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American Morning
Earl Brushes Outer Banks of North Carolina; Miami Airport Security Scare: Suspicious Item Spotted; Hurricane Earl Brushes Outer Banks; Not Out of the Woods Yet; Bracing for Hurricane Earl; Deja Vu in the Gulf; After the Hostage Taking
Aired September 03, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something you see every day and it changes so quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the power of Mother Nature itself. I think it's great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, some may think it's great. Many instead are hoping that Hurricane Earl will pass with the least damage possible.
Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING this morning. All along the east coast, people hoping this monster storm will stay away. Good morning. It's Friday. It's September 3rd. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Ali Velshi. John Roberts is off this morning. This storm has -- it has wobbled, it has moved, it has changed. It has changed classification. But the fact is it is still headed across a very large swath of the U.S. coastline. It's got a lot of people worried.
CHETRY: That's right. And right now, we're going to update you on exactly where Hurricane Earl is and where the track of Hurricane Earl is expected as the day moves on.
First, though, we get a quick update on a security breach that happened at Miami's airport. This was earlier this morning. The Feds are now confirming that a passenger was taken into custody and that the bomb squad was brought in after a suspicious item was spotted in the baggage screening area.
We have our John Zarrella on it. He's going to be joining us live with the very latest on this investigation in a few moments.
VELSHI: First let's get to Hurricane Earl. It's making its move up the east coast. The Category 2 storm has weakened now. It still poses a threat. Right now, Earl is centered about 100 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Storm warnings and watches stretch all the way to Canada now. CHETRY: And Hurricane Earl is barreling up the Eastern seaboard. As you can see from the track here, it puts eastern Long Island as well as New England in what they call the cone of uncertainty, meaning it could go -- as you take a look at that cone shape there, the white, it could go further east. It could go further west. And we're talking about Long Island here, New York, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard later tonight. In fact, Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick has now declared a state of emergency.
VELSHI: All right. This storm is not a storm it once was, but don't tell that to people along the North Carolina coast. Earl is hitting the Outer Banks hard with near-hurricane force winds, heavy rain and dangerous surf.
CHETRY: And, of course, CNN has complete hurricane coverage. We are live up and down the east coast this morning. We have our Reynolds Wolf. He's tracking Earl's path from a hurricane headquarters in Atlanta. Susan Candiotti is in Massachusetts. She's on Cape Cod for us this morning.
VELSHI: Allan Chernoff is in Montauk. That's the far eastern end of Long Island, which is inside the cone of uncertainty. And Brianna Keilar is in Ocean City, Maryland. Rob Marciano in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
CHETRY: Well, we see certainly Rob taking the brunt of it right now. Let's start with you. Earl sideswiping Kill Devil Hills. Strong gusts overnight. What is it like there now?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm about 70 miles, 80 miles the center of it. And the hurricane force winds go out 60 miles to the west of it. So we've seen some of those gusts overnight. We certainly seeing them right now north wind, easily sustained over tropical storm, force 40, 45 miles an hour with gusts of 60 or 70.
Rain blowing sideways. This storm certainly late for the party here along the Outer Banks, but it came in with a vengeance after midnight last night. Not much sleeping going on here. I can tell you that. Just down the road, we are getting reports of Highway 12 being overwashed in some areas and some roof shingles and some structural damage, especially on Ocracoke and down around Cape Hatteras Island.
But this thing, we were hoping would be little bit farther northwards by this time this morning, but it is just parallel just off the shore right now. And that's why we're getting the brunt of the action. Haven't been able to make too many calls to officials. As far as what kind of rescue they've had to attempt overnight, we'll assume none.
Right now, power here in Kill Devil Hills, at least where we are, as far as I can see, is still on. Even though it's blowing pretty good, you can see right here, I can tell you it's like getting needles in the face with these gusts. So far, so good. But this storm, Category 2, yes. But I'll tell you this, I forget what even tropical storm force winds feel out here. We're getting banged up pretty good.
CHETRY: Quick question, Rob, did everybody evacuate? Did everybody get out, or are people sticking this out?
MARCIANO: Definitely not everybody. Obviously, we're still here. But locals, a lot of locals, a lot of people stayed.
A lot of visitors got out. They had the choice obviously to do that, maybe cut their vacation short. But there's quite a few people who stuck around. I would. You know, if I had to throw a ballpark figure out there, maybe about 50 percent left, 50 percent stayed. And those that stayed, maybe regretting it this morning.
CHETRY: Wow. All right. Well, we see you out there. We see Rob out there, as you said, and hurricane force gusts. Tropical storm force winds feeling like needles in the face. We can certainly see it out there.
All right, Rob, take care. And we'll check in with you throughout the morning.
VELSHI: Cape Hatteras is also feeling the strong effects of Hurricane Earl. David Mattingly is there. He's joining us on the phone from Waves, North Carolina.
CHETRY: Yes. And you've been covering this storm all night, David. What is it like there?
VELSHI: OK. I think we've lost David. We're going to check in with him in just a moment.
Let's go to the hurricane center. Reynolds Wolf is following it.
Reynolds, what's the latest on the storm and what are we hearing? Kiran and I have been hearing about there being no eye to the storm. I don't know what that means.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: While it was going through a while ago, as it was going through, we refer to is an eye wall replacement cycle. Normally, what will happen as the storm is very strong is it continues to rotate out in the Atlantic. What's happened though is the storm isn't doing two things. It's moving into an area with cooler water. It's also moving into an area where it's going to interact with strong upper level winds.
Shear and cold water are going to cause the storm to weaken. Right now, winds are at 105 miles per hour. Some gusts have been stronger up to 125. So, again, the eye, hard to see right now. There's still a little bit of a center of circulation, no question about it, but it's not partly as well-defined as it was 24 hours ago.
What does this mean now for people on the Outer Banks? Because Rob mentioned a short while ago there is about eight inches of water not far from this live shot location. But if you were to follow the Outer Banks here, this is North Carolina 12, that's the highway that connects parts of the Outer Banks, right in the middle this is an area called Hatteras Village. And Hatteras Village reported two feet of water, standing water on the ground. So this is still bringing some heavy surf over that part of the road. Many of the places just unpassable.
We know where the storm is. Question is where is it going? Let's go to the latest forecast we have from the National Hurricane Center. And for that, well, take a look.
It's a daunting thing. We do anticipate the storm is going to continue its march to the northeast. As it does so, it's going to do so at a rate of about 18 miles per hour, moving north/northeast. But it is expected to pick up forward speed. But then it will continue to weaken, at least that's what the forecast holds.
As we get to 2:00 in the morning on Saturday, much of the day is going to be off the Jersey coastline then moving much closer to Boston. As we get to 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning, winds at 85, gusts to 105. Also, then very quickly getting caught up in the jet stream. Also being pushed by a frontal boundary that's going to come in from the west. That frontal boundary is going to help push the system, deeper, farther to the north, and then back out to the Atlantic.
So that's a long time for now. There's a whole lot that can certainly happen. There's still a possibility this storm could make landfall in Cape Cod. A lot of uncertainty with this, especially over the next 12 to 24 hours as of late.
CHETRY: But it's not making landfall anywhere else along the east coast? I mean, cities that were on alert, parts of New York as well as Boston, Philadelphia, those types of areas, are they in the clear when it comes to any type of concerns of a direct hit?
WOLF: No, they're not out of the clear because we can see storms jump around quite a bit. I'll remind you that back in 2005, we had this storm called Hurricane Charlie that was on a path that goes north towards Tampa. This happened back in Florida, but went completely off the forecast path, made a right turn, cut right across Florida, right along parts of the I-4 corridor. Millions of dollars of damage.
There's always a possibility of one of these storms, it could veer. It seems very unlikely. I would say that still, even if it doesn't make a direct hit, say in places like Boston or Long Island, New York, they're still going to have tropical storm force winds, hurricane force winds. There's still the possibility of widespread power outages for millions of people, flooding along the coastline. Could be a rough day, no question about it.
VELSHI: Reynolds, we'll stay in touch with you and, of course, with Rob out there and find out what's going on. Let us know if anything changes on that.
WOLF: You bet.
VELSHI: Reynolds Wolf at the CNN center. Let's go back to David Mattingly now. He joins us on the phone from Waves, North Carolina.
David, you've been on this all night. What's it like out there?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Ali, we've been chasing the storm all night up and down the Outer Banks. And everywhere we've turned, Earl has surprised us with just how strong of a storm this is.
Remember, this hurricane hasn't made landfall, and yet we're seeing all the signs of a hurricane onshore right now. We're seeing the horizontal rain. It has just been pummeling us for the last 20 minutes, as Earl actually moves past us, and all of this rain moving to the east. It's sort of its way of saying goodbye. But as it moves out of here, it's leaving behind some flooding, a lot of flooding that we saw in the Wave area where waves have actually topped over the dunes, poured in a torrent down past some of the houses that are on the beach, and then flooding Highway 12, making it impassable.
As soon as the storm has passed somewhat and we get into dawn here, the State Highway Department is going to come out and determine what they need to do. But as of this moment, this part of the Outer Banks is cut off because of the flooding. And then we went back to the south, looking at other signs. We saw some more minor street flooding down there. But in the Wave area, it was actually about knee deep in some areas, and the water is moving so rough. It would just about take your feet out from underneath you. Again, not something you can drive a car through, but, again, it's not washing the road away. So some small favors or maybe Earl did not do some big damage, but it's definitely making its presence known here.
CHETRY: Dave Mattingly for us, as we said, following the storm. He's in Waves, North Carolina, today. Thanks, David.
VELSHI: We're obviously going to cover this all the way through, but if you're not watching us on TV, you can get us online. CNN.com is your online hurricane headquarters. All you have to do is go to CNN.com. It's also a place where you can share your pictures and video of Hurricane Earl. Just head to iReport.com and do it there.
CHETRY: Yes. We've got some great video and pictures that we're going to be showing throughout the show as well from people. And our blog, of course, is up and running as well. CNN.com/amFIX for all of the latest.
Meanwhile, there's another story that we've been following this morning that we still really don't know exactly what's going on, but there are a lot of questions after an incident at Miami international airport. A security scare.
VELSHI: A suspicious item was spotted in the baggage area and much of the airport was shut down. The bomb squad was called in. The Feds detained one passenger. John Zarrella live in Miami now with the latest.
John, what do you know?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, Kiran, well, the airport is open. That is the good news. But it was closed for about eight hours starting about 9:00 p.m. last night.
What happened was the screeners in the customs area found a suspicious package with, according to airport authorities, multiple items that looked suspicious in that package. Immediately, the airport was evacuated. About 100 passengers. It was a slow period that time of night at the airport, so very few flights impacted. But four concourses were closed down, and flights that did come in had to be diverted to a couple of the open concourses.
Now, as you mentioned, one man was detained. Now, a source has told CNN that the man is an American and that he has a history of criminal prosecution and incarcerations. And that is what ramped up concern by local and federal authorities here.
We believe -- we know the man was taken into custody. We do not know if he remains in custody at this point. We do know that the bomb squad has cleared the situation. It was not a threat as far as we know. So, again, the airport is open, but there were about eight tense hours here where the airport was virtually shut down. Police had blocked off the entrances to the airport, and it was quite a chaotic scene here as they tried to get a handle on what exactly had transpired -- Ali, Kiran.
VELSHI: John, thanks very much for that. We'll stay on top of that story and bring you any more information we get on who this person who's been detained is.
CHETRY: Also, our hurricane coverage of Earl continues right here on the Most News in the Morning.
Coming up next, we're going to be talking to the mayor of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. As we saw from Rob's live shot just moments ago, they are certainly getting hit quite hard by Hurricane Earl. It's also interesting, though, to figure out what preparations are under way. They cancelled this Labor Day, you know, big holiday weekend --
VELSHI: Sure.
CHETRY: -- in places like Cape Cod, Nantucket, Montauk in the Hamptons. And so we're going to be checking in to find out more about that as well.
VELSHI: Right. That will be a place where people will be heading out. Now there's still that uncertainty. Why would I go to Montauk if I'm going to get rained on the whole time? We'll check in with Allan Chernoff who's there.
It's 12 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to CNN, your hurricane headquarters. We're keeping a close eye on Earl, where it is headed, where it's been.
CHETRY: Yes. Earl has been lashing the outer banks of North Carolina, driving rain, near hurricane force winds extending some 60 miles west of the center of this storm.
Ray Sturza is the mayor of Kill Devil Hills. He joins us this morning on the phone.
Good morning, Mayor. Thanks for being with us.
MAYOR RAY STURZA, KILL DEVIL HILLS, NORTH CAROLINA: Oh, you're welcome. It's a bumpy morning our here in Kill Devil Hills.
CHETRY: Oh, I get it. I'm sure it is. I know that this is sort of the mode where you guys are hunkered down, waiting for this thing to pass. But do you have any assessment of just, you know, how hard you guys are being hit?
STURZA: (INAUDIBLE) to say, driving up NC 12, which we call the Beach Road, this morning, coming over to the lobby here to do this, heavy pounding on the Beach Road, but so far no over wash. So, at this point, it's looking like we may have just dodged the bullet here on the north beaches.
CHETRY: And when you say over wash, you mean that the water has not actually come over top of the roads and -- and made them impassable?
STURZA: It has not.
VELSHI: Mayor, Rob was saying that not everybody has left. How -- what's your sense of how many people have left, and what do the -- the people who have stayed behind face?
If I -- we can see from a live picture we were just looking at of your position, you still have power there. Are you planning on holding onto power? What's your flooding situation look like?
STURZA: It's really hard to say because at some point in time the winds are going to reverse direction and come out of the -- out of the west, and we could experience some downside flooding. I would say about 90 percent of our tourist population left, and that was about 200,000 people.
I would say 90 percent of our resident population stayed, and that's probably around 35,000 people who are still here in Dare County.
CHETRY: How quickly do you think that you're going to be able to get out there, assess things, and bring things back to normal? I mean, look, it's early Friday morning, but this is the long Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer.
STURZA: Yes. We're very aware of that, and if this situation holds and we haven't lost our Beach Road, the northern station beaches of Dare County here may be in this shape for the second half of the Labor Day weekend. We're going to have to wait and see.
However, we do have some affected beaches on the other side of our county, and that's the Hatteras Island portion. I'm not too optimistic about that. I understand there's three or four feet of water on NC 12 on the other side of Oregon Inlet.
VELSHI: Mayor, what's the situation with supplies? Are there enough things around there for folks as they clean up after this?
STURZA: We think so. We saw some sporadic shortages in fuel right towards the end of the evacuation, and hopefully trucks will be able to get back in here and resupply our gasoline stations. But food supplies and other goods that we'll need for the next few days look like they're in pretty good shape.
CHETRY: In terms of utilities and basic services, Rob remarks that you guys still had power, at least just far as he could see. Are you expecting any major outages? And, if so, how quickly can you get them back up and running?
STURZA: Oh, boy, I don't want to jinx them. You never get to know. I was hearing transformers exploding last night, and I was thinking, oh, no, here we go.
So far, so good. It's held this far. I've got a feeling maybe we may just get lucky on that, but it only takes one big power pole to go down and take the whole grid out. So, hard to say, but hopefully we'll hold on to power, and that will really be a blessing.
CHETRY: Well, listen, we wish you the best. I know you guys are weathering this the best that you can, hoping that it passes you by with the least amount of damage so you can get back to the fun festivities and, of course, unofficial good-bye to summer there.
Mayor Ray Sturza, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Thanks so much and be safe.
STURZA: All right. Thank you, too. Bye-bye.
VELSHI: The guy is in good spirits about the whole thing. At least that's good.
We are going to continue to cover -- we've got the Most News in the Morning here. We're obviously going to cover this hurricane. It's moving a little further up the coast and that's where we're going to be.
We're going to go to Ocean City, Maryland. CNN's Brianna Keilar is there. She's going to have more on Earl's impact on tourism.
It's 20 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. We're still covering Hurricane Earl. It's lost a little bit of its power. It's now down to a Category 2. But that doesn't mean it's not certainly something to be reckoned with. Hundred --
VELSHI: Yes. I mean, at your worst that you've -- that most of us feel, we felt 25, 30, maybe 40 miles an hour winds. That these are big, big winds --
CHETRY: Right. VELSHI: -- that you don't want to be anywhere around.
CHETRY: And that's 105 --
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: -- sustained.
VELSHI: It's a lot of wind.
CHETRY: Gusts of 125 miles per hour. So it is still strong and it is still having impact, but thank goodness it did weaken.
VELSHI: It means it isn't probably going to flatten a whole lot of people's houses. It is going to ruin a lot of people's plans though. Take a look at the latest radar. The storm has lost some of its power as we were saying. It's also not as well-defined anymore. We'll tell you about that shortly. But it is far from finished, and it is still huge.
CHETRY: Well, Brianna Keilar live in Ocean City, Maryland this morning. And, Brianna, we know this is a huge hot spot. This is one of the favorite destinations for people in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area, especially Labor Day weekend. Are people canceling their plans or are they trying to stick it out?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I talked to a lot of people who are planning on coming and they say that they are still planning on coming. And don't be afraid to come to Ocean City is the word coming from city officials here.
Because as you can see the winds are picking up. We really have not gotten the worse of what we're expecting. But we're not expecting it to be nearly as bad as what we're dealing with on the outer banks. We're looking at maybe gusts of wind up to 45 miles per hour, really light rain, perhaps some mild to moderate flooding in some areas. That's what emergency officials tell us that they are expecting.
But this is a big tourist hot spot. There's about 100,000 people here right now, city officials tell us, and they're expecting that it's going to swell to about quarter of a million over this Labor Day weekend, really the last hurrah for summer. And a lot of people here doing businesses really want people to know that they should still be coming out. They don't want to lose that business from these tourists who are coming out.
You know, but --
CHETRY: Yes.
KEILAR: -- really what we're dealing with behind me, you can see some of the pounding surf. I mean, obviously, these are some pretty dangerous conditions, Kiran and Ali, and they've been dealing with rip currents here for days now, especially the after effects of Hurricane Danielle last week and there was actually a man who drowned here. But while the beaches, if you can believe it, are -- are actually open. It's just the water that is closed to swimming. But bottom line, that message from city officials, Ocean City at least is open for business.
VELSHI: The beach maybe open. Is anybody hanging out -- I guess it's a little early, but are they expecting anybody to be hanging out at the beach?
KEILAR: No. It's just us. But, you know, we were here yesterday talking to a lot of people, and they said that, you know, they were planning not -- not on being at the beach today because we are expecting some winds certainly to be picking up here through the morning and into midday. We're thinking that this, you know, the expectation is that it really kind of blows by in the afternoon. And what city officials are saying to people is don't be on the roads. Don't be traveling to Ocean City during those peak times.
But, you know, once everything blows over, they say they're hoping to have everything set up, ready to go for a beautiful beach day on Saturday. I think people are out of luck today, though, Ali.
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: Wow. You know how crowded those roads get if you're going from D.C. and Maryland to Ocean City. It's probably going to be even worse on Saturday morning and everyone's holding off. But, hey, at least they can salvage what's left for Labor Day weekend.
Brianna, thanks.
KEILAR: And -- and tonight.
CHETRY: Yes. Exactly. Thanks.
VELSHI: I'm one (INAUDIBLE) I love big waves, but you shouldn't go into the ocean when there's a hurricane because --
CHETRY: Rip currents.
VELSHI: Rip currents. They'll just grab you and take you down.
CHETRY: You don't -- you can't see them, of course, it's under water.
VELSHI: No. But they'll take you.
CHETRY: And your -- yes, you're out there and you find yourself getting dragged, and you don't know what to do.
VELSHI: There are ways to get out of it, but I'm not sure I'll be one of those --
CHETRY: Swim parallel.
VELSHI: Swim parallel. See, I don't know if I'd be thinking about that.
CHETRY: Swim parallel to the shore.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Try to stay calm. But, of course, understanding why make people panic.
VELSHI: But you shouldn't be anywhere near it. I feel -- well, you just -- you shouldn't be there. Don't -- don't risk the rip currents.
CHETRY: Yes (ph).
VELSHI: All right. Next up Most News in the Morning, the president signs an emergency disaster declaration for the state of Massachusetts as Earl closes in. We'll get a live report from Susan Candiotti. She's standing by on Cape Cod next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 29 minutes after the hour.
The big breaking news story is Hurricane Earl tracking northeast from the outer banks of North Carolina right now. Coastal towns all the way to Maine caught in the cone of uncertainty. Everyone starting to batten down the hatches.
CHETRY: And just from that video, you can see, I mean, the rain is literally blowing horizontal.
VELSHI: That's where Rob was a few minutes ago.
CHETRY: Yes. That's Kill Devil Hills. That's his shot. Well, that's where we spoke to the mayor as well. He actually, understandably wanted to be inside on the phone because who wants to be out in that --
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: -- if you don't have to be?
Well, our Allan Chernoff is live this morning from the eastern tip of the Long Island, Montauk. Storm preps are in high gear there.
First, though, Susan Candiotti. She's in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts.
And, Susan, President Obama just signed an emergency disaster declaration for Massachusetts, at the request of the governor there. What are they bracing for this morning?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this morning it's gorgeous here, as you can imagine. Look, the waves are calm. There's a gentle breeze, and you can hear the seagulls singing. But, of course, that will be changing when Earl comes by and rolls by tonight.
You know, some people have left Cape Cod, but a lot of tourists have taken off, especially from places like Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. However, a lot of people are saying they're going to stick around to see what Earl has to offer tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Georgia Suliman (ph) is one plucky lady. While some Nantucket islanders are heading to the mainland, 88- year-old Georgia and her companion, Jenny, are catching one of the last ferries back to Nantucket.
GEORGIA SULIMAN (ph), 88-YEAR-OLD: She's a little panicky right now.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Oh, sure, I understand. Well, if she's a little panicky, are you not a little panicky to be going over to Nantucket Island where the storm is headed, in that direction?
SULIMAN: I don't care.
CANDIOTTI: You don't care?
SULIMAN: No, I love it.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Among those heading back on the ferry is Bob O'Brien (ph). For him, likely power outages mean money.
BOB O'BRIEN (ph), ELECTRICIAN: Actually, it will bring me work. I'm an electrician, and I'm hoping that it hits.
CANDIOTTI: Others, mainly visitors, are high tailing it out of dodge. No one can blame the parents of six-month-old Harry for cutting short their vacation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were worried about the hurricane with the little guy. So, we want to be off the island.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Here are at the weekly Bass River Farm Market where they sell everything from fresh kale to compost worms and, yes, seaweed seasoning -- admittedly, business is a bit off, perhaps an indication that people are preparing for Hurricane Earl. For the most part, people are telling us, they're going to ride out the storm.
Tina Labasher (ph) says she's been making extra homemade jam ahead of any possible blackouts.
TINA LABASHER (ph), RESIDENT: If they tell us all to evacuate, that's a lot of people, and I would rather be stuck at home with my family than stuck on a highway somewhere.
JONATHAN SAWYER, FIREFIGHTER: One ambulance in each station.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): It's the kind of moxie that firefighter Jonathan Sawyer is used to -- a lifelong Cape Codder, who's worried people might not be ready if the going gets tough.
SAWYER: That's what it's like being a true Cape Codder -- stubborn, you know, a little ornery, and we can handle anything.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Do you think they can?
SAWYER: No.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Georgia Suliman insists she'll be OK.
(on camera): Really, do not take chances.
SULIMAN: I don't, not too many.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: Hopefully, she and others will be OK.
We're on top of a six foot high sea wall here as we tell you a bit more information. Of course, Massachusetts has been working with FEMA to roll supplies into place early and preposition them, including water and generators and tarps and meals. They're also scheduled to open up some shelters later on today, and they have urged some people who live in particularly dangerous low-lying flood prone areas to get out and they're going to be going door-to-door this morning to make sure that people get that message -- Kiran and Ali.
CHETRY: All right. I know people that -- I know people that are headed there. You know, they've already planned their vacations, and they're thinking they're still going to Cape Cod. So, it's a little puzzling.
VELSHI: Yes. And, you know, for all the different kinds of preparation people go through, Susan, I thought making homemade jam was one of the more interesting ones that we've heard of. Susan, we'll check in with you. Thanks very much -- Susan Candiotti in Cape Cod.
CHETRY: You've got to have canned goods.
VELSHI: You've got to have canned goods, actually not a stupid idea making jam.
CHETRY: There you go.
VELSHI: But people thinking about going out to Cape Cod for their Labor Day weekend still haven't decided what to do on that, same thing with Long Island.
CHETRY: Yes. Although it's interesting because a lot of the local organizations are making the choices for them, closing things down. The Metro North, the MTA, which actually runs shuttle buses to -- from New York to Long Island, they're shutting down right now.
Allan Chernoff joins us from Montauk this morning with more on this. You know, people still want to make the best of this long- awaited Labor Day weekend. At the same time, you know, that storm's coming their way.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is -- and so are those waves. Check out the action right over here. We've had some very intense waves this morning. I've seen some that are at least seven, eight feet high, and it's only going to be getting stronger because we are about nine hours away from high tide. We're about 13, 14 hours from the storm passing by us, and we are on Montauk, which is all the way at the eastern tip of Long Island.
What's very interesting now, absolutely no wind here whatsoever. Surely, that will change later on. For now, in terms of the preparations -- well, some hotels in the area, some property owners, have boarded up their windows, but not all over the place. The outside furniture, it's either inside or tied up.
But I just spoke to a property owner who's been living out here for 47 years. He says he hasn't done anything at all. No preparations whatsoever. Last night, there were plenty of people out enjoying themselves at the bars, mini golf.
I was in the supermarket. It was not all that crowded. People were not rushing to get supplies.
What we do have, lots of surfers. Yesterday, surfers were just loving the big waves out there. They'll certainly be out again today, but they're aware that there are some dangers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, there are definitely dangers involved. This is the fun part. This is sort of the pre-hurricane swell that comes in, and everybody rushes out, and it's a great time. But, obviously, we're all aware that we've got to be careful and tomorrow is going to be a different story out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: Well, we'll see how different it is. Still about 13, 14 hours away. Right now, absolutely beautiful here on Montauk -- back to you in the studio.
CHETRY: Those waves look like something to be a little worried about, though, behind you. They're already -- they're already brushing up pretty big.
CHERNOFF: Oh, they are. They are major. And, Kiran, I absolutely love swimming in the ocean.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHERNOFF: I don't think I'd do it right now. I'm not a surfer, but I am a swimmer.
CHETRY: Yes. I would have taken you for a surfer, too. But, you know --
VELSHI: Allan is just -- Allan is just a generally hearty, fun-loving guy. I've got to tell you, when this thing passes, he is set up. He's in Montauk, which usually takes several hours to get to from New York City. So --
CHETRY: So, it clears out, he can enjoy it until all the tourists --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: He doesn't have to worry about the traffic. I think there will be a lot of traffic out to Cape Cod and out to Long Island today because people instinctively don't trust that the weather forecasts are correct. It may not be a hurricane that hits Long Island, but you're going to get some good wind out there later on. Allan's covered enough hurricanes that he knows that's coming.
Thanks, Allan.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we're talking also about yesterday, we couldn't believe it. We're sitting in the newsroom, and we heard about another explosion at an oil platform in the Gulf. We, of course, feared the worst and wondered, how could it happen again?
VELSHI: I put it on my Facebook page when it happened. I had dozens of responses within minutes, people thinking, this is not possible.
We're going to talk to Professor Don Van Nieuwenhuise, who's going to give you the story about what happened. A rig, a fire in the Gulf of Mexico, 13 people in the water. We're going to talk to him and find out what happened yesterday when we come back.
It is 37 minutes after the hour, which makes it 13 minutes -- 23 minutes before the hour.
CHETRY: You're a mathematician, too. We'll be right back.
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VELSHI: All right. My producers tell me that is Kill Devil Hills. That's where -- we know that because that's the deck on which Rob Marciano was standing.
I wouldn't mind an update from my producers as to where Rob Marciano is, but I believe this guy is experienced. He's done a lot of these hurricanes. He's safe. He's probably in the truck or something like that.
That's the spot he was at moments ago. He said it was like needles hitting him in the face. That is Kill Devil Hills. That rain is going sideways there, everybody taking shelter.
Although the mayor was telling us, about 35,000 people, residents, permanent residents, have stayed. He said most of tourists well gone from the place. And what they're hoping is once this thing passes, that maybe there will be an opportunity to salvage some of the Labor Day holiday. This place really depends on tourists over the summer.
More on Hurricane Earl is just ahead. We've got the Most News in the Morning here.
But, first, we want to turn to a developing story in the Gulf of Mexico. This is amazing. Nobody could believe this had happened. There's been another explosion, another oil rig fire. This time, though, no deaths. All 13 crew members escaped. And the Coast Guard says there is no leaking oil.
Let's bring in Don Van Nieuwenhuise. He's a professor of petroleum geoscience at the University of Houston. He will be a familiar face to many of us.
Don, many people have seen you unfortunately over the last few months because you have been helping us understand what happened in the Gulf of Mexico with that massive BP oil spill. You heard about this yesterday. What went through your mind?
DON VAN NIEUWENHUISE, PROFESSOR OF PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: Well, first of all, just like everyone else, I think, I was very concerned that this could be another serious disaster. But very quickly, I learned that this is a different situation. We don't have a well that's out of control. When you have a well that's out of control, it's a lot worse.
All the wellheads that they had, the seven active producing wells, were secured properly. All the safety control valves worked. And as we were able to see later in the day, the fire was put out quickly, and all of the 13 people that were on the ship, on the vessel, were able to get off safely and without injury.
VELSHI: Don, this is a platform, a production platform that has a number of wells attached to it. There were talks about natural gas and oil, and a number of people asked me, well, how is it either natural gas or oil?
VAN NIEUWENHUISE: Well, most oil wells have natural gas with them. So, that's why there can be more than one. And they probably have a couple of reservoir units that they're producing that are 100 percent gas. Some will be mostly oil but part of that will have gas in it.
So, in all cases, we normally have oil and gas coming out of wells, and sometimes, we just have gas.
VELSHI: You see the pictures there on the screen of relief vessels that came in, helicopters -- all that kind of stuff. Is that the normal response, or is this because of what happened in the BP oil spill, that the minute we hear about explosion or fire in the Gulf of Mexico, there's a better response.
VAN NIEUWENHUISE: I think this was a relatively normal response. I do think that they were very careful to get out there and make sure the fire was taken care of quickly. It was not as big of a fire, nor is it as big of a rig as we saw at the Deepwater Horizon, and there's actually less product on this platform even though it is a production platform. So, the flames were a lot less. And, of course, when you're not fueling the flames with tens of thousands of barrels of oil, it's a lot easier to put it out.
I think basically, they had maybe a couple of thousand barrels of fuel or stored oil on board that was on fire, and that was it. There was no flow of additional fuel to make the fire much bigger and much more dangerous.
VELSHI: What have you learned since yesterday about what may have caused this fire and whether or not we have reason to believe there were safety issues on this particular platform?
VAN NIEUWENHUISE: I have not learned any specifics on how it happened. I do know that a lot of times when we have small fires like this, either you have some sort of grinding tool or a torch and a settling, cutting torch or something else that creates sparks and fires in the wrong part of the platform that can start a fire. So, they'll probably find something like that, but I don't know any details at this point.
VELSHI: Don, it's good to talk to you. Always enjoy talking to you. But I have to say, if you and I had less conversations, it would probably be better for America because that would mean we're not talking about this kind of stuff. Good to see you, though, and thank you for being available to us.
VAN NIEUWENHUISE: Good seeing you.
VELSHI: All right -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Ali, thanks.
Forty-five minutes past the hour right now. We're going to check in with Reynolds Wolf. He's been tracking Hurricane Earl. He's going to have the latest on the storm's location, where it's headed right after the break.
And also a debate, governor's debate in Arizona, for the two candidates there. Some awkward moments, though, for Jan Brewer. We're going to show you what happened, little bit of a meltdown, and what she said about it afterwards.
We're coming right back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Welcome back to CNN AMERICAN MORNING, the Most News in the Morning. I'm meteorologist, Reynolds Wolf. We're keeping a sharp eye on this system, the storm, a monster. We will look at Hurricane Earl. Yesterday, it was a Category 4 storm. It has weakened. At this point, you can't even see the eye at this point. It's just falling apart. It's moving into an area of cooler water. At the same time, it's also moving into an area with strong upper level winds and shear, but still, it is a dangerous storm. Winds of 105, gusts to 125. You see the latitude and longitude. It's on the moving to the north. Now, question is, what is it doing right now? As we speak, we got, of course, some heavy rainfall that's coming down on parts of the outer banks. We got some video also that was taken just a short while ago that's going to show you exactly what people there have been experiencing.
Let's show you some of that video if we can right now. Rain coming down, not just straight down, but also sideways. The winds have been just intense. Hurricane force up and down much of the outer banks, and as we come back for a few moments, what I can tell you is on the outer banks, near Rob's shot, Rob Marciano's shot, as you're all go up to eight inches of rainfall on the ground.
I can also tell you that in some places near Oregon Inlet Bridge, impassable here due to heavy water. In Rodanthe, they've nearly two feet of water crossing roadway (INAUDIBLE) North Carolina 12 that runs the length of this. Much of that will be impassable for the next several hours due to the storm. We know where it is. We know what it's doing. Question is where is it going to go? For that answer, we turn to this forecast that we have from the National Hurricane Center.
The storm is expected to continue to move to the northeast. It's doing so at about 18 miles per hour. The center is about 85 miles from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, but in the coming hours, it's going to be off the Jersey shore. It's going to be then moving very close to Boston and Cape Cod. In fact, if this storm were to deviate a bit more to the west, there is a chance it could still make landfall in the Cape Cod area.
And that's the reason why we have the hurricane warnings that are in effect for all of Cape Cod, including Martha's Vineyard. That's going to be the situation as this storm gets very close as we make our way to the late afternoon and then into tomorrow morning. This storm should be just east of Boston and then possibly moving just east of the Main Coast early tomorrow morning.
And then, by 2:00 p.m., Saturday afternoon, moving to the Bay of Fundy and then farther north. There's a lot of thing change (ph) in the storm. It certainly is going to mean a whole lot to millions of people. And for the very latest coming up, you're going to want to stay right here on CNN AMERICAN MORNING. Same with you (ph).
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VELSHI: Also, new this morning, more strange and revealing details about James Lee. This is the man who was killed by police on Wednesday after taking three Discovery Channel employees hostage. In 2003, Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison for smuggling illegal immigrants into the country.
Also yesterday, cops detonated four more devices at a nearby house where Lee was staying, and they say Lee was armed with two starter pistols firing blanks, not handguns. CHETRY: Yes, that's what we heard when we saw the video. We were hearing these explosions.
VELSHI: Explosions, yes.
CHETRY: Found out later that it was indeed being detonated by police, thank goodness.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: All right. There is a bit of a controversy in Arizona. There was a debate that went on in the governor's race.
VELSHI: Understatement of the month. Bit of a controversy in Arizona.
CHETRY: Although I have to tell you, watching this, you kind of feel for her. Have you ever lost your train of thought at a time when the more you started to panic, the more you couldn't say anything?
VELSHI: Kiran, you are being very kind in saying that because, no, I have never lost my train of thought the way Jan Brewer did. I have lost my train of thought in life, that was a stunning performance.
CHETRY: It was a debate, by the way. Things got a little bit uncomfortable. The governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, in a debate with her challenger that she's trying to win the seat.
VELSHI: And he's way behind in the polls. The Democratic challenger, Terry Goddard, he's way behind.
CHETRY: We'll see if that's the case after this debate performance. This is right at the beginning. This is the opening statement. Typically, you would memorize or be able to sort of articulate your thoughts right off the top of the debate. Here's what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAN BREWER, (R) ARIZONA: I have done so much, and I just cannot believe that we have changed everything since I've become your governor in the last 600 days. Arizona has been brought back from its abyss. We have cut the budget. We have balanced the budget. And we are moving forward. We have done everything that we could possibly do. We have did what was right for Arizona.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Wow.
CHETRY: You don't feel for her?
VELSHI: I just think it's strange. I mean, that's not sort of losing your train of thought. That was something very strange is going on. CHETRY: It seemed like a little bit of stage fright. We'll see, but coming up at --
VELSHI: She's talked to the media before she's given speeches. She's been right in the front of this --
CHETRY: Big debate over --
VELSHI: I mean, she's not a newcomer. To me, that was surprising.
CHETRY: We are going to talk to Arizona TV reporter who covered the debate because something else happened during the debate. She made a reference to beheadings in the Arizona desert, and her debate partner -- I mean, her debate opponent called her on it and said, wait a minute, where's the proof that this happened? Later, when she was questioned by reporters, instead of answering the question, she just said thank you very much and bolted.
VELSHI: "Thank you" and turned around and left, yes, very strange performance by Jan Brewer. We're going to find out what's going on there.
We also have complete team coverage of hurricane Earl coming your way after this break. It is three minutes to the top of the hour.
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