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Earthquake Rocks U.S. East Coast; D.C. Capitol Evacuated after Earthquake; Libyan Rebels Enter Gadhafi's Compound in Tripoli

Aired August 23, 2011 - 15:05   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Not at all, Wolf Blitzer. I will take it.

And hello to you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

If you're just now joining us, what a news day. Let me just set the scene for you. We're watching two very fluid stories, one, as Wolf was reporting on, this earthquake, magnitude 5.9 out of Mineral, Virginia. That is about 80 miles away from Washington, D.C. You have been tweeting me. Folks are feeling it all the way from North Carolina up to our nation's capital, all the way up to Massachusetts, even as far in as Cleveland, Ohio.

We are going to be checking in with our correspondents in and around the area, as multiple buildings have been evacuated in Manhattan and also the Capitol Building, congressional buildings, Pentagon. Also, we will talk about nuclear power plants. Chad Myers is getting some information on the North Anna nuclear power plant, which is 11 miles from that epicenter in Mineral, Virginia. They're apparently on backup power and they're working to make sure those spent fuel rods stay nice and cool. More on that.

Also Libya. If you have been watching our coverage today, it has been tremendous, major, major history in the making here as these rebels there in the capital city of Tripoli, 48 hours after they took Green Square, renamed it Martyrs Square, today was the day they breached the Gadhafi fortress, the compound.

And so we will have reporting as our own Sara Sidner went inside as have the rebels seizing items from their 42-year leader, Moammar Gadhafi. Still the question remains, where is he? We're on that.

But, first, I want to begin with this earthquake.

And I have on the line me, Sergeant David Schlosser with the U.S. Park Police.

And, Sergeant Schlosser, just tell me, in terms of the beautiful monuments in our nation's capital, are they all OK?

SGT. DAVID SCHLOSSER, U.S. PARK POLICE: Well, we certainly experienced a rather unusual event in D.C. The monuments in the memorial, such as the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial, are all OK right now. First reports from one of our officers at the Washington Monument was that some stones may have come loose. We have evacuated all the monuments and memorials. And D.C. traffic is notoriously bad. But we have instituted an even traffic pattern which heads the traffic out of town.

I'm not sure about the operations of the subway system, what their status is right now. But it looks -- preliminary reports from D.C. is that there may be a couple of minor injuries, but nothing substantial. And in the downtown area around the monuments and memorials and the White House area, that we have absolutely no injuries and we may have some minor structural damage.

But it doesn't look like it's substantial. Our aviation section, shortly after this event occurred, got airborne and did an aerial survey. And they were checking the monuments, memorials, the traffic flow and the bridges and nothing really obvious popped up for those folks. I think we're in pretty good shape downtown.

BALDWIN: What about just a quick check on the tourists? I used to live in Washington. I know this time of year also is notorious for tourists in and around the National Mall. No injuries, no damage?

SCHLOSSER: Well, right now, we have a lot more tourists in town than usual with the opening of the Martin Luther King Memorial imminent.

BALDWIN: Right.

SCHLOSSER: And a lot of folks are a bit disappointed that they can't get into the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. But it's a good time to see some of the open parkway, parklands and enjoy the company of some good people in the District of Columbia.

And so we may have some disappointed folks, but it looks like everybody is OK. And so that's the important thing.

BALDWIN: OK. Sergeant David Schlosser, thank you very much.

Let's go now as we continue our coverage of the aftermath of this 5.9 earthquake, Jason Carroll is live for me in Manhattan.

Jason, just tell me where you are and what this felt like.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, you know this area very well. I'm actually standing right outside CNN headquarters at Columbus Square.

Just to sort of set the scene for you, this is right by Central Park. And already, Brooke, we're receiving reports from people all over the city, Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn, folks who felt the earthquake, people as far away as Buffalo, New York, saying they felt the tremor.

Also the reports about building evacuations, temporary evacuations at FBI headquarters downtown, at the courthouse downtown, people standing around Madison Avenue at a certain point. We can give you an update in terms of what's happening at the airports.

I know that you had a report out there earlier that there was disruption at JFK and Newark, the control towers there temporarily evacuated. We are being now told that service has resumed to both those airports.

But obviously, this is not something that folks on the East Coast are used to. I'm from the West Coast. We're used to it out there.

We want to bring in one of the people who felt everything that happened, Aaron Adams (ph).

Just tell me what you felt, what went down when you felt the ground shake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Well, we're here with our solar team and we were over at on the Mandarin Oriental on the 35th floor.

CARROLL: That's a hotel that is attached, correct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's right. And so we could sort of tell that there was a quick jolt and then we could hear the glass creaking and the floor begin to floor.

We all just looked at each other and coming from San Francisco, we knew that it was an earthquake. But we just didn't know how far away it was.

CARROLL: So you immediately knew that it was an earthquake, even though you were here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We all looked at each other and knew right away that it was an earthquake.

CARROLL: Had to have been some shock there. Did you notice any damage or anything while you were there at the Mandarin Oriental?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no. Everyone was well in order. And there was no damage.

CARROLL: So, obviously something that you're accustomed to dealing with.

I want to bring someone else here very quickly, Brooke, who I know is not. Who I have with me right here is Kelly Wood (ph) and her daughter Jordan (ph). They're from Chicago.

Obviously, this was a new experience for you. Where were you when it happened?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were up at a buffet, a Italian restaurant up on the third floor here of the building. And we felt, my daughter felt a vibration on the floor. And I said, oh, maybe it's the subway. Then all of a sudden, the wine rack next to us was swaying, as was the wine bucket, pretty dramatically.

CARROLL: Now, what was going through your head as both of you are sitting there at this restaurant and you're realizing the building is starting to shake?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I really didn't know. I just thought it was some like -- I agreed with my mom, an L-train or something like that.

CARROLL: An L-train. So here you thought it was a subway or something like that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. Totally thought it was an L-train. But then it was pretty dramatic. So, I was like, wow, could this be an earthquake? And --

CARROLL: Quite an experience for you coming to New York from Chicago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

CARROLL: All right, thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

CARROLL: Thanks especially for hanging out for us.

Also want to let you know, Brooke, that the mayor's office has put out a release basically saying that they have activated the Office of Emergency Management situation room. They have contacted the various city agencies to check in them. For instance, train service here, we're being told that train service has not been disrupted. There's been no disruption of train service.

We're also not hearing any reports about any damage throughout the city. So just giving you an update in terms of what's happening on the ground here from New York City -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thanks goodness. Can you imagine, Jason Carroll, being on the subway when this hit? Jason, thank you very much.

You mentioned the mayor of New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He will be speaking in about 40 minutes. We will take that live as soon as we see the mayor.

Quick update. As Jason mentioned, some air traffic issues. Let me just let you know, per the FAA, we're now learning that all New York, Washington and Pennsylvania airports are back to normal. Again, that is according to the FAA.

But one concern is the -- this nuclear power plant, about 11 miles from the epicenter of this particular earthquake, the North Anna power plant.

And I have on the line with me David Heacock, the chief operating officer of Dominion Power. You run the North Anna power plant and please do tell me, sir, what's going on?

Do we have him? David Heacock, can you hear me?

Guys, can someone get on my -- we will go back to him.

Here's what I know about this particular power plant as we are efforting David Heacock back on the phone. North Anna, it's the closest plant, as I mentioned, to this epicenter. It's about 11 miles away. Both units were tripped as a result of this earthquake just a short time ago, shut down automatically. The plant lost off-site power.

All four diesel generators are working. And they say this is the lowest of our four emergency categories.

David Heacock, I hear we have you on the line, sir. Can you hear me?

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: David Heacock, this is Brooke Baldwin at CNN in Atlanta. Can you hear me?

DAVID HEACOCK, DOMINION POWER: You're breaking up.

BALDWIN: David, David Heacock, this is Brooke at CNN. Can you hear me, sir?

HEACOCK: I can just barely hear you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I will try to speak up. We are on live television.

And if you can, just brief me on the situation inside this North Anna power plant. I understand the backup generators are on.

HEACOCK: That's correct. The unit shut down as it's supposed to by design when the seismic event occurred and off-site power was lost. And the four diesel generators are supplying backup electric power. The unit is in a safe condition as it's designed to be.

BALDWIN: You said so there's four diesel generators supplying this backup power. How long can they remain on?

HEACOCK: They can supply power indefinitely. We have about a 30-day supply of fuel oil on site. The fuel oil is not a problem. And they can bring extra fuel oil in. They can run indefinitely.

We do not expect to have to have them run very long. Off-site power should be restored shortly. We have power back to the switch yard at the station and we're working to restore it back to the plant.

BALDWIN: As you work to restore power, can you just give me a brief lay of the land at this power plant? Is there any visual damage? HEACOCK: No. There's no apparent damage whatsoever. Even though it was a severe seismic event, the plants are designed for this kind of a seismic event. There's no apparent damage to anything at the plant right now.

BALDWIN: Let me just back up. Explain this to me, since this is your field of expertise. If there this is any sort of seismic event, any sort of earth shaking, it automatically triggers the backup generators and the plant shuts off. So this is per normal, is that correct?

HEACOCK: Well, the seismic event directly does not. In this case, what happened when the seismic event occurred, it knocked out the off-site power, the power feeding back to the station.

Once that power goes away, the diesel generators automatically supply the backup power and the units automatically shut down.

BALDWIN: I'm glancing down here. I understand that you all have declared an unusual event, which I guess is the phraseology for the lowest of these four emergency categories. Can you just define unusual for me?

HEACOCK: Yes, it's an unusual event when you lose off-site power like this and key units are tripped with a seismic event. That's a normal precaution. We do that to inform the local and state communities about the event at the plant, then make sure they're available should we need any help.

BALDWIN: How many homes do you provide power to there in Virginia?

HEACOCK: It's about a quarter million homes.

BALDWIN: And have they been affected?

HEACOCK: They have not. We have redundant power supplies in other units that are able to pick up that load.

BALDWIN: OK.

Chad Myers, do you have anything for him?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We also know that Surry down by Williamsburg declared an unusual event. That's not actually that unusual, because Calvert Cliffs, Three Mile Island, Susquehanna, Peach Bottom, Limerick, and also Oyster Creek, Hope Creek and Salem have also declared unusual events. Can you tell us anything about how Surry is doing?

HEACOCK: Yes.

I'm sure the rest of the plants fall in the same category.

Surry detected the vibrations at their site with their instrumentation, but did not impact any plant equipment. They provide the notification of unusual event and notify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that they felt the seismic forces on site. And there's been absolutely no indications of any problems at Surry either.

BALDWIN: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: David Heacock, thank you so much for the update there on the North Anna nuclear power plant there outside of Mineral, Virginia, where the epicenter of this quake stemmed, a 5.9 --

MYERS: Correct.

BALDWIN: -- magnitude earthquake.

Chad Myers, thank you so much. Don't go too far.

MYERS: I won't.

BALDWIN: We will continue to watch this.

Also, I'm just getting information the U.S. Geological service will be holding a conference. We will take that live.

Also just a quick reminder, we should be hearing from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the top of the hour. We will bring that to you live as well, major, major news day here as we're watching the aftereffects of a 5.9 magnitude earthquake. People feeling this thing all the way from North Carolina northward to Massachusetts inland to Ohio.

Also keep in mind, Libya, breaking news there happening overseas as rebels have breached Moammar Gadhafi's compound. But where is Moammar Gadhafi? We are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We told you we'd be watching for this U.S. Geological service event live. It's now begun. Let's just listen to just a bit.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- damage to the building, though it's not such strong shaking that we consider that very likely.

Steve (ph), you have some other information?

KEN HUDNUT, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: Sure, yes.

Just one of the questions people have been asking is about historical earthquakes along the Eastern U.S. and so just a quick rundown on that.

In 1755 there, was a magnitude 5.9 earthquake, the Cape Ann earthquake -- 1884, New York City experienced a magnitude 5.5. And in 1886, the Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake was estimated magnitude 7.3. Of course those are all from before seismic instrumental recording.

And then probably the most famous Eastern U.S. earthquake is more Central U.S. is the New Madrid Sequence of 1811-1812. And the estimates for those magnitudes, there were three big earthquakes and lots of aftershocks. But they were estimated 7.2, maybe even as high as 7.7.

QUESTION: What's your name, sir?

HUDNUT: Oh, my name is Ken Hudnut. I'm a geophysicist with USGS here in Pasadena.

QUESTION: Spell your last name.

HUDNUT: H-U-D-N-U-T.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF-MIKE) can you answer a question? (OFF- MIKE)

KATE HUTTON, SEISMOLOGIST, CAL TECH: Well, the only thing that I have that hasn't been discussed so far is people have been asking us about the aftershocks of which there have been none so far posted on the Internet. It's not unusual.

I mean, it is unusual to have earthquakes of that size with no aftershocks. But it does occur. But I would expect it would be likely that there would be some twos and threes to come in the future.

QUESTION: Could it be likely because that area is not prone to frequent earthquakes perhaps like we would see in California, or it has nothing to do with it?

HUTTON: We don't know of any correlation with that.

BALDWIN: We have been dipping in and listening here to some of the questions peppered at these officials in chemical . They certainly know a thing or two about earthquakes. This is the U.S. Geological service.

And they have been asked really when was the last time the East Coast quite saw an earthquake of this magnitude? And they were throwing things back to the 18th, 17th century. I was just chatting with Chad Myers. He says it's been a number of years since the East Coast has actually seen something of this magnitude.

We will talk a little bit more about that here momentarily.

But I want to go straight to the epicenter of this quake. If you know Virginia, do you know Louisa County?

I have Amanda Reidelbach on the phone with me. She's a public information officer there.

And, Amanda, tell me, since you are where this happened not too long ago, what did it feel like, how long did it last there? AMANDA REIDELBACH, LOUISA COUNTY, VIRGINIA, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER: Well, it happened not that long ago. Time is just flying by as we're under an emergency alert here in Louisa County.

The -- it just really felt -- the building starting to shake. And all the employees, under their normal day, just went outside and the ground continued to rumble for probably five or 10 seconds.

BALDWIN: I don't know where you are in the county. Tell me if you know of any reports of damage to any buildings structurally and also injuries.

REIDELBACH: We currently -- I'm in the town of Louisa, which is about 10, 15 miles outside of the town of Mineral in Louisa County.

And we have received numerous calls for structural damage and some structural collapse for residential structures. Our emergency responders are out investigating for that information -- looking to confirm that.

BALDWIN: So they are out -- forgive me. In terms of injuries, no serious injuries reported. I imagine thus far no news maybe is good news in your case.

REIDELBACH: No, we have received some calls for some minor injuries, but no serious injuries and none related to any structural damages.

BALDWIN: OK. What about aftershocks, Amanda? Have you experienced any of those?

REIDELBACH: We have had a number of them. We -- just as I was on hold with you, we experienced another small aftershock.

BALDWIN: How many? Give me a number.

REIDELBACH: Oh, goodness. Five.

BALDWIN: Wow.

(LAUGHTER)

REIDELBACH: There's a number.

BALDWIN: And what's the -- I have been Louisa. I lived for a while in Charlottesville, Virginia. I know it's a small town. I imagine people are talking about this and calling in to 911, reporting what they have seen injury-wise. What's the mood there? Are people frightened?

REIDELBACH: There's a lot of energy. People are out in the community. One thing about being a small rural community that we are, we have got volunteers out in every neighborhood that are trained and work with our fire and rescue and partner with our career fire and rescue personnel and our sheriff's department.

So they are out in the community in droves just helping each other and responding to this emergency.

BALDWIN: Amanda Reidelbach, I thank you for calling in. Of course, you know our number. If anything changes on your end, please pick up the phone, call CNN. You can always send an iReport as well. Thank you very much.

Let's go to D.C., certainly a city that felt a lot of this from 80 miles away.

I have Adam Gluck on the line.

Adam, where were you when this thing hit?

ADAM GLUCK, FELT EARTHQUAKE: I was actually in my office sitting at my desk waiting for a 2:00 meeting to start. And all of a sudden the desk and the floor started shaking and (AUDIO GAP) started shaking and pictures started rattling and people knew it wasn't quite right.

BALDWIN: Let's be more specific. I don't know where your office and your desk are. Are you within the District of Columbia? Are you near Union Station? Where are you?

GLUCK: We're at the corner of Sixth and Pennsylvania. So for folks familiar D.C., it's kind of in between the Capitol and the White House, a little bit closer to the Capitol.

BALDWIN: How long did it last, the shaking?

GLUCK: Probably -- probably about half a minute, maybe 45 seconds at the most. It started, as some other folks have said, pretty slowly. Felt like the ground was shaking or rattling a little bit.

I didn't know what exactly it was. But then it definitely picked up and by the end of it, people were definitely aware of what was going on.

BALDWIN: So, Adam, what happened when you see your papers and your desk shaking? Did everyone leave the building? Was it evacuated?

GLUCK: A lot of folks in this area did evacuate their buildings. We're across from the Federal Trade Commission and one of the Smithsonian museums. And those folks all evacuated and there was a lot of traffic and emergency vehicles on Pennsylvania Avenue and the surrounding areas.

One of the women I work with who spent a lot of time in California was laughing at folks for getting so worked up over such a small earthquake.

BALDWIN: It's been years.

GLUCK: But the rest of who aren't as familiar with earthquakes definitely took it more seriously.

BALDWIN: It's been years.

Final question. Aftershocks, have you felt any?

GLUCK: Nothing.

BALDWIN: Nothing.

All right, Adam Gluck, thank you very much. Guess it's back to work for you. Thank you, sir, for calling in. Glad everyone where you are is OK.

Of course, we are going to stay all over this story here, reports of this earthquake, as I mentioned, really up and the down the East Coast. We will continue to talk to people on the phone, get some new pictures coming out.

Also the breaking news out of Libya -- back in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back here. Breaking news as we are following the aftermath, t hasn't been too terribly long since the quake hit, the eastern seaboard of the United States, 5.9 in magnitude. People feeling it all the way up and down north and south. Take a look at this. A couple of images we're getting in to CNN. This is from northern Illinois University. You can see the crazy activity here on this graphic. That is when the earthquake hit. Keep in mind, the epicenter, Mineral, Virginia, is about 80 miles from Washington, D.C. You can see the precise moment this recorded that quake hitting.

Another image I have for you, you know we've been covering this story out of Manhattan. It was the district attorney, Cyrus Vance. And he's supposed to be giving a news conference essentially on the fate of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He had been facing charges related to an alleged sexual assault. Here they are, members of the press, they're in there room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYRUS VANCE, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Good afternoon everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He says hello. Let's listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: A limited number of questions. Standard has protected --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh.

VANCE: I've been through earthquakes in Seattle. Hold on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, as you see members of the press, other people in there getting up out of their seats, getting out of there. I feel like I heard someone, maybe that was Mr. Vance saying it's OK, I've been in Seattle. I've been through earthquakes before. Maybe some of those people have not. Needless to say the cameras captured the precise moment when the quake hit in Manhattan.

Final image before I get to my guest here. Final image we have this chandelier, I believe it is, here we go, shaking quite a bit here. This is from an i-Reporter. This is New York State. You and I are seeing this for the first time together.

So just a little bit of shaking Glenn Rix, bringing you in from Georgia Tech, professor of civil and environmental engineering and an earthquake engineer. Welcome to CNN.

GLENN RIX, PROFESSOR OF GEO-SYSTEMS ENGINEERING, GA TECH UNIVERSITY: Thank you. Pleased to be here.

BALDWIN: So what do we make of this 5.9 magnitude earthquake? I was listening to the U.S. geological survey a moment ago saying it's been years since we've seen something like this.

RIX: It's true. Earthquakes are much more common in the western United States, particularly in California, and in the view of many people, that's the only place where earthquakes do occur in the United States. But in fact, there are earthquakes in the eastern United States as well. But they're just much less frequent. And they can be quite powerful, but typically they're not. So 5.9 is pretty big for the eastern United States.

BALDWIN: So explain this to me. Because the moment it happened, we're all on twitter and getting tweets from Georgia. Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., all the way up through Manhattan to Martha's Vineyard, Ohio, West Virginia. People all over felt this thing. Why is that? Is it because it's one single plate?

RIX: It is, yes. And the earth's crust west of the Rockies is different than the earth's crust east of the Rockies. Earthquakes in the eastern United States propagate over a much larger distance and can be felt over a much larger area than the same size earthquake would be in the western United States. So it's not unusual that we're feeling this earthquake over such a large part of the United States.

Also curious, the aftershocks. I talked to someone in Washington D.C., no they didn't feel them. Talked to someone where the epicenter was. She said, gosh, she's felt five. How does that happen?

RIX: Earthquakes are an almost inevitable part of any larger earthquake. Just because it takes a while for the earth's crust to sort of come back into an equilibrium after an earthquake. The aftershocks are smaller than the earthquake. This was a 5.9. It was not that large. And so the aftershocks, rather, will be even smaller and maybe below the threshold where people at a far distance can feel them.

BALDWIN: Are they over?

RIX: No, they'll continue for many hours, days, and possibly even weeks.

BALDWIN: Really?

RIX: Again, they'll be much smaller and people may not feel them.

BALDWIN: What do you tell people who are perhaps bracing in Louisa County, Virginia and the area, fearful of maybe some of the aftershocks? What advice do you give people in the case of an earthquake? We don't know how this goes?

RIX: Right, exactly, no. The best thing is to just make sure that bookcases and other loose objects are secured. That's probably the biggest threat is that bookcases falling over and things like that. That's probably the best advice I would give someone is just make sure that nothing in your home can fall on you.

BALDWIN: OK, Glenn Ricks from Georgia Tech, thank you very, very much.

RIX: My pleasure. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Quickly here, let me remind you one other piece of this story. We've been following, I've talked to the head of dominion power who runs this North Anna power plant. They are on the backup generators there. There are four of them. They power hundreds of thousands of homes in and around the Virginia area. He told me power is fine for those folks. But obviously the big concern is keeping those spent fuel rods cool. This is classified according to this power company as an unusual event. But it's the lowest of their four emergency categories.

We are going to follow this one. We're also following what's happening in Libya. If you've been watching CNN, which I'm sure you have through the day, we have been covering what's happening, including Sara Sidner walking in with these rebels, walking inside as they have reached a symbolic victory for these rebels inside of the Gadhafi compound. Let's listen to this as we go to break. On the other side I'll talk to Fareed Zakaria. Big picture -- what does this mean? Where do they go next? Where is Moammar Gadhafi?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The main gate. Now that's all the way into the compound. You see people the gates of the compound. A lot of smoke coming from there, it gives you the sense of the power of the Gadhafi regime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Check the clock. It is after 9:30 at night in Tripoli. Over the past couple of hours, fighting has been ferocious in and around this compound believed to be home to Moammar Gadhafi. All signs indicate Gadhafi is doing precisely what he said he would. He is fighting to the death, or at least he's attempting to flee. Thus far it's very clear, he is not giving up. Now, rebels entered this compound sometime late this morning. Let's listen to this together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: As we said, ferocious fighting. So the rebels knocked down parts of this compound wall. They came in first from the north side, meeting resistance deeper in they went. Keep in mind, this is a massive, massive installation, a city really within a city. Look at this. There are all kinds of places to hide, places to stage a final stand, a last-ditch effort. A maze of tunnels underground tunnels leading out from this compound in all different directions.

I want to bring in Fareed Zakaria of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS." And Fareed, let's look at something together here, because this is crucial to understand what's been happening in Tripoli the last couple of hours, also crucial to understand what's happening next. We look at the map of Libya. I know you know this well. But the cities here, you see all the different cities east of Tripoli. Those are the battle zones we have been talking about them here on CNN for months and months. That's where a lot of the major fighting happened.

You see here we're looking at Tripoli east west of Tripoli. You see these different areas. They came from the west. The tribal forces fought up through the mountains, blew through Zawiya, entered Tripoli from the west. So given that lay of the land, these rebels from the west, Fareed, who are they?

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Well, it's a very important point, Brooke because it highlights the reality. This is not a civil war. This was a national uprising against Gadhafi. Some of the tribes that joined in were from the east and some were from the west. Gadhafi was isolated with a small number of supporters. Any regime like this will always have supporters because they have enormous patronage, an enormous amount of money.

But basically what you're seeing is a uniting of opposition groups, tribes against Gadhafi. and that's why no matter how long this lasts, the result is predetermined. Gadhafi's regime will fall. BALDWIN: What we've seen the NTC and Benghazi, they're essentially government in waiting. Should we, Fareed, should we expect that these fighters who swarmed into Tripoli from the west predominately let the NTC waltz in and take the shots. How will that work?

ZAKARIA: That's a crucial question. We don't know because this is a loosely coordinated effort. Clearly, the NTC is now trying to establish some rules of the road. They're not trying to sweep in and say we're the new government. What they're trying to do is establish some rules, such as very -- no reprisals, no revenge, minimize the looting. This is all very, very important.

The NTC seems to have looked at Iraq and is trying to do exactly the opposite of what happened in Iraq. They're trying to make clear that the old regime and elements of the old regime will not be discriminated immediately. They will not be reprisal killings. They're trying to say order is more important than anything else. We will retain the police and retain the civil service. We will retain all healthcare workers. We will try to restart normal functioning of society. So that seems to be at the heart of what they're doing.

One hopes these fighters would agree with it. Transitional council is not saying recognize us as the president, vice president and prime minister. They're saying let's try to make sure this place doesn't come unglued.

BALDWIN: Here's potentially one concern. The question that everyone is asking, and I think, Fareed, you're the best person to answer it, what about Muslim fundamentalists, might they be a worry here?

ZAKARIA: I think we have worried too much about Islamic jihadists in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Bahrain, in Syria and Libya. Look, Gadhafi was a very, very tough opponent of Al Qaeda. He slaughtered thousands and thousands of militant Islamists. So I doubt very much that there is a great upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism that will battle these new forces.

In every Muslim society, there's going to be some of it, and it's something you have to deal with. But I don't see anything in the Libyan says that suggests that we should worry there's going to be some kind of takeover by Al Qaeda. They seem very few, very far between. We haven't heard much from them. And I think it says more about the kind of demons we worry about than anything. Listen to the reporters on the ground. CNN has such good ones. None of them are detecting any great Al Qaeda presence there.

BALDWIN: You're right. We've had people in with the rebels.

ZAKARIA: It's the people in Washington who talk about it, not the people in Libya.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: OK. That will quell some concerns for now, I suppose. What about Moammar Gadhafi, gosh, I read the transcript of your interview. You had said that interviewing him was kind of like interviewing Yoda. Gadhafi, this man who has manipulated his people for 42 years, he's held the country people back in this sort of suspended animation. Going forward, Fareed, assuming things go well, what with about potential? What is Libya's potential?

ZAKARIA: Libya's potential is huge. It has really been ruled by a mad man. It is important to step back and say that this is an extraordinary event. The Libyan people have been able no overturn a 42-year-old tyranny, one of the worst in the world, one of the maddest regimes, where the whims of this guy became law. His sons were given the country to plunder.

Once you get rid of that, yes, there's a certain degree of chaos and instability because he never built any institutions. He didn't allow for civil society. But if you step back and say to yourself, what is the potential? Libya is the largest country in Africa physically. It has a small population, seven million people. It has the most extraordinary petroleum reserves. It should be the richest country in Africa. It should be one of the richest countries in the world.

It is only because Gadhafi so mismanaged the place, used so much money for his personal pleasures and for mad adventures like invasions of other countries and terrorism that it didn't happen. So I think one can be cautiously optimistic that if there is some decent management given the small population, given the extraordinary resources, this could turn out pretty well.

BALDWIN: Final question, Fareed. I don't know if you're like me. I was just compelled to watch our coverage all day long here of this, the rebels and the breaching into the walls and into this compound. Still no Moammar Gadhafi. You've talked to the man, he's a fighter. He's not the son of despot. He's a despot himself, 42 years in the reins. What do you make of this now? Do you think he will just fight and be recalcitrant to the bitter end?

ZAKARIA: The kind of regime Gadhafi created, which was a highly personalized dictatorship in which it was more a court than a government, you know that there are lots of survival strategies. You know that that compound, you described it very well, is riddled with escape tunnels and mazes. He's had these thoughts. He's made plans.

So I think that his -- in his gut, he's not going to give up. He's going to fight to the end. But I think he will have many, many escape routes. Libya, as I said, is a very large country. There are people who are loyal to him. And he has vast amounts of money despite all the freezing of all these assets.

Libya was churning out billions of oils of revenues, all of which basically went to him. So that's my guess, one of the reasons why some of these people, the sons have escaped here and there, perhaps there was an ability to bribe some of the guards.

So I think it's quite possible he'll disappear into the night. But I don't think he will be able to reestablish any kind of control or power because he doesn't have legitimacy. People in Libya are tired of him. That's what I mean. Everybody in Libya is tired of him, from the west, the south, the east. And as a result, at the end of the day, it's over for Moammar Gadhafi.

BALDWIN: He's done. I would like to know where the labyrinth of tunnels leads, though. Fareed Zakaria, always a pleasure. Thank you so, so much.

ZAKARIA: Pleasure, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Just in here, switching gears, talking about the aftermath -- aftermath of this earthquake. New video of President Obama. You know, he's on vacation. He was talking on the phone. Martha's Vineyard just after the earthquake rocked up and down the east coast. I'm being told we will be hearing from the president soon. So as many are still bracing for aftershocks, we're back, breaking news on CNN in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Quick reminder, just before I left you I was talking about the president. In fact, guys, let's show that video again. You can see the president on the golf course on vacation. This is when he's getting the call from the federal folks letting them know more or less what happened with regard to this earthquake. Of course he travels with teams. He is always right there and gets that information. So we're going to hear from the president momentarily. We'll take that live on CNN.

Also, just a quick reminder people up and down the earth coast earthquake. Reminder, epicenter, Miniter, Virginia. It was 5.9. So we will hear from New York mayor Michael Bloomberg in just about 10 minutes in terms of New York reaction, et cetera. So we will take the mayor in 10 minutes.

I do want to take you to our nation's capital. I know a lot of our folks felt it, you're still tweeting me about that. Let's go to Kate Bolduan, who has some color, I understand, with regard to members of Congress feeling this thing. And Kate, I thought they were on vacation.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Many of them are, Brooke, but as you remember, they hold these things, hold pro forma sessions often. It's often kind of a result of the dispute between the majority and minority and they are on a recess and they come every few days for a pro forma session.

And my colleagues as the earthquake was happening, funny to even say that, my colleagues in the capitol walked outside, everyone was scared and evacuating the capitol. And my colleagues Ted Baird and Mike Ollors came across Senator Chris Coons, the Democrat senator from Delaware. He had actually just got off the train from Delaware and was heading to the capitol to preside over this pro forma session. That clearly couldn't happen.

And what happened possibly in the last few minutes is that the Senate had to work quickly to figure out what to do to actually hold this pro forma session in order to even actually accomplish their constitutional requirements of holding the pro forma sessions. They held it up the street from here next to CNN's building in the basement of the postal square building here in D.C. for some 22 seconds, if you will. They held the pro form a session and there was a camera inside.

But very unusual. I don't know if that's ever happened before, but they all had to evacuate the building, and Chris Coons said it was unsettling, scary and he was outside and felt the ground move very far in either direction. And he said although, I will tell you, living in Washington, D.C., and many of our friends in New York will feel the same way, he said when he found out it was an earthquake he was actually relieved. And my colleagues asked him why. And he said we are approaching the anniversary of 9/11, we do live in Washington, D.C., and I do work in the U.S. capitol. So all things considered he said he was OK. So he was ready to get back to work. I can assure you that.

BALDWIN: I understand, you take everything very, very, very seriously these days, especially in our nation's capital.

Kate Bolduan, quickly, I know the capitol building, the Pentagon, the congressional buildings all evacuated. Is all that clear and everyone is back at work?

BOLDUAN: It seems it's happening building by building. Traffic seems to be snarled here in the capital. But the sense is I've been out here since it happened. I ran the stairs downstairs eight flights of stairs. People seem to be settling down and assessing the situation.

But with many of these historic buildings, especially the capitol they're going to be very reticent to let people back into the building. We know many museums are not opening today, are closed down and not opening back up. But it seems at the moment it's going on a building by building basis and everyone is still trying to get a count of where things stand and account where everyone is before they make the decision.

Kate Bolduan, thank you very much. Traffic never fun in Washington, right now already snarled and I imagine a lot of people getting out of work and heading home early, perhaps being on the beltway this afternoon will not be too thrilling.

Again, a quick reminder, we are waiting to hear from the president, he is on vacation, took a quick phone call, got briefed on the situation with regard to the 5.9 earthquake. We will be hearing from the president momentarily.

Also in about five minutes hearing from the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, in terms of New York's response. Imagine being way up high in a skyscraper and feeling this or even on a train underground. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Also today, a tremendous moment in history in terms of Libya and what we've been watching there for months and months, we've now seen these rebels today breaching the Moammar Gadhafi compound. The compound of course surrounded by this wall all the way around. The rebels breached it from the north side. The compound has its own system of roads. It is multiple soccer stadiums, large.

Sara Sidner was right there moving in with the rebels. In fact, she walked into the compound, a tremendous day for these rebels. Watch this.