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American Morning

A Look at the Aftermath of Hurricane Dennis

Aired July 11, 2005 - 08:31   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The first estimates for Dennis' damage are in the $1 billion to $2.5 billion range. To give you some perspective, Andrew, which is the costliest disaster in U.S. history was $26 billion. That's at the top of the list. Ivan was $7 or $8 billion. So this storm not what was feared worst. Pensacola, Florida, took the brunt of it, as we've been telling you.
Randi Kaye is there for now. She's about to leave and respond to a bit of breaking news. But we're going to get her one more time before she heads off -- Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Miles.

We are here in Pensacola, where we did receive quite a bit of damage. Winds about 118 miles an hour, hitting our area. Lots of folks now with the sun up with just sort of getting their first look at the damage to this area.

I want to show you what we saw just right outside our hotel room. If this looks like an 'M' right here, if you can make out that 'M' that 'M' is the 'M' in Ramada. This is the Ramada Inn hotel sign. We stayed at the Ramada Inn last night, lost power yesterday afternoon. But if you look in here, you can just tell the whole piece here is just a piece of crushed metal, twisted metal, of no more use to the hotel. It used to be perched way up there. It was twisting and spinning. It was very dramatic yesterday.

Anderson Cooper and John Zarrella were on the air when it came crashing down live. They were just about 100 feet away. And here along the grass, there's just a lot of glass. And that is one of the neon lights that was inside the Ramada Inn sign. So just some of the garbage that will need to be cleaned up.

Back there, another Ramada sign. That one came flying by the window. Everybody was oohing and aahing as we were in the lobby yesterday.

Out there in the distance, we talked a lot about I-10 and how it would hold up. That's the I-10 bridge. There were some concerns because it was heavily damaged in Ivan that it wouldn't hold up well in Hurricane Dennis, which was expecting stronger winds. It seems to be OK. There were divers out there as early as 3:00 this morning. They're still out there. They're checking out whether the temporary steel repairs on that bridge, which were just finished in January, are they're holding up, and whether or not we're going to be able to get across that bridge today. Right now it is still closed. Pensacola Beach did suffer quite a bit of damage. There was a dune-restoration project under way. There were construction cranes on the beach. Those have toppled over. Power lines are down. You can't get to the homes in that area. It's going to be probably a couple days before anybody there can go survey their home. But the Office of Emergency Management is going to check that out.

As you can see here, we had some tree damage, and I want to show you what we're going to do in just a short bit here this morning. This is Hurricane One. We're heading over here. We're going to head over here and get inside Hurricane One. If you take a look on the roof here, that's a bubble up there with an antenna that can pick up satellites all over, so we're going to go and survey the worst of the damage and show you throughout the area where it's really, really bad. We can go live from anywhere. We have a little handy-dandy camera here, so be sure to tune in to us throughout the morning and of course the afternoon as we take Hurricane One on the road to survey the damage from Hurricane Dennis.

M. O'BRIEN: Randi Kaye, you just gave away the secrets on how we do Hurricane One. Now the competition, they're going to copy us now.

KAYE: I can go that far, but no further.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, well, be safe out there, and yes, report back as soon as you can as you make your way through the damaged area.

Randi Kaye, thank you so much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: More than 90 counties in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi are considered disaster areas this morning, and that makes them eligible for federal funding to help with the aftermath of Dennis.

CNN's Kathleen Koch shows us the agency responsible for helping those who need it the most.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): D-Day for federal emergency officials. The enemy Dennis ravaging the Gulf Coast.

PATRICK BRODY, FEMA CHIEF OF STAFF: Clearly, a lot of our fellow citizens are going to be looking to us in the hours ahead, and, obviously, what we do here today, what we do ongoing is going to be very important to them.

KOCH: From Miami, the head of FEMA plots strategy.

MIKE BROWN, FEMA DIR.: Our mantra has got to be, how can we get this done?

KOCH: Faces reflect how difficult the job will be. But FEMA says it is ready.

BROWN: We have all the commodities in place. The water, the ice, the meals ready to eat, cots, tents, bedding, everything we need to sustain life. But we also have in place, unfortunately, those things we may need like urban-search-and-rescue teams, to get into neighborhoods, to get into buildings, to try to rescue people.

KOCH: Federal storm-tracking Web sites are swamped, getting 40 million hits an hour, just one reason Greg Hernandez invented a new Internet service called Storm Tracker.

GREG HERNANDEZ, NOAA: That's what NOAA is all about, saving lives and property, and if we can provide any Web sites that will help people keep track of these storms better and faster, then that was the aim for Storm Tracker.

KOCH (on camera): The aim for federal emergency officials now, track the storm as it moves inland and get help quickly to those who need it.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Escambia county, Florida is one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Dennis. So how are the residents there dealing this morning? Today is Matthew Lopez's fourth day on the job as the county's chief of emergency management.

You know, I didn't realize that, Matthew. When we spoke yesterday, that you had been pretty much 72 hours in on the job. So far, so good. Give me a sense of how the county did.

MATTHEW LOPEZ, ESCAMBIA CO. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Well, the county definitely dodged a bullet. You know, we still suffered a significant amount of damage on Pensacola Beach, as to be expected with a 125-mile-an-hour hurricane making landfall. And our neighbors in Santa Rosa County suffered some damage as well. We don't want to minimize that at all.

However, in the grand scheme of things, compared to Hurricane Ivan, we fared very well.

S. O'BRIEN: And you know, and we've seen some pictures of things that look OK and then some pictures of things that look pretty bad, like the videotape we're showing right now. Where was it specifically the worst?

LOPEZ: Well, specifically, as hurricane made landfall on Pensacola Beach, and then moved its way over into Santa Rosa County, which is just on the other side of the sound, in Santa Rosa County, there's Midway, Gulf Breeze, and then the bar area. That seems to be the worst. Then this hurricane did something kind of strange, and looked like it doubled back on us, and we're starting to see some significant damage up in the northern part of Escambia County in the city of Century, and up by some of the interchanges up there where it connects to I-65. Numerous trees down. Numerous power lines down.

S. O'BRIEN: Looks rough. What's the biggest challenge now? Is it those power lines, trying to get the power restored to everybody, overall, for the county?

LOPEZ: Well, the biggest challenge right now just remains getting power stored, making sure our community heeds all the warnings out there right now. Again, stopping at all traffic lights, heeding the Santa Rosa County curfew, which doesn't expire until 12:00. Since they suffered a bit more damage there than we did here, they're still trying to cut the wood, and stack it on the side of the road, move the power lines.

And the biggest thing is please stay off the roads. There's really no need for you to be out there right now. Let us work. And in the afternoon, we'll have strategically placed comfort stations and information for the general public to basically prevent life -- or to protect life and safety.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, we've shown videotape a couple times now from Escambia County, a mom sort of holding onto her daughter, and I can see her brushing her daughter's hair out of her face, while the daughter leans in. Clearly, they're heartbroken, because in front of them is a lot of damage. How are the folks that you've had a chance to talk to doing today?

LOPEZ: Well, the folks that I've seen this morning have been helping their neighbors. I have an 85-year-old neighbor to my right in Navy Point, and she came over to check on me this morning, believe it or not. I was home for about an hour and a half to just get some shuteye. And it's all in my community, people are helping each other out. It's amazing, as you drive even further into the city, there's actually just citizens moving trees off to the side of the road. In Escambia County, there's one word to describe the citizens here, and that's resilient. It's just amazing.

S. O'BRIEN: They better be. Matthew Lopez, the new chief of emergency management for Escambia County in Florida, thanks for talking us, both yesterday when I know you were busy and today as well.

LOPEZ: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: It's time to get a look at the other headlines this morning with Kelly Wallace. She's over at Time Warner Center in New York. Hey, Kelly. Good morning again.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Soledad. And good morning, everyone. Here are some of those stories "Now in the News."

Colorado's governor is declaring a state of emergency at the site of an 8,000 acre wildfire. The blaze, about 150 miles south of Denver, quadrupled in size Sunday, fed by gusty winds and high temperatures. Some 5,000 residents have been evacuated in that area since Wednesday. There are no reports of any related injuries.

Military officials say they found the body of a Navy SEAL missing in Afghanistan for two weeks. The body was recovered Sunday in the Kunar province. Only one member of the four person team survived. Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon. Barbara, good morning to you. Tell us what the military is saying about the circumstances surrounding this Navy SEAL's death.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Kelly. The military confirming just the basic details, that they recovered the body of NEVILLE: e fourth man of that four-man Navy SEAL reconnaissance team that went missing on June 28th. What our sources are telling us, however, is based on the condition of the body of that fourth man that they recovered, they do not believe he ever was in captivity, as some Taliban had claimed.

But, Kelly, it is now the story of the first man that is becoming absolutely riveting, the single Navy SEAL that was recovered alive. Military officials are offering very few details, but they are now saying, yes, this Navy SEAL survived for a couple of days in those mountains under fire and then was rescued, basically, initially, by an Afghan man who came along, found him, and took him to his Afghan village. The Navy SEAL spent an undetermined amount of hours or a couple of days, we don't know how long, under the shelter of that Afghan village.

Word then somehow -- again, no details -- word got to the U.S. military and they rescued that Navy SEAL from the village where he was getting shelter from local Afghans. More details, certainly, are expected in the days ahead, but so far, Navy SEALs being very closed- mouthed about this entire incident -- Kelly.

WALLACE: Barbara, thanks. An unbelievable story of survival, definitely. Barbara Starr, reporting from the Pentagon for us.

More than 600 coffins will be buried in Srebrenica today to mark the 10th anniversary of the massacre there. And these are new pictures of the ceremony. You see coffins being passed through the crowd. 8,000 men and boys were killed by Serb forces during the war in Bosnia in July of 1995. Some bodies are still being found in mass graves throughout the country. The July 11, 1995, massacre is regarded as the worst in Europe since World War II.

In Spain, the running of the bulls -- excuse me -- turns violent. These pictures are a bit disturbing to show you. At least four people were reportedly gored and eight others injured in a stampede earlier today in Pamplona. That's according to Red Cross officials. The run was also apparently the longest so far.

And switching gears quite a bit now. An American icon turning 40 today. The Slurpee, the slushee, 7/11 brand heads over the hill. Or that depends on how old you are, I guess. To celebrate, brain freeze lovers can get a free sample today at any of the 7-11s in the United States and Canada. The samples kick off a month-long Slurpee promotion, and that includes a giveaway of four Mini Coopers in Slurpee colors. Soledad and Miles, 40 over the hill? I beg to differ.

M. O'BRIEN: I certainly beg to differ.

S. O'BRIEN: Is she talking about me?

WALLACE: I'm not -- nothing personal, but I just beg to differ on that.

M. O'BRIEN: The older you get, the less solid foods you eat.

WALLACE: That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: So I guess the Slurpee is probably a good thing to have as time goes on.

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, back to that running of the bulls. Awkward segue here. But that running of the bulls picture, that guy who was gored and then gored again. Do we know his status? Did he die?

M. O'BRIEN: I just think he's...

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, look at that -- there's one -- oh, horrible.

M. O'BRIEN: I can tell you right now, if you ran an I.Q. test in that hallway there, the bull would win.

S. O'BRIEN: The bull will not let him go.

M. O'BRIEN: I mean, those...

S. O'BRIEN: We should find out how he did.

WALLACE: Miles, some people want to do it. They say they haven't lived until they run with the bulls.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting choice of words there, if you know what I mean.

WALLACE: I guess so. Bad choice of words, I think.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Kelly.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Bunch of bull.

S. O'BRIEN: Much more to tell you about this morning. We're continuing to follow the path of Hurricane Dennis, obviously, and the aftermath as well. You know, it really is all relative. It's better than many predicted. It's better than Ivan. And yet many counties, dozens of counties, in a state of emergency today. More than $1 billion in damage, almost two. So this is not a storm that left the area unscathed.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's interesting how when we -- you know, $1 billion worth of damage. Many people facing all kinds of hardship. And as we know, ten months after Ivan, the clean-up wasn't even done. So they face a long road ahead. So for individuals this morning, it's not a good morning at all, and they're not saying they were lucky. So we want to keep that in mind as we continue our coverage. Stay with us as our special edition of AMERICAN MORNING rolls on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It's now Tropical Depression Dennis. And take a look at what's going on right now. I just want to orient you really quickly. This is, of course, where Dennis came ashore, at least the eye of Dennis. And that gives you a sense of sort of the direction of the storm. It's been sort of like that.

What's been interesting, too, this morning, as we've been kind of assessing the damage, is this spot has been a big focus of attention. That is St. Mark's. And that part of the world, because it was on the right-hand side of the storm, got a real jolt of the storm surge, and that just sort of came in there and caused some serious problems. As you can see here, Rob Marciano was talking about this. They call this kind of a train effect. Those are all serious thunderstorms, kicking off some tornadoes along the way. And up in this area, too, got some fairly serious convective activity.

So the bottom line is you've got a lot of rainfall, a lot of bad weather all throughout that part of the world. Tennessee taking the brunt right now. So if you're in that part of the world, Dennis is still something to reckon with. Let's go back down to the coast, though, now. Panama City Beach, where we spent a lot of time yesterday. Chad Myers was there.

The mayor of Panama City Beach is Lee Sullivan. He joins us on the line. Mr. Mayor, have you had a chance to assess the damage?

LEE SULLIVAN, MAYOR OF PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA: We are -- yes, sir. As much as possible. The water is still up, so it's going to be a little difficult to see exactly what has happened to our beach until that falls back some. But most of the structural damages, I have had a chance to overlook.

M. O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of what kind of damage you're seeing there, mayor?

SULLIVAN: We have primarily signage and roofs. We are extraordinarily pleased. We have a major amount of construction on down here, and that has held up well. There was some anticipation that we might have problems with debris from construction, but they've done an outstanding job, and that was not the case.

M. O'BRIEN: Where are the big areas of concern then? Are you worried you might have lost a lot of beach? Which is a big problem, of course, in a place that relies on tourists.

SULLIVAN: It is, candidly, without forgetting the grace that we've had -- I mean, we have gotten by well, as you have said -- but it is in the heart of our tourist season. It -- the immediacy of the economic disaster was a hurricane headed our way, and then the aftermath of that will probably determine how badly our season is hurt.

But the physical damage, the structural damage, has been -- was not significant. In Ivan, we were fortunate, and it has been a little -- about the same, maybe a little less this year. M. O'BRIEN: So, of course, you never know with these beaches. Sometimes they just come back after a spell. And it looks like it's worse before it finally gets better.

As you look back on it, mayor, are you pleased with the way it all played out? In other words, did people evacuate well? Did the emergency response in your town do its job properly?

SULLIVAN: It did. After last year and before hurricanes, I don't think there's a cavalier attitude about hurricanes left in Florida. And as I had told you all earlier, when I visited with you a day or so ago, we couldn't have made a crowd at Wal-Mart by the time the evacuation. This place looked like a ghost town, and rightfully so. Both tourists and residents paid attention to what they needed to do. They did it well. Last year, as you'll recall, we had some fatalities. And we are fortunate this year that that was not replicated. But last year we had tornadoes, and this year we did not have the replication of tornadoes, at least in my community, that we had with Ivan.

M. O'BRIEN: Mayor Lee Sullivan, city of Panama City Beach, thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Good luck to you and the folks who live there.

SULLIVAN: Makes you want to run with the bulls, huh?

M. O'BRIEN: Gosh, you know, mayor, I don't get that one. I don't get that one. We spent all this time talking about being safe.

SULLIVAN: I'm telling you, the bull is the smartest one. You got it.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, mayor.

SULLIVAN: Take care.

M. O'BRIEN: Talk to you later.

S. O'BRIEN: It's all about perspective. I'm not sure we can overstate that today.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the reporters and the photographers who braved Hurricane Dennis trying to get the story on the air. Their profile ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: No real surprise here. Gas prices are pinching the pocket once again, and the price tag for recovering from Dennis. With those stories and a look at the market as well, Andy Serwer is minding your business.

Hey, Andy, good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Soledad. We've been talking about Hurricane Dennis and the cost and the impact on the economy all morning. Preliminary numbers in, $1 billion to $2.5 billion of damage from this storm, not nearly as bad as originally anticipated. And let's see, Soledad, how that stacks up against some of the most costly storms of all time in the United States. You can see there big daddy of them all of course Andrew back in '92, South Florida, the devastation there, we all remember. And interestingly, you can see there, a lot of those storms from 2004. In fact, number six would be Gene at $6.5 billion. So all four major hurricanes from last year in the top six.

And, of course, the reason why the storms -- one reason it's more and more costly is because more and more is being built down in the southeastern part of the United States.

Dennis will probably check in somewhere between number 15 and number 10 in all-time in terms of costs. So a lot of money there, Soledad, but not as bad as it could have been.

I want to talk about those gas prices you mentioned, and Some bad news here. Price of gasoline continuing to climb, up to $2.31 a gallon on average, up 10 cents nationwide. Checking some of the prices in cities around the country. Low is Charleston, South Carolina, at $2.09. High is San Diego, California, because of the taxes. Always high. And you can see there $2.30, $2.53. $2.15 in Houston.

And finally, as far as the markets go this morning, Soledad, you are looking at some relief. Futures are up this morning, probably because the damage from Dennis not as bad as originally anticipated -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Sort of everybody breathing a sigh of relief today.

Andy, thanks -- Miles.

SERWER: You're welcome

M. O'BRIEN: Hurricane Dennis, which became Tropical Storm Dennis and is now Tropical Depression Dennis, causing a fair amount of depression in the city of Atlanta and environs. Take a look at these pictures just coming into us through the good graces of our affiliate WAGA in Atlanta. This is Douglas County, a little bit south of Atlanta, but in the general vicinity. The weather service clocked about five inches-plus of Atlanta just overnight as one of those feeder bands, as we've been calling them, big rain squalls which come off of hurricanes, kind of stalled over the city. More than six inches at Peach Tree City, also south of the city. Georgia Power tells us 55,000 customers in Atlanta right now can't hear a word I say because they have no juice.

Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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