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CNN Live Saturday

Hurricane Dennis Lashes Cuba, Heads for U.S.; Brit Authorities Cordon Off Birmingham Center; NYT Chief Discusses Judith Miller

Aired July 09, 2005 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, Hurricane Dennis. The storm is spiraling up Florida's Gulf Coast after unleashing deadly force on Cuba and Haiti.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm John Zarrella in Pensacola, Florida. People here are rushing, final preparations to completion as Hurricane Dennis edges ever close to the Florida Panhandle.

WHITFIELD: Also, the increasing threat of hurricanes and why experts say Hurricane Andrew could soon lose its title as the most expensive hurricane in U.S. history.

Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The latest on Hurricane Dennis and much more after this check of the headlines.

North Korea is returning to the nuclear bargaining table. This word comes as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beijing today for a meeting with Asian leaders. Restarting six-party talks with North Korea on its nuclear weapons program was at the top of her agenda. Now such talks are expected to begin the week of July 25th.

Security is tight in Britain following Thursday's multiple attacks. Investigators are combing through the evidence and say they know more about the bombs that hit the subways. They believe that three were detonated by timers within seconds of each other. But they're not ruling out other possibilities. We'll have a live report from London coming up.

NASA will leave the Space Shuttle Discovery on the launch pad despite Hurricane Dennis. If it were moved back to the hangar, it would delay Wednesday's planned launch. Cape Canaveral is expected to be out of the range of the storm. The shuttle's crew is due to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center later today.

Hurricane Dennis is making a beeline for the northern Gulf Coast, prompting a mad dash out of coastal Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana. Dennis now a Category 2 hurricane, could gain even more strength before making landfall sometime tomorrow afternoon. Already the storm reportedly has killed 32 people in the Caribbean and caused considerable damage. We have reporters along the Gulf Coast and in Cuba. We'll check in with them in a moment. But first, exactly where is Hurricane Dennis in the Gulf? Let's check in with meteorologist Jacqui Jeras.

Hello, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hello, Fredricka, and hello everyone. Dennis is less than 400 miles away now from Pensacola, south and southeast of there. It's moving up to the north and west around 14 miles per hour, it has holding steady on this speed. It's also been holding steady in terms of maximum wind speed at 100 miles per hour, which puts it in the Category 2 range.

However, we've been seeing many signs on the satellite that this is likely strengthening. I want to take a look here at the satellite picture. The main thing I want you to notice is check out that eye. See how it was kind hard to find for a while, was looking kind of jagged? And right now you can see it's becoming much more well organized. It's looking a little more symmetrical. The eye much easier to pick out on the satellite picture.

And we've also been seeing some drops in the pressure over the last several hours very steadily. What does that mean to you? Usually when we see a pressure drop in our hurricane, the wind speeds start to pick up. We haven't seen that translate yet, but I really think later on this afternoon into the evening hours, we'll watch those wind speeds begin to pick up. And this will become a stronger Category 2 hurricane, possibly even a weak Category 3.

Category 3 hurricane packs winds of 110 to 130 miles per hour. And that can cause some significant damage to smaller homes and also low-lying evacuation routes are cut off well before the storm arrives.

Now, the winds have already been strong, certainly tropical storm force strength all along the west coast and southern parts of Florida through the afternoon. This is our forecast model. And this is showing you what we're expecting by midnight tonight.

These orange areas indicate hurricane-strength winds. That's of at least 75 miles -- or 74 miles per hour or more. And you can see as we approach early tomorrow morning, maybe sometime around dawn or so, those hurricane-force winds will start to make their way to shore.

We've already seen this tropical-storm force winds. As you see, the heavy rain across southern parts of Florida. Some severe weather has occurred. There you can see the position, about just under 400 miles away from Pensacola. The heavy rain bands have been pounding much of Tampa. You're in a little break right now.

Just to the north of you, though, you see that stronger thunderstorms, and one of these outer bands has already made it up towards the Mobile area. These storms not severe right now, but you can see all of our live lightning flashes. So certainly becoming more ominous along the northern Gulf Coast -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much.

Well, in Pensacola, Florida, they are saying deja vu with Dennis heading their way. CNN's John Zarrella is live from Pensacola with a look at how the folks are preparing -- John. ZARRELLA: Hi, Fredricka. Well, yes, the unwelcome guest is about to knock on the door. And despite everybody's urgings that Dennis go away, that doesn't appear to be the case. As a matter of fact, it's interesting, we talked to one family that just arrived here for a vacation, had no idea the storm was coming. They're from the Czech Republic. It's going to be one vacation they will be talking about for the rest of their lives when they finally get through this mess that we're about to go through here.

Now, you can see in the distance here behind me, that is the Interstate 10 bridge over Escambia Bay that connects the city of Pensacola to Mobile, Alabama, on the other side. Last year during Ivan that bridge was knocked out.

I'm sure on you viewers remember quite well the shots of the semi-tractor trailer hanging over the edge of the section of bridge that was washed away. It's the darker-colored section over there that has been repaired. The entire bridge is scheduled to be rebuilt at a later date. But first it's going to have to deal with Dennis.

Now, preparations have certainly been under way here since yesterday. People not taking any chances. Gas lines have been huge. 20, 30, 40, 50 cars at a time, lined up, fueling up. A lot of stations running out of fuel. But most people very patient, waiting patiently, organized lines, getting the fuel they need, and moving on.

They, of course, are also not taking any chances, buying plywood if they don't already have it from last year, and the process of boarding up has also been under way here for quite some time. We saw lots of folks hauling plywood in the backs of their trucks today to finish the process.

Emergency management officials here are urging people to get it done today during the daylight hours as the conditions will start to go downhill pretty rapidly as we approach the midnight hours here, and tropical storm force winds approach the coastline.

Emergency managers in Escambia County telling people if they're planning to evacuate, get out by midnight. If they're planning to go to shelters, get out by midnight. I guess the good news here, Fredricka, is that, as you see by the I-10 pictures, the traffic is light. So at least folks have gotten the word, and many people have already gotten out of Dodge -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's good to hear. All right. John Zarrella, thanks so much.

Well, the eye of the hurricane luckily missed the Florida Keys, but the tourist hot spot is not being spared from the heavy winds and the drenching rains. Streets in front of the famed Sloppy Joe's Bar on Duvall Street are flooded. In some places, seaweed is high, as high as two feet littering the streets. Trees and power lines are also down, leaving thousands of people in the dark there.

And before Florida, Cuba. Dennis caused all kinds of damage and deaths there. Our Havana bureau chief, Lucia Newman, joins us now via videophone -- Lucia.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: Good afternoon, Fredricka. Well, it's humid. It's clammy. And it's still raining. It's been doing it all day. All of this, the hangover from the passing of Hurricane Dennis. To make matters worse, we haven't had any electricity here since late last night, which means that most homes are also without water because they rely on electric pumps.

Still, most people in Havana, considering the strength with which Hurricane Dennis hit this island, are considering themselves pretty lucky.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN (voice-over): This is when Hurricane Dennis said good-bye to the island of Cuba, exiting shortly after midnight with winds of up to 105 miles or 116 kilometers an hour.

"It was very strong, incredibly noisy, it blew the shingles right off our roof, said Beatrice Gonzalez (ph) from Quenavo Beach (ph), on the outskirts of the capital.

Havana awoke to find power had not been re-established. Downed trees and branches strewn all over the capital, a testament to the ferocity with which this storm flogged the Caribbean's largest island. In all, more than 1.4 million people were evacuated from low-lying areas to unsafe homes and buildings throughout Cuba. More than 16,000 of them foreign tourists who had come here expecting to find sun and sand and who instead got trapped in a hurricane that for the month of July is extremely rare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a little bit scary in the beginning, but it was good. No problems.

NEWMAN: Damage was worst in southeastern Cuba where downed power and communications lines as well as destruction to homes was significant. Ten people were killed in eastern Cuba. Earlier Dennis took at least 22 lives in Haiti while it was making its way towards Cuba. Massive mudslides and flooding again taking a tragic toll on that impoverished country, which still hasn't recovered from last year's hurricanes.

In Cuba, the job of trying to get back to normal is already under way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN: And as I said, Fredricka, a lot of people here are still counting their blessings in Havana, although a lot of them also see the passing of Dennis as kind of a dress rehearsal for what the experts say will be a very long and very aggressive hurricane season -- Fredricka

WHITFIELD: And, Lucia, when is the weather expected to break there, since you are still getting some winds and obviously rain?

NEWMAN: We don't know. No word on that either. It could be at least another 24 hours from what I understand.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lucia Newman, thanks so much, from Havana.

Well, do you have any compelling video or a photo of Hurricane Dennis on your cell phone? If so, send it to CNN. Log onto cnn.com/hurricane. Click on "send us your stories," and share your video photos or comments.

Lots of science and technology are devoted to storm predictions. So why is it so hard to nail down just what Hurricane Dennis will do over the next 48 hours? We'll explain at the bottom of the hour.

And up next...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In addition to recovering the bodies, there's a meticulous search for materials for the forensic hunt for the murderers who perpetrated this ghastly crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: As the investigation goes on, the mourning begins. We'll have a live report on how Londoners are coping with this week's terror attacks.

Plus, what can the U.S. to do to protect its public transportation systems? I'll speak with a former homeland security adviser to the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: August 13th, 2004. Hurricane Charley ravaged Florida's Gulf Coast, upgrading from a Category 2 to Category 4 hurricane in just 90 minutes. Winds topped 180 miles an hour in Punta Gorda. Power was knocked out, businesses destroyed and cars tossed around. Twenty-five people were killed while thousands were left homeless. Charley is estimated to have caused over $4 billion in damage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Three bombs that struck London's subways on Thursday blew up almost simultaneously, just seconds apart, not minutes, as originally thought. London police believe they know more about those subway bombs now. They say they were made with less than 10 pounds of explosives each, probably detonated by timing devices, but does that not -- or rather, but that does not rule out the possibility of suicide bombers. Police admit it's early in the investigation, and there's still much work ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDY TROTTER, BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE: This is going to be a very long process. The conditions down there are extremely difficult. They're very hard for the officers down there. But they're proceeding as quickly as they can, but as safely as they can, and at the same time making sure we retrieve all the evidence we can.

They're working their way through, bodies have been removed, and we're very conscious of the anguish of those people awaiting the news of their loved ones, but it will take as long as it takes at the moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Britain's alert level had been relaxed in recent months. Still there was no warning ahead of the deadly wave of attacks. Did security measures fail? And what are the implications for security here in the U.S.? Richard Falkenrath is a former White House homeland security adviser and our security analyst in Washington.

Good to see you.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Good afternoon, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, these terror -- this terrorist strike, did it take place at a particularly vulnerable time for London? Had they become complacent? Had the city felt a certain sense of -- a false sense of security?

FALKENRATH: I don't think so. Their alert system is an internal alert system. It is true they lowered it a little bit. But London knows it's been on the terrorist target list for a very long time. There have been numerous terrorist plots in London and against London. Most of those have been successfully preempted by the British authorities. And so I really don't think the British authorities are guilty of complacency here.

They certainly did miss one. This plot got through their best efforts, and I'm sure there's an inquiry going on already into how that could have happened.

WHITFIELD: And so your statement is supported by the notion that many believe that Great Britain, as a whole, probably exemplifies great security, given that this is an area, particularly London, that is used to dealing with decades of terrorist attacks.

FALKENRATH: That's right. The British are very, very good. They had long experience with the Irish that goes back to the 1960s, and they faced various Islamic threats from the '90s on, and not just after 9/11. Their agencies are very professional. They cooperate with one another superbly, and they cooperate with our agencies very well as well. So they've really got their act together in London.

WHITFIELD: So as they try to evaluate what happened, they're also trying to evaluate the type of explosives that were used and who might be responsible. Let's look at some of the elements that have been revealed by investigators. Number one, that these bombs may have gone off with some sort of timing devices. What does this tell you about where the investigation leads now with that kind of information in terms of trying to find out where such timing devices might be manufactured and who would make them available?

FALKENRATH: The timing devices are very easy to improvise. You can use a very simple Timex watch to make it a workable timing device if you have the detonators to link it up with. With this new fact, the fact that the bombs were set off within seconds of each other, what that tells us is they probably were timed, not suicide bombers. It's almost impossible for suicide bombers independently to get within seconds of one other, detonating in different parts of the subway.

And so if it weren't suicide bombers and they were timed devices, that means the individuals are still at large. And so they've either fled the United Kingdom at this point or they're still in the United Kingdom either hiding out or plotting another attack. And that is the possibility which, I'm sure, is foremost in the minds of the British authorities right now.

WHITFIELD: And what level of sophistication are we talking when we say "explosive devices maybe less than 10 pounds," is that significant detail?

FALKENRATH: Well, no. What that says is they were, you know, relatively small bombs. They could have been a heck of a lot bigger. Small enough to fit into a backpack. And they only had four of them. So it's a relatively small amount of explosives.

In Madrid, they had well over a dozen bombs used. And other car bombings and truck bombings have used literally hundreds of pounds rather than 40 pounds of explosives. So it's a relatively small amount.

WHITFIELD: And if in London they used some 6,000 closed-circuit televisions within the Tube system to try to evaluate, keep a close watch on the behaviors of everyone, how else -- or what better means are there for any kind of mass transit system to keep a close eye on the kinds of activity that may be taking place on the rail system?

FALKENRATH: Well, those cameras are useful mainly for investigating after the event. So they're right now, I'm sure, going through every second of videotape in the entire system to try to get any clues of who the bombers might be, a picture of them or of the devices.

To protect a mass transit system like the subway is almost impossible. I mean, you can never get the sort of perfect security that you have, say, in a secure government facility or even the rather good security that you have in the secure area of a U.S. airport. The system is just too open. It's too big. There's too many people moving around too quickly to ever provide any really excellent security.

And so what you rely on, really, is your counterterrorism efforts to locate and penetrate terrorist plots before they have the chance to carry out the attack.

WHITFIELD: Richard Falkenrath, CNN security analyst, thanks so much.

FALKENRATH: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still ahead, a live report from London with CNN's Jim Clancy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: If recent history serves as guide, this Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be a busy one. And as CNN's John Zarrella reports, it could be like this for years to come.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People have to realize the power, the absolute brute power of one of these storms. And if you haven't ever experienced it, you haven't ever seen it, there's no way for you to understand what you're really dealing with.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): The year 1995, when storms were lined up like boxcars across the Atlantic, marked the return to a period of more hurricanes, and a doubling of major hurricanes, hurricanes like Mitch in 1998.

Its floods is and mudslides killed 9,000 people in Central America. And if scientists are right, $30 billion-Hurricane Andrew may soon lose its title as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we will see a $50 billion hurricane in the next 10, 20 years. That's almost without a doubt.

ZARRELLA: The increase in hurricanes, many scientists say, is caused by periodic shifts in the climate. The main culprit is an increase in ocean temperature of a mere half a degree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A half degree swing either way doesn't sound like much, but the hurricane is essentially a heat engine. And the more energy input, the stronger the hurricane has the potential to become.

ZARRELLA: This increased threat, the experts say, is likely to be with us for the next 10 to 40 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a lot of reasons why I think, we can still have a disaster from a hurricane in the United States.

ZARRELLA: Max Mayfield directs the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can be a bad forecast. It can be a late evacuation order. It could just be a simple matter of people not having a hurricane plan. ZARRELLA: From a squat, concrete storm-proof building, Mayfield oversees a team of hurricane forecasters. Every year from June to November they watch, wait.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought the low clouds were coming in.

ZARRELLA: And perhaps most of all they worry they will be caught off guard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tropical storm warning for Belize.

ZARRELLA: Ambushed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's definitely becoming much better organized.

ZARRELLA: As they were when Hurricane Keith, in a mere 12 hours, exploded from a relatively weak hurricane to a brute killer as it slammed into Belize in Central America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If that had happened anywhere along the United States coastline, it would have been a disaster. Luckily it's not a very populated area. And if that had happened in the United States, we'd likely be testifying before Congress.

ZARRELLA: Forecasters can track a tropical storm across the ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to call this a hurricane.

ZARRELLA: They can tell when it grows into a hurricane.

(on camera): But two of the most critical questions, questions that may mean the difference between saving thousands of lives or losing them, they simply can't answer with confidence. Where exactly is the hurricane going? And how powerful will it be when it gets there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every time we sit down to make a forecast, we try to make a perfect forecast. We know we can't do that. The atmosphere is very complex. We're doing the best we can with the materials that we have. And we are getting better, but we still have those limitations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Florence is moving toward the northeast 36 miles per hour...

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Forecasts are based on data from an array of high technology. Weather satellites show hurricanes as they fluctuate in strength and size. Specially-equipped planes, hurricane hunters, fly into the storms, sending back information on wind speed and barometric pressure. Their data is fed into several mathematical equations that compute the future path and intensity of the storms. The problem is, the computer models rarely agree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First at 12 Z... ZARRELLA: Leaving forecasters to make their best guest. But even false alarms become a dress rehearsal for the big one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's bound to be a major city impacted, and we could be talking about a real disaster of epic proportions on our hands.

ZARRELLA: And when it hits, the cost will be enormous. The value of coastal property is at least $6.4 trillion, up sixfold in the last 20 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're losing the battle with development of the coastline. As I fly along the coastline of the Gulf and Atlantic coast of the United States and see the development right up to, you know, the water's edge there, I just shake my head.

ZARRELLA: Eighty-three million of us live on or near the coast between Maine and Texas. And because so much of the population growth has occurred while big storms were relatively rare, the National Hurricane Center estimates that 85 percent of the people in potential danger have never experienced the full brunt of a big one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people do not really know what a major hurricane can do. And that really concerns me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: New developments now in the London attacks investigation. Let's go to Jim Clancy in London -- Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The story is shifting focus somewhat at this hour, Fredricka. It is shifting focus to a city 175 kilometers northwest of London, the city of Manchester. It is a major population center, a major center for immigrants in the United Kingdom.

Police there have cordoned off the roads in the city's center right now. They are not evacuating that city center. They say it is in response to an intelligence threat that was received. CNN has confirmed this with an emergency operator there in the city of Manchester.

What we have right now, though, a serious situation where reacting to a threat. They have shut down the roads in the city center. There are no reports immediately of evacuations. It's a situation we're going to continue to monitor here, and we'll get back to you as soon as we have more details.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Jim, for that update.

Hurricane Dennis is a day away from reaching the U.S. mainland, but its effects have already been felt in the Florida Keys. We'll show you what it's like as the storm's outer bands hit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurricane Floyd formed into a powerful Category 4 on September 14th, 1999. It ravaged portions of the Bahamas. Watch its destruction as Floyd tore apart a pier as it hit Daytona Beach, Florida. As Floyd turned north, it weakened a bit, but hitting land again near Cape Fear, North Carolina. The high rainfall created massive inland flooding. Floyd is responsible for one death in the Bahamas but claimed 56 lives in the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories now. Police in London say mere seconds separated the three subway explosions Thursday, not minutes, as originally thought. They also say the fourth bomb on a double-decker bus was in a bag and not strapped to a person.

Meantime, a little bit more information, just north of the city of London in Great Britain's second largest city of Birmingham, police have evacuated a city center there after intelligence suggests that some sort of threat has taken place. No more details on the type of threat that they're now investigating.

North Korea is returning to the nuclear bargaining table. This word comes as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beijing today for a meeting with Asian leaders. Restarting six-party talks with North Korea on its nuclear weapons was at the top of her agenda. The talks are expected to begin now the week of July 25th.

Six-time defending champ Lance Armstrong, held onto the overall lead of the Tour de France following the eighth stage of the race. Peter Weening of the Netherlands actually won today's mountain stage. Armstrong and the main pack finished 27 seconds back.

Officials at Washington's National Zoo are closely monitoring the health of a giant panda cub born early this morning. The cub is about the size of a stick of butter and weighs just ounces. Officials say right now mother and cub are doing just fine.

Evacuations are well under way along the northern Gulf Coast of Florida as Hurricane Dennis churns this hour toward the Florida Panhandle. Earlier today, the storm dealt a glancing blow to Key West and other parts of extreme South Florida. Here are two reports now from CNN affiliate WPLG.

First Jeff Weinsier in Key West.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF WEINSIER, WPLG REPORTER (voice-over): Let me show you what is going on behind me with photographer Steve Albert (ph), I'm going to block his camera so he doesn't get so much sea spray. But you are looking at the Atlantic coming over South Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West. We are just north of the airport. The winds have been like this, sustained since about 1:00 to 2:00 in the morning without a letup at all.

You can see people coming out to try to assess the damage at this hour. We've seen Monroe County sheriff's deputies. We've seen the Key West Police Department. We've even seen maintenance crews out and about. But right now they are obviously not getting out of their cars. They're just looking to see what the cleanup may be.

We actually went out a few minutes ago with a nice gentleman who had one of those huge pickup trucks to assess some of the damage. What we saw is shingles off of roofs. We saw some overturned boats that had basically broke off their moorings, and we saw trees down, one big tree across U.S. 1. But people were able to get by, even though that was across U.S. 1.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEKI MOHAN, WPLG REPORTER (voice-over): Lifeguards are sounding the alarm to daredevils who dared to brave the surf. It will take a lot of convincing to get surfers like Samantha Wood and Ryan Kennedy to stay out.

(on camera): And what do you say to the people who think you guys are crazy?

SAMANTHA WOOD, SURFER: Try it. It's fun.

RYAN KENNEDY, SURFER: It's going to be pretty rough. You've got to know what you're doing out there.

MOHAN: Yes, what's the key to staying alive in something like this?

KENNEDY: Knowing what you're doing out there and having been in it before.

MOHAN (voice-over): What's one man's play is another man's work. And for lifeguards like John Skinner (ph), it's a dangerous task.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And just that the beaches are closed, there's absolutely no going in the water. It's very unsafe today.

MOHAN (on camera): Yes. What kind of risk is it to you if you have to go out there and get them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It puts the whole -- the whole lifeguard...

MOHAN: Unit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... unit in a risk, because then have we have to mobilize more people to go after one person where somebody could be drowning further up the beach and we have to take resources away to go after someone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that second report from South Beach, Florida, from Neki Mohan of CNN affiliate WPLG. Let's get the latest on Hurricane Dennis. And for that, let's check in again with Jacqui Jeras -- Jacqui.

JERAS: Hey, Fredricka, just in, the 5:00 advisory, we're still sorting through the information. So we'll bring it to you as it becomes available. But right now we have confirmed information that the winds have finally gone up. We've been talking about that pressure change all afternoon. And finally, those winds have translated and gone up to 105 miles per hour.

It still keeps it in the Category 2 range at this time, but the forecast is now strengthening that hurricane. As it gets closer to land it may more than likely be a Category 3 again as it makes landfall, and that's with winds of 111 to 130 miles per hour.

So just in, Dennis has strengthened with winds at 105 miles per hour. It looks like the forecast track is still pretty much on track. So just about the same. Possibly shifting a little bit farther off to the west. We've been noticing the computer models as they've been coming in throughout the afternoon hours have shifted slightly to the west. So we'll get a better idea once we go through more of this information if the official track from the hurricane center is going to be shifting just a little bit as well.

As we take a look at the satellite imagery, while that eye is really starting to pop out now, very easy to pick out on satellite imagery. And also check out the orange, those brighter colors. That shows you the higher cloud tops, which is indicative of some of the stronger showers and thunderstorms. So that satellite picture right there also showing the signs of intensification.

We're also watching the showers and thunderstorms expand out. You can see all that wet weather, it's already starting to get close to the Atlanta area, extending on up into the Carolinas. You're seeing showers and thunderstorms all along the Gulf Coast here in relation to Hurricane Dennis.

Some of them have been very heavy, also bringing in some very heavy rainfall. You've just been inundated all day long, particularly around the Sarasota and Bradenton areas. Some rainfall totals coming in from late Friday into this morning. Fort Myers, you've had more than four inches already. (INAUDIBLE) and Punta Gorda, Fort Ogden, just over three inches. And about two-and-a-half in Lithia.

We're expecting to see on average about four to eight inches across central and southern parts of Florida. But along the Gulf Coast, right along the path, and particularly to the north and east of it, we're likely going to see five to 10 inches of rainfall with potentially locally higher amounts.

This is a computer forecast model. Here's your timeline right here. This is what our computer model's predicting Dennis is going to do. And there you can see, start at the leading edge of the hurricane-type conditions, making their way on the shoreline here by 6:00 tomorrow morning. Then making its way right along the coast, official landfall doesn't occur until the center of the eye makes its way over land. And so that is predicting that that's going to happen sometime in the afternoon hours. And by 9:00 tomorrow night, the whole thing's going to make its way on the shore, and then we'll watch for it to weaken.

But again, that's going to be moving into ground, and very saturated. So inland flooding is going to be a major concern. So once again, Fredricka, our top line, 5:00 advisory coming in a little bit early. But it has strengthened with 105 mile-per-hour winds.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Jacqui. And we'll be bringing that to you at 5:00, you, our CNN viewers.

Well, New York Times" reporter Judith Miller is spending her first weekend behind bars. Her crime: defying a judge's order to give up a source. What will her decision mean for the future of journalism in America? Hear from the executive editor of The New York Times when CNN LIVE SATURDAY continues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: September 5th, 1996, Hurricane Fran howled across North Carolina's Cape Fear. The storm surge from the Category 3 hurricane devastated coastal areas. And Fran's heavy rains generated flooding from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania. The storm's winds damaged homes and buildings from North Carolina to Virginia. When the cost was tallied, Fran did some $3.2 billion in damage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Earlier this week, a federal judge sent New York Times reporter Judith Miller to jail. Miller was found in contempt of court for refusing to give the names of sources to a grand jury even though she never even wrote a story about the Bush administration officials leaking the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Miller could spend up to four months in jail. That's when the grand jury's term in the Plame case expires.

CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" host Howard Kurtz recently spoke with Miller's boss, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Bill Keller, welcome.

BILL KELLER, EXEC. EDITOR, NEW YORK TIMES: Thank you.

KURTZ: You've known Judy Miller 20 years. How did you feel when she went off to jail?

KELLER: I felt terrible. Not surprised. We saw it coming. But it was certainly, if not -- it probably wasn't the worst moment of my two years in this job, but it came pretty close.

KURTZ: Is this going to be a setback for aggressive journalism, by which I mean next time a reporter for The New York Times or any other news organization is promising a source confidentiality, what will be the impact?

KELLER: Well, I think that may depend on whether that reporter is from The New York Times or from, say, TIME magazine. But, you know, the fear in a case like this is that it will be somewhat emboldening to government officials who want to crack down on aggressive reporting, and perhaps somewhat intimidating to people inside government who see wrongdoing and want to report on it.

I mean, if there's a silver lining in this, it's that at least that reporters of The New York Times, sources will know that the reporters stick by their word, and the paper stands behind them.

KURTZ: You mentioned TIME magazine, which is owned by CNN's parent company, because Time Inc. editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine agreed to turn over reporter Matt Cooper's notes and e-mails in that case after losing in the Supreme Court. He said that journalists are not above the law. And that's how he made that decision. What do you say to people who are saying you lost in the courts, The New York Times is acting as if it were above the law?

KELLER: I don't think that's quite right. I think Norm made his decision honorably and after serious reflection. But I think he was wrong. And I think he performed a disservice for reporters, in general, and particularly for his own reporters. I imagine, you know, the next occasion that Matt Cooper is in talking to a confidential source of his, and promises to -- you know, not to betray a person's identity, I can imagine that source saying, sure, I trust Matt Cooper, but do I trust TIME magazine?

But the above the law thing is a little gratuitous, I think. I mean, the law presented Judy Miller with a choice. She could betray her trust, or she could go to jail. And she took what I believe is the brave and honorable choice. She went to jail. We ran out of law. And then it just came down to principle.

KURTZ: Here's the argument in this case, and I'm sure you've heard this. That Judy Miller is not protecting a public-spirited whistleblower, some 21st Century Deep Throat, that she is protecting a person or people who outed a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, in an apparent effort to get back at her husband, administration critic Joe Wilson. Why go to jail to protect such a person?

KELLER: Well, I hate to keep paraphrasing Donald Rumsfeld, but you go to court with the case you have. This is not an ideal case where all of the good guys were wearing white hats and all of the bad guys were wearing black hats. But the simple fact is that Judy made a promise to a source that she would protect his anonymity, that source has not granted her any kind of a waiver from that promise, at least one that she finds, you know, persuasive or believes was freely given. And she feels bound by that pledge. And more than that, she feels that if she breaks that pledge, she will compromise her ability to do her job in the future.

KURTZ: Now, you've said that in journalism, anonymous sources are overused and abused. In fact, you are trying to limit their use at The New York Times. So how do news organizations undermine public support for what they do by trotting out unnamed strategists and advisers and senior administration officials and all kinds of routine political stories so that when we complain about something in this case, the public is not exactly rallying to our side?

KELLER: I think there's a lot of truth in that. I do believe that we've undermined our authority in the public eye to some extent by being way too casual in the use of anonymous sources. We've tried to institute a number of policies to restrict the use of anonymous sources to cases where they're really justified. We require that at least one editor know the identity of a confidential source so the editor can question whether this is really a legitimate use of the device.

KURTZ: Judy Miller is controversial, as you know. She says, in your own newspaper, that she has sharp elbows. And also because during the run-up to the Iraq war, she reported, based on her sources, inflated claims, claims that turned out not to be true, about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. I've seen some detractors say they had no sympathy for her in this instance or even saying that somehow it's to her advantage to go to jail because this will help revive her career. What do you make of that kind of commentary?

KELLER: I think it's -- most of it is repellent. And I have heard some of that coming from the kind of partisan fringe. I mean, whether -- the extent to which some people have demonized Judy Miller over the newspaper's WMD coverage before the war is a subject for a longer conversation. But even if you believe that, how can you say that she should go to jail in a case that has no relation to that coverage?

KURTZ: Finally, Judy Miller, in reporting to jail in Virginia, leaves behind a 76-year-old husband and her new dog. What's been the personal toll on her? You've spent a lot of time talking to her about this.

KELLER: You know, she's in a jail cell. She spent her first night in jail sleeping on a foam mattress on the floor because there's only one bunk, and her cell mate had a prior claim to it. She has reported that the food is even worse than the MREs she ate when she was embedded with soldiers in Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that's Howard Kurtz interviewing there Mr. Keller of The New York Times.

The menace caused by Dennis so far. The hurricane has lashed Haiti, Cuba, and the Florida Keys. When will the storm hit land again? We'll have an update on Dennis' predicted track next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: August 24th, 1992. Hurricane Andrew devastated southeastern Florida. The Category 5 hurricane flattened the town of Homestead, killing 15 people there and leaving a quarter of a million others looking for shelter. Andrew was the most expensive natural disaster to ever hit the U.S., doing $26.5 billion in damage. So many Andrew-related claims were filed, nearly a dozen insurance companies went out of business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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WHITFIELD: The latest now on Hurricane Dennis. Right now it's a Category 2 storm, packing 105 mile-per-hour winds. The center is 295 miles south of Apalachicola, Florida, moving northwest at about 14 miles an hour. Forecasters predict it will strengthen before hitting the Gulf Coast tomorrow: most likely between Pensacola, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama.

The outer bands of Dennis swiped the Florida Keys overnight with strong winds and relentless bands of rain. Minor damage and flooding is reported on Key West. Cuba wasn't as fortunate. The storm pounded the island, killing at least 10 people and causing extensive damage. Dennis was also a deadly storm in Haiti where as many as 22 people have been killed.

Well, if you capture any great video or photos of Hurricane Dennis, or have any interesting storm stories, send them to us. Just log onto cnn.com/hurricane and click on "send us your stories."

CNN LIVE SATURDAY continues with more on Hurricane Dennis right after this.

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