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CNN Live Saturday
Special Coverage of Hurricane Frances
Aired September 04, 2004 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Glad you can join us, I'm Linda Stouffer.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We've got special coverage of hurricane Frances as it moves towards Florida. But first a look at the other stories topping our news.
Los Angeles International Airport is shut down. Officials say two different security incidents are to blame. The first involved police responding to a report of a suspicious person. The other involved a flashlight with corroded batteries that exploded. Seven people were injured. But the Department of Homeland Security had a different account. The agency says there was no explosion and no injuries. We'll bring you more details as this developing story evolves.
At least 25 people have been killed in two bomb blasts outside an Iraqi police academy in Kirkuk. Authorities say a car bomb and a remote bomb exploded simultaneously. The explosives laden car, which was driven by a suicide bomber, rammed the security barricades as people were leaving the police academy. Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging Russians to join him in the fight against terrorism.
Mr. Putin said the terrorist seizure of a school in Beslan was an attack on the entire country. At least 323 hostages were killed. Friday, Putin visited some of the hundreds of people who were injured.
And in Japan, a freighter ran ashore damaging three houses. The 498-ton ship rammed into the homes after its pilot apparently fell asleep at the helm. Only one person was injured in that incident.
STOUFFER: A very powerful hurricane Frances is stalking Florida today. Rain and wind they are already pounding parts of the state. Jacqui Jeras is live in the CNN Weather Center she has the whole storm coverage for us. Jacqui, hi.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Linda, and hello, everyone. The 2:00 advisory is in now and the biggest news that I can tell you is that this has stalled even further. So this is really some very bad news because the more this stalls, the more catastrophic the flooding is going to be. It's barely moved in the last three hours; it's just slowly drifting west, northwest.
However It is expected to pick up a little bit of forward speed in the next few hours back up to maybe seven miles per hour, but that is still slower than we would like it to be. It is about 70 miles east of Palm Beach at this hour. There are your coordinates for you, still a category 2, 105 mile per hour winds. It's been staying right at that steady speed now since 8:00 advisory last night.
So no change in the intensity, but as we take a look, we've been watching the radar and satellite imagery here and it looks like the eye is trying to close in a little bit more. The thing has been about 70, 75 miles wide, which is just huge for the eye of a hurricane. And if that closes in we may see a little bit more additional strengthening. So it's still possible that when this makes landfall it could be a category 3 rather than a category 2. So that means we are going to have a little bit more of a problem with the storm surge.
The winds have been very intense all morning long. And here are some of the current wind speeds up and down the coast line you can see 43 miles per hour, that is sustained winds at West Palm Beach and 32 miles per hour right now Melbourne. These are some of the recorded wind gusts that we've seen thus far, up to 91 miles per hour, Jupiter inlet 71 miles per hour, and West Palm Beach and Vero Beach at 59 miles per hour.
And we'll watch for these numbers to continue to go up. Our forecast track here showing you those hurricane force winds making their way up the coastline heading into central Florida before we start to see just tropical storm force winds. Moves back over the open water and heads on up into the Florida panhandle and then brings those strong winds into places like Alabama and maybe even to Mississippi.
The forecast track remains the same. The timing still uncertain but at this point, our best bet is sometime around the midnight hour, give or take a few hours.
Linda.
STOUFFER: Jacqui Jeras, thank you. Quite a storm.
WHITFIELD: Well the city of Melbourne is smack dab in the middle of Florida's Atlantic coast and smack dab in the middle of this storm's apparent path. CNN's Bill Hemmer is there and Bill it's looks like the rain has picked up there and the wind gusts, as well.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've working as wet dogs out here right now Fredricka. We have been out here since 6:00 this morning. It has been consistently raining ever since then. And to listen to Jacqui Jeras give us the latest numbers, if in deed that storm moves closer to the coast of Florida, then imagine tomorrow at this time, if the storm stalls over the east coast of Florida, just how much rain will be brought up on the people here in this part of the state.
We're getting words locally here now; the word and the reports are that 300,000 so far in southeast Florida among five different counties have lost power. It's only 2:00 in the afternoon. And 300,000 have lost power already; this is going to be a really tough night and possibly another tough day tomorrow. The Red Cross tells us, Fredricka, that 64,000 have sought shelter. Just not in the immediate area but also includes the northern part of Florida.
In fact it also includes the southern part of Georgia, as well. In a step over here just a little bit to change the direction here. Get the -- a lot of times the rain comes in. It will come in at an even level and strike you right in the eye right across your face. We're at a marina right here on the Atlantic inter coastal waterway. Earlier today, we were on the other side of the water out on the Barrier Islands and conditions were worsening throughout the day. That's why we came back here.
There's a large bridge that extends itself eight, maybe nine stories above the water. That was shut down about 30 minutes ago by police. Believe it or not people were still going in and out of those Barrier Islands. I want to remind you what the FEMA director earlier today Michael Brown said and also the Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, they said listen don't take this storm for granted.
Even though the storm has weakened, three days ago this was a category four, it's lessened to a category two or where it might strengthen. By even though it has weakened at this point by no means should you take the storm for granted? The governor also pointing out that Florida really is getting a crisscross effect with Charlie three weeks ago rather in the southwest and now with Frances coming in the central part, places like Daytona, places like Orlando are going to get a double shot of mother nature.
Frances is coming Fredricka and we can feel her quite well right now. Back to you now in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: Only a few miles off that coast. Bill Hemmer thanks very much from Melbourne, Florida.
HEMMER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: Linda.
STOUFFER: And CNN's Jason Bellini is also in Melbourne. But he is inside; he joins us from an evacuation center where folks have gone to try to get some shelter there. Hi Jason.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Linda. I'm coming to you from Broad Community College. And they've been good enough to allow me to connect to the Internet and that is the way we're able to come to you live inside a shelter. Now there are 850 people inside this shelter right now. They started arriving here on Thursday. And of course they don't know when they're going to get to leave.
Many people brought their radios, their televisions sets and they are watching the storm as it happens, watching the eye of the storm as it approaches this area and a lot of people in the halls wondering what's going to happen next and when they'll be able to leave here. Now I've got a guest with me her name is Rosalie Barnett, and say your age your 75 years old. Why don't you come -- step inside here for a second Rosalie. And Rosalie you came here on Thursday, yourself, correct. ROSALIE BARNETT, EVACUEE: Yes, I did. I was told if I didn't get here, I would not get in because everybody was coming here. So I came very early. And I'm very tired.
BELLINI: Are you nervous about the storm?
BARNETT: Yes, I am. I hope that God will listen to us and just let the storm go another way and go out to sea.
BELLINI: What are some of the things that you brought here with you because we know you're going to be here for a while.
BARNETT: Well I brought food, a mattress, a chair, and my husband.
BELLINI: And there's been plenty of food, you've been comfortable.
BARNETT: Oh the Red Cross has been wonderful. We've eaten many a meal from the Red Cross. They take care of us with coffee, sandwiches, crackers, and ice, whatever we want. When we ask a question, they help us. They've been great.
BELLINI: Rosalie thank you so much. I appreciate you helping us and talking to us. Best of luck, I hope you get to go home soon.
BARNETT: Thank you. Same here.
BELLINI: Linda back to you.
STOUFFER: I hope Rosalie and all the folks take care in there. Jason Bellini thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well let's get back to the front lines of Frances and CNN's Gary Tuchman who is in Fort Pierce, Florida. How are things looking there, Gary?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Linda if you can hear me, it's very hard to hear you right now. We are in Fort Pierce, Florida, this is in Saint Lucia County, and we're about 60 miles north of West Palm Beach. This is the Fort Pierce City Marina. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) has survived it so far we'll see how long it lasts.
The last three hours it's gotten progressively worse here. This is the inter coastal water way also the Indian River in this area. We're a half a mile as the crow flies from the Atlantic Ocean. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) crows flying on a day like this. But it's so unusual about this hurricane and compared to hurricanes we've covered, particularly Charlie three weeks ago, is how long this is expected to last.
The most interesting about this particular region, St. Lucia County the two major cities here in Fort Pierce and just south of here Fort City Lucie is that if someone -- if someone is 90 years old. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they have never seen a powerful hurricane -
(AUDIO GAP)
WHITFIELD: All right sorry about that. We're getting Gary Tuchman via videophone and obviously because of the winds and the elements there, we're unable to get a clear transmission. But of course we'll try to resume that when we can he is coming out of Fort Pierce, Florida.
Linda.
STOUFFER: And if you want to follow along, you can look at Frances projected path by logging on to CNN.com/hurricanes, now if you go there you'll find links to emergency information all kinds of resources there for you as well, like tips on what you should do if you are in a hurricane.
Well could it be Russia's own 9/11, a nation mourns the loss of hundreds of lives as the hunt goes on for those responsible for a deadly hostage standoff. We'll have the latest next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUFFER: Well, the president of Russia says it's difficult even to speak of the horrors that culminated this week's hostage crisis in a southern town of Beslan. Right now, it's quiet, but middle school number one is in ruins after yesterday's shootouts, explosions and the resulting collapse of the gym. That's where most of the hostages had been held. On Wednesday, more than 1,000 students, teachers and parents were taken captive by at least 26 Chechen rebels and apparent Arab mercenaries.
Now today we learned all the hostage takers and 323 hostages are dead 700 people hurt. Vladimir Putin visited some of the casualties yesterday and in his address to the nation today, he saluted the citizens of Beslan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (via translator): There were people who prepared to risk themselves in order to support others, and in these inhuman conditions, they remained humans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOUFFER: Well, thankfully many children did survive the hostage ordeal, but as hear from Andrea Catherwood of Britain's independent television news, survival and recovery, they're two very different things.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA CATHERWOOD, ITV NEWS (voice over): What have these little eyes seen today? At the heart of this horror is that they did it to children. Fleeing from death, explosions, bullets and bodies in their own school gym. Semi naked, bloodied and parched after three days in a hall with the dead lying outside in the corridor, surrounded by mines and gunfire and captives ready to die for their cause, they must have feared for their lives every second.
Tonight, many of their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers lie dead. Others are badly injured. All those left alive are deep in shock. This boy is asked his name and his parents' name. This girl cries but see can't find her mother. What happened to these children in their own words was truly horrific. They wouldn't let us open the windows, she says. We were suffocating.
There were explosives placed all around us. Then they blew up. Beating us, sobs this boy. They were beating us. Then they exploded. These children may have seen suicide bombers and horrors only they can know, and they may have lost the parents who could comfort them. Some of these children will get to sleep in their own beds tonight, but many beds will be empty forever. And when these children go to sleep, what will they dream of now?
Andrea Catherwood, ITV News.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Now, we mentioned almost half the Beslan hostage takers were Arabs. For the Arab world reaction to what President Putin calls an attack on all of Russia, we call on Salemeh Nematt. He is the Washington Bureau chief of the Arab newspaper Al Hayat. And its broadcast partner LBC. Good to see you.
SALAMEH NEMATT, AL HAYAT-LBC: Good to see you too.
WHITFIELD: Well there has been expressed concern that as of late, hostage taking is mostly being associated with the Arab community, the Islamic culture. So within the Arab culture, is there a type of plea going out to Islamic extremists?
NEMATT: Yes, as we've seen throughout the region, throughout the world indeed in Iraq as well as in Palestinian and now in Russia, there have been appeals by religious leaders who condemned these acts of suicide bombings, murders and kidnappings of journalists of NGO people. Basically, they don't seem to be effective.
Ironically and sadly, that most of these terrorist acts are involving Muslims and perpetrators are Muslims or they're from Muslim countries. The Chechens themselves are Muslims and the fact there are mercenaries there is even more disturbing. It seems to me if we look at the big picture that most of these terrorist acts are involving people who are either under occupation or quasi occupation such as in Chechnya where Russia has imposed a rule and these people are desperately trying to hit back at Russia.
This is of course no justification. Occupation is no justification for targeting innocent people. But also, you know, or from countries, these terrorists are coming from countries where there's a lot of oppression, which is producing these desperate acts in my view.
WHITFIELD: In your view then or from your reporting are you finding these pleas are ineffective because of the methods in which they're being conveyed or the leaders, the religion leader who's are being involved?
NEMATT: I think that, you know, these militants or extremist groups are not really -- they're using religion as a kind of a cover for their actions when in fact, it's their motives are political not religious. And this is why you have this consensus among clerics in the Arab and Muslim world to condemn these acts.
However, these acts continue. I think as I said, these terrorists are coming from countries either under occupation as in the case in Iraq and in Palestinian and to some extent in Chechnya. Or from countries that are oppressed and you know under oppression people resort to desperate acts to promote their cause.
Again, as I said, this is no justification for these actions, but we must look at the root causes of the problems and not only deal with the phenomenon and targeting only the terrorists themselves.
WHITFIELD: So in this particular incident-taking place in North Ossetia, population about 710,000, it's a mostly Orthodox Christian community and a very small minority of Muslims there. The use of this school, these children, what is the believed motivation? Merely to get attention, as you mentioned? These extremist groups are trying to get?
NEMATT: Well, it's in some ways similar to what Osama bin Laden did by trying -- by attacking America on 9/11. He wants the Americans out of Saudi Arabia. This is his primary motive, at least in his words. The Chechnya's, the Chechnya rebels want Russia out of Chechnya. You know it was is the former Soviet Republic and the Russia's insist on basically taking control of that province and these people feel if Russia does not leave their country alone and this is a Muslim majority, of course, in Chechnya, they're hitting back in Russia basically to make them pay a price.
Again, as I said, no justification. Yet, these people at least are saying this is a motive.
WHITFIELD: So in the states, these images were played out virtually from start to finish. Apparently Russian TV turned away from full coverage of this incident, especially when it got bloody. Now how about in the Arab community in broadcast, as well as newspapers? How were these images and this story being handled?
NEMATT: Similar pictures to those we've seen on CNN were basically broadcast in most Arab satellite channels and national TVs in the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world. There is no doubt about this has been a horrific, horrific incident which basically disgusted people all over the world. Nobody can ever explain or justify such desperate and criminal actions against complete innocent people.
WHITFIELD: Salameh Nematt of the AL Hayat newspaper as well the sister broadcast partner LBC. Thanks so much for joining us from Washington.
NEMATT: You're welcome.
WHITFIELD: Linda.
STOUFFER: Well the fallout from the hostage standoff to the coming hurricane trouble in Florida to the closing of LAX, is a very, very busy day for news and of coverage of Frances continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUFFER: Welcome back to CNN. We've had a lot developing news in the last couple of hours. We have a more complete update now on what exactly happened at Los Angeles International Airport, LAX has been closed for several hours. Here's what we know at this point.
About 7:30 local time, a man who was apparently waiving boarding passes in the air and went up the stairs from the baggage claim area right into the terminal. That led authorities to completely evacuate three terminals, terminals 6, 7, and 8 of LAX and put everyone back through the re-screening process.
Now separately, about a half hour after that in the international terminal, here's what happened. A screener was going through somebody's luggage; he heard sort of a popping sound coming from something in the luggage. Turned out to be what they think was a flashlight with perhaps corroded batteries and that set off some sort of a small explosion that injured a couple of people. So that was a separate incident.
But LAX has been closed. People have been standing in line for hours there trying to get everything sorted out with their own travel plans. And we're expecting a news conference about 2:30 Eastern Time. Just a couple a minutes from now, we will bring that to you live from L.A. as we get it.
WHITFIELD: A lot going on this Saturday from the west coast, and of course, all the way to the east coast of Florida that is. Particularly where hurricane Frances is just inside 20 miles outside of West Palm Beach, but just north of there from Juno Beach, our affiliated WFOR filed this report just a short time ago to give us an idea of what kind of wind and rain they're already starting to experience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here live in Palm Beach County on Juno Beach on the pier. You see some guys here who decided to take a chance. They wanted to see the waves. What are you doing man?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting footage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting footage, you guys are storm chasers, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes doing a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How dangerous is this for you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty dangerous out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys, how dangerous is this for you out there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're shooting some footage. It's mad. It's unbelievable. So we're going to roll to the eye now. We just stopped here to check for some surfers, they are not here so we're going to the eye. Right on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck. Take care of your selves. Folks this is something that you do not want to do. Feeling these winds pick up anywhere between 50-75 miles per hour can be extremely dangerous, especially here on the pier. And Palm Beach County is just littered with debris all across. We'll have more for you in a little bit. Live in Palm Beach County, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for news.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right it may look comical but really it is a very serious situation with very serious wind gusts and the surf kicking up. And of course, the surge is something that is particularly concerning once a hurricane has made its way-hitting landfall.
Let's go live now to Dave Kartunen of WSVM, he is at Juno Beach right now. And give us a sense what's happening there now. We saw what happened moments ago, what is happening now? Dave.
DAVE KARTUNEN, WSVM CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka we've just come in between squalls here. And it seems like the next set of wind gusts are about to pick up. We've seen some fencing coming down and a palm tree behind it. And I'm going to walk you down to the beach to show you what it looks like at this moment. The roof has come off this first third of this town home. As we walk down through these mangroves, the wind is whipping through here.
As we go down to the beach we will give you a look at the storm surge that you were just talking about, the thing about this storm now is that it's just stalled off the eastward of Juno Beach in northern Palm Beach County. And they don't know where it's going to go, Frances is going to go at this point. If she heads due west, it could come on shore right here and we could be in the eye of the hurricane.
But she doesn't seem to be moving much at all right now. So you take a look at these high tides, the tide has come up. In the next hour or so, it's supposed to be going back down. We don't think that's going to happen. But what we are watching here is it stalls that if these conditions keep going as they are right now, it's going to be a very wet soaking storm.
They're concerned about flooding inland and here with the tide coming up and washing the sand away and then the wind doing the rest of the job; we're concerned here there could be some catastrophic beach erosion here. We are concerned that this vacation spot for people that may have expecting to come here on this Labor Day weekend may not be here for next Labor Day week, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dave Kartunen take cover, thanks so much. Of our affiliate WSVN.
All right, let's take a look at some of other stories that are happening right now in the news.
Scattered reports of damage in Florida as hurricane Frances moves closer to the state. Wind and rain are already battering the Atlantic Coast. More than 200,000 people are without power already. Forecasters are predicting heavy flooding, structural damage and gasoline shortages.
STOUFFER: Labor Day air travel is at a crawl in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Airport has been shut down today. There were two separate incidents. An airport spokesman described one of the incidents as a small explosion. Several people were injured and authorities believe the actually explosion was the result of corroded batteries inside a flashlight in someone's bag. Now we're expecting a news conference to begin any moment from Los Angeles. As soon as it starts, we'll bring it right to you.
WHITFIELD: In Russia, the hunt is on for anyone who may have helped terrorists seize a school in Beslan. President Vladimir Putin is promising to improve security there in that region, at least 323 people were killed in the school hostage massacre and more than 700 were injured.
STOUFFER: Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to undergo heart bypass surgery early next week. In an exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King, Mr. Clinton said he feels great and he's ready for surgery.
WHITFIELD: Well let's get the big picture now on the massive yet sluggish hurricane Frances from CNN's Jacqui Jeras she is in our weather center.
STOUFFER: Hi Jacqui, what do you see?
JERAS: Hi ladies. Well, sluggish is a good word for it because this has moved very little over the last couple of hours. Which means people along the east central coast here of Florida have just been, it has just been unrelenting over the last couple of hours. So the rain has been very steady with those wind gusts very strong. It comes down horizontal at times. We are going to zoom in and show you a closer look at where some of these heavier rains bans have been. And they have been pushing over the same areas up around Melbourne down towards Fort Pierce, extending down towards West Palm Beach and the storm totals are starting to add up a little bit right now.
This is Doppler radar storm totals from the last 24 hours. There you can see Fort Pierce, about two inches there, up to three inches just up to the north and east of there right along the I-95 corridor. So those dark green areas two to three inches has been common. An inch or less in the light blue areas.
And we are expecting these numbers to continue to move up and we are looking at forecast totals now between now and Monday afternoon and look at those bright red areas, Daytona Beach potentially could see up to 20 inches of rain and maybe even locally we could see up to 25 inches of rain, widespread amounts are likely going to be anywhere from eight to 12 inches. So the big story here is definitely that threat of the flooding.
All across central Florida. Now another thing we have to worry about is that storm surge, that big wall of water, those winds pushed the waves up. We'll go back to our other weather computer and show you where our big threat is for storm surge. And this bright red area a high threat, and what does that mean? Six to 12 foot storm surge can be expected with severe beach erosion, partial inundation of the coast. And a moderate threat here in these orange areas and notice that it also includes Lake Okeechobee. Especially along the northern shore. Your storm surge here can be expected to be anywhere between four and five feet with major beach erosion. And some of the near shore roads can be washed out.
So those are going to be two big problems we think here over the next 24 hours. Still moving very, very slowly should be picking up forward speed a little bit, we think, as we head into the latter part of the afternoon, but either way, it's going to take almost 24 hours for this thing to move across central Florida and that's why this is going to be such a problem, moving so very, very slowly.
Taking a little bit of a turn up here toward the panhandle of Florida then as we head into the beginning of the week on Monday and Tuesday, some people who live around Mobile up towards Birmingham are going to have to deal with some flooding rains. So all of the southeast is really going to be a mess right through the holiday weekend extending and that is likely going to extend through the middle and latter part of the week because cleanup is going to be taking quite a long time, as well.
Fredricka, Linda.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jacqui thanks so much.
STOUFFER: It seems like every time we get an estimation of rainfall, it just gets higher.
WHITFIELD: I know as long as that storm just sits and sits and seems to move so much slower, predictions only go up.
STOUFFER: It keeps churning over Florida. We're going to continue to cover everything with hurricane Frances. We'll have a lot more for you after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUFFER: You're looking at a live picture out of Florida right now. You can see that live picture, a palm tree falling into some sort of structure right there as a very powerful category 2 hurricane closes in on Florida. Folks along the east coast have been saying it's been difficult to deal with. The damage they've seen so far in spurts because they'll have a line of thunderstorms with heavy rain that rolls through and it will quiet down for a bit. But obviously as this closes in further and further into Florida the worst may be yet to come. The eye itself has not yet crossed into the coast, but earlier today, gusting winds snapped some power lines in the area and the damage continues to get worse in many parts of the area. I think what we're going to do right now is here from reporter Shamri Stone of affiliated WFOR, she has more on what happened in her area.
SHAMRI STONE, WFOR CORRESPONDENT: Just take a look. Unbelievable. This thing continues to pop. That is extremely dangerous. Firefighters want you to stay away. I'm now joined by an official just to explain what exactly is going on here. This is breaking right now as we speak. Please, first of all, state your name for me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lieutenant Joseph (ph).
STONE: Lieutenant Joseph. What's going on here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we have here is a broken power line. That powers the building here from the strong winds, it has snapped and it is arcing on some of the other power lines to the rear here.
STONE: All right. And we just got here, rushed here immediately after I saw this. What street are we at? What's going on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the 500 block of Borden Ave.
STONE: Borden Ave as soon as we saw the smoke up in the air from sun rising A1A , we immediately jumped in our car and came here. Just look at it just let it run. This thing just keeps on popping. Sir what would happen -- how many volts is that? That's amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not really sure. It's definitely high voltage.
STONE: And as you look right over here, if you could pan there there's some spectators who are seeing it as well, a guy drinking his coffee. What would happen, sir? Are they allowed to get over here and get as close as we are to see this thing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all.
STONE: What's your concern about them over there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing really with them over there. My concern is the buildings here catching on fire. Ambers coming from the live wire there.
STONE: Well on behalf of CBS 4, our anchors Angelo Ray Illing (ph) out of Irrello (ph) we want to thank you for allowing to us get so close to share this with our viewers. This is exactly why officials strongly recommend that you be careful. That's why we have the mandatory evacuations according to Broward officials. Why? Because things like this can happen. Those bands from hurricane Frances can continue to come on in. Sorry about the low visibility on your lens. There's a light drizzle right now and the gusty winds continue to come in.
STOUFFER: And that was an apartment building in fort Lauderdale, a report from Shamri Stone of our affiliate WFOR.
WHITFIELD: Well let's check in with the National Hurricane Center and find out just what hurricane Frances is doing. Ed Rappaport is with us now, deputy director of the center there. Good to see you Ed. Know you guys are real busy. Thanks for taking the time out.
Well just about an hour ago, we talked about Frances being about 20 miles outside of West Palm Beach. As it now encroaches on the coast, about what are you seeing with these sustained wind gusts and these first bands of rain?
ED RAPPAPORT, DEP. DIR., NATL. HURRICANE CENTER: Actually, the center of circulation is somewhat farther from the main land. It's about 70 miles offshore, but these bands are moving across the coast now. We have had a first report of sustained winds of hurricane force in Palm Beach County; have been gusts up to near 100 miles per hour.
Farther to the north, expect that these winds will continue. The hurricane is moving so slowly, a prolonged period of heavy rain, high winds and storm surge five feet or more along the coast just north of Palm Beach County.
WHITFIELD: And, of those Florida cities we're talking about, they're stretching from about Juno Beach and north up to Melbourne.
RAPPAPORT: That is right, we are seeing some word of minor damage now, trees down across many counties.
WHITFIELD: All right, Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center thanks so much.
Linda.
STOUFFER: Speaking of Melbourne, Florida, one of our weather experts Chad Myers is spending his holiday weekend anything but on holiday. He is in the crosshairs of this hurricane; he joins us live from Melbourne, Florida. Chad hi there, what sort of weather do you have around you right now?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well these are the worst winds we've had now not that were not thunderstorm related. We're now outer band related. It is not raining much at all, but the winds are now howling. I have my little live wind meter up here at 42, 44 miles an hour. It was kind of ironic earlier because Bill Hemmer was right here and a wind gust would come by and he'd go was that 60, and I'd would look and no that was 38. And a wind gust would come by he would go was that 70, I would go no that was 42.
Everybody thinks that the winds are kind of gusting when they're in one but I will tell you what if we're only at 44 to 45 now and this is going to 105, we have some work cut out for us. Work cut out for us down here too the police on scene, because if you just walk over about five feet to my right it smells like a horrendous gas spill. And we think that gas is coming out of those gas pumps there. You can see the waves coming over here just breaching the break.
That break is supposed to actually stop the wind, stop the waves from breaching into these boats, this Marina here pretty well harbored here. But I will tell you what the folks here; it is just one thing after another. It's a sign and then it's a building and then it's a canvas then it's a sail. Things are flying across the streets here. As you drive, it's very hard to get around now. There are a lot of limbs and trees, not power lines yet that I saw, but a lot of limbs and power lines, especially palm fronds that are off the trees here in Melbourne, Florida.
Back to you guys.
STOUFFER: Chad Myers you take care of yourself live in Melbourne, Florida right there.
What we want to do right now is join the coverage of one of our affiliates, WPLG which is based in the Miami area there covering some of the damage that's going on in south central Florida. Lets listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're coming in on my head. And then I turned at the last second like that, and they all landed on the side of my head and cracked over the side of my head. Luckily.
JEFF WYNNSTER, WPLG CORRESPONDENT: Josh. As we're sitting here talking, what is going through your mind?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm really lucky to be alive right now. And yes, these storms are nothing to play around with.
WYNNSTER: Josh's entire home here on River Land Road is surrounded by these huge, huge ficus trees. He says the only reason why he rode out the storm here is because he's got dogs inside and he didn't want to leave them behind. He was going to go to a friend's house out west but he decided not to. He is going in the house now to show some of the newspaper reporters the damage.
But it's really an unbelievable sight. Huge, huge tree. Neighbors told us these trees have been around a long, long before the homes. Josh lucky to be alive. He tells us right now that what he's going to do is just ride out the storm likely at a friend's house.
That is the very latest. We're in the Fort Lauderdale, 1760 River Land Road, Jeff Wynnster back to you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right Jeff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incredible pictures of the force of nature. Don. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we have Ed Rappaport from the National Hurricane Center on the line right now. And Ed, I would like to ask you the question of the day; the storm now has stalled as you put it into.
STOUFFER: And we just talked to Ed Rappaport ourselves a couple of minutes ago. That was damage already in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, south Florida. And I say already because the worst of this storm is yet to come. Some of the most dramatic pictures we've been seeing so far have been coming to us from West Palm Beach. CNN's Sean Callebs is there he joins us live. And we are going to get a look at what the conditions are like there now. Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Linda this is pretty much the way it has been for hours and hours. Steady, gusting wind. We heard just a moment ago, people may think the wind is extremely intense. But as you mentioned, the worst is yet to come. Look down the street. This is a picture that plays out in virtually all the streets in the West Palm Beach area. It looks like a dead end of the area. That is actually a large tree that has fallen in the middle of the road.
And you can see the palm fronds coming down. Most of these are royal palms just littering the road. All this rain that we have gotten over the past, oh, I don't know, six or so hours really beginning to add up. If you'd like me to shoot that, you can see the streets in this area under several inches of water. We were out getting some pictures a while ago, and we've taken a look at some of the damage in and around this area. It's somewhat significant.
A lot of trees are down; a lot of power lines are down. We're told there are power outages here as well as across the inter coastal waterway and the Barrier Island of Palm Beach across that way too, the situation pretty bad, as well. We know that power is off in much of that area. Trees down, as I mentioned. There are power lines that have fallen down. There are power lines down. Trees uprooted in all kinds of yards and that's the reason authorities have stressed time and time again that people shouldn't come out and try and look at this.
Linda as you know, the storm category 4 earlier downgraded but still packing winds more than 100 miles per hour. We have seen a number of people just driving up and down this main drag here in West Palm Beach trying to get a look. This is a community about 80,000, this and Palm Beach, the county has about 1.3 million. But if you talk to the city leaders, they say a lion's share of the people have really heeded a call for the mandatory evacuation. And it's going to get as bad as they say, probably pretty good reason.
Linda.
STOUFFER: And it could get a lot worse you are right about that. Sean Callebs live from West Palm Beach in Florida. Thanks Sean.
WHITFIELD: We've got lots going on today. Of course hurricane Frances encroaching on the Atlantic coast of Florida as it sits off the coast, causing already a lot of wind and a lot of potential rain damage and then on the other coast, the west coast of this entire country, we're talking about from L.A.X. There is a security issue there and any moment now we're expecting to join a press conference that will get underway and when that does happen, CNN will be carrying that for you live, our special coverage of hurricane Frances and the security problem out at L.A.X. Continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Already hurricane Frances doing a number on the Atlantic coast of Florida. Snapping trees, power lines, already up to 40,000 people in various parts of south and central Florida are without power. Our Jacqui Jeras is in the weather center to give us a sense as to what this storm might be doing next. We know it's just sitting off the coast and causing potentially a lot of flooding all ready in some low-lying areas.
JERAS: That's right. And with 40,000 without power right now, watch for those numbers to continue to go up, even though those winds aren't quite as impressive as they were in Charlie, they're going to be lasting for a lot longer period of time. So we're going to see things flying through the air and with that wind battering on your singles for that long of a period of time, we're going to see a little bit more wide spread damage I think instead of so localized.
Now this is the latest satellite imagery here of Charlie. Shows you just how big the storm system is. In fact some of these outer areas going all the way up into the Carolinas just to give you an idea of how huge this storm is in magnitude. Starting to see a little bit of that eye trying to form again, at least on satellite imagery being able to see that and satellite imagery showing signs of possible intensification. Now we still have a possibility that this could become a category three again before it makes landfall.
We've been talking about some of those water temperatures how warm it is out there. Let's show you what some of the water temperatures look like along the coastline right now if we could go to our other source and show you some of those numbers. It is like bath water out there, temperatures in the '80s, 88 degrees, and 90 degrees as you get up towards the coastal areas at this time. And we will have the Gulf Stream right here and that's where that warm water is. When it moves throughout the Gulf Stream, that's when we start to see the storm potentially intensify once again.
There are those numbers that you can see and as I mentioned the Gulf Stream, take a look at this darker red band that extends right up the Florida coast and then bends on outward and here's that cooler water. So that hurricane continues to move inland. That water a little bit more shallow. The shallower the water the warmer the temperatures are going to be. And you only need 80 degrees to keep a hurricane sustained and we are way beyond that. Those temperatures almost as warm as high hot tub at home.
Hey let's go back to the other map and show you what you can expect for those forecast wind speeds as they move on in. This is the forecast wind speed over the next 24 hours or so. Here you can see this starts about 6:00 tonight. You see those strong winds, 90 plus mile per hour. These are sustained winds expected to be on shore. We'll put this into motion for you. These purple winds, when you start getting way up in there getting up into the 105, 110 mile an hour area and that is the eye wall right here and it looks like it's going to be making landfall sometime late tonight.
Maybe between 10:00 and 2:00 but in terms of timing it doesn't really matter because this thing is going to be lasting forever as it moves across the coastal areas. You can see how big that eye is, how long it's going to be taking to make its way all the way on shore. Takes you up to 6:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. You can see the whole thing still even not on shore and the leading edge of it heading right up there towards Lake Okeechobee. That is going to sit there for a while.
And then by 11:00 on Sunday mornings, looks like the whole eye maybe could be on landfall by then. And look at these tropical storms force winds extending all the way up into the panhandle and the southern Georgia even pushing up towards South Carolina. So that is pretty impressive.
So we're talking the Keys all the way up to almost Charleston, those people, millions of people being affected by these forecast wind speeds. Going to be very, very strong and as it moves up to the north and to the west, it is going to be spreading those winds all the way through the area and it's going to take maybe 24 hours for this to make it all the way across the Florida Peninsula.
Back to you ladies.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much Jacqui. West Palm Beach is one of the places that is feeling the brunt of the storm already. With sustained winds of near 100 miles per hour. Well, for folks trying to tie down their yachts in West Palm Beach, it was anything but easy. Let's take a look.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is nuts. I have no idea. This guy's got to have engine trouble or lost control of it. Probably or perhaps having engine trouble or simply not enough power to cope with the wind from Frances coming down this way. But this person doing a remarkable job of getting the craft into the position that it is. You can see on the front, a couple of anchor lines have been dangling down that allowed this boat to slowly make it out.
But look in the front you can see a couple of gashes. Even with the best of efforts, exactly. Best of efforts tying this thing off, simply the storm too powerful. Now apparently trying to make another run back up the way carrying not only its anchors but also a pole from the yacht club. So this is quite a drama out here on the inter coastal waterway.
We haven't seen anybody out here trying to help. There are apparently -- there are some people who are out in the hurricane and probably shouldn't be who have stopped to look what's going on. You see on the bough with the flight jacket now reaching down in to try to get another rope and try and tie up. So they're doing everything they can clearly, these are very experienced people just to get this yacht in position to even tie up.
The weather out here, the winds have really picked up. It just drifts so quickly. But apparently they got tied off or anchors caught on the front. Maybe they'll be able to maneuver their way in somewhat. There's a walkway if you look on the stern. So if they can get this tied off maybe they'll be able to moor it as safely as possible. It's really pretty amazing that this situation didn't work out any worse than it did. This guy wasn't able to get control of the ship right through here. It had nowhere to go except for the bridge. That was an amazing job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
WHITFIELD: Some of the images coming out of the West Palm Beach, hurricane Frances. But of course there's some other news-taking place on the west coast of the country.
STOUFFER: That's right. We want to hook up with that because there's a press conference just started in Los Angeles about the closing of L.A.X.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 4, 2004 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Glad you can join us, I'm Linda Stouffer.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We've got special coverage of hurricane Frances as it moves towards Florida. But first a look at the other stories topping our news.
Los Angeles International Airport is shut down. Officials say two different security incidents are to blame. The first involved police responding to a report of a suspicious person. The other involved a flashlight with corroded batteries that exploded. Seven people were injured. But the Department of Homeland Security had a different account. The agency says there was no explosion and no injuries. We'll bring you more details as this developing story evolves.
At least 25 people have been killed in two bomb blasts outside an Iraqi police academy in Kirkuk. Authorities say a car bomb and a remote bomb exploded simultaneously. The explosives laden car, which was driven by a suicide bomber, rammed the security barricades as people were leaving the police academy. Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging Russians to join him in the fight against terrorism.
Mr. Putin said the terrorist seizure of a school in Beslan was an attack on the entire country. At least 323 hostages were killed. Friday, Putin visited some of the hundreds of people who were injured.
And in Japan, a freighter ran ashore damaging three houses. The 498-ton ship rammed into the homes after its pilot apparently fell asleep at the helm. Only one person was injured in that incident.
STOUFFER: A very powerful hurricane Frances is stalking Florida today. Rain and wind they are already pounding parts of the state. Jacqui Jeras is live in the CNN Weather Center she has the whole storm coverage for us. Jacqui, hi.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Linda, and hello, everyone. The 2:00 advisory is in now and the biggest news that I can tell you is that this has stalled even further. So this is really some very bad news because the more this stalls, the more catastrophic the flooding is going to be. It's barely moved in the last three hours; it's just slowly drifting west, northwest.
However It is expected to pick up a little bit of forward speed in the next few hours back up to maybe seven miles per hour, but that is still slower than we would like it to be. It is about 70 miles east of Palm Beach at this hour. There are your coordinates for you, still a category 2, 105 mile per hour winds. It's been staying right at that steady speed now since 8:00 advisory last night.
So no change in the intensity, but as we take a look, we've been watching the radar and satellite imagery here and it looks like the eye is trying to close in a little bit more. The thing has been about 70, 75 miles wide, which is just huge for the eye of a hurricane. And if that closes in we may see a little bit more additional strengthening. So it's still possible that when this makes landfall it could be a category 3 rather than a category 2. So that means we are going to have a little bit more of a problem with the storm surge.
The winds have been very intense all morning long. And here are some of the current wind speeds up and down the coast line you can see 43 miles per hour, that is sustained winds at West Palm Beach and 32 miles per hour right now Melbourne. These are some of the recorded wind gusts that we've seen thus far, up to 91 miles per hour, Jupiter inlet 71 miles per hour, and West Palm Beach and Vero Beach at 59 miles per hour.
And we'll watch for these numbers to continue to go up. Our forecast track here showing you those hurricane force winds making their way up the coastline heading into central Florida before we start to see just tropical storm force winds. Moves back over the open water and heads on up into the Florida panhandle and then brings those strong winds into places like Alabama and maybe even to Mississippi.
The forecast track remains the same. The timing still uncertain but at this point, our best bet is sometime around the midnight hour, give or take a few hours.
Linda.
STOUFFER: Jacqui Jeras, thank you. Quite a storm.
WHITFIELD: Well the city of Melbourne is smack dab in the middle of Florida's Atlantic coast and smack dab in the middle of this storm's apparent path. CNN's Bill Hemmer is there and Bill it's looks like the rain has picked up there and the wind gusts, as well.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've working as wet dogs out here right now Fredricka. We have been out here since 6:00 this morning. It has been consistently raining ever since then. And to listen to Jacqui Jeras give us the latest numbers, if in deed that storm moves closer to the coast of Florida, then imagine tomorrow at this time, if the storm stalls over the east coast of Florida, just how much rain will be brought up on the people here in this part of the state.
We're getting words locally here now; the word and the reports are that 300,000 so far in southeast Florida among five different counties have lost power. It's only 2:00 in the afternoon. And 300,000 have lost power already; this is going to be a really tough night and possibly another tough day tomorrow. The Red Cross tells us, Fredricka, that 64,000 have sought shelter. Just not in the immediate area but also includes the northern part of Florida.
In fact it also includes the southern part of Georgia, as well. In a step over here just a little bit to change the direction here. Get the -- a lot of times the rain comes in. It will come in at an even level and strike you right in the eye right across your face. We're at a marina right here on the Atlantic inter coastal waterway. Earlier today, we were on the other side of the water out on the Barrier Islands and conditions were worsening throughout the day. That's why we came back here.
There's a large bridge that extends itself eight, maybe nine stories above the water. That was shut down about 30 minutes ago by police. Believe it or not people were still going in and out of those Barrier Islands. I want to remind you what the FEMA director earlier today Michael Brown said and also the Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, they said listen don't take this storm for granted.
Even though the storm has weakened, three days ago this was a category four, it's lessened to a category two or where it might strengthen. By even though it has weakened at this point by no means should you take the storm for granted? The governor also pointing out that Florida really is getting a crisscross effect with Charlie three weeks ago rather in the southwest and now with Frances coming in the central part, places like Daytona, places like Orlando are going to get a double shot of mother nature.
Frances is coming Fredricka and we can feel her quite well right now. Back to you now in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: Only a few miles off that coast. Bill Hemmer thanks very much from Melbourne, Florida.
HEMMER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: Linda.
STOUFFER: And CNN's Jason Bellini is also in Melbourne. But he is inside; he joins us from an evacuation center where folks have gone to try to get some shelter there. Hi Jason.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Linda. I'm coming to you from Broad Community College. And they've been good enough to allow me to connect to the Internet and that is the way we're able to come to you live inside a shelter. Now there are 850 people inside this shelter right now. They started arriving here on Thursday. And of course they don't know when they're going to get to leave.
Many people brought their radios, their televisions sets and they are watching the storm as it happens, watching the eye of the storm as it approaches this area and a lot of people in the halls wondering what's going to happen next and when they'll be able to leave here. Now I've got a guest with me her name is Rosalie Barnett, and say your age your 75 years old. Why don't you come -- step inside here for a second Rosalie. And Rosalie you came here on Thursday, yourself, correct. ROSALIE BARNETT, EVACUEE: Yes, I did. I was told if I didn't get here, I would not get in because everybody was coming here. So I came very early. And I'm very tired.
BELLINI: Are you nervous about the storm?
BARNETT: Yes, I am. I hope that God will listen to us and just let the storm go another way and go out to sea.
BELLINI: What are some of the things that you brought here with you because we know you're going to be here for a while.
BARNETT: Well I brought food, a mattress, a chair, and my husband.
BELLINI: And there's been plenty of food, you've been comfortable.
BARNETT: Oh the Red Cross has been wonderful. We've eaten many a meal from the Red Cross. They take care of us with coffee, sandwiches, crackers, and ice, whatever we want. When we ask a question, they help us. They've been great.
BELLINI: Rosalie thank you so much. I appreciate you helping us and talking to us. Best of luck, I hope you get to go home soon.
BARNETT: Thank you. Same here.
BELLINI: Linda back to you.
STOUFFER: I hope Rosalie and all the folks take care in there. Jason Bellini thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well let's get back to the front lines of Frances and CNN's Gary Tuchman who is in Fort Pierce, Florida. How are things looking there, Gary?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Linda if you can hear me, it's very hard to hear you right now. We are in Fort Pierce, Florida, this is in Saint Lucia County, and we're about 60 miles north of West Palm Beach. This is the Fort Pierce City Marina. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) has survived it so far we'll see how long it lasts.
The last three hours it's gotten progressively worse here. This is the inter coastal water way also the Indian River in this area. We're a half a mile as the crow flies from the Atlantic Ocean. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) crows flying on a day like this. But it's so unusual about this hurricane and compared to hurricanes we've covered, particularly Charlie three weeks ago, is how long this is expected to last.
The most interesting about this particular region, St. Lucia County the two major cities here in Fort Pierce and just south of here Fort City Lucie is that if someone -- if someone is 90 years old. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they have never seen a powerful hurricane -
(AUDIO GAP)
WHITFIELD: All right sorry about that. We're getting Gary Tuchman via videophone and obviously because of the winds and the elements there, we're unable to get a clear transmission. But of course we'll try to resume that when we can he is coming out of Fort Pierce, Florida.
Linda.
STOUFFER: And if you want to follow along, you can look at Frances projected path by logging on to CNN.com/hurricanes, now if you go there you'll find links to emergency information all kinds of resources there for you as well, like tips on what you should do if you are in a hurricane.
Well could it be Russia's own 9/11, a nation mourns the loss of hundreds of lives as the hunt goes on for those responsible for a deadly hostage standoff. We'll have the latest next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUFFER: Well, the president of Russia says it's difficult even to speak of the horrors that culminated this week's hostage crisis in a southern town of Beslan. Right now, it's quiet, but middle school number one is in ruins after yesterday's shootouts, explosions and the resulting collapse of the gym. That's where most of the hostages had been held. On Wednesday, more than 1,000 students, teachers and parents were taken captive by at least 26 Chechen rebels and apparent Arab mercenaries.
Now today we learned all the hostage takers and 323 hostages are dead 700 people hurt. Vladimir Putin visited some of the casualties yesterday and in his address to the nation today, he saluted the citizens of Beslan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (via translator): There were people who prepared to risk themselves in order to support others, and in these inhuman conditions, they remained humans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOUFFER: Well, thankfully many children did survive the hostage ordeal, but as hear from Andrea Catherwood of Britain's independent television news, survival and recovery, they're two very different things.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA CATHERWOOD, ITV NEWS (voice over): What have these little eyes seen today? At the heart of this horror is that they did it to children. Fleeing from death, explosions, bullets and bodies in their own school gym. Semi naked, bloodied and parched after three days in a hall with the dead lying outside in the corridor, surrounded by mines and gunfire and captives ready to die for their cause, they must have feared for their lives every second.
Tonight, many of their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers lie dead. Others are badly injured. All those left alive are deep in shock. This boy is asked his name and his parents' name. This girl cries but see can't find her mother. What happened to these children in their own words was truly horrific. They wouldn't let us open the windows, she says. We were suffocating.
There were explosives placed all around us. Then they blew up. Beating us, sobs this boy. They were beating us. Then they exploded. These children may have seen suicide bombers and horrors only they can know, and they may have lost the parents who could comfort them. Some of these children will get to sleep in their own beds tonight, but many beds will be empty forever. And when these children go to sleep, what will they dream of now?
Andrea Catherwood, ITV News.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Now, we mentioned almost half the Beslan hostage takers were Arabs. For the Arab world reaction to what President Putin calls an attack on all of Russia, we call on Salemeh Nematt. He is the Washington Bureau chief of the Arab newspaper Al Hayat. And its broadcast partner LBC. Good to see you.
SALAMEH NEMATT, AL HAYAT-LBC: Good to see you too.
WHITFIELD: Well there has been expressed concern that as of late, hostage taking is mostly being associated with the Arab community, the Islamic culture. So within the Arab culture, is there a type of plea going out to Islamic extremists?
NEMATT: Yes, as we've seen throughout the region, throughout the world indeed in Iraq as well as in Palestinian and now in Russia, there have been appeals by religious leaders who condemned these acts of suicide bombings, murders and kidnappings of journalists of NGO people. Basically, they don't seem to be effective.
Ironically and sadly, that most of these terrorist acts are involving Muslims and perpetrators are Muslims or they're from Muslim countries. The Chechens themselves are Muslims and the fact there are mercenaries there is even more disturbing. It seems to me if we look at the big picture that most of these terrorist acts are involving people who are either under occupation or quasi occupation such as in Chechnya where Russia has imposed a rule and these people are desperately trying to hit back at Russia.
This is of course no justification. Occupation is no justification for targeting innocent people. But also, you know, or from countries, these terrorists are coming from countries where there's a lot of oppression, which is producing these desperate acts in my view.
WHITFIELD: In your view then or from your reporting are you finding these pleas are ineffective because of the methods in which they're being conveyed or the leaders, the religion leader who's are being involved?
NEMATT: I think that, you know, these militants or extremist groups are not really -- they're using religion as a kind of a cover for their actions when in fact, it's their motives are political not religious. And this is why you have this consensus among clerics in the Arab and Muslim world to condemn these acts.
However, these acts continue. I think as I said, these terrorists are coming from countries either under occupation as in the case in Iraq and in Palestinian and to some extent in Chechnya. Or from countries that are oppressed and you know under oppression people resort to desperate acts to promote their cause.
Again, as I said, this is no justification for these actions, but we must look at the root causes of the problems and not only deal with the phenomenon and targeting only the terrorists themselves.
WHITFIELD: So in this particular incident-taking place in North Ossetia, population about 710,000, it's a mostly Orthodox Christian community and a very small minority of Muslims there. The use of this school, these children, what is the believed motivation? Merely to get attention, as you mentioned? These extremist groups are trying to get?
NEMATT: Well, it's in some ways similar to what Osama bin Laden did by trying -- by attacking America on 9/11. He wants the Americans out of Saudi Arabia. This is his primary motive, at least in his words. The Chechnya's, the Chechnya rebels want Russia out of Chechnya. You know it was is the former Soviet Republic and the Russia's insist on basically taking control of that province and these people feel if Russia does not leave their country alone and this is a Muslim majority, of course, in Chechnya, they're hitting back in Russia basically to make them pay a price.
Again, as I said, no justification. Yet, these people at least are saying this is a motive.
WHITFIELD: So in the states, these images were played out virtually from start to finish. Apparently Russian TV turned away from full coverage of this incident, especially when it got bloody. Now how about in the Arab community in broadcast, as well as newspapers? How were these images and this story being handled?
NEMATT: Similar pictures to those we've seen on CNN were basically broadcast in most Arab satellite channels and national TVs in the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world. There is no doubt about this has been a horrific, horrific incident which basically disgusted people all over the world. Nobody can ever explain or justify such desperate and criminal actions against complete innocent people.
WHITFIELD: Salameh Nematt of the AL Hayat newspaper as well the sister broadcast partner LBC. Thanks so much for joining us from Washington.
NEMATT: You're welcome.
WHITFIELD: Linda.
STOUFFER: Well the fallout from the hostage standoff to the coming hurricane trouble in Florida to the closing of LAX, is a very, very busy day for news and of coverage of Frances continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUFFER: Welcome back to CNN. We've had a lot developing news in the last couple of hours. We have a more complete update now on what exactly happened at Los Angeles International Airport, LAX has been closed for several hours. Here's what we know at this point.
About 7:30 local time, a man who was apparently waiving boarding passes in the air and went up the stairs from the baggage claim area right into the terminal. That led authorities to completely evacuate three terminals, terminals 6, 7, and 8 of LAX and put everyone back through the re-screening process.
Now separately, about a half hour after that in the international terminal, here's what happened. A screener was going through somebody's luggage; he heard sort of a popping sound coming from something in the luggage. Turned out to be what they think was a flashlight with perhaps corroded batteries and that set off some sort of a small explosion that injured a couple of people. So that was a separate incident.
But LAX has been closed. People have been standing in line for hours there trying to get everything sorted out with their own travel plans. And we're expecting a news conference about 2:30 Eastern Time. Just a couple a minutes from now, we will bring that to you live from L.A. as we get it.
WHITFIELD: A lot going on this Saturday from the west coast, and of course, all the way to the east coast of Florida that is. Particularly where hurricane Frances is just inside 20 miles outside of West Palm Beach, but just north of there from Juno Beach, our affiliated WFOR filed this report just a short time ago to give us an idea of what kind of wind and rain they're already starting to experience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here live in Palm Beach County on Juno Beach on the pier. You see some guys here who decided to take a chance. They wanted to see the waves. What are you doing man?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting footage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting footage, you guys are storm chasers, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes doing a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How dangerous is this for you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty dangerous out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys, how dangerous is this for you out there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're shooting some footage. It's mad. It's unbelievable. So we're going to roll to the eye now. We just stopped here to check for some surfers, they are not here so we're going to the eye. Right on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck. Take care of your selves. Folks this is something that you do not want to do. Feeling these winds pick up anywhere between 50-75 miles per hour can be extremely dangerous, especially here on the pier. And Palm Beach County is just littered with debris all across. We'll have more for you in a little bit. Live in Palm Beach County, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for news.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right it may look comical but really it is a very serious situation with very serious wind gusts and the surf kicking up. And of course, the surge is something that is particularly concerning once a hurricane has made its way-hitting landfall.
Let's go live now to Dave Kartunen of WSVM, he is at Juno Beach right now. And give us a sense what's happening there now. We saw what happened moments ago, what is happening now? Dave.
DAVE KARTUNEN, WSVM CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka we've just come in between squalls here. And it seems like the next set of wind gusts are about to pick up. We've seen some fencing coming down and a palm tree behind it. And I'm going to walk you down to the beach to show you what it looks like at this moment. The roof has come off this first third of this town home. As we walk down through these mangroves, the wind is whipping through here.
As we go down to the beach we will give you a look at the storm surge that you were just talking about, the thing about this storm now is that it's just stalled off the eastward of Juno Beach in northern Palm Beach County. And they don't know where it's going to go, Frances is going to go at this point. If she heads due west, it could come on shore right here and we could be in the eye of the hurricane.
But she doesn't seem to be moving much at all right now. So you take a look at these high tides, the tide has come up. In the next hour or so, it's supposed to be going back down. We don't think that's going to happen. But what we are watching here is it stalls that if these conditions keep going as they are right now, it's going to be a very wet soaking storm.
They're concerned about flooding inland and here with the tide coming up and washing the sand away and then the wind doing the rest of the job; we're concerned here there could be some catastrophic beach erosion here. We are concerned that this vacation spot for people that may have expecting to come here on this Labor Day weekend may not be here for next Labor Day week, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dave Kartunen take cover, thanks so much. Of our affiliate WSVN.
All right, let's take a look at some of other stories that are happening right now in the news.
Scattered reports of damage in Florida as hurricane Frances moves closer to the state. Wind and rain are already battering the Atlantic Coast. More than 200,000 people are without power already. Forecasters are predicting heavy flooding, structural damage and gasoline shortages.
STOUFFER: Labor Day air travel is at a crawl in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Airport has been shut down today. There were two separate incidents. An airport spokesman described one of the incidents as a small explosion. Several people were injured and authorities believe the actually explosion was the result of corroded batteries inside a flashlight in someone's bag. Now we're expecting a news conference to begin any moment from Los Angeles. As soon as it starts, we'll bring it right to you.
WHITFIELD: In Russia, the hunt is on for anyone who may have helped terrorists seize a school in Beslan. President Vladimir Putin is promising to improve security there in that region, at least 323 people were killed in the school hostage massacre and more than 700 were injured.
STOUFFER: Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to undergo heart bypass surgery early next week. In an exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King, Mr. Clinton said he feels great and he's ready for surgery.
WHITFIELD: Well let's get the big picture now on the massive yet sluggish hurricane Frances from CNN's Jacqui Jeras she is in our weather center.
STOUFFER: Hi Jacqui, what do you see?
JERAS: Hi ladies. Well, sluggish is a good word for it because this has moved very little over the last couple of hours. Which means people along the east central coast here of Florida have just been, it has just been unrelenting over the last couple of hours. So the rain has been very steady with those wind gusts very strong. It comes down horizontal at times. We are going to zoom in and show you a closer look at where some of these heavier rains bans have been. And they have been pushing over the same areas up around Melbourne down towards Fort Pierce, extending down towards West Palm Beach and the storm totals are starting to add up a little bit right now.
This is Doppler radar storm totals from the last 24 hours. There you can see Fort Pierce, about two inches there, up to three inches just up to the north and east of there right along the I-95 corridor. So those dark green areas two to three inches has been common. An inch or less in the light blue areas.
And we are expecting these numbers to continue to move up and we are looking at forecast totals now between now and Monday afternoon and look at those bright red areas, Daytona Beach potentially could see up to 20 inches of rain and maybe even locally we could see up to 25 inches of rain, widespread amounts are likely going to be anywhere from eight to 12 inches. So the big story here is definitely that threat of the flooding.
All across central Florida. Now another thing we have to worry about is that storm surge, that big wall of water, those winds pushed the waves up. We'll go back to our other weather computer and show you where our big threat is for storm surge. And this bright red area a high threat, and what does that mean? Six to 12 foot storm surge can be expected with severe beach erosion, partial inundation of the coast. And a moderate threat here in these orange areas and notice that it also includes Lake Okeechobee. Especially along the northern shore. Your storm surge here can be expected to be anywhere between four and five feet with major beach erosion. And some of the near shore roads can be washed out.
So those are going to be two big problems we think here over the next 24 hours. Still moving very, very slowly should be picking up forward speed a little bit, we think, as we head into the latter part of the afternoon, but either way, it's going to take almost 24 hours for this thing to move across central Florida and that's why this is going to be such a problem, moving so very, very slowly.
Taking a little bit of a turn up here toward the panhandle of Florida then as we head into the beginning of the week on Monday and Tuesday, some people who live around Mobile up towards Birmingham are going to have to deal with some flooding rains. So all of the southeast is really going to be a mess right through the holiday weekend extending and that is likely going to extend through the middle and latter part of the week because cleanup is going to be taking quite a long time, as well.
Fredricka, Linda.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jacqui thanks so much.
STOUFFER: It seems like every time we get an estimation of rainfall, it just gets higher.
WHITFIELD: I know as long as that storm just sits and sits and seems to move so much slower, predictions only go up.
STOUFFER: It keeps churning over Florida. We're going to continue to cover everything with hurricane Frances. We'll have a lot more for you after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUFFER: You're looking at a live picture out of Florida right now. You can see that live picture, a palm tree falling into some sort of structure right there as a very powerful category 2 hurricane closes in on Florida. Folks along the east coast have been saying it's been difficult to deal with. The damage they've seen so far in spurts because they'll have a line of thunderstorms with heavy rain that rolls through and it will quiet down for a bit. But obviously as this closes in further and further into Florida the worst may be yet to come. The eye itself has not yet crossed into the coast, but earlier today, gusting winds snapped some power lines in the area and the damage continues to get worse in many parts of the area. I think what we're going to do right now is here from reporter Shamri Stone of affiliated WFOR, she has more on what happened in her area.
SHAMRI STONE, WFOR CORRESPONDENT: Just take a look. Unbelievable. This thing continues to pop. That is extremely dangerous. Firefighters want you to stay away. I'm now joined by an official just to explain what exactly is going on here. This is breaking right now as we speak. Please, first of all, state your name for me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lieutenant Joseph (ph).
STONE: Lieutenant Joseph. What's going on here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we have here is a broken power line. That powers the building here from the strong winds, it has snapped and it is arcing on some of the other power lines to the rear here.
STONE: All right. And we just got here, rushed here immediately after I saw this. What street are we at? What's going on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the 500 block of Borden Ave.
STONE: Borden Ave as soon as we saw the smoke up in the air from sun rising A1A , we immediately jumped in our car and came here. Just look at it just let it run. This thing just keeps on popping. Sir what would happen -- how many volts is that? That's amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not really sure. It's definitely high voltage.
STONE: And as you look right over here, if you could pan there there's some spectators who are seeing it as well, a guy drinking his coffee. What would happen, sir? Are they allowed to get over here and get as close as we are to see this thing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all.
STONE: What's your concern about them over there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing really with them over there. My concern is the buildings here catching on fire. Ambers coming from the live wire there.
STONE: Well on behalf of CBS 4, our anchors Angelo Ray Illing (ph) out of Irrello (ph) we want to thank you for allowing to us get so close to share this with our viewers. This is exactly why officials strongly recommend that you be careful. That's why we have the mandatory evacuations according to Broward officials. Why? Because things like this can happen. Those bands from hurricane Frances can continue to come on in. Sorry about the low visibility on your lens. There's a light drizzle right now and the gusty winds continue to come in.
STOUFFER: And that was an apartment building in fort Lauderdale, a report from Shamri Stone of our affiliate WFOR.
WHITFIELD: Well let's check in with the National Hurricane Center and find out just what hurricane Frances is doing. Ed Rappaport is with us now, deputy director of the center there. Good to see you Ed. Know you guys are real busy. Thanks for taking the time out.
Well just about an hour ago, we talked about Frances being about 20 miles outside of West Palm Beach. As it now encroaches on the coast, about what are you seeing with these sustained wind gusts and these first bands of rain?
ED RAPPAPORT, DEP. DIR., NATL. HURRICANE CENTER: Actually, the center of circulation is somewhat farther from the main land. It's about 70 miles offshore, but these bands are moving across the coast now. We have had a first report of sustained winds of hurricane force in Palm Beach County; have been gusts up to near 100 miles per hour.
Farther to the north, expect that these winds will continue. The hurricane is moving so slowly, a prolonged period of heavy rain, high winds and storm surge five feet or more along the coast just north of Palm Beach County.
WHITFIELD: And, of those Florida cities we're talking about, they're stretching from about Juno Beach and north up to Melbourne.
RAPPAPORT: That is right, we are seeing some word of minor damage now, trees down across many counties.
WHITFIELD: All right, Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center thanks so much.
Linda.
STOUFFER: Speaking of Melbourne, Florida, one of our weather experts Chad Myers is spending his holiday weekend anything but on holiday. He is in the crosshairs of this hurricane; he joins us live from Melbourne, Florida. Chad hi there, what sort of weather do you have around you right now?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well these are the worst winds we've had now not that were not thunderstorm related. We're now outer band related. It is not raining much at all, but the winds are now howling. I have my little live wind meter up here at 42, 44 miles an hour. It was kind of ironic earlier because Bill Hemmer was right here and a wind gust would come by and he'd go was that 60, and I'd would look and no that was 38. And a wind gust would come by he would go was that 70, I would go no that was 42.
Everybody thinks that the winds are kind of gusting when they're in one but I will tell you what if we're only at 44 to 45 now and this is going to 105, we have some work cut out for us. Work cut out for us down here too the police on scene, because if you just walk over about five feet to my right it smells like a horrendous gas spill. And we think that gas is coming out of those gas pumps there. You can see the waves coming over here just breaching the break.
That break is supposed to actually stop the wind, stop the waves from breaching into these boats, this Marina here pretty well harbored here. But I will tell you what the folks here; it is just one thing after another. It's a sign and then it's a building and then it's a canvas then it's a sail. Things are flying across the streets here. As you drive, it's very hard to get around now. There are a lot of limbs and trees, not power lines yet that I saw, but a lot of limbs and power lines, especially palm fronds that are off the trees here in Melbourne, Florida.
Back to you guys.
STOUFFER: Chad Myers you take care of yourself live in Melbourne, Florida right there.
What we want to do right now is join the coverage of one of our affiliates, WPLG which is based in the Miami area there covering some of the damage that's going on in south central Florida. Lets listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're coming in on my head. And then I turned at the last second like that, and they all landed on the side of my head and cracked over the side of my head. Luckily.
JEFF WYNNSTER, WPLG CORRESPONDENT: Josh. As we're sitting here talking, what is going through your mind?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm really lucky to be alive right now. And yes, these storms are nothing to play around with.
WYNNSTER: Josh's entire home here on River Land Road is surrounded by these huge, huge ficus trees. He says the only reason why he rode out the storm here is because he's got dogs inside and he didn't want to leave them behind. He was going to go to a friend's house out west but he decided not to. He is going in the house now to show some of the newspaper reporters the damage.
But it's really an unbelievable sight. Huge, huge tree. Neighbors told us these trees have been around a long, long before the homes. Josh lucky to be alive. He tells us right now that what he's going to do is just ride out the storm likely at a friend's house.
That is the very latest. We're in the Fort Lauderdale, 1760 River Land Road, Jeff Wynnster back to you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right Jeff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incredible pictures of the force of nature. Don. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we have Ed Rappaport from the National Hurricane Center on the line right now. And Ed, I would like to ask you the question of the day; the storm now has stalled as you put it into.
STOUFFER: And we just talked to Ed Rappaport ourselves a couple of minutes ago. That was damage already in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, south Florida. And I say already because the worst of this storm is yet to come. Some of the most dramatic pictures we've been seeing so far have been coming to us from West Palm Beach. CNN's Sean Callebs is there he joins us live. And we are going to get a look at what the conditions are like there now. Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Linda this is pretty much the way it has been for hours and hours. Steady, gusting wind. We heard just a moment ago, people may think the wind is extremely intense. But as you mentioned, the worst is yet to come. Look down the street. This is a picture that plays out in virtually all the streets in the West Palm Beach area. It looks like a dead end of the area. That is actually a large tree that has fallen in the middle of the road.
And you can see the palm fronds coming down. Most of these are royal palms just littering the road. All this rain that we have gotten over the past, oh, I don't know, six or so hours really beginning to add up. If you'd like me to shoot that, you can see the streets in this area under several inches of water. We were out getting some pictures a while ago, and we've taken a look at some of the damage in and around this area. It's somewhat significant.
A lot of trees are down; a lot of power lines are down. We're told there are power outages here as well as across the inter coastal waterway and the Barrier Island of Palm Beach across that way too, the situation pretty bad, as well. We know that power is off in much of that area. Trees down, as I mentioned. There are power lines that have fallen down. There are power lines down. Trees uprooted in all kinds of yards and that's the reason authorities have stressed time and time again that people shouldn't come out and try and look at this.
Linda as you know, the storm category 4 earlier downgraded but still packing winds more than 100 miles per hour. We have seen a number of people just driving up and down this main drag here in West Palm Beach trying to get a look. This is a community about 80,000, this and Palm Beach, the county has about 1.3 million. But if you talk to the city leaders, they say a lion's share of the people have really heeded a call for the mandatory evacuation. And it's going to get as bad as they say, probably pretty good reason.
Linda.
STOUFFER: And it could get a lot worse you are right about that. Sean Callebs live from West Palm Beach in Florida. Thanks Sean.
WHITFIELD: We've got lots going on today. Of course hurricane Frances encroaching on the Atlantic coast of Florida as it sits off the coast, causing already a lot of wind and a lot of potential rain damage and then on the other coast, the west coast of this entire country, we're talking about from L.A.X. There is a security issue there and any moment now we're expecting to join a press conference that will get underway and when that does happen, CNN will be carrying that for you live, our special coverage of hurricane Frances and the security problem out at L.A.X. Continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Already hurricane Frances doing a number on the Atlantic coast of Florida. Snapping trees, power lines, already up to 40,000 people in various parts of south and central Florida are without power. Our Jacqui Jeras is in the weather center to give us a sense as to what this storm might be doing next. We know it's just sitting off the coast and causing potentially a lot of flooding all ready in some low-lying areas.
JERAS: That's right. And with 40,000 without power right now, watch for those numbers to continue to go up, even though those winds aren't quite as impressive as they were in Charlie, they're going to be lasting for a lot longer period of time. So we're going to see things flying through the air and with that wind battering on your singles for that long of a period of time, we're going to see a little bit more wide spread damage I think instead of so localized.
Now this is the latest satellite imagery here of Charlie. Shows you just how big the storm system is. In fact some of these outer areas going all the way up into the Carolinas just to give you an idea of how huge this storm is in magnitude. Starting to see a little bit of that eye trying to form again, at least on satellite imagery being able to see that and satellite imagery showing signs of possible intensification. Now we still have a possibility that this could become a category three again before it makes landfall.
We've been talking about some of those water temperatures how warm it is out there. Let's show you what some of the water temperatures look like along the coastline right now if we could go to our other source and show you some of those numbers. It is like bath water out there, temperatures in the '80s, 88 degrees, and 90 degrees as you get up towards the coastal areas at this time. And we will have the Gulf Stream right here and that's where that warm water is. When it moves throughout the Gulf Stream, that's when we start to see the storm potentially intensify once again.
There are those numbers that you can see and as I mentioned the Gulf Stream, take a look at this darker red band that extends right up the Florida coast and then bends on outward and here's that cooler water. So that hurricane continues to move inland. That water a little bit more shallow. The shallower the water the warmer the temperatures are going to be. And you only need 80 degrees to keep a hurricane sustained and we are way beyond that. Those temperatures almost as warm as high hot tub at home.
Hey let's go back to the other map and show you what you can expect for those forecast wind speeds as they move on in. This is the forecast wind speed over the next 24 hours or so. Here you can see this starts about 6:00 tonight. You see those strong winds, 90 plus mile per hour. These are sustained winds expected to be on shore. We'll put this into motion for you. These purple winds, when you start getting way up in there getting up into the 105, 110 mile an hour area and that is the eye wall right here and it looks like it's going to be making landfall sometime late tonight.
Maybe between 10:00 and 2:00 but in terms of timing it doesn't really matter because this thing is going to be lasting forever as it moves across the coastal areas. You can see how big that eye is, how long it's going to be taking to make its way all the way on shore. Takes you up to 6:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. You can see the whole thing still even not on shore and the leading edge of it heading right up there towards Lake Okeechobee. That is going to sit there for a while.
And then by 11:00 on Sunday mornings, looks like the whole eye maybe could be on landfall by then. And look at these tropical storms force winds extending all the way up into the panhandle and the southern Georgia even pushing up towards South Carolina. So that is pretty impressive.
So we're talking the Keys all the way up to almost Charleston, those people, millions of people being affected by these forecast wind speeds. Going to be very, very strong and as it moves up to the north and to the west, it is going to be spreading those winds all the way through the area and it's going to take maybe 24 hours for this to make it all the way across the Florida Peninsula.
Back to you ladies.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much Jacqui. West Palm Beach is one of the places that is feeling the brunt of the storm already. With sustained winds of near 100 miles per hour. Well, for folks trying to tie down their yachts in West Palm Beach, it was anything but easy. Let's take a look.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is nuts. I have no idea. This guy's got to have engine trouble or lost control of it. Probably or perhaps having engine trouble or simply not enough power to cope with the wind from Frances coming down this way. But this person doing a remarkable job of getting the craft into the position that it is. You can see on the front, a couple of anchor lines have been dangling down that allowed this boat to slowly make it out.
But look in the front you can see a couple of gashes. Even with the best of efforts, exactly. Best of efforts tying this thing off, simply the storm too powerful. Now apparently trying to make another run back up the way carrying not only its anchors but also a pole from the yacht club. So this is quite a drama out here on the inter coastal waterway.
We haven't seen anybody out here trying to help. There are apparently -- there are some people who are out in the hurricane and probably shouldn't be who have stopped to look what's going on. You see on the bough with the flight jacket now reaching down in to try to get another rope and try and tie up. So they're doing everything they can clearly, these are very experienced people just to get this yacht in position to even tie up.
The weather out here, the winds have really picked up. It just drifts so quickly. But apparently they got tied off or anchors caught on the front. Maybe they'll be able to maneuver their way in somewhat. There's a walkway if you look on the stern. So if they can get this tied off maybe they'll be able to moor it as safely as possible. It's really pretty amazing that this situation didn't work out any worse than it did. This guy wasn't able to get control of the ship right through here. It had nowhere to go except for the bridge. That was an amazing job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
WHITFIELD: Some of the images coming out of the West Palm Beach, hurricane Frances. But of course there's some other news-taking place on the west coast of the country.
STOUFFER: That's right. We want to hook up with that because there's a press conference just started in Los Angeles about the closing of L.A.X.
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