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American Morning
Hurricane Earl Moving Up the East Coast; The New Normal: American Ingenuity Changes Employment Landscape; Deja Vu in the Gulf; Hurricane Earl Brushes North Carolina; Gangs Vs. Police; Gangs Versus Police; Tracking Hurricane Earl
Aired September 03, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're turning (ph) up the building because we're all glass front.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of town, move north, and stay ahead of the hurricane here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane preparations under way for some people. That hurricane is passing by. For others, they're not sure when it's going to arrive. Right now, Hurricane Earl is creeping closer to the mainland, up and down the East Coast this morning. They are watching, and they are waiting. Good morning. It's Friday, September the 3rd. I'm Ali Velshi. John Roberts is off this morning.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We've been following this throughout the night, and now we have updates for you.
Millions of people along the East Coast are bracing for the impact of Hurricane Earl. The storm is brushing past North Carolina's coastline. It's really being felt in those barrier islands, the ones that are just exposed to the Atlantic. They're getting heavy rain blowing horizontally because of those near hurricane force winds.
VELSHI: Now, Earl is expected to remain just offshore as it moves north. That's the hurricane itself. That doesn't include winds that are extending, in some cases, a 100 miles from the eye of that hurricane. Its forecast is to pass close to Long Island, New York, Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard later tonight. But it's still an unsteady storm, and the cone of uncertainty continues. That's what you're looking at there. That's the white cone. That's the area that it could veer over to the right or the left, to the east or the west.
Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick has declared a state of emergency, which will speed disaster aid to the states.
CHETRY: So right now we're live up and down the East Coast this morning with our hurricane coverage. We have Reynolds Wolf in Atlanta, tracking Earl's path from the hurricane headquarters. He's getting the most recent updates as we speak. We also have Brianna Keilar in Ocean City, Maryland.
VELSHI: Cape Hatteras is also feeling the strong effects of hurricane Earl. David Mattingly joins us now live on the phone from Waves, North Carolina. David, you've been on this all night.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We've been chasing the storm all night, all up and down the coast here on North Carolina.
And just when we thought that we had run out of surprises from Earl, within the last hour, the state highway, the main drag that goes north and south through the outer banks, the only way in, the only way out, is now just completely flooded. There's about a foot of water that's been pushed up into the street here.
I wouldn't say it's impassable, but you need a very substantial vehicle to get through this water. And it just appeared. We were driving on that road just a short time ago. It was passable. There was no water on it. And now you can't even see the road.
So Earl, as it is leaving this area, is definitely leaving the worst of this storm for last. We are seeing the strongest winds, the strongest rains, and now some of the worst flooding that we've seen all night, Ali.
CHETRY: David, just to get a geographical sense of where you are so people understand it. These are the Barrier Islands, as they're known. They're the ones that are most expos exposed, of course, because of their location to the Atlantic Ocean and to storms that come through like this. They're about 20 miles south of Kill Devil Hills, where we've been seeing those pictures from Rob.
When you talk about the road being impassable or being very difficult to pass, people there just who decided to stay are just hunkered down waiting for this to pass?
MATTINGLY: A lot of people heeded the evacuation warnings. You saw a lot of the tourists leaving, perhaps all of the tourists leaving. You have some of the people who live here, some of them decided to stay back.
But, again, people have come to learn that they need to respect hurricanes, even ones that don't come ashore, as this storm has not. And the ones who stay behind are really getting an eyeful of what a near miss of a hurricane can be like here out on these delicate barrier islands.
We're seeing a lot of flooding right now that just popped up all of a sudden. We're seeing a lot of wind, a lot of rain, and we're wondering now what other surprises Earl might hold for us, as it moves out of this area.
Again, throughout the night we were thinking that we might get off easy here, and now, just as Earl is getting out of here, it's now teaching us otherwise.
CHETRY: David Mattingly for us, Waves, North Carolina, one of those barrier islands this morning. Thanks.
VELSHI: That's a little bit south of where Rob Marciano's position is in Kill Devil hills. But he's also on that barrier island structure.
CHETRY: Here you go. We're going to get a shot right there, a little map to give you a little more perspective exactly where they are. You see right there just exposed. And there's Rob. So Earl is passing by you guys, delivering these near hurricane force winds? What's the latest? What does it feel like?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I can tell you this, you know, the rain was just coming down in sheets and sideways. So our camera got a little bit wet. We had to retreat and go to our backup camera. So we're now on the fourth floor of this hotel so our backup camera can at least stay dry. That's the bad news.
The good news, at least you get a bit more of a vantage point of what the ocean looks like. And it looks pretty upset today. I'm not going to lie to you there. This is a washing machine with waves that are easily 15, 20 feet, as far as the eye can see out there. And like David Mattingly was saying, especially in the low-lying areas, that is more than enough to over wash the roadways here and in some cases cut off people from the rest of civilization. So that certainly is going to be an ongoing issue.
Is it past us? No. If anything, it's just due parallel to us. In the past hour, while we were off the air dealing with our little camera crises, we saw some of the worst weather that I've seen since we've been down here.
So we're getting the brunt of it now. The center of this storm is about 80 miles offshore, but you've got to remember that the wind, at least on the western flank of it, hurricane force winds 60 miles to the west. That would include this part of the coastline. We have seen hurricane strength gusts to 70, 74 miles an hour just down the road from here.
Satellite pictures showing this thing trying to make that right turn, and it can't make it soon enough because, as David Mattingly said, we went to bed last night thinking we may get lucky with this, but the back side certainly, or at least the western side of it certainly proving to be a little bit of a nemesis here.
But we still have power. There have been reports of spotty power outages across Dare County, but surprisingly, power holding up relatively well. Waves very, very impressive, I will tell you that, as hurricane Earl makes its way just off the coastline of North Carolina and up the East Coast.
VELSHI: And, Rob, we know you're a guy who typically enjoys good waves. We were just talking to Allan Chernoff, who's in Montauk, Long Island. The waves are building there. He's a guy who likes waves. He says, I'm not going anywhere near these ones.
The wind changing direction -- when the eye of a hurricane goes over you because of the way it rotates, once you get to the other side of the hurricane, you have winds going a different direction. We were just talking to a mayor, who's worried about that.
But when we looked at the map, when we look at the enhanced satellite image, it looks like this storm is moving parallel to where you are in a way that you're not likely to see a change of wind direction. Am I reading that wrongly?
MARCIANO: When it does do this, you're right about this. Hurricane Ophelia did a similar type of move back in 2005. That was only a cat one. The problem, when a storm goes parallel to the coastline, you get the winds coming out of the same direction for a longer period of time.
VELSHI: Right.
MARCIANO: And with the way North Carolina is in the outer banks, you've got the sound on the other side. And what we saw in Ophelia and what could easily happen with this storm is you get a storm surge from the sound side that is much, much worse and much, much more damaging than any sort of storm surge from the ocean side.
CHETRY: Right.
MARCIANO: So that's my fear. And certainly, as we get the wins to turn a little bit more westerly later this morning and this afternoon, the locals are probably fearing that as well.
VELSHI: That's what I was wondering, because that's what the mayor was telling us. I wanted to get clarity on what that meant. Rob, thanks very much, appreciate that.
CHETRY: On the other side, the barrier is such a small little strip of land. On the other side is Albemarle Sound, and the last thing they want is the storm surge to come up from the other side.
It's moving rather quickly. It's supposed to be hitting the coast of New Jersey a few hours from now. And so it's moving north/northeast at 18 miles per hour. That's good news, and hopefully whatever it's doing, it will do it and then move on.
VELSHI: Move on and move quickly. We're keeping a close eye on it obviously, the latest images as the system heads to the north and to the east. It's roughly moving parallel with the U.S. coastline.
Let's go to Reynolds Wolf, who can give us a sense of that trajectory and its power and the kind of punch it's likely to pack as it keeps moving up the coast. Reynolds?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: One thing you guys were talking about is how dangerous the position it happens to be along the coast, especially along the outer banks. The outer banks, as you guys nailed it, really is a thin rib.
If you look here at the map, you've got North Carolina 12, which is the only road that runs the length of the outer banks, right there. And the big issue, the big fear that we have here, is you already have plenty of water that is across much of the roadways. In fact, south of inlet bridge, Nags Head, it's impassable, also same deal at Rodanthe, two feet of water crossing there. Nobody's going to get by there.
The problem you have, as you have this area of low pressure, this hurricane drifting its way to the north, what's going to happen is farther to the south, the majority of the wind, the majority of the heavy waves are going to be pounding, running counterclockwise around the area of low pressure on one side.
But then as it begins to pull farther to the north, what happens is you still have that center of circulation, and then you have winds coming from the back side, which is going to cause all this water back here in the sound to pile up on the other side. So you're really getting the brunt on both sides of the system.
We know what it's doing. We know it's causing heavy rain and causing flooding situations in massive, massive waves along the coast. The thing is where is it going to go?
For the latest for that, we turn to this, the National Hurricane Center, where the forecast still has it making the turn more to the north into the northeast over the next several hours. By 2:00 in the morning on Saturday, it should be due east of Boston.
But keep in mind, there is a chance that it could veer a little more to the west, perhaps making landfall in Cape Cod. And for that reason, that's the reason why we have a hurricane warning that is in effect for all the areas you see shaded in pink, including, of course, Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.
One thing that we have going in our favor happens to be something you can see right here on the satellite image. This, obviously hurricane Earl. But look back towards the west. We see a lot of cloud cover that's developing just east of Chicago.
That is a frontal boundary that is going to be driving its way toward the east. That might be one of the steering mechanisms that's going to keep this hopefully offshore and eventually moving away from the coastline and hopefully away from Martha's Vineyard and from Cape Cod.
That's the latest we've got from you. Still a lot of changes can take place in the forecast and the power of the storm. It is expected to weaken over the next couple of hours. Everyone hoping that will be the case. Let's send it back to you.
CHETRY: You got our full attention, though. We're going to check in for updates and changes. Thanks, Reynolds.
And we're also using the massive resources of CNN to bring you the latest on hurricane Earl. In just a few minutes, we'll be checking in with Brianna Keilar. She is a little bit further north from where we checked in with Rob and David Mattingly in Ocean City, Maryland. Then at 7:30, we'll speak to the governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue, as her state feels the first impacts from earl. At 7:45, we'll check in again with Reynolds Wolf in the CNN headquarters for an update.
VELSHI: Do we check in with Allan Chernoff?
CHETRY: He's in Montauk.
VELSHI: He's got great waves out in Montauk, Long Island.
Listen, we're following this on TV all day. Some of you may want to go to work, so you can follow us at CNN.com. It is your online hurricane headquarters, and also the place where you can share your pictures and videos of hurricane Earl. To upload them, head to ireport.com.
Our blog is up and running, head to CNN.com/amfix for all the latest. It is 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 14 minutes past the hour. It's a busy Friday morning here. We're tracking hurricane Earl, packing a big punch as it pushes up the East Coast.
Let's take a look at the satellite picture right now. It's bringing some powerful winds, lashing rains, and the latest look is that the storm has lost some of its power. It's a category two now, but you can still see 105-mile-per-hour winds can do major damage, especially when you're gusting at 125.
The eye is not as well-defined anymore, but, of course, Earl is far from finished. In fact, it's expected to gain strength as it hits the open waters yet again north/northeast.
VELSHI: CNN is your hurricane headquarters. We've got a team of correspondents up and down the East Coast to cover every angle of it this morning.
Let's turn to Brianna Keilar. She is in Ocean City, Maryland.
Brianna, it has picked up since we last talked to you about an hour ago.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And what a difference an hour makes. And we're starting to get a little more rain. But here in Ocean City, Maryland, which is quite the resort town, draws a lot of people from the mid-Atlantic region.
What we're really expecting is that it's going to be quite a wind event. Now that said, we're not expecting the wind that we saw buffeting the Outer Banks. We're expecting it to maybe get up to sustained winds about 30 miles per hour. But you can see the rough surf behind me. This is really one of the issues here. Some of the rip currents, but the bottom line, the officials say, is even though the beach is closed to swimming, it's not actually closed. They're hoping, you know, that this blows over, as it's expected to, finishing up here this afternoon. And they're saying Ocean City is open for business.
There's about, according to city officials, about 100,000 people here right now. They're expecting that over this long Labor Day weekend, this last hurrah of the summer vacation season, that that's going to grow to about a quarter million people.
And, Ali and Kiran, they're telling people we don't want you on the roads during the height of the storm throughout the next few hours. But especially the businesses here and city officials, they're saying do not delay, you know, don't cancel your weekend travel plans. They're expecting it to be nice beach weather on Saturday, guys.
CHETRY: Yes, so the only thing that has to happen is it has to blow out of there, hoping that there's not a lot of cleanup. Hoping they don't expect to lose power.
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: But it is going to be a pain to have, you know, part of the busy weekend, busy Labor Day weekend cut off in terms of tourism there.
KEILAR: That's certainly one of the concerns that they have. One of the things that they've been telling tourists, hotels, residents, make sure that any furniture you have that it's secured. They've moved trash collection day by day, but by and large, you know, they're not issuing a ton of warnings. They've taken the lifeguard towers actually off of the beaches here. But -- I'm actually looking right over here. If I can tell you, they're literally grooming the sand if we can pan over here. So you see that there kind of maintaining the beach here and trying to make sure that people know that Ocean City is still really open for business and that, even though today really might be a lost day at the beach, Kiran and Ali, that come tomorrow they're hoping that people here are going to enjoy themselves still.
VELSHI: It's nice that they're preparing the sand for a pretty welcome to the hurricane. But, look, that's always the hope. Some of the worst things that happen after hurricanes are not the flattening of the houses that we often see, it's that you're put out of business. Your lights are gone. Your electricity is gone. When it's a real disaster, you at least prepare for it and you treat it like that. Some people hope that the worst doesn't hit, and it's not the worst. It's just bad enough that it could throw you off for a few days.
In Ocean City and in Montauk and in the barrier islands off North Carolina, they're hoping that that damage at least gives them the ability to clean up and get things going for the rest of the weekend. And that's a real hope for them in where you are, in Ocean City, Brianna. So we'll stay with you and see how it looks an hour from now.
CHETRY: Thanks, Brianna.
KEILAR: Definitely.
CHETRY: It's just amazing, her first shot looked beautiful.
VELSHI: Totally beautiful.
CHETRY: An hour later --
VELSHI: Oh, yes, now she's getting rained on. She's getting a lot of wind.
Next on the Most News in the Morning, the new normal. We're going to take a look at what some of the new trends are in the marketplace. And, of course, we will keep on covering the hurricane.
It's 18 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-one minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We're continuing to track Hurricane Earl. We want to show you one of the pictures that shows you that even though this storm has weakened, it's still very powerful. That's a look at our enhanced satellite right now. We're going to get an update from Rob in just a few minutes.
But if you take a look at what's going on in Kill Devil Hills right now, as well as Waves, North Carolina, these are the barrier islands. They're certainly getting a lashing. They're not terribly concerned at this point of complete outages of power. They say about 90 percent of the tourists actually did heed the warnings and leave. Ninety percent of the residents, though, according at least to the mayor of Kill Devil Hills, chose to stick it out. They're hoping this passes by quite quickly. Right now, it is moving north/northeast about 18 miles per hour. So, it will be there and gone. Hopefully, when it leaves behind, there was not too much damage -- Ali.
VELSHI: Kiran, Rob is one of the great guys we have to cover hurricanes. But it's not just his skill and his experience in hurricanes and the fact that he's a meteorologist. He just e-mailed me to say that the camera got wet, and he is blow drying it.
Now, if I were out there and a camera got wet, I wouldn't have a blow dryer. So that's why you got Rob out there. He'll be with us as soon as his camera is dry.
In the meantime, about an hour from now, a whole bunch of people are going to have a whole new reason to get gloomy because we're going to get another jobs report, that's for the month of August. We want to talk about this new normal that is being created.
When we first started losing jobs, it was a shock to everyone and the stock market was going down. Home prices were going down. Now we're kind of getting used to it. And one thing that Americans are, are adaptable. So I want to discuss how people are getting jobs, how they're keeping jobs, what kind of jobs they're getting and what kind of changes they're making to their lives to deal with this new normal.
Amanda Gengler is a writer for "Money" magazine. She has joined us for that this week.
Amanda, first of all, let's talk about a very substantial shift in how people work. A job was something that you either studied for, or you graduated from high school. You went. It was permanent. It was where you worked. You got benefits, and you used to stay there for a long time. That paradigm has been turned on its head and sped up by this recession.
AMANDA GENGLER, WRITER, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: It absolutely has. No matter what you want to call them, temporary jobs, freelancers, contract workers, the bottom line is they're non-staff positions.
VELSHI: Right.
GENGLER: They don't come with health care, 401(k)s, sick days, and they're becoming more common. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that from October to May, the number of temporary workers increased every month, and the study of freelancers found that they're making more money today than they were a year ago.
VELSHI: Yes. One of the worst parts about this was that you didn't get benefits. But now with changes to the health care law, that actually is going to diminish in importance over time. It may actually be a better opportunity for some people.
GENGLER: Well, for some people. I think that what's going on here is that this generally happens during a recession.
VELSHI: Yes.
GENGLER: Companies begin to hire back temporary workers first before they're confident enough to bring on permanent people. They like that they can pay them less and that it's easier to sort of bring them on and get rid of them. Then they have more flexibility. But what economists are saying now is at this point in the cycle they thought, you know, we've been increasing temporary workers for a while. They thought we would have more permanent jobs come around by now.
VELSHI: Yes.
GENGLER: So they're thinking, huh, well, maybe even years from now after the recession, this idea of temporary workers, contract workers, it could still be around.
VELSHI: Some of the finest businesses in America were born in recessions, and partially it's because you get forced out of your comfort zone, and there are a lot of people who always wanted to own that little business. Barriers to entry in businesses are lower than they've ever been before, and that's something that a number of people are doing.
GENGLER: There are the highest number of people in the past 14 years are starting small businesses today. That's more than there were in the '99/2000 tech boom. You know, it is not easy. You're right. If you look at stats, only about on average half of them turn a profitability within the first year. The average time to start making money is about three years.
VELSHI: But people are doing, people are trying it. It is the new normal.
GENGLER: Exactly.
VELSHI: They're getting used to that. Amanda, great to see you as always. Thanks very much for being with us. This is going to be the reality that so many of us are facing. We'll talk to you again soon. Amanda Gengler, a writer with "Money" magazine.
And when the president appears in the Rose Garden at 10:00 this morning to talk about the latest job numbers, CNN will bring you live coverage. You can also watch, even if you're away from your TV, online. Head to CNN.com/live or hit the "live" button on your CNN iPhone application, and one hour from now, we will bring you the new jobs report and some analysis on it when it's released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time -- Kiran.
CHETRY: It's important news and we'll certainly be following it, Ali. Thanks.
Well, next on the Most News in the Morning, we're continuing to track Hurricane Earl. North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue is going to be joining us in just a few minutes. Her state is getting hit right now. The barrier islands off of North Carolina. She's going to let us know what the plan is and how her state is faring this morning.
Twenty-six minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Well, we're 28 minutes past the hour right now. And we have more breaking news this morning.
Officials in Miami say that the airport is back to normal. But overnight, a lot of questions as to what was going on after the Feds detained a passenger because of a suspicious item discovered in the baggage claim area.
Now, this morning, even though they're saying the all clear has been given, we don't really know what that suspicious item was. But they did call in the bomb squad. They evacuated the concourses. Now again this morning, though, the all clear.
VELSHI: Right. All the concourses except one. This wasn't just one little thing. Whatever they thought it was seemed to be serious.
We do know that this story is serious. Earl lashing the North Carolina coast with heavy rain, near-hurricane force winds. The still powerful storm is brushing the Outer Banks as we speak. It's moving steadily up the East Coast. It's expected to remain offshore, but our Reynolds Wolf says it could actually pick up strength and make landfall later tonight in Cape Cod.
CHETRY: This was interesting. This literally just crossed right now as we were doing the story. We got a single source. A U.S. government official is telling us this morning that it was a 70-year- old scientist who had a metal canister in his luggage is the one who's currently being detained. Not under arrest, but he's being questioned, basically by the FBI as well as Miami-Dade police at this time. So now we do know. They say that the canister greatly resembled a pipe bomb.
VELSHI: Yes. But they do say that it was rendered safe. I don't know what that means, whether there was something in it that needed to be made safe, but it is safe. And no trace of explosives were found. This source is telling us that so far there is nothing nefarious and the person may be released if nothing else turns up.
CHETRY: So, can a metal canister resembling a pipe bomb -- obviously, you can understand why they wanted to evacuate the concourses we're talking about and hold this guy. But, again, no arrests and they may just let him go.
VELSHI: All right, we'll follow that very closely. John Zorella is on that story for us.
The Coast Guard says there is no oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico this morning after that platform explosion off of Louisiana. Officials say all 13 crew members were rescued. The fire has been put out.
Earlier, we talked to the director of the Petroleum Geoscience Programs at the University of Houston. Here's what he told us might have started this fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON VAN NIEUWENHUISE, PROFESSOR OF GEOSCIENCE PROGRAMS, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: I do know that a lot of times, when we have small fires like this either you have some sort of grinding tool or a torch, an acetylene cutting torch or something else that creates sparks and fires in the wrong part of the platform that can start a fire. So they'll probably find something like that, but I don't know any details at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Authorities tell CNN, none of the men on board were seriously injured.
CHETRY: That's amazing given that we were told yesterday 13 in the water.
VELSHI: We were watching it as it happened. Just that whole memory of what happened the first time around really worried us, but the response to this thing was very fast.
It was actually further out into the Gulf than the deepwater horizon was, but it was a shallow water platform, and luckily everybody's OK. Well, turning back to Hurricane Earl now, overnight the storm brushed the outer banks of North Carolina with near hurricane force winds and stinging sideways rain.
CHETRY: Yes, you can see from that picture what it was like out there. Our Rob Marciano riding out the storm in Kill Devil Hills.
Earlier, Rob, you told us it really felt like needles on your face. You guys temporarily lost one camera. You have the backup one now. What's the situation?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the situation is that we're now on the fourth floor with the camera in the room and me on the balcony and the needles in the face is not a problem anymore.
So I can tell you this, I'm not entirely disappointed about the camera one being down. We'll get it up and running, and get out there again, but, I guess, it's a great vantage point as to what's going on behind me.
And that's the Atlantic Ocean, which is just turning like a washing machine there. It's just pounding this beach with heavy, heavy surf. Waves offshore being measured at over 35 feet, and they are rolling in with a vengeance.
So I just got off the phone with county emergency officials. South of here, the Highway 12, I think David Mattingly mentioned this, it is being over washed. That is cut off. The folks down in Cape Hatteras and points south are cut off until this storm begins to subside somewhat.
Yes, it's no really no signs of that happening. Just also got a report of an official observation of 70 mile an hour wind gusts right here at Kill Devil Hills. So even though the center of this storm has not made a landfall across the outer banks, the western part of it is proving to be very, very strong with winds gusting to near or at hurricane force, and that is doing some hurt to this beach.
But so far, at least the majority of the county still has power. That seems to be quite remarkable from our vantage point as Earl continues to rake the coastline here and hopefully pulls out to sea in short time -- Ali and Kiran.
CHETRY: What do you think -- 18 miles per hour is what you said, moving north/northeast, 18 miles per hour, is that fast for a hurricane?
MARCIANO: Not at this latitude -- at this latitude, that's, you know, about average, maybe a little bit slow. I was expecting it to be moving faster by the time it got to right about here. It looks like it's starting to pick up some steam now.
Front is going to pick it up, and maybe the jet stream will put some gas to it. We'll get it to 20, 25 before the day is done for sure. Hopefully, get it in and out of Cape Cod in a hurry so it doesn't pound them to badly either. VELSHI: All right, Rob, we'll stay on top of this with you. Thanks very much. Let us know when you get that second camera up again. We'll get some more shots from you.
CHETRY: As you had mention, he was blow drying it -- had I been out there.
VELSHI: I would not have had a blow dryer too.
CHETRY: However, he's lucky he has power.
VELSHI: At which point, I become more competitive in the ring.
CHETRY: Well, North Carolina's Governor Bev Perdue is about to hold a news conference at the top of the hour. She's going to be detailing the damage that Earl may have done so far.
VELSHI: But she is joining us live from Raleigh right now. That's about two hours inland from the coast to break the news here first.
Governor, thank you for joining us. We know you've got a lot going on this morning. Tell us what you know about the situation.
GOV. BEV PERDUE (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Good morning to all of you and to your viewers. The good news is that we dodged the bullet in North Carolina although the bad news you just telecast that this storm is still hitting Deer County.
But the reports we're having all over the coast is minimal damage. Lots of roads and lots of over flooded waters, but no major physical human damage, and we're still trying to get an assessment of physical damage.
The lower coast, the southeastern part of the state is open for business on Labor Day weekend. We opened up Wilmington, Hanover County Beaches. We've opened up Moorehead and Atlantic Beach.
The disaster is over, they're fully open and we're trying to ride out Deer County, and we'll know by midmorning what time those beaches will reopen.
CHETRY: And I know you certainly, you want to get that message out because, of course, it's the unofficial end of summer, the Labor Day weekend. You rely on the tourism industry obviously.
We spoke to the mayor of Kill Devil Hills. It was interesting. He told us that about 90 percent of the tourists heeded the warnings and evacuated, but 90 percent of the residents chose to stick it out. Is that about what you expected, or were you hoping that more people would leave the barrier islands?
PERDUE: You know, I live on the coast myself, and sometimes you just stay. The good news for us in North Carolina is that, if we do decide to stay, the residents' evacuation was voluntary, not mandatory. We all know how to cope. We have our emergency kits. We've done it before, and this storm proved to be not a dangerous storm. I believe, if folks have really felt like a 4 or a 5 was coming, they would get out. The tourists really did evacuate.
Our response has been fabulous. We've had no mistakes from the state to the local to the federal level. This has been good news for North Carolina. So we're thankful that it's nearly over.
VELSHI: You said a lot of people stay, Governor. The fact is that North Carolina has been lashed before by tough hurricanes, and they've been worse. You've lost lives. You've lost property before. Are you feeling like this is now gone, or are you worried about what happens for the rest of the day?
PERDUE: Well, I think we're all anxious to get the property assessment from Deer County. That's where the erosion has been so bad on the beaches at Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head. But, again, our people who do stay understand clearly the danger they assume.
My message clearly has been get out. We'd much rather be safe than sorry in North Carolina. That's the message the state will continue to articulate.
But again, we feel like we've dodged a bullet. In North Carolina, the sun is coming up. It's going to be a bright sunny day for our folks. We welcome the tourists back.
CHETRY: All right, certainly a lot of optimism, and that's a good thing. Governor Bev Perdue, great to talk to you this morning. Thanks.
PERDUE: Thank you so much.
CHETRY: Well, we're 37 minutes past the hour right now. We're talking about a story that had us scratching our heads yesterday. Chicago police were holding a meeting with gang members. They were criticized for this strategy.
VELSHI: This part, we understand. That's where I was with this story. We were having a meeting with gang members. And then --
CHETRY: And then the gang leaders actually sort of held a press conference of their own, if you will, to say, hey, we're being unfairly blamed for escalating the violence, and we're not going to take it.
So we're going to be weighing in actually with somebody who is now working to help the community. He once was a gang member. About exactly what's going on in Chicago because they certainly had a lot of trouble right now, 300 shootings in July alone, more than 30 people killed. A pretty big feud is still going on. It's 38 minutes past the hour.
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VELSHI: Nineteen minutes until the top of the hour. We are keeping a very close watch on Hurricane Earl all morning long. The storm has weakened somewhat, but it is still powerful, 105 miles an hour, sustained winds, gusting to 125 miles an hour.
The North Carolina coastline is getting the branch of it this morning, driving rain along with near hurricane force winds. The storm is moving north, northeast about 18 miles an hour. We'll get an update from -- on Earl from Reynolds Wolf in just a moment -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, it's 41 minutes past the hour right now. We're talking more about the deadly violence on the streets of Chicago. There have been more than 300 homicides this year. Chicago's police chief just held what was called a gang summit giving leaders an ultimatum to stop the killings.
Well, now the gangs are crying foul. They're actually holding their own press conference. It happened yesterday to say that they really can't be held accountable for the actions of others. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK CARTER, VOICES OF EX-OFFENDERS' ORGANIZATION: Is the mayor going to be held accountable for all the corruption that happened under his watch? Is the police superintendent going to be held accountable for all the corrupt cops that go out and kill young black men?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, joining us now to discuss the controversy is Derek Brown. He coaches Chicago's street kids at the North Lawndale Illinois Boxing League. You've turned your life around as well because, as we said before, you used to be involved in Chicago's vice lords gang.
You've turned your life around. You've helped stop violence in the community by trying to sort of channel young people into more proactive positive things rather than just sort of being on the street and being subjected to violence.
What is going on in Chicago? When we talk about 300 people shot in July, four police officers killed in the line of duty, 33 people killed in the month of July alone. What's behind all the violence if it's not gang related?
DEREK BROWN, NORTH LAWNDALE BOXING LEAGUE: Well, basically, the problem goes within, you know, fights within the community and through politics and everything that's going on with the guys in Chicago.
CHETRY: Well, what do you mean by that? What's going on right now?
BROWN: You know, just the way life is. You know, you take a guy like myself that was just born in a hostile environment and coming up with all the advertising through TVs, just looking at gangs and highlight drugs on television and growing up in an urban community, once we step outside our doors, that's what we see. It basically plays a part in the leadership that's in the community.
CHETRY: So you're saying that what happened is the gang leaders, or people that say, listen, this is how you can make money. This is how you can be part of something, they're sort of able to bring youth in and get them to ultimately in some cases resort to violence?
BROWN: Yes, basically just manipulate minds. When you step outside, it's not a choice. Somebody like myself is given different choices from that right now. You know, I was once a child who grew up in a community and stepped outside my door to follow leadership. Just by the grace of God, I made it through all the turmoil that I've been through.
CHETRY: Right.
BROWN: -- following my leadership, they --
CHETRY: Well, as I understand it, what the police are trying to do -- and apparently, they're following models that were first used in Boston in 1996 with much success. They were actually able to reduce homicides by 30 percent within six months.
They targeted people that they thought were perhaps leading some of the violence, gangs in this case, and said, listen, get the word out to just stop the shootings, to stop the turmoil, or we're going to crack down on you even harder.
Parole visits, a traffic citation, we're going to get the FBI out there. And this is something that Chicago police put forth, I guess, in this gang summit. Do you think that that made sense, that that was something that could possibly work to stem this violence?
BROWN: No, it didn't make any sense at all. You know, just instead of giving them an -- instead of giving them an alternative, they gave them an ultimatum. You know, there's -- there's plenty of alternatives that they could -- alternative approaches they could have gave them.
You know, give them jobs, resources. You know there's all type of things that's going on in Chicago. Construction, you know. And through politics. It's -- I believe it was all just politics.
CHETRY: So what do you think the solution is? When you take a look at the numbers, it's staggering to think that in July alone, 300 shootings. Thirty-three people lost their lives because of violence.
You don't think that's related to the gang problem in Chicago?
BROWN: No, it's not a gang problem right now because in the city of Chicago there are no gang structures. You know -- there are no gang leaders. The gang structure has been taken down. You know?
If you just look through history how -- how it's been set up, you know, they took the leadership down years ago. And through the laws, there's no one stepping up to even try to -- try to take that challenge on.
CHETRY: So what do kids telling you when you go -- you know, try to encourage them, teach them boxing, teach them positive ways? I mean what are they looking for? What do they need to turn things around in Chicago?
BROWN: What they need, they need guys like myself. You know community leaders to step up and give them something else to do. To change their thinking pattern and their minds.
You know, I was -- like I said, I was once a kid that was out on the streets following -- just following leadership and following the wrong crowd. Without no guidance and without the direct guidance, there's all types of sorts of things you can get yourself into.
CHETRY: All right, well, certainly looking for solutions in Chicago in the wake of really tough summer of violence.
Derek Brown, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
BROWN: OK. Thank you.
CHETRY: Ali?
VELSHI: All right, Kiran. Hurricane Earl stayed offshore of North Carolina's outer banks, but that huge storm is still slamming the state with winds and rain.
Reynolds Wolf is next. He's going to tell us what's happening now, and most importantly what's happening next with this storm.
It is 47 minutes after the hour.
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VELSHI: Is that Ocean City?
CHETRY: It is.
VELSHI: Because we've been looking at this all morning. And -- at 6:00 this morning, it looked like a calm overcast morning.
CHETRY: And now yes, you can certainly see the waves churning up. This is because of Earl. Earl moving in closer moving north- northeast about 18 miles per hour. We just saw, you know, the lashing, the outer barrier islands of North Carolina.
So -- well, now it's making its way up the coast Ocean City right now. Dealing with rain, showers, of course, ahead of this hurricane.
Seventy-eight degrees right now. Rain and winds forecast for later today. But they're not giving us hope. They're saying all right, this thing will be out of here and we can --
VELSHI: They're --
CHETRY: They're a party town.
VELSHI: This is a -- yes.
CHETRY: We can salvage their Labor Day weekend.
VELSHI: This is a few hour delay to Labor Day weekend.
CHETRY: Right.
VELSHI: You know? We're all going to go tomorrow morning instead of tonight.
Reynolds Wolf is at the CNN Hurricane Headquarters.
Reynolds, I mean, on one level, this is American spirit at its best, right? Just weather. But this is still a serious storm.
WOLF: It really is. And you have to remember that once this storm passes for the rest of the weekend, we're still going to have really unsettled conditions along the coast in terms of wave action and rip currents.
A real threat from Maine all the way south to Florida because we don't -- we don't have just Earl. But we also have Fiona out there and the combinations of those two systems could make things pretty dangerous.
Let's deal first and foremost with the top story. And that is Hurricane Earl. It's a category 2 storm. Winds at 105. Sustained gusts have been stronger, up to 125 miles per hour. It is roughly 80, 85 miles due east of Cape Hatteras this time. And I can tell you that, for the people at Cape Hatteras, what they're dealing are some heavy rain.
And not only that, some flooding conditions along North Carolina 12. That's the road that runs the length of the outer banks. And I can tell that roads near Oregon inland bridge, they are completely closed down right now due to the water covering the roadway.
In Rodanthe, faced with the same thing. Just completely covered with a lot of water. Many places the sand has been over the pavement in many spots. The roads are going to be impassable.
But as this system lifts more to the north it is going to improve in terms of the situation for the outer banks. Problem is worst conditions are going to prevail now in places like Ocean City where you saw that live image moments ago to the Jersey shore and eventually moving up into New England.
Let's show what you we have in terms of the forecast of the National Hurricane Center. The storm's present position now -- I'm sorry, let's do a correction. It's 130 miles from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the center of the storm. The winds obviously in Cape Hatteras and beyond in parts of the Tar Heels State. But if you look to the north, it's almost like staring at the barrel of a gun. And in the rains of that barrel you're going to have, again, that cone of uncertainty. You've got the forecast. And you can also have to factor in the possibility of that cone of uncertainty.
The storm can move a little bit more to the east, perhaps move a little bit more to the west. But if it does more of a movement to more of a westerly jog, as we get into 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning, winds are expected to be right around 85 miles per hour. Gusts even stronger.
And that would include possibly Cape Cod. And because it includes Cape Cod, Cape Cod is currently under a hurricane warning. That includes Martha's Vineyard, also Pawtucket.
This entire area could be inundated with no only some heavy wind, some strong waves obviously, some very big waves, but also there's a potential of some coastal flooding. Very heavy rainfall certainly can be a possibility as this storm comes on through this region.
So we are not done by a long shot. Couple of things working in our favor. One, the storm is going to encounter some very strong upper-level winds. We call that sheer. The second thing is going to deal with cooler water as it drives its way to the north. That's also going to help weaken the system.
But still dangerous conditions as I mentioned. Not just from this one. But also from Fiona will be an issue along the eastern seaboard throughout the weekend.
Let's send it back to you, guys.
VELSHI: All right, Reynolds. We're going to keep on covering this and we're doing it on TV. If you're heading to work you're going to be away from your TV, CNN.com is your online hurricane headquarters.
It's also the place where you can share your pictures and videos of Hurricane Earl. Upload them. Just head to iReport.com. And our blog up and running, CNNcom/amfix for all the latest.
CHETRY: All right, this morning's top stories are just minutes away including some a security threat that shut down Miami International Airport. Well, now we have new details. The bomb squad called in after finding a metal canister resembling a pipe bomb. A suspect taken into custody.
Our John Zarrella has the latest.
VELSHI: And a sound of silence at a governor's debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: We have done everything that we could possibly do.
(LAUGHTER)
BREWER: We have --
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: That was the longest 16 seconds in Governor Jan Brewer's political life. Those stories and more at the top of the hour.
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