Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
Widespread Damage Reported Across the Gulf Coast From Hurricane Ivan
Aired September 16, 2004 - 10:00 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, ANCHOR: Good morning to you everyone at home and in your offices. From the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield in for Daryn Kagan this morning.
A look at our top stories. This is how Hurricane Ivan appeared as it stormed ashore near Mobile, Alabama. Early this morning, it hit land as a slightly weakened Category 3 hurricane with 130 miles per hour winds. Its maximum sustained winds are now about 80 miles per hour. Widespread damage is reported across the Gulf Coast, and at least eight people are confirmed dead in Florida's Panhandle.
Kidnappers have seized two Americans and a Briton in Baghdad. Iraq's government described the hostage takers as bursting into a residential office in the upscale neighborhood of al Mansour, and then whisking away the hostages without firing a shot. We'll have a live report from Baghdad coming up.
Now the paper trail of the CBS documents that questioned President Bush's Vietnam era service in the National Guard. "The Washington Post" is reporting that at least one of the papers was faxed from a Kinko's copy shop in Abilene, Texas. According to the report, that could suggest the source of the disputed papers, and support theories linking them to a former Guard officer who lives nearby.
In Baltimore, doctors at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center announced earlier this morning that one of two conjoined twins has died just after surgeons separated them. The other year-old twin is in critical but stable condition. Doctors say they believe she will fully recover.
Our top story, Hurricane Ivan, which came ashore in the north Gulf Coast overnight.
Well, we have reporters across the north central Gulf Coast region covering Hurricane Ivan. This hour we'll hear from: Bill Hemmer in Mobile, Alabama, Rick Sanchez in Panama City, Florida, Kathleen Koch in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Jason Bellini in New Orleans.
Let's get started now with Bill Hemmer in Mobile, where there is damage, but so far not as much as first feared.
Bill, isn't that the case?
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed, that is. The mayor was on with us three hours ago, Fredricka. He phrased it this way. He said we caught a bullet with our teeth. Mobile, Alabama, hard-hit by Ivan. But again, there was so much fear at this time yesterday about the Hurricane Frederic from 25 years ago. Now, that's not to say this place did not suffer damage. It did. And it's going to take a long time and cost millions and millions of dollars to pick up where they left off.
But here's the silver lining in this storm, Fredricka. No one killed in Alabama at this point. Now, again I know Chad is talking about these tornado warnings. And we are not out of the woods just yet. But as far as Mobile is concerned, no fatalities. In fact, we did not get a single report of an injury, which is all very, very good news here in the southern part of Alabama. People are without power. Waking up today, about 80 percent of the folks who stayed behind without electricity. That's going to be an issue in the coming days to come here.
Show you some of the damage, Fredricka. Just beyond this police car here, a very familiar scene. You're going to see trees down and limbs down. And that is what accounts for a lot of the power loss and electricity loss that we're talking about today. In a moment, we're going to try and grab one of these police officers here in a moment, trying to find out what they're up to.
In the meantime, Fredricka, the town is coming back to life slowly. A number of cars, just in the past hour now, starting to come out for those people who stuck it out here for Hurricane Ivan. That's the scene here in Mobile.
Further east though, in Panama City Beach, Rick Sanchez reporting there.
And Rick, it is not the same situation, at least at last check there. How are things now?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well we're on, you know, what they perpetually call "the bad side of the storm," Bill. As you well know. As a result we're getting an awful lot of wind in this area. And interestingly enough, as I had mentioned the wind has flipped around. So we're seeing a lot of debris fly around.
These are these covers that are on some of the lights in many of the condominiums and the new construction in these buildings that are on the side of the shore. And you know, it's interesting because a few of them are standing on. But most of them have fallen off. These things essentially go on top of these covers up there. And they have literally just flown off, as have railings. As have signs.
Mike, I'm going to walk over here and give you this so it doesn't fly around anymore. Take this from me.
So what we see is a lot of Category 1 tropical storm style debris flying all over the place. You mentioned a little while ago, Bill, that people in Mobile are starting to get out. People are not getting out here, just the opposite as a matter of fact. Still under a tornado warning for much of the area, good reason to be concerned. Because as you had alluded to, as many as eight deaths reported. And it seems ironic that we would be furthest away from the eye of the storm, still within that concentric cone, and yet have the most danger as a result of the fatalities that have been reported in this area.
We do now also have some tape of an incident that I reported to you about a half hour ago. That is that fire in that trailer park. I think we have some tape we can show you of that. Interestingly enough, this is a fire that likely would have been put out immediately had we not been under hurricane conditions. But because of the conditions, it took the fire department longer to get there, A.
And once they got there, the conditions were so difficult and so extreme that the fire, as they watched it in part, literally went through not one, not two, not three, but four different trailer homes. So four trailer homes devastated. The good news in that particular situation is that there were no injuries; no one lost their lives. People were able to get out on time.
Not the case, though, in two different places. One, of course, Calhoun County, just west of Tallahassee, where EOC officials have told us they have confirmed in a statement put out earlier today, and reported to us, that five people had lost their lives in a town called Blountstown, just west of Tallahassee as a result of tornadic activity. Same thing here in Panama City Beach, two people died as a result of tornadoes. One not far from where we're standing right now. The other one in the north side of town.
So the winds keep howling. They've flipped around. They're coming from the Gulf. We're under tornado warnings. People are still inside. There's a curfew. They're being told not to go outside. We have only ventured as far as the trailer park area to get those pictures for you. We have not been able to get a crew, as far as I know, Bill, into the area around Calhoun where the five fatalities are being reported. We're hoping to hear back from Sunny O'Brien, the head of EOC in Calhoun County. We'll continue to work the story as well for you from right here in Panama City Beach.
I'm Rick Sanchez.
Hey, Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: All right, Rick, thanks for that. And again, an excellent report on the conditions and what's happening there.
A similar theme here though, in Mobile. Police officer just driving by, saying we need to get the word out to folks here if they're listening right now to stay off the streets. A number of power lines are down. A number of trees are down. The emergency crews need the access to the streets to make sure they can get it cleared off. The other big danger is this. Oftentimes when power lines go down, they can be dead or they can be alive. And the latter is the one you want to avoid, especially with the water and moisture here on the street.
More tree limbs down, right down the road here on Royal Street, our location here. And again, as I've mentioned the past hour, that's going to be a familiar scene not just in Mobile but clear up through -- let's see: Macon, Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia; over to Montgomery, Birmingham, Alabama. So you will see a lot of that throughout the day here.
In the meantime, though, a lot of people in Mobile frankly feel lucky. In the closing hours of this hurricane, the hurricane on a south-north direction veered to the east slightly. That put the most intense winds away from the city, directed away from the population base here. However, when Mobile won, Gulf Shores, Alabama lost out on this deal. Gulf Shores took the eye of the storm. Twenty-five miles southeast of our location here, Gary Tuchman stationed there throughout the night overnight. Gary filed this report just a few moments ago in Gulf Shores.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): For hours after the eye passed through Gulf Shores Alabama, the winds continue to be strong and the rain continued to fall. We're staying at a hotel parking lot in Gulf Shores just on the other side of Intercostals Waterway from the Barrier Island on the Gulf Shores Beach. And you can see right here in the parking lot, it's very typical of the city Gulf Shores right now, parking lots and streets that are flooded. Trees are down everywhere. A firehouse on the Barrier Island behind us has lost part of its roof. Its doors were sucked in during the height of the wind.
A hundred and ten mile-per-hour gusts we had for a long period of time. And then all of a sudden at 2:50 Eastern Time, the winds just stopped. The eye came over us. It became calm. The rain stopped for about an hour and 20 minutes and then once again it resumed. You could see right behind me, we were standing here and all of a sudden this tree just came down right behind us. Other trees have cracked. Light poles are down. There is lots of damage.
Now that it's daylight, police and fire officials are going out to make sure that nobody was hurt, and most important that nobody was killed. But there is a lot of damage here in this town.
This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, Gulf Shores, Alabama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: And again, Gary, really weathered the heart of that storm overnight last night. Gulf Shores lies a bit lower than Mobile. Listen, essentially everything is in a low-lying area down here. Mobile however, has an elevation that climbs to about 27 feet above sea level, which is better than nothing. Because Gulf Shores is much lower than that.
Again we're told by authorities, folks should stay off the roads here in Mobile. But you cannot blame a lot of people. Frankly, they want to come out and see their town, see how they weathered the storm of Ivan that came roaring through here overnight last night.
Again the latest toll in Florida: eight dead as a result of Ivan, which brings the total over the past two weeks of this deadly storm to 76, going back to the Caribbean and Cuba and Grenada and the Cayman Islands, and also Jamaica.
More on Mobile in a moment, Fredricka. The wind is still kicking up here. We're not through it just yet. Back to you now in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: And Bill, you talked about people who are starting to venture out. Seeing a lot of cars driving back and forth behind you. Does it appear that many of these are residents? Or are they primarily, you know, workers -- utility workers who are trying to assess the damage?
HEMMER: Yes. Great question. We talked to some folks in Bellsouth. We saw some folks in the city. We saw at least a dozen police cars here now getting off the overnight shift and trying to get a break here. But outside of that, they strike me as people who live here in their own private cars, who are trying to look-see for their town here in Mobile, Alabama.
WHITFIELD: All right. Bill Hemmer, we'll be checking in with you again from Mobile. Thanks so much.
Well, for all the latest on Hurricane Ivan, visit our continually updated web site. That address as always is cnn.com.
Much more on the storm still ahead this morning. We'll head to the Big Easy, and New Orleans breathes a big sigh of relief.
Plus...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): I know my mom is probably watching and she's not all that thrilled. But it's actually --we're very safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Anderson Cooper weathers the worst of the storm to his mother's chagrin, as he mentions. We'll show you more of his long night with Hurricane Ivan.
But first other news this morning. Another kidnapping in Iraq. Now two Americans and a Brit are missing. The latest from Baghdad straight ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: For a moment, we're going to step beyond the reach of Hurricane Ivan and update you on a developing story out of Iraq. The U.S. and British embassies confirm gunmen in Baghdad have kidnapped two Americans and a Briton from their office there.
CNN's Diana Muriel is in the capital and joins us with the very latest -- Diana. DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, we've just had confirmation from the U.S. Embassy here in Baghdad of the names of the two American citizens who were kidnapped together with a British citizen early this morning from their residence in the Mansour District of western Baghdad. A house that served both as their sleeping quarters and also as their office. They're named as Jack Hensley and Eugene Jack Armstrong. The U.S. Embassy here says that the U.S. government is using all available means to locate them and that the Iraqi government is also fully assisting.
The three men were taken by 11 men dressed in civilian clothes early this morning at around 6:00. They arrived at the residence in two vehicles, one a minivan, one an ordinary car. Five stayed outside as lookout, while the other six entered the building and kidnapped the three men without a shot being fired. Although police did say later that they had found weapons inside the building. But they believe that those weapons belonged to the al Khaleej Services Company, the company for which all three men worked.
According to neighbors, the house was protected by one day guard and one night guard. But last night, that night guard failed to show up for work. And it seems as if the house was unguarded through the night.
Neighbors also told us that at 6:00 in the morning, one of the men would come out and start up the generator. And that generator served several houses in the vicinity, about twelve houses. So neighbors were surprised that their power hadn't been switched on this morning. They looked out their window to see that police had already arrived. It seems that the kidnappers struck as one of the men came outside to turn that generator on. So it seems from the evidence that we have so far that this was a very organized, very planned kidnap -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now Diana, then what about this night guard? Any idea about the whereabouts?
MURIEL: No information at this stage. Although it's an ongoing investigation obviously. And the U.S. military have also offered their services to the Iraqi police. We understand they visited the property earlier today but no information as to where this guard was or why he didn't show up for work last night -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: No information, but is there suspicion among those investigators that that night guard may have had something to do with this operation?
MURIEL: There certainly is room for that suspicion. The security situation here is very precarious, as you know. And one of the police officers from the Ministry of Interior actually said that he was very surprised at the minimal amount of security that was there. He was very surprised the guards hadn't been posted. It seems as if they had made some attempt to organize themselves with some security. But it failed them, failed them very considerably earlier today -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right Diana Muriel. Thanks so much for that update out of Baghdad.
Well, here in the states now, Biloxi dodges a head-on collision with Ivan, but still got slammed by torrential rains and powerful winds. A live report on that straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: An update now on Hurricane Ivan. You're looking at some great pictures that are coming in now out of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where they experienced, like many other north Gulf Coast states, storm surges of up to 12 inches. And you're looking at, you know, some of that water washing up on apparently some lawns there, and even some roads. And very soon you're going to see some boats. It doesn't seem to matter whether they're tied down or anchored down. The boats just get pushed around like they're just toys out there.
And keeping a close watch on the development out of Mobile, Alabama, not too far away in a neighboring state are Bill Hemmer.
You don't have conditions quite like that right now. And a lot of folks there in Mobile are breathing a real sigh of relief that things didn't get as aggressive as the pictures that we're seeing out of Fort Walton Beach, Bill. But indeed there was some damage in the form of power lines down, trees down. And so you've got a lot of folks without power, don't you?
HEMMER: Yes. Indeed we do, Fredricka. I have not seen the videotape from Fort Walton. But based on the description you're offering, it was nine years ago when Hurricane Opal starting churning overnight in the Gulf of Mexico. It quickly went from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 4 overnight. Scared the daylights out of so many people up and down the Gulf Coast. There was a mad rush to get out. What happened to that storm though, before it made land it weakened.
It did not strike the Gulf Coast at Category 4 strength. But the water in the Gulf was stirred up to that level and it sent this 15- foot wall of water into places, like Fort Walton and Destin Beach, Florida. And it took so many years for those folks to dig out of it. Massive amounts of erosion and that storm surge, which is the No. 1 killer, we are told, in the majority of hurricanes up and down the east coast. That was the scene nine years ago. And having not seen the pictures out of Fort Walton, it seems based on your description though; they got a similar dose of that this time.
But let's keep our fingers crossed that it's nowhere near as bad as Opal from 1995 -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: What an incredible scene. You mentioned that a lot of folks were starting to venture out there in Mobile, Alabama. We don't know what the situation is right there in Fort Walton Beach with some of these pictures that we're seeing. But clearly...
HEMMER: Excuse me!
WHITFIELD: ... folks have known to stay away or at least stay inside. A number of shelters throughout the Panhandle, as well as there in Alabama have been filled to capacity, as they were urged by their state authorities. All right.
HEMMER: Michelle, you're live here on CNN. And do you live in Mobile?
MICHELLE, RESIDENT: I do.
HEMMER: What do you make of your town after getting a first look at it after Ivan?
MICHELLE: Not nearly as bad as Frederick. But I mean we're thankful it tracked a little to the east. I think it did a lot less damage than anybody expected.
HEMMER: You have a beautiful town here. Do you live downtown or outside?
MICHELLE: Downtown.
HEMMER: A lot of authorities have been coming by telling us to get the word out to people like you to stay off the streets, because they need access. How do you react to that when the local police are saying that?
MICHELLE: Then I'll be headed home.
HEMMER: All right. Michelle, well listen, great luck to you coming...
HEMMER: ... through the storm just right. OK?
MICHELLE: Thank you.
HEMMER: Michelle is here in Mobile. A few other folks down the street there, Fredricka as well. More cars out now as well, as they come out to get their first look-see in the aftermath now of Ivan.
WHITFIELD: Folks feel like it's fairly safe to venture out. You've got died down winds quite a bit and just a few sprinkles taking place there. Pretty expected after Hurricane Ivan has now moved further inland. Really still kind of canvassing almost the whole state of Alabama, which many people throughout the state are experiencing, and are likely to experience much more severe flooding in the next coming hours. More of our coverage of Hurricane Ivan when we come right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Before Ivan, Gilbert was one of the strongest hurricanes ever seen in the Western Hemisphere. The 1988 storm devastated Jamaica with winds clocked at 184 miles per hour, leaving 20 percent per of all Jamaicans homeless. Property damages on the island totaled more than $1 billion. Days later, Gilbert was downgraded to Category 3, but struck the Mexican coast south of Brownsville, Texas with a ferocious 1-2 punch. Heavy rains and more than 29 tornadoes were reported.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 16, 2004 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR: Good morning to you everyone at home and in your offices. From the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield in for Daryn Kagan this morning.
A look at our top stories. This is how Hurricane Ivan appeared as it stormed ashore near Mobile, Alabama. Early this morning, it hit land as a slightly weakened Category 3 hurricane with 130 miles per hour winds. Its maximum sustained winds are now about 80 miles per hour. Widespread damage is reported across the Gulf Coast, and at least eight people are confirmed dead in Florida's Panhandle.
Kidnappers have seized two Americans and a Briton in Baghdad. Iraq's government described the hostage takers as bursting into a residential office in the upscale neighborhood of al Mansour, and then whisking away the hostages without firing a shot. We'll have a live report from Baghdad coming up.
Now the paper trail of the CBS documents that questioned President Bush's Vietnam era service in the National Guard. "The Washington Post" is reporting that at least one of the papers was faxed from a Kinko's copy shop in Abilene, Texas. According to the report, that could suggest the source of the disputed papers, and support theories linking them to a former Guard officer who lives nearby.
In Baltimore, doctors at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center announced earlier this morning that one of two conjoined twins has died just after surgeons separated them. The other year-old twin is in critical but stable condition. Doctors say they believe she will fully recover.
Our top story, Hurricane Ivan, which came ashore in the north Gulf Coast overnight.
Well, we have reporters across the north central Gulf Coast region covering Hurricane Ivan. This hour we'll hear from: Bill Hemmer in Mobile, Alabama, Rick Sanchez in Panama City, Florida, Kathleen Koch in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Jason Bellini in New Orleans.
Let's get started now with Bill Hemmer in Mobile, where there is damage, but so far not as much as first feared.
Bill, isn't that the case?
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed, that is. The mayor was on with us three hours ago, Fredricka. He phrased it this way. He said we caught a bullet with our teeth. Mobile, Alabama, hard-hit by Ivan. But again, there was so much fear at this time yesterday about the Hurricane Frederic from 25 years ago. Now, that's not to say this place did not suffer damage. It did. And it's going to take a long time and cost millions and millions of dollars to pick up where they left off.
But here's the silver lining in this storm, Fredricka. No one killed in Alabama at this point. Now, again I know Chad is talking about these tornado warnings. And we are not out of the woods just yet. But as far as Mobile is concerned, no fatalities. In fact, we did not get a single report of an injury, which is all very, very good news here in the southern part of Alabama. People are without power. Waking up today, about 80 percent of the folks who stayed behind without electricity. That's going to be an issue in the coming days to come here.
Show you some of the damage, Fredricka. Just beyond this police car here, a very familiar scene. You're going to see trees down and limbs down. And that is what accounts for a lot of the power loss and electricity loss that we're talking about today. In a moment, we're going to try and grab one of these police officers here in a moment, trying to find out what they're up to.
In the meantime, Fredricka, the town is coming back to life slowly. A number of cars, just in the past hour now, starting to come out for those people who stuck it out here for Hurricane Ivan. That's the scene here in Mobile.
Further east though, in Panama City Beach, Rick Sanchez reporting there.
And Rick, it is not the same situation, at least at last check there. How are things now?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well we're on, you know, what they perpetually call "the bad side of the storm," Bill. As you well know. As a result we're getting an awful lot of wind in this area. And interestingly enough, as I had mentioned the wind has flipped around. So we're seeing a lot of debris fly around.
These are these covers that are on some of the lights in many of the condominiums and the new construction in these buildings that are on the side of the shore. And you know, it's interesting because a few of them are standing on. But most of them have fallen off. These things essentially go on top of these covers up there. And they have literally just flown off, as have railings. As have signs.
Mike, I'm going to walk over here and give you this so it doesn't fly around anymore. Take this from me.
So what we see is a lot of Category 1 tropical storm style debris flying all over the place. You mentioned a little while ago, Bill, that people in Mobile are starting to get out. People are not getting out here, just the opposite as a matter of fact. Still under a tornado warning for much of the area, good reason to be concerned. Because as you had alluded to, as many as eight deaths reported. And it seems ironic that we would be furthest away from the eye of the storm, still within that concentric cone, and yet have the most danger as a result of the fatalities that have been reported in this area.
We do now also have some tape of an incident that I reported to you about a half hour ago. That is that fire in that trailer park. I think we have some tape we can show you of that. Interestingly enough, this is a fire that likely would have been put out immediately had we not been under hurricane conditions. But because of the conditions, it took the fire department longer to get there, A.
And once they got there, the conditions were so difficult and so extreme that the fire, as they watched it in part, literally went through not one, not two, not three, but four different trailer homes. So four trailer homes devastated. The good news in that particular situation is that there were no injuries; no one lost their lives. People were able to get out on time.
Not the case, though, in two different places. One, of course, Calhoun County, just west of Tallahassee, where EOC officials have told us they have confirmed in a statement put out earlier today, and reported to us, that five people had lost their lives in a town called Blountstown, just west of Tallahassee as a result of tornadic activity. Same thing here in Panama City Beach, two people died as a result of tornadoes. One not far from where we're standing right now. The other one in the north side of town.
So the winds keep howling. They've flipped around. They're coming from the Gulf. We're under tornado warnings. People are still inside. There's a curfew. They're being told not to go outside. We have only ventured as far as the trailer park area to get those pictures for you. We have not been able to get a crew, as far as I know, Bill, into the area around Calhoun where the five fatalities are being reported. We're hoping to hear back from Sunny O'Brien, the head of EOC in Calhoun County. We'll continue to work the story as well for you from right here in Panama City Beach.
I'm Rick Sanchez.
Hey, Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: All right, Rick, thanks for that. And again, an excellent report on the conditions and what's happening there.
A similar theme here though, in Mobile. Police officer just driving by, saying we need to get the word out to folks here if they're listening right now to stay off the streets. A number of power lines are down. A number of trees are down. The emergency crews need the access to the streets to make sure they can get it cleared off. The other big danger is this. Oftentimes when power lines go down, they can be dead or they can be alive. And the latter is the one you want to avoid, especially with the water and moisture here on the street.
More tree limbs down, right down the road here on Royal Street, our location here. And again, as I've mentioned the past hour, that's going to be a familiar scene not just in Mobile but clear up through -- let's see: Macon, Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia; over to Montgomery, Birmingham, Alabama. So you will see a lot of that throughout the day here.
In the meantime, though, a lot of people in Mobile frankly feel lucky. In the closing hours of this hurricane, the hurricane on a south-north direction veered to the east slightly. That put the most intense winds away from the city, directed away from the population base here. However, when Mobile won, Gulf Shores, Alabama lost out on this deal. Gulf Shores took the eye of the storm. Twenty-five miles southeast of our location here, Gary Tuchman stationed there throughout the night overnight. Gary filed this report just a few moments ago in Gulf Shores.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): For hours after the eye passed through Gulf Shores Alabama, the winds continue to be strong and the rain continued to fall. We're staying at a hotel parking lot in Gulf Shores just on the other side of Intercostals Waterway from the Barrier Island on the Gulf Shores Beach. And you can see right here in the parking lot, it's very typical of the city Gulf Shores right now, parking lots and streets that are flooded. Trees are down everywhere. A firehouse on the Barrier Island behind us has lost part of its roof. Its doors were sucked in during the height of the wind.
A hundred and ten mile-per-hour gusts we had for a long period of time. And then all of a sudden at 2:50 Eastern Time, the winds just stopped. The eye came over us. It became calm. The rain stopped for about an hour and 20 minutes and then once again it resumed. You could see right behind me, we were standing here and all of a sudden this tree just came down right behind us. Other trees have cracked. Light poles are down. There is lots of damage.
Now that it's daylight, police and fire officials are going out to make sure that nobody was hurt, and most important that nobody was killed. But there is a lot of damage here in this town.
This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, Gulf Shores, Alabama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: And again, Gary, really weathered the heart of that storm overnight last night. Gulf Shores lies a bit lower than Mobile. Listen, essentially everything is in a low-lying area down here. Mobile however, has an elevation that climbs to about 27 feet above sea level, which is better than nothing. Because Gulf Shores is much lower than that.
Again we're told by authorities, folks should stay off the roads here in Mobile. But you cannot blame a lot of people. Frankly, they want to come out and see their town, see how they weathered the storm of Ivan that came roaring through here overnight last night.
Again the latest toll in Florida: eight dead as a result of Ivan, which brings the total over the past two weeks of this deadly storm to 76, going back to the Caribbean and Cuba and Grenada and the Cayman Islands, and also Jamaica.
More on Mobile in a moment, Fredricka. The wind is still kicking up here. We're not through it just yet. Back to you now in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: And Bill, you talked about people who are starting to venture out. Seeing a lot of cars driving back and forth behind you. Does it appear that many of these are residents? Or are they primarily, you know, workers -- utility workers who are trying to assess the damage?
HEMMER: Yes. Great question. We talked to some folks in Bellsouth. We saw some folks in the city. We saw at least a dozen police cars here now getting off the overnight shift and trying to get a break here. But outside of that, they strike me as people who live here in their own private cars, who are trying to look-see for their town here in Mobile, Alabama.
WHITFIELD: All right. Bill Hemmer, we'll be checking in with you again from Mobile. Thanks so much.
Well, for all the latest on Hurricane Ivan, visit our continually updated web site. That address as always is cnn.com.
Much more on the storm still ahead this morning. We'll head to the Big Easy, and New Orleans breathes a big sigh of relief.
Plus...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): I know my mom is probably watching and she's not all that thrilled. But it's actually --we're very safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Anderson Cooper weathers the worst of the storm to his mother's chagrin, as he mentions. We'll show you more of his long night with Hurricane Ivan.
But first other news this morning. Another kidnapping in Iraq. Now two Americans and a Brit are missing. The latest from Baghdad straight ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: For a moment, we're going to step beyond the reach of Hurricane Ivan and update you on a developing story out of Iraq. The U.S. and British embassies confirm gunmen in Baghdad have kidnapped two Americans and a Briton from their office there.
CNN's Diana Muriel is in the capital and joins us with the very latest -- Diana. DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, we've just had confirmation from the U.S. Embassy here in Baghdad of the names of the two American citizens who were kidnapped together with a British citizen early this morning from their residence in the Mansour District of western Baghdad. A house that served both as their sleeping quarters and also as their office. They're named as Jack Hensley and Eugene Jack Armstrong. The U.S. Embassy here says that the U.S. government is using all available means to locate them and that the Iraqi government is also fully assisting.
The three men were taken by 11 men dressed in civilian clothes early this morning at around 6:00. They arrived at the residence in two vehicles, one a minivan, one an ordinary car. Five stayed outside as lookout, while the other six entered the building and kidnapped the three men without a shot being fired. Although police did say later that they had found weapons inside the building. But they believe that those weapons belonged to the al Khaleej Services Company, the company for which all three men worked.
According to neighbors, the house was protected by one day guard and one night guard. But last night, that night guard failed to show up for work. And it seems as if the house was unguarded through the night.
Neighbors also told us that at 6:00 in the morning, one of the men would come out and start up the generator. And that generator served several houses in the vicinity, about twelve houses. So neighbors were surprised that their power hadn't been switched on this morning. They looked out their window to see that police had already arrived. It seems that the kidnappers struck as one of the men came outside to turn that generator on. So it seems from the evidence that we have so far that this was a very organized, very planned kidnap -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now Diana, then what about this night guard? Any idea about the whereabouts?
MURIEL: No information at this stage. Although it's an ongoing investigation obviously. And the U.S. military have also offered their services to the Iraqi police. We understand they visited the property earlier today but no information as to where this guard was or why he didn't show up for work last night -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: No information, but is there suspicion among those investigators that that night guard may have had something to do with this operation?
MURIEL: There certainly is room for that suspicion. The security situation here is very precarious, as you know. And one of the police officers from the Ministry of Interior actually said that he was very surprised at the minimal amount of security that was there. He was very surprised the guards hadn't been posted. It seems as if they had made some attempt to organize themselves with some security. But it failed them, failed them very considerably earlier today -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right Diana Muriel. Thanks so much for that update out of Baghdad.
Well, here in the states now, Biloxi dodges a head-on collision with Ivan, but still got slammed by torrential rains and powerful winds. A live report on that straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: An update now on Hurricane Ivan. You're looking at some great pictures that are coming in now out of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where they experienced, like many other north Gulf Coast states, storm surges of up to 12 inches. And you're looking at, you know, some of that water washing up on apparently some lawns there, and even some roads. And very soon you're going to see some boats. It doesn't seem to matter whether they're tied down or anchored down. The boats just get pushed around like they're just toys out there.
And keeping a close watch on the development out of Mobile, Alabama, not too far away in a neighboring state are Bill Hemmer.
You don't have conditions quite like that right now. And a lot of folks there in Mobile are breathing a real sigh of relief that things didn't get as aggressive as the pictures that we're seeing out of Fort Walton Beach, Bill. But indeed there was some damage in the form of power lines down, trees down. And so you've got a lot of folks without power, don't you?
HEMMER: Yes. Indeed we do, Fredricka. I have not seen the videotape from Fort Walton. But based on the description you're offering, it was nine years ago when Hurricane Opal starting churning overnight in the Gulf of Mexico. It quickly went from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 4 overnight. Scared the daylights out of so many people up and down the Gulf Coast. There was a mad rush to get out. What happened to that storm though, before it made land it weakened.
It did not strike the Gulf Coast at Category 4 strength. But the water in the Gulf was stirred up to that level and it sent this 15- foot wall of water into places, like Fort Walton and Destin Beach, Florida. And it took so many years for those folks to dig out of it. Massive amounts of erosion and that storm surge, which is the No. 1 killer, we are told, in the majority of hurricanes up and down the east coast. That was the scene nine years ago. And having not seen the pictures out of Fort Walton, it seems based on your description though; they got a similar dose of that this time.
But let's keep our fingers crossed that it's nowhere near as bad as Opal from 1995 -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: What an incredible scene. You mentioned that a lot of folks were starting to venture out there in Mobile, Alabama. We don't know what the situation is right there in Fort Walton Beach with some of these pictures that we're seeing. But clearly...
HEMMER: Excuse me!
WHITFIELD: ... folks have known to stay away or at least stay inside. A number of shelters throughout the Panhandle, as well as there in Alabama have been filled to capacity, as they were urged by their state authorities. All right.
HEMMER: Michelle, you're live here on CNN. And do you live in Mobile?
MICHELLE, RESIDENT: I do.
HEMMER: What do you make of your town after getting a first look at it after Ivan?
MICHELLE: Not nearly as bad as Frederick. But I mean we're thankful it tracked a little to the east. I think it did a lot less damage than anybody expected.
HEMMER: You have a beautiful town here. Do you live downtown or outside?
MICHELLE: Downtown.
HEMMER: A lot of authorities have been coming by telling us to get the word out to people like you to stay off the streets, because they need access. How do you react to that when the local police are saying that?
MICHELLE: Then I'll be headed home.
HEMMER: All right. Michelle, well listen, great luck to you coming...
HEMMER: ... through the storm just right. OK?
MICHELLE: Thank you.
HEMMER: Michelle is here in Mobile. A few other folks down the street there, Fredricka as well. More cars out now as well, as they come out to get their first look-see in the aftermath now of Ivan.
WHITFIELD: Folks feel like it's fairly safe to venture out. You've got died down winds quite a bit and just a few sprinkles taking place there. Pretty expected after Hurricane Ivan has now moved further inland. Really still kind of canvassing almost the whole state of Alabama, which many people throughout the state are experiencing, and are likely to experience much more severe flooding in the next coming hours. More of our coverage of Hurricane Ivan when we come right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Before Ivan, Gilbert was one of the strongest hurricanes ever seen in the Western Hemisphere. The 1988 storm devastated Jamaica with winds clocked at 184 miles per hour, leaving 20 percent per of all Jamaicans homeless. Property damages on the island totaled more than $1 billion. Days later, Gilbert was downgraded to Category 3, but struck the Mexican coast south of Brownsville, Texas with a ferocious 1-2 punch. Heavy rains and more than 29 tornadoes were reported.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
