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CNN Live Sunday

Florida Prepares For Wilma; The National Hurricane Center Fights For Funding

Aired October 23, 2005 - 19:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Wilma moves closer to the Florida coast as rain begins to fall and waters begin to rise. Floridians had days to get ready or get out. How many people ignored the calls for evacuation?
You're watching a special hurricane edition of CNN LIVE SUNDAY. We have reporters stationed all along Wilma's path, and we'll be live throughout the night and into the early morning hours until the hurricane makes landfall.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin. Rob, you may very well be in the eye of the storm in a matter of hours.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That could be the case if it moves off to the north. Good evening, again, Carol. We're in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, a little bit north of the track, but still in that cone of uncertainty, so we could easily be in the eye.

But right now, Carol, it's been fairly pleasant, just a couple of outer bands rolling through, and one of the few times in hurricane coverage where we're about as comfortable as you are in the studio, so not so bad right now.

LIN: Well, take advantage of it while it lasts, because Max Mayfield from the National Hurricane Center says that storm surge, eight to nine feet tonight, heavy rains, even some tropical force winds coming your way.

MARCIANO: It will get bad in a hurry it sounds like.

LIN: You bet. All right. Glad to have you in position there.

Let's get right to the very latest information on Hurricane Wilma. Tropical storm force winds, 39 miles an hour or higher are expected in the Florida Keys at any time right now. It is a Category 2 storm with top winds right now of 105 miles an hour. Now, that could change, for better or worse, before the eye comes to shore around sunrise. That's what we're expecting right now.

Now, Wilma leaves a trail of misery in the Yucatan, where it lingered, grinding away at the Mexican resort area. Mexican officials tell CNN four people died, that in addition to 13 others who died in Haiti and Jamaica when Wilma blew through there. Ten thousand American tourists are about to be bussed to an inland city where they should find it easier to fly out. Right now, the hurricane is turning east. Hurricane warnings are in effect in western Cuba. Six hundred thousand people are without homes, or at least out of their homes right now. Some fled as soon as Wednesday. Already Cuban officials report a small village south of Havana completely under water. The storm surge sent sea water a half mile inland.

Now, in Florida, the director of emergency management says people need to take action. Wilma is moving faster. Hurricane warnings now cover half the state, and 160,000 people who live along the coast are under mandatory evacuation orders. Yet, only a fraction have left. The governor worries about hurricane fatigue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH, FLORIDA: Mandatory evacuations are currently underway for all Florida Key residents. I cannot emphasize enough to the folks that live in the Florida Keys, a hurricane is coming. And a hurricane is a hurricane and it has deadly force winds and while there have been evacuations over the last 14 months and there's not been a hit, perhaps people are saying I'm going to hunker down. They shouldn't do that. They should evacuate, and there's very little time left to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: And I'm in Ft. Myers Beach, and just to echo the governor's words, you know, a hurricane is just a hurricane. We were on the beach across the way when Katrina came in as a Category 1. A Category 1 storm is not fun either, so whether this thing comes in as a 1, 2, or hopefully not a 3, it's going to do some damage, and hopefully won't hurt many people.

We are on the northern edge of that cone of uncertainty. As we start to narrow down that forecast track, as Wilma starts to get closer, we have reporters up and down the coastline all the way down to Key West. We'll work our way to southward, and we'll start in Naples, Florida right now with Jeanne Meserve. What is the latest down there, Jeanne?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rob, the surf is kicking up a little bit. Right now, the current projects are that Wilma is going to make landfall south of here. That could be really bad news for some of the small communities like Chokoloskee, Plantation Island, and Everglades City.

Sorry, we apparently don't have that videotape. We went down to Everglades City earlier today, talked to some residents down there who live right on the water. Some of them have businesses right on the water, related to the water, in fact. It's right on the edge of the Everglades, and right now I think we're going to take a look at what some of them had to say down there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): An alligator came into a marina basin Sunday, seeking shelter from the oncoming storm, but not everyone was getting out of Wilma's way.

At Speedy's Airboats in Everglades City, they were putting plywood on the windows when deputy Eddie Adkins stopped by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it gets worse than a Category 3 before it gets here then we'll leave.

DEPUTY EDDIE ADKINS, COLLIER CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: Yes.

MESERVE: No hard sell. Despite a mandatory evacuation order, Adkins just wants to know who will be here and how to reach them.

ADKINS: These people are pretty experienced with these hurricanes, so that, you know, they have their attitude about how they're going to deal with it.

MESERVE: Speedy Johnson's choice? Stay right here with his business.

SPEEDY JOHNSON, SPEEDY'S AIRBOATS: I'm going to try to take care of it. That's my livelihood that I'm looking at right here.

MESERVE: His nine $30,000 airboats have been tied down and partially filled with water to keep them from floating away. Johnson just hopes the storm surge doesn't rise as high as their motors.

JOHNSON: If you lose them we're in big trouble because you can't go down the street and go by one of these. This is my shop.

MESERVE: In here, a brand new airboat motor and some expensive tools are being hoisted out of harm's way. But there is more to protect than equipment. Staying with Johnson, his wife Margaret (ph), and their 20-month old granddaughter, Candice (ph). Are they scared?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. No, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't safe to be here.

MESERVE: The average elevation in Everglades City? Three feet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Parts of Naples are under an evacuation order as well. A lot of people have left, but some have not. We're near some condominiums. I was looking up earlier. There was a couple up on a balcony having cocktails looking at the scene. Their entertainment could get downright scary before the night's over. Rob, back to you.

MARCIANO: Jeanne, there's always going to be a few of those. Right now, the weather where you are pretty calm?

MESERVE: Very calm. The surf has kicked up a little bit. We had a few showers about an hour ago, but right now not even that, so the worst certainly to come.

MARCIANO: Certainly so with that storm almost 300 miles away, picking up steam. It will be in your neighborhood very shortly. If not there, possibly down to the south. Marco Island, by some probabilities, could be the odds on favorite to see a direct hit from Wilma come tomorrow morning. Our John King is a CNN correspondent reporting from there tonight. John, what are you seeing?

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rob, as Jeanne just noted, relatively calm right now. The surf, as she noted, picking up a little bit. You hear it here but it's still relatively calm. The winds, as you can see, beginning to pick up. We are told the rains will come quite soon.

They're a bit concerned here because this community has not been directly hit by 1960 by a hurricane from the west. It is a community of upscale houses now, pricey condominiums. Million dollar yachts are not too hard to find, very different from the tiny town it was back when that hurricane hit directly in 1960.

We visited the emergency operations center this morning. It was there they said the current track has this Hurricane Wilma on a direct path for Marco Island, 100 mile an hour plus winds. They expect a storm surge of seven to nine feet. Most people, about 90 percent, we're told, have evacuated.

There were about 20,000 people on the island, the city manager says, when they gave those evacuation orders. He is worried, though, that many of those staying are veteran Floridians who have seen past hurricanes nearby. He says they don't understand this one could be coming right at them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MOSS, MARCO ISLAND CITY MANAGER: Well, because we have so many hurricanes, people think that they have been through a hurricane just because one has been offshore 50 miles or one passed through moving from east to west. For us, a storm coming from the west makes us very, very vulnerable, especially to storm surge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, that storm surge, they think, could be seven to nine feet, perhaps a little bit more if the storm picks up speed, and picks up strength as it approaches here. And we'll be watching not only here in Marco Island, a more pricey community, if you will, of all these condominiums and hotels.

But also just to the south, there's a fishing village called Goodland. We visited there earlier today. It's a much more gritty community, and in many ways, much more vulnerable because many of the people live in trailer homes that are just feet -- in some cases inches -- away from the canals and even from the water itself, the ocean itself. If there is a seven to nine foot storm surge, many of those communities, many of the fishing boats we saw today could well be destroyed -- Rob.

MARCIANO: OK, John, thanks for that information. Marco Island could easily see the eye of the hurricane come tomorrow morning, and I think that gentleman makes an excellent point. You know, just because you've been close to a hurricane doesn't mean you've been necessarily hit, so hopefully enough people are heeding the warnings tonight.

All right. We go down south to Key West where Hurricane Rita just missed there a few weeks back. Kareen Wynter is our correspondent there with the latest on Key West -- Kareen.

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Rob. The winds are definitely picking up out here. It's really been one constant factor all day long. The rain -- well, we had a squall come through here about three hours ago.

The rain has subsided, but one thing that it produced was what is called a waterspout, and what that is, it's similar to a tornado except this isn't something that happens on land, but over the water. It happened over the coast of Key West, and a citizen journalist and amateur photographer captured these amazing pictures that basically show the images forming during this phenomenon.

Now, again, it's dry right now, but a lot of activity, surprisingly, at this hour on the streets of Duval, downtown Key West. People are out and about, and that's one reason the city decided to implement a curfew that will take effect just a few hours from now, in fact, at 10:00 tonight. And that will remain until 7:00 in the morning because of all this activity, and they say they can't get a hold of the sheer number of people that are out here.

The city has another focus as well, what to do with all of the water during the storm surge, because it's expected to hit -- Wilma -- during high tide. They say that there are wells in place, what they call injection systems, and so we'll have to see if that holds up, but here is the mayor of Key West.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MORGAN MCPHERSON, KEY WEST, FLORIDA: We have targeted areas where we know that flooding takes places and will take place, and we'll make sure that it's minimized. We'll have our staff there. That's why you see the public works still making sure that every drain and ditch is cleared, even from debris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WYNTER: And time is running out, so people also said that they wanted, perhaps, to wait until the very end, Sunday night, to evacuate, Rob, the -- Miami is about three hours away. The bridges are still open, but the weather is starting to decline, Rob.

MARCIANO: All right, Kareen. You're on the front lines there. What hits Key West will likely hit here, and the rest of the southwest coast of Florida as Wilma quickly accelerates and heads this way. Carol, oh it looks calm right now along the coastline. I wish we could say that come this time 12 hours from now tomorrow morning, but probably not going to be the case. We'll enjoy it while it lasts.

LIN: You bet, but it's interesting even in just all the different live shots, Rob, to see how the weather conditions are changing a little bit. I mean, the winds are starting to kick up even though Hurricane Wilma is still about 300 miles away. I want to go Jacqui ...

MARCIANO: Well, certainly that video ...

LIN: Go ahead.

MARCIANO: I'm sorry. I just want to point out that that video, that waterspout, I mean, that's happening hundreds of miles away from the center, and that's going to be an ongoing threat. And if you're going to Jacqui right now, I'm sure she's going to point that out, so I'll let you do that.

LIN: Yes, Jacqui, what do you think?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we do. In fact, we've got a tornado warning right now, Carol and Rob, for Indian River and Osceola County. This storm cell right here, which is near the Florida Turnpike, and it's heading on up to the north around 10 miles per hour, so you need to take cover here.

There are also some very strong storms over towards the Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg area that are heading to the north and to the west. No warnings on these right now, but a lot of these outer bands could bring tornadoes. We have got the tornado watch in effect across much of southwestern Florida through the rest of the night for tonight.

I want to get to Max Mayfield from the National Hurricane Center, Max, and I want to ask you about the wind field of this storm right now. It looks like it's expanding a little bit, and I want to know just how large the wind field is going to be for hurricane force winds when it finally arrives.

MAY MAYFIELD, DIR., NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, when it finally arrives, we're going to see some real changes here during the night, Jacqui, and it's going to be a lot more asymmetric. The wind field has been pretty symmetric here for days, but as the front is accelerating out over the state, you know, during the night and tomorrow morning here, the strongest winds will definitely be on the south side, but they do extend well out away from the center.

In fact, we just had a report to -- we had a gust 85 miles per hour in Havana, which is one of these bands right down here, so that's a long, long ways out there. There's some real strong winds in those outer rain bands, and, as you've been talking about, tornadoes too.

JERAS: And how soon will hurricane force winds be arriving on the peninsula?

MAYFIELD: Well, they'll likely get there very early -- well, pretty soon after midnight, I would think, on the southwest coast, earlier tomorrow morning here on the southeast coast, but it's going to make a pretty good swathe here.

The -- our best guess here is that because of the size of that broad inner core that we're talking about here, this red area that you see here represents the hurricane force winds, and that's a pretty good chunk of the south Florida peninsula.

JERAS: So we're talking Tampa could get in on that? Miami? West Palm Beach?

MAYFIELD: No, well certainly -- you know, absolutely in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach could get hurricane force winds. I'm pretty sure they will. Tampa is pretty far to the north. They, you know, could get tropical storm force winds up there, but they're not going to get hurricane force winds that far north.

JERAS: All right. Thanks very much.

MAYFIELD: You bet.

JERAS: Max Mayfield from the National Hurricane Center, we'll see you again later. Back to you.

LIN: Hey Jacqui, we've got viewers all over the place. They're going to be seeing lots of action from Hurricane Wilma, so we're asking our CNN viewers to become citizen journalists by sending us your photos and videos of Hurricane Wilma. You can share them by logging onto CNN.com/hurricane, but please, please be careful when taking pictures or video. Don't put yourself or anybody else in any danger.

Now, if you knew that a storm was packing winds of over 100 miles per hour and it was headed your way, wouldn't you go? Wouldn't you evacuate? Well, many people in Florida decided to ride it out, so up next I'm going to talk with one coastal resident who is staying put.

Plus, they lost their homes during last hurricane season. Coming up, some residents of Punta Gorda, Florida, tell us whether they are ready for Wilma.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: I want to give you the latest now on Hurricane Wilma. It is about 300 miles off the coast of southwest Florida, but it's packing winds of 105 miles per hour. It is a very strong, very large hurricane. It's expected to make landfall somewhere along that southwest coast somewhere between 4:00 and 9:00 in the morning, on Monday morning.

But already the western tip of Cuba is feeling the effects. There's some rain there, some flooding, and the outer bands of rain have been affecting Florida for the last 48 hours.

Rob Marciano is standing by in Ft. Myers Beach. Rob, it could hit anytime in the morning, and you may very well be in position to see the brunt of it.

MARCIANO: Well, if not us, certainly one of our reporters. We've got the coastline covered from here all the way down to Key West, and we'll have the cameras there as long as we possibly can to show you the storm as it arrives. It's certainly a fascinating site to watch from the comfort of your living room and to see from outdoors, you just have to do it in a safe manner, of course.

There are some folks who live in this area of the country which is prone to hurricanes, and when they come, sometimes they decide not to leave, even when they are told to evacuate. So, we like to pick their brain when that happens and see why that is the case and what they're saying at the time, the people that actually live here.

So we're going to jot down to Naples, Florida once again and talk to a resident there. Her name is Kathleen Dennison. She's the owner of Dennison-Moran Gallery. Good evening, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN DENNISON, NAPLES, FLA.: Hi.

MARCIANO: How are you spirits tonight with knowing that hurricane may be coming tomorrow morning.

DENNISON: Well, a little worried, but, you know, it seems to be diminishing or maybe going south so that's a little more encouraging. We're all boarded up and ready I think.

MARCIANO: So your home and your business is boarded up? Tell me about some of the other things you've done to prepare for this storm.

DENNISON: Yes, we've boarded up our galleries, which are in the evacuation zone and the surge zone, so we're hoping there isn't a surge down Fifth Avenue, but they're boarded up and sandbagged and we've done everything we can. We took jewelry, packed it up, moved things to keep them safe, and the house is hopefully OK. We haven't boarded it.

MARCIANO: So your home is not in the evacuation area, is that maybe why you left -- tell me why you haven't left.

DENNISON: Well because I have two businesses and properties and an elderly mother, an old dog and cat and it's not so easy to just pack up.

MARCIANO: It's sounds like you have some family members to worry about. How long have you lived down in this area, and have you seen other storms come through, and does that make you a little bit more comfortable?

DENNISON: Well, 35 years and really no. Andrew came across from Miami and it really -- when it got to Naples, it was pretty diminished so it didn't do the devastation. So hopefully this won't be so strong. I don't know.

MARCIANO: Are you worried when this thing comes through -- I'm sure power is going to go out at the very least in your area. After seeing what's happened in other places that have seen hurricanes going through, are you worried about looters? And if so, what have you done to maybe protect yourself against that?

DENNISON: Well, we packed up all the really valuable jewelry and locked it up. And no, I'm not really worried about looters in Naples too much. There's a curfew, lots of police. I think we're OK. MARCIANO: Tell me a little bit about -- I know you're not in front of your store, but tell me a little bit about what are some of the things that you sell down there in your gallery.

DENNISON: Well, it's a gallery of American crafts. Everything is made in America by talented artists and craftsmen, and my husband and I are goldsmiths and our partner is a painter. We do have some paintings but mostly crafts, pottery, jewelry, all made in America. We compete with Wal-Mart.

MARCIANO: Sounds like you've got all your bases covered. Well, best of luck to you. I know you have a mother to tend to and some pets to tend to, and of course your husband to take care of, so ride out the storm safely tomorrow and hopefully there's not too much damage.

DENNISON: Thanks. Hopefully not.

MARCIANO: Thanks very much for joining us tonight.

OK, that's Kathleen Dennison. She's one of the residents down in Naples with a big smile on her face, so even after going through Hurricane Andrew, Carol, which kind of surprises me, she knows what a bad hurricane is like, she knows what it can do, and she's made the preparations for this one and she's ready to ride it out. So it's amazing what's happened to the psyche of folks who live in this part of the world, that's for sure.

LIN: Yes, well maybe if you've seen the worst, you figure it could never get, you know, as bad ...

MARCIANO: Yes, right. Andrew was a Cat 5, you know, this is only a 1 or 2. That's the problem. That's one of the things that the governor is so concerned about, you know, people who say they lived through four or five maybe because they just got brushed by it.

If you get directly hit by a 1 or a 2, trust me, that is not fun and that's where the damage is going to be. It may not be widespread, but you roll the dice and it could be in your neighborhood, and that's the danger of these storms. Where the hit and the exact point, even if they're a 1 or 2, there's going to be some serious damage.

LIN: You bet.

MARCIANO: So we'll just see where that's going to happen tomorrow night.

LIN: You bet, and because we know that conditions can change throughout the night, the path might change, the forecast might change, we're going to give you updates -- regular updates -- on the path of Hurricane Wilma. So stay right there. We've got another one for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: I've got an update now on the direction of Hurricane Wilma. It is heading towards Marco Islands, the Naples area, southwestern Florida. There's a mandatory evacuation in the keys right now. The hurricane is picking up speed. The winds are blowing in excess of 100 miles per hour and those are going to be the conditions in the coming hours, immediately tonight as conditions on the ground will change drastically very, very soon.

Landfall expected right now to be about a Category 3, somewhere between 4:00 and 9:00, but you can be sure that by sunrise, this hurricane is going to be blowing full force over the state of Florida.

Now this year's record-breaking storm system really makes it easy to say give the National Hurricane Center every penny it needs. But like most federal agencies, it has to fight tooth and nail for funding. CNN's John Zarrella shows how that money can make a real difference when a killer storm kicks in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During news briefings on Hurricane Wilma, Max Mayfield, the man in charge of the National Hurricane Center, has time and again stressed the value of one particular jet aircraft.

MAYFIELD: And especially with that jet data getting into the computer models, we'll have a better handle on it then. We'll start flying that jet that will continue to fly back to back missions here.

ZARRELLA: The jet is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- NOAA's -- Gulfstream 4. It is the most sophisticated plane ever built for hurricane reconnaissance and research.

But they wouldn't have it to day, says former Hurricane Center director, Bob Sheets, if the decision had been left up to NOAA's administration at the time.

ZARRELLA (on camera): You didn't go through the regular channels to get this plane.

BOB SHEETS, FMR. HURRICANE CTR. DIRECTOR: It never would have happened.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Because, Sheets says, for two decades hurricanes were not a priority at NOAA.

(on camera): The amount of money that was spent on hurricane research, was it enough?

SHEETS: Never.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Sheets wanted the jet badly. In 1989 he committed what could've been a career-ending act; he went around his bosses. He go the support of Senator Fritz Hollings who pushed through the funding. Even that almost didn't work.

The administrator of NOAA wrote a letter to Senator Hollings that essentially said thanks for the 43 million, but I'd rather use it over here where I have a shortage, and then two or three years from now we'll come and ask for this again.

ZARRELLA: Sheets said he got his jet only after Congress ordered NOAA to buy it. The struggle for funding was even worse across town at HRD, NOAA's Hurricane Research Division. In 1999 scientists watched Hurricane Brett with great interest.

HUGH WILLOUGHBY, FMR. DIR. HURRICANE RESEARCH DIV.: This is exactly the kind of data that I would want to look at.

ZARRELLA: Brett was rapidly intensifying as it neared the Texas Coast. Scientists were collecting data that could answer the crucial question: What turns a weak storm into a monster?

WILLOUGHBY: Brett is essentially the poster child for that problem.

ZARRELLA: But Hugh Willougby, then-director of HRD, says that valuable data has never been thoroughly analyzed. In the past six years, no one has been assigned to do this potentially life saving work.

WILLOUGHBY: Because there wasn't any money to hire that person.

ZARRELLA: NOAA insists it has, since 1998, been steadily increasing the budget for hurricane research, and is committed to advancing science and forecasting. And new technology is being added to hurricane hunter aircraft.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All right. That was CNN's John Zarrella reporting from Miami. So, as this killer hurricane heads for the state of Florida, there are a lot of questions about the federal response.

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