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CNN Live Saturday

Wilma Departs Yucatan for Florida; Charity Helps Vietnam Flood Victims; Will Criminals Go Free in New Orleans?

Aired October 22, 2005 - 17:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Take a look at these pictures. Hurricane Wilma is unleashing its fury on Mexico's tourist-heavy Yucatan peninsula. It's stalling over Mexico and that is going to affect how hard it's going to hit Florida.
Hello, and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY and our continuing coverage of Hurricane Wilma. I'm Carol Lin.

We're going to go right to Max Mayfield at the National Hurricane Center in Miami for the very latest.

MAX MAYFIELD, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: And this is the 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time update on very dangerous Hurricane Wilma. As you can see from the satellite loop behind me, the center of the hurricane is just about to emerge off the northeast coast of the Yucatan.

It's a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds estimated near 100 miles per hour. It's still moving very, very slowly, and that slow motion means that that the northeastern course in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico is really taking a pounding.

Well, I talked about the forecast, both the intensity and the track and the size, the intensity, the fact that it has not remained over the Yucatan for very long means that it has not weakened too much here. And it is really important to put all this in perspective. I know that when Wilma became a Category 5 hurricane a few days ago, that really got everyone's attention.

And of course from the United States' perspective, what really counts is how strong it is and how large it is and where it hits at that final landfall in the United States, and I can assure you there's going to a big difference between what happens here over the Yucatan and what happens in Florida.

We do think that it will come off the coast as a Category 2 hurricane, then will very likely intensify a little bit and regain Category 3 status, making it a major hurricane again.

It's going to move over the warm loop current that comes up through the Yucatan Channel into the Gulf of Mexico, that is very high octane fuel. And we really think that it has a chance to regain some of that intensity over the Gulf of Mexico.

Then as it continues to head towards the northeast, the (INAUDIBLE) environment will become less favorable, and it will likely be diminishing somewhat as it moves over the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys. But we need to keep that in perspective too, because if this had become a depression a couple of days ago and a storm yesterday and a hurricane today, as it heads towards Florida, that would really get everyone's attention.

I can assure you that a strong Category 2, possibly a Category 3 will have a major impact on the state of Florida. The most likely scenario is for it to slowly ease off to the northeast over the next 24 hours and then start moving faster towards the northeast, and likely by Monday morning it will be somewhere near the southwest coast of Florida.

It could be a little bit north of there, a little bit south of there. We need to pay very, very close attention during the day tomorrow in case this does speed up. We've just issued some additional watches and warnings.

We've talked to the Cuban (INAUDIBLE) service in Havana, and they now have a hurricane warning out for the western portions of Cuba, from Havana westward to Pinar del Rio. We have hurricane warnings in place, of course, the Yucatan. And we've just issued hurricane watches for the Florida Peninsula on the east coast from Titusville southward, and the west coast from Longboat Key southward, still including all of the Florida Keys.

Now north of there, because this is such a large hurricane, we also have a tropical storm watch out on the east coast all the way up to Fernandina Beach, and on the Gulf Coast from north from Longboat Key up to Steinhatchee, the mouth of the Steinhatchee River.

So much of the Florida peninsula is under a watch at this time. That will be upgraded to a warning either later tonight or early tomorrow morning. The hazards we have to deal with, of course, the storm surge, the wind, the rain, and the tornadoes. It's a little too early to be talking about specifics there. We'll get into that as we go on during the night here.

People really need to listen very carefully to the advice of their local officials. This is Max Mayfield reporting from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

LIN: So now you have heard it, the very latest from director of the National Hurricane Center. Wilma is beginning to slow down, it still is a Category 2 and it is sure to be heading towards Florida sometime in the next 48 hours. It will hit significantly. Max Mayfield said that virtually the entire state of Florida will be affected.

And if you want to take a look at what the United States may be in for, you have to take a look what's happening in Mexico right now. Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, normally so tranquil and beautiful right now is the scene of destruction. Two people have died, and houses have collapsed. Trees were uprooted and it is not over.

Susan Candiotti is in Cancun.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The winds here are still blustery, it is still raining very hard as squall lines go through. Remember, this is still a Category 2 storm. No one is out on the streets, certainly not emergency vehicles that we have seen.

And in our trying to drive from where the luxury hotels are located, facing the Caribbean Sea, to get to the center of the city, downtown Cancun where those shelters are, well, you can't do it. The roads are impassable. There is debris on the road, but there is also high water from the storm surge.

So there is both wind damage here to deal with as well as water damage. Now those shelters are where a number of tourists, an estimated 20,000 of them were evacuated by the government, and wisely so, everyone agrees to get out of harm's way.

We don't know their current situation, but we know that a couple of days ago they did have a lot of provisions, they were supplied with water, with towels, with some food. So the hope is they are doing all right in the center of the city.

We did talk to a number of Mexicans who are workers who are employed by the hotels and businesses that are on the other end of this island there on Cozumel -- not only Cozumel but Cancun as well, to watch over the property.

These people told us that even though they're apart from their families, that they hope that they are well. Some were able to get contact with them, but others were not able to use the telephone and don't really know how their loved ones are doing.

But as you drive around the Cancun area, we are seeing some structural damage to restaurants, some to hotels, some to nightclubs. And for example, the Marriott Hotel, there are two of them here, one of the two told us they barely had any damage from Hurricane Emily back in July, and this pales in comparison, the damage that Wilma has dealt them.

It's going to take some time to get them up and going, but of course, they have an eye to the busy season coming up. So needless to say they would like to get things repaired just as soon as possible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: So that is the situation in Mexico right now. And Wilma, as it grinds away at the Yucatan peninsula, is now about to make a turn and head towards the state of Florida. Certainly that state has had its share of hurricanes. Wilma, in fact, if it hits the state, which is as expected, it will be the eighth hurricane to hit that state since last August. Kareen Wynter right now is in Key West.

Kareen, so many different stories about curfews or whether it was postponed. And now a curfew being back on. Give us the situation as it stands in Key West. KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. Over the last several days there's been so much discussion as to whether or not they have issued those mandatory evacuation orders. And it was tricky because city officials here were trying to keep an eye, trying to follow the path of Wilma, and so they kept delaying it from one day to another.

Well, guess what, that mandatory evacuation order was issued today at noon, city officials holding a news conference, this about two hours after that, just really outline their plans.

First of all, Carol, let me set scene from where I am right now on Duval Street in downtown Key West. You can see all this traffic behind me, and I have to tell you, the activity here is still quite high despite the fact that those mandatory evacuation orders were put into effect.

A majority of the people we spoke with here said that they are staying put. They're simply not leaving. We did speak to some who say they're going to ride it out, they're going stay until the very end and then perhaps decide whether or not to evacuate.

So you can see some of the activity here. There are also people hanging out by the water here, the waters which will perhaps be a completely different scene about 24 hours from now. You can bet. It was calm this morning. But the city official that we spoke with, the city manager here said that there's a concern, Carol, with potential flooding from the storm surge.

The storm's also expected to hit during high tide. So he outlined some of the safety measures in place, measures that include a pumping system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIO AVAEL, KEY WEST CITY MGR.: We have 29 wells. We have been digging those wells even deeper. There are 99 feet at the moment. In addition to that, over the past few days, we have been cleaning those, paying a lot of attention to those wells to ensure. In addition to that, we have extra pumps available.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WYNTER: And you can get an idea of the number of people that are still here. We also asked the mayor is there a concern here since there's really one way off the island, which is connected by a chain of bridges that make up the Florida Keys, is there a concern that there will be a traffic backup if everyone, or at least the people who are here now, a majority of them decide to leave at the very end?

And, Carol, they say that they're not concerned, that's because they say they have a systematic plan in place where at noon they issue that mandatory evacuation order for the Lower Keys, at 3:00 p.m. for the Middle Keys, and then at 6:00, about an hour from now, it will be for the Upper Keys.

So we will have to see if that works between now and tomorrow at the height of the storm -- Carol.

LIN: You bet, Kareen. Gosh, it's amazing to see. It looks like a normal sunny day from there in Key West, hardly the appearance of a hurricane on its way. Kareen Wynter, thank you very much.

Well, unprecedented precautions right now in southwest Florida. We want to tell about Collier County, which could be ground zero for Wilma's assault on the U.S. Officials are imposing a curfew there to stop the looters before they even start, lessons learned from Katrina.

The curfew will in effect from tomorrow night through Tuesday morning. Anyone out overnight in places that had to be evacuated will be arrested. Collier County was severely damaged by Hurricane Charley last year, and parts of it are still rebuilding.

This just in, it is official now, this is an historic day. Let's go to CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider who can tell us more about another developing storm.

So many storms now, Bonnie, that not even conventional names are being used.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Carol. We literally have run the gamut. We went from Arlene to Wilma and back to A once again. This day will be known in history and this season will as well. We are officially the busiest, the most active hurricane season ever since record-keeping has begun.

In fact, 2005 has broken the all-time record. Tropical Storm Alpha has formed. This is a tropical storm with maximum winds at 40 miles per hour. And as you can see it here, south of Puerto Rico on the map.

The good news with Alpha is, this storm is not expected to affect the U.S. mainland. The movement is to the northwest at 15 miles per hour. So fairly fast-moving. It will affect certainly Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but eventually it will turn northward and it looks like northeastward, away from the U.S. mainland.

But we have never, ever seen an Alpha before on the map. We got up to Wilma, we thought that was pretty bad, and now Alpha is out there as well. This was tropical depression number 25. This is officially the 22nd named storm of this busy season. That will now be noted in history books as the busiest ever -- Carol.

LIN: Still, what, 39 more days until hurricane season ends?

SCHNEIDER: Until November 30th, and the next one would be Beta if we get that far. Let's hope we don't.

LIN: All right. Making history again. Bonnie Schneider, thank you.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

LIN: So what about all the people still in trailers because of Hurricane Charley from last year? Well, Florida Congressman Mary Foley is my guest, his worries about FEMA and the future up next.

And later our own Betty Nguyen takes us halfway around the world where she was born. Once a year Betty literally helps to save lives, people who are trapped by their own natural disaster.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Take a look at this live picture where you're focusing in on folks in Homestead, Florida, who are sandbagging. You might recall Homestead, Florida, was virtually wiped out by Hurricane Andrew back in 1992. And once again, the people of South Florida are facing another natural disaster as Hurricane Wilma about to make its turn back into the Gulf of Mexico, heading straight for the southern part of Florida. Everything south of Titusville is now going to be in the path of this hurricane. Virtually the entire state of Florida will be affected by Hurricane Wilma in one form or another.

Now last year, Hurricane Charley, which was a Category 4, hit the area of Port Charlotte in a big way. That was ground zero, and now it is projected one of the projections is that Wilma may actually land there in the next couple of days. U.S. Congressman Mark Foley represents that district which includes Port Charlotte. He is in Orlando, Florida, right now.

Congressman, it's good to have you. I talked to you during hurricane season last year. You had your hands full. This time around though, FEMA says, and I spoke to the director a short time ago, that they are ready. They've got man power and water and food in place. Are you comfortable and confident that the government can respond appropriately to Hurricane Wilma?

REP. MARK FOLEY (R), FLORIDA: Carol, I'm very comfortable. In fact, a new executive director, David Paulison, is from Miami-Dade County. Former firefighter and fire battalion chief, he understands both disaster preparation and the immediate aftereffects of getting supplies and material in. So I think clearly we are in a much better place.

FEMA has learned a lot of valuable lessons. Katrina, Rita, and others, and of course, the seven storms in Florida last year have made this the testing ground, if you will, for FEMA's resources.

So I feel better, we still have a lot of work to do though in my own state repairing to have damage from Charley, Frances, Jeanne, Ivan and others.

LIN: Right. It's like you are never going to have a chance to recover, I mean, it's just from one storm to the next. And Mr. Paulison told me that his biggest concern right now is complacency because Hurricane Wilma got stuck over Mexico, was grinding away there, and it is going to be probably another 48 hours before your part of the state really feels the full brunt.

Are you concerned that there is too much complacency in your district? FOLEY: Well, no question, in fact, as you'll recall last year, August 13th, when Charley was making its way supposedly to Tampa, made a sharp right turn and came into Punta Gorda with almost tornadic- type, destroying everything in its path.

So we're urging people to listen to the evacuation orders. Don't take anything for granted. This storm, much like Katrina, which actually came through South Florida, picked up and intensified to a Category 5 as it made its way to New Orleans. These things can do unpredictable things. So let us not sit back and think, oh, we've evacuated, we've done things in the past...

LIN: Right. Or, it's days away and that anything can happen, because the hurricane center just said, don't get complacent, folks, look at Mexico. That's what you may be in for.

FOLEY: And it can stall, it can speed up, it could change direction, so stay tuned to CNN and keep your eyes focused on the important mission of preparation, fill up your car with gas, get batteries, get the phone working, you know, do the things that we've taken for granted for way too many years in Florida.

LIN: Right. Congressman, so at this point, what are you worried about most?

FOLEY: Well, I'm worried about homes that still have blue tarps. I'm worried about people in mobile homes that are there by FEMA and other things. I'm very worried about a storm surge. Max Mayfield predicted maybe nine feet of storm surge. So those are things that we have to be very cautious about.

But I will say Governor Bush and Craig Fugate, the emergency management people, have got supplies staged all over the state ready to come from any direction no matter where the storm hits. We have got it in south, north, east and west. So at least from our experience last year, we're better prepared to remedy the situation.

But again, if you've got an elderly neighbor, find that neighbor, take him into your home before the storm approaches so that person doesn't have to suffer alone in a potentially dangerous storm.

LIN: Mm-hmm, a frightening one indeed. Congressman Foley, thank you very much for your time.

FOLEY: Carol, good to be with you again, thank you.

LIN: Well, a journey home turns into a journey of discovery for CNN's Betty Nguyen.

As Wilma begins its turn toward the United States, is FEMA ready to respond?

Also I'm going get a live update on that later in this special edition of CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LIN: We have got the latest on Hurricane Wilma. But we want to share the latest on a natural disaster a world away. Pakistani earthquake survivors could get relief from a rather unlikely source. India is going to open three relief camps in Kashmir along the Line of Control that separates the disputed area.

The offer follows a plea from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. He says a half million blankets and tents are still needed to help the homeless after a massive earthquake.

Now as Pakistan struggles to help its earthquake survivors, well, people in Vietnam are living right in the middle of their own natural disaster. Annual flooding is devastating parts of the country.

Our Betty Nguyen is from Vietnam and she recently went back to see the destruction and help with the recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETTY NGUYEN CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sun rises over Ho Chi Minh City. It will always be Saigon to me. This is where I was born shortly before the communists took over and my family fled to the United States as the Americans pulled out of the war. Today, it's a place that's familiar in the most foreign sort of way.

I'm like a stranger in my own homeland which is why I come back, to reconnect. This time it comes by way of a six-hour journey south of Saigon, where annual monsoons are destroying homes and putting lives in danger. We're bringing humanitarian aid donated through Help the Hungry, a charity my family founded. It's our way of giving back.

(on-camera): Now that this boat has been loaded with supplies, it's already started to rain and we're going to cross this river to get to flooded homes. I can only begin to imagine what we're going find.

(voice-over): One thing is sure, the water stretches for miles, drowning rice fields which are key to Vietnam's economy. It's deep, it's dirty and happens every year, filling up what are little more than grass huts with dirt floors. I am shocked at how many are still living in flooded homes: from the very old who say there's nowhere to go, to the young who have lost more than many adults could endure.

These children are on their own. They're not even sure what illness killed their parents. All they have is each other and a hut with three walls. The oldest is 15. This frog will be their dinner, cooked in a makeshift kitchen next to a pole where their clothes hang.

(on camera): Not only do these orphans live in this grass hut, the floodwaters just inches below them, this is where they sleep, on this wooden platform. No mattress, there's no blanket.

(voice-over): A reality that's even more difficult to digest when you see the sore on her arm. She says she fell on it and now it's infected. We gave them enough food, medicine and money to sustain them for a while, and maybe even a little hope, but I hated to leave not knowing what will become of them.

From flooded homes to uncertain futures, this homecoming of sorts is never easy. When you see children who should be in school digging through the dirty water, fishing out pieces of plastic to sell, you can't help but hurt inside.

(on-camera): It's raining once again. It makes me wonder what kind of night the people that we met today are going have with the monsoon season here.

The people, the situations, it makes me wonder also about what my life would have been like had I not left with my family after the war. Would that have been me? I don't think I'll ever know the answer to that which is why I come back, I guess, searching for answers, trying to find a way to give back, a sense of purpose, to make a difference.

In Vietnam, Betty Nguyen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And I know from talking to Betty about this project of hers that she really does feel that the work that she is doing is making a difference and she'll be doing it every single year in her homeland.

Coming up, we're going to tell you the latest about Hurricane Wilma, it is about now to turn towards the U.S.

And later, the morning commute. It never looked so healthy. Sweat little, save some money.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Now for the latest, for Cancun and other cities along Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, hurricane Wilma is not letting up. The Category 2 hurricane is stalled over the region after first slamming Mexico. Wilma has killed two people in Mexico alone. Thousands are huddled in shelters and hotels waiting for the storm to move.

The U.S. military says 20 insurgents were killed and one was captured today in raids on the foreign safe houses in Husayba in western Iraq. The U.S. says the insurgents were suspected of sheltering members of al Qaeda in that country.

And now Iraq's electoral commission says it did not find any significant fraud in last week's referendum on the country's draft constitution. Final outcome of the referendum won't be made public until Monday or Tuesday.

Southwest Florida residents are now bracing for Wilma's worst- case scenario; boarding up, getting out and locking down. Our Jeanne Meserve is minding all of those preparations in Naples, Florida, right now.

Jeanne, is there a mandatory evacuation there?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There has been one in place since yesterday. The deadline for going is tomorrow, but not everybody is paying attention to it. It's very murky here right now, very overcast, very humid, but nice enough that the people who are still in town went to the beach, enjoying the sand and the surf that the storm is already kicking up.

Some of the people who haven't left say they are waiting for more information, they want to know more about the trajectory of the storm and exactly how strong it's going to be. Others say they have absolutely no intention of leaving. This long delay in Wilma's arrival has led them to have the impression that this is just another storm, despite warning from officials that it still could be very dangerous.

Of course, all the delay does have an upside, there has been more time to prepare for the storm, and because there's been no mad dash to get supplies, some pitfalls, like empty gas pumps, have been avoided.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON SUMMERS, COLLIER CO. EMERGENCY SERV.: We were fortunate, and we had a few outages of fuel, but no shortages of fuel. And all of the retail establishments have been able to restock during this particular period. So it has -- although it has been a little lengthy, it has worked very well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The Collier County commissioners this morning, for the very first time ever, voted to impose a curfew before the storm hits. The aim is to reduce the workload on law enforcement and also, of course, to protect property. Frankly, Carol, those images of what happened in New Orleans after Katrina, the looting, still very fresh. Back to you.

LIN: Jeanne, the fact is the folks in Naples never actually experienced a hurricane, have they? I mean, maybe that makes up for their complacency.

MESERVE: Well, they have, but it was a long time ago if my memory serves me, something like 1960 since they took a direct hit. There have been some others that came nearby. Katrina really wasn't that far away from them. Also Charley last year hit about 30, 40 miles to the north. They know what a hurricane can do, they really do, but it has been a while since they've taken it right on the chin here in Naples.

LIN: Jeanne Meserve, live in Naples, thank you.

All right. Let's get the latest on the status of Hurricane Wilma. Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider is standing by in the CNN Weather Center.

Bonnie, a lot of those folks out in Florida just really don't think that this is going to happen to them?

SCHNEIDER: You know, that's such a shame because we have seen the storm kind of linger in the Yucatan, kind giving that misinterpretation that the storm is never going to move. But it's starting to move right now.

I'm holding in my hand the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. And that drift, that erratic drift we saw to the north is now a steady movement to the north only at two miles per hour, but we are going to see eventually a track shift and the storm move to the northeast and that will affect Florida.

Now as we look at the storm, it's 25 miles now north of Cancun, which is good news for the Yucatan, it's finally moving away from that area. But for Florida, new information for you, we have hurricane watches extending all the way around the southern half of Florida, really wrapping around coast-to-coast, including the Keys from Longboat Key to Titusville, that's up near Cape Canaveral, including the Keys, including Florida Bay. And this means hurricane conditions are expected within the next 36 hours.

The storm right now is still a Category 2, but it may intensify to a Category 3 as it passes over the warm waters of the loop current in the Gulf of Mexico. You can see that here. That will likely happen sometime tomorrow.

But luckily we are expecting the storm to weaken a bit, a Category 2 by 2:00 a.m. on Monday, that has to do with those upper level winds that will help shear it and break it down. The questions is will the storm get down to possibly even a Category 1 before it makes landfall in southwest Florida? For that, let's go now to Miami, Florida, where Max Mayfield is standing by.

Max, I was wondering if you could talk about the possibility of maybe bringing the storm in as a Category 1 instead of a Category 2?

MAYFIELD: Well, we'd sure like to see that obviously, Bonnie. But this hurricane, as it moves off the Yucatan peninsula, is going to move over the warm loop current that goes up through the Yucatan Channel into the Gulf of Mexico and then feeds into the Gulf Stream. Very warm water, very deep warm water, and we think that as long as the (INAUDIBLE) environment is not too unfavorable here, that we'll likely see it regain some of that strength here.

We're forecasting Category 2 hurricane by the time it gets to Florida. But we do have some uncertainties there, we want people to understand that. But the wise thing to do now I think is to plan on a strong Category 2 hurricane.

I might add that we want to put this in perspective, that area there on the southwest Florida Gulf Coast, and the Florida Keys, very susceptible to, you know, even a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane. In fact, if I can refresh some people's memories here, we had a tropical storm in 2001, Gabrielle, that made landfall near Venice on the Gulf Coast, and (INAUDIBLE) five to eight feet of storm surge all the way up into Charlotte Harbor, up in the northern part of the bay, up into the Peace River.

We also had a tropical storm, Mitch. Mitch had formerly been a Category 5 hurricane down in the Caribbean, if you remember, in 1998, it came across a very similar track to this one as a tropical storm. And we had various storm surge and flooding all through the Florida Keys. They had six feet of storm surge up in the northern portion of the Keys, even around Key Largo, from the Florida Bay side.

So we certainly don't want to minimize this, you know, even it's a Category 2 or less.

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely. And we certainly saw even with Katrina even coming in as a Category 1 over the Keys, causing so much flooding and problems in South Florida.

I'm just wondering at this point, we're already now talking about another tropical storm, Alpha. It's been the busiest season ever, from Arlene to Wilma, do you think there's a sense for people in Florida especially of a hurricane fatigue almost that they just can't deal with this anymore?

MAYFIELD: I think if you were to ask the good folks behind me here, yes, if they had time to think about it, there is something that to this hurricane fatigue. But no matter how we feel, we have to face reality that we have a strong hurricane headed towards the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula. So we are going to have to go through the drill one more time here. The folks in Florida know how to do this, and we are going to have to pay very close attention to our local officials here and make sure the right decisions are made.

SCHNEIDER: Max Mayfield in Florida, thank you so much for your help on this.

And as we look towards the tropics, we're not done yet. This is Tropical Storm Alpha. This has never happened before since we started keeping records, that we got up to this amount of storms, that we are now in the Greek alphabet. Alpha will be affecting parts of the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It's moving to northwest at 15 miles per hour.

The good news with this storm -- the very good news, it's not going to affect the U.S. mainland, it's going turn to the north. Our main concern right now, of course, as Max Mayfield was saying, is Wilma, expected to make landfall on Monday, likely as a Category 2. And as he pointed out very well, this is still a powerful, powerful, serious hurricane that needs to be taken seriously -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Thanks, Bonnie.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

LIN: Right now, FEMA has an unprecedented number of rescuers on the ground in Florida, bottles of water, food, they are ready, so they say. What they are most worried about right is a feeling of complacency, CNN's Gary Nurenberg standing by in Washington outside the FEMA headquarters.

Gary, so what is FEMA saying in terms of what's going to happen next? GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good evening, Carol. CNN talked to the acting director of FEMA, R. David Paulison, earlier this afternoon. He says he is convinced that FEMA is ready for this, he is convinced that Florida is ready to deal with whatever Wilma is able to dish out.

He also said, though, he's taking nothing for granted and he is, quote, "expecting the unexpected." Here at FEMA headquarters in Washington, staffers are working 12-hour shifts, although they tell us those 12 hours often turn into 16. And we talked to several people here who said they worked 16 hours yesterday, are going to work 16 today.

While that's happening at FEMA headquarters, on the ground in Florida, Carol, as you pointed out, FEMA is actively involved in getting ready, pre-positioning 30 truckloads of water, ice and, meals, have two military bases there, four urban search-and-rescue teams are now in place as are nine national disaster medical teams with another nine on standby.

The military is pre-positioning ships and aircraft to be ready to respond after the storm hits. And also they -- more than 300 satellite phones have been shipped to the area in order to make communication smoother. As you recall during Katrina, communication were knocked out and that made response very difficult.

A day before the storm hits, we asked Paulison what is his greatest worry at this point?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R. DAVID PAULISON, ACTING FEMA DIRECTOR: I think what worries me most is people not paying attention to what's going on around them. We talked about evacuations, they need to move out quickly. But those who are not going to evacuate, we need to make sure that they have a three-day supply of food and water. They need to have medicines, the pharmacies are still open. Make sure their car is full of fuel. Make sure they have flashlights and batteries and a battery-powered radio so they can hear what's going on, during the storm when the power goes out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NURENBERG: FEMA and the Bush administration are really trying to project an image of being on top of this one, of being in control and prepared for whatever happens. Carol, we should find out in a little more than a day if they're right.

LIN: You bet, it's going to happen sooner than we think. Gary, thank you.

All right. You folks out there, you're on the ground, you see, we want to look for you, citizen journalists please send us photos and video of Hurricane Wilma. All you have to do is log onto cnn.com/hurricane. But, of course, we want to you be safe when taking these pictures and please don't put yourself or anyone else in any danger when you're taking them.

Now coming up, thousands of court case files are ruined or missing, New Orleans prosecutors predict hundreds of murderers will go free because of Hurricane Katrina and it washing the evidence away. I've got the woman in charge of these case files to see how justice will be served in the Big Easy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: We've still got more to tell you about Hurricane Wilma, but I want to also give you an idea of how much garbage a hurricane can actually leave behind. One official estimates that New Orleans contains enough debris to fill the Superdome 40 times over. So where is all that trash going to go and who's going to get it there?

CNN's Ed Lavandera reports.

SON BISBEE, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Pick one up and then go on to the next one.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's one part of Don Bisbee's job that doesn't sit well with him: the smell.

BISBEE: It will literally almost make you vomit on the spot.

LAVANDERA: Bisbee is from Seattle. He's in New Orleans on a month-long mission to help clean the city's streets. For two days he's managed a team whose job is to clear out refrigerators and other appliances tossed to the curb.

BISBEE: This is our Bobcat down there.

LAVANDERA: Bisbee's biggest responsibility is to make sure what is in the refrigerators stays in. But occasionally putrid juice spills out, like the little trail that came out from the bottom of this refrigerator as it was being hoisted into a truck.

(on camera): Of course, the worst part is when you pick them up and the heavy equipment either cracks the door or things start leaking.

BISBEE: That's why we've been shrink-wrapping, we've found that works pretty good.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Cranes move the appliances like little sugar cubes being dropped into a cup of coffee. From here they end up in a refrigerator graveyard.

BISBEE: This is it, the Gentilly Landfill.

LAVANDERA: There are 12 acres of space reserved for appliances, a massive collection that engineer Steve Wilhelms can't bear to spend much time around.

STEVE WILHELMS, ENGINEER: I don't know that I've ever smelled anything quite like this. I'm not sure it's a describable smell. You would have to experience before you know what it is. It doesn't smell like chicken.

LAVANDERA: Rotten food and harmful gases like Freon have to be removed from this debris. It's then disinfected and crushed into bales of metal for recycling. Experts say getting this garbage off the streets is an urgent priority.

(on camera): The longer these things sit out on the streets...

WILHELMS: The greater the risk is, the higher the potential is to have problems -- health hazards as a consequence.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Appliances aren't the only hazard. Special crews also have to deal with removing materials like bleach, oil, and gasoline, which brings us to one of the most glaring problems you see in every neighborhood.

(on camera): The Army Corps of Engineers estimates there are probably 100,000 cars in the New Orleans that need to be disposed of. Right now there are city crews going out and towing away about 100 cars a day. Unfortunately, at that rate, this monumental task would take three years to finish.

(voice-over): So officials are working on ways to get abandoned vehicles off the streets faster, but that's only a fraction of the work: 22 million tons of debris needs to be cleaned out of the city, and Don Bisbee knows it's up to him to keep the dump trucks moving.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, before Katrina hit some 3,000 accused criminals were waiting to go on trial in Orleans Parish, including 200 suspected murderers. But the hurricane left the city's justice system in ruins and the D.A. admits many criminals are probably going to go free. Kimberly Butler is the clerk of the criminal district court in Orleans Parish. She joins me to talk about where things go from here.

Kimberly, I mean, it's shocking, I guess we never really think about all that it takes to put a trial together. So how many files are missing?

KIMBERLY BUTLER, CRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT CLERK: Well, Carol Lin, we don't have a number of files that have been affected. But I can tell you that over the last five years, we've taken in 27,000 individual items of evidence.

LIN: And how about that? How is that...

(CROSSTALK)

BUTLER: So there's a lot down there.

LIN: Yes, I mean, the drugs, I mean, you know, tainted money, documents, fraud.

BUTLER: It's everything...

LIN: Go ahead.

BUTLER: It's everything from baseball bats and crowbars to crack cocaine, cocaine, marijuana, we have anything, anything that was used to either commit a crime or confiscated in a theft or used in any way in any kind of criminal activity.

LIN: So did that, for the most part, survive?

BUTLER: Well, you know, I -- actually, when I first looked at, it was -- I was devastated, as was the district attorney, because there's a lot riding and resting on that evidence. What I can tell and you what has been encouraging is that first of all we did not lose one piece of evidence. You know, unlike my home where, as I drove down the street, I saw articles from my home that were floating on the street, there was not one piece of evidence left the rooms.

LIN: OK.

BUTLER: The second thing is that the evidence tags are all in place. So if someone committed a murder, for example, we have guns, now they're a little rusty right now, but we have them. You know, I think it's really no different than if they found a gun or a murder weapon at the bottom of a lake.

LIN: All right, so...

BUTLER: But you know, I'm...

LIN: Kimberly, so what do you see?

BUTLER: I need to check...

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: You have got 3,000 cases, 3,000 cases before Katrina, 200 of them murder cases. Is it true, as the D.A. and prosecutors might be predicting, that a couple hundred murderers may go free because you may have a rusted gun, but you might be missing, you know, a case file or witnesses are scattered to the winds?

BUTLER: Well, all of my case files were open, open cases were on the second and third floor, so all of the case files are intact. And the key is the evidence, as clerk of court, you know, when they make that call, I have to bring the evidence there.

So I know I have all of it, I know that I have the evidence tags on it. Now the question is whether or not it's contaminated. In some cases, particularly, Carol Lin, with cocaine and other drugs, you know, I saw a bag recently that had crack cocaine in it, and the water seeped into this sealed envelope. And so it's -- you know, there's -- it had this awful smell in it. And...

LIN: Oh, good grief. BUTLER: ... whether or not that's admissible -- yes, it was awful. But whether or not that's admissible is really up to the judge and the jury, and I'm neither. I have to provide the evidence. I know that I have every item, and it's really a matter of whether the -- whether it's admissible is up to the judge and the jury.

LIN: Right. Well, you know what, the jury is going to consider the fact that the hurricane hit, and frankly, it's probably a miracle that you could even come up with that cocaine bag from that evidence room. Kimberly Butler, thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

BUTLER: ... about it.

LIN: May justice be served.

BUTLER: Thank you.

LIN: Well, is your morning commute getting you down? If you're willing to invest a little sweat equity, you can save a lot of money riding a bike. But is it worth it? Tom Foreman has a way of telling this story, you've got to stick around.

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LIN: We're all affected by the hurricanes, and this next story is very much hurricane related. Gas price may once again shoot through the roof after Wilma. So we had our Tom Foreman take a look at what might make your commute easier and maybe even cheaper.

In this story, he really put some muscle into it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of the oldest forms of alternative commuting is getting new scrutiny against the modern reality of $3 gas. Just ask Lynne Mavracic, she gave up her car in February and started using her bike to go work.

Eight months later with no gas bills, parking fees, insurance, she says she has saved, no kidding, $6,000.

LYNNE MAVRACIC, CYCLIST: I won't lie. It was a serious adjustment at first. It was a real adjustment, because you get in the mindset of hopping in your car, and it only takes five minutes to go to the grocery store.

FOREMAN (on camera): Now you're going everywhere on your bike?

MAVRACIC: Yes, it's all pretty much my bike.

FOREMAN (voice-over): No wonder bike sales are hotter now than they have been since the energy crisis of the '70s. And bike makers are keeping commuters in mind. MATTHEW COOK, BICYCLE PRO SHOP: Absolutely. Yes, and the handle bars are more upright. You know, you have front suspension, seat suspension so it just smoothes things out a little bit, because the roads here are pretty nasty.

FOREMAN: The shocking reality of downtown traffic in major cities has traditionally made bicycle commuting an option only for the athletic.

(on camera): It's very dicey down here with cars stopping and doors opening.

(voice-over): But that's changing.

ELIZABETH PRESTON, LEAGUE OF AMER. BICYCLISTS: Oh, the transportation bill.

FOREMAN: Elizabeth Preston, with the League of American Bicyclists explains, the latest federal transportation bill contains $5 billion tax for making cities more friendly for bikers and walkers: more trails, more biking lanes, more education programs for riders and drivers.

PRESTON: So now when you're mad and you don't want to pay the fuel prices, you can still go out and start bike commuting and you'll be amazed at the infrastructure that is there waiting for you to use.

FOREMAN: That will not answer questions like, can you shower at work? What do you do when it rains? By the way, biking enthusiasts say, start small, figure those things out as you go. But look at it this way, driving to work cost me $125 a week. The metro at least $35 a week. Biking is a bit slower, only a bit.

(on camera): Although, even when you consider the helmet and the gloves and the bags and the fancy bike and everything, it's still a lot cheaper.

(voice-over): If I commuted by bicycle every day for just two months, I'd pocket $1,000. Not a bad payoff, just a little way down the trail.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Now that is called sweat equity.

Straight ahead on CNN, we are still tracking a killer hurricane. I'm going to talk to the mayor of a town that's been sandbagging to protect their city.

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