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Ivan Next to Threaten Caribbean?; Two-Day Mourning Period Begins in Russia for Victims of Hostage Crisis.
Aired September 06, 2004 - 13:31 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.
PHILLIPS: And welcome back. Checking top stories in the news right now. A deadly day for U.S. troops in Iraq. Seven marines killed in an apparent suicide car bombing on the outskirts of Fallujah. Three Iraqi soldiers are also dead.
And as you may have just heard, we just got word a moment ago that former president Bill Clinton is out of heart bypass surgery. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta says doctors say it was very successful. There will be a news conference in New York at the Presbyterian Hospital, 4:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll take it live as soon as they step up to the podium.
And will Ivan be terrible? Ivan is a Category 3 hurricane now speeding for the Caribbean. It is expected to hit Barbados late tomorrow. While Ivan is taking a similar path as Frances forecasters say it's too soon to tell if it will reach Florida.
The Florida Panhandle is bracing for the arrival of tropical storm Frances. Right now Frances is battering Florida's Gulf coast with powerful winds and rain. The flooding you've been seeing here is in the Tampa area. And it's still too early to assess the extent of the hurricane damage but one risk assessment company estimates insured losses could range anywhere from $2 billion to $10 billion. And widespread damage and widespread power outages are reported across Florida. It's going to be several days before many people will get their lights back on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going through damage assessments and some people have had their electricity restored. But the massive number of outages that we have will have us probably working for up to two weeks to restore electricity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Let's get to CNN's Jacqui Jeras to get the latest on Frances' whereabouts and its projected path -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kyra, we're concerned about some possible tornadoes right now. We did have some tornado warnings I told you about near the top of the hour for northwestern (UNINTELLIGIBLE), central Orange and southeastern (UNINTELLIGIBLE) counties. That has just expired at the bottom of the hour.
But there are still numerous very suspicious looking cells. Especially this one right down here. It looks like -- if we could get that just in off there possibly so I can show you this little hook on there. And that is an area of concern right there. It's just to the south of Kissimmee and these storms are moving up to the north around 40 miles per hour.
We do have this area outlined right here, the Weather Service is concerned about this area for tornadic development right now. It's got to be as these lines begin to push on through. We have got a live picture to show you. OK, a taped picture, I guess of Kissimmee. You can see a very ominous looking sky, very dark clouds, we're seeing a lot of very heavy downpours and possibly we may get another warning on this one. We'll have to wait and see if the Weather Service does but it looks very ominous to me. And I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to be taking cover and be in the interior part of your home right now.
We also want to show you -- we have some new information here. Sean Morris is bringing me some new information. If we can zoom back out actually and show you the radar picture here.
Frances, I guess, is making landfall right now, near St. Marks, Florida, this in the 2:00 advisory a little bit early in from the National Hurricane Center. Frances moving towards the west, northwest, around eight miles per hour. The winds have bumped up a little bit. They were 60 last advisory, now they're up to 65 miles per hour with still some higher gusts.
So here we go. Frances officially making its second landfall right now near St. Marks, Florida. You can see how that center of circulation making its way right towards the shoreline, right there.
Ivan. Let's move on to Ivan now. We've got another hurricane we're going to have to worry about. This is Hurricane Ivan. It's about 430 east-southeast of Barbados, packing winds around 125 miles per hour. That makes it a category 3 hurricane. It was briefly a category 4 yesterday. It's moving at a much faster rate to the west around 22 miles per hour.
Here's the forecast track now for Ivan. What can you expect? It's going to continue along this track. Could see some more intensification back to a category 4 there. You can see the forecast for 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning heading on through the Windward Islands here, continuing up to the west, slightly a northwesterly track and heading this way towards Hispaniola, and it's Haiti and the Dominican Republic here, possibly making landfall there.
And then what happens after that still a little bit too early to tell. But Florida needs to start thinking now that there could be some more preparations they're going to need to take for another hurricane. We'll keep you up to date on Ivan -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui. Busy day ahead. Thanks so much.
Well, Frances has left the oldest city in America pretty beaten and battered. CNN's Kathleen Koch is scoping at the damage in St. Augustine, Florida. Kathleen, I remember talking to you Friday. It was beautiful and mellow, now I'm seeing quite a different scene behind you.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, Kyra, it's beautiful compared to what we've been through the last couple of days. Even this morning we've been pelted by these bands that are still remaining as Frances turns on through the state. But authorities say -- if my cameraman Jay McMichael (ph) can pan around and show you -- authorities say they're really very fortunate. This historic city lost some trees and branches. It knocked down a lot of power lines. Two-thirds of the county of St. John's is without power but none of the historic buildings, some of them built in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s suffered any major structural damages.
A couple of homes lost their roofs, one condo. But there's something that really is going to be difficult to calculate and that is going to be the impact of the loss of the tourism dollars because the Labor Day weekend generates 7 percent of this city's income. With us is a business owner, Andy Fleming. Andy owns an old-fashioned lunch counter and toy store downtown. Andy, how has this impacted your business? We saw you boarding up back on Thursday.
ANDY FLEMING, BUSINESS OWNER: Well, we've been pseudo-shut down for a couple of days. People have been kind of watching and waiting, see what's going on. People are still going to be watching and waiting and see what's going to happen with the hurricane or where is it going.
KOCH: So those boards you have up, you're not going to take them down yet?
A. FLEMING: No, we'll leave them up for a couple days, leave them for Ivan. Maybe paint. We're open on there so that people can come in and partake of our food.
KOCH: When you calculate how much you've lost, I mean, by the time you get power on, they're saying maybe 36 hours, is that going to be a full week of income?
A. FLEMING: We've lost at least a week. My servers haven't been making any tips, my cooks haven't been making any wages. We're all going to be hurting for a while. Probably won't make the rent this month. So, you know, we'll have to work on that.
KOCH: What do business owners here need the most right now?
A. FLEMING: Well, send money to the Red Cross and then come visit. Don't cancel your plans. Come down to Florida. Set up some conventions down here. Most of the state's tourism industry is intact. There are probably a few places that are going to be hurting for a while but St. Augustine will be open in two or three days.
KOCH: Thanks so much, Andy. And what we're seeing now, Kyra, is people hitting the road and heading back to their homes, again, with much of this area without power, thousands of people are heading out. People who had sought refuge from Frances, and Frances followed them here so they're hitting the road and heading south. Back to you. PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch, thanks so much. Well, the one-two punch from the hurricanes in Florida could add up to tens of billions of dollars in damage. Two of the biggest and best-known industries, tourism and citrus has been hit pretty hard. Hurricane Charley caused an estimated loss of about 20 percent of the citrus crop and Frances hit land in the region where 3/4 of the state's grapefruit crop is grown. Labor Day weekend is when many tourists take a last summer fling in Florida but beaches and other attractions were mostly empty or closed. Also, the three major theme parks lost an estimated $41 million.
Jacquee Polak is a spokeswoman for Walt Disney World. She joins us now live from the phone in Orlando, Florida. Jackie, how are things today? I know you reopened there.
JACQUEE POLAK, SPOKESWOMAN, WALT DISNEY WORLD: Yes, we did. While Disney's World Resort safely withstood Hurricane Frances over the last couple of days we maintained power throughout the storm. We had a team that went out and did a visual inspection of our entire property before opening our theme parks this morning and we discovered there was only some minor roof damage to a single backstage structure and of course some minimal horticultural damage as you can imagine.
PHILLIPS: Yes, I can imagine. You think of all the rides and displays and everything there at Walt Disney when you know a hurricane like this is coming through. Tell us what kind of precautions you take with regard to the rides, specifically.
POLAK: Well, we have an extensive hurricane preparedness plan in place and it considers the realm of possible impacts that this type of weather could have on our property. And of course we work closely with local emergency management planning officials across the state and locally here as well.
So we go through extensive planning to prepare for these types of things.
PHILLIPS: Now, what about all the children? When word -- how did you get the word out that you were going to be closed? Did everybody have a heads up, all of the families that were there for the weekend?
POLAK: Sure. We have several resorts here on our property and we were communicating regularly with our guests who are staying here. Fortunately we have an incredible entertainment team that moved all the entertainment from the parks into the resorts.
So we had our Disney characters and movies and magicians and musicians all inside a resort to create a great magical experience for those guests who were stuck inside for a day-and-a-half.
PHILLIPS: Well, do you know the latest for the other -- for Seaworld or Universal? I know if you look at all three of the theme parks, that's where the loss, that number of $41 million came from. What's the status of all the parks? POLAK: Well, at Walt Disney World we opened two of our four theme parks. And our nighttime entertainment district is open and our Wide World of Sports Complex is also open for the events that were scheduled for today.
Obviously we have, you know, hundreds and thousands, actually, of cast members who were personally impacted by this weather and so they're at home taking care of their own personal situation. So we were able to have enough staffing to open up the two theme parks today.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jacquee Polak, a lot of happy kids, finally. Thank you so much.
Well, Frances is certainly taking its time churning across Florida, making for a long recovery ahead. Some 8000 National Guardsmen and women have been dispatched around Florida, help with the recovery efforts. Joining us now from the phone in St. Augustine is Brigadier General Michael Fleming.
General, thanks for being with us. I'm just curious right now how the lines are with regard to supplies. I know when we saw of the lines, for example, from Ft. Pierce, they were pretty long this morning.
BRIG. GEN. MICHAEL FLEMING, FLORIDA NATIONAL GUARD: Yes, ma'am. What we ended up doing, we ended up assisting the state and local authorities with that. I think they'll continue to improve and as we work closely with the county EOCs, what they'll do is they'll develop additional distribution sites.
We're standing up three logistic staging areas throughout the states where FEMA and the state will bring in a large amount of supplies. And then we assist the local authorities in the distribution of that.
PHILLIPS: Can you tell me exactly what areas will have supplies and what types of supplies we're talking about?
M. FLEMING: Well, I would say each -- I don't have specific information on each county. But each county has a specific distribution plan, and that's basically each county looks at it from an electricity standpoint because if electricity is working in a particular area, there's not as much need for humanitarian assistance.
But what the counties will end up doing, they'll end up having distribution points throughout the counties and they'll push food, ice and water out to each one of those distribution sites. And then the National Guard will assist with that along with a great deal of volunteers who do great work for the local citizens.
PHILLIPS: Well, I know there are about 5000 Army and Air National Guardsmen out there. Have you had to take on many search and rescue missions?
M. FLEMING: We haven't had specific ones. We actually, today, our primary focus has been on reconnaissance. We actually send out our Special Forces soldiers to look for damage assessments throughout the affected area and then phone information back so the federal and state and local authorities can really focus their humanitarian efforts in the right place.
PHILLIPS: My final question with regard to security. Any problems with looting, and if indeed that takes place, how are you going to respond?
M. FLEMING: Well, our job is specifically to work with the local law enforcement. We have seen sporadic looting at different places but really very, very small. We would be in support of the local law enforcement that they would make those determinations, but most of the time just having the National Guard and local law enforcement there is enough to give the citizens some faith that things are getting back to normal.
PHILLIPS: All right, Brigadier General Michael Fleming of the Florida National Guard. Sir, thanks so much for your time today. I know you're a busy man.
Well, straight ahead, a nation in mourning, Russia begins laying to rest the victims of a of horrific hostage standoff. We're going to show you how the scene of that crime has become a makeshift memorial.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Blanketed by grief, a two-day mourning period begins in Russia where burials are being held for some of the victims of last week's hostage crisis. We're now getting a clearer picture of the three-day ordeal and the bloodbath that ended it. CNN's Ryan Chilcote takes us inside the school.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're standing in front of what was one of the school's windows. It is from this window that many of the hostages trying to escape, many of them shot as they fled the building. Today it has become a memorial.
The hostage-takers had chains of wire tied from one basketball hoop inside the gym to the other. They went all of the way across this area. One of them hanging very low. A lot of the children that were in here talked about that. And attached to those wires were explosives that were waiting to go off if anyone moved.
Over here, a memorial to the dead. As you can see, people have brought lollipops and crackers that the children would have been eating. These wreaths hear say: "We'll never forget you."
And over here on the other side of the gym some of the shoes are still here on the window sill that probably belong to the girls that were in here and some of the teachers.
That over there was a classroom where some of the kids were being kept. It is also where some of the explosives went off during the fighting. The roof above the gymnasium collapsed after the first two explosions.
Today this is a memorial, and families have come to pay their respects for the more than 300 people who died after being kept inside this gymnasium for three days.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, we couldn't forget the pictures of those children and men and women that lost their lives. Now we're seeing inside the school where that hostage crisis took place. Another reality check when it comes to terrorism. That was our Ryan Chilcote.
We're going to be back right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Once again we want to let you know as we've been reporting all day about the surgery that former approximately President Bill Clinton has gone through. We are now being told a 4:00 p.m. news conference, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta telling us the surgery is over. It is successful. So we will go live to New York Presbyterian Hospital at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time when those doctors step up to the mike.
Well, the scope and severity of the damage left by Hurricane Frances is now being realized across Florida. Each person who went throw the storm has their own story to tell right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was scary. It was scary because one of those shutters was banging and the noise was incredible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going over the bridge the hummer almost blew off into the water. It was just crazy. And it was scary. I've never been that scared in my life. Huge trees, trees that you would never think, probably sitting there for 50 years were just flying away like nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lost everything on the farm. Everything's wiped out clean. Nothing left. Everything's gone.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So now you have to rebuild?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything has to be rebuilt, replanted and everything. All the sheep, the goats, the hogs, everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An outer band came up and it was unbelievable. I was having eight-foot waves coming over the decks of the boats. Then the wind got in and actually exploded the boat into 20,000 pieces. I mean, that's what you see floating all over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had insurance but I let it expire and I just never picked it up. I kept forgetting, I kept forgetting. And I can't even talk. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fire company was here and they said, I can't live here now. It's -- you know, so I have to leave. There's so much. You know, this is my home. This is my life, you know. It's hard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the longest one I've ever gone through, and I've gone through quite a few. It was very, very long. It sounded like -- the wind sounded like 180 18-wheelers racing around the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a strange storm, I'll tell you. And it is -- it's the worst one that this area has seen in many years because it's climbing up the coast and going as slow as a turtle and chewing you up like a buzzsaw. It was a long night in Vero Beach last night
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got back after five months in Baghdad, Iraq, and I thought, that was a problem, getting shot at on the RPG alley in the airport every day with body armor. And today I wish I was back in Baghdad, I'll tell you. But the nightmare is only about to begin for everybody.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, President Bush gains a double-digit lead over John Kerry in the race for the White House. We're going to tell you what the Democratic nominee is doing now to battle back in the polls.
Plus, Bill Clinton's bypass surgery termed a success. Find out what's next for the former president. "LIVE FROM"'s second hour begins right after this.
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 6, 2004 - 13:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PHILLIPS: And welcome back. Checking top stories in the news right now. A deadly day for U.S. troops in Iraq. Seven marines killed in an apparent suicide car bombing on the outskirts of Fallujah. Three Iraqi soldiers are also dead.
And as you may have just heard, we just got word a moment ago that former president Bill Clinton is out of heart bypass surgery. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta says doctors say it was very successful. There will be a news conference in New York at the Presbyterian Hospital, 4:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll take it live as soon as they step up to the podium.
And will Ivan be terrible? Ivan is a Category 3 hurricane now speeding for the Caribbean. It is expected to hit Barbados late tomorrow. While Ivan is taking a similar path as Frances forecasters say it's too soon to tell if it will reach Florida.
The Florida Panhandle is bracing for the arrival of tropical storm Frances. Right now Frances is battering Florida's Gulf coast with powerful winds and rain. The flooding you've been seeing here is in the Tampa area. And it's still too early to assess the extent of the hurricane damage but one risk assessment company estimates insured losses could range anywhere from $2 billion to $10 billion. And widespread damage and widespread power outages are reported across Florida. It's going to be several days before many people will get their lights back on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going through damage assessments and some people have had their electricity restored. But the massive number of outages that we have will have us probably working for up to two weeks to restore electricity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Let's get to CNN's Jacqui Jeras to get the latest on Frances' whereabouts and its projected path -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kyra, we're concerned about some possible tornadoes right now. We did have some tornado warnings I told you about near the top of the hour for northwestern (UNINTELLIGIBLE), central Orange and southeastern (UNINTELLIGIBLE) counties. That has just expired at the bottom of the hour.
But there are still numerous very suspicious looking cells. Especially this one right down here. It looks like -- if we could get that just in off there possibly so I can show you this little hook on there. And that is an area of concern right there. It's just to the south of Kissimmee and these storms are moving up to the north around 40 miles per hour.
We do have this area outlined right here, the Weather Service is concerned about this area for tornadic development right now. It's got to be as these lines begin to push on through. We have got a live picture to show you. OK, a taped picture, I guess of Kissimmee. You can see a very ominous looking sky, very dark clouds, we're seeing a lot of very heavy downpours and possibly we may get another warning on this one. We'll have to wait and see if the Weather Service does but it looks very ominous to me. And I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to be taking cover and be in the interior part of your home right now.
We also want to show you -- we have some new information here. Sean Morris is bringing me some new information. If we can zoom back out actually and show you the radar picture here.
Frances, I guess, is making landfall right now, near St. Marks, Florida, this in the 2:00 advisory a little bit early in from the National Hurricane Center. Frances moving towards the west, northwest, around eight miles per hour. The winds have bumped up a little bit. They were 60 last advisory, now they're up to 65 miles per hour with still some higher gusts.
So here we go. Frances officially making its second landfall right now near St. Marks, Florida. You can see how that center of circulation making its way right towards the shoreline, right there.
Ivan. Let's move on to Ivan now. We've got another hurricane we're going to have to worry about. This is Hurricane Ivan. It's about 430 east-southeast of Barbados, packing winds around 125 miles per hour. That makes it a category 3 hurricane. It was briefly a category 4 yesterday. It's moving at a much faster rate to the west around 22 miles per hour.
Here's the forecast track now for Ivan. What can you expect? It's going to continue along this track. Could see some more intensification back to a category 4 there. You can see the forecast for 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning heading on through the Windward Islands here, continuing up to the west, slightly a northwesterly track and heading this way towards Hispaniola, and it's Haiti and the Dominican Republic here, possibly making landfall there.
And then what happens after that still a little bit too early to tell. But Florida needs to start thinking now that there could be some more preparations they're going to need to take for another hurricane. We'll keep you up to date on Ivan -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui. Busy day ahead. Thanks so much.
Well, Frances has left the oldest city in America pretty beaten and battered. CNN's Kathleen Koch is scoping at the damage in St. Augustine, Florida. Kathleen, I remember talking to you Friday. It was beautiful and mellow, now I'm seeing quite a different scene behind you.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, Kyra, it's beautiful compared to what we've been through the last couple of days. Even this morning we've been pelted by these bands that are still remaining as Frances turns on through the state. But authorities say -- if my cameraman Jay McMichael (ph) can pan around and show you -- authorities say they're really very fortunate. This historic city lost some trees and branches. It knocked down a lot of power lines. Two-thirds of the county of St. John's is without power but none of the historic buildings, some of them built in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s suffered any major structural damages.
A couple of homes lost their roofs, one condo. But there's something that really is going to be difficult to calculate and that is going to be the impact of the loss of the tourism dollars because the Labor Day weekend generates 7 percent of this city's income. With us is a business owner, Andy Fleming. Andy owns an old-fashioned lunch counter and toy store downtown. Andy, how has this impacted your business? We saw you boarding up back on Thursday.
ANDY FLEMING, BUSINESS OWNER: Well, we've been pseudo-shut down for a couple of days. People have been kind of watching and waiting, see what's going on. People are still going to be watching and waiting and see what's going to happen with the hurricane or where is it going.
KOCH: So those boards you have up, you're not going to take them down yet?
A. FLEMING: No, we'll leave them up for a couple days, leave them for Ivan. Maybe paint. We're open on there so that people can come in and partake of our food.
KOCH: When you calculate how much you've lost, I mean, by the time you get power on, they're saying maybe 36 hours, is that going to be a full week of income?
A. FLEMING: We've lost at least a week. My servers haven't been making any tips, my cooks haven't been making any wages. We're all going to be hurting for a while. Probably won't make the rent this month. So, you know, we'll have to work on that.
KOCH: What do business owners here need the most right now?
A. FLEMING: Well, send money to the Red Cross and then come visit. Don't cancel your plans. Come down to Florida. Set up some conventions down here. Most of the state's tourism industry is intact. There are probably a few places that are going to be hurting for a while but St. Augustine will be open in two or three days.
KOCH: Thanks so much, Andy. And what we're seeing now, Kyra, is people hitting the road and heading back to their homes, again, with much of this area without power, thousands of people are heading out. People who had sought refuge from Frances, and Frances followed them here so they're hitting the road and heading south. Back to you. PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch, thanks so much. Well, the one-two punch from the hurricanes in Florida could add up to tens of billions of dollars in damage. Two of the biggest and best-known industries, tourism and citrus has been hit pretty hard. Hurricane Charley caused an estimated loss of about 20 percent of the citrus crop and Frances hit land in the region where 3/4 of the state's grapefruit crop is grown. Labor Day weekend is when many tourists take a last summer fling in Florida but beaches and other attractions were mostly empty or closed. Also, the three major theme parks lost an estimated $41 million.
Jacquee Polak is a spokeswoman for Walt Disney World. She joins us now live from the phone in Orlando, Florida. Jackie, how are things today? I know you reopened there.
JACQUEE POLAK, SPOKESWOMAN, WALT DISNEY WORLD: Yes, we did. While Disney's World Resort safely withstood Hurricane Frances over the last couple of days we maintained power throughout the storm. We had a team that went out and did a visual inspection of our entire property before opening our theme parks this morning and we discovered there was only some minor roof damage to a single backstage structure and of course some minimal horticultural damage as you can imagine.
PHILLIPS: Yes, I can imagine. You think of all the rides and displays and everything there at Walt Disney when you know a hurricane like this is coming through. Tell us what kind of precautions you take with regard to the rides, specifically.
POLAK: Well, we have an extensive hurricane preparedness plan in place and it considers the realm of possible impacts that this type of weather could have on our property. And of course we work closely with local emergency management planning officials across the state and locally here as well.
So we go through extensive planning to prepare for these types of things.
PHILLIPS: Now, what about all the children? When word -- how did you get the word out that you were going to be closed? Did everybody have a heads up, all of the families that were there for the weekend?
POLAK: Sure. We have several resorts here on our property and we were communicating regularly with our guests who are staying here. Fortunately we have an incredible entertainment team that moved all the entertainment from the parks into the resorts.
So we had our Disney characters and movies and magicians and musicians all inside a resort to create a great magical experience for those guests who were stuck inside for a day-and-a-half.
PHILLIPS: Well, do you know the latest for the other -- for Seaworld or Universal? I know if you look at all three of the theme parks, that's where the loss, that number of $41 million came from. What's the status of all the parks? POLAK: Well, at Walt Disney World we opened two of our four theme parks. And our nighttime entertainment district is open and our Wide World of Sports Complex is also open for the events that were scheduled for today.
Obviously we have, you know, hundreds and thousands, actually, of cast members who were personally impacted by this weather and so they're at home taking care of their own personal situation. So we were able to have enough staffing to open up the two theme parks today.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jacquee Polak, a lot of happy kids, finally. Thank you so much.
Well, Frances is certainly taking its time churning across Florida, making for a long recovery ahead. Some 8000 National Guardsmen and women have been dispatched around Florida, help with the recovery efforts. Joining us now from the phone in St. Augustine is Brigadier General Michael Fleming.
General, thanks for being with us. I'm just curious right now how the lines are with regard to supplies. I know when we saw of the lines, for example, from Ft. Pierce, they were pretty long this morning.
BRIG. GEN. MICHAEL FLEMING, FLORIDA NATIONAL GUARD: Yes, ma'am. What we ended up doing, we ended up assisting the state and local authorities with that. I think they'll continue to improve and as we work closely with the county EOCs, what they'll do is they'll develop additional distribution sites.
We're standing up three logistic staging areas throughout the states where FEMA and the state will bring in a large amount of supplies. And then we assist the local authorities in the distribution of that.
PHILLIPS: Can you tell me exactly what areas will have supplies and what types of supplies we're talking about?
M. FLEMING: Well, I would say each -- I don't have specific information on each county. But each county has a specific distribution plan, and that's basically each county looks at it from an electricity standpoint because if electricity is working in a particular area, there's not as much need for humanitarian assistance.
But what the counties will end up doing, they'll end up having distribution points throughout the counties and they'll push food, ice and water out to each one of those distribution sites. And then the National Guard will assist with that along with a great deal of volunteers who do great work for the local citizens.
PHILLIPS: Well, I know there are about 5000 Army and Air National Guardsmen out there. Have you had to take on many search and rescue missions?
M. FLEMING: We haven't had specific ones. We actually, today, our primary focus has been on reconnaissance. We actually send out our Special Forces soldiers to look for damage assessments throughout the affected area and then phone information back so the federal and state and local authorities can really focus their humanitarian efforts in the right place.
PHILLIPS: My final question with regard to security. Any problems with looting, and if indeed that takes place, how are you going to respond?
M. FLEMING: Well, our job is specifically to work with the local law enforcement. We have seen sporadic looting at different places but really very, very small. We would be in support of the local law enforcement that they would make those determinations, but most of the time just having the National Guard and local law enforcement there is enough to give the citizens some faith that things are getting back to normal.
PHILLIPS: All right, Brigadier General Michael Fleming of the Florida National Guard. Sir, thanks so much for your time today. I know you're a busy man.
Well, straight ahead, a nation in mourning, Russia begins laying to rest the victims of a of horrific hostage standoff. We're going to show you how the scene of that crime has become a makeshift memorial.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Blanketed by grief, a two-day mourning period begins in Russia where burials are being held for some of the victims of last week's hostage crisis. We're now getting a clearer picture of the three-day ordeal and the bloodbath that ended it. CNN's Ryan Chilcote takes us inside the school.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're standing in front of what was one of the school's windows. It is from this window that many of the hostages trying to escape, many of them shot as they fled the building. Today it has become a memorial.
The hostage-takers had chains of wire tied from one basketball hoop inside the gym to the other. They went all of the way across this area. One of them hanging very low. A lot of the children that were in here talked about that. And attached to those wires were explosives that were waiting to go off if anyone moved.
Over here, a memorial to the dead. As you can see, people have brought lollipops and crackers that the children would have been eating. These wreaths hear say: "We'll never forget you."
And over here on the other side of the gym some of the shoes are still here on the window sill that probably belong to the girls that were in here and some of the teachers.
That over there was a classroom where some of the kids were being kept. It is also where some of the explosives went off during the fighting. The roof above the gymnasium collapsed after the first two explosions.
Today this is a memorial, and families have come to pay their respects for the more than 300 people who died after being kept inside this gymnasium for three days.
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PHILLIPS: Well, we couldn't forget the pictures of those children and men and women that lost their lives. Now we're seeing inside the school where that hostage crisis took place. Another reality check when it comes to terrorism. That was our Ryan Chilcote.
We're going to be back right after a quick break.
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PHILLIPS: Once again we want to let you know as we've been reporting all day about the surgery that former approximately President Bill Clinton has gone through. We are now being told a 4:00 p.m. news conference, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta telling us the surgery is over. It is successful. So we will go live to New York Presbyterian Hospital at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time when those doctors step up to the mike.
Well, the scope and severity of the damage left by Hurricane Frances is now being realized across Florida. Each person who went throw the storm has their own story to tell right now.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was scary. It was scary because one of those shutters was banging and the noise was incredible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going over the bridge the hummer almost blew off into the water. It was just crazy. And it was scary. I've never been that scared in my life. Huge trees, trees that you would never think, probably sitting there for 50 years were just flying away like nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lost everything on the farm. Everything's wiped out clean. Nothing left. Everything's gone.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So now you have to rebuild?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything has to be rebuilt, replanted and everything. All the sheep, the goats, the hogs, everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An outer band came up and it was unbelievable. I was having eight-foot waves coming over the decks of the boats. Then the wind got in and actually exploded the boat into 20,000 pieces. I mean, that's what you see floating all over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had insurance but I let it expire and I just never picked it up. I kept forgetting, I kept forgetting. And I can't even talk. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fire company was here and they said, I can't live here now. It's -- you know, so I have to leave. There's so much. You know, this is my home. This is my life, you know. It's hard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the longest one I've ever gone through, and I've gone through quite a few. It was very, very long. It sounded like -- the wind sounded like 180 18-wheelers racing around the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a strange storm, I'll tell you. And it is -- it's the worst one that this area has seen in many years because it's climbing up the coast and going as slow as a turtle and chewing you up like a buzzsaw. It was a long night in Vero Beach last night
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got back after five months in Baghdad, Iraq, and I thought, that was a problem, getting shot at on the RPG alley in the airport every day with body armor. And today I wish I was back in Baghdad, I'll tell you. But the nightmare is only about to begin for everybody.
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PHILLIPS: Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, President Bush gains a double-digit lead over John Kerry in the race for the White House. We're going to tell you what the Democratic nominee is doing now to battle back in the polls.
Plus, Bill Clinton's bypass surgery termed a success. Find out what's next for the former president. "LIVE FROM"'s second hour begins right after this.
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