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Tracking Hurricane Dean; Is the U.S. in Harm's Way?

Aired August 18, 2007 - 22:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: What kind of damage could Dean do? CNN reporters are live in Haiti and Jamaica.
Trees uprooted, boats toppled over, a sign that Dean has already been here. Tonight, viewers like you are sending us I-reports to help us tell the story.

And is the U.S. in harm's way? Some states are already in emergency mode.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was just a heinous manifestation of evil by some very bad individuals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Two more arrests in the execution-style murders of three college students. But are they any closer to figuring out a motive? We talked to Newark's mayor.

Buyer beware, does this look like a...

And hello, everyone. I'm Tony Harris in tonight for Rick Sanchez. The biggest thing on our news radar tonight is also the biggest, the meanest, the ugliest thing on the weather radar. Get ready to learn plenty about Hurricane Dean tonight. And there it is . Let's show it you in the Caribbean Category 4 and getting stronger, deadlier and more unstoppable. It is taking a huge bite out of the Caribbean heading north and west with plenty of land, cities, homes and people in the way.

We are all over the storm tonight. Where it is going, where it's been, the damage it's done, and the damage it will certainly do. Dean shredded the Leeward islands as a Category 2 storm, St. Lucia, St. Kitts in Nevis Antigua, they all have trees down, power out, landslides. And we've heard reports that the hurricane wiped out the entire banana crop and most of the sugar cane and Martinique and Guadalupe.

There is also the human toll to tell you about. So far, unconfirmed reports of several deaths in the Caribbean in the floods or avalanches brought on by this major and I mean major storm. And as Dean churns on, you will see the red jackets of CNN news crews reporting live, day and night. We have got Karl Penhaul in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Susan Candiotti in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Gary Tuchman and Harris Whitbeck will be in Cancun, Mexico. If the forecasts are correct and Hurricane Dean arrives there late Monday or early Tuesday and the people on the Katrina-ravaged Gulf coast already bracing.

Let's get right to it. You ready? Let's get you live now to the island of Hispaniola. Hurricane Dean is already starting to dump rain and whip up the wind in Haiti and the Dominican Republican. And we are hearing tonight that the storm has taken a young life.

CNN's Karl Penhaul is in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. And Karl, good evening to you.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, here so far, so good here in Port-au-Prince. There were drops of rainfall throughout the afternoon. But now the skies are dry. There's nothing more than a light breeze, in fact. We're all wondering is this the calm before the storm?

Because by all predictions, we were expecting to feel the full strength of the hurricane force winds in here by about midnight. But certainly, before night fell, I drove around the capital Port-au- Prince to see what preparations ordinary citizens were taking. And the answer to that is not a great deal. They were going around their business. Some were just packing up the stalls where they've been selling fruit and vegetables for the day. Many people were still wandering around calmly about their business. There was no sign of panic.

But remember, Tony, more than 50 percent of Haiti's population survive on less than $1 a day. And so simply, they don't have enough cash to lay in stockpiles of food and water and even less to buy expensive timber to shore up their homes. Tony?

HARRIS: Yes. And Karl, I understand that, but I'm wondering about the government, that shaky, fragile government there. What efforts have you noticed the government taking to prepare the people to get word out to the people that this is a very serious storm and to take it seriously?

PENHAUL: Well, again, the government here little better off than the people themselves. This is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. But what the government has been doing, they've been putting out public service announcements on the TV and over the radio. And through its civil protection teams, they have been opening churches and public schools. And they've been urging residents in low-lying areas and in those areas prone to flash flooding to take refuge in the churches and in the schools.

HARRIS: Yes.

PENHAUL: Believing that those are more sturdily built than some of the very flimsy homes, Tony.

HARRIS: Sure. Karl Penhaul, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for us tonight. Karl, appreciate it. Thank you.

PENHAUL: Let's get to Jacqui Jeras in the severe weather center. And Jacqui, look, give it to us straight. How dangerous a storm is this?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Extremely. Already a deadly storm. And unfortunately, we're very concerned that more deaths could happen because it is so incredibly powerful.

Here you can see the satellite image of a very well defined eye, a Category 4 storm. Winds of 150 miles per hour. Our latest advisory shows that the pressure in the storm has dropped, even though the sustained winds had been holding the same.

When we see a drop in pressure like this so significantly, 10 millibars, we tend to see a few hours later the wind speeds catch up with that decrease in pressure. So the winds then increase. So we're very concerned that this could potentially be a Category 5 storm, heading towards Jamaica.

Today, it's been lashing Hispaniola, the islands of the Dominican Republic in Haiti, also bringing in some rain showers to Puerto Rico. This is the Doppler radar out of Puerto Rico. So you don't see the rains that are coming down around Santo Domingo and westward.

Looking to see between 4 and 6 inches of rain here. Locally heavier amounts are possible up to 10 inches. So flooding is the biggest thing that we're going to worry about.

The forecast track will show you, there's still some uncertainly. It could possibly still skirt Jamaica. We'll have to wait and see what happens. And there you see the intensity pick up as it gets over the very warm waters into the Western parts of the Caribbean.

And I want to show you the computer model forecast. We have this on Google Earth. These are what we call spaghetti model forecasts, just because they look like a bunch of strings of spaghetti, don't they?

And each line here represents one computer model. Now, we'll zoom in and show you Jamaica a little bit closer there. And you can see that the models very uniform, everything's kind of bringing it together across the Jamaican island.

Then once we get through Jamaica, we'll take you out a little bit further in time and head towards the Cayman Islands. This will likely be sometime overnight Sunday into Monday. There you see Georgetown. Possibly getting a direct hit on this, as well. Get through the Cayman Islands.

We'll take you over toward the Yucatan Peninsula and towards Cozumel. There you can see the lines spread out a little bit. And as we head further out in time into the Western gulf, they're out even farther. And that's why we have more uncertainty whether or not this will make a U.S. landfall. What a powerful storm that we're dealing here with tonight, Tony. We'll talk more about the intensity of this coming up a little bit later on in the show.

HARRIS: That sounds good. OK, Jacqui, appreciate it. Thank you.

And one more note about Haiti. And the reason they're taking the storm so seriously there, it's smack in the middle of the hurricane zone. And in past years, hurricanes have taken an awful human toll there. Just three years ago, more than 3,000 people died in Haiti when Hurricane Jeanne roared over them.

But look at Hurricane Flora on the second line, one of the deadliest storms in recorded history. At least 8,000 people were killed in 1963.

Well, after the storm has its way with Haiti and the Dominican Republic, most forecast models put Jamaica next in the hurricane's path. CNN Susan Candiotti is in Montego Bay tonight.

Susan, good to see you. I know you arrived there a few hours ago. Have you had an opportunity to take a look around? And what have you seen in terms of people preparing? How would you describe the mood there?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'd say the mood is one of anxiety. There's an eerie feel to the island tonight because it's -- the weather is pretty typical of a hot, humid, summer evening. The seas are calm. And you do see and hear traffic going by on the street. People playing music, etcetera.

On the other hand, I talked to a number of people so far. And they are tense about what's ahead. After all, they know that Hurricane Dean is bearing down on them as a very strong, dangerous Category 4 storm. The last time they were hit was back in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan.

On the island, preparations are underway to some degree. Officially, they are cutting off electricity across the island of Jamaica at about 10:00 tomorrow morning to preserve the integrity of the system as best they can. They're already moving heavy equipment and water and food to certain parts of the island, where they feel that help will be needed the most, prepositioning that.

A lot of the hotels have closed. However, others remain open. And some tourists are still here who didn't evacuate. And they're hunkering down. They've had meetings with the people running the hotels. Some of them tell us they have enough food and food for a week, maybe water for two and a half days, but no one really knows what lies ahead.

In terms of shelters, only one or two are open right now. And the airport, they're closed across the island, the last planes left here within the hour. And we are told that empty commercial flights will be pulling out all night long to get them off the island. Wow, all right. CNN's Susan Candiotti for us in Jamaica. Susan, appreciate it. Thank you.

If, big if, if Hurricane Dean turns toward the United States, and look, that is still several days away, some south Texas residents are making sure they are not caught off guard. These Texas National Guard and Air National Guard units are refocusing their regularly monthly drill time. They are training instead for possible evacuation and food distribution if they're needed. Dean could hit Texas or northern Mexico by midweek. Louisiana and Texas have declared states of emergency.

And coming up, politics as you can be a dirty business. Really dirty. These two presidential candidates didn't want their campaigns associated with brothels or drugs. And maybe they should have screened their staffers more carefully. That is coming up in dogbone politics.

Also, two new arrests in that notorious Newark murder case. We will talk to the mayor about the execution-style crimes that's got his city on edge.

But next, Hurricane Dean is pounding Haiti as we speak. Well, not quite yet. We're not taking our eyes off the storm. We will talk to one person who has already experienced Dean's wrath. Stay right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Boy, the sights and the sounds of Hurricane Dean as it passed near the island of St. Lucia and Martinique. That was last night. At the time, Dean was only a Category 2 storm. Tonight, it is almost a powerful Category 5. Winds tore metal roofs from dozens of homes.

Joining us by phone from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic is i-reporter Juan Miguel Fach. He took dozens of pictures of how the storm affected his community. Juan Miguel, thanks for your time.

JUAN MIGUEL FACH: Thank you very much for having me.

HARRIS: Hey, we are going to cycle through some of your pictures here. And just give me a sense of what you saw, what you heard. Describe some of these pictures. We're seeing one now of a pretty strong storm surge.

FACH: Well, actually, during the morning around 6:00 a.m., the heavy waves started hitting the side of the city 36 and the malicom (ph). A lot of rock from the sea were flowing into the streets. The government closed all the area, all the floating areas. And there was a lot of people that were watching the police. And the metropolitan police who were closing all the area for avoiding any kind of a problem with the traffic and the people that are living nearby.

HARRIS: Yes, are you...

FACH: The area is very flooded.

HARRIS: It looks like you have some flooded roads. And in one of those pictures there, it looks like there was a lot of debris flying around in your shot. Were my eyes deceiving me here?

FACH: Well, this second part of the picture where the eye of the storm was near to the Santo Domingo city...

HARRIS: Yes.

FACH: ...in the sea, well, there was a very, very heavy rain. And the roads were hitting on the road. That's why everybody was very far away from the part of the city. So the destruction and all that.

HARRIS: So Juan Miguel, how bad was it? I mean, we're looking at the pictures. That's one thing. And we're seeing some folks who were certainly not in shelters. So I have to ask you, how tough a scene are we looking at here?

FACH: Well, actually, a lot of -- some part of the area was destroyed. But the main part is going to be affected in the south, where there is a major problem with the flooding. And the government is taking care of that, putting -- making their mayor call up with the government you can see. The people from the special force against hurricane and the protection and all that are taking care of that. There is a lot of volunteers working on that.

HARRIS: Yes.

FACH: For the people, there are going to be heavily suffering the damage in the flooded areas.

HARRIS: OK. We will certainly keep an eye on that. Juan Miguel Fach, thank you for the pictures. We appreciate it.

FACH: Thank you very much for having me.

HARRIS: Yes, good talking to you.

FACH: Thank you very much. Bye.

HARRIS: CNN reporter Dan Lothian, his parents are actually in Jamaica right now visiting other relatives. As we've been telling you all night here, Jamaica is expecting to get something close to a direct hit from Dean by tomorrow. Dan spoke to his parents tonight about how they're preparing for Dean. He found out they're shuddering windows, stocking up on food and water. Also, they're staying in a concrete house to ride out the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just to explain to our viewers, you're down there visiting my grandmother, who just turned 100. And you would be flying back to Florida next week. Why did you not -- I encouraged you to folks leave the island, but you decided to stay put. Why have you decided to ride out the storm in Jamaica?

ESMINE LOTHIAN: First of all, it was too short for us to do that because they have already closed the lights. So we couldn't come out today. And at the same time, we had to stay with your grandma and grand auntie. And these are the only two older people living in the house. And there's no one else here so we have to stay to be with them.

D. LOTHIAN: Are you concerned at all? Are you a little worried as to what may happen when the hurricane comes right over the island?

E. LOTHIAN: I'm concerned, but not worried.

D. LOTHIAN: You think you'll be OK?

E. LOTHIAN: Well, we intend to ride it out the best that we can.

FABIAN LOTHIAN: They have shelters, too.

D. LOTHIAN: They have opened up some shelters. Are you planning on going to any of the shelters or you plan to stay put right there at the house?

E. LOTHIAN: Well, we decide to stay put, but if the conditions worsen, we may have to consider that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK. We will keep an eye on Dan's family. That was Dan Lothian and his parents, Esmine and Fabian Lothian.

HARRIS: A fire fighting tragedy tonight near ground zero to tell you about. Two New York City firefighters killed while battling this seven alarm blaze at the Deutsche Bank building. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the two got trapped while fighting the fire. Both were from ladder company 5, which also lost firefighters on 9/11. No word on the cause of today's blaze, which burned for hours. Several other firefighters were hurt. The 40-story building was damaged on 9/11 by debris from the World Trade Centers. It was being taken down floor by floor.

We will head back to Haiti, coming up in the newsroom. How is a country holding up under Dean's wrath? That's just ten minutes away.

But next, the issue that is so controversial, it's resulting in death threats against John McCain. We will tell you what it is and what the presidential candidate is doing about it. Dogbone politics, next in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: New position. What do you think? The background -- is it OK?

All right. Time now for some dogbone politics, political news with a bite. First up, we keep hearing about campaign aides getting into trouble. A former state campaign chairman for Rudy Giuliani is going before a judge Tuesday morning in Columbia, South Carolina. Thomas Ravenel is accused of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. By the way, Ravenel also used to be the state treasurer for Giuliani's presidential bid.

The catch phrase inside the Bill Richardson camp this week, background check. One of the Richardson's top organizers resigned Thursday. The reason, word surfaced that he once worked for a legal brothel and was wanted on a felony arrest warrant in California. Now of course, Richardson's campaign says it had no idea.

John McCain is angering a lot of Republicans over his immigration stance, but to the point of death threats? McCain said this week in a speech in Colorado the issue has sparked unprecedented threats against his life. He says "It's unbelievable how this has inflamed the passions of the American people." McCain also says he continues to support temporary worker program for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Karl Rove may be leaving the White House, but his mouth is still going strong. Rove went on conservative host Rush Limbaugh's radio show this week. He came out with this zinger against Senator Hillary Clinton after saying Clinton will probably win her party's nomination. He said she was "fatally flawed" and that "There is no front runner who has entered the primary season with negatives as high as she has in the history of modern polling. Ouch!

And finally, let's just say Congressman Gus Bilirakis is a man of his word. The Florida Republican vowed to shave his head if the American Cancer Society in Hillsboro reached a fundraising goal of $750,000. They did. So he ponied up. There you go. Nice and tight. That's the way we like it.

Coming up, a really gruesome crime. Now two new suspects in custody. The twists keep coming in the brutal Newark schoolyard shooting. That is later in the NEWSROOM.

But next, Haiti takes a hit from Hurricane Dean. We head back there next. Live to the storm. CNN is your hurricane headquarters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The power to destroy almost everything in its path, Hurricane Dean clocking 150 mile an hour winds right now with the promise of gaining even more strength in the next few hours. The Category 4 storm is moving toward Haiti tonight. After that, it is expected to hit Jamaica almost head on.

This is video of what it looked like when it passed between St. Lucia and Martinique as a Category 2 hurricane. It's gotten much stronger since then, but people in Haiti's capital city say they didn't seem to be taking the storm too seriously.

Earlier today, well, the storm is just massive. And, of course, the big concern is it could grow even stronger. Well, the simple answer to that question is, yes. But it is a lot more complicated than that. Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN severe weather center with a look at what is going to happen, Jacqui, in the next 24 hours. Good evening.

JERAS: Well, good evening. We may see some additional strengthening here yet in the next 12 to 24 hours or so. In fact, the hurricane hunters have been flying into the storm as we speak. And they found that the pressure has dropped just a little bit more. So we're waiting for that 11:00 advisory to find out if the wind speed will correspond with that.

We're at 150 right now, which means it's Category 4 storm. And you have to be greater than 155 to be a Cat 5, the granddaddy of all storms.

But you know, we're talking about 6 miles per hour. It's not a whole heck of a lot of a big difference really for these people over Hispaniola, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic has just been getting pounded with the tropical storm force winds. And they're likely going to be seeing the hurricane force wind gusts, especially along the southern coast here in the upcoming hours.

Let's talk about intensity and what this really means. The lower the pressure, the stronger the storms. What can a Category 4 type hurricane do? Well, winds in this category, 131 to 155, the storm surge tends to be between 13 and 18 feet. Remember, Jamaica, which is one of the biggest islands that we're concerned about right now, is kind of mountainous. So the storm surge might not be as big of an issue as maybe the flooding rains and the damaging winds.

Small residences and mobile homes completely destroyed. Wiped out. Very large trees are blown down. And terrain lower than 10 feet above sea level may require some evacuation so we know that they've already been doing that.

Now here's the official forecast. Remember, there's still a little bit of uncertainty. You might get lucky and see a little glance on up to the north or a glance on down to the south. But if Jamaica gets a direct hit as the Category 4 hurricane, this is going to be devastated. And let me tell you the main reason why.

This is a small island. 145 miles across from west to east. And then from north to south, it's about 50 miles. The hurricane force winds of the storm extend out 60 miles from the center. So do the math. 60 plus 60 from end to end, that's 120 miles of hurricane force winds. Minimum 74 miles per hour, but we know the storm is doing a whole heck of a lot more than that.

So imagine if we do get this direct landfall and it moves right across the center of the island, that is wall to wall hurricane conditions across the entire island. So this is really very, very devastating. Once we get beyond Jamaica, we'll be watching the Cayman Islands. Rapid intensification could be occurring in here because of water temperatures are so very warm and then into the Gulf of Mexico. We're worried about Texas. It's not a sure thing yet. So you really need to monitor this. Now one good note for you here into the Gulf. I want to show you real quickly this map. Tony, this is the Gulf of Mexico and it shows your water temperatures. Just a couple of days ago, this was solid red. We got a little orange in there. Tropical storm Erin brought a lot of water run off that cooled down the waters and also churned things up in the ocean. So the temperature's down a little bit. So that's some good news there.

HARRIS: Can I tell you something? I'm on the edge of my seat here listening to this because I am absolutely convinced if I wasn't before, and of course I was, that this is an absolutely major event that you are tracking for us, Jacqui.

JERAS: Absolutely.

HARRIS: I appreciate the update. Thank you.

JERAS: Sure.

HARRIS: Oh, and just another reminder. You're getting another update, aren't you soon here?

JERAS: Right. That's right. The 11:00 advisory, Eastern time. A lot of times we'll get it a little bit early. So if we do get that in early, we'll break in...

HARRIS: Right.

JERAS: ...and bring you the information.

HARRIS: Great, great, great. OK, Jacqui, appreciate it. Thank you.

Let's get you to our international correspondent Karl Penhaul. Now he is standing by in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. And Karl, good to talk to you again. If you would, set the scene there. We were expecting that you might actually be seeing some action maybe some of the outer bands of this storm by now, but it looks pretty calm behind you.

PENHAUL: That's the thing that's surprising us, as well, Tony. We have seen no action throughout the afternoon. There were a few rain drops, but the wind never picked up beyond the light breeze. And those are the conditions right now as you see. You can maybe make out a tree behind me that's really not moving a great deal.

Now that, that kind of sense that nothing really has happened yet seems to have lulled the population here in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, into a false sense of security. Before nightfall, we did a tour around town in the downtown area and some of the shanty towns close to the water's edge. Nobody was making any preparations whatsoever for this storm. People are just going around their normal business. There were still street vendors in the streets. Nobody had made any effort to clear up a lot of the debris and a lot of the metal signs and that kind of stuff that when the winds do come will fly around the streets like projectiles. Possibly one of the reasons, though, while the population isn't making any effort to batten down the hatches is simply because they're too poor. More than half the population here survives on less than a dollar a day. And that means they simply have no money to stockpile food and water, or to buy timber to batten down their own houses, Tony.

HARRIS: How vulnerable, really, is that community? CNN's Karl Penhaul for us. Port-au-Prince in Haiti. Karl, thank you. Well, a hurricane warning went out several hours ago in Jamaica. And right now, boy, off the bat, lines started forming at gas stations. People rushed out to buy batteries, canned food, bottled water. Locals remember Hurricane Ivan's wrath three years ago back in 1988. The strongest hurricane on record, Gilbert, devastated Jamaica.

Ed Romaine picked this week of all to vacation there from New Jersey. He joins us tonight by phone. Ed, appreciate the time. Good to talk to you.

ED ROMAINE, TOURIST: Thanks very much.

HARRIS: Hey, Ed. Do you have your family there, as well?

ROMAINE: No. No. Just here doing a little bit of holiday.

HARRIS: Very good, very good. Are you concerned, are you worried this evening? You've been listening to the forecast, no doubt.

ROMAINE: It's certainly an ominous forecast. But having been here today, it was a beautiful day in Jamaica.

HARRIS: A beautiful day. And how are you preparing?

ROMAINE: Well, basically, I mean, I'm in one of the resorts. And at the resort here, they have been giving us almost every six hour updates. And we have an evacuation plan set for tomorrow where we'll be packing all of our luggage tonight, putting it in plastic. Tomorrow, 8:00, 10:00 breakfast. And then we all go to one of their buildings that are here on -- in the resort, which is almost like a compound, a bunker of sorts. And we expect to be there for most of the day just to wait out the storm.

HARRIS: Yes. Hey, hey, Ed, why didn't you leave? Sounds like you had an opportunity. You were, you know, tooling around the town. Sounds like you had an opportunity to leave if you wanted to.

ROMAINE: I gave it a shot. Just wasn't able to get there. I mean, it's -- the airlines were all packed.

HARRIS: Wow.

ROMAINE: I mean, you said, hey, you want to leave? They said, hey, you and everybody else.

HARRIS: Have you ever been in a hurricane before? ROMAINE: No. Looking forward to my first.

HARRIS: I mean, I know you said something funny there, but I just couldn't hear you at that moment. But I'm just telling you, you're looking at, you know, 130, 140, maybe 150 miles per hour winds here. And the storm surge to go along with it. Do you trust the plan that's been put in place? I don't know if you have many options.

ROMAINE: Yes. No. It's a first class resort. This area is meant for tourists. It's my first time to Jamaica. The people are absolutely wonderful. And then the facility's top notch. And I have absolutely no doubt in the world we'll be sitting in there playing pool, drinking mojitos, and watching the wind go by.

HARRIS: All right. Well then, if that's the case, I want to hear from you tomorrow. OK, Ed?

ROMAINE: Absolutely.

HARRIS: All right, Ed. Ed Romaine vacationing in Jamaica from New Jersey.

Well, you know, people are already leaving the low-lying areas of Jamaica, but you would never thought a storm of this magnitude was on the way if you looked at today's forecast. How about this? Sunshine, blue skies, and disaster relief workers getting in place. Dorothy Francis is one of them. She is with the international federation of the Red Cross. And she joins us tonight by phone.

And good to talk to you. And I'm wondering, you were there on vacation. Did you think about leaving?

DOROTHY FRANCIS, RED CROSS: Good evening. Actually, no. I was here on vacation. And then I got pulled back into working, which I'm happy to do and happy to be here.

HARRIS: Yes. So Dorothy, if you would, tell us about some of the preparations that are going on right now from the Red Cross' point of view.

FRANCIS: OK. Well, what the Red Cross here, the Jamaica Red Cross has been really active and quite proactive since Monday. We have started prepositioning supplies across the islands to all our branches with basic, non-tool items such as (INAUDIBLE), and kitchen kits, and personal hygiene kits, water boots and shovels, things that people can use to help themselves if they need to.

HARRIS: Hey, Dorothy, give me a sense...

FRANCIS: That has pretty much been done.

HARRIS: Gotcha. Give me a sense of what you think about the efforts of the government to make folks aware of the severity of the storm that is bearing down on them? Do you feel as though the government is doing an effective job getting the word out? FRANCIS: There has been a real concerted effort here by the government, particularly by the Office of Disaster Preparedness, ODPM, to get alerts. Bulletins have been going out all day. Pointing out those areas that are low lying, those areas right next to the coast, particularly on the south coast. It has been a constant effort as we've been hearing on the radio. There have been bulletins going out. We have had our community disaster response teams in some areas, who have actually gone out with (INAUDIBLE) saying it's time to get on the buses. The government has actually provided buses in areas to bus people out and take them to shelters.

HARRIS: Yes. As someone who does this kind of work for a living, what are your concerns tonight as you hear the forecast and of the kind of wind speeds we're talking about, the storm surge that is always associated with these hurricanes? What are you greatest concerns tonight?

FRANCIS: The greatest concerns of the Red Cross at the moment as those people who are in the vulnerable areas, who are not -- do not seem to be taking the warnings particularly seriously.

HARRIS: Yes.

FRANCIS: And you know, there will be a cutoff point where the emergency services will not be able to go in and get these people out. So we will then be looking at quite a difficult recovery period for those people who will be affected, particularly those people who make their living on the coastlines from fishing or from small agriculture, which probably will be really impacted. Seeing quite a few people who, you know, in two day's time...

HARRIS: Sure.

FRANCIS: ...will have lost perhaps both their homes and their livelihood.

HARRIS: Dorothy Francis is with the international federation of the Red Cross. Dorothy, thank you for your time and best to you there in Jamaica. Right now we want to take you out to Huntington, Utah, right now, where there is a news briefing underway. And Richard Stickler is there, the assistant secretary of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

RICHARD STICKLER, MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMIN.: We had the operations on the surface and underground shut down so there would be no noise from drills or bulldozers or any type of equipment on the surface. We tried to signal to the miners during this period of four hours by both beating on the drill steel, while we had a microphone down in the center core of the drill steel into the mine.

We also set off three rounds of explosive charges to try to signal to the miners underground. We listened by microphone. And we also monitored the vibrations to determine whether or not there was any signal coming from the miners underground.

We did not detect any signals from miners underground. We just completed the second family briefing for the day, provided them all the details that we know about this rescue operation, and answered all the questions that they had.

We have plans to start a fifth bore hole. And we're going to the location that we had originally planned for number four bore hole, which is a cross cut 133 and number 1 entry.

We already have the pad constructed for that location to start drilling. As soon as we complete what we're doing with dropping video cameras into number four bore hole, then we will move to number five bore hole.

We do not yet have the results of the video recording. To give you some ideas on the logistics here, the mine is approximately four miles to the drill site by air. But in order to get to the drill site from the mine, it requires going out of this canyon and around to another canyon. It takes two hours to drive by vehicle to the bore hole site and two hours to drive back to the mine site. So we have four hours to make a round trip from the mine portal to the drill hole site.

We have been using helicopters when we have critical information. But there are times because of the nighttime and also weather conditions limits the use of the helicopters.

So we expect sometime tonight to receive the video recordings from the number four hole. And if there's anything significant that needs to be passed on, we will do that at that time. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Moore to add to those comments.

ROB MOORE: Good evening. My name is Rob Moore, vice president of...

HARRIS: OK, you've been listening to Richard Stickler offer up the briefing this evening. And some news coming out of that briefing. No sign of life, I guess is the headline there, from those six trapped miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine now for 11, 12 days now. The fourth bore hole, there was a microphone sent down into that bore hole and a lot of tapping but nothing, nothing from the trapped miners, those six trapped miners. No sign of life.

Plans are underway now to drill a fifth bore hole. We also learned that a team will -- of experts and engineers will be assembled. They will meet in the morning. And they will discuss where to go from here. Will determine if there is any feasible way to resume the recovery efforts, the horizontal drilling designed to open up a passageway to bring the miners out. That operation, as you know, is still suspended. We will continue to follow developments here.

But coming up tonight in the NEWSROOM, you know police around the country have gun return programs. You turn in your gun, no questions asked. And you get something in return. But what if someone turned up with this? A missile launcher for a pair of shoes. It'll make you say you've got to be kidding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Two brothers in jail tonight, as the list of suspects grows in New Jersey's execution-style triple murder that shocked the country. Five people are now in custody. And the killings of three college aged friends in a Newark schoolyard after an intense manhunt that spanned several states, police arrested 24-year-old Rodolfo Godinez today in Maryland and found his 16-year-old half brother in Woodbridge, Virginia. We spoke with Newark's mayor earlier tonight. And he says the crime is even more cold blooded than many people realize.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORY BOOKER, MAYOR, NEWARK: It wasn't just gunshots. It was, unfortunately, wounds in terms of using some kind of knife-life object, as well and just other abuse that went on that night. So this is really one of the more heinous murders that I've seen. It wasn't just involved -- lining people up and shooting them. There's a lot more that went on that night that we're still piecing it together.

So I know we have the culprits and what I believe are obviously we have to say they're alleged culprits right now, because they're innocent until proven guilty, but our law enforcement teams have done a tremendous job. It's been a major manhunt. And I'm very happy that it's coming to the conclusion in terms of getting them behind bars. We obviously have more people that we're looking for, but we think it's going to come very quickly to an end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: In fact, police are still looking for a sixth suspect in the case. Let's get you now to our severe weather center. Our hurricane headquarters, Jacqui Jeras has some new information on Dean. Jacqui?

JERAS: Yes, hey, that 11:00 advisory came in. The winds are actually down a little bit. It doesn't, you know, it's not that big of a difference, but it's down to 145 miles per hour. It's very common to see changes in intensity when a storm is this incredibly strong.

But here's the best news that I can tell you right now. If it holds true, because it's not, you know, it's not a sure thing as that cone of uncertainty is still wide across the entire island of Jamaica, but this is the first time in the last, say, 24 hours or so we're seeing the center of that cone south, south of the island of Jamaica.

So if this holds true, that would be excellent news and would possibly keep the worst, the most strong winds from this hurricane off the Jamaican coastline. So it may be just a touch of good news that they may not get the direct hit.

HARRIS: Wow, wow.

JERAS: So this is little bit of a shift in the forecast track. It's a couple of miles, but a few miles could make a big difference here as to what's going to happen in that island. We are still expecting to ramp back up, though, into the western Caribbean. And there you can see the track has changed a little further off to the south here, too. And the cone of uncertainty spreads out then into the Western Gulf. And notice it's close to Houston. So we'll be watching this very closely. But possibly a little bit of good news here tonight...

HARRIS: Yes.

JERAS: ...with the most current advisory. And the reason why that happened, Tony, is we had a little bit of a jaunt to the west here. And that would keep it a little bit farther to the south, but it's still possible we could see that turn back up to the west/northwest.

HARRIS: But a little bit of good news tonight.

JERAS: Possibly, yes.

HARRIS: Yes, that's good. OK, Jacqui, appreciate it. Thank you.

You know, we've all heard of sales scams, but boy, I've got a doozy for you. If someone offered you a plasma TV for $100, what would you think? A ridiculous crime story in our "You Got to be Kidding" segment. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Turning bleak futures into bright ones, Robert Duval is steering poor children in Haiti away from despair and toward hope. He is tonight's CNN hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're rolling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay.

ROBERT DUVAL: In the main center for the last two years, the background music that we had while the kids were playing were gunshots, machine gunshots. Some of these kids have witnessed the worst atrocities. They live in the mud and no running water, no electricity, no garbage pickup, no food, nothing.

My name is Robert Duval. I am founder of the training center, called athletes of Haiti. This is the women's team. The kids never miss practice. And they're disciplined enough to keep focused on something positive.

I left this country very young and I came back. I had a shock. What happened to my country? You know? I started asking questions and I was thrown in jail. When I came out, I was down to 90 pounds, that means skin and bones. That just turned my life around.

This field used to be a dumping ground. Now it's basically an afterschool program. One of the driving forces that has made our program so successful is that one plate of food we give them a day, because sometimes if those kids don't get that one plate, they won't get a plate of food.

We have soccer, track, basketball, table tennis. And we have karate now. The hero is a kid who accepts to uplift himself in the most adverse conditions, maintains the course, and really does succeed in changing his life. I feel that youth is important because the youth is the future. What I do is a drop in the bucket. A kid, he may have the most immense talent, but if you don't nourish it, you never know what he could have become.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And coming up in the NEWSROOM, a guns for shoes deal in Maryland. Police expected to get some handguns off the streets. But they ended up getting a whole lot more bang for their buck. That story and the rest of our "You Got to be Kidding" segment is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I love each of these stories. Size three Reebok sneakers, $40, $50, right? How about a surface to air missile launcher? You got to be kidding. We start in Orlando, Florida, with this kicks for guns sneaker exchange. No questions asked. Turn in your gun to police and run off with a new pair of sneaks. Right? Well, a guy turns in a four-foot long missile launcher to get, man, his daughter a pair of Reeboks. Missile launcher. He says he found it in a shed. And no trash dump would take it.

Rattlesnakes as hit men? Seriously. Lakewood, Colorado now. Two men in jail, accused of trying to kill the owner of an amateur poker tour over a gambling debt. Detectives say the men were going to build the box large enough to hold the snakes, force the man to stand in it. Then, after he'd been bitten, leave him on a hiking trail to die. They guy supposedly owed them about $60,000.

OK, ready for this? Underneath all this bubble wrap is an old scam that is just half baked. An oven door being pawned off as a wireless plasma TV, friends. Police say a shrewd conman had the deal of a century right there at a California parking lot. But hey, if a TV doesn't interest you, how about a 12 inch floor tile that doubles as a laptop computer. Anyone who buys that should be -- well, you fill in the blank.

I'm Tony Harris, in for Rick Sanchez. We will keep an eye on Hurricane Dean throughout the night. You're watching CNN.

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