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CNN Saturday Morning News

Florida Braces for Impact of Hurricane Frances; Largest Evacuation in Florida's History

Aired September 04, 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: The next hour, this special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING begins right now.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: With powerful winds up to 100 miles per hour, 105 miles, actually, the hurricane is bracing, or folks in Florida are bracing for Hurricane Frances. It's already been through the Bahamas and it is crawling slowly towards the Florida coastline.

GRIFFIN: It is the largest evacuation in Florida's history, 2.5 million residents ordered out of the path of Hurricane Frances.

Let's get started with what is happening. Resident gearing up for Frances they covered roofs, boarded windows, people fled coastal areas in record numbers. The eye of the storm could strike the Florida coast late tonight or, now, into early tomorrow morning.

Former President Clinton admits he's a little scared, but optimistic. He is going to face heart bypass surgery next week. He spoke by phone, last night, to Larry King from his New York hospital room.

Clinton says he checked into the hospital after experiencing tightness in his chest and shortness of breath.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited victims of the terrorist siege in a school in southern Russia. More than 500 people are hospitalized. The death toll is at least 322. Many of the dead are children. The three-day drama ended in chaos when Russian commandos stormed the building after terrorists inside the building set off explosives.

A convention bounce and a big one for President Bush. He leads Senator John Kerry by double digits in a "Time" magazine poll taken during the convention. At 52 percent for Bush; Senator Kerry, 41 percent, Independent Ralph Nader getting 3 percent.

NGUYEN: Hurricane Frances started pounding the Bahama Islands Thursday and still at it today. The latest target, the city of Shreveport, where trees are falling on parked cars. In Nassau, Frances knocked down power and phone lines, flooded roads, blew off a roof at the airport, and killed at least one person.

Now to Florida, many resident boarded up their homes before heading for shelters or evacuation routes. Many cities along Florida's Atlantic Coast, ghost towns this morning. The Keys are one option for evacuees. But most are heading north, many into Georgia. It was bumper-to-bumper for a while on Interstate 95 and 75. Hotels rooms filled up fast here in the Peach State.

GRIFFIN: Right along the coast, in Melbourne, is our Bill Hemmer who is watching, being battered by the first bands of Hurricane Frances. Bill?

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Drew. Thanks.

Listen, the rain kicked up yet again. It's literally coming in at an angle straight at us. If I turn into it, you can feel that with a ferocity with the rain here. The other thing you notice, just about 15 minutes ago there seemed to be a break in the clouds out here over the surf.

I don't know if you can see it through the camera lens or not, but conditions changed rapidly just about five minutes ago. The skies darkened. The rain came. Again, it's another one of these bands on the leading edge of Frances.

Florida was essentially given the storm a stiff arm for about two days, but apparently based on what we're seeing already, that's about the to end. With me also in Melbourne, Florida, my good friend and the good doctor, Sanjay Gupta.

Good morning to you. It's a situation here that's changing by the minute just about.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is.

HEMMER: Last night you went to the hospital. You talked with emergency officials there who were getting ready. What did you find out?

GUPTA: They're embedding, essentially, in these hospitals, about 36 hours to bring in their food, supplies, water, everything, to try and get ready for the storm like everybody else. They're not planning on getting out into this thing.

A really critical point they said to me last night, they said though. The biggest point is really trying to get people out of here. That is the biggest form of prevention they can do for a couple of reasons. Allow the emergency medical personnel, they don't seem to work well after a while. We talked to Dr. John McPherson he is heading up the only trauma center in this area. This is what he to say about the overall ambulance services.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JOHN McPHERSON, ER PHYSICIAN: It's really based on wind speed. If wind speed gets to 50 to 55 miles an hour, the ambulance -- the ambulances, themselves, catch wind easily and can be tipped over. So we draw a line at a wind speed and no longer keep the rig or the ambulances on the road, we park them at that point because it's very unsafe for the EMS personnel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: As he said about 50 to 55 m.p.h., these winds, they would stop the ambulances. We are probably getting close to that now. The storm is changing around here as well. Again, nurses, doctors, everyone just staying in the hospital. Who knows what they're going to see. All sorts of different injuries, potentially. We'll wait and see.

HEMMER: Sanjay, thanks for that.

Just want to give our viewers a better idea about the wind here. Joe, I don't know if you can get this or not. But clearly, the winds coming through in Melbourne, Florida. Another band here perhaps it dies down again. We've been out here about two hours. Just about 6 o'clock, early this morning here. And have seen a period of calm followed by some fierce winds and rain. And then the calm kicks back in again.

I find this surf particularly notable. Just at few short moments ago we could see easily a mile offshore. Now that situation has darkened. The rains have come in. The winds followed it. And we'll see where we go from here. It's only 8 o'clock in the morning and this is by no means -- by no means the strongest force winds we'll get at hurricane strength. It's difficult for us to tell how strong they are. Easily 40, perhaps 50 miles an hour, just a shade of things to come later today.

Back to you, Drew and Betty, now at the CNN Center.

GRIFFIN: Bill, thanks. We see clearly. Thank your photographer as well.

HEMMER: Will do.

NGUYEN: Want to talk to Rob Marciano about these bands coming through. They'll see this all day long?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they will see alternating bands of precip. He guessed pretty right there. We have peak wind gusts of 47 knots, so about 54 miles an hour at Melbourne. We're getting tropical storm-force winds as far north as Melbourne, and the center of this thing still well over 100 miles offshore yet.

It will spiral these bands of precip in, and with those bands will come the gusty winds and the squally weather and certainly we're seeing that from the video.

This is a huge, huge storm. So it doesn't have to be a Cat 3, 4, or 5 storm to be a bad one. This one will affect a lot of people. As opposed to Charley, the center of this, where it comes onshore, is not as great a concern. Because it is just going to be bigger. We're not so concerned about pinpointing exactly where it's coming on shore.

There you go. There's Melbourne, this is Doppler Radar site out of Melbourne. There is that swath of rain coming through, down towards Vero Beach, Port Prince. We did have a wind gust more to the south, towards West Palm Beach at 75 miles an hour. Already feeling wind gusts, hurricane force along the beaches of south central Florida.

Fort Lauderdale, towards Miami, Hollywood. Look at this, almost all the way back towards the Gulf of Mexico, starting to see the rain bands filter in.

Here are the latest numbers out of the National Hurricane Center, for the 8 o'clock advisory, 110 miles east of West Palm Beach. It's movement is towards the northwest at 6 m.p.h. Winds sustained at 105, gusting higher than that. And that makes it a strong Category 2 storm. The forecast is to keep it at a Category 2 storm until it makes landfall later on.

Probably not until tonight, with northwesterly movement at 6 m.p.h. and it being over 100 miles away, still, it's not going to get here until probably after dinner time if not later than that.

Still, we have hurricane warnings that remain in effect from Florida City, pretty much the entire coastline, up north of Daytona Beach, towards Flagler Beach and now tropical storm warnings up for parts of the southwest coastline as well. And hurricane warnings remain in effect for the northwestern Caribbean.

Flood warnings or watches are out for much of the eastern half of the state there. They do sort of kind of need the rain. On year-to- year basis, most of these cities in Florida are still below normal. They had an extremely dry winter, but they don't need it all at once for sure.

What can you expect from a Category 2 storm. Storm surge, yeah. Expect that. Winds of 110 m.p.h. will do damage to some structures. Certainly knock down some trees, take down some power lines. So you are going to have power issues, and some sheds, maybe in the backyard will be taken down, roof tiles maybe flipped off as well.

Those are things to consider as this thing slowly marches off towards the west, we'll see that squally weather, and our correspondents will be getting peppered throughout the afternoon, that's for sure.

NGUYEN: No doubt.

GRIFFIN: All right, Rob, thanks for that. We'll be back with you shortly.

MARCIANO: OK.

NGUYEN: Speaking of those correspondents, we want to go now to CNN's Sean Callebs in West Palm Beach.

Sean, Rob was just talking a moment ago about 75 mile-per-hour winds. Are you experiencing anything like that?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, we've been talking now for several hours. Conditions are about as tame right now as they have been all morning. However, as soon as we say that, the gusts pick up, the rain comes in a little more. We're seeing those bands very clearly. Within the last 15 minutes, we actually saw some patches of blue sky behind us, but this is pretty much the way it is now. The white caps aren't as severe as they were on the inner coastal. Across the way, you see the old Biltmore Hotel, which has been converted into a condo. We have seen some sparks of electricity go up across the way, in Palm Beach, we can only presume that's power lines going down.

Of course, that's a barrier island and feeling more the effects of Frances than West Palm Beach. We want to introduce you to Dave Schultz, we had a chance to talk to you last night a bit.

DAVE SCHULTZ, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Hi, Sean. How are you?

CALLEBS: I'm fine. I'm here in all my Gor-Tex (ph) and you are standing out with your cup of coffee and a T-shirt. You chose to ride this storm out with your wife. Your mother-in-law lives next door. She's here, too.

SCHULTZ: That is correct.

CALLEBS: Any concerns? Or you must be somewhat relieved that the hurricane is moving north and the winds are not going to be as punishing as they thought?

SCHULTZ: I'm very relieved. We -- I'm comfortable now that we'll get through this without much damage. However, there was great concern a couple days ago. We feel a lot better now.

CALLEBS: Now, you've lived here 30 years. Would you say the people, throughout this area, really took the evacuation notice very seriously?

SCHULTZ: Absolutely. Everybody that I've seen has taken this seriously. We've seen people boarding up and preparing like I've never seen before the last 30 years. My wife has been here longer than I and she says the same thing.

CALLEBS: Do you think it is because of the time proximity to Charley and the damage it did? Because there is such a wide evacuation zone, people will give Frances a lot of room?

SCHULTZ: I think that is, Charley, of course, is part of it. And also the size of this hurricane, there's no place to go. You have to take it seriously. You saw what happened the last couple of days. People trying to get out of Florida. That was a terrible mess.

Hopefully they're all safe, but there really was no place to go short of maybe going south, even then, you couldn't make that decision right away. Better to be prepared, button down, and pray for the best.

CALLEBS: You told me one story yesterday, too, that because of the concern about the possibility of a storm surge, you actually went out and got vests for your family, in case it got that serious. Were you really thinking about that? SCHULTZ: Oh, without question. We don't know. We've lived here a long time, we never really experienced a serious hurricane coming ashore on West Palm Beach. I didn't know what to expect for storm surge. So I got life jackets off our boat, which is now sitting in the Florida Keys -- thank goodness. And brought them back.

And then, yesterday, which was kind of funny, my wife made me go out -- of course, I did so very quickly, but she made me go buy a jacket for her mother and sister who are living next door.

CALLEBS: We'll let you get in out of the wind and the rain. Dave, thank you very much.

SCHULTZ: Yes, sir.

CALLEBS: Great talking to you.

Just a bit about conditions now. Once again, just breezy, barely spitting rain. Certainly it is going to get worse in this area. And we're going to see how Frances wobbles and just how badly this area feels it. Betty, back to you.

NGUYEN: Slow-moving storm. We want wish the best to Dave Schultz and his family deciding to ride out the storm.

Sean Callebs, thank you.

GRIFFIN: If you have to buy life jackets to ride it out in your house, you might have thought about leaving. Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center is tracking the storm. Joining us from Miami.

The latest, coordinates, do they tell you anything about direction of this storm, Ed? It's slow-moving. I know that makes it hard to forecast where they might go.

ED RAPPAPORT, DEPUTY DIR., NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, we did expect a deceleration, a slowing of forward speed. We talked about that yesterday. That's occurred. The storm's moving only at about 5 or 6 m.p.h.

Now, towards the west to northwest, to northwest, in this general direction of the Florida Peninsula. But we don't want to focus too much just on the point here. This is a very broad hurricane. Hurricane-force winds extend out 100 miles to the north and 60 miles to the south.

So it is going to be a broad swath that comes ashore, hurricane force winds. We just had the first gusts of hurricane force on the Florida east coast, 87 m.p.h. at Jupiter, Florida.

GRIFFIN: Ed, I know you want to discuss the exact point where it may cross, because it is so big, but a lot of people want to know the timing of it so they know when this may pass. What is the projected time line for this storm to move on across Florida? RAPPAPORT: As we just said, the first hurricane force gusts have arrived now. The problem with this hurricane, is although it doesn't have an intense inner core like a Charley with particularly strong winds there. It is a large area of hurricane force winds and because of that, it's going to be a long period. You will have to traversed this entire length here of hurricane and tropical storm force winds. That is going to be more than 24 hours of rough weather for the Florida Peninsula.

GRIFFIN: All right. So once it does cross, it will be another 24 hours or so? Because it looks like it's not expected to -- wherever it does make landfall, probably midnight tonight or so.

RAPPAPORT: We don't want to focus on a particular point or time. Just to say that conditions are deteriorating and there are going to be hurricane force winds, or near hurricane force winds, particularly for the central part of Florida, on the east coast, for 24 hours, beginning later today.

GRIFFIN: OK, Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center. Thank you.

RAPPAPORT: Thank you.

GRIFFIN: We are just about three hours away from live update on Hurricane Frances. Stay with CNN as we go to Miami for a statement from the Hurricane Center. That next update, provided we don't get an earlier one, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

NGUYEN: For now, we go to St. Augustine where the streets are pretty much deserted as a ghost town there, according to CNN's Kathleen Koch, who is there.

And I see the wind has started to pick up a little bit from earlier?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just a little built. And, Betty, ghost town is the precise word for this place right now. Behind me, supposed to be a huge party celebrating the city's 439th birthday. Obviously founded by Spain back in 1565, the oldest city in the country.

Winds are picking up. You pointed it out, the flags whipping here. When you look at this the seas, we are surrounded here in the old downtown historic St. Augustine on three sides by water. There is a bay and two rivers. So, the real, real concern here is the extreme amounts of rain that Frances could bring here.

We're hearing perhaps as much as 20 inches. So that is a lot of concern. And these buildings, here, some of them date to 1600s. This one you are seeing here, 1800s. They are all boarded up. They are really taking a lot of precautions here. The city itself, of St. Augustine, manages some 40 of these buildings. So they have spent days, not only boarding up but taking down paintings, moving irreplaceable artifacts and furniture up to the second floor. When this town was last hit by a hurricane, 40 years ago, actually the anniversary is next week of Hurricane Dora from '64, they had two feet of water in the city. They lost power for six days. So they're bracing for something along those lines, although at least they're very lucky in this case, the eye of the storm is not coming right over this city like Dora did back in 1964 -- Betty.

NGUYEN: That is good news. And people are still moving out and about in St. Augustine this morning. Kathleen Koch, thank you for that.

There is other news to tell you about this morning. First it was chest pains, then shortness of breath, former President Clinton is headed for heart surgery. We have a live report right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Plus, you didn't have to tell some people twice. The largest evacuation order in Florida's history. We'll take you there live. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. Hurricane Frances started pounding the Bahama Islands Thursday and it is still at it. The latest target is the city of Freeport. Trees are falling on parked cars. In Nassau, Frances knocked down power and phone lines, flooded roads, blew off the roof of the airport and killed at least one person.

Now to Florida, many residents boarded up their homes before heading for shelter or evacuation routes.

And many cities along Florida Atlantic coast resembled ghost towns. The Keys are one option for evacuees, but most are heading north, some into Georgia. It was bumper-to-bumper on Interstates 95 and 75.

GRIFFIN: Orlando, this morning, the airport closed. So is Disney World. Our Orelon Sidney, meteorologist and hurricane hunter is there live now with an update.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Drew, that is right, I was really disappointed about Disney World, too. Since I was down here in Orlando, I thought, hey, maybe I'll get to go and take a visit. But no way. Not only is Disneyland closed and the airport, but most of the fast-food restaurants we've seen, in fact most of the restaurants in all that we have talked they are closed today.

Most of the convenience stores are closed. In fact this is one of the ones, the 7-Eleven, we have been here for the past of couple of hours. This is one of the only ones we have seen that is still open and they just told us they're going to stay open until noon, here. And they don't expect to run out of gas.

And that is why you see all of these people, a good area of people, moving in to get some gas. This is going to be one of the last places you'll be able to get it probably this weekend. The weather itself really isn't bad here at all this morning. In fact, it's a beautiful Saturday morning. Winds starting to freshen up a little bit. They have been blowing about 15, gusting to 20 miles an hour. No rain. Sunshine is out. Skies are partly cloudy.

I have a feeling, though, that as we go through the afternoon we'll start to get the outer rain bands and start to see some showery weather. Then things will really probably go downhill, here, later on tonight.

Once it starts raining steadily across this area, it will continue to rain probably through much of Sunday. Starting to taper off by Monday. The forecast is for it to partly cloudy once again here in Orlando.

So not a great weekend. Nice morning now. Going downhill probably this afternoon and Sunday. And then we're back to some partly cloudy skies on Monday. Drew?

GRIFFIN: Certainly the economic storm has already hit where you are. Our special hurricane coverage takes us live to Miami where flooding is a very serious concern there now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I wanted to report to you that my husband is doing very well. He's in great humor. Beating all of us at cards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The world watches as former President Bill Clinton prepares for heart surgery. We take you live to the hospital, right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Democrats and Republicans are coming together to wish Bill Clinton a speedy recovery. The former president is in a New York hospital waiting to undergo heart bypass surge. That will happen sometime early next week.

Our Maria Hinojosa is outside New York Presbyterian Hospital where Clinton is staying.

Maria, I think a lot of people were caught off guard, surprised that he even had this type of health problem.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, that's true. What the former president said last night is that he is 100 percent sure that he would have had a heart attack were it not for the angiogram that was performed on him just about 24 hours ago.

At that point, when he had that angiogram in Westchester, he was rushed by ambulance, here to Columbia Presbyterian, which is about 40 blocks north of his Harlem office here in Manhattan. Here he will be seen by some of the top doctors in New York City who deal with cardiovascular problems. The surgery has been postponed until sometime early next week. No details as to who will be performing that surgery, when it will be performed. I'm only being told we'll get an update once the surgery has been completed. The former president has been busy on the phone calling CNN giving his own details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think if people have a family history there, and high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, they ought to consider the angiogram, even if they don't have the symptoms I had. There is some chance of damage there, but it's like one in a thousand. I really think it probably saved my life, and I'm very grateful to my physicians, Dr. Bardock (ph), and all the great people in Westchester County who did that and these people at Columbia Presbyterian.

I feel just grateful. I guess I'm a little scared, but not much. I'm looking forward to it. I want to see what it's like to run five miles again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HINOJOSA: A little bit of weakness in his voice, you might be able to pick up. Just one week ago, he gave a rousing speech at Riverside Church. Though he has been generally healthy, the former president does have a list of health problems. Skin cancers on his back and face, a benign cist removed from his chest, allergies, a knee injury, and hearing problems, but he is saying and his wife is saying he should be in top form in just a couple of weeks after the surgery. So, we will see when that happens -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Maybe he'll get to run five miles then. OK, Maria Hinojosa in New York. Thank you.

GRIFFIN: The force of Hurricane Frances plays havoc with travel plans for thousands on this Labor Day weekend. A live update when our special coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Bahamas become the early victim of Hurricane Frances.

GRIFFIN: Welcome back to a special edition of CNN on this SATURDAY MORNING. Those who are leaving, already gone as Hurricane Frances creeps towards the East Coast of Florida. Squalls now soaking coastal areas knocking out power to 42,000 Floridians. We've got reporters up and down the coast.

Toll keeps climbing in that disastrous shoot-out in southern Russia between hostage-takers and troop there's. Authorities now say 322 people killed, 700 wounded by gunfire or bomb explosions, 540 of those are still hospitalized. There has ban post convention poll bounce for President Bush. He's now leading Senator John Kerry by double digits in a "Time" magazine poll taken during the New York convention, 52 percent for Bush to Kerry's 41 percent. Independent, Ralph Nader is getting 3 percent in that poll.

Sources say, another boy, accused pop singer Michael Jackson of touching him inappropriately and was paid to keep quit about it. The sources say it happened back in 1990. The information surfaces when authorities were investigating the entertainer in a 1993 case. Jackson denies the claim saying, he would never harm a child.

NGUYEN: As Drew, just mentioned, the death toll is climbing in southern Russia this morning, as bodies are still being carried from a school where terrorists held a two-day siege. Joining us from the seen, our own Ryan Chilcote.

Ryan, these numbers keep climbing today.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This is clearly the bloodiest end to a hostage crisis in Russian history. Three hundred and 22 is where the death toll stands now, but no one thinks it will stay there. Search and rescue teams are still going through the rubble of the school gymnasium, that is where the hostages were being kept. Another 700 people wounded, the vast majority of them, some 540, still in local hospitals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE, (voice-over): Explosions inside the school's gym marked the unexpected beginning of the end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was the first explosion and then nothing was -- we could see nothing. And then we began to feel things burns, things falling on us.

CHILCOTE: That was when many of the hostages decided to make a run for it. The attackers shooting at them as they fled. Russian forces returned fire. The battle was on. It lasted for eight hours. The first hostages emerged on their own feet, even after going more than 50 hours with no water or food. Then came the stretchers. And the horror.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got some people to climb up and sit on the windowsills for five to six hours and told them if you make any noise, we will kill 15 people each hour.

CHILCOTE: Russian soldiers fought their way on to the school grounds -- and then from room to room inside the school. The fighting is now over, but the human cost of the siege's tragic end had never go away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE: Sadly, nearly a day after the fighting, many of the relatives of the loved ones still don't know the fate of their loved ones. They had been going through the town's five hospitals, two morgues, and are now going to a morgue in a nearby town to find their loved ones. There is no centralized place to get specific information. Of course, the other problem is that many of the people were burned beyond recognition in the fire that broke out in that school's gymnasium after the fighting started. So the only way to identify those bodies is probably going to be DNA analysis. That usually takes a bit of time in Russia.

NGUYEN: Another difficult and heart-wrenching day there.

Ryan Chilcote, thank you.

GRIFFIN: We're going to move on to our other big story this morning which, of course, is Hurricane Frances. Rob Marciano has the latest from the weather center, Rob.

MARCIANO: Hey, Drew. Hey, Betty again.

We'll start you off with the radar. It's becoming more and more impressive now that it's -- drifting closer towards the shoreline. You see the circulation and the center of the eye. And Just look how far north the extent of the solid rain band goes, almost up to Jacksonville. I know, it will certainly get clipped by it at some point.

We'll zoom in just south and east of Orlando. Melbourne, where our crew has been, and then getting peppered the last couple of hours with a series of rain bands, the last of which just brought bright colors into the area. And in TV language, TV weather language, bright colors, yellows, oranges, reds, mean heavy rains and gusting winds, and that's what they're seeing this morning. Look at all of it still yet to come. This is solid, solid rain, frequent lightning and obviously wind as well. We've had -- we'll slide the map down. We have had winds gust to 87 miles an hour already, just to the north of west Palm Beach. So, this is a serious storm, no doubt about it. And the rains extend down to Miami.

Back at the satellite, we'll show you guys, it's beginning to get a little bit better organized, it looks like, and it is making that track slowly. One other thing, the heavy rain bands that are from Melbourne South to Miami, they're not even orange here on the satellite imagery. This is where the heaviest rain and strongest winds are, and it's not even close to making its way onshore yet. So, it's going to be a long day for coastal residents of south central and eastern Florida.

NGUYEN: So much rain headed that way.

MARCIANO: Yes, it's going to be a ton. We'll have -- next half hour we'll show you radar estimates of what has fallen and what we expect to fall throughout the day.

NGUYEN: OK. Rob Marciano, thank you.

GRIFFIN: Along with all of our reporters up and down the coast, we have the ability to go to our affiliates David Malkoff from WFOR, filed this report from Juno Beach just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MALKOFF, WFOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now the latest is, that the storm is picking up, and picking up. Every time that we get a lull, then the next squall that comes through is much more difficult to get through than this squall. So right now we are here on Juno Beach, where a lot of people have evacuated from. You can see the wends are really picking the sand up. The sand is really flowing -- like water.

The amazing thing about this storm that I can tell you about is that we're getting little to no rain. Not much rain through this storm. But look at this. If I just lean back and lean into this storm, it's just going to support me. Pretty much support my weight, depending on how fast these winds are coming in.

We talked to the meteorologist back in our station in Miami, WFOR, that meteorologist was telling us we are experiencing in this area 80 mile-an-hour gusts. That's not sustained. When it goes whoosh, that's 80 miles an hour at the top level. Another problem with these storms is the storm surge. Now, if you live inland and you've never experienced a hurricane before, what happens, is you know how there's low tide and high tide?

Well, it becomes higher tide. So high that the tide will raise about 10 feet. Look at this. Look at this. Pieces of foam. Watch when this next wave comes through. It -- it's turning the ocean into suds. And these suds are blowing around as it they were suds from your bathtub. We're getting a little of the water around us now. The water is picking up here. Hold on. Our photographer doesn't want to go that far into the water, and I don't blame him. Not with a camera on his shoulder.

Maury (ph), let's kind of walk up here. That will be safer for the both of us. Wow. Wow. This -- and folks, this is not even the full brunt of the storm. The full brunt of the storm is coming. But it's not even here yet, and even when it does make landfall, it's projected to make landfall 20 minutes north of here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: OK. A bit of dramatics from David Malkoff in Juno Beach. He is just north of West Palm Beach, where the storm is obviously coming on and coming on strong.

NGUYEN: Yes, and you can see it's called the largest evacuation in Florida's history, when 2 million-plus people move at once, you can imagine the problems that causes. We have an update, when we come back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Hurricane Frances takes its own sweet time as it crawls ever closer to Florida. The storm is about 100 miles off the coast of Florida. Hurricane force winds extend out 60 to 100 miles. The eye of the storm could make landfall late tonight or early tomorrow. Frances lashed the Bahamas with winds up to 115 miles an hour.

CNN's Karl Penhaul reports power is out across Grand Bahama Island, and floodwaters five to six feet deep in Freeport.

Miami and Jacksonville airports are operating reduced schedules at this hour. But Elsewhere, The hurricane is having a major impact opinion. Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm and Melbourne airports are all closed.

GRIFFIN: Usually on Saturday Mornings we go over the legal happenings with our legal team. One of them is, Lida Rodriguez- Taseff, who's also a Miami resident. So, we're calling here in to do some weather duty this morning. She's on the phone in -- are you in Miami, Lida?

LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, LEGAL ANALYST: I live in Miami Beach, but now I have been evacuated to the western part of Miami, because Miami Beach was mandatorily evacuated. So I had to leave my home.

GRIFFIN: What is the situation where -- are you actually in a shelter, are you with friends, are you in the hotel?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: No. I'm with family, and the situation is, we've got shutters up so everything is dark. You can't see out, which is probably the hardest part of being in a hurricane during the day. It's that you have to be shuttered up, and you can't really see out.

GRIFFIN: It looks like Miami may be spared, at least will be south of where the brunt of this storm comes across if it continues on its current path. Tell me, though, in the decision to leave, the mandatory evacuation, what the feels was like. You just look at the storm, category 4 and say we're out of here.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, they tell you to evacuate. People in South Florida, especially Miami-Dade live through Andrew. So, when they're told to leave, they just leave. They listen to the evacuation orders. And even though, this part, it looks like we were spared and we are very grateful for it, I think people are very, very scared of hurricanes. They know what they can do. They've seen the destruction. And so people are just very, very grateful that it looks like we were spared.

GRIFFIN: And you guys are OK, you have enough supplies to last for what a couple, three days maybe?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Oh, we have enough supplies to last 10 days. The problem is we have so much junk food, that we may end up like President Clinton pretty soon. So, you know, you've got to have to -- there's only so many rounds of scrabble you can play, and there's only so much television you can watch. You get exhausted just from being around people.

GRIFFIN: Well, maybe turn off CNN for about a half hour and go to one of those health networks, and do a little exercise, drink some water. We wish you and your family, and everybody in South Florida, very good luck over the next hours and days ahead. Thanks you, and we'll see you next week.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thanks you very much, Drew. See you next week.

NGUYEN: We do want to get a look at the situation in Miami. We're going to try to give you a live picture of our affiliate, WFOR's, it appears there's a reporter on the scene. Let's take a listen.

KIM BOKAMPER, WFOR CORRESPONDENT: ... we are probably at the southern most point, as far as the rest of our reporters are concerned. So we are getting, I guess, probably, the most calm weather of anybody that we've got stationed along the coast. So, as I said it is a little bit -- it's breezy. Not overly -- not overly windy out here. And again, remarkably dry. It's been that way throughout the night. So that is going to do it from Sunny Isle Beach.

I'm Kim Bokamper, CBS4 News.

DANIELLE KNOX, WFOR ANCHOR: All right, Kimbo, thanks so much. And I think what happens is, Kimbo says that there were some folks who were venturing outside. What happens is you just get stir crazy.

SUSAN BARNETT, WFOR ANCHOR: Yes. Cabin fever for sure.

KNOX: You feel nothing's happening. Want to get out, see what's going on. The best thing to do, obviously, unless you have to be outside, is to not go outside. Because the weather is slowly but surly beginning to deteriorate.

BARNETT: Yes, it's starting to happen, and we're seeing real proof's it. We're going to take you now to Daytona Beach, though where it hasn't been happening as much yet. They haven't been seeing the weather we have. It is windy there.

Teri Okita is there with a report from Daytona Beach, Teri.

TERI OKITA, WFOR CORRESPONDENT: And Susan and Danielle, this may be the calm before the storm, because unlike down there waves down here are relatively calm, they aren't very big. And the sun is even peeking out at this point. We have not seen any rain up to this point throughout the evening or even into this morning. The winds have picked up. They are getting stronger and stronger as the hours go by, but it is relatively, especially calm compared to down there.

People, as you said, they're staying away from the beaches up here. It's pretty much deserted. Every once in a while we'll see some people, as you said, going stir crazy, maybe checking out what's happening along the beach. But we haven't seen many people out here. I did get a chance to talk to some of them and they said...

GRIFFIN: Some of our live coverage from a local affiliate WFOR. That's reporting going on from Miami this morning as they watch the approach of the... NGUYEN: A lot of wind, but no rain in the area just yet, but Hurricane Frances is moving slowly. She washes away travel plans for thousands this holiday weekend.

GRIFFIN: But not all is lost. The latest on who's flying, who's not, how to get your money back, et cetera, et cetera. Next on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Up and down Florida's east coast, airports are closed or operating at reduced levels. Now, that's a huge blow to tourism on this Labor Day Weekend, typically one of the state's busiest.

Now for closer look, we want to turn to travel industry, analyst, Thom Nulty for the latest on all this. Good morning to you.

THOM NULTY, TRAVEL ANALYST: Great to be here.

NGUYEN: A lot of folks stuck at home, because they can't get to Florida.

What do travelers do with that ticket in their hand?

NULTY: Well, they're going to be able to exchange it or refund it quite easily. The airlines relaxed their penalties substantially as a result of the storm. They want to do the right thing for travelers. Things should start getting back to normal. They're saying in Miami, late this afternoon -- I'm not sure I believe that, but Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, tomorrow sometime, and Orlando, on Monday. I was actually looking at the Flight Explorer Software a few moments ago and actually saw there's almost no flight activity going on over the state of Florida. A little over the west coast and Tampa area.

NGUYEN: So even some of these airports saying, yes, we are open, flights are really not getting in?

NULTY: No, their terminals may be open, but there aren't any airplanes. And there is no one in their right mind would flying right around in southern Florida right now. So, you can even seen that the airplanes coming down from New York, heading into the Caribbean are actually avoiding flying over Florida as well.

NGUYEN: And what about headed off to a cruise that takes off from Florida, what do they do?

NULTY: Well, they had -- some of them fell into some good luck, other people had bad luck. The people had good luck, were the people who already out on a cruise last week....

NGUYEN: They get an extra day or two, don't they.

NULTY: ... get a couple extra days. They were, supposed to come back on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and they're just not going to. They're out at sea, and they're behind the storm, so they are out there where it's safe. And they're having a great time. Some people that were scheduled to go out this weekend, now they are going to have to depart on Monday in most cases. The cruise lines are still being good to them, giving them the opportunity to rebook if they wanted to, giving them an opportunity for refunds. They're given onboard credits if they continue to stay on the cruise, ever plan to be on. They may put some of them up in hotels, waiting for the cruises. So, they're doing a good job taking care of people.

NGUYEN: So the refunds or the rebookings, all of that is available.

Where can people get the latest information on that?

NULTY: Well, that's the hard part. Trying to call an airline is very, very difficult right now. The best thing, if you booked through a travel at, most of them have 24-hour services. And you can go through that. Another good place to go online, to the supplier's Web site. They're putting all of the up to date information on there, so you can actually finds out what's going on. Some of the sites, Orbitz, are even proactively sending you information about your travel plans before you have to ask.

NGUYEN: So, the quickest way is to go online.

NULTY: Go online.

NGUYEN: Thom Nulty, thank you so much.

NULTY: My pleasure.

NGUYEN: Drew.

GRIFFIN: I want to tell you that in just a few minutes from now, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, is going to have a press briefing's, we're going to bring you that live and get the latest from Florida. Also, remember this, this was just three weeks and one day ago, Hurricane Charley roaring through Florida.

An update on the hurricane season thus far when this special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Hurricane Frances on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Rob Marciano with us, watching this storm since 5:00 a.m., Rob, and it's barely moved.

NGUYEN: I know. We're going to be watching it for a while, aren't we?

MARCIANO: I think so. And I think our correspondents on the coast are going to be, in about five, six hours, tired of seeing that rain and the wind, because it's just going to keep coming. And as it does so, it's going to get stronger and stronger. Here's the storm, it's a category 2 storm. But it's our ninth storm of the season, at least a tropical storm. Ninth of the season. Typically for an entire season, you get between nine or 10. So, we haven't even hit the midway part of hurricane season, it's been quite a ride already.

Here's a bit of a recap before we talk more an Frances. Here's a bit of recap of what's happened so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God! Oh, my God.

MARCIANO, (voice-over): It was a Friday the 13th that lived up to the date's reputation for bad luck. Hurricane Charley comes ashore up to 145 miles per hour. Charley creeps up through Florida, finally losing strength as it passes through North and South Carolina. In its way, 25 dead, 31,000 homes damaged or destroyed. So far, damage estimates total over $7 billion. Charlotte County Florida, the hardest hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life.

MARCIANO: It's been three weeks since Charley roared ashore and Charlotte County authorities say they may need up to 3,000 more trailers to house the displaced and the homeless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've always told them, to think about this as the world's longest campout circa 1900, that gets old too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. And what's your P.O. box.

MARCIANO: Even the Punta Gorda, Florida main post office is destroyed. It's open, but it could take three months to rebuild. Official say complete recovery for this Florida county could take a year or more.

Two weeks after Charley, came Tropical Storm Gaston. It's initial target, the South Carolina's coast. The storms legacy, severe flooding. Up to 13 inches of rain fall in some places. Gaston cut a wide swatch, killing at least seven people in Virginia, leaving 172,000 homes and business without electricity in South Carolina alone. The latest estimates, well over 6 million dollars in damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All my furniture is totally, gone, TV gone. Computer gone.

MARCIANO: The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration predicted 12 to 15 tropical storms this year, six to eight of them growing to hurricane strength. With three months left until the November 30th end of the season, the tropical storm count is nine, four of them developed into hurricanes.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MARCIANO: And Frances, as you know, is a doozy. This is Ivan. Don't want to talk too much about it, but this is Ivan and this is forecast to become a pretty strong hurricane here in the next couple of days, guys. So we'll watch that as well.

The immediate concern of course is Frances. We've got all day to watch this thing, it's going to take a while before it hits the Florida shoreline. As it does so, it will be battering the folks along the south central coast, all day and all night long tonight.

NGUYEN: Is it still the case that it could perhaps get some strength as it hits the coastline?

MARCIANO: Yes, I mean, that's what -- don't want to scare people, but that's what Andrew did before it hit the coastline, it went through a high replacement cycle and then hit some warm water and exploded. That's not the forecast, so we're being optimistic and holding this thing to a two or minimal category 3 storm. But it's a big one. I've been mentioning that all morning long, it's going to effect a lot of people.

NGUYEN: About the size of Texas it looks like. Rob Marciano thank you.

GRIFFIN: And we start the next hour of CNN Saturday morning right now.

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 4, 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: The next hour, this special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING begins right now.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: With powerful winds up to 100 miles per hour, 105 miles, actually, the hurricane is bracing, or folks in Florida are bracing for Hurricane Frances. It's already been through the Bahamas and it is crawling slowly towards the Florida coastline.

GRIFFIN: It is the largest evacuation in Florida's history, 2.5 million residents ordered out of the path of Hurricane Frances.

Let's get started with what is happening. Resident gearing up for Frances they covered roofs, boarded windows, people fled coastal areas in record numbers. The eye of the storm could strike the Florida coast late tonight or, now, into early tomorrow morning.

Former President Clinton admits he's a little scared, but optimistic. He is going to face heart bypass surgery next week. He spoke by phone, last night, to Larry King from his New York hospital room.

Clinton says he checked into the hospital after experiencing tightness in his chest and shortness of breath.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited victims of the terrorist siege in a school in southern Russia. More than 500 people are hospitalized. The death toll is at least 322. Many of the dead are children. The three-day drama ended in chaos when Russian commandos stormed the building after terrorists inside the building set off explosives.

A convention bounce and a big one for President Bush. He leads Senator John Kerry by double digits in a "Time" magazine poll taken during the convention. At 52 percent for Bush; Senator Kerry, 41 percent, Independent Ralph Nader getting 3 percent.

NGUYEN: Hurricane Frances started pounding the Bahama Islands Thursday and still at it today. The latest target, the city of Shreveport, where trees are falling on parked cars. In Nassau, Frances knocked down power and phone lines, flooded roads, blew off a roof at the airport, and killed at least one person.

Now to Florida, many resident boarded up their homes before heading for shelters or evacuation routes. Many cities along Florida's Atlantic Coast, ghost towns this morning. The Keys are one option for evacuees. But most are heading north, many into Georgia. It was bumper-to-bumper for a while on Interstate 95 and 75. Hotels rooms filled up fast here in the Peach State.

GRIFFIN: Right along the coast, in Melbourne, is our Bill Hemmer who is watching, being battered by the first bands of Hurricane Frances. Bill?

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Drew. Thanks.

Listen, the rain kicked up yet again. It's literally coming in at an angle straight at us. If I turn into it, you can feel that with a ferocity with the rain here. The other thing you notice, just about 15 minutes ago there seemed to be a break in the clouds out here over the surf.

I don't know if you can see it through the camera lens or not, but conditions changed rapidly just about five minutes ago. The skies darkened. The rain came. Again, it's another one of these bands on the leading edge of Frances.

Florida was essentially given the storm a stiff arm for about two days, but apparently based on what we're seeing already, that's about the to end. With me also in Melbourne, Florida, my good friend and the good doctor, Sanjay Gupta.

Good morning to you. It's a situation here that's changing by the minute just about.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is.

HEMMER: Last night you went to the hospital. You talked with emergency officials there who were getting ready. What did you find out?

GUPTA: They're embedding, essentially, in these hospitals, about 36 hours to bring in their food, supplies, water, everything, to try and get ready for the storm like everybody else. They're not planning on getting out into this thing.

A really critical point they said to me last night, they said though. The biggest point is really trying to get people out of here. That is the biggest form of prevention they can do for a couple of reasons. Allow the emergency medical personnel, they don't seem to work well after a while. We talked to Dr. John McPherson he is heading up the only trauma center in this area. This is what he to say about the overall ambulance services.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JOHN McPHERSON, ER PHYSICIAN: It's really based on wind speed. If wind speed gets to 50 to 55 miles an hour, the ambulance -- the ambulances, themselves, catch wind easily and can be tipped over. So we draw a line at a wind speed and no longer keep the rig or the ambulances on the road, we park them at that point because it's very unsafe for the EMS personnel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: As he said about 50 to 55 m.p.h., these winds, they would stop the ambulances. We are probably getting close to that now. The storm is changing around here as well. Again, nurses, doctors, everyone just staying in the hospital. Who knows what they're going to see. All sorts of different injuries, potentially. We'll wait and see.

HEMMER: Sanjay, thanks for that.

Just want to give our viewers a better idea about the wind here. Joe, I don't know if you can get this or not. But clearly, the winds coming through in Melbourne, Florida. Another band here perhaps it dies down again. We've been out here about two hours. Just about 6 o'clock, early this morning here. And have seen a period of calm followed by some fierce winds and rain. And then the calm kicks back in again.

I find this surf particularly notable. Just at few short moments ago we could see easily a mile offshore. Now that situation has darkened. The rains have come in. The winds followed it. And we'll see where we go from here. It's only 8 o'clock in the morning and this is by no means -- by no means the strongest force winds we'll get at hurricane strength. It's difficult for us to tell how strong they are. Easily 40, perhaps 50 miles an hour, just a shade of things to come later today.

Back to you, Drew and Betty, now at the CNN Center.

GRIFFIN: Bill, thanks. We see clearly. Thank your photographer as well.

HEMMER: Will do.

NGUYEN: Want to talk to Rob Marciano about these bands coming through. They'll see this all day long?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they will see alternating bands of precip. He guessed pretty right there. We have peak wind gusts of 47 knots, so about 54 miles an hour at Melbourne. We're getting tropical storm-force winds as far north as Melbourne, and the center of this thing still well over 100 miles offshore yet.

It will spiral these bands of precip in, and with those bands will come the gusty winds and the squally weather and certainly we're seeing that from the video.

This is a huge, huge storm. So it doesn't have to be a Cat 3, 4, or 5 storm to be a bad one. This one will affect a lot of people. As opposed to Charley, the center of this, where it comes onshore, is not as great a concern. Because it is just going to be bigger. We're not so concerned about pinpointing exactly where it's coming on shore.

There you go. There's Melbourne, this is Doppler Radar site out of Melbourne. There is that swath of rain coming through, down towards Vero Beach, Port Prince. We did have a wind gust more to the south, towards West Palm Beach at 75 miles an hour. Already feeling wind gusts, hurricane force along the beaches of south central Florida.

Fort Lauderdale, towards Miami, Hollywood. Look at this, almost all the way back towards the Gulf of Mexico, starting to see the rain bands filter in.

Here are the latest numbers out of the National Hurricane Center, for the 8 o'clock advisory, 110 miles east of West Palm Beach. It's movement is towards the northwest at 6 m.p.h. Winds sustained at 105, gusting higher than that. And that makes it a strong Category 2 storm. The forecast is to keep it at a Category 2 storm until it makes landfall later on.

Probably not until tonight, with northwesterly movement at 6 m.p.h. and it being over 100 miles away, still, it's not going to get here until probably after dinner time if not later than that.

Still, we have hurricane warnings that remain in effect from Florida City, pretty much the entire coastline, up north of Daytona Beach, towards Flagler Beach and now tropical storm warnings up for parts of the southwest coastline as well. And hurricane warnings remain in effect for the northwestern Caribbean.

Flood warnings or watches are out for much of the eastern half of the state there. They do sort of kind of need the rain. On year-to- year basis, most of these cities in Florida are still below normal. They had an extremely dry winter, but they don't need it all at once for sure.

What can you expect from a Category 2 storm. Storm surge, yeah. Expect that. Winds of 110 m.p.h. will do damage to some structures. Certainly knock down some trees, take down some power lines. So you are going to have power issues, and some sheds, maybe in the backyard will be taken down, roof tiles maybe flipped off as well.

Those are things to consider as this thing slowly marches off towards the west, we'll see that squally weather, and our correspondents will be getting peppered throughout the afternoon, that's for sure.

NGUYEN: No doubt.

GRIFFIN: All right, Rob, thanks for that. We'll be back with you shortly.

MARCIANO: OK.

NGUYEN: Speaking of those correspondents, we want to go now to CNN's Sean Callebs in West Palm Beach.

Sean, Rob was just talking a moment ago about 75 mile-per-hour winds. Are you experiencing anything like that?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, we've been talking now for several hours. Conditions are about as tame right now as they have been all morning. However, as soon as we say that, the gusts pick up, the rain comes in a little more. We're seeing those bands very clearly. Within the last 15 minutes, we actually saw some patches of blue sky behind us, but this is pretty much the way it is now. The white caps aren't as severe as they were on the inner coastal. Across the way, you see the old Biltmore Hotel, which has been converted into a condo. We have seen some sparks of electricity go up across the way, in Palm Beach, we can only presume that's power lines going down.

Of course, that's a barrier island and feeling more the effects of Frances than West Palm Beach. We want to introduce you to Dave Schultz, we had a chance to talk to you last night a bit.

DAVE SCHULTZ, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Hi, Sean. How are you?

CALLEBS: I'm fine. I'm here in all my Gor-Tex (ph) and you are standing out with your cup of coffee and a T-shirt. You chose to ride this storm out with your wife. Your mother-in-law lives next door. She's here, too.

SCHULTZ: That is correct.

CALLEBS: Any concerns? Or you must be somewhat relieved that the hurricane is moving north and the winds are not going to be as punishing as they thought?

SCHULTZ: I'm very relieved. We -- I'm comfortable now that we'll get through this without much damage. However, there was great concern a couple days ago. We feel a lot better now.

CALLEBS: Now, you've lived here 30 years. Would you say the people, throughout this area, really took the evacuation notice very seriously?

SCHULTZ: Absolutely. Everybody that I've seen has taken this seriously. We've seen people boarding up and preparing like I've never seen before the last 30 years. My wife has been here longer than I and she says the same thing.

CALLEBS: Do you think it is because of the time proximity to Charley and the damage it did? Because there is such a wide evacuation zone, people will give Frances a lot of room?

SCHULTZ: I think that is, Charley, of course, is part of it. And also the size of this hurricane, there's no place to go. You have to take it seriously. You saw what happened the last couple of days. People trying to get out of Florida. That was a terrible mess.

Hopefully they're all safe, but there really was no place to go short of maybe going south, even then, you couldn't make that decision right away. Better to be prepared, button down, and pray for the best.

CALLEBS: You told me one story yesterday, too, that because of the concern about the possibility of a storm surge, you actually went out and got vests for your family, in case it got that serious. Were you really thinking about that? SCHULTZ: Oh, without question. We don't know. We've lived here a long time, we never really experienced a serious hurricane coming ashore on West Palm Beach. I didn't know what to expect for storm surge. So I got life jackets off our boat, which is now sitting in the Florida Keys -- thank goodness. And brought them back.

And then, yesterday, which was kind of funny, my wife made me go out -- of course, I did so very quickly, but she made me go buy a jacket for her mother and sister who are living next door.

CALLEBS: We'll let you get in out of the wind and the rain. Dave, thank you very much.

SCHULTZ: Yes, sir.

CALLEBS: Great talking to you.

Just a bit about conditions now. Once again, just breezy, barely spitting rain. Certainly it is going to get worse in this area. And we're going to see how Frances wobbles and just how badly this area feels it. Betty, back to you.

NGUYEN: Slow-moving storm. We want wish the best to Dave Schultz and his family deciding to ride out the storm.

Sean Callebs, thank you.

GRIFFIN: If you have to buy life jackets to ride it out in your house, you might have thought about leaving. Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center is tracking the storm. Joining us from Miami.

The latest, coordinates, do they tell you anything about direction of this storm, Ed? It's slow-moving. I know that makes it hard to forecast where they might go.

ED RAPPAPORT, DEPUTY DIR., NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, we did expect a deceleration, a slowing of forward speed. We talked about that yesterday. That's occurred. The storm's moving only at about 5 or 6 m.p.h.

Now, towards the west to northwest, to northwest, in this general direction of the Florida Peninsula. But we don't want to focus too much just on the point here. This is a very broad hurricane. Hurricane-force winds extend out 100 miles to the north and 60 miles to the south.

So it is going to be a broad swath that comes ashore, hurricane force winds. We just had the first gusts of hurricane force on the Florida east coast, 87 m.p.h. at Jupiter, Florida.

GRIFFIN: Ed, I know you want to discuss the exact point where it may cross, because it is so big, but a lot of people want to know the timing of it so they know when this may pass. What is the projected time line for this storm to move on across Florida? RAPPAPORT: As we just said, the first hurricane force gusts have arrived now. The problem with this hurricane, is although it doesn't have an intense inner core like a Charley with particularly strong winds there. It is a large area of hurricane force winds and because of that, it's going to be a long period. You will have to traversed this entire length here of hurricane and tropical storm force winds. That is going to be more than 24 hours of rough weather for the Florida Peninsula.

GRIFFIN: All right. So once it does cross, it will be another 24 hours or so? Because it looks like it's not expected to -- wherever it does make landfall, probably midnight tonight or so.

RAPPAPORT: We don't want to focus on a particular point or time. Just to say that conditions are deteriorating and there are going to be hurricane force winds, or near hurricane force winds, particularly for the central part of Florida, on the east coast, for 24 hours, beginning later today.

GRIFFIN: OK, Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center. Thank you.

RAPPAPORT: Thank you.

GRIFFIN: We are just about three hours away from live update on Hurricane Frances. Stay with CNN as we go to Miami for a statement from the Hurricane Center. That next update, provided we don't get an earlier one, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

NGUYEN: For now, we go to St. Augustine where the streets are pretty much deserted as a ghost town there, according to CNN's Kathleen Koch, who is there.

And I see the wind has started to pick up a little bit from earlier?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just a little built. And, Betty, ghost town is the precise word for this place right now. Behind me, supposed to be a huge party celebrating the city's 439th birthday. Obviously founded by Spain back in 1565, the oldest city in the country.

Winds are picking up. You pointed it out, the flags whipping here. When you look at this the seas, we are surrounded here in the old downtown historic St. Augustine on three sides by water. There is a bay and two rivers. So, the real, real concern here is the extreme amounts of rain that Frances could bring here.

We're hearing perhaps as much as 20 inches. So that is a lot of concern. And these buildings, here, some of them date to 1600s. This one you are seeing here, 1800s. They are all boarded up. They are really taking a lot of precautions here. The city itself, of St. Augustine, manages some 40 of these buildings. So they have spent days, not only boarding up but taking down paintings, moving irreplaceable artifacts and furniture up to the second floor. When this town was last hit by a hurricane, 40 years ago, actually the anniversary is next week of Hurricane Dora from '64, they had two feet of water in the city. They lost power for six days. So they're bracing for something along those lines, although at least they're very lucky in this case, the eye of the storm is not coming right over this city like Dora did back in 1964 -- Betty.

NGUYEN: That is good news. And people are still moving out and about in St. Augustine this morning. Kathleen Koch, thank you for that.

There is other news to tell you about this morning. First it was chest pains, then shortness of breath, former President Clinton is headed for heart surgery. We have a live report right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Plus, you didn't have to tell some people twice. The largest evacuation order in Florida's history. We'll take you there live. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. Hurricane Frances started pounding the Bahama Islands Thursday and it is still at it. The latest target is the city of Freeport. Trees are falling on parked cars. In Nassau, Frances knocked down power and phone lines, flooded roads, blew off the roof of the airport and killed at least one person.

Now to Florida, many residents boarded up their homes before heading for shelter or evacuation routes.

And many cities along Florida Atlantic coast resembled ghost towns. The Keys are one option for evacuees, but most are heading north, some into Georgia. It was bumper-to-bumper on Interstates 95 and 75.

GRIFFIN: Orlando, this morning, the airport closed. So is Disney World. Our Orelon Sidney, meteorologist and hurricane hunter is there live now with an update.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Drew, that is right, I was really disappointed about Disney World, too. Since I was down here in Orlando, I thought, hey, maybe I'll get to go and take a visit. But no way. Not only is Disneyland closed and the airport, but most of the fast-food restaurants we've seen, in fact most of the restaurants in all that we have talked they are closed today.

Most of the convenience stores are closed. In fact this is one of the ones, the 7-Eleven, we have been here for the past of couple of hours. This is one of the only ones we have seen that is still open and they just told us they're going to stay open until noon, here. And they don't expect to run out of gas.

And that is why you see all of these people, a good area of people, moving in to get some gas. This is going to be one of the last places you'll be able to get it probably this weekend. The weather itself really isn't bad here at all this morning. In fact, it's a beautiful Saturday morning. Winds starting to freshen up a little bit. They have been blowing about 15, gusting to 20 miles an hour. No rain. Sunshine is out. Skies are partly cloudy.

I have a feeling, though, that as we go through the afternoon we'll start to get the outer rain bands and start to see some showery weather. Then things will really probably go downhill, here, later on tonight.

Once it starts raining steadily across this area, it will continue to rain probably through much of Sunday. Starting to taper off by Monday. The forecast is for it to partly cloudy once again here in Orlando.

So not a great weekend. Nice morning now. Going downhill probably this afternoon and Sunday. And then we're back to some partly cloudy skies on Monday. Drew?

GRIFFIN: Certainly the economic storm has already hit where you are. Our special hurricane coverage takes us live to Miami where flooding is a very serious concern there now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I wanted to report to you that my husband is doing very well. He's in great humor. Beating all of us at cards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The world watches as former President Bill Clinton prepares for heart surgery. We take you live to the hospital, right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Democrats and Republicans are coming together to wish Bill Clinton a speedy recovery. The former president is in a New York hospital waiting to undergo heart bypass surge. That will happen sometime early next week.

Our Maria Hinojosa is outside New York Presbyterian Hospital where Clinton is staying.

Maria, I think a lot of people were caught off guard, surprised that he even had this type of health problem.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, that's true. What the former president said last night is that he is 100 percent sure that he would have had a heart attack were it not for the angiogram that was performed on him just about 24 hours ago.

At that point, when he had that angiogram in Westchester, he was rushed by ambulance, here to Columbia Presbyterian, which is about 40 blocks north of his Harlem office here in Manhattan. Here he will be seen by some of the top doctors in New York City who deal with cardiovascular problems. The surgery has been postponed until sometime early next week. No details as to who will be performing that surgery, when it will be performed. I'm only being told we'll get an update once the surgery has been completed. The former president has been busy on the phone calling CNN giving his own details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think if people have a family history there, and high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, they ought to consider the angiogram, even if they don't have the symptoms I had. There is some chance of damage there, but it's like one in a thousand. I really think it probably saved my life, and I'm very grateful to my physicians, Dr. Bardock (ph), and all the great people in Westchester County who did that and these people at Columbia Presbyterian.

I feel just grateful. I guess I'm a little scared, but not much. I'm looking forward to it. I want to see what it's like to run five miles again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HINOJOSA: A little bit of weakness in his voice, you might be able to pick up. Just one week ago, he gave a rousing speech at Riverside Church. Though he has been generally healthy, the former president does have a list of health problems. Skin cancers on his back and face, a benign cist removed from his chest, allergies, a knee injury, and hearing problems, but he is saying and his wife is saying he should be in top form in just a couple of weeks after the surgery. So, we will see when that happens -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Maybe he'll get to run five miles then. OK, Maria Hinojosa in New York. Thank you.

GRIFFIN: The force of Hurricane Frances plays havoc with travel plans for thousands on this Labor Day weekend. A live update when our special coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Bahamas become the early victim of Hurricane Frances.

GRIFFIN: Welcome back to a special edition of CNN on this SATURDAY MORNING. Those who are leaving, already gone as Hurricane Frances creeps towards the East Coast of Florida. Squalls now soaking coastal areas knocking out power to 42,000 Floridians. We've got reporters up and down the coast.

Toll keeps climbing in that disastrous shoot-out in southern Russia between hostage-takers and troop there's. Authorities now say 322 people killed, 700 wounded by gunfire or bomb explosions, 540 of those are still hospitalized. There has ban post convention poll bounce for President Bush. He's now leading Senator John Kerry by double digits in a "Time" magazine poll taken during the New York convention, 52 percent for Bush to Kerry's 41 percent. Independent, Ralph Nader is getting 3 percent in that poll.

Sources say, another boy, accused pop singer Michael Jackson of touching him inappropriately and was paid to keep quit about it. The sources say it happened back in 1990. The information surfaces when authorities were investigating the entertainer in a 1993 case. Jackson denies the claim saying, he would never harm a child.

NGUYEN: As Drew, just mentioned, the death toll is climbing in southern Russia this morning, as bodies are still being carried from a school where terrorists held a two-day siege. Joining us from the seen, our own Ryan Chilcote.

Ryan, these numbers keep climbing today.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This is clearly the bloodiest end to a hostage crisis in Russian history. Three hundred and 22 is where the death toll stands now, but no one thinks it will stay there. Search and rescue teams are still going through the rubble of the school gymnasium, that is where the hostages were being kept. Another 700 people wounded, the vast majority of them, some 540, still in local hospitals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE, (voice-over): Explosions inside the school's gym marked the unexpected beginning of the end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was the first explosion and then nothing was -- we could see nothing. And then we began to feel things burns, things falling on us.

CHILCOTE: That was when many of the hostages decided to make a run for it. The attackers shooting at them as they fled. Russian forces returned fire. The battle was on. It lasted for eight hours. The first hostages emerged on their own feet, even after going more than 50 hours with no water or food. Then came the stretchers. And the horror.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got some people to climb up and sit on the windowsills for five to six hours and told them if you make any noise, we will kill 15 people each hour.

CHILCOTE: Russian soldiers fought their way on to the school grounds -- and then from room to room inside the school. The fighting is now over, but the human cost of the siege's tragic end had never go away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE: Sadly, nearly a day after the fighting, many of the relatives of the loved ones still don't know the fate of their loved ones. They had been going through the town's five hospitals, two morgues, and are now going to a morgue in a nearby town to find their loved ones. There is no centralized place to get specific information. Of course, the other problem is that many of the people were burned beyond recognition in the fire that broke out in that school's gymnasium after the fighting started. So the only way to identify those bodies is probably going to be DNA analysis. That usually takes a bit of time in Russia.

NGUYEN: Another difficult and heart-wrenching day there.

Ryan Chilcote, thank you.

GRIFFIN: We're going to move on to our other big story this morning which, of course, is Hurricane Frances. Rob Marciano has the latest from the weather center, Rob.

MARCIANO: Hey, Drew. Hey, Betty again.

We'll start you off with the radar. It's becoming more and more impressive now that it's -- drifting closer towards the shoreline. You see the circulation and the center of the eye. And Just look how far north the extent of the solid rain band goes, almost up to Jacksonville. I know, it will certainly get clipped by it at some point.

We'll zoom in just south and east of Orlando. Melbourne, where our crew has been, and then getting peppered the last couple of hours with a series of rain bands, the last of which just brought bright colors into the area. And in TV language, TV weather language, bright colors, yellows, oranges, reds, mean heavy rains and gusting winds, and that's what they're seeing this morning. Look at all of it still yet to come. This is solid, solid rain, frequent lightning and obviously wind as well. We've had -- we'll slide the map down. We have had winds gust to 87 miles an hour already, just to the north of west Palm Beach. So, this is a serious storm, no doubt about it. And the rains extend down to Miami.

Back at the satellite, we'll show you guys, it's beginning to get a little bit better organized, it looks like, and it is making that track slowly. One other thing, the heavy rain bands that are from Melbourne South to Miami, they're not even orange here on the satellite imagery. This is where the heaviest rain and strongest winds are, and it's not even close to making its way onshore yet. So, it's going to be a long day for coastal residents of south central and eastern Florida.

NGUYEN: So much rain headed that way.

MARCIANO: Yes, it's going to be a ton. We'll have -- next half hour we'll show you radar estimates of what has fallen and what we expect to fall throughout the day.

NGUYEN: OK. Rob Marciano, thank you.

GRIFFIN: Along with all of our reporters up and down the coast, we have the ability to go to our affiliates David Malkoff from WFOR, filed this report from Juno Beach just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MALKOFF, WFOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now the latest is, that the storm is picking up, and picking up. Every time that we get a lull, then the next squall that comes through is much more difficult to get through than this squall. So right now we are here on Juno Beach, where a lot of people have evacuated from. You can see the wends are really picking the sand up. The sand is really flowing -- like water.

The amazing thing about this storm that I can tell you about is that we're getting little to no rain. Not much rain through this storm. But look at this. If I just lean back and lean into this storm, it's just going to support me. Pretty much support my weight, depending on how fast these winds are coming in.

We talked to the meteorologist back in our station in Miami, WFOR, that meteorologist was telling us we are experiencing in this area 80 mile-an-hour gusts. That's not sustained. When it goes whoosh, that's 80 miles an hour at the top level. Another problem with these storms is the storm surge. Now, if you live inland and you've never experienced a hurricane before, what happens, is you know how there's low tide and high tide?

Well, it becomes higher tide. So high that the tide will raise about 10 feet. Look at this. Look at this. Pieces of foam. Watch when this next wave comes through. It -- it's turning the ocean into suds. And these suds are blowing around as it they were suds from your bathtub. We're getting a little of the water around us now. The water is picking up here. Hold on. Our photographer doesn't want to go that far into the water, and I don't blame him. Not with a camera on his shoulder.

Maury (ph), let's kind of walk up here. That will be safer for the both of us. Wow. Wow. This -- and folks, this is not even the full brunt of the storm. The full brunt of the storm is coming. But it's not even here yet, and even when it does make landfall, it's projected to make landfall 20 minutes north of here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: OK. A bit of dramatics from David Malkoff in Juno Beach. He is just north of West Palm Beach, where the storm is obviously coming on and coming on strong.

NGUYEN: Yes, and you can see it's called the largest evacuation in Florida's history, when 2 million-plus people move at once, you can imagine the problems that causes. We have an update, when we come back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Hurricane Frances takes its own sweet time as it crawls ever closer to Florida. The storm is about 100 miles off the coast of Florida. Hurricane force winds extend out 60 to 100 miles. The eye of the storm could make landfall late tonight or early tomorrow. Frances lashed the Bahamas with winds up to 115 miles an hour.

CNN's Karl Penhaul reports power is out across Grand Bahama Island, and floodwaters five to six feet deep in Freeport.

Miami and Jacksonville airports are operating reduced schedules at this hour. But Elsewhere, The hurricane is having a major impact opinion. Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm and Melbourne airports are all closed.

GRIFFIN: Usually on Saturday Mornings we go over the legal happenings with our legal team. One of them is, Lida Rodriguez- Taseff, who's also a Miami resident. So, we're calling here in to do some weather duty this morning. She's on the phone in -- are you in Miami, Lida?

LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, LEGAL ANALYST: I live in Miami Beach, but now I have been evacuated to the western part of Miami, because Miami Beach was mandatorily evacuated. So I had to leave my home.

GRIFFIN: What is the situation where -- are you actually in a shelter, are you with friends, are you in the hotel?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: No. I'm with family, and the situation is, we've got shutters up so everything is dark. You can't see out, which is probably the hardest part of being in a hurricane during the day. It's that you have to be shuttered up, and you can't really see out.

GRIFFIN: It looks like Miami may be spared, at least will be south of where the brunt of this storm comes across if it continues on its current path. Tell me, though, in the decision to leave, the mandatory evacuation, what the feels was like. You just look at the storm, category 4 and say we're out of here.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, they tell you to evacuate. People in South Florida, especially Miami-Dade live through Andrew. So, when they're told to leave, they just leave. They listen to the evacuation orders. And even though, this part, it looks like we were spared and we are very grateful for it, I think people are very, very scared of hurricanes. They know what they can do. They've seen the destruction. And so people are just very, very grateful that it looks like we were spared.

GRIFFIN: And you guys are OK, you have enough supplies to last for what a couple, three days maybe?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Oh, we have enough supplies to last 10 days. The problem is we have so much junk food, that we may end up like President Clinton pretty soon. So, you know, you've got to have to -- there's only so many rounds of scrabble you can play, and there's only so much television you can watch. You get exhausted just from being around people.

GRIFFIN: Well, maybe turn off CNN for about a half hour and go to one of those health networks, and do a little exercise, drink some water. We wish you and your family, and everybody in South Florida, very good luck over the next hours and days ahead. Thanks you, and we'll see you next week.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thanks you very much, Drew. See you next week.

NGUYEN: We do want to get a look at the situation in Miami. We're going to try to give you a live picture of our affiliate, WFOR's, it appears there's a reporter on the scene. Let's take a listen.

KIM BOKAMPER, WFOR CORRESPONDENT: ... we are probably at the southern most point, as far as the rest of our reporters are concerned. So we are getting, I guess, probably, the most calm weather of anybody that we've got stationed along the coast. So, as I said it is a little bit -- it's breezy. Not overly -- not overly windy out here. And again, remarkably dry. It's been that way throughout the night. So that is going to do it from Sunny Isle Beach.

I'm Kim Bokamper, CBS4 News.

DANIELLE KNOX, WFOR ANCHOR: All right, Kimbo, thanks so much. And I think what happens is, Kimbo says that there were some folks who were venturing outside. What happens is you just get stir crazy.

SUSAN BARNETT, WFOR ANCHOR: Yes. Cabin fever for sure.

KNOX: You feel nothing's happening. Want to get out, see what's going on. The best thing to do, obviously, unless you have to be outside, is to not go outside. Because the weather is slowly but surly beginning to deteriorate.

BARNETT: Yes, it's starting to happen, and we're seeing real proof's it. We're going to take you now to Daytona Beach, though where it hasn't been happening as much yet. They haven't been seeing the weather we have. It is windy there.

Teri Okita is there with a report from Daytona Beach, Teri.

TERI OKITA, WFOR CORRESPONDENT: And Susan and Danielle, this may be the calm before the storm, because unlike down there waves down here are relatively calm, they aren't very big. And the sun is even peeking out at this point. We have not seen any rain up to this point throughout the evening or even into this morning. The winds have picked up. They are getting stronger and stronger as the hours go by, but it is relatively, especially calm compared to down there.

People, as you said, they're staying away from the beaches up here. It's pretty much deserted. Every once in a while we'll see some people, as you said, going stir crazy, maybe checking out what's happening along the beach. But we haven't seen many people out here. I did get a chance to talk to some of them and they said...

GRIFFIN: Some of our live coverage from a local affiliate WFOR. That's reporting going on from Miami this morning as they watch the approach of the... NGUYEN: A lot of wind, but no rain in the area just yet, but Hurricane Frances is moving slowly. She washes away travel plans for thousands this holiday weekend.

GRIFFIN: But not all is lost. The latest on who's flying, who's not, how to get your money back, et cetera, et cetera. Next on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Up and down Florida's east coast, airports are closed or operating at reduced levels. Now, that's a huge blow to tourism on this Labor Day Weekend, typically one of the state's busiest.

Now for closer look, we want to turn to travel industry, analyst, Thom Nulty for the latest on all this. Good morning to you.

THOM NULTY, TRAVEL ANALYST: Great to be here.

NGUYEN: A lot of folks stuck at home, because they can't get to Florida.

What do travelers do with that ticket in their hand?

NULTY: Well, they're going to be able to exchange it or refund it quite easily. The airlines relaxed their penalties substantially as a result of the storm. They want to do the right thing for travelers. Things should start getting back to normal. They're saying in Miami, late this afternoon -- I'm not sure I believe that, but Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, tomorrow sometime, and Orlando, on Monday. I was actually looking at the Flight Explorer Software a few moments ago and actually saw there's almost no flight activity going on over the state of Florida. A little over the west coast and Tampa area.

NGUYEN: So even some of these airports saying, yes, we are open, flights are really not getting in?

NULTY: No, their terminals may be open, but there aren't any airplanes. And there is no one in their right mind would flying right around in southern Florida right now. So, you can even seen that the airplanes coming down from New York, heading into the Caribbean are actually avoiding flying over Florida as well.

NGUYEN: And what about headed off to a cruise that takes off from Florida, what do they do?

NULTY: Well, they had -- some of them fell into some good luck, other people had bad luck. The people had good luck, were the people who already out on a cruise last week....

NGUYEN: They get an extra day or two, don't they.

NULTY: ... get a couple extra days. They were, supposed to come back on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and they're just not going to. They're out at sea, and they're behind the storm, so they are out there where it's safe. And they're having a great time. Some people that were scheduled to go out this weekend, now they are going to have to depart on Monday in most cases. The cruise lines are still being good to them, giving them the opportunity to rebook if they wanted to, giving them an opportunity for refunds. They're given onboard credits if they continue to stay on the cruise, ever plan to be on. They may put some of them up in hotels, waiting for the cruises. So, they're doing a good job taking care of people.

NGUYEN: So the refunds or the rebookings, all of that is available.

Where can people get the latest information on that?

NULTY: Well, that's the hard part. Trying to call an airline is very, very difficult right now. The best thing, if you booked through a travel at, most of them have 24-hour services. And you can go through that. Another good place to go online, to the supplier's Web site. They're putting all of the up to date information on there, so you can actually finds out what's going on. Some of the sites, Orbitz, are even proactively sending you information about your travel plans before you have to ask.

NGUYEN: So, the quickest way is to go online.

NULTY: Go online.

NGUYEN: Thom Nulty, thank you so much.

NULTY: My pleasure.

NGUYEN: Drew.

GRIFFIN: I want to tell you that in just a few minutes from now, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, is going to have a press briefing's, we're going to bring you that live and get the latest from Florida. Also, remember this, this was just three weeks and one day ago, Hurricane Charley roaring through Florida.

An update on the hurricane season thus far when this special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Hurricane Frances on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Rob Marciano with us, watching this storm since 5:00 a.m., Rob, and it's barely moved.

NGUYEN: I know. We're going to be watching it for a while, aren't we?

MARCIANO: I think so. And I think our correspondents on the coast are going to be, in about five, six hours, tired of seeing that rain and the wind, because it's just going to keep coming. And as it does so, it's going to get stronger and stronger. Here's the storm, it's a category 2 storm. But it's our ninth storm of the season, at least a tropical storm. Ninth of the season. Typically for an entire season, you get between nine or 10. So, we haven't even hit the midway part of hurricane season, it's been quite a ride already.

Here's a bit of a recap before we talk more an Frances. Here's a bit of recap of what's happened so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God! Oh, my God.

MARCIANO, (voice-over): It was a Friday the 13th that lived up to the date's reputation for bad luck. Hurricane Charley comes ashore up to 145 miles per hour. Charley creeps up through Florida, finally losing strength as it passes through North and South Carolina. In its way, 25 dead, 31,000 homes damaged or destroyed. So far, damage estimates total over $7 billion. Charlotte County Florida, the hardest hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life.

MARCIANO: It's been three weeks since Charley roared ashore and Charlotte County authorities say they may need up to 3,000 more trailers to house the displaced and the homeless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've always told them, to think about this as the world's longest campout circa 1900, that gets old too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. And what's your P.O. box.

MARCIANO: Even the Punta Gorda, Florida main post office is destroyed. It's open, but it could take three months to rebuild. Official say complete recovery for this Florida county could take a year or more.

Two weeks after Charley, came Tropical Storm Gaston. It's initial target, the South Carolina's coast. The storms legacy, severe flooding. Up to 13 inches of rain fall in some places. Gaston cut a wide swatch, killing at least seven people in Virginia, leaving 172,000 homes and business without electricity in South Carolina alone. The latest estimates, well over 6 million dollars in damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All my furniture is totally, gone, TV gone. Computer gone.

MARCIANO: The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration predicted 12 to 15 tropical storms this year, six to eight of them growing to hurricane strength. With three months left until the November 30th end of the season, the tropical storm count is nine, four of them developed into hurricanes.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MARCIANO: And Frances, as you know, is a doozy. This is Ivan. Don't want to talk too much about it, but this is Ivan and this is forecast to become a pretty strong hurricane here in the next couple of days, guys. So we'll watch that as well.

The immediate concern of course is Frances. We've got all day to watch this thing, it's going to take a while before it hits the Florida shoreline. As it does so, it will be battering the folks along the south central coast, all day and all night long tonight.

NGUYEN: Is it still the case that it could perhaps get some strength as it hits the coastline?

MARCIANO: Yes, I mean, that's what -- don't want to scare people, but that's what Andrew did before it hit the coastline, it went through a high replacement cycle and then hit some warm water and exploded. That's not the forecast, so we're being optimistic and holding this thing to a two or minimal category 3 storm. But it's a big one. I've been mentioning that all morning long, it's going to effect a lot of people.

NGUYEN: About the size of Texas it looks like. Rob Marciano thank you.

GRIFFIN: And we start the next hour of CNN Saturday morning right now.

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