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CNN Sunday Morning

Jeanne Downgraded to Category 2

Aired September 26, 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.


DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: From the eye of the storm, the mayor of Stuart, Florida used a song to describe it all, "Frances to the left of me, Ivan to the right, Jeanne, I'm stuck in the middle with you." Hurricane Jeanne's forceful tune is playing out across Florida. Glad that somebody has a sense of humor.
Slammed the shore east of Stuart overnight. It is a Category 2 now, it was 3 when it crossed. It's expected to turn into the Gulf of Mexico and then turn north. This is the first time Florida has suffered from four hurricanes from one season, at least since they've been keeping track.

NGUYEN: You've got to have a sense of humor with that kind of singing, Drew. Glad you stopped there.

We have a lot of serious business to tell you about, aside from Drew's singing here, from the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, this is a special edition of CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is 8:00 a.m. in Tampa , Florida, where Hurricane Jeanne is heading next.

Good morning to all of you. I'm Betty Nguyen.

GRIFFIN: I'm Drew Griffin.

Before we start the storm coverage, here are some other stories making headlines this morning. The big one is the high winds, driving rain, and widespread damage of Hurricane Jeanne into Florida right now. Storming ashore on the state's east coast, Jeanne toppled buildings, trees and power lines in its wake. Now a Category 2 storm, more than 800,000 people have been left without power, that is so far.

Parts of northern Bahamas remain under water in the wake of Jeanne. The hurricane brought high winds and heavy rains there, again, shredding roofs and shredding some neighborhoods. But this time around, at least right now, no reports of death or serious injury in the Bahamas.

You can see what Haiti is dealing with, an estimated 300,000 Haitians homeless and more than 1,300 dead. Flooding on those deforested hills caused by the storm. The U.N. sent in a convoy of relief supplies, but people have been mobbing the trucks because they're so hungry and there has been looting of relief supplies as well.

There is word of a deadly car bombing in the capital of Syria. The Palestinian militant group Hamas was saying one of its leaders was the target and killed. Not clear if it happened in that person's car or nearby. Hamas is accusing Israel in this explosion.

NGUYEN: Back to Hurricane Jeanne. We want to talk to Rob Marciano on the latest of her track.

Good morning to you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning to you, guys. About to head toward Lakeland, to the east of Tampa and across I-4, this part of the eye wall will have some gnarly weather with it. The center of the storm is due south of Orlando by about 50 miles and it is heading in this direction toward Clearwater and will be there within the next few hours with hurricane conditions likely.

This thing weakening, but weakening very slowly, fairly typical, I suppose for a Florida hurricane because it's so flat here. We've got water on either side, these things will weaken slowly.

Category 2 storm, right now, with winds 100 miles an hour, sustained. Here is the forecast track. We expect it to go to the east and north of Tampa, Clearwater, Springhill, a more likely target, and then into the northeastern Gulf. Waters here not all that warm. They don't expect it to increase in intensity.

It looks like it will head across Appalachia Bay later on tonight and then across southern Georgia and South Carolina, as a tropical storm and eventually a tropical depression. And a whole lot of moisture expected to fall in the form of rain across parts of the Carolinas over the next couple of days.

Has been an historic 2004 season. This is the sixth major hurricane of the season. We did a little research. What this graphic shows you, all the major hurricanes that have made landfall in state of Florida since they've been keeping records. You can take this number and you can take it right up to the present, because things haven't changed a whole lot.

What it is saying to us is that there has never been a major hurricane to make landfall anywhere north of Palm Beach to the South Carolina border since they have been keeping records. Frances came on board three weeks ago, but that was a Category 2, this is a Category 3, a major hurricane. And it is the first one on the record books to make landfall north of Palm Beach and south of the South Carolina border. So, an unbelievable year it has been.

Flood watches and warnings are out now, no doubt about that, for the potential of flooding rains. It won't dump as much rain as Frances did because it's moving a bit quicker, but probably on the order of about 30 percent less rain than Frances, but the grounds are already saturated. So you expect to see flooding rains because of that.

Tornadoes have not been much of an issue yet. That's the silver lining in all of this but a tornado watch is in effect until 5 o'clock this afternoon. Take the northern half of this system and that's where you would expect to see tornadoes pop up. Typically they're small but the past couple of tropical systems, including Ivan, have dropped deadly tornadoes. So, always a concern, especially as the sun comes up, because what it will do is it will destabilize the atmosphere ahead of the storm. So extreme northern parts of Florida, even southern Georgia are more likely candidates to see these thunderstorms pop up with the potential of seeing tornadoes drop out of the sky. And that includes Orlando, which is getting hit with gusty winds and heavy rain.

Speaking of gusty winds, Vero Beach, 122, Sebastian 113, verifying as a major hurricane and winds could go higher than 78 in Orlando, Tampa likely to see similar numbers.

That is the latest from here. We're watching it, it's weakening, but it's holding onto its strength for dear life it looks like. Back to you guys in the studio.

GRIFFIN: OK, Rob, thanks for that update. We'll be back to you shortly.

NGUYEN: We want to hear from you this morning. If you're in the path of the storm and if you are able to e-mail us, send Rob your questions about the storm to wam@cnn.com. Let us know what's wrapping with Jeanne in your area right now. Again, wam@cnn.com.

We're want to get a situation report on the ground with WFTS, the affiliate in Tampa, going to Clearwater Beach with reporter Chris Martinez.

Are you on the line, there? Hi there, good morning.

CHRIS MARTINEZ, WFTS REPORTER: Good morning, Betty.

We're getting off to a very rough morning here on Clearwater Beach. The effects of the storm just now starting to be felt here with some pretty gusty winds. You can see here. We have had some pretty consistent winds. It is painful in the wind when it rains. It is even more painful out here on the beach. We'll walk out a little bit so you can see how windy it is.

We're sort of shielded where we are, but the sand here really gets going. It is a very uncomfortable feeling when it hits your body, it's very stinging, all of the sand coming at you. Right now the winds, they are strong, but this is far from what we're going to see. We're going to move back out of the way so we're more shielded again.

I can tell you that here in Pinellas County, which is where Clearwater, St. Petersburg is, directly next to Tampa, this was an area not prepared for a hurricane. They were prepared for more tropical storm conditions, but we are going to be dealing with closer to hurricane conditions when all is said and done here because of Jeanne.

And this is something that folks here just now are trying to make some last minute preps for. We have mandatory evacuations in this area for people that live in mobile homes. And a short while ago county officials were warning them if you haven't moved at this point to shelters your time is move is running out. And it's running out very fast. They're keeping a close watch on evacuations and a very close watch on this storm as it gets closer to this area.

Because, again, as strong as this seems now with the winds and some rains just starting to move in here, it's going to get a lot stronger over the next few hours and it will be here for awhile as well. They're very concerned about damage from the strong winds and they're also keeping an eye out on the coast. We have some choppy conditions already.

They expect an extra two, three, four feet of storm surge from the storm once it moves through. So there is the potential for flooding and also, of course, the potential of flooding from rain. We've had so many storms lately. This area hasn't recouped from the storms that have moved through. The ground here is very saturated. We'll keep a watch on all of those factors. Because when Jeanne moves through here it could possibly do a lot of damage. Back to you guys.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. Get out if you can, because Jeanne is headed your way. That's Chris Martinez from Clearwater Beach, Florida, which is just west of Tampa. Thank you for that -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Well, you tell the breadth of the storm, we go from Chris on the Gulf Coast now to Susan Candiotti, West Palm Beach on the Atlantic side, just south of where this storm came ashore.

And, Susan, I guess it is now time to evaluate the damage there as we see, but for the last little gasp, the wind seems to have died down.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is right. Good morning, Drew.

We're still getting squalls from time to time here and fairly strong wind gusts. Now that the sun has come up, the natural thing to do is to want get outside, you are feeling claustrophobic. The storm shutters are closing out all the light and you want to see what's going on.

So, just down the street over my shoulder, you're seeing just that, people out and about, seeing how things look. There is, of course, some debris in the streets here, some of that was from Hurricane Frances about three weeks ago. Some of it is new, as they point out some of the damage they're seeing as they walk around your neighborhood.

Someone else who is out here, out and about, is Michael Madelone (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mattalone (ph).

CANDIOTTI: Mattalone, close.

Michael, tell me, how did you make out last night? One of the first things that happened was losing power.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. We lost power about 12:30 last night, but beyond that it was a noisy night and a lot of wondering what was going on outside on the hurricane shutters.

CANDIOTTI: Were you able to get much sleep?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit, about an hour or two.

CANDIOTTI: How do things appear to you, at first blush?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not too bad, actually. It looks like we fared fairly well.

CANDIOTTI: Compare it to Frances, if you will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think as much debris. Most of the trees and things blew down during Frances, a lot noisier, a lot rougher night.

CANDIOTTI: How long did it take for power to be restored after Frances?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 11 hours for our particular neighborhood.

CANDIOTTI: That wasn't bad at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, so we fared quite well.

CANDIOTTI: Well, Michael, thank you. And continued luck as you continue with this storm as well.

I guess, on last question, what do you think about all of these storms happening, one right after the other?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is unbelievable. It's time to move back to New York, where it's safe.

CANDIOTTI: All right. Thanks so much.

Well, of course, what Michael is doing is what officials are also doing, going about Palm Beach County since the sun came up, getting some early damage assessments. We can tell you that at least a half million people have lost power, that's just an early estimate. We hope to learn more as, of course, the day goes on, compared to about 600,000, after Hurricane Frances. And 12,000 people sought shelter in area shelters here. Fewer than did during Hurricane Frances.

And we are hearing no reports at this time, as yet, of any kind of serious injuries or death. Thank goodness. And we do have a rather unusual report, and that was at about 2 o'clock in the morning, a report from Palm Beach County sheriff's fire rescue, they got a call from a woman who was at home and in labor. They were able to talk her through her birth successfully. She did give birth to a child. We don't know, a little boy or girl, Gene or Jeannette, perhaps. But in any case she was transported to a local hospital and we do understand she is doing fine.

Again, there are reports of some structural damage, downed power lines. Of course, the airport remains closed, some trees blocking the streets along A1A and we hope to hear from authorities about 9:30 or so, about how things stand. Back to you, Drew and Betty.

GRIFFIN: Susan, from the background there, but for the palm fronds it doesn't look too bad.

CANDIOTTI: Not on this one side street, but this is one street in a large, large county. Again, as the light goes on, as the day goes on, we'll be able to drive around more and get a much more thorough report than just this one street.

GRIFFIN: OK, Susan, thank you for your reporting all morning. And Susan is about to head up towards the Vero Beach area, so she's going to be on the move for the next hour or two.

NGUYEN: That is one of the areas where Jeanne came ashore, first made landfall overnight.

All morning long we've been asking people in Florida to tell us what they are experiencing at Jeanne comes through.

And we have someone, this is Tom, who writes: "Good morning. I live in the City of Zephyrhills, which is just north of Tampa. The winds have really started to pick up here along with some fierce rain. Water is being blown in under our front door as the apartment we live in is facing the north. The center of the hurricane is still quite a way from here but we are feeling the force of it."

That is from Tom.

GRIFFIN: It's been interesting getting the observations and questions. We have a question coming up on the screen. Rob is standing by.

I see you there, good morning.

MARCIANO: Good morning.

GRIFFIN: "I live in the Tallahassee area and was wondering if Hurricane Jeanne was projected to go anywhere near us? Melissa."

I think I know the answer, but Rob you take it.

MARCIANO: Come on, Drew, you took Sarasota, give this one a shot. Buddy, come on.

GRIFFIN: I don't get paid to predict this.

MARCIANO: I'm too tired, give me -- Just to the east, very close, but the forecast track right now is just to the east Tallahassee as a tropical storm, maybe a strong tropical storm, possibly a weak hurricane at that point.

Here's Tallahassee. Here is where the storm is. Got to go up through here, through Tampa, or at least to the east of Tampa, across Clearwater and into the Gulf of Mexico. Water is not that warm so we don't expect it to strengthen. Heading up through Appalachie (ph) Bay but probably closer to Perry, than to Tallahassee. And puts Tallahassee on the west side of the storm. As this thing gets weaker, that is a good side to be on.

At worst, you will see north winds to 50, maybe gusts to 55 or 60 miles an hour, which can take some tree limbs down. But that's about the worst Tallahassee will see with this. And that will be late this afternoon and this evening.

GRIFFIN: OK, Rob. Thanks a lot. We'll be back to you.

NGUYEN: We have continuing coverage on CNN. We'll take a short break, but when we come back we'll check out the situation in Orlando with CNN's Eric Philips. Stay tuned.

ANNOUNCER: September 5th, 1996, Hurricane Fran howled across North Carolina's Cape Fear. The storm surge from the Category 3 hurricane devastated coastal areas. And Fran's heavy rains generated flooding from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania. The storm's winds damaged homes and buildings from North Carolina to Virginia. When the cost was tallied, Fran did some $3.2 billion in damage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Hurricane Jeanne bearing down on Florida right now. Here are some numbers for the people in the storm. The Department of Insurance, that hotline number is 1-800-227-8676.

GRIFFIN: Orlando, Florida, getting beat up right now. Eric Philips is there and has this report, Eric?

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, I can tell you we're here in Orlando where the situation has seemingly deteriorated throughout the morning as Jeanne as gotten closer, although it's skirting just south of the city of Orlando. We're still feeling the outer bands. The Orlando Airport reporting gusts up to 78 miles an hour. We're hearing of 50 m.p.h. sustained winds from the Orlando Emergency Management.

Let's show you some video that one of our crews has had an opportunity to take this morning. Even with what we're getting here as the storm moves across the state, you can see that it's causing downed trees. In fact some trees have fallen dangerously close and in fact, on some homes here in the Orlando area.

We're also hearing from emergency management that there are reports of power outages here in the Orlando area, particularly in the southern Orange County area, not massive power outages like you are hearing throughout the rest of the state, but they are expecting that number to increase as the morning wears on.

There are here, in this county, curfew rules still in effect. They went into effect last night at 11 p.m. And will be in effect until this evening at 5 p.m. What they want us to tell people is make sure they stay off the street. The temptation is once daylight hits to go out and see how your property fared and try to see what type of devastation the storm may have brought.

Officials want people to be very careful, basically to hold tight, to give them an opportunity, once all of this is passed, and bear in mind it hasn't passed yet. But once all of this is passed they want people to give them an opportunity to go out into the streets to take a look at what type of damage has been created by Jeanne, then give them the OK. If in fact, everything is OK, they may lift that curfew early prior to 5 p.m.

But just to give you some idea, Drew, of how seriously people are taking this storm -- or perhaps how not seriously people are taking them -- we're told that in Hurricane Frances, the shelters here just in this county alone had some 8,000 people in them. But at last count the shelters here in this county had about 1,500 people in them and they've opened less shelter this is time than last time.

They're not saying necessarily that people are being complacent, that they are not listening to warnings and not cooperating with officials, as much as some people may have left all together in the wake of the storm and decided to get away as opposed to going to shelters. Perhaps going to family, hotel and other areas. Nevertheless, they want people to continue to heed their warnings knowing that Jeanne could still be very a powerful storm here in this area.

GRIFFIN: OK, Eric Philips, in Orlando, Florida, having a little trouble hearing us but doing a great job keeping us abreast of this storm as it makes its way through Florida.

We'll be back with a live report from Melbourne, Florida, on the Atlantic Coast after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. Welcome back to our special coverage of Hurricane Jeanne, which is pretty much centered over Florida at this hour. We want to go to the east coast, just south of Cape Canaveral in Melbourne, Florida. For that we talk to Ned Roberts of WTSP.

What's the latest there, Ned?

NED ROBERTS, REPORTER, WTSP: As you can see, we're still getting hit by some very heavy wind and horizontal rain as Hurricane Jeanne makes it way across Brevard County. The backside of the storm hitting us right now.

Behind me here you can see some of these trees and bushes blowing in the wind. We spoke earlier with the Brevard County Emergency Management and they told me at this point it's not safe enough for any of their assessment teams to get out into the field and take a look at how serious the damage is or to come up with a power outage assessment.

They will be doing that later today, certainly. But we do know there have been power outages, in fact, we saw some of them last night. As we went out into the field, being as safe as we possibly could but trying to give the viewers an idea of just how powerful this hurricane is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS (voice over): There are reasons for curfews when hurricanes hit, and you're about to see one of them.

Along U.S. 1 in Melbourne, transformers blew, street signs swung and traffic lights bounced. Minutes later these very same lights lost power. Watch as this roadside bar goes dark as well.

As conditions worsened, Scott Jordan kept watch over his family's marina, hoping his storm surge wouldn't bust the lines on these bobbing boats.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's windy and rainy, water level is rising, power keeps going on and off, a lot of transformers blowing, a lot of bluish-green sky.

ROBERTS (on camera): Your family has owned this marina for about 14 years, are you worried?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just about the water level, worried about the house and the ship store, but that's about it.

ROBERTS: What kind of things have you been seeing as you walk around here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, just small things falling apart. The winds haven't gotten worse than what they were with Frances or Fran, whatever that one was, and nothing worse has happened so far from that. So all the things that broke on that have been repaired.

ROBERTS: You have this major high and dry facility here packed with boats. Concerned?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not at this point. We've built it to withstand 120 mile-an-hour sustained winds. It should be able to take this without too much trouble.

ROBERTS: Can you believe you're doing this three weeks after you did it for Frances?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I can't, that's for sure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Certainly, this hurricane comes as a shock to people here who did have to deal with the hurricane just three weeks ago. So many, in fact, that you heard Scott Jordan there forgetting the name of Frances, briefly.

I haven't had a chance to talk with him yet. We'll speak with him later in the day. I was able to speak with an 84-year-old gentleman in an area south of here called Barefoot Bay.

He chose to ride out the storm instead of evacuating like he said with Frances. We spoke with him this morning. He said he made it through, he does have some damage to his house but he was alive.

There was a major concern, on the part of officials, that a number of people, many, many more people than during Frances decided to ride it out. And that's what's going to be the story here in the coming days to see how those people did. And we'll be checking on that.

We do know of one major piece of damage to this county, a special needs shelter, which handles people who have certain special medical needs, actually lost part of its roof overnight. And they had to do a convoy of police cars and fire trucks to move those people to a safer area.

So, this storm, the eye may not have made landfall in Brevard County, but it has definitely had an effect here -- Betty.

NGUYEN: No doubt. Ned Roberts with WTSP, in Melbourne, Florida, which is on the east coast just south of Cape Canaveral. Thank you so much for that.

We want to give you a live look now at Daytona Beach, which is north of Orlando. This is a live picture there. You can see a reporter that's getting ready to give an assessment of what is going on there.

But in this picture, the wind is blowing by the look of the trees in the background. The rain, you can hear pounding there. We of course will have -- this is Keith Oppenheim here at CNN. We'll talk to him a little bit later in the show.

We'll have continuing coverage of Hurricane Jeanne with an outlook on the forecast with Rob Marciano. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: The fourth hurricane hit Florida in six weeks, leaving destruction in its path. Jeanne stormed ashore just before Midnight on Florida's eastern coast. Welcome back this is a special edition of CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm Drew Griffin.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Here's a look at what's making news at this hour:

Jeanne's top winds have dropped to 100 miles-an-hour but it remains a category 2 storm as it churns across Florida. Jeanne has ripped off roofs of buildings and knocked out power to more than 800,000 people.

Meantime, other states are bracing for the approaching storm. Georgia has declared a state of emergency.

Now, before plowing into Florida, Jeanne washed over the Bahamas. Some neighborhoods there are under as much as six feet of floodwater. There are no reports of deaths or serious injuries.

In Iraq, a military court handed down a 25-year sentence against a U.S. soldier convicted of killing an Iraqi National Guard soldier near Tikrit, last May. Army Specialist Federico Merida had earlier pleaded guilty to that murder.

A general in the Iraqi U.S. National Guard is in U.S. custody this morning on suspicion of ties to insurgent fighters. Just two weeks ago the general was chosen to lead Iraqi forces in the Sunni Triangle, an area plagued by attacks but that general had not been confirmed to the post.

GRIFFIN: Let's get the very latest on Hurricane Jeanne -- Rob Marciano.

MARCIANO: Hey guys. One-hundred miles-an-hour winds, you mentioned that. It is now moving to the west-northwest at about 12, 13 miles-an-hour and the western eye wall, which has got some pretty strong weather with it, is about to move into the eastern parts of Tampa.

As this thing moved onshore last night as a category 3 storm, it has now weakened, but the wind field is still very strong, still very wide. In Daytona Beach, for example, 48 mile-an-hour gusts at this hour; Orlando, 75 mile-an-hour gusts, it's hurricane strength there; 43 mile-an-hour gusts in Tampa; and 44 in Fort Myers. It has been very consistent in Fort Myers and seen winds at least gusting to 40 miles-an-hour.

West Palm Beach finally back online, but Melbourne and Fort Pierce have been offline since Midnight because of the strong winds and the, more likely, they power outages that knocked some of those automated systems offline.

All right, here is the radar site out of Tampa, Orlando, now the center of it just to the south-southwest of Orlando by about 50 miles and this yellow area about to move into the eastern parts of Tampa across I-4 with some -- definitely some squally weather here.

I mentioned Sarasota, probably not seeing all that bad a weather. Well, wind gusts last hour were over 50 miles-an-hour there. So, again the wind field with this thing is fairly wide and even if you're on the weaker side of the storm you'll certainly see winds gust over 40 and 50 miles-an-hour at times. This is heading off, eventually, to the northwest, but it hasn't made much of a turn to the north as of late.

Here's the official forecast track, just offshore, back onshore. I also mentioned Tallahassee might not see much in the way of wind, but if this track at all shifts off to the west, Tallahassee will see at least tropical storm, if not close to hurricane-force winds later on tonight. So, we're trying to get this thing off -- out of Florida, but it's going to be an ongoing process this afternoon and through tonight, as well. A number of large cities will be in the path of Jeanne as it continues its march to the west and eventually north.

NGUYEN: But Rob, we're not seeing any reports of tornado warnings, watches, anything like that, associated with this storm?

MARCIANO: No, it's been -- that's one great thing about it, so far we haven't see a whole lot of tornado warnings, just a couple, an nothing verifying as tornadoes, yet. But, as the sun comes up we'll probably start to see some destabilization of the atmosphere ahead of the storm and there'll probably be a couple of tornadoes that pop up. Hopefully that won't be the case and if they do, hopefully they won't be as fatal as the ones in Ivan. We'll keep an eye on it with our Doppler radar, that's for sure.

NGUYEN: Rob Marciano, thank you.

GRIFFIN: At 3:00 a.m. this storm has barreling down on Melbourne, Florida, which is about midway up the Atlantic coast in Florida, and Anderson Cooper and Chad Myers were on live. Is what they recorded at 3:00 a.m., about five-and-a-half hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting, it's no longer a matter of sort of gusts coming and then there being a lull, this is relentless nonstop, just brutal winds, and there's really no let up in sight.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, and at this point in time, it is hard to stand up. Remember, you asked -- you asked me about 20 miles-an-hour ago, when is it going to be very hard to do this and I said about 100 and this is pretty darned close to 100, right now.

COOPER: Yeah. All right, all I can do, literally the equipment starts to rip off you in these winds. I'm going to put this back. But, Catherine, it's amazing. You know, we thought this things was kind of a -- we thought we had sort of seen the worst of it, but this is definitely the worst we've seen so far.

MYERS: Yeah, no question about it and whether this was one squall inside that band, because sometimes that'll happen, sometimes you'll get one squall -- sorry, I can't stop.

COOPER: Please, Chad!

(LAUGHING)

MYERS: Sometimes you get one fall that gets heavy wind even -- you know, in a light time, in a light squall, but this is obviously one of the bigger ones inside the heavy rain band.

COOPER: Because, there's no telling how long, I mean Rob was saying it might last 45, 50 minutes.

MYERS: It sure could, and if the storm continues to turn right, which it's not doing yet, we could be in the eye wall for even longer time.

COOPER: Well, that's certainly not good news for us here. But, I mean, I don't know how much you can see on the camera, but it is literally, I mean you look 20 feet away it's this wall of whitewater. It looks, I mean, it's like a solid mass.

(END VIDEO CLIP) NGUYEN: So that's what we saw about five-and-a-half hours ago. We want to talk about what's happening right now, and for that we want to go to Keith Oppenheim, who is in Daytona Beach on Florida's east coast side.

Looks like the rains have already set in, and awfully windy there -- Keith.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's true. Everything is relative in a hurricane, Betty, so when I listen to Anderson and Chad I feel like I'm taking a regular Florida vacation. But, there is a continued battering here, we're going to show it to you right now as we take a look at the surf. Even though we are on the northern edge of the worst part of the storm, now downgraded to a category 2, you have a really a dramatic surf that's coming on right now, perhaps storm surge between two and four feet.

The tide is low, which is good news, but when you behind the factors, the steady winds that we're getting here, at near hurricane speed, the steady rain, as well as the storm surge possibilities, it's a good possibility that you'll have some flooding in the Volusia County-Daytona Beach area and also some damage from the wind, too, because we have had about four or five hours of these conditions, and we are expecting to get another five hours or so more just like this. So Volusia County may be bad as Brevard County where those guys were, but it sure is getting these steadily northern winds that keep on coming off the sea and hitting the buildings here.

NGUYEN: Already four to five hours of that kind of wind. Have you been able to see any damage at all, so far?

OPPENHEIM: No, not so bad yet, but I'm going to show you something which is a little unusual. Mike, if we can show the light on the wall there. What we're going to look at the fact that there is, not from generator power, but from regular city power, there is electricity still on in this area. That's unusual with the kind of conditions that we have been steadily having -- have been having out here. On the other end, it's important to realize that this area has been now hit three times, once from Hurricane Charley in mid-August, as the storm moved across the state, and now twice in the same angle from Frances three weeks ago, and now from Jeanne. They lost power for about a combination of ten days from the previous two storms that came here, so there's an expectation of loss of services.

We really don't know what damage will come from this sort of steady assault of milder winds, but we'll find out as the day goes by. It's likely that this area cannot escapade unscathed from this ongoing rain and wind that keeps coming on.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. And you talk about being hit over and over again. I think there was a lot of concern as Jeanne started to come ashore, the fact that a lot of debris is still sitting on the side of roadways, people still trying to rebuild their homes, and that debris can become projectiles in the kind of wind that you're experiencing right now. OPPENHEIM: Exactly. In fact, yesterday we saw people picking up large sticks from their yard, trying to prevent them from becoming those kind of projectiles, but -- you know, it's really an area that was already vulnerable, not nearly as bad as what was mainly reported on from the last couple of hurricanes in places like Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, Pensacola, but still damage. You got a lot of homes with blue tarps on top, a lot of signs that were blown out from previous storms, and no shape to be getting another hurricane, but that's exactly what's happened, Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, stay safe. Keith Oppenheim in Daytona Beach this morning. Thank you.

GRIFFIN: We're getting your first look at damage coming in. This is from WPEC in Vero Beach, which was in that northeast quadrant; they are sending us raw video right now, of some of the damage. This is obviously a mobile home park. We can see a lot of debris, and the siding, and the rooftops have been ripped apart. These are the very mobile home and trailer parks that people are encouraged to evacuate and get to much stronger shelters.

Look at this, entire roof of this particular home has been ripped off and ripped through, it appeared. That shed is gone. Working -- now, there's the top of the roof, right there in the neighbor's yard. So, there is some massive cleaning up to do. Again, this is raw video coming in from WPEC in Vero Beach.

NGUYEN: Now, we don't know if this is a home owner or an emergency crew trying to get this debris out of the roadways. Here's some more video, as you can see a storm drain just being overflowed with water, there. A lot of damage, we can only begin to expect to see, as the sun comes up, throughout much of Florida, because right now, Hurricane Jeanne is just centered over the top of Florida bringing down lots of rain to the Orlando area and headed toward Tampa, but in areas like mobile home parks, we're looking at a lot of flooding, debris all over the roadways.

This is Vero Beach right here, and as you can see, as we showed just a few minutes ago, tons of debris all over the place.

GRIFFIN: This looks like it is closer to the actual beach and you can see, this may be part of that storm surge that comes ashore with the hurricane, a bridge, again, this is raw video, and we are going to go now, live to a picture in Daytona Beach. And maybe somebody can tell me what we're seeing here. This looks like some kind of a foam driven...

OK, so this is sea-spray. Now, I'm peering backwards, this is from one of our affiliates on the beach, the wind with waves and some erosion, there. Live pictures from Daytona Beach as Hurricane Jeanne batters that coast, there.

Let's go to Eric Philips, he is standing by in...

NGUYEN: Orlando.

GRIFFIN: Orlando, Florida, this morning -- Eric.

PHILIPS: Well, Drew, good morning. Before we were seeing sort of gusts coming through that felt like, really felt like hurricane- force winds, as you're standing here, but they would come through every now and then. But, as the morning has gone on, we felt them come through more often. We'll just be standing here and all of a sudden very strong gusts will come and almost over and knock over myself and my crew, here. But, what we're told is that the Orlando Airport, they felt gusts there up to about 78 miles-an-hour. Emergency management has told us that here, in Orange County, particularly in the southern portion of the county; they have felt sustained winds of about 50 miles-an-hour. Either way it goes, out here, standing in it, it certainly feels like hurricane-force winds even if they've not actually registered that as of yet.

What we know right now is that there is a mandatory curfew in effect for folks here in Orange County. That means that since 11:00 last night until 5:00 this afternoon you are not to be walking around, you are not to be on the roadways driving around. You need to have an I.D. and a work phone number if you claim that you have to go to or from work. You need to prove that to authorities or else you run the risk of being arrested and they're not play being this. If, in fact you are arrested, then you will not be eligible for bond, is what authorities are telling me.

Take a look right behind me. You can see the trees here, where we're standing, how they're trying to sustain themselves against the wind. A couple of the baby trees have fallen down already over in this area. Other scenes that we have come in contact with across this area, larger trees downed, falling near and some even falling on homes. This is certainly nothing to play with here, even though we're not getting the worst of what Jeanne had to bear, here in Florida. We're still seeing a lot here in Orange County, and officials are still concerned about possible flooding. Again, this area, the entire peninsula is still very much saturated from past storms, including Charley and Frances, and so any amount of rain, which we're definitely seeing rainfall now, here, could bring about some flooding. And so that's what they're really watching very closely, right now. But again, they're not getting it as bad as initially they thought they would, realizing though, that this is not over -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: OK, Eric Philips reporting from Orlando. And we're going to get, hopefully, an assessment statewide, Eric, when the Florida officials in Tallahassee hold a news conference at 9:00, that's about 15 minutes from now.

NGUYEN: But in the meant time, the American Red Cross has established a number of hotlines, we're going to give two of them, right now. For information, if you need assistance, information, you can call 1-866-GET-INFO. Now, if you want to help with donations, that number is 1-800-GIVE-NOW. Stay tuned for continuation coverage of Hurricane Jeanne, right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Live cover coverage of Hurricane Jeanne. This is Vero Beach, Florida, an area that's obviously been hit with some flooding there, as well as damage to this particular trailer park -- mobile home park. A lot of damage to clean up in the wake of Hurricane Jeanne, as she makes her way across Florida and now up through Florida and now heading toward the eastern seaboard.

NGUYEN: We want to check the damage in Stuart, Florida, along the Florida's east coast, that is the exact spot where Hurricane Jeanne came ashore, and for that we go on the phone with Susan Candiotti with CNN.

Good morning to you Susan. What are you seeing as you're in Stuart, Florida?

CANDIOTTI: No, actually Betty, I'm sorry, apparently a miscommunication there. We're simply on our way to Stuart, Florida, right now. I'm still in West Palm Beach, we've left West Palm Beach, we're on our out, up to Stuart to survey the damage. So, I'm reporting to you from here, in West Palm, is that they are experiencing mobile home damage, downed power lines, there are at least a half million people without power here in Palm Beach County, and damage crews are out and about from the county assessing how badly this county has been hit by Hurricane Jeanne. Power went out early on last night, just after Midnight, and it's been out to a large part of the area ever since. They did...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am ready.

CANDIOTTI: At this point they're not reporting any -- any serious injuries or deaths. We did have a report of a woman who went into labor at her home overnight, and rescue crews were able to talk her through it. She successfully did give birth, other than that, again, authorities hope to give an update to everyone in about a half hour from now, about how the county fared through Hurricane Jeanne. We are seeing debris about the streets. We are seeing, as I said, downed power lines and the like and now that the sun has come up, it will be easier for authorities to give a more thorough assessment of the damage.

NGUYEN: Susan, as you make your way up to Stuart, are you seeing roads blocked, emergency crews out there trying to remove that debris, or basically trying to get to folks in need of some help?

CANDIOTTI: We haven't made enough progress to give you any information about that, Betty, but certainly, as we do, we'll phone back in.

NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Susan Candiotti in West Palm Beach, as she's making her way up to Stuart, Florida, where Hurricane Jeanne first came ashore overnight.

GRIFFIN: We are going to affiliate; it's WPLG, bringing us live coverage of Hurricane Jeanne. Let's see what they're reporting.

KELLIE BUTLER, LOCAL 10 ANCHOR: And if you call us in or e-mail us at local10.com or send us your pictures -- the storm pictures at WPLG.com, we can share that information here on Local 10, either the pictures on the air or the information on our "Bottom Line."

WILL MANSO, LOCAL 10 ANCHOR: And as you look at these pictures from Daytona Beach, live pictures right now, the conditions there a short time ago, Jim Cantori from the Weather Channel filed a report for us, and here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CANTORI, WEATHER CHANNEL: Well, I want to do is show you where we're at, here. We're inside the parking garage of our hotel. Not too windy at all. But remember, when walk outside between a couple of hotels, remember the wind can accelerate, sometimes even greater than two times of what have it normally is. So, Will and Kelly, you guys can check the actual (UNINTELLIGIBLE) at Daytona Beach, tell me what our sustained wind is and gusts and then I'm going to walk out, I'm going to show you what we're -- what we're going to be dealing with here.

Now, remember, in order to force the same mass through a smaller area, it has to be accelerated, so that's what's happening. Winds are much, much stronger out through here, and as a result of that, you can actually sustain most of the damage. Most of the damage that I can visibly see this morning is actually up onto those traffic lights. Those are pretty...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: There's some live coverage there from WPLG, one of our affiliates up and down the coast. We've been watching how they react and cover this storm, as well.

NGUYEN: Just an example of how strong those winds are, as they come across Florida. Basically, this storm is all the way over the top of Florida, and it's headed toward Tampa. We'll continue to follow it this morning. We'll talk with Rob Marciano for the latest with Hurricane Jeanne. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Welcome back. We've been asking for some observations from people in Florida at wam@cnn.com. And we have a writer, Anna from Bradenton, that is just south of Tampa, she says, "We are experiencing intermittent big gusts of wind whistling through the trees, moderate to heavy rain. A Porta-Potty has turned over and slid down the street." Interesting. "There is a tree-bound bird facing the wind, trying to maintain its balance, not unlike CNN's Anderson Copper reporting on these hurricanes."

NGUYEN: And of course, we will have much more on Hurricane Jeanne. We're gong to check in with Rob Marciano, as well, at the top of the hour to get the latest on the forecast, so stay here.

GRIFFIN: Also, the Florida officials are going to have a news conference in the next hour as well.

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 26, 2004 - 08:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: From the eye of the storm, the mayor of Stuart, Florida used a song to describe it all, "Frances to the left of me, Ivan to the right, Jeanne, I'm stuck in the middle with you." Hurricane Jeanne's forceful tune is playing out across Florida. Glad that somebody has a sense of humor.
Slammed the shore east of Stuart overnight. It is a Category 2 now, it was 3 when it crossed. It's expected to turn into the Gulf of Mexico and then turn north. This is the first time Florida has suffered from four hurricanes from one season, at least since they've been keeping track.

NGUYEN: You've got to have a sense of humor with that kind of singing, Drew. Glad you stopped there.

We have a lot of serious business to tell you about, aside from Drew's singing here, from the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, this is a special edition of CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is 8:00 a.m. in Tampa , Florida, where Hurricane Jeanne is heading next.

Good morning to all of you. I'm Betty Nguyen.

GRIFFIN: I'm Drew Griffin.

Before we start the storm coverage, here are some other stories making headlines this morning. The big one is the high winds, driving rain, and widespread damage of Hurricane Jeanne into Florida right now. Storming ashore on the state's east coast, Jeanne toppled buildings, trees and power lines in its wake. Now a Category 2 storm, more than 800,000 people have been left without power, that is so far.

Parts of northern Bahamas remain under water in the wake of Jeanne. The hurricane brought high winds and heavy rains there, again, shredding roofs and shredding some neighborhoods. But this time around, at least right now, no reports of death or serious injury in the Bahamas.

You can see what Haiti is dealing with, an estimated 300,000 Haitians homeless and more than 1,300 dead. Flooding on those deforested hills caused by the storm. The U.N. sent in a convoy of relief supplies, but people have been mobbing the trucks because they're so hungry and there has been looting of relief supplies as well.

There is word of a deadly car bombing in the capital of Syria. The Palestinian militant group Hamas was saying one of its leaders was the target and killed. Not clear if it happened in that person's car or nearby. Hamas is accusing Israel in this explosion.

NGUYEN: Back to Hurricane Jeanne. We want to talk to Rob Marciano on the latest of her track.

Good morning to you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning to you, guys. About to head toward Lakeland, to the east of Tampa and across I-4, this part of the eye wall will have some gnarly weather with it. The center of the storm is due south of Orlando by about 50 miles and it is heading in this direction toward Clearwater and will be there within the next few hours with hurricane conditions likely.

This thing weakening, but weakening very slowly, fairly typical, I suppose for a Florida hurricane because it's so flat here. We've got water on either side, these things will weaken slowly.

Category 2 storm, right now, with winds 100 miles an hour, sustained. Here is the forecast track. We expect it to go to the east and north of Tampa, Clearwater, Springhill, a more likely target, and then into the northeastern Gulf. Waters here not all that warm. They don't expect it to increase in intensity.

It looks like it will head across Appalachia Bay later on tonight and then across southern Georgia and South Carolina, as a tropical storm and eventually a tropical depression. And a whole lot of moisture expected to fall in the form of rain across parts of the Carolinas over the next couple of days.

Has been an historic 2004 season. This is the sixth major hurricane of the season. We did a little research. What this graphic shows you, all the major hurricanes that have made landfall in state of Florida since they've been keeping records. You can take this number and you can take it right up to the present, because things haven't changed a whole lot.

What it is saying to us is that there has never been a major hurricane to make landfall anywhere north of Palm Beach to the South Carolina border since they have been keeping records. Frances came on board three weeks ago, but that was a Category 2, this is a Category 3, a major hurricane. And it is the first one on the record books to make landfall north of Palm Beach and south of the South Carolina border. So, an unbelievable year it has been.

Flood watches and warnings are out now, no doubt about that, for the potential of flooding rains. It won't dump as much rain as Frances did because it's moving a bit quicker, but probably on the order of about 30 percent less rain than Frances, but the grounds are already saturated. So you expect to see flooding rains because of that.

Tornadoes have not been much of an issue yet. That's the silver lining in all of this but a tornado watch is in effect until 5 o'clock this afternoon. Take the northern half of this system and that's where you would expect to see tornadoes pop up. Typically they're small but the past couple of tropical systems, including Ivan, have dropped deadly tornadoes. So, always a concern, especially as the sun comes up, because what it will do is it will destabilize the atmosphere ahead of the storm. So extreme northern parts of Florida, even southern Georgia are more likely candidates to see these thunderstorms pop up with the potential of seeing tornadoes drop out of the sky. And that includes Orlando, which is getting hit with gusty winds and heavy rain.

Speaking of gusty winds, Vero Beach, 122, Sebastian 113, verifying as a major hurricane and winds could go higher than 78 in Orlando, Tampa likely to see similar numbers.

That is the latest from here. We're watching it, it's weakening, but it's holding onto its strength for dear life it looks like. Back to you guys in the studio.

GRIFFIN: OK, Rob, thanks for that update. We'll be back to you shortly.

NGUYEN: We want to hear from you this morning. If you're in the path of the storm and if you are able to e-mail us, send Rob your questions about the storm to wam@cnn.com. Let us know what's wrapping with Jeanne in your area right now. Again, wam@cnn.com.

We're want to get a situation report on the ground with WFTS, the affiliate in Tampa, going to Clearwater Beach with reporter Chris Martinez.

Are you on the line, there? Hi there, good morning.

CHRIS MARTINEZ, WFTS REPORTER: Good morning, Betty.

We're getting off to a very rough morning here on Clearwater Beach. The effects of the storm just now starting to be felt here with some pretty gusty winds. You can see here. We have had some pretty consistent winds. It is painful in the wind when it rains. It is even more painful out here on the beach. We'll walk out a little bit so you can see how windy it is.

We're sort of shielded where we are, but the sand here really gets going. It is a very uncomfortable feeling when it hits your body, it's very stinging, all of the sand coming at you. Right now the winds, they are strong, but this is far from what we're going to see. We're going to move back out of the way so we're more shielded again.

I can tell you that here in Pinellas County, which is where Clearwater, St. Petersburg is, directly next to Tampa, this was an area not prepared for a hurricane. They were prepared for more tropical storm conditions, but we are going to be dealing with closer to hurricane conditions when all is said and done here because of Jeanne.

And this is something that folks here just now are trying to make some last minute preps for. We have mandatory evacuations in this area for people that live in mobile homes. And a short while ago county officials were warning them if you haven't moved at this point to shelters your time is move is running out. And it's running out very fast. They're keeping a close watch on evacuations and a very close watch on this storm as it gets closer to this area.

Because, again, as strong as this seems now with the winds and some rains just starting to move in here, it's going to get a lot stronger over the next few hours and it will be here for awhile as well. They're very concerned about damage from the strong winds and they're also keeping an eye out on the coast. We have some choppy conditions already.

They expect an extra two, three, four feet of storm surge from the storm once it moves through. So there is the potential for flooding and also, of course, the potential of flooding from rain. We've had so many storms lately. This area hasn't recouped from the storms that have moved through. The ground here is very saturated. We'll keep a watch on all of those factors. Because when Jeanne moves through here it could possibly do a lot of damage. Back to you guys.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. Get out if you can, because Jeanne is headed your way. That's Chris Martinez from Clearwater Beach, Florida, which is just west of Tampa. Thank you for that -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Well, you tell the breadth of the storm, we go from Chris on the Gulf Coast now to Susan Candiotti, West Palm Beach on the Atlantic side, just south of where this storm came ashore.

And, Susan, I guess it is now time to evaluate the damage there as we see, but for the last little gasp, the wind seems to have died down.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is right. Good morning, Drew.

We're still getting squalls from time to time here and fairly strong wind gusts. Now that the sun has come up, the natural thing to do is to want get outside, you are feeling claustrophobic. The storm shutters are closing out all the light and you want to see what's going on.

So, just down the street over my shoulder, you're seeing just that, people out and about, seeing how things look. There is, of course, some debris in the streets here, some of that was from Hurricane Frances about three weeks ago. Some of it is new, as they point out some of the damage they're seeing as they walk around your neighborhood.

Someone else who is out here, out and about, is Michael Madelone (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mattalone (ph).

CANDIOTTI: Mattalone, close.

Michael, tell me, how did you make out last night? One of the first things that happened was losing power.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. We lost power about 12:30 last night, but beyond that it was a noisy night and a lot of wondering what was going on outside on the hurricane shutters.

CANDIOTTI: Were you able to get much sleep?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit, about an hour or two.

CANDIOTTI: How do things appear to you, at first blush?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not too bad, actually. It looks like we fared fairly well.

CANDIOTTI: Compare it to Frances, if you will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think as much debris. Most of the trees and things blew down during Frances, a lot noisier, a lot rougher night.

CANDIOTTI: How long did it take for power to be restored after Frances?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 11 hours for our particular neighborhood.

CANDIOTTI: That wasn't bad at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, so we fared quite well.

CANDIOTTI: Well, Michael, thank you. And continued luck as you continue with this storm as well.

I guess, on last question, what do you think about all of these storms happening, one right after the other?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is unbelievable. It's time to move back to New York, where it's safe.

CANDIOTTI: All right. Thanks so much.

Well, of course, what Michael is doing is what officials are also doing, going about Palm Beach County since the sun came up, getting some early damage assessments. We can tell you that at least a half million people have lost power, that's just an early estimate. We hope to learn more as, of course, the day goes on, compared to about 600,000, after Hurricane Frances. And 12,000 people sought shelter in area shelters here. Fewer than did during Hurricane Frances.

And we are hearing no reports at this time, as yet, of any kind of serious injuries or death. Thank goodness. And we do have a rather unusual report, and that was at about 2 o'clock in the morning, a report from Palm Beach County sheriff's fire rescue, they got a call from a woman who was at home and in labor. They were able to talk her through her birth successfully. She did give birth to a child. We don't know, a little boy or girl, Gene or Jeannette, perhaps. But in any case she was transported to a local hospital and we do understand she is doing fine.

Again, there are reports of some structural damage, downed power lines. Of course, the airport remains closed, some trees blocking the streets along A1A and we hope to hear from authorities about 9:30 or so, about how things stand. Back to you, Drew and Betty.

GRIFFIN: Susan, from the background there, but for the palm fronds it doesn't look too bad.

CANDIOTTI: Not on this one side street, but this is one street in a large, large county. Again, as the light goes on, as the day goes on, we'll be able to drive around more and get a much more thorough report than just this one street.

GRIFFIN: OK, Susan, thank you for your reporting all morning. And Susan is about to head up towards the Vero Beach area, so she's going to be on the move for the next hour or two.

NGUYEN: That is one of the areas where Jeanne came ashore, first made landfall overnight.

All morning long we've been asking people in Florida to tell us what they are experiencing at Jeanne comes through.

And we have someone, this is Tom, who writes: "Good morning. I live in the City of Zephyrhills, which is just north of Tampa. The winds have really started to pick up here along with some fierce rain. Water is being blown in under our front door as the apartment we live in is facing the north. The center of the hurricane is still quite a way from here but we are feeling the force of it."

That is from Tom.

GRIFFIN: It's been interesting getting the observations and questions. We have a question coming up on the screen. Rob is standing by.

I see you there, good morning.

MARCIANO: Good morning.

GRIFFIN: "I live in the Tallahassee area and was wondering if Hurricane Jeanne was projected to go anywhere near us? Melissa."

I think I know the answer, but Rob you take it.

MARCIANO: Come on, Drew, you took Sarasota, give this one a shot. Buddy, come on.

GRIFFIN: I don't get paid to predict this.

MARCIANO: I'm too tired, give me -- Just to the east, very close, but the forecast track right now is just to the east Tallahassee as a tropical storm, maybe a strong tropical storm, possibly a weak hurricane at that point.

Here's Tallahassee. Here is where the storm is. Got to go up through here, through Tampa, or at least to the east of Tampa, across Clearwater and into the Gulf of Mexico. Water is not that warm so we don't expect it to strengthen. Heading up through Appalachie (ph) Bay but probably closer to Perry, than to Tallahassee. And puts Tallahassee on the west side of the storm. As this thing gets weaker, that is a good side to be on.

At worst, you will see north winds to 50, maybe gusts to 55 or 60 miles an hour, which can take some tree limbs down. But that's about the worst Tallahassee will see with this. And that will be late this afternoon and this evening.

GRIFFIN: OK, Rob. Thanks a lot. We'll be back to you.

NGUYEN: We have continuing coverage on CNN. We'll take a short break, but when we come back we'll check out the situation in Orlando with CNN's Eric Philips. Stay tuned.

ANNOUNCER: September 5th, 1996, Hurricane Fran howled across North Carolina's Cape Fear. The storm surge from the Category 3 hurricane devastated coastal areas. And Fran's heavy rains generated flooding from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania. The storm's winds damaged homes and buildings from North Carolina to Virginia. When the cost was tallied, Fran did some $3.2 billion in damage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Hurricane Jeanne bearing down on Florida right now. Here are some numbers for the people in the storm. The Department of Insurance, that hotline number is 1-800-227-8676.

GRIFFIN: Orlando, Florida, getting beat up right now. Eric Philips is there and has this report, Eric?

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, I can tell you we're here in Orlando where the situation has seemingly deteriorated throughout the morning as Jeanne as gotten closer, although it's skirting just south of the city of Orlando. We're still feeling the outer bands. The Orlando Airport reporting gusts up to 78 miles an hour. We're hearing of 50 m.p.h. sustained winds from the Orlando Emergency Management.

Let's show you some video that one of our crews has had an opportunity to take this morning. Even with what we're getting here as the storm moves across the state, you can see that it's causing downed trees. In fact some trees have fallen dangerously close and in fact, on some homes here in the Orlando area.

We're also hearing from emergency management that there are reports of power outages here in the Orlando area, particularly in the southern Orange County area, not massive power outages like you are hearing throughout the rest of the state, but they are expecting that number to increase as the morning wears on.

There are here, in this county, curfew rules still in effect. They went into effect last night at 11 p.m. And will be in effect until this evening at 5 p.m. What they want us to tell people is make sure they stay off the street. The temptation is once daylight hits to go out and see how your property fared and try to see what type of devastation the storm may have brought.

Officials want people to be very careful, basically to hold tight, to give them an opportunity, once all of this is passed, and bear in mind it hasn't passed yet. But once all of this is passed they want people to give them an opportunity to go out into the streets to take a look at what type of damage has been created by Jeanne, then give them the OK. If in fact, everything is OK, they may lift that curfew early prior to 5 p.m.

But just to give you some idea, Drew, of how seriously people are taking this storm -- or perhaps how not seriously people are taking them -- we're told that in Hurricane Frances, the shelters here just in this county alone had some 8,000 people in them. But at last count the shelters here in this county had about 1,500 people in them and they've opened less shelter this is time than last time.

They're not saying necessarily that people are being complacent, that they are not listening to warnings and not cooperating with officials, as much as some people may have left all together in the wake of the storm and decided to get away as opposed to going to shelters. Perhaps going to family, hotel and other areas. Nevertheless, they want people to continue to heed their warnings knowing that Jeanne could still be very a powerful storm here in this area.

GRIFFIN: OK, Eric Philips, in Orlando, Florida, having a little trouble hearing us but doing a great job keeping us abreast of this storm as it makes its way through Florida.

We'll be back with a live report from Melbourne, Florida, on the Atlantic Coast after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. Welcome back to our special coverage of Hurricane Jeanne, which is pretty much centered over Florida at this hour. We want to go to the east coast, just south of Cape Canaveral in Melbourne, Florida. For that we talk to Ned Roberts of WTSP.

What's the latest there, Ned?

NED ROBERTS, REPORTER, WTSP: As you can see, we're still getting hit by some very heavy wind and horizontal rain as Hurricane Jeanne makes it way across Brevard County. The backside of the storm hitting us right now.

Behind me here you can see some of these trees and bushes blowing in the wind. We spoke earlier with the Brevard County Emergency Management and they told me at this point it's not safe enough for any of their assessment teams to get out into the field and take a look at how serious the damage is or to come up with a power outage assessment.

They will be doing that later today, certainly. But we do know there have been power outages, in fact, we saw some of them last night. As we went out into the field, being as safe as we possibly could but trying to give the viewers an idea of just how powerful this hurricane is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS (voice over): There are reasons for curfews when hurricanes hit, and you're about to see one of them.

Along U.S. 1 in Melbourne, transformers blew, street signs swung and traffic lights bounced. Minutes later these very same lights lost power. Watch as this roadside bar goes dark as well.

As conditions worsened, Scott Jordan kept watch over his family's marina, hoping his storm surge wouldn't bust the lines on these bobbing boats.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's windy and rainy, water level is rising, power keeps going on and off, a lot of transformers blowing, a lot of bluish-green sky.

ROBERTS (on camera): Your family has owned this marina for about 14 years, are you worried?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just about the water level, worried about the house and the ship store, but that's about it.

ROBERTS: What kind of things have you been seeing as you walk around here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, just small things falling apart. The winds haven't gotten worse than what they were with Frances or Fran, whatever that one was, and nothing worse has happened so far from that. So all the things that broke on that have been repaired.

ROBERTS: You have this major high and dry facility here packed with boats. Concerned?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not at this point. We've built it to withstand 120 mile-an-hour sustained winds. It should be able to take this without too much trouble.

ROBERTS: Can you believe you're doing this three weeks after you did it for Frances?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I can't, that's for sure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Certainly, this hurricane comes as a shock to people here who did have to deal with the hurricane just three weeks ago. So many, in fact, that you heard Scott Jordan there forgetting the name of Frances, briefly.

I haven't had a chance to talk with him yet. We'll speak with him later in the day. I was able to speak with an 84-year-old gentleman in an area south of here called Barefoot Bay.

He chose to ride out the storm instead of evacuating like he said with Frances. We spoke with him this morning. He said he made it through, he does have some damage to his house but he was alive.

There was a major concern, on the part of officials, that a number of people, many, many more people than during Frances decided to ride it out. And that's what's going to be the story here in the coming days to see how those people did. And we'll be checking on that.

We do know of one major piece of damage to this county, a special needs shelter, which handles people who have certain special medical needs, actually lost part of its roof overnight. And they had to do a convoy of police cars and fire trucks to move those people to a safer area.

So, this storm, the eye may not have made landfall in Brevard County, but it has definitely had an effect here -- Betty.

NGUYEN: No doubt. Ned Roberts with WTSP, in Melbourne, Florida, which is on the east coast just south of Cape Canaveral. Thank you so much for that.

We want to give you a live look now at Daytona Beach, which is north of Orlando. This is a live picture there. You can see a reporter that's getting ready to give an assessment of what is going on there.

But in this picture, the wind is blowing by the look of the trees in the background. The rain, you can hear pounding there. We of course will have -- this is Keith Oppenheim here at CNN. We'll talk to him a little bit later in the show.

We'll have continuing coverage of Hurricane Jeanne with an outlook on the forecast with Rob Marciano. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: The fourth hurricane hit Florida in six weeks, leaving destruction in its path. Jeanne stormed ashore just before Midnight on Florida's eastern coast. Welcome back this is a special edition of CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm Drew Griffin.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Here's a look at what's making news at this hour:

Jeanne's top winds have dropped to 100 miles-an-hour but it remains a category 2 storm as it churns across Florida. Jeanne has ripped off roofs of buildings and knocked out power to more than 800,000 people.

Meantime, other states are bracing for the approaching storm. Georgia has declared a state of emergency.

Now, before plowing into Florida, Jeanne washed over the Bahamas. Some neighborhoods there are under as much as six feet of floodwater. There are no reports of deaths or serious injuries.

In Iraq, a military court handed down a 25-year sentence against a U.S. soldier convicted of killing an Iraqi National Guard soldier near Tikrit, last May. Army Specialist Federico Merida had earlier pleaded guilty to that murder.

A general in the Iraqi U.S. National Guard is in U.S. custody this morning on suspicion of ties to insurgent fighters. Just two weeks ago the general was chosen to lead Iraqi forces in the Sunni Triangle, an area plagued by attacks but that general had not been confirmed to the post.

GRIFFIN: Let's get the very latest on Hurricane Jeanne -- Rob Marciano.

MARCIANO: Hey guys. One-hundred miles-an-hour winds, you mentioned that. It is now moving to the west-northwest at about 12, 13 miles-an-hour and the western eye wall, which has got some pretty strong weather with it, is about to move into the eastern parts of Tampa.

As this thing moved onshore last night as a category 3 storm, it has now weakened, but the wind field is still very strong, still very wide. In Daytona Beach, for example, 48 mile-an-hour gusts at this hour; Orlando, 75 mile-an-hour gusts, it's hurricane strength there; 43 mile-an-hour gusts in Tampa; and 44 in Fort Myers. It has been very consistent in Fort Myers and seen winds at least gusting to 40 miles-an-hour.

West Palm Beach finally back online, but Melbourne and Fort Pierce have been offline since Midnight because of the strong winds and the, more likely, they power outages that knocked some of those automated systems offline.

All right, here is the radar site out of Tampa, Orlando, now the center of it just to the south-southwest of Orlando by about 50 miles and this yellow area about to move into the eastern parts of Tampa across I-4 with some -- definitely some squally weather here.

I mentioned Sarasota, probably not seeing all that bad a weather. Well, wind gusts last hour were over 50 miles-an-hour there. So, again the wind field with this thing is fairly wide and even if you're on the weaker side of the storm you'll certainly see winds gust over 40 and 50 miles-an-hour at times. This is heading off, eventually, to the northwest, but it hasn't made much of a turn to the north as of late.

Here's the official forecast track, just offshore, back onshore. I also mentioned Tallahassee might not see much in the way of wind, but if this track at all shifts off to the west, Tallahassee will see at least tropical storm, if not close to hurricane-force winds later on tonight. So, we're trying to get this thing off -- out of Florida, but it's going to be an ongoing process this afternoon and through tonight, as well. A number of large cities will be in the path of Jeanne as it continues its march to the west and eventually north.

NGUYEN: But Rob, we're not seeing any reports of tornado warnings, watches, anything like that, associated with this storm?

MARCIANO: No, it's been -- that's one great thing about it, so far we haven't see a whole lot of tornado warnings, just a couple, an nothing verifying as tornadoes, yet. But, as the sun comes up we'll probably start to see some destabilization of the atmosphere ahead of the storm and there'll probably be a couple of tornadoes that pop up. Hopefully that won't be the case and if they do, hopefully they won't be as fatal as the ones in Ivan. We'll keep an eye on it with our Doppler radar, that's for sure.

NGUYEN: Rob Marciano, thank you.

GRIFFIN: At 3:00 a.m. this storm has barreling down on Melbourne, Florida, which is about midway up the Atlantic coast in Florida, and Anderson Cooper and Chad Myers were on live. Is what they recorded at 3:00 a.m., about five-and-a-half hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting, it's no longer a matter of sort of gusts coming and then there being a lull, this is relentless nonstop, just brutal winds, and there's really no let up in sight.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, and at this point in time, it is hard to stand up. Remember, you asked -- you asked me about 20 miles-an-hour ago, when is it going to be very hard to do this and I said about 100 and this is pretty darned close to 100, right now.

COOPER: Yeah. All right, all I can do, literally the equipment starts to rip off you in these winds. I'm going to put this back. But, Catherine, it's amazing. You know, we thought this things was kind of a -- we thought we had sort of seen the worst of it, but this is definitely the worst we've seen so far.

MYERS: Yeah, no question about it and whether this was one squall inside that band, because sometimes that'll happen, sometimes you'll get one squall -- sorry, I can't stop.

COOPER: Please, Chad!

(LAUGHING)

MYERS: Sometimes you get one fall that gets heavy wind even -- you know, in a light time, in a light squall, but this is obviously one of the bigger ones inside the heavy rain band.

COOPER: Because, there's no telling how long, I mean Rob was saying it might last 45, 50 minutes.

MYERS: It sure could, and if the storm continues to turn right, which it's not doing yet, we could be in the eye wall for even longer time.

COOPER: Well, that's certainly not good news for us here. But, I mean, I don't know how much you can see on the camera, but it is literally, I mean you look 20 feet away it's this wall of whitewater. It looks, I mean, it's like a solid mass.

(END VIDEO CLIP) NGUYEN: So that's what we saw about five-and-a-half hours ago. We want to talk about what's happening right now, and for that we want to go to Keith Oppenheim, who is in Daytona Beach on Florida's east coast side.

Looks like the rains have already set in, and awfully windy there -- Keith.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's true. Everything is relative in a hurricane, Betty, so when I listen to Anderson and Chad I feel like I'm taking a regular Florida vacation. But, there is a continued battering here, we're going to show it to you right now as we take a look at the surf. Even though we are on the northern edge of the worst part of the storm, now downgraded to a category 2, you have a really a dramatic surf that's coming on right now, perhaps storm surge between two and four feet.

The tide is low, which is good news, but when you behind the factors, the steady winds that we're getting here, at near hurricane speed, the steady rain, as well as the storm surge possibilities, it's a good possibility that you'll have some flooding in the Volusia County-Daytona Beach area and also some damage from the wind, too, because we have had about four or five hours of these conditions, and we are expecting to get another five hours or so more just like this. So Volusia County may be bad as Brevard County where those guys were, but it sure is getting these steadily northern winds that keep on coming off the sea and hitting the buildings here.

NGUYEN: Already four to five hours of that kind of wind. Have you been able to see any damage at all, so far?

OPPENHEIM: No, not so bad yet, but I'm going to show you something which is a little unusual. Mike, if we can show the light on the wall there. What we're going to look at the fact that there is, not from generator power, but from regular city power, there is electricity still on in this area. That's unusual with the kind of conditions that we have been steadily having -- have been having out here. On the other end, it's important to realize that this area has been now hit three times, once from Hurricane Charley in mid-August, as the storm moved across the state, and now twice in the same angle from Frances three weeks ago, and now from Jeanne. They lost power for about a combination of ten days from the previous two storms that came here, so there's an expectation of loss of services.

We really don't know what damage will come from this sort of steady assault of milder winds, but we'll find out as the day goes by. It's likely that this area cannot escapade unscathed from this ongoing rain and wind that keeps coming on.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. And you talk about being hit over and over again. I think there was a lot of concern as Jeanne started to come ashore, the fact that a lot of debris is still sitting on the side of roadways, people still trying to rebuild their homes, and that debris can become projectiles in the kind of wind that you're experiencing right now. OPPENHEIM: Exactly. In fact, yesterday we saw people picking up large sticks from their yard, trying to prevent them from becoming those kind of projectiles, but -- you know, it's really an area that was already vulnerable, not nearly as bad as what was mainly reported on from the last couple of hurricanes in places like Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, Pensacola, but still damage. You got a lot of homes with blue tarps on top, a lot of signs that were blown out from previous storms, and no shape to be getting another hurricane, but that's exactly what's happened, Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, stay safe. Keith Oppenheim in Daytona Beach this morning. Thank you.

GRIFFIN: We're getting your first look at damage coming in. This is from WPEC in Vero Beach, which was in that northeast quadrant; they are sending us raw video right now, of some of the damage. This is obviously a mobile home park. We can see a lot of debris, and the siding, and the rooftops have been ripped apart. These are the very mobile home and trailer parks that people are encouraged to evacuate and get to much stronger shelters.

Look at this, entire roof of this particular home has been ripped off and ripped through, it appeared. That shed is gone. Working -- now, there's the top of the roof, right there in the neighbor's yard. So, there is some massive cleaning up to do. Again, this is raw video coming in from WPEC in Vero Beach.

NGUYEN: Now, we don't know if this is a home owner or an emergency crew trying to get this debris out of the roadways. Here's some more video, as you can see a storm drain just being overflowed with water, there. A lot of damage, we can only begin to expect to see, as the sun comes up, throughout much of Florida, because right now, Hurricane Jeanne is just centered over the top of Florida bringing down lots of rain to the Orlando area and headed toward Tampa, but in areas like mobile home parks, we're looking at a lot of flooding, debris all over the roadways.

This is Vero Beach right here, and as you can see, as we showed just a few minutes ago, tons of debris all over the place.

GRIFFIN: This looks like it is closer to the actual beach and you can see, this may be part of that storm surge that comes ashore with the hurricane, a bridge, again, this is raw video, and we are going to go now, live to a picture in Daytona Beach. And maybe somebody can tell me what we're seeing here. This looks like some kind of a foam driven...

OK, so this is sea-spray. Now, I'm peering backwards, this is from one of our affiliates on the beach, the wind with waves and some erosion, there. Live pictures from Daytona Beach as Hurricane Jeanne batters that coast, there.

Let's go to Eric Philips, he is standing by in...

NGUYEN: Orlando.

GRIFFIN: Orlando, Florida, this morning -- Eric.

PHILIPS: Well, Drew, good morning. Before we were seeing sort of gusts coming through that felt like, really felt like hurricane- force winds, as you're standing here, but they would come through every now and then. But, as the morning has gone on, we felt them come through more often. We'll just be standing here and all of a sudden very strong gusts will come and almost over and knock over myself and my crew, here. But, what we're told is that the Orlando Airport, they felt gusts there up to about 78 miles-an-hour. Emergency management has told us that here, in Orange County, particularly in the southern portion of the county; they have felt sustained winds of about 50 miles-an-hour. Either way it goes, out here, standing in it, it certainly feels like hurricane-force winds even if they've not actually registered that as of yet.

What we know right now is that there is a mandatory curfew in effect for folks here in Orange County. That means that since 11:00 last night until 5:00 this afternoon you are not to be walking around, you are not to be on the roadways driving around. You need to have an I.D. and a work phone number if you claim that you have to go to or from work. You need to prove that to authorities or else you run the risk of being arrested and they're not play being this. If, in fact you are arrested, then you will not be eligible for bond, is what authorities are telling me.

Take a look right behind me. You can see the trees here, where we're standing, how they're trying to sustain themselves against the wind. A couple of the baby trees have fallen down already over in this area. Other scenes that we have come in contact with across this area, larger trees downed, falling near and some even falling on homes. This is certainly nothing to play with here, even though we're not getting the worst of what Jeanne had to bear, here in Florida. We're still seeing a lot here in Orange County, and officials are still concerned about possible flooding. Again, this area, the entire peninsula is still very much saturated from past storms, including Charley and Frances, and so any amount of rain, which we're definitely seeing rainfall now, here, could bring about some flooding. And so that's what they're really watching very closely, right now. But again, they're not getting it as bad as initially they thought they would, realizing though, that this is not over -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: OK, Eric Philips reporting from Orlando. And we're going to get, hopefully, an assessment statewide, Eric, when the Florida officials in Tallahassee hold a news conference at 9:00, that's about 15 minutes from now.

NGUYEN: But in the meant time, the American Red Cross has established a number of hotlines, we're going to give two of them, right now. For information, if you need assistance, information, you can call 1-866-GET-INFO. Now, if you want to help with donations, that number is 1-800-GIVE-NOW. Stay tuned for continuation coverage of Hurricane Jeanne, right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Live cover coverage of Hurricane Jeanne. This is Vero Beach, Florida, an area that's obviously been hit with some flooding there, as well as damage to this particular trailer park -- mobile home park. A lot of damage to clean up in the wake of Hurricane Jeanne, as she makes her way across Florida and now up through Florida and now heading toward the eastern seaboard.

NGUYEN: We want to check the damage in Stuart, Florida, along the Florida's east coast, that is the exact spot where Hurricane Jeanne came ashore, and for that we go on the phone with Susan Candiotti with CNN.

Good morning to you Susan. What are you seeing as you're in Stuart, Florida?

CANDIOTTI: No, actually Betty, I'm sorry, apparently a miscommunication there. We're simply on our way to Stuart, Florida, right now. I'm still in West Palm Beach, we've left West Palm Beach, we're on our out, up to Stuart to survey the damage. So, I'm reporting to you from here, in West Palm, is that they are experiencing mobile home damage, downed power lines, there are at least a half million people without power here in Palm Beach County, and damage crews are out and about from the county assessing how badly this county has been hit by Hurricane Jeanne. Power went out early on last night, just after Midnight, and it's been out to a large part of the area ever since. They did...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am ready.

CANDIOTTI: At this point they're not reporting any -- any serious injuries or deaths. We did have a report of a woman who went into labor at her home overnight, and rescue crews were able to talk her through it. She successfully did give birth, other than that, again, authorities hope to give an update to everyone in about a half hour from now, about how the county fared through Hurricane Jeanne. We are seeing debris about the streets. We are seeing, as I said, downed power lines and the like and now that the sun has come up, it will be easier for authorities to give a more thorough assessment of the damage.

NGUYEN: Susan, as you make your way up to Stuart, are you seeing roads blocked, emergency crews out there trying to remove that debris, or basically trying to get to folks in need of some help?

CANDIOTTI: We haven't made enough progress to give you any information about that, Betty, but certainly, as we do, we'll phone back in.

NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Susan Candiotti in West Palm Beach, as she's making her way up to Stuart, Florida, where Hurricane Jeanne first came ashore overnight.

GRIFFIN: We are going to affiliate; it's WPLG, bringing us live coverage of Hurricane Jeanne. Let's see what they're reporting.

KELLIE BUTLER, LOCAL 10 ANCHOR: And if you call us in or e-mail us at local10.com or send us your pictures -- the storm pictures at WPLG.com, we can share that information here on Local 10, either the pictures on the air or the information on our "Bottom Line."

WILL MANSO, LOCAL 10 ANCHOR: And as you look at these pictures from Daytona Beach, live pictures right now, the conditions there a short time ago, Jim Cantori from the Weather Channel filed a report for us, and here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CANTORI, WEATHER CHANNEL: Well, I want to do is show you where we're at, here. We're inside the parking garage of our hotel. Not too windy at all. But remember, when walk outside between a couple of hotels, remember the wind can accelerate, sometimes even greater than two times of what have it normally is. So, Will and Kelly, you guys can check the actual (UNINTELLIGIBLE) at Daytona Beach, tell me what our sustained wind is and gusts and then I'm going to walk out, I'm going to show you what we're -- what we're going to be dealing with here.

Now, remember, in order to force the same mass through a smaller area, it has to be accelerated, so that's what's happening. Winds are much, much stronger out through here, and as a result of that, you can actually sustain most of the damage. Most of the damage that I can visibly see this morning is actually up onto those traffic lights. Those are pretty...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: There's some live coverage there from WPLG, one of our affiliates up and down the coast. We've been watching how they react and cover this storm, as well.

NGUYEN: Just an example of how strong those winds are, as they come across Florida. Basically, this storm is all the way over the top of Florida, and it's headed toward Tampa. We'll continue to follow it this morning. We'll talk with Rob Marciano for the latest with Hurricane Jeanne. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Welcome back. We've been asking for some observations from people in Florida at wam@cnn.com. And we have a writer, Anna from Bradenton, that is just south of Tampa, she says, "We are experiencing intermittent big gusts of wind whistling through the trees, moderate to heavy rain. A Porta-Potty has turned over and slid down the street." Interesting. "There is a tree-bound bird facing the wind, trying to maintain its balance, not unlike CNN's Anderson Copper reporting on these hurricanes."

NGUYEN: And of course, we will have much more on Hurricane Jeanne. We're gong to check in with Rob Marciano, as well, at the top of the hour to get the latest on the forecast, so stay here.

GRIFFIN: Also, the Florida officials are going to have a news conference in the next hour as well.

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