on DAYBREAK, are you being milked by soaring milk prices? Dairy farmers weigh in about that at 16 minutes past the hour.
Also ahead, what's on tap today at the Scott Peterson murder trial? We'll have a preview for you at 47 minutes past.
And a young woman desperate to go to college takes to the streets looking for financing and then something amazing happens. Tune in for that at 53 past, to find out what it was.
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The U.S. markets will open on an up note this morning.
The Dow heading into the week up nearly 24 points. The Nasdaq rose 25 points, that's just about, anyway. And the S&P 500 ended the week up five-and-a-half points. And it's a good day in overseas trading, as well. Japan's Nikkei average closed up almost 170 points. In Europe, Britain's FTSE trading up nearly 23 points. And France's CAC up 34 points.
Your news, money, weather and sports.
It's 5:16 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
Cuba is bracing for Hurricane Ivan. President Castro urged residents to stock up on supplies and board up their homes. We'll have much more on Ivan in just a minute.
Accused deserter Charles Jenkins reported for duty today at a U.S. military base in Japan 41 years after defecting to North Korea. The 64-year-old is on active duty while prosecutors decide how to proceed with this case.
In money news, it takes two for US Airways. The airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in two years. US Airways hopes to reorganize as a low cost carrier.
In culture, video game heroines and, of course, zombies captured America's attention at the box office this weekend. "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" came in first with more than $23 million in ticket sales.
In sports, Barry Bonds one step closer to a major milestone. The San Francisco Giants slugger hit home run number 699 on Sunday. And oh, yes, his Giants took a one game lead in the National League wildcard race -- Chad.
MYERS: But more importantly for you, Carol...
COSTELLO: The Lions won!
MYERS: The Lions win! Lions win! Lions win!
COSTELLO: And you know why that's important? Because they haven't won on the road for three years. And they broke that streak. They played in Chicago.
MYERS: Well, it is Chicago, by the way.
COSTELLO: I know.
MYERS: Grand Cayman, some damage there across the island. But the eye did make a miss of Grand Cayman, at least a little bit of a miss. They got winds to about 120 and not the 165 at the eye wall. But that's still obviously high enough to make significant damage there.
That storm eventually moves on up into the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans, all the way over to about Panama City, you need to be on guard for this storm system as it's probably not going to make a turn to the right. But if it does, we still have to watch Florida. But for this point in time, it's moving on up toward the north.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: You probably noticed that it cost more to buy milk this summer, and cheese and butter. Now just in time for school lunch season, the prices are starting to come down a little.
But as CNN's Sean Callebs reports, dairy farmers didn't exactly clean up during the summer price hike.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREN SOWER, DAIRY FARMER: ... girls, let's go. Get on over. Go on. Get on over.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dairy farmers Randy and Karen Sower are the first to admit: It's a tough job.
RANDY SOWER, DAIRY FARMER: I started this farming because I really liked it, and I do love it. Every day now, I do question, why do we do this? Because, you never know one day from the next whether it's going to work out or not.
CALLEBS: In the best of times, the line between profit and loss is razor thin. But the Sower's and other farmers are dealing with wild price swings for dairy products. Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says prices were at a 25 year low. However, by April and May of this year, consumers noticed a big change.
DOLORES MARTIN, SHOPPER: The milk prices has gone up considerably. And especially if you on a low income, it makes it really impossible.
CALLEBS: Prices are pushing $4 a gallon. When dairy prices were low, some farmers sold cattle for beef. That meant fewer cows to produce milk, causing somewhat of a shortfall. And that helped fuel the price spike.
CHRIS GALEN, NAT'L MILK PRODUCERS FEDERATION: Dairy's not any different than oil or orange juice or a lot of other commodities when it's in tight supply. Prices may shoot up, when there's too much of it, prices drop.
CALLEBS: The USDA tries to help out farmers like the Sower's by setting a minimum price for milk. It's a practice that dates back to the Great Depression, designed to help farmers make ends meet when prices scrape rock bottom. If you think dairy farmers line their pockets when prices are elevated, the Sower's say it's not the case.
K. SOWER: It's tighter, it's tougher, and it really is. But I hope we'll going to see our way through this.
CALLEBS: They have started bottling their own milk, cutting out the middle man and giving their bottom line a boost. That's rare, nationwide the milk supply is creeping up, and consumers are paying slightly less. But the Sower's say the farmer's burden continues. For them, the only guarantee remains long days; fluctuating prices and the satisfaction of knowing they're helping feed the nation.
Sean Callebs, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We'll check out the top stories you're clicking on on cnn.com.
But first, that 10-year-old ban on assault weapons set to expire at midnight tonight and we're asking you this morning if you think that ban should continue. E-mail us, daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com.
And you are watching DAYBREAK for a Monday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: You know, we're talking about our CNN Web clicks this morning, what you're clicking onto on cnn.com.
Many interesting stories on there this morning.
The number one clicked on story is "Woman Killed By Viper Among Her Exotic Pets."
MYERS: Last Saturday, bitten, drove herself to the hospital, was in intensive care for a week, but passed away on Saturday.
COSTELLO: Unbelievable. She lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, and she had all of these exotic pets inside of her home. But her neighbors never thought she had poisonous snakes. But she did, and she died for it.
MYERS: The police found them actually in the cage. So, obviously she had her hand in the cage or put her back on the cage or something.
COSTELLO: Or maybe a viper is missing. We don't know.
MYERS: Or a viper is missing.
COSTELLO: Let's hope not.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: The second most clicked on story, of course, is about Hurricane Ivan back up to a Category 5.
MYERS: Yes, now brand new hurricane warnings for Cancun, Cozumel, that whole northeastern part there of the Yucatan Peninsula. They were not in the hurricane warning earlier, but now they are because now that storm just refuses to turn to the right.
And the longer it refuses to turn to the right, the more New Orleans is back in the forecast, Mobile, Gulfport, all the way over to Pensacola, whereas Tampa now being taken out of the forecast because the storm isn't turning to the right. It's not going to hit the west coast.
COSTELLO: They've had enough.
MYERS: Well, they certainly have. But this thing is going to be big no matter where it hits. So, this -- we're not wishing this on anybody.
COSTELLO: No, definitely not.
The third most clicked on story, amateurs search for hurricane cures. And you know, you've talked a lot about that on DAYBREAK. You know, some people think you could explode a big bomb in the hurricane's eye and that would dissipate the storm.
My favorite thing, though, this an...
MYERS: You know, the key to this is the word amateurs. Anyway, how about that?
COSTELLO: They have some interesting ideas, though. My favorite was the big fan system.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: You could like put all these like strong fans everywhere and blow the hurricane right back out to sea.
MYERS: Right. A five mile wide fan, just put them all along the east coast of Florida so that you could blow all the bugs away and then when a hurricane comes, you could blow a hurricane away, too.
COSTELLO: Good idea?
MYERS: This hurricane is generating five times, right now, five times more power than the whole world is consuming. It's huge.
COSTELLO: You cannot stop Mother Nature.
MYERS: It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature.
COSTELLO: No, it's not.
Here's what's ahead in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.
Cuba is getting ready for Ivan. Just ahead, how residents there are getting out of the path of what is now a killer storm.
U.S. jets strike a reported terrorist meeting site in Fallujah. We'll have a live report for you on the latest out of Iraq in five minutes.
And the 10-year-old ban on assault weapons ends at midnight. We're asking you this morning, do you think the ban should be lifted or continued? E-mail us: daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LISA LESLIE, WNBA PLAYER, LOS ANGELES SPARKS: When preparation and opportunity meet, it equals success.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lisa Leslie put that formula into action and it's been a slam dunk. As a member of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, the perennial All Star center has won two WNBA championships and numerous MVP awards. At the 2004 Olympic Games, Leslie scored her third gold medal with the U.S. women's basketball team.
LESLIE: To become a better leader, you have to study whatever it is that you're doing. I study the NBA. I study certain players and I like to pick things from their game and then add it to mine. That keeps my hungry for the game and I just continue to improve.
To be a good leader, you also have to have the ability to communicate, be open to criticism and also a good ear as a listener.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired September 13, 2004 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you.
From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Now in the news, U.S. warplanes strike in the heart of Iraq's Fallujah today. Hospital officials there say at least 10 people have been killed, several more wounded. It comes a day after at least 65 people were killed across Iraq.
Right now, Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting with his cabinet, the nation's governors and key security officials. They're discussing how to deal with Russia's recent terrorist attacks.
In the United States, the so-called assault weapons ban is set to expire at midnight, 19 hours from now. Unless Congress passes an extension, the current ban on the manufacture of 19 different weapons comes to an end.
And in the Caribbean, residents of Cuba are bracing for a monster Hurricane Ivan. At this minute, the powerful hurricane is southeast of western Cuba, scouring the Caribbean with 160 mile per hour winds. Got that right -- Chad?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Pretty close. You bet. Yes, it's the -- the eye itself now, you can see it again. It kind of lost some definition as it moved right over Grand Cayman. The eye itself about 30 or 40 miles just offshore of Grand Cayman. That's the good news. The bad news is all the people up here in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman that thought it was coming their way actually evacuated to Grand Cayman and then the storm got very close.
It didn't hit Jamaica, either. It moved to the south. Not a direct hit, but certainly there folks are cleaning up from winds at 100 to 120 miles per hour. The good news is the eye wall had winds to 160. At least they didn't get the eye wall.
Now this eye is forecast to actually get here into the Yucatan Channel and then back up into the Gulf of Mexico. And as that happens, that's going to cause the storm to continue to move to the north and to the northwest, but also it's going to encounter a little bit of sheer. Notice the winds, now 160, 155, 150 and then down to 140 by 2:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, or just a little bit after midnight on Tuesday night.
Winds gusting to 140, 165 not out of the question, a Category 4 storm. The eye forecast now somewhere between Mobile and Pensacola or very close to the Pensacola area right now, Carol. But obviously still 24 hours away.
We're narrowing the focus. If you remember, this time last week, we were saying anywhere from about Galveston to Tampa. Well, Florida pretty -- at least the peninsula of Florida, pretty much out of the woods right now.
COSTELLO: It's just the poor people on the panhandle.
MYERS: We just hope they don't get back in the woods.
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Hurricane Ivan did leave a path of destruction. A total of 42 people died throughout the Caribbean because of this storm, 17 of them in Jamaica alone.
CNN's Karl Penhaul is in Jamaica and has the story of one village that felt the full effect of Ivan's fury. A warning for you this morning -- some of these pictures are disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The storm has passed, but the time for grieving is just beginning. Minutes before we reached the fishing community at Portland Cottage, villagers had just found three more bodies, killed when Hurricane Ivan whipped up a tidal surge. One of the dead, two-year-old Lissan Thompson, was snatched right out of her mother's arms by the raging floodwaters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A big water come again and flush him out of me hands and as it comes, he disappear out of me hands. I couldn't find him because it is night. The place is very dark. I couldn't find him.
PENHAUL: Her husband Leroy was carrying their other daughter, Tiffany. She drowned, too, when the tide dragged her from her father's arms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had three babies, one on my right arm and me have a little girl on me left arm. She was behind me and had a little baby in her arm.
PENHAUL: Through their tears and pain, the true horror of that night becomes clear.
(on camera): Imagine this -- it's pitch black outside, close to midnight and the floodwaters are already waist high. And then a huge wave comes rushing in from the sea.
(voice-over): This is what's left of the village. Edwards and her husband take us back to the ruins of their wood home. She finds her only surviving son, Jerome, playing in the receding floodwaters. Their possessions were wrecked by the wind lashed waves. A Ziploc bag failed to protect the birth certificates of her dead daughters. Tiffany and Lissan's tiny shoes still lay in the corner.
Neighbor Dawn Williams also tried to flee to safety the night the hurricane struck. She survived; her eight-year-old son, Antowain, drowned.
DAWN WILLIAMS, MOTHER OF HURRICANE VICTIM: The water was high, high, high. So, we still don't know what to do. So, we was trying to turn that, but the water was coming very fast. And I have my little boy in my hand, holding him very tight. And a wave of water come splash him away out of my hands.
PENHAUL: She says she spent eight hours in the water clinging to a tree branch, holding on for dear life. Her mother drowned. The police come and stretcher away the corpses. Nobody seems to know what's next for the living or the dead.
Karl Penhaul and the camera of Neil Holdsworth, CNN, Portland Cottage, Jamaica.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: In other news this morning, at midnight tonight, the 10-year-old assault weapons ban will expire, and Congress has no plans to make an eleventh-hour save. But will this lead to a glut of automatic weapons on the streets?
CNN's Ceci Rodgers takes a look at that for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CECI RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gun manufacturers have been gearing up for this day. Despite pleas from police agencies, politicians and gun control groups, Congress is letting a decade long ban on military style, semi-automatic weapons, expire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The American public needs to know and understand that the assault weapons are coming -- AK-47s, Uzis and clips of up to 100 rounds back on our city streets.
RODGERS: But gunmakers like Mark Westrom, who's preparing to manufacture the so-called pre-banned rifles as early as Tuesday, say they're seeing a trickle, not a surge, in orders from their customers.
MARK WESTROM, PRESIDENT, ARMALITE INC.: The up tick of interest that we're seeing is not enough to bring us back to last year's sales level. So, it's, you know, the people who think that there's going to be a sudden rush and an outpouring of firearms onto the streets are absolutely incorrect. It's not happening.
RODGERS: Armalite expects to ship about 30 of the pre-banned rifles a day, beginning some time this week. (on camera): One of the main reasons that Armalite is not seeing a huge surge in demand is that its semi-automatic rifles, like this one, were still on the market the past 10 years, in a stripped down version that met the letter of the law.
(voice-over): The law banned 19 specific models, large capacity ammunition magazines and other weapons with certain military features.
WESTROM: The pre-banned guns could have five features not allowed during the post-ban period -- a flash suppressor or a grenade launcher mounted up here, a bayonet lug, a pistol grip and a collapsing butt stock.
RODGERS: The National Rifle Association calls it a "cosmetic ban." It was easy to get around and Armalite did, producing more of the rifles than ever before in the past decade. Similar to a hunting rifle, collectors and serious target shooters bought them.
WESTROM: Ten years ago, misuse of rifles of any sort, especially of our type, was vanishingly small. It still is.
RODGERS: So, what happens next in the battle over guns? Both those for and against gun bans say it likely hinges on who wins the White House in November.
Ceci Rodgers, CNN Financial News, Geneseo, Illinois.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Now we want to hear what you think. Our e-mail "Question of the Morning" is: Should the ban on assault weapons continue? Send us your responses. Send us your e-mails to daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com.
Now to the war in Iraq. It has been the issue in the presidential campaign. Was there a link between Iraq and the September 11th attacks?
Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed that on the Sunday talk show circuit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We know that there had been connections and there had been exchanges between al Qaeda and the Saddam Hussein regime and those have been pursued and looked at. But I have seen nothing that makes a direct connection between Saddam Hussein, that awful regime and what happened on 9/11.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: John Kerry pounced on that statement. He says that as recently as last week, Vice President Dick Cheney contradicted Powell and suggested there is a link between Iraq and 9/11. In a written statement, Kerry praises Powell for coming clean. He says, and I quote, "Secretary Powell has told the truth," Kerry's statement treads. "It's wrong for others in this administration to continually mislead the American people about a link that does not exist."
So, let's put it all in context. It began in Wisconsin on Friday when Cheney was asked if U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq is because of oil. While Cheney didn't explicitly link the U.S. invasion of Iraq to 9/11, he strongly implied it. He said, "We didn't do anything to provoke the attack of 9/11. We were attacked by the terrorists and we've responded forcefully and aggressively."
In the meantime, the casualty count in Iraq is climbing after some very intense fighting. Hospital officials and witnesses say U.S. bombs killed at least nine people in Fallujah today. Iraqi officials say a total of 78 people have been killed and 204 wounded in violence across Iraq in the past 24 hours.
We'll have a live report for you out of Iraq at the half hour.
So, did North Korea explode a nuclear bomb last Thursday? North Korea's foreign minister says it was a planned demolition of a hydroelectric project, not a nuclear test.
But as our White House correspondent Dana Bash reports, that may not be the final word on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In an unannounced visit to the Russian Embassy, the president signed a condolence book for hundreds killed by terrorists who seized a school last week.
GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The killers once again remind us of the duties we have as free people, to work in concert, to work in unity, to make this world a better place.
BASH: In another dangerous part of the world, North Korea, top Bush advisors said so far there's no evidence a mysterious explosion there was nuclear, but concede there is intelligence Pyongyang may be preparing a nuclear test.
POWELL: It could be that. It could be they're doing some test preparations, or it could be just some maintenance is going on. So it's not conclusive, and we continue to examine it and study it on a regular basis.
BASH: The U.S. does periodically receive reports North Korea wants to test its nuclear capability, but senior officials say the reclusive regime's plans are hard to decipher. The national security advisor suggested Kim Jong-il's motive for any nuclear test could be to affect the U.S. elections.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: The North Koreans would only succeed in isolating themselves further if they're trying to gain negotiating leverage or their own October surprises.
BASH: So-called October surprises have been engineered before, timed for the closing days of U.S presidential races.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS, (R) CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Kim Jong-il would think in some deranged way that if he had some kind of test that he would affect the U.S. election.
BASH: The motive? Mr. Bush is holding out for verifiable dismantlement. North Korea may think John Kerry would be different.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Their immediate call is to hope that Senator Kerry prevails because they think he would be a more flexible negotiating partner.
BASH: In a statement late Sunday, Senator Kerry said, "Because of the Bush North Korea policy" a potential root to a nuclear 9/11 is clearly visible. A Kerry advisor argued attacking Iraq has emboldened Pyongyang.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: They get the wrong message out of Iraq. You know we invade countries that don't have nuclear weapons, and we don't invade those that do.
BASH (on camera): Senator Kerry accused the president of taking his eye off the ball with North Korea, which the CIA thinks already has a handful of nuclear weapons. The White House insists diplomacy is still the best strategy, though officials say the president never takes military options off the table.
Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And still ahead on DAYBREAK, are you being milked by soaring milk prices? Dairy farmers weigh in about that at 16 minutes past the hour.
Also ahead, what's on tap today at the Scott Peterson murder trial? We'll have a preview for you at 47 minutes past.
And a young woman desperate to go to college takes to the streets looking for financing and then something amazing happens. Tune in for that at 53 past, to find out what it was.
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The U.S. markets will open on an up note this morning.
The Dow heading into the week up nearly 24 points. The Nasdaq rose 25 points, that's just about, anyway. And the S&P 500 ended the week up five-and-a-half points. And it's a good day in overseas trading, as well. Japan's Nikkei average closed up almost 170 points. In Europe, Britain's FTSE trading up nearly 23 points. And France's CAC up 34 points.
Your news, money, weather and sports.
It's 5:16 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
Cuba is bracing for Hurricane Ivan. President Castro urged residents to stock up on supplies and board up their homes. We'll have much more on Ivan in just a minute.
Accused deserter Charles Jenkins reported for duty today at a U.S. military base in Japan 41 years after defecting to North Korea. The 64-year-old is on active duty while prosecutors decide how to proceed with this case.
In money news, it takes two for US Airways. The airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in two years. US Airways hopes to reorganize as a low cost carrier.
In culture, video game heroines and, of course, zombies captured America's attention at the box office this weekend. "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" came in first with more than $23 million in ticket sales.
In sports, Barry Bonds one step closer to a major milestone. The San Francisco Giants slugger hit home run number 699 on Sunday. And oh, yes, his Giants took a one game lead in the National League wildcard race -- Chad.
MYERS: But more importantly for you, Carol...
COSTELLO: The Lions won!
MYERS: The Lions win! Lions win! Lions win!
COSTELLO: And you know why that's important? Because they haven't won on the road for three years. And they broke that streak. They played in Chicago.
MYERS: Well, it is Chicago, by the way.
COSTELLO: I know.
MYERS: Grand Cayman, some damage there across the island. But the eye did make a miss of Grand Cayman, at least a little bit of a miss. They got winds to about 120 and not the 165 at the eye wall. But that's still obviously high enough to make significant damage there.
That storm eventually moves on up into the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans, all the way over to about Panama City, you need to be on guard for this storm system as it's probably not going to make a turn to the right. But if it does, we still have to watch Florida. But for this point in time, it's moving on up toward the north.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: You probably noticed that it cost more to buy milk this summer, and cheese and butter. Now just in time for school lunch season, the prices are starting to come down a little.
But as CNN's Sean Callebs reports, dairy farmers didn't exactly clean up during the summer price hike.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREN SOWER, DAIRY FARMER: ... girls, let's go. Get on over. Go on. Get on over.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dairy farmers Randy and Karen Sower are the first to admit: It's a tough job.
RANDY SOWER, DAIRY FARMER: I started this farming because I really liked it, and I do love it. Every day now, I do question, why do we do this? Because, you never know one day from the next whether it's going to work out or not.
CALLEBS: In the best of times, the line between profit and loss is razor thin. But the Sower's and other farmers are dealing with wild price swings for dairy products. Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says prices were at a 25 year low. However, by April and May of this year, consumers noticed a big change.
DOLORES MARTIN, SHOPPER: The milk prices has gone up considerably. And especially if you on a low income, it makes it really impossible.
CALLEBS: Prices are pushing $4 a gallon. When dairy prices were low, some farmers sold cattle for beef. That meant fewer cows to produce milk, causing somewhat of a shortfall. And that helped fuel the price spike.
CHRIS GALEN, NAT'L MILK PRODUCERS FEDERATION: Dairy's not any different than oil or orange juice or a lot of other commodities when it's in tight supply. Prices may shoot up, when there's too much of it, prices drop.
CALLEBS: The USDA tries to help out farmers like the Sower's by setting a minimum price for milk. It's a practice that dates back to the Great Depression, designed to help farmers make ends meet when prices scrape rock bottom. If you think dairy farmers line their pockets when prices are elevated, the Sower's say it's not the case.
K. SOWER: It's tighter, it's tougher, and it really is. But I hope we'll going to see our way through this.
CALLEBS: They have started bottling their own milk, cutting out the middle man and giving their bottom line a boost. That's rare, nationwide the milk supply is creeping up, and consumers are paying slightly less. But the Sower's say the farmer's burden continues. For them, the only guarantee remains long days; fluctuating prices and the satisfaction of knowing they're helping feed the nation.
Sean Callebs, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We'll check out the top stories you're clicking on on cnn.com.
But first, that 10-year-old ban on assault weapons set to expire at midnight tonight and we're asking you this morning if you think that ban should continue. E-mail us, daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com.
And you are watching DAYBREAK for a Monday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: You know, we're talking about our CNN Web clicks this morning, what you're clicking onto on cnn.com.
Many interesting stories on there this morning.
The number one clicked on story is "Woman Killed By Viper Among Her Exotic Pets."
MYERS: Last Saturday, bitten, drove herself to the hospital, was in intensive care for a week, but passed away on Saturday.
COSTELLO: Unbelievable. She lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, and she had all of these exotic pets inside of her home. But her neighbors never thought she had poisonous snakes. But she did, and she died for it.
MYERS: The police found them actually in the cage. So, obviously she had her hand in the cage or put her back on the cage or something.
COSTELLO: Or maybe a viper is missing. We don't know.
MYERS: Or a viper is missing.
COSTELLO: Let's hope not.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: The second most clicked on story, of course, is about Hurricane Ivan back up to a Category 5.
MYERS: Yes, now brand new hurricane warnings for Cancun, Cozumel, that whole northeastern part there of the Yucatan Peninsula. They were not in the hurricane warning earlier, but now they are because now that storm just refuses to turn to the right.
And the longer it refuses to turn to the right, the more New Orleans is back in the forecast, Mobile, Gulfport, all the way over to Pensacola, whereas Tampa now being taken out of the forecast because the storm isn't turning to the right. It's not going to hit the west coast.
COSTELLO: They've had enough.
MYERS: Well, they certainly have. But this thing is going to be big no matter where it hits. So, this -- we're not wishing this on anybody.
COSTELLO: No, definitely not.
The third most clicked on story, amateurs search for hurricane cures. And you know, you've talked a lot about that on DAYBREAK. You know, some people think you could explode a big bomb in the hurricane's eye and that would dissipate the storm.
My favorite thing, though, this an...
MYERS: You know, the key to this is the word amateurs. Anyway, how about that?
COSTELLO: They have some interesting ideas, though. My favorite was the big fan system.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: You could like put all these like strong fans everywhere and blow the hurricane right back out to sea.
MYERS: Right. A five mile wide fan, just put them all along the east coast of Florida so that you could blow all the bugs away and then when a hurricane comes, you could blow a hurricane away, too.
COSTELLO: Good idea?
MYERS: This hurricane is generating five times, right now, five times more power than the whole world is consuming. It's huge.
COSTELLO: You cannot stop Mother Nature.
MYERS: It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature.
COSTELLO: No, it's not.
Here's what's ahead in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.
Cuba is getting ready for Ivan. Just ahead, how residents there are getting out of the path of what is now a killer storm.
U.S. jets strike a reported terrorist meeting site in Fallujah. We'll have a live report for you on the latest out of Iraq in five minutes.
And the 10-year-old ban on assault weapons ends at midnight. We're asking you this morning, do you think the ban should be lifted or continued? E-mail us: daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LISA LESLIE, WNBA PLAYER, LOS ANGELES SPARKS: When preparation and opportunity meet, it equals success.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lisa Leslie put that formula into action and it's been a slam dunk. As a member of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, the perennial All Star center has won two WNBA championships and numerous MVP awards. At the 2004 Olympic Games, Leslie scored her third gold medal with the U.S. women's basketball team.
LESLIE: To become a better leader, you have to study whatever it is that you're doing. I study the NBA. I study certain players and I like to pick things from their game and then add it to mine. That keeps my hungry for the game and I just continue to improve.
To be a good leader, you also have to have the ability to communicate, be open to criticism and also a good ear as a listener.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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