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CNN Sunday Morning
Hurricane Florida Makes Landfall Near Melbourne, Florida
Aired September 05, 2004 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. We're continuing to track this hurricane. The north end of Frances is right now bearing down on Melbourne, Florida. We want to go live to CNN's Bill Hemmer who is in the path of this storm. Good morning, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Betty, good morning. I tell you what I find just absolutely extraordinary about this storm. We talk about how big it is and how slow it is. We started our day on Saturday morning about 26 hours ago. Tropical storm winds out on the coast. We're inland now about a mile. We're now 26 hours later and we're starting to experience some of the strongest winds yet. And as you described that northern edge of the storm as it works its way into the east coast of Florida, that is indeed what we're experiencing right now. We have not been able to see a satellite since late last night when the power went out. In fact, we can't even bring in a satellite signal in our truck out there because the storm is too strong now. So we can only guess right now. I cannot tell you how strong the winds are. But what I can tell you based on our own personal experience after being out here for several days, this is the strongest winds we have experienced to date here in Melbourne, Florida. Overnight, an exceedingly long night for Floridians up and down the east coast, waiting for this storm to come on shore and now waiting for Frances to move on through. It is so--it is so extraordinary with this storm because normally you get a hurricane, parked offshore when he or she decides to come onshore, he or she does that and it's gone within hours. But this thing has been so long and so slow in getting here and now it's just taking its time as it moves on shore. But the winds behind me I would not be surprised if they were in excess of 70, 75 miles an hour. Because if that's the case you've got a category I hurricane right now coming on shore here in Melbourne. If we had measuring instruments, we would get a better read on it for you. Perhaps Rob can through his own radar back there at the CNN Center trying to figure out just how strong things are now. But Floridians by and large waking up to another morning today in the dark, to the tune of 1.5 million without power and electricity. And, Betty, I throw that number out with caution because that was the number given out hours ago. If these storms right now have gotten worse since then it's quite likely that even more people will be without power as the daybreaks here on a Sunday in the east coast of Florida. Frances is here. We've been waiting and she has arrived with a fury, Betty. Back to you in Atlanta.
NGUYEN: Absolutely. And we've been looking at numbers this morning. I've seen power outages, upwards of two million people. But I want to talk about the people behind you, Bill. At first when we came to you I saw a car behind you going through the streets. There's that car again. Then I saw people coming out. Are people, as the daylight comes up there in Melbourne, are they starting to venture out even in this type of wind?
HEMMER: No, they're not. I'll tell you who that is. That's from another network from NBC. They are actually operating a live camera around the corner of this structure where we are. We've taken shelter here. They're down around the side doing their reports. The only people you see out in these roads right now, Betty, are police officers, fire officials, and members of the media. Just so you know, and we say this so many times. Often I think it sounds ridiculous to talk about it because we say stay home, stay off the roads and yet we're out here reporting. Why are we here? To try to get the information to people who need it, because I can tell you every single person who was staying in our hotel yesterday and last evening they were simply glued to the television set trying to find out the latest when they can re-emerge and go back to their homes here on the east coast of Florida.
NGUYEN We'll let you seek some shelter right now. Bill Hemmer in Melbourne, Florida. Thank you so much for that.
HEMMER: You got it, Betty.
NGUYEN: I want to go now to KCAL reporter Joel Connable who is on vacation, actually, in Florida. Picked a great weekend for that. He's staying at the Grand Floridian and he says hundreds of tourists are in that hotel at this hour. Good morning to you.
JOEL CONNABLE, KCAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
NGUYEN: Tell me, you knew the hurricane was coming through and yet you still decided to go forth with your vacation?
CONNABLE: Yes, we departed on Thursday morning. The hurricane was moving so slowly we figured we would take a chance to come down here. We figured it wouldn't move this slowly. We thought it would blow across the state fairly quickly. But we arrived Thursday afternoon and had a great day at Disney World on Friday. The happiest place on earth was pretty much one of the emptiest places on earth. We got on rides that normally take three hours in line in about ten minutes, so the whole park about two and a half hours. And then Friday night into Saturday is when the winds start started to pick up. And then this morning we're waking up to the strongest winds we've seen so far. There are about 4,000 guests here at the Grand Floridian. Many of them are evacuees from the coast who are here at this hotel and all just hunkering down waiting for the storm to slowly blow over. But as I said the strongest winds we've seen so far are happening right now this morning.
NGUYEN: Seeing lots of rain right now in that area along with the wind?
CONNABLE: There was a lot of rain on and off. Right now I'm looking out my window over my patio furniture from the balcony which is actually sitting in the room with us and it's not raining. But the wind has picked up quite a bit. You can see the darker clouds off in the distance blowing this way. So rain will probably pick up again shortly. But we have seen some hard rain.
NGUYEN: Obviously, this is supposed to last all day long. You expecting to stay there for quite some time or are you like others trying to head out as soon as you can?
CONNABLE: No, actually, we can't head out. The hotel put out a notice saying guests should be prepared to stay in their rooms for as long as 30 hours. And my epiphany came to me last night, when I realized that here we are in a five star hotel and my girlfriend is sitting on the floor making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for us because there is no room service. The hotel is asking us all to stay in these buildings. And people watching this morning might remember the Grand Floridian is the hotel at Disney World with the white shutters and the red tile roofs and looks like an old Victorian mansion. So it looks quite fragile but the hotel says it's built well above codes so should do just fine and probably the safest place we can be for this hurricane.
NGUYEN: So as you look out on your balcony are you seeing any kind of damage from that wind that you just spoke of moments ago?
CONNABLE: I don't see any damage at all. We did see on the other side from where our room is from Hurricane Charley they lost several tiles on their roof. But right now outside my window I just see a large tree blowing in the wind fiercely and the monorail tracks which are running across a lagoon that's in front of our room, there is no monorail but there are white caps on this little lagoon as the wind picks up. But no damage as of yet.
NGUYEN: All right. KCAL reporter Joel Connable. Thank you for your time this morning. Best of luck to you and prepare for the rain. It's headed your way. It's already there, in fact.
We want to go now to affiliate WFOR in Florida who has a live look right now the radar but they're doing some coverage from Melbourne where we just saw CNN's Bill Hemmer. And Melbourne is at the northern part of this storm. It's getting slammed right now with lots of fierce wind and rain. And let's listen into their coverage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see our friends up to the north they are getting a great deal of weather. You can really tune into us for the very latest. You can listen to us through our radio partners and you also pick up a copy of the...
NGUYEN: While they stay on the radar we're going to jump to affiliate WSVN who is showing right now some live pictures from Hallandale Beach. Let's listen to this report.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the reasons why you want to stay home, folks. There is a tractor behind it trying to help out and do something with that tree. It is on some lines and it's held up by the lines. And that is definitely something serious. So I don't think you should be traveling on this road right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where exactly are you, Rob? Because that is very dangerous. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm right now on Hallandale Beach Blvd and Northeast 12th Street in the City of Hallandale. I tell you right now, this is a pretty big tree. It's held up, it seems like, by the wires. The electricity's out on that poll pole right there and it's just not a good sight down here. But it is calm, as far as the weather goes. We do have a few other palm trees down on the street that are on the ground in this parking lot over here by the business. There's a few. But as far as whether there are some dark clouds racing behind us. But this tree is something serious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Rob, not one problem out there but two. Bill, you said it, you know, even though we may be seeing some bright spots, that is a reason why we should not be heading outdoors, especially children on their bikes. You know, not only is this standing water can it be contaminated but we're talk about downed power lines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Irene in 1999, after the storm went by, eight people died in that one storm because of that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you look at the radar in that little picture on your screen, some of those feeder bans coming out of the keys are affecting parts of Miami-Dade county. So we will be in and out of the bands today. So like I said, not a totally stormy day. But when it storms, it could storm big time where you are so you've got to be careful, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. We continue to cover Hurricane Frances, 7:42 in the morning. Christine Cruz, Richard Lemus, chief meteorologist Bill Kamal, along with countless others on the scene...
NGUYEN: You've been listening to affiliate WSVN in Florida. They're looking at Ft. Lauderdale beach right there that last picture that we showed you. We'll continue to dip in and out of local coverage throughout the morning. We want to go now to Adam Landau of affiliate WJXT who was on the front line when Frances roared ashore at Daytona Beach.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAM LANDAU, WJXT REPORTER: Whipping winds starting to move in, and police are starting to pick up the debris that's now falling everywhere. If this doesn't show you just how things are changing here, then maybe this will.
(on camera) We are in a severe wind gust right now. You can see it's blowing us around. But I want to show you they talk about flying debris, well take a look up there and you can see what's happening to the traffic lights. They're literally being thrown to the ground. That one's about to fall. If you look down the road a little bit, you can see one traffic light has already been knocked down. It is very windy. We're having a tough time standing.
(voice-over) This is a big worry here. Power poles snapped in half and live power lines in the middle of the road. There is a mandatory evacuation here. And anyone that tries to go into the ocean will be escorted out by police. And this for an area that's still trying to recover from Charley.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of damage around this area, so it's been pretty rough around here. Everybody's now recuperating and here we go back again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: That was Adam Landau of WJXT reporting. Here at CNN we have continuing coverage of Frances. You're watching CNN Sunday Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Well, good morning and welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Frances. Meteorologist Orelon Sydney is in Orlando at this hour where thousands of tourists are riding out the storm. In fact, Orelon, we just spoke with one on the phone not too long ago. What's the situation there right now?
ORELON SYDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can see, it's still quite windy. I just went and took a little trip out to the parking lot and out-not in the in the street but close to the street just to see if there had been in the damage. There are a couple of palm trees that are down but I think those came up during Charley. I just don't think we had the winds long enough or strong enough to really uproot trees. Maybe snap some very weak ones but that's about it. The winds last I looked were sustained at about 38 miles an hour. It seems like they've diminish address little bit. But the rain sure hasn't let up very much. It's not really a very hard rain. That's what's interesting to me. It's mostly just a steady, moderate rainfall. Every now and again you will get some gusts and the rain will start coming at you sideways. But this reminds me so much of being back in Texas. Especially looking up at the clouds. I'm telling you, those clouds a few thousand feet up are really moving. I bet there are some hurricane force winds there without a doubt. But here down at the surface we're getting those tropical storm force gusts. Reminds me a whole lot of those big what we call blue northers that would come through Texas with the very, very cold air. Of course, it's not cold here but it sure is a blowing -- Betty.
NGUYEN: I grew up in Texas and I can relate to you, Orelon. Let's talk about the rain, though, because you said the winds aren't too strong. But the as hurricane slowly comes through, is the rain going to be the major issue in Orlando?
SYDNEY: It sure is. And you know, the winds are up. But I've seen people in the hotel have been taking out their dogs for the morning. It's not something where we're having to hold on to things to get around, certainly. I mean, honestly, I weigh 125 pounds and I haven't had any problem standing up. So that should tell you something right there. The winds just aren't going to be that strong. By the way, next time you talk to Bill Hemmer, let him know I took a look at the Melbourne observation and they're just not reporting a wind speed out of there. I think they must have lost their wind gauge. NGUYEN: It was coming fast and furious the last time we spoke with him. We'll ask him that when we talk to him. Thank you, Orelon. We'll check in with you a little bit later.
I want to go now to CNN's Rob Marciano who is tracking this storm in the weather center. I guess, you know, with this coming through, for many of the areas on the outskirts, tornado damage or the threat of a tornado, really, is that what some folks are seeing this hour?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: Well, we've got tornado watches that are out for the rest of this morning, officially until 8:00 but they will probably extend that as we go through the morning. Yes, tornado watches are out for the northern half of the system. We'll get to that in just a second. First off, though, Melbourne is just getting hammered. Orelon mentioned--there hasn't been a report since 6:00 yesterday. It either blew out the wind gauge or more likely they just ran out of gas in their generator because not only are they not reporting winds but they're not reporting anything as far as surface observations are concerned. So we just have to guess as to what's going on here. I can tell you this, they're getting the northern fringe of the eyewall right now and they're getting peppered with some Atlantic moisture feeding into this. So certainly hurricane force gusts, if not sustained hurricane winds into Melbourne. And then maybe as far north as Cape Canaveral as this swath starts to move in. This, the back half of the system as this begins to push on shore. Let's take GR-114. And that kind of gives you a good idea of how big the system is. From the Florida keys all of the way up to the Georgia border, the entire state of Florida is covered with moisture. You see that--those two little spinning areas up there you mentioned that there were threat for tornadoes? We have a tornado warning out now for Clay County. This Doppler radar can actually pick up that circulation. It's in rural areas right now, thank goodness. But they are moving to the west in a hurry. Let's go over to GR-115. We'll show you the wind speeds. What we expect here in the next couple of hours, actually, next couple days for the most part. Category I storm, so it has been downgraded but it's still a strong category I storm with winds sustained at 95 miles an hour. It's moving to the west and eventually probably a little bit more north westerly at eight miles an hour. This red area is the forecast wind speeds for hurricane force winds. Right now they extend to 80 miles an hour. Mostly to the north and figure about 40 to 50 miles to the south. So pretty good swath. But it will weaken as we go through the rest of this morning and this afternoon. You see that red area begin to shrink as it heads toward Orlando. And that's good news for Orlando residents. And then as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico later on tonight and tomorrow it may strengthen a little bit. But Tampa will get a piece of this thing and then north towards the Apalachicola area as well as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico. But it's not going to get there likely until later on tonight. Could take several, several hours, pretty much all day to cross the peninsula. I'm probably not-- I'm thinking after midnight. This timing may be off just a little bit. Tomorrow afternoon, into the Florida pan handle, possibly as a weak hurricane again. May gather a little bit of strength as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico and then a lot of wind and a lot of rain as it heads through parts of Alabama and Mississippi. Here's that storm on the satellite imagery. You see it waffling through the Bahamas and then slamming into the east coast of Florida last night. But it's still moving slowly. It's still big. Sears(ph) from this thing all the way up into South Carolina, and Betty, also rough surf up and down the east coast from this thing. The Carolinas certainly will certainly see rip currents maybe as far north as Long Island as well. Tornado warning out for Clay County which is really far to the north. It's up around St. Augustine. And--but it's in a rural area right now. That is a threat, mostly to the north of the storm.
NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Rob Marciano, thank you for that.
I want to dip into some local coverage right now. We want to go to affiliate WSVN in Florida. This is Haulover Beach and reporter there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You tied it down and this boat is your everything am I correct?
JAMO, BOATER: That's my baby. I run a live bait service. I provide bait for all the boaters that go out fishing. What I usually do is I leave at 5:00 in the afternoon and I fish all night long and come back at 5:00 in the morning and I go out in the bay and retail to the customers in the 11:00 in the morning and then I go to sleep at 1:00, start again, my routine. Every other day I get a rest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So obviously this boat is extremely important to you.
JAMO: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How has it been through the storm having to watch it just like that in such a precarious state?
JAMO: I have confidence in my boat because I put five pumps in that boat with eight big huge monster batteries. The only thing, the wind surprised us. It went the other direction. We thought it was going to come in on the northeast and it would handle it. But then it came off the northwest and now I'm getting the back pound. I have a couple of friends that lost a boat off the street, my friend, Joey Turner, the name of the boat is "Shady Dog." It went down yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So the "Shady Dog" is gone. Have you had a chance to talk to him? What did he say?
JAMO: No, he's in the Carolinas with his big boat. My other friend that had the boat here, "Knucklehead" his boat is against the seawall. He had two lines on there which he tied on Thursday. I saw him. And now his boat's against the seawall. Hopefully, it will make it by tomorrow. All we got is, what, another 24 hours?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do have a little while. That's right. Now, I understand you said you had been coming out here but then you started seeing it on TV. So we were able to be your eyes at least.
JAMO: Sure. I was here yesterday at 11:00. I stayed until 4:00 to see how high the tide will come up and then I went home and then at 1:00 I couldn't sleep. So I turned on news and I saw my boat, oh, it's still bobbing nicely, fine. From the TV I could see my bilge pumps working so it's fine, it's fine. Just like you people were saying, it's going to get a little stronger later. Maybe popped one line, what I did is a triple-lined everything. If one line gives you still got a backup of two.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Well some good advice for other boaters out who may...
JAMO: One line don't count, two lines don't count, baby. You've got to put three lines, maybe go four. You're talking about a lot of money. That's yours and if it goes underwater, your money's underwater, it ain't coming back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me a little bit about--you said how hard you work and you described the long hours you put in. What would happen if you lost your boat?
JAMO: I can shed a tear a little bit and pray to God that nobody hurt. Because I was going to stay on the boat behind the islands where the charter boats put all their boats. But then again, like I see on TV, a lot of boat snaps lines then we're the pin and the bowling ball is coming.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if you were to lose your boat, what would you do?
JAMO: That's why we have insurance, but still it's not the right thing to do. The insurance will cover you but I've got to start overall over again. I have to go and get another boat. By the time I get set up and everything, I already lost a lot of customers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand you live on your boat as well, right?
JAMO: No, no, I spend 18, 16 hours a day on my boat and I spend the other six at home resting. I live in San Souci or North Miami or Miami Springs. I have three places. So I let my friend in San Souci in my place for his family. And my mom and dad live in Miami Springs, I could go over there but it's too far a drive. So I stayed over here where North Miami with my brother and my little nephew so I can get back and forth quick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Well Jamo, thank you so much. I'm glad that we've been able to help you out at least in broadcasting the pictures so you know how your boat's doing.
NGUYEN: That was a live look at the local coverage from WSVN there. We're going to be dipping in and out of local coverage throughout the morning to give you a first-hand look at that time scene from Florida on the ground. Right now I want to show you pictures from earlier where a reporter from WOFL had a close call with a palm tree. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa! Wow! (END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Wow is right, Rob Marciano. That's just one example of these hurricane force winds, thank goodness this reporter was okay. But that's why our reporters, like Bill Hemmer, Sean Callebs and the other ones out in the field try to get near a building or something that can really block a lot of these hurricane force winds. And we'll be checking in with those reporters throughout the morning so you want to stay tuned right here on CNN but in the meantime you can log on to CNN.com for up to the minute local weather reports, forecasts and satellite maps. That's at CNN.com/weather. Also, we have important links to emergency Web sites plus a special report on hurricanes, including safety tips on what you can do in a hurricane. And you can find all that and much more at CNN.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired September 5, 2004 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. We're continuing to track this hurricane. The north end of Frances is right now bearing down on Melbourne, Florida. We want to go live to CNN's Bill Hemmer who is in the path of this storm. Good morning, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Betty, good morning. I tell you what I find just absolutely extraordinary about this storm. We talk about how big it is and how slow it is. We started our day on Saturday morning about 26 hours ago. Tropical storm winds out on the coast. We're inland now about a mile. We're now 26 hours later and we're starting to experience some of the strongest winds yet. And as you described that northern edge of the storm as it works its way into the east coast of Florida, that is indeed what we're experiencing right now. We have not been able to see a satellite since late last night when the power went out. In fact, we can't even bring in a satellite signal in our truck out there because the storm is too strong now. So we can only guess right now. I cannot tell you how strong the winds are. But what I can tell you based on our own personal experience after being out here for several days, this is the strongest winds we have experienced to date here in Melbourne, Florida. Overnight, an exceedingly long night for Floridians up and down the east coast, waiting for this storm to come on shore and now waiting for Frances to move on through. It is so--it is so extraordinary with this storm because normally you get a hurricane, parked offshore when he or she decides to come onshore, he or she does that and it's gone within hours. But this thing has been so long and so slow in getting here and now it's just taking its time as it moves on shore. But the winds behind me I would not be surprised if they were in excess of 70, 75 miles an hour. Because if that's the case you've got a category I hurricane right now coming on shore here in Melbourne. If we had measuring instruments, we would get a better read on it for you. Perhaps Rob can through his own radar back there at the CNN Center trying to figure out just how strong things are now. But Floridians by and large waking up to another morning today in the dark, to the tune of 1.5 million without power and electricity. And, Betty, I throw that number out with caution because that was the number given out hours ago. If these storms right now have gotten worse since then it's quite likely that even more people will be without power as the daybreaks here on a Sunday in the east coast of Florida. Frances is here. We've been waiting and she has arrived with a fury, Betty. Back to you in Atlanta.
NGUYEN: Absolutely. And we've been looking at numbers this morning. I've seen power outages, upwards of two million people. But I want to talk about the people behind you, Bill. At first when we came to you I saw a car behind you going through the streets. There's that car again. Then I saw people coming out. Are people, as the daylight comes up there in Melbourne, are they starting to venture out even in this type of wind?
HEMMER: No, they're not. I'll tell you who that is. That's from another network from NBC. They are actually operating a live camera around the corner of this structure where we are. We've taken shelter here. They're down around the side doing their reports. The only people you see out in these roads right now, Betty, are police officers, fire officials, and members of the media. Just so you know, and we say this so many times. Often I think it sounds ridiculous to talk about it because we say stay home, stay off the roads and yet we're out here reporting. Why are we here? To try to get the information to people who need it, because I can tell you every single person who was staying in our hotel yesterday and last evening they were simply glued to the television set trying to find out the latest when they can re-emerge and go back to their homes here on the east coast of Florida.
NGUYEN We'll let you seek some shelter right now. Bill Hemmer in Melbourne, Florida. Thank you so much for that.
HEMMER: You got it, Betty.
NGUYEN: I want to go now to KCAL reporter Joel Connable who is on vacation, actually, in Florida. Picked a great weekend for that. He's staying at the Grand Floridian and he says hundreds of tourists are in that hotel at this hour. Good morning to you.
JOEL CONNABLE, KCAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
NGUYEN: Tell me, you knew the hurricane was coming through and yet you still decided to go forth with your vacation?
CONNABLE: Yes, we departed on Thursday morning. The hurricane was moving so slowly we figured we would take a chance to come down here. We figured it wouldn't move this slowly. We thought it would blow across the state fairly quickly. But we arrived Thursday afternoon and had a great day at Disney World on Friday. The happiest place on earth was pretty much one of the emptiest places on earth. We got on rides that normally take three hours in line in about ten minutes, so the whole park about two and a half hours. And then Friday night into Saturday is when the winds start started to pick up. And then this morning we're waking up to the strongest winds we've seen so far. There are about 4,000 guests here at the Grand Floridian. Many of them are evacuees from the coast who are here at this hotel and all just hunkering down waiting for the storm to slowly blow over. But as I said the strongest winds we've seen so far are happening right now this morning.
NGUYEN: Seeing lots of rain right now in that area along with the wind?
CONNABLE: There was a lot of rain on and off. Right now I'm looking out my window over my patio furniture from the balcony which is actually sitting in the room with us and it's not raining. But the wind has picked up quite a bit. You can see the darker clouds off in the distance blowing this way. So rain will probably pick up again shortly. But we have seen some hard rain.
NGUYEN: Obviously, this is supposed to last all day long. You expecting to stay there for quite some time or are you like others trying to head out as soon as you can?
CONNABLE: No, actually, we can't head out. The hotel put out a notice saying guests should be prepared to stay in their rooms for as long as 30 hours. And my epiphany came to me last night, when I realized that here we are in a five star hotel and my girlfriend is sitting on the floor making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for us because there is no room service. The hotel is asking us all to stay in these buildings. And people watching this morning might remember the Grand Floridian is the hotel at Disney World with the white shutters and the red tile roofs and looks like an old Victorian mansion. So it looks quite fragile but the hotel says it's built well above codes so should do just fine and probably the safest place we can be for this hurricane.
NGUYEN: So as you look out on your balcony are you seeing any kind of damage from that wind that you just spoke of moments ago?
CONNABLE: I don't see any damage at all. We did see on the other side from where our room is from Hurricane Charley they lost several tiles on their roof. But right now outside my window I just see a large tree blowing in the wind fiercely and the monorail tracks which are running across a lagoon that's in front of our room, there is no monorail but there are white caps on this little lagoon as the wind picks up. But no damage as of yet.
NGUYEN: All right. KCAL reporter Joel Connable. Thank you for your time this morning. Best of luck to you and prepare for the rain. It's headed your way. It's already there, in fact.
We want to go now to affiliate WFOR in Florida who has a live look right now the radar but they're doing some coverage from Melbourne where we just saw CNN's Bill Hemmer. And Melbourne is at the northern part of this storm. It's getting slammed right now with lots of fierce wind and rain. And let's listen into their coverage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see our friends up to the north they are getting a great deal of weather. You can really tune into us for the very latest. You can listen to us through our radio partners and you also pick up a copy of the...
NGUYEN: While they stay on the radar we're going to jump to affiliate WSVN who is showing right now some live pictures from Hallandale Beach. Let's listen to this report.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the reasons why you want to stay home, folks. There is a tractor behind it trying to help out and do something with that tree. It is on some lines and it's held up by the lines. And that is definitely something serious. So I don't think you should be traveling on this road right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where exactly are you, Rob? Because that is very dangerous. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm right now on Hallandale Beach Blvd and Northeast 12th Street in the City of Hallandale. I tell you right now, this is a pretty big tree. It's held up, it seems like, by the wires. The electricity's out on that poll pole right there and it's just not a good sight down here. But it is calm, as far as the weather goes. We do have a few other palm trees down on the street that are on the ground in this parking lot over here by the business. There's a few. But as far as whether there are some dark clouds racing behind us. But this tree is something serious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Rob, not one problem out there but two. Bill, you said it, you know, even though we may be seeing some bright spots, that is a reason why we should not be heading outdoors, especially children on their bikes. You know, not only is this standing water can it be contaminated but we're talk about downed power lines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Irene in 1999, after the storm went by, eight people died in that one storm because of that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you look at the radar in that little picture on your screen, some of those feeder bans coming out of the keys are affecting parts of Miami-Dade county. So we will be in and out of the bands today. So like I said, not a totally stormy day. But when it storms, it could storm big time where you are so you've got to be careful, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. We continue to cover Hurricane Frances, 7:42 in the morning. Christine Cruz, Richard Lemus, chief meteorologist Bill Kamal, along with countless others on the scene...
NGUYEN: You've been listening to affiliate WSVN in Florida. They're looking at Ft. Lauderdale beach right there that last picture that we showed you. We'll continue to dip in and out of local coverage throughout the morning. We want to go now to Adam Landau of affiliate WJXT who was on the front line when Frances roared ashore at Daytona Beach.
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ADAM LANDAU, WJXT REPORTER: Whipping winds starting to move in, and police are starting to pick up the debris that's now falling everywhere. If this doesn't show you just how things are changing here, then maybe this will.
(on camera) We are in a severe wind gust right now. You can see it's blowing us around. But I want to show you they talk about flying debris, well take a look up there and you can see what's happening to the traffic lights. They're literally being thrown to the ground. That one's about to fall. If you look down the road a little bit, you can see one traffic light has already been knocked down. It is very windy. We're having a tough time standing.
(voice-over) This is a big worry here. Power poles snapped in half and live power lines in the middle of the road. There is a mandatory evacuation here. And anyone that tries to go into the ocean will be escorted out by police. And this for an area that's still trying to recover from Charley.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of damage around this area, so it's been pretty rough around here. Everybody's now recuperating and here we go back again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: That was Adam Landau of WJXT reporting. Here at CNN we have continuing coverage of Frances. You're watching CNN Sunday Morning."
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NGUYEN: Well, good morning and welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Frances. Meteorologist Orelon Sydney is in Orlando at this hour where thousands of tourists are riding out the storm. In fact, Orelon, we just spoke with one on the phone not too long ago. What's the situation there right now?
ORELON SYDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can see, it's still quite windy. I just went and took a little trip out to the parking lot and out-not in the in the street but close to the street just to see if there had been in the damage. There are a couple of palm trees that are down but I think those came up during Charley. I just don't think we had the winds long enough or strong enough to really uproot trees. Maybe snap some very weak ones but that's about it. The winds last I looked were sustained at about 38 miles an hour. It seems like they've diminish address little bit. But the rain sure hasn't let up very much. It's not really a very hard rain. That's what's interesting to me. It's mostly just a steady, moderate rainfall. Every now and again you will get some gusts and the rain will start coming at you sideways. But this reminds me so much of being back in Texas. Especially looking up at the clouds. I'm telling you, those clouds a few thousand feet up are really moving. I bet there are some hurricane force winds there without a doubt. But here down at the surface we're getting those tropical storm force gusts. Reminds me a whole lot of those big what we call blue northers that would come through Texas with the very, very cold air. Of course, it's not cold here but it sure is a blowing -- Betty.
NGUYEN: I grew up in Texas and I can relate to you, Orelon. Let's talk about the rain, though, because you said the winds aren't too strong. But the as hurricane slowly comes through, is the rain going to be the major issue in Orlando?
SYDNEY: It sure is. And you know, the winds are up. But I've seen people in the hotel have been taking out their dogs for the morning. It's not something where we're having to hold on to things to get around, certainly. I mean, honestly, I weigh 125 pounds and I haven't had any problem standing up. So that should tell you something right there. The winds just aren't going to be that strong. By the way, next time you talk to Bill Hemmer, let him know I took a look at the Melbourne observation and they're just not reporting a wind speed out of there. I think they must have lost their wind gauge. NGUYEN: It was coming fast and furious the last time we spoke with him. We'll ask him that when we talk to him. Thank you, Orelon. We'll check in with you a little bit later.
I want to go now to CNN's Rob Marciano who is tracking this storm in the weather center. I guess, you know, with this coming through, for many of the areas on the outskirts, tornado damage or the threat of a tornado, really, is that what some folks are seeing this hour?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: Well, we've got tornado watches that are out for the rest of this morning, officially until 8:00 but they will probably extend that as we go through the morning. Yes, tornado watches are out for the northern half of the system. We'll get to that in just a second. First off, though, Melbourne is just getting hammered. Orelon mentioned--there hasn't been a report since 6:00 yesterday. It either blew out the wind gauge or more likely they just ran out of gas in their generator because not only are they not reporting winds but they're not reporting anything as far as surface observations are concerned. So we just have to guess as to what's going on here. I can tell you this, they're getting the northern fringe of the eyewall right now and they're getting peppered with some Atlantic moisture feeding into this. So certainly hurricane force gusts, if not sustained hurricane winds into Melbourne. And then maybe as far north as Cape Canaveral as this swath starts to move in. This, the back half of the system as this begins to push on shore. Let's take GR-114. And that kind of gives you a good idea of how big the system is. From the Florida keys all of the way up to the Georgia border, the entire state of Florida is covered with moisture. You see that--those two little spinning areas up there you mentioned that there were threat for tornadoes? We have a tornado warning out now for Clay County. This Doppler radar can actually pick up that circulation. It's in rural areas right now, thank goodness. But they are moving to the west in a hurry. Let's go over to GR-115. We'll show you the wind speeds. What we expect here in the next couple of hours, actually, next couple days for the most part. Category I storm, so it has been downgraded but it's still a strong category I storm with winds sustained at 95 miles an hour. It's moving to the west and eventually probably a little bit more north westerly at eight miles an hour. This red area is the forecast wind speeds for hurricane force winds. Right now they extend to 80 miles an hour. Mostly to the north and figure about 40 to 50 miles to the south. So pretty good swath. But it will weaken as we go through the rest of this morning and this afternoon. You see that red area begin to shrink as it heads toward Orlando. And that's good news for Orlando residents. And then as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico later on tonight and tomorrow it may strengthen a little bit. But Tampa will get a piece of this thing and then north towards the Apalachicola area as well as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico. But it's not going to get there likely until later on tonight. Could take several, several hours, pretty much all day to cross the peninsula. I'm probably not-- I'm thinking after midnight. This timing may be off just a little bit. Tomorrow afternoon, into the Florida pan handle, possibly as a weak hurricane again. May gather a little bit of strength as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico and then a lot of wind and a lot of rain as it heads through parts of Alabama and Mississippi. Here's that storm on the satellite imagery. You see it waffling through the Bahamas and then slamming into the east coast of Florida last night. But it's still moving slowly. It's still big. Sears(ph) from this thing all the way up into South Carolina, and Betty, also rough surf up and down the east coast from this thing. The Carolinas certainly will certainly see rip currents maybe as far north as Long Island as well. Tornado warning out for Clay County which is really far to the north. It's up around St. Augustine. And--but it's in a rural area right now. That is a threat, mostly to the north of the storm.
NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Rob Marciano, thank you for that.
I want to dip into some local coverage right now. We want to go to affiliate WSVN in Florida. This is Haulover Beach and reporter there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You tied it down and this boat is your everything am I correct?
JAMO, BOATER: That's my baby. I run a live bait service. I provide bait for all the boaters that go out fishing. What I usually do is I leave at 5:00 in the afternoon and I fish all night long and come back at 5:00 in the morning and I go out in the bay and retail to the customers in the 11:00 in the morning and then I go to sleep at 1:00, start again, my routine. Every other day I get a rest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So obviously this boat is extremely important to you.
JAMO: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How has it been through the storm having to watch it just like that in such a precarious state?
JAMO: I have confidence in my boat because I put five pumps in that boat with eight big huge monster batteries. The only thing, the wind surprised us. It went the other direction. We thought it was going to come in on the northeast and it would handle it. But then it came off the northwest and now I'm getting the back pound. I have a couple of friends that lost a boat off the street, my friend, Joey Turner, the name of the boat is "Shady Dog." It went down yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So the "Shady Dog" is gone. Have you had a chance to talk to him? What did he say?
JAMO: No, he's in the Carolinas with his big boat. My other friend that had the boat here, "Knucklehead" his boat is against the seawall. He had two lines on there which he tied on Thursday. I saw him. And now his boat's against the seawall. Hopefully, it will make it by tomorrow. All we got is, what, another 24 hours?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do have a little while. That's right. Now, I understand you said you had been coming out here but then you started seeing it on TV. So we were able to be your eyes at least.
JAMO: Sure. I was here yesterday at 11:00. I stayed until 4:00 to see how high the tide will come up and then I went home and then at 1:00 I couldn't sleep. So I turned on news and I saw my boat, oh, it's still bobbing nicely, fine. From the TV I could see my bilge pumps working so it's fine, it's fine. Just like you people were saying, it's going to get a little stronger later. Maybe popped one line, what I did is a triple-lined everything. If one line gives you still got a backup of two.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Well some good advice for other boaters out who may...
JAMO: One line don't count, two lines don't count, baby. You've got to put three lines, maybe go four. You're talking about a lot of money. That's yours and if it goes underwater, your money's underwater, it ain't coming back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me a little bit about--you said how hard you work and you described the long hours you put in. What would happen if you lost your boat?
JAMO: I can shed a tear a little bit and pray to God that nobody hurt. Because I was going to stay on the boat behind the islands where the charter boats put all their boats. But then again, like I see on TV, a lot of boat snaps lines then we're the pin and the bowling ball is coming.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if you were to lose your boat, what would you do?
JAMO: That's why we have insurance, but still it's not the right thing to do. The insurance will cover you but I've got to start overall over again. I have to go and get another boat. By the time I get set up and everything, I already lost a lot of customers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand you live on your boat as well, right?
JAMO: No, no, I spend 18, 16 hours a day on my boat and I spend the other six at home resting. I live in San Souci or North Miami or Miami Springs. I have three places. So I let my friend in San Souci in my place for his family. And my mom and dad live in Miami Springs, I could go over there but it's too far a drive. So I stayed over here where North Miami with my brother and my little nephew so I can get back and forth quick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Well Jamo, thank you so much. I'm glad that we've been able to help you out at least in broadcasting the pictures so you know how your boat's doing.
NGUYEN: That was a live look at the local coverage from WSVN there. We're going to be dipping in and out of local coverage throughout the morning to give you a first-hand look at that time scene from Florida on the ground. Right now I want to show you pictures from earlier where a reporter from WOFL had a close call with a palm tree. Check it out.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa! Wow! (END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Wow is right, Rob Marciano. That's just one example of these hurricane force winds, thank goodness this reporter was okay. But that's why our reporters, like Bill Hemmer, Sean Callebs and the other ones out in the field try to get near a building or something that can really block a lot of these hurricane force winds. And we'll be checking in with those reporters throughout the morning so you want to stay tuned right here on CNN but in the meantime you can log on to CNN.com for up to the minute local weather reports, forecasts and satellite maps. That's at CNN.com/weather. Also, we have important links to emergency Web sites plus a special report on hurricanes, including safety tips on what you can do in a hurricane. And you can find all that and much more at CNN.com.
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