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Alabama Gets Hit By Hurricane Ivan; Ivan Leaves Behind Power Outages, Flooded Streets, Lost Homes, and Death; Two Americans, One Briton Abducted in Iraq; Intelligence Report Casts Doubts on Iraq's Future

Aired September 16, 2004 - 13:00   ET

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

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


DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Drew Griffin. Montgomery, Alabama is getting hit right now from what was Hurricane Ivan. I'll have a live report coming up.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Power outages, flooded streets, lost homes, and death -- what Ivan leaves behind, we're live as the coast takes stock.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And as two Americans are taken hostage in Baghdad, an intelligence report surfaces that casts doubts on the future of Iraq.

O'BRIEN: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. It is September 16, and CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

O'BRIEN: As Hurricane Ivan is history, or very soon will be... but the killer storm that ransacked much of the Caribbean before veering northward through the Gulf of Mexico is still a threat to life and property in several states. Ivan's eye-wall crashed onto Mobile Bay a little more than 10 hours ago, having dropped to a category three. Winds clocked at about 130 miles an hour.

But as with most hurricanes, the brunt hit farther east, in this case, the Panhandle of Florida. Even before the floods, Ivan's tornadoes were causing deaths in northwest Florida, eight at last count, including a child, whose house was crushed by a tree. Florida's governor says the third hurricane to ravage his state in little more than a month was devastating, and warns it's still not safe for survivors to be out and about.

NGUYEN: Now, nothing compares to the sights on the ground, but Ivan still cuts an imposing figure on the radar screens and satellite pics. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is poring over all of it in our weather center, and she joins us now with the latest...

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: OK, Jacqui Jeras, not what we want to hear, but thank you so much. Miles... O'BRIEN: The mayor of Mobile, Alabama is telling CNN, "We caught a bullet with our teeth," by which he means Ivan spared his city of 250,000 the utter catastrophe they were dreading. Upstate, in Montgomery, they're hoping Ivan's pickup in speed and drop-off in power will spare them as well. But the jury is still out, and so is our Drew Griffin. Drew, what's the latest from Montgomery?

GRIFFIN: Right now, it appears the wind damage will not be as severe as they thought it could have been. It's still raining, and we're waiting for possible floods in the area, but Montgomery seems to be doing all right. Lots of power outages, up to 50,000 people without power. We took a drive just about 15 minutes or so ago around town. There are some significant areas of wind damage, trees down, big telephone poles that have been snapped.

We've seen a lot of people without power sitting on their front porches, because it's also getting very hot and humid around here. But I don't think it's as bad as it could have been, especially if we were going to face those hurricane strength winds this far north. Having said that, it is still moving through here, and we could very well be on the brink of getting some more damaging winds.

The biggest problem, though, has been, Miles, the tornadoes, and mostly to the east of here. People in Montgomery and counties near here are dreading any of those tornado squalls that would come through here that have done so much damage in Florida's Panhandle. But right now, although the rain is continuing at a steady pace, as it has been for hours and hours and hours, the wind from Hurricane Ivan does not appear to be that severe in an around Montgomery.

O'BRIEN: And Drew, pretty much everything's shutdown there today, schools, businesses, and the like.

GRIFFIN: Yeah, if you saw some of our driving shots -- I'm not sure what they were able to feed back -- but there is nobody on the road. Everybody's being advised to just stay where you are. A lot of people from Mobile are here, sitting in their hotel rooms with their dogs and cats, wondering when it's going to be OK to stay back. But lots and lots of people are just staying off the roads, which is a good thing. We've seen many power lines down, so that always creates a dangerous situation.

O'BRIEN: Drew Griffin in Montgomery, thank you very much. Betty...

NGUYEN: And with the rain comes the flooding, and for that we want to go to CNN's Gary Tuchman in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where not only is it flooding, but I understand there's alligators on the loose. What's the latest with this?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Betty. This is the worst flooding I've ever seen in any hurricane I've covered. We are talking about how Mobile did fairly well. Well, Gulf Shores, about 40 miles to the Southeast, has done very poorly.

Much of the Barrier Island is underwater. And I'm not saying minor flooding. We are talking about waves lapping up from the Gulf of Mexico that have basically pushed the Gulf of Mexico about a half a mile to the North. The busy thoroughfare that goes through this beach town is now completely underwater, with items floating through the water.

And yes, there is a zoo on Gulf Shores Island, with lions, tigers, bears. They were all evacuated. However, some deer and some alligators were left behind, and we are being told by zoo officials that at least 20 dear and at least 9 alligators are now swimming in the water in the streets of Gulf Shores. We just saw a deer, a frightened looking deer, walking through the water and kind of galloping through the water. The zoo officials do have guns, guns to put the deer to sleep if they can shoot the deer. But guns to kill the alligator -- you can't subdue an alligator. So they are looking for the alligators to shoot the alligators.

But it's a very hazardous, treacherous situation, with much of this town underwater, that appears to me, as I'm standing on the banks of it, to be six to eight feet deep. Betty...

NGUYEN: One problem on top of another. All right, Gary Tuchman, thank you so much, from Gulf Shores, Alabama. Now, we know of more than 700,000 homes and businesses along the gulf coast that don't have power and may not for several days. Many of those are in Pensacola, Florida, where the sheriff's department figures, and we quote, "It's easier to say what's not damaged." CNN's Sara Dorsey is there, and she joins us now with the latest. Sara...

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, it was a long night for people here in Pensacola. From where we were staying, you could hear the winds howling, also glass breaking in our hotel. We are at the West Florida Hospital here, and you can see the damage behind me. Those are the medical office buildings, so luckily not the main hospital itself that sustained most of the damage.

But you can see windows broken out; the exterior of the building is torn off, revealing insulation, and also the inside of those office buildings to the weather. Luckily, the patient care here did not stop. They had a few broken windows, but the plywood stopped most of the rain from coming in. There was a little water damage to this area, but patients, for the most part, here, were taken care of.

Also, we need to mention Interstate 10, leading here from Pensacola to the Tallahassee area -- so the eastern part of the state -- is washed out. In fact, state troopers say that there is a truck, an 18-wheeler truck, that has fallen in, off of that bridge into the water. They believe the driver of that truck is still in the submerged cab at this time.

So a lot of the roads here blocked still with debris. The phone lines are down in many of the areas. Luckily, this hospital has generator power, so they're continuing to go on. But the phone service in many parts of Pensacola are out. So it's making it hard for people to get a lot of information. And we are telling everyone to stay inside until police can get out and give everyone the all clear here. NGUYEN: Some good advice. CNN's Sara Dorsey in Pensacola, thank you so much for that. Miles...

O'BRIEN: Now, as you probably know by now, Hurricanes have a bad side and then a worse side, and that worse is usually... well, it is always, in this hemisphere, to the right of the eye-wall. And that means all those spots along the right side of the eye of Hurricane Ivan. Gulf Shores, as you just heard from Gary Tuchman, terrible flooding there. Panama City, also a place with some real problems today. CNN's Rick Sanchez is there, bringing us up to date. The weather continuing -- the winds still continuing there, and really the remnants of Ivan still evident there. Rick...

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Miles. One wouldn't think that being 120 miles away from the eye of a hurricane that you'd sustain this much damage and, certainly, this much loss of life. But that's exactly the case. I want to walk out here a little bit just to show you still what the surf looks like, and to give you a sense of what are still, I imagine, tropical storm winds in this area.

That's how hard it's still blowing. It's almost difficult just to be able to stand up. This is what's in the background, as you can see, with the remnants of Hurricane Ivan. I'm going to walk back here now so I can hear myself talk to you. And let me bring you up to date now on the very latest information that we are getting.

I just got off the horn, Miles, a little while ago with officials, EOC officials over in Calhoun County. Calhoun County contains the town of Blountsville. That's the place where we have been telling you all along that there was a major tornado. I'm being told now it could have been an F2 or an F3, according to preliminary reports.

And this is where we had reported that five people had lost their lives. Some good news here. EOC officials have just told me that that number has been brought down to four, four confirmed deaths in Blountstown. They say it was a huge tornado. I think you may be looking at some of the pictures of it now.

They say it cut a swath almost a mile long, and that it damaged not only that area there in Blountstown, as we mentioned moments ago, but three other communities in that same swath, which were affected as well, cutting all the way from that region to another area called Mariana, which is also right there.

By the way, that's north and east of where we are right now. Just as landmarks go, the capital of Florida, which is Tallahassee, that would be just west of Tallahassee, actually nearer to Georgia. It's this entire swath where we've seen this literal tornado alley that's been formed here... many tornado touchdowns, in a small area, in as small a timeframe as I've ever heard reported, in the time that I've been practicing this particular craft here in the State of Florida.

There's another story we've been following, and this one brings, I suppose, a lesson with it. When you're in a hurricane and you have an emergency, fire officials, rescue officials may not be able to get to you in time, and that's what this story seemed to prove. We have pictures of a fire. It started in one particular trailer home, then it went to another, then another, and then another.

Fire officials that we have spoken to here in Panama City Beach say the conditions were just too rough for them to get there, A, in time, and then B, when they got there, the wind was just blowing so hard, it was hard for them to do their job, and it also moved the fire faster than they would normally expect.

Here in Panama City right now, still difficult conditions. The rains have stopped, but we're still wondering whether we could be under the threat of another tornado. Still, people are being told to remain indoors, and police are continuing to patrol the streets. That's the latest from here in Panama City Beach. I'm Rick Sanchez. Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Hey, Rick, you know, all of the weather casters, they tell us all the time that that -- you know, if you were to cut the hurricane into a piece of pie, that northeast quadrant, that upper right quadrant is where all these tornadoes always spin out. I'm curious, though, if people in that part of the world were aware of that, were they given proper notice? Did they know that, in effect, they were in the tornado alley for Ivan?

SANCHEZ: It's one thing to be told that -- and you know, as long as you've been covering news -- and another thing to actually see the image on TV. And if you saw that cone of impact, as we often talk about when we're covering these storms as they approach, this area was so far away from the cone... we were in the cone, yes, but right on the periphery, right at the very end.

One can certainly understand why some people may have let down their guard and say, "You know, I'm going to do everything necessary, but I'm not necessarily going to act as if this thing was coming as a direct hit for us, as it was for Mobile, Alabama." Well, it may be a surprise to some, it may be a lesson to others, but that's exactly the case.

It's the outer bands, the outer fringe of this hurricane that may have been the costliest.

O'BRIEN: All right, Rick Sanchez, worth reminding us all of that. You know, we focus so much on the eye, where the eye is headed. That outer bank can be incredibly deadly. All right, Rick Sanchez in Panama City, thanks very much. Betty...

NGUYEN: No doubt. Well, the Big Easy is breathing easy, with Ivan landing well to the East and retreating into the distance. Colossal Lake Pontchatrain got a little bit bigger overnight. But officially, according to the mayor's office, New Orleans picked up only two-tenths of an inch of rain by daybreak.

Now, a mayor's spokeswoman says, quote, "We are ecstatic." Many feared 20 feet of floodwaters, in a city that sits as low 10 feet below sea level. Want to keep in mind hurricane season is far from over, and CNN Interactive is your round the clock resource for news and information. All you have to do is point your browser to CNN.com/hurricanes.

O'BRIEN: An anxious day in Iraq. Two Americans are kidnapped. We're on the story, of course, from Baghdad.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, where an intelligence report has emerged, suggesting the possibility of a civil war developing in Iraq. I'll have that story next.

O'BRIEN: And our Ivan coverage continues as well. We'll take you behind the scenes with our own forecast office, and live to the coast as well, as the long cleanup begins. LIVE FROM'S just getting started, folks. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: U.S. and Iraqi forces are investigating the kidnappings of two Americans and a British citizen from their home in Baghdad. CNN's Walter Rodgers has the details now from the Iraqi capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These latest kidnappings leave you with a hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach, that queasiness which makes you aware no one, no Westerner at least, is any longer safe in Baghdad. Two American citizens identified by the embassy as Jack Hensley and Eugene 'Jack' Armstrong, plus a British subject, were sharing a house in an upscale neighborhood of Baghdad, the Mansur neighborhood.

These were private contractors. At 6 o'clock this morning, one of the contractors living inside that house went up to fire a generator to power electricity for the house. The problem was the Iraqi security guard who was supposed to be standing watch overnight evaporated. He just disappeared.

When one of the contractors went out to fire up that generator, six men from a vehicle in the street rushed him, went in, grabbed the other two inside the house, abducted them, dragged them outside of the house -- there was yet another van working there. There were 10 or 11 men participating in the kidnapping of these three Westerners.

Again, no word as to who has done it or the fate of the abductees. But we can tell you this brings to a total of eight the number of Westerners now being held hostage in Iraq -- two Italian aide workers, two American contractors, two French journalists, one British contractor, and an Iraqi-American businessman. Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The picture in Iraq looks grim. More violence, more internal strife, possibly a full-scale civil war lies ahead. That's the official assessment of the U.S. intelligence community. That report has gotten to the president. The president has been briefed on it. And CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is at the White House now with more on that grim outlook. Suzanne...

MALVEAUX: Well, Miles, while the president's campaigning in Minnesota today, of course, that report is getting a lot of attention. It is a new national intelligence estimate prepared by the intelligence community that lays out a number of scenarios that could unfold in a postwar Iraq. And senior administration officials confirming that it is not all good.

This is a 50-page report. It was completed in late July, and then passed around to top White House officials just a couple of weeks ago. There are portions that are classified and declassified. And some of those scenarios in Iraq, in that document, include the prospect of internal conflict, increased violence, and even civil war. Now, earlier today, I spoke with National Security Council Spokesman Sean McCormick, who discussed the NIE in broad terms, saying this "NIE discusses different possible scenarios for Iraq's political and economic future over the course of 18 months, starting July."

"The NIE makes clear that the future of Iraq will be determined by a number of factors, including the nation's economic progress, the effectiveness of their political structures and security, and stability." He goes on to say, "We must be ready for more violence, increased violence, tough challenges. Is there a threat of civil war? Yes." But he also goes on to say, "We would make the point that prior to the war, there were many dire scenarios out there... threat of mass migration, starvation, man-made disasters, as well as political ones like civil war. But that has not come to pass."

Now, while President Bush has not commented about this latest report, the president does make the case, as he has at many campaign stops, that he believes that Iraq is on the right track. In fact, the White House making the case here that they believe this report simply bolsters the case that the administration needs to stay the course.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: In Iraq, there's ongoing acts of violence. This country's headed toward democracy. There's a strong prime minister in place. They have a national council, and national elections are scheduled for January. It wasn't all that long ago that Saddam Hussein was in power with his torture chambers and mass graves. And today, this country is headed toward elections. Freedom's on the march.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: You may recall the last NIE that was prepared October of 2002. It was completed, assessing whether or not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction... later criticized widely for inaccuracies. Well, this particular document is being described as more of a think piece. But already, Miles, we are seeing indications of the politics that are developing. We understand that Senator Kerry is going to use this report to argue that the Bush administration has failed in Iraq when he speaks this afternoon. Miles...

O'BRIEN: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Thank you. Betty...

NGUYEN: CBS news is standing by its story that suggests lapses in President Bush's National Guard service. Last night, the network interviewed the secretary of Mr. Bush's late squadron commander. She was questioned about the authenticity of the documents in their report. The secretary said she believed the documents were fake, but that their content was accurate. CBS says it will redouble its efforts to determine the authenticity of the papers.

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is scheduled to speak in the next hour to the U.S. National Guard Association. The group is meeting in Las Vegas. Wednesday, Kerry stopped in Madison, Wisconsin, where he spoke about the war in Iraq. Kerry said the president, quote, "Made a mistake in rushing to war without a plan to win peace."

Next on LIVE FROM, cloudy skies... a major airline's own auditor says it can't make it. Find out who could be next in bankruptcy court. Can Tiger Woods get it together as the U.S. faces Europe's best golfers? A Rider Cup preview.

Tomorrow, don't worry, be happy... we are live with Bobby McFerrin and the Monterey Jazz Festival. LIVE FROM plays it cool after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, following more than 18 hours of surgery, one of the conjoined twins from Germany has died. One-year-old Tabea Block died overnight, shortly after a procedure to separate her head from twin Lea. Lea Block is in critical but stable condition. The girls' parents have not made a public statement.

A second FDA advisory panel approves giving a stimulant to healthy children in a medical study. That study would allow children as young as nine to take part in an experiment using dextroaphetamine (ph). The drug is normally used to treat attention deficit disorder. The doctor leading that study says it equals one to two cups of strong coffee.

Now, an FDA ethics committee signed off on the trial last week. Health Secretary Tommy Thompson must give final approval.

And cheek tissue could help people blinded by certain eye diseases. Japanese researchers say they used thin sheets of tissue from inside the cheeks to replace clouded corneas. The report in The New England Journal of Medicine says a doctor successfully transplanted cheek cells onto the eyes of four patients. The patients suffer from a rare eye condition called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, and they can see clearly after that surgery. Miles... O'BRIEN: When Ivan made landfall on the gulf coast, the economic reverberations were felt hundreds of miles away. And lest we forget, there's some oil in them 'thar' waters out there. The good news is I guess they'll still be pumping, right, Fred Katayama?

(MARKET REPORT)

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Aired September 16, 2004 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Drew Griffin. Montgomery, Alabama is getting hit right now from what was Hurricane Ivan. I'll have a live report coming up.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Power outages, flooded streets, lost homes, and death -- what Ivan leaves behind, we're live as the coast takes stock.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And as two Americans are taken hostage in Baghdad, an intelligence report surfaces that casts doubts on the future of Iraq.

O'BRIEN: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. It is September 16, and CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

O'BRIEN: As Hurricane Ivan is history, or very soon will be... but the killer storm that ransacked much of the Caribbean before veering northward through the Gulf of Mexico is still a threat to life and property in several states. Ivan's eye-wall crashed onto Mobile Bay a little more than 10 hours ago, having dropped to a category three. Winds clocked at about 130 miles an hour.

But as with most hurricanes, the brunt hit farther east, in this case, the Panhandle of Florida. Even before the floods, Ivan's tornadoes were causing deaths in northwest Florida, eight at last count, including a child, whose house was crushed by a tree. Florida's governor says the third hurricane to ravage his state in little more than a month was devastating, and warns it's still not safe for survivors to be out and about.

NGUYEN: Now, nothing compares to the sights on the ground, but Ivan still cuts an imposing figure on the radar screens and satellite pics. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is poring over all of it in our weather center, and she joins us now with the latest...

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: OK, Jacqui Jeras, not what we want to hear, but thank you so much. Miles... O'BRIEN: The mayor of Mobile, Alabama is telling CNN, "We caught a bullet with our teeth," by which he means Ivan spared his city of 250,000 the utter catastrophe they were dreading. Upstate, in Montgomery, they're hoping Ivan's pickup in speed and drop-off in power will spare them as well. But the jury is still out, and so is our Drew Griffin. Drew, what's the latest from Montgomery?

GRIFFIN: Right now, it appears the wind damage will not be as severe as they thought it could have been. It's still raining, and we're waiting for possible floods in the area, but Montgomery seems to be doing all right. Lots of power outages, up to 50,000 people without power. We took a drive just about 15 minutes or so ago around town. There are some significant areas of wind damage, trees down, big telephone poles that have been snapped.

We've seen a lot of people without power sitting on their front porches, because it's also getting very hot and humid around here. But I don't think it's as bad as it could have been, especially if we were going to face those hurricane strength winds this far north. Having said that, it is still moving through here, and we could very well be on the brink of getting some more damaging winds.

The biggest problem, though, has been, Miles, the tornadoes, and mostly to the east of here. People in Montgomery and counties near here are dreading any of those tornado squalls that would come through here that have done so much damage in Florida's Panhandle. But right now, although the rain is continuing at a steady pace, as it has been for hours and hours and hours, the wind from Hurricane Ivan does not appear to be that severe in an around Montgomery.

O'BRIEN: And Drew, pretty much everything's shutdown there today, schools, businesses, and the like.

GRIFFIN: Yeah, if you saw some of our driving shots -- I'm not sure what they were able to feed back -- but there is nobody on the road. Everybody's being advised to just stay where you are. A lot of people from Mobile are here, sitting in their hotel rooms with their dogs and cats, wondering when it's going to be OK to stay back. But lots and lots of people are just staying off the roads, which is a good thing. We've seen many power lines down, so that always creates a dangerous situation.

O'BRIEN: Drew Griffin in Montgomery, thank you very much. Betty...

NGUYEN: And with the rain comes the flooding, and for that we want to go to CNN's Gary Tuchman in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where not only is it flooding, but I understand there's alligators on the loose. What's the latest with this?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Betty. This is the worst flooding I've ever seen in any hurricane I've covered. We are talking about how Mobile did fairly well. Well, Gulf Shores, about 40 miles to the Southeast, has done very poorly.

Much of the Barrier Island is underwater. And I'm not saying minor flooding. We are talking about waves lapping up from the Gulf of Mexico that have basically pushed the Gulf of Mexico about a half a mile to the North. The busy thoroughfare that goes through this beach town is now completely underwater, with items floating through the water.

And yes, there is a zoo on Gulf Shores Island, with lions, tigers, bears. They were all evacuated. However, some deer and some alligators were left behind, and we are being told by zoo officials that at least 20 dear and at least 9 alligators are now swimming in the water in the streets of Gulf Shores. We just saw a deer, a frightened looking deer, walking through the water and kind of galloping through the water. The zoo officials do have guns, guns to put the deer to sleep if they can shoot the deer. But guns to kill the alligator -- you can't subdue an alligator. So they are looking for the alligators to shoot the alligators.

But it's a very hazardous, treacherous situation, with much of this town underwater, that appears to me, as I'm standing on the banks of it, to be six to eight feet deep. Betty...

NGUYEN: One problem on top of another. All right, Gary Tuchman, thank you so much, from Gulf Shores, Alabama. Now, we know of more than 700,000 homes and businesses along the gulf coast that don't have power and may not for several days. Many of those are in Pensacola, Florida, where the sheriff's department figures, and we quote, "It's easier to say what's not damaged." CNN's Sara Dorsey is there, and she joins us now with the latest. Sara...

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, it was a long night for people here in Pensacola. From where we were staying, you could hear the winds howling, also glass breaking in our hotel. We are at the West Florida Hospital here, and you can see the damage behind me. Those are the medical office buildings, so luckily not the main hospital itself that sustained most of the damage.

But you can see windows broken out; the exterior of the building is torn off, revealing insulation, and also the inside of those office buildings to the weather. Luckily, the patient care here did not stop. They had a few broken windows, but the plywood stopped most of the rain from coming in. There was a little water damage to this area, but patients, for the most part, here, were taken care of.

Also, we need to mention Interstate 10, leading here from Pensacola to the Tallahassee area -- so the eastern part of the state -- is washed out. In fact, state troopers say that there is a truck, an 18-wheeler truck, that has fallen in, off of that bridge into the water. They believe the driver of that truck is still in the submerged cab at this time.

So a lot of the roads here blocked still with debris. The phone lines are down in many of the areas. Luckily, this hospital has generator power, so they're continuing to go on. But the phone service in many parts of Pensacola are out. So it's making it hard for people to get a lot of information. And we are telling everyone to stay inside until police can get out and give everyone the all clear here. NGUYEN: Some good advice. CNN's Sara Dorsey in Pensacola, thank you so much for that. Miles...

O'BRIEN: Now, as you probably know by now, Hurricanes have a bad side and then a worse side, and that worse is usually... well, it is always, in this hemisphere, to the right of the eye-wall. And that means all those spots along the right side of the eye of Hurricane Ivan. Gulf Shores, as you just heard from Gary Tuchman, terrible flooding there. Panama City, also a place with some real problems today. CNN's Rick Sanchez is there, bringing us up to date. The weather continuing -- the winds still continuing there, and really the remnants of Ivan still evident there. Rick...

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Miles. One wouldn't think that being 120 miles away from the eye of a hurricane that you'd sustain this much damage and, certainly, this much loss of life. But that's exactly the case. I want to walk out here a little bit just to show you still what the surf looks like, and to give you a sense of what are still, I imagine, tropical storm winds in this area.

That's how hard it's still blowing. It's almost difficult just to be able to stand up. This is what's in the background, as you can see, with the remnants of Hurricane Ivan. I'm going to walk back here now so I can hear myself talk to you. And let me bring you up to date now on the very latest information that we are getting.

I just got off the horn, Miles, a little while ago with officials, EOC officials over in Calhoun County. Calhoun County contains the town of Blountsville. That's the place where we have been telling you all along that there was a major tornado. I'm being told now it could have been an F2 or an F3, according to preliminary reports.

And this is where we had reported that five people had lost their lives. Some good news here. EOC officials have just told me that that number has been brought down to four, four confirmed deaths in Blountstown. They say it was a huge tornado. I think you may be looking at some of the pictures of it now.

They say it cut a swath almost a mile long, and that it damaged not only that area there in Blountstown, as we mentioned moments ago, but three other communities in that same swath, which were affected as well, cutting all the way from that region to another area called Mariana, which is also right there.

By the way, that's north and east of where we are right now. Just as landmarks go, the capital of Florida, which is Tallahassee, that would be just west of Tallahassee, actually nearer to Georgia. It's this entire swath where we've seen this literal tornado alley that's been formed here... many tornado touchdowns, in a small area, in as small a timeframe as I've ever heard reported, in the time that I've been practicing this particular craft here in the State of Florida.

There's another story we've been following, and this one brings, I suppose, a lesson with it. When you're in a hurricane and you have an emergency, fire officials, rescue officials may not be able to get to you in time, and that's what this story seemed to prove. We have pictures of a fire. It started in one particular trailer home, then it went to another, then another, and then another.

Fire officials that we have spoken to here in Panama City Beach say the conditions were just too rough for them to get there, A, in time, and then B, when they got there, the wind was just blowing so hard, it was hard for them to do their job, and it also moved the fire faster than they would normally expect.

Here in Panama City right now, still difficult conditions. The rains have stopped, but we're still wondering whether we could be under the threat of another tornado. Still, people are being told to remain indoors, and police are continuing to patrol the streets. That's the latest from here in Panama City Beach. I'm Rick Sanchez. Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Hey, Rick, you know, all of the weather casters, they tell us all the time that that -- you know, if you were to cut the hurricane into a piece of pie, that northeast quadrant, that upper right quadrant is where all these tornadoes always spin out. I'm curious, though, if people in that part of the world were aware of that, were they given proper notice? Did they know that, in effect, they were in the tornado alley for Ivan?

SANCHEZ: It's one thing to be told that -- and you know, as long as you've been covering news -- and another thing to actually see the image on TV. And if you saw that cone of impact, as we often talk about when we're covering these storms as they approach, this area was so far away from the cone... we were in the cone, yes, but right on the periphery, right at the very end.

One can certainly understand why some people may have let down their guard and say, "You know, I'm going to do everything necessary, but I'm not necessarily going to act as if this thing was coming as a direct hit for us, as it was for Mobile, Alabama." Well, it may be a surprise to some, it may be a lesson to others, but that's exactly the case.

It's the outer bands, the outer fringe of this hurricane that may have been the costliest.

O'BRIEN: All right, Rick Sanchez, worth reminding us all of that. You know, we focus so much on the eye, where the eye is headed. That outer bank can be incredibly deadly. All right, Rick Sanchez in Panama City, thanks very much. Betty...

NGUYEN: No doubt. Well, the Big Easy is breathing easy, with Ivan landing well to the East and retreating into the distance. Colossal Lake Pontchatrain got a little bit bigger overnight. But officially, according to the mayor's office, New Orleans picked up only two-tenths of an inch of rain by daybreak.

Now, a mayor's spokeswoman says, quote, "We are ecstatic." Many feared 20 feet of floodwaters, in a city that sits as low 10 feet below sea level. Want to keep in mind hurricane season is far from over, and CNN Interactive is your round the clock resource for news and information. All you have to do is point your browser to CNN.com/hurricanes.

O'BRIEN: An anxious day in Iraq. Two Americans are kidnapped. We're on the story, of course, from Baghdad.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, where an intelligence report has emerged, suggesting the possibility of a civil war developing in Iraq. I'll have that story next.

O'BRIEN: And our Ivan coverage continues as well. We'll take you behind the scenes with our own forecast office, and live to the coast as well, as the long cleanup begins. LIVE FROM'S just getting started, folks. Stay with us.

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NGUYEN: U.S. and Iraqi forces are investigating the kidnappings of two Americans and a British citizen from their home in Baghdad. CNN's Walter Rodgers has the details now from the Iraqi capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These latest kidnappings leave you with a hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach, that queasiness which makes you aware no one, no Westerner at least, is any longer safe in Baghdad. Two American citizens identified by the embassy as Jack Hensley and Eugene 'Jack' Armstrong, plus a British subject, were sharing a house in an upscale neighborhood of Baghdad, the Mansur neighborhood.

These were private contractors. At 6 o'clock this morning, one of the contractors living inside that house went up to fire a generator to power electricity for the house. The problem was the Iraqi security guard who was supposed to be standing watch overnight evaporated. He just disappeared.

When one of the contractors went out to fire up that generator, six men from a vehicle in the street rushed him, went in, grabbed the other two inside the house, abducted them, dragged them outside of the house -- there was yet another van working there. There were 10 or 11 men participating in the kidnapping of these three Westerners.

Again, no word as to who has done it or the fate of the abductees. But we can tell you this brings to a total of eight the number of Westerners now being held hostage in Iraq -- two Italian aide workers, two American contractors, two French journalists, one British contractor, and an Iraqi-American businessman. Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The picture in Iraq looks grim. More violence, more internal strife, possibly a full-scale civil war lies ahead. That's the official assessment of the U.S. intelligence community. That report has gotten to the president. The president has been briefed on it. And CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is at the White House now with more on that grim outlook. Suzanne...

MALVEAUX: Well, Miles, while the president's campaigning in Minnesota today, of course, that report is getting a lot of attention. It is a new national intelligence estimate prepared by the intelligence community that lays out a number of scenarios that could unfold in a postwar Iraq. And senior administration officials confirming that it is not all good.

This is a 50-page report. It was completed in late July, and then passed around to top White House officials just a couple of weeks ago. There are portions that are classified and declassified. And some of those scenarios in Iraq, in that document, include the prospect of internal conflict, increased violence, and even civil war. Now, earlier today, I spoke with National Security Council Spokesman Sean McCormick, who discussed the NIE in broad terms, saying this "NIE discusses different possible scenarios for Iraq's political and economic future over the course of 18 months, starting July."

"The NIE makes clear that the future of Iraq will be determined by a number of factors, including the nation's economic progress, the effectiveness of their political structures and security, and stability." He goes on to say, "We must be ready for more violence, increased violence, tough challenges. Is there a threat of civil war? Yes." But he also goes on to say, "We would make the point that prior to the war, there were many dire scenarios out there... threat of mass migration, starvation, man-made disasters, as well as political ones like civil war. But that has not come to pass."

Now, while President Bush has not commented about this latest report, the president does make the case, as he has at many campaign stops, that he believes that Iraq is on the right track. In fact, the White House making the case here that they believe this report simply bolsters the case that the administration needs to stay the course.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: In Iraq, there's ongoing acts of violence. This country's headed toward democracy. There's a strong prime minister in place. They have a national council, and national elections are scheduled for January. It wasn't all that long ago that Saddam Hussein was in power with his torture chambers and mass graves. And today, this country is headed toward elections. Freedom's on the march.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: You may recall the last NIE that was prepared October of 2002. It was completed, assessing whether or not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction... later criticized widely for inaccuracies. Well, this particular document is being described as more of a think piece. But already, Miles, we are seeing indications of the politics that are developing. We understand that Senator Kerry is going to use this report to argue that the Bush administration has failed in Iraq when he speaks this afternoon. Miles...

O'BRIEN: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Thank you. Betty...

NGUYEN: CBS news is standing by its story that suggests lapses in President Bush's National Guard service. Last night, the network interviewed the secretary of Mr. Bush's late squadron commander. She was questioned about the authenticity of the documents in their report. The secretary said she believed the documents were fake, but that their content was accurate. CBS says it will redouble its efforts to determine the authenticity of the papers.

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is scheduled to speak in the next hour to the U.S. National Guard Association. The group is meeting in Las Vegas. Wednesday, Kerry stopped in Madison, Wisconsin, where he spoke about the war in Iraq. Kerry said the president, quote, "Made a mistake in rushing to war without a plan to win peace."

Next on LIVE FROM, cloudy skies... a major airline's own auditor says it can't make it. Find out who could be next in bankruptcy court. Can Tiger Woods get it together as the U.S. faces Europe's best golfers? A Rider Cup preview.

Tomorrow, don't worry, be happy... we are live with Bobby McFerrin and the Monterey Jazz Festival. LIVE FROM plays it cool after this.

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NGUYEN: Well, following more than 18 hours of surgery, one of the conjoined twins from Germany has died. One-year-old Tabea Block died overnight, shortly after a procedure to separate her head from twin Lea. Lea Block is in critical but stable condition. The girls' parents have not made a public statement.

A second FDA advisory panel approves giving a stimulant to healthy children in a medical study. That study would allow children as young as nine to take part in an experiment using dextroaphetamine (ph). The drug is normally used to treat attention deficit disorder. The doctor leading that study says it equals one to two cups of strong coffee.

Now, an FDA ethics committee signed off on the trial last week. Health Secretary Tommy Thompson must give final approval.

And cheek tissue could help people blinded by certain eye diseases. Japanese researchers say they used thin sheets of tissue from inside the cheeks to replace clouded corneas. The report in The New England Journal of Medicine says a doctor successfully transplanted cheek cells onto the eyes of four patients. The patients suffer from a rare eye condition called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, and they can see clearly after that surgery. Miles... O'BRIEN: When Ivan made landfall on the gulf coast, the economic reverberations were felt hundreds of miles away. And lest we forget, there's some oil in them 'thar' waters out there. The good news is I guess they'll still be pumping, right, Fred Katayama?

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