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East Coast Braces for Hurricane Irene; Chaotic Fighting in Tripoli; Libyan Rebels Seize Gadhafi RV; Rebel Leadership Now in Tripoli; Get Ready for Hurricane Irene

Aired August 25, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're at the top of the hour now. Two major stories are unfolding.

The first, this guy, he's wanted dead or alive. Rebels say in Libya say Moammar Gadhafi is cornered, surrounded. But this as a tape surfaces from him that includes a violent message to all of Libya. We're going to go to Tripoli in just a few minutes.

But here in the U.S., powerful Cat three hurricane Irene whipping up concern days before it makes an expected landfall on the U.S. coastline. Irene could move into the monster category just within the coming hours. Irene could move into the monster category just within the coming hours. We're talking about Category 4 potentially.

That could be the biggest hurricane to hit the U.S. in years. Much of the Eastern Seaboard now from the Carolinas to Maine is on alert. Irene could come ashore twice, North Carolina first on Saturday, somewhere in New England after that.

Right now, Irene pounding the Bahamas, damage widespread. Flooding reported, of course. And evacuations stepping up today for North Carolina's Outer Banks. Governor Bev Perdue of North Carolina declaring a state of emergency. She's one of at least four states -- four governors in the states to do so. Many areas only accessible by ferry there.

Voluntary evacuations have become mandatory. Some ferries still not full, and that has the governor worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BEVERLY PERDUE (D), NORTH CAROLINA: I was dismayed when I saw that many of the ferries were nearly empty. People on Ocracoke Island need to take this seriously because it's hard to get off if the ferries are full.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Well, those sailors for the U.S. Navy sure take their orders seriously. They are gone from Norfolk Naval Station out to sea trying to protect all those assets from damage. Another concern, what impact Irene could have on the scheduled dedication of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

That is scheduled for Sunday morning in Washington, D.C.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY JOHNSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. NATIONAL MEMORIAL PROJECT FOUNDATION: We're going forward with our program. We're going to stay fast. And we will give you more information as the day comes. We will bring you back tomorrow to talk about if, in fact, we have any changes.

But today, we feel confident that we are moving forward with the dedication of the Martin Luther King Memorial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: We will certainly keep you posted on that.

Meanwhile, folks in New York preparing for flooding should Irene come their way. The mayor, Michael Bloomberg, hasn't called for evacuations just yet, but certainly not ruling it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: If the worst scenario is going to happen this weekend, we will activate other elements of our storm -- coastal storm plan, including the possibility of evacuating New Yorkers who live in low-lying areas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Chad Myers tracking Irene.

And, Chad, the forecast track is definitely solidifying, it seemed to me.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is because we're getting closer to landfall time. The closer you get to landfall time from where we are now to where we're going, the error over the cone gets smaller.

So we know where Irene is right now, right over Abaco Island. There's the Bahamas. And here's Florida. The outer bands are actually affecting Florida right now. This may affect some air travel, especially later today, as a lot of planes try to get into either Fort Lauderdale or Miami or maybe West Palm. You get a couple of these storms to come in. Some of them could even spin. Some could have a small tornado warning on them.

We're not talking giant tornadoes, but kind of waterspouts that come onshore. And that could certainly slow down the airplanes -- slow down airports. This will eventually travel on up to the north, get away from the Bahamas and get stronger, as you said.

It's the strength of the storm, Drew, that is the hardest thing to predict. The Hurricane Center will be the first to tell you we kind of know which way it's going to go left or right within a couple hundred miles. But storms can go from Category 1 to Category 4 overnight. And there's no model that can predict that.

There's no model that can tell you when that eye gets very tight, like an ice skater bringing her arms in, that angular momentum getting only down to about 10 miles. And when that eye gets very small, that's when the wind really picks up. A lot of rain up and down the East Coast. There's the Category 3. A lot of wind and erosion damage in parts of Florida. The waves are going to be coming in. You're going to lose a lot of beach, all the way up and down from Jacksonville down to Miami. A lot of beach is going to be taken away.

It will be come back eventually, but the erosion will be a problem for there, erosion even for South Carolina. A direct hit possible for the Carolinas, anywhere still from almost Wilmington to Cape Hatteras Now, there's about a 40 percent chance that it misses altogether, because about 40 percent of the cone is out to sea. I don't see that happening. But we will have to check.

And then along the coast, it goes back out into the ocean around Duck or Corolla and then along the ocean coast, either left or right, so we talked about this D.C. dedication tomorrow, or in the weekend.

GRIFFIN: Sunday, yes.

MYERS: Sunday. That could be affected only because if it's on the left side of this track, then D.C. is in play. And so is the Chesapeake Bay for flooding. Not the forecast, but in the cone. And then along and up toward the Northeast and very close to New York City.

If you park a hurricane there in New York City and you have all this water piling in and on to Long Island, there's going to be extensive flooding there. We talked to Jason Carroll about Jamaica Bay.

Then you push all that water into New York Harbor and up the East River and up the Hudson, the water levels can come up rather rapidly, five to 10 feet higher than what you're expecting. And that could cause flooding in this city.

Now, if the storm is out here and the winds in the city are this way, that pushes the water out of the harbor and the water actually is down. There's no surge. There's an inverse surge as that water goes away. That's the potential.

And what you were talking about, these models we look at, they're closer together. They're not all spread out today like they were because actually the hurricane hunter aircraft helps us out. We just talked to the captain of one of the hurricane hunters. They fly through it. They tell us what's going on. And right now the storm is getting stronger. They don't think it's 115 right now. I'm going to call it about 100.

Hurricane Center as they fly through it, they can give us exact miles per hour. Tonight, it goes back to 115. It goes right by 115 and right into the 125 to maybe Category 4 range. GRIFFIN: One question, and that is the forward speed of this thing, because one thing you do want if it's going to hit you is to hit you and get out of the way. Is this slow, fast, medium? What's happening in speed?

MYERS: Well, when it hits, especially up in New England and New York or Philadelphia or New Jersey, wherever it goes because all that is still in the cone, it won't stop like Agnes did. Agnes in '72 stopped right over like Corning, New York, and it rained for days and it flooded everything.

This will not be like that. This will be quickly across maybe even north of Montreal 24 hours after it hits the coast.

GRIFFIN: All right, Chad, we're going to go to Ocracoke Island, Byron Miller standing by. He owns the Ocracoke Harbor Inn.

Are you with us, Byron?

BYRON MILLER, BUSINESS OWNER: Yes.

GRIFFIN: You are staying; is that correct?

MILLER: That is correct.

GRIFFIN: Why?

MILLER: I have been here 38 years. And I left one time for Gloria. And it was a miserable experience. And I actually did not feel as safe when I left. You know, you live here. It's a small island. You know how the buildings are built. You know where everything is at and just feel safer.

GRIFFIN: Chad, I want to bring you in here. We're looking at a Web camera from the harbor in there in Ocracoke. It's certainly a beautiful scene.

And, Byron, we sure hope that's the scene when this thing passes. But you came back from Gloria. Was there a tremendous amount of damage? One thing Ocracoke has been through many, many times is hurricanes.

MILLER: Yes.

Since I have lived here, we haven't had a lot of structural damage, some roof damage from hurricanes, some flooding in some older houses. Most of the damage has been ocean overwash on Highway 12 to the north, which that can really impact our daily life and tourism.

MYERS: Mr. Miller, hey. It's Chad Myers.

I'm curious, because I'm always curious as to why people stay. Are you staying to protect your stuff? Are you staying to protect your home? Or do you think that you're just better off physically there?

MILLER: A little of both.

Really, in Ocracoke, right now, there's uncertainty, you know, where it's going to make landfall. By the time you're pretty sure where it's going to make landfall, the ferries have stopped running, you can't leave. And it's also very hard to get back when you leave.

So as far as coming back and taking care of any damage, that can be real hard. And I do feel safer here. You know, if somebody had any medical issues or if they were elderly or something like, you know, they should leave. But I just -- I feel like I'm safer here.

MYERS: If you have a ten-foot storm surge coming over your island, what is going to happen to your house?

MILLER: Well, we pretty much have to build at least seven feet above sea level. A 10-foot storm surge would not put 10 feet of water in the village. We probably haven't had seven feet, maybe back in the '30s. So that is a, you know, very, very iffy thing.

GRIFFIN: I assume that the tourists have left. But I do hear a lot and have covered enough hurricanes to know that a lot of people who are residents don't like the fact that, once they leave, their return is in the hands of somebody else and they just can't get back to their property. Is that what you experienced during Gloria?

MILLER: No. Coming back wasn't that bad in Gloria. But during Floyd, I know the people that left, it took them days to get back because all of the flooding inland. And, you know, you end up hanging out someplace for days, and, you know, the uncertainty and it's just -- so getting back, yes, it can be tough and it is really in somebody else's hands.

GRIFFIN: Do you have any kind of way to escape if you suddenly decide this thing is bigger than I can handle?

MILLER: Unless Beverly Perdue wants to send her helicopter for me, no.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: I doubt she is going to do that.

Do you think, Chad?

MYERS: No.

MILLER: I doubt it.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: You're on your own, sir. All right.

GRIFFIN: Well --

MILLER: But --

GRIFFIN: Go ahead.

MILLER: You know, it's like I said. There's not that many people that have stayed. I would say the number will probably be less than 300. You know, it's a small island. Everybody knows everybody. We all know where there's plenty of food, water, you know, generators.

So unless we do take a devastating Cat 4 or 5, I think we will be OK.

GRIFFIN: Let me ask you about the Bahamas, because you have a home there. Do you have any idea what has happened to that home?

MILLER: Yes, I have a house on Green Turtle Cay in Abaco, which probably just got out of the eye of Irene. What I understood was gusts at least to 150, and I did not hear of any, you know, loss of life or anything like that, but lots of tree damage and I'm sure there's tons of flooding.

GRIFFIN: And I should point out that that is one thing that makes Ocracoke a little different. There's not a lot of trees; is that true?

MILLER: No, no.

GRIFFIN: Yes. All right.

MILLER: Our tallest trees are, you know, 25 feet maybe. So that's another reason to stay. You go inland and you have these 60-, 80-foot trees that can't withstand very much wind, and they can fall into the hotel you are staying in. You could drive into submerged -- submerge your vehicle because you're not sure of the roads. That's another reason.

MYERS: Yes, Mr. Miller, but your island may not be in the same place when Irene is done with it. So we wish you the best, sir.

MILLER: It might not. Thank you very much.

GRIFFIN: OK, Byron, try to keep that Webcam up if you can for us, all right, throughout this whole ordeal?

MILLER: I will keep the web cam up. And we also have a weather station -- you can look at it on Wunderground (ph) -- at the end of our dock. As long as we have got power, they will both be up.

GRIFFIN: All right, hang in there, buddy. We will be watching.

MILLER: All right, thanks. You guys take care.

GRIFFIN: Thank you. OK.

Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

GRIFFIN: Also unfolding right now, Moammar Gadhafi surrounded? That's according to rebels hunting him down. And it comes as we get a closer look as to what used to be his kingdom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, this is the house of resistance, a potent symbol of Gadhafi's stand against the West, that has now been completely overrun by his enemies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: CNN's Dan Rivers makes a disturbing discovery on Moammar Gadhafi's compound: bodies found rotting in what appears to be gruesome evidence of secret executions. Dan is standing by on the horrors he's just witnessed.

Stay right there. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Chaotic fighting has rocked central Tripoli.

Let's take a look at what's been going on. This is from late this morning. Libyan rebels claimed to have Moammar Gadhafi surrounded, but it was only a matter of hours later Gadhafi apparently managed to get out a brief broadcast. Here's part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOAMMAR GADHAFI (through translator): Do not leave Tripoli for the rats. Do not leave them. Fight them. Destroy them. You are the overwhelming majority. You have marched in millions. March with the same millions, but fight this time. Fill the streets and the fields.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: So it seems he is still alive, but let's look at what's happened since then. After the rebels claimed they had Gadhafi surrounded, rebels by the hundreds converged on an apartment building just south of Gadhafi's former compound.

Amid bursts of sniper fire, heavily-armed rebels darted about that neighborhood firing off rounds and then began searching hiding places. They entered some of the buildings, made their way up stairwells and went literally door to door, searching apartments and in some cases they were actually kicking their way into apartment doors. Hours later though, still no Moammar Gadhafi.

The rebels did overrun some Gadhafi-held positions and set fire to encampments, several of which appeared to have been abandoned very quickly. Rebels also took a number of prisoners, some of whom they believe are African mercenaries from other countries recruited by Gadhafi's defenders. And dozens of bodies were found in the streets, some of their wrists bound.

Dan Rivers live for us now in Tripoli.

Dan, just give us a sense of what is happening in Tripoli right now in terms of, number one, searching for Gadhafi, and number two, if they're still fighting at this late hour.

RIVERS: It's pretty calm here at the moment as far as we are aware. The reports that were coming in earlier in the day were of fierce firefights in one air of Tripoli, where you mentioned the rebels claim to have cornered Colonel Gadhafi. They have produced absolutely no evidence to back up that claim, and right now we haven't heard any shots being fired for quite some time. It does seem to be much calmer than it was.

Tripoli, though, does remain a city that is in a crisis in some senses. We've been out across the city today to get a flavor of what is going on. And I must warn you that my report does contain some graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIVERS (voice-over): This was the very heart of the regime. A potent symbol of Gadhafi's resistance against the West, now overrun by his enemies. So is the writing on the wall for the colonel, the rebels would like to think so and they are determined to flush him out with minimal collateral damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't like to spend a lot of blood, you know, because they are -- even they are our brothers.

RIVERS: We've got to be careful at every coroner this part of the city that Gadhafi's compound.

We're not sure if they're shooting at us, but we don't stay to find out.

The streets are awash with guns, all toted by the rebels. So far we haven't seen a single Gadhafi loyalist here.

Among the fighters, Ziyha Tariq (ph), who was held in prison for political dissent. He says he can't remember for how long, but he does remember the torture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been beaten. We've been put electricity in our foot. We've been held with our hands tied up like this.

RIVERS: We visit the Matiqua (ph) military hospital, now echoing with the screams of children caught up in this mayhem.

Kristie Campbell (ph) works for an aid agency and has been watching hundreds of injured citizens being rushed in for treatment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women who have been killed, they're basically hiding from snipers into the houses, from mortars into the houses, not even in the streets, in their homes.

RIVERS (on camera): It's pretty sickening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've worked for 10 years in warzones and this one was bad. RIVERS (voice-over): I meet Uday Idominer (ph), a 27-year-old fighter shot twice by a sniper yesterday. This is near to where he was shot. Hardly a surface that's not punctuated by the ferocious firefight.

And at the end of this folk filled street an intersection littered with bodies. I count a dozen, a grizzly tableau of urban warfare, the victims' hands bound behind them.

The rebels say they were execute by Gadhafi's men, but these bodies appear to be black Africans. Black Africans make up a large portion of Gadhafi's army, raising questions about whether the men were executed by the rebels.

(on camera): These terrible scenes sum up the horror of parts of Tripoli now. Bodies strewn across the street, gunfire echoing through the sky, and large parts of the city remaining a no-go zone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIVERS: Pretty grim scenes there that we wandered into in the center of Tripoli.

At the moment, the Transitional National Council is holding a press conference right here where we are stationed. We'll bring you the latest developments from that.

But one other terrible bit of information that we got at the hospital is that they are desperately short of refrigeration units because of the sheer numbers of bodies that they are recovering in the searing heat, more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. They are desperate for somewhere to place those bodies.

GRIFFIN: Dan, give me a sense of the town behind you. I'm seeing looks like a coastal scene. You can see just about anywhere, cars passing by, the lights are on.

Is it fair to say that wherever Gadhafi is, that area is getting smaller and smaller or are there huge parts of this city that are still, quote, unquote, "wild"?

RIVERS: Yes, I think we're building -- I mean, you know, firstly, it's really difficult to get hard and fast information. Hopefully, we'll get some more from this press conference which is going on right now.

But I think we are getting a sense that the areas in which Gadhafi loyalists are hold up are slowly but surely being eroded. As you can see, as you mentioned behind me, normality is returning to parts of the city. You can see it right here. There are cars out on the streets. There are shops and cafes beginning to reopen, and people beginning to emerge after what must have been an absolutely terrifying ordeal.

Further to the south -- we're right in the north of the city right by the port -- further to the south, that's where the fighting is still continuing. That's where the snipers are, and that's where the danger still remains.

GRIFFIN: Dan Rivers, excellent reporting from Tripoli tonight. Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A few rooms to the back, there's a bedroom back there. I don't know if you can try to zoom in on it. There's a bed that's been made. And the rebels were speculating, they were saying that perhaps Gadhafi himself had been sleeping there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: That's our own Arwa Damon. She is inside what she is told is Moammar Gadhafi's luxury RV. You'll see what she found and where the rebels say they found it.

Also, back in the U.S., on alert. Hurricane Irene barreling towards the East Coast. Folks getting out of the way. We're going to talk to someone who is literally flying directly into the storm. She's doing it just hours from now. A hurricane hunter joins us live coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: CNN's Arwa Damon is the only western reporter at Tripoli's airport. And a few hours ago rebels there came driving up in what they claim is an RV that Gadhafi may have been using as his hideout.

Arwa takes us on a tour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: We're here at the Tripoli International Airport, and the fighters here that are part of Zintan Fighters from the western mountains just drove up this mobile home. They say they got it off of Colonel Gadhafi's farm that is located around 15 minutes away from here.

They came up. They were honking. They were absolutely overjoyed. They were describing what they had seen on the farm as being Gadhafi's life of paradise, everything that they were deprived of, and they say that they managed to secure around a quarter of the farm.

Just to give you an idea, though, of what we have inside on the layout here. This obviously something of a sitting area.

We might have some restrictions due to the cables that allow us to do our live broadcast.

But there's also a few rooms to the back. There's a bedroom back there. I don't know if you can try to zoom in on it. There's a bed that's been made. And the rebels were speculating, they were saying that perhaps Gadhafi himself had been sleeping there.

They've also -- (speaking foreign language) -- they're also opening -- they're still rifling through the stuff that they found here. And so this bathroom set, it's also got female products in here, too, makeup remover, creams.

Now, they say that they're pretty confident that this is, in fact, a mobile home that was used by Gadhafi and his family because they say it is familiar to them, that they've seen him use this on a number of occasions in the past.

Now, they did encounter some resistance when they were coming in to Gadhafi's farm. They said they detained some people.

Here we have the kitchen. All sorts of utensils, garbage bags. Actually, just going through this ourselves for the first time. Spices, I'm not an expert on kitchen spices.

But they say that they did detain some individuals.

It looks like -- I mean, this has been in use. It looks like it's been packed away, but most certainly it's been used. Everything is full, you know, packed away.

They say that they did detain some people at the farm. There were some brief clashes. They've managed to push them back. They're going through trying to clear it all.

(speaking foreign language)

Oh, he's brought this out. Not entirely sure but he's speculate that maybe Gadhafi was wounded, but there's definitely no way of verifying that at all.

(speaking foreign language)

This, he says, a gasmask.

(speaking foreign language)

He found this in the living room area in the back, a gasmask. So, yes, the rebels still going through all of this, still trying to figure out -- put the bits and pieces here.

Certainly, for them, this is yet another victory because they say they are now -- they're not penetrating Gadhafi's farmlands themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Arwa Damon at Tripoli's airport.

Up next, I'll talk with a hurricane hunter who, just hours from now, is actually going to fly into this hurricane in hopes of finding out the storm's next move.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Our coverage of Hurricane Irene continues now. You know, when a storm like this is coming everybody is being told to get out of the way. But there's a group of people who actually suit up and fly right into the eye of that storm. They are called hurricane hunters.

One of them is captain Nicole Mitchell who tomorrow morning, very early tomorrow morning -- is that right, Nicole? She will board a plane and head into this storm and fly around it for 12 hours. She joins us from Biloxi, Mississippi. And the first question I have to ask you is why.

(LAUGHTER)

CAPT. NICOLE MITCHELL, HURRICANE HUNTER (on the phone): Well, it's very important data. When these storms are over water, we don't have as much data as we do if the storms are over land. And it's so valuable to know, to be right inside the storm and find out is the pressure dropping? How strong are the winds. Which side of the storm is the worst?

Over the period of our flight, inside the storm we're there for about six hours. And then my day will be long tomorrow because of the getting there and getting back time as well. But over that period of six hours what is the trend of the track? Things like that can really be a critical piece of the forecast that the hurricane center puts out. And so they're in there sending all that data back.

GRIFFIN: Nicole, I'm joined by Chad Myers now. And your data, which you told us earlier -- we talked to you earlier this afternoon -- comes back pretty much in real-time.

MITCHELL: Yes, it does. We're sending packages out every at least ten minutes right from the plane to a satellite uplink to the hurricane center. So, there's actually even a phone app now that people can follow our flights on. And a lot of times these meteorologists, like at your station, tracking our flight. That's that same data that's coming in. It has our latitude and longitude on it. So, people are able to see exactly where we are and what that data is at each of those points.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Captain, earlier you told us you type out these vortex messages. And one came out 12 minutes ago with max outbound flight wind levels of 99 knots, clouds below the center, and the millibars of 950 right now. You drop something into the middle of that eye to get that pressure at the surface, don't you?

MITCHELL: Yes. The plane itself is collecting pretty much the same things as the drop zone. That's what we call that. So the plane is getting the -- or the horizontal field and then in the eye and the eyewall will drop the sone (ph), which also gives us a vertical look. In the eyewall, that will help us track the wind field all of the way to the surface. And that's so important because then we know what sort of winds are going to be hitting the surface.

And then the eye tracks the pressures and the temperatures and everything else. But the pressure, the lowest pressure, that's how we categorize the storm. So, if we use that sone (ph) we actually take a surface measurement and we know if the pressure is dropping, the storm is intensifying.

MYERS: It's kind of like going to Dave and Buster's and throwing the ball into the skeeball hole, isn't it? Because you really want it to get it into the exact center.

MITCHELL: You do. We steer in the storm. A low-pressure area, it's a counter-clock wise rotation. So, we know the wind is off of our left wing, then the nose of the plane should be headed right for the center. So, once we get in the eye, we're watching the winds drop. And we look for that tight center circulation where the winds do the quick shift, and we know we've hit the center and we release the sone!

GRIFFIN: All right. Captain Nicole Mitchell, we wish you luck and we will certainly be following you. Heck, we're going to have to get that app. Don't you think?

MYERS: Oh, I already have that (ph).

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: All right, thanks, Nicole. We'll see you or certainly hear from you later on as we follow this storm. Chad, thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the one hand, the micromanager from hell. But on the other hand, his micromanaging has been so brilliant for so long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: He's talking about this guy, Steve Jobs, the man behind America's most powerful company. Steve Jobs is stepping down, if you haven't heard the news. And investors at Apple are reacting, wondering, what products are already in the pipeline? We'll have that story for you.

Plus, as the hurricane takes aim at the East Coast, new questions about how some of Washington's famous landmarks are going to hold up, especially after this week's earthquake. You'll see new video of just the damage ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: As soon as Apple Steve Jobs announced he was stepping down as CEO last night, Apple stocks started to tumble. Today that stock stabilized. It's selling for $373.80 a share. To understand why Jobs' resignation rattled the markets, listen to this piece put to the by CNNMoney.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The amazing thing about him is how many businesses he has touched and revolutionized. I mean, everyone knows about the computer business. Computer hardware, computer software. Then, of course, there's the music business, with iTunes and the iPod. Just amazing. Completely transformed that business.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The iPod and the iPod Touch and the iPhone and all the thanks that are portable music players, you know -- on paper they have a 90 percent share of the market. In fact, they own it. I mean, other people might buy other mp3 players, but they have thrown them away. If you look at what people are using, they're all using iPads or iPods.

STEVE JOBS, FORMER CEO OF APPLE: Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Steve Jobs' influence on the mobile telecommunication spaces is sort of many-fold. For more than 100 years telecommunications companies have exercised most of the control in the relationship with their vendors. And Apple came in and Steve Jobs, as is his way, basically kind of bullied his carrier -- in this case, AT&T -- to saying you need to create a much more open environment. You need to create an environment in which the user can go anywhere they want to get any kind of information they want. If it happens to be the app store, all the better for Apple.

And the other thing that happened as a result of Apple coming on the scene is that it really created a competitive environment for mobile phones that had never existed before. Google's Android owes a great debt to Apple's iPhone because suddenly, carriers that didn't have the iPhone, like Verizon and T-Mobile and Sprint, were looking for alternatives, looking for new ways to get exciting smartphones in the market.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Here's an indication of just how successful Apple is right now. According to a statement released by the U.S. Treasury in July, the government, the U.S. government had an operating cash balance of nearly $74 billion. That sounds like a lot of money, right? It's about $2.5 billion short of the cash Apple has on hand.

Well, we are getting a better look at the damage done to the Washington Monument from Tuesday's earthquake. And these pictures obtained by CNN show a distinct crack there at the top. Pieces of mortar on the floor inside the observation area. The monument is staying closed, engineers who specialize in seismic events and historic structures now hired to assess the damage.

Up next, we are going to go live to Libya. Rebels say Moammar Gadhafi is surrounded. This is the fighting escalates near what many fear could be his escape route, the airport.

Sara Sidner standing by. Stay right there. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: To Libya now. According to our latest reports, heavily armed rebels are searching for apartment buildings door to door in a section of central Libya after claiming today to have Moammar Gadhafi surrounded. Hours later, still no sign of him.

Sara Sidner is standing by at the Libyan capital right now. And Sara, do we have any idea why the rebels thought they had him cornered, and does it appear that is just another claim that turns out to be false?

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's another claim. And I think you're getting information that -- there's a lot of rumors and they're coming from all over the place. And sometimes people will report things and then suddenly realize, wait a minute, I think that might have been a rumor.

We're trying to be very careful not to go with every single thing that we hear from different sections of the city because different people are saying different things. And they're all coming from the opposition. So I think it's very, very clear that they do not have Moammar Gadhafi in their grips at this point in time. I think, Drew, if they did, we would all know it.

The world would know it. This will be a huge moment for the opposition, a huge moment for Libya, and a huge moment really for those who have been paying attention to this conflict and for the world.

This man is someone who everyone who has been in this country, whether they supported him or whether they opposed him, if he is captured, this will be a moment that for certain the opposition would not want to keep secret.

So I think we'll stay away from the rumors. The truth is that's what they are right now because we have not seen him and I can tell you when they do find him, we will all know it. I want to give you the latest breaking news right now.

We have just gotten information from the National Transitional Council, that's the political wing of the opposition who has taken the responsibility of trying to figure out a political system for this country, they have just announced that they have moved to Tripoli. Why is it that significant?

That is significant because they are trying to take control as the political wing in power trying to set up a system that they say will be transparent, that will be one of the people that they will try to create, for example, free and fair elections, and a constitution.

They have now settled themselves in the capital Tripoli. Everyone in this country has said we want Tripoli to continue to be our capital and the NTC is now here making that so -- Drew. GRIFFIN: All right, Sara Sidner in Tripoli. Fair to say, Sara, that really is marking the end for Moammar Gadhafi, no matter where he is.

SIDNER: I think it is fair to say. I think what's happening here is that I think there is a sense people feel like he needs to be found, they need to know where he is. He needs to be punished for the crimes that everyone here believes he has been committed.

Crimes against humanity and also the International Criminal Court saying that he is also a criminal, but let's be very clear here, that the National Transitional Council and the rebels themselves who are out on this streets want to move forward.

They want to continue to try to take full control of this city. They want to continue to take control of other cities in this country and move forward to try to create what they're calling a new Libya, a Libya that has free and fair elections, a Libya that lets people express themselves without the fear of retribution -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right, Sara Sidner reporting to us. The National Transitional Council now in Tripoli, Libya. You might say it is the new government taking over there. Thank you, Sara.

Well, this is the land of skyscrapers, big windows, 9 million people. Forecasters say Hurricane Irene may roll right over New York City. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says they are bracing for the worse. We're going to go live to New York.

Up next, I'm going to talk with the Red Cross traveling up and down the Carolina Coast.

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GRIFFIN: If you live on the East Coast from South Carolina to Maine, I don't have to tell you her name, it's Hurricane Irene coming right for you. This thing is a monster.

We expect to get the first hurricane warning along the East Coast just about half hour from now. A state of emergency already declared for North Carolina, east of I-95, and in Virginia, New Jersey, and Maryland.

We expect to get the first hurricane warning again coming up soon for the East Coast. Under a mandatory evacuation now is the tiny island of Ocracoke Island on North Carolina's outer banks. The only way to get off the island is to put your car on a ferry.

But right now too many ferries are like this one, take a close look, hardly a car on board. North Carolina's governor doesn't like what she's seeing. She's worried too many people are waiting until the last minute to get out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BEVERLY PERDUE, NORTH CAROLINA: I was dismayed when I saw that many of the ferries were nearly empty. People on Ocracoke Island need to take this seriously because it's hard to get off if the ferries are full.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Those ferries, by the way, can handle only about 50 cars at a time. Katie Meier with the American Red Cross, she is traveling the outer banks right now looking for people who need supplies or help getting out.

And, Katie, can you tell us how many of those people need the supplies to stay or how many need the supplies because they're heading out and might need those supplies in their cars or wherever they're heading?

KATIE MEIER, AMERICAN RED CROSS (via telephone): It's hard to say really what the population is doing. It seems like it might be about 50/50. I talked to a couple last night who boarded their home and got out ahead of the traffic.

It's a good thing they did because I traveled south and sat in traffic for a good 45 minutes. That's not typically a long drive. At the same time, I talked to residents who say we're not going anywhere. We've seen this before. We've sustained 110, 115-mile-per-hour winds. We'll do it again this time.

GRIFFIN: We're seeing videos of stores boarded up. Are stores still open? Is equipment, is food still available and at moderate prices?

MEIER: Most stores that we've talked to are staying open at least through today, if not through tomorrow. And then they're closing their doors sometime tomorrow afternoon, which would be a smart thing, because we know that we're going to start getting real ugly tomorrow afternoon and into Saturday.

GRIFFIN: Are you encouraging, is the Red Cross encouraging people to leave, like the government?

MEIER: It's not really the Red Cross' role to tell people to evacuate, but it is our role to tell people to be prepared. Make sure you've got a disaster kit with first aid kit, water, plenty of non- perishable food, flashlight with batteries.

Make sure you've got a plan. If you're not going to evacuate where is your family going to be with this storm. If you are, where and when are you going to leave and above all, stay informed.

Watch the news. Make sure you know what this storm is going to do. This is a big powerful storm. It's coming right for the outer banks.

GRIFFIN: All right, Katie Meier. They're on the outer banks right now. Katie, thanks so lot. We'll be following you and your work at the Red Cross as we move forward. Hurricane Irene could hit the coast more than once. Check out the possible track similar to Gloria back in 1985, if you were around for that storm. It slammed into the coast three times.

Gloria first hammered the outer banks of North Carolina where Katie was speaking to us from. And then Long Island, New York, and then Connecticut after an expected landfall in North Carolina, Hurricane Irene could plow right up the coast toward New York or New Jersey. Jason Carroll is at New York's Rockaway Beach -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And hello to you, Drew. As you know, within the past hour New York's governor did declare a state of emergency. And tomorrow, we're expected to hear from New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg in terms of whether or not he calls for evacuations.

If he does, this is one of the areas in the Rockaway that's in question. It's located about 30 miles south of Manhattan. And what most people out here worry about is a condition called when the bay meets the ocean. And I'll show you what that means.

Right over here you've got the Atlantic Ocean and then just on the opposite side about three blocks off the boardwalk here, that is where you have Jamaica Bay. When massive storms come through here, it doesn't happen very often, the bay literally meets the ocean.

It happened back in 1944. It happened also again in 1960 and one of the residents here, this is Libby Schlesinger and her daughter, Becky. Libby, you remember when it happened. You were here when it happened although you were much younger then.

LIBBY SCHLISINGER, ROCKAWAY RESIDENT: Yes.

CARROLL: Tell me about that condition and what you did?

SCHLISINGER: I was in school and the water from the ocean met the bay and parents were coming up and picking up their children and carrying them out on their backs to get them out of the front of the school.

CARROLL: Now, Drew, the reason why I bring this up with Libby is because she remembers when it happened before. When we talk about evacuations, Libby told me earlier, you at least right now, are not planning to evacuate.

SCHLISINGER: Nope. We're not leaving.

CARROLL: Tell me why not.

SCHLISINGER: Because we're prepared.

CARROLL: Tell me what you mean by you're prepared.

SCHLISINGER: I have a life vest ready to go for her. I have a whistle, a flashlight. I have tuna, cans of tuna, lots of water. CARROLL: I want to make this very quick. But instead of preparing like you're doing right now, why not -- I know you've got a little daughter here. Why not just leave?

SCHLISINGER: I have to teach spin on Sunday morning at 7:45.

CARROLL: Libby, you will not be teaching spin Sunday morning. I guarantee it, almost can guarantee it. Once again, Drew, the mayor tomorrow will be making an announcement as to be whether or not they will be calling for evacuations in this particular area.

We will be standing by and waiting for that. As you were telling me within the past hour about New Yorkers, they're a hard breed. So it may take some convincing.

GRIFFIN: Jason, if part of your security blanket is a life vest to survive this, I think you better get the heck out. Jason Carroll, Rockaway Beach. You're going to hang in there for us, right, Jason?

CARROLL: Absolutely. I'll be out here for you, for sure.

GRIFFIN: You might be sitting in that spin class, if I know you.

CARROLL: But we're paid to do it.

GRIFFIN: OK, thanks, buddy.

We're just getting in brand new data now where this hurricane is heading. Stay right there. We'll be back with that.

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GRIFFIN: New information on Hurricane Irene -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Brand new. The first hurricane warnings issued for the U.S. Hurricane warnings from Virginia Beach, basically the border between Virginia and North Carolina, all of the way down to Little River that's the hurricane warning.

The newest track that just came out about two minutes ago has shifted a little bit farther to the left, making the eye, the center of the eye, over Morehood City. Now remember, the cone left and right, but that's the center because just where it is.

Also tropical storm warnings all the way from Edistow all the way up to Little River and also from the Virginia border here all the way up to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Those are now tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches and hurricane warnings. We'll get them updated on cnn.com. You can go there and look at them cnn.com/hurricane.

GRIFFIN: Chad, thanks. The news continues. Joe Johns in "THE SITUATION ROOM" today.

Hi, Joe.