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National Hurricane Center Gives an Update on Wilma; Mother Accused of Drowning Three Children in San Francisco Bay

Aired October 20, 2005 - 11:34   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head now to Coral Gables and hear from Max Mayfield at the National Hurricane Center.
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MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATL. HURRICANE CENTER: We'll do that here this morning, and then we'll do it again at 4:45 Eastern daylight time, and you know, this is going to be a real challenge for us to keep everyone's attention on this. The hurricane has slowed down, and it's going to be down the Caribbean here for at least another couple days. The -- looking at the satellite loop behind us here, you can see that it sort of doesn't look as powerful as it did yesterday.

But believe me this is still a very, very powerful hurricane. Don't minimize this just because it's no longer a category five. The maximum sustained winds are 145 miles an hour. That's a very strong category-four hurricane. And we do think that we'll continue to see some fluctuations in the intensity. The water temperatures in advance of this hurricane are still very favorable. The upper-level environment is extremely favorable. So at least for the next couple days here, we think we're going to have very, very powerful hurricane in the Caribbean.

The future track, we have a lot of scatter in the models. We actually have some computer projections that have it getting into the Gulf of Mexico, and then turning northeast, heading up toward Tampa. We have another model that takes it northeastward, but through the Florida Straits. But most of the others are in between, as is the official forecast. The official forecast here still has the center of the hurricane over the Yucatan Channel very early on Saturday morning, and then as it turns toward the Northeast, there's certainly some uncertainty on exactly where that's going to go, but it appears that most of the models are still showing the impact in the Florida Keys and the southern Florida peninsula.

The timing is such that we really need to consider the wind field here and don't just focus on the eye of the hurricane. The hurricane- force winds extend out about 90 miles away from the eye. And the tropical storm-force winds extend out 260 miles. So this has become a larger hurricane, not quite as intense as yesterday, but still something that will impact a very, very large area.

So on this forecast track, coming across South Florida -- and again, I want to emphasize not to focus on that skinny black line. It could be up, you know, north of -- between (INAUDIBLE) Harbor and Tampa Bay, or it could be further to the south or the Florida Keys. But the fact that it's such a large hurricane, it will have an impact over a large area.

The most likely scenario here, if we're close to the correct track on the timing, we could easily have the tropical storm force winds here in the Keys and even here in the southeast Florida coast very early Saturday -- I'm sorry, very early Sunday morning, which means we would have the warnings no earlier than Saturday morning. Most likely a watch will go out during the day tomorrow. That is Friday, most likely in the afternoon or earring, depending on the speed of the hurricane.

Now, it's way too early to get too specific on the impacts, on the winds, on the storm surge, but we're also very concerned with that wave action, especially in the Florida Keys and on the southwest coast of the Florida peninsula. We have a couple friends with us today in the emergency-management community, and I've offered them the opportunity address the media here very shortly.

We have Billy Wagner, the executive director of emergency management for Monroe County, which is the Florida Keys. Billy is going to let you know what's going on in the Keys. And then Carlos Castillo (ph) is the emergency management director for Miami-Dade County, and he'll share a few things here after Billy.

BILLY WAGNER, EXEC. DIR. OF EMERGENCY MGMT., MONROE CO.: Thank you very much, Max. And good morning.

Florida Keys right now is responding to a major hurricane that's forecasted to impact us. Right now, we are under a local state of emergency. Everyone has to realize this is a very busy time for us. We have a lot of activities scheduled to start this weekend and through the week, which will be postponed as the event threatens us.

Right now, we have a mandatory evacuation that took place yesterday of all of nonresidents population throughout the Keys. And also we have a mandatory evacuation of all the R/V parks, R/V population and also travel trailers throughout the Keys.

We have a phased evacuation that we are under way, which will take place as far as the permanent population goes, as it warrants. The timing of that will depend on what takes place in the future. We have a lot of other activities taking place right now. We have a medevac of our hospitals currently taking place in Key West and also in Marathon.

Mariners will do in the upper Keys an evacuation over land to the Miami area. These hospitals will close once we have a mandatory evacuation in place. So everyone in the Keys have to realize we will not have emergency medical capabilities once this takes place. And that's one of the key reasons we want everyone to evacuate early, so we can accomplish all this.

The other thing is the timing of this is very, very important in the coordination that we have with Dade and Broward County during a regional evacuation process, also, the evacuation, even as far over as Collier County. We want everybody to pay very, very close attention in the Keys to the protective actions that we have to take and the adjustments in these protective actions. As you can see, we already did one this morning with an anticipation of an evacuation to start this morning at 6:00 a.m., and that's been postponed until to sometime tomorrow, in the timeframes that we're looking at. The Navy has coordination and we're working very close with them in trying to coordinate the efforts of all our population so we can have a smooth operation.

MAYFIELD: Thank you, Billy. And Carlos Castillo, again, from Miami-Dade County -- Chief Castillo.

CHIEF CARLOS CASTILLO, MIAMI-DADE CO., FLA. EMERG. MGMT: Thank you, Max. Good morning. We're looking at -- because we've gained some time, it appears, on this storm from what Max was saying.

I think the key message for us is to use this extra time that we have to prepare to ensure that whatever we have done ahead of time, that the plans that you have, the supplies, what you're going to do to protect your home, you know what you're going to do.

Use the extra time, if you have to go out to the stores before the weather starts to deteriorating -- now is a perfect time, like fueling your vehicle.

Knowing that from what it appears --- and this just underscores the predictability of the storms -- it appears that we're still going to feel some effects. We are in that cone of error and as Max says, we don't concentrate on the skinny, black line. Katrina definitely proved that to us. We are in the cone of error. And in south Florida, Miami-Dade, especially, the point is to stay informed and to stay on top of the changing situation.

It's not a panic situation, by any means. And we're thinking of all the possible scenarios to make the appropriate decisions, including whether there is a need to evacuate. And that all depends, really, on which way the storm comes up.

MAYFIELD: And I'll be glad to take questions if you have some.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Max, Chris Gallagher (ph) from the Fox News Channel. What's working in our favor right now?

MAYFIELD: Well, the timing is certainly working in our favor. The question was, what's working in our favor? The fact that it was so strong and the lowest pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic basin sort of helped us to get people's attention. The fact that it's still very moving slowly in the northwestern Caribbean gives us some extra time, as Chief Castillo said, to make those preparations.

There are a couple scenarios that are worth noting here. If the hurricane continues to move towards the Yucatan, the more of that circulation that gets over the Yucatan itself and the longer it stays down there, the better chance of weakening we'll have. But even if it gets up here through the -- if it goes through the Yucatan channel in the southeastern Gulf, we don't think that we're going to have the strength of hurricane that we have right now. It's a Cat 4 right now. We think that it's going through this eyewall replacement cycle that we've talked about so many times. And it may even come back to a Category 5 by this time tomorrow.

But when it gets in the Gulf, we think the most likely scenario is for this to be a Category 3 hurricane. Still a major hurricane. The upper level conditions will likely not be as favorable as they are now. And it could very well be weakening some.

But I really don't want to overdo that, because even a Category 2 hurricane and certainly a Category 3 hurricane is capable of causing a lot of damage on the Keys and the southern Florida peninsula. The folks in the Keys that remember Hurricane George in 1998, a lot of damage there, and that was only a Category 2.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: This breaking story. A reported arrest in relation to the murder investigation of Pamela Vitale. She's the wife of high- profile defense attorney Dan Horowitz.

On the telephone with us now is Ted Rowlands. He's coming out of Martinez, California. Ted, what do you know?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, we do not know specifically if there has been an arrest. We believe that there is a very good possibility that there has been an arrest in this case. We do know for sure that there has been a very significant development in the case, and that there is going to be a briefing within a few hours at the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office here in Martinez, California.

Pamela Vitale was killed over the weekend. She was found dead Saturday night, last Saturday evening, by Daniel Horowitz, a high- profile attorney in the San Francisco Bay area. And there has been little or no developments over the past few days, but we do believe that there's a distinct possibility that there has been an arrest in the case.

We will find out more later this morning, and we'll effort more information. But we're getting first indications that, clearly, there is a significant development and a possible arrest in the case.

WHITFIELD: And Ted, Pamela Vitale was 52 years old. She was found bludgeoned to death in her home there in Northern California by her husband, Mr. Horowitz. Reportedly, Mr. Horowitz had said that they even had a restraining order that they started to put into place a few years back involving a neighbor, but then they changed their mind on it. So there had been some speculation about whether police were going to talk to and investigate this neighbor or other people in the proximity of their home that they were building.

Have you heard anything more about the people who had been involved in the questioning process of this police investigation?

ROWLANDS: Well, I could tell you this, that this morning there were reports of up to 15 police cars here. The investigators at the area of the Horowitz estate. There were many people that were living in this area, within about 15 acres. Four people were on the Horowitz land, living, and then other people in the adjacent areas. And all of those people were being looked at by investigators. And we do have significant reports from our affiliate KRON that up to 15 to 20 police cars were up there at 4:30 this morning.

Right now, we were just at the house and the things have settled down. There is no activity. But it's very clear that something happened there this morning. And now with this announcement of a development and a press conference, one could connect the dots and assume that something happened at the house this morning. We don't know if it was that individual that you're talking about. And I hate to say his name at this point until we have confirmation.

WHITFIELD: Right. Well, we don't need to do that. All right, Ted Rowlands, thank you so much for joining us on the telephone from Martinez, California. So Ted reporting what we know at this point, is a possible arrest in relation to the murder of this woman here, 52- year-old Pamela Vitale, who is the wife of a prominent defense attorney, Dan Horowitz.

We'll have more news in a moment.

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WHITFIELD: A difficult search today in San Francisco. A witness says she saw a woman toss three children into the San Francisco Bay area. Investigators have located the body of one of the children, and now the search continues for the other two.

Our Rusty Dornin filed this report a short time ago.

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RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The search continues for two of three children allegedly tossed off this pier in San Francisco Bay Wednesday night by their mother. This is an area very popular with tourists and with fisherman. From what we understand, a man saw the woman walk down the pier with three children, strip their clothes off and throw them into the very chilly waters of San Francisco Bay.

About five hours later, the remains of one of the children, believed to be three years old, was found about two miles from here. Very strong currents, very cold water. They continue to search through the night, but there is very little hope that these children could survive. Arrested and charged with three counts of homicide is Lashaun Harris. She's 23, of Oakland. Reporters did speak to her cousin, who talked about some mental-health problems.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was out of her mind. She was not in her right mind. Shaun was not the kind of person to do anything wrong to her kids.

DORNIN: Shortly after dawn, the Coast Guard helicopter could be seen heading back out over the Bay to continue the search. There'll be four Coast Guard boats, as well as the San Francisco police patrol, searching for what they believe will be the bodies of the two remaining children. Harris has also been charged with three counts of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm to a child.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, San Francisco.

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WHITFIELD: And more on CNN LIVE TODAY right after this.

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WHITFIELD: A plea of not guilty in a New Jersey courtroom today involving a former Philippine police official who is facing spy charges. Michael Ochino (ph) is accused of passing classified U.S. information to current and former members of the Philippine government. Ochino is linked to a one-time White House employee under investigation for allegedly stealing classified information. He pled not guilty on both charges today in that court.

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KAGAN: I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Daryn Kagan. See you again tomorrow. International news is up next. Stay tuned for "YOUR WORLD TODAY" with Michael Holmes and Zain Verjee.

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