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CNN Live Today
Ivan Slamming Gulf Coast
Aired September 16, 2004 - 11:00 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a look at what's happening now in the news.
The Florida Panhandle gets pounded by Hurricane Ivan. The eye of the storm made landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama, but the area around Pensacola, Florida, was hit hard, as well. And tornadoes spawned by Ivan are blamed for most of the eight deaths in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JEB BUSH, FLORIDA: It was very long night for our neighbors to the west of us, our Floridians that live in northwest Florida, and for the residents of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. And our thoughts and prayers are with them -- were with them last night and are still are today.
This was a devastating storm, as was projected, and my heart goes out to the people that have lost a lot, because there will be extensive damage and some loss of life, sadly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Extensive live coverage of Hurricane Ivan straight ahead.
Iraq's Interior Ministry says two Americans and a British national were kidnapped early today from a house in central Baghdad. Police say 11 kidnappers drove up to a house in a minivan. Six of them entered the house and seized the three people. We'll have a live report from Iraq straight ahead.
President Bush is talking healthcare during a bus tour through Minnesota today. He's at a rally in St. Cloud that began just about 15 minutes ago. The president wants limits on medical malpractice awards to lower costs. He also favors expanding tax-free health savings accounts and providing tax credits to help people buy health insurance.
CBS News promises an all-out effort to determine the validity of documents in a story questioning President Bush's National Guard service. A former secretary for a Guard commander tells the network that the documents are probably fake, but she says the memos did reflect the sentiment of the former squadron commander, that Bush failed to fulfill his duties.
A hearing gets under way today in the Michael Jackson case. Jackson's lawyers want evidence seized from the singer's ranch and from a detective's office thrown out. Tomorrow, the mother of the boy Jackson is accused of molesting is expected to testify. Jackson says he is innocent of the charges against him and plans to appear in court tomorrow.
It is 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. out West. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Daryn Kagan.
Up first on CNN: driving rain, devastating winds and deadly tornadoes. Hurricane Ivan slams into the Gulf Coast with 130-mile- per-hour winds. Florida officials say seven people were killed by tornadoes spawned by Ivan.
The storm made landfall along the east coast of Mobile Bay, near Gulf Shores, Alabama. Fierce winds and pounding rain knocked down trees, flooded streets and snapped power lines. About 250,000 customers in Alabama lost power.
Let's check in with Chad Myers, who's keeping a close watch on Ivan, which is still reeking havoc, particularly across the state of Alabama.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, and it's going to for a long time. This thing is not going to be a quick mover. It moved onshore very quickly, but it's not moving that quickly later on in the period here.
Category 1, it is still a hurricane. Even though it's onshore, Category 1, 75 miles per hour. There are the coordinates: 32.0, 87.5, about 60 miles to the southwest of Birmingham.
This entire area -- moving on up here -- 8:00 on Friday. Saturday -- and this line here is Sunday. So, it doesn't move anytime soon.
Live shot, though. This might be the live shot -- best live shot I could show you in a long time. And you know why? Because the sun is on left.
This is, well, almost New Orleans, Louisiana. Over that causeway and over that horizon, yes, that is New Orleans. And if is sun is on the left of this picture, that mean those cars are going south, and they haven't been doing that in a couple days.
They have been going north trying to get out of the way of this thing. And so, now they are allowed back over that causeway, and they are headed back home from our affiliate there, WDSU, in New Orleans. So, finally, some folks with some good news.
The storm did turn to the right and it actually missed that area, and it went right through Mobile Bay, which means the right side of this eye wall, Pensacola, East Bay, all the way over from Fairhope, right on over to Pensacola, that's the area that got hit so hard. And in fact, we haven't even been able to get a crew in or out of there to be able to take pictures of that.
There's just stuff all over. And obviously the police are saying, "Stay off the road." And many times that includes us. So, you have to deal with what you can deal with.
I do want to show you one more thing, though. This fast track, we are going to see rotating thunderstorms all day long. Here's Atlanta, here's Montgomery, here's Birmingham. Again, that storm not that far from Montgomery, about 60 miles from Montgomery.
Some of the storms, though, already up to Birmingham, already to Columbus, Georgia. And in this area here, there is a watch box. Hard to see because it is so big, but that's a tornado watch box for pretty much the rest of the afternoon, into the evening. Tornado potential even here in Atlanta, all the way to Augusta, Georgia, down South, even to the Steinhatchee River into parts of Florida -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, Chad. And later you'll update us on Jeanne in the Caribbean?
MYERS: Certainly will.
WHITFIELD: All right.
We'll have live reports from all along the Gulf Coast as it pertains to Ivan. Our Bill Hemmer is in Mobile, Alabama. Rick Sanchez is in Panama City, Florida. We'll also hear from Kathleen Koch, who is in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Jason Bellini, who is in New Orleans.
Let's go first to Mobile, Alabama. And that's where CNN's Bill Hemmer is. And he was there last night when Ivan came calling.
How are things looking right now, Bill?
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The skies are getting lighter, the traffic is getting heavier, actually, Fredricka. The rain is still coming down, but nowhere near what we saw overnight. And again, the gusts have really tapered off, too, as well. And you know, if the satellites and the radar is right, what we're listening to Chad saying here is that Ivan is really going to be moving out of here as we go into the early afternoon hours here.
Now, I can tell you, we talked with a number of police officers, Fredricka. They've been out among a number of streets here in Mobile. Power limbs are down, tree limbs are down, blocking a number streets.
However, they say and they stress that the damage they see here does not look like a hurricane to them. In fact, one officer said it looks like a bad thunderstorm. And that is a very good sign, because we are on the western edge of the storm. On the eastern edge of the storm, across Mobile Bay, it might be a completely different matter had we been broadcasting from there today, much like Gary Tuchman has been posted out there in Gulf Shores throughout the night tonight.
Fredricka, if you come back to me for a second here, you're going to see this all over the Southeast. I mean, trees are going to be down, just about every town, everywhere you look, all the way up to Montgomery, Alabama, east into Macon, Georgia, north into Atlanta, Georgia, as well, and eventually north into Tennessee. That is going to be a familiar scene. But when those trees come down, oftentimes they take the power lines with them, and that's when you get the electricity outages that we have seen already here in Mobile. About 80 percent of the people living in this town waking up today without power, without electricity.
Now, the governor, Bob Riley, I spoke to him several hours ago on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." He is still putting out the word to folks all across the state, not just here in the South, but all over the state, to be cautious and stay inside for now, because they need people off the street and not on. Here's the governor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BOB RILEY (R), ALABAMA: Well, we know we've got some challenges ahead of us today, but the winds are subsiding today. We just are encouraging everyone to stay in, don't go outside, especially down in Mobile and Baldwin County, because there's too many power lines on the ground, there's too many hanging limbs.
Give us one day to get our search and rescue teams down there, get our debris removal teams down there. And we'll keep you updated. But just be patient for one more day and let us get through it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: All right. The governor from earlier. And listening to Chad talk about those tornado watches, and oftentimes tornado warnings moving up northern, in the northern part of Alabama, take heed again, because Ivan has not cleared out yet.
Want to go further east, the Panhandle of Florida, Panama City Beach. Rick Sanchez has been parked there for about three days now.
And Rick, earlier today -- I'm not sure what the conditions are now, but just a few hours ago you were still getting beat up pretty bad. How is it now?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, the more we cover these, Bill, the more we learn from them and the more that these hurricanes surprise us. It seems to defy logic that being as far away as we are, certainly in comparison to where you are, for example, we would end up in what now appears to be, according to the latest statistics that we've been monitoring here, the most dangerous part in the Florida Panhandle for this particular storm. But that seems to be the case.
As a matter of fact, we talked to officials over in Calhoun County just a little while ago, emergency officials there. They were trying to describe to me the scene in Blountstown, what happened there when that tornado ripped through that town.
They had put out a report earlier today saying that five people were dead. The officials told me on the phone it's a very sad and a very difficult scene that they're monitoring there. They told me they're going to put out on official report in another 20 minutes. I get the sense in talking with them -- and I've been talking with them throughout the morning -- that the death toll, the number of casualties may change, because they're saying, "We're going to give you total numbers in just a little bit, Rick. We can't tell you exactly."
But that's obviously, you know, the headline coming out of this: a tornado rips through a town not far from here, just west of Tallahassee, Calhoun County, where five people perish. Two people die here as well in Panama Beach -- Panama City and Panama City Beach areas. Those also as a result of the tornado.
So -- and another death as you had reported earlier, Bill, bringing the total to eight as it stands right now. And that's before rescue officials get out, because the conditions are really still not suitable for them.
Case in point, I want to show you some video now of a story that we've been following since early this morning. This is a fire at a trailer park.
Fire officials say if this were regular conditions and they weren't in a hurricane, they probably would have been able to get there in time to at least put it out, maybe a trailer would have burned. Instead, not one, not two, not three, but four trailers burned because it was just so hard for officials to get there. And when they finally got there, they were -- they were beaten up by the winds and those terrible conditions that made it so difficult for them.
Here's the fire chief of Panama City Beach explaining what this was like from his perspective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JOHN DALY, PANAMA CITY BEACH FIRE DEPT.: I've been doing this a little over 20 years and this was, you know, for a short time span and a lot of fire to fight in a hurry. So, definitely something unusual for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: So, the story here is that, suddenly -- and meteorologists, I'm sure, will be able to explain this phenomenon -- this part of the state of Florida has literally become tornado alley in the last 12 hours to 24. They usually say that it's in the outer bands of the storm, usually in the northern quadrant, usually in this part that you get this type of phenomenon. We just didn't think that it would come in such large measure as we've been seeing it here.
Bill Hemmer, back to you.
HEMMER: All right, Rick, thanks. Rick Sanchez working the story there in Panama City Beach, Florida, there, along the Panhandle.
I tell you, when we arrived three days ago, one thing that struck me and our crew, for that matter, was the level of preparation that people here in southern Alabama had gotten ready for, for Ivan. Case in point right here, the boards are all boarded up all up and down this business district here in downtown Mobile.
A much different scene we saw in Florida two weeks ago for Frances. It just appeared to us that people, here in Mobile, anyway, had really not been taking many chances, really exercised the warnings and the caution and put up the plywood where necessary. And many times that we have found in the end, that glass shatters, it can cause so many lacerations and so many injuries.
This is the rule of thumb. And this should be the way it is done, not just here, but just about everywhere.
Further north now, in Montgomery, Ivan is still there knocking on the door in Montgomery, Alabama. Drew Griffin is watching that story there.
Drew, what do you have?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, just to echo what you just said, we drove from Destine all the way up to Montgomery, and all the way up, even here, 150, 160 miles inland, you had people with boarded up windows. So, I think you're right, people did, in Alabama, take this very seriously.
What is surprising to us is we're not getting stronger winds here in Montgomery --40,000, 50,000 people are without power. The rain has been steady since about 7:30. But if I heard Chad Myers correctly, that eye of the storm should be directly to the west of us, which means we should be feeling some much stronger winds than we are.
We've had gusts of about 40 or so. But I would think they'll be much stronger if the eye was here. So, this is a quirky storm.
It seems to be the further away you are, the more damage you might sustain. And in fact, there are tornado warnings to the east of us, in some of those outer bands of Lee County, which is directly east of us here in Montgomery.
But again, Montgomery has been getting soaked with rain. Of course that saturates the ground in any winds. Even at 40, 45 miles an hour, can topple those trees. That's what leads to the power out.
We're trying to watch the flooding situation. So far, not a problem, according to local police. But again, we are just getting this storm now that you have had for so many hours -- Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Drew, thanks. And as you point out as well, preparations should be the rule and not the exception.
Back here in Mobile, back in these trees again, the reason I point this out, Fredricka, it is literally raining Mardi Gras beads. Why, you ask? I know you're a big fan of New Orleans. I'll tell you, though: Mobile claims they have celebrated the first Mardi Gras in the history of the U.S., a city founded right around 1702. The Mardi Gras beads were up there in this tree for the parade back in February. The only time anyone can reach them is when the limbs come down. Unfortunately, a few have here in Mobile today.
Back to you now at the CNN Center.
WHITFIELD: OK. For a minute, I thought you were collecting some rosaries, which I know a lot of people were clutching overnight, not knowing what Ivan was going to do. But didn't know that little bit of history about Mardi Gras and the history of Mobile, Alabama. Good to know.
All right. Thanks a lot, Bill.
Well, our coverage of Hurricane Ivan continues throughout the hour. Coming up, we'll hear from the Red Cross, which needs your help. Plus more from the hardest hit areas. We're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: And now Hurricane Ivan, still a Category 1 moves further inland, mostly engulfing the state of Alabama. Further west, in the low-lying city of New Orleans, Louisiana, people there are much relieved, particularly because they barely got any wind, they barely got any rain from Ivan. Jason Bellini filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The streets here in the French Quarter of New Orleans are coming back to life. The curfew lifted at 7:00 Central Time today. It had been imposed 2:00 yesterday. So, New Orleans had a night of no partying. But today, there's certainly cause for celebration.
No real damage here in the city. People are out on the streets, discovering that there really was no wind damage, the streets are dry. It's actually a beautiful day here.
Just a couple days ago, people were fearing the worst. The worst being seriously flooding caused by a direct hit or a near direct hit by Hurricane Ivan. It could have caused much deaths and much destruction in this city, which lies below sea level.
The great fear is that the Mississippi River or Lake Pontchartrain to the north could overflow its banks, submerging parts of this city in 14 feet of water. Fortunately, that did not happen.
One thing the city is looking into for future hurricanes is how to make the evacuation process go smoother. Many complaints from motorists who were caught in traffic, who were caught in virtual gridlock out of the highways out of this city. One proposal is that they open up all lanes of traffic for evacuation out of the city on the one major highway in the future to make it go a little more quickly, a little more smoothly.
The fear is that, in the future, people may not be able to get out of here as quickly as possible when a hurricane comes this way. They're very lucky this time, and people are happy about that.
Jason Bellini, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And a very dry in new Orleans.
Still much more big news we're following for you today.
America's own intelligence community is telling the Bush administration the outlook for Iraq is not good. The details of that report coming up.
And of course, we're staying on top of the path of Hurricane Ivan. More from the strike zone when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, there are three things you can expect in any hurricane: blasting winds, surging floodwaters and wind-blown correspondents. But sometimes that reporter, tethered to land with a microphone and a keen sense of drama, really is the best illustration of how punishing the elements can be. CNN's Anderson Cooper shows us how quickly conditions deteriorated under Ivan's advance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "360": The hope here, though, is that people have been prepared. They have evacuated, or tonight they are hunkered down, because this storm is coming and it is coming on fast.
I thought it was bad two hours ago. I thought it was bad an hour ago. It gets worse and worse and worse.
It's very almost difficult to stand at times. You really have to push yourself into the wind. And I'm parallel to the wind. If I turn perpendicular at this point, I am not sure I could actually even stand up. It is getting very nasty out here very fast.
Definitely the winds are a little bit stronger right now. I got some video to show -- man. I got some video to show you: two homes catching fire. Authorities did respond to it. There were fire trucks on the scene. We don't have any word on any injuries. We hope those homes have been evacuated. Most of the homes -- a lot the homes here, have been evacuated already.
There are a lot of police out on the streets. They're afraid of looting. But at this point, it's hard to imagine anyone looting in this kind of temperature and this kind of wind. OK, this is a big gust right now.
We're in a pretty secure location, believe it or not. I know the picture is probably pretty bad. I know my mom is probably watching; she's not all that thrilled. But it's actually -- we're very safe. We took a long time to pick this location, and so we feel pretty good about it. As long as the satellite truck stays upright, we're going to try to stay on the air.
I'm kind of looking around to see if CNN brought a boat, because it looks like -- I hope it doesn't happen, but looks like we'll have some difficulty just get around tomorrow.
One has to feel for the people who are living through it. But to see Mother Nature at its full force, it makes you feel very insignificant, I got to tell you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, wind-blown and soggy, but still in one piece, our Anderson Cooper.
And we'll be right back with more coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. Let's check out what's happening "Now in the News" for this Thursday, the 16th of September.
Hurricane Ivan came ashore in Alabama early this morning with 130-mile-per-hour winds. The center of the storm is located south of Montgomery right now, near the center of the state. Winds have slowed to 75 miles an hour, barely holding on to hurricane status.
President Bush says he's talked with Russia's leader about recent events that he says could undermine democracy there. President Vladimir Putin responded to terrorist attacks by seeking to consolidate more power at the Kremlin. Mr. Bush says great democracies need to fight terror by upholding the principles of democracy.
North Korea is balking at a fourth round of talks aimed at ending its nuclear program. The communist governments says the six-nation talks are off until South Korea puts details of its nuclear ambitions on the table.
Martha Stewart's attorney says her defense team will continue to pursue her appeal, even while she's in prison. Stewart is asking a judge to allow her to begin serving her five-month sentence. She says she wants to get the matter behind her.
And doctors in Baltimore completed surgery to separate conjoined twins this morning, but one of the girls died shortly afterward. The babies were joined at the head and shared blood vessels between their brains.
Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
Not just flooding, but there have also been fires in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. Authorities say five mobile homes burned down in two separate fires in Panama City Beach, Florida. No injuries were reported and no word on the exact cause of those fires.
Let's check in with Chad Myers, keeping a close watch on Ivan, which is still making a mess throughout Alabama.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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Aired September 16, 2004 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a look at what's happening now in the news.
The Florida Panhandle gets pounded by Hurricane Ivan. The eye of the storm made landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama, but the area around Pensacola, Florida, was hit hard, as well. And tornadoes spawned by Ivan are blamed for most of the eight deaths in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JEB BUSH, FLORIDA: It was very long night for our neighbors to the west of us, our Floridians that live in northwest Florida, and for the residents of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. And our thoughts and prayers are with them -- were with them last night and are still are today.
This was a devastating storm, as was projected, and my heart goes out to the people that have lost a lot, because there will be extensive damage and some loss of life, sadly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Extensive live coverage of Hurricane Ivan straight ahead.
Iraq's Interior Ministry says two Americans and a British national were kidnapped early today from a house in central Baghdad. Police say 11 kidnappers drove up to a house in a minivan. Six of them entered the house and seized the three people. We'll have a live report from Iraq straight ahead.
President Bush is talking healthcare during a bus tour through Minnesota today. He's at a rally in St. Cloud that began just about 15 minutes ago. The president wants limits on medical malpractice awards to lower costs. He also favors expanding tax-free health savings accounts and providing tax credits to help people buy health insurance.
CBS News promises an all-out effort to determine the validity of documents in a story questioning President Bush's National Guard service. A former secretary for a Guard commander tells the network that the documents are probably fake, but she says the memos did reflect the sentiment of the former squadron commander, that Bush failed to fulfill his duties.
A hearing gets under way today in the Michael Jackson case. Jackson's lawyers want evidence seized from the singer's ranch and from a detective's office thrown out. Tomorrow, the mother of the boy Jackson is accused of molesting is expected to testify. Jackson says he is innocent of the charges against him and plans to appear in court tomorrow.
It is 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. out West. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Daryn Kagan.
Up first on CNN: driving rain, devastating winds and deadly tornadoes. Hurricane Ivan slams into the Gulf Coast with 130-mile- per-hour winds. Florida officials say seven people were killed by tornadoes spawned by Ivan.
The storm made landfall along the east coast of Mobile Bay, near Gulf Shores, Alabama. Fierce winds and pounding rain knocked down trees, flooded streets and snapped power lines. About 250,000 customers in Alabama lost power.
Let's check in with Chad Myers, who's keeping a close watch on Ivan, which is still reeking havoc, particularly across the state of Alabama.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, and it's going to for a long time. This thing is not going to be a quick mover. It moved onshore very quickly, but it's not moving that quickly later on in the period here.
Category 1, it is still a hurricane. Even though it's onshore, Category 1, 75 miles per hour. There are the coordinates: 32.0, 87.5, about 60 miles to the southwest of Birmingham.
This entire area -- moving on up here -- 8:00 on Friday. Saturday -- and this line here is Sunday. So, it doesn't move anytime soon.
Live shot, though. This might be the live shot -- best live shot I could show you in a long time. And you know why? Because the sun is on left.
This is, well, almost New Orleans, Louisiana. Over that causeway and over that horizon, yes, that is New Orleans. And if is sun is on the left of this picture, that mean those cars are going south, and they haven't been doing that in a couple days.
They have been going north trying to get out of the way of this thing. And so, now they are allowed back over that causeway, and they are headed back home from our affiliate there, WDSU, in New Orleans. So, finally, some folks with some good news.
The storm did turn to the right and it actually missed that area, and it went right through Mobile Bay, which means the right side of this eye wall, Pensacola, East Bay, all the way over from Fairhope, right on over to Pensacola, that's the area that got hit so hard. And in fact, we haven't even been able to get a crew in or out of there to be able to take pictures of that.
There's just stuff all over. And obviously the police are saying, "Stay off the road." And many times that includes us. So, you have to deal with what you can deal with.
I do want to show you one more thing, though. This fast track, we are going to see rotating thunderstorms all day long. Here's Atlanta, here's Montgomery, here's Birmingham. Again, that storm not that far from Montgomery, about 60 miles from Montgomery.
Some of the storms, though, already up to Birmingham, already to Columbus, Georgia. And in this area here, there is a watch box. Hard to see because it is so big, but that's a tornado watch box for pretty much the rest of the afternoon, into the evening. Tornado potential even here in Atlanta, all the way to Augusta, Georgia, down South, even to the Steinhatchee River into parts of Florida -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, Chad. And later you'll update us on Jeanne in the Caribbean?
MYERS: Certainly will.
WHITFIELD: All right.
We'll have live reports from all along the Gulf Coast as it pertains to Ivan. Our Bill Hemmer is in Mobile, Alabama. Rick Sanchez is in Panama City, Florida. We'll also hear from Kathleen Koch, who is in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Jason Bellini, who is in New Orleans.
Let's go first to Mobile, Alabama. And that's where CNN's Bill Hemmer is. And he was there last night when Ivan came calling.
How are things looking right now, Bill?
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The skies are getting lighter, the traffic is getting heavier, actually, Fredricka. The rain is still coming down, but nowhere near what we saw overnight. And again, the gusts have really tapered off, too, as well. And you know, if the satellites and the radar is right, what we're listening to Chad saying here is that Ivan is really going to be moving out of here as we go into the early afternoon hours here.
Now, I can tell you, we talked with a number of police officers, Fredricka. They've been out among a number of streets here in Mobile. Power limbs are down, tree limbs are down, blocking a number streets.
However, they say and they stress that the damage they see here does not look like a hurricane to them. In fact, one officer said it looks like a bad thunderstorm. And that is a very good sign, because we are on the western edge of the storm. On the eastern edge of the storm, across Mobile Bay, it might be a completely different matter had we been broadcasting from there today, much like Gary Tuchman has been posted out there in Gulf Shores throughout the night tonight.
Fredricka, if you come back to me for a second here, you're going to see this all over the Southeast. I mean, trees are going to be down, just about every town, everywhere you look, all the way up to Montgomery, Alabama, east into Macon, Georgia, north into Atlanta, Georgia, as well, and eventually north into Tennessee. That is going to be a familiar scene. But when those trees come down, oftentimes they take the power lines with them, and that's when you get the electricity outages that we have seen already here in Mobile. About 80 percent of the people living in this town waking up today without power, without electricity.
Now, the governor, Bob Riley, I spoke to him several hours ago on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." He is still putting out the word to folks all across the state, not just here in the South, but all over the state, to be cautious and stay inside for now, because they need people off the street and not on. Here's the governor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BOB RILEY (R), ALABAMA: Well, we know we've got some challenges ahead of us today, but the winds are subsiding today. We just are encouraging everyone to stay in, don't go outside, especially down in Mobile and Baldwin County, because there's too many power lines on the ground, there's too many hanging limbs.
Give us one day to get our search and rescue teams down there, get our debris removal teams down there. And we'll keep you updated. But just be patient for one more day and let us get through it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: All right. The governor from earlier. And listening to Chad talk about those tornado watches, and oftentimes tornado warnings moving up northern, in the northern part of Alabama, take heed again, because Ivan has not cleared out yet.
Want to go further east, the Panhandle of Florida, Panama City Beach. Rick Sanchez has been parked there for about three days now.
And Rick, earlier today -- I'm not sure what the conditions are now, but just a few hours ago you were still getting beat up pretty bad. How is it now?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, the more we cover these, Bill, the more we learn from them and the more that these hurricanes surprise us. It seems to defy logic that being as far away as we are, certainly in comparison to where you are, for example, we would end up in what now appears to be, according to the latest statistics that we've been monitoring here, the most dangerous part in the Florida Panhandle for this particular storm. But that seems to be the case.
As a matter of fact, we talked to officials over in Calhoun County just a little while ago, emergency officials there. They were trying to describe to me the scene in Blountstown, what happened there when that tornado ripped through that town.
They had put out a report earlier today saying that five people were dead. The officials told me on the phone it's a very sad and a very difficult scene that they're monitoring there. They told me they're going to put out on official report in another 20 minutes. I get the sense in talking with them -- and I've been talking with them throughout the morning -- that the death toll, the number of casualties may change, because they're saying, "We're going to give you total numbers in just a little bit, Rick. We can't tell you exactly."
But that's obviously, you know, the headline coming out of this: a tornado rips through a town not far from here, just west of Tallahassee, Calhoun County, where five people perish. Two people die here as well in Panama Beach -- Panama City and Panama City Beach areas. Those also as a result of the tornado.
So -- and another death as you had reported earlier, Bill, bringing the total to eight as it stands right now. And that's before rescue officials get out, because the conditions are really still not suitable for them.
Case in point, I want to show you some video now of a story that we've been following since early this morning. This is a fire at a trailer park.
Fire officials say if this were regular conditions and they weren't in a hurricane, they probably would have been able to get there in time to at least put it out, maybe a trailer would have burned. Instead, not one, not two, not three, but four trailers burned because it was just so hard for officials to get there. And when they finally got there, they were -- they were beaten up by the winds and those terrible conditions that made it so difficult for them.
Here's the fire chief of Panama City Beach explaining what this was like from his perspective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JOHN DALY, PANAMA CITY BEACH FIRE DEPT.: I've been doing this a little over 20 years and this was, you know, for a short time span and a lot of fire to fight in a hurry. So, definitely something unusual for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: So, the story here is that, suddenly -- and meteorologists, I'm sure, will be able to explain this phenomenon -- this part of the state of Florida has literally become tornado alley in the last 12 hours to 24. They usually say that it's in the outer bands of the storm, usually in the northern quadrant, usually in this part that you get this type of phenomenon. We just didn't think that it would come in such large measure as we've been seeing it here.
Bill Hemmer, back to you.
HEMMER: All right, Rick, thanks. Rick Sanchez working the story there in Panama City Beach, Florida, there, along the Panhandle.
I tell you, when we arrived three days ago, one thing that struck me and our crew, for that matter, was the level of preparation that people here in southern Alabama had gotten ready for, for Ivan. Case in point right here, the boards are all boarded up all up and down this business district here in downtown Mobile.
A much different scene we saw in Florida two weeks ago for Frances. It just appeared to us that people, here in Mobile, anyway, had really not been taking many chances, really exercised the warnings and the caution and put up the plywood where necessary. And many times that we have found in the end, that glass shatters, it can cause so many lacerations and so many injuries.
This is the rule of thumb. And this should be the way it is done, not just here, but just about everywhere.
Further north now, in Montgomery, Ivan is still there knocking on the door in Montgomery, Alabama. Drew Griffin is watching that story there.
Drew, what do you have?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, just to echo what you just said, we drove from Destine all the way up to Montgomery, and all the way up, even here, 150, 160 miles inland, you had people with boarded up windows. So, I think you're right, people did, in Alabama, take this very seriously.
What is surprising to us is we're not getting stronger winds here in Montgomery --40,000, 50,000 people are without power. The rain has been steady since about 7:30. But if I heard Chad Myers correctly, that eye of the storm should be directly to the west of us, which means we should be feeling some much stronger winds than we are.
We've had gusts of about 40 or so. But I would think they'll be much stronger if the eye was here. So, this is a quirky storm.
It seems to be the further away you are, the more damage you might sustain. And in fact, there are tornado warnings to the east of us, in some of those outer bands of Lee County, which is directly east of us here in Montgomery.
But again, Montgomery has been getting soaked with rain. Of course that saturates the ground in any winds. Even at 40, 45 miles an hour, can topple those trees. That's what leads to the power out.
We're trying to watch the flooding situation. So far, not a problem, according to local police. But again, we are just getting this storm now that you have had for so many hours -- Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Drew, thanks. And as you point out as well, preparations should be the rule and not the exception.
Back here in Mobile, back in these trees again, the reason I point this out, Fredricka, it is literally raining Mardi Gras beads. Why, you ask? I know you're a big fan of New Orleans. I'll tell you, though: Mobile claims they have celebrated the first Mardi Gras in the history of the U.S., a city founded right around 1702. The Mardi Gras beads were up there in this tree for the parade back in February. The only time anyone can reach them is when the limbs come down. Unfortunately, a few have here in Mobile today.
Back to you now at the CNN Center.
WHITFIELD: OK. For a minute, I thought you were collecting some rosaries, which I know a lot of people were clutching overnight, not knowing what Ivan was going to do. But didn't know that little bit of history about Mardi Gras and the history of Mobile, Alabama. Good to know.
All right. Thanks a lot, Bill.
Well, our coverage of Hurricane Ivan continues throughout the hour. Coming up, we'll hear from the Red Cross, which needs your help. Plus more from the hardest hit areas. We're coming right back.
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WHITFIELD: And now Hurricane Ivan, still a Category 1 moves further inland, mostly engulfing the state of Alabama. Further west, in the low-lying city of New Orleans, Louisiana, people there are much relieved, particularly because they barely got any wind, they barely got any rain from Ivan. Jason Bellini filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The streets here in the French Quarter of New Orleans are coming back to life. The curfew lifted at 7:00 Central Time today. It had been imposed 2:00 yesterday. So, New Orleans had a night of no partying. But today, there's certainly cause for celebration.
No real damage here in the city. People are out on the streets, discovering that there really was no wind damage, the streets are dry. It's actually a beautiful day here.
Just a couple days ago, people were fearing the worst. The worst being seriously flooding caused by a direct hit or a near direct hit by Hurricane Ivan. It could have caused much deaths and much destruction in this city, which lies below sea level.
The great fear is that the Mississippi River or Lake Pontchartrain to the north could overflow its banks, submerging parts of this city in 14 feet of water. Fortunately, that did not happen.
One thing the city is looking into for future hurricanes is how to make the evacuation process go smoother. Many complaints from motorists who were caught in traffic, who were caught in virtual gridlock out of the highways out of this city. One proposal is that they open up all lanes of traffic for evacuation out of the city on the one major highway in the future to make it go a little more quickly, a little more smoothly.
The fear is that, in the future, people may not be able to get out of here as quickly as possible when a hurricane comes this way. They're very lucky this time, and people are happy about that.
Jason Bellini, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And a very dry in new Orleans.
Still much more big news we're following for you today.
America's own intelligence community is telling the Bush administration the outlook for Iraq is not good. The details of that report coming up.
And of course, we're staying on top of the path of Hurricane Ivan. More from the strike zone when we come right back.
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WHITFIELD: Well, there are three things you can expect in any hurricane: blasting winds, surging floodwaters and wind-blown correspondents. But sometimes that reporter, tethered to land with a microphone and a keen sense of drama, really is the best illustration of how punishing the elements can be. CNN's Anderson Cooper shows us how quickly conditions deteriorated under Ivan's advance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "360": The hope here, though, is that people have been prepared. They have evacuated, or tonight they are hunkered down, because this storm is coming and it is coming on fast.
I thought it was bad two hours ago. I thought it was bad an hour ago. It gets worse and worse and worse.
It's very almost difficult to stand at times. You really have to push yourself into the wind. And I'm parallel to the wind. If I turn perpendicular at this point, I am not sure I could actually even stand up. It is getting very nasty out here very fast.
Definitely the winds are a little bit stronger right now. I got some video to show -- man. I got some video to show you: two homes catching fire. Authorities did respond to it. There were fire trucks on the scene. We don't have any word on any injuries. We hope those homes have been evacuated. Most of the homes -- a lot the homes here, have been evacuated already.
There are a lot of police out on the streets. They're afraid of looting. But at this point, it's hard to imagine anyone looting in this kind of temperature and this kind of wind. OK, this is a big gust right now.
We're in a pretty secure location, believe it or not. I know the picture is probably pretty bad. I know my mom is probably watching; she's not all that thrilled. But it's actually -- we're very safe. We took a long time to pick this location, and so we feel pretty good about it. As long as the satellite truck stays upright, we're going to try to stay on the air.
I'm kind of looking around to see if CNN brought a boat, because it looks like -- I hope it doesn't happen, but looks like we'll have some difficulty just get around tomorrow.
One has to feel for the people who are living through it. But to see Mother Nature at its full force, it makes you feel very insignificant, I got to tell you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, wind-blown and soggy, but still in one piece, our Anderson Cooper.
And we'll be right back with more coverage.
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WHITFIELD: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. Let's check out what's happening "Now in the News" for this Thursday, the 16th of September.
Hurricane Ivan came ashore in Alabama early this morning with 130-mile-per-hour winds. The center of the storm is located south of Montgomery right now, near the center of the state. Winds have slowed to 75 miles an hour, barely holding on to hurricane status.
President Bush says he's talked with Russia's leader about recent events that he says could undermine democracy there. President Vladimir Putin responded to terrorist attacks by seeking to consolidate more power at the Kremlin. Mr. Bush says great democracies need to fight terror by upholding the principles of democracy.
North Korea is balking at a fourth round of talks aimed at ending its nuclear program. The communist governments says the six-nation talks are off until South Korea puts details of its nuclear ambitions on the table.
Martha Stewart's attorney says her defense team will continue to pursue her appeal, even while she's in prison. Stewart is asking a judge to allow her to begin serving her five-month sentence. She says she wants to get the matter behind her.
And doctors in Baltimore completed surgery to separate conjoined twins this morning, but one of the girls died shortly afterward. The babies were joined at the head and shared blood vessels between their brains.
Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
Not just flooding, but there have also been fires in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. Authorities say five mobile homes burned down in two separate fires in Panama City Beach, Florida. No injuries were reported and no word on the exact cause of those fires.
Let's check in with Chad Myers, keeping a close watch on Ivan, which is still making a mess throughout Alabama.
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