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American Morning
Billions of Dollars in Hurricane Losses; Kobe Bryant Case
Aired September 17, 2004 - 07:00 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: Good morning. Ivan sharing the misery now, from Pensacola to Pennsylvania. This massive system now a flat- out flood maker.
And the damage assessment continues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're seeing here today, I think it's going to take us several weeks, if not months, to recovering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Billions of dollars in hurricane losses, Ivan's impact is everywhere to see.
And they just keep on coming too. Now Karl joins Jeanne in the atlantic.
Also today, it's happened again in Iraq. Insurgents strike in Baghdad. Dozens of casualties there.
And in politics, what's going on in the polls? One survey shows the president way up. The other finds a dead heat yet again, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING. Here is Bill Hemmer.
HEMMER: And good morning. I'm Bill Hemmer, live again today in Gulf Shores, Alabama this morning. We're literally standing in the middle of height way here, a state route that runs a mile behind me to the shoreline. No one has been out yet to assess the damage from Hurricane Ivan. That's why we are here today. Perhaps later this afternoon, maybe some residents will go back. But so far, no one has been able to see what's left of their homes back there behind us. And also that shoreline, which is the prime shoreline here in the state of Alabama.
A whole lot of devastation up and down the Gulf Coast. And certainly the folks here are not the only ones hit hard by this storm. Ivan still a tropical depression. It will be dumping rain across the east today, especially in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Flooding is already started. By all accounts, it will get worse before it gets better, especially in places like Atlanta, Georgia, hit hard late yesterday afternoon. The death toll from Ivan now stands at 13, fatalities in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. More than 1,600,000 customers still without power today. And the early damage estimates put the price tag on Ivan somewhere between $2 billion and $10 billion, and that is just in insured losses. And they hope clarify that figure as we go later into the day today on this Friday.
Also on the storm, we'll be talking for many years to come, and it is not over yet, as we've mentioned. Complete coverage throughout the morning here. We'll let you know where the storm is headed as well.
Also, Heidi Collins back in New York City again.
Heidi, good morning there.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. What a morning for you indeed.
We'll be talking, of course, all morning long about Ivan.
Some of the other stories that we're following this morning though: we are still getting information on this car bombing in Baghdad. Conflicting reports right now on how many people were killed. We will have more on that situation in a live report coming up, of course.
Also, Jeff Toobin is with us this morning. We're going to look at some new information coming out in the Kobe Bryant matter. In the hours after the alleged assault, did he ask police if he could settle things before his wife found out. Jeff is telling us about that, and Michael Mackson, who is expected back in the courtroom today. We'll be on both of those topics, as well as Jack Cafferty.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Heidi.
A couple of weeks ago we went on to great length about the Miller Brewing Company putting out this commemorative series of beer cans marking the 50th anniversary to rock 'n' roll. They managed to do it without including any black artists. They later admitted that they'd made a stake. Now "Rolling Stone" magazine, arguable the Bible of this kind of music, and probably should know better, is making the same kind of goof, and we'll take look at it in a few minutes and see if we can resolve this issue once and for all.
COLLINS: Interesting. You really stirred it up with that, didn't you?
CAFFERTY: Well, they stirred it up. We just called attention to it.
COLLINS: That's true. All right, Jack, thanks so much for that.
Want to check on the stories now in the news this morning. A major blast rocks central Baghdad. Officials say a suicide car bomb detonated near an Iraqi police convoy just about two hours ago. At least three people were killed, dozens others are wounded. Earlier in Fallujah, a U.S. airstrike on a reported terrorist meeting killed some 60 people. Military sources say they were targeting militants linked to suspected terrorist Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
And new details this morning about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A top U.S. inspector has reportedly concluded weapons were not being stockpiled in Iraq, but there were signs Saddam Hussein had intentions to restart his weapons program at some point in the future. That according to an unpublished report from the Iraq Survey Group, cited by the Associated Press.
And a die-hard baseball fan may have struck out. Michael Mayhan spent $25,000 to buy out all right field bleacher seats in Dodgers Stadium for the October 1st through 3rd games. He was hoping to catch Barry Bonds' 700th home run ball. But with 12 games to go, Bonds at 699, Mayhan admits chances are slim. Bonds will try to get into the 700 club again tonight.
What a bummer that is.
All right, Bill, want to send it back to you now.
Good morning.
HEMMER: All right, Heidi. Good morning again here.
We are on interstate, state Route rather 59 here, Heidi. Just want to give our viewers an idea of why we're here today. Behind me, you see the police cars. They're preventing anyone from going back there to the beach here. Interstate 59 runs to the shore line. It cuts about eight to 10 miles to the west, another four to six miles to the east. We are told there's extensive damage, but how much damage cannot be said because people have not been able to go back there.
The mayor was there for a short time yesterday. We will talk to him in a moment here in Alabama.
It is quite possible, though, that the devastation we are seeing so far in the panhandle of Florida could be the same treatment that Alabama was given just about 24 hours ago.
Late yesterday afternoon, this is what we found up and down the Alabama shore.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: It is hard to miss the mark of Ivan. The clean-up is just beginning. And so are the stories.
MARTHA HOWARD, GULF SHORES RESIDENT: It was as noisy as it can be. The house is shaking, the doors are shaking, the windows are shaking, you know, the noise is just tremendous.
HEMMER: People here will get used to this sound. Dr. Lyle Cooper is already trying to get his practice up and running, but, he admits, it may take weeks.
(on camera): How long will it take now for you to get this place up and running again?
DR. LYLE COOPER, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: I hope we will be back in a week or two. Hopefully we'll get some electricity, some power back. I don't know about the water. I haven't checked anything to see if that's working yet.
HEMMER (voice-over): For miles along state Route 59, giant trees that stood the test of time could not pass the test of nature. Twisted metal clings to gasoline pumps. Businesses and stores have been cut in half.
(on camera): This storm is so strong, even businesses that took precautions completely wrecked. This is a tax store and a phone store.
Also there is a supermarket here. The brick wall here is down. And if you look down this aisle, you can see the roof is gone too.
(voice-over): And in some areas, there is a new landscape. Here in Gulf Shores, this overflowing lagoon has sliced a river's path across a highway. Just beyond, a stretch of beachfront property is cut off, but the mayor is not panicking.
MAYOR DAVID BODENHAMMER, GULF SHORES, ALABAMA: Well, you know, this is not our first rodeo. But unfortunately, it's the biggest one we've ever had. And we certainly are sympathetic what everybody north of us had experienced this. I mean, it was bad for us. We know it's bad for a lot of other people.
HEMMER: Late Thursday, the Alabama National Guard rolled out the help of security and with clean-up. That's welcome news to those who live here and who lived through it.
DAVID PELECHAK, GULF SHORES CITY WORKER: It was a little scary, a little scary. I mean, we were doing some work, and it was so calm you could light a cigarette.
HEMMER: Yes, the stories are just beginning, now that Ivan has gone away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: David Bodenhammer is the mayor here in Gulf Shores, Alabama, my guest now as well.
And good morning to you.
I wish we were talking under different circumstances. But yesterday you told me here when the water line was right about where we're standing, that this was worst than Frederic of 25 years ago. How do you assess it at this point?
BODENHAMMER: Well, from what we've seen so far, many similarities to Frederic. But with I think some of the flooding that we had is the primary difference between that storm and the one we've just experienced.
HEMMER: What we're trying to figure out though is what's happening with this stretch of beachfront property behind us. What can you say about it today?
BODENHAMMER: Well, from what little bit we saw yesterday afternoon, chief of police and I got in down there for a short period of time. A lot of damage, lot of roof damage, lot of beach erosion, a lot of structures appear to be up, but not having the time to do a building-by-building assessment, we really don't know to the extent that they are damaged. We will try to get in there later today and do a little more extensive assessment. We hope that we're going to do a flyover today to see the entire beachfront area from the air also. It will give us a little better idea what we're dealing with.
HEMMER: You have described for us a three-foot wall of sand that has covered some of the road. How much did you see of that yesterday?
BODENHAMMER: We could see -- well, we walked about 500 or 600 yards in either direction from the intersection down there. As far as we could see east and west, the road appears to be covered with sand. It's probably still intact in most places. There may be a few breaches there. But it will just take time for us to get DOT in down there and get sand off the road.
HEMMER: Based on what we're hearing further east of here, especially right along the Florida border with Alabama, the devastation there is just gut wrenching. Is it possible this area was hit just as hard, or not?
BODENHAMMER: Very possible. It is possible that maybe they might have experienced even a little more damage than us. The further east that you might have been of the eyewall, the worse the damage would probably have been.
HEMMER: Good luck to you, OK.
BODENHAMMER: Thank you so much.
HEMMER: I know you're going back out later today, so keep us posted as well.
BODENHAMMER: Appreciate it.
HEMMER: David Bodenhammer, the mayor here in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
BODENHAMMER: Want to go further east right now, again, Heidi.
And quickly want to go out to Rick Sanchez, who's watching again today, as he was yesterday in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Also in Pensacola, Chris Lawrence is surveying the damage there.
Let's start with Chris.
Chris, good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Unfortunately, not a lot of change here from yesterday into this morning, meaning we still don't have power. You can't flush a toilet. And thousands of people are still living in shelters.
Now to make matters worse, from here west it's basically virtually cut off from the rest of the state of Florida, because interstate 10, a section of it, is basically shut down, because a section of it is missing out over Escambia Bay. Some of the witnesses tell us it was almost like a giant hand picked up the highway and jerked it hard leaving several sections of it missing. It collapsed during the hurricane, and police are now blocking that area in both directions.
The problem is, I-10 being the main east-west thoroughfare, and police saying it's going to be a significant amount of time before it's repaired, that's going to have a big effect on Florida's commerce and transportation.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get better when you get into Pensacola proper. They're calling it a disaster area. Winds over 100 miles per hour and waves surging nearly two stories high, damaged homes, splintered trees. It's got power lines, left them dangling over the roads. A lot of people have not been able to get back into their homes. The ones who have quickly found out some of them don't have a home to go back to -- Bill.
HEMMER: Chris Lawrence there in Pensacola.
Further east, Panama City Beach and Rick Sanchez.
Rick, good morning. How are things now with day breaking on this Friday morning?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill. We've shown you the bad; let's show you some of the good. This is something that tourism officials here are going to be real happy about. Might be a little too early see. But behind me, there is a beach. That is the beach that many of the tourist dollars come into this area for. And for the first time in three days, we are seeing it today.
Now back to the bad. You know, this hurricane, Ivan, is probably going to be characterized as one that's large and with a real tough outer shell. You were alluding to it not long ago. And that is the fact that it's the outer fringe, almost 100 miles away from the eye of this hurricane, where at least a lot of the damage and most of the deaths were seen, case in point, Calhoun County. I've been on the phone this morning with some EOC officials, again, in Calhoun County. And stories they are telling me, and as you can see from some of the pictures, it's really just one of devastation. I asked them if some of those trailers that were in those areas had been anchored down. He said, yes, for the most part, they were double anchored before the storm. And still, the storm was able to break through the anchors, pull them out of the ground.
In one case, he says one trailer was picked 200 to 300 feet up in the air and thrown against a tree. Total devastation. Five people were thought to originally have perished in the storm, but turns out it was only four. One person though is still in very critical condition.
One final note. Most of these storms, like famous athletes, are retired, at least their numbers, after they retire from the sports world. In the case of hurricanes, it's their names. Expect that Ivan will be among those.
Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: Rick, thanks. Rick Sanchez there. We will be check in throughout the morning with our reporters up and down the Gulf Coast here.
Keep in mind, has we talk about the story, the wide range of devastation, almost stretching for a 200-mile area. Yesterday at this time, this was a story for Florida, and a story for Alabama. As Ivan moved further inland, places like Atlanta, Georgia, with massive amounts of devastation there late yesterday afternoon, the story started to become a regional issue.
And now as we go throughout the day, with Ivan still a large storm moving up the East Coast, it's almost becoming an eastern half of the U.S. story.
We'll track that as well throughout the morning here in Gulf Shores. Back to Heidi again now in New York City.
COLLINS: Unbelievable how wide-ranging, that's for sure.
All right, Bill, thanks so much.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: And still to come this morning, Michael Jackson is expected in court today to hear testimony from the mother of his accuser, also be talking about Kobe Bryant. We're going to have a preview on both cases from Jeff Toobin.
And from Frances to Ivan, what has been the economic impact of this hurricane season, all of it ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Another live look this morning at Gulf Shores, Alabama. Boy, hit really hard by Hurricane Ivan. We'll be talking about the aftermath all morning long. We know damage estimates anywhere between $2 billion and $7 billion, quite a margin, but we will update you on that as soon as we learn more here.
Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant is out of criminal jeopardy in his sexual assault case, but will newly released reports about his comments to police affect the civil lawsuit against him? With that, and the latest also in the Michael Jackson case, senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joining us now this morning.
Good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, ma'am.
COLLINS: Thanks for being here.
I want to talk about this "Vail (ph) Daily" report that was published. There was a printout of an interview that Kobe Bryant did with detectives the night after he was accused of rape.
Now there are several sources to talk about here. The paper got this printout and an audio recording from somebody who mailed it in anonymously from Denver. OK, but the prosecution is -- sources, the AP, Associated Press. It appears to be accurate, they say. But our attempts to reach Bryant's attorney, Pamela Mackey, they were not successful. So I want to read from this transcript, and then get your comments on it. Here's what it said: "Kobe Bryant says, is there any way I can settle this, whatever it is, I mean?" Winters says, "Well, what do you mean by settle?" Bryant says, if my wife found out that anybody made any type of allegations against me, she would be infuriated." You think any of this will have any impact on the civil trial? I mean, What does it mean?
TOOBIN: You know, In a funny way, this may help Kobe Bryant in the civil case, because one of the big pieces of leverage that his accuser has against him in the civil case is if you don't settle this embarrassing material, more embarrassing material is going to come out. This transcript is very embarrassing. He talks about how he has another woman that he's having an affair with, he even identifies this woman. He talks about how at first he lies and says there was no sexual contact with this accuser, then he admits it. It's a very embarrassing transcript. It's now out. It's now public. The leverage of withholding this kind of embarrassing material is now gone from the accuser.
So in a funny way, even though this is embarrassing material, it may help him save some money in the civil case.
COLLINS: Very interesting. We'll follow up on that of course.
Want to turn to the Jackson case, if we could. We know that the mother of Michael Jackson's accuser is going to take the stand today. The defense called her though. Why?
TOOBIN: Well, this whole pretrial hearing today is about the search of an investigator's home near Michael Jackson -- who was helping Michael Jackson's lawyers. And the question is, was this search legal? Did they get involved in attorney/client work product? And this mother of the accuser apparently knows something about the relationship between the investigator and Michael Jackson. That's the official reason for her testifying.
The sort of unofficial reason, I would say, is whenever you have someone you want -- who will be testifying at the trial, you want them under oath as much as possible. You want them testifying a lot so that they have the possibility of contradicting themselves. So they're going to put her on the stand, see what she says.
I think most of this pre-trial skirmishing will not have much of an impact. The investigators, they had search warrants. It's very difficult to suppress information that's gathered if the prosecution has a search warrant.
COLLINS: Quickly, what do you think that face-to-face encounter will be like between Jackson and the mother?
TOOBIN: It's going to be very tense, because remember, Michael Jackson took these people all around the world. He knows them very well. There very well could be an intimidation factor there, and you know, we'll see how she reacts to it.
COLLINS: All right, we'll talk with you later about that, I'm sure.
Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much, for both of those cases for us this morning.
Still to come now today, for homeowners, hurricane season is bringing a double dose of pain. We'll talk about that next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Obviously a much different sight than what we saw yesterday in this area of Gulf Shores Alabama. Rushing waters is what we saw yesterday. Those waters a little bit calmer, receding waters today in that area. We'll get back to Bill Hemmer, standing by there in just a moment.
But you know, the devastating toll of these three hurricanes is even likely to show up now in major government economic readings.
Andy Serwer is there to talk about that, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Heidi.
That's for sure, we're talking about gross domestic product and how it's going to wreaking havoc with -- well, the hurricanes will be wreaking havoc, that is, upon GDP, for the third and fourth quarter this year.
Let's check out how the hurricanes tally up at this moment. Charley, obviously, about $7 billion, Frances, $2.5 billion. Ivan, we're talking about a $4 billion to $10 billion range. So if you add all those up, and let's take a midrange for Ivan, you're talking about $16 billion worth of damage this season. That's second, of course, to Andrew in '92, which was $20. It will be above Cal Northridge, the earthquake back then as well, which was $15 billion. Excuse me. Could help out actually next year though, Heidi, as we rebuild. It would actually be a boost to the economy, particularly in Florida, as they get things going there.
Want to talk also talk about a situation, a story in "USA Today" about deductibles, homeowners in Florida really feeling some pain there. Two deductibles for two hurricanes, possibly even a third deductible for a third hurricane because of the way the system works. Every hurricane is a separate event.
So in other words, if your roof got blown off by Charley and then the rain came in with Frances, you'd have to pay two deductibles. Here's how it would work, about 2 percent of your home's insured cost, so if you had a $200,000 home, that would be, say, $8,000. The insurance inspector down there trying to get that changed, kind of reminds me of the World Trade Center controversy.
COLLINS: Yes, too bad you can't get a policy for the entire season.
SERWER: That's what they're looking to change it to, and then, in fact, a lot of people are getting relief that sort of way.
COLLINS: Well, hopefully they'll get it certainly.
Andy, thanks so much for that.
SERWER: You're welcome.
And time now for "The Cafferty File," the Question of the Day from Jack as well.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Heidi.
First the Miller Brewing Company announced a series of beer cans commemorating the 50th anniversary of rock 'n' roll that included no black artists. They eventually admitted they screwed up. And they did. And we beat on them unmercifully for a week on this program about it. But they owned up to it and said they made a mistake.
Now, "Rolling Stone" magazine, who ought to know better, says in this week's issue says that rock 'n' roll started with Elvis Presley's earliest recordings, and that has some black artists up in arms, a group that includes people like Dionne Warwick and Chuck Jackson say that without artists like Chuck Berry, and Little Richard and Bo Didley and Fats Domino and some others, there'd be no rock 'n' roll, and Elvis likely would have wound up a country and western singer. Now I don't know about that. But I think the point about the black artist is probably true.
The question is this, "Who ought to get credit for the birth of rock 'n' roll? " And it's Friday. And if you want to write to us about your family problems or stuff like that, I guess can you do that too, anything you want.
COLLINS: Tough to say, though, that one person, you know, came up with the whole idea of rock 'n' roll, maybe made some advances and contributed, but...
CAFFERTY: What Elvis did was get exposure on white radio stations for black music. Rhythm and blues and some of the gospel music was kind of synergized with country and western, or hillbilly music as they called it then. And he got it -- because he was white, they played his stuff on white radio stations, and that got the music exposed to a big enough audience where it took off. Before that, I think it was rock 'n' roll music, but it was black artists, and they were only playing on black radio stations and not very many people heard it..
SERWER: I always thought that band Queen that invented rock 'n' roll.
CAFFERTY: You would.
SERWER: That was a softball down the middle of the plate for you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: You would.
COLLINS: Still to come now, we've got the Friday edition of "90- Second Pop" for you.
It's primetime Emmy time Sunday night, and stars from all over are hoping for the big prizes. We'll look at who is going for the gold.
And it's dog fights in the sky and romance on the court at this weekend's box office. We'll take a look at this weekend's big movies.
Stay with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired September 17, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Ivan sharing the misery now, from Pensacola to Pennsylvania. This massive system now a flat- out flood maker.
And the damage assessment continues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're seeing here today, I think it's going to take us several weeks, if not months, to recovering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Billions of dollars in hurricane losses, Ivan's impact is everywhere to see.
And they just keep on coming too. Now Karl joins Jeanne in the atlantic.
Also today, it's happened again in Iraq. Insurgents strike in Baghdad. Dozens of casualties there.
And in politics, what's going on in the polls? One survey shows the president way up. The other finds a dead heat yet again, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING. Here is Bill Hemmer.
HEMMER: And good morning. I'm Bill Hemmer, live again today in Gulf Shores, Alabama this morning. We're literally standing in the middle of height way here, a state route that runs a mile behind me to the shoreline. No one has been out yet to assess the damage from Hurricane Ivan. That's why we are here today. Perhaps later this afternoon, maybe some residents will go back. But so far, no one has been able to see what's left of their homes back there behind us. And also that shoreline, which is the prime shoreline here in the state of Alabama.
A whole lot of devastation up and down the Gulf Coast. And certainly the folks here are not the only ones hit hard by this storm. Ivan still a tropical depression. It will be dumping rain across the east today, especially in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Flooding is already started. By all accounts, it will get worse before it gets better, especially in places like Atlanta, Georgia, hit hard late yesterday afternoon. The death toll from Ivan now stands at 13, fatalities in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. More than 1,600,000 customers still without power today. And the early damage estimates put the price tag on Ivan somewhere between $2 billion and $10 billion, and that is just in insured losses. And they hope clarify that figure as we go later into the day today on this Friday.
Also on the storm, we'll be talking for many years to come, and it is not over yet, as we've mentioned. Complete coverage throughout the morning here. We'll let you know where the storm is headed as well.
Also, Heidi Collins back in New York City again.
Heidi, good morning there.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. What a morning for you indeed.
We'll be talking, of course, all morning long about Ivan.
Some of the other stories that we're following this morning though: we are still getting information on this car bombing in Baghdad. Conflicting reports right now on how many people were killed. We will have more on that situation in a live report coming up, of course.
Also, Jeff Toobin is with us this morning. We're going to look at some new information coming out in the Kobe Bryant matter. In the hours after the alleged assault, did he ask police if he could settle things before his wife found out. Jeff is telling us about that, and Michael Mackson, who is expected back in the courtroom today. We'll be on both of those topics, as well as Jack Cafferty.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Heidi.
A couple of weeks ago we went on to great length about the Miller Brewing Company putting out this commemorative series of beer cans marking the 50th anniversary to rock 'n' roll. They managed to do it without including any black artists. They later admitted that they'd made a stake. Now "Rolling Stone" magazine, arguable the Bible of this kind of music, and probably should know better, is making the same kind of goof, and we'll take look at it in a few minutes and see if we can resolve this issue once and for all.
COLLINS: Interesting. You really stirred it up with that, didn't you?
CAFFERTY: Well, they stirred it up. We just called attention to it.
COLLINS: That's true. All right, Jack, thanks so much for that.
Want to check on the stories now in the news this morning. A major blast rocks central Baghdad. Officials say a suicide car bomb detonated near an Iraqi police convoy just about two hours ago. At least three people were killed, dozens others are wounded. Earlier in Fallujah, a U.S. airstrike on a reported terrorist meeting killed some 60 people. Military sources say they were targeting militants linked to suspected terrorist Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
And new details this morning about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A top U.S. inspector has reportedly concluded weapons were not being stockpiled in Iraq, but there were signs Saddam Hussein had intentions to restart his weapons program at some point in the future. That according to an unpublished report from the Iraq Survey Group, cited by the Associated Press.
And a die-hard baseball fan may have struck out. Michael Mayhan spent $25,000 to buy out all right field bleacher seats in Dodgers Stadium for the October 1st through 3rd games. He was hoping to catch Barry Bonds' 700th home run ball. But with 12 games to go, Bonds at 699, Mayhan admits chances are slim. Bonds will try to get into the 700 club again tonight.
What a bummer that is.
All right, Bill, want to send it back to you now.
Good morning.
HEMMER: All right, Heidi. Good morning again here.
We are on interstate, state Route rather 59 here, Heidi. Just want to give our viewers an idea of why we're here today. Behind me, you see the police cars. They're preventing anyone from going back there to the beach here. Interstate 59 runs to the shore line. It cuts about eight to 10 miles to the west, another four to six miles to the east. We are told there's extensive damage, but how much damage cannot be said because people have not been able to go back there.
The mayor was there for a short time yesterday. We will talk to him in a moment here in Alabama.
It is quite possible, though, that the devastation we are seeing so far in the panhandle of Florida could be the same treatment that Alabama was given just about 24 hours ago.
Late yesterday afternoon, this is what we found up and down the Alabama shore.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: It is hard to miss the mark of Ivan. The clean-up is just beginning. And so are the stories.
MARTHA HOWARD, GULF SHORES RESIDENT: It was as noisy as it can be. The house is shaking, the doors are shaking, the windows are shaking, you know, the noise is just tremendous.
HEMMER: People here will get used to this sound. Dr. Lyle Cooper is already trying to get his practice up and running, but, he admits, it may take weeks.
(on camera): How long will it take now for you to get this place up and running again?
DR. LYLE COOPER, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: I hope we will be back in a week or two. Hopefully we'll get some electricity, some power back. I don't know about the water. I haven't checked anything to see if that's working yet.
HEMMER (voice-over): For miles along state Route 59, giant trees that stood the test of time could not pass the test of nature. Twisted metal clings to gasoline pumps. Businesses and stores have been cut in half.
(on camera): This storm is so strong, even businesses that took precautions completely wrecked. This is a tax store and a phone store.
Also there is a supermarket here. The brick wall here is down. And if you look down this aisle, you can see the roof is gone too.
(voice-over): And in some areas, there is a new landscape. Here in Gulf Shores, this overflowing lagoon has sliced a river's path across a highway. Just beyond, a stretch of beachfront property is cut off, but the mayor is not panicking.
MAYOR DAVID BODENHAMMER, GULF SHORES, ALABAMA: Well, you know, this is not our first rodeo. But unfortunately, it's the biggest one we've ever had. And we certainly are sympathetic what everybody north of us had experienced this. I mean, it was bad for us. We know it's bad for a lot of other people.
HEMMER: Late Thursday, the Alabama National Guard rolled out the help of security and with clean-up. That's welcome news to those who live here and who lived through it.
DAVID PELECHAK, GULF SHORES CITY WORKER: It was a little scary, a little scary. I mean, we were doing some work, and it was so calm you could light a cigarette.
HEMMER: Yes, the stories are just beginning, now that Ivan has gone away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: David Bodenhammer is the mayor here in Gulf Shores, Alabama, my guest now as well.
And good morning to you.
I wish we were talking under different circumstances. But yesterday you told me here when the water line was right about where we're standing, that this was worst than Frederic of 25 years ago. How do you assess it at this point?
BODENHAMMER: Well, from what we've seen so far, many similarities to Frederic. But with I think some of the flooding that we had is the primary difference between that storm and the one we've just experienced.
HEMMER: What we're trying to figure out though is what's happening with this stretch of beachfront property behind us. What can you say about it today?
BODENHAMMER: Well, from what little bit we saw yesterday afternoon, chief of police and I got in down there for a short period of time. A lot of damage, lot of roof damage, lot of beach erosion, a lot of structures appear to be up, but not having the time to do a building-by-building assessment, we really don't know to the extent that they are damaged. We will try to get in there later today and do a little more extensive assessment. We hope that we're going to do a flyover today to see the entire beachfront area from the air also. It will give us a little better idea what we're dealing with.
HEMMER: You have described for us a three-foot wall of sand that has covered some of the road. How much did you see of that yesterday?
BODENHAMMER: We could see -- well, we walked about 500 or 600 yards in either direction from the intersection down there. As far as we could see east and west, the road appears to be covered with sand. It's probably still intact in most places. There may be a few breaches there. But it will just take time for us to get DOT in down there and get sand off the road.
HEMMER: Based on what we're hearing further east of here, especially right along the Florida border with Alabama, the devastation there is just gut wrenching. Is it possible this area was hit just as hard, or not?
BODENHAMMER: Very possible. It is possible that maybe they might have experienced even a little more damage than us. The further east that you might have been of the eyewall, the worse the damage would probably have been.
HEMMER: Good luck to you, OK.
BODENHAMMER: Thank you so much.
HEMMER: I know you're going back out later today, so keep us posted as well.
BODENHAMMER: Appreciate it.
HEMMER: David Bodenhammer, the mayor here in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
BODENHAMMER: Want to go further east right now, again, Heidi.
And quickly want to go out to Rick Sanchez, who's watching again today, as he was yesterday in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Also in Pensacola, Chris Lawrence is surveying the damage there.
Let's start with Chris.
Chris, good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Unfortunately, not a lot of change here from yesterday into this morning, meaning we still don't have power. You can't flush a toilet. And thousands of people are still living in shelters.
Now to make matters worse, from here west it's basically virtually cut off from the rest of the state of Florida, because interstate 10, a section of it, is basically shut down, because a section of it is missing out over Escambia Bay. Some of the witnesses tell us it was almost like a giant hand picked up the highway and jerked it hard leaving several sections of it missing. It collapsed during the hurricane, and police are now blocking that area in both directions.
The problem is, I-10 being the main east-west thoroughfare, and police saying it's going to be a significant amount of time before it's repaired, that's going to have a big effect on Florida's commerce and transportation.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get better when you get into Pensacola proper. They're calling it a disaster area. Winds over 100 miles per hour and waves surging nearly two stories high, damaged homes, splintered trees. It's got power lines, left them dangling over the roads. A lot of people have not been able to get back into their homes. The ones who have quickly found out some of them don't have a home to go back to -- Bill.
HEMMER: Chris Lawrence there in Pensacola.
Further east, Panama City Beach and Rick Sanchez.
Rick, good morning. How are things now with day breaking on this Friday morning?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill. We've shown you the bad; let's show you some of the good. This is something that tourism officials here are going to be real happy about. Might be a little too early see. But behind me, there is a beach. That is the beach that many of the tourist dollars come into this area for. And for the first time in three days, we are seeing it today.
Now back to the bad. You know, this hurricane, Ivan, is probably going to be characterized as one that's large and with a real tough outer shell. You were alluding to it not long ago. And that is the fact that it's the outer fringe, almost 100 miles away from the eye of this hurricane, where at least a lot of the damage and most of the deaths were seen, case in point, Calhoun County. I've been on the phone this morning with some EOC officials, again, in Calhoun County. And stories they are telling me, and as you can see from some of the pictures, it's really just one of devastation. I asked them if some of those trailers that were in those areas had been anchored down. He said, yes, for the most part, they were double anchored before the storm. And still, the storm was able to break through the anchors, pull them out of the ground.
In one case, he says one trailer was picked 200 to 300 feet up in the air and thrown against a tree. Total devastation. Five people were thought to originally have perished in the storm, but turns out it was only four. One person though is still in very critical condition.
One final note. Most of these storms, like famous athletes, are retired, at least their numbers, after they retire from the sports world. In the case of hurricanes, it's their names. Expect that Ivan will be among those.
Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: Rick, thanks. Rick Sanchez there. We will be check in throughout the morning with our reporters up and down the Gulf Coast here.
Keep in mind, has we talk about the story, the wide range of devastation, almost stretching for a 200-mile area. Yesterday at this time, this was a story for Florida, and a story for Alabama. As Ivan moved further inland, places like Atlanta, Georgia, with massive amounts of devastation there late yesterday afternoon, the story started to become a regional issue.
And now as we go throughout the day, with Ivan still a large storm moving up the East Coast, it's almost becoming an eastern half of the U.S. story.
We'll track that as well throughout the morning here in Gulf Shores. Back to Heidi again now in New York City.
COLLINS: Unbelievable how wide-ranging, that's for sure.
All right, Bill, thanks so much.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: And still to come this morning, Michael Jackson is expected in court today to hear testimony from the mother of his accuser, also be talking about Kobe Bryant. We're going to have a preview on both cases from Jeff Toobin.
And from Frances to Ivan, what has been the economic impact of this hurricane season, all of it ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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COLLINS: Another live look this morning at Gulf Shores, Alabama. Boy, hit really hard by Hurricane Ivan. We'll be talking about the aftermath all morning long. We know damage estimates anywhere between $2 billion and $7 billion, quite a margin, but we will update you on that as soon as we learn more here.
Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant is out of criminal jeopardy in his sexual assault case, but will newly released reports about his comments to police affect the civil lawsuit against him? With that, and the latest also in the Michael Jackson case, senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joining us now this morning.
Good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, ma'am.
COLLINS: Thanks for being here.
I want to talk about this "Vail (ph) Daily" report that was published. There was a printout of an interview that Kobe Bryant did with detectives the night after he was accused of rape.
Now there are several sources to talk about here. The paper got this printout and an audio recording from somebody who mailed it in anonymously from Denver. OK, but the prosecution is -- sources, the AP, Associated Press. It appears to be accurate, they say. But our attempts to reach Bryant's attorney, Pamela Mackey, they were not successful. So I want to read from this transcript, and then get your comments on it. Here's what it said: "Kobe Bryant says, is there any way I can settle this, whatever it is, I mean?" Winters says, "Well, what do you mean by settle?" Bryant says, if my wife found out that anybody made any type of allegations against me, she would be infuriated." You think any of this will have any impact on the civil trial? I mean, What does it mean?
TOOBIN: You know, In a funny way, this may help Kobe Bryant in the civil case, because one of the big pieces of leverage that his accuser has against him in the civil case is if you don't settle this embarrassing material, more embarrassing material is going to come out. This transcript is very embarrassing. He talks about how he has another woman that he's having an affair with, he even identifies this woman. He talks about how at first he lies and says there was no sexual contact with this accuser, then he admits it. It's a very embarrassing transcript. It's now out. It's now public. The leverage of withholding this kind of embarrassing material is now gone from the accuser.
So in a funny way, even though this is embarrassing material, it may help him save some money in the civil case.
COLLINS: Very interesting. We'll follow up on that of course.
Want to turn to the Jackson case, if we could. We know that the mother of Michael Jackson's accuser is going to take the stand today. The defense called her though. Why?
TOOBIN: Well, this whole pretrial hearing today is about the search of an investigator's home near Michael Jackson -- who was helping Michael Jackson's lawyers. And the question is, was this search legal? Did they get involved in attorney/client work product? And this mother of the accuser apparently knows something about the relationship between the investigator and Michael Jackson. That's the official reason for her testifying.
The sort of unofficial reason, I would say, is whenever you have someone you want -- who will be testifying at the trial, you want them under oath as much as possible. You want them testifying a lot so that they have the possibility of contradicting themselves. So they're going to put her on the stand, see what she says.
I think most of this pre-trial skirmishing will not have much of an impact. The investigators, they had search warrants. It's very difficult to suppress information that's gathered if the prosecution has a search warrant.
COLLINS: Quickly, what do you think that face-to-face encounter will be like between Jackson and the mother?
TOOBIN: It's going to be very tense, because remember, Michael Jackson took these people all around the world. He knows them very well. There very well could be an intimidation factor there, and you know, we'll see how she reacts to it.
COLLINS: All right, we'll talk with you later about that, I'm sure.
Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much, for both of those cases for us this morning.
Still to come now today, for homeowners, hurricane season is bringing a double dose of pain. We'll talk about that next on AMERICAN MORNING.
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COLLINS: Obviously a much different sight than what we saw yesterday in this area of Gulf Shores Alabama. Rushing waters is what we saw yesterday. Those waters a little bit calmer, receding waters today in that area. We'll get back to Bill Hemmer, standing by there in just a moment.
But you know, the devastating toll of these three hurricanes is even likely to show up now in major government economic readings.
Andy Serwer is there to talk about that, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Heidi.
That's for sure, we're talking about gross domestic product and how it's going to wreaking havoc with -- well, the hurricanes will be wreaking havoc, that is, upon GDP, for the third and fourth quarter this year.
Let's check out how the hurricanes tally up at this moment. Charley, obviously, about $7 billion, Frances, $2.5 billion. Ivan, we're talking about a $4 billion to $10 billion range. So if you add all those up, and let's take a midrange for Ivan, you're talking about $16 billion worth of damage this season. That's second, of course, to Andrew in '92, which was $20. It will be above Cal Northridge, the earthquake back then as well, which was $15 billion. Excuse me. Could help out actually next year though, Heidi, as we rebuild. It would actually be a boost to the economy, particularly in Florida, as they get things going there.
Want to talk also talk about a situation, a story in "USA Today" about deductibles, homeowners in Florida really feeling some pain there. Two deductibles for two hurricanes, possibly even a third deductible for a third hurricane because of the way the system works. Every hurricane is a separate event.
So in other words, if your roof got blown off by Charley and then the rain came in with Frances, you'd have to pay two deductibles. Here's how it would work, about 2 percent of your home's insured cost, so if you had a $200,000 home, that would be, say, $8,000. The insurance inspector down there trying to get that changed, kind of reminds me of the World Trade Center controversy.
COLLINS: Yes, too bad you can't get a policy for the entire season.
SERWER: That's what they're looking to change it to, and then, in fact, a lot of people are getting relief that sort of way.
COLLINS: Well, hopefully they'll get it certainly.
Andy, thanks so much for that.
SERWER: You're welcome.
And time now for "The Cafferty File," the Question of the Day from Jack as well.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Heidi.
First the Miller Brewing Company announced a series of beer cans commemorating the 50th anniversary of rock 'n' roll that included no black artists. They eventually admitted they screwed up. And they did. And we beat on them unmercifully for a week on this program about it. But they owned up to it and said they made a mistake.
Now, "Rolling Stone" magazine, who ought to know better, says in this week's issue says that rock 'n' roll started with Elvis Presley's earliest recordings, and that has some black artists up in arms, a group that includes people like Dionne Warwick and Chuck Jackson say that without artists like Chuck Berry, and Little Richard and Bo Didley and Fats Domino and some others, there'd be no rock 'n' roll, and Elvis likely would have wound up a country and western singer. Now I don't know about that. But I think the point about the black artist is probably true.
The question is this, "Who ought to get credit for the birth of rock 'n' roll? " And it's Friday. And if you want to write to us about your family problems or stuff like that, I guess can you do that too, anything you want.
COLLINS: Tough to say, though, that one person, you know, came up with the whole idea of rock 'n' roll, maybe made some advances and contributed, but...
CAFFERTY: What Elvis did was get exposure on white radio stations for black music. Rhythm and blues and some of the gospel music was kind of synergized with country and western, or hillbilly music as they called it then. And he got it -- because he was white, they played his stuff on white radio stations, and that got the music exposed to a big enough audience where it took off. Before that, I think it was rock 'n' roll music, but it was black artists, and they were only playing on black radio stations and not very many people heard it..
SERWER: I always thought that band Queen that invented rock 'n' roll.
CAFFERTY: You would.
SERWER: That was a softball down the middle of the plate for you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: You would.
COLLINS: Still to come now, we've got the Friday edition of "90- Second Pop" for you.
It's primetime Emmy time Sunday night, and stars from all over are hoping for the big prizes. We'll look at who is going for the gold.
And it's dog fights in the sky and romance on the court at this weekend's box office. We'll take a look at this weekend's big movies.
Stay with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.
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