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Hurricane Dean Category 3; Space Shuttle Endeavour; Capital One Cuts Jobs

Aired August 21, 2007 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Heidi Collins. Tony Harris is off today. Stay informed in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the rundown.
Hurricane Dean rolling over Mexico's Yucatan. A powerful and dangerous category five storm when it hit, winds howling at 165 miles an hour. This hour, new information, new pictures.

Dean spurring NASA to bring shuttle Endeavour home one day early just in case. We cover the landing live on Tuesday, August 21st. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Under attack this hour from a massive storm. Hurricane Dean roaring ashore this morning on Mexico's Yucatan coast. A rare category five storm, the most powerful on the scale, capable of catastrophic damage. Dean downgraded now to category three. But with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles an hour, we are still talking about a major storm.

The tropical system about the size of Texas. Though Dean has been downgraded, its damage classification is still officially extensive. That means flooding, possible mudslides, heavy winds and rain.

And Dean is on the move. We're tracking it all the way with our reporters everywhere along this storm's path. First we want to begin with Reynolds Wolf. He is in the weather center now, hurricane headquarters, with more information.

The very latest for us, Reynolds?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The very latest that we have. This storm, as we mentioned, is a dying system. Think of a giant engine that is running out of fuel. I mean if you've got it revved up, sure it's going to get a little bit weaker as that fuel runs out. And that's basically what we're seeing now. This big powerhouse of a system is away from its primary fuel in the western Caribbean, that warm water, but it's going to get that gas once again once it crosses over into the Bay of Campeche and possibly into the Gulf of Mexico.

As it stands though, it is still a force to be reckoned with. A category three storm. Some incredible wind. Winds well in excess of 100 miles an hour closed in. But even farther ranges to the northern Yucatan Peninsula, we're talking tropical storm force winds, which can still cause all kinds of damage. One thing we really need to touch on, not just the potential for the loss of human life, which is just a horrible prospect, but also the damage you're going to see with the industry, not just including the tourist industry, but as you get into the bay of Campeche, we're talking about roughly 400 different oil sites that we have, which is crucial to the Mexican economy. We're expecting the storm to make a beeline right into that area and then possibly intensify.

Now when it crosses over into the Bay of Campeche, we're expecting it to be a very, very strong category one or weak category two. But regardless of the case, still going to bring some winds in excess of 74 miles per hour, if not stronger. Of course, the heavy surf conditions. They're going to be dealing with that as well.

And then as it gets deeper into the bay, it's going to strengthen even more with winds 110 miles per hour by 2:00 a.m. Wednesday. This is the forecast from the National Hurricane Center. And then from just a 12 hour span from there till it gets to the coast of Mexico, again, as we get back just to the north of -- let's see, actually south of Tampico, and north of Vera Cruz, we're looking at a category three storm. So it's going to get right back into major hurricane form. This is going to be just a sledgehammer of a storm that's going to pound the coast. And then moving inland by 2:00 a.m. on Thursday.

Another image I want to show you, which has so many stories when you look at this one big image, we've got, of course, the Hurricane Dean moving onshore. At the same time you have to keep in mind in Florida we've got a shuttle landing that's going to take place today. Miles O'Brien is going to give you the latest on that. Then take a look at what we have on the other side of this screen. This may become -- this next wave that we see there -- it is very possible within the next 36 hours this could become another storm, Felix. It's just getting more and more busy in parts of the tropics.

That's the latest we have for you, Heidi. Let's send it back to you at the news desk.

COLLINS: Are you kidding? Another one?

WOLF: I wish I was.

COLLINS: Boy.

WOLF: It could happen. Not yet. Not yet, but it's certainly another area of concern for us. Just not too far from the islands. Not too far from Florida. And it is starting to look a little bit menacing. Certainly something the National Hurricane Center is watching with eagle eyes.

COLLINS: I'm sure of that. All right, Reynolds, please keep us updated on that one. We'll check back with you a little bit later on.

Want to go live now to our Gary Tuchman, though. He is in Tulum, Mexico, with the very latest on what he's seeing there.

Gary, last time we talked to you, you had mentioned those power lines. You were pretty amazed at the strength of the power lines are actually still up.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm amazed by that. We've got an official double secret confirmation about that, Heidi, from the police here. They say in the town of Tulum, the largest town north of where the eye landed on the coast, they say they've had no power lines down whatsoever. Almost all the power is out, that's to be expected. But when the power lines go down, it takes weeks and months to repair things. That is the good news.

There's a collective sigh of relief here. People are wandering the streets now, checking at what appears to be limited damage that we've seen. Some roofing, glass windows, but no catastrophic damage. This was a catastrophic hurricane when it was a category five. Now it's a three. It was catastrophic. But because the eye was about 75 miles to the south of this town, they appear not to have gotten extensive damage.

One thing we've seen here that's very interesting, and I don't think particularly safe, a lot of the hotels here, and also in Cancun, which is 80 miles to the north, decided to play it safe. They weren't going to allow anyone inside or outside the hotels once the hurricane came and they locked the doors. They wouldn't allow you out.

We were actually staying in one hotel -- we were planning to stay in one hotel and they said, once you get in, you can't get out. And we thought that was kind of risky if there was a fire or something. We decided not to stay there. That's one trend we've seen during this hurricane, which we hope doesn't get repeated that much or a way to keep people safe. This is just a message to future hotel owners and future places across the United States when hurricanes come that locking your people in is not necessarily the greatest idea.

But all in all, other than that spirit that we saw there, people here have been very happy during this. They worked hard to protect their homes. And they appear to have done a very good job. They were scared, but they worked very tirelessly and hard to make sure they were safe. And it appears they have all ended up safe.

Of course, right now the police are going out and checking out things. In the next two hours, the winds should die back completely. The rains have just stopped. They'll take a thorough check, but things look good so far.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, Gary, what is it? Is it just that the people there are used to this type of thing? Do most of the people that you've been able to talk with anyway say, you know, we've been through this before or something similar to this before and that's why we're not, you know, completely freaking out? I guess there's no other word for it.

TUCHMAN: Yes, I think that's a good word to use. I use that word all the time. And I will tell you that I think that they've experienced lots of hurricanes here before. I mean just two years ago Wilma came. And by all accounts, so far at least, Wilma was much worse, even though it wasn't as powerful as a hurricane. It caused incredible damage. It was formed very quickly and it caught some people by surprise.

But, yes, people were very prepared here. Just this past summer, I was in Japan on vacation and a typhoon came through, Typhoon Man-Yi. And typhoons are the same as hurricanes, they're just called typhoons in that part of the world. And I was amazed at how little preparation, how few people even knew about it. It was a powerful storm.

Here it's the opposite. Everyone knew about it. Everyone's been talking about it. Everyone prepared for it. And the homes, many of them, frankly substandard, seemed to have fared very well.

COLLINS: All right, Gary. Well, we certainly appreciate it. I think you do need to work on your vacation destinations, though, certainly.

Thanks again, Gary Tuchman, coming to us today from Tulum, Mexico.

Gary, thanks.

Any tourists left in Cancun are hunkering down now that's for sure. CNN's national correspondent Jason Carroll is there with the very latest from Cancun.

Good morning to you once again, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Heidi.

Things looking much better this morning in Cancun. In fact, we've been watching as some people have been coming out and taking pictures of the surf. You can believe that a lot of owners of the resorts and managers are going to be coming down looking at the surf, which continues to pound away at the shoreline. It's going to be a -- all the talk is going to be about beach erosion here in Cancun after Hurricane Dean swept through here.

Some 20,000 tourists rode out the storm with us last night. Most of them did it in hotels, like we did. Those hotels became shelters. In 2005, when Hurricane Wilma swept through here, many hotels were badly damaged, some destroyed.

And there were many lessons that were learned from that, Heidi. They retrofitted the hotels. They made them stronger, better able to withstand tropical storms and hurricanes. So many of the hotel representatives felt pretty confident about the way they were going to deal with Hurricane Dean this go-around.

On Friday, it appeared as if the brunt of Hurricane Dean was going to track closer to where we are in Cancun. Instead, it tracked much further to the south. But because of that, the governor was really ordering any of those people who could get out, mostly tourists, to, in fact, get out of Cancun. And some 70,000 people did, in fact, get out. Some 20,000 remained behind and waited out the storm.

And when we woke up this morning, we did a survey of what many of these tourists are going to be coming out and seeing and it's really, Heidi, not a lot of damage at all. We saw some minor flooding. In addition to that, some downed trees. Really, really not a lot of major damage here in Cancun.

Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. Well, that's great news. Jason Carroll coming to us this morning from Cancun.

Thanks so much, Jason.

Hurricane Dean was a category five storm though when it roared ashore on Mexico's Yucatan coast. That is the strongest hurricane there is, with winds faster than 155 miles an hour. It is rare for storms for reach category five. In fact, only three hurricanes that strong have made landfall in the U.S. since records have been kept. Those were the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. It hit the Florida Keys. Hurricane Camille devastated Mississippi in 1969. And Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992. It ranks as one of the most destructive storms ever.

When weather becomes the news, count on CNN to bring it to you first. And if you see severe weather happening in your area, send us an i-Report. Just go to cnn.com and click on i-Report. Or type ireport@cnn.com into your cell phone and share your photos or video with us.

Rob Marciano is sharing some of his stories with us. He is riding out Dean in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, with the very latest there.

We still see some really, as you called them earlier, Rob, angry seas, behind you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'll tell you what, for a while there, and the waves were coming up just -- right up to this wall, at the risk of upsetting some of our viewers, I would say the Caribbean was more than angry, it was pretty pissed.

Right now it has receded just a little bit, but the tide has been going out. So that has been working with us. And the skies have been brightening. So no doubt that we are at least now starting to see some winding down of Hurricane Dean from this vantage point.

But the surf continues to roll in. It's kind of a combination between north shore of Hawaii and class six (ph) rapids. I mean this is just nasty. And there is all sorts of debris being thrown up against this coastline. At this particular property, there's a number of this little cabana type huts that have sustained all sorts of damage. And the docks leading out to those huts and stairwells have been ripped apart by the water, for sure.

But it looks like we're going to continue to get these waves rolling in from time to time. The winds continue to be from the same direction. Probably not going to switch much because of the trajectory of this storm. Probably will continue to be east-northeast right on through the end of this thing until it continues to wind its way up.

Still 20,000 tourists trapped, so-called. They're hunkered down for this storm in the Yucatan. This is their bread and butter. I mean they spend all sorts of money to protect tourism, to make it nice, to get people to fly to Mexico to enjoy the beaches of the beautiful Caribbean. Any other day would be beautiful.

And they had an amazing recovery, Heidi, after 2005 when Wilma really ripped apart this stretch of the riviera and Cancun. And would suspect when all of this winds down and the damage toll is taken, there's going to be some serious damage here from this storm, mostly from the pounding waves. They'll recover. They'll recover quite quickly. And, of course, the main hope is injuries and fatalities are kept to a minimum as this system continues to roll westward.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, boy, you got that right. All right, Rob, thanks so much for that. We'll check back a little later on.

Meanwhile, a massive storm, major impact. Hurricane Dean slams into Mexico, as you know. The latest developments live from the storm's path. This is CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

And all systems are go now. Space shuttle Endeavour returning to earth one day early. The impact of Hurricane Dean on the shuttle mission.

Miners trapped. Experts say it is too risky to resume the underground rescue in Utah. But miners' families argue the company is giving up.

And there's no recall, but Wal-Mart has quietly stopped selling two kinds of dog treats. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF: And Hurricane Dean continues its assault on the Yucatan Peninsula. From Cancun southward to Guatemala, it is a big system of a lot of rain, some pounding surf and, of course, some strong winds. Some winds close to the center well in excess of 100 miles per hour. Meanwhile, farther to the north and a bit to the south, we're seeing tropical storm force winds. That should continue for much of the day. Coming up, we'll let you know where it's expected to go, will it strengthen, will it weaken. We'll tell you that too in just moments.

COLLINS: Homeward bound. Space shuttle Endeavour returns to earth in just about two hours from now. Space correspondent Miles O'Brien is live at the Kennedy Space Center now in Florida.

Good morning to you, Miles. This thing a go so far, right? MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far, Heidi. Right now I was just listening to Steve Lindsey, the chief astronaut who's flying in a specially converted Gulf Stream jet. It's rigged up to fly just like a space shuttle. He's tried a couple of practice approaches not far from where I sit right now at the Kennedy Space Center at the shuttle landing facility.

And it's pretty gusty. There's a fair amount of wind and the issue they'll be watching today, it's not the clouds, not the rain, although they'll be looking at that, but they'll be focused most on the possibility of too strong a cross-wind, which might make it impossible to land the space shuttle Endeavour on this first landing opportunity. The first opportunity to land is at 12:32 p.m.

Take a look at these pictures live here from the top of the vehicle assembly building. That huge structure built to house (INAUDIBLE) rockets years ago. And light, puffy clouds. Scattered clouds. No real concerns there. But as we say, we'll be watching the wind very closely.

Now the space shuttle Endeavour, on the first landing opportunity, would fire its jets over the Indian Ocean, right around Malaysia, at around 11:25 Eastern Time. It slows the craft down by all of 250 miles an hour. Enough to make it drop down into the atmosphere.

And if you look at that map there of the hurricane and Florida, the space shuttle Endeavour on that first opportunity -- if we can put that graphic up there one more time -- will come almost from the middle of your screen straight north up to the Florida peninsula, across Cuba, and in for a landing here.

Now you may say, well, what about the hurricane? Is there any issue there? Well, no matter which direction they come in from, Endeavour would be at approximately 200,000 feet anywhere near Hurricane Dean, well above the weather, at least 100,000 feet or so above the weather, 150,000 feet above the weather. So weather regarding Hurricane Dean is not an issue. The concern here are crosswinds at the Kennedy Space Center.

Now we'll be watching this landing very closely because, as you know, throughout this mission we've been talking about this gouge in the aft (ph) section of the Endeavour's belly. It's about a 3.5 inch long gouge and it's particularly deep. It goes right down to the felt liner, which is attached to the aluminum skin of the space shuttle.

The engineers have run this to ground numerous ways, creating some tiles that are damaged identically on the ground, running them through a blast furnace, seeing what kind of temperatures they would encounter in the heat of reentry. They've done computer simulations and on it goes. And every time they have done these tests, they have come back with the conclusion that the temperatures would not approach the 350-degree threshold which would cause them to worry. So they didn't repair it.

Nevertheless, we'll be watching it very closely. As you know, a space shuttle, as it returns to earth, endures tremendous heat. Remember Columbia back in February of 2003, upwards of 3,000-degree heat. There was a breach in the leading edge of the wing on Columbia. And as it came down, during that fiery reentry, that what turned out to be a fatal breach and caused the disintegration of that orbiter.

Now the issue we'll be tracking as it comes back is, what about a fix for the root cause of this gouge? It was a piece of foam that fell off the external fuel tank, not unlike what caused the Columbia problem, back 58 seconds after launch. And the question now is, will this cause a ripple effect as they try to fix it, causing potential delays for later shuttle flights?

Heidi.

COLLINS: Boy, I certainly hope not. We wish them the very best of luck, no doubt about that.

Miles, I know that you will be there for us all afternoon. We are going to carry the shuttle Endeavour's landing live, of course, for you. You can tune in at 12:32 Eastern, that's, of course, 9:32 Pacific. And Miles will be on hand giving us the play by play.

Meanwhile, some information here now in from the Associated Press to CNN. We are learning more about Halah Esfandiari. She has been released from prison on bail. It was $300,000 bail that was posted. You see pictures of her there.

Just as a quick reminder, she has been in prison in Tehran for about three months or so. She has been accused of trying to undermine national security. She does serve at the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. That's a nonpartisan institute that was established by Congress several years ago.

But the big news here today, as I said, she's been in jail in Tehran for about three months. She's an Iranian-U.S. academic. Halah Esfandiari. She has been released from jail on bail. So that is the latest there. We will continue to follow that story as we have here for those three months.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Gerri Willis.

There's more bad news from the mortgage industry. We'll tell you who's taking the hit, coming up next in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Let's go ahead and check out the big board now. We're looking at the Dow Jones Industrial averages down about 64 points or so. We'll be watching our business stories all day long for you, try to find out a little bit more about what's happening as the week goes on here with all of those numbers.

Meanwhile, another mortgage crisis victim. Capital One shutting down its lending business and eliminating jobs. More now from personal finance editor Gerri Willis. Gerri, good morning to you.

That doesn't sound like very good news?

WILLIS: No, it's not. More bad news from the mortgage lending industry. Credit card and banking firm Capital One Financial Corp said it would shutter a mortgage lending business it bought less than a year ago.

Now the company is also cutting 1,900 jobs. This is just the latest in a string of announcements from lenders as problems in the sub prime mortgage market spread. And, you know, as we've been reporting on your show and elsewhere, banks are tightening up their purse strings to curb some of this risk, and this is making it harder for people to get it loan.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, very hard. People hear Capital One and they think credit cards. They don't really think about mortgages so much.

WILLIS: Right. Exactly right. Capital One actually acquired GreenPoint Mortgage in December when it bought North Fork Bank Corp. And it thought it was a great part of a move to diversify the credit card company. GreenPoint specialized in unconventional loans. We're talking about jumbo mortgages and loans that don't need verification of a borrower's income or assets.

Now those are exactly the kinds of loans that helped to fuel the housing boom and the consequent bust. So they got into this business at just the wrong time.

COLLINS: Yes. So what does it mean then for people who have mortgages with the company?

WILLIS: Well, don't panic. GreenPoint will not make new loan commitments. But if you already have a signed contract for a mortgage and have locked in your rate, your loan will be honored. This is according to the company.

Now Capital One says it will continue to offer mortgages through its bank branches and other units. And some analysts are on record saying that shedding this business could ultimately be a positive move by Capital One because it would eliminate the mortgage risk GreenPoint represented.

COLLINS: Wow. You know it was pretty surprising to hear about Capital One, but we have been hearing, for at least several days now, about Countrywide.

WILLIS: Right.

COLLINS: What's the latest with them?

WILLIS: Well, the stock has been down, as you know. Customers of Countrywide are reportedly lining up at offices and asking about the safety of their deposits, believe it or not. Now, look, if you have $100,000 or less of your money in Countrywide, you should know that it's ensured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and that includes CDs too.

Now you should know, also, a quick note here, Thornburg Mortgage, a smaller lender based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, sold $20.5 billion of securities at a discount to pay down debt. So you'll want to keep that company on your radar as well.

We'll bring you the latest on the mortgage meltdown as it continues to unravel.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Gee, thanks, Gerri. Appreciate that very much.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.

COLLINS: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins. Tony Harris has the day off today.

The very latest now on our big story today. Hurricane Dean, weaker but still a major storm. Right now Dean is barreling across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. It is now a category three hurricane, with maximum sustained winds at 125 miles an hour. Downgraded from a powerful category five, though, when it made landfall.

Dean is still very strong and potential very dangerous. Dean arrived in Mexico before dawn after a destructive march through the Caribbean. It is blamed for at least nine deaths. CNN has crews all along Dean's path. They are bringing you the very latest on this deadly storm.

(WEATHER REPORT)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a long, frightening night in Tulum, Mexico, about 75 miles north of where the hurricane's eye crossed. How did everything work out? We'll have more when CNN NEWSROOM Continues.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Lothian in Huntington, Utah, where the owner of the man, Bob Murray, now admits he's not optimistic THOSE six miners will ever be found. More on that story ahead in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Well, it's a done deal, NFL quarterback Michael Vick set to plead guilty in a dog fighting case. Our guest gives us his take, in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: All right, we want to follow Hurricane Dean. A bit of good news. Originally a category-5 when it made landfall, but now a category-3, but so many more effects of this storm still to come. We've heard Reynolds Wolf talking some massive flooding that could take place in the aftermath, and also the possibility this thing could grow in strength once again, once it goes across the Yucatan Peninsula and continues to pick up steam, that warm water that it will have access to once again before making landfall all over again. We were going to go to Gary Tuchman. He is standing by in Tulum, Mexico, but we are not able to bring him up. As you imagine, some of the correspondents that we have all along the Yucatan Peninsula difficult to bring up at times because of the obvious weather situation there, so we will get to him in just a moment.

Meanwhile, just a quick reminder, when weather does become the news, you can count on CNN to bring it to you first. And if you see severe weather happening in your area, go ahead and send us an i- Report. Go to CNN.com and click on i-Report, or iReport@CNN.com into your cell phone. You can share your photos and videos with us that way, too.

Conflict at a Utah mine. One side says resuming an underground rescue operation is just too risky. The other says officials are giving up.

Our Dan Lothian is covering developments now in Huntington, Utah. And boy, Dan, as we've been saying here, the absolute last thing that these families wanted to hear is that the search was just too risky.

LOTHIAN: You know, that's so true, you know, because all along, mine owner Bob Murray has been somewhat optimistic, he has been hopeful that they could find those miners, but now even he is admitting he doesn't know if they'll be found, and he is not optimistic they will be found alive. In addition, as you mentioned, there have been some safety consultants who have concluded that it is too dangerous to resume that underground search and rescue operation.

Now, the family members, what they are calling on officials to do is to dig a much larger hole and to send down a rescue capsule, but Murray says even that option is just not safe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB MURRAY, PRES. & CEO, MURRAY ENERGY: If there is not a live person down there, the risks of sending someone down a 30-inch hole 2,000 feet deep would not justify any rescue effort, unless we find someone alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now, the family members of those six trapped miners have been critical of the rescue operation. They don't think that enough is being done, and they think that federal officials and mine officials have essentially given up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE ALLRED, BROTHER OF TRAPPED MINER: They've basically giving up, and that's unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable. I can't live with that; his family can't live with that. One way or the other, we've got to have closure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now, one update on what is taking place on the mountain behind me, there is work on a fifth bore hole. Crews are trying to get down a little more than 2,000 feet. They hope to do that by sometime late this evening, but mine officials are not optimistic about what they'll find once they do get down there.

And one additional note, Heidi, a memorial service will be held today for one of the three victims of that second collapse -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Wow, that's just -- it's just such a sad story. Dan Lothian, thanks so much, coming to us live this morning from Huntington, Utah.

(NEWSBREAK)

COLLINS: And still ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM, there's no recall, but Wal-Mart has quietly stopped selling two kinds of dog treats. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Wal-Mart has quietly stopped selling two brands of dog treats -- Chicken Jerky and Chicken Jerky Strips. The Associated Press reports the treats were pulled from store shelves in July. There's been no recall, but Wal-Mart tells the A.P., it is testing the products. They were imported from China. Some customers complained the treats made their dogs sick. You may recall there was a massive pet food recall in March, retailers yanking products made in China that included the chemical melamine.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

COLLINS: As we continue to track Hurricane Dean, which we should just update quickly, was a category-5 storm when it hit land, now a category-3. We have several people following it for us, our correspondents, and our meteorologists in the hurricane center.

Meanwhile, it's a good idea, too, to try to get the picture from people who are actually living there.

Peggy Mueller is an American living in Belize. She's lived there for the past 17 years. She is in Corozal.

Peggy, if you can hear me, tell me a little bit about what we are even actually able to hear over your line, which sounds like a whole lot of wind.

PEGGY MUELLER, RESIDENT, COROZAL TOWN, BELIZE: It is. We still have a lot of wind. It came in on the northwest, and it's coming out on the southwest. So it came in on the front of our place and it's coming on the out.

What you're hearing is zinc, which is roofing material that we use here in Belize, and it's just banging everywhere. And a lot of people have lost their complete roofs. Some just lost just their lanais, their patios like I have. And although we had about a 25-foot section of cement fence that went down with this storm, that takes a big wind to take down a cement fence.

COLLINS: Oh, absolutely. And, Peggy, have you ever seen anything like this before?

MUELLER: Never, never. We've had tropical storms, and we waited out Mitch, which we were lucky we were not hit with. But we had terrible rains with that, but none of their winds. But this one came in with a force, and it's going out with still force, because it just doesn't want to leave. And we've been listening to this noise since 2:00 this morning.

And looking out across my back area, I see houses I never saw before, because we had so much foliage, trees. I do not see a lot of power lines down, but we have a lot of trees down, a lot of foliage down here. This wind stripped the trees bare and then tipped them over.

So it's a sad sight for us, because we're not on the beach. There's a lot of exposed houses on the beach, and it's going to be a really sad thing to see, I think, when we go down. We're up by the Mayan ruins, and we're built pretty well up here.

COLLINS: I can't believe all of that noise in the background, that being your roof that is just kind of flailing around.

MUELLER: And I'm in a regular neighborhood, where everybody is listening to this type of a thing. So people are starting to get out in the street, which I can't believe they're actually out there with this stuff blowing around, but our curfew's been lifted, and so people have gone out. But the radio is telling people to stay in their buildings. I'm watching people walk along a 10-inch ledge around their house, thinking how could you do this?

COLLINS: Well, I don't know. You know, I think, Peggy, that sometimes when this type of thing happens, which, again, we should again remember how rare this is. There's only been three category- five storms that have ever hit land, so it is incredibly rare, but I think people -- I don't know, immediately want to go out and look at the damage, see what's left of their belongings.

MUELLER: And Corozal hasn't been hit with a bad one since like 1955. So most of the people out there looking is a lot younger than that. And so they've heard about the hurricanes that hit in '55, and I think that's it, they want to go and see what has happened.

COLLINS: Yes, it's a natural curiosity, but of course, as we always remind everyone, that as we continue to look at our CNN i- Reports that we're looking at right on the screen, must be very, very, very careful if you decide to go and try and capture some of those images.

Well, Peggy, we certainly appreciate your time today and wish you the very best of luck. We know that your husband is a lobster fisherman. It's been very tough, obviously, to do any fishing, so we wish you the best of luck in the aftermath of Hurricane Dean. Thanks again.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: A monster storm on the move: Tracking Hurricane Dean. We are live along the storm's path. We'll be talking with more correspondents shortly.

Meanwhile, she left her sanctuary and left herself open to arrest. An immigration activist deported.

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COLLINS: Improving border security during emergencies -- President Bush discussing that with Canada's prime minister and Mexico's president. Also on the table, energy, trade and immigration. The leaders meeting for two days in Canada. They plan a news conference at 12:20 Eastern. We will be bringing that to you live when it happens right here in the NEWSROOM.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And hurricane dean has weakened to a category-2 storm, but it is not over yet. We still have a long way to go over the next couple days, and we'll watch it for you very carefully, right here on CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

COLLINS: All systems are go -- Space Shuttle Endeavour returns to Earth one day early; the impact of Hurricane Dean on the shuttle mission.

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