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High-Tech Forecasting; An Up-Close Look at Ivan's Arrival on Mobile Bay

Aired September 16, 2004 - 13:30   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In the news right now, three new hostages in Iraq, two Americans and a Brit, seized today from their home/office in central Baghdad. A neighbor says the night guard didn't show up for work and the abductors moved in when someone came out to turn on an electric generator. What does the future of Iraq look like? a new intelligence report lays out potential pictures of a post-war Iraq. And senior administration officials say most of them are not pretty. Among the worse case scenarios, an outright civil war. But National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormick is saying, "The Iraqi people continue to defy predictions, and the possibility of stability and success can't be ruled out."
And another legal skirmish in the Michael Jackson molestation case. At a pretrial hearing today, Jackson's attorneys are expected to argue that police illegally seized evidence during their raid at Jackson's Neverland Ranch. They want the judge to rule it as inadmissible. But the real drama is on tap for tomorrow, when the mother of Jackson's accuser is due to take the stand.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Ivan remains the nation's biggest story. The mammoth storm made landfall overnight near Gulf Shores, Alabama. And despite taking a direct hit, Alabama has not seen as much damage as anticipated. As the mayor of Mobile put it, quote, "I think we cut a bullet with our teeth."

Now to Mississippi, more sighs of relief from state officials, who say the damage could have been much worse. Power outages, heavy rain and flooding remain major problem.

Unfortunately, Florida, already pummeled by Charley and Frances, has seen some of Ivan's fiercest fury. At least seven people in the state killed in storm-related tornadoes. And at least a dozen homes in this beach community of Cape Sand Blast (ph) lost to an angry sea. Beleaguered Florida Governor Jeb Bush is warning it's not over yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: One important message for the citizens and residents of northwest Florida is to stay safe. More deaths occur after a storm than during the storm. Don't -- and the storm is still there, so please don't leave the shelters. Please don't leave wherever you are, hopefully in a safe place, until local official tell you it is OK to move back to your home. It is very dangerous, still, out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: We've been talking so much about the weather. Jacqui just gave us yet another wonderful weathercast. It's about time we explain a little bit of the behind-the-scenes here. Let's peel the curtain away and give you some of the technological tools that are in the background here, that kind of put the meat in meteorology, if you will.

Jacqui, take us -- show us what you got that makes all that come to pass, and I'll tell you what, let's begin if we could, if you don't mind -- if we came up there five years ago, for example, what would you use, how many computers would you use at your disposal? Do you still have one?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Five years ago, we had two computers, but if you look over here, this is all that we had just 10 years ago. This system we actually still use today, just to look at things like satellite and radar. We can also get in here and check out the observations anywhere across the United States, so I can come in here and find out what's going on.

O'BRIEN: So this is like composite radar capability, all that, access to what is provided by the National Weather Service, all across the country.

JERAS: Right, and everything is 2-D. And from this system, we upgraded from this system, from WSI. And this one give us the 3-D capability, it also has a lot of automated products in it. For example, this is our hurricane tracker, and every time the National Hurricane Center sends out an advisory that's automatically inputted into our system, we can render it and bring that information very quickly to our viewers.

O'BRIEN: Yes, and you may recall, during the war, we did several of our three-dimensional graphics using that capability, even though it wasn't designed just for that.

All right, take us down the road there. There are what, 20-some computers we counted out, right?

JERAS: Yes, actually I think we counted 30, Miles, believe it or not?

O'BRIEN: Thirty computers? Thirty computers.

JERAS: We have more computers now. We brought some extra ones in just for this hurricane, for our coverage, because a couple of these computers have the capability to bring information we can't get from the National Weather Service and also from the National Hurricane Center. This is our Viper system, and the manage advantage to the Viper system is that it has its own computer model forecast. So we get one more than anybody else, because of their computer model.

Also right, next to it, also from Barron's...

O'BRIEN: Look at how it can be -- you can tilt it all, and give people a real perspective.

JERAS: Right.

O'BRIEN: And I think what's really interesting about this viper, is you can really zoom in on a specific location if you see what appears to be a band or a possible tornado, right?

JERAS: Right, absolutely. And they also have what we call shear marks, or shear indicators. So if we see rotation on the tornado, there's a bug in the system that will automatically pop up that shear marker, and that may come up earlier than the National Weather Service even issues a tornado warning.

For example, around the Panama City area, last night, it was tornado after tornado after tornado. Well, we saw those shear markers offshore in the ocean, and we said, uh-oh look out, Panama City is going to be getting hit with storm after storm. And sure enough, about an hour later, we started to see those warnings pop up and it turned into (INAUDIBLE).

O'BRIEN: So we have help from our friend at WSI and from Barron's, which makes the Viper here.

And of course we shouldn't forget the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, these are the real experts, not to minimize your contribution to this Jacqui, but nevertheless, they are...

JERAS: Oh, absolutely...

O'BRIEN: But they are the gods when it come to this kind of thing.

JERAS: That's right. We really don't deviate from the National Hurricane Center's forecast track or intensity track. We can comment -- we're kind of like the sports commentators, Miles, for example. We kind of add a little bit more color to that. If we happen to see changes on satellite or changes on radar, if we happen to see the tornado, so we can get a little bit more detailed information than what we get.

O'BRIEN: And one final thing, if everything fails, those 30 computers fail, you have one final backstop, right?

JERAS: Oh, yes, we've got our NOAA weather radio.

O'BRIEN: A weather radio.

JERAS: That's right, we keep this in here actually, mostly as a tool, so we can plug this for people. Because think of how many people are out there right now who do not have power. They need their NOAA Weather radio, with batteries in them, to keep them up to date with weather information.

O'BRIEN: All right. Jacqui Jeras, from low-tech to high-tech and back, thank you very much. Appreciate that. We appreciate you giving us an insight on how you pull that all together.

I'm just told something in my ear that I'm not sure is true. Is that really true? OK. This is a flashback for us. A name from the past, inexorably linked to what we've just been talking about -- hurricanes -- former CNN correspondent, a man with more notches in his microphone for hurricanes than anybody I know, Jeff Flock is actually in Gulf Shores.

JEFF FLOCK, FMR. CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're making me sound like an old man, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, we're getting up there, Jeff, I got to tell you. But why are you there, and what are you doing?

FLOCK: Well, we're making a documentary about something called The Hurricane Landfall Project. A group of researches has, in this hurricane, put a vehicle in the path of a landfalling hurricane. As you know, the eye came just near us here. And they had a vehicle that has had six cameras in it running, as well as all sorts of sophisticated meteorological data being gathered in realtime, which they transmitted back to their base, which is back on the mainland.

So, we've been documented their efforts, and this was a hell of a hurricane. The storm surge here was incredible.

O'BRIEN: So, this is not unlike what we've seen with the tornado chasers over the years. These...

FLOCK: Exactly the same thing.

O'BRIEN: And I believe -- one of the storms most recently, you actually hooked up with these guys somewhere, correct?

FLOCK: I did in a past life at CNN, exactly. We followed them around. This is the first time they've tried to do this, though, which is place this vehicle out here.

O'BRIEN: Right.

FLOCK: It's was a success, although it's washed across the street now on its side, windows broken out of it, but they were wanting that to happen so that they -- you know, they got the data.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, wait a minute. So, did -- were they able to capture the data, though? If it's inside that vehicle, did they have a way of protecting it all?

FLOCK: Yeah, they do. They were in underwater housing -- the kinds that we used to use. And they also had a data logger in a watertight housing inside this Isuzu Rodeo, which, you know, hopefully captured all the data.

We went -- I just went down to visit it, and the windows were broken out and it's all trashed, but it looks like the watertight housing has held.

O'BRIEN: And I'm told that you are stranded where you are. Is that right? Where are you, and why can't you move from where you are?

FLOCK: Well, I'm in Gulf Shores on the beach. I had not seen anyone else. We're told we're the only ones out here.

You know, there's a lot of damage, but the water is still up. The surge was incredible. The wind is still blowing pretty good. And you know, we could try to wade out, but apparently a zoo has had some issues with alligators that may be running wild, so we don't really want to leave the crew and take too many chances.

O'BRIEN: Well, I think the reason you left CNN was to get away from all those alligators nipping at your heels. So, I think you should stay...

FLOCK: And the sharks, too.

O'BRIEN: ... where you are -- and the sharks, all that stuff. But just, let me -- final thought here from you: You, with all that experience, how does this one rate compared to all the ones you've been through?

FLOCK: Well, I tell you, in terms of storm surge, to me this is the topper. You know, Hugo had a tremendous surge, but I wasn't right there in the middle of that for the surge. Our good friend John Holliman was there for that one. But the surge on this had to be 13 feet.

You know, we looked down -- I'm on the fifth floor of a building -- and everything was floating: Coke machines, Pepsi machines floating down the street in the midst of a gale. So, for storm surge, this was a topper.

O'BRIEN: Jeff Flock, who's working on a documentary. We hope to hear more about that as you pull that together, former CNN correspondent, bringing back some memories for us.

FLOCK: Great to talk to you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Good to talk to you, and reminding us of the late, great John Holliman, as well. Little trip down memory lane, and also an update on what's going on with Ivan today.

Back with more LIVE FROM in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. Golf's Ryder Cup requires a team effort, but the buzz is still about one guy. Larry Smith with CNN Sports join us live from Oak (sic) Hills Country Club in Michigan.

Wonder who that one guy is, Larry?

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS: Well, you know, one guy we (INAUDIBLE), you know it's going to be Tiger Woods.

NGUYEN: Of course. SMITH: But you know, every two years, the individual game of golf becomes a team competition between the U.S. and Europe. So, I guess you could say, for once, there is an I in team after all.

It is the Ryder Cup, USA versus Europe. This is an event that was -- been dominated by the U.S. for years, but more lately has been owned by the Europeans. They are enjoying some of their greatest success in the prestigious 77-year history of this event, having won three of the last four Ryder Cups and trying for victory again this weekend here in Michigan.

Now, the Americans, meanwhile, they are favored to recapture the Cup on paper: 12 Grand Slam championships combined, compared to none for the Europeans; higher ranked in the world standings, as well. But the Euros have made a habit of going from underdogs to Ryder top dogs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN MONTGOMERIE, TEAM EUROPE: We have come into these matches as underdogs most of the time, and I don't think this is any different. We're playing away from home, and we're underdogs. And we'll start that way, and then hopefully after about two hours, it might be different.

PHIL MICKELSON, TEAM USA: Their overall team is extremely sharp, and we're going to have our hands full. I think it's a very evenly matched Ryder Cup this year, and I think -- I certainly like our chances, but I think it's a very evenly-matched event.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: The competition begins in the morning here.

Now, by the way, you might here some funny terminology. If you hear somebody say Tiger Woods wins three and two, that means Woods was three holes up with two holes to go on his opponent; therefore, the opponent couldn't catch up and Woods would win the victory.

Just the little things here that we want you to know about here on CNN. Let's go back to you.

NGUYEN: Oh, absolutely. I'm writing it down, three and two. Got you. Thanks, Larry. Appreciate that.

SMITH: OK.

NGUYEN: All right. While most of America slept, Hurricane Ivan began its destructive path across the southeast. In case you missed the CNN's overnight live coverage, we'll recap some of the night's most amazing moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: An important news conference at the Justice Department, under way as we speak. The attorney general speaking a few moments ago, announcing that a grand jury in Miami, federal grand jury has handed up a couple of important indictments against some terror suspects. You may recall these names. Adman Amin Hassoun (ph) and Mohammed Hassan Yousef (ph). They are accused of engaging in a conspiracy to raise funds for violent jihad, writing a series of checks allegedly to the Holy Land Foundation, the Global Relief Foundation. Those funds ultimately funneled into the cause of Islamic jihad. Hassoun is being held in Miami, has been for some time. Yousef is being held in Egypt. And the two -- these are the first charge. These add additional charges to a previous indictment. This indictment supersedes that. In any case, another development from the Justice Department front, in the war on terror -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, now back to Ivan. It's still too soon to know Ivan's place in hurricane history. But one thing is for sure, up close, all hurricanes are terrifying.

Here now, an up close look at Ivan's arrival in the wee hours on Mobile Bay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you're looking at Lake Pontchartrain, which has overflowed its banks here. The water is coming in pretty steady here, gusts of wind here.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This storm is coming, and it is coming on fast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa, holy smokes. Saddle up, kids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, still, boy, this is going to be a really long night for folks across the southeast.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can only imagine how the barrier island looks right now, when it was already flooding 10 hours ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see how frothy all of this water is. It's being whipped up by this wind, as it comes down beach here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the eye is in Gulf shore, which is less than 30 miles about 30 miles away, the eye itself is -- we're getting the northwestern eyewall now. So this is -- when it's getting bad, and it will be bad for the next half how, maybe even 45 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Literally, an hour and a half ago, we had 100-mile per-hour gusts. And within 10 minutes, it went from the 100 mile-per-hour gusts to almost nothing. And it really is an amazing part of mother nature.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a rough night. This was one of the scary things about sitting one of these things out, is listening to the pine trees snapping all night. Sounds like somebody's snapping their finger. Then you hear the big crash when it hits the ground. You can't see anything, because it's pitch black dark, but it's scary. Now the water's coming up, because the wind, as you were saying, has shifted, and I live on Dog River, and it's coming up pretty fast. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wind has just been howling, and significantly from a different direction now. Things have kind of changed. As the hurricane itself passes through, what we seem to now be getting is the wind almost blowing from the west to east, and then in a northerly direction, which is just the opposite of what we've been getting up to now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had four or five trailers burned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What made this fire difficult to put out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably the 50-plus mile-an-hour winds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you look at, you know, this is a concrete causeway, hundreds of cars travel over it every day, what do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just hard to imagine this could happen. I've been here all my life and seen several hurricanes, but nothing like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a devastating storm, as was projected, and my heart goes out to people that have lost a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the more serious hazards of landfalling hurricane inland is heavy rainfall. And so people really need to be vigilant and not driving on the roads when they're covered with water, turn around, don't drown, monitor your NOAA weather radio for any flash floods or watches and warnings that go up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Those pictures say it all.

And this just in to CNN, Ivan has been downgraded to a Tropical Storm. CNN's Jacqui Jeras will have the latest on all of this, coming up in our second half hour of LIVE FROM.

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Aired September 16, 2004 - 13:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In the news right now, three new hostages in Iraq, two Americans and a Brit, seized today from their home/office in central Baghdad. A neighbor says the night guard didn't show up for work and the abductors moved in when someone came out to turn on an electric generator. What does the future of Iraq look like? a new intelligence report lays out potential pictures of a post-war Iraq. And senior administration officials say most of them are not pretty. Among the worse case scenarios, an outright civil war. But National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormick is saying, "The Iraqi people continue to defy predictions, and the possibility of stability and success can't be ruled out."
And another legal skirmish in the Michael Jackson molestation case. At a pretrial hearing today, Jackson's attorneys are expected to argue that police illegally seized evidence during their raid at Jackson's Neverland Ranch. They want the judge to rule it as inadmissible. But the real drama is on tap for tomorrow, when the mother of Jackson's accuser is due to take the stand.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Ivan remains the nation's biggest story. The mammoth storm made landfall overnight near Gulf Shores, Alabama. And despite taking a direct hit, Alabama has not seen as much damage as anticipated. As the mayor of Mobile put it, quote, "I think we cut a bullet with our teeth."

Now to Mississippi, more sighs of relief from state officials, who say the damage could have been much worse. Power outages, heavy rain and flooding remain major problem.

Unfortunately, Florida, already pummeled by Charley and Frances, has seen some of Ivan's fiercest fury. At least seven people in the state killed in storm-related tornadoes. And at least a dozen homes in this beach community of Cape Sand Blast (ph) lost to an angry sea. Beleaguered Florida Governor Jeb Bush is warning it's not over yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: One important message for the citizens and residents of northwest Florida is to stay safe. More deaths occur after a storm than during the storm. Don't -- and the storm is still there, so please don't leave the shelters. Please don't leave wherever you are, hopefully in a safe place, until local official tell you it is OK to move back to your home. It is very dangerous, still, out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: We've been talking so much about the weather. Jacqui just gave us yet another wonderful weathercast. It's about time we explain a little bit of the behind-the-scenes here. Let's peel the curtain away and give you some of the technological tools that are in the background here, that kind of put the meat in meteorology, if you will.

Jacqui, take us -- show us what you got that makes all that come to pass, and I'll tell you what, let's begin if we could, if you don't mind -- if we came up there five years ago, for example, what would you use, how many computers would you use at your disposal? Do you still have one?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Five years ago, we had two computers, but if you look over here, this is all that we had just 10 years ago. This system we actually still use today, just to look at things like satellite and radar. We can also get in here and check out the observations anywhere across the United States, so I can come in here and find out what's going on.

O'BRIEN: So this is like composite radar capability, all that, access to what is provided by the National Weather Service, all across the country.

JERAS: Right, and everything is 2-D. And from this system, we upgraded from this system, from WSI. And this one give us the 3-D capability, it also has a lot of automated products in it. For example, this is our hurricane tracker, and every time the National Hurricane Center sends out an advisory that's automatically inputted into our system, we can render it and bring that information very quickly to our viewers.

O'BRIEN: Yes, and you may recall, during the war, we did several of our three-dimensional graphics using that capability, even though it wasn't designed just for that.

All right, take us down the road there. There are what, 20-some computers we counted out, right?

JERAS: Yes, actually I think we counted 30, Miles, believe it or not?

O'BRIEN: Thirty computers? Thirty computers.

JERAS: We have more computers now. We brought some extra ones in just for this hurricane, for our coverage, because a couple of these computers have the capability to bring information we can't get from the National Weather Service and also from the National Hurricane Center. This is our Viper system, and the manage advantage to the Viper system is that it has its own computer model forecast. So we get one more than anybody else, because of their computer model.

Also right, next to it, also from Barron's...

O'BRIEN: Look at how it can be -- you can tilt it all, and give people a real perspective.

JERAS: Right.

O'BRIEN: And I think what's really interesting about this viper, is you can really zoom in on a specific location if you see what appears to be a band or a possible tornado, right?

JERAS: Right, absolutely. And they also have what we call shear marks, or shear indicators. So if we see rotation on the tornado, there's a bug in the system that will automatically pop up that shear marker, and that may come up earlier than the National Weather Service even issues a tornado warning.

For example, around the Panama City area, last night, it was tornado after tornado after tornado. Well, we saw those shear markers offshore in the ocean, and we said, uh-oh look out, Panama City is going to be getting hit with storm after storm. And sure enough, about an hour later, we started to see those warnings pop up and it turned into (INAUDIBLE).

O'BRIEN: So we have help from our friend at WSI and from Barron's, which makes the Viper here.

And of course we shouldn't forget the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, these are the real experts, not to minimize your contribution to this Jacqui, but nevertheless, they are...

JERAS: Oh, absolutely...

O'BRIEN: But they are the gods when it come to this kind of thing.

JERAS: That's right. We really don't deviate from the National Hurricane Center's forecast track or intensity track. We can comment -- we're kind of like the sports commentators, Miles, for example. We kind of add a little bit more color to that. If we happen to see changes on satellite or changes on radar, if we happen to see the tornado, so we can get a little bit more detailed information than what we get.

O'BRIEN: And one final thing, if everything fails, those 30 computers fail, you have one final backstop, right?

JERAS: Oh, yes, we've got our NOAA weather radio.

O'BRIEN: A weather radio.

JERAS: That's right, we keep this in here actually, mostly as a tool, so we can plug this for people. Because think of how many people are out there right now who do not have power. They need their NOAA Weather radio, with batteries in them, to keep them up to date with weather information.

O'BRIEN: All right. Jacqui Jeras, from low-tech to high-tech and back, thank you very much. Appreciate that. We appreciate you giving us an insight on how you pull that all together.

I'm just told something in my ear that I'm not sure is true. Is that really true? OK. This is a flashback for us. A name from the past, inexorably linked to what we've just been talking about -- hurricanes -- former CNN correspondent, a man with more notches in his microphone for hurricanes than anybody I know, Jeff Flock is actually in Gulf Shores.

JEFF FLOCK, FMR. CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're making me sound like an old man, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, we're getting up there, Jeff, I got to tell you. But why are you there, and what are you doing?

FLOCK: Well, we're making a documentary about something called The Hurricane Landfall Project. A group of researches has, in this hurricane, put a vehicle in the path of a landfalling hurricane. As you know, the eye came just near us here. And they had a vehicle that has had six cameras in it running, as well as all sorts of sophisticated meteorological data being gathered in realtime, which they transmitted back to their base, which is back on the mainland.

So, we've been documented their efforts, and this was a hell of a hurricane. The storm surge here was incredible.

O'BRIEN: So, this is not unlike what we've seen with the tornado chasers over the years. These...

FLOCK: Exactly the same thing.

O'BRIEN: And I believe -- one of the storms most recently, you actually hooked up with these guys somewhere, correct?

FLOCK: I did in a past life at CNN, exactly. We followed them around. This is the first time they've tried to do this, though, which is place this vehicle out here.

O'BRIEN: Right.

FLOCK: It's was a success, although it's washed across the street now on its side, windows broken out of it, but they were wanting that to happen so that they -- you know, they got the data.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, wait a minute. So, did -- were they able to capture the data, though? If it's inside that vehicle, did they have a way of protecting it all?

FLOCK: Yeah, they do. They were in underwater housing -- the kinds that we used to use. And they also had a data logger in a watertight housing inside this Isuzu Rodeo, which, you know, hopefully captured all the data.

We went -- I just went down to visit it, and the windows were broken out and it's all trashed, but it looks like the watertight housing has held.

O'BRIEN: And I'm told that you are stranded where you are. Is that right? Where are you, and why can't you move from where you are?

FLOCK: Well, I'm in Gulf Shores on the beach. I had not seen anyone else. We're told we're the only ones out here.

You know, there's a lot of damage, but the water is still up. The surge was incredible. The wind is still blowing pretty good. And you know, we could try to wade out, but apparently a zoo has had some issues with alligators that may be running wild, so we don't really want to leave the crew and take too many chances.

O'BRIEN: Well, I think the reason you left CNN was to get away from all those alligators nipping at your heels. So, I think you should stay...

FLOCK: And the sharks, too.

O'BRIEN: ... where you are -- and the sharks, all that stuff. But just, let me -- final thought here from you: You, with all that experience, how does this one rate compared to all the ones you've been through?

FLOCK: Well, I tell you, in terms of storm surge, to me this is the topper. You know, Hugo had a tremendous surge, but I wasn't right there in the middle of that for the surge. Our good friend John Holliman was there for that one. But the surge on this had to be 13 feet.

You know, we looked down -- I'm on the fifth floor of a building -- and everything was floating: Coke machines, Pepsi machines floating down the street in the midst of a gale. So, for storm surge, this was a topper.

O'BRIEN: Jeff Flock, who's working on a documentary. We hope to hear more about that as you pull that together, former CNN correspondent, bringing back some memories for us.

FLOCK: Great to talk to you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Good to talk to you, and reminding us of the late, great John Holliman, as well. Little trip down memory lane, and also an update on what's going on with Ivan today.

Back with more LIVE FROM in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. Golf's Ryder Cup requires a team effort, but the buzz is still about one guy. Larry Smith with CNN Sports join us live from Oak (sic) Hills Country Club in Michigan.

Wonder who that one guy is, Larry?

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS: Well, you know, one guy we (INAUDIBLE), you know it's going to be Tiger Woods.

NGUYEN: Of course. SMITH: But you know, every two years, the individual game of golf becomes a team competition between the U.S. and Europe. So, I guess you could say, for once, there is an I in team after all.

It is the Ryder Cup, USA versus Europe. This is an event that was -- been dominated by the U.S. for years, but more lately has been owned by the Europeans. They are enjoying some of their greatest success in the prestigious 77-year history of this event, having won three of the last four Ryder Cups and trying for victory again this weekend here in Michigan.

Now, the Americans, meanwhile, they are favored to recapture the Cup on paper: 12 Grand Slam championships combined, compared to none for the Europeans; higher ranked in the world standings, as well. But the Euros have made a habit of going from underdogs to Ryder top dogs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN MONTGOMERIE, TEAM EUROPE: We have come into these matches as underdogs most of the time, and I don't think this is any different. We're playing away from home, and we're underdogs. And we'll start that way, and then hopefully after about two hours, it might be different.

PHIL MICKELSON, TEAM USA: Their overall team is extremely sharp, and we're going to have our hands full. I think it's a very evenly matched Ryder Cup this year, and I think -- I certainly like our chances, but I think it's a very evenly-matched event.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: The competition begins in the morning here.

Now, by the way, you might here some funny terminology. If you hear somebody say Tiger Woods wins three and two, that means Woods was three holes up with two holes to go on his opponent; therefore, the opponent couldn't catch up and Woods would win the victory.

Just the little things here that we want you to know about here on CNN. Let's go back to you.

NGUYEN: Oh, absolutely. I'm writing it down, three and two. Got you. Thanks, Larry. Appreciate that.

SMITH: OK.

NGUYEN: All right. While most of America slept, Hurricane Ivan began its destructive path across the southeast. In case you missed the CNN's overnight live coverage, we'll recap some of the night's most amazing moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: An important news conference at the Justice Department, under way as we speak. The attorney general speaking a few moments ago, announcing that a grand jury in Miami, federal grand jury has handed up a couple of important indictments against some terror suspects. You may recall these names. Adman Amin Hassoun (ph) and Mohammed Hassan Yousef (ph). They are accused of engaging in a conspiracy to raise funds for violent jihad, writing a series of checks allegedly to the Holy Land Foundation, the Global Relief Foundation. Those funds ultimately funneled into the cause of Islamic jihad. Hassoun is being held in Miami, has been for some time. Yousef is being held in Egypt. And the two -- these are the first charge. These add additional charges to a previous indictment. This indictment supersedes that. In any case, another development from the Justice Department front, in the war on terror -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, now back to Ivan. It's still too soon to know Ivan's place in hurricane history. But one thing is for sure, up close, all hurricanes are terrifying.

Here now, an up close look at Ivan's arrival in the wee hours on Mobile Bay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you're looking at Lake Pontchartrain, which has overflowed its banks here. The water is coming in pretty steady here, gusts of wind here.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This storm is coming, and it is coming on fast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa, holy smokes. Saddle up, kids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, still, boy, this is going to be a really long night for folks across the southeast.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can only imagine how the barrier island looks right now, when it was already flooding 10 hours ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see how frothy all of this water is. It's being whipped up by this wind, as it comes down beach here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the eye is in Gulf shore, which is less than 30 miles about 30 miles away, the eye itself is -- we're getting the northwestern eyewall now. So this is -- when it's getting bad, and it will be bad for the next half how, maybe even 45 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Literally, an hour and a half ago, we had 100-mile per-hour gusts. And within 10 minutes, it went from the 100 mile-per-hour gusts to almost nothing. And it really is an amazing part of mother nature.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a rough night. This was one of the scary things about sitting one of these things out, is listening to the pine trees snapping all night. Sounds like somebody's snapping their finger. Then you hear the big crash when it hits the ground. You can't see anything, because it's pitch black dark, but it's scary. Now the water's coming up, because the wind, as you were saying, has shifted, and I live on Dog River, and it's coming up pretty fast. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wind has just been howling, and significantly from a different direction now. Things have kind of changed. As the hurricane itself passes through, what we seem to now be getting is the wind almost blowing from the west to east, and then in a northerly direction, which is just the opposite of what we've been getting up to now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had four or five trailers burned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What made this fire difficult to put out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably the 50-plus mile-an-hour winds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you look at, you know, this is a concrete causeway, hundreds of cars travel over it every day, what do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just hard to imagine this could happen. I've been here all my life and seen several hurricanes, but nothing like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a devastating storm, as was projected, and my heart goes out to people that have lost a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the more serious hazards of landfalling hurricane inland is heavy rainfall. And so people really need to be vigilant and not driving on the roads when they're covered with water, turn around, don't drown, monitor your NOAA weather radio for any flash floods or watches and warnings that go up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Those pictures say it all.

And this just in to CNN, Ivan has been downgraded to a Tropical Storm. CNN's Jacqui Jeras will have the latest on all of this, coming up in our second half hour of LIVE FROM.

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