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American Morning

In South Florida, Hurricane Wilma Coming Ashore

Aired October 24, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That is Marco Island. That's our second shot with Anderson and John.
I see -- Anderson, go ahead.

I see you up on top. Are you OK?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

MYERS: I had you, Anderson, for just a moment.

I heard you.

Anderson Cooper, John Zarrella, go ahead.

All right, Miles, I lost them.

Go ahead. And come back to me -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Chad, I think that tree right up there -- I don't know what kind of tree that is -- it's just about being uprooted by this wind right now. So clearly we're at a point now where I'm sure we're going to bear witness to a lot of structural damage once this passes.

This is the level, a category three storm, where you would expect to see a lot of structural damage. And, you know, we have been kind of surprised to this point that we haven't seen stuff flying off the roofs here.

You know, as I mentioned to you, this is the home of some very pricey real estate with a lot of places that have been built in recent years, built to hurricane codes and sometimes beyond them. And that's probably serving this structure well, and many of the other structures along this beach here in Naples.

MYERS: Miles, it's the top of the 8:00 hour.

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

Miles, the top right hand side of your screen, Naples, Florida. Top left, that is Marco Island. The same shot from a different location on the bottom right-hand side.

I want to bring in Jason Carroll in Hurricane One, driving through Naples, Florida at this hour -- Jason, what are you seeing? What type of damage can you describe to me? JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we've done is we've pulled off U.S. 41 and we've zigzagged through a neighborhood. I just wanted to see how some of the neighborhoods in Naples were doing. You can see what it looks like here, with some of the trees out there on the front.

I'm going to attempt to get out here, since it's daylight. A little bit safer in terms of seeing what's blowing our way, so I can show you some of the flooding, minor flooding that we've seen out here.

I don't know if you can give a sense of just how deep it is. Not too deep, but the water is moving toward these homes here, coming up to their front doors. So you can see how the water is moving in. The rain still pounding down her in Naples. The wind still very strong, as well, as we've been moving along in Hurricane One through the area.

And this pretty much sums up what we've been seeing all morning long. In the daylight hours, though, obviously a lot more clear.

The wind has caused a great deal of minor flooding throughout the area. It's really the wind, though, that's really incredible. It's absolutely so intense, so strong, it's been roaring through. Before we got out of Hurricane One, it was tough to judge just how strong the wind was. We were judging it by how much it was rocking our car back and forth.

But now that we're outside, you really get a sense of what you've been hearing from Miles and Anderson down there on the beach in terms of just how strong and how powerful the winds are, as hurricane Wilma bears down on Naples -- back to you.

MYERS: Jason Carroll, thank you very much.

Miles, I just got handed a tornado warning. Northern Oceola County. It looks like there is significant rotation near the town of St. Cloud, and that is in northern Oceola County. That is in Central Florida, out of the Weather Service, out of Melbourne, Florida.

Down to the right-hand side, the bottom right-hand side of your screen, that is WSVN, Deerfield Beach, Florida, the east coast of Florida. Now getting hard hit with the winds, the east side of the winds. In fact, the stronger of the two winds.

So you can imagine what people in West Palm, in Boca, Fort Lauderdale, Opa-Locka, all the way down into Deerfield Beach and Miami are feeling now, because you can see what the other side, the easier -- although I say that tongue in cheek with a category three -- the easier side of the eye.

Up on the top right-hand side of the screen, Miles O'Brien -- Miles, what can you tell me?

O'BRIEN: I've got to tell you, Chad, this wind is now coming right into the teeth of the camera. If you were at home, people at home could feel the wind, it'd be right in their teeth right now. It just goes straight into the lens. And as it comes in, I just keep seeing the Gulf of Mexico rising and rising and coming closer to us.

This storm surge that we've been telling you about is happening right before our eyes now, as that wind has shifted around, as you mentioned, with the eye wall right where it is now. And I've been talking all morning about how the dunes are protecting us, but the dunes may not be enough for this if we get a storm surge in the neighborhood of five or six feet.

Chad, that is what you've been predicting here. Five or six feet might very well get that water to the steps where I'm right, or at least at the base of the steps where I'm standing right now.

The rain keeps coming down horizontally, as we say, pretty much straight into the teeth of that lens, at a ferocious pace. It is truly at the apex right now, or so we hope.

And, Chad, can you give me a little more insights on that. We should endure this for how much longer?

MYERS: It's going to go down every minute you stand there, Miles. The wind speeds are now going down. The most dangerous part of the eye wall has just went by you. Literally, it went by you five minutes ago. And now you're going to get into a lull. That lull may be temporary when you get into the secondary eye wall, but your wind speeds will be going down from here. That might be some good news. But that also means that your winds will be coming from the ocean for at least another 45 minutes.

It looks like your in a stairwell and if you are, I want to make sure that you can go up in case that water keeps going up.

O'BRIEN: Yes. I'm going to come up -- I'm going to get in a little bit closer here, Chad.

This is -- all right, we are in a much more sheltered spot. Well -- whoa!

How's that for a (UNINTELLIGIBLE). This is a bit of a wind tunnel here. I don't even know if this is a safe place to be, guys. We're trying to fall back as best we can, but the wind is coming right at us. We don't really have (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

MYERS: Miles, I'd rather you not in a wind tunnel, because that's where debris gets funneled to. I need you to get around another corner, if you can, and get out of that wind tunnel.

O'BRIEN: Yes, we're going to go find a safer place.

We'll get back to you.

MYERS: All right.

Allan Chernoff on the other side, Hollywood, Florida.

Allan Chernoff on the phone with me now -- Allan, what are you seeing on the east coast of Florida now? ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you right now, the wind here is absolutely ferocious. I'm looking at the roof of the lower portion of the hotel we're on. For a while, the wind has been whipping that roof like a blanket. And right now, as we speak, part of the roof is just being ripped off.

I'm on the third floor of the hotel. Water is dripping in over here and the sand is just flowing in from the beach, which is a few hundred yards from where I'm speaking.

Right now on the third floor balcony, we've got tons of sand. On the first floor of the hotel, one window has already crashed into the restaurant. Glass all over the restaurant. And in front of the hotel, a palm tree has been knocked down. It's taken down the Holiday Inn sign.

The pool immediately below me looks like the ocean. There are white caps in the pool right now. And the palm tress right in front of me just whipping ferociously back and forth.

So very intense at the moment.

MYERS: We're looking at Hollywood, Florida on my radar behind me. I will give people a sense of what's going on.

Allan, are you saying that the winds are actually off the ocean at this point in time?

CHERNOFF: Yes. To a certain degree. As far as I can tell, definitely. Yes. Blowing off of the ocean. It seems to be also a little bit going north, as well. But definitely I'm looking at the palm trees right now and they're leaning away from the ocean. So no question about it, we are getting lots of wind coming right off of the ocean.

MYERS: Hollywood, Florida, right here.

Allan, I have bad news. You are not even in the worst of it. Just off to your west still to come is your major eye wall. You still have another maybe 20 minutes before that hits you. But your winds could literally go up 40 to 50 miles per hour from what you're seeing now.

If that holds true and that big area does slide into your area, you're not only going to have new damage, but you're going to have damage from the old damage. Those things that get picked up in the first part of the storm then get thrown around and create more damage. With another 30 to 40 miles per hour, you may be -- you may need to find someplace a little bit, maybe more secure, maybe a little bit of a better structure.

Can you do that?

CHERNOFF: We are going to do whatever we can to stay safe while still reporting the story.

MYERS: That was Allan Chernoff on the east coast.

I think I just lost his mike there for just a second.

I wanted to go back to Miles O'Brien on the other side of Florida -- Miles, I like where you are now.

O'BRIEN: Boy, I'm with you on that one, Chad.

All we did -- it's amazing. It's so interesting. As you know, there are little pockets in all these alcoves. We set up -- we always set up near these alcoves so we can do just what I'm doing now, and get into a safe spot.

But over on that side, across the way, on the other wall, Dave, if you can pan over there. Why do you pan over to that wall? I was -- you can see that handle. I was hanging on there and that's just getting battered right now, as the wind turns around on us.

To just come over to this side has helped quite a bit. We're kind of on the lower. But even as I speak, Chad, I can feel it coming back around on us. So we're going to have to kind of keep moving around here to make this work.

But being out there is clearly not safe. You know, all the people always ask us why do we do what we do in these situations. Well, in a situation like this, you don't go out in that kind of wind. It's just not safe to do that.

But what this does tell you is the kind of force that this sort of storm offers up. And what's interesting to me, Chad, we were just talking to Allan Chernoff. Really, in many respects, not quite to this level, he's feeling the same brunt of the storm 150 miles away from me on the other side of this state.

This is a big storm. I mean, you tell me, in the grand scheme of things, I'm sure there have been bigger storms, but this has got to be among the bigger ones.

MYERS: Miles, you're going to have to keep moving around.

You're going to have to keep sliding, because the winds will continue to slide.

What truly amazes me is that with that significant change in wind direction, your satellite truck has been able to stay with us the entire time.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

MYERS: Typically, you get behind a building and you're good for 90 degrees. But as soon as it keeps coming around, that satellite dish starts to wobble a lot in that wind or, of course, we get some rain fade from you, whatever it is.

But this is a testimony, really, to how well we plan a hurricane. And maybe it looks like they're, you know, like they're being cowboys out there, people, but they are not.

O'BRIEN: Well, here -- you know what?

Chad?

MYERS: What?

O'BRIEN: Ritchie Philips (ph), come on in here.

I want to have Ritchie explain exactly what we did.

This is our site producer.

Come here.

RITCHIE PHILIPS: Right here?

O'BRIEN: No, you're coming out here and coming on TV.

You're getting on TV. Your on TV right now with Chad Myers.

PHILIPS: How are you doing?

Hi, Chad.

MYERS: Hi, Rick.

O'BRIEN: Chad is asking how we were able to get the satellite truck parked in a place -- why we're still on TV. Basically it's a horseshoe building.

Explain what you did.

PHILIPS: That's exactly what we did. What, you know, one of the things that we look for is to make sure we have protection. And in this area we found the perfect location, where we're actually protected on three sides. So we've got perfect protection right now. The dish hasn't moved an inch.

We've had more problems today trying to shoot through the clouds, the clouds and the rain, earlier on. But right now it's been absolutely great. It's -- this is as good a situation for television as you could find.

O'BRIEN: All right, so that, you know, when people see us on TV, they always think how insane it is to be out there. But one -- you know, we reiterate this point. It's a calculated risk. The truck is in a very safe place, we're still on television. I don't think I've ever been able to broadcast through this kind of wind before. So, you know, a tip of the hat to you for finding the site.

But it's also important to note, when it gets this crazy out, we're not out in it, either.

PHILIPS: All right, I couldn't -- I'm sorry.

O'BRIEN: That's all right, Rich.

You can't even hear me.

All right, go. Go. Go check and get that other shot set up.

We're sitting here talking to each other. We can barely have a conversation, as you know, Chad. When you're in the middle of this you've got to -- it's like being at an airport behind a 747 as it's getting started. But only that goes on for many, many minutes, perhaps even into the hours, as this wind continues -- Chad.

MYERS: It certainly is a roar, Miles.

I want to go ahead and reset, tell everybody what's going on.

We'll go back to full screen. We'll go back to radar. We'll show everyone, actually, where this storm is right now, where the most intense part of this storm is and how this is actually affecting Miles.

Miles actually going to get a little bit of a lull here in the Naples area rather soon. This was the first eye wall that you saw him, when he could barely stand up in the stairwell itself, a small lull. And then part of the secondary eye wall on the outside.

Now we're going to slide this map to the east, where the Hurricane Center back in Miami, just to the southeast of here, just picked up a wind gust to 104 miles per hour. And we're going to see wind gusts like that, damaging wind gusts all the way up and down the East Coast, from Coral Springs just to the west of Fort Lauderdale, down through into Hollywood, where our Allan Chernoff is. We'll get back to him in a moment. And then down into Miami.

Now the wind is coming into Miami, Homestead, right on, for that matter, down to Florida City, right up the turnpike, right up the Dolphin and then, for that matter, as it gets up into the Highland Beach area, these winds are going to be pushing from the south at 100 to 105, maybe even 110 miles per hour, because the Hurricane Center still has the storm going 120. Sustained winds were still 120 at the last report.

What we'll see here, the storm and the winds coming in from the south, turning in from the east here and then, from the same direction that Miles was seeing it here, either from the north or from the northeast off the ocean. And when you get it off the ocean, you're pushing water into the land. You're getting the storm surge up and that's where we're seeing significant storm surge now, through the Everglades. At least eight to maybe 15 feet was what the forecast was from Everglades City southward. And, also, funneling into Florida Bay, down around Card Sound Road and the 18 mile stretch and right on down even into Lake Surprise and also into Key Largo.

Florida City and right up through Miami, Homestead, into Cutler Ridge, seeing wind speeds now in excess of 100 miles per hour in the squalls that are now pushing offshore. The only good news in any of all of this is that this eye will be completely offshore in two or three hours. And it will move into the Atlantic Ocean and it will then begin to move away. And so will the winds begin to die off for all of Florida.

We had a little bit of communication problems with Miles O'Brien a little bit ago -- Miles, are you there?

We still don't have him. He had a little problem with his earpiece.

But I do have Zain Verjee up in New York -- Zane.

Zane, are you there?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you do. I'm here with you holding on tightly to my desk.

MYERS: OK.

VERJEE: Ed Rappaport of the National Hurricane Center joins us now from Miami.

Give us the latest that you have from there.

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, the latest is that the metropolitan areas of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County -- are you still there?

VERJEE: Yes. Go ahead, Ed.

RAPPAPORT: OK.

I'm sorry.

Are experiencing some of the worst of the weather now. We had a gust of over 100 miles per hour to 104 miles per hour here at the National Hurricane Center.

Some other reports, unofficial reports, over 100 mile per hour winds.

We have about another hour or two where the conditions will actually get worse in the metropolitan areas. And then we'll have hurricane conditions extending to later this morning, improvement in the afternoon hours.

VERJEE: People should just stay indoors for a number of hours, right?

RAPPAPORT: Absolutely. It's unsafe to be outside now. It's also unsafe to be outside for those people who are going to experience the eye. While it's calm in the middle of the eye, the weather deteriorates very rapidly on the back side. It goes back to hurricane conditions. It can be life threatening.

VERJEE: This is going to be out of Florida by midday, right?

RAPPAPORT: That's right. But between now and then we have the dual risks of the strong winds and the storm surge in the southern part of the state and there is also some threat from rainfall and isolated tornadoes throughout the state, the peninsula and the Florida Keys.

VERJEE: We've been talking about the potential danger, fairly often, about storm surge. But it's my understanding that what could pose even greater danger and has been responsible for the most number of deaths, also, in the past 30 years or so is inland flooding.

Can you tell us what we can anticipate about that and how dangerous that could be, from what we're seeing now?

RAPPAPORT: Yes. Inland flooding from rainfall is a great risk. It's not as much so in Florida, where storm surge historically has taken most of the lives, and that's been our concern with this hurricane. Fortunately, the highest storm surge is occurring in the southwest coast, south of the populated areas, south of Everglades City. But there's also a significant storm surge occurring in the Florida Keys now, from five to nine feet, and with waves on top of that, we're very concerned about the folks down there.

VERJEE: What is the East Coast experiencing now?

RAPPAPORT: Well, we're on the East Coast here in Miami-Dade and Broward and Palm Beach County areas. And this is where we're now getting gusts in excess of 100 miles per hour. We can hear the wind going over the roof and the floor is vibrating a little bit here.

So some of the worst of the weather is now occurring here and will be continuing for another couple of hours.

VERJEE: How long will it take for the storm surge that we've been seeing and hearing about so much to subside?

RAPPAPORT: The surge will subside after the winds die down. But in some places, particularly on the Florida Keys, even after the winds die down, the surge will come up a little bit for a brief period because the wind direction will be more on shore. But the surge will be coming down by this afternoon.

VERJEE: Ed Rappaport at the National Hurricane Center.

Thanks, as always.

To Jason Carroll now in Naples.

He is aboard Hurricane One.

Now that's essentially a satellite equipped SUV. And basically that allows us to reach some of the areas that nobody can get to -- Jason.

CARROLL: So right now we're just outside the facility. A little bit of minor flooding that we've experienced down here. This is downtown Naples and you can see this is a strip mall and how far the water has come here. Walter, I don't know if you can hear me, but get a shot of the newsstand over there. You can see the newsstand. It's partially submerged. That gives you a sense of just how deep the water has gone at this part.

I would still call this minor flooding because if you look right below where I am right now, you can see that it's almost sea length, a little bit below that. Still, the winds, as you can see, that makes it still very difficult to stand up out here.

I'm curious as to how widespread the flooding is. You see this down here in downtown. We've also seen some minor flooding in a neighborhood just a few blocks from here. The water coming up to just about the front porch.

You literally have to hold onto something just to be able to stand up out here and talk to you.

But we just wanted to give you a sense as we pull of the side of U.S. 41 here in Hurricane One, just to give you a sense of some of the minor flooding that we're experiencing as we drive along here -- back to you.

VERJEE: A sense of the minor flooding.

Jason Carroll reporting it to us from Naples in Florida, holding on to spare himself from being blown over. Those kinds of images we're seeing also from Miles O'Brien, as well as Anderson Cooper and John Zarrella, as they report on hurricane Wilma.

We've been hearing so much about storm surge.

And Ed Rappaport said a moment ago that in Florida, at least, this has the greatest potential danger.

I just want to explain what storm surge actually is. It's essentially the water that's pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds that are swirling around the storm. And what happens in a situation like this is that the surge combines with what would be the normal tide at this time and it creates a hurricane storm tide. And that basically increases the water level.

Chad Myers joins us now -- Chad, we also talked to Ed Rappaport about flooding.

How far inland could the flooding go?

MYERS: Oh, at least 20 miles, Zane. If you get a storm surge of 15 feet, I mean there's nothing that's 15 feet tall in the Everglades. Not even the trees are that tall, for that matter. This water is going to continue to push all the way to possibly Florida City, here, right up and down the 18 mile stretch, and all the way into Key Largo. And this is part of the problem of the Florida Bay, looking like a funnel. Key West starts out wide and here's the top of Florida Bay. By the time you get to Key Largo, it's a point. So all that water is going to be going right into the Key Largo area and that water going up, that's called Bay Side flooding, not from the ocean side, but from the Bay Side.

Here is the strongest now wind in this red zone from Miami right on up the turnpike, all the way up to Coral Springs. And that is trajecting now, moving off to the east at 25 miles per hour.

Eventually the center of this eye will be completely offshore and we'll start to lose some of the wind speeds all around the area. But for now what we're seeing are the wind directions actually changing.

What you're seeing, let's say, let's say West Palm or Boca, you're seeing winds out of the southeast. As the storm gets a little bit closer, the winds completely out of the south. And then as the storm comes around again, your winds will be in this part of the eye wall, which will be from the east. And then as it moves on by, then you're going to get winds out of the north. And that's how it's -- why it's so hard to protect yourself if you're outside, and that's why our crews work so long and so hard to make sure that they have good locations, good protected locations.

We did hear from Anderson Cooper. Those guys are OK. The crew is OK. They just pulled back, got to let the wind calm down a little bit, about 15 or so minutes maybe from now we'll be able to get them back.

Do we have them back now, did I hear?

VERJEE: No.

MYERS: John Zarrella, Anderson Cooper? We've been worried about you guys.

How are you?

COOPER: We are fine.

We had some technical problems with the camera, but we're doing OK.

ZARRELLA: Yes. We're actually, if you can believe it, protected by a corner of the building here. And I can start to see some structural damage back there, Anderson. Some of the windows are getting blown out, some of the protective materials, the awnings.

The water is being whipped out of the pool just like the waves.

COOPER: Yes, take a look, Phil, if you can, in the pool. The water just getting totally taken off and it's an amazing sight. I'm surprised. I mean...

ZARRELLA: I had a wind reading of 85 miles an hour. But then I couldn't stand up any longer. COOPER: It's actually kind of hard to breath out here in this wind.

ZARRELLA: It is. I can barely hear what Anderson is saying and I know we could not step out beyond this corner of the building where we are because it would be impossible.

COOPER: Yes. Let's actually -- let's move in a little bit. It's amazing the difference once you get out of the wind. Even just a few feet can make a big difference.

I'm surprised that we're not seeing a huge amount of debris flying around.

ZARRELLA: Well, again, that's because that wind has changed directions and it's coming out of the north -- out of the north and west. The trees have turned the direction again. It's not due out of the north any longer. It's coming off the water. So there's not going to be much debris flying because we're right on the beach.

COOPER: How does this compare to some of the other seems that you've been in recently?

ZARRELLA: This is really bad now. This is about as bad as it gets that you can even be out in it like we are. Anything worse than this and there's absolutely no way you could be out in this.

COOPER: Hey, Chad, where are we in relation to the storm? I mean how much longer of this kind of wind are we going to see?

MYERS: You are now in the second eye wall. Many seems look like a target, where the inner eye wall is the most intense. And then there are outer circles around it. You are actually in the second circle. And then there is one more circle after that, one more part of the target after that. And I'm not kidding, you guys, in less than an hour, there will be no more wind and you may even some sunshine.

It is a storm that is actually moving that quickly. You are, at this point, I know you can't see me, but at least the viewers can, and then back out to the west. That is the complete western edge. There is no more of the storm.

In fact, I'll switch to the satellite picture and to the west of the storm, look how quickly the dry air comes in and it breaks.

So you guys just need to deal with this, probably the same wind direction, for the next hour. And then you guys will be down to 20 miles per hour and then that'll be it. That will be the end of the storm.

But the problem now is the East Coast. The East Coast...

COOPER: Chad is saying it's going to be about another hour.

ZARRELLA: Oh, good, another hour. That's just an incredible sight, though. COOPER: Yes.

ZARRELLA: What we're seeing right there.

MYERS: Go ahead, guys.

Go ahead.

ZARRELLA: It's just incredible.

COOPER: Take a look. Take a look at that.

ZARRELLA: That water just whipping off the pool like that. The winds are clearly 100 miles an hour now, clearly.

COOPER: Chad was saying it's probably going to be about another hour, but then we're probably going to even see sunlight in about an hour.

ZARRELLA: Yes, because it's moving so quickly, once we get out of this southern side of the -- the back side of the storm, and if this isn't the dirty side of the storm, I imagine that's pretty awful down there.

MYERS: Yes, it is.

COOPER: And there's actually -- just looking up, there's actually a fair amount of debris now just kind of flying, circling in the air. It's really bad here. We're actually in a protected cove so I think we're fine.

ZARRELLA: The wind is literally whipping up the side of the building now. You can see, the side of the building.

MYERS: Guys, you think that the...

COOPER: And, really...

MYERS: Do you think the pool is in some kind of a wind tunnel effect or is that a true wind? Because that is a spectacular sight.

COOPER: He's asking if the pool is in a wind tunnel or if it's a true wind? That's a true wind.

ZARRELLA: That's a true wind.

COOPER: Yes.

ZARRELLA: That's a true wind.

COOPER: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Because it's actually out away from the buildings and that's getting the straight wind. We're actually not getting that wind, because we've stepped inside of an alcove. But that pool, I mean, again, Phil, if you can, take a look at the pool. It's -- it is just an amazing sight as to the amount of water -- the amount of water that is coming off that thing.

ZARRELLA: It's unfortunate we can't get back to the ocean and see if there's more storm surge coming in again, because of the way the wind has changed direction, I imagine there would be. But I'm not going out there.

COOPER: I was just going to ask you, you want to try?

MYERS: That's...

COOPER: Yes, it's certainly good to know, Chad, that it's only going to be another hour or so because it's -- it feels, you know, it hasn't been that long, but it feels like it's been a very long time.

MYERS: You know, I was noticing that the cameraman can go back there on the pool, the part that's into the wind, that's closest to the water, that's closest to where the wind is coming from, is actually a lower elevation, a lower water level. There is a storm surge on that pool.

Notice the tile. You can see a little bit of the tile and then at least, I would say, three or four inches of the gummite right there. On the other side, to the left of there, the water is actually piled up all the way to the top. The pool, the pool has a storm surge going on right now.

I'm going to let you guys go.

Step out of the wind.

Make sure your crews are safe.

Miles O'Brien is back with us -- Miles, how are you doing?

O'BRIEN: Well, Chad, I moved. I'm on the south side of the building now and I'm getting quite a bit of protection from the big concrete structure that Jerry is underneath right now.

Take a look at the contrast, though. Look at where I am now. This is an inlet here. Look at the beach side. That's where I was just a few moments ago. As you can see the difference in the wind. So this is much more protected on this side.

Having said all that, take a look across the inlet at the condominiums over there. And if you look at the top of the roofs, and, Jerry, I don't know if you can pick it up right now. We've seen the wind uplift some of the air conditioning or heat pump units on the top there. And some of those terra cotta tiles are starting to break away.

So, Chad, when I was telling you I was surprised I wasn't seeing things coming off of buildings, I just wasn't looking in the right place yet. MYERS: Right.

O'BRIEN: This place that we are around right now is built like a bunker and it's holding up very well. We picked a good building to be near. But as you can see, just a little bit down wind to here I stand across this inlet, as it churns so angrily right now, you're seeing these condominiums really bearing the brunt right now.

So I suspect when we can safely start taking a drive up and down Naples, we're going to see a fair amount of structural damage in the wake of Wilma.

MYERS: Correct me if I'm wrong, those buildings across the inlet there, they look older.

O'BRIEN: Yes, that was the thing I was going to point out to you. The stuff, as you well know, particularly post-Hurricane Andrew, when the building codes were tightened up and strengthened in so many ways, you can almost, you know, kind of carbon date buildings by looking at how they fare in these storms, and these, I'm going to guess mid-70s, so you know, it was a different era, a different level of code than what we're seeing here, which is just a poured concrete structure, and it's not going anywhere right now.

You know, the truth is every time we have one of these storms, we learn a lesson, and Andrews, taught us lessons about how we attach roofs to buildings, for example, and how the cladding should be applied, and whether their should be a lip like that, like you see there on those terra cottas, because that allows the wind to get up underneath it, and you -- if you're going to build something like that, you have to take into account what you're seeing right here today. So Florida has learned some lessons. I mean, after all, this is the eighth storm in, what, 14 months?

MYERS: Yes, it certainly is. Miles, I'm going to cut you off there for a moment. I know that Allan Chernoff know in Hollywood, Florida, has major structural damage to tell us about in Hollywood.

Allan Chernoff on the phone. Allan, what you have?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The storm right now is inflicting some very serious damage on our hotel, the Holiday Inn in Hollywood. Power went out about 20 minutes ago. A pane of glass, a major pane of glass shattered into the hotel lobby. And the clerk said that he has been there for 25 years and of course lived through many storms. He said that has never happened here. A large palm tree has fallen in front of the hotel, in fact, fallen on a sport-utility vehicle of one of our cameraman. The sign of the hotel is now gone. A fire hydrant in front of the hotel knocked down, and water is spewing out from that.

A part of the roof of the lower portion of the hotel has already been ripped off and the wind has been whipping that roof like a blanket, just back and forth, up and down up and down. The swimming pool looks like a miniature ocean. There are white caps in the pool and sand coming in from the beach has been accumulating. In fact, we have sand dunes now by the swimming pool, and up here on the third floor, even sand on our hotel balcony. There are leaks in many portions of this hotel. The room that we were just in, tons of leaks. It's really raining inside of that room at the moment -- Chad.

MYERS: Allan, I'm not going to ask you to go near a window, but if you look up and down the beach have you seen other damage in other places?

CHERNOFF: Chad, it is so intense, we have not been able to see whether there is damage to other buildings, other hotels along the beach, but there is no question in my mind, there simply must be some severe damage, because these winds are fierce. There's no doubt about that.

MYERS: They are fierce, and they are still with you for another 30 to 45 minutes, Allan. I want to go back to the map. We're going to reset the map for you, reset the look where the eastern eye wall is now, from just almost Boca Raton, right on down into Hollywood, and right on down even the Palm Springs area. This entire area here going to be affected by wind speeds, possibly in excess of a hundred miles per hour. What does that say? Wind gusts to 83 officially at the airport, and that's at the International Airport. The Executive Airport may even have higher winds than that. Miami International Wind gusts now to 92 miles per hour. And we have had wind gusts at KFOR, one of the TV stations down there, to 111 miles per hour, 113, WFOR. WFOR -- KFOR is in Oklahoma City. WFOR 111 miles per hour at the Hurricane Center, 104 miles per hour. The entire area here in orange and red, that is the area where the hundred-miles-per-hour wind gusts, really tearing apart those eastern cities there in Florida.

This is exactly what we expected. We knew the storm was not going to lose intensity as it went over the Everglades. The Everglades are basically wet, and they're warm. That's Exactly what a hurricane wants to be a little bit stronger.

Miles, you're back on the western shore. You have another little view of what you're seeing now. I see that wind whipping up that inlet behind you.

O'BRIEN: You know, I hadn't thought about that point, Chad. You know, usually, as you say, when a hurricane goes over land, as we saw in the Yucatan Peninsula, as it battered there, Wilma lost a lot of strength. But the Everglades, after all, provide that fuel, and that is why you've got an entire state, coast to coast, dealing with hurricane winds right now.

Speaking of the entire state, the governor of the state, Jeb Bush, in and hour and a half from now, 10:00 Eastern Time, will be holding a briefing to tell us how things stand, big picture. We know a fair amount about what is going on right around us. And we know that there is a significant number of evacuations here in Collier County, and all throughout southwestern Florida.

But as you just heard from Allan Chernoff, this is a storm that's going to have far-reaching effects. He's at a Holiday Inn in Hollywood, Florida, 150 miles or so from where I stand, and they're suffering some significant damage right now.

So Wilma is a storm of breadth and depth. I guess that eye is, what, 85 miles in diameter or so? Is that right, Chad?

MYERS: It's down to about 45 now, Miles.

O'BRIEN: OK, and then As it loses strength, that's typical, right?

MYERS: That is typical, although as it loses size, it can also gain a little strength. In fact, some hurricanes get stronger just immediately after they hit land and the eye begins to shrink down a little bit. That shrinking actually is like an ice skater bringing her arms in, getting a little bit stronger. That's not out of the question.

Now there's not a lot of wind speed, but it could be five or 10 miles an hour extra, even after it hits land, although that is pretty much rare. The storm did hit Cape Romano (ph), Florida, just south of Marco Island. That's where the eye went over about 6:30 this morning. And now that eye has been coming across the Everglades, really over Tammy Ammy (ph) Trail, and the biggest winds here, all the way from Boca, right on back down south into Ft. Lauderdale, Lauderdale by the sea, all the way through Miami. A lot of structural damage now being reported across the eastern counties and the eastern areas of Florida, right along the I-95 and the turnpike of Florida, even as far south of Homestead. So, Miles, this is going to be a big cleanup in a lot of areas. I mean, we didn't really expect this to stay a category three at landfall, but it got to 125 miles per hour before it hit.

O'BRIEN: All right, Chad Myers. That's the wrong time for a storm to strengthen. Obviously, that is the time you don't want it to happen. And all right, so the situation here is we're seeing a fair amount of structural damage. Roofs, tiles are coming off, air- conditioning units getting upended. There's about four or five feet of water in the basement garage of this condominium complex. Across the state in Hollywood, we were just checking in with Allan Chernoff, significant structural issues at the hotel he is at. David Mattingly is there as well.

David, what are you seeing?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are in a car driving north from Hollywood, going toward West Palm, and we are in the thick of the wind right now. We have visibility probably not much better than 20 yards at a time. The rain absolutely whipping through here, almost a whiteout condition at times. In fact, I'm slowing down as we speak, because it's getting difficult to see the road. We are driving right in the middle of the expressway to make sure we have plenty of margin for error. We were driving up and down A-1, the intercostal highway outside of Hollywood. There were a great many trees down and power lines down. The electricity went out here around 8:00 this morning, and as we drive around, we don't see a single electric light on anywhere. So there is widespread power outages.

One thing we have not seen is a lot of structural damage at this point. We have not seen any roofs coming off or anything like that. We have seen a lot of trees down in the road, and strangely enough the winds are coming to -- almost all the trees as they hit the ground are pointing due north right now as this storms comes into the peninsula and works its way across Florida.

So we will continue north and call back later as we get into with different conditions. But at this point, it's probably best if I have two hands on the wheel -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, why don't you do that, David. Please be safe. I guess we could probably say you're in sort of Hurricane Two. We've been hearing from Hurricane One, Jason Carroll, as he is trying to make his way all along alligator alley, sort of following the storm as it goes across the East Coast, this strong category three storm 120, 125 miles an hour, just as it made landfall south of where I stand right now, in the Everglades. The Everglades providing no relief for the East Coast of Florida, because they are, after all, they call it kind of a river of glass -- grass, if you will, and it has provided just the kind of fuel that the storm needs to keep its strength, and so that's why we're seeing what we're seeing coast to coast in Florida right now.

Speaking of Jason Carroll, he's checked in with us, as a matter of fact. He is joining us from Hurricane One, as it makes its way west-to-east across Florida. Jason, where are you? What are you seeing?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Miles, once again well, pulled over into a neighborhood here in the Naples area, just to try to get a sense of how the neighborhoods are faring as Hurricane Wilma heads through here. You can see, this is one of the neighborhoods where wind and -- has really made its presence known there. There are trees down and it's blocked a path as we tried to get down the street here, but there are too many downed trees, so we've been unable to move any further.

The neighborhood that we were in previously, before this, it was really floodwater that was the problem there. Not major flood, Miles, but minor flood, flood that was heading up to the front porches of some of the homes that we saw here. That's not the situation in this particular neighborhood. It's really the wind that's really wreaking havoc here. Once again, many downed power lines, downed trees that we've been seeing.

We've not been seeing a lot of people, fortunately. That's good news, because in talking to the mayor this morning, it was his feeling that most of the people in the area heeded evacuation orders and headed out. We've not seen a lot of people in the area so far, which is certainly, once again, good news.

What we're going to do is, we're in Hurricane One, we're going to keep heading back on U.S.-41. We're going to keep assessing the situation, looking for damage, as Hurricane Wilma heads through the area -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jason Carroll in Hurricane One, making his way from Naples all the way across the Everglades, and doing so slowly and we hope safely.

Chad Myers back in the weather center. Chad, as he makes his way across Alligator Alley, what is he going to encounter? Is he just going to be on the trailing edge of this storm? Is that basically it?

MYERS: You know, Miles, I'm going to call him and turn him around. Because that's -- the 41 is actually Tamiami Trail. That's about five feet above sea level. We've got a storm surge going eight to 12 feet there. I just don't think a good idea to be on that road. We go, turn him around, we'll go up to I-75, and then go across. Then I think we got a much better chance of getting across without other things in the roadway.

Miles, I just got a report of the buoy that is about eight miles south-southeast of Key Biscayne. The wind gusts there, 127 miles per hour. Now that doesn't mean that that actually made it onshore, but in the direction that that wind gust was going, that was going directly towards South Beach. So South Beach could easily have just seen a wind gust to 120 to 125 miles per hour. That causes damage no matter what kind of building you're in.

O'BRIEN: Wow. That's extraordinary. To think you got Category 3 strength over that big a distance. Let's check in on how things are going in Key West right now. The brunt of the storm was felt overnight there. And last we checked with the police chief, he said they had some significant flooding in the southernmost part of the continental U.S., which is what Key West is.

Mayor Morgan McPherson on the line with us. Mayor, what are you seeing right now? What -- is there anybody trapped on the account of flooding?

MAYOR MORGAN MCPHERSON, KEY WEST, FLORIDA: No. Right now, we can't make the official assessments because it's so flooded that none of our vehicles can handle that type of flooding. We have the ocean that's literally pouring over our north and southbound sea walls. It's coming to the point where it's creeping across our island.

O'BRIEN: So you're still dealing with the storm right now. Are you getting heavy amounts of rain and wind, or has the worst of it passed?

MCPHERSON: We're still getting heavy wind. No rain, but the ocean itself, the tides are coming up and over.

O'BRIEN: OK, so you're still experiencing a rising storm surge at this point?

MCPHERSON: Absolutely. This is the backside of it coming across now. It is flooding our island.

O'BRIEN: How extensive would you say it's flooding the island? How extensive is the flooding?

MCPHERSON: Extensive as an island can be flooded. It's probably disaster proportion. O'BRIEN: We're on the line with Mayor Morgan McPherson of Key West. And I'm having a little difficulty hearing. You said it's fairly extensive 00 disastrous is the term you used?

MCPHERSON: Disastrous. From the tip of our island to the bottom of our island, we have houses that have between two to three feet in them.

MYERS: Mr. Mayor, Chad Myers here. Are you saying that the water is coming from, let's say, the Pier (ph) House on the north side, which would be bay side, or is it coming from the southernmost point across Roosevelt or both?

MCPHERSON: The Pier House.

MYERS: From the Pier House?

MCPHERSON: Right.

MYERS: So you're saying that those areas -- let's say Simonton (ph), all the way down to the Duval House, are you saying that they have two to three feet of water in them right now?

MCPHERSON: The houses from the tip of our island to the backside of our island are flooded. We have water coming up through the grates. We have a flooding -- massive flooding condition all the way through.

MYERS: Now, this is part of Old Town as well, Duval Street...

MCPHERSON: Right, Old...

MYERS: ... or is this part of the eastern side?

MCPHERSON: Old Town, new town, uptown, rear town, back town, every town.

MYERS: Now, I do know that the island is -- especially right at the cemetery, about 18 feet in height. That's it. The rest of the island lower than that. So there's -- is there some type of dry spot in the middle or is it just overwashing the island?

MCPHERSON: We have not found a dry spot.

MYERS: Oh, my goodness -- Miles?

O'BRIEN: You know, Mayor, we had reported many times in advance of this and a lot of people resisted the orders to evacuate. Perhaps only 20 percent of the population left. How much concern do you have about the fact there's so many people left in Key West?

MCPHERSON: We have major concerns. All we have to do is work with what we have now and keep the situation in hand. We're making preparations now to handle this situation and bringing in those that we need to make this situation as easy as possible. O'BRIEN: It's got to be very difficult, though, to respond, given what you're talking about, such extensive flooding. You say you don't even have the vehicles to get in there. What are the options you have right now, as far as getting the people who might be stuck?

MCPHERSON: We have no options at this particular time. They're -- have to wait this thing out. The opportunity basically that's been the best chance of safety is people been walking through the tides and walking through the different zones. There are a few points that haven't been flooded, but very few.

O'BRIEN: All right. Mayor Morgan McPherson of Key West, we wish you well as you contend with that. As we've said, they were in the midst of a festival there that brought thousands of tourists to the city of Key West, sort of a week-long celebration of Halloween called Fantasy Fest. And while we were talking a little while ago ,when we checked in with Gary Tuchman, that perhaps the worst of it has passed. The storm surge still builds up.

And Chad Myers, that is, of course, the story to watch here. You know, you tend to focus on the winds, as I see them whip across this point here where I stand. But the storm surge could lag and come in after all of that occurs.

MYERS: That is true, Miles. And if Key West is flooding, that is the very western most tip of the Keys. We probably know that the middle Keys, the lower Keys, Big Pine Key all the way up through Marathon, even into Key Largo, is probably also flooding as well. If the water is pouring into Florida Bay, because of the winds coming around the backside of the low, water is getting poured into this area.

There are only so many cuts between the islands that will allow the water out. This is Key West's problem. It's about four miles long. There is no cut in that island. It's taking the full brunt of that water and that water is actually washing over Key West at this time. I don't know how deep. The mayor said two to three feet. The island does -- we have a slight rise in the middle and then back down the other side, down to the southernmost point.

But if that's the type of flooding you're seeing there, you're seeing that in Ramrod Key, you're seeing that in Cudjoe Key, Summerland, all the way up to the middle Keys, as well. Probably even through Marathon, through Vaca Cut, and even into Key Largo, as the water rushes through those cuts. I've seen that water rush through a cut where a 70-horsepower boat, turned on full throttle, can't get through that cut because the water is coming through just on a regular high tide in the spring. So as the water is rushing through, bay side of the Keys, really getting hard-hit right now. It's happening in Key West, it's happening all the way up the key chain.

O'BRIEN: Well, you have to ask the question then, Chad, how are the roads? As you know, the road that gets down to Key West, a series of causeways, kind of linking the Keys like a chain of pearls. It, too, has to be -- because it's very low in points. It has to be washed over as well. MYERS: Well, where the water's going under the road, where the bridges are, fine. But where Mr. Flagler (ph), long, long time ago wanted to build a railroad all the way to Key West, when he just took rocks and dumped them into the ocean and said, oh, this will be a good enough causeway, those rocks could be eaten away. And actually that road could be going away with an overwash.

It just depends on some of the heights, especially along Grassy Key, as you go from Grassy Key down to Vaca Cut, a lot of the fill. And then farther south than that, before you get to the lower Keys, a lot of that is fill, right along the Seven Mile Bridge and points northward. So this could really be a very dangerous situation for those folks who decided to stick it out, and I think most of them probably did.

O'BRIEN: All right, that's what we reported. People there were fairly stubborn about it, and now as the mayor just told us a few moments ago, Morgan McPherson, when I asked what options he had, he said, I don't have any options.

Let's take a look at halfway between Key West and where I stand right now, in Naples, Everglade City, which is a relatively small fishing village, which is obviously very low-lying.

Lots of people evacuated from there. CNN's John King has made his way there with the videophone, digital news-gathering capability.

John, what are you seeing there now? There's got to be a fairly high storm surge on the way there.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, quite a bit of debris flying so that's why you're going to see me looking around a little bit. We were going to try to bring this to you from the Everglade City Hall, right up the street, Everglade City, city hall. As we were pulling in, though, a piece of a tree hit the car, so we thought maybe that was a bad idea, and we'd come somewhere that was a little bit more protected. Quite a bit of debris here. The winds have picked up, again, as we go through the back half of the storm. Metal sheeting ripped off much of the buildings, trees down everywhere.

There's an apartment complex next to me, River Wilderness, riverfront village, rental village, if you want to be on the river here. The facade of the building, the front porch, is ripped on off completely. We did go through a trailer park a little ways up the road, and those homes were relatively intact, so metal damage, some sheeting damage, but the homes themselves OK. But as you get closer to the center of Everglade City here, a number of powerlines down, a lot of trees broken, some boats tipped off their stands. They were taken out of the water over there, and there's just flying lawn chairs and flying pieces of metal, which is one of the reasons I'm behind a building, so I can shield myself from most of it. And just a great deal of debris here.

Structurally, not all that bad, if you will. I know that's a hard thing to say right now, but in terms of major roof damage, major building damage, we haven't seen that much. Remember, we came to you a while ago from about 30-some miles up the road, and we've seen flooding, we've seen a lot of trees down, a lot of power lines down and a lot of small debris. But in terms of major structural damage to the building, it's pretty moderate. I think quite a bit right here, but in all our journeys, this is the most of it so far -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: John, have you seen many people on roads at all?

KING: No, we've seen one or two other cars as we have been driving. There was one other reporter we knew up there. There was one gentleman we did see standing outside. He has a charter fishing business, and he was standing outside. We asked him just a while how he was doing. He rode out the storm here. He said he was doing OK, but the water was beginning to come up into the back of his business.

All of these canals are running over. I don't know how much you can see. (INAUDIBLE). The water is up into the parking lot, and (INAUDIBLE). And his business is up the road a bit, and the water was already up to the picnic porch out back. When you go on a charter fishing trip, when you come back, a lot of times you bring your catch in, and they scale it for you and you have a feast, that was all underwater. But the gentlemen was standing out in front in a T-shirt, smoking a cigarette, saying that he seemed just fine, but that's the hearty soul; you do fine, Miles, the few who decided to ride this out.

MYERS: All right, John King, you meet all kinds in these storms, and hearty ones at that.

Let's check in with someone who is trying to ride out the storm in a hotel. Wendie Feinberg is joining us from Hollywood, Florida. She left her home there to seek a little safer ground.

Wendie, why did you leave? And how are things where you are right now? why did you leave?

WENDIE FEINBERG: Things at the moment are pretty bad. According to the radio -- the television I'm listening to, we are right in the middle of the worst part of the storm. The eye wall is about to approach us. And from where I sit, things are pretty terrible. It does sound like the proverbial freight train. I've been through a lot of hurricanes, including Andrew, and I don't remember anything ever being this bad.

O'BRIEN: You know, it's interesting, do you think people on the east coast of Florida fully expected what they're enduring right now?

FEINBERG: The problem is that (INAUDIBLE) wasn't expected to be as bad as it is. The hurricane, we were hoping, would deteriorate before it hit the west coast of the state, and then by the time it got here, it would be a category one. It's quite clear that has not happened, and we are looking at a category two hit here, which is much more than people here had expected.

O'BRIEN: And when did you make the decision to leave your house? And I assume your house is right on the water?

FEINBERG: My house is actually not on the water. I made the decision to leave my house because I don't have shutters. And I decided at 5:00 yesterday afternoon, when the 5:00 advisory was posted, and it became quite clear that we were looking at something stronger than what I had anticipated. And I've been sitting in a hotel room without power, without phones, although I'm surprised my cell phone is still working, just kind of watching this happen. I'm actually, ironically, a little closer to the water than I would be if I were in my home. But this building is huge and safe, and I'm on the second floor which is high enough off the ground to not be flooded, and low enough on the top to not worry about roof damage, so I'm pretty safe where I am at the moment. I'm just a little concerned with what's s happening outside, and what I'll find when I do get home.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet so. You certainly have thought this out as to where you've gone to retreat. We can only hope that a lot of people in that part of the world has done the same thing. Do you think that significant numbers heeded the call and did what you did, evacuated last night?

FEINBERG: I think a lot of people might have at the last minute. I know when I was checking in here, there were a lot of other people that were doing the same thing. I think that 5:00 advisory last night really kind of drove home the fact that we were looking at a very serious storm, and that it wasn't going to deteriorate before it got here, so I think that may have been a determining factor.

Now that said, I have talked to friends and relatives, and so far everybody that I know and care about is safe and sound. But I don't know about whether or not, you know, other people were smart enough to get out.

O'BRIEN: Wendy, as I'm talking to you right now, we just got word that the first U.S. death attributed to Hurricane Wilma happened in Coral Springs just a little while ago, a tree fell on a man. So clearly it's a very dangerous situation over there and nothing to (INAUDIBLE) with. You must be concerned about your property, but at least you're safe.

FEINBERG: That's exactly right. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, property can be replaced and people cannot. And I had heard that report also on a local television station. There are also warning that the eye wall, which apparently is now 100 miles wide, is about to come over us. And as typical in a storm, people are, you know, they're all cooped up. everybody is getting a little crazy. People will want to go out in it, and obviously the folks down here are warning them people not to go out in it; there is still a backside to come.

I was actually out in the eye of Hurricane Katrina, which was the first time I had been out in the eye of a storm for all of the hurricanes I've been through, and it was pretty weird. It was just a very eerie, eerie feeling, so I'm not going out in this one either.

O'BRIEN: All right, Wendy Feinberg, stay safe. Wish you well as you get back to your house, but don't go back too soon. Ride this one out. You're in a safe place, and that's a good place to be. Let's get back down to Marco Island. When last we checked in with Anderson Cooper and John Zarrella, they were going to try to find a little safer place. I gather you guys have done that?

John? Can you hear me?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm sorry, Miles. We do hear you. They talk about sustained winds. I think she should rename them relentless. The winds here are just relentlessly -- it is amazing the force of the winds, I mean, it just keeps on going.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we were commenting that for a storm that's supposed to be moving so quickly in and out of the picture in Florida, this has just been a nonstop barrage.

COOPER: Yes, we are starting to see (INAUDIBLE) you know, look, things like this screens, and the metal that supports the screens are just hanging off. That will go any second now.

ZARRELLA: Down here, about hit us. And you can see the awning is completely gone on the building across the way. Signs are coming down now. It's that relentless onslaught of the wind, if it keeps coming, the duration effect.

COOPER: Yes, it just keeps working on these things.

Also this sign, which you can see now, this sort of -- for the bar by the pool here at Radisson Hotel, that's now. That has been wobbling for a long time. That has now completely fallen and just hanging by one cable. That's likely to go.

I don't have a sense really of just how much longer the winds are going to be like this, but it shows no signs of letting up.

ZARRELLA: No, none whatsoever. It's just -- again, and I'm quite surprised that we haven't seen more structural damage, because of the duration effect for these winds. They're just -- it's clearly 100 miles an hour, if not more here, has to be.

COOPER: Just to give you a sense, that's the boardwalk we were standing on earlier, and one of the railings is already just completely loosened from its mooring, and that -- if these winds continue much longer, that is likely to go as well.

ZARRELLA: Yes, you can't -- I mean, literally see anything out there. It's absolutely gray in the distance as you can see from the shot.

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