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American Morning
Fleeing Hurricane Earl: Earl Targets East Coast; The New Normal or New Frugality; Islamophobia in America; Palestinian and Israeli Peace Talks Happening at the State Department
Aired September 02, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And in fact, we're just getting an update in the next two minutes about what's going on with Earl. Good morning to you. It's Thursday. It's September 2nd. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ALI VELSHI, CNM ANCHOR: And I'm Ali Velshi. John Roberts has the day off. Of course, the top story this morning is hurricane Earl.
Check out the live radar. Earl is now a mass of category 4 hurricane. Winds reaching 145 miles an hour. This is the biggest storm on the planet right now.
CHETRY: That's right. This is the latest forecast track right now, Earl heading for the outer banks of North Carolina, a part of the East Coast that precariously juts out into the Atlanta. If you look into Friday and then into Saturday, this storm also looks to sideswipe New York's Long Island as well as Cape Cod.
VELSHI: This storm is absolutely enormous. It's about the size of the state of Colorado. Tropical storm winds are extending 100 of miles away from the center of0 Earl. That makes an important because you don't have to be anywhere near the eye wall for this to affect you. Those winds are amazing -- they're making amazing waves. These pictures were taken yesterday afternoon from the outer banks.
10 to 15-foot waves might be a surfer's delight, but they are dangerous. Look at this, a buoy near the Bahamas recorded a wave height of 50 feet. 50 feet as the eye of Earl was passing over it. Now, for a little prospective, 50 is almost as tall as the base of the Statue of Liberty for those of you familiar with that or a 6th floor of a building. That's what the storm is capable of producing.
CHETRY: And that's where the worry comes in, not just the wind and the rain, but the storm surge. AMERICAN MORNING has the story covered like no one else. Our Rob Marciano in Kill Devil Hill, the outer banks of North Carolina. We also have Reynolds Wolf, tracking the storm every move from the CNN Hurricane Center.
And Reynolds, start with you, we're due to get an update. What's the latest?
WOLF: The latest we have on the storm is may be a little bit of weakening that may occur between now and the next update. The reason why we're seeing them is because if you look at this enhanced satellite imagery, you're going to notice a little bit of dry air that's moved against the top half and the western half of the storm.
That dry air you see there could sometimes compromise the structure of the storm. That's certainly a possibility. But if you look at the back half of the system, it's already starting to recover, to fill back in. So, fluctuations in power are going to be expected, certainly the storm with this size.
The size of the storm, if you're looking just at the deepest convection, it's about the size of Colorado. If you were to go to as far as the extreme, out fringes of the storm, the outflow, it's nearly the size of Texas, the strongest on the planet and it is on the move. The question is, where is this mammoth thing going?
Well, the latest path we have from the National Hurricane Center show the storm is going to be driving its way to the north and veering off very slowly, north/northeast as you get into Friday and Friday afternoon and into Saturday. It looks like it might be near Rob's position near midnight tonight, perhaps as early as 2:00 a.m. tomorrow morning with winds of 135. It is not going to make a direct hit, possibly, but maybe even a glancing blow.
The thing is that Rob mentioned last hour, you don't have to have a direct hit. This thing is enormous and I'm telling you, the Outer Banks are going to get lashed by these incredible waves, by some heavy wind, and it's going to carry some damage up the Eastern Seaboard. It will be weakening as it gets just to the east of New Jersey and perhaps just near Cape Cod. But still, it's going to pack quite a punch. Question is, how big of a punch?
Take a look at this: as we fast forward over the next couple of days we're going to be seeing these watches and warnings up and down the coast, wind gusts topping 80 miles an hour. Not just restricted to the coast, but also moving inland. Waves anywhere from 25 to 30 feet, some will be bigger. Storm surge anywhere from two to three feet.
As we take a look, as we fast forward, here's what we're going to be seeing in terms of those watches and warnings, not just for the Outer Banks but clear up right to the coast of Maine we've got watches and warnings that are going to be in effect. It's going to be really, really amazing just to see as a storm makes it way northward, power outages can be expected, possibly affecting millions of people. Flight delays, you have to know that's going to be a big issue, coastal flooding is also going to be a problem.
For more of an up-close look of what's happening along the coast as we speak, let's send it back over to you guys. I know you're going to be talking to Rob in mere moments.
VELSHI: We are, although we've just seen the latest - I was saying the storm is the size of Colorado and you're saying when the winds are included in that it's the size of Texas.
WOLF: With the outflow.
VELSHI: hurricane-force winds 90 miles from the center of this storm. This is why this becomes important. This isn't clouds and winds coming over you, this is going to cover a very big area so even if you are not in that track of the storm as we're showing it right now, if you're anywhere near it, you need to at least be thinking about your plans over the next 48 hours.
WOLF: Absolutely. This is an atmospheric saw blade that is drifting through the coast, making its way up the Eastern Seaboard damaging a lot of things in its way. No question about it, you don't want to follow that line, that specific path. But know that it's going to stretch out for a considerable distance. No question.
CHETRY: Thanks a lot, Reynolds. We'll be checking in with you throughout the morning.
Our Rob Marciano is in it in Kill Devil Hills. Rob, as we talk about this, the area is under a mandatory evacuation order. We look at the storm, we're worried. But you say not everybody is taking the storm as seriously as perhaps they should right now.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and we hope that will change through the day. The emergency office has now ordered for the entire county a mandatory evacuation, at least for visitors. Visitors and residents more susceptible islands down to the south, and now all visitors are expected to be leaving this part of the island.
But you mentioned, yes, there was a bit of a casual attitude yesterday. Hopefully that changes today. Yesterday, I went out and spoke with some people gathering supplies, and here's what some of them had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're from Michigan, so we're used to storms. But this is our first hurricane so we're kind of excited about it. We hope everything will go well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to party your way through, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that's the best way, because ignorance is bliss.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have three bottles of wine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's all you need?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The kids are good with the meal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're not worried about it, though?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It might ruin some beach time. Hopefully, it's OK. We'll keep an eye on the TV, right. You guys let us know if we need to be worried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: You need to be worried. That's for sure. It's been a while since they've seen a storm of any magnitude hit this coast, Isabel in 2002. It's been over ten years since a major storm has struck here. Granted, that's mostly east of the center.
If there's any glimmer of optimism here, even if this thing makes a direct strike on the outer banks or New England, most of the worst part of the storm will be east and offshore. But the size and strength of this is not going to let people relax, that's for sure.
The surge is not as big an issue, I think Reynolds pointed that out because of the way it is short line. But the waves are going to be massive, and the slender highway that goes from here to rest of the civilization, it can be cut off. It's done that in storms past. That's one of the reasons that the evacuations have been ordered here.
Right now, the winds are picking up just a little bit, but really we haven't seen anything as far as storm condition are concerned. The clouds are beginning to shroud the sunshine, and the waves are picking up as well. But we expect the bulk of the action to really start ramping up later this afternoon.
CHETRY: Of course, we'll keep watching. As you said, what you and other meteorologists were hoping for was this turn to the west. You haven't seen that yet. And you're also, of course, worried about how fast the storm is moving?
MARCIANO: The faster the better. You know, we need to get it in and out of here in a hurry. The longer it churns on the coast, the more it bangs it up, the more it pounds the coastline. So we definitely want to accelerate north and preferably east.
VELSHI: Rob, thanks very much. We'll stay in touch with you. It's remarkable, when you see the storms, these guys describe it as being organized or disorganized. Look at that, tight and compact.
CHETRY: We saw the picture from the international space station yesterday. It looked like a drawing.
VELSHI: Yes, normally, they're all over the place. All the way up the east coast, there are preparations being made in case this thing gets worse. So shelters going up in places like Long Island. I just like it's always useful, even if this thing isn't coming, to just think what about you would do in the event of a storm. What plans you would make.
CHETRY: Right, because the bottom line, people going to make a run on hardware stores, Home Depots, Lowe's. Do you have a plan to get out if it looks like it's taking a turn. So, you're right, things we should all keep in mind that we don't often think of.
VELSHI: That's right. We'll posted on CNN. When you're away from your TV, CNN.com, your online headquarters. It's also the place where if you have pictures you can upload them, video, upload. Head to CNN.com/ireport. Our blog is up and running. Nearly two million hits already. Head to CNN.com/amfix for all the latest.
CHETRY: And Earl has a bull's-eye in North Carolina. Coming up, we're going to talk to the man in charge of getting thousands of people, both residents and visitor, a very popular time of year as we head to Labor Day weekend, out of harm's way and what could be an extremely dangerous storm.
VELSHI: It's seven minutes after the hour. This special edition of "AMERICAN MORNING" will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: We're tracing hurricane Earl as it gains strength. And there are more warnings and watches that have been issued along the east coast. The storm is a dangerous category four. The radar has it brushing past North Carolina's outer banks by tonight. And 30,000 residents and visitors from Hatter's Island were evacuated, as well as 5,000 tourists from tiny Ocracoke Island as well, these barrier islands that are really exposed to the Atlantic there.
Joining us now for more on the latest preparations, the emergency response coordinator for Dare County, Warren Judge, where mandatory evacuation orders have just expanded to the entire county. Good morning. What's the latest, Warren?
WARREN JUDGE, CHAIRMAN, DARE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: Good morning, how are you doing, Kiran? This morning, the Dare County control group ordered a mandatory evacuation to all visitors to Dare County, and we have issued an advisory to all residents who live on the oceanfront to seek higher ground and safety.
CHETRY: Right. You're worried about coastal flooding and the ocean simply washing over that area, especially if they're right on the ocean front there. As we take a look at it, where our meteorologists are telling us you're talking about hurricane force winds, extending 90 miles out from the eye, so there's certainly some concern there about this area.
What needs to happen now, as you guys have your eye on the storm, you know it's coming, and you're just trying to make sure everyone's prepared?
JUDGE: Well, absolutely. Certainly, everybody is getting prepared. The residents of Dare County have been through this many times. And they have their own individual practices and procedures to get their homes and businesses secured and prepared for the oncoming storm.
What we need to happen now is for the visitors to heed the warning to evacuate. This is going to be an overnight storm which always makes it difficult because it's nighttime. The water that we expect to come up over the dunes on to the oceanfront properties and spread out towards the beach road and even across the beach road in some areas is going to be significant.
And that's the reason for the evacuation with the hurricane- force winds covering parts of the island, for sure, on the track that it is on now. We need for our visitors, as much as we appreciate them, we need for them to heed the warning and to begin to evacuate. CHETRY: Right. For you guys in emergency management, it's all business. You know, it's making sure people are prepared. It's a serious nature. On the flipside, the people that are there trying to enjoy themselves are probably loving the waves right now. And they look in the sky and they see sunshine, and they think, maybe we don't really need to get out of here.
How do you make people realize the enormity of this?
JUDGE: Well, you're exactly right, Kiran. It is difficult. We have an outstanding staff and team that direct and lead our emergency operations center and our response center and our response.
Our visitors are -- many of our visitors are well-seasoned repeat visitors. And they understand that. It's always kind of hard to reconcile a beautiful sunny day with beautiful ocean conditions that you've got to pack up and leave.
But we just continue to deliver a message. Good friends such as yourself, CNN, putting the word out on the television stations over the air will certainly help us. We have our own system of press releases and announcements on our government channel stations, as well as all our local radio stations.
Our businesses, the hoteliers, the rental agency managers all do a good job in communicating with the guests, answering the guests' questions. But at the end of the day, the advice to our visitors is to evacuate, and the advice to our residents on the ocean front to seek safety on higher ground.
CHETRY: You know, you guys are used to this. This happens, of course in varying seasons. We talk more about the cat gore of the storm, category four, 140-mile-an-hour plus winds. If there's one bright spot, it looks like this is favorite-moving storm, if anything. It could be a fairly short event for you guys. I mean, is that something that you're considering at this point?
JUDGE: Absolutely. The confidence from the National Hurricane Center as well as from our director of emergency operations and his team is that it will be a fast event. The fact that it happens overnight always gives us cause for concern, but we're going to get a glancing blow.
Hopefully, it stays on the track or tracks to the east. It will be quick. It's going to go through one high tide cycle which is certainly the opportunity for worst conditions at high tide than it would be at low tide. And that it -- when we wake up in the morning, it's pretty much over. So -- then that's another reason for the people to heed the evacuation notice, to get off the island and let the storm happen overnight. And then we'll assess our situation in the morning.
CHETRY: Right.
JUDGE: But the speed of the storm and the fact that we're getting the west side of the storm is certainly a blessing to us. CHETRY: All right. Well, good luck. We hope that everything goes smoothly for you. Warren Judge, thanks so much for being with us this morning.
JUDGE: Thank you, ma'am. We appreciate it.
VELSHI: I want to just talk about money for a second. You and I got our baptism by fire working together because we were here every single morning while the financial crisis was starting. And back then, it shock all the time. It was not shock anymore. This is normal to people. There's this new normal, and it involves kids going home and living with their parents after college. Kids needing allowance from their parents. People cutting off their home phone lines to save cash. These are economic times and this is the new normal. We're "Minding Your Business" after the break with a conversation about that.
It is 17 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty minutes past the hour right now. CNN is your hurricane headquarters. And our extreme weather team is tracking Hurricane Earl for you this morning. Every hour things change, of course. Just about two hours ago, 5:00 Eastern, moments ago, again, mandatory evacuation orders expanding in North Carolina, North Carolina's Outer Banks. We just spoke to Dare County which is Kitty Hawk, the town of Duck. Many other very, very popular destinations. They also were asking all visitors to evacuate the county.
In less than 30 minutes, we'll be getting a new update from North Carolina's Emergency Management Association in Growley (ph) and we'll be tracking that for you and bring anything new to you.
Also at 11:30 Eastern this morning, we're getting an update from the head of FEMA and from the head of the National Hurricane Center. We'll be watching it all for you. And in fact, Ali, we're going to be speaking with FEMA director about this as well a little bit later in our own program to give you an update this morning.
VELSHI: All right, I'm going to take a few minutes away from Hurricane Earl, but we will, of course, get back to it momentarily and if there are any developments.
Kiran and I were just talking about a few minutes ago about all those mornings, one after another, in 2007 and 2008 where we were shocked into believing the fact that there is a serious recession. But that was shock. Today, it seems more like the new normal. And we want to talk about some of the things that people are doing to cope with that new normal.
Amanda Gengler joins me now. She's a writer with "Money" magazine. She's been following this week.
Amanda, let's just talk about this. There are a number of things that are happening differently than they use to happen. We talk about kids after college going home and living with their parents. In some cases while they're doing that, or even if they haven't moved home, they are out of college and once again depending upon their parents for source of income. I think a lot of people say once I'm done paying for my kids' college, they're kind of on their own. Not really part of the new normal.
AMANDA GENGLER, WRITER, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: Some recent studies are really showing the degree to which parents are helping their adult kids. People in their 20s, one study found that the majority of parents were still providing financial support to the tune of more than $7,000 a year. And another study found that, parents, when they're already gone, they said they were financially independent by age 25 --
VELSHI: Right.
GENGLER: -- for their kids. That's not going to happen until age 30 today. So I think one of the things that's often overlooked in this great recession is just the negative impact that it's having on young adults. The idea that once my child finishes school, lands his first job, and if he's going to make it on his own, that just isn't happening. Today, parents are being forced to step in and pay student loans, health care bills. You know, one in 10, 18 to 34-year-olds has moved back in with mom and dad because of the recession.
VELSHI: Yes.
OK. So parents are getting hit a little bit by this because they've got to continue to support their kids after paying for an education in many cases. They're also getting hit because if they're short of money, a lot of people are raiding their retirement. A lot of people are going into the 401(k) and borrowing. It's necessary for a lot of people, but most people think this is a very dicey proposition. Experts think that.
GENGLER: Yes. And the percentage of 401(k) participants who have an outstanding loan against their account right now is about 22 percent. That's a record high. And the average loan amount is over $8,500. We're also seeing not as many but still a high number of folks raiding their account. At least with a loan, you have to repay it. There's also what's called --
VELSHI: You mean, people just going in and cashing and selling their stocks, taking a very high tax hit to do it.
GENGLER: Exactly. They're taking a hardship with the draw.
VELSHI: Yes.
GENGLER: And then they're paying that 10 percent fee and also taxes.
VELSHI: Yes.
GENGLER: Well, that could eat away 30 to 40 percent of whatever you're withdrawing depending on your tax bracket. So we at "Money" magazine" don't generally like to encourage people to think of their 401(k) as sort of a piggy bank. I mean, that undermines its purpose which is to serve as a nest egg for your retirement. But that said, there are situations where you don't have any other option.
VELSHI: If you're going to lose your home or you're going to lose your lights or something like that. Listen, go to "Money" magazine and you can see this or money.com.
Amanda Gengler, thanks very much for being with us. We're talking about the new normal all this week -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Sounds good. Ali, thanks.
Well, coming up from New York's Ground Zero to California, mosques have become the target of angry protests. Some say it's become open season to hate Muslims. Our Deb Feyerick is taking a closer look.
It's 24 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Time for an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only an AMERICAN MORNING.
Attempted terror attacks aimed at the U.S. have come mostly from Muslim extremists born outside of America. Of course, recently, we have talked more about homegrown attacks. The Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan, born in the United States among others. America's Muslim community though has been quick to warn law enforcement about these potential threats.
VELSHI: So the question is, why does it appear that more and more that all Muslims are being portrayed as potential terrorists or as targets of hate. Deborah Feyerick joins us now for a closer look at this. You've been investigating this very closely, Deb?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, absolutely. You know, experts will tell you that there's a great deal of misunderstanding when it comes to what Islam is all about. Add on politicians spreading rumors that Sharia law, Islamic law, is coming to the United States simply because a group of Americans wants to build a mosque. It's time to ask, what's really going on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): The Islamic center and mosque to be built near Ground Zero is not the only mosque drawing fire. About a dozen others across the country are also under attack. From angry protests and suspected arson in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you forget 9/11 so fast?
FEYERICK: To Temecula, California.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's (INAUDIBLE) --
FEYERICK: American mosques in some cases being portrayed as monuments to terror or terror training centers.
JOHN ESPOSITO, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: It's open season on hate towards Muslims and Islam.
FEYERICK (on camera): Why now especially since the majority of Americans have resented the urge to stay Muslim in the years since 9/11 despite negative images in the movies and on the news?
(voice-over): John Esposito is a religion and Islamic professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
ESPOSITO: People feel besieged. They feel threatened by the economy, by terrorists, and et cetera. The risk is that Islamophobia will become the kind of new form of discrimination. You know, like anti- Semitism, like racism towards blacks.
FEYERICK: Conservatively, figures show an estimated five million Muslims in America. And intensifying hostility and rise in hate speech is alarming to many, like these clerics who we met at a recent Islamic summit in Houston.
YASIR QADHI, ALMAGHRIB INSTITUTE: You would never hear any mainstream commentator (ph) said do you think another Christian sect could open up a mosque? Do you think Jews should be allowed to open their synagogues anywhere they want? We have mainstream use of presenters just asking the question bluntly, do you think Muslims should open -- should be allowed to open mosques anywhere they want?
WISAM SHARIEFF, BAYYINAH INSTITUTE: What changed the game? Nineteen people changed the game? How did that happen? Because we've been your doctor, we've been your x-ray tech, your accountant. We've been serving you for a long time. So what tipped the scales?
FEYERICK: Wisam Sharieff, Yasir Qadhi and other prominent American clerics say American Muslims are under siege both by Islamic extremists and some U.S. conservatives.
QADHI: You have radical Islamic clerics, right, preaching from abroad saying you cannot be an American and a Muslim at the same time. Well, low and behold, on the far right, you have quite a number of famous, prominent Islamophobes who are saying the exact same message.
FEYERICK: The Ground Zero mosque, as some call it, has whipped up national debate fueled in part by misinformation and fear mongering. Yet, anti-Muslim feelings had been simmering. Since last year, this YouTube video has been viewed more than 12 million times.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: The world is changing. It's time to wake up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Islam has become a political wedge issue with politicians like Newt Gingrich comparing Muslims to Nazis. NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: You know, Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. There's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.
FEYERICK: In fact, a Duke University study finds rather than fuel terrorism in America, contemporary mosque prevent it. National security experts and American Muslims like Saraj Mohammed (ph) fear there's a lot at stake.
SHIRAZ MOHAMMED (ph): The more they speak and the more they incite people, they themselves are a concern to be dealt with and they have to be told, you have to stop this rhetoric. It's hurting American security.
FEYERICK (on camera): Right. Because it's creating hatred?
MOHAMMED: Yes, it's creating a lot of hatred.
FEYERICK: The latest 2008 FBI statistics on hate crimes against Muslims don't reflect what's going on now. But experts believe despite what happened after 9/11 could repeat itself.
(voice-over): In New York recently, a cab driver was stabbed after his attacker allegedly asked if he was Muslim.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slowly but surely, we will counter this islamophobia. Everybody had it. The Irish had it, the Catholics had it. The Italians had it. Now it's time for the Muslims.
FEYERICK: How long it will take to counter is anyone's guess.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf the one who is the head of the so- called Ground Zero mosque will return to New York City sometime today. He's been serving as an emissary for the U.S. State Department, reaching out to leaders in the Middle East, acting as a bridge between the U.S. and Muslim countries.
He says just as American-Catholics were crucial in pushing reform in Vatican II, so will American-Muslims be indispensable in bridging the (INAUDIBLE) between America and the world's 1.2 billion Muslims. So there's a real danger that alienating or marginalizing western moderate mainstream thinkers is going to be a problem, simply because of religion.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: It's a big issue. I know Imam Faisal as you do, it would be hard pressed to ever be able to describe him as radical, radical thinkers. He believes he is building a bridge between different faiths but when this label is applied, it gets applied and it sticks.
FEYERICK: Well, absolutely. You have people simply asking questions with no fundamental proof as to what they're saying. It's one thing to say let's find out where the money is coming from. I can say that. But it doesn't mean it's coming from somewhere insidious. But that's where the allegation, that's where the insinuation is. So there's a real -
VELSHI: That's right. It's buried in the insinuation.
FEYERICK: Yes.
CHETRY: I know that you're hoping to get chance to sit down and talk to him one-on-one, correct?
FEYERICK: Absolutely. We spoke to the developer who couldn't have been more honest about what this is about. And we're hoping to get a chance to speak to him as well.
CHETRY: Good stuff.
VELSHI: Thanks for your great coverage on this. Thanks, Deb.
CHETRY: All right. Back to our top stories, up and down the East Coast, everyone is waiting for Hurricane Earl to take a hard right turn this morning. Check out the radar. Earl is now a massive category 4 hurricane with sustained winds reaching 145 miles an hour. Reynolds Wolf is tracking this monster from the extreme weather center. Right, Reynolds?
WOLF: Yes, when we talk about how big, how massive is the storm, let me show you something, Ali. When you take a look at it from this perspective. This is a great shot. When you include the outflow, which is all the way over here, one frame to another. It is nearly as wide as the state of Texas. I mean we're talking about a massive system.
It is on the move, moving to the north at about 15 to 18 miles per hour. The storm is expected to march its way right the eastern seaboard as we get into early morning no Friday. Let's take a look at this. Here in the outer banks, North Carolina, Rob is right near Kill Devil Hills. This is just going to past just to the east, if it holds true to this forecast, fast forwarding into Friday afternoon and into early Saturday morning, it could be just to the east of New York and into Boston, right near Cape Cod by early, early Saturday morning with winds of 100 miles per hour.
But the thing to remember is, with this forecast path in the National Hurricane Center, this is the cone of uncertainty. The storm can move a bit more to the west perhaps and stay more on the east. Regardless, you're still going to have that huge wind field that will well extend into the eastern seaboard in places like Charlotte, Richmond and back into New York, even into Boston. That means you're going have many problems, including the possibility of flood and widespread power outages in many places in the eastern seaboard.
So there's no question, this storm is going to mean a lot of things to millions of people. What it's going to mean very quickly along the coast. We've got these warnings. We've got these watches to the Carolinas, clear up to Maine. And as we take a look at what it's going to specifically mean for the outer banks. Check it out. Minimum, wind gusts of 80 miles per hour or stronger. That's what's going to give you your power outages. Waves anywhere from 25 to 30 feet. Some will be stronger into this evening and a storm surge of two to three feet. That's because the storm is expected to have more of a glancing blow, as oppose to a direct hit on the coast itself. But again, there are a lot of changes. A lot of things could really change, especially over the next couple of hours. We're going to have to watch that very carefully. Let's send it back to you guys in the studio. I know Rob is coming up in mere seconds with even more.
CHETRY: Yes, he's in Kill Devil Hills as well as they begin prep to brace for this thing. Reynolds, thanks so much.
Well, the new Republican Senate nominee who toppled a popular Alaskan incumbent now is going on the attack. Joe Miller's plans to slash federal spending if he were to win that Senate seat and the strong words he's using to describe the president.
VELSHI: He was backed by Sarah Palin. What are Sarah Palin's intentions when she heads up an Iowa fund-raiser later this month. Coming up, the writer who got an inside look at Palin on the road. His article that is stirring up a lot of dust. It is 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: 38 minutes past the hour. Well, just a day after his upset victory in Alaska to become the new GOP Senate nominee, Joe Miller, tea party favorite, pulling no punches when discussing the leadership of the country.
VELSHI: Speaking to CNN's John King, Miller was adamant about cutting government spending, possibly even phasing out social security and he expressed some concern about President Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If you had to in a sentence or two describe Barack Obama, how would you do that?
JOE MILLER, REPUBLICAN NOMINEE, ALASKA: Bad for America.
KING: That's one sentence. You don't get that often out of a politician. On what do you base that?
MILLER: Well, he's one of the major forces moving this country towards socialism. He's expanding the entitlement state. It is the wrong direction for America. You know, this is a bipartisan problem, but he's at the front of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Miller had a lot of support during his campaign from former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. And with the former vice presidential candidate headed to Iowa later this month to stump for Republicans, there's new talk of Sarah Palin, the presidential candidate. I'm not really sure it went away but it's there.
CHETRY: Right, it's a favorite parlor game. Is she or is she not going to run in 2012. Well, even with the new interest in her political plans and ambitions. She's staying pretty tight-lipped with the exception of Facebook postings and tweets. And so is everyone pretty much close to her.
Our "Vanity Fair" Michael Gross, he's a writer for "Vanity Fair," he joins us this morning. He followed Palin for four months and came away with a pretty damning description of the tea party leader. Welcome. Thanks for being with us.
MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS, "VANITY FAIR": Thanks for having me.
CHETRY: First of all, when you went into this, did you have an opinion, you know, your article posted and, of course, some of the blogs (INAUDIBLE) you guys clearly must hate Sarah Palin and you were trying to write a hit piece?
GROSS: I actually started this project with the prejudice in her favor. And I think that she probably had been given a rough-go by the elite media. I have a lot in common with Sarah Palin. I'm a small town person. I'm a Christian and I identify with some of the criticisms that she makes. But I was really shocked, that the closer I got to her, the closer I got to the people who had known her best, the more stories of just horrific behavior and abuse I was finding.
VELSHI: Interesting as you read it. One has to read it to sort of get a feel for it, you describe her with a charisma that I think we've typically used to describe Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. The sense of how she engages people around her. And then there's this other side you that describe that seems almost vicious.
That's the side you didn't really get to see, right? You've seen the interactions. You've seen how she is in a crowd of people? You didn't get to see the other side. How did you learn about that? Tell us a bit about it.
GROSS: I learned about that from the people who have worked most closely with her over many years. When I first heard the stories about the temper, the screaming, the fits, the throwing things, I thought that they were so extreme they must be exaggerated.
But then I started hearing stories about exactly the same behavior from people who couldn't have known each other. Whose experiences with Palin was separated by thousands of miles and more than a decade. And it all added up to a very consistent picture of a character who just explodes when things don't go her way.
And whose given to threatening people that she's going to ruin them if they say anything. There's a whole town of people and a whole stream of people who are just frightened to death to speak out about what's happened to them. CHETRY: So in the course of this, it is interesting because you do focus on some of the personal tales. You had to do a lot of anonymous sourcing, because as you said many people didn't want to talk and those who did certainly did not want to be identified by name out of fear of reprisal, as you put it.
But some of the things about her temper, specifically about her relationship with her husband, Todd, you quote one person who is a frequent houseguest of the Palins and said that they would have many mornings of screaming fights. One of the quotes - one of the ones that stuck out to me the most was a pretty profanity-laced tirade. "'F-you, F this, you lazy piece of s - You're f-lucky to have me'" Sarah would always say."
Then the person would say to you, they never saw Todd and Sarah sleep in the same bed and recalls that Todd would joke, I don't know how she ever gets pregnant. Now, I mean, some of this is, of course, is interesting to read. At the same time, it's really what's going on in someone's house, life, bedroom that's anonymously sourced.
I mean, is that fair to have this out there for everybody to hear when people won't back up when they're saying with their name?
GROSS: Well, I think that it's important to know this character. She is becoming so powerful in our society. And she's not subjecting herself to the normal interaction with the press that politicians have. Usually, we expect politicians will talk with us. Not just to us.
And usually, we expect that they're going to tell us the truth. And we don't continually give them a pass when they've proven that they lie over and over again, as she has. The question of anonymous sourcing was difficult, sure. But the choice was between using the information that people were willing to give on their terms are. And just keeping the secrets. You know, sort of subjecting ourselves to the same kind of abuse that these people have been subjected to.
VELSHI: Now, you asked for responses to these, and you didn't get them. But one of things that you just said, we're used to politicians talking with us, not at us. You described this one-way communication that is orchestrated by Sarah Palin and team, which includes Facebook, which includes Twitter. Then there's the criticism of the main stream media what she calls the "lame stream media," but the main stream media for accepting those tweets and reporting them as news.
I got the impression from your reporting that we wouldn't report somebody else's, some other politician's tweets as news. But because Sarah Palin doesn't talk too much of the media, we will take stuff that they puts out there and report it.
GROSS: Don't you think that's true? I mean, we're treat her more like a pop star than we are like a politician.
VELSHI: But your description of her and her speeches and her appearances are almost like a cult-oriented pop star. She does seem to have that following, a very strong, passionate following? GROSS: She does. Of course, she does. I haven't seen anything like it except for the last time I saw Ronald Reagan address the Republican National Convention or the day I walked around with Castro in San Francisco with Gavin Newsom after gay marriage had started. People have a sense that she is representing them, that she is them, really, in a way that is kind of existential affirmation of their existence.
CHETRY: I read the whole article. And there were times, I mean, as a woman and as a mom, I cringe reading some of it. But because there were times when sort of her parenting was questioned. Her ability to be a good mom. Whether she was using her children as props. There's a big explanation about Bristol Palin, or was it Piper Palin, the younger one running around backstage and then sort of trotted out.
I was wondering, how different is it than other candidates who bring their children up, who have their children on the podium who campaign with them.
VELSHI: John McCain has done that.
CHETRY: I mean, Nancy Pelosi had all the grandchildren out on the floor of the House. And also, just whether or not there would be the same questions about the good parenting asked of a male in her situation.
GROSS: You know, the important thing here, once more, is that every aspect of this woman's image is different from the reality. The only reason that these facts are relevant is that she's lying about them. She's painting a picture of her life that is patently untrue. That's the reason.
CHETRY: Tell us some more about that.
VELSHI: One example where she says she's never dealt with a special needs child.
GROSS: Exactly.
CHETRY: And you said that her nephew is autistic.
GROSS: That's right. Yes. She tells an audience in Wichita, when she found out she was going to have a child with Down Syndrome, she said I'd never been around a special needs child before. Well, in her book, she said in the exact same moment she immediately thought of her nephew who was autistic. This is a person for whom no topic is too small to lie about, personal or political.
CHETRY: The other thing you that brought up a lot is made of her root and her, I guess you could say, salts of the earth personality.
GROSS: Right.
CHETRY: You said when she had the TV crew there making moose chili that Todd was calling around asking, does anybody ground up moose because we don't have any in the house.
Why are those details important in your mind and in your estimation?
GROSS: Well, once more, the key part of her message is that she is standing up for normal, everyday, hard-working patriotic, average Americans. She says she's one of those people. She claims that she is lifting those people up. Well, she doesn't really treat those people well.
I followed her around the Midwest. I would sometimes stay in the same hotels where she'd stayed. I talked to the bellhops, I talked to the maids. She usually doesn't tip them at all. And when she does, it's five bucks. You know, the only time she treats people well is when other people are watching.
VELSHI: I hope somebody doesn't do a story on me and my tipping.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: You've got to tip a little more, Ali, at least.
VELSHI: I hope he's never in the same hotel. That's what I took away from this piece. I better tip them.
CHETRY: Last night you sent me an e-mail and said, wait, you're supposed to tip maids? I said --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: The other thing that was part of the article that was interesting is that you touched on the fact that there is an underlying talk of perhaps her mental capacity. Her mental -- whether or not she's delusional. You talk about her referring to herself as the North Star and talking about a fight between good and evil, viewing herself as good. And that, you know, she needs prayer warriors to ward off evil. And also talked about whether or not she should have been on medication and Todd saying, no, she just needs to run more. Those are quite astounding and very devastating revelations.
GROSS: We're used to politicians talking about is their opponents being wrong. We're not so used to them talking about their opponents as being evil. And that's what she's doing, that's what she's doing when she's giving shoutouts to prayer warriors. Prayer warriors believe there's an unseen battle between angel and demons, light and darkness surrounding us at all times, and that you can control that.
VELSHI: Michael Joseph Gross, what a pleasure talking to you. Thanks very much for being here. It's definitely an article worth a full read because it's got a lot of nuances all about it.
Michael Joseph Gross, writer of "Vanity Fair" with an article about Sarah Palin.
CHETRY: Also, you can read the full article. It hits newsstands today. The issue of "Vanity Fair" is out now. Meanwhile, 49 minutes past the hour. The Discovery Headquarters in Maryland, things are returning to normal this morning, after a devastating day yesterday. A lot of fear and terror. Montgomery County Police have given the all-clear after sweeping for explosives. It all came after this hostage standoff yesterday which ended with this man you're seeing, 43-year-old James Lee, being shot and killed by a police S.W.A.T. team.
Amber Lyon will be following the developments, she's live in Washington, this morning.
Amber, what's the latest?
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, as you said, police are telling us that One Discovery Place has been cleared of all of the bombs. They believe yesterday that James Lee had brought in some explosive devices in backpacks. We actually got some interesting video in hear some popping noises going off near the Discovery Communications building that sounded like police detonating these devices.
Police are also telling us this morning that the building inside will be closed for quite some time today as they continue their investigation but they will have the area surrounding the building open to the public, Kiran.
VELSHI: Amber, it's Ali here. Jamie Lee had a history of gripes against the Discovery Channel.
What did you learn about those?
LYON: Apparently this guy's been pretty ticked off at the network for several years. He even wrote an online rant, a manifesto of sorts ordering the network to change its programming, to programming that encourages sterilizing the human race. Lee referred to humans as filth, polluters, babies; he referred to them as disgusting.
Apparently Lee was quite an environmental protestor. He really favored wildlife. I want to read you a quote from one of his online manifestos. He says, nothing is more important than saving them. The lions, tigers, giraffes, elephants, frogies, turtles, apes, beetles, ants, sharks, bears, and of course, the squirrels.
Also, I talked to people that knew Lee that hung out at a nearby coffee shop and said that he often paid people to follow his cause, handing out cash to get him them to read books and to join his environmental beliefs, Ali.
VELSHI: Amber, thanks very much.
Amber Lyon reporting on the story we were following all day yesterday.
They've been underground 28 days, those miners in Chile. Every time you think about this, doesn't it just fascinate you? These guys are in good spirits. They're finally getting some supplies. They've been getting medicine but they got a hot meal. We'll have the latest of those 33 miners stuck half a mile underground in Chile, coming up.
Pay what you want when you want to eat. At 8:17 Eastern, we will speak with the head of Panera Bread about this interesting plan. Is it going to be a hot trend or is it just a pipedream?
It is 52 minutes after the hour.
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VELSHI: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. After a two-year impasse, direct peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis begin in Washington today. President Obama hosting Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last night along with leaders of Egypt and Jordan. The five men meeting behind closed doors yesterday. The president calling this a moment of opportunity that may not come again.
Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House this morning.
Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Ali. Well really, the tough stuff begins today. The hard negotiations, that's going to take place at the State Department. We're going to see Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sitting down with these two leaders. As you had mentioned before, the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
They're going to be talking about some really tough issues: border security, refugees, the state of Jerusalem, all of these things that have really eluded a peace process between them. And what yesterday was about was the president really trying to set the stage here, to get these leaders together, also with the help of mediators, the leaders from Jordan, as well as Egypt, to sit down. They have a lovely dinner at the White House. The president had one-on-one meetings with all four individuals to try to lay the table, if you will, and give a sense of optimism.
We heard from the president yesterday saying that he was cautiously hopeful, that this was a moment of opportunity for these leaders to try to resolve their differences. But, Ali, the other thing that he mentioned and made point is that he was under no illusions that this was going to be easy. He said that passions run deep, it's extraordinarily complex and difficult situation.
Ali, I've covered presidents before. Many have tried to do this. President Clinton, Presidents Bush. They failed in their attempts. But the Obama administration, officials I speak with, believe that there is some hope that they can make some sort of progress because they're starting the process early, because we've seen in the West Bank some stability, some measures of stability as well as economic growth that the time is right for these leaders to sit down and discuss these very critical issues.
Ali, we're just going to have to wait and see how this plays out. We will be hearing from these leaders in just a couple of hours from the State Department to talk about what it is that they expect to happen in the next day, the next week, and obviously the next months to come.
VELSHI: All right. Something that is so important to world security. We will be following it very closely along with you.
Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Thanks very much.
CHETRY: We're coming up on two minutes until the top of the hour. We're going to be right back with your top stories.
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