Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Hurricane Michelle Misses Florida So Far

Aired November 05, 2001 - 09:07   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: What are you doing?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: On the hurricane watch, it looks like south Floridians are being spared the worst of Hurricane Michelle. The storm did slam Cuba overnight, arriving as a Category 4 hurricane, and pushing an 18 foot bulge of water ashore. Florida has been luckier so far. CNN Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella is in Hollywood, where it looks like a hurricane is headed in that direction, but we are told not so. John, what's the latest?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Boy, that's right, Miles, and what a good thing, considering how powerful this storm is. Its long reach is still about 170 miles off the coast, but you can see, the powerful waves that are just brushing and sweeping inland here. The wind whipping the tops off those waves. We're almost at high tide now. We are having a tremendous amount of beach over wash here, and further erosion of beaches that have already been, 40 to 60 yards of them, washed away.

We're going to turn around here, and give you another look, shot at what we are talking about. How the water is really piling up. You can see that's over on the road here. Right on this little beach access road. The wind out of the east, a little bit out of the northeast, now, and it is just forcing the water down along the road. It looks like a river washing over here. Of course, it was nothing like this a couple of hours ago when we came out here. Now, a couple real quick reports. No reports of damage, Miles, anywhere in the South Florida area, in the Keys as well. Everything apparently, is fine. No reports of injuries or certainly no deaths, but a lot of problems for South Florida's beaches. Miles?

O'BRIEN: CNN's John Zarrella on Hollywood Beach. Hang in there, be safe.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com