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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Latest from Florida & All Points in Path of Hurricane Charley
Aired August 13, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again from Atlanta. I'm Miles O'Brien in for Aaron Brown.
The page is short tonight and the program is long to bring you the latest from Florida and all points still in the path of Hurricane Charley, which looked for all the world last night to be a medium- sized follow-up to a mild tropical storm. Instead, it's turned into deadly serious business, so we'll get right down to it.
A whip around Florida tonight, correspondents all over the map in the peninsula, first CNN's Gary Tuchman in Daytona Beach, Gary a headline from there.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, thousands of Florida residents and tourists evacuated Florida's Atlantic coast to stay away from Hurricane Charley's arrival. Instead, to their surprise here in Daytona Beach, they will be here for its departure -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Susan Candiotti in Orlando, another spot where people thought they might have been safe, maybe not, a headline there please, Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, the eastern edge of the storm just passed through. We're waiting for the western to come through and already at least half of the city is without power but so far no reports of serious injuries.
O'BRIEN: And on to the city that dodged a major bullet, Tampa, CNN's Anderson Cooper there for us tonight, Anderson a headline from there please.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, Tampa may have dodged a bullet but we have just received word from state emergency officials that Punta Gorda, the town about an hour south of here has been hit hard, the hospital receiving a lot of casualties. Search and rescue operations will be underway tonight. More than 1,000 National Guard troops have been deployed to that region -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Anderson Cooper, we'll be back with you shortly.
Finally, to the weather center, CNN's Orelon Sidney for the latest snapshot of Charley and the latest on where things are headed, Orelon a headline from you please.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The winds gusted to 105 miles an hour in Orlando as the storm system made its pass through. You can see the center now is to the northeast of Orlando heading towards Interstate 95 between Titusville and Daytona Beach, still going to be a very busy night -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Orelon, back with all of you as we go along tonight.
Also tonight, weather and circumstances permitting, a tense and difficult day for American forces in Iraq as fighting in Najaf makes way for ceasefire talks but no sign the crisis there is anywhere over.
Also, this is an anniversary of another kind of disaster. We'll look back at what happened a year ago this weekend, the blackout that dumped a huge chunk of country and Canada into the dark. A year later what have we learned about what went wrong and could it happen again, all that and more we hope.
But now, back to Charley, the storm that took a sudden turn for the worse. Right now the eye is located just on the far side of Orlando bearing down on Daytona Beach, the storm packing winds in excess of 80 miles an hour. Reports of a lot of damage in the Kissimmee area.
As we just saw, the storm is heading north and east, more easterly than anticipated on a path that could take it up the Georgia coast into the Carolinas and points north from there. It has a lot of people in a lot of places very concerned tonight. The immediate story remains in Florida, at this moment, the east central portion of the state.
We'll start by heading back to CNN's Gary Tuchman in Daytona Beach -- Gary.
TUCHMAN: Well, Miles, the weather has greatly deteriorated here in the last ten minutes. We come to you from the top of a waterslide platform behind a hotel next to the world famous Daytona Beach to give you a good look at what's going on here.
This is a very, very unusual hurricane because normally when we cover them we watch the hurricane over the water and then wait for it to reach land. Well, that's what we did on the Gulf Coast but here in Daytona Beach they're watching it on the land come to them and they expect it will exit here in about an hour or so.
But what's unusual about this hurricane is normally when we go to hotels when there are hurricanes we are the only ones there, the members of the news media. These hotels here in Daytona Beach are virtually 100 percent filled because people decided to evacuate from central Florida, from western Florida to come here. They thought this would be the safest place.
So, it is basically like a hurricane party right now. Up until a short time ago there were people on the beach near the pool. Now they're all on their balconies in the hotels yelling at us as we speak to you right now but at least they're safer in the hotels than they are outside. The fact is in about an hour they're expecting the peak of the storm, what's left of the storm, winds of at least 100 miles per hour to come through here in Daytona Beach. The last time they took a direct hit from a hurricane was 1979, a quarter century ago when Hurricane David came back.
In 1960, August of 1960, a long time ago, a month and a half before I was born, Hurricane Donna did the same thing that Hurricane Charley did, came through the Gulf of Mexico and then exited Daytona Beach in the Atlantic Ocean, so this is repeat from 44 years ago. Right now the power is still on. We don't know how long that will last -- Miles, back to you.
O'BRIEN: Well, Gary, you mentioned sort of a carnival party atmosphere there but of course it's deadly serious business. How much concern do you have that folks there are not taking this seriously enough?
TUCHMAN: Well, we have found in the last 15 minutes they've started to take it seriously. We see people in the restaurants below where the camera is right now, in their rooms on the balconies looking out at us. There really were a lot of people out on the beach up until 15 minutes ago. Now it seems very quiet.
The only thing we see moving right now are the police patrol cars rolling up and down the beach. That's not unusual because here in Daytona Beach you're allowed to drive on the beach, not tonight though, only the police cars.
O'BRIEN: I think that's probably some very good advice. Do you have any sense yet about any indications of damage, flying debris, that kind of thing?
TUCHMAN: Right now I would bet there's no damage yet because it really just started to pick up. We've seen garbage cans rolling around. We're seeing some of the light posts bending and that's why we're staying a safe distance away from them because that's one of the things we see during hurricanes, the most dangerous thing for people who linger near the beach, the big light posts that stand up there.
But right now it's too early to know if there's been any damage but I don't think at this point there has been, at least in the beach area where we're standing here in Daytona.
O'BRIEN: And, have you had much of a chance to talk to some of these people who went from the frying pan to the fire, so to speak, thinking they were headed to Daytona for safety?
TUCHMAN: Well, that's what's fascinating about it. I mean there's lot of small children here and their parents, and these are good parents, they wanted to get away from the Gulf Coast of Florida. They wanted to get away from central Florida.
They said the safest place to be in this state will be on the Atlantic Coast because this is the hurricane that's coming in the Gulf. Most of the hurricanes that they know of come in the Atlantic Ocean.
So they figured, OK, we'll be on the Atlantic. We know it's coming from the Gulf. We'll be safe. And here they are, the hurricane has followed them and many of these people are just dumbfounded that that happened.
O'BRIEN: All right, Gary Tuchman, an odd twist. You stay close and stay safe there. We'll be back with you a little bit later in the program.
The conventional wisdom for surviving hurricanes is supposed to be simple, as Gary alluded to. If you live beside the sea, a big storm is headed your way, safety usually lies inland away from the warm water that gives a hurricane its strength.
Sorry, Charley isn't providing any easy escape routes for Floridians lucky enough to live on the coast in the first place, which brings us to Orlando where the storm is no Mickey Mouse affair.
Here is CNN's Susan Candiotti and the storm really has just passed overhead just a little while ago. Susan, what did you see and hear as it happened?
CANDIOTTI: That's right. One of the worst storms I've seen in quite some time. We had heard about, as you said, heard from Orelon that they had wind gusts of up to 105. I talked to the mayor or Orlando, Buddy Dyer. He says that they have clocked sustained winds of 70 miles per hour with gusts of up to 85. That's in the city of Orlando about roughly almost two million people here, including a lot who evacuated here from the west coast.
This (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the vacation capital of the world at this time or certainly one of the most popular but a lot of people did come here from the west coast of Florida. I talked with some of them staying at this particular hotel. They came over here from the Sarasota area and now they're holed up here.
They are talking about an estimate half of the city without power right now. I talked to some power officials not long ago and they said that about at least 65,000 or so customers are out. They do have linemen here from as far away as Atlanta, Georgia already in place and ready to go out and assess the damage once the winds get down to 35 miles per hour.
But remember, Miles, at this stage we went through the harshest part of the storm, the eastern edge. Wind gusts were quite powerful. We saw a lot of things flying by us here, lamp posts ripped out, trees uprooted and, in fact, the western edge should not be as bad, so they have to wait for that to pass before some of the repairs and at least the earliest damage surveys begin.
We do know that at least 5,000 people evacuated to local shelters here. They have about a half dozen of them, including a couple of people who were on two Greyhound busses that were forced off the road.
We also got reports of what appears to be at the very least the first wind related fatality, a traffic accident that happened a few hours ago. That involved a moving van truck and a car that was traveling along the Beeline Expressway, if you're familiar with this area.
The truck apparently, according to officials, the Florida Highway Patrol, blew over from one, the westerly path of that highway into the eastbound lanes and crushed a car that had inside a family. Eight people in all injured. The mother, the father and four children in the passenger car, I'm told by officials, were all buckled in.
Unfortunately that wasn't enough to save one little girl. We are told she is young, only four or five years old. The rest of the people that were in the van and the car are in serious but stable condition.
Beyond that, the mayor tells me, they had only one report of a car driving into a convenience store by accident. Other than that, he thinks so far they have survived pretty well, a lot of downed power lines, a lot of downed trees and, of course, they will be making those damage assessments to see how they did with the flooding. They were also expecting a lot of that -- back to you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Susan, of course, you're in the ultimate tourist town. The theme parks were long closed before this came through but, of course, you've got...
CANDIOTTI: That's right.
O'BRIEN: ...a town full of tourists who don't necessarily understand much about hurricanes nor do they have a hurricane plan. Do you have the sense that the hotels were able to kind of coral people and get them into safe places?
CANDIOTTI: I can tell you where we are, yes, they did that. They had a very well organized plan. They gathered people into a ballroom, if you wanted to be there and not be in your room, safety in numbers.
A lot of people took advantage of that. Until a short time ago a lot of them were watching television in the lobby area. They had a lot of food and this is one of the rare locations, I am told, that didn't lose power in this particular area of the city.
O'BRIEN: And was there much damage, do you know yet, much damage to those theme parks? They're certainly very exposed, aren't they?
CANDIOTTI: Yes. I asked the mayor about that and he said so far they have had no reports and so far they've also had no reports of loss of power at various hospitals. Of course, they do have emergency generators and the like, only some fire stations so far.
But, for example, where we are they made out pretty well. Again, Miles, they'll get a good idea of that once the western edge of the storm passes through they'll be able to get a better idea of that.
O'BRIEN: And, Susan, you are one that has a lot of notches in your belt, so to speak, when it comes to covering storms and, at the top, you said this is as bad as you have seen or among the worst. That's quite a statement...
CANDIOTTI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE.)
O'BRIEN: ...considering where you are in central Florida. Can you relate it to a storm we remember?
CANDIOTTI: Well, I must say the one last year, Isabel, is freshest in my mind. That, of course, was far more serious than that and, of course, that was on the outer banks of North Carolina where we were positioned at the time.
Clearly, this is a lot different because we are inland but it just goes to show you, you often think that, oh come on we're in the middle of the state of Florida, how bad could it be? But, those winds of 70 miles per hour can clearly do a lot of damage. They do have reports, I forgot to mention, of at least three collapsed homes. That's not too bad from the mayor given what they had to work with so far.
O'BRIEN: All right, and we emphasize so far on that point, of course. Daybreak will tell a lot more.
CANDIOTTI: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Susan Candiotti, please stay safe there and we'll be checking back with you as well.
Last night we spent a lot of time focusing on Tampa, which at the time was the predicted bulls eye, then a much weaker storm, but even at that strength there was a lot of concern about what would happen if Charley arrived smack dab in the middle of the Tampa Bay area, home to about two and a half million people but Charley wandered off the course projected by the National Hurricane Center and we can almost hear the collective sigh of relief in Tampa Bay.
Anderson Cooper is on the shores of Tampa Bay tonight -- Anderson.
COOPER: Miles, I definitely heard that sigh. Indeed, a lot of residents here holding their breath all day long. They are definitely exhaling tonight. You see some people already, some cars back on the road, people returning to the city.
The real story tonight seems to be about 60 miles south of here in the town Punta Gorda, a retirement community. We are getting some very disturbing reports coming in just now, state emergency officials telling us that the hospital in Punta Gorda is reporting many casualties.
We do not know, we do not have a number. We do not have any more description on that but they did say many casualties. Indeed, some 1,400, at least 1,400 National Guardsmen have been dispatched to that area and we are told there will be search and rescue operations going on tonight.
The other figure we have just received, some 700,000 Floridians out of power at this moment tonight. Much devastation further south of here. Of course, it was supposed to hit Tampa. So much of this is unpredictable.
The lesson, I suppose, for many Floridians will take away from this, despite all our technology, despite all the remarkable job of tracking this storm that meteorologists and people did at weather centers around the country, Mother Nature is still very unpredictable indeed. Take a look at the day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Early this morning, Hurricane Charley barreled through the Florida Keys, high waves, huge gusts of winds and heavy rains but early on no casualties reported. Further north, people on Florida's west coast were rushing to get ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are in a designated evacuation zone. You should make plans to evacuate immediately.
COOPER: Some chose to hit the road, like the hundreds of thousands who did so yesterday. Others, many of them tourists with nowhere else to go, sought refuge in shelters that were open statewide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It scares the hell out of me. You're looking at the map and it's -- when you're living on the coast you dream about someday a hurricane hitting us head on and, hello, here it is.
COOPER: In the early afternoon, the hurricane's outer bands hit the southwest coast of Florida as its strength grew. The National Hurricane Center upgraded Charley to a category four hurricane on a scale of five and public officials took to the airwaves to update their warnings.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This is not the time to be getting on the interstate. It is time to seek a safe place to be with family or friends inside of your region.
CRAIG FUGATE, DIR., FLORIDA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Our primary focus right now is you have to move now. You cannot delay. Your options are running out.
COOPER: But hurricanes are often unpredictable. Meteorologists expected its eye to hit the heavily populated and largely evacuated city of Tampa Bay but it suddenly veered right creating a new ground zero, the Fort Myers area.
At about 4:00 p.m., the hurricane center roared ashore at North Captiva Island. Walls of water pelted the coast as 145 mile an hour winds and heavy rains caused blackouts and flooding.
Further north, tropical storm Bonnie, pushed by Charley, pounded eastern North Carolina, leaving several dead, including an 18-month- old girl and more than 100 homeless.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: And, again, the story tonight seems to be 60 miles south of here, south of Tampa, in Punta Gorda, a retirement community where many people are said to be -- there are many casualties at the hospital and we have seen already devastation, houses destroyed, roofs torn off of houses, walls collapsed. Of course, what will happen at first light, what will the scene be? We will have cameras there, of course, and bring you that story live -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Anderson, obviously we're talking about sketchy details here right now. Do we have any idea of the number of casualties? We do know this that Punta Gorda was right there in the swath, the bulls eye so to speak as it came across Captiva and then into Collier Bay, but any idea of the numbers and the extent of these casualties?
COOPER: I really wish we did. We have been trying to find out something more specific. All we know is this report from state emergency officials telling us, telling CNN that the hospital has received a lot of casualties.
The problem, Miles, as you well know, is that a lot of people prepared for the storm to hit Tampa. Tampa was largely evacuated. There was a mandatory evacuation. A lot of people moved inland to Orlando.
But places like Punta Gorda, places like Fort Myers, the people there thought, you know what, we're going to get some bad weather but the storm is going to go north of us. It didn't do that.
Late this afternoon it changed, went eastward, hit them directly and so they really only had an hour or two to suddenly decide, all right, now the storm's heading directly for us, what are we going to do?
A lot of them decided, all right, we're going to just hunker down in our homes, ride it out in the bathrooms, often the safest place in the house, or try to seek higher ground, stay with some friends or neighbors who maybe have a more secure house.
We are already hearing from some of those people, I talked to one man earlier tonight who was hiding in the bathroom of his home. His roof was ripped right off his home in Punta Gorda and we imagine that by tomorrow morning we will hear a lot of stories like that and, as I said, there are search and rescue operations going on right now -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: It certainly is a reminder of the limitations of our technology. We assume these predictions are dead on accurate and the fact is Mother Nature will surprise us. Anderson Cooper in Tampa, we'll get back with you a little bit later as well. Thank you very much.
And we do hope to hear from one of our affiliate reporters in Punta Gorda shortly. We're trying to get a signal together on that now. We hope to get some more information for you on the possibility that there might be some casualties there at a senior citizens residence of some kind. We'll keep you posted on that and we'll get you some more information as soon as we can.
Orelon Sidney is in the weather center. She's been there all day. She was there all last night. She'll be there all tonight. Orelon Sidney works very hard at these times and we do appreciate it. What's the latest, Orelon? Where should folks be most concerned about this storm right now?
SIDNEY: Well, right now, of course, it's moving through the eastern part of Florida. You can see that it's almost headed straight up Interstate 4, having made a pass through Orlando. They did report 105 mile an hour wind gusts at the National Weather Service office there, headed now toward Interstate 95, some of those strongest rain bands just impacting that area.
Daytona beach is right here at the intersection between 4 and 95. Titusville is here and it looks like it's going to go right off the coast just to the south of Daytona Beach, so those folks need to watch out.
The very latest I have the storm is moving more rapidly now, north, northeast at 25 miles an hour, moving -- the winds, excuse me, are down to 90 miles an hour. That makes it now a category one storm.
They're expecting a four to seven foot storm surge in northern Florida and Georgia and they are starting to see the storm surge in the west subside now. That was up to 15 feet in some areas, I have had some reports so this area now much improving.
We still have a big tornado watch box in effect until 2:00 a.m. and we have had numerous reports of tornadoes, at least six, since this storm system went ashore.
Now, along the west coast, the hurricane warnings no longer in effect but we still have a hurricane warning in effect from Coco Beach through Jacksonville up to Charleston and Cape Lookout. A hurricane warning means that you can see hurricane conditions within 24 hours.
The track now looks a heck of a lot like the one Donna took after it moved through Florida in 1960. It's expected to do a lot like Donna and head up the coast, especially where places that jut out into the water. That's like Cape Hatteras, even northward towards Long Island, perhaps Cape Cod could see some brush from this particular storm as it moves northward.
And, I'll tell you something, Miles. Over the past 24 hours, we've learned why the National Hurricane Center puts out a forecast that's in the shape of a cone and not in the shape of a straight line because it gives you a margin for "error."
We're not perfect as far as getting these things done. You'd be amazed at how much we've improved over the past 40 years, since hurricane forecasting began in earnest when we developed satellites but things have gotten so much more advanced.
But, remember, whenever you see a hurricane forecast, don't necessarily look straight up the middle of it. Remember that there's a cone, there's a margin of error on each side and anybody within that cone area needs to be concerned and stay abreast of the latest conditions.
Still looking at some flood warnings and watches too issued up the east coast. We're going to see a lot more of this green stuff tomorrow -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Orelon, you were talking about that storm surge. When we were talking about, a lot about that all day today on the west coast. There was a big concern about that upwards of 15-foot storm surge.
I'm curious. As the storm goes across the state is it just the opposite? Does it kick the water away from the shore? Is there a reverse surge of some kind or does it cause flooding as well because of the way it cycles around?
SIDNEY: Well, it kind of depends on how you look at it. I'm going to advance my map here a couple of seconds and see if I can sort of help you out looking at that.
The big surge actually occurred here when the backside of the storm came through because look at how the bays are angled across the west coast. They're more kind of at a 45-degree angle.
So, when the storm came in you were initially getting winds coming in from the north and then northeast but the back edge of the storm, as you can see, dragged all of the water into the bay. So, it's the second half of the storm that really pulled in the storm surge. That's what's now starting to subside in the west.
In the east it's a whole different ballgame. As you work your way up the coast, the front edge of the storm is going to start pushing water inland in places like northern Florida and southern Georgia.
So, they're going to see most of their storm surge action tonight on the front edge of the storm and conditions improving tomorrow as the storm exits up the east coast. Hope that helped you out a little bit.
O'BRIEN: As always, Orelon, you explain it in such a crystal clear manner. I appreciate it and you, once again, stay close. We'll be back with you.
We'll have much more coverage of Hurricane Charley. In fact, we'll talk about the day after already with one woman who 12 years ago faced terrible devastation in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. We'll find out how she rebuilt.
And there are some other stories we're looking at. The war in Iraq, American forces control the majority of Najaf but not their quarry. The radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is urging his followers to fight to the death once again.
Also, a day after the bombshell by New Jersey Governor McGreevey, his opponents go on the offensive. "Leave office now" they say.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Twenty-four hours ago the Tampa Bay area looked like a sitting duck, forecasters predicting it would take a direct hit from Charley. The city and surrounding region emptied out. Many residents who had braced for the worst returned much sooner than expected however.
Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN DALLAS BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): There was a spring in Jack Bray's step as he walked out of the only storm shelter he's ever had to sleep in and when he pulled up in front of his unscathed home in Dunedin, Florida, it didn't take long for his sense of humor to come roaring back.
JACK BRAY, DUNEDIN RESIDENT: Home sweet mobile home. It's still here. That's the good news. The bad news is it's still here. No, I'm only kidding.
LAVANDERA: Bray was one of more than 16,000 people in Florida who hunkered down in shelters to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Charley. What a relief for him and his neighbors who live just west of Tampa to see the category four hurricane miss its original target.
BRAY: I was anxious. I was nervous, fearful. Looking at the map, I could see that sucker coming right at us. It was dangerous. We did the right thing by leaving.
LAVANDERA: Bray moved to this part of Florida from New York ten years ago and, as he finished his short walk around his home, the feisty retiree was happy to see that not much had changed since he left 24 hours ago.
BRAY: Same old, same old. For the first time, that's a very warm sounding expression to me, same old, same old.
LAVANDERA: There's nothing quite like a brush with disaster to make you appreciate the simple things in life.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dunedin, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Yolanda Ulrich knows what an awful lot of people have been going through tonight but perhaps more important she knows what lies ahead for those who must pick up the pieces after a devastating natural disaster. She, herself, weathered Hurricane Andrew all right. Her house, like thousands of others south of Miami, didn't do so well.
Ms. Ulrich is the editor of "The South Dade News Leader." We're pleased to have her with us tonight. Ms. Ulrich, good to have you with us. YOLANDA ULRICH, EDITOR, "THE SOUTH DADE NEWS LEADER": Hi. Thanks for inviting me.
O'BRIEN: All right. What was it like the day after Andrew for you?
ULRICH: Well, myself and tens of thousands of others we had no idea what lay ahead. In fact, had we, we might have just picked up and gone. We've often...
O'BRIEN: Really, it was that bad?
ULRICH: The rebuilding was much worse than the storm. The storm took about three, four hours to do its dirty work and then we spent, some of us, years trying to just get back where we were before the storm.
O'BRIEN: And what were the big obstacles? Were they problems with insurance or were there other things?
ULRICH: Well, actually you heard a lot of horror stories. There were insurance problems. Some people had no problems at all. There would be the problems of rebuilding, trying to find contractors to rebuild.
All of us, you have to realize that there were hundreds of thousands of people who had no place to live, no place to work and we all wanted the same services at the same time.
O'BRIEN: Yes, well that, yes and I can imagine, of course I'm sure a lot of contractors showed up at your door but then you have the problem of finding out who are the unsavory ones too.
ULRICH: Well, that's true and however down in Homestead pretty quickly there were agencies that did come in to help us but I kind of put my rebuilding on the back burner because I was concerned frankly, and I don't mean to sound like Joan of Arc, but I was really concerned with the newspaper and getting the news out to the people in our community.
O'BRIEN: I just wanted to point out some of the video just so folks know that we're looking at the devastation following Andrew.
ULRICH: OK.
O'BRIEN: And I was down there a few days after Andrew and one thing you didn't get on the television was just the tremendous far reaching extent of it. You're driving on the interstate, every roof being off hundreds of houses quite literally. Being a part of that on one hand could be helpful, because there are so many people in the same boat. Or is that being too, a little too Pollyanna?
ULRICH: No, it's true. I've often said I learned a lot of lessons. Andrew taught me a lot of lessons and I wish that I had the opportunity -- well, this sounds really morbid. But I wish I had the opportunity to share those lessons with other people because you do learn how to survive.
For a long time, we kept referring to ourselves as victims of Andrew. And about a year or two later, a lot of us said, we're not victims, we're survivors. And as a survivor, we have an opportunity to really help others. I feel for the people in, over in Tampa and the Gulf coast. A lot of them have no idea what it's going to take. They're in for a rough time. And I would suggest accepting the help. There are many of us that go through life that really don't have to ask for help very often. And it's very hard to put yourself in a situation where you have to say, now I need some help. And where can I go? But I was very lucky. I had something to rebuild. I could tell you many, many stories of colleagues and friends and neighbors who had nothing to rebuild. They went home and found steps. They found no house. And I'm not exaggerating. That is the truth. Andrew was a landmark. Andrew was a life-altering experience.
O'BRIEN: There were so many facets to it. Among the things that I recall very distinctly was the discovery that many of the homes down there, thrown up in recent years, didn't meet any of the codes for hurricanes. And that had to just really create a huge wellspring of anger down there.
ULRICH: It was anger. It was disappointment. And very frankly, I'm not sure what's even happening today. I see construction by the tens of thousands going up in the same area that was totally leveled. And it concerns me, and it worries me. Frankly, after Andrew and I'm a native which is a native Miamian, which is somebody my age, that's something to say. But I can tell you that sometimes I think that we really should not be living there which I know is a ridiculous statement. But when you try to deal with mother nature on that kind of -- when she gets on a rampage, we really do not belong there at times.
O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this -- what is it like having gone through what you went through for you and those who went through similar situations, hearing about another storm like this? Does it bring back terrible memories? Does it make you jittery, sad? What emotions do you have?
ULRICH: I can tell you what happens. The beginning of June, you wonder why you're feeling so lousy, why there's that pit in your stomach. It doesn't even take a storm. Then you realize, well, guess what, we're in hurricane season. And you watch the channels every time a little blip comes off of Africa. You think, good grief, is this going to be another one and you watch. And you are glued to the channel. You are glued to the television. It becomes an obsession. And it's not that you're afraid of dying in this thing. I think you're afraid of what's going to face you afterwards. And you live with that until October. And then you think, wow, maybe I can now get on with my life. And then you stand here and you wonder, why do I do this? Why do I do this every year? You do it because this is where you live. This is where you work.
O'BRIEN: You do it because you go to the beach and see that view once again Yolanda.
ULRICH: You do it because in February it's glorious. That's why.
O'BRIEN: All right, Yolanda, excellent interview. I appreciate you sharing some of your words of wisdom.
ULRICH: Well, thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: Unfortunately, I think folks who need it most can't hear it because of lack of power but we wish you well.
ULRICH: And I tell you, I'm praying for those people believe me and those aren't just words, I mean it.
O'BRIEN: All right. Yolanda Ulrich, thank you very much.
ULRICH: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: We are getting a little ahead of ourselves here, talking about what lies in the wake of a hurricane. After all the storm is still raging. It is moving up the Florida peninsula, heading who knows where for sure ultimately. Joe Bastardi knows, maybe not for sure but as well as anyone. He is on the night watch with Accuweather in State College, Pennsylvania. Good to have you with us.
JOE BASTARDI, Accuweather.COM: Well, it's good to be with you and let me tell you folks all over up and down the coastline, we are in a pattern similar to the '40s, '50s and early '60s, where this is something we're going to have to deal with the overall weather pattern that's going on now. The current movement of Charley is rapidly to the north-northeast. It's going to be back out over the Atlantic by 1:00 this morning. The next land fall is South Carolina or perhaps lower North Carolina coast, anywhere from Charleston to Cape Fear, probably as a category two hurricane, sometime between noon and 3:00 tomorrow and then it continues north-northeast.
We've been warning our clients since yesterday by the way about this feared east turn and the explosive development. As a matter of fact, Accuweather.com clients, we were talking to the folks in the Carolinas this morning, warning them that this could be a hurricane, perhaps even a category 2 hurricane when it hits. And sure enough, now we see that this particular track is further off to the east.
O'BRIEN: What do you mean by explosive development? What is that all about?
BASTARDI: Well, what we did was we told our clients -- it's even on our Web site, that we were worried that this hurricane could deepen rapidly once away from Cuba. And the reason why was because of the fact that the storm system itself was in such an area loaded for bear. Let's remember what Lilly and Isadore (ph) did in the southeast Gulf just a couple of years ago. And what's fascinating about those two storms is, they managed to somehow or the other weaken before they hit the United States. But both of them went to cat fours in the southeast Gulf just a couple of years ago. That area is loaded for bear this year given the overall weather pattern.
O'BRIEN: All right. Loaded for bear, Joe Bastardi with the Accuweather folks in Pennsylvania. Thanks very much, appreciate it.
BASTARDI: My pleasure.
O'BRIEN: We're not done with hurricane Charley coverage. We also got a lot of other news to tell you about. Stay with us as NEWSNIGHT continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Some other news now. In Iraq, the on again, off again so-called final battle against Shiite rebels off again tonight, but barely. After nine days of fighting, rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr began the day with peace overtures and wrapped it up with new promises to fight to the death. How much of this amounts to bluff and how much he means we don't yet know. But wherever the situation goes from here, it is playing out on top of a giant powder keg with plenty of matches close by. Reporting from Baghdad for us tonight, CNN's John Vause.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An all-out offensive came down to this -- another tense standoff in Najaf amid negotiations for another cease-fire, exactly what all sides said would never happen. U.S. Marines say they control 80 percent of the city. But they do not control the Imam Ali mosque. One of the holist sites in Islam remains off limits now even to Iraqi troops. Inside, Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric behind the uprising, has apparently been wounded.
SAYYID HAZIM AL A-RAJI, MUQTADA AL-SADR AIDE (through translator): He was leading the battle in the Immam Ali mosque when a bomb fell and he was hit by three pieces of shrapnel. He received medical treatment and is now back leading the battle.
VAUSE: The U.S. military insists there has been no fighting close to the mosque.
CAPT. CARRIE BATSON, U.S. MARINES: It's extremely important to the local Iraqi security forces, as well as to U.S. military forces, that we minimize collateral damage to any holy sites.
VAUSE: The decision to pull back was made after a show of widespread anger across Iraq. In Fallujah, thousands rallied after Friday prayers. America is the enemy of God, they chanted. Angry crowds attacked the office of the Iraqi prime minister in Diwaniyah (ph) and after heavy clashes with the Mehdi militia, British troops pulled out of the center of Amara.
Thousands staged a sit-in outside the green zone in Baghdad. Rumors the mosque in Najaf had been bombed were accepted as fact. Iraqi police sent to control the crowd carried pictures of al-Sadr, his photo taped to their cars, his image displayed from the roof of a nearby police station. Their ability and will to confront the Mehdi militia is yet to be proved. Earlier this week, they handed over control of the local police station in Sadr City without a fight. Al- Sadr's men helping themselves to weapons, ammunition and body armor.
(on-camera): The religious and political backlash may have forced the Iraqi government into cease-fire negotiations, but there are now new risks. Once again, Muqtada al-Sadr has proved that he can defy U.S. and Iraqi authorities and survive, at least for now.
John Vause, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Some developing news from Florida's Gulf coast to tell you about. We want to go straight to Punta Gorda in Charlotte Bay and Glenn Selig who's a reporter with CNN affiliate WTVT in Tampa. Glenn, not a pretty picture there. We have some reports of casualties. What can you tell us about what happened there?
GLENN SELIG, WTVT REPORTER: It is not a pretty picture and all you have to do is look behind me to see that. That at one point was a business. And there were businesses like that scattered all throughout Charlotte County, as well as mobile homes and homes alike. This area has been devastated by this hurricane, which at one point packed winds in excess of 100 miles per hour, 140 miles per hour when you take into account the gusting winds. And as hurricane Charley came through here, it did quite a bit of destruction.
What's going on now is people are getting out and about and trying to survey the damage as best as they can considering the fact that the power is out to all of this area despite the fact that behind me the area is lit. That's because we're using generators. But once you venture outside of this area, it is dark except for headlights and some flashlights. There is a mobile home park not far from here, which is completely devastated. In fact, we rode out this storm with some of the folks who evacuated from that mobile home park. They got out because they were told to get out, that their mobile home could be destroyed. And indeed, that is what became of the entire park, complete destruction and that scene is being played out all over here. Back to you Miles.
O'BRIEN: Glenn, at the top of the newscast we reported that there were some casualties at the hospital there. Do you know anything about that, have been able to get any facts for us on that?
SELIG: I do not. It would not surprise me if there were casualties from this storm. We rode it out. It was devastating. But I cannot confirm the casualties that you asked about.
O'BRIEN: And what are you seeing now on the streets there? People returning to their homes already? And is there some concern about potentially looting, even?
SELIG: Absolutely, there is potential for some looting. In fact, a woman who stored her stuff in this area, this is a storage facility as well some businesses in this area, and she was concerned that because the back half of the building is completely gone, she was concerned that somebody would try and break in and loot. Not only is looting a concern in this area at this point, but also downed power lines and there are nails all over the place because of all the destruction and debris and it is nightfall. There's no electricity. So they are asking people to stay off the street. But in neighborhoods where people used to have homes, they are certainly going back to try and survey the damage as best they can and that scene is being repeated over and over again tonight.
O'BRIEN: Glenn Selig is with our affiliate WTVT. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Back with more NEWSNIGHT in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Now to politics as we continue to follow the progress and the aftermath of hurricane Charley, there is another story playing out in the country that we'll fit those in as time permits of course. Iraq continues to be the backdrop and the starring player in the presidential campaign. But today, the economy took center stage in Oregon. Both candidates were there. They didn't cross paths, but they did come close. Here's CNN's John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another day, another near miss on the shadow campaign. Two candidates so close, yet so far apart.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I overcame these economic problems because of well-timed tax cuts.
SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Under this administration, the tax burden of the wealthy has gone down, and the tax burden of the working American middle class has gone up.
KING: Oregon was the shared stage this day. Local stations in Portland mapping and tracking dueling events 11 miles apart. It's an increasingly familiar routine in the major battleground states. Kerry supporters preparing for their rally.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get a sense of somebody in person that you never get on the little boob tube.
KING: While in the same city at about the same time, the Republican faithful preparing to welcome the president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't let the other side outwork us.
KING: The president has the bigger plane. The challenger on this day, the bigger crowds and some hard ball help from his spouse.
TERESA HEINZ KERRY, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN KERRY: It is important to have a president who not only understands but actually enjoys complexity.
KING: Tax policy was the day's major debating point. Two campaigns with very different views of a new Congressional Budget Office study. Senator Kerry seized on this finding -- two-thirds of the tax cuts went to those earning more than $200,000 a year. KERRY: And guess what? Over the last four years, the wages of average Americans have gone down $1,600 on average.
KING: The Bush camp said everyone's taxes were lowered and the president said the biggest beneficiaries were families and small businesses.
BUSH: We ought not to play favorites with the tax relief plan. And you received relief. Did it help? I'm not a lawyer but it sounds like I am. I'm leading the witness.
KING: In the past week, the candidates almost crossed paths in Davenport, Iowa and campaigned within days, if not hours of each other, in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California, and Oregon.
(on-camera): With both campaigns saying the race will be settled in a dozen to perhaps 15 battleground states, look for this shadow campaigning to continue over the 80 campaign days left though perhaps not so much here on the west coast, unless the president improves his standing. He currently trails not only here in Oregon, but in Washington state and California as well.
John King, CNN, Portland, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Back with more NEWSNIGHT in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Hurricane Charley at one time a category 4 hurricane, making its way across Florida now. It has diminished in strength but it has made many places in Florida that should have been refuges, dangerous places indeed. CNN's Orelon Sydney has been watching it every step of the way. Where is Charley now and where is it headed -- Orelon.
SYDNEY: Well, it's headed offshore. It's starting to affect the outer barrier islands on the east coast with some of the heaviest squalls. Currently located 10 miles southwest of Daytona Beach. That's at the top of the hour, 29.1 north, 81.1 west. Moving north- northeast at 25 and the winds now down to 85 miles an hour which makes it a category 1 storm. Don't rule it out now though, because we still have the potential for some very gusty winds as well as tornadoes with this system.
The jet stream has pushed its way southward. We're going to set some record low temperatures in the deep south tonight But that's been the reason the storm has been pushing itself off to the east and northeast mainly today. It's going to continue to push it up along the coast. But look at the rainfall it's dropped. Thank goodness it was moving fast.
Look just north of Orlando, probably four inches of rain in some of these areas, perhaps locally even more. Many locations received well over an inch to two inches as the storm system moved through and these are just Doppler estimates and with tropical systems, the Doppler actually tends to under emphasize or under estimate the amount of rainfall. So we'll have to wait for some of those rainfall amounts to officially come in.
Still, the tornado watch box in effect for you until 2:00 a.m. The storm is moving off the coast, expected to work its way rapidly up the Atlantic by Saturday, should be on the border between Virginia and North Carolina. The storm may strengthen as it moves out over the Atlantic. We'll keep an eye on this one. We're back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: I'm Anderson Cooper live in Tampa, Florida. We continue to follow a developing story out of Punta Gorda, Florida. A number of casualties reported. We are not clear how many. We continue to follow the story. NEWSNIGHT, back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired August 13, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again from Atlanta. I'm Miles O'Brien in for Aaron Brown.
The page is short tonight and the program is long to bring you the latest from Florida and all points still in the path of Hurricane Charley, which looked for all the world last night to be a medium- sized follow-up to a mild tropical storm. Instead, it's turned into deadly serious business, so we'll get right down to it.
A whip around Florida tonight, correspondents all over the map in the peninsula, first CNN's Gary Tuchman in Daytona Beach, Gary a headline from there.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, thousands of Florida residents and tourists evacuated Florida's Atlantic coast to stay away from Hurricane Charley's arrival. Instead, to their surprise here in Daytona Beach, they will be here for its departure -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Susan Candiotti in Orlando, another spot where people thought they might have been safe, maybe not, a headline there please, Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, the eastern edge of the storm just passed through. We're waiting for the western to come through and already at least half of the city is without power but so far no reports of serious injuries.
O'BRIEN: And on to the city that dodged a major bullet, Tampa, CNN's Anderson Cooper there for us tonight, Anderson a headline from there please.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, Tampa may have dodged a bullet but we have just received word from state emergency officials that Punta Gorda, the town about an hour south of here has been hit hard, the hospital receiving a lot of casualties. Search and rescue operations will be underway tonight. More than 1,000 National Guard troops have been deployed to that region -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Anderson Cooper, we'll be back with you shortly.
Finally, to the weather center, CNN's Orelon Sidney for the latest snapshot of Charley and the latest on where things are headed, Orelon a headline from you please.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The winds gusted to 105 miles an hour in Orlando as the storm system made its pass through. You can see the center now is to the northeast of Orlando heading towards Interstate 95 between Titusville and Daytona Beach, still going to be a very busy night -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Orelon, back with all of you as we go along tonight.
Also tonight, weather and circumstances permitting, a tense and difficult day for American forces in Iraq as fighting in Najaf makes way for ceasefire talks but no sign the crisis there is anywhere over.
Also, this is an anniversary of another kind of disaster. We'll look back at what happened a year ago this weekend, the blackout that dumped a huge chunk of country and Canada into the dark. A year later what have we learned about what went wrong and could it happen again, all that and more we hope.
But now, back to Charley, the storm that took a sudden turn for the worse. Right now the eye is located just on the far side of Orlando bearing down on Daytona Beach, the storm packing winds in excess of 80 miles an hour. Reports of a lot of damage in the Kissimmee area.
As we just saw, the storm is heading north and east, more easterly than anticipated on a path that could take it up the Georgia coast into the Carolinas and points north from there. It has a lot of people in a lot of places very concerned tonight. The immediate story remains in Florida, at this moment, the east central portion of the state.
We'll start by heading back to CNN's Gary Tuchman in Daytona Beach -- Gary.
TUCHMAN: Well, Miles, the weather has greatly deteriorated here in the last ten minutes. We come to you from the top of a waterslide platform behind a hotel next to the world famous Daytona Beach to give you a good look at what's going on here.
This is a very, very unusual hurricane because normally when we cover them we watch the hurricane over the water and then wait for it to reach land. Well, that's what we did on the Gulf Coast but here in Daytona Beach they're watching it on the land come to them and they expect it will exit here in about an hour or so.
But what's unusual about this hurricane is normally when we go to hotels when there are hurricanes we are the only ones there, the members of the news media. These hotels here in Daytona Beach are virtually 100 percent filled because people decided to evacuate from central Florida, from western Florida to come here. They thought this would be the safest place.
So, it is basically like a hurricane party right now. Up until a short time ago there were people on the beach near the pool. Now they're all on their balconies in the hotels yelling at us as we speak to you right now but at least they're safer in the hotels than they are outside. The fact is in about an hour they're expecting the peak of the storm, what's left of the storm, winds of at least 100 miles per hour to come through here in Daytona Beach. The last time they took a direct hit from a hurricane was 1979, a quarter century ago when Hurricane David came back.
In 1960, August of 1960, a long time ago, a month and a half before I was born, Hurricane Donna did the same thing that Hurricane Charley did, came through the Gulf of Mexico and then exited Daytona Beach in the Atlantic Ocean, so this is repeat from 44 years ago. Right now the power is still on. We don't know how long that will last -- Miles, back to you.
O'BRIEN: Well, Gary, you mentioned sort of a carnival party atmosphere there but of course it's deadly serious business. How much concern do you have that folks there are not taking this seriously enough?
TUCHMAN: Well, we have found in the last 15 minutes they've started to take it seriously. We see people in the restaurants below where the camera is right now, in their rooms on the balconies looking out at us. There really were a lot of people out on the beach up until 15 minutes ago. Now it seems very quiet.
The only thing we see moving right now are the police patrol cars rolling up and down the beach. That's not unusual because here in Daytona Beach you're allowed to drive on the beach, not tonight though, only the police cars.
O'BRIEN: I think that's probably some very good advice. Do you have any sense yet about any indications of damage, flying debris, that kind of thing?
TUCHMAN: Right now I would bet there's no damage yet because it really just started to pick up. We've seen garbage cans rolling around. We're seeing some of the light posts bending and that's why we're staying a safe distance away from them because that's one of the things we see during hurricanes, the most dangerous thing for people who linger near the beach, the big light posts that stand up there.
But right now it's too early to know if there's been any damage but I don't think at this point there has been, at least in the beach area where we're standing here in Daytona.
O'BRIEN: And, have you had much of a chance to talk to some of these people who went from the frying pan to the fire, so to speak, thinking they were headed to Daytona for safety?
TUCHMAN: Well, that's what's fascinating about it. I mean there's lot of small children here and their parents, and these are good parents, they wanted to get away from the Gulf Coast of Florida. They wanted to get away from central Florida.
They said the safest place to be in this state will be on the Atlantic Coast because this is the hurricane that's coming in the Gulf. Most of the hurricanes that they know of come in the Atlantic Ocean.
So they figured, OK, we'll be on the Atlantic. We know it's coming from the Gulf. We'll be safe. And here they are, the hurricane has followed them and many of these people are just dumbfounded that that happened.
O'BRIEN: All right, Gary Tuchman, an odd twist. You stay close and stay safe there. We'll be back with you a little bit later in the program.
The conventional wisdom for surviving hurricanes is supposed to be simple, as Gary alluded to. If you live beside the sea, a big storm is headed your way, safety usually lies inland away from the warm water that gives a hurricane its strength.
Sorry, Charley isn't providing any easy escape routes for Floridians lucky enough to live on the coast in the first place, which brings us to Orlando where the storm is no Mickey Mouse affair.
Here is CNN's Susan Candiotti and the storm really has just passed overhead just a little while ago. Susan, what did you see and hear as it happened?
CANDIOTTI: That's right. One of the worst storms I've seen in quite some time. We had heard about, as you said, heard from Orelon that they had wind gusts of up to 105. I talked to the mayor or Orlando, Buddy Dyer. He says that they have clocked sustained winds of 70 miles per hour with gusts of up to 85. That's in the city of Orlando about roughly almost two million people here, including a lot who evacuated here from the west coast.
This (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the vacation capital of the world at this time or certainly one of the most popular but a lot of people did come here from the west coast of Florida. I talked with some of them staying at this particular hotel. They came over here from the Sarasota area and now they're holed up here.
They are talking about an estimate half of the city without power right now. I talked to some power officials not long ago and they said that about at least 65,000 or so customers are out. They do have linemen here from as far away as Atlanta, Georgia already in place and ready to go out and assess the damage once the winds get down to 35 miles per hour.
But remember, Miles, at this stage we went through the harshest part of the storm, the eastern edge. Wind gusts were quite powerful. We saw a lot of things flying by us here, lamp posts ripped out, trees uprooted and, in fact, the western edge should not be as bad, so they have to wait for that to pass before some of the repairs and at least the earliest damage surveys begin.
We do know that at least 5,000 people evacuated to local shelters here. They have about a half dozen of them, including a couple of people who were on two Greyhound busses that were forced off the road.
We also got reports of what appears to be at the very least the first wind related fatality, a traffic accident that happened a few hours ago. That involved a moving van truck and a car that was traveling along the Beeline Expressway, if you're familiar with this area.
The truck apparently, according to officials, the Florida Highway Patrol, blew over from one, the westerly path of that highway into the eastbound lanes and crushed a car that had inside a family. Eight people in all injured. The mother, the father and four children in the passenger car, I'm told by officials, were all buckled in.
Unfortunately that wasn't enough to save one little girl. We are told she is young, only four or five years old. The rest of the people that were in the van and the car are in serious but stable condition.
Beyond that, the mayor tells me, they had only one report of a car driving into a convenience store by accident. Other than that, he thinks so far they have survived pretty well, a lot of downed power lines, a lot of downed trees and, of course, they will be making those damage assessments to see how they did with the flooding. They were also expecting a lot of that -- back to you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Susan, of course, you're in the ultimate tourist town. The theme parks were long closed before this came through but, of course, you've got...
CANDIOTTI: That's right.
O'BRIEN: ...a town full of tourists who don't necessarily understand much about hurricanes nor do they have a hurricane plan. Do you have the sense that the hotels were able to kind of coral people and get them into safe places?
CANDIOTTI: I can tell you where we are, yes, they did that. They had a very well organized plan. They gathered people into a ballroom, if you wanted to be there and not be in your room, safety in numbers.
A lot of people took advantage of that. Until a short time ago a lot of them were watching television in the lobby area. They had a lot of food and this is one of the rare locations, I am told, that didn't lose power in this particular area of the city.
O'BRIEN: And was there much damage, do you know yet, much damage to those theme parks? They're certainly very exposed, aren't they?
CANDIOTTI: Yes. I asked the mayor about that and he said so far they have had no reports and so far they've also had no reports of loss of power at various hospitals. Of course, they do have emergency generators and the like, only some fire stations so far.
But, for example, where we are they made out pretty well. Again, Miles, they'll get a good idea of that once the western edge of the storm passes through they'll be able to get a better idea of that.
O'BRIEN: And, Susan, you are one that has a lot of notches in your belt, so to speak, when it comes to covering storms and, at the top, you said this is as bad as you have seen or among the worst. That's quite a statement...
CANDIOTTI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE.)
O'BRIEN: ...considering where you are in central Florida. Can you relate it to a storm we remember?
CANDIOTTI: Well, I must say the one last year, Isabel, is freshest in my mind. That, of course, was far more serious than that and, of course, that was on the outer banks of North Carolina where we were positioned at the time.
Clearly, this is a lot different because we are inland but it just goes to show you, you often think that, oh come on we're in the middle of the state of Florida, how bad could it be? But, those winds of 70 miles per hour can clearly do a lot of damage. They do have reports, I forgot to mention, of at least three collapsed homes. That's not too bad from the mayor given what they had to work with so far.
O'BRIEN: All right, and we emphasize so far on that point, of course. Daybreak will tell a lot more.
CANDIOTTI: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Susan Candiotti, please stay safe there and we'll be checking back with you as well.
Last night we spent a lot of time focusing on Tampa, which at the time was the predicted bulls eye, then a much weaker storm, but even at that strength there was a lot of concern about what would happen if Charley arrived smack dab in the middle of the Tampa Bay area, home to about two and a half million people but Charley wandered off the course projected by the National Hurricane Center and we can almost hear the collective sigh of relief in Tampa Bay.
Anderson Cooper is on the shores of Tampa Bay tonight -- Anderson.
COOPER: Miles, I definitely heard that sigh. Indeed, a lot of residents here holding their breath all day long. They are definitely exhaling tonight. You see some people already, some cars back on the road, people returning to the city.
The real story tonight seems to be about 60 miles south of here in the town Punta Gorda, a retirement community. We are getting some very disturbing reports coming in just now, state emergency officials telling us that the hospital in Punta Gorda is reporting many casualties.
We do not know, we do not have a number. We do not have any more description on that but they did say many casualties. Indeed, some 1,400, at least 1,400 National Guardsmen have been dispatched to that area and we are told there will be search and rescue operations going on tonight.
The other figure we have just received, some 700,000 Floridians out of power at this moment tonight. Much devastation further south of here. Of course, it was supposed to hit Tampa. So much of this is unpredictable.
The lesson, I suppose, for many Floridians will take away from this, despite all our technology, despite all the remarkable job of tracking this storm that meteorologists and people did at weather centers around the country, Mother Nature is still very unpredictable indeed. Take a look at the day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Early this morning, Hurricane Charley barreled through the Florida Keys, high waves, huge gusts of winds and heavy rains but early on no casualties reported. Further north, people on Florida's west coast were rushing to get ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are in a designated evacuation zone. You should make plans to evacuate immediately.
COOPER: Some chose to hit the road, like the hundreds of thousands who did so yesterday. Others, many of them tourists with nowhere else to go, sought refuge in shelters that were open statewide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It scares the hell out of me. You're looking at the map and it's -- when you're living on the coast you dream about someday a hurricane hitting us head on and, hello, here it is.
COOPER: In the early afternoon, the hurricane's outer bands hit the southwest coast of Florida as its strength grew. The National Hurricane Center upgraded Charley to a category four hurricane on a scale of five and public officials took to the airwaves to update their warnings.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This is not the time to be getting on the interstate. It is time to seek a safe place to be with family or friends inside of your region.
CRAIG FUGATE, DIR., FLORIDA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Our primary focus right now is you have to move now. You cannot delay. Your options are running out.
COOPER: But hurricanes are often unpredictable. Meteorologists expected its eye to hit the heavily populated and largely evacuated city of Tampa Bay but it suddenly veered right creating a new ground zero, the Fort Myers area.
At about 4:00 p.m., the hurricane center roared ashore at North Captiva Island. Walls of water pelted the coast as 145 mile an hour winds and heavy rains caused blackouts and flooding.
Further north, tropical storm Bonnie, pushed by Charley, pounded eastern North Carolina, leaving several dead, including an 18-month- old girl and more than 100 homeless.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: And, again, the story tonight seems to be 60 miles south of here, south of Tampa, in Punta Gorda, a retirement community where many people are said to be -- there are many casualties at the hospital and we have seen already devastation, houses destroyed, roofs torn off of houses, walls collapsed. Of course, what will happen at first light, what will the scene be? We will have cameras there, of course, and bring you that story live -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Anderson, obviously we're talking about sketchy details here right now. Do we have any idea of the number of casualties? We do know this that Punta Gorda was right there in the swath, the bulls eye so to speak as it came across Captiva and then into Collier Bay, but any idea of the numbers and the extent of these casualties?
COOPER: I really wish we did. We have been trying to find out something more specific. All we know is this report from state emergency officials telling us, telling CNN that the hospital has received a lot of casualties.
The problem, Miles, as you well know, is that a lot of people prepared for the storm to hit Tampa. Tampa was largely evacuated. There was a mandatory evacuation. A lot of people moved inland to Orlando.
But places like Punta Gorda, places like Fort Myers, the people there thought, you know what, we're going to get some bad weather but the storm is going to go north of us. It didn't do that.
Late this afternoon it changed, went eastward, hit them directly and so they really only had an hour or two to suddenly decide, all right, now the storm's heading directly for us, what are we going to do?
A lot of them decided, all right, we're going to just hunker down in our homes, ride it out in the bathrooms, often the safest place in the house, or try to seek higher ground, stay with some friends or neighbors who maybe have a more secure house.
We are already hearing from some of those people, I talked to one man earlier tonight who was hiding in the bathroom of his home. His roof was ripped right off his home in Punta Gorda and we imagine that by tomorrow morning we will hear a lot of stories like that and, as I said, there are search and rescue operations going on right now -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: It certainly is a reminder of the limitations of our technology. We assume these predictions are dead on accurate and the fact is Mother Nature will surprise us. Anderson Cooper in Tampa, we'll get back with you a little bit later as well. Thank you very much.
And we do hope to hear from one of our affiliate reporters in Punta Gorda shortly. We're trying to get a signal together on that now. We hope to get some more information for you on the possibility that there might be some casualties there at a senior citizens residence of some kind. We'll keep you posted on that and we'll get you some more information as soon as we can.
Orelon Sidney is in the weather center. She's been there all day. She was there all last night. She'll be there all tonight. Orelon Sidney works very hard at these times and we do appreciate it. What's the latest, Orelon? Where should folks be most concerned about this storm right now?
SIDNEY: Well, right now, of course, it's moving through the eastern part of Florida. You can see that it's almost headed straight up Interstate 4, having made a pass through Orlando. They did report 105 mile an hour wind gusts at the National Weather Service office there, headed now toward Interstate 95, some of those strongest rain bands just impacting that area.
Daytona beach is right here at the intersection between 4 and 95. Titusville is here and it looks like it's going to go right off the coast just to the south of Daytona Beach, so those folks need to watch out.
The very latest I have the storm is moving more rapidly now, north, northeast at 25 miles an hour, moving -- the winds, excuse me, are down to 90 miles an hour. That makes it now a category one storm.
They're expecting a four to seven foot storm surge in northern Florida and Georgia and they are starting to see the storm surge in the west subside now. That was up to 15 feet in some areas, I have had some reports so this area now much improving.
We still have a big tornado watch box in effect until 2:00 a.m. and we have had numerous reports of tornadoes, at least six, since this storm system went ashore.
Now, along the west coast, the hurricane warnings no longer in effect but we still have a hurricane warning in effect from Coco Beach through Jacksonville up to Charleston and Cape Lookout. A hurricane warning means that you can see hurricane conditions within 24 hours.
The track now looks a heck of a lot like the one Donna took after it moved through Florida in 1960. It's expected to do a lot like Donna and head up the coast, especially where places that jut out into the water. That's like Cape Hatteras, even northward towards Long Island, perhaps Cape Cod could see some brush from this particular storm as it moves northward.
And, I'll tell you something, Miles. Over the past 24 hours, we've learned why the National Hurricane Center puts out a forecast that's in the shape of a cone and not in the shape of a straight line because it gives you a margin for "error."
We're not perfect as far as getting these things done. You'd be amazed at how much we've improved over the past 40 years, since hurricane forecasting began in earnest when we developed satellites but things have gotten so much more advanced.
But, remember, whenever you see a hurricane forecast, don't necessarily look straight up the middle of it. Remember that there's a cone, there's a margin of error on each side and anybody within that cone area needs to be concerned and stay abreast of the latest conditions.
Still looking at some flood warnings and watches too issued up the east coast. We're going to see a lot more of this green stuff tomorrow -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Orelon, you were talking about that storm surge. When we were talking about, a lot about that all day today on the west coast. There was a big concern about that upwards of 15-foot storm surge.
I'm curious. As the storm goes across the state is it just the opposite? Does it kick the water away from the shore? Is there a reverse surge of some kind or does it cause flooding as well because of the way it cycles around?
SIDNEY: Well, it kind of depends on how you look at it. I'm going to advance my map here a couple of seconds and see if I can sort of help you out looking at that.
The big surge actually occurred here when the backside of the storm came through because look at how the bays are angled across the west coast. They're more kind of at a 45-degree angle.
So, when the storm came in you were initially getting winds coming in from the north and then northeast but the back edge of the storm, as you can see, dragged all of the water into the bay. So, it's the second half of the storm that really pulled in the storm surge. That's what's now starting to subside in the west.
In the east it's a whole different ballgame. As you work your way up the coast, the front edge of the storm is going to start pushing water inland in places like northern Florida and southern Georgia.
So, they're going to see most of their storm surge action tonight on the front edge of the storm and conditions improving tomorrow as the storm exits up the east coast. Hope that helped you out a little bit.
O'BRIEN: As always, Orelon, you explain it in such a crystal clear manner. I appreciate it and you, once again, stay close. We'll be back with you.
We'll have much more coverage of Hurricane Charley. In fact, we'll talk about the day after already with one woman who 12 years ago faced terrible devastation in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. We'll find out how she rebuilt.
And there are some other stories we're looking at. The war in Iraq, American forces control the majority of Najaf but not their quarry. The radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is urging his followers to fight to the death once again.
Also, a day after the bombshell by New Jersey Governor McGreevey, his opponents go on the offensive. "Leave office now" they say.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta this is NEWSNIGHT.
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O'BRIEN: Twenty-four hours ago the Tampa Bay area looked like a sitting duck, forecasters predicting it would take a direct hit from Charley. The city and surrounding region emptied out. Many residents who had braced for the worst returned much sooner than expected however.
Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN DALLAS BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): There was a spring in Jack Bray's step as he walked out of the only storm shelter he's ever had to sleep in and when he pulled up in front of his unscathed home in Dunedin, Florida, it didn't take long for his sense of humor to come roaring back.
JACK BRAY, DUNEDIN RESIDENT: Home sweet mobile home. It's still here. That's the good news. The bad news is it's still here. No, I'm only kidding.
LAVANDERA: Bray was one of more than 16,000 people in Florida who hunkered down in shelters to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Charley. What a relief for him and his neighbors who live just west of Tampa to see the category four hurricane miss its original target.
BRAY: I was anxious. I was nervous, fearful. Looking at the map, I could see that sucker coming right at us. It was dangerous. We did the right thing by leaving.
LAVANDERA: Bray moved to this part of Florida from New York ten years ago and, as he finished his short walk around his home, the feisty retiree was happy to see that not much had changed since he left 24 hours ago.
BRAY: Same old, same old. For the first time, that's a very warm sounding expression to me, same old, same old.
LAVANDERA: There's nothing quite like a brush with disaster to make you appreciate the simple things in life.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dunedin, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Yolanda Ulrich knows what an awful lot of people have been going through tonight but perhaps more important she knows what lies ahead for those who must pick up the pieces after a devastating natural disaster. She, herself, weathered Hurricane Andrew all right. Her house, like thousands of others south of Miami, didn't do so well.
Ms. Ulrich is the editor of "The South Dade News Leader." We're pleased to have her with us tonight. Ms. Ulrich, good to have you with us. YOLANDA ULRICH, EDITOR, "THE SOUTH DADE NEWS LEADER": Hi. Thanks for inviting me.
O'BRIEN: All right. What was it like the day after Andrew for you?
ULRICH: Well, myself and tens of thousands of others we had no idea what lay ahead. In fact, had we, we might have just picked up and gone. We've often...
O'BRIEN: Really, it was that bad?
ULRICH: The rebuilding was much worse than the storm. The storm took about three, four hours to do its dirty work and then we spent, some of us, years trying to just get back where we were before the storm.
O'BRIEN: And what were the big obstacles? Were they problems with insurance or were there other things?
ULRICH: Well, actually you heard a lot of horror stories. There were insurance problems. Some people had no problems at all. There would be the problems of rebuilding, trying to find contractors to rebuild.
All of us, you have to realize that there were hundreds of thousands of people who had no place to live, no place to work and we all wanted the same services at the same time.
O'BRIEN: Yes, well that, yes and I can imagine, of course I'm sure a lot of contractors showed up at your door but then you have the problem of finding out who are the unsavory ones too.
ULRICH: Well, that's true and however down in Homestead pretty quickly there were agencies that did come in to help us but I kind of put my rebuilding on the back burner because I was concerned frankly, and I don't mean to sound like Joan of Arc, but I was really concerned with the newspaper and getting the news out to the people in our community.
O'BRIEN: I just wanted to point out some of the video just so folks know that we're looking at the devastation following Andrew.
ULRICH: OK.
O'BRIEN: And I was down there a few days after Andrew and one thing you didn't get on the television was just the tremendous far reaching extent of it. You're driving on the interstate, every roof being off hundreds of houses quite literally. Being a part of that on one hand could be helpful, because there are so many people in the same boat. Or is that being too, a little too Pollyanna?
ULRICH: No, it's true. I've often said I learned a lot of lessons. Andrew taught me a lot of lessons and I wish that I had the opportunity -- well, this sounds really morbid. But I wish I had the opportunity to share those lessons with other people because you do learn how to survive.
For a long time, we kept referring to ourselves as victims of Andrew. And about a year or two later, a lot of us said, we're not victims, we're survivors. And as a survivor, we have an opportunity to really help others. I feel for the people in, over in Tampa and the Gulf coast. A lot of them have no idea what it's going to take. They're in for a rough time. And I would suggest accepting the help. There are many of us that go through life that really don't have to ask for help very often. And it's very hard to put yourself in a situation where you have to say, now I need some help. And where can I go? But I was very lucky. I had something to rebuild. I could tell you many, many stories of colleagues and friends and neighbors who had nothing to rebuild. They went home and found steps. They found no house. And I'm not exaggerating. That is the truth. Andrew was a landmark. Andrew was a life-altering experience.
O'BRIEN: There were so many facets to it. Among the things that I recall very distinctly was the discovery that many of the homes down there, thrown up in recent years, didn't meet any of the codes for hurricanes. And that had to just really create a huge wellspring of anger down there.
ULRICH: It was anger. It was disappointment. And very frankly, I'm not sure what's even happening today. I see construction by the tens of thousands going up in the same area that was totally leveled. And it concerns me, and it worries me. Frankly, after Andrew and I'm a native which is a native Miamian, which is somebody my age, that's something to say. But I can tell you that sometimes I think that we really should not be living there which I know is a ridiculous statement. But when you try to deal with mother nature on that kind of -- when she gets on a rampage, we really do not belong there at times.
O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this -- what is it like having gone through what you went through for you and those who went through similar situations, hearing about another storm like this? Does it bring back terrible memories? Does it make you jittery, sad? What emotions do you have?
ULRICH: I can tell you what happens. The beginning of June, you wonder why you're feeling so lousy, why there's that pit in your stomach. It doesn't even take a storm. Then you realize, well, guess what, we're in hurricane season. And you watch the channels every time a little blip comes off of Africa. You think, good grief, is this going to be another one and you watch. And you are glued to the channel. You are glued to the television. It becomes an obsession. And it's not that you're afraid of dying in this thing. I think you're afraid of what's going to face you afterwards. And you live with that until October. And then you think, wow, maybe I can now get on with my life. And then you stand here and you wonder, why do I do this? Why do I do this every year? You do it because this is where you live. This is where you work.
O'BRIEN: You do it because you go to the beach and see that view once again Yolanda.
ULRICH: You do it because in February it's glorious. That's why.
O'BRIEN: All right, Yolanda, excellent interview. I appreciate you sharing some of your words of wisdom.
ULRICH: Well, thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: Unfortunately, I think folks who need it most can't hear it because of lack of power but we wish you well.
ULRICH: And I tell you, I'm praying for those people believe me and those aren't just words, I mean it.
O'BRIEN: All right. Yolanda Ulrich, thank you very much.
ULRICH: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: We are getting a little ahead of ourselves here, talking about what lies in the wake of a hurricane. After all the storm is still raging. It is moving up the Florida peninsula, heading who knows where for sure ultimately. Joe Bastardi knows, maybe not for sure but as well as anyone. He is on the night watch with Accuweather in State College, Pennsylvania. Good to have you with us.
JOE BASTARDI, Accuweather.COM: Well, it's good to be with you and let me tell you folks all over up and down the coastline, we are in a pattern similar to the '40s, '50s and early '60s, where this is something we're going to have to deal with the overall weather pattern that's going on now. The current movement of Charley is rapidly to the north-northeast. It's going to be back out over the Atlantic by 1:00 this morning. The next land fall is South Carolina or perhaps lower North Carolina coast, anywhere from Charleston to Cape Fear, probably as a category two hurricane, sometime between noon and 3:00 tomorrow and then it continues north-northeast.
We've been warning our clients since yesterday by the way about this feared east turn and the explosive development. As a matter of fact, Accuweather.com clients, we were talking to the folks in the Carolinas this morning, warning them that this could be a hurricane, perhaps even a category 2 hurricane when it hits. And sure enough, now we see that this particular track is further off to the east.
O'BRIEN: What do you mean by explosive development? What is that all about?
BASTARDI: Well, what we did was we told our clients -- it's even on our Web site, that we were worried that this hurricane could deepen rapidly once away from Cuba. And the reason why was because of the fact that the storm system itself was in such an area loaded for bear. Let's remember what Lilly and Isadore (ph) did in the southeast Gulf just a couple of years ago. And what's fascinating about those two storms is, they managed to somehow or the other weaken before they hit the United States. But both of them went to cat fours in the southeast Gulf just a couple of years ago. That area is loaded for bear this year given the overall weather pattern.
O'BRIEN: All right. Loaded for bear, Joe Bastardi with the Accuweather folks in Pennsylvania. Thanks very much, appreciate it.
BASTARDI: My pleasure.
O'BRIEN: We're not done with hurricane Charley coverage. We also got a lot of other news to tell you about. Stay with us as NEWSNIGHT continues.
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O'BRIEN: Some other news now. In Iraq, the on again, off again so-called final battle against Shiite rebels off again tonight, but barely. After nine days of fighting, rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr began the day with peace overtures and wrapped it up with new promises to fight to the death. How much of this amounts to bluff and how much he means we don't yet know. But wherever the situation goes from here, it is playing out on top of a giant powder keg with plenty of matches close by. Reporting from Baghdad for us tonight, CNN's John Vause.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An all-out offensive came down to this -- another tense standoff in Najaf amid negotiations for another cease-fire, exactly what all sides said would never happen. U.S. Marines say they control 80 percent of the city. But they do not control the Imam Ali mosque. One of the holist sites in Islam remains off limits now even to Iraqi troops. Inside, Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric behind the uprising, has apparently been wounded.
SAYYID HAZIM AL A-RAJI, MUQTADA AL-SADR AIDE (through translator): He was leading the battle in the Immam Ali mosque when a bomb fell and he was hit by three pieces of shrapnel. He received medical treatment and is now back leading the battle.
VAUSE: The U.S. military insists there has been no fighting close to the mosque.
CAPT. CARRIE BATSON, U.S. MARINES: It's extremely important to the local Iraqi security forces, as well as to U.S. military forces, that we minimize collateral damage to any holy sites.
VAUSE: The decision to pull back was made after a show of widespread anger across Iraq. In Fallujah, thousands rallied after Friday prayers. America is the enemy of God, they chanted. Angry crowds attacked the office of the Iraqi prime minister in Diwaniyah (ph) and after heavy clashes with the Mehdi militia, British troops pulled out of the center of Amara.
Thousands staged a sit-in outside the green zone in Baghdad. Rumors the mosque in Najaf had been bombed were accepted as fact. Iraqi police sent to control the crowd carried pictures of al-Sadr, his photo taped to their cars, his image displayed from the roof of a nearby police station. Their ability and will to confront the Mehdi militia is yet to be proved. Earlier this week, they handed over control of the local police station in Sadr City without a fight. Al- Sadr's men helping themselves to weapons, ammunition and body armor.
(on-camera): The religious and political backlash may have forced the Iraqi government into cease-fire negotiations, but there are now new risks. Once again, Muqtada al-Sadr has proved that he can defy U.S. and Iraqi authorities and survive, at least for now.
John Vause, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Some developing news from Florida's Gulf coast to tell you about. We want to go straight to Punta Gorda in Charlotte Bay and Glenn Selig who's a reporter with CNN affiliate WTVT in Tampa. Glenn, not a pretty picture there. We have some reports of casualties. What can you tell us about what happened there?
GLENN SELIG, WTVT REPORTER: It is not a pretty picture and all you have to do is look behind me to see that. That at one point was a business. And there were businesses like that scattered all throughout Charlotte County, as well as mobile homes and homes alike. This area has been devastated by this hurricane, which at one point packed winds in excess of 100 miles per hour, 140 miles per hour when you take into account the gusting winds. And as hurricane Charley came through here, it did quite a bit of destruction.
What's going on now is people are getting out and about and trying to survey the damage as best as they can considering the fact that the power is out to all of this area despite the fact that behind me the area is lit. That's because we're using generators. But once you venture outside of this area, it is dark except for headlights and some flashlights. There is a mobile home park not far from here, which is completely devastated. In fact, we rode out this storm with some of the folks who evacuated from that mobile home park. They got out because they were told to get out, that their mobile home could be destroyed. And indeed, that is what became of the entire park, complete destruction and that scene is being played out all over here. Back to you Miles.
O'BRIEN: Glenn, at the top of the newscast we reported that there were some casualties at the hospital there. Do you know anything about that, have been able to get any facts for us on that?
SELIG: I do not. It would not surprise me if there were casualties from this storm. We rode it out. It was devastating. But I cannot confirm the casualties that you asked about.
O'BRIEN: And what are you seeing now on the streets there? People returning to their homes already? And is there some concern about potentially looting, even?
SELIG: Absolutely, there is potential for some looting. In fact, a woman who stored her stuff in this area, this is a storage facility as well some businesses in this area, and she was concerned that because the back half of the building is completely gone, she was concerned that somebody would try and break in and loot. Not only is looting a concern in this area at this point, but also downed power lines and there are nails all over the place because of all the destruction and debris and it is nightfall. There's no electricity. So they are asking people to stay off the street. But in neighborhoods where people used to have homes, they are certainly going back to try and survey the damage as best they can and that scene is being repeated over and over again tonight.
O'BRIEN: Glenn Selig is with our affiliate WTVT. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Back with more NEWSNIGHT in just a moment.
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O'BRIEN: Now to politics as we continue to follow the progress and the aftermath of hurricane Charley, there is another story playing out in the country that we'll fit those in as time permits of course. Iraq continues to be the backdrop and the starring player in the presidential campaign. But today, the economy took center stage in Oregon. Both candidates were there. They didn't cross paths, but they did come close. Here's CNN's John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another day, another near miss on the shadow campaign. Two candidates so close, yet so far apart.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I overcame these economic problems because of well-timed tax cuts.
SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Under this administration, the tax burden of the wealthy has gone down, and the tax burden of the working American middle class has gone up.
KING: Oregon was the shared stage this day. Local stations in Portland mapping and tracking dueling events 11 miles apart. It's an increasingly familiar routine in the major battleground states. Kerry supporters preparing for their rally.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get a sense of somebody in person that you never get on the little boob tube.
KING: While in the same city at about the same time, the Republican faithful preparing to welcome the president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't let the other side outwork us.
KING: The president has the bigger plane. The challenger on this day, the bigger crowds and some hard ball help from his spouse.
TERESA HEINZ KERRY, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN KERRY: It is important to have a president who not only understands but actually enjoys complexity.
KING: Tax policy was the day's major debating point. Two campaigns with very different views of a new Congressional Budget Office study. Senator Kerry seized on this finding -- two-thirds of the tax cuts went to those earning more than $200,000 a year. KERRY: And guess what? Over the last four years, the wages of average Americans have gone down $1,600 on average.
KING: The Bush camp said everyone's taxes were lowered and the president said the biggest beneficiaries were families and small businesses.
BUSH: We ought not to play favorites with the tax relief plan. And you received relief. Did it help? I'm not a lawyer but it sounds like I am. I'm leading the witness.
KING: In the past week, the candidates almost crossed paths in Davenport, Iowa and campaigned within days, if not hours of each other, in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California, and Oregon.
(on-camera): With both campaigns saying the race will be settled in a dozen to perhaps 15 battleground states, look for this shadow campaigning to continue over the 80 campaign days left though perhaps not so much here on the west coast, unless the president improves his standing. He currently trails not only here in Oregon, but in Washington state and California as well.
John King, CNN, Portland, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Back with more NEWSNIGHT in a moment.
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O'BRIEN: Hurricane Charley at one time a category 4 hurricane, making its way across Florida now. It has diminished in strength but it has made many places in Florida that should have been refuges, dangerous places indeed. CNN's Orelon Sydney has been watching it every step of the way. Where is Charley now and where is it headed -- Orelon.
SYDNEY: Well, it's headed offshore. It's starting to affect the outer barrier islands on the east coast with some of the heaviest squalls. Currently located 10 miles southwest of Daytona Beach. That's at the top of the hour, 29.1 north, 81.1 west. Moving north- northeast at 25 and the winds now down to 85 miles an hour which makes it a category 1 storm. Don't rule it out now though, because we still have the potential for some very gusty winds as well as tornadoes with this system.
The jet stream has pushed its way southward. We're going to set some record low temperatures in the deep south tonight But that's been the reason the storm has been pushing itself off to the east and northeast mainly today. It's going to continue to push it up along the coast. But look at the rainfall it's dropped. Thank goodness it was moving fast.
Look just north of Orlando, probably four inches of rain in some of these areas, perhaps locally even more. Many locations received well over an inch to two inches as the storm system moved through and these are just Doppler estimates and with tropical systems, the Doppler actually tends to under emphasize or under estimate the amount of rainfall. So we'll have to wait for some of those rainfall amounts to officially come in.
Still, the tornado watch box in effect for you until 2:00 a.m. The storm is moving off the coast, expected to work its way rapidly up the Atlantic by Saturday, should be on the border between Virginia and North Carolina. The storm may strengthen as it moves out over the Atlantic. We'll keep an eye on this one. We're back right after this.
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COOPER: I'm Anderson Cooper live in Tampa, Florida. We continue to follow a developing story out of Punta Gorda, Florida. A number of casualties reported. We are not clear how many. We continue to follow the story. NEWSNIGHT, back in a moment.
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