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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tropical Storm Katrina; Pruett Pride; Portsmouth Saved

Aired August 25, 2005 - 05:30   ET

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

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you from the Time Warner Center in New York. This is DAYBREAK. I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello. Thanks for waking up with us.
Coming up, southern Florida prepares for Katrina. More than five million people live in the path of a potential hurricane. We're live in Broward County in just a few minutes.

And later, this baby panda needs a name and the National Zoo is letting you choose. More details just ahead.

But first, these stories "Now in the News."

In Iraq, five people are dead in fighting between followers of Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and demonstrators in the city of Najaf. The violence in the holy city comes after the recent reopening of the cleric's offices there. Iraq's prime minister is calling for calm in the city where at least 10 others have been wounded.

Crude oil prices have hit yet another record high, $68 a barrel. The increase comes after gas prices went down just a smidgen across the country.

Some residents of western North Carolina felt a little shaking last night. A 3.8 magnitude earthquake hit about six hours ago north of Asheville. Homes were rattled, as well, in eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia, but there's no serious damage.

To Chad Myers in the Forecast Center.

Chad, I was surprised to read earthquake North Carolina.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

WALLACE: Didn't quite expect that one.

MYERS: No, there's a little fault that runs actually right from there, right across north Georgia into western and northwestern Alabama, and it shakes every once in a while, so. Actually, it shook on the air one time maybe three or four years ago. The e-mails were flying in from Alabama my house was shaking. And so it's that same fault line. There are minor fault lines out there.

But here you go, I want to talk about this. I want to talk about Katrina. Tropical Storm Katrina now still a 50-mile-per-hour storm. It got a lot bigger in size, but not a lot faster yesterday, winds at 50. There are your coordinates, about 65 to 70 miles east of Fort Lauderdale.

This thing doesn't have a whole lot of time to make landfall here. I mean we're talking about tonight, really, because the storm was forecast to slow down by every computer model. It just isn't doing it yet. Maybe it slows down as it gets closer to land and that slows down landfall. But that's a problem, because then you'd have all of this wind and all of this rain completely over the shore. We want it to slow down out here and turn the other way. That just doesn't look like that's happening.

Here's the developing eyewall here. It still isn't completely developed. It isn't an eye. It isn't a hurricane yet. It's still trying to get its act together. There's still more time for it to do so.

This is the warmest water that it will encounter. There is the gulf stream here, water that comes crushing up from Key West all the way through Miami. You go surfing out here in Florida and then try to do it in California, you'll know the two different currents, two completely different directions. This is hot water.

Back to you -- Kelly.

WALLACE: All right, Chad, stick around, because we're going to check in on how south Florida is coping with this. Broward County appears to be directly in Katrina's sights, as Chad was just mentioning.

And Dr. Sean Kenniff of CNN affiliate WFOR TV joins us live from there.

Great to see you. Give us a sense of how folks are preparing for what could be a very big storm.

DR. SEAN KENNIFF, FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA: Well, you're right, you know, and maybe, Kelly, maybe this is part of a little hurricane hangover with all the storms that Florida had to deal with last year. So maybe there's a little bit of torpor around when it comes to a tropical storm like Katrina, because people haven't really been preparing the way they have for previous storms.

And maybe we just got good at it last year. But there seems to be a little bit of inertia in getting people going and dealing with this particular storm. Part of it is that it's not a hurricane, part of it is that it kind of snuck up on us coming across the Bahamas like that and it's gradually strengthened. It was moving a north-northwest direction and now it has banked westward right towards Broward, right towards Fort Lauderdale, right where I'm standing in fact. As Chad mentioned, it's about 60, 70 miles just east of me.

Now this is what we're experiencing. We're getting just the general first fringes of Katrina as it comes licking on by the shoreline. We're getting some wind. We're getting some driving rain, just periodic driving rain. It will in, you know, about 10 minutes bursts. But the weather so far hasn't been that bad. Now they're not predicting this to be a significant, significant wind event just yet. It could strengthen over those warm waters, like Chad said, over the, you know, the Florida Straits and the Gulf to get to a Category 1, Category 2 hurricane, possibly Category 2, Category 1. But until now it's just going to be a rain event.

So a lot of people are preparing. I'm here at the Bahea Mar Marina (ph), and a lot of the boaters are going to be moving their boats, securing their boats or moving them inland.

So with me right now is Izzy Santiago (ph).

Izzy, what are you doing to prepare yourself?

IZZY SANTIAGO, RESIDENT: Right now we're just tying down the boats, putting on extra spring lines, making sure the boats stay secure, don't hit off the pylons and everything, and praying to God that you know that holds. If it doesn't work, we're going to have to move the boats somewhere else, to probably in the inner coastal.

KENNIFF: Now have you noticed that not as many people prepared like as aggressively for this storm as they did for others?

SANTIAGO: Right, because as everyone started thinking it was just going to be a tropical storm, and like you said, about going over the Bahamas and didn't really do any damage or anything like that. But people not realizing that this is coming straight at us and it's going to get stronger.

KENNIFF: That's right, and it is. It appears to be just about -- thank you, Izzy -- just about due west of us right now. We're preparing for the worst. Again, it's probably going to be -- the major impact is going to be a water event, not necessarily a wind event. They're predicting 15 to 20 inches in some areas. So this is going to be a really messy situation for a really long time with it creeping at only about eight miles an hour.

MYERS: Hey -- doc.

KENNIFF: That's the very latest from Fort Lauderdale.

MYERS: Hey -- doc.

KENNIFF: Yes.

MYERS: This is Chad Myers. I want to ask you about...

KENNIFF: Hey -- Chad.

MYERS: I want to ask you about high tide, because,...

KENNIFF: Yes.

MYERS: ... obviously, when that comes onshore that affects it maybe a couple of feet maybe today (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is that? KENNIFF: Absolutely. Yes, I mean I don't know, in particular, what the tide surge is going to be, but this storm is heading, as you know, due west right towards us. Now we know it's going to jog a little here and there,...

MYERS: Sure.

KENNIFF: ... but it doesn't have that much longer to go. So expecting a storm surge, I don't know if the tide is coming up or down. And to my eyeball, now listen, I'm just a neurologist, I'm not a meteorologist, so I don't know if it's going up. But to me I think the tide was higher when we got here, so it's probably going down. It's on its way down. Izzy, my good friend here, is saying that it is on its way down indeed. So it is on its way down, and that might be OK if the storm hurries up a little bit. But since it's taking so long,...

MYERS: Yes.

KENNIFF: ... we might catch it on the upswing. As tide is coming in, we might get that storm surge.

MYERS: I was at Fort Lauderdale a couple of years ago, and there was so much construction going on there.

KENNIFF: Yes.

MYERS: Is that still there? I mean are there still plywood boards all over all these construction sites to get picked up and thrown around?

KENNIFF: You know, Chad, I own six or seven condos myself under construction. No, I'm just kidding.

MYERS: Yes.

KENNIFF: No, but I mean there is tons of construction in the whole south Florida market. Everywhere you look you see cranes, you know plywood, bricks, all kind of building supplies, cement mixers everywhere. And, yes, it is going -- you know it's a distinct issue here. And you know our water table down here in Florida is very high. It doesn't take much to flood this whole area.

MYERS: Yes.

KENNIFF: You know that a heavy rain in an afternoon, a big torrential down -- thunderstorm will flood a lot of the areas around here.

MYERS: Well, you're only standing three feet above the ocean right now, so there you go.

KENNIFF: Right, exactly. And a storm surge and some of this is going to dump 15 to 20 inches on this area,...

MYERS: Yes. KENNIFF: ... it's going to have -- it's going to become a very messy situation as Katrina moseys on in.

MYERS: Yes. All right, doc, thanks, talk to you again.

KENNIFF: You got it. You too.

WALLACE: Sean, showing you're a true renaissance man, a neurologist who's also doing hurricane duty for WFOR TV.

MYERS: That's right.

KENNIFF: That's right. That's right.

WALLACE: Thanks for doing it.

KENNIFF: I do it all.

WALLACE: You do it all.

KENNIFF: All right, Kelly, you got it. Bye-bye.

WALLACE: We appreciate it.

Well we want to tell you a little bit about Hurricane Andrew. It is still the record holder for south Florida. Thirteen years later, Florida still remembers. Andrew struck August 24, 1992 and virtually wiped out the cities of Homestead and Florida City. Hurricane Andrew flattened entire neighborhoods, leaving behind 26 people dead, and also more than $26 billion in damage. Andrew remaining the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Turning to Iraq, it is another deadline day for those drafting Iraq's new constitution. Parliament is expected to vote on the document today, but regional autonomy remains a major sticking point. Sunnis are opposed to a decentralized government because they fear they'll be cut out of the country's oil wells and be left powerless. Iraqis are expected to vote on the draft constitution in the fall.

The Pentagon saying it will send 1,500 more troops to Iraq in advance of that constitutional referendum. The additional forces will deploy next month from the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. That will boost U.S. troop levels in Iraq to at least 140,000.

As for President Bush, he has been trying to rally support for the war in Iraq. He took his message to some 10,000 service personnel and families in Idaho. The anti-war movement is gaining strength with the leadership of one military mother. But the president introduced the country to another mother who has four sons serving in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tammy says this, and I want you to hear this, I know that if something happens to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country. And I guess you couldn't ask for a better way of life than giving it for something that you believe in. America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruetts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And Tammy Pruett, the mother, talked to CNN about having four sons serving in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY PRUETT, HAS FOUR SONS IN IRAQ: Most people would say that it's really horrible to have that many over there. But, actually, you know it's quite a comfort to us. All the boys are in an area where at least two of them get to see each other almost every day. And then the other two get to see the others sporadically. So they have family there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: One courageous mother.

We now take you to Iraq to meet the Pruett brothers. CNN's Alex Quade caught up with them in Kirkuk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Iraqi police.

ALEX QUADE, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): Eric, an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart; Jeff, a grocery store clerk; Evan, a bartender and Greg, a missionary. Four citizen soldiers with something in common, their last name, Pruett, four brothers deployed with different units in Kirkuk.

Youngest brother Jeff is on house-to-house searches.

SPC. JEFF PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: It's not a raid. You just knock and then you go in.

QUADE: Training new Iraqi forces.

J. PRUETT: We let the police go in first and then we follow in behind them.

QUADE: Jeff just turned 20.

(on camera): Do you think that your parents worry more about you because you are the youngest out here?

J. PRUETT: No. I think my mom is scared out of her mind for every one of us, so, just because we're gone and we're in a combat zone.

SPC. GREG PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: This is Halcom (ph) on radio check. Over. Hal (ph) base, Hal base, this is Halcom on radio.

QUADE (voice-over): Middle brother Greg is a communications expert.

G. PRUETT: You know, let's say this antenna goes down and we get attacked really bad. We lose communications with the outside, and we can't call for backup if we need it or anything like that.

Now being a radio operator, I hear everything that goes on. And so, when I hear stuff is happening or hear about IEDs and stuff like that, I just kind of get this queasy feeling in my stomach and say, you know, hopefully my brothers are OK. Hopefully, the guys out there are OK. And...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

2LT. ERIC PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: Let's mount up.

QUADE: Big brother Eric is a tank platoon commander who now patrols Kirkuk by Humvee and on foot. He's responsible for 23 soldiers and also trains Iraqi police.

ERIC PRUETT: It's difficult. We have got two missions here. We got to provide security for ourselves and the people here. But we also got to, at the same time, make the people feel like we're here to help them and not just be occupiers and that sort of thing.

Candy?

QUADE: And even on patrol...

ERIC PRUETT: Want a piece of candy?

QUADE: ... Eric never stops worrying about his brothers.

ERIC PRUETT: I'm concerned for all of us. I just have to trust that there is guys taking care of my brothers when I can't be there.

SPC. EVAN PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: Whatever is broken, they will bring to us and we try to fix it as fast as we can.

QUADE: Evan's job is critical. He fixes the vehicles his brothers and their units use for missions and repairs those damaged by roadside bombs.

EVAN PRUETT: That keeps my brother's unit, you know, that is infantry right now, up and running. You know they got to go through town and all that. And if they don't have vehicles that work, they can't do their jobs. Keep everything...

QUADE (on camera): In a way, you're still helping your brothers.

EVAN PRUETT: Yes. Yes, I'm helping my brothers, so.

QUADE: Watching their backside.

EVAN PRUETT: Yes, that's the way I look at it is I'm helping my brothers get through their day.

QUADE (voice-over): While we're taping, a recruiter tries to sign Evan up for six more years.

EVAN PRUETT: The whole thought of being gone away from your family for you know 18 months, a year, whatever it is going to be, it's tough. I just hope nothing bad happens. I just want us all to be safe and all my brothers and everything to go home and be with our families.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And that was CNN's Alex Quade in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. A fifth Pruett brother and their father have also served in Iraq and are back home now.

Eighteen seventy-one, 1,871 U.S. troops will not be coming home. That's how many have died so far in the Iraq war. Seventy-three of them were killed this month alone.

DAYBREAK will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Looks like it's going to be a lovely morning here in New York City, which is good.

Now this DAYBREAK follow-up for you, rescuers are combing a jungle in Peru searching for missing passengers from Tuesday's plane crash. Flight recorders from the Peruvian jetliner have been recovered. Tans Airlines says 57 of the 98 people aboard the plane survived, 10 others are unaccounted for. That plane went down in a storm trying to make an emergency landing. Three Americans were killed but seven others survived.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me it was like a shocking present, like I was so scared, but at least I came through it. And this present gave me like a lot of bravery now and a lot of, to me, like to worship actually to God, like I now really trust that and I still believe that God still exists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: One survivor says there was no warning before the crash. Authorities believe wind sheer may have been the cause.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's about 46 minutes after the hour and here is what is all new this morning.

It's Shi'a battling Shi'a in Iraq. Opponents of Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr clashed with his supporters in Najaf. At least 5 people are dead, 10 others wounded.

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has been doing a lot of backpedaling. First he denied saying the U.S. should assassinate the president of Venezuela. Robertson later came out with an apology on his Web site. In money, watch for the October issue of "Playboy" on your PC. "Playboy" is launching a digital edition of its flagship magazine. The e-zine will be identical to the print version. Lots of great articles. Right, the articles, of course.

In culture, Diddy and Emilio Estefan have teamed up to develop Latino talent. Called "Bad Boy Latino," the two producers plan to have a roster of artists for music television and the movies.

In sports, Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling says the baseball record books should erase contributions by Rafael Palmeiro. He says Palmeiro has no credibility after testing positive for steroids.

To Chad with a very busy Forecast Center checking in on Tropical Storm Katrina.

MYERS: Yes, very little time to prepare now. Literally between, I don't know, 10 and 15 hours before landfall. This thing is still out there about 70 miles, almost due east of, let's say, Delray Beach or Boca.

You can begin to see in the last couple of frames there an eyewall trying to develop as storms rotate around each other. And, in fact, there are already some of those outer bands coming down to about Boca right now. Almost down to the Pompano Beach area. Those outer bands could also have some winds to 45, 50 miles per hour in them as they roll on by. So get ready for a very squally day south Florida.

Not much time to prepare now, it is still moving to the west at about eight miles per hour and it's about 80 miles away. You can do the math, if it doesn't slow down, it is definitely coming there today and not even tonight. We'll have to watch out. Winds right now are 50. It is forecast to become a minimal hurricane before it makes landfall because that water there is so warm -- Kelly.

WALLACE: All right, Chad.

Stick around, we're switching gears a little bit. This is for all you panda fans out there. You get to pick the name of the newest little guy, there he is, at the National Zoo. The male cub, the first surviving cub born in the zoo's history, was born July 9. The zoo has five choices for names on its Web site, but the final decision for the giant panda cub's name is up to you.

And here are the choices. You see them there, Chad, Hua Sheng: China Washington; Sheng Hua means Washington China. Also means magnificent, I believe. Tai Shan: Peace Mountain; Long Shan: Dragon Mountain; and Qiang Qiang: Strong, Powerful.

MYERS: Right.

Chad, what's your favorite?

MYERS: I like peace mountain, I think, Tai Shan.

WALLACE: I was going with Qiang Qiang: Strong, Powerful.

MYERS: Could be. I mean maybe Tai Shan could have been a better name for a female panda because you know kind of Tai, I don't know, but I like them all.

WALLACE: Right. And the first one, I should mention, that says it means China Washington also means magnificent as well.

All right, well you get to vote. Head to this Web site, www.fonz.org/cubname.htm

MYERS: And FONZ...

WALLACE: You got that there?

MYERS: ... is Friends of National Zoo, by the way. Not like Fonzarelli.

WALLACE: Yes, not the Fonz.

Thanks -- Chad.

MYERS: All right.

WALLACE: All right, this is DAYBREAK for a Thursday. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And we are turning to the latest when it comes to base closings in the United States. The fight to keep open two historic Naval bases in New England has been won. And no one is happier than our favorite morning radio team, who just happen to be from Portsmouth, home of the famous shipyard.

Mark Ericson and Danielle Carrier are the WOKQ Morning Waking Crew.

Good morning, guys, great to talk to you.

MARK ERICSON, WOKQ MORNING WAKING CREW, PORTSMOUTH & MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE: Morning, Kelly.

DANIELLE CARRIER, WOKQ MORNING WAKING CREW, PORTSMOUTH & MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE: Kelly, morning. How are you?

WALLACE: Well I'm well, Danielle. So give us a sense of what the mood is like in your hometown today.

CARRIER: Well my voice is killing me from all the whoo-hoos (ph) yesterday. And actually there was a lot of suspense yesterday before the whoo-hoos.

ERICSON: The elation is absolutely incredible. And you just had a still shot of what happened shortly after noontime at the shipyard. They sort of poured out of the gate in an impromptu rally that took place after the announcement that the shipyard had been removed completely from the list. So it's at this point 100 percent safe.

But the suspense was right up until the last minute, Kelly. Yesterday they had told the employees at the shipyard that if they got removed from the list they would blow the horn at the shipyard for 45 seconds. And one hour prior to the BRAC Commission even starting to talk about Portsmouth, there was a technical snafu and the horn went off prematurely yesterday.

WALLACE: Oh my God, I can't imagine. That must have frightened people very much so.

You know, Danielle, one thing we've talked about even on this show, we talked about how the community, the entire community got involved and had these shirts "save our shipyard" and these signs. And I guess everyone in the community is changing them to say -- quote -- "we saved our shipyard." So it was a real community effort to save this shipyard.

CARRIER: It was a strong community effort. And, actually, it wasn't just the community, it was also our governments, the ultimate in political cooperation. This fight saw the congregation delegations of Maine and New Hampshire united, along with both states' governors. So it was a good effort, I think.

WALLACE: And, Mark, give us a sense of the stakes here. I mean if this shipyard was closed down, what would it mean in terms of jobs lost, in terms of the economic impact of the area and the region?

ERICSON: The economic impact would have been absolutely devastating, 4,800 jobs between civilian and military jobs at this shipyard, along with the history of the shipyard. And then the cleanup, the environmental impact of the cleanup of the shipyard, which the BRAC Commission feels may have been grossly underestimated by the Pentagon. This would have been a blow to the region that would have taken probably decades to recover from, but we're safe.

WALLACE: Danielle, what does it come down to, because I know that the Pentagon originally recommending closing it, saying it had excess capacity there. But commissioners didn't agree with that.

CARRIER: You know we watched this yesterday and it was so suspenseful. But Commissioner Philip Coyle's statement said it best. He referred to it saying you know I've got a garage. I don't use it 24 hours a day, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go and tear it down either. And that just, to me, I was like, OK, yes, good point, good point.

WALLACE: Mark, I bet you're hearing from a lot of listeners today.

ERICSON: Indeed we are. I mean New England, in general, did OK in all of this. We don't want to lose sight of the fact that in the state of Maine, further north in the state of Maine, the Brunswick Naval Air Station did not survive so well. But the major facilities that have been on this list, the sub yard in Connecticut and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, at this point, are doing OK. And on the seacoast of New Hampshire, lots of elation.

WALLACE: Well you both have been following this one closely. Thanks for getting up with us. Mark Ericson and Danielle Carrier of the WOKQ Morning Waking Crew, we appreciate it so much.

Still to come here on DAYBREAK, as pet owners know, going to the vet can be very costly. Ten things your vet won't tell you, but we will, in the next hour. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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