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American Morning

Jeanne's Destruction; Presidential Debates

Aired September 27, 2004 - 9:01   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: How bad is it this time? Assessing the damage from Hurricane Jeanne after it smashes its way through Florida.
Something else going on in Florida, a surge in voter registration. Which candidate is it helping?

U.S. forces not backing off in Baghdad, hammering insurgents loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr.

And an airplane takes a terrifying plunge right in the middle of a crowded airport festival. It could have been so much worse.

Those stories ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

COLLINS: Good Monday morning everybody. I'm Heidi Collins in for Soledad.

RICH SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez in for Bill.

It is cleanup time again in Florida. The state now counting its losses after a fourth hurricane hitting in the last six weeks. We're going to get a report on the scope of the damage from Vero Beach. Also see where the storm is going next.

COLLINS: Yes. And also, you may not realize it, but whenever you see the president, a doctor is not far from the picture. A little bit later, Sanjay Gupta will bring us his first part of the series he's doing this week, looking at everything that goes into protecting the health of the president. Quite a job.

SANCHEZ: And Jack is back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: He's got to be fit for those debates which begin this week. On Thursday I think is the first one.

How important are the presidential debates to you? They are under the auspices of the Democratic and Republican parties now. No longer the League of Women Voters. And they've been sanitized and choreographed and tied up in knots to the point where we're probably not going to see those wonderful spontaneous moments that we -- that we used to look forward to.

My suggestion would be to put them in a room and let them have a food fight. But that ain't going to -- I mean, it's all scripted, the questions.

It's just all -- you know, so if they matter to you, write to me. And if they don't, write to me also, because I've got to fill another hour here.

COLLINS: I thought you were going to say you're lonely.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Well, that, too.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Jack.

COLLINS: Thanks.

We want to check on the stories "Now in the News" this morning. Carol Costello standing by at the CNN Center for that.

To Dubai this morning -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: To Dubai, indeed. Thank you, Heidi.

New details this hour about the collapse of an airport terminal in the United Arab Emirates. A Dubai aviation official tells us at least five people were killed, some dozen others injured. Rescue crews are searching the rubble for survivors. It's believed as many as 50 people may be trapped in the ruins.

A new attack launched in Baghdad's Sadr City. U.S. jets swooped down on insurgent targets. A hospital official says at least five people were killed, dozens of others injured, including women and children.

And in Mosul, another attack against Iraqi security forces. A car bombing there killed at least three members of the Iraqi National Guard.

Senator Ted Kennedy says President Bush is making the U.S. more open to a nuclear attack. In a speech to be delivered later today, the senator is expected to criticize President Bush for failing to rebuild Iraq and shut down al Qaeda. The senator will deliver his remarks at George Washington University in Washington.

And a decision in the case against Private First Class Lynndie England. The Army now says the reservist will face a court-martial for her role in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib facility. There are 19 charges against her which could lead to 38 years in prison. England is expecting a child next month.

Back to you, Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Carol. Thanks so much.

Jeanne is now a tropical storm, bringing rain and strong winds to southern Georgia. In Florida, Jeanne is blamed for at least six deaths.

The storm roared ashore late Saturday along the Atlantic coast. And in central Florida, damage is extensive. Jeanne hit close to where Hurricane Frances struck almost three weeks earlier. And emergency officials say Jeanne hit with more force than Frances. When the hurricane hit, it hit hard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: At this point in time, it is hard to stand up. Remember you asked me -- you asked me about 20 miles -- 20 miles an hour ago, "When is it going to be very hard to do this?" And I said, "About 100." And this is pretty darn close to 100.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Chad Myers and Anderson Cooper have become quite a hurricane team, as you see there. Chad's joining us now from Melbourne, Florida.

Chad, Jeanne is now a tropical storm we've been saying. But man, once again, looking at those pictures from last night, ouch.

MYERS: Yes. It was 102 miles an hour here in Melbourne, but 122 down south down in Vero Beach. So we know the damage is a little bit stronger down there.

But kind of a traffic jam here behind me. Most of the street lights are still out. And so everybody's now using all the street lights as four-way stops. And the cars are kind of getting backed up here in Melbourne. But folks are going to get backed up in other places, too, because of flooding and also for the potential for tornadoes.

Radar here, you see the big red box from Jacksonville to Augusta. That is a tornado watch box. And I expect another one across South Carolina and even parts of North Carolina later today.

Now the big threat, two of them today, two threats. A little bit of wind. But the real threats are flooding rainfall. Here's your flooding, and those tornadoes.

If you remember Ivan, we had tornadoes all over South Carolina, North Carolina, and into Virginia, and even as far north as the nation's capital. And if you just heard Heidi say, this took a very similar path. And so we're expecting very similar tornadoes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you in new York.

SANCHEZ: All right. Thanks a lot, Chad.

You know, when these kind of storms make this type of damage, expect their names to be retired. So expect to no longer hear Charley, Frances, Ivan or Jeanne. This really was for a lot of people living in Florida the last straw.

Gary Tuchman, he's live in Vero Beach. They were hit twice. Gary, to you.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Rick. Five counties, from Palm Beach in the south, to Brevard in the north, suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Jeanne. But nobody suffered more than the people here in Indian River County, particularly the county seat here in Vero Beach.

Chad was just talking about the 120-mile-an-hour winds that happened here. This is a subdivision of manufactured homes, about 350 homes here. Almost every home has suffered extensive damage.

Some homes, like this one, completely totaled. And these people have suffered during a most unusual hurricane season.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): She left on a 250-mile trip not knowing it would be impossible to find gasoline. And now Sharaya Smith finds herself at a Vero Beach, Florida, gas station, preparing to sleep in her car, frantic with worry about her 5-month-old son she's trying to get home to.

SHARAYA SMITH, STRANDED DRIVER: My whole family has lived here for 12 years now. And we want to leave. We might go back up north.

It's been that bad. It's just back to back. And you don't get a break from them.

TUCHMAN: The wrath of Hurricane Jeanne in utter darkness. The fright caused by Hurricane Ivan's one-time Category 5 status. Hurricane Frances hitting the same part of Florida as Jeanne. And Hurricane Charley strengthening to Category 4 as it approached land.

These four storms have not only made many Floridians weary, they have created anxiety, excessive difficulty, and more fright than many have ever experienced with weather. This 22-year-old walked to that same gas station with his infant son and dog after running out of gas on the side of the interstate.

Motels and shelters are full, he is told. There is no one to tow his car.

(on camera): So you're saying you may sleep in your car on the highway?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's better than outside. He has some kind of shelter.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Then there's the man who was driving to surprise his girlfriend with a diamond ring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got a fistful of money and no gas.

TUCHMAN: So you want to propose to the woman you want to marry but you can't get there? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't even get there.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But Dominic Sprow's (ph) story is a happier one. His girlfriend drove 100 miles with jugs of gas and then got her surprise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god, you're not going to do this right now? Oh, my god.

TUCHMAN: She said yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Now after she said yes, she turned to the CNN cameras and said to her husband to be, "What are they doing here?" We could tell you, it was not a scripted moment. We ran into him just before she arrived.

We can tell you, sometimes we make private moments public, but we did it for a good cause. It was one of the few happy scenes at that particular gas station.

We do want to tell you, the people we talked to and other people who were there were not the only ones who slept in their cars last night. We, the CNN crew, also did, because there really were no motels at all here in Vero Beach.

Rick, back to you.

SANCHEZ: Good night's work, Gary. Gary Tuchman following the story for us from Florida.

Just as a programming note, we should let you know that we're monitoring some of the feeds that we get here at CNN. And we expect soon to be able to get some pictures of what the devastation looks like the day after. Many of us will see it together for the very first time. As soon as we get an opportunity to show you that, we'll do just that.

Heidi, back over to you.

COLLINS: When Hurricane Frances hit, A.J. Dyke and his mom, Jane Wirkus -- Jan Wirkus, that is, didn't have a generator to keep their Melbourne, Florida, coffee shop open. The power was out, and they were out of luck.

This time around, they were prepared, though. The coffee shop reopened Sunday afternoon, and Melbourne residents were lining up all day for a good cup of Joe.

A.J. and his mom, Jan Wirkus, are joining us now live from Melbourne.

Good morning to you guys.

A.J., I know that you rode out the storm with your mom in the coffee shop. Tell us what it was like. How bad did it get?

A.J. DYKE, STORE OWNER: The storm didn't get too bad until about 1:00 a.m. We lost some power, and at that point some of the soffits started to rip off on the outside.

And it sounded really bad, because you could hear it banging around all night. But it didn't do any damage to the interior. When we came out the next morning, we found the soffit laying all over the road and had to run around and try and collect everything. So...

COLLINS: Jan, were you scared?

JAN WIRKUS, STORE OWNER: It was a little bit scary. We stayed there also during Frances. So in Frances it was scarier, because that was our first time around. But it was scary.

A lot of wind, a lot of banging, a lot of the soffits banging around, trees. The gas station across the street, we thought for sure that the canopy was going to come off. But it stayed intact.

COLLINS: Well, that's certainly good news. I know that you did buy this generator, though, after the first time around, after Hurricane Frances. As a result, you were open for customers on Sunday afternoon. Were you surprised by the turnout of people that pretty much flocked to your coffee shop?

WIRKUS: Oh, yes, definitely.

DYKE: Yes.

WIRKUS: Everybody was without power and were just telling us that we were an oasis in the storm because they needed their coffee. And there were several, several people that donated generator cords and gas so that we could keep up and running. It was very, very nice.

COLLINS: It seemed like it was kind of a gathering place for everybody. What kind of stories did you hear from people that were coming in?

DYKE: We've had a lot of people who have lost their houses, a lot of fellow business owners that have lost their businesses. We know Atlantic Music during Frances actually lost over 30 pianos. And one of our other fellow businesses, Tarragon Printing (ph), lost everything during this more recent hurricane. So a lot of people with the horror stories that have lost their roofs, a lot of friends that have lost their roofs in their houses.

COLLINS: Yes. We've learned...

WIRKUS: And it was nice because...

COLLINS: Go right ahead, Jan.

WIRKUS: ... they could come to a gathering place. They could come and use our facility as a gathering place and share their stories and not feel so alone. DYKE: Yes. Even without air conditioning, they still liked being there.

COLLINS: Yes. You know what, you guys? We're looking at some new pictures right now coming into us, our affiliate WKMJ. This is Brevard County, WKMG, that is, Brevard County, Florida. That's an area in Melbourne, as you know, south of Daytona Beach, north of West Palm Beach.

And just the devastation unbelievable. Seeing a lot of those roofs just gone and structures completely demolished.

Any lessons learned to the two of you as we look at these pictures now? Again, enduring two hurricanes in just one month, besides getting a generator, of course?

DYKE: Just being safe in general, you know. Evacuate when you're asked to, and just stay as safe as you possibly can.

Don't try and ride out the storm. You know, regardless of how bad it's going to be, you know, belongings can always be replaced. But lives are what's important.

COLLINS: All right, guys. We certainly do appreciate your time this morning. Once again, Jan Wirkus and A.J. Dyke. Thanks again, guys. Glad you were all right.

DYKE: Thank you.

WIRKUS: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, in southern California, a small plane crashes into a car and two people inside, and the entire incident is caught on tape. Here it is.

The plane goes down shortly after takeoff at Fullerton Airport Saturday during a festival. It barely missed the control tower before slamming into a parked car and then erupting into flames.

Two men who were aboard the plane are hospitalized in critical condition. Two women in the car were treated for minor injuries. The cause is still under investigation.

By the way, you just showed some of those pictures of the hurricane damage. There's a reason they categorize hurricanes. And that, that we were showing, is typical Category 3 damage, where you see roofs torn off. Category 2, don't, Category 1 doesn't. Four and 5, of course, catastrophic.

COLLINS: Yes. Amazing looking down on those pictures, though. It just looks awful, doesn't it?

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's unbelievable. And those people have had to deal with it not once, but four times. Especially in the middle of the state. COLLINS: Yes. Once again, reminding everybody a tornado situation now is going to be something -- tornado and flooding, I should say. People will be watching today and for the next few days to come, I'm sure.

SANCHEZ: Look at that. Yes. Now, if that were a Category 4, you wouldn't only see the top of the roof gone, but you'd probably see entire parts of the roof stranded and just torn off.

COLLINS: Yes. Some live pictures I believe now coming into us.

SANCHEZ: Look at the beach erosion.

COLLINS: WKMG our affiliate there. Obviously some immediate cleanup or the best cleanup that they can start to do this morning.

So, still to come now, part one of a special week-long series, "The First Patient." Today, some of the medical secrets onboard Air Force One. We're going to board the president's flying hospital room.

SANCHEZ: And then next, after weeks of bad news in the polls, some new numbers suggest things could be looking up for John Kerry. We're going to talk to former White House adviser David Gergen.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: So, how do you get to the first presidential debate? Practice, practice, practice.

That's just what President Bush and Senator Kerry are doing ahead of Thursday's face-off in Florida. The Sunshine State one of two key battlegrounds where a reported surge in voter registration could pay dividends for Democrats in particular.

Joining us now from Cambridge, Massachusetts, David Gergen, former White House adviser, now with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Good enough to talk about this issue.

You know, let me go over some numbers here, David. First of all, good morning, my friend.

DAVID GERGEN, FMR. WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Good morning, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Ohio, Democrat registration up 250 percent. GOP registration only up 25 percent. These are new voters now. Florida, Dems up 60 percent, GOP only 12 percent.

What do you make of that?

GERGEN: Well, that adds an element of unpredictability to this race that the pros have understood for awhile. Because say a state like Florida, your home state, several hundred thousand people have moved in to Florida since the last 2000 election. And nobody has quite known how they would turn out, you know, which way they would lean and whether they would vote.

Now you've had this extraordinary effort by Democrats to sign up a lot of unregistered voters, especially in low-income neighborhoods. And the polls that you take ordinarily don't -- they don't reflect those kind of movements very well, because the pollsters are trying to take a frame based on their best estimate of who might vote. But they can often miss that.

So you -- this is why the race remains, I think, fluid, and that people say even if -- even if George W. Bush were to go into the final day with a lead, you can't -- you can't assume he's the winner until all the votes are counted. Because, A, you don't know how many of these new voters -- these newly registered voters will actually turn out. You don't know how well the polls have measured things.

And there's one other element, though, here, and that is the Republicans themselves have been extraordinarily well organized on the grassroots and many, many states. And you don't know how well they will do with that. So that's why the polls are not the final measure. The vote is the final measure.

SANCHEZ: Well then why is "The New York Times" -- and, in fact, "The Washington Post" has been giving the story a lot of ink, too -- finding that the Democrats are doing so well? What is it about the Democrats that perhaps makes it easier for them to go out and find these folks who maybe wouldn't have voted in the past?

GERGEN: Well, the -- I think it's a very legitimate story by "The New York Times," because what you -- what -- both in Ohio and in Florida, and frankly in other parts of the country, the anger level at the president is so high that -- on the Democratic side -- that a lot of new organizations, grassroots organizations have sprung up. And people are going out and signing people up in the malls to say, "Please go vote."

Now, these are in very informal operations. They're often are conducted among the young and among low-income people who ordinarily have very low voter turnout rates. Disproportionately low.

And so even though you sign them up on a piece of paper in the mall, nobody knows if they'll turn out. Nobody knows if they'll actually go to the polls.

This is -- this is one of these sort of wispy grassroots things that could be explosive, but you can't tell until the day of the election. Let's go back to the Howard Dean campaign.

We saw much of the same phenomenon in the Howard Dean campaign. All sorts of stories leading up to the primary voting that said, wow, Dean's got all these organizations that are signing up young voters.

SANCHEZ: And they didn't deliver.

GERGEN: They're going to explode -- and they didn't deliver.

SANCHEZ: Yes. GERGEN: So you don't know here until the votes are tallied. It's important to see it, to realize that, lurking out there, there could be a lot of surprises on each side.

SANCHEZ: You know, they're spending $300 million, they say, to do this new strategy that they could be using on just regular commercials. Let's switch to the debate if we possibly can.

GERGEN: Sure.

SANCHEZ: Is this going to be a real debate, or is this going to be another one of those -- what we often in this business call an overproduced opportunity for the candidates?

GERGEN: It's likely to be both. The candidates are going to rehearse down -- you know, down to the very clever tag lines that they're going to put on their statements. And they will be able to anticipate the areas of questioning, even if they can't tell what the questions are. So they'll be highly rehearsed walking in.

Even so, this Thursday night debate is probably the most decisive moment of the campaign. I think most pros assume that John Kerry has clawed his way back, but he's still a little behind, maybe three or four points behind. If the election were held today, most pros assume that Bush would win this. So Thursday night becomes pivotal for both candidates.

For Bush, this is a night when you get a huge audience, bigger than any other debate, and it's on national security, the central issue in the campaign now. And if he does really well he could lock up the elections Thursday night.

For Kerry, if he -- this debate is so pivotal because this will -- this could be his breakthrough. If he can -- if he can win this debate in some sort of decisive way, then maybe he can surge ahead and go down the home stretch as the favorite.

So the candidates -- Kerry's just a little bit behind. They're coming around that final turn, and this is when Kerry needs to -- each candidate will try to make a surge now in this debate. That's why this one is so important.

SANCHEZ: David Gergen, thank for your insight.

GERGEN: Thank you very much.

SANCHEZ: Watch AMERICAN MORNING as we get ready for Thursday's debate. Bill Hemmer live in Miami Thursday morning. The debate set for Thursday night at 9:00 Eastern.

Heidi, back to you.

COLLINS: Still to come, the sports terms "mudder" is usually reserved for horse racing. But it clearly applied to football last night. A look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Let's check in with Jack and, of course, the "Question of the Day."

CAFFERTY: Thank you, Rick.

The presidential debates begin Thursday. It remains to be seen whether they're going to be worth watching. My sense is they probably won't be.

The debates are more tightly choreographed now than a Broadway musical. They're being run by an outfit called the Commission for Presidential Debates. That -- translate that, the Republican and Democratic parties. All the conditions negotiated in advance in secret.

How important are the presidential debates to you is the question?

Steve in Greensboro, North Carolina, "Can you imagine any other job interview where the determination of what specific information will be discussed and what questions are allowed to be asked is determined by the final two applicants for the job?"

It's pretty -- pretty current. Rick -- Steve, you can write again. That was a pretty good letter. You can write in again tomorrow.

Nick in Erie, Pennsylvania, "The format by the League of Women Voters was the only half-decent forum for what is now a reflection of our farcical processed Velveeta democracy."

I have no idea what that means. But I just thought it was a cute expression, "a processed Velveeta democracy."

And this one, Dave in Prospect Bay, Nova Scotia, "I feel lucky living in Atlantic Canada, where the presidential debate doesn't start until 10:00. As an early riser, I'll be asleep by then. However, if I have problems sleeping, I will turn it on for a few minutes."

COLLINS: Yes, I wonder if it's an indication of how many people are actually going to sit down and watch.

CAFFERTY: This?

COLLINS: Yes.

CAFFERTY: No, this is an indication that people have very little to do in their lives except sit down and write letters to me in the morning in response to the "Question of the Day."

COLLINS: Oh, I don't know about that.

CAFFERTY: I'm not sure that my people represent...

COLLINS: Hey, but they are your people, your peeps. CAFFERTY: ... anything beyond the fact that they're my people.

SANCHEZ: Let these people go.

CAFFERTY: Yes. No, no.

No, I did like that from Steve, though, about the job applications. That's pretty good analogy, right? These guys are applying for the job and they're making all the ground rules for the final interview. It's nonsense.

COLLINS: Yes, no kidding. All right.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Jack.

COLLINS: Once again, Thursday the first one. We'll be there for it.

Jack, thank you.

Still to come this morning, hey, it's your Monday edition of "90- Second Pop." What makes the one-time king of pop tick? Some of the smartest people in America are dissecting Michael Jackson.

Plus, can you balance the budget and terminate your big screen competition at the same time? "90-Second Pop" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired September 27, 2004 - 9:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: How bad is it this time? Assessing the damage from Hurricane Jeanne after it smashes its way through Florida.
Something else going on in Florida, a surge in voter registration. Which candidate is it helping?

U.S. forces not backing off in Baghdad, hammering insurgents loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr.

And an airplane takes a terrifying plunge right in the middle of a crowded airport festival. It could have been so much worse.

Those stories ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

COLLINS: Good Monday morning everybody. I'm Heidi Collins in for Soledad.

RICH SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez in for Bill.

It is cleanup time again in Florida. The state now counting its losses after a fourth hurricane hitting in the last six weeks. We're going to get a report on the scope of the damage from Vero Beach. Also see where the storm is going next.

COLLINS: Yes. And also, you may not realize it, but whenever you see the president, a doctor is not far from the picture. A little bit later, Sanjay Gupta will bring us his first part of the series he's doing this week, looking at everything that goes into protecting the health of the president. Quite a job.

SANCHEZ: And Jack is back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: He's got to be fit for those debates which begin this week. On Thursday I think is the first one.

How important are the presidential debates to you? They are under the auspices of the Democratic and Republican parties now. No longer the League of Women Voters. And they've been sanitized and choreographed and tied up in knots to the point where we're probably not going to see those wonderful spontaneous moments that we -- that we used to look forward to.

My suggestion would be to put them in a room and let them have a food fight. But that ain't going to -- I mean, it's all scripted, the questions.

It's just all -- you know, so if they matter to you, write to me. And if they don't, write to me also, because I've got to fill another hour here.

COLLINS: I thought you were going to say you're lonely.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Well, that, too.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Jack.

COLLINS: Thanks.

We want to check on the stories "Now in the News" this morning. Carol Costello standing by at the CNN Center for that.

To Dubai this morning -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: To Dubai, indeed. Thank you, Heidi.

New details this hour about the collapse of an airport terminal in the United Arab Emirates. A Dubai aviation official tells us at least five people were killed, some dozen others injured. Rescue crews are searching the rubble for survivors. It's believed as many as 50 people may be trapped in the ruins.

A new attack launched in Baghdad's Sadr City. U.S. jets swooped down on insurgent targets. A hospital official says at least five people were killed, dozens of others injured, including women and children.

And in Mosul, another attack against Iraqi security forces. A car bombing there killed at least three members of the Iraqi National Guard.

Senator Ted Kennedy says President Bush is making the U.S. more open to a nuclear attack. In a speech to be delivered later today, the senator is expected to criticize President Bush for failing to rebuild Iraq and shut down al Qaeda. The senator will deliver his remarks at George Washington University in Washington.

And a decision in the case against Private First Class Lynndie England. The Army now says the reservist will face a court-martial for her role in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib facility. There are 19 charges against her which could lead to 38 years in prison. England is expecting a child next month.

Back to you, Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Carol. Thanks so much.

Jeanne is now a tropical storm, bringing rain and strong winds to southern Georgia. In Florida, Jeanne is blamed for at least six deaths.

The storm roared ashore late Saturday along the Atlantic coast. And in central Florida, damage is extensive. Jeanne hit close to where Hurricane Frances struck almost three weeks earlier. And emergency officials say Jeanne hit with more force than Frances. When the hurricane hit, it hit hard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: At this point in time, it is hard to stand up. Remember you asked me -- you asked me about 20 miles -- 20 miles an hour ago, "When is it going to be very hard to do this?" And I said, "About 100." And this is pretty darn close to 100.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Chad Myers and Anderson Cooper have become quite a hurricane team, as you see there. Chad's joining us now from Melbourne, Florida.

Chad, Jeanne is now a tropical storm we've been saying. But man, once again, looking at those pictures from last night, ouch.

MYERS: Yes. It was 102 miles an hour here in Melbourne, but 122 down south down in Vero Beach. So we know the damage is a little bit stronger down there.

But kind of a traffic jam here behind me. Most of the street lights are still out. And so everybody's now using all the street lights as four-way stops. And the cars are kind of getting backed up here in Melbourne. But folks are going to get backed up in other places, too, because of flooding and also for the potential for tornadoes.

Radar here, you see the big red box from Jacksonville to Augusta. That is a tornado watch box. And I expect another one across South Carolina and even parts of North Carolina later today.

Now the big threat, two of them today, two threats. A little bit of wind. But the real threats are flooding rainfall. Here's your flooding, and those tornadoes.

If you remember Ivan, we had tornadoes all over South Carolina, North Carolina, and into Virginia, and even as far north as the nation's capital. And if you just heard Heidi say, this took a very similar path. And so we're expecting very similar tornadoes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you in new York.

SANCHEZ: All right. Thanks a lot, Chad.

You know, when these kind of storms make this type of damage, expect their names to be retired. So expect to no longer hear Charley, Frances, Ivan or Jeanne. This really was for a lot of people living in Florida the last straw.

Gary Tuchman, he's live in Vero Beach. They were hit twice. Gary, to you.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Rick. Five counties, from Palm Beach in the south, to Brevard in the north, suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Jeanne. But nobody suffered more than the people here in Indian River County, particularly the county seat here in Vero Beach.

Chad was just talking about the 120-mile-an-hour winds that happened here. This is a subdivision of manufactured homes, about 350 homes here. Almost every home has suffered extensive damage.

Some homes, like this one, completely totaled. And these people have suffered during a most unusual hurricane season.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): She left on a 250-mile trip not knowing it would be impossible to find gasoline. And now Sharaya Smith finds herself at a Vero Beach, Florida, gas station, preparing to sleep in her car, frantic with worry about her 5-month-old son she's trying to get home to.

SHARAYA SMITH, STRANDED DRIVER: My whole family has lived here for 12 years now. And we want to leave. We might go back up north.

It's been that bad. It's just back to back. And you don't get a break from them.

TUCHMAN: The wrath of Hurricane Jeanne in utter darkness. The fright caused by Hurricane Ivan's one-time Category 5 status. Hurricane Frances hitting the same part of Florida as Jeanne. And Hurricane Charley strengthening to Category 4 as it approached land.

These four storms have not only made many Floridians weary, they have created anxiety, excessive difficulty, and more fright than many have ever experienced with weather. This 22-year-old walked to that same gas station with his infant son and dog after running out of gas on the side of the interstate.

Motels and shelters are full, he is told. There is no one to tow his car.

(on camera): So you're saying you may sleep in your car on the highway?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's better than outside. He has some kind of shelter.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Then there's the man who was driving to surprise his girlfriend with a diamond ring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got a fistful of money and no gas.

TUCHMAN: So you want to propose to the woman you want to marry but you can't get there? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't even get there.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But Dominic Sprow's (ph) story is a happier one. His girlfriend drove 100 miles with jugs of gas and then got her surprise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god, you're not going to do this right now? Oh, my god.

TUCHMAN: She said yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Now after she said yes, she turned to the CNN cameras and said to her husband to be, "What are they doing here?" We could tell you, it was not a scripted moment. We ran into him just before she arrived.

We can tell you, sometimes we make private moments public, but we did it for a good cause. It was one of the few happy scenes at that particular gas station.

We do want to tell you, the people we talked to and other people who were there were not the only ones who slept in their cars last night. We, the CNN crew, also did, because there really were no motels at all here in Vero Beach.

Rick, back to you.

SANCHEZ: Good night's work, Gary. Gary Tuchman following the story for us from Florida.

Just as a programming note, we should let you know that we're monitoring some of the feeds that we get here at CNN. And we expect soon to be able to get some pictures of what the devastation looks like the day after. Many of us will see it together for the very first time. As soon as we get an opportunity to show you that, we'll do just that.

Heidi, back over to you.

COLLINS: When Hurricane Frances hit, A.J. Dyke and his mom, Jane Wirkus -- Jan Wirkus, that is, didn't have a generator to keep their Melbourne, Florida, coffee shop open. The power was out, and they were out of luck.

This time around, they were prepared, though. The coffee shop reopened Sunday afternoon, and Melbourne residents were lining up all day for a good cup of Joe.

A.J. and his mom, Jan Wirkus, are joining us now live from Melbourne.

Good morning to you guys.

A.J., I know that you rode out the storm with your mom in the coffee shop. Tell us what it was like. How bad did it get?

A.J. DYKE, STORE OWNER: The storm didn't get too bad until about 1:00 a.m. We lost some power, and at that point some of the soffits started to rip off on the outside.

And it sounded really bad, because you could hear it banging around all night. But it didn't do any damage to the interior. When we came out the next morning, we found the soffit laying all over the road and had to run around and try and collect everything. So...

COLLINS: Jan, were you scared?

JAN WIRKUS, STORE OWNER: It was a little bit scary. We stayed there also during Frances. So in Frances it was scarier, because that was our first time around. But it was scary.

A lot of wind, a lot of banging, a lot of the soffits banging around, trees. The gas station across the street, we thought for sure that the canopy was going to come off. But it stayed intact.

COLLINS: Well, that's certainly good news. I know that you did buy this generator, though, after the first time around, after Hurricane Frances. As a result, you were open for customers on Sunday afternoon. Were you surprised by the turnout of people that pretty much flocked to your coffee shop?

WIRKUS: Oh, yes, definitely.

DYKE: Yes.

WIRKUS: Everybody was without power and were just telling us that we were an oasis in the storm because they needed their coffee. And there were several, several people that donated generator cords and gas so that we could keep up and running. It was very, very nice.

COLLINS: It seemed like it was kind of a gathering place for everybody. What kind of stories did you hear from people that were coming in?

DYKE: We've had a lot of people who have lost their houses, a lot of fellow business owners that have lost their businesses. We know Atlantic Music during Frances actually lost over 30 pianos. And one of our other fellow businesses, Tarragon Printing (ph), lost everything during this more recent hurricane. So a lot of people with the horror stories that have lost their roofs, a lot of friends that have lost their roofs in their houses.

COLLINS: Yes. We've learned...

WIRKUS: And it was nice because...

COLLINS: Go right ahead, Jan.

WIRKUS: ... they could come to a gathering place. They could come and use our facility as a gathering place and share their stories and not feel so alone. DYKE: Yes. Even without air conditioning, they still liked being there.

COLLINS: Yes. You know what, you guys? We're looking at some new pictures right now coming into us, our affiliate WKMJ. This is Brevard County, WKMG, that is, Brevard County, Florida. That's an area in Melbourne, as you know, south of Daytona Beach, north of West Palm Beach.

And just the devastation unbelievable. Seeing a lot of those roofs just gone and structures completely demolished.

Any lessons learned to the two of you as we look at these pictures now? Again, enduring two hurricanes in just one month, besides getting a generator, of course?

DYKE: Just being safe in general, you know. Evacuate when you're asked to, and just stay as safe as you possibly can.

Don't try and ride out the storm. You know, regardless of how bad it's going to be, you know, belongings can always be replaced. But lives are what's important.

COLLINS: All right, guys. We certainly do appreciate your time this morning. Once again, Jan Wirkus and A.J. Dyke. Thanks again, guys. Glad you were all right.

DYKE: Thank you.

WIRKUS: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, in southern California, a small plane crashes into a car and two people inside, and the entire incident is caught on tape. Here it is.

The plane goes down shortly after takeoff at Fullerton Airport Saturday during a festival. It barely missed the control tower before slamming into a parked car and then erupting into flames.

Two men who were aboard the plane are hospitalized in critical condition. Two women in the car were treated for minor injuries. The cause is still under investigation.

By the way, you just showed some of those pictures of the hurricane damage. There's a reason they categorize hurricanes. And that, that we were showing, is typical Category 3 damage, where you see roofs torn off. Category 2, don't, Category 1 doesn't. Four and 5, of course, catastrophic.

COLLINS: Yes. Amazing looking down on those pictures, though. It just looks awful, doesn't it?

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's unbelievable. And those people have had to deal with it not once, but four times. Especially in the middle of the state. COLLINS: Yes. Once again, reminding everybody a tornado situation now is going to be something -- tornado and flooding, I should say. People will be watching today and for the next few days to come, I'm sure.

SANCHEZ: Look at that. Yes. Now, if that were a Category 4, you wouldn't only see the top of the roof gone, but you'd probably see entire parts of the roof stranded and just torn off.

COLLINS: Yes. Some live pictures I believe now coming into us.

SANCHEZ: Look at the beach erosion.

COLLINS: WKMG our affiliate there. Obviously some immediate cleanup or the best cleanup that they can start to do this morning.

So, still to come now, part one of a special week-long series, "The First Patient." Today, some of the medical secrets onboard Air Force One. We're going to board the president's flying hospital room.

SANCHEZ: And then next, after weeks of bad news in the polls, some new numbers suggest things could be looking up for John Kerry. We're going to talk to former White House adviser David Gergen.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: So, how do you get to the first presidential debate? Practice, practice, practice.

That's just what President Bush and Senator Kerry are doing ahead of Thursday's face-off in Florida. The Sunshine State one of two key battlegrounds where a reported surge in voter registration could pay dividends for Democrats in particular.

Joining us now from Cambridge, Massachusetts, David Gergen, former White House adviser, now with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Good enough to talk about this issue.

You know, let me go over some numbers here, David. First of all, good morning, my friend.

DAVID GERGEN, FMR. WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Good morning, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Ohio, Democrat registration up 250 percent. GOP registration only up 25 percent. These are new voters now. Florida, Dems up 60 percent, GOP only 12 percent.

What do you make of that?

GERGEN: Well, that adds an element of unpredictability to this race that the pros have understood for awhile. Because say a state like Florida, your home state, several hundred thousand people have moved in to Florida since the last 2000 election. And nobody has quite known how they would turn out, you know, which way they would lean and whether they would vote.

Now you've had this extraordinary effort by Democrats to sign up a lot of unregistered voters, especially in low-income neighborhoods. And the polls that you take ordinarily don't -- they don't reflect those kind of movements very well, because the pollsters are trying to take a frame based on their best estimate of who might vote. But they can often miss that.

So you -- this is why the race remains, I think, fluid, and that people say even if -- even if George W. Bush were to go into the final day with a lead, you can't -- you can't assume he's the winner until all the votes are counted. Because, A, you don't know how many of these new voters -- these newly registered voters will actually turn out. You don't know how well the polls have measured things.

And there's one other element, though, here, and that is the Republicans themselves have been extraordinarily well organized on the grassroots and many, many states. And you don't know how well they will do with that. So that's why the polls are not the final measure. The vote is the final measure.

SANCHEZ: Well then why is "The New York Times" -- and, in fact, "The Washington Post" has been giving the story a lot of ink, too -- finding that the Democrats are doing so well? What is it about the Democrats that perhaps makes it easier for them to go out and find these folks who maybe wouldn't have voted in the past?

GERGEN: Well, the -- I think it's a very legitimate story by "The New York Times," because what you -- what -- both in Ohio and in Florida, and frankly in other parts of the country, the anger level at the president is so high that -- on the Democratic side -- that a lot of new organizations, grassroots organizations have sprung up. And people are going out and signing people up in the malls to say, "Please go vote."

Now, these are in very informal operations. They're often are conducted among the young and among low-income people who ordinarily have very low voter turnout rates. Disproportionately low.

And so even though you sign them up on a piece of paper in the mall, nobody knows if they'll turn out. Nobody knows if they'll actually go to the polls.

This is -- this is one of these sort of wispy grassroots things that could be explosive, but you can't tell until the day of the election. Let's go back to the Howard Dean campaign.

We saw much of the same phenomenon in the Howard Dean campaign. All sorts of stories leading up to the primary voting that said, wow, Dean's got all these organizations that are signing up young voters.

SANCHEZ: And they didn't deliver.

GERGEN: They're going to explode -- and they didn't deliver.

SANCHEZ: Yes. GERGEN: So you don't know here until the votes are tallied. It's important to see it, to realize that, lurking out there, there could be a lot of surprises on each side.

SANCHEZ: You know, they're spending $300 million, they say, to do this new strategy that they could be using on just regular commercials. Let's switch to the debate if we possibly can.

GERGEN: Sure.

SANCHEZ: Is this going to be a real debate, or is this going to be another one of those -- what we often in this business call an overproduced opportunity for the candidates?

GERGEN: It's likely to be both. The candidates are going to rehearse down -- you know, down to the very clever tag lines that they're going to put on their statements. And they will be able to anticipate the areas of questioning, even if they can't tell what the questions are. So they'll be highly rehearsed walking in.

Even so, this Thursday night debate is probably the most decisive moment of the campaign. I think most pros assume that John Kerry has clawed his way back, but he's still a little behind, maybe three or four points behind. If the election were held today, most pros assume that Bush would win this. So Thursday night becomes pivotal for both candidates.

For Bush, this is a night when you get a huge audience, bigger than any other debate, and it's on national security, the central issue in the campaign now. And if he does really well he could lock up the elections Thursday night.

For Kerry, if he -- this debate is so pivotal because this will -- this could be his breakthrough. If he can -- if he can win this debate in some sort of decisive way, then maybe he can surge ahead and go down the home stretch as the favorite.

So the candidates -- Kerry's just a little bit behind. They're coming around that final turn, and this is when Kerry needs to -- each candidate will try to make a surge now in this debate. That's why this one is so important.

SANCHEZ: David Gergen, thank for your insight.

GERGEN: Thank you very much.

SANCHEZ: Watch AMERICAN MORNING as we get ready for Thursday's debate. Bill Hemmer live in Miami Thursday morning. The debate set for Thursday night at 9:00 Eastern.

Heidi, back to you.

COLLINS: Still to come, the sports terms "mudder" is usually reserved for horse racing. But it clearly applied to football last night. A look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Let's check in with Jack and, of course, the "Question of the Day."

CAFFERTY: Thank you, Rick.

The presidential debates begin Thursday. It remains to be seen whether they're going to be worth watching. My sense is they probably won't be.

The debates are more tightly choreographed now than a Broadway musical. They're being run by an outfit called the Commission for Presidential Debates. That -- translate that, the Republican and Democratic parties. All the conditions negotiated in advance in secret.

How important are the presidential debates to you is the question?

Steve in Greensboro, North Carolina, "Can you imagine any other job interview where the determination of what specific information will be discussed and what questions are allowed to be asked is determined by the final two applicants for the job?"

It's pretty -- pretty current. Rick -- Steve, you can write again. That was a pretty good letter. You can write in again tomorrow.

Nick in Erie, Pennsylvania, "The format by the League of Women Voters was the only half-decent forum for what is now a reflection of our farcical processed Velveeta democracy."

I have no idea what that means. But I just thought it was a cute expression, "a processed Velveeta democracy."

And this one, Dave in Prospect Bay, Nova Scotia, "I feel lucky living in Atlantic Canada, where the presidential debate doesn't start until 10:00. As an early riser, I'll be asleep by then. However, if I have problems sleeping, I will turn it on for a few minutes."

COLLINS: Yes, I wonder if it's an indication of how many people are actually going to sit down and watch.

CAFFERTY: This?

COLLINS: Yes.

CAFFERTY: No, this is an indication that people have very little to do in their lives except sit down and write letters to me in the morning in response to the "Question of the Day."

COLLINS: Oh, I don't know about that.

CAFFERTY: I'm not sure that my people represent...

COLLINS: Hey, but they are your people, your peeps. CAFFERTY: ... anything beyond the fact that they're my people.

SANCHEZ: Let these people go.

CAFFERTY: Yes. No, no.

No, I did like that from Steve, though, about the job applications. That's pretty good analogy, right? These guys are applying for the job and they're making all the ground rules for the final interview. It's nonsense.

COLLINS: Yes, no kidding. All right.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Jack.

COLLINS: Once again, Thursday the first one. We'll be there for it.

Jack, thank you.

Still to come this morning, hey, it's your Monday edition of "90- Second Pop." What makes the one-time king of pop tick? Some of the smartest people in America are dissecting Michael Jackson.

Plus, can you balance the budget and terminate your big screen competition at the same time? "90-Second Pop" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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