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CNN Sunday Morning

Hurricane Frances: Frances Engulfs Entire State Of Florida

Aired September 05, 2004 - 08:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, SUNDAY MORNING: Now in the news Hurricane Frances is weakening as it lumbers across Florida, but the state's problems are far from over. The National Hurricane Center has downgraded Frances to a Category-1 storm. Winds have dropped to 95 miles an hour, and forecasters expect the hurricane to weaken even more as it churns over the peninsula. But they war the slow moving storm will cause wet and windy conditions for the next 24 hours.
Rain and flooding on one coast, flames on another. A 9300 wildfire is burning out of control, 9300 acres that is, in Sonoma County, California. It's threatening up to 200 homes in California's wine country.

Meantime though another wildfire has burned eleven homes in the Sierra, Nevada foothills.

Now to southern California. Los Angeles airport is open again after two security scares forced a closure for a few hours yesterday. Officials don't think the incidents are linked to terrorism. Faulty flashlight batteries in a passenger's luggage apparently sparked a small blast injuring some workers, and a man breaks security at a United Airlines terminal.

In Raleigh, North Carolina a shooting at a tailgate party. Police are now looking for suspects. The shooting killed town men, one a Marine Corp officer. It happened yesterday before a North Carolina State University football game. Witnesses say a fight broke out before the shooting apparently over an incident of reckless driving.

Two other shooting victims are being remembered for their faith in God. A memorial for the couple, both Christian Camp counselors, drew about 300 mourners to an Ohio Church. The two were found shot to death on a northern California beach last month. One of them was from Ohio. Police still do not have any suspects.

Well good morning to you on this Sunday. From the CNN headquarters here in Atlanta I'm Betty Nguyen. We are continuing our live coverage of Hurricane Frances. We have reporters throughout Florida and we want to go to the field right now and speak with one of them. Who are we going to right now? There you are Bill Hemmer, who is in Melbourne Florida. I understand wind gusts got so strong at some point that we couldn't even read how strong they were.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, MELBOURNE FLORIDA: Listen Betty, we talked to some local hurricane hunters. Just a couple of guys, in fact, a few short moments ago. They've been out here for several hours, down on the intercoastal waterway, which is probably, I don't know, maybe 150 yards from my location here. We're standing behind a structure to stay safe.

They say two hours ago they clocked winds gusting at 97 miles an hour. About an hour ago they had winds down there in the water more than 80 miles an hour sustained, which is easily a Category-1 hurricane. I call tell you, based on our experience for the past several days, the winds we're getting now are stronger than they have ever been, since our arrival late on Thursday night, and they are really kicking right now in Melbourne.

I know you've talked to Rob about the satellite image and how the northern ban of this storm is now starting to hit right on the Melbourne area. Based on what I can tell, the winds are still coming directly from the east, which tells us the storm is really clocking as they come around to that 12 o'clock position.

When you follow these hurricanes, and when you report on them we know that the winds change directions as the storm moves across the state of Florida and that will be the case. For now they're coming from the east. Soon it will be the northeast. Later in the day it should be from the north again as the storm system moves its way across the eastern part of Florida.

For the people here Betty, the residents, this has been a exceedingly long weekend for them. Up last night very late watching the TVs until the power went out right around midnight we're told, and they lost all signals here. But there was a lot of concern right now for what Frances does now that she's onshore. How long does she last? How much rain does she create? How much flooding will be a result of it?

The other issue is power lines. We cannot get a real good gauge just yet about how many power lines are down and whether or not those lines that are down are dead lines or live lines. And certainly the latter is something that could be much more precarious for the fire officials and the police and emergency crews trying to work their ways to the roads here through Melbourne, Florida.

The police tell us as of 6 o'clock this morning, which is a little more than two hours ago, they had about 35 vehicles back on the roads responding to calls. The fire department says at the same time they had about 20 vehicles on the road responding to calls again.

Apparently overnight they stopped responding trying to wait for the worse of Frances to come through. But I've got to tell you Frances is still coming at this hour. The people are hunkered down. Very few people out other than fire officials, police and of course, reporters trying to bring the story back to the people. Not just here in Florida, but also those who are concerned across the county.

That's it from here, Betty. Just a bit past 8 o'clock local time, Frances is still coming at this hour.

NGUYEN: And she's expected to come through all day long. CNN's Bill Hemmer in Melbourne, Florida. Thank you for that.

I want to go now to Rob Marciano, who is in the weather center tracking Frances. She's still a big storm, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, BTS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes. The entire state of Florida is covered in rainfall from this thing, an amazingly huge storm. Of course we talked about the slow moving capacity. Melbourne really - I mean he's not being over dramatic. Bill Hemmer is not being over dramatic. They're getting hammered and they're - this is still all going to move in to this area.

So, even though West Palm Beach got it yesterday and for a good chunk of last night and still getting strong winds in West Palm Beach, but your squally weather as far as the heavier rainfall has moved off to the north.

Let's go to the National Hurricane Center. Ed Rappaport on duty there. Ed, now that the eye seemingly is almost entirely over landfall. What do you think - how much longer before it is downgraded to a tropical storm or are we going to be a hurricane here for the next four to six hours do you think?

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Maybe most of today. Winds have come down a little bit. Maximum winds are about 95 miles per hour, but we're still getting those winds along the coast, as you had seen just a little while ago, with some higher gust possible.

The weakening will be slow. We think that there will be a tropical storm in about 12 hours or so, then emerge over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico.

MARCIANO: Is it possible even with that - the last half that I logged moving on shore for it still to tap energy from the Atlantic Gulf Stream there or now that - once the eye is entirely over land is it going to start to decrease after that?

RAPPAPORT: Well, it is tapping energy from the Gulf Stream, but at the same time it's moving over the rougher ground of land that is now centered the central peninsula, and overall we expect that there will be gradual weakening. But there's still a hurricane warning up along most of the Florida east coast for a good reason. There are those hurricane conditions. They're going to persist for the next six to 12 hours for many places because the hurricane is moving so slowly.

MARCIANO: High tide coming up noon time to 2 o'clock, somewhere in there, for the northern shore lines. Who's going to be greatest affected?

RAPPAPORT: The area that's going to be greatest affected is going to be the area that has the onshore flow and that's north of the center. So we're going to see this flow towards the coast bringing a storm surge of up to five feet or so with very high waves on top. So it's going to be a flood vent along the coast and then a flood vent from rainfall in the inland areas.

MARCIANO: As this thing reemerges in the Gulf of Mexico, do you think it may restrengthen possibly to hurricane status again or are we going one step at a time here? RAPPAPORT: Well, we're evaluating that now because the hurricane will be as a hurricane or tropical storm over the north eastern Gulf within 24 hours. So we're considering now whether there's going to be need to have, for example, a hurricane watch along the northeast coast there later today.

MARCIANO: Ed Rappaport from The National Hurricane Center, thank you very much for your insight. We appreciate it.

RAPPAPORT: Thank you.

MARCIANO: All right. Betty that's the latest from the experts there at The National Hurricane Center. Melbourne continues to get hammered. The eye wall just moving onshore. The northern fringes seems to be, at least right now, the place where you don't want to be. And they're getting hurricane force winds there for sure.

NGUYEN: And the latest from our own expert, Rob Marciano. Thank you, Rob.

MARCIANO: See you.

I want to go to Sean Callebs, who is in West Palm Beach, Florida this morning. Now that's not far from Seawalls Point where Frances made landfall. You're in the street where there's debris all around you, Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WEST PALM BEACH FLORIDA: Exactly. You heard Rob Marciano just a moment ago say you don't want to be in Melbourne. There's probably not a place along the coast you really want to be. Frances certainly making her presence known.

If you look behind me you can see some of the fury. The street just lined with palm trees, palm fronds are down. At the very end of the street a very large tree. This silver car behind me really got punished last night. Obviously debris bashing in the side. You can see some damage on the front.

Palm Beach really is just filled with these decorative type street lights and now the street just covered in these. You can't walk 15 feet without seeing a number of those up and down.

Also Betty you talked about the reporter earlier, who almost got hit by a palm tree. Well you can see exactly what happens. This tree here was actually listing this way last night, but as the winds from this hurricane began moving - coming more from the south the tree is now pushed over that way. Very fragile root system. This thing is probably not long for this world.

These two houses, I want to point these two house out because we know the resident here and the one just up the road, they both tried to ride out this storm. Obviously no structural damage. Their homes were spared from any kind of serious debris type fall.

The flooding is going to be a problem. The rain now coming down in very vertical fashion after really drenching us in a horizontal fashion for the past 24 hours. It is really building up on the street. Saw several inches along Flagler Avenue, the main drag here in West Palm Beach.

We actually saw a couple of police officers out in vehicles in the last hour or so. Clearly people trying to get out right now to do a initial damage check.

Also what officials don't want to see. A lot of people just coming out gawking at the extensive damage throughout Palm Beach, West Palm Beach. We've actually seen a couple of people cross the bridge this morning and they certainly didn't look like emergency vehicles.

If you look across the inter coastal waterway, right in front of that condo complex, you may be able to see a little spout of water shooting up. Since dawn broke we've seen that. Apparently some sort of water main, a hydrant, outdoor shower or something like that was disrupted by the fury of Frances and not it's just pouring up into the air.

Betty we also brought you sort of the high drama on the inter coastal waterway when that yacht apparently ripped loose of its moorings, drifted down. The skipper was able to attach tot his yacht club. Well, day light shows the yacht is gone. No idea where it is.

We talked to a couple of local residents, who came out and looked, and they were surprised that it was able to rip its way off of those pilings. But presumably it just washed down to the coastal way. But now. Since the winds are blowing directly south coming back we're seeing the debris field blowing back up this way.

The winds certainly died down. I mean it may look windy, but compared to what we dealt with last night, all day yesterday, this is really very marginal. But people like us had a very fitful sleep last night. Frances simply a punishing hurricane. The eye never passed over this way. This region did not have a break.

We're going to try and go out. We have crews trying to assess the damage and we'll bring you some more information in just a bit, Betty.

NGUYEN: Quickly though, as you talk about the debris field, we saw a lot of trees in the roadway, palm fronds, but what about downed power liens? Are you seeing any of that?

CALLEBS; Well, when we left last night there were already downed power lines. We made a drive over early really at the height of the storm and it was very difficult to see if there were downed power lines, but there are. They're going to be throughout this entire area.

We know that at one point three million people that live in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, 580,000 homes without electricity. Virtually everybody in this county is without power. Some of the million and a half plus in this state that are coping this morning without electricity. So, we're trying to obviously go out to see what we can find. The weather here certainly isn't as windy and dangerous. But you're exactly right, the downed power lines the debris everywhere, being as cautious as possible getting out looking at the situation, Betty.

NGUYEN: We spoke with Georgia Power and light, not Georgia but Florida Power and Light a little bit earlier and they said they will be heading outside once the winds calm down a little bit. And hopefully you can head inside just for a few moments. Sean Callebs, we'll be talking with you a little bit later. Reporting there live from West Palm Beach.

We want to go now to Tammy Fields (ph), with WPLG. She filed this report, just moments ago, from Daytona Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY FIELDS, WPLG: Jeff if you could pan over to the ocean that will give you a view of what it is doing as far as kicking up the surf. They're expecting a storm surge of up to five feet in this area where we're staying today. Of course, it's the low lying area so they are expecting a great deal of damage from this.

And you've got to remember this is an area that was already hit very, very hard by Hurricane Charley. Folks here still trying to recover from that, now having to deal with this -- Diane.

MARK SCHUMACHER (ph): Tammy actually it's Mark Schumacher. Let me ask you this. Compare this though to what it has been like for the last five or six hours. Is it sill sustaining itself or do you feel it at least letting off a little bit or is it increasing?

FIELDS: You know what's interesting is it comes and goes in phases. Just a couple of hours ago the rain was really bad. The winds have stayed like this pretty much throughout the morning, but the rain will come and it will go, but the winds just remain. And that's part of their biggest worry here because people can get hurt just from the debris.

They had a mandatory evacuation. That's still under order here. But they also had a curfew. People are allowed out now, but they're being discouraged from leaving their homes and shelters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: And that was Tammy Fields with affiliate WPLG. As you could see, the winds are still very furious. Frances is bearing down on Florida and our meteorologist say that's going to be happening throughout most of the day along with the rain.

Stay tuned for Continuing coverage. You're watching CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning and welcome to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. We want to give you a live picture now of Orlando from our affiliate WKMG. As you can see, the winds are still blowing there. A lot of rain in the area or at least still to come throughout the day. And we will continue to watch Hurricane Frances as she blows ashore. A live look now at Orlando, Florida from affiliate WKMG.

Got some international news to tell you about. This just in, according to wire reports, just confirmed by CNN as well, Saddam deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri has been arrested. That is according to the Iraqi government. There's a picture of him right there. He is the king of clubs in the Pentagon's deck of cards.

He's also believe to be involved with insurgent activity in the war and afterwards. Again, this just into CNN, Saddam Hussein's top adviser Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri has been arrested. Of course, we'll continue to follow this story and bring you much more on that throughout the day.

Florida residents, we want to talk about the hurricane now. Florida residents no doubt have dusted off their homeowners insurance policies and they're probably wondering what's covered, what's not and what to do if their homes are damaged.

I want to go now to Carolyn Gorman of the Insurance Information Institute. She joins just from Washington to talk about all of this. Good morning to you.

CAROLYN GORMAN, THE INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE: Good morning.

NGUYEN: Well first there's Charley, now there's Frances. How much damage are we talking about and how much is it going to cost?

GORMAN: Well, it's really too soon to say, but because Frances is going across the state at such a slow speed with such high winds it's probably going to be very significant.

NGUYEN: But this combined with Charley, is this going to put some small insurance agencies out of business?

GORMAN: Well, probably not. Hurricane Charley, of course, was $6.8 billion losses. Hurricane Frances will probably be about as much as well. However, insurers have been projecting losses in Florida every since Hurricane Andrew back in '92 and insurers are ready for this storm.

NGUYEN: They are ready. And in fact, the claims process can begin right now, correct?

GORMAN: Well, that's very true. Of course thousands of claims adjusters have been in Florida to take care of the victims of Hurricane Charley. Thousands more are now headed that way. And as soon as the storm clears the area those people will be coming into Florida to look for their policy holders and to assess their damage and actually give them some money.

NGUYEN: This is an emotional time for a lot of people, especially when they come back and see their home perhaps even destroyed. So, as they go through that what do they need to, as they think about these claims and the coverage that they have, what do they need to have handy so that this claims process can go through as easily as possible?

GORMAN: Well, it would be a good idea to have your insurance policy, and if you have done that, your home inventory. That will help the claims process a lot. But between now and when your insurance adjuster comes you should try to make temporary repairs, things that you can do safely and inexpensively. And you should assess your damage and take stock of what has happened and then get a hold of your insurance agent and let them know where you can be found, especially if you are not able to live in your house they need to know where you are.

NGUYEN: A big issue with Frances is the fact that she is moving so slowly, which means flooding can cause a lot of damage throughout Florida. But on a lot of policies flooding is not covered. So, what do folks do then?

GORMAN: Well homeowners insurance will provide you with coverage for your structure and for your personal property and it will provide you with additional living expenses. But homeowners insurance does not cover flooding. For that you need national flood insurance and that's hopefully what most Floridians have.

NGUYEN: OK. And is there a number that people can call to get information, to get help as they start thinking about venturing out and seeing the damage and what to do next?

GORMAN: Well, if you will go to our Web site which is iii.org you will find a list of insurance companies and their catastrophe telephone numbers. So, viewers can certainly do that. Meanwhile, they need to just get in touch with their own insurance company.

NGUYEN: All right. Carolyn Gorman, thank you very much for your information this morning, as people wake up tot he damage and more rain and flooding throughout parts of Florida. In fact, we want to show you some of hat right now.

We want to go to a report that was filed by a reporter from WOSL, a windblown reporter. Take a look at the story that she filed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today on a good moment you'll only feel winds of about 55 miles per hour, but after that they're telling us that we've had winds about 80, 90 miles an hour. You can see all of the water here. It is crashing in.

Now on a normal day that water is typically (UNTELLIGIBLE) feet below that wall, but you can see it's now crashing up here. This area probably doesn't have to worry flooding for another day or so because they're going to have to have a lot more rainfall and even more powerful storm surges before it can get all the way up this hill. But you can see the trees can't take much more. There are palm trees that are literally bending and ready to break at any time. This sign right here is also ready to tip over any time. The only thing holding it up is this concrete that is right here on he sidewalk. So, these signs are having a tough time staying up. Unfortunately, if this sign goes down so will that light post which means so will the electricity.

Let me tall you what we have here. We've got power outages that are pretty sporadic. In some areas it's pitch black. In other areas they've got light. But that's only until the palm trees fall down on them too like you're looking at. That tree actually fell on a colleague of mine. He's OK, but it did snap from the wind and crash to the ground and he was standing right in front of it.

So, we're trying to be very careful out here making sure that the trees that we are in front of are not vulnerable. Of course, that's not to say that debris will not be picked up at any time and hit us. So we're always keeping our eyes open out here.

This is an area that was basically spared by Charley that came through three and a half weeks ago. They were very lucky. This time they're not going to be so lucky. They are going to get pulmelled. Already power lines, roofs coming off of buildings. Signs are being knocked down and the wind is really tough to take. It pushes you out of the way. I'm way over 100 pounds and it is just pushing me nonstop once you get into it, and we've got into a pretty bad gust.

This sign -- I'm going to stay right onto the pole. That's about as far as I can go guys to show you. As you said, I said you can see all these palm trees going. This is powerful. And let me tell you this rain feels like somebody nailing you with pins, needles and rice all at the same time.

Let me give you an analogy of how strong the wind is. As a kid I'm sure you had somebody standing behind you pushing on you as you leaned back and they were stronger and pushed you forward. That is what this feels like right now. These winds are unbelievable.

We've got a little measurement, a little gadget here, we showed you this yesterday. It's usually about 20 miles less than what the speed really is. The highest check we got last time was 55. Let's see what we've got now. Right now we've got it at a 44. It doesn't seem tough, but if I let go of thispole you'll see. I'm not sure if you guys can see (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we had another transformer that just blew as well.

So this area they're going to get hit hard. They say that this is just the right and the middle of another bad ban. What happened though yesterday is that it calmed down a little bit, just enough to give people peace of mind and they say it's going to pick up and get worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Goodness. That was a look at WOSL, a reporter there filing that report. Just an example of the furry that Frances is putting on Florida right now.

I want to talk now with emergency officials. In fact, they're promising a huge response in the wake of Hurricane Frances. Joining us from Tallahassee, Florida is Michael Brown head of the federal Emergency Management Agency. Good morning to you.

MICHAEL BROWN, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Good morning.

NGUYEN: As we look at the furry that Hurricane Frances is bringing to Florida, what are your crews doing right now to provide some assistance?

BROWN: Well right now we're actually massing a huge federal response force strategically around the country to move in behind Frances to start the response efforts. We're going to have food and water and ice and tents and tarps, everything we need to do life saving and life sustaining efforts for the victims of Hurricane Frances.

NGUYEN: Have you been able to venture out? Have your crews been able to venture out to these hard hit areas or is it just too son right now with the outer ban still coming through Florida?

BROWN; Well, it's too soon right now. We're trying to actually practice what we preach. You know, the governor asked for people - ordered people to evacuate. We have pulled our people back because we don't want our first responders and the rescue workers themselves to become victims.

But we have our urban search and rescue teams to do rescue missions. We have our medical teams ready. We have our rapid needs assessment teams ready to move in. They're all going to move in right behind Francis as soon as it's safe to do so...

NGUYEN: Well...

BROWN: ...very quickly. As soon as she moves we go in.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. We're looking at some damage on this split screen right now. Are you expecting large scale destruction throughout a lot of Florida?

BROWN; Well, I'm afraid what we're going to see is not like Charley where we had immediate destruction, but we're going to see some long term destruction over several day. Frances has so much water with her that's what going to happen is the ground is going to become saturated. You're going to start seeing structural damage to buildings that doesn't show up for a while. You'll see telephone poles, utility lines and trees beginning to collapse because of the winds and the saturated ground.

So, it's going to be kind of a long term destructive effort and destructive wake that Frances is going to leave in her path.

NGUYEN: This is a double hit to Florida. First there was Charles. Now there is Frances. Do you have enough crews, enough supplies to handle all of this?

BROWN: We do. At one point we had about 3,000 people here for Hurricane Charley. I expect to have at least that amount of people down responding to Hurricane Frances. Plus, the people that I'll move back in to continue to take care of the people that were victimized by Hurricane Charley. So we'll have a huge number of people down here.

NGUYEN: Yesterday you mentioned trucks of ice and trucks of water that were coming in from California. That's going to take some time and with debris in the roadways it's going to be a big concern in actually getting that necessary water and ice out to the people who need it.

BROWN: Well, that's why the Department of Homeland Security partners so closely with the Army corps of engineers, for example, so that they can come in and start doing emergency debris removal so that we can actually get into some of these communities. We'll have to make certain that there's places to cross rivers where bridges may be out.

So it is a huge logistical challenge for us, but we're up to the task and we're going to meet that challenge.

NGUYEN: So what's your top priority this morning?

BROWN: Assessing the needs, finding out where people out, what's going on, how much damage there is and how quickly can we start moving our teams in there.

NGUYEN: Do you think these needs - it's going to take a while for you to meet all of these needs? Are you looking for some long term situation where crews are going to have to be in place for quite a while?

BROWN: Yes I think so. We still have crews in place for Hurricane Charley. Because of the massive size for Hurricane Frances and the amount of water that she's bringing we're going to be here for a long time. Our commitment is to stay in Florida as long as it takes to help both Charley victims and Frances victims.

NGUYEN: Charley caused billions of dollars in damage. Are you expecting Frances to do the same, if not more?

BROWN: Probably more. Mean we don't know yet. It's too early to tell, but I'm certain that Frances is going to cost us more money plus additional money because of what she's doing on top of Hurricane Charley.

I talked to President Bush on Friday. He assures me that whatever we need is going to be made available to us. We talked to Chairman Bill Young of The House Appropriations Committee. They're going to take care of us Tuesday morning as soon as they get back. So we'll have the resources to respond to anything that might be needed down in Florida.

NGUYEN: And these resources are separate from the resources spent on Charley because yesterday morning Governor Jeb Bush said the resources put toward Charley will not be used in any way to help Frances victims, correct?

BROWN: That's correct. We'll continue to take care of those victims that were hit by Hurricane Charley and new resources come in in for Frances. Plus, those that have been hit twice by Charley and now by Francs will need additional funding to help them also.

NGUYEN: OK. Michael Brown, the director of FEMA this morning. We thank you for your time and your information.

BROWN: Thank you.

NGUYEN: You're watching CNN's continuing coverage of Hurricane Frances. We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning. We are continuing to track hurricane Frances. We'll get a look at the damage there in Jacksonville. This is a live look from our affiliate WJXT. As you can see, there's rain still coming down, there's debris in the roadway there, at least in that parking lot. But, we want to go to Melbourne, because that area was getting hit hard by Frances just moments ago. CNN's Bill Hemmer is live in Melbourne with the latest on the situation there.

I see it really hasn't changed too much, still windy and rainy and bearing down on you.

HEMMER: Yeah, you're exactly right, Betty. We've been getting hammered now for a couple of hours. And I'm very curious to hear from the governor in about 30 minutes when he does his press conference up in Tallahassee to find out what they're learning right now with day just breaking here on this Sunday morning. Especially what's happening on the east coast of Florida.

I thought what Jeb Bush said yesterday was more true than anything we've heard in the past several days. He says, "No two storms are alike." And Frances has shown that yet again. Charley displayed that more than three weeks ago, and now Frances, it's her turn right now as she comes on shore.

We don't have TV here. We don't have cable. We haven't seen a satellite image for about 12 hours, Betty. But listening to radio reports, what they describe now is here, in Melbourne and Palm Bay, which is about a mile south of our location, they describe this band, this heavy intense band now, coming through this part of eastern Florida. I mentioned 30 minutes ago, the winds are coming directly from the east, which gives us a pretty good indication, right now, that in the northern part of this storm, and the fiercest part of the storm right now, is what is taking on Melbourne head-on at this point.

Floridians waking up today, about 1.6 million without power. And listen, that was the estimate that went out a few hours ago. It's quite likely that number is increasing as the day goes on. I'll give you an idea of what we're experiencing here in Melbourne. We've been able to canvass a couple of miles around the area, here. There is damage, how considerable, we can't say at this point because it's far too early. There are power lines down in areas. There are giant light posts that really just ripped at the base and snapped like a stick lying across the road. Aluminum siding ripped off, tiles ripped off, a lot of these businesses that have like this plastic signs out front or the awnings, no match for the fury of Frances, really, just literally ripped from the front sides of these businesses.

When we woke up this morning about four hours ago, 4:30 local time, Betty, about 8:30 local time now here on the east coast, when we got up this morning, at our hotel which is three miles inland from our live location here, the storm and the winds were stronger when we got up than anything we'd experienced yesterday and last night. And since we have been here, the evidence is obvious. The winds continue to whip through here. How strong are they, we can't say, because we do not have reliable instruments to tell you. But suffice to say, and trust us on this, they are strong right now as Frances comes onshore.

The police are out yet again. Saw some fire officials throughout the morning trickling down the various streets here making various calls, when they can. Local shelters, Red Cross reports 87,000 right now in Red Cross shelters alone. But I can tell you, our hotel was acting as a shelter itself, people playing cards and watching TV when they could anyway. And everyone just waiting to ride this thing out. And what is exceptional about this storm, and I keep going back to this, but I think it needs to be pointed out, oftentimes these storms, when they come ashore, they'll just come ashore and leave. But Frances is so big and so slow, that we're going to feel the effects not only 24 hours ago, but again today, and possibly throughout the greater part of Sunday. So, I'll tell you what, take heed for -- if you're in the eastern part of Florida. And use a lot of patience, because these people are going to need it, with Charley three weeks ago and now Frances, today. Mother Nature, we can feel her presence yet today, Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, CNN's Bill Hemmer in Melbourne, Florida. Thank you, for that report.

We want to go now to the local affiliate, WJXT Florida, which has a live shot up right now. Let's listen in.

JIM PIGGOTT, WJXT REPORTER: As I was mentioning there were power outages, but where we were in downtown Saint Augustine, no probable at this point, at least, with flooding. There was -- you know, a lot of water, a lot of palm fronds around, but no major structural problems at this time. What's really happening here is people are just coming out to get a look. They want to see what Frances is going to do to the Saint Augustine Beach area. You can see people talking on cell phones behind me. They're still having service, that's the good news, there. But, for the most part, nothing at this point. We're live in Saint Augustine Beach, I'm Jim Piggott.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you Jim.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. We're getting reports of more power outages, much more than we had first reported. About 30...

NGUYEN: All right, that was a look at a live shot there in Saint Augustine Beach with reporter Jim Piggott with WJXT TV, there.

I want to talk to one of our own, Meteorologist Orelon Sidney, who is in Orlando with all those tourists there riding out this storm. Good morning to you, Orelon.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. I guess good morning is probably real subjective at this point, because we've definitely got the winds and the rain picking up here. The power's out now at the hotel, that's our latest development. We'd heard what I thought, I guess, was a transformer go about 15 minutes ago and then the power went off at the hotel, and also across the street. There's quite a few eating establishments along this drag here, in front of our hotel, and none of them have lights at this point. So, we don't know how long that's going to be out. That could be a problem, make folks real uncomfortable, because I can tell you it's muggy and humid here, and with the power out and folks not able to get air conditioning in their rooms and obviously not able to open the windows, it could get to be really uncomfortable. But, as far as damage and that sort of thing, I haven't seen very much at all, there's a few trees, I think, that have let loose of the limbs, the palm fronds, but that's about it. So far we've been really lucky, but it's not over here yet. The last time I looked at the radar we still, I think, had at least six to eight hours more to go of this type of activity before we're on the downhill slope later on tonight -- Betty.

NGUYEN: But, are you seeing a steady rain there are, Orelon? Because it seems like the wind gusts will pick up and then the rain will come and then you have moments where it's not so bad.

SIDNEY: That's pretty much the case. It's still very squally and that to me, is another indication that the storm is probably starting to weaken considerably, because as you get closer to the storm, you expect for the wind and rain to be more steady. It's insteadier than it was earlier today -- earlier this morning. But, we still have kind of a ebbs and flows. You can get a point right now where you get a good area of rain, pretty good wind flowing through and thin it will be quiet for a while. And a few minutes ago, about three minutes ago, we had a pretty strong gust come through right before I went on the air. But, the distance between the ebb and flow is going to lessen as we go through the rest of the morning. We'll hit a peak, my guess, probably sometime early afternoon, and then start going on the downside of this, getting more frequent -- or excuse me, longer times between the ebbs and flows as we go on towards tonight. I still believe tomorrow's going to turn out to be a pretty good day, especially later in the day, probably the afternoon, I think things are going to get a lot better here -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Orelon Sidney, always looking at the bright side. Thank you, Orelon, for that.

I want to dip in now to local affiliate, WFDN, who's giving us a live look at Hallandale Beach.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before we came to you, you were getting tossed around a bit.

MICHELLE KING, WFDN REPORTER: Yeah, I was. But, we still get, every now and again, these strong winds and then it will die down a little bit. We get rain every now and again, and then it will die down a bit. So, still pretty unpredictable conditions, as Bill was telling you a moment ago. You heard the buzz saws going at Hallandale Beach, and we expect the same thing to be going on here in Fort Lauderdale Beach. You heard the press conference a little while a go with the mayor, Eileen Lieberman. And Eileen was saying that they're going to evaluate the conditions here in Fort Lauderdale. You see, there's still a lot of debris in this area. So, what they're hoping to do is the officials come down, evaluate the conditions, get a chance to clear up some of this stuff before a lot of the people who left this evacuation area, people who lived A1A area, Federal Highway, and east area who decided to go west just to be safe, before they get an opportunity to come back.

Again, for those of you who are out in those areas, out west, if you still have power, listening by radio, they still have not lifted this evacuation yet. So be sure, stay close to your television, stay close to your radio, and we'll let you know when that happens. That's the latest of stuff going on here in Fort Lauderdale. Michelle King "7 News."

NGUYEN: And that's from our affiliate WSDN. We want to bring in Rob Marciano now, who's been tracking Hurricane Frances, joins us with a look at -- she's still coming across these outer bands, or the back half, as some people calling it, still making its way across Florida.

MARCIANO: And where that reporter was, in Fort Lauderdale, well to the south of the center of this thing, although, I was checking the odds. Out of the entire state of Florida, everybody's not only getting some form of rain, it seems, but also winds that are gusting to at least 30 miles-an-hour in places like Fort Myers, down in Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach and then north towards Daytona Beach, as well. So, I mean, we've been saying it, it's huge.

NGUYEN: We're feeling it all across Florida.

MARCIANO: It's a huge storm, and yeah, everybody's feeling it. Another indication of that is the radar picture mentioned that everybody seemingly getting a piece of the action as far as the rainfall is concerned. And this is an impressive piece of imagery that we have for you.

Lighter blues to greens, indicate light to moderate rainfall; the yellows indicate heavier, yet the oranges and reds, and that's just coming down, and in some case coming down sideways because we have winds that are hurricane force in Melbourne.

We have had sporadic reports up and down the coastline from the National Weather Service offices, for whatever reason, I assume they're power related. But the last report out of Melbourne was yesterday afternoon at 5:00 and since then we haven't got any reliable sources, although there have been some storm chasers out there that have clocked unofficial reports of 90-plus mile-an-hour gusts in Melbourne.

And right now, they're getting it, and getting it good, as this spiral band -- this is really pretty much the northern eye of the storm. And then the next spiral band is just north of Orlando around, say, Daytona Beach and heading over to Ocala and that's got some squally weather, as well.

But notice that you go just offshore, and the echoes, meaning the cells with downpours are pretty bright and then you go inland and they begin to diminish. And that's going to be the story as this thing continues its slow march inward -- inland. And that will begin to diminish this storm. But still, the eastern flank of the eye is moving real slow.

All right, let's switch graphics, if we could, and show you the satellite imagery. Here it is. It will take its sweet time moving across the coastline and across the peninsula. From about West Palm Beach to Tampa is roughly 160 miles. It is moving at eight miles-an- hour, so it's going to take 18 to 20 hours to get this thing across the state. So, all day long today it is going to be rumbling across. We spoke to Ed Rappaport (PH) from the National Hurricane Service a few minutes ago, asked him how long is it going to be until we downgrade this thing. He said it will probably be a hurricane for 12 hours. So strap on, and follow along with us.

Category one storm, west winds at moving westerly at eight miles- an-hour, 95-mile-an-hour sustained wind, that makes it a strong category one, with higher wind gusts. This graphic shows the red, which indicates the wind field where you'll see hurricane force winds. It will diminish rapidly as we throw this map into motion as this thing heads inland and begins to weaken, but according to the National Hurricane Center, probably will take six to 12 hours to do that.

Just to the south of Orlando is where it goes. It'll eventually reemerge in the Gulf of Mexico, but I think, throughout the afternoon and evening it will stay inland, and then as it reemerges, probably sometime tomorrow in the Gulf of Mexico, it may or may not have time to re-strengthen, possibly to hurricane status again, but we'll just have to wait and see for that to happen. After that it'll roll up the Florida peninsula, across, say, Panama City, and maybe Destin Beaches and then up in through parts of Mississippi and Alabama in the form of some blustery winds and some heavier rainfall, as well.

Montgomery, Birmingham, bigger cities, even Atlanta possibly getting in the mix with this system as it rolls up towards the north. But, it looks it's going to remain a hurricane, a category one hurricane, albeit a hurricane for the next six to 12 hours.

All right, that's the latest, Betty. Well, here's one more shot. One other thing I wanted to point out. This red box is a tornado watch box, which means that we have the likelihood, or at least the possibility of seeing tornados drop to the north of this system. Up through Daytona Beach, Saint Augustine, we had a couple of radar indicated tornados earlier this morning, so that is also a threat. High tide is roughly between 1:00 and 2:00 across the northern shoreline of Daytona Beach, up through Jacksonville, and up through Saint Augustine, as well. And that's about when they'll see some of the stronger winds. So, storm surge up there, maybe two to four feet, we'll have to check to see what kind of effect that will have. It looks like, not only is it moving slowly, but it's going to be slow to weaken, as well. It could take all day long to weaken.

NGUYEN: A double whammy. You just don't have any good news for us.

MARCIANO: I'm sorry. On this Labor Day weekend, folks in Florida not too happy about it, but if you're watching along with us and don't live in Florida, you can be thankful you don't live there and you can watch the fun unfold, I suppose, from our correspondents.

NGUYEN: The best advice, even though it's a category one, stay inside, wait until it's all through.

MARCIANO: Obviously, yeah.

NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Rob. We do have some other breaking news to tell you about this morning. We want to go to Iraq and CNN's Diana Muriel live in Baghdad with the latest.

We understand that Saddam's former second in command has been captured?

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Betty. If these reports are true, then the king of spades is under arrest. No. 6 in that pack of playing cards issued by the U.S. of their most wanted, here in Iraq. We've had information from the Ministry of Defense, here in Baghdad, that Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who was second in command to Saddam Hussein, has been arrested earlier this Sunday morning in the area around Tikrit, in a suburb of the city of Tikrit, in the north of Iraq. Other reports say he was arrested while he was attending a clinic for medical treatment. We're not sure whether that section of the report is correct. We know that he has suffered from cancer in the past. We're not sure whether he was attending the clinic for that purpose. But we have had confirmation from the Ministry of Defense, as I say, that the Iraqi National Guard and U.S. forces have arrested Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.

The reason why this man is so important, is he goes back a very long way with Saddam Hussein. Sixty-one-years-old, he first met Saddam in the 1960s in prison. He became one of Saddam's most loyal henchmen. In fact, his technical title was the vice president and deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Council, which is the Baath party's inner circle, if you like. He was an integral member of the Baath party, joined the Baath party before Saddam Hussein himself did. And indeed his family ties go back a long way. His own daughter married a son of Saddam's, Uday Hussein, back in 1998, although their marriage, we understand, was dissolved after reports that Uday had beaten her.

There was a $10 million bounty on this man's head that was issued after the fall of Baghdad on April the 9th of last year. American forces knew that he wasn't in Baghdad, because he'd set up his area of operations in the northern city of Mosul, where he was born. And they knew he wasn't in Baghdad, but he's been hunted down, Betty, for the last 18 months and it looks like today he may have been arrested -- Betty.

NGUYEN: No. 6 on the U.S.'s most wanted list. There are wire reports that say that he's in the hands of Americans. Can you confirm that?

MURIEL: We can't confirm that at this stage, Betty. We've been in contact, of course, with the American forces. They're not making any comment at this stage, neither to confirm nor deny these stories. We do know that the Americans very much wanted to get their hands on this man. Indeed, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, said that al-Duri was responsible for financing attacks on coalition forces. He's believed to have been very, very active in the last few months here in Iraq. And I'm sure that if this is true, and if it's right, that he has been taken. Then they will be very relieved, indeed, to have him in their custody -- Betty.

NGUYEN: CNN's Diane Muriel, live in Baghdad, with the latest on this capture. Thank you so much for that report. Of course, we are continuing to track Hurricane Frances. Stay tuned for continuing coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back to our coverage of Hurricane Frances. An average police patrol car is no match for an approaching hurricane. But one Florida state trooper has an answer. A crew from CNN affiliate, WBTV, followed Captain Brad Pleton (PH) as he made the rounds in an armored personnel carrier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATP. BRAD PLETON (PH), FLORIDA STATE TROOPER: This is an LAV- 150, it's a military vehicle that we purchased through the federal surplus program. Well, what we're using it for today is to basically go through the areas that are being affected by the storm, during the storm, to make sure that people have been evacuated. We're checking interstates, the major roadways, anywhere somebody might be stranded that needs assistance. And we're checking also some of the local trailer parks that have been required for mandatory evacuation, we're checking to make sure that they have been evacuated.

A regular vehicle, we're fearful that, depending on the wind's strength it would cause either serious damage to our vehicle, and also make it more dangerous for our personnel that are utilizing the vehicles.

The weight of the vehicle and the fact that it is armor plated, will withstand pretty much any penetration of anything flying, any flying debris. It prevents our personnel from getting injured. It's also amphibious, if it had to go somewhere that it was heavily -- depth of water, we could get in and get out. It also will traverse over small trees and things of that nature if we have an area that we need to get to that has had a lot of devastation. We did find multiple people that had taken shelter underneath I- 95 with their vehicles, because they had been driving down the road. And we checked on them to make sure that they were OK, make sure that they didn't need any assistance, either medical or any other type of assistance. And then we went into some of the trailer parks that had been affected and checked with people, the residents that still stayed there and see if they needed anything, and most of them felt they were still comfortable enough to stay there, even though some of the other trailers were destroyed.

It's kind of our call on when we feel it's too dangerous. You can generally tell the shift of the vehicle and -- with the wind direction, depending on whether it's pushing us around or not, whether we would stop. So far today, we've not encountered any weather that's concerned us to where we needed to stop. It's one of the most dangerous things you can do is continue out in the storm, during the storm. If you do get stranded or you get hurt, there are not going to be very many resources that will respond to you, because of the weather. Law enforcement and medical personnel, fire, rescue, have locked it down at about the 50-mile-an-hour mark, and obviously we're well over that, so I'd ask that everyone stay in shelter and not travel around.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Now, that's one way to travel through a hurricane. For more information on Frances, all you have to do is log onto 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 websites. Plus a special report on hurricanes, including safety tips on what you can do in a hurricane. You'll find all of that and much more at CNN.com. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. Now in the news, Hurricane Frances has weakened since making landfall this morning near Fort Pierce, Florida. It is now a category one hurricane with top winds near 95 miles-an- hour. And it's accompanied by flood and tornado warnings. Frances is moving west across the Florida peninsula at eight miles-an-hour. The hurricane warning extends from Deerfield Beach in the south, to Flagler Beach in northern Florida.

Turning now to Iraq, a major arrest. Iraqi officials say U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri near the northern city of Tikrit. He was the highest level official from Saddam Hussein's regimes still on the loose. Al-Duri had been No. 6 on the U.S. military's list of the most wanted Iraqi officials. He was the king of clubs in he military's deck of cards.

The death toll has reached 374 from Friday's shootout between troop and hostage takers in southern Russia. Of those, 338 were hostage, 156 of the hostages were children. Officials say up to 190 people may still be unaccounted for. And in a television address, President Vladimir Putin called for a national mobilization against terrorism. Former president, Bill Clinton, is being flooded with messages from people wishing him well on his upcoming heart bypass surgery. Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, himself, also called Clinton in a show of support. He says he told Clinton about having undergone a quadruple bypass 16 years ago.

Theresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Senator John Kerry, is said to be feeling better this morning after being admitted to an Iowa hospital late yesterday. Mrs. Kerry complained of an upset stomach while campaigning in Mason City. She underwent a series of tests at a local hospital then she traveled to her home near Pittsburgh, as planned.

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

Aired September 5, 2004 - 08:00 ET
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BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, SUNDAY MORNING: Now in the news Hurricane Frances is weakening as it lumbers across Florida, but the state's problems are far from over. The National Hurricane Center has downgraded Frances to a Category-1 storm. Winds have dropped to 95 miles an hour, and forecasters expect the hurricane to weaken even more as it churns over the peninsula. But they war the slow moving storm will cause wet and windy conditions for the next 24 hours.
Rain and flooding on one coast, flames on another. A 9300 wildfire is burning out of control, 9300 acres that is, in Sonoma County, California. It's threatening up to 200 homes in California's wine country.

Meantime though another wildfire has burned eleven homes in the Sierra, Nevada foothills.

Now to southern California. Los Angeles airport is open again after two security scares forced a closure for a few hours yesterday. Officials don't think the incidents are linked to terrorism. Faulty flashlight batteries in a passenger's luggage apparently sparked a small blast injuring some workers, and a man breaks security at a United Airlines terminal.

In Raleigh, North Carolina a shooting at a tailgate party. Police are now looking for suspects. The shooting killed town men, one a Marine Corp officer. It happened yesterday before a North Carolina State University football game. Witnesses say a fight broke out before the shooting apparently over an incident of reckless driving.

Two other shooting victims are being remembered for their faith in God. A memorial for the couple, both Christian Camp counselors, drew about 300 mourners to an Ohio Church. The two were found shot to death on a northern California beach last month. One of them was from Ohio. Police still do not have any suspects.

Well good morning to you on this Sunday. From the CNN headquarters here in Atlanta I'm Betty Nguyen. We are continuing our live coverage of Hurricane Frances. We have reporters throughout Florida and we want to go to the field right now and speak with one of them. Who are we going to right now? There you are Bill Hemmer, who is in Melbourne Florida. I understand wind gusts got so strong at some point that we couldn't even read how strong they were.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, MELBOURNE FLORIDA: Listen Betty, we talked to some local hurricane hunters. Just a couple of guys, in fact, a few short moments ago. They've been out here for several hours, down on the intercoastal waterway, which is probably, I don't know, maybe 150 yards from my location here. We're standing behind a structure to stay safe.

They say two hours ago they clocked winds gusting at 97 miles an hour. About an hour ago they had winds down there in the water more than 80 miles an hour sustained, which is easily a Category-1 hurricane. I call tell you, based on our experience for the past several days, the winds we're getting now are stronger than they have ever been, since our arrival late on Thursday night, and they are really kicking right now in Melbourne.

I know you've talked to Rob about the satellite image and how the northern ban of this storm is now starting to hit right on the Melbourne area. Based on what I can tell, the winds are still coming directly from the east, which tells us the storm is really clocking as they come around to that 12 o'clock position.

When you follow these hurricanes, and when you report on them we know that the winds change directions as the storm moves across the state of Florida and that will be the case. For now they're coming from the east. Soon it will be the northeast. Later in the day it should be from the north again as the storm system moves its way across the eastern part of Florida.

For the people here Betty, the residents, this has been a exceedingly long weekend for them. Up last night very late watching the TVs until the power went out right around midnight we're told, and they lost all signals here. But there was a lot of concern right now for what Frances does now that she's onshore. How long does she last? How much rain does she create? How much flooding will be a result of it?

The other issue is power lines. We cannot get a real good gauge just yet about how many power lines are down and whether or not those lines that are down are dead lines or live lines. And certainly the latter is something that could be much more precarious for the fire officials and the police and emergency crews trying to work their ways to the roads here through Melbourne, Florida.

The police tell us as of 6 o'clock this morning, which is a little more than two hours ago, they had about 35 vehicles back on the roads responding to calls. The fire department says at the same time they had about 20 vehicles on the road responding to calls again.

Apparently overnight they stopped responding trying to wait for the worse of Frances to come through. But I've got to tell you Frances is still coming at this hour. The people are hunkered down. Very few people out other than fire officials, police and of course, reporters trying to bring the story back to the people. Not just here in Florida, but also those who are concerned across the county.

That's it from here, Betty. Just a bit past 8 o'clock local time, Frances is still coming at this hour.

NGUYEN: And she's expected to come through all day long. CNN's Bill Hemmer in Melbourne, Florida. Thank you for that.

I want to go now to Rob Marciano, who is in the weather center tracking Frances. She's still a big storm, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, BTS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes. The entire state of Florida is covered in rainfall from this thing, an amazingly huge storm. Of course we talked about the slow moving capacity. Melbourne really - I mean he's not being over dramatic. Bill Hemmer is not being over dramatic. They're getting hammered and they're - this is still all going to move in to this area.

So, even though West Palm Beach got it yesterday and for a good chunk of last night and still getting strong winds in West Palm Beach, but your squally weather as far as the heavier rainfall has moved off to the north.

Let's go to the National Hurricane Center. Ed Rappaport on duty there. Ed, now that the eye seemingly is almost entirely over landfall. What do you think - how much longer before it is downgraded to a tropical storm or are we going to be a hurricane here for the next four to six hours do you think?

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Maybe most of today. Winds have come down a little bit. Maximum winds are about 95 miles per hour, but we're still getting those winds along the coast, as you had seen just a little while ago, with some higher gust possible.

The weakening will be slow. We think that there will be a tropical storm in about 12 hours or so, then emerge over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico.

MARCIANO: Is it possible even with that - the last half that I logged moving on shore for it still to tap energy from the Atlantic Gulf Stream there or now that - once the eye is entirely over land is it going to start to decrease after that?

RAPPAPORT: Well, it is tapping energy from the Gulf Stream, but at the same time it's moving over the rougher ground of land that is now centered the central peninsula, and overall we expect that there will be gradual weakening. But there's still a hurricane warning up along most of the Florida east coast for a good reason. There are those hurricane conditions. They're going to persist for the next six to 12 hours for many places because the hurricane is moving so slowly.

MARCIANO: High tide coming up noon time to 2 o'clock, somewhere in there, for the northern shore lines. Who's going to be greatest affected?

RAPPAPORT: The area that's going to be greatest affected is going to be the area that has the onshore flow and that's north of the center. So we're going to see this flow towards the coast bringing a storm surge of up to five feet or so with very high waves on top. So it's going to be a flood vent along the coast and then a flood vent from rainfall in the inland areas.

MARCIANO: As this thing reemerges in the Gulf of Mexico, do you think it may restrengthen possibly to hurricane status again or are we going one step at a time here? RAPPAPORT: Well, we're evaluating that now because the hurricane will be as a hurricane or tropical storm over the north eastern Gulf within 24 hours. So we're considering now whether there's going to be need to have, for example, a hurricane watch along the northeast coast there later today.

MARCIANO: Ed Rappaport from The National Hurricane Center, thank you very much for your insight. We appreciate it.

RAPPAPORT: Thank you.

MARCIANO: All right. Betty that's the latest from the experts there at The National Hurricane Center. Melbourne continues to get hammered. The eye wall just moving onshore. The northern fringes seems to be, at least right now, the place where you don't want to be. And they're getting hurricane force winds there for sure.

NGUYEN: And the latest from our own expert, Rob Marciano. Thank you, Rob.

MARCIANO: See you.

I want to go to Sean Callebs, who is in West Palm Beach, Florida this morning. Now that's not far from Seawalls Point where Frances made landfall. You're in the street where there's debris all around you, Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WEST PALM BEACH FLORIDA: Exactly. You heard Rob Marciano just a moment ago say you don't want to be in Melbourne. There's probably not a place along the coast you really want to be. Frances certainly making her presence known.

If you look behind me you can see some of the fury. The street just lined with palm trees, palm fronds are down. At the very end of the street a very large tree. This silver car behind me really got punished last night. Obviously debris bashing in the side. You can see some damage on the front.

Palm Beach really is just filled with these decorative type street lights and now the street just covered in these. You can't walk 15 feet without seeing a number of those up and down.

Also Betty you talked about the reporter earlier, who almost got hit by a palm tree. Well you can see exactly what happens. This tree here was actually listing this way last night, but as the winds from this hurricane began moving - coming more from the south the tree is now pushed over that way. Very fragile root system. This thing is probably not long for this world.

These two houses, I want to point these two house out because we know the resident here and the one just up the road, they both tried to ride out this storm. Obviously no structural damage. Their homes were spared from any kind of serious debris type fall.

The flooding is going to be a problem. The rain now coming down in very vertical fashion after really drenching us in a horizontal fashion for the past 24 hours. It is really building up on the street. Saw several inches along Flagler Avenue, the main drag here in West Palm Beach.

We actually saw a couple of police officers out in vehicles in the last hour or so. Clearly people trying to get out right now to do a initial damage check.

Also what officials don't want to see. A lot of people just coming out gawking at the extensive damage throughout Palm Beach, West Palm Beach. We've actually seen a couple of people cross the bridge this morning and they certainly didn't look like emergency vehicles.

If you look across the inter coastal waterway, right in front of that condo complex, you may be able to see a little spout of water shooting up. Since dawn broke we've seen that. Apparently some sort of water main, a hydrant, outdoor shower or something like that was disrupted by the fury of Frances and not it's just pouring up into the air.

Betty we also brought you sort of the high drama on the inter coastal waterway when that yacht apparently ripped loose of its moorings, drifted down. The skipper was able to attach tot his yacht club. Well, day light shows the yacht is gone. No idea where it is.

We talked to a couple of local residents, who came out and looked, and they were surprised that it was able to rip its way off of those pilings. But presumably it just washed down to the coastal way. But now. Since the winds are blowing directly south coming back we're seeing the debris field blowing back up this way.

The winds certainly died down. I mean it may look windy, but compared to what we dealt with last night, all day yesterday, this is really very marginal. But people like us had a very fitful sleep last night. Frances simply a punishing hurricane. The eye never passed over this way. This region did not have a break.

We're going to try and go out. We have crews trying to assess the damage and we'll bring you some more information in just a bit, Betty.

NGUYEN: Quickly though, as you talk about the debris field, we saw a lot of trees in the roadway, palm fronds, but what about downed power liens? Are you seeing any of that?

CALLEBS; Well, when we left last night there were already downed power lines. We made a drive over early really at the height of the storm and it was very difficult to see if there were downed power lines, but there are. They're going to be throughout this entire area.

We know that at one point three million people that live in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, 580,000 homes without electricity. Virtually everybody in this county is without power. Some of the million and a half plus in this state that are coping this morning without electricity. So, we're trying to obviously go out to see what we can find. The weather here certainly isn't as windy and dangerous. But you're exactly right, the downed power lines the debris everywhere, being as cautious as possible getting out looking at the situation, Betty.

NGUYEN: We spoke with Georgia Power and light, not Georgia but Florida Power and Light a little bit earlier and they said they will be heading outside once the winds calm down a little bit. And hopefully you can head inside just for a few moments. Sean Callebs, we'll be talking with you a little bit later. Reporting there live from West Palm Beach.

We want to go now to Tammy Fields (ph), with WPLG. She filed this report, just moments ago, from Daytona Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY FIELDS, WPLG: Jeff if you could pan over to the ocean that will give you a view of what it is doing as far as kicking up the surf. They're expecting a storm surge of up to five feet in this area where we're staying today. Of course, it's the low lying area so they are expecting a great deal of damage from this.

And you've got to remember this is an area that was already hit very, very hard by Hurricane Charley. Folks here still trying to recover from that, now having to deal with this -- Diane.

MARK SCHUMACHER (ph): Tammy actually it's Mark Schumacher. Let me ask you this. Compare this though to what it has been like for the last five or six hours. Is it sill sustaining itself or do you feel it at least letting off a little bit or is it increasing?

FIELDS: You know what's interesting is it comes and goes in phases. Just a couple of hours ago the rain was really bad. The winds have stayed like this pretty much throughout the morning, but the rain will come and it will go, but the winds just remain. And that's part of their biggest worry here because people can get hurt just from the debris.

They had a mandatory evacuation. That's still under order here. But they also had a curfew. People are allowed out now, but they're being discouraged from leaving their homes and shelters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: And that was Tammy Fields with affiliate WPLG. As you could see, the winds are still very furious. Frances is bearing down on Florida and our meteorologist say that's going to be happening throughout most of the day along with the rain.

Stay tuned for Continuing coverage. You're watching CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning and welcome to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. We want to give you a live picture now of Orlando from our affiliate WKMG. As you can see, the winds are still blowing there. A lot of rain in the area or at least still to come throughout the day. And we will continue to watch Hurricane Frances as she blows ashore. A live look now at Orlando, Florida from affiliate WKMG.

Got some international news to tell you about. This just in, according to wire reports, just confirmed by CNN as well, Saddam deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri has been arrested. That is according to the Iraqi government. There's a picture of him right there. He is the king of clubs in the Pentagon's deck of cards.

He's also believe to be involved with insurgent activity in the war and afterwards. Again, this just into CNN, Saddam Hussein's top adviser Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri has been arrested. Of course, we'll continue to follow this story and bring you much more on that throughout the day.

Florida residents, we want to talk about the hurricane now. Florida residents no doubt have dusted off their homeowners insurance policies and they're probably wondering what's covered, what's not and what to do if their homes are damaged.

I want to go now to Carolyn Gorman of the Insurance Information Institute. She joins just from Washington to talk about all of this. Good morning to you.

CAROLYN GORMAN, THE INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE: Good morning.

NGUYEN: Well first there's Charley, now there's Frances. How much damage are we talking about and how much is it going to cost?

GORMAN: Well, it's really too soon to say, but because Frances is going across the state at such a slow speed with such high winds it's probably going to be very significant.

NGUYEN: But this combined with Charley, is this going to put some small insurance agencies out of business?

GORMAN: Well, probably not. Hurricane Charley, of course, was $6.8 billion losses. Hurricane Frances will probably be about as much as well. However, insurers have been projecting losses in Florida every since Hurricane Andrew back in '92 and insurers are ready for this storm.

NGUYEN: They are ready. And in fact, the claims process can begin right now, correct?

GORMAN: Well, that's very true. Of course thousands of claims adjusters have been in Florida to take care of the victims of Hurricane Charley. Thousands more are now headed that way. And as soon as the storm clears the area those people will be coming into Florida to look for their policy holders and to assess their damage and actually give them some money.

NGUYEN: This is an emotional time for a lot of people, especially when they come back and see their home perhaps even destroyed. So, as they go through that what do they need to, as they think about these claims and the coverage that they have, what do they need to have handy so that this claims process can go through as easily as possible?

GORMAN: Well, it would be a good idea to have your insurance policy, and if you have done that, your home inventory. That will help the claims process a lot. But between now and when your insurance adjuster comes you should try to make temporary repairs, things that you can do safely and inexpensively. And you should assess your damage and take stock of what has happened and then get a hold of your insurance agent and let them know where you can be found, especially if you are not able to live in your house they need to know where you are.

NGUYEN: A big issue with Frances is the fact that she is moving so slowly, which means flooding can cause a lot of damage throughout Florida. But on a lot of policies flooding is not covered. So, what do folks do then?

GORMAN: Well homeowners insurance will provide you with coverage for your structure and for your personal property and it will provide you with additional living expenses. But homeowners insurance does not cover flooding. For that you need national flood insurance and that's hopefully what most Floridians have.

NGUYEN: OK. And is there a number that people can call to get information, to get help as they start thinking about venturing out and seeing the damage and what to do next?

GORMAN: Well, if you will go to our Web site which is iii.org you will find a list of insurance companies and their catastrophe telephone numbers. So, viewers can certainly do that. Meanwhile, they need to just get in touch with their own insurance company.

NGUYEN: All right. Carolyn Gorman, thank you very much for your information this morning, as people wake up tot he damage and more rain and flooding throughout parts of Florida. In fact, we want to show you some of hat right now.

We want to go to a report that was filed by a reporter from WOSL, a windblown reporter. Take a look at the story that she filed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today on a good moment you'll only feel winds of about 55 miles per hour, but after that they're telling us that we've had winds about 80, 90 miles an hour. You can see all of the water here. It is crashing in.

Now on a normal day that water is typically (UNTELLIGIBLE) feet below that wall, but you can see it's now crashing up here. This area probably doesn't have to worry flooding for another day or so because they're going to have to have a lot more rainfall and even more powerful storm surges before it can get all the way up this hill. But you can see the trees can't take much more. There are palm trees that are literally bending and ready to break at any time. This sign right here is also ready to tip over any time. The only thing holding it up is this concrete that is right here on he sidewalk. So, these signs are having a tough time staying up. Unfortunately, if this sign goes down so will that light post which means so will the electricity.

Let me tall you what we have here. We've got power outages that are pretty sporadic. In some areas it's pitch black. In other areas they've got light. But that's only until the palm trees fall down on them too like you're looking at. That tree actually fell on a colleague of mine. He's OK, but it did snap from the wind and crash to the ground and he was standing right in front of it.

So, we're trying to be very careful out here making sure that the trees that we are in front of are not vulnerable. Of course, that's not to say that debris will not be picked up at any time and hit us. So we're always keeping our eyes open out here.

This is an area that was basically spared by Charley that came through three and a half weeks ago. They were very lucky. This time they're not going to be so lucky. They are going to get pulmelled. Already power lines, roofs coming off of buildings. Signs are being knocked down and the wind is really tough to take. It pushes you out of the way. I'm way over 100 pounds and it is just pushing me nonstop once you get into it, and we've got into a pretty bad gust.

This sign -- I'm going to stay right onto the pole. That's about as far as I can go guys to show you. As you said, I said you can see all these palm trees going. This is powerful. And let me tell you this rain feels like somebody nailing you with pins, needles and rice all at the same time.

Let me give you an analogy of how strong the wind is. As a kid I'm sure you had somebody standing behind you pushing on you as you leaned back and they were stronger and pushed you forward. That is what this feels like right now. These winds are unbelievable.

We've got a little measurement, a little gadget here, we showed you this yesterday. It's usually about 20 miles less than what the speed really is. The highest check we got last time was 55. Let's see what we've got now. Right now we've got it at a 44. It doesn't seem tough, but if I let go of thispole you'll see. I'm not sure if you guys can see (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we had another transformer that just blew as well.

So this area they're going to get hit hard. They say that this is just the right and the middle of another bad ban. What happened though yesterday is that it calmed down a little bit, just enough to give people peace of mind and they say it's going to pick up and get worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Goodness. That was a look at WOSL, a reporter there filing that report. Just an example of the furry that Frances is putting on Florida right now.

I want to talk now with emergency officials. In fact, they're promising a huge response in the wake of Hurricane Frances. Joining us from Tallahassee, Florida is Michael Brown head of the federal Emergency Management Agency. Good morning to you.

MICHAEL BROWN, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Good morning.

NGUYEN: As we look at the furry that Hurricane Frances is bringing to Florida, what are your crews doing right now to provide some assistance?

BROWN: Well right now we're actually massing a huge federal response force strategically around the country to move in behind Frances to start the response efforts. We're going to have food and water and ice and tents and tarps, everything we need to do life saving and life sustaining efforts for the victims of Hurricane Frances.

NGUYEN: Have you been able to venture out? Have your crews been able to venture out to these hard hit areas or is it just too son right now with the outer ban still coming through Florida?

BROWN; Well, it's too soon right now. We're trying to actually practice what we preach. You know, the governor asked for people - ordered people to evacuate. We have pulled our people back because we don't want our first responders and the rescue workers themselves to become victims.

But we have our urban search and rescue teams to do rescue missions. We have our medical teams ready. We have our rapid needs assessment teams ready to move in. They're all going to move in right behind Francis as soon as it's safe to do so...

NGUYEN: Well...

BROWN: ...very quickly. As soon as she moves we go in.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. We're looking at some damage on this split screen right now. Are you expecting large scale destruction throughout a lot of Florida?

BROWN; Well, I'm afraid what we're going to see is not like Charley where we had immediate destruction, but we're going to see some long term destruction over several day. Frances has so much water with her that's what going to happen is the ground is going to become saturated. You're going to start seeing structural damage to buildings that doesn't show up for a while. You'll see telephone poles, utility lines and trees beginning to collapse because of the winds and the saturated ground.

So, it's going to be kind of a long term destructive effort and destructive wake that Frances is going to leave in her path.

NGUYEN: This is a double hit to Florida. First there was Charles. Now there is Frances. Do you have enough crews, enough supplies to handle all of this?

BROWN: We do. At one point we had about 3,000 people here for Hurricane Charley. I expect to have at least that amount of people down responding to Hurricane Frances. Plus, the people that I'll move back in to continue to take care of the people that were victimized by Hurricane Charley. So we'll have a huge number of people down here.

NGUYEN: Yesterday you mentioned trucks of ice and trucks of water that were coming in from California. That's going to take some time and with debris in the roadways it's going to be a big concern in actually getting that necessary water and ice out to the people who need it.

BROWN: Well, that's why the Department of Homeland Security partners so closely with the Army corps of engineers, for example, so that they can come in and start doing emergency debris removal so that we can actually get into some of these communities. We'll have to make certain that there's places to cross rivers where bridges may be out.

So it is a huge logistical challenge for us, but we're up to the task and we're going to meet that challenge.

NGUYEN: So what's your top priority this morning?

BROWN: Assessing the needs, finding out where people out, what's going on, how much damage there is and how quickly can we start moving our teams in there.

NGUYEN: Do you think these needs - it's going to take a while for you to meet all of these needs? Are you looking for some long term situation where crews are going to have to be in place for quite a while?

BROWN: Yes I think so. We still have crews in place for Hurricane Charley. Because of the massive size for Hurricane Frances and the amount of water that she's bringing we're going to be here for a long time. Our commitment is to stay in Florida as long as it takes to help both Charley victims and Frances victims.

NGUYEN: Charley caused billions of dollars in damage. Are you expecting Frances to do the same, if not more?

BROWN: Probably more. Mean we don't know yet. It's too early to tell, but I'm certain that Frances is going to cost us more money plus additional money because of what she's doing on top of Hurricane Charley.

I talked to President Bush on Friday. He assures me that whatever we need is going to be made available to us. We talked to Chairman Bill Young of The House Appropriations Committee. They're going to take care of us Tuesday morning as soon as they get back. So we'll have the resources to respond to anything that might be needed down in Florida.

NGUYEN: And these resources are separate from the resources spent on Charley because yesterday morning Governor Jeb Bush said the resources put toward Charley will not be used in any way to help Frances victims, correct?

BROWN: That's correct. We'll continue to take care of those victims that were hit by Hurricane Charley and new resources come in in for Frances. Plus, those that have been hit twice by Charley and now by Francs will need additional funding to help them also.

NGUYEN: OK. Michael Brown, the director of FEMA this morning. We thank you for your time and your information.

BROWN: Thank you.

NGUYEN: You're watching CNN's continuing coverage of Hurricane Frances. We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning. We are continuing to track hurricane Frances. We'll get a look at the damage there in Jacksonville. This is a live look from our affiliate WJXT. As you can see, there's rain still coming down, there's debris in the roadway there, at least in that parking lot. But, we want to go to Melbourne, because that area was getting hit hard by Frances just moments ago. CNN's Bill Hemmer is live in Melbourne with the latest on the situation there.

I see it really hasn't changed too much, still windy and rainy and bearing down on you.

HEMMER: Yeah, you're exactly right, Betty. We've been getting hammered now for a couple of hours. And I'm very curious to hear from the governor in about 30 minutes when he does his press conference up in Tallahassee to find out what they're learning right now with day just breaking here on this Sunday morning. Especially what's happening on the east coast of Florida.

I thought what Jeb Bush said yesterday was more true than anything we've heard in the past several days. He says, "No two storms are alike." And Frances has shown that yet again. Charley displayed that more than three weeks ago, and now Frances, it's her turn right now as she comes on shore.

We don't have TV here. We don't have cable. We haven't seen a satellite image for about 12 hours, Betty. But listening to radio reports, what they describe now is here, in Melbourne and Palm Bay, which is about a mile south of our location, they describe this band, this heavy intense band now, coming through this part of eastern Florida. I mentioned 30 minutes ago, the winds are coming directly from the east, which gives us a pretty good indication, right now, that in the northern part of this storm, and the fiercest part of the storm right now, is what is taking on Melbourne head-on at this point.

Floridians waking up today, about 1.6 million without power. And listen, that was the estimate that went out a few hours ago. It's quite likely that number is increasing as the day goes on. I'll give you an idea of what we're experiencing here in Melbourne. We've been able to canvass a couple of miles around the area, here. There is damage, how considerable, we can't say at this point because it's far too early. There are power lines down in areas. There are giant light posts that really just ripped at the base and snapped like a stick lying across the road. Aluminum siding ripped off, tiles ripped off, a lot of these businesses that have like this plastic signs out front or the awnings, no match for the fury of Frances, really, just literally ripped from the front sides of these businesses.

When we woke up this morning about four hours ago, 4:30 local time, Betty, about 8:30 local time now here on the east coast, when we got up this morning, at our hotel which is three miles inland from our live location here, the storm and the winds were stronger when we got up than anything we'd experienced yesterday and last night. And since we have been here, the evidence is obvious. The winds continue to whip through here. How strong are they, we can't say, because we do not have reliable instruments to tell you. But suffice to say, and trust us on this, they are strong right now as Frances comes onshore.

The police are out yet again. Saw some fire officials throughout the morning trickling down the various streets here making various calls, when they can. Local shelters, Red Cross reports 87,000 right now in Red Cross shelters alone. But I can tell you, our hotel was acting as a shelter itself, people playing cards and watching TV when they could anyway. And everyone just waiting to ride this thing out. And what is exceptional about this storm, and I keep going back to this, but I think it needs to be pointed out, oftentimes these storms, when they come ashore, they'll just come ashore and leave. But Frances is so big and so slow, that we're going to feel the effects not only 24 hours ago, but again today, and possibly throughout the greater part of Sunday. So, I'll tell you what, take heed for -- if you're in the eastern part of Florida. And use a lot of patience, because these people are going to need it, with Charley three weeks ago and now Frances, today. Mother Nature, we can feel her presence yet today, Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, CNN's Bill Hemmer in Melbourne, Florida. Thank you, for that report.

We want to go now to the local affiliate, WJXT Florida, which has a live shot up right now. Let's listen in.

JIM PIGGOTT, WJXT REPORTER: As I was mentioning there were power outages, but where we were in downtown Saint Augustine, no probable at this point, at least, with flooding. There was -- you know, a lot of water, a lot of palm fronds around, but no major structural problems at this time. What's really happening here is people are just coming out to get a look. They want to see what Frances is going to do to the Saint Augustine Beach area. You can see people talking on cell phones behind me. They're still having service, that's the good news, there. But, for the most part, nothing at this point. We're live in Saint Augustine Beach, I'm Jim Piggott.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you Jim.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. We're getting reports of more power outages, much more than we had first reported. About 30...

NGUYEN: All right, that was a look at a live shot there in Saint Augustine Beach with reporter Jim Piggott with WJXT TV, there.

I want to talk to one of our own, Meteorologist Orelon Sidney, who is in Orlando with all those tourists there riding out this storm. Good morning to you, Orelon.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. I guess good morning is probably real subjective at this point, because we've definitely got the winds and the rain picking up here. The power's out now at the hotel, that's our latest development. We'd heard what I thought, I guess, was a transformer go about 15 minutes ago and then the power went off at the hotel, and also across the street. There's quite a few eating establishments along this drag here, in front of our hotel, and none of them have lights at this point. So, we don't know how long that's going to be out. That could be a problem, make folks real uncomfortable, because I can tell you it's muggy and humid here, and with the power out and folks not able to get air conditioning in their rooms and obviously not able to open the windows, it could get to be really uncomfortable. But, as far as damage and that sort of thing, I haven't seen very much at all, there's a few trees, I think, that have let loose of the limbs, the palm fronds, but that's about it. So far we've been really lucky, but it's not over here yet. The last time I looked at the radar we still, I think, had at least six to eight hours more to go of this type of activity before we're on the downhill slope later on tonight -- Betty.

NGUYEN: But, are you seeing a steady rain there are, Orelon? Because it seems like the wind gusts will pick up and then the rain will come and then you have moments where it's not so bad.

SIDNEY: That's pretty much the case. It's still very squally and that to me, is another indication that the storm is probably starting to weaken considerably, because as you get closer to the storm, you expect for the wind and rain to be more steady. It's insteadier than it was earlier today -- earlier this morning. But, we still have kind of a ebbs and flows. You can get a point right now where you get a good area of rain, pretty good wind flowing through and thin it will be quiet for a while. And a few minutes ago, about three minutes ago, we had a pretty strong gust come through right before I went on the air. But, the distance between the ebb and flow is going to lessen as we go through the rest of the morning. We'll hit a peak, my guess, probably sometime early afternoon, and then start going on the downside of this, getting more frequent -- or excuse me, longer times between the ebbs and flows as we go on towards tonight. I still believe tomorrow's going to turn out to be a pretty good day, especially later in the day, probably the afternoon, I think things are going to get a lot better here -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Orelon Sidney, always looking at the bright side. Thank you, Orelon, for that.

I want to dip in now to local affiliate, WFDN, who's giving us a live look at Hallandale Beach.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before we came to you, you were getting tossed around a bit.

MICHELLE KING, WFDN REPORTER: Yeah, I was. But, we still get, every now and again, these strong winds and then it will die down a little bit. We get rain every now and again, and then it will die down a bit. So, still pretty unpredictable conditions, as Bill was telling you a moment ago. You heard the buzz saws going at Hallandale Beach, and we expect the same thing to be going on here in Fort Lauderdale Beach. You heard the press conference a little while a go with the mayor, Eileen Lieberman. And Eileen was saying that they're going to evaluate the conditions here in Fort Lauderdale. You see, there's still a lot of debris in this area. So, what they're hoping to do is the officials come down, evaluate the conditions, get a chance to clear up some of this stuff before a lot of the people who left this evacuation area, people who lived A1A area, Federal Highway, and east area who decided to go west just to be safe, before they get an opportunity to come back.

Again, for those of you who are out in those areas, out west, if you still have power, listening by radio, they still have not lifted this evacuation yet. So be sure, stay close to your television, stay close to your radio, and we'll let you know when that happens. That's the latest of stuff going on here in Fort Lauderdale. Michelle King "7 News."

NGUYEN: And that's from our affiliate WSDN. We want to bring in Rob Marciano now, who's been tracking Hurricane Frances, joins us with a look at -- she's still coming across these outer bands, or the back half, as some people calling it, still making its way across Florida.

MARCIANO: And where that reporter was, in Fort Lauderdale, well to the south of the center of this thing, although, I was checking the odds. Out of the entire state of Florida, everybody's not only getting some form of rain, it seems, but also winds that are gusting to at least 30 miles-an-hour in places like Fort Myers, down in Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach and then north towards Daytona Beach, as well. So, I mean, we've been saying it, it's huge.

NGUYEN: We're feeling it all across Florida.

MARCIANO: It's a huge storm, and yeah, everybody's feeling it. Another indication of that is the radar picture mentioned that everybody seemingly getting a piece of the action as far as the rainfall is concerned. And this is an impressive piece of imagery that we have for you.

Lighter blues to greens, indicate light to moderate rainfall; the yellows indicate heavier, yet the oranges and reds, and that's just coming down, and in some case coming down sideways because we have winds that are hurricane force in Melbourne.

We have had sporadic reports up and down the coastline from the National Weather Service offices, for whatever reason, I assume they're power related. But the last report out of Melbourne was yesterday afternoon at 5:00 and since then we haven't got any reliable sources, although there have been some storm chasers out there that have clocked unofficial reports of 90-plus mile-an-hour gusts in Melbourne.

And right now, they're getting it, and getting it good, as this spiral band -- this is really pretty much the northern eye of the storm. And then the next spiral band is just north of Orlando around, say, Daytona Beach and heading over to Ocala and that's got some squally weather, as well.

But notice that you go just offshore, and the echoes, meaning the cells with downpours are pretty bright and then you go inland and they begin to diminish. And that's going to be the story as this thing continues its slow march inward -- inland. And that will begin to diminish this storm. But still, the eastern flank of the eye is moving real slow.

All right, let's switch graphics, if we could, and show you the satellite imagery. Here it is. It will take its sweet time moving across the coastline and across the peninsula. From about West Palm Beach to Tampa is roughly 160 miles. It is moving at eight miles-an- hour, so it's going to take 18 to 20 hours to get this thing across the state. So, all day long today it is going to be rumbling across. We spoke to Ed Rappaport (PH) from the National Hurricane Service a few minutes ago, asked him how long is it going to be until we downgrade this thing. He said it will probably be a hurricane for 12 hours. So strap on, and follow along with us.

Category one storm, west winds at moving westerly at eight miles- an-hour, 95-mile-an-hour sustained wind, that makes it a strong category one, with higher wind gusts. This graphic shows the red, which indicates the wind field where you'll see hurricane force winds. It will diminish rapidly as we throw this map into motion as this thing heads inland and begins to weaken, but according to the National Hurricane Center, probably will take six to 12 hours to do that.

Just to the south of Orlando is where it goes. It'll eventually reemerge in the Gulf of Mexico, but I think, throughout the afternoon and evening it will stay inland, and then as it reemerges, probably sometime tomorrow in the Gulf of Mexico, it may or may not have time to re-strengthen, possibly to hurricane status again, but we'll just have to wait and see for that to happen. After that it'll roll up the Florida peninsula, across, say, Panama City, and maybe Destin Beaches and then up in through parts of Mississippi and Alabama in the form of some blustery winds and some heavier rainfall, as well.

Montgomery, Birmingham, bigger cities, even Atlanta possibly getting in the mix with this system as it rolls up towards the north. But, it looks it's going to remain a hurricane, a category one hurricane, albeit a hurricane for the next six to 12 hours.

All right, that's the latest, Betty. Well, here's one more shot. One other thing I wanted to point out. This red box is a tornado watch box, which means that we have the likelihood, or at least the possibility of seeing tornados drop to the north of this system. Up through Daytona Beach, Saint Augustine, we had a couple of radar indicated tornados earlier this morning, so that is also a threat. High tide is roughly between 1:00 and 2:00 across the northern shoreline of Daytona Beach, up through Jacksonville, and up through Saint Augustine, as well. And that's about when they'll see some of the stronger winds. So, storm surge up there, maybe two to four feet, we'll have to check to see what kind of effect that will have. It looks like, not only is it moving slowly, but it's going to be slow to weaken, as well. It could take all day long to weaken.

NGUYEN: A double whammy. You just don't have any good news for us.

MARCIANO: I'm sorry. On this Labor Day weekend, folks in Florida not too happy about it, but if you're watching along with us and don't live in Florida, you can be thankful you don't live there and you can watch the fun unfold, I suppose, from our correspondents.

NGUYEN: The best advice, even though it's a category one, stay inside, wait until it's all through.

MARCIANO: Obviously, yeah.

NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Rob. We do have some other breaking news to tell you about this morning. We want to go to Iraq and CNN's Diana Muriel live in Baghdad with the latest.

We understand that Saddam's former second in command has been captured?

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Betty. If these reports are true, then the king of spades is under arrest. No. 6 in that pack of playing cards issued by the U.S. of their most wanted, here in Iraq. We've had information from the Ministry of Defense, here in Baghdad, that Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who was second in command to Saddam Hussein, has been arrested earlier this Sunday morning in the area around Tikrit, in a suburb of the city of Tikrit, in the north of Iraq. Other reports say he was arrested while he was attending a clinic for medical treatment. We're not sure whether that section of the report is correct. We know that he has suffered from cancer in the past. We're not sure whether he was attending the clinic for that purpose. But we have had confirmation from the Ministry of Defense, as I say, that the Iraqi National Guard and U.S. forces have arrested Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.

The reason why this man is so important, is he goes back a very long way with Saddam Hussein. Sixty-one-years-old, he first met Saddam in the 1960s in prison. He became one of Saddam's most loyal henchmen. In fact, his technical title was the vice president and deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Council, which is the Baath party's inner circle, if you like. He was an integral member of the Baath party, joined the Baath party before Saddam Hussein himself did. And indeed his family ties go back a long way. His own daughter married a son of Saddam's, Uday Hussein, back in 1998, although their marriage, we understand, was dissolved after reports that Uday had beaten her.

There was a $10 million bounty on this man's head that was issued after the fall of Baghdad on April the 9th of last year. American forces knew that he wasn't in Baghdad, because he'd set up his area of operations in the northern city of Mosul, where he was born. And they knew he wasn't in Baghdad, but he's been hunted down, Betty, for the last 18 months and it looks like today he may have been arrested -- Betty.

NGUYEN: No. 6 on the U.S.'s most wanted list. There are wire reports that say that he's in the hands of Americans. Can you confirm that?

MURIEL: We can't confirm that at this stage, Betty. We've been in contact, of course, with the American forces. They're not making any comment at this stage, neither to confirm nor deny these stories. We do know that the Americans very much wanted to get their hands on this man. Indeed, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, said that al-Duri was responsible for financing attacks on coalition forces. He's believed to have been very, very active in the last few months here in Iraq. And I'm sure that if this is true, and if it's right, that he has been taken. Then they will be very relieved, indeed, to have him in their custody -- Betty.

NGUYEN: CNN's Diane Muriel, live in Baghdad, with the latest on this capture. Thank you so much for that report. Of course, we are continuing to track Hurricane Frances. Stay tuned for continuing coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back to our coverage of Hurricane Frances. An average police patrol car is no match for an approaching hurricane. But one Florida state trooper has an answer. A crew from CNN affiliate, WBTV, followed Captain Brad Pleton (PH) as he made the rounds in an armored personnel carrier.

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CATP. BRAD PLETON (PH), FLORIDA STATE TROOPER: This is an LAV- 150, it's a military vehicle that we purchased through the federal surplus program. Well, what we're using it for today is to basically go through the areas that are being affected by the storm, during the storm, to make sure that people have been evacuated. We're checking interstates, the major roadways, anywhere somebody might be stranded that needs assistance. And we're checking also some of the local trailer parks that have been required for mandatory evacuation, we're checking to make sure that they have been evacuated.

A regular vehicle, we're fearful that, depending on the wind's strength it would cause either serious damage to our vehicle, and also make it more dangerous for our personnel that are utilizing the vehicles.

The weight of the vehicle and the fact that it is armor plated, will withstand pretty much any penetration of anything flying, any flying debris. It prevents our personnel from getting injured. It's also amphibious, if it had to go somewhere that it was heavily -- depth of water, we could get in and get out. It also will traverse over small trees and things of that nature if we have an area that we need to get to that has had a lot of devastation. We did find multiple people that had taken shelter underneath I- 95 with their vehicles, because they had been driving down the road. And we checked on them to make sure that they were OK, make sure that they didn't need any assistance, either medical or any other type of assistance. And then we went into some of the trailer parks that had been affected and checked with people, the residents that still stayed there and see if they needed anything, and most of them felt they were still comfortable enough to stay there, even though some of the other trailers were destroyed.

It's kind of our call on when we feel it's too dangerous. You can generally tell the shift of the vehicle and -- with the wind direction, depending on whether it's pushing us around or not, whether we would stop. So far today, we've not encountered any weather that's concerned us to where we needed to stop. It's one of the most dangerous things you can do is continue out in the storm, during the storm. If you do get stranded or you get hurt, there are not going to be very many resources that will respond to you, because of the weather. Law enforcement and medical personnel, fire, rescue, have locked it down at about the 50-mile-an-hour mark, and obviously we're well over that, so I'd ask that everyone stay in shelter and not travel around.

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NGUYEN: Now, that's one way to travel through a hurricane. For more information on Frances, all you have to do is log onto 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 websites. Plus a special report on hurricanes, including safety tips on what you can do in a hurricane. You'll find all of that and much more at CNN.com. We'll be right back.

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NGUYEN: Good morning. Now in the news, Hurricane Frances has weakened since making landfall this morning near Fort Pierce, Florida. It is now a category one hurricane with top winds near 95 miles-an- hour. And it's accompanied by flood and tornado warnings. Frances is moving west across the Florida peninsula at eight miles-an-hour. The hurricane warning extends from Deerfield Beach in the south, to Flagler Beach in northern Florida.

Turning now to Iraq, a major arrest. Iraqi officials say U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri near the northern city of Tikrit. He was the highest level official from Saddam Hussein's regimes still on the loose. Al-Duri had been No. 6 on the U.S. military's list of the most wanted Iraqi officials. He was the king of clubs in he military's deck of cards.

The death toll has reached 374 from Friday's shootout between troop and hostage takers in southern Russia. Of those, 338 were hostage, 156 of the hostages were children. Officials say up to 190 people may still be unaccounted for. And in a television address, President Vladimir Putin called for a national mobilization against terrorism. Former president, Bill Clinton, is being flooded with messages from people wishing him well on his upcoming heart bypass surgery. Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, himself, also called Clinton in a show of support. He says he told Clinton about having undergone a quadruple bypass 16 years ago.

Theresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Senator John Kerry, is said to be feeling better this morning after being admitted to an Iowa hospital late yesterday. Mrs. Kerry complained of an upset stomach while campaigning in Mason City. She underwent a series of tests at a local hospital then she traveled to her home near Pittsburgh, as planned.

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