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American Morning

Aftermath of Hurricane Dennis

Aired July 11, 2005 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We are watching the aftermath of Dennis as a new day dawns on Florida's panhandle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never seen this many cars, and trucks, and everything here is underwater.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: yes, our trailer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Homes underwater along the coast, and this is some of the worst damage that you're seeing here. We're live across Florida for the developing story, surveying the damage of Dennis.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Right now, Dennis is driving inland through Alabama and Mississippi. The winds subsiding though. It's a tropical depression now, but it is still a danger.

M. O'BRIEN: And the sudden fury of the storm as it drove onshore moving fast. That might have been a life saver. All that ahead on a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. Welcome to our special coverage of Hurricane Dennis, now Tropical Depression Dennis, and it's aftermath.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about what's happening right now. That storm, a tropical depression, as Miles just said, the winds 35 miles an hour, and it's moving north from Alabama, to Georgia, to Tennessee and into the Ohio valley. Dennis is a category three with winds of 120 miles an hour when it made landfall on Sunday afternoon in the Florida panhandle; 1.8 million people in Florida and Alabama and Mississippi ordered to evacuate. The damage, though, less than expected, because the hurricane's winds weakened just before landfall. Still some 400,000 people have lost power. Utility crews, the Red Cross, and other aid organizations are now moving into the area this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: CNN's got a team of reporters who are covering the damage along Dennis' path. Randi Kaye is live for us in Pensacola, Florida this morning. Chad Myers is live in St. Marks, Florida. Let's begin with Chad. Hey, Chad, how big a problem is flooding there?

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The problem with flooding came in yesterday with what's called storm surge.

Now If you think about where the storm came in, near Pensacola, and where I am now, almost 300 miles away, people here were not ready for this. They didn't expect this. They expected a two foot, maybe three foot to come up here up the rivers. But what happened is all the water from Tampa, St. Pete, Cedar Key, the Steam Hatchey (ph) River all blew up this direction. The winds were from that direction for hours and hours on end. And just like blowing water across a coffee pot, coffee cup, as the water blows to the other side, it blew up here, and the water actually, it rose here almost six to eight feet.

Here's a picture from "The Tallahassee Democrat." Here's the picture right here of the building you see behind me. The building you see behind me was in six feet of water at 6:00 last night. The water started coming up around 8:00 in the morning, and it's all the way up past that electrical box.

Now here's the problem, guys. This is not a fresh water flood; this was a salt water flood, brackish water coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, a completely different list of problems trying to clean up homes and businesses with a brackish flood, a salt water flood, rather than a freshwater flood. All the electricity has to be completely torn out and redone because now there's salt over all that copper. So here they go.

Now this is a fishing village, fishing and also oystering. They are very concerned here about the oysters in Apalachee Bay. And as the entire area here, as they rely on these oysters, they could actually see economic ruin, as that happened back in 1985 with Hurricane Kate. Kate came in here, did the same thing, not quite as high, took all of what's here, whatever it might be, whether it was pesticides, fertilizer, anything that's here, oil on the ground, gasoline from the motorboats that actually sunk here, took it all back out into the bay, and poisoned the bay and poisoned the oysters. Now they sure hope that didn't happen this time. We don't know yet. We're going out with a crew today, going out with the oyster guys to see what happened with the oysters out there in Apalachee this afternoon.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, I guess they keep saying Chad that it's all relative, because it really doesn't look all that bad when you see a building standing, but you're absolutely right, I'm sure ever single inside of that building behind you is utterly destroyed, and might actually have be taken down.

MYERS: Well, it's a grocery store, and all the groceries are gone as well.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, at the very least. All right, let's get to Randi Kaye. We've been talking with her yesterday, today. Now we can actually see with the light behind you the damage a little bit better. Give us a sense of how bad it is, Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, lots of folks are waking up today, as the sun's coming up, they're coming outside, certainly of our hotel, to take a look at some of the damage in our area. We didn't have to go very far. It's right in the front yard of our hotel. This is the Ramada Inn hotel sign that used to be up there, way up there on the top of that pole. It was twisting and turning, and everybody in the lobby yesterday as the storm, Dennis was coming through, they were oohing and aahing, and now it's just -- I don't know if you can see in there, but it's just a hunk of crushed metal and twisted metal, and now it's right here on the ground. And actually John Zarrella and Anderson Cooper were live on the air when the sign crashed to the ground. They were just about 100 feet away when it came down. The ground here is littered with some metal and some glass. These are some of the neon bulbs that were actually in that sign.

There was another sign here out in the distance right there. That was brand new. It was just put up a couple of weeks ago, and we were in the lobby when that one came flying by. The word Ramada just came flying by us.

So also out there, you can see that is I-10. That's the I-10 Bridge. It's closed. It could open up today. We're not sure yet. That was really hard hit by Ivan. A man lost his life out there. They just finished repairing that in January. So they're going to send divers out there this morning, and check to see if it's able to hold some cars and maybe even the heavier cars so folks can get out there to their homes, which are near Pensacola Beach and survey some of the damage. They don't expect folks to be able to get into their homes for a couple of days. Lots of people without power. About 101,000 people in Escambia County -- that's Escambia Bay there behind me -- without power. That's also for another couple of days. Gulf Power has about 1,000 people on standby, to try and get some folks back to power.

Also, the Pensacola Beach area, back there, that was really hard hit. They're in the middle of restoring some of the dunes, which were damaged by Hurricane Ivan. They should be restored soon, but now it's delayed because the construction cranes, which are working on that project, are now on their side on the beach, I'm told. The power lines are down. They're going to send some folks out there for a little survey as well.

So far, we have some tree damage here as you can see. This is a live oak tree, which lots of folks said would be able to hold up during Hurricane Dennis. It did make it through Hurricane Ivan, but it didn't make it through Hurricane Dennis.

So the curfew, though, that is done now. Folks are allowed out. They're allowed to, you know, at least see what happened in this area. Governor Jeb Bush is expected here sometime today. And what's really interesting is that the 911 folks they had a very, very light Sunday. In fact, they said they got fewer calls yesterday during Hurricane Dennis than they got on any other typical Sunday. So it sounds like lots of folks did heed the warning, they got out of town, they hunkered down and they evacuated, which is very good news.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Randi Kaye in Pensacola.

And, Randi, we'll come back to you for updates on the power and also on the status of that bridge. Thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: We've been asking our viewers to become citizen journalists to help tell the story of Hurricane Dennis, and they have responded well. Their personal pictures and videos giving us a unique perspective.

Neill in Seagrove Beach kind of gives us a time lapse of the whole situation. This is before the storm, ominous clouds out there perhaps.

And check out Sunday morning. Winds picking up a little bit. Take note of the steps and so forth. Still a bit of beach there.

Finally, look at the afternoon shot. No more steps, gone. Yes, that kind of sums it up right there.

Very nice job, Neill. Appreciate that. If you are anywhere in the affected area of Hurricane Dennis and you're going through wreckage today and you're taking pictures -- probably if you suffered some damage, you're going to want to get pictures anyway for the insurance agent. We'd love for you to share them with us, if you'd like to. Send them to CNN.com/hurricane. As our citizen journalist, we'll tell you what we tell our crews, stay safe. That's the most important thing -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, no longer a monster storm, but still a menace, although it is considerably weaker now, Dennis did some serious damage in the Sunshine State.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MYERS: What we're experiencing here now is the storm surge coming up and coming over onto the sea wall. And every once in a while, splashing over the top.

S. O'BRIEN: Hurricane Dennis stormed ashore Sunday afternoon, helping the Florida Panhandle and the Gulf coast.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Essentially, the Gulf of Mexico has overtaken the land and has now also overtaken Highway 98, and this is now an impassable road.

S. O'BRIEN: Downgraded slightly to a category-three hurricane before making landfall, Dennis was still a powerful storm. MAX MAYFIELD, DIR., NATL. HURRICANE CTR.: It's a little bit like the difference between getting run over by an 18-wheeler or a freight train.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You guys have got to come to us.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now or never.

S. O'BRIEN: Pensacola, Florida, devastated by Hurricane Ivan a year ago, right in the path of Dennis.

COOPER: Look at the tops of those trees over there. You see some of them have snapped already. But these things are moving, and as the bands of the storm come...

ZARRELLA: Here it comes again. Look out here.

COOPER: You can feel it right now.

ZARRELLA: Watch out. Get back! Get back!

COOPER: Look over there.

ZARRELLA: It's coming apart.

COOPER: That is aluminum. That's part of the sign.

ZARRELLA: Look at this. It's all coming apart. The trees are coming down.

COOPER: Did you see that tree went down?

ZARRELLA: Big trees coming down. Big trees coming down.

COOPER: Look at that sign.

ZARRELLA: Here comes the sign. It's down. It's falling apart. Get back! Get back! Get back!

COOPER: Unbelievable. I've never seen anything like this. John, this is incredible. Have you seen anything like this?

ZARRELLA: Never seen anything like this. I've never experienced anything like this before.

S. O'BRIEN: People in St. Mark's, Florida haven't seen flooding like this in years. The tiny coastal community and other low-lying areas were suddenly underwater.

ZARRELLA: This is something just unbelievable.

S. O'BRIEN: Things are floating off, and I mean, I've never actually experienced anything like this.

ZARRELLA: I've never seen it this high, and I've been here 37 years. And all the people -- I'm with the volunteer fire department, and I just come back from rescuing some people down in there that didn't get the warning in time, and they didn't get out, and we had to go get them out by boat, and I've never seen as many cars and trucks and houses, and everything is underwater. Everything here is underwater.

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: We've learned a lot in the last year, and all of the lessons learned and all of the training is now going to be brought to bear to provide support for hundreds of thousands of people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, we're going to talk to the mayor of Pensacola, Florida. Some of those shots you see were from Pensacola. Pretty hard hit today. Look at the damage.

M. O'BRIEN: Plus FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, prepares to kick into high gear. Actually we hope they're in high gear by now. I'm sure they are. The agency's director will tell us what they're going to do first.

You are watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: In Gulf Shores, Alabama this morning, they are no doubt breathing a collective sigh of relief. There was some concern as Hurricane Dennis bore down on the Gulf Coast that it would go right up to Mobile Bay. All kind of talk about Ivan, and Opal, and Frederick and all those devastating storms that caused all kind of damage there.

But as it turns out, Dennis went a little bit to the right, and that brought some great relief to Mobile Bay. Folks there doing a lot better this morning than they thought they might have.

CNN's Keith Oppenheim rode out the storm in that very spot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA KENNEDY: Hey. When I went to do the news release on...

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lisa Kennedy is an administrative assistant who works for the city of Gulf Shores, Alabama. As Hurricane Dennis approached, she spent most of her time trying to get information out to residents, less time worrying about three properties she owns in town.

KENNEDY: Let's go home.

OPPENHEIM: But by Sunday evening, she was taking her pet parrot out of her car and taking some other valuables back into her house. The only key to get back in was a power drill, to take down ply boards protecting her doors and windows. KENNEDY: Here you have it, the results of moving out.

OPPENHEIM: Kennedy has been through this before. In Gulf Shores last September, Hurricane Ivan hit hard.

(on camera): So what kind of damage did you have at this home and the other two you own?

KENNEDY: Well, basically from the -- it's on pylons. So basically, from the first floor down, everything totally just got washed away.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): The damage from Ivan, including a lost swimming pool, cost Lisa Kennedy $40,000. While insurance eventually covered most of those costs, the process was exhausting.

(on camera): You survived Ivan, but emotionally, incredible frustration.

KENNEDY: I'm not emotionally ready -- I was not emotionally ready to do this again. I just -- I was not ready.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): So when the storm track changed and Hurricane Dennis did not make a direct hit here, Lisa Kennedy was extremely relieved. Her properties were all intact, and she knows from experience she dodged a disaster.

KENNEDY: We can only do what we can to try to save as many people and keep them as safe as possible. So I'm happy. I'm happy to be back home, happy to be back on the beach.

OPPENHEIM: Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Gulf Shores, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Keith Oppenheim in a part of the world that did well. As you'll recall, as we've been telling you, that right side of the storm is where we're seeing the damage this morning. To the left, where is where Gulf Shores was, they are considering themselves lucky -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Federal officials are fanning out this morning. They're trying to assess the damage done by Dennis. The man in charge of an awesome task, the director of FEMA, he's going to tell us what's needed. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Some really dramatic pictures to show you here. An investigation now underway after this mid air collision Sunday at an airshow in Canada. Two small biplanes were doing a show where they simulate a World War I dogfight. They slammed into each other near, near Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. The planes, as you can see, burst into flames, crashed into the ground. Both pilots were killed instantly. It's a show they call the Masters of Disaster. I don't know if you saw there's a truck you have that goes along with it, a jet-powered truck.

Clive Tolley is the director of the Saskatchewan Centennial Airshow. He joins us now from Regina, Saskatchewan.

Mr. Tolley, really sorry that you had this terrible tragedy mar your show, and to lose two airshow pilots, really well-known, well- respected airshow pilots, how're you doing this morning?

CLIVE TOLLEY, SASKATCHEWAN CENTENNIAL AIRSHOW: I'm still in shock and disbelief at what happened in those last 24 hours. And our thoughts and our prayers are with the families of Bobby Younkin and Jimmy Franklin, and we're just trying to cope here.

M. O'BRIEN: Bobby Younkin and Jimmy Franklin, if you follow airshows at all, they are, you know, two of the giants. And you know, it had to be just awful to see this happen. I understand they also had some family members in the crowd as well?

TOLLEY: Jimmy's son, Kyle, is a wing-walker. And earlier in the airshow, Jimmy and Kyle did the wing-walking routine, and then Kyle goes to the announcer's stand and does the narration for the Masters of Disaster Act. So Kyle was present on the mike when this happened. And our thoughts go to the family. The base (INAUDIBLE) to the Canadian forces, Moose Jaw, 15 Wing (ph), immediately went to the family and is with them now. And it's just a tragic accident.

M. O'BRIEN: Now for anybody who's seen this show, they call it Masters of Disaster. It looks like mayhem in the air, but it's a very calculated thing of course. But they're flying in very close proximity. Do you have any idea at this point -- I know you're not investigating this, and I know that Canada has its Transportation Safety Board looking into it, but do you have any inclination as to what went wrong?

TOLLEY: No, we really don't. The only thing that I saw as a spectator -- and I pay close attention to Masters of Disaster when they're in the air, because they're so entertaining, was is it was kind of a day where their smoke oil kind of lay in a haze in the sky, and my personal opinion is, you know, there may have been vision problems. But we don't know anything really, and the National Safety Board will do an investigation and hopefully find out what happened.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, as we look at that incredibly dramatic home video that we're seeing right now, I do see the haze you're talking about, and that could have made for a little less contrast or something like that, and when you're talking about maneuvers that are -- you know, where they're separated by inches, that could really make a difference, couldn't it?

TOLLEY: It could. I don't really want to speculate. That's just my opinion as a person who's watching them, that that might have been a possibility. I really don't want to speculate. These guys are two members of a four-person team that's considered the hottest act and the best act in the airshow industry. They're professionals, all individual award winners in the industry. Been doing this thousands of times. And really, we don't know what happened, and I'd be remiss to even speculate about what did happen.

M. O'BRIEN: A final thought here, over the years, we've seen airshow disasters that have injured or killed people on the ground. This didn't happen here. I think that's an important point to make.

TOLLEY: Yes, their act is safe, and it's in the show box. It's removed from the crowd at a safe distance. After the contact was made, the planes went down in a grassed area. There's been no collateral damage. No other people are injured. And immediately, an emergency-response plan was put into effect, and the announcer, Rick Peterson, controlled the crowd, and the people were very respectful and left the grounds, and it's a tragic accident, and it was handled very, very professionally by the crew.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we're sorry that it happened. Clive Tolley, thank you for your time. He's the executive director of the Saskatchewan Centennial Airshow in Regina, Saskatchewan this morning -- Soledad.

TOLLEY: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Those are horrible pictures. My goodness. And to have it happen while family members are even part of it.

M. O'BRIEN: To have them witness this whole thing, I mean, this was something they did that was very risky, but they were extreme professionals, and took a real professional ethic into it. It wasn't like they were daredevils. I think people see these aerobatic shows sometimes and think they're just fooling around. It's down to the second, down to the inch. But you know, when you're doing something that close, that fast, bad things happen unfortunately.

S. O'BRIEN: Terrible, terrible, horrible pictures. Wow.

Still to come this morning, we're going to take you back to our top story this morning, the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis. We'll talk with the head of FEMA. The federal agency already mobilized. It's getting help to those who need it the most.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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