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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Surveying Hurricane Damage; Karl Rove and Valerie Plame
Aired July 11, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: We are in Pensacola Beach, Florida, a very different Pensacola Beach than it was just 24 hours ago. This really the area where Hurricane Dennis came down and came down hard, a special report. 360 starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: Cleaning up the trail of destruction left by Hurricane Dennis. Tonight, live reports from hardest-hit areas. Also, another storm brewing in the Caribbean, eying the already storm-ravaged Florida. When and how hard will it hit?
Mystery revealed. The president's right-hand man, Karl Rove, named as Matt Cooper's secret source. But did he actually break the law? And are his days numbered in the White House?
And dozens slaughtered, hundreds injured in the barbaric terror attacks in London. Tonight, the ultimate survivor, a 360 interview with a man who survived the killer tsunami, the Bali bombing, and now the London attacks.
Live from Pensacola Beach, Florida, this is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.
COOPER: And good evening. Welcome to Pensacola Beach, a Pensacola Beach which was battered and bruised, but is not down and out, a Pensacola Beach -- the barrier island just south of Pensacola -- which has just a few hours ago been reopened to people, people making that long trek to see if their homes made it through the storm.
We're going to show you some of the damage. Want to show you some of the flooding that is happening right now in Georgia, some pretty extensive flooding, a shot of the Six Flags theme park in Georgia, a roller coaster partially submerged underwater. There's been a lot of flooding throughout Georgia, one death attributed to the storm there -- a man killed by tree that fell. That's the only death that we know of in Georgia at this time, but a lot of flooding throughout the state.
We also want to show you some pictures. Randi Kaye, our CNN colleague, was one of the first reporters allowed back to Navarre Beach, which is about 17 miles or so from where we are right now on this barrier island of Pensacola Beach, some really terrible devastation. These, really the first pictures we're getting out of Navarre Beach. That is really where the storm hit hardest, where the storm first made landfall.
The blessing -- the only blessing about this storm is that it was moving fast when it hit landfall, 18 miles an hour. So it did not hang around, like Hurricane Ivan did, for hours and hours and hours on these barrier islands. But as you can see there in Navarre Beach, some really -- some bad damage on some of those homes.
And the damage elsewhere in some parts, at least, around Pensacola has been pretty bad as well. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It is the day after, and in the bright sunshine, flying above Pensacola Beach, it's easy to see the devastation Dennis has left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see, there's the erosion (ph). There's, like, no beach at all.
COOPER: Someone's beautiful beachfront homes now reduced to rubble, while others seemed virtually untouched. Near Navarre Beach, a rooftop crushed by the 120-mile-per-hour winds, a construction crane bent in two. And the beaches themselves, the sand pounded down, eroded by the surging surf.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a pretty popular spot. It's completely eroded.
COOPER: Back on the ground, the picture in some spots is just as grim. But it didn't pack the same punch as Ivan did last September. With all the terrifying sound, but somewhat less fury than his predecessor, Dennis came ashore as a category 3 storm, rather than the expected category 4. But the wind still ripped roofs from homes and businesses, tore down trees and downed power lines throughout Florida, Mississippi and Alabama, parts of all three state now declared federal disaster areas.
Then there's the water. The flood waters were waist high. Basements were washed out, and boats once used for business and pleasure have become the only efficient form of transportation.
MAYOR CHUCK SHIELDS, ST. MARKS, FLORIDA: I've been here all my life, and this is the most water we've ever, ever had. We had probably at least a 10-foot surge over in Omaha (ph). And all the businesses and everything along the river here was completely flooded out.
COOPER: But officials say in many ways, they dodged the worst of Dennis's bullet.
MICHAEL BROWN, FEMA: We're very fortunate that the damage was not as widespread as we expected. But I don't want to allow that statement to minimize the fact that where the devastation and destruction did occur, those folks are suffering.
COOPER: Damage from Dennis was seen as far away as Douglas (ph) County, Georgia, flooding from the storm's heavy rains, and in Decatur, where a man died when a tree came crashing through the window of his home.
Insurance assessors say damage from Dennis could cost anywhere between $1 billion and $2.5 billion, compared to $14 billion in damages caused by Ivan.
But Florida's governor says Ivan taught them some valuable lessons.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: We were good before, but after these last storms, I would put -- I would put the emergency response team and the whole gamut of issues that go along with this -- our team, which is comprised of volunteers and government officials at the local, state and federal level, against any in the world. So we've learned. And it's working better.
COOPER: People left to pick up the pieces yet again after one more deadly storm.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: You know, a lot of people, you probably heard, today said, you know, well, after the one-two punch of Frances and then Ivan, Hurricane Dennis maybe didn't seem so bad, didn't hit as hard. It was just a slap, they say.
Well, as John Zarrella found out, a slap can hurt, too. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the first hours after Dennis, 12-year-old Haven Turner (ph) went with her grandmother to see what was left of grandma's home on Pensacola's scenic drive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything is gone. Look at this over here.
ZARRELLA: Heartbreak upon heartbreak. First Ivan, and now this. Dennis tore off the roof, taking what Ivan had left behind.
HAVEN TURNER, RESIDENT: I had my stuff from downstairs in the garage, from upstairs in my mom's room. Had stuff in the game room, which is that big room up there. I had stuff everywhere.
ZARRELLA: Monday morning, Haven came back with her stepdad, Eric Ritter (ph). She could not hold back the tears.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's always a tomorrow.
ZARRELLA: So much will never be the same. On a grand scheme, Dennis may not turn out to be as bad as Ivan, but don't tell that to Haven.
TURNER: This house I've been in since I was born, and it's just really special to me because I just had all my memories here. And like, my first Christmas and my first birthday. And this -- it's just really a nice house, and I just love it.
ZARRELLA: While it appears at first blush that Dennis may not have packed the same destructive punch as Ivan, hurricane watchers say it's way too soon to draw that conclusion. If that turns out to be true, many factors played a part. For one, Dennis didn't hit Pensacola directly.
MAX MAYFIELD, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: The different landfall points, number one. Number two, the inner core in Dennis was much smaller, so it had a smaller swath of, you know, the really strong winds. You know, it's -- all hurricanes are different. Their structures are different. This one did have strong winds, you know, well out to the east, and that's why they got that inland (ph) flooding, you know, all the way up into Appalachia Bay.
ZARRELLA: And experts say Ivan had already taken out weaker structures that otherwise would have fallen to Dennis.
Why the storm weakened before landfall? That question is left for scientists to figure out. For Haven and her stepdad, comparisons don't matter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. I mean, well, (INAUDIBLE) people say, oh, well, you know, just compare the two. You know, I compare damage, and it's still the same damage. So I don't care if it took five hours longer or shorter. Same damages here, and we have to rebuild again.
ZARRELLA: Bottom line: When you're hit by a hurricane, there's no such thing as a good day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Now, there's one theory, Anderson, about why that Dennis lost strength at landfall. It's called upwelling. Tropical Storm Cindy had gone through the same path a few days earlier, churned up the waters, brought the colder waters up from the bottom, and thus, not -- with those warm waters not there, Dennis couldn't keep its strength.
COOPER: Because it's the warm waters that feed the hurricane.
ZARRELLA: That feed and generate the storm. But that's something for scientists to study.
COOPER: You know, it's incredible. I took this helicopter ride around the barrier islands today with the sheriff's department here. A lot of these homes were damaged in Ivan. They still had the blue tarps on them. So you couldn't tell what was damage from Dennis and what was old damage from Ivan.
ZARRELLA: Right. Exactly. A lot of people -- even the people we talked to there. So much of that original damage, they still hadn't decided what to do, whether they were going to rebuild or not rebuild. Well, now they said, you know, the decision's been made for them. They've got to tear it down.
COOPER: Even some of the damage behind us to this bay front, some of it's from Ivan, but again, some of it is from Dennis.
ZARRELLA: Everybody you talk to says now, well, this one finished the job. COOPER: Yes, and they say this other storm may be hitting this weekend, which we're going to talk a little about later on 360. John, thanks.
ZARRELLA: Thank you.
COOPER: Nice to see you again.
ZARRELLA: Good to see you again.
COOPER: Nice to see you dry!
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: John and I had some interesting moments last -- yesterday, in the last 24 hours or so. We'll show you some of those moments a little bit later on.
First, let's show you the other headlines. Let's check in with Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS.
(NEWS BREAK)
COOPER: Coming up next on this special edition of 360, you're going to meet a survivor, a man who survived not only the Bali bombing a couple of years and had a very close call there, not only the tsunami, but also the bombing in London, an extraordinary tale of survival. We'll talk to him a little bit later on.
Also ahead, a behind-the-scenes look. How we covered the storm, the stuff you never see on TV, the real story behind this moment, which a lot of you saw yesterday. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: But a lot of the sign is aluminum. There was a big piece right there. I just dragged it across the way over there because you don't want to have something like that lying around. But there's still an awful lot lying around...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Some of the most dramatic moments from tomorrow (SIC). We'll show you them. And the story behind the story.
Also, the other storm that may be on the way to Florida, tropical depression, it may be called Emily if it is upgraded. We'll tell you where it is and how strong it is. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: That is some of the flooding that we saw in St. Marks, Florida. It's a several-hour drive from Pensacola, where I am now to St. Marks.
CNN Meteorologist Chad Meyers has been there all day long, covering the scene there. Chad, some really dramatic flooding, especially yesterday.
CHAD MEYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Very dramatic, very quick. It was quick in and quick out. It was a storm surge, Anderson. It was water that just came right up the St. Marks River. It was full of salt. The salty floods are the worst kind. And then, literally three hours later, the winds changed direction and the water ran right back out.
There's another storm back on down to the south, way south of where we are here, well on down, not even to the Lesser Antilles yet, for that matter, but here's the satellite picture. You begin to see the swirl, bottom right corner. That swirl is tropical depression number five. Now, nothing saying this is going to become Tropical Storm Emily, but the official forecast says yes, and a lot of the computer models that we use, they say yes, 75 miles-per-hour, category 1, probably by the end of the week, possibly the weekend. But it is going to travel over a very similar course to the one that we just had, Dennis.
Now, maybe this upwelling thing that John Zarrella was talking about, that could actually help us a little bit, the waters not as warm as they could have been if this travels directly behind the second storm. So that may be helping us out just a touch.
I tell you what, though, I had a touching day, speaking of touch. Here's a sweet young lady. She says she's 39, but I'm not sure about that. Her name is Ms. joy. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOY BROWN, GENERAL STORE OWNER: Groceries of all kinds, produce and meats, paint, a little bit, and just anything you want.
MEYERS (voice-over): Bowlin's (ph) is a quintessential general store, a throwback to the old days, where a customer's tab is maintained by a pad and pencil. Joy Brown has owned this St. Marks, Florida, landmark for more than 40 years. Her home is in the back of the store. Many residents in this town of less than 350 people think of her as their mother.
BROWN: I try to be all of them's mother, you know, even though I'm only 39.
MEYERS: Bowlin's was hit hard by the devastating floodwaters that swept into this sleepy town with Hurricane Dennis.
BROWN: We left here while it was still rising. The bread scattered everywhere. It floated off the rack.
MEYERS: The hurricane's winds pushed salty Gulf of Mexico waters at least 10 feet higher than normal, overflowing into St. Marks. The waters receded by daylight, but the damage had been done.
(on camera): Sunday right here, the water was over your head. Today, Bowlin's is closed because of the flood. The parking lot's full, all with friends that know her as Ms. Joy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't get no better person than Ms. Joy.
MEYERS (voice-over): Friends here are getting Ms. Joy back up and running before taking care of their own homes. They say it's their chance to pay her back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's just helped me out. You know, mainly, when you don't have the cash to get groceries and food and stuff like that, (INAUDIBLE) run your account, you know? That means a lot, especially when you ain't got no money, you know?
BROWN: You don't let them get hungry just because they have a misfortune. And so you just help them out. And it pays off, like this.
MEYERS: The flood made its way up to the top shelf in much of the store. Ms. Joy says the salt water has probably ruined most of her inventory, but not her spirit.
BROWN: And that's why I feel like it pays to live in a small area, a small town, because everybody pitches in and helps each other.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MEYERS: Ms. Joy is the notary public here. She married half the couples in this town. One of those guys that got married by her is actually now fixing the electricity for her. It'll be done in a half hour. She'll be back up and running in no time. It was a really great story. I had a great time covering it. She's a really great lady -- Anderson.
COOPER: And we wish Ms. Joy well. Chad Meyers, thanks very much for that.
A lot more ahead, including my "Reporter's Notebook." Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back! Get back! Get back!
COOPER: Unbelievable! I've never seen anything like this. John, have you seen anything like this?
ZARRELLA: Never seen anything like this! I've never experienced anything like this before!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: How we got to be in that spot at the right time at the right place and stayed safe and stayed live on the air. A behind-the- scenes look in my "Reporter's Notebook" coming up.
Also tonight, the latest on the investigation into the bombings in London. Difficult investigation. It is a difficult recovery effort still under way. We'll have the latest from London. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: And welcome back to our special coverage, live from Pensacola Beach.
We're going to talk more about Hurricane Dennis in just a moment. We want to bring you up to date on the investigation into the London bombings.
Here's our download of the latest information, the latest casualty figures. Here's a quick look at the numbers. The latest death toll that we have is 52 dead. Now, that death toll is expected to rise. Twenty-two people are missing, presumed dead, at this point, among them a 37-year-old U.S. citizen from New York City. Over 700 people, including four Americans, were injured in Thursday's terror bombings.
Now, as the investigations continue, one of the most difficult scenes to investigate is the King's Cross subway stop. They call it "the tube" in London. The train is stuck between King's Cross station and Russell Square when the bomb went off. The tunnel itself is very unstable. There are rats in the tunnel, and there are still bodies on that train.
CNN's Matthew Chance has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the surface, you don't see much, just the tip of a massive police effort to gather forensic evidence. But it's the nightmarish conditions deep underground, authorities say, that are proving a terrible obstacle. Between King's Cross and Russell Square, emergency teams still struggle to extract body parts and identify fragments of evidence from the mass of twisted metal.
And then there are the rats. The massive crime scene has become infested.
NIGEL NOLNESS, LONDON UNDERGROUND: It's extremely hot down there, as you would imagine. And clearly, I'm sure you've heard from the police, there are, you know, biohazards down there which they're having to work in. They're having to be very careful about how long their staff are working down there.
CHANCE: The tunnel between King's Cross and Russell Square is one of the deepest sections of the London underground system, more than 70 feet below the surface. More than a century ago, the tunnel was excavated through bedrock and clay, then reinforced with iron rings. It's only 11 feet wide, so narrow, it leaves just a few inches for the trains to pass through and little room for emergency teams to work.
Civil engineers like David Brennan, a public transportation specialist, told me a bomb exploding in such a confined space would not necessarily have damaged the tunnel structure, but would have been devastating for passengers.
DAVID BRENNAN, CIVIL ENGINEER: An explosion in open air, you can think of the effect as being like dropping a pebble in a pool of water. And you see the initial ripple expanding outwards in all directions from the center of the explosion. But in a tunnel, it's only in one direction. The ripples can't go any further. They get blocked. So the effect is to spread sideways to be squirted and propelled along the length of the tunnel in that direction.
CHANCE: The bomb exploded in the train's crowded lead car seconds after it left King's Cross station, heading south towards Russell Square. The second car was also badly damaged. Emergency teams have been working out of Russell Square station to reach the site, ferrying people, equipment and human remains more than a third of a mile along the tracks on electric trolly cars. More bodies could yet be found, say police, their progress slow.
IAN BLAIR, METROPOLITAN POLICE COMMISSIONER: I have been told about the bodies piled up in the carriages. We know what would happen in a crowded tube when a bomb like that goes off. It has been a dreadful scene. It is now getting slowly under control. But every square centimeter of it -- and that's hundreds of yards of tunnel, a whole train, and then that's only one of the four scenes -- has to be meticulously combed. It is a long, long job.
CHANCE: It's still unclear how long the search for clues will take. Slow and painstaking work, but essential if those responsible are to be found. Matthew Chance, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: It is so terrible, indeed.
One of the people who survived this attack in London was a young man by the name of Trent Mongan. He's Australian. And what is remarkable about the fact that he survived is that he's survived other near misses. The Bali bombing, he was in the bar where the bomb went off. He left just moments before it happened. He was also in Sri Lanka during the tsunami.
I spoke with Trent a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Trent, it's incredible that you have survived two of these incidents. Let's talk first about this bombing in London. What did you see? You had just left the train at King's Cross.
TRENT MONGAN, SURVIVED LONDON BOMBING: Yes, I had just left -- got off the tube at King's Cross station, was walking up the stairs because the elevators were packed. And yes, I heard the bomb go off behind me.
COOPER: And what did you do then?
MONGAN: Well, basically, we saw the smoke come out, and we started hearing the screams of the people. And we kind of got to the top, to street level, and then turned around and just started helping the people as they started pouring out of the subway. COOPER: When you heard the bombing in London, I mean, did your thoughts go back to Bali?
MONGAN: Straight away, Anderson. It just -- I thought, here we go again. You know, I can't believe this. I was just dumbfounded. I was just -- I was just shocked. And then the screams and the sirens, and then when the people started walking out, their injuries were exactly the same -- burnt hair, burnt faces, severely bleeding, traumatized, dazed, confused and really, really scared.
COOPER: And also, you live in Sri Lanka now, and you were there during the tsunami. What experience did you have there?
MONGAN: Yes, well, I was at the hotel I run up in Sri Lanka. And basically, I started helping some people on the coast just by phone to navigate them off the coast on the inland routes. And then I went down to Colombo airport to, yes, say hello to my friends, make sure got out of the country OK. And then there was many, many injured there, so we just did what we could for the people that had come straight to the airport, didn't even attend the hospital before they jumped on an airplane. And most of the people went back to Singapore.
COOPER: Do you consider yourself, I mean, extremely lucky or extremely unlucky that you were at all these places, that you had so many near misses? Or were you lucky because you survived?
MONGAN: Well, I think I'm lucky, in some ways. You know, I'm still here living and breathing. But I'm unlucky when I close my eyes at night and can't get to sleep very well and, you know, see all the victims and -- you know, and I just start thinking about their families and how terrible it is for them. But yes, at the end of the day, I think I'm a very lucky man. And maybe I've just been put on this Earth to help people, and I'll continue to do that wherever I am.
COOPER: Have you gone back on the subway in England?
MONGAN: Yes, I had my first trip this afternoon. I went down Oxford Circus after being here at CNN. And yes, it was very, very scary, and it shook up my nerves a little bit. And yes, there was a small malfunction on a train in front of us and our subway came to a stop. And the lady who was driving the subway came on straight away and said, you know, everything's OK. It's not terrorism, it's just a train malfunction. And you know, we'll be good to go very shortly. But that was my first ride. And I don't know, I'll have to get back on the horse, as they say.
COOPER: Not be intimidated. That's a good thing to end on. Trent, we're going to leave it there. It's good to talk to you, and I'm glad you're safe and sound. And have a safe trip back to Sri Lanka.
MONGAN: Thanks very much, Anderson. You take care in Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Great young man, Trent Mongan. A lot more ahead on 360, this special edition live from Pensacola. You probably saw some of the most dramatic moments from our coverage of the hurricane yesterday. We're now tonight, going to take you behind the scenes, how we got to the spot where this Ramada sign fell. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back! Get back! Get back!
COOPER: Unbelievable! I've never seen anything like this. John, this is incredible! Have you seen anything like this?
ZARRELLA: Never seen anything like this, have never...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And welcome back. We are live in Pensacola Beach, a much different Pensacola Beach than it was just 24 hours ago.
Want to show you some new pictures we have just gotten in from Navarre Beach, which is about 17 miles down this barrier island to the east here on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
This is the area where Hurricane Dennis made landfall, hit hard by these very strong category 3 winds. Some really extensive damage, as you can see.
Randi Kaye, CNN correspondent, just got these images a short time ago. She was one of the first people allowed back onto this part of the barrier island. I flew over it a little bit later, and I can tell you, really severe damage. At one point, there was a crane on a new building. That crane, in fact, two cranes, have just been crushed in half. So very dramatic images, and those people just slowly being allowed to go back to their homes, to see how badly they were hit.
You know, when we cover these storms, what you see on television is, you know, people like myself, correspondents on camera, but there are so many people behind the scenes, cameramen, sound technicians, satellite truck operators, producers, who really make all this happen. And it really is a science, trying to get to where the hurricane is so we can keep broadcasting.
I wanted to show you, take you behind the scenes, something you've probably never seen before, how we do what we do, how we get to the important locations and broadcast live even at the height of the storm. This is my "Reporter's Notebook" from yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Get back!
COOPER (voice-over): Let me just stop this for a minute. You've probably seen this video by now. It's been played over and over. But what you haven't seen is how we got to be in that spot, broadcasting live at the height of the storm. For that, you have to go back a couple of hours.
(on camera): Conditions have really deteriorated, I would say, over the last 30 minutes.
ZARRELLA: Oh, absolutely.
COOPER: You've been here all day.
ZARRELLA: Absolutely.
COOPER: And this (INAUDIBLE) so far.
ZARRELLA: Has gone downhill very, very fast.
COOPER (voice-over): No, you've got to go back further than that. Early Sunday morning.
JUSTIN DIAL, CNN PRODUCER: OK, so what's the deal? What's the update? You haven't left yet? OK, you're still -- but the plan is still to continue on to Pensacola?
COOPER: That's Justin Dial (ph), my producer. He and I have just left Panama City Beach, heading west to Pensacola, where we think Hurricane Dennis is going to make landfall.
(on camera): It's a little disconcerting now, because every radio station you turn on, they keep saying, you should not be on the highway at this point. But we're still on the highway.
DIAL: We're still driving.
COOPER: Yeah. Hmmm.
(voice-over): Hurricane Dennis was moving so fast, it was hard to know exactly where to go. One e-mail would suggest Golf Shores, but another would suggest someplace else.
(on camera): So we just heard that the storm may be moving a little bit to the east, which puts it back right around Pensacola, perhaps to the west side of Pensacola. So looks like we are going to be right very close to the center of the storm, which I think is a good thing. It's a good thing, isn't it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could be a good thing.
COOPER: In the warped world of television, that's a good thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably not a good thing for my mother.
COOPER (voice-over): During a hurricane, you can't find basic supplies. You wind up eating junk food, and you are always short of fuel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No gas stations are open. One of our photographers was offered $200 for one of his cans of gas yesterday.
COOPER (on camera): Really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't give it up.
COOPER (voice-over): Covering a hurricane is like buying real estate. It's all about location.
(on camera): What we are trying to do is find a location that's exposed enough, and yet still safe. You want to try to get as close to the water as possible. You want something where you are going to be able to see the impact of the wind and the rain, but obviously, you want someplace where you are safe, where the crew is safe. And also, where the satellite truck is safe. The satellite truck has this big dish on it that raises up, but it can act like a sail. And in a high wind, it can actually just flip the entire truck over.
So you want to be able to stay on the air throughout, you know, even at the worst part of the storm. And that's all about the location of where your satellite truck is.
(voice-over): We arrive in Pensacola nearly out of time and out of gas. Wanda (ph), our sound tech, used our emergency supplies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's my first one.
COOPER: We thought we'd set up near the Gulf. But when correspondent John Zarrella got there, he said we wouldn't be high enough.
ZARRELLA: Five feet of water here in a couple of hours.
COOPER (on camera): Really?
ZARRELLA: Yeah. Really. Not a good place to be.
COOPER: So where do you think we should go?
ZARRELLA: Well, right now, it's Fishercut Bay, because we don't have much time left.
COOPER (voice-over): John took us to a location he'd found, and we decided we better make the best of it.
(on camera): Well, it's now about -- it's about 11:15 -- it's about a quarter past 11:00. We finally found the location. Just trying to get some last-minute information sent to about the tracking the storm, and we are probably going to go live in just a few minutes.
We really found a good location. We're not sure how long we'll be able to stay here, not sure how long we'll be safe, but we have a sort of a retreat location to go to if suddenly the wind shifts, and this is no longer safe.
(voice-over): Within a matter of minutes, the broadcast engineers had the satellite truck up and running. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You haven't lived until you are working out in high wind and water and rain and electricity, you know?
COOPER: The camera crews struggle to keep the equipment dry, even though they are soaking wet.
The goal is to stay on the air as long as you can. There are a lot of people hunkered down in their homes who want information on where the storm is.
In the satellite truck, they struggled to keep the dish working. Outside, the camera crews bear the brunt of the storm.
Hurricane Dennis was moving about 18 miles an hour, pretty quick, but after a few hours, the wind shifted, and suddenly, the sat truck was getting hit head on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll pull the dish down, because we are just not going to be able to probably do this much longer. Let's go ahead and come down...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We might have to relocate to the other truck in a second here. It's getting really windy out there.
COOPER: John Zarrella and I decided to retreat to a safer location: A Ramada hotel, where another satellite truck was waiting. When we got to the Ramada, it was pretty chaotic. Our backup sat truck was down, and I started doing phoners into CNN.
Amazingly, our engineer got the sat dish working. And when we went back on air, the hurricane hit full force.
It's a strange thing. We spend so much time and effort trying to get close to a hurricane. Turns out, when we actually do get close, it's the last place in the world we want to be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: We wanted you to see some of the people who work as a team to put this on the air. There are a lot of us here at CNN, and they should all be very proud of what they've done in the last 24 hours or so.
Coming up next in this special edition of 360, we are going to take a look at the White House leak. Karl Rove has been named as the man who gave Matt Cooper the information about Valerie Plame. We'll take a close-up look at that.
We will also follow one Florida resident as he makes the long walk home to survey the damage. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, one man who knows an awful lot about hunting hurricanes, former CNN correspondent Jeff Lock. You're down here, really, hunting hurricanes in a new way. You were able to follow this storm all the way for your Web site, HurricaneNow.com?
JEFF LOCK, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: HurricaneNow.com.
It sort of un-tethers you, like -- it was a great piece that you just had in terms of behind the scenes. What we can do, is get on the road and stream our video out. So, we can actually chase the storm, which we did up through Alabama.
COOPER: And you were able to stay on, streaming the video pretty much the whole way?
LOCK: Well, we had some glitches along the way, but pretty well. It did -- it was a great test.
COOPER: What surprised you most about this storm? I mean, you've covered so many hurricanes?
LOCK: Well, tight core, so, you know, it wasn't a huge storm. I mean, Ivan, a much bigger storm, did a lot more damage. But, the switching the track: I mean, it was a storm that was blowing up and then the track shifts.
COOPER: And it was very fast-moving. I mean, 18 miles-per-hour when it hit around here.
COOPER: Exactly. And that, in terms of -- but even at 18 miles- an-hour when we're traveling along with it, you can get out ahead of it and you can have it come to you. Then, you can loop back around. It's fascinating.
COOPER: How many hits were you getting during the storm. I mean, at the height? Or what was your biggest -- I mean, how many people were watching?
LOCK: Well, there were some bandwidth issues that we wanted to be careful about, because we were putting it all out free and at some point, we'll charge for the service, but -- so, we wanted to keep the bandwidth down, but we had a lot of attention.
COOPER: HurricaneNow.com.
LOCK: You know, the Net explodes when there's a hurricane. It's amazing.
COOPER: Because people -- I mean, it's fascinating why people are interested in watching a storm. I mean, it's sort of a whole range of different things going on.
LOCK: You've got the geek. You've got the weather nuts. You've got people that just want to see what some people call weather porn.
COOPER: I've got to tell you: I've become one of those geeks.
LOCK: I've always been one of those geeks. It's great and it's just, you know, wonderful to see that. And -- you know, what people do. They put CNN on. They put the Weather Channel on the back button. They've got a computer screen up with about four browsers open. So, they're getting data and they're getting everything.
COOPER: Right. And now HurricaneNow.com.
LOCK: HurricaneNow.com. Tune us in, if you can.
COOPER: Thanks very much. I hope I don't see you again, because if I do see you again this means there's going to be another hurricane.
All right, Jeff. Thanks very much.
A lot more ahead as we continue our special coverage from Pensacola. We're going to follow one man on his long journey home to see if his house survived.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And welcome back. We are live in Pensacola. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks very much for joining us.
You know, the last 24 hours, for an awful lot of people -- for too many people here in Florida -- has been one of fear and a lot of questions: Did their house survive? Are their family members OK?
CNN photographer and editor and producer Bob Crowley followed one man by the name of Roger, as he made a long walk home.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROGER, FLORIDA RESIDENT: We're on our way back to see what the damage consists of at this time.
Next, I'll walk down two miles and see if I've got a home left. I have been here since 1993, through seven of these hurricanes. I'm in the last place on the end of this thing.
I'm optimistic. It had no damage in Ivan; had no damage in Opal; had no damage in any of them, yet. I'm very protected where I live.
See, this pole is broke off and the transformer's laying on the ground. I think it feeds only the security lights. It's not a main feed, but it could be warm. This is new damage. This one was damaged previously and not occupied. That's a boat washed ashore from the other side.
Hello, this is Roger. The road is open, less power poles down. There doesn't appear to be any major damage.
No one has been in this one yet. There's no tracks.
Most of the decks are flat and level. Other than a little debris, our pool is OK. We can clean that up and swim tonight. We moved everything upstairs. We don't have any electricity. Looks great. Yes, I probably will stay here tonight.
I have an attitude that if the things were built, they can be rebuilt. If you are going to live on a beach, don't get too materialistic with what you have in your house. Learn that if it's gone, it's gone. And that's the attitude that I have and I guess keeps me sane when I have to put these places back together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Probably a good attitude to have in Florida these days, with so many hurricanes hitting this state. Let's check in with Erica Hill to find out what other headlines are happening right now. Erica, what's going on?
HILL: Hey, Anderson.
We're going to start out with the -- first with the latest opinion poll. It's a bit of a mixed bag for President Bush. Of the roughly 1,000 people asked in a CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll: 49 percent approve of the president's job performance. Now, that's up three percentage points from the end of June. At the same time, the number of Americans who believe the war in Iraq has made the U.S. less safe from terrorism jumped to 54 percent. That's a dramatic increase from 39 percent in a poll conducted less than two weeks ago. That was before the London terror bombings.
Cape Canaveral, Florida, now. Countdown to lift-off for Space Shuttle Discovery. Wednesday's takeoff will mark NASA's first human space flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster. The spacecraft disintegrated over Texas, killing all seven astronauts.
In Conrad, Montana, the man accused of plotting to abduct David Letterman's young son now faces prison time. Prosecutors say Kelly Frank agreed to a plea deal under which the kidnapping charge is dropped, but other charges including theft remain. Frank reportedly planned to kidnap Letterman's 16-month-old son from the family's Montana ranch in the belief that he could extort $5 million ransom.
And in China, not just once, but three times: That's how often skate boarder Danny Way rolled down a massive ramp and jumped across the Great Wall of China. He revved up to nearly 50 mile-an-hour to jump the 61-foot gap, becoming the first person to clear the ancient fortification without any motorized aid.
Isn't that crazy?
COOPER: Wow. Amazing.
HILL: And that looks like it hurt.
COOPER: Don't try that at home, though.
HILL: Yes, right. Don't try that at home.
COOPER: Erica Hill, don't try that at home.
HILL: I won't, my half-pipe is so much smaller.
COOPER: Your what?
HILL: My half-pipe.
COOPER: Oh, were you using a little skate boarding lingo there?
HILL: You know. I just like to keep you on your toes. Surprise you.
COOPER: All right. That's how old I am and uncool. Half-pipe -- I'm like: She smokes? What?
All right. Erica Hill, thanks very much, from HEADLINE NEWS.
You know, while Hurricane Dennis was hitting here, hurricane of a very different kind, a political kind was hitting Washington. Revelations now that Karl Rove -- confirmation that Karl Rove was the source or at least one of the sources for Matt cooper of "Time" magazine in revealing the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA undercover operative.
A lot of details to this story. We're going to follow it in a moment with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.
But first, take a look at what happened at a White House press conference today. Scott McClellan getting some tough questions about this revelation.Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: You stood at that podium and said that Karl Rove was not involved. And now we find out that he spoke about -- that Joseph Wilson's wife. So, don't you owe the American public a fuller explanation? Was he involved or was he not? Because contrary to what you told the American people, he did indeed talk about his wife, didn't he?
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: David, there will be a time to talk about this, but now is not the time to talk about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now is not the time. Well, Suzanne Malveaux takes a look at it for us -- Suzanne.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush's top political adviser Karl Rove was the secret source for "Time" magazine reporter Matt Cooper in a story that eventually outed a covert CIA agent. But questions remain as to whether any laws were broken. In e-mails first published in "Newsweek" and Monday's "Washington Post," Cooper tells his boss he spoke to Rove on "double, super secret background" regarding Joe Wilson. The ambassador said he'd been sent by the CIA to investigative whether Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Africa.
According to Cooper's e-mail, Rove tried to warn him off some of Wilson's assertions. "It was KR [Karl Rove] said Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD [weapons of mass destruction] issues, who authorized the trip."
Her name, Valerie Plame, was first reported by columnist Robert Novak in July, 2003, three days after Cooper's conversation with Rove.
Since then, a federal prosecutor has been investigating whether anyone knowingly blew her cover, which is a federal crime.
Last August, Rove told CNN...
KARL ROVE, WHITE HOUSE SR. POLITICAL ADVISER: I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name.
MALVEAUX: Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, backs that claim today, telling CNN, "A fair reading of Cooper's e-mail suggests that what Karl was trying to do was to discourage "Time" from reporting allegations that proved to be false, not to encourage them to publish anything about Wilson's wife."
Luskin says Rove never identified Plame by name, nor did he know she was a covert operative.
When Rove's name first came up as part of the CIA leak investigation, the White House was seemingly quick to clear him and other administration officials, Elliot Abrams and Lewis Libby.
MCCLELLAN: I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, those individuals assured me they were not involved in this.
MALVEAUX: But now the White House has changed its tact.
MCCLELLAN: Those overseeing the investigation expressed a preference to us that we not get into commenting on the investigation while it's ongoing.
MALVEAUX (on camera): Last year, Mr. Bush promised to fire anyone caught leaking, saying that if the person violated law, they will be taken care of. So far, there's no evidence to show that Karl Rove knew that Valerie Plame's identity was being protected.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: We'll see what the White House has to say about this tomorrow, if they have anything to say about it at all. Coming up next, our special coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis. Rick Sanchez is going to show you Hurricane One, the mobile unit he was using even at the height of the storm, driving around, bringing live pictures that no one else had. We'll be right back with a special look at the vehicle.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, some of the most remarkable images from Hurricane Dennis were brought to us by CNN's Rick Sanchez, who was using technology we don't think has ever been used before in a hurricane.
Take a look at some of what he shot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As we watch the waves off the Gulf Coast pound the shore, we are setting out to cover a hurricane as it's never been covered before.
Just last year from this same beach, I reported on Hurricane Ivan. But we couldn't report on the move. We were stuck in a fixed position.
This time, we'll use a specialized antenna, developed for CNN's Iraq war coverage. Instead of waiting for the storm to come to us, we will go into and move with the storm.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Rick, it's Soledad, can you hear me?
SANCHEZ: At first, the process is far from smooth. Sending audio and video from a moving vehicle seems even more difficult than we imagined. Bouncing my video and my voice off of a satellite beamed into the CNN Center in Atlanta, and then to the one in New York. It was a mess at first.
(on camera): I guess we froze up.
(voice-over): Finally, the problem is fixed, and we broadcast the first video while driving through what is now a practically deserted main highway as Hurricane Dennis begins to come ashore.
As we drive west along the coast from Panama City to Pensacola, just before the Alabama state line, where the eye of the storm is expected to come ashore, we see the beginning of Dennis's wrath. Trees, one after another, are toppled by a combination of hurricane- force wind gusts and a soggy and saturated ground.
(on camera): It's now about a quarter to 2:00 Eastern Time, and we are starting to see the very first signs of severe damage. We are off of Highway 98, just off of Destin, Florida, in the Panhandle. We are already starting to see -- usually, where it happens first, gas stations like this. You are seeing now that the actual pumps are starting to fall over.
(voice-over): The stoplights are yanked off power cords and appear to be hanging by just a wire. They dangle above the intersection as if to serve as a warning that the path through and to Dennis will be filled with obstacles.
(on camera): What's going on here is that the ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, is breaching the road. You can look down here and see, I'm standing on the pavement. I'm standing on the highway right now, and my feet are covered.
(voice-over): The only way around is to double back inland and go north through Crestview, where we've just learned a roof has been torn off a motel with 100 people inside.
(on camera): You can see the roof has fallen on top of a power line, pulled down the power line, and pulled down the transformer.
(voice-over): The EconoLodge is destroyed. Luckily, all 100 people are evacuated to a nearby shelter.
As night falls, what appears to be a power line on the road ends up being much more. Here, a firsthand account broadcast from inside Hurricane One.
(on camera): You know what it is? We just discovered, this is a power pole. This is a power pole down with a transformer crashed on the pavement.
(voice-over): We drove and broadcast for 15 hours, while in the midst of some of the most powerful winds and rain that a hurricane can muster. Hurricane One, as the name implies, has become a first.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Amazing technology. Let me show you how it works real quick. You go up here and you see that there's an antenna inside that bubble. If you can get a shot of that. The antenna goes around and around, and it's always locked in onto a satellite. So...
COOPER: No matter where it goes.
SANCHEZ: No matter where it goes, something that you normally wouldn't be able to do. We used this in the war in Iraq, but this -- under more difficult -- you want to see how it works?
COOPER: Yeah, sure.
SANCHEZ: Stand right there.
COOPER: All right.
SANCHEZ: You stand right there. If you could, Stu, we got Stu and we got Mike, who's driving, and Terrence back there, the genius engineer. Go ahead and move the car forward five feet. The camera should be locked on Anderson. Did the signal stay?
COOPER: That's amazing. And no matter where you move, it stays on. SANCHEZ: You're on camera, the car is moving. Normally if a person were at home and they were working with their satellite, you know, you move it, you get a little bit of a storm, you lose the signal.
This thing can actually travel at speeds that cars go in, and withstand winds of up to 80, 90 miles an hour. So of course we had to cheat and find some shelter from time to time to really make it work.
COOPER: Amazing. Rick, thanks, amazing technology.
Thanks very much. Great coverage as well from yesterday.
Thanks very much for watching this special edition of 360. Our special primetime coverage, though, continues right now with Paula Zahn. Hey, Paula.
PAULA ZAHN, HOST, "PAULA ZAHN NOW": Hey, Anderson. Thanks so much.
END
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