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American Morning
Hurricane Irene Closing In; Is NYC Ready?; Bomb Hits U.N. Building In Nigeria; Rebels Claim To Find Gadhafi's RV; Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke Speech; Hurricane Irene Expected to Hit Carolinas; New York and New Jersey Prepare for Worst Case Scenarios; What if Michael Vick were White?; Children on the Edge
Aired August 26, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Taking dead aim at the East Coast.
I'm Carol Costello.
Right now, a monster Hurricane Irene threatening more than 50 million people from North Carolina all the way to New England. People all the way up the coast being asked to leave or get ready to go.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi.
A deadly bomb blast at the U.N. building in Nigeria. Bodies right now are being pulled from the rubble. A live report from Nigeria -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
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COSTELLO: Good morning to you. It is Friday, August 26th. Christine Romans has the day off.
VELSHI: Sadly, not a lot of good this morning going on. First up, Irene is inching closer to the east coast. Hurricane warnings now posted for the North Carolina shore line, all the way to the Jersey Shore.
This is a live picture we are showing you. This is a live map we are showing you, but there is the picture. It's Moorhead City, North Carolina. Tens of thousands evacuating as Hurricane Irene, which is a category two storm now, moves closer to the United States. Winds are near 110 miles an hour.
So, the news you might have had it's downgraded to do a two, but it is still expected to be a major hurricane and it could get stronger.
COSTELLO: Yes, packing winds up to 110 miles an hour. Rob Marciano says it's almost a lock to slam into North Carolina first and Atlantic beach surf shop is boarding up. Mandatory evacuations is going on right now along the outer banks.
VELSHI: Irene totally hammered the Bahamas yesterday, severely damaging homes on many of the smaller islands, knocking some off their foundations. Trees bending at 115-mile-per-hour winds.
So far, no reports of major injuries or deaths there. Authorities are still gathering reports on the destruction.
COSTELLO: And take a look at this. Hurricane Irene from 220 miles above the earth. The International Space Station captured this stunning image. You get an idea of the sheer size and the power of this storm and an astronaut who tweeted a photo of this storm said it looked terrifying from way up there.
VELSHI: Rob Marciano has been following this very closely -- the whole weather team has. He joins us here. He's in our study here.
I don't quite understand. I thought you would be running the other direction, but welcome.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I have plenty of time to do that. It's a weekend storm and it's a big one and it's encompassing a large piece of real estate and that's one of the reasons it's so complicated, such a long linear stretch of U.S. coastline that we are dealing with here -- hundreds of miles, tens of millions people affected by this.
And any deviation of the track of this thing, even 50 or 60 miles, will mean a whole world of difference to a lot of people.
All right. Florida, you're in the clear although you're getting a big surf. Some of the spiral bands are already beginning to spin into the southeast coastline of Georgia, South Carolina and eventually North Carolina where landfall will be made during the day tomorrow.
All right. Here's a look at the satellite picture to give you an idea what this thing looks like. Now, northerly movement at 13 miles an hour, 110 sustained-mile-an-hour winds and that's expected to continue as it moves over pretty warm waters.
Let's talk about the forecast of this thing. A couple of fronts that we were hoping would nudge this thing a little farther to the east, but the first one that came through last night is not very, very strong. The next one that's going to come through will pretty much meet up with it over the weekend and that's not going to be strong enough to get this thing out of here.
Because this storm is so big and so strong, it's like a huge log that is moving downstream and spiraling, it takes a really big current or even a really strong river to move that log off its path. So, that's the problem we are enduring with this. So, that's the reason we think it's going to scoot the coastline and that's what makes the forecast so tricky and so many people living along this shoreline.
Here's the forecast for some of our computers models. All of them, virtually all of them, take them into North Carolina. And then, we get a little bit of deviation from the Delmarva, the Chesapeake Bay area and maybe towards Rhode Island -- any one does not spell very good news for anybody who lives along this coastline.
Category two and three storm -- this is the official forecast from the National Hurricane Center. Forecast landfall, tomorrow afternoon sometime and tomorrow night into Sunday morning. We are looking at the impacts to be switched to the Hampton Roads and Newport News and Virginia Beach Area and then up towards across the Delaware, in through Jersey and then across Long Island getting in over the weekend. Probably still a category 1 storm.
One of the issues with this, though, is the amount of rainfall that we have had already the past couple of weeks, saturated ground. Additional rainfall, winds that will be sustained, 70, 80 miles an hour, big trees with leaves on them, that's going to be, I think, the big danger for this highly populated area is dangerous trees coming down and, obviously, power outages with that.
But if you are going to be hunkering down in your home during the storm, I want you to be in the lowest level of your home away from windows because if a tree comes down.
COSTELLO: Yes, because if you have trees in your backyard, you can't exactly escape 'em, right?
MARCIANO: Exactly. Exactly.
So, we'll continue to track this thing. Either way, it's going to be a historic storm. We haven't had a double landfall like this in decades, let alone having one come this close to New York City.
VELSHI: And it's unclear. It's not like you can follow rules and say a double landfall means one thing because this thing, as you're saying, could pick up steam, could slow down, and could -- you know?
MARCIANO: And we don't really know how much the interaction with the land that's going to affect it. The water is a little bit cooler up here.
VELSHI: I heard you guys say that, often, interaction with land will shred this storm and it will just -- it will take the power out of it.
MARCIANO: And that's why if it's 20, 30, 40 miles in either direction, it makes a huge, huge difference.
VELSHI: Take a look the pictures from Jacksonville Beach, Florida, right now. It's not sort of a place that's going to get a lot of it.
MARCIANO: Yes, they're barely even getting the fringes of it, just to give you an idea of how large the storm is. Tropical storm force winds up to 500 miles in diameter, the cloud canopy 800 miles. Similar to what we saw with Ike. So, it doesn't matter what the category is, it's a large storm with a huge circulation.
COSTELLO: You can imagine what it's like in North Carolina right now if it's like that in Florida and the thing is going to bypass it.
Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: You bet.
COSTELLO: Irene also putting U.S. airlines to cancel routes and flights. American Airlines has canceled 126 flights. More are expected to be grounded later today. American, U.S. Airways, United, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and AirTran dropped ticket change fees for passengers scheduled to fly to or and from many of the cities along the East Coast this weekend.
VELSHI: Amtrak said it was canceling most service south of Washington this weekend. Right now, the busy the Northeast corridor is running. That could change as the hurricane heads north.
COSTELLO: Many schools are adjusting their schedules, too, around Irene. Norfolk State University in Virginia canceled today's classes. Opening weekend for the University of Delaware has now been postponed. Rutgers University in New Jersey and NYU both changing move-in day.
VELSHI: And the sports world also scrambling over Hurricane Irene. The Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox both canceled games on Sunday. They are going to play double-headers tomorrow. The Jets/Giants preseason NFL game scheduled for tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. was pushed up to a 2:00 p.m. kickoff.
I got tickets to that Saturday night Phillies game. I was really betting that wasn't going to happen.
COSTELLO: Yes. Well, the tickets are good for a later date, right?
VELSHI: If they actually decide to rain it out. Do I sit there and wait?
COSTELLO: Yes, you must!
VELSHI: Do you think it's going to happen? Do you think I'm going to be at a baseball game tomorrow at 7:00?
COSTELLO: It's supposed to be beautiful tomorrow.
VELSHI: All right.
COSTELLO: We will see.
North Carolina is the first state that could take a direct hit from Irene. And the state is evacuating thousands of people. Many tourists have already left from the outer banks but residents are now being urged, I think at 8:00 a.m. Eastern, doesn't the governor tell us the evacuation for residents would begin?
VELSHI: And earlier I spoke to the governor, Beverly Perdue, who said the state is ready but it is up to the people to do the right thing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BEVERLY PERDUE (D), NORTH CAROLINA: People need to take this very seriously. North Carolina hasn't seen a storm this broad and with this much capacity to do damage in several years and, again, for newcomers, this is a big deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: John Zarrella is live in Moorhead City, possibly where the storm could make its first landfall and still looking OK but it's roughed up a little bit as you've been out there.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. There's no question about it, Ali. This very likely could be the first place that sees the landfall from Irene, possibly the left side of the storm. Of course, if it wobbles a little more to the left, we could get the center right over us here.
Now, you can see what they have done here along the beach to take precautions. These are the cut-throughs for people to walk out onto the beach and they put these 2x4 barriers up here to keep the water from coming in. Now, it's interesting here. This is actually south-facing beach the way that the coastline of North Carolina runs.
So this is south. And if Mike Miller turns this, it's east. So, the hurricane is actually going to be coming this way up to us and, chances are, the backside of the storm a lot of times here they get storm surge in reverse, where it comes in over the sound. Now, that's what you don't want to see.
Up there -- you see the two flags flying? The double flags, the red flags with the black squares in the middle, those are hurricane warning flags. That means it's coming.
Now, this building here, you can see right along the water, they have taken precautions and actually got the wood up here on the windows and they've got double-paned glass here so they are not too concerned and they got sandbags down here and all along the building here, they got sandbags.
This is also a wedding chapel. They do about 100 weddings a year on the beach. Two of them were supposed to take place this weekend, one tomorrow. That's been canceled and rescheduled. But they've got about $500 worth of flowers going bad inside that I was told.
So, anyway, we are waiting on the storm. Not a lot of wind yet. The surf is starting to pick up. But skies are clouding over and certainly, it's going to get much worse here as the day goes on and into tomorrow -- Ali, Carol.
COSTELLO: And you'll be there. John Zarrella, many thanks to you.
VELSHI: He is our centerpiece of our hurricane coverage team. He's been doing it for so long.
New York is bracing for what many forecasters have dreaded, a direct hit by a hurricane. Mayor Michael Bloomberg deciding today whether or not to evacuate low-lying areas of the city.
COSTELLO: These Google Map shows the flood zones in New York City. The areas in orange, including Wall Street and the World Trade Center site could flood from any hurricane that comes near the city, any hurricane of any strength. I guess a category one would also flood these areas.
The yellow area would flood category two storm.
Mary Snow is live for us in Lower Manhattan.
The mayor came out. He talked tough. He said New Yorkers, prepare. Do you think they will?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Carol, it remains to be seen. But, of course, that's up for debate as you'll hear in a minute about, you know, whether New Yorkers will listen.
But, you know, you take a look at the scene here in Lower Manhattan, we're at the tip Manhattan. It's hard to tell there is so much concern about how vulnerable Lower Manhattan really is, because people are lining up as they do every morning to take the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. This could be a very different scene on Tuesday -- on Sunday, that is.
Again, too early to say how New York will be impacted. But hurricane experts have said for such a long time now, that it won't take a major hurricane to cause considerable flooding.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW (voice-over): If anyone is worried about a hurricane hitting New York, it's coastal geology professor, Nicholas Coch.
And to understand why, he took us to Southampton, New York.
NICHOLAS K. COCH, QUEENS COLLEGE/CUNY: This is where the 1938 hurricane broke through and made Shinnecock Bay a branch of the ocean.
SNOW: Coch says most New Yorkers forget that it was here that a powerful category three hurricane made landfall in 1938. It was called the "Long Island express" and it caused widespread damage even in New York City, some 70 miles away.
(on camera): Even if New York City is spared a direct hit --
COCH: That's right. It's going to have massive flooding, yes.
SNOW (voice-over): For years, Coch has been sounding the alarm about how vulnerable New York City is because of its topography. He says storm surges could trigger massive flooding in low-lying areas, particularly Lower Manhattan.
Consider the simulation done by NOAA showing what a category two hurricane could do to a tunnel linking Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Donald Cresitello with the Army Corps of Engineers mapped out some worst case scenarios. A category one hurricane, for example, could flood the subway station at the southern tip of Manhattan with three and a half feet of water.
A category two storm, he says, could put John F. Kennedy Airport under 5 1/2 feet of water.
DONALD E. CRESITELLO, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: If a storm were to occur, it could be catastrophic, given the population density in the Northeast.
SNOW: High winds are also a big concern. And city officials have evacuation plans at the ready. Despite all of the preparations, Coch says it's not the hurricane he is most worried about.
What's your biggest concern?
COCH: The New Yorker.
SNOW: Why?
COCH: Because they don't listen. Right? You can always tell a New Yorker, but you can't tell them very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: So there you have it. Add stubbornness into the equation.
City officials, though, are taking this very seriously. The mayor will decide by tomorrow morning whether to order a mandatory evacuation in some low-lying areas in the city. Just to put it in perspective a couple of hundred thousand people in those low-lying areas only. And that would be an extreme circumstance -- Carol and Ali.
COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding. Where would they go? Hopefully, they have family who live in, like, you know, higher up --
SNOW: And that is the hope. Right.
COSTELLO: Mary Snow, reporting live from Lower Manhattan, thanks.
More live coverage up and down the coast on Hurricane Irene.
Plus, breaking news to tell you about, several people killed and many more injured after a massive bomb explodes at the United Nations building in Nigeria. We'll have a live report for you next.
VELSHI: And prison break in Libya. Amazing video as rebel forces break open metal doors of cells and prisoners waiting inside.
COSTELLO: And what's inside Moammar Gadhafi's R.V.? Rebels claim they found this R.V. trailer and they say it belongs to the fugitive dictator.
It's 14 minutes past the hour.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
VELSHI: A deadly bomb blasted the U.N. building in Nigeria's capital. Emergency crews are still pulling casualties from the rubble.
COSTELLO: The explosion wiped out an entire wing of a three- story United Nation's building. It sent the building, at least part of it, crashing to the ground. Local reports are blaming the blast on a car bomb. CNN's Christian Purefoy is in Lagos, Nigeria. How many people are reported have died because of this?
CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, at the moment, we're getting the figure of seven people, but that is very likely to rise. The local hospital saying that, you know, ambulances still coming in. There's a lot of people very seriously injured, and some of the other security people we've spoken to said they're still pulling people out of the rubble. It was a very big blast.
And yes, the people were now speaking to are saying it was very likely a suicide car bomb. One lady who wished to remain anonymous was walking out of the U.N. at the time and a white SUV came swiftly into the compound, and then, there were two blasts in quick succession, the second one very much louder, shattered the walls, shattered the glass. That's when she ran.
But Carol, that would fit very well with Nigeria, at the moment, main terrorist group, Boko Haram, an Islamic militant group which been sort of operating in the northeast of the country and carried out very similar attacks. Normally, against government buildings, but, Carol, this is significant departure. That area where the U.N. is full of enmities (ph). It's very close to the U.S. embassy, for example, Carol.
COSTELLO: So, had there been threats against the United Nations previous to this? Had they taken any extra precaution?
PUREFOY: There've been no threats that we know of, but, as we -- you know, they said, the group has been no stranger to these car bomb attacks. So, a very similar attack where a car bomb tried to (INAUDIBLE) the police headquarters and blow up the building and the police there (ph), and other sorts of other similar attacks.
So, the U.N. and all the other embassies around that area had very tight security. They were well aware of Nigeria's security situation, particularly, threats against government buildings in the capital. But as I said, this is a significant departure if it is Boko Haram. They haven't yet claimed responsibility, but it is a significant departure not attacking government buildings but expanding their focus to attack foreign targets.
There have been reports, rumors, probably more likely, that this group has attacked foreign relationships with al-Shabaab and Somalia, al Qaeda. That, at the moment, is unlikely, but it is very likely that they have formed relationships with other extremist cells in the sort of north and (ph) West Africa, (INAUDIBLE), and they would certainly be trying to promote this sort of kind of attack, Carol.
COSTELLO: Just awful. Seven reported deaths, so far. Christian Purefoy reporting live from Nigeria this morning.
VELSHI: Developing news out of Libya as well. You're looking at video of what appears to show rebel forces storming a prison in Tripoli. Videos posted on YouTube on Wednesday. The rebels can be seen releasing those inside. No word on how many prisoners were freed in the process.
COSTELLO: And you're hearing the gunfire. CNN's crew at the airport in Libya, they report Gadhafi loyalists are now attacking administrated buildings there. Our team also reporting hearing NATO jets flying overhead. NATO telling CNN, it hopes to conduct an offensive on the east side of the airport after the loss of four passenger planes.
VELSHI: And check this out. Rebels claim to have found an RV trailer that belong to Moammar Gadgafi. They say it appears that Gadhafi had been hiding in the RV over the past few days. Another thing we're learning about him, he apparently had a photo album dedicated to former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. You're looking at it now. Rebels found the album after raiding Gadhafi's compound.
COSTELLO: Coming up next, Hurricane Irene is on a long and costly path that has it raking up the eastern seaboard. Millions of people, as you know, live along the east coast, and the markets are reacting.
VELSHI: Investors are tense ahead of a critical speech from fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, alter this morning. We're going to get a clear picture of the fed's plans for the struggling economy. What can we expect? We'll talk about it on the other side. We're watching your money next. It is 22 minutes after the hour.
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VELSHI: Twenty-four minutes after the hour. Watching your money this morning. Today is the big day. Federal Reserve chief, Ben Bernanke, will speak in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. Wall Street has been waiting all week for this hoping the fed chief might drop some hints about new measures to help out the struggling economy and maybe even hinted another round of fed stimulus.
Right now, U.S. stock futures on the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P 500 all trading lower ahead of the opening bell. Investors waiting for a new report out in just a few minutes on the growth of the economy in the second quarter. Economists are forecasting the GDP in the second quarter was weaker than first thought. The economy may have only grown at a rate of one percent during that April to June period.
Investors are rushing back to gold after rumors started swirling that Germany's credit rating maybe be downgraded. The ratings agencies reaffirmed the AAA rating for Europe's largest economy, and that didn't stop people from investing in gold for security. Right now, it's up to $1,790 an ounce in electronic trading.
Stocks to watch today, State Farm, Nationwide and Allstate, and Travelers, those are some of the most exposed insurers with Hurricane Irene fast approaching the east coast. Shares in Allstate and Travelers dropped three percent % yesterday. Many of the country's largest insurance companies have already sustained serious losses this year because of damaging weather in the spring.
Up next, flights canceled, train service shut down, evacuations already underway. We'll break down brand new state-by-state developments related to Hurricane Irene. AMERICAN MORNING back after this break.
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VELSHI (voice-over): That is Foley Beach, South Carolina, just South of Charleston. You see the surf picking up there. It's light rain and fog, 80 degrees, like a lot of the east coast can have showers and wind and get up to 85 degrees. Again, that's not the worst of it. That's not even going to get anywhere close to the worst of it.
COSTELLO: I know. It looks so pretty now, doesn't it?
Top stories for you now. Hurricane warnings now posted for the North Carolina coast all the way to the Jersey Shore. Tens of thousands evacuating the shoreline as Irene with 110 miles per hour winds moves closer to the United States.
VELSHI: Irene forcing several airlines to cancel flights. American Airlines canceled 126 flights yesterday and moved planes out of the way of the storm. More flights are expected to be grounded today.
COSTELLO: In D.C., the dedication of a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial is now postponed because of Hurricane Irene. A statue of the late civil rights leader was supposed to be revealed on Sunday. Even President Obama planned to be there, but event organizers are not taking any chances with the impending storm. So, they pushed back the ceremony until a later date. Maybe, sometime in September or October.
VELSHI: Hurricane Irene causing serious concerns in New York. If the storm hits the city square on, the flooding could be devastating. Mayor Michael Bloomberg considering evacuations and a mass transit shutdown. Earlier, we spoke with emergency preparedness expert, Stephen Flynn. He gave us some good advice to help New Yorkers get through the storm.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN FLYNN, AUTHOR, "EDGE OF DISASTER: REBUILDING A RESILIENT NATION": The high-rises, if you have a patio or a terrace out there, get that furniture inside, because that would be really dangerous for people below, and it can be used as a missile and essentially serve as a missile and hit your windows and so forth.
Anybody with a chronic illness make sure you have plenty of medicine, because it may be hard to get to the hospital.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: In the meantime, Long Island already issued a voluntary evacuation. And thousands of other residents are rushing around to get the last-minute supplies. Susan Candiotti is joining us live from smith point, a barrier island off of Long Island. Susan, are they prepared?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, people are starting to get prepared, yes. Everyone is talking about it as we stop along the way here, stop in stores. People are buying supplies. I can tell you that because when you go to the store shelves you can see things are vanishing quickly, including all the staples you usually need. You have to scoop up the batteries, flashlights, bread, canned foods. And be sure to remember to get those prescriptions filled. Cash from ATM machines because there are sure to be power outages and downed trees at the very least.
You can see over my shoulder. It is beautiful out here now, rolling waves. Of course, that is sure to change because as you described our location on this barrier island on the south side of long island, this could be right in the crosshairs of where Irene is going to pass over.
We will get pounded by high surf, high waves and high winds certainly, a storm surge that could wipe out at least some of these dunes that they have spent a lot of money, millions of dollars, building up over the years.
They haven't had a real serious hit from a storm here since, well, many, many years, and certainly one of the worst was in 1938. They called it the long island express. It was a category three storm that claimed the lives from 200 from here all the way to New England.
So are people preparing? Yes. Are evacuations likely? Oh, yes. I'm sure this area, they are talking about a mandatory evacuation on this beach anyway certainly by late today, and they are expecting some mandatory evacuations certainly from low-lying areas, you know, as the day goes on.
But I can't let you go without one more look at the beautiful deer that we saw out here as the sun was coming up. There were three of them. Big antlers and they noticed us, we noticed them, and we had to share you just a beautiful shot of nature. And, of course, it does make you think what happens to the wildlife out here? There are preserves out here as well and parks. So I'm sure they will find shelter in some way, shape, or form, as they always do, and as we hope everyone else does. I know a lot of people we talk to here are telling us they are taking the advice and moving out of the low-lying areas and staying with family on higher ground.
COSTELLO: Susan Candiotti, many thanks and thanks for the pictures. Beautiful.
VELSHI: The outer banks of North Carolina are expected to take the first blow on Saturday. Tens of thousands of tourists and residents have already been told to clear out. CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is live in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Morning, Reynolds. How is it looking?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: So far, so good. Again, if we had no idea the storm was coming in terms of looking our technology it looks like any other day. You have a little bit of sun to the south and directly to the east and north a perfect day.
What is troubling about it is that it's undeniable the storm is headed in this direction. When that hurricane comes closer, many things that are quite troubling. First and foremost, the location -- this barrier island is essentially a punching bag in the Atlantic. Florida is the number one place for tropical storm to hurricane frequency. This is a close number two.
What is interesting, too, along this barrier island offshore a plume of water comes in from the south and that plume of water is the Gulf Stream. That is just some very warm water. It's like pure, high octane rocket fuel for these tropical systems.
Another big problem has to do with the island itself. The barrier island 200 miles long, at its widest point at Hatteras three miles of width. And then on the other side you have part of the inner-coastal waterway, a series of separate sounds and more water there. It really could make for a troubling situation as this system gets closer to us.
Yesterday we spoke -- we had the opportunity to speak with a fellow by the name of Bobby Ottman, the Dare County manager, and he actually laid out what he considers to be his nightmare scenario.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OTTMAN: Worst case scenario for us is a storm coming up the sounds with the eastern side coming up the outer banks, which is what the track right now does. Then it becomes size and speed and we have a storm that is moving at, I don't know, 10 to 12 the last time I saw. This is projected out of three or maybe a high two, which is a big storm for us. So that is our worst case scenario and we're in it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF: So plain and simple, the best advice they give to people is get out. They have had some people evacuate earlier in the week. You had people that know this area very well. They know what it's susceptible to and they went ahead and packed up and are gone. Yesterday the official departure of people who are the visitors. Up to 150,000 people on an average day in August, and then the 35,000 residents who live here year-round and they will be leaving here.
As we wrap up, you can see in the distance the waves were coming in, now coming in in sets of three instead of two. We will see more of those pick up. Heavier surf, and with that, the wind and rain and moving this direction and compliments of Irene. Let's pitch it back to you in the studio.
VELSHI: Reynolds, thanks very much. We will stay with you and our entire team out there as we track this hurricane.
COSTELLO: OK, so Reynolds gave us the worst case scenario. I want the best case scenario. For that, we turn to Rob Marciano.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Don't watch the news!
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We'll try to put a positive spin on this, or try to. You have seen the beautiful pictures of the deer out there. You saw the one silver lining, I suppose. We should follow the animals because they know what to do.
VELSHI: That's Rob's solution to this thing, find wildlife and follow it.
CANDIOTTI: And if they are burying their heads in the sand --
COSTELLO: If you see a big old ark, get on that too, because that is where they are going.
CANDIOTTI: That might be helpful. That may be the biggest issue with this storm is this rainfall only because we've seen so much of it, especially across Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania the past couple of weeks. Ground is saturated and we will get more rain with this thing regardless of the track, unless it goes out to sea, and at this point it doesn't look like it's going to happen.
Reynolds said it looks nice up there at the out banks, but we are already starting to see some spiral bands make their way into parts of Georgia and South Carolina, and the winds are picking up. In Charleston winds are gusting out over 30 miles an hour already. This is a large storm. Tropical storm force winds extend in the diameter about 500 miles across, so amazing there, an 80-mile-an-hour radius of the hurricane strength winds. Things still over 300 miles away from shore, and it's already starting to spin that nasty weather inland.
Let's show you some of the other stats. The movement of this thing is off towards the north at 13 miles an hour. That will begin to accelerate. We've lost the distinguished eye the past few rounds, but we'll probably see it reorganize and strengthen over the Gulf Stream waters there. Right now very strong category two making landfall potentially as a category three. Here's the forecast track at the National Hurricane Center. This really hasn't moved much the past 36 hours. We expect it to make landfall across the southern tip of north Carolina during the day tomorrow. Pretty much the entire low country is going to get hit hard with this thing.
And then Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware, crossing over towards sandy point, the jersey shore and then, of course, long island coastal Connecticut that is where hurricane watches have just been posted. New York City, Long Island, coastal Connecticut, Rhode Island, eastern parts of Massachusetts is where we think we will probably see some hurricane situation here in the next 48 hours. Hurricane warnings have been extended off towards the south.
Storm surge is going to be another issue as well. That will be dependent as your exact location. It could be more than in the eastern part of Manhattan, depending on the path of this, certainly Long Island, both on Long Island Sound. And the surf side is going to see some surge with this, and the wind knocking down trees, which will knock out power lines.
This is a graphic we're going by as far as a category one storm getting into this highly populated area. We expect to see anywhere from a quarter to half a million people without power from three to six days. Keep that in mind. We heard from one of the officials saying you can tell New Yorkers, but they don't always listen.
VELSHI: Right.
WOLF: I can pound the desk here and tell you to buy at least some batteries. They don't go bad.
VELSHI: Batteries, water, food, medicine, that's it.
WOLF: Other things that have been affected by this, if I can switch gears just a little bit. Jets and Giants are supposed to play tomorrow at 7:00 and they have moved it up in anticipation of the storm. Big deal last night at Yankees stadium. The Yanks --
VELSHI: Unbelievable.
WOLF: Did you see that?
VELSHI: Yes.
WOLF: Not just one, not two, but three grand slams. Robinson Cano gets things started. The Yankees were trailing. It looked like they were out of this game.
COSTELLO: They were playing Oakland!
(LAUGHTER)
WOLF: Carol Costello with some perspective there.
VELSHI: Clearly we don't have a lot of viewers in Oakland now. COSTELLO: Oakland is in last place!
WOLF: Russell martin and Granderson caps it off with a football like score as you mentioned, Ali.
VELSHI: Oakland did get nine runs. Oakland had a baseball type score. The Yankees had a football type score.
I want to ask you one more thing about the hurricane. You mentioned the distinguished eye. What determines whether that eye stays together or not, because that could be the good news carol is looking for that this thing falls apart?
WOLF: Yes, we don't think that will happen. It will diminish in intensity when it crosses north don't recall but that part of North Carolina doesn't have a lot of mountains and it has a lot of water, as a matter of fact, so we don't expect it to weaken too much. What will weaken is as it heads through cooler waters.
Right now it has a fairly small eye. It has some cloud cover. But that doesn't mean it's not strong and large storm. We can have a category three or four storm without an eye you e on the satellite picture and why it's important we fly the hurricane hunter aircraft in there. And our computer models the past few years especially two or three days out, they are very, very good. Four or five days out, eh. But now we're in that window. So it looks like it's coming.
VELSHI: Got it.
COSTELLO: He tried.
VELSHI: He tried to give you some good news.
COSTELLO: Talking about sports, ESPN sparking serious controversy this morning for posting a picture of NFL superstar Michael Vick as a white man. They did it for an article questioning the impact of race on a quarterback's public perception. We'll show you the picture and ask did ESPN go too far? And also the headline read "What if Michael Vick were white?" We are talking to the man who wrote the article and ESPN's senior editor next. It's 41 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It is 44 minutes past the hour.
There is a huge backlash this morning against an image ESPN published on its website. It ran a Photoshop picture of Eagles quarterback Michael Vick as a white man. Here it is. It was meant to accompany an article which ESPN titled "What if Michael Vick were white?" The author of that article says he had no idea about the artwork and wants to be judged on the words in his article.
His name is Toure. Maybe you remember him. He was part of the AMERICAN MORNING family, and it's safe to say he's not happy with the headline or the picture. Toure tweeted this last night. He said "I wrote an essay about Vick and race. ESPN the magazine it and added the art without me, which is normal procedure. Judge me on the story, not the art."
ESPN, though, stands by its decision saying, "It appreciates and encourages the discussion the image has prompted."
Joining us now is Toure who is the author of "Who Is Afraid of Post Blackness" and we're joined by the Raina Kelly, the senior editor of ESPN, the magazine. Welcome to you both.
Wow. Talk about backlash. Let's talk with you, Toure, since you wrote this article. I was looking at your Twitter feed and there are some very nasty tweets on there. I'm just going to -- people are saying some pretty ugly stuff.
TOURE: Yes.
COSTELLO: I'm just going to read one of them. One of the more mild ones.
TOURE: Who is that?
COSTELLO: This is from Twitter. "In what world did it seem like a good idea to put Vick in white face? Doing an article with Brady in black face?
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: Great.
COSTELLO: I mean, when you saw this image of Michael Vick as a white man, your thoughts were?
TOURE: I was dismayed, and I was horrified. And I didn't imagine that they would do that. And it contradicts what I'm doing in the story because I talk about that there is this common place idea, this thought experiment that all of us do that if something happens to somebody, white or black, and you say, well, just switch their races and then would it be racist or not racist?
And this is so -- supposedly a test to know is it racist or not? But the same thing happened if you -- the person was black or white and -- and I'm like this whole concept doesn't really make any sense. Because race informs your entire life so you wouldn't even enter the same moment the same way, right. You'd be entirely different.
If Michael Vick were white -- if that was even imaginable -- he may not even go to the NFL because he might see other options for his life and would try to do something else with his life. So just the concept of re-imagine somebody is white is -- or black is extraordinarily difficult and I dismiss the concept of that right away in the story.
So for the headline and the image to suggest let's look at him as white is extremely -- it's just -- it's a perpendicular relationship to the story that I wrote. COSTELLO: Ok, well let's -- let's head to Raina then. So Raina why is -- because you had a part in the decision-making. Why put this image out there? Like why make Michael Vick a white man?
RAINA KELLY, ESPN THE MAGAZINE: Ok. Well, the first reason we did it is because, I mean, I'm sure, as you know, the purpose of the art in a magazine, on television and in the newspaper, is to accompany and make the reader think in a way similar to the story.
For the art for this -- "What if Michael Vick were white?" We turned to the late Tibor Kalman, who was the editor-in-chief of "Colors" magazine. And what he did in his magazine is that he racialized, he made Queen Elizabeth II black and he made Pope John Paul black and in doing so it became a very famous art experiment, to look at how visually we think about people differently when they are a different color.
This -- this was something we thought about for a long time. Terms of the question, the question was out there from the moment he was arrested. This is something we took from the zeitgeist. In fact, we dedicated an entire issue to Michael Vick, and part of it was a Vick confidential, in which we asked NFL football players if they thought things would have been different for Michael Vick, if he would have been punished less severely had he been white. And just under 60 percent said yes. So this was not a question we plucked out of the air.
I mean, that we made up. We plucked it out of the zeitgeist. And we -- because what we wanted to do was discuss Michael Vick as fully as possible and discuss the dog-fighting issue as fully as possible.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: But -- but you -- in the -- in fairness, you were trying to be provocative, too. You were trying to drive people to read this article and to your site.
KELLY: There are two -- I mean I think that, one, race is always a provocative issue. Second, there are three ways to handle it. You can ignore it, you can -- you can use all kinds of code words so that nobody really knows what you're saying, or you can just put the issue out there and let people talk about it. That's what we did and that's what we have done.
COSTELLO: Ok Toure, you're listening to all of this.
So, I mean have you two talked about this at all? I assume that you have not.
TOURE: Oh no. Raina edited the story so we talked in depth about what would be in the story. And we knew that it was a delicate story and how to handle it and how to make sure that people didn't take the wrong impression from the points that I was trying to make.
COSTELLO: But obviously, you're saying people did take the wrong impression. Because of the decision that Raina, you heard her explanation what do you think?
TOURE: Well I mean, look when you -- I deal with it as a writer. I can't even deal with the marketing of the story, putting that image, taking that title. When you see that image in particular, which goes counter to what the story is all about, you come to the story with a pitchfork, right?
You -- you are angry at me, you're angry at ESPN. I completely understand some people's anger. A lot of people read the story and were like well this is actually reasonable and smart and deals with the issue in a very complicated way. And you know, I mean there is just so many issues. Race is so layered. You can't just switch people's races and know the answer.
And I was actually disagreeing with those 60 percent of NFL players. In America, we love dogs. And for a lot of people, hurting a dog is morally equivalent to hurting a toddler. And I think if Tom Brady were found to have a massive dog-fighting ring in his backyard, he would do two years in jail as well and he'll be thrown off the Patriot and out of the NFL and he wouldn't just not able to get away with it because he's white.
And you know, these are very complicated issues.
COSTELLO: They are complicated issues. Raina, a last question for you. Why do you think that so many people found this image offensive?
KELLY: Because it is -- I think, at first blush, they may have thought, oh, well, we are trying to just gin-up interest, you know? Get hits to our site. But we are a magazine and we had dedicated close to a hundred pages to Michael Vick.
We knew this picture was going to be provocative, we knew it was going to be thought provoking; that is what we wanted. We did not want people to shut down. We wanted people to stop, look at the picture, and then read the article which, in fact, is what they did. It's a fantastic article.
And one in which Toure, as he mentions, handles race in a very nuanced and layered way. But the first question which is asked and answered in the piece is would this happen to a white quarterback. Toure says yes.
And then we move on to the idea of switching races. And that is something that's very interesting to me and I think to our readers, because when you look at somebody and you look at their race, you make decisions about them immediately.
And what we wanted to do was almost a visual experiment with our readers. How do you feel about Michael Vick when you see him white?
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Well, Toure --
KELLY: Do you feel about him differently?
TOURE: It does make people kind of shut down and it does change the reaction. It does change the reaction, even to ESPN, that people are like, what are you guys doing?
COSTELLO: Yes.
TOURE: You know, to me as well. And it's a -- it's quite lightning rod --
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: That's unfortunate, that's unfortunate.
COSTELLO: Ok, I don't know, I wish we could go on with this conversation but we cannot. But it has been certainly interesting. And I don't think you two are going to come to a meeting of the minds over this. Somehow, I have that in my head.
Thank you, though, both of you for -- for coming in and talking about this, Toure and Raina Kelly the senior editor for ESPN magazine.
KELLY: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Coming up next, Hurricane Irene weakening slightly overnight but now there are still a double landfall in the forecast. We've got your updated forecast that's coming your way next.
Its 52 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK SMEAR, CNN HERO OF THE WEEK: In Haiti, every day of your life, you are seeing poor kids. When you quit caring (ph), it became harder. There is no water, no electricity. You have to fight for everything.
In 2006, the doctor told me that I had a cancer and it was not curable. So I wanted to do something good for my country, for the kids. My name is Patrick Smear and I do education to soccer with Haitian kids.
In soccer, you have everything in life. You need to give, you need to receive, you need team spirit, discipline, sportsmanship. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
No more shoot, no more shoot. Yes.
This is the way you win in life. Whatever I can do, I help some of the kids. I pay the school for them. And we also have the food program. They can eat for two days. This is a lot for them.
So I want the kids to be very good citizens. They can do something, they can believe in themselves. I enjoy so much to teach them, to learn from them. I prefer to die on the field than die at the hospital. To see the joy, the face of the kids, you know, that makes me happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: You're taking a live look at what Morehead City, North Carolina -- I'm sorry.
VELSHI: Morehead City --
COSTELLO: I apologize -- at Morehead City, North Carolina, where it could take a direct hit from Irene a little later, when, tomorrow, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, tomorrow. It's not going to be not looking like that. All of the waves will be pretty big.
COSTELLO: Yes. Looks so peaceful now. People are looking at the waves coming in, ready to run if they have to.
MARCIANO: It is. But you can see the sunshine beginning to dim and I'm sure the higher clouds are beginning to veil some of that beautiful scenery there. And things are going to go downhill as we (INAUDIBLE) off the set --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: This is where we think it's closest to making landfall.
MARCIANO: Yes, probably. I think Morehead City is a good bet. Maybe a little bit farther to the east but nonetheless, the low country of North Carolina is going to get hit hard anywhere around town with this. (INAUDIBLE)
What's surprising when you're looking back at hurricane history, I mean it's been over ten years since North Carolina got hit by a major storm. And it's been almost six years since we have seen a major storm hit the U.S. And this is not a major storm technically right now. It's got winds of 110. We need winds of 111. Talking about splitting hairs right there.
Don't worry about that and don't so much worry about the track either because it's going to close enough to the coastline once it gets past North Carolina where everybody from the Delmarva across the Chesapeake up to Jersey and then also the New England coastline is going to be affected by this thing.
It's a large storm with a big circulation. There'll be a surge on top of astronomically high tides as well. Exactly how much surge you get in your neighborhood will determine by the track and where you exactly live,. not necessarily the elevation.
It's going to be interesting. It will be historic. Just try to prepare as best you can and we will hope for the best as mom likes to say.
VELSHI: All right. We will be covering this very, very closely.
MARCIANO: We'll get through this.
VELSHI: We'll be covering it very closely as we always do at CNN. In fact, Jim Acosta takes over our coverage right now in the "CNN NEWSROOM." Jim, take it away.
