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American Morning
Hurricane Ivan Sinking Its Claws into Gulf Coast
Aired September 16, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A night of furious wind and driving rain. It will be a morning, too, of destruction. Hurricane Ivan sinking its claws into the Gulf Coast, and it just keeps on going, now digging deeper and deeper into Alabama on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING. Here's Bill Hemmer.
HEMMER: And good morning again.
Live in Mobile, Alabama.
That is our camera down on the street just around the corner from our location here in the hotel. It was a wild night here and the winds keep going this morning. Howling wind and rain lasting for about seven to eight hours at a time, band after band of Ivan coming through this city. And it's blowing again now with the eye moving further north. Now getting the wind from the west.
In the final hours before making land, Ivan ticking just to the east of our location in Mobile on the east side of the Mobile Bay. That kept the storm surge from moving into the city here.
The worst damage from the hurricane's first hours, though, came ashore in Florida. Reports already this morning say seven are dead as a result of Ivan. Right now the storm again is in Alabama. Chad Myers telling us still a category one hurricane. And one of the biggest dangers now is tornadoes.
We've watched the tornadoes being spawned yesterday in the Panhandle. They killed seven as a result. And if you go back over the two week history of this storm, 75 deaths now blamed on Ivan going back to Jamaica, the Grand Caymans, Cuba and Grenada.
Much more coverage throughout the morning here, tracking the storm again into the morning hour light here, as day starts to dawn in Mobile. We want to bring in Heidi Collins again back in New York City, as well -- Heidi, good morning there to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: A very tough morning for a lot of those people down there, Bill. In fact, we are learning now how much destruction Ivan left in its wake. So far, take a look at this, in Florida, seven people are reported killed in Bay and Calhoun Counties. Those deaths appear to have been caused by the tornadoes Bill has been talking about. And hundreds of homes have also been destroyed. At least 77,000 people now without power. That number is very likely to grow. To Alabama now, in the Mobile and Gulf Shores areas, more than 250,000 residents now without power, many of them within the Mobile city limits. No deaths reported there, though. Mississippi Power reporting some 50,000 customers without electricity. And in Louisiana, there were heavy winds and rains, but this morning the hurricane warning has been lifted for New Orleans. Flooding, though, as you would imagine by pictures like that, could still be a problem. There's been a lot of people who have really been affected by this. It's amazing -- back to you.
HEMMER: So true, Heidi.
Listen, I mean Panama City Beach in the east and Biloxi, Mississippi in the west, that's about 213 miles along the coast, which is equal to that stretch of the east coast of Florida where Frances came onshore, 200 miles up and down the east coast of Florida.
I want to start our coverage again this hour, our team coverage, Kathleen Koch is in Biloxi, Mississippi; Jason Bellini is live in New Orleans.
Let's start this hour again with Kathleen there -- and good morning, Kathleen, in Biloxi.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
You know, I lived for roughly 10 years on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and, you know, as you described that coastal area, spanning from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama to Florida, the Gulf Coast just does seem to be an area that sucks hurricanes toward it. And obviously, you know, Ivan was no exception. Though in many places they are breathing a sigh of relief.
But let's start with Florida and give some specifics on those seven deaths. The first two apparently did occur yesterday in the resort city of Panama City, where a tornado touched down, killing two. Then five more killed apparently at some point overnight as another tornado touched down in Blountstown -- that is west of Tallahassee -- again, killing five.
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana very fortunate. We've had no reports of any deaths or even serious injuries yet at this point. But the big story in these three states is really going to be the power outages, the trees downed, lots of damage to roofs, awnings, things like that. But, again, we're counting our blessings this morning. It could have been much, much worse -- Bill.
HEMMER: So true, Kathleen.
Further west now in New Orleans, the Big Easy, really the big lucky tornado.
Jason Bellini is there -- Jason, hello.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Well, the curfew just minutes ago was lifted and already there are a few people on the street. One woman out for her morning walks just came by and she said it's hard to imagine this place could ever be so peaceful. This city got lucky again. No damage in the city itself. The only reported flooding was near Lake Pontchartrain, which is on the northern outskirts of the city. But it's fairly common for there to be some flooding there when there's even just a little bit of rain.
And the city was very lucky to not get very heavy rainfall here last night. The city is only able to pump out an inch of rain an hour. So there would have been flooding if we had been hit more -- a little bit more hard by this hurricane. But this morning people are waking up, getting out on the streets and discovering that things are OK. People are expected to be returning today. Evacuees expected to return tornado. People expected to check out of their hotels, people who vertically evacuated in case there was flooding -- I mean they went to second, third, higher levels of buildings in case this city was underwater. Today, everything is fine -- Bill.
HEMMER: Well, in a city built below sea level, we'll take it.
Jason, thanks.
Jason Bellini there in New Orleans.
In Miami, Ed Rappaport is at the National Hurricane Center.
Ed, good morning to you.
And tell us, at this point, what is the status of Ivan as it move north through Alabama?
ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Ivan has weakened, fortunately. The winds are down to about 80 miles per hour and we would think it'll be downgraded to a tropical storm either later this morning or early in the afternoon.
You see the center here. It's now west-southwest of Montgomery, Alabama. A lot of rain, though, and you've seen, tornadoes associated with this hurricane. And there will still be more as it moves to the north pretty quickly, but then slows as we get into the Appalachians. And so we've got a big rain and flood event ahead of us.
HEMMER: Yes, Ed, one thing we're particularly focused on and worried about tornado is the Panhandle of Florida.
What happened late yesterday afternoon, early evening to spawn those tornadoes from Ivan?
RAPPAPORT: Well, hurricanes often spawn tornadoes, usually to the right and ahead of the center. And we had a couple of these bands, which you can see now, produce tornadoes. And there may be more. Of course the winds were strong consistently near the center where the eye wall came ashore near the Pensacola area. So a broad area got affected and there's going to be even a larger expanse of the southeastern United States that's going to have to deal with this over the next two to three days.
HEMMER: Yes, also, I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves here, what's happening with former tropical storm Jeanne and now hurricane Jeanne?
RAPPAPORT: Well, we've been looking at a National Weather Service radar picture from Ivan. We can do the same for Jeanne.
Here's Puerto Rico. Here's the Dominican Republic on Hispaniola. And you can see a well defined center. And Jeanne, just like Ivan now, has 80 mile per hour winds. It's a hurricane, expected to come into the shoreline of the Dominican Republic or move just north along the shoreline. And in the next three or four days, going through the Bahamas and approaching the southeastern United States.
HEMMER: Well, we'll keep an eye on that.
Ed Rappaport, thanks again for all your help there at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Much appreciated today here in Mobile.
We want to get to the CNN Center yet again and Chad Myers -- Chad, I'm hearing about tornado watches or are they warnings at this point?
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are both. There are two watches out, two really large boxes, and then a bunch of little warnings that are coming out. They don't last long. They're not F4s, they're not F5s, but clearly they can be fatal. You need to be very careful even if it's an F0 or an F1. When you look at, every time we see a little spin here, they're called shear markers, had one right over Panama City again about 20 minutes ago with tornado warnings there.
There will be a lot of tornado warnings all day long. And, in fact, they will get all the way up to Atlanta, all the way into Macon, all the way through Valdosta as this thing continues to spin around here north of Mobile.
That's the eye itself. This entire area here, especially these brighter bands, that's where those tornadoes are going to be all day long. So if you hear the warning going off in your neighborhood, you know what to do. Get into the interior part of your house or to a basement if you have one. It's just going to be one hectic day. And eventually Montgomery is going to get into the eye itself. By the time it gets there, though, winds should be down to about 60, Bill. Right now winds, as you said, 80 miles per hour. That's the latest Hurricane Center forecast. That's from about nine minutes ago.
Eventually that wind speed will go down and down and down. But the area of rainfall will get bigger and bigger and bigger. And there will be a lot of flooding with this, as well -- back to you.
HEMMER: Chad, thanks for that.
Keep you posted.
MYERS: I will.
HEMMER: Chad Myers there at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta.
Bob Riley is the governor of Alabama.
He's my guest now in Clanton, Alabama.
And Governor, I wish I could say good morning, but we're still living through this now.
What have you heard about the situation now in Gulf Shores, where the eye came ashore?
GOV. BOB RILEY (R), ALABAMA: Well, I just got off the phone with the people at the EMA in Baldwin County, which is adjacent to Mobile County. You know, there's a lot of damage down there. There's a tremendous amount of flooding. We've got 250,000 people without electricity. So we've got a lot to do today.
But on the other hand, we just went through a cat four or a very high cat three hurricane. And so far, we have not had any loss of life in Alabama. And that's something that we just have to be very, very thankful for and thank the people that evacuated.
HEMMER: Indeed, you're right, Governor. I think we can underline that and put an exclamation point at the end of it, too. We are all thrilled to hear that news this morning.
However, listening to the forecast in Miami and the forecast from Chad back at the CNN Center, you have 60 to 80 mile an hour winds still at this point.
Your concern for Ivan as it moves through your state is what, Governor?
RILEY: Well, you know, this is something we're going to have to live with all day today, probably until 8:00 or 9:00 tonight. We understand that. I said a moment ago we have a quarter of a million people without electricity in those two counties.
As this moves through Montgomery, as it moves on into Birmingham, which is, you know, most of the population in this state, the utilities here say that number is probably going to climb to over a half a million.
So we know we've got some challenges ahead of us today. But the winds are subsiding today. We just are encouraging everyone to stay in, don't go outside, especially down in Mobile and Baldwin County, because there's too many power lines on the ground, there's too many hanging limbs. Give us one day to get our search and rescue teams down there, get our debris removal teams down there. And we'll keep you updated. But just be patient for one more day and let us get through it. HEMMER: Governor, I think that's an excellent message to continue pumping out to the public. If I could, one more question for you while I have you here.
RILEY: Sure.
HEMMER: We've been in Mobile for three days now. We consistently hear about the economic impact. It is harvest time for the peanut crop, for the cotton crop, $500 million of income for the State of Alabama.
Can you assess that crop now, Governor?
RILEY: Well, it could not have hit at a worse time for our peanuts, for our pecans. You know, we had our pecan harvest just about ready to come in and it added additional weight to the trees. We know we're going to lose a lot of trees because of that. Cotton was just a few weeks off. But we are talking to the officials in Washington. They are going to have a team come down to start doing appraisals and assessments of how much damage was done. The president has signed our emergency declaration.
So we're going to have the assistance. It's just going to take a few days to make sure that we get all the team players in place to go out and fill out the assessment papers. I want to tell our farmers, you know, we are on top of this.
HEMMER: All right.
RILEY: And we're going to make it out of it.
HEMMER: Governor, good luck to you.
RILEY: Thank you.
HEMMER: Money is one thing, lives are a completely different matter. And so far in Alabama, you're doing all right.
Governor Bob Riley, thank you for your time this morning.
Meanwhile in Florida, a much different situation. There are seven deaths as a result of Ivan. We'll continue to watch it from here in Mobile.
Back to Heidi again now in New York -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Awful news there.
All right, Bill, thanks so much.
We want to check on some other stories now in the news this morning.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is calling the war in Iraq illegal. Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Annan said the decision to take action in Iraq should have been made by the Security Council and not unilaterally by the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: I have made it clear. I've stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council, with the U.N. charter.
QUESTION: It was illegal?
ANNAN: Yes, if you wish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: No immediate reaction to that statement from Washington.
President Bush is expressing concerns that Russia's proposals could undermine democracy. The president's comments come in response to sweeping changes proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of the war on terror. Among the changes, a proposal to unify Russia's security services in a fashion similar to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Attorneys in the Michael Jackson trial return to court later this morning to argue about evidence. The defense claims that items taken from Jackson's Neverland Ranch and a private detective's office should be thrown out of the trial. Tomorrow the mother of the boy Jackson is charged with molesting will testify. Jackson is expected to attend that hearing.
For now, that's all the other news we are looking at.
And I want to get back to the hurricane now and actually hopefully tropical storm Ivan soon. Right, Bill?
HEMMER: That would be great news, wouldn't it, Heidi?
COLLINS: Yes.
HEMMER: Just take that category one label right off it, tick a "TS" on it in front and hopefully it dies out from there.
It's 7:12 local time, Heidi, here in Mobile. It's starting to get lighter by the minute, as the sun comes up here. Well, not much of a sun. It's still cloudy. Winds are strong from the west. It's still raining here. Hope we can get a better lay of the land, too, for you in a moment.
Folks here ready for Ivan. Did their plans pay off, though? We'll check that out in a moment. We'll talk to the director of FEMA in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, nobody is walking around. Just to peer over -- it's tough even just to peer over this wall. HEMMER: That's our meteorologist, Rob Marciano, working overnight, all night, in fact, watching Ivan come onshore. He did a terrific job for us throughout the night here. He's back with us again this morning. He hasn't slept. He's not dry yet and it's still windy outside, but he's with us now live -- and, Rob, hello.
Wonderful work last night.
Good morning to you.
What are your conditions down on the street now?
MARCIANO: Well, Bill, as you know, we had a bit of a lull as the back half of that southern, the southwestern part of the eye wall came through. And everybody was like is this it? And said to you hey, just down the road in Biloxi we've got 70 mile an hour gusts. So we're getting the back half of that as all this air begins to rush into that decaying low pressure as it begins to collapse.
Hey, listen, 50 mile an hour, 60 mile an hour winds, when you have a lot of rain, that's all it takes to knock down some trees. And there are a number of beautiful old trees in this southern city of Mobile, and there are some down on this sidewalk, no doubt about that.
But just how strong do the winds have to be to actually snap steel? That's a good question. That's a very good question. This is a street light that snapped some time last night. Official wind gusts at the airport 70 miles an hour. But I will tell you, from what went through last night, Bill, winds easily exceeded that around this block right here.
We did get lucky in one capacity, other than the wind, and that's the storm surge. You and I have been talking about this for the past couple of days. It took a slight easterly track. We were expecting the water to come all the way up to this point, if not higher, if we got that 12 to 16 foot storm surge. It didn't happen because everything went east. We got that north wind, all that water out to sea. It didn't even make it this way.
So, yes, we're snapping trees, we're snapping telephone polls and street lights, but we didn't get the storm surge. So I guess we have that much to be thankful for -- Bill.
HEMMER: Indeed, you're right about that.
Now, quickly, Rob, what you and Chad have taught us is that history tells us in the northern part of the Gulf, the waters tend to be cooler, as opposed to the warmer waters further south, and that tends to weaken the storms right before they hit land.
Did that happen with Ivan, that we know of, yet?
MARCIANO: It appears that that probably did. There was a little warm eddy before that cool spot. And it really got well organized about 100 to 150 miles offshore. And then right before it came onshore, like you mentioned, there's typically a lot of cooler water from rivers that are dumping out into the Gulf of Mexico. And it became disorganized. It weakened pretty rapidly down to a category three, albeit a strong category three. But it did weaken, you're right, right before it make landfall. So we have that to be thankful for, as well.
But either way you slice it, a category three hurricane, damage done especially to the east of here, Pensacola, Panama City seeming to get the worst of it as far as the wind is concerned.
HEMMER: Indeed, you're right.
Rob, thanks for that.
Rob Marciano down on the street.
We can already feel the temperature here getting cooler as the storm moves further north. Ivan furious, though, when it came ashore. It is still, though, a dangerous storm, even after the storm passes, in fact.
Sanjay Gupta is back in a moment -- how to stay safe in the aftermath. Winds still clocked at 80 miles an hour on Ivan as it heads north.
Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Some pictures from Louisiana now, some flooding there. But overall, the low lying areas there, especially places like New Orleans that are below sea level, that town is, really getting lucky with Ivan moving to the east and sparing, largely, Louisiana.
Getting a report yet again now, one more fatality to talk about in Florida. The number now is eight as the day starts to break here in the Southeast -- back to Heidi again in New York City.
Back to Mobile in a moment with more after this -- Heidi, to you.
COLLINS: Oh, I hate to hear that.
All right, Bill, thanks so much.
We want to check in with Jack now, though, and the Question of the Day, talking about Iraq and a new report, huh?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Heidi.
Hurricane Ivan is a natural disaster that has claimed a few lives and caused several billion dollars damage. That's not to be taken lightly, of course.
But compare it to this. The war in Iraq is a manmade event that has lasted for 18 months at a cost of $200 billion and over 1,000 American lives. And today a classified national intelligence report is out. It's reported on the front page of the "New York Times." It outlines three possible outcomes for Iraq. None of them look very good, the worst being an all out civil war, the best being a country with "tenuous stability in political, economic and security terms." Plus, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska yesterday saying, "We are in deep trouble in Iraq."
The question is this: how optimistic are you about the future of Iraq?
We're not getting a whole lot of optimistic mail, I've got to tell you.
Zoe writes from Cambridge, England: "As an American living abroad, I'm horrified by the current U.S. response to Iraq. Now that President Bush has made the Iraq war the cornerstone of his reelection bid, he cannot afford to acknowledge the many mistakes his administration has made in Iraq."
Pamela in Pinckney, Michigan: "You can only be optimistic if you believe the people of Iraq are better off. Are they? Can they walk out of their homes safely? Can they send their children to the store? Can they go to school? Do they have jobs? And are they capable of doing them without worry of being kidnapped or blown up? No, I'm not optimistic for Iraq."
Bruce in Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin: "Not very. There'll be a great civil war in Iraq and I'm afraid we will take sides in that civil war and then things will be really screwed up."
And Dave in Amherst, New York writes: "Iraq is a real mess. Lucky thing some of us were doing your job for you by saying that it would become that way back in October of 2002."
I appreciate it, Dave. I'll put a little check in the mail to you later tornado.
COLLINS: All right, Jack.
Thanks a lot.
We want to send things back over to Bill now in Mobile, Alabama -- hey, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Heidi, thanks.
Yesterday, you know, we talked to the mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi and he said at the time he would ride the storm out. How did he fare overnight? We'll talk to him in a moment.
Also, updates from Mobile and the Panhandle in Florida, as well, as we continue in a moment on this special edition of hurricane coverage on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Good morning and welcome back. 8:30 back in New York City, 7:30 in New Orleans, Louisiana, where it is getting lighter there, lighter by the hour. Not quite daybreak just yet. The sun is not out. But you can see the seas there still whipping up pretty good there in New Orleans. New Orleans getting lucky right now with Ivan shifting to the east.
Not the case, though, in Alabama; not the case in the State of Florida.
We're in Mobile live again today.
I'm Bill Hemmer.
As we continue our coverage, there's an awful lot to cover this morning with day breaking here. Some house pictures to show you from overnight showing at least one house fire here in Mobile. The fire department responded, but they could not do much with 130 mile an hour winds bearing down. They allowed that home to burn to the ground.
Meanwhile, Ivan slamming Alabama and the Gulf Coast with the eye crossing Gulf Shores, 25 miles southeast of us here in Mobile. Winds clocked, again, at 130 to 135 miles an hour. That's a strong category three to a weaker category four storm. Hundreds of thousands now without power. But the Florida Panhandle, again, seemed to have gotten the brunt of Ivan.
We're getting reports now that eight are dead there in the Panhandle, including an 8-year-old girl who was killed when a tree crashed through her mobile home. Again, in the Florida Panhandle eight dead at this point.
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Aired September 16, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A night of furious wind and driving rain. It will be a morning, too, of destruction. Hurricane Ivan sinking its claws into the Gulf Coast, and it just keeps on going, now digging deeper and deeper into Alabama on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING. Here's Bill Hemmer.
HEMMER: And good morning again.
Live in Mobile, Alabama.
That is our camera down on the street just around the corner from our location here in the hotel. It was a wild night here and the winds keep going this morning. Howling wind and rain lasting for about seven to eight hours at a time, band after band of Ivan coming through this city. And it's blowing again now with the eye moving further north. Now getting the wind from the west.
In the final hours before making land, Ivan ticking just to the east of our location in Mobile on the east side of the Mobile Bay. That kept the storm surge from moving into the city here.
The worst damage from the hurricane's first hours, though, came ashore in Florida. Reports already this morning say seven are dead as a result of Ivan. Right now the storm again is in Alabama. Chad Myers telling us still a category one hurricane. And one of the biggest dangers now is tornadoes.
We've watched the tornadoes being spawned yesterday in the Panhandle. They killed seven as a result. And if you go back over the two week history of this storm, 75 deaths now blamed on Ivan going back to Jamaica, the Grand Caymans, Cuba and Grenada.
Much more coverage throughout the morning here, tracking the storm again into the morning hour light here, as day starts to dawn in Mobile. We want to bring in Heidi Collins again back in New York City, as well -- Heidi, good morning there to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: A very tough morning for a lot of those people down there, Bill. In fact, we are learning now how much destruction Ivan left in its wake. So far, take a look at this, in Florida, seven people are reported killed in Bay and Calhoun Counties. Those deaths appear to have been caused by the tornadoes Bill has been talking about. And hundreds of homes have also been destroyed. At least 77,000 people now without power. That number is very likely to grow. To Alabama now, in the Mobile and Gulf Shores areas, more than 250,000 residents now without power, many of them within the Mobile city limits. No deaths reported there, though. Mississippi Power reporting some 50,000 customers without electricity. And in Louisiana, there were heavy winds and rains, but this morning the hurricane warning has been lifted for New Orleans. Flooding, though, as you would imagine by pictures like that, could still be a problem. There's been a lot of people who have really been affected by this. It's amazing -- back to you.
HEMMER: So true, Heidi.
Listen, I mean Panama City Beach in the east and Biloxi, Mississippi in the west, that's about 213 miles along the coast, which is equal to that stretch of the east coast of Florida where Frances came onshore, 200 miles up and down the east coast of Florida.
I want to start our coverage again this hour, our team coverage, Kathleen Koch is in Biloxi, Mississippi; Jason Bellini is live in New Orleans.
Let's start this hour again with Kathleen there -- and good morning, Kathleen, in Biloxi.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
You know, I lived for roughly 10 years on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and, you know, as you described that coastal area, spanning from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama to Florida, the Gulf Coast just does seem to be an area that sucks hurricanes toward it. And obviously, you know, Ivan was no exception. Though in many places they are breathing a sigh of relief.
But let's start with Florida and give some specifics on those seven deaths. The first two apparently did occur yesterday in the resort city of Panama City, where a tornado touched down, killing two. Then five more killed apparently at some point overnight as another tornado touched down in Blountstown -- that is west of Tallahassee -- again, killing five.
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana very fortunate. We've had no reports of any deaths or even serious injuries yet at this point. But the big story in these three states is really going to be the power outages, the trees downed, lots of damage to roofs, awnings, things like that. But, again, we're counting our blessings this morning. It could have been much, much worse -- Bill.
HEMMER: So true, Kathleen.
Further west now in New Orleans, the Big Easy, really the big lucky tornado.
Jason Bellini is there -- Jason, hello.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Well, the curfew just minutes ago was lifted and already there are a few people on the street. One woman out for her morning walks just came by and she said it's hard to imagine this place could ever be so peaceful. This city got lucky again. No damage in the city itself. The only reported flooding was near Lake Pontchartrain, which is on the northern outskirts of the city. But it's fairly common for there to be some flooding there when there's even just a little bit of rain.
And the city was very lucky to not get very heavy rainfall here last night. The city is only able to pump out an inch of rain an hour. So there would have been flooding if we had been hit more -- a little bit more hard by this hurricane. But this morning people are waking up, getting out on the streets and discovering that things are OK. People are expected to be returning today. Evacuees expected to return tornado. People expected to check out of their hotels, people who vertically evacuated in case there was flooding -- I mean they went to second, third, higher levels of buildings in case this city was underwater. Today, everything is fine -- Bill.
HEMMER: Well, in a city built below sea level, we'll take it.
Jason, thanks.
Jason Bellini there in New Orleans.
In Miami, Ed Rappaport is at the National Hurricane Center.
Ed, good morning to you.
And tell us, at this point, what is the status of Ivan as it move north through Alabama?
ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Ivan has weakened, fortunately. The winds are down to about 80 miles per hour and we would think it'll be downgraded to a tropical storm either later this morning or early in the afternoon.
You see the center here. It's now west-southwest of Montgomery, Alabama. A lot of rain, though, and you've seen, tornadoes associated with this hurricane. And there will still be more as it moves to the north pretty quickly, but then slows as we get into the Appalachians. And so we've got a big rain and flood event ahead of us.
HEMMER: Yes, Ed, one thing we're particularly focused on and worried about tornado is the Panhandle of Florida.
What happened late yesterday afternoon, early evening to spawn those tornadoes from Ivan?
RAPPAPORT: Well, hurricanes often spawn tornadoes, usually to the right and ahead of the center. And we had a couple of these bands, which you can see now, produce tornadoes. And there may be more. Of course the winds were strong consistently near the center where the eye wall came ashore near the Pensacola area. So a broad area got affected and there's going to be even a larger expanse of the southeastern United States that's going to have to deal with this over the next two to three days.
HEMMER: Yes, also, I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves here, what's happening with former tropical storm Jeanne and now hurricane Jeanne?
RAPPAPORT: Well, we've been looking at a National Weather Service radar picture from Ivan. We can do the same for Jeanne.
Here's Puerto Rico. Here's the Dominican Republic on Hispaniola. And you can see a well defined center. And Jeanne, just like Ivan now, has 80 mile per hour winds. It's a hurricane, expected to come into the shoreline of the Dominican Republic or move just north along the shoreline. And in the next three or four days, going through the Bahamas and approaching the southeastern United States.
HEMMER: Well, we'll keep an eye on that.
Ed Rappaport, thanks again for all your help there at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Much appreciated today here in Mobile.
We want to get to the CNN Center yet again and Chad Myers -- Chad, I'm hearing about tornado watches or are they warnings at this point?
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are both. There are two watches out, two really large boxes, and then a bunch of little warnings that are coming out. They don't last long. They're not F4s, they're not F5s, but clearly they can be fatal. You need to be very careful even if it's an F0 or an F1. When you look at, every time we see a little spin here, they're called shear markers, had one right over Panama City again about 20 minutes ago with tornado warnings there.
There will be a lot of tornado warnings all day long. And, in fact, they will get all the way up to Atlanta, all the way into Macon, all the way through Valdosta as this thing continues to spin around here north of Mobile.
That's the eye itself. This entire area here, especially these brighter bands, that's where those tornadoes are going to be all day long. So if you hear the warning going off in your neighborhood, you know what to do. Get into the interior part of your house or to a basement if you have one. It's just going to be one hectic day. And eventually Montgomery is going to get into the eye itself. By the time it gets there, though, winds should be down to about 60, Bill. Right now winds, as you said, 80 miles per hour. That's the latest Hurricane Center forecast. That's from about nine minutes ago.
Eventually that wind speed will go down and down and down. But the area of rainfall will get bigger and bigger and bigger. And there will be a lot of flooding with this, as well -- back to you.
HEMMER: Chad, thanks for that.
Keep you posted.
MYERS: I will.
HEMMER: Chad Myers there at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta.
Bob Riley is the governor of Alabama.
He's my guest now in Clanton, Alabama.
And Governor, I wish I could say good morning, but we're still living through this now.
What have you heard about the situation now in Gulf Shores, where the eye came ashore?
GOV. BOB RILEY (R), ALABAMA: Well, I just got off the phone with the people at the EMA in Baldwin County, which is adjacent to Mobile County. You know, there's a lot of damage down there. There's a tremendous amount of flooding. We've got 250,000 people without electricity. So we've got a lot to do today.
But on the other hand, we just went through a cat four or a very high cat three hurricane. And so far, we have not had any loss of life in Alabama. And that's something that we just have to be very, very thankful for and thank the people that evacuated.
HEMMER: Indeed, you're right, Governor. I think we can underline that and put an exclamation point at the end of it, too. We are all thrilled to hear that news this morning.
However, listening to the forecast in Miami and the forecast from Chad back at the CNN Center, you have 60 to 80 mile an hour winds still at this point.
Your concern for Ivan as it moves through your state is what, Governor?
RILEY: Well, you know, this is something we're going to have to live with all day today, probably until 8:00 or 9:00 tonight. We understand that. I said a moment ago we have a quarter of a million people without electricity in those two counties.
As this moves through Montgomery, as it moves on into Birmingham, which is, you know, most of the population in this state, the utilities here say that number is probably going to climb to over a half a million.
So we know we've got some challenges ahead of us today. But the winds are subsiding today. We just are encouraging everyone to stay in, don't go outside, especially down in Mobile and Baldwin County, because there's too many power lines on the ground, there's too many hanging limbs. Give us one day to get our search and rescue teams down there, get our debris removal teams down there. And we'll keep you updated. But just be patient for one more day and let us get through it. HEMMER: Governor, I think that's an excellent message to continue pumping out to the public. If I could, one more question for you while I have you here.
RILEY: Sure.
HEMMER: We've been in Mobile for three days now. We consistently hear about the economic impact. It is harvest time for the peanut crop, for the cotton crop, $500 million of income for the State of Alabama.
Can you assess that crop now, Governor?
RILEY: Well, it could not have hit at a worse time for our peanuts, for our pecans. You know, we had our pecan harvest just about ready to come in and it added additional weight to the trees. We know we're going to lose a lot of trees because of that. Cotton was just a few weeks off. But we are talking to the officials in Washington. They are going to have a team come down to start doing appraisals and assessments of how much damage was done. The president has signed our emergency declaration.
So we're going to have the assistance. It's just going to take a few days to make sure that we get all the team players in place to go out and fill out the assessment papers. I want to tell our farmers, you know, we are on top of this.
HEMMER: All right.
RILEY: And we're going to make it out of it.
HEMMER: Governor, good luck to you.
RILEY: Thank you.
HEMMER: Money is one thing, lives are a completely different matter. And so far in Alabama, you're doing all right.
Governor Bob Riley, thank you for your time this morning.
Meanwhile in Florida, a much different situation. There are seven deaths as a result of Ivan. We'll continue to watch it from here in Mobile.
Back to Heidi again now in New York -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Awful news there.
All right, Bill, thanks so much.
We want to check on some other stories now in the news this morning.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is calling the war in Iraq illegal. Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Annan said the decision to take action in Iraq should have been made by the Security Council and not unilaterally by the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: I have made it clear. I've stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council, with the U.N. charter.
QUESTION: It was illegal?
ANNAN: Yes, if you wish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: No immediate reaction to that statement from Washington.
President Bush is expressing concerns that Russia's proposals could undermine democracy. The president's comments come in response to sweeping changes proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of the war on terror. Among the changes, a proposal to unify Russia's security services in a fashion similar to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Attorneys in the Michael Jackson trial return to court later this morning to argue about evidence. The defense claims that items taken from Jackson's Neverland Ranch and a private detective's office should be thrown out of the trial. Tomorrow the mother of the boy Jackson is charged with molesting will testify. Jackson is expected to attend that hearing.
For now, that's all the other news we are looking at.
And I want to get back to the hurricane now and actually hopefully tropical storm Ivan soon. Right, Bill?
HEMMER: That would be great news, wouldn't it, Heidi?
COLLINS: Yes.
HEMMER: Just take that category one label right off it, tick a "TS" on it in front and hopefully it dies out from there.
It's 7:12 local time, Heidi, here in Mobile. It's starting to get lighter by the minute, as the sun comes up here. Well, not much of a sun. It's still cloudy. Winds are strong from the west. It's still raining here. Hope we can get a better lay of the land, too, for you in a moment.
Folks here ready for Ivan. Did their plans pay off, though? We'll check that out in a moment. We'll talk to the director of FEMA in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, nobody is walking around. Just to peer over -- it's tough even just to peer over this wall. HEMMER: That's our meteorologist, Rob Marciano, working overnight, all night, in fact, watching Ivan come onshore. He did a terrific job for us throughout the night here. He's back with us again this morning. He hasn't slept. He's not dry yet and it's still windy outside, but he's with us now live -- and, Rob, hello.
Wonderful work last night.
Good morning to you.
What are your conditions down on the street now?
MARCIANO: Well, Bill, as you know, we had a bit of a lull as the back half of that southern, the southwestern part of the eye wall came through. And everybody was like is this it? And said to you hey, just down the road in Biloxi we've got 70 mile an hour gusts. So we're getting the back half of that as all this air begins to rush into that decaying low pressure as it begins to collapse.
Hey, listen, 50 mile an hour, 60 mile an hour winds, when you have a lot of rain, that's all it takes to knock down some trees. And there are a number of beautiful old trees in this southern city of Mobile, and there are some down on this sidewalk, no doubt about that.
But just how strong do the winds have to be to actually snap steel? That's a good question. That's a very good question. This is a street light that snapped some time last night. Official wind gusts at the airport 70 miles an hour. But I will tell you, from what went through last night, Bill, winds easily exceeded that around this block right here.
We did get lucky in one capacity, other than the wind, and that's the storm surge. You and I have been talking about this for the past couple of days. It took a slight easterly track. We were expecting the water to come all the way up to this point, if not higher, if we got that 12 to 16 foot storm surge. It didn't happen because everything went east. We got that north wind, all that water out to sea. It didn't even make it this way.
So, yes, we're snapping trees, we're snapping telephone polls and street lights, but we didn't get the storm surge. So I guess we have that much to be thankful for -- Bill.
HEMMER: Indeed, you're right about that.
Now, quickly, Rob, what you and Chad have taught us is that history tells us in the northern part of the Gulf, the waters tend to be cooler, as opposed to the warmer waters further south, and that tends to weaken the storms right before they hit land.
Did that happen with Ivan, that we know of, yet?
MARCIANO: It appears that that probably did. There was a little warm eddy before that cool spot. And it really got well organized about 100 to 150 miles offshore. And then right before it came onshore, like you mentioned, there's typically a lot of cooler water from rivers that are dumping out into the Gulf of Mexico. And it became disorganized. It weakened pretty rapidly down to a category three, albeit a strong category three. But it did weaken, you're right, right before it make landfall. So we have that to be thankful for, as well.
But either way you slice it, a category three hurricane, damage done especially to the east of here, Pensacola, Panama City seeming to get the worst of it as far as the wind is concerned.
HEMMER: Indeed, you're right.
Rob, thanks for that.
Rob Marciano down on the street.
We can already feel the temperature here getting cooler as the storm moves further north. Ivan furious, though, when it came ashore. It is still, though, a dangerous storm, even after the storm passes, in fact.
Sanjay Gupta is back in a moment -- how to stay safe in the aftermath. Winds still clocked at 80 miles an hour on Ivan as it heads north.
Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Some pictures from Louisiana now, some flooding there. But overall, the low lying areas there, especially places like New Orleans that are below sea level, that town is, really getting lucky with Ivan moving to the east and sparing, largely, Louisiana.
Getting a report yet again now, one more fatality to talk about in Florida. The number now is eight as the day starts to break here in the Southeast -- back to Heidi again in New York City.
Back to Mobile in a moment with more after this -- Heidi, to you.
COLLINS: Oh, I hate to hear that.
All right, Bill, thanks so much.
We want to check in with Jack now, though, and the Question of the Day, talking about Iraq and a new report, huh?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Heidi.
Hurricane Ivan is a natural disaster that has claimed a few lives and caused several billion dollars damage. That's not to be taken lightly, of course.
But compare it to this. The war in Iraq is a manmade event that has lasted for 18 months at a cost of $200 billion and over 1,000 American lives. And today a classified national intelligence report is out. It's reported on the front page of the "New York Times." It outlines three possible outcomes for Iraq. None of them look very good, the worst being an all out civil war, the best being a country with "tenuous stability in political, economic and security terms." Plus, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska yesterday saying, "We are in deep trouble in Iraq."
The question is this: how optimistic are you about the future of Iraq?
We're not getting a whole lot of optimistic mail, I've got to tell you.
Zoe writes from Cambridge, England: "As an American living abroad, I'm horrified by the current U.S. response to Iraq. Now that President Bush has made the Iraq war the cornerstone of his reelection bid, he cannot afford to acknowledge the many mistakes his administration has made in Iraq."
Pamela in Pinckney, Michigan: "You can only be optimistic if you believe the people of Iraq are better off. Are they? Can they walk out of their homes safely? Can they send their children to the store? Can they go to school? Do they have jobs? And are they capable of doing them without worry of being kidnapped or blown up? No, I'm not optimistic for Iraq."
Bruce in Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin: "Not very. There'll be a great civil war in Iraq and I'm afraid we will take sides in that civil war and then things will be really screwed up."
And Dave in Amherst, New York writes: "Iraq is a real mess. Lucky thing some of us were doing your job for you by saying that it would become that way back in October of 2002."
I appreciate it, Dave. I'll put a little check in the mail to you later tornado.
COLLINS: All right, Jack.
Thanks a lot.
We want to send things back over to Bill now in Mobile, Alabama -- hey, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Heidi, thanks.
Yesterday, you know, we talked to the mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi and he said at the time he would ride the storm out. How did he fare overnight? We'll talk to him in a moment.
Also, updates from Mobile and the Panhandle in Florida, as well, as we continue in a moment on this special edition of hurricane coverage on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Good morning and welcome back. 8:30 back in New York City, 7:30 in New Orleans, Louisiana, where it is getting lighter there, lighter by the hour. Not quite daybreak just yet. The sun is not out. But you can see the seas there still whipping up pretty good there in New Orleans. New Orleans getting lucky right now with Ivan shifting to the east.
Not the case, though, in Alabama; not the case in the State of Florida.
We're in Mobile live again today.
I'm Bill Hemmer.
As we continue our coverage, there's an awful lot to cover this morning with day breaking here. Some house pictures to show you from overnight showing at least one house fire here in Mobile. The fire department responded, but they could not do much with 130 mile an hour winds bearing down. They allowed that home to burn to the ground.
Meanwhile, Ivan slamming Alabama and the Gulf Coast with the eye crossing Gulf Shores, 25 miles southeast of us here in Mobile. Winds clocked, again, at 130 to 135 miles an hour. That's a strong category three to a weaker category four storm. Hundreds of thousands now without power. But the Florida Panhandle, again, seemed to have gotten the brunt of Ivan.
We're getting reports now that eight are dead there in the Panhandle, including an 8-year-old girl who was killed when a tree crashed through her mobile home. Again, in the Florida Panhandle eight dead at this point.
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