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Isaac Churns Toward Gulf of Mexico; GOP Convention Delayed; Tracking Tropical Storm Isaac; A Powerful Typhoon is Heading Toward the Korean Peninsula; Syrian Regime Releases Video It Says Proves the Vice President has not Defected

Aired August 26, 2012 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, welcome to the "CNN Newsroom." Let's start in Tampa where they are bracing for tropical storm Isaac. People are sandbagging, trying to put up some kind of protection against the storm to come.

Republicans are gathering there for the national convention. But events are happening a day later than planned because of this storm. Isaac isn't giving a clear indication yet where it will make a direct hit in the United States but Florida could dodge the bullet, instead, just kind of brushing by Isaac. But New Orleans may now be in Isaac's sight.

So we have correspondents spread across the region following Isaac as it approaches the U.S. waters. You see there along the Florida coast in particular and all the way down to the Caribbean for starters where Isaac first started to touch land. Isaac right now, however, is lashing the Florida keys right now. That's where we find CNN's John Zarrella. And John, gosh, it looks a little calm right now even though the water is, of course, moving rather rapidly. Describe what's happening.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, we're watching this storm. It's been moving so fast, I think around 20 miles an hour or more now. We're beginning to wonder if the center of the storm is already - is a lot closer to us or maybe even over us now. Because you're right, a couple of hours ago, the waves were crashing all along here, a lot of white caps on this protected inlet here. The buoys were really going and all those sailboats out there in this protected harbor area, also really bobbing around and feeling it.

The wind and the rain, much stronger a couple of hours ago. Look down here, Fredricka. That's Sunset Island over there. And even then we saw tremendous amount of wave action, very close up to the island. Here's another good indication. Take a look at the palm trees down here. Barely moving. And just a couple of hours ago as we watched all this, all the palm trees outside that hotel complex there really moving fast.

One of the things, Fredricka, that I mentioned a couple of hours ago was, you know, they really had a sense of concern for this, even though it was forecast to maybe be a hurricane when it got here. Maybe just on the borderline, didn't quite make it to hurricane status. But people were taking this more seriously than I've seen them take hurricanes in a lot of years. And that I think was because what we hear was this Hurricane Wilma psyche that they had from seven years ago when Wilma came through and literally poured a lot of storm surge on the middle and lower keys. Hundreds and hundreds of cars were under water, lots of flood damage. So we saw a lot more precautions being taken, you know, being taken here for this hurricane than I've seen in a lot of them.

We always hear about the old (INAUDIBLE), the key west folks and how lightly they take storms. They don't want to evacuate. I can tell you, they were far more serious for this one than even I expected that they would be. Schools are closed here tomorrow, but Florida Keys officials say the way things look right now, they do expect to be back up and running. You know, they ordered - they asked tourists to leave and those who didn't leave were told to just batten down, stay inside, ride this out. But they do expect to be up and running again by Tuesday, certainly at the latest. It's looking really good. Unless we get something on the backside of this storm as it comes by us, right now you can see it is quite - it's calmed significantly. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, that's encouraging. And maybe indeed people were kind of recalling their memories of Wilma, which also caused a lot of down trees, it caused significant structural damage, too.

But we're going to checking in with our Chad Myers now, John, to see if you are indeed in the center of the storm which would explain why it's kind of calm right now but then potentially get hit by the back end of it. You tell us, Chad, what is happening where Zarrella is, John Zarrella, is to explain why it seems so calm in comparison to just an hour and a half ago.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Zarrella's on the west side of Key west which is where the sunset party always is. You'll see the (INAUDIBLE) and you'll see all the other guys there doing the high wire acts. But if you're on the east side of the island or down by (INAUDIBLE) or even maybe as far east as Big Pine and you're on ocean side, you're getting a completely different thing. You're seeing all this wind come at you this way. Whereas John, right there, the winds kind of coming across the island. And so he's a little bit sheltered right there. He's not really going to get another side of this because what was the worst part, all this convection has now passed Key West. There's not really any convection on the south and southeast sides of the storm. Although, John, you are not in the eye. You did not get the eye. You'd have to be at about - I'd say Ft. Jefferson to get at the eye. That's where it will be passing. This would be the dry Tortugas out here. No islands all the way out to the dry Tortugas that you have to a boat. Hopefully there are no boats out there today.

But there is Key West, the very last island, mile marker number zero. And the convection is to the west of this area and not any more coming in to John or from the Keys. That's not saying there's not an awful lot of water piling up on some of these islands. You get up here toward Vacacut, you get up here in (INAUDIBLE) Vocachica northward, there's a lot of water running through these cuts. I wouldn't want to be out there in a boat or even try to save somebody in a boat as all of these water, these bubble of water rushing through the islands (INAUDIBLE). If you've never been to the Keys, it's an amazing place, all connected by bridges and roadways and causeways. Some of these causeways get in the way of water going the way they want to. Obviously the island do too but not as much as the big long causeway that they just dump rocks onto them at the bottom of the ocean to make a road. And so - what is this?

WHITFIELD: Hey this is (INAUDIBLE) in Key West there. You can see that a lot of water has kind flooded that area. Let's listen to the reporter there with our affiliate WSVN out of Miami, in Key West.

All right. Sorry, Chad, we don't have audio. No, we don't have any audio there. But we can at least see the pictures and see they did get a lot of rain as you were just describing that, you know, some of the rain did, of course, make its way there in the Key West area. But maybe they are in luck. Maybe we can hear it right now. All right. Let's take a listen.

reporter: We can show you some video we shot from around 2:00 this afternoon. That is when we experienced the most severe weather. You are looking at the Gulf of Mexico. At times we saw waves at least three feet tall. Visibility was reduced greatly. You could only really see about half a mile offshore. And here in the Keys, a lot of people when a storm is coming who own boats, they will take their boats out into open water, drop anchor and leave a lot of slack. And the theory being when the storm comes in and the water rises, the boats will just rise because they have all that slack and will weather the storm. But some of the boats that were left out here definitely capsized and were turned over because we saw some of that today.

So even though this wasn't all that bad of a storm and people are saying, you know what, we got lucky, there is still at least some damage, at least when it comes to the boat here in Key West. Lynn and Mike?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Kevin.

WHITFIELD: All right. You're listening to some of the coverage out of Key West out of our Miami affiliate WSVN talking about the rain that has soaked Duval Street there in downtown Key West. But, Chad, just underscoring what you've already said that perhaps, you know, Key West dodged a bullet so to speak in terms of real heavy elements from this storm as you showed us on that map. It just kind of brushed the Key West area. But it's the upper keys that may have suffered a little bit greater.

MYERS: Well, the eye of the storm did miss Key West. It may brush the northern eye especially just on the west, southwest side here, maybe down by the light, even the sombrero light getting a little bit of rough time of it. There's a large reef out here. That's why you don't find a lot of beach in the Keys. There is a big reef. That reef stops the waves from making sand. And so you're not going to find any. I bet (INAUDIBLE) that's kind of a man made beach but I bet that's completely inundated with salt water. And even that water you saw I couldn't tell if that was Duval, probably - OK. Live pictures, Key Largo.

WHITFIELD: OK.

MYERS: Boats, playing around.

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. Maybe that was from earlier.

MYERS: I hope so.

WHITFIELD: Yes. I'm being told yes from earlier.

MYERS: OK. That was earlier today.

WHITFIELD: That's not right now.

MYERS: You don't want to be doing that.

WHITFIELD: OK. Don't do that.

MYERS: So there's still more weather to come. The worst of it is actually gone for John. We'll try to get to that, too. And talk about all the keys and what they experienced and the water that was piling up there on the ocean side, not bay side but ocean side.

WHITFIELD: OK. Very good. All right. Well, we'll check back with you. And we know that, you know, based on your maps and what you've been reporting to us that perhaps a good part of this storm may brush by Tampa, not make a direct hit there but Republican Party leaders there are trying to come up with their contingency plans. In fact, they've already made one change with the national convention taking place there. They made a decision today to delay the start of the convention in Tampa until Tuesday now. It was scheduled to begin tomorrow but that's exactly when Isaac is forecast to pass by Tampa.

You're looking at live pictures right now. Right now it's really picturesque, looks great in Tampa. But our political director Mark Preston is there. Where, again, on the ground, you know, the palm trees are calm there. We know that anything is going to change and likely there could be flooding. There could be up to a foot of rain that is dumped on Tampa. So why did organizers decide that they had to make a decision and say let's go ahead and delay things right now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, what they wanted to do, Fredricka, as you say, we expect this storm when it passes by to bring in some very high winds as well as some heavy rains. Heavy rains that could in fact flood where I'm standing right now. Now with the storm tracking farther to the west, there's less of an issue about that.

But more importantly to try to get delegates to the convention center on Monday in big buses across these bridges that link all the islands, it was not safe. These bridges were expected to be shut down. They made the decision to do so basically out of safety. So while the 50,000 people that are here in Tampa, the delegates, the international media, CNN, everybody here, there will be no evacuation. Everybody will be safe. Everything is going to be delayed by a day, no doubt about that, Fredricka. WHITFIELD: OK. So that four-day convention becomes three now. The plan is, organizers still want to get in as many speakers as originally planned. How are they going to do that? Does it mean that all of the speeches are being trimmed by a few minutes here and there?

PRESTON: Well, we're told by that in fact that these speeches will be trimmed down. But you will see the likes of Chris Christie deliver the keynote speech. We expect on Tuesday night. Ann Romney who is considered Mitt Romney's, one of his top surrogates, she will also speak Tuesday night. But when we get into Wednesday, things could be a little bit more precarious if that storm becomes a category 2, if it marches into the Mississippi coast, if it even turns and goes into New Orleans, there has to be some concern about holding a political convention at a time when a major hurricane is starting to hit landfall.

Of course, we don't know what's going to happen. So they're waiting to see what exactly they're doing to do. In the 6:00 hour, we should know more about what their plans are. But all the speeches that we don't see on TV necessarily, some of those speeches will very likely get cut, other speeches will be trimmed down. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Mark Preston in Tampa. Thanks so much.

All right. So Florida right now dealing with tropical storm Isaac but first, it was Haiti having to deal with it and this is the aftermath. We're going to let you know how they are coping.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Right now people in Haiti are assessing the damage from tropical storm Isaac. The rain left behind flooding and very muddy conditions at camps where hundreds of thousands of people live in tents. The country is still recovering from a devastating earthquake that struck more than two years ago now. CNN's Gary Tuchman tells us how people are coping.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It always seems to amaze me after we cover tropical storms or hurricanes, the sunshine that is left behind. But it doesn't mask the grief that is left behind.

The United Nations just telling us here in Haiti, at least six people were killed from tropical storm Isaac, including an eight-year-old girl here in the capital of Port-au-Prince when a wall collapsed in her house. We're also being told that at least 30,000 people have been taken to temporary shelters. What's notable about that, is most of those 30,000 people were also in so-called temporary shelters from the earthquake of 2010.

The temporary tent which is have basically become permanent tents. We spent the last two days before the tropical storm arrived and after the tropical storm arrived in one particular tent camp here in Port- au-Prince, thousands of families live there. Almost nobody evacuated. When the storm came, at the heart of it, at 2:00 in the morning, buses did pull in and some people did get on those buses to evacuate.

No one was killed or hurt in that camp. However, scores of tents were destroyed and most people are now looking for homes. Some of those people are among the 30,000 who have been taken to temporary shelters but people don't know who lived in those tents what they're going to do next, a lot of despair. There's also a situation with cholera. At least 6,000 people have come down with cholera since 2010. The United Nations is now reporting six new cases in the last few days. So they would keep a lookout for the disease outbreak. It could have been worse, the tropical storm but there's still a lot of grief in this nation.

This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. On to politics in a moment. Courting women voters, how Republicans will be doing just that this week at the Republican National Convention. An inside look at the strategy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We're keeping a close watch on tropical storm Isaac. Let's listen in to our affiliate out of Miami, WPLG and their reporting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a couple of small showers developing just to the southeast here of Ft. Lauderdale. So these will continue to pull off and they'll do so at about 30 to 35 miles per hour. But they're a pretty good ways offshore.

And just to give you an idea, the leading edge and it will be pushed towards Ft. Lauderdale, that's basing it on a 35 mile per hour movement. Really no cities in the past, it's going to take well over an hour here for the rest of this rain that's developing to the east of government cut to move towards Broward County.

WHITFIELD: All right. So you see how people are bracing along the East Coast of south Florida there even though tropical storm Isaac is making its way across the tip of Florida and heading now into the gulf, threatening other gulf states now.

All right. We're going to keep a watch on that, meantime, Tampa on the western side of Florida is also bracing for tropical storm Isaac. In fact, the Republican National Convention has now come up with a contingency plan. That convention will not start tomorrow as originally planned. Instead, it's being delayed a day and will now kick off on Tuesday because of tropical storm Isaac and all that it may bring.

Isaac is expected to pass west of Tampa but still bring heavy rains and tropical force winds to that city. RNC organizers say none of the major speeches will be cut in the now three-day convention.

And one of those speeches will be delivered by Mitt Romney's wife, Ann. She has been on the campaign trail, courting the female vote. She's been doing that by talking about the economy. It's an issue that's expected to take center stage at the GOP convention.

This weekend I talked to the congresswoman, Marsha Blackburn, the co- chair of the RNC platform committee. She says the party is focused on women and their pocketbooks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN, CO-CHAIR, RNC PLATFORM CMTE.: Number one job with women in this country is jobs in the economy. That's the number one issue with them. Women want to get back to work. The Obama economy, if you will, has been very unkind to women. We've had 800,000 women lose their jobs. Household income has decreased, cost of health insurance has increased. So when we're talking to women, and as you look at polling of women, jobs and economy is issue number one.

Look at the platform, I'm a woman. I am a - an elected female representative. I have been in the work force for a long time. You better believe I'm going to be writing and looking at a platform that is going to be focused on the issues that women want, conservative women are, we're wives, we're mothers, we're businesswomen, we're teachers, we're physicians, we're chief financial officers of companies and what we want to do is make certain that we address the fiscal health of this nation.

WHITFIELD: Do others in the Republican Party worry that there is a populous, a certain representative of the electorate that is difficult to reach right now, whether it be women, whether it be Latinos? And being able to clinch that electorate is important for Romney to win.

BLACKBURN: Yes. Absolutely it is. You're exactly right. And our focus is on reaching every single American.

WHITFIELD: As it pertains to abortion and rape, you know, our Representative Akins' comments, that all representative, kind of a widespread point of view within the Republican Party as it pertains to the definition of rape, as it pertains to women's reproductive rights.

BLACKBURN: No. And I have said that his comments were indefensible, you know, they're disgusting. No. That is not a widespread point of view. And I think it is incorrect to try to act as if it is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Representative Blackburn in the latest CNN polls, mitt Romney has an edge on President Obama when it comes to the economy but the president leads Romney by double digits among female voters.

And be sure to stay with CNN for complete coverage of the Republican National Convention. Later on today we have a special in depth look at Mitt Romney "Romney Revealed" airing at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, is followed by a preview of the convention itself and our political team is in place for complete coverage all week long.

Tropical storm Isaac taking it rather easy on the Florida Keys. But what's next as this huge storm zeroes in on the U.S. Gulf Coast?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and we really got a lot of condensation on the lens. We got an outside lens that keeps, that protects the actual camera lens but we can't get that lens filter off and so were' getting a continual fogging problem on there.

I will tell you, I am really, really relieved to hear Trent say that we're on the tail end of this thing. Because there's nothing worse than being out here in the field and hearing Trent say -

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We're tracking the first major storm of this hurricane season for the Atlantic. Here's what we know.

Isaac is still a tropical storm, rain and wind already hitting the Florida Keys, the worst of the storm has passed the Key west area and seems to be heading toward the gulf now. Isaac is getting stronger in fact as it heads into those warmer waters of the gulf. The storm is tracking a bit to the west. U.S. Hurricane Center has placed the gulf coast, including New Orleans under a hurricane watch. And we'll be checking in with Chad Myers momentarily.

First let's go to John Zarrella who's there in Key West. And OK. John, now it's starting to look like a vacation where you are.

ZARRELLA: Well, not quite, Fredricka. I would prefer not to come down here even in a tropical storm. But, yes, it's certainly much different than it was. You can see how calm the water is behind us, the trees are barely blowing over there at the - over at that hotel complex, the palm trees barely waving right now.

But we're on a protected side of the island. That's part of the reason why it is as calm as it is. You're right, storms move by us. Take a look at how it was when I was out here just a couple of hours ago, in that video back around 2:30 this afternoon. It was quite, quite different as we were blowing around and the wind was howling and the boats were bobbing behind me as well as all of the channel markers and you could really sense the feeling that you were in sort of that leading edge of the core of the storm.

And you know, for the folks down here, for the folks down here in Key West, one of the really good things about this whole thing is they really expected that by the time it got here it might well be a hurricane. Which would have been a totally different scenario than what we have seen here this afternoon.

Now, it's been quiet on Duval Street, the main hub here. Real quiet down there. Most every shop was closed. We found one shop open today. Very few people out there on Duval Street. Just a few people still boarding up as late as this afternoon, finishing up in preparation for what they thought was going to be a fairly significant hit here in the Keys. But right now, everything looking very, very good down here in the lower keys in Key West. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Glad to hear that. Thanks so much. John Zarrella there. Let's check in with Chad Myers. Chad, let's see where this is going next and what its potential is. Thank goodness, I guess for the folks in the Keys that it doesn't appear so the damage has been too severe. But again, really --

CHAD MYERS, ATS METEOROLOGIST: I'm not going to go there. Really, honestly, because he is on base side of an ocean side storm. I would want to get a reporter down on the south side of that island before I would make those conclusions. Even up toward Big Pine Key, there very well may be quite a bit of surge piling on to those islands, just because we're kind of on the opposite side of where the storm is hitting where the surge would have been hitting doesn't mean that there's not surge there, it doesn't mean that down by the Louie's backyard and down on the south side, down by the Avalon Bed and Breakfast that there's not water maybe lashing there.

That buoy that you see says 90 miles to Cuba, that thing has water around it for sure. So it is still not done, I don't believe it is done. In the Key's there will be more squalls that come in one after another. You have to understand, if you've never stood in one of these things, and then 99 percent of you, I hope, have never, the rain does stop and when the rain stops the wind stops. So when the wind comes then the rain comes because they're all kind of linked. When the rain starts to fall, it translates the wind from aloft down to the surface. You get very gusty winds, 67 miles an hour. Then all of a sudden the rain stops and the wind stops. That's kind of where they are right now.

Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Very good. Thanks so much, Chad Myers appreciate that. All right. Let's go to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Because right now Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is about to take to the microphones because the concern along the gulf coast states is that Tropical Storm Isaac may become Hurricane Isaac. Let's listen in.

GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL, (R) LOUISIANA: Whatever they made need in the event of an evacuation. We're certainly encouraging all of our people to stay alert and to monitor local weather conditions in their area to follow what local officials are telling them. Obviously like with every storm we always hope for the best even as we prepare for the worst. That's why we're taking a number of steps to protect our people and property that I'll outline now. We have issued a state declaration of emergency for the storm. I'll tell you a little bit about the parishes that have done so as well.

Also, secondly, I am now calling on and we are in contact with local officials, we are calling on folks who live in low-lying areas in the 15 parishes that are in a hurricane watch area in Louisiana to go ahead and start voluntary evacuations today. Now those are folks in the 15 parishes identified by the National Weather Service. That's Orleans's Parish, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Charles, St. James and St. John, Ascension, Livingston, St. Tammany and Washington Parishes. And again we're only calling for those areas that those folks that live in low-lying areas, those are people that are outside of levee protection. Those folks that live south of the intra coastal waterway. We are strongly encouraging those folks to participate in a voluntary evacuation today. I think there's a good chance that those areas, some of those areas could face a mandatory evacuation tomorrow. It makes sense to go ahead and start those preparations, start those plans today to get ahead of traffic and get ahead of this storm.

Let me start with a briefing from the National Weather Service. They'll be giving some additional information at 4:00 p.m. Today, Central Time. What we see right now is Tropical Storm Isaac is continuing to form and strengthen over the --

WHITFIELD: All right. You're listening to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal there talk about the low-lying 15 parishes. He's urging them to start voluntary evacuations as Tropical Storm Isaac may become Hurricane Isaac by the time it makes its way in their direction. If you want to continue to listen to this press conference with Governor Jindal there you can go to CNN.com/live.

Let's go back to Chad Myers in the Severe Weather Center. OK so precautions are being made there. Give us an idea, the potential of this storm.

MYERS: I think it's a really good idea what Governor Jindal is doing, saying if you're a little queasy about this, get out there, get out of there today, go make a reservation at the hotel up the road somewhere, get 100 miles, 200 miles off the coast and let's see what's going on. At least you'll be out of here. You wouldn't be in line with everybody else tomorrow when we say mandatory.

And I have been saying this to people that I have been talking to today. If this storm gets its act together, as soon as it passes Key West, it is not going to be a tropical storm. It probably isn't going to be a 1, it might not even be a 2, and it might be a land falling 3 hurricane. That is completely in the realm of possibilities here as it approaches the northern Gulf coast. And the longer it takes to get to you, depending on where you are, the bigger it's going to get.

If it turns to the right and gets into Florida, it's not going to be in the water very long, probably a cat 2. If it stays in the water and it makes it all the way to Louisiana, it will definitely be a strong 2, if not bigger than that. So very, very wise Plaquemines Parish especially, all these low areas, it's tough to get out of there. New Iberia, all these areas, if you are in this watch area, I think it is probably going to get upgraded soon as the storm gets closer to Louisiana.

Also, anywhere from Mobile over to Louisiana, this is the danger zone right now. All of the computer models have shifted to the left. A little bit less of a problem obviously for Tampa and up toward the Big Bend and Apalachicola right now.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much Chad. You mentioned Plaquemines, yes, that's one of the 15 parishes there in Louisiana, and the low- lying parishes that the governor says start those voluntary evacuations right now. All right. So Florida isn't completely out of Isaac's cross-hairs. We were talking about Louisiana. A live report coming from Naples and how folks there are preparing for a brush by the storm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Back to our coverage of Tropical Storm Isaac. Southwest Florida already starting to feel tropical storm right now. Brian Todd is in Naples. So Brian what kind of emergency preparedness is under way there?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fredericka. This is an illustration here of what they're worried about. They're under a voluntary evacuation status here right now. They may impose mandatory. We're going to talk about that in a second. But this is what they're worried about as tropical storm conditions start to kick in here. A lot of intense rain in the last couple of hours, wind is not so much a factor right now. But what they're worried about here is tide. The tide is starting to come in a little bit; the high tide will not really be here until the overnight hours. That's also when storm surge could be at its worst. High tide here is going to start probably around 3:00 a.m., maybe between 3:00 and 9:00 a.m. That with the storm surge pushing in is what they're worried about.

They're also -- inland waterways behind us here which may cause some storm surge from the other direction. As far as the rainfall we're told they may get about 10 inches of rain here in the next several hours. Not good news, obviously because not only is that tropical storm condition can cause flooding on its own but the ground here already saturated from previous storms. Now as far as the evacuations, the area south of here, Marco Island, and Everglade City, everything is under voluntary evacuation right now. But they may in the coming hours impose mandatory evacuations. I talked to Dan Summers, the emergency services coordinator here on what it would take to impose mandatory evacuations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN SUMMERS, DIR. OF EMERGENCY SERVICES COLLIER CO., FLA: I think a lot of it would be any substantial changes in the angle of the approach of the storm and any rapid intensification, if we go beyond a hurricane to a category 2 event, that obviously will change things but there may not be enough time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: So time is going to be a key factor here. He's talking about a sudden change in intensity of the storm, a sudden change in the angle of approach to the storm as the rain kicks in here, that's what they're really concerned about Fredericka. It is going to be high tide in the coming hours plus the intense rainfall and it's getting worse here.

WHITFIELD: OK. So rain, wind, big concerns. What about tornadoes?

TODD: Tornadoes are going to be a factor. We're told there's a fairly strong possibility of tornadoes here. They're under a tornado watch here. And what happens is when these outer bands of the storm hit land; you know the storm's already churning in circular directions anyway. When that hits land it causes a friction and according to our David Henin (ph) and Chad Myers, that friction is going to cause the tornados to whip upward. That could happen here. Maybe not the most intense and the largest tornadoes you've ever seen but they could be a factor here. They say that is very much in play in the next several hours as we get these outer bands in here.

WHITFIELD: All right. Brian Todd in Naples, Florida, thanks so much.

All right. Tropical Storm Isaac isn't the only distraction for Republicans before their big convention in Tampa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal just declared a State of Emergency in Louisiana. Live pictures right now. The press conference that continues out of Baton Rouge. And now Tropical Storm Isaac may also cause him the governor to miss his scheduled speech at the National Convention. He was scheduled to speak, to arrive in Tampa, Tuesday which is not the first day of the convention because that has been delayed by a day.

A spokesman told CNN that he will not leave the state if there is a danger to people. Jindal was also supposed to speak at the 2008 convention but had to skip that because of, at the time, Hurricane Gustav. So the convention may be delayed by a day but now we get word that Republican officials are considering extending the convention for a day, until Friday. Meanwhile, the city's security measures are already in place. Joe Johns walks us through it.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In some ways when you drive into the city of Tampa, at least downtown, it looks a little bit like an armed fortress right now and the convention hasn't even started. Thousands of police officers from all over the state of Florida are expected to converge here in the city of Tampa to start patrolling the streets during the Republican National Convention. They're not just from say the city of Tampa you see over there or the secret service you see walking around the streets, they come from all over this state.

The concern is and some of the authorities have expressed it, is that a number of police officers might actually have to stay at home to protect their own turf if the weather gets too bad. There's also a military component to the Republican National Convention and the question of moment is about the National Guard. There are at least 1,700 members of the guard available to the governor to use as he so chooses. The question, of course, is whether he will use all of those members of the guard here in the city of Tampa during the convention or send them to some of the outlying areas. It all depends on what the weather does.

WHITFIELD: All right. Joe Johns now joining us live there in Tampa. So Joe, what more do you know about the Republican convention organizers considering extending the convention that they've just delayed by a day? JOHNS: Well, it's pretty clear they haven't ruled it out. Our Paul Steinhauser reporting just this afternoon that authorities are considering extending this convention by a day. That would take it to Friday. They say it all depends on what happens. It's clear that there is going to be some type of a conference call within the next few minutes, perhaps the next hour here in Tampa for authorities to discuss what their plans are going forward.

As you know, Fred, they got rid of Monday. So they're trying to figure out how to make up that day and include as much as possible without shorting anybody. Because you know, you get offered not a lot of chances in your lifetime to speak before a party convention. There are certainly some people who would like to do that if the officials can manage it, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Right. Organizers said they want to try and get everyone in as scheduled, even when it was a four-day shrunken down to three but maybe they did some math and realized that will be hard to do. They have to consider extending it after all. All right. Thanks so much, Joe Johns. Keep us posted on that out of Tampa.

All right. Tropical Storm Isaac, barreling towards Florida and some parts of the state are already feeling its fury. Our i-reporters had their cameras rolling.

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WHITFIELD: Louisiana's governor just declared a state of emergency as Tropical Storm Isaac targets the gulf coast. Governor Bobby Jindal also called on 15 low-lying parishes to start voluntary evacuations. Isaac is still about two days away depending on what kind of tracking you look at there on the map from the Louisiana coast but right now, Isaac far lower than that entering the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. Just moved past the Florida Keys and it's leaving behind some flooding there.

U.S. Hurricane Center says Isaac is now tracking west and is due to hit the U.S. gulf coast as a hurricane. So right now, people in Florida are getting ready for Isaac, especially along the west coast of Florida. Some have already sent in videos and pictures of the storm that they've seen, Nick Valencia is tracking the i-reports, all that people are saying they're seeing and experiencing, for example, what, Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've been working hand in hand with our i-report team and social media team going over the latest user-generated content. We're hearing at the heart of the operation, the heart of the news gathering operation. This really is the CNN National Desk. These editors on the phone with officials confirming the latest detail information and helping us get video. We will show you some that we have in.

This one of the harder hit and impacted areas. This coming to us from Bill Curtain who sent in this video from the i-report. This gives you sort of an idea of how heavy these winds and rains are. This is in Boynton Beach, Florida. Bill says he's lived through Hurricane Francis, Wilma and John. He's seen a lot heavier thunderstorms but the Florida Department of Emergency Management has told us they are getting inundated with calls from south Florida residents asking whether or not they should evacuate.

One resident that CNN did hear from that was thankful that he did not evacuate was Frank Guido. I will show you the video that he sent us in from Ft. Lauderdale, this shot from the apartment complex that he was staying in. He says water poured into the lobby of the apartment complex in Ft. Lauderdale. He says despite the intensified rainfall he says he feels he made the right decision in staying put there in Ft. Lauderdale.

But Fredericka, some of the most dramatic video that we saw, that's from the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship, right in the Florida Straits between Cuba and Florida. Take a look at this video.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What an idiot.

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VALENCIA: See some of these cruise ship passengers are taking a break, going inside, shooting the video from the inside of the cruise ship there. That cruise ship is getting pounded, that cruise ship is now safe. They experienced winds as high as 65 miles per hour. Now folks out there getting impacted by the storms. Remember you can always send us your latest video and information to i-report.cnn.com. Our i-reporter producer is waiting to get those videos and we want to hear from you. Just remember to stay safe out there.

Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Pretty bold move for that one person to be walking on the ship's deck there. Those winds are unpredictable. Nobody else try that, please.

Meantime, let's talk about how schools, colleges, all of that, might be bracing, especially along the west coast of Florida, bracing for Isaac. Are there any notices that they're already planning to close or open late, anything like that?

VALENCIA: Yes, our national desk which we showed you just a little while ago has gotten releases from Hillsborough County Public Schools there is south Florida, they're canceling classes for tomorrow. I've also been tweeting back and forth with a student in Florida Atlantic University; he says the classes have been cancelled there. We confirmed that on Florida Atlantic University's website.

As the storm system, as Chad Myers mentioned it, this storm system sort of moves westward into the gulf, BP and Shell are taking advanced precautions ahead of these intensifying storm conditions, we hear that BP and Shell have evacuated some of their workers and BP has actually temporarily halting output in their oil platforms in the gulf. You see some of the examples of the precautions that these businesses and people are taking ahead of the storm, Fredericka. WHITFIELD: That's great. Thanks so much for that. We're going to talk more about the oil rigs and the gulf and what it might mean to your pocketbook and your gas prices and all of that potentially in the next hour. Stay tuned to are that. Thanks so much, Nick Valencia.

All right. Isaac isn't the only storm by the way out there. We're also watching a massive typhoon that's being called one of the worst in decades. We'll tell you where it's headed.

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