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CNN Saturday Morning News
Wilma Hit Mexico; Bush White House Troubles; Pamela Vitale's Killer Will Be Treated As An Adult; Government Not Taking Chances With Wilma; Betty Nguyen Goes To Vietnam
Aired October 22, 2005 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Out with the old and in with the new. In Taunton, Massachusetts workers hope to finish building a new dam out of boulders today to replace a timber dam that threatened to collapse last week, leading to mass evacuations.
One of the leading voices of jazz has fallen silent. Shirley Horn has died in her hometown of Washington. The Grammy winning pianist and vocalist was honored just last year with a tribute concert at the Kennedy Center. Shirley Horn was 71.
It is Saturday, October 22nd. Good morning, everyone. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen. We want to thank you for starting your day with us.
Well, CNN is your hurricane headquarters and Wilma has weakened a bit this morning, but it is still packing a punch. We're expecting the latest advisory one hour from now from the National Hurricane Center. The Category 3 hurricane is pounding Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
You can see it here on this radar with 120 miles an hour winds and drenching rain. Wilma's expected to weaken further before heading to Florida. Now, the state could see hurricane like conditions as early as tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, thousands of tourists are huddled in hotels and shelters in Cancun after Wilma slammed into the Mexican mainland. Ocean waves are surging over the narrow strip of land that holds the town's resort hotels. Now, the eye of the storm first drenched Cozumel. The island is now cut off and officials don't know the full extent of the damage there.
Our Susan Candiotti is still hunkered down in Mexico where Hurricane Wilma keeps lashing the Yucatan Peninsula with high winds and downpours of rain this morning. She spoke with us a little bit earlier by phone and this is what she had to say.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The seas and the wind are less strong than they were from a Category 3 to a Category 4. The difference really is incremental at this hour. As the sun is coming up, the wind is still screeching and howling. There is water dripping down the walls of the ceilings of the hotel where we hunkered down for the night.
This place is facing the Gulf of Mexico so we are looking out to the east and it would appear as though the wind has changed direction from yesterday when it was coming in directly from the east. Now it appears to be coming in from the southeast which might represent a bit of a curvature of the, you know, counterclockwise winds from Wilma.
Now we can only speak, of course for where we are. The phones are out. The power's been out for hours and hours and hours. The hope is, however, that the hotel residents that were moved by authorities -- I guess it was a day-and-a-half ago -- to hotels in downtown Cancun, which is about a half hour from here, presumably, they are all right.
They did have provisions at the time. They seemed pretty well fed and the people there were in fairly good spirits when I talked with them. There was nothing else they could do, but just to ride out the storm where they are.
Now, as the sun is now coming up, we -- if the roads are passable we'll go outside and check things out. That might be a little while before we are able to do that. I know yesterday they were covered in parts and you couldn't get through because of high water and in some areas, the debris. So the question is how long will these conditions last. As you have been hearing, perhaps throughout the day, so it may be difficult to get around.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
NGUYEN: And it's been difficult getting Susan on the phone because as she mentioned the power's out, and the phones are out and her cell phone really has little battery left to it, so we're trying to get her when we can. But, as you can imagine, she's in the hotel there in Cancun.
It's a five-story hotel, but it's already taken on some water. It's not flooded yet but it's taken on water. It's sustained some damage from the winds and the rain out there. And we are told that she is safe, but it's being ...
HARRIS: She's in there by herself, essentially.
NGUYEN: Yes, it's just her and her crew and one more crew with them and that's it.
HARRIS: Yes, OK.
NGUYEN: That's all that's left there.
HARRIS: And the best we can do is hope that she can get us on that satellite phone and as you know, you have to plug it into the wall. And if the electricity is out in the hotel, then she can't plug it in ...
NGUYEN: That's a problem. HARRIS: ... and you can't guide it to the satellite and make your phone call. But then the backup to that is that you try to attach it to your battery, your car battery, and then power it up. So we're still ...
NGUYEN: But you've got to get out there and the weather is just too bad. Here's a couple of things that you need to take note of today. 11:00 Eastern time, a little less than an hour from now, there's going to be a hurricane advisory when we're going to learn a little bit more about how powerful Wilma is. And then at 11:30 there is going to be a news conference from the National Hurricane Center to give us an update on what they know.
HARRIS: But before we get to all of that, Jacqui Jeras is here upstairs in the CNN Weather Center with the latest information that we have now on Hurricane Wilma. And good morning to you, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Yes, I'll tell you what I know but make sure that everybody sticks around for that 11:00 advisory because the 11:00 and the 5:00 -- and these are Eastern times, by the way -- those are the biggies. That's when we get the whole package and if there are any changes in the forecast track, that's when that could come.
Also at 11:00, I believe that there's the potential that we could be talking about a tropical depression and potentially maybe not quite at 11:00, but later on today, I think we're probably going to start to see hurricane watches posted for parts of Florida.
So it's real critical that you need to start to pay attention because the other thing I'm worried about is this storm, Category 3 right now, 120 miles per hour winds and it is just sitting basically barely drifting northward over the Yucatan Peninsula and everybody is like, oh, it's still over Mexico. It's still over Mexico. I've got a lot of time.
But once it starts to make this northeasterly turn, this thing is going to book. It's going to move very fast, 20, maybe 30 miles per hour and you're going to tune back into CNN later on and you're going to say oh my gosh, what do you mean it's 12 hours away? So really keep abreast of the latest situation. Keep it here to your hurricane headquarters and we'll let you know as this thing progresses.
It is expected to move back over the open water. We think that's going to be happening later on tonight, so maybe another 12 hours. And these people in Cancun, Susan Candiotti and everybody, they've been dealing with hurricane-force winds for more than 24 hours, an unbelievable situation.
And there you can see the radar picture. This is about a half an hour old. More bands are going to be barreling through that area. Right now they're in just a little bit of a break, at least from the rain.
Rain will be coming into Florida on and off throughout the day today. Only expecting maybe about a quarter of an inch, a half of an inch, but travel weather overall is going to be fine for those of you that are going to be evacuated. And I understand some of those mandatory evacuation go into effect at noon today. Back to you guys.
HARRIS: Wow, a lot of information, Jacqui.
NGUYEN: We'll be watching.
JERAS: Thank you.
HARRIS: And once again, we're waiting on the next advisory on Hurricane Wilma. It's coming up at 11:00 Eastern time. Florida's Gulf coast, in the meantime, is hunkering down for a major storm. This time, though, it's the southern part of the state's west coast.
CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff joins us live from Sanibel Island with an update. All right, Allan, give us the lay of the land as it stands, floats around you right now at the moment.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, I can tell you the weather actually is very pleasant at the moment. Don't have much sun, but otherwise it's a beautiful morning. As a matter of fact, the fisherman just put his boat into the water. It's sitting right by that pier behind me. He's going out to try his luck this morning.
Nonetheless, authorities here don't want to take any chances and they're going to be issuing a mandatory evacuation effective noontime today. What exactly does that mean? Well, the police are urging everyone to get off the island. They've been going door to door. Automated phone messages were made yesterday afternoon, but they're not going to be forcing people to leave the island.
So not that extreme, but nonetheless, people are taking this quite seriously and the truth is the majority of people on the island already have left. Homes are shuttered, businesses are essentially board up. You don't see many windows at all along the main street here. People are doing essentially everything they can to protect their property.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL JOFFE, SANIBEL BUSINESS OWNER: If we get a hurricane strong enough to knock the boards down, I'm sure the building probably won't be here, either. So, you know, I feel pretty secure about the wood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: One more step they're taking over here, no alcohol sales beginning at noon time. The police say they don't want to have accidents and they also do not want to see hurricane parties. Apparently, there's a little history of that around here -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK, Allan, we appreciate it. Allan Chernoff for us. Allan, thank you.
As we track Wilma stay tuned to CNN, your hurricane headquarters. More fallout at the "New York Times" from the CIA leak investigation. The paper's editor, executive editor, says he might have changed tactics had he known more about Judith Miller's involvement in the case. Bill Keller also says Miller appears to have mislead the times about the involvement in the leak of a CIA operative's identity in 2003, which is a federal crime.
Quoting Keller's memo to staff -- a quote now -- "until Fitzgerald came after her, I didn't know that Judy Miller had been one of the reporters on the receiving end of the anti-Wilson whisper campaign. I should have wondered why I was learning this from the special counsel a year after the fact."
Keller added "if I had known the details of Judy's entanglement with Libby, I'd have been more careful in how the paper articulated its defense and perhaps more willing than I had been to support efforts aimed at exploring compromises."
Evidence suggests that Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, was at least aware of the agent's name and that he spread the information. There are still many unanswered questions about the case, and former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey will help us try to sort them out in just a couple of minutes.
NGUYEN: But in the meantime, the CIA leak probe is focusing on two top White House aides. It's yet another bump in what's been a rocky second term for President Bush. CNN's senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Somewhere between reelection ...
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Harriet, thank you for agreeing to serve.
CROWLEY: ... and Harriet Miers ...
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I think it's been a chaotic process.
CROWLEY: ... even Republican think the A-team has morphed into the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
SCOTT REED, GOP STRATEGIST: The last six or nine months have been as difficult as anything the party's gone through in over 30 years.
CINDY SHEEHAN, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: I'll never get to see him again.
CROWLEY: A cold shoulder to a grieving mom. A Social Security plan that faltered off the launchpad. Katrina and the specter of indictments out of the CIA leak investigation. The very disciplined, aggressive team of Bush loyalists lauded for their ability to control the message seems to have lost control.
BUSH: There's some background noise here. A lot of chatter. A lot of speculation and opining, but the American people expect me to do my job and I'm going to.
CROWLEY: Analyzing the president's year of living badly, Democrats and Republicans see a combination of bad luck, bad policy and bad relationships. Democrats seethed over the partisan style and worse ...
JACKIE CALMES, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": The word I hear over and over on the Hill from Republicans is hubris.
CROWLEY: Republicans and Democrats in and out of government complain the president is both perpetrator and victim of an insular White House.
CALMES: Their complaint is not enough information is getting through to him and that he is making his decisions, let's say Harriet Miers, based on his own gut instincts.
CROWLEY: Having governed from the right, the president has always found comfort there. It is all but gone.
REED: Economic conservatives started to get wobbly this summer on spending. The Harriet Miers' nomination caught some social conservatives off base, some of the more self-appointed leaders of the social conservative movement and they riled up. It seems like it was a tipping point.
CROWLEY: Navigating the roughest terrain of his presidency, George Bush finds himself with no soft place to land. The go-it-alone Texan may need help. Candy Crowley, CNN Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: All right. We are still following Wilma and this path of destruction, especially over the Yucatan Peninsula where it is right now. Our Susan Candiotti is in Cancun at a hotel there. The signal is strong. We understand she's on the phone for us now. Susan, give us an idea of what the weather is like where you are.
CANDIOTTI: Well, now that we've had a chance to move around just a little bit and we're going to do more of that in a little while, we're in the middle of a very light squall at this time. The winds are still very strong. They can move you along.
And as we look around for damage -- for example, directly across the street there is a building that has just been decimated by the storm. The roof ripped off, the windows are gone and at this particular structure, a hotel where we took refuge, overall the structure appears to be sound.
This is the Marriott hotel. However inside there are broken windows and glass throughout. On the store there was a layer of water as you walk through with boots on. We have the chandeliers that shattered and crashed to the floor, that kind of thing.
And so the question, of course, is how the Mexicans who live here, who have worked here, have made out during the course of this storm. We are about to attempt to make it down to the downtown area. Yesterday I can tell you that some of the streets were impassable because of high water, but we're going try to make it down there and talk to some people to see how they're making out.
NGUYEN: Susan, we're hearing some background noise. I'm thinking that it's wind or some rain there, or maybe even a combination of both. As you walk around and assess the damage, are you seeing others come out as well?
CANDIOTII: No. So far it's been deserted and that's the way it should be, actually, here. And we you are hearing the wind blowing against the microphone now. The only people who should be on this strip are emergency workers that might be out assessing damaged.
We did see a couple of people from the hotel wearing hardhats on the fifth floor of the building looking around. Other than that, all of the hotel guests were evacuated a couple of days ago in anticipation of the storm. Civilians did not and should not have been here.
NGUYEN: And quickly, obviously, there has got to be a lot of flooding, as you mentioned debris in the roadways, probably some downed power lines as well. What about emergency vehicles and crews trying to get to those who may be in desperate need at this point. Are you seeing any of them on the roadways?
CANDIOTTI: Well, we hadn't had a chance to do that as yet. We're about to do that now. In terms of the power lines, in this area they appear to be underground so that, at least, is not a concern. So we're looking for downed trees and the like, and high water in the streets. But let's see whether they're passable. We're going go and try and find some folks to talk with and then we'll get back to you.
NGUYEN: Well, we're going to let you go because obviously you have a lot of work to do assessing the damage and finding folks who are -- apparently many of them, the good news is, are in shelters, especially the tourists, and away from these deserted areas where Susan has been holed up in.
HARRIS: 11:00 a.m.
NGUYEN: Yes, 11:00 a.m. we have got a couple of thing going on. 11:00 a.m. we have the ...
HARRIS: And we have a hurricane advisory from the National Hurricane Center. That's at 11:00, and then there's an 11:30 event.
NGUYEN: Which is going to be a news conference from the National Hurricane Center to give us more updates as to exactly where Wilma is, where the storm is headed and how powerful it's going to be. And of course, many people are keying in on Florida, of course, to find out how strong it's going to be when it hits landfall in Florida. HARRIS: A lot to get to this morning. Stay with us.
Ahead this hour, is it a murder mystery solved? A prominent defense attorney finds his wife bludgeoned in their secluded home. Now an arrest in the case.
NGUYEN: Also we have seen the destruction of floods here at home. Now people halfway around world are living this tragic experience. The monsoon season is almost over in Vietnam, but the heartache is not. Later this morning, my humanitarian aid trip back to my homeland.
And he is a man on a mission. Forrest Gump has nothing on this guy. Find out why he's running and why he's going. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: In California, bail is set at $1 million for the teenager accused of killing a prominent attorney's wife. Scott Dyleski is charged with one count of murder in the beating death of Pamela Vitale. Ted Rowlands has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sixteen-year-old Scott Dyleski is being treated as an adult by the State of California. He made his first court appearance on charges of first degree murder.
DEP. D.A. HAL JEWETT, CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: This is a brutal homicide and because he is very close to his seventeenth birthday, we believe that it's a situation where he is not entitled to the protections afforded him under the juvenile law and it's appropriate to prosecute him as an adult.
ROWLANDS: Dyleski is accused of killing 52-year-old Pamela Vitale, the wife of defense attorney Daniel Horowitz. Vitale was found dead at the couple's northern California estate last Saturday. A law enforcement source close to the case tells CNN that investigators believe Dyleski used a piece of crown molding to beat Vitale to death. They say he then carved a cross like symbol into her back.
Friday evening, investigators with dogs were back at the Horowitz estate, apparently searching for potential evidence.
Schoolmates tell CNN in recent years Dyleski was withdrawn, dressing in black, painting his nails black and wearing makeup. Anthony Catanesi says he used to play baseball with Scott Dyleski. He says Dyleski changed after his older sister died in an auto accident a few years ago.
ANTHONY CATANESI, FRIEND OF SUSPECT: And that may have helped in his turn toward the, you know, the goth side.
ROWLANDS: The decision to treat a 16-year-old boy as an adult can be a difficult one, according to former prosecutor Jim Anderson. But not in this case.
JIM ANDERSON, FORMER PROSECUTOR: The horrendous nature of the crime in and of itself is going to make me, if I were the one in charge of making that call, I'd file ASAP right now. It was just not even going to be a second glance.
ROWLANDS: During his short court appearance, Dyleski did not speak or enter a plea. The hearing was continued because his lawyer was out of town.
Dyleski is scheduled to be back in court next Thursday.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: And that was CNN's Ted Rowlands reporting from Martinez, California.
HARRIS: You know, it has been years in the making, but a finale could come in days. The CIA leak and what it could mean for the White House. We'll answer some questions, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: More twists and turns in the already convoluted grand jury CIA leak investigation. Now it's revealed that reporter Judith Miller appears to have misled her old bosses on her involvement in the case. Miller may have muddied already muddy waters about her frequent contact with Vice President Cheney's chief of Staff. Lewis Libby is a primary focus of the investigation.
Joining us live from Philadelphia is former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey to help us sort all of this out. Kendall, good morning again. Thanks for sticking around for us.
KENDALL COFFEY, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Good morning, Tony.
HARRIS: What are we talking about here, Kendall? Are we talking about conspiracy? Are we talking about a cover-up? Are we talking about obstruction of justice? What do you think we're dealing with here?
COFFEY: Those are all things that are being looked at, Tony, but this is a case that clearly began as a focus whether or not there was a crime committed in outing of a covert agent -- very, very tough crime to prove, and as we see in so many instances, it migrated from there to the point where now I think the focus is really the various kind of obstruction of justice things, false statement, perjury, that so many cases have evolved into.
We don't have to look past Martha Stewart to see a case where somebody looked at a difficult charge such as insider check trading, didn't bring that charge but ultimately prosecuted, convicted, and sent Martha Stewart to jail on false statements.
HARRIS: OK, Kendall, so not enough merely to have leaked the name, but you have to have knowingly leaked the name of a covert operative?
COFFEY: Yes, you have to know that that person say covert agent and you have to know that that's somebody whose identity and whose covert status in the United States is trying to conceal. That's hard to prove. You've got to get inside somebody's mind. False statement much easier to prove. You take a particular statement that's made before a grand jury and if you can prove that that's false you're on your way to an indictment.
HARRIS: All right. I'm going come back to the question of what we really have here. So July 6, 2003, it's over two years of this thing. We get Ambassador Wilson, his editorial challenging the whole yellowcake claims that eventually become a part of the State of the Union address.
July 9th, we start to see Valerie Plame -- his wife -- Valerie Plame's name first in Robert Novak's column. At that point, don't you just -- once you get to the point where you have September 27th where we get the criminal investigation, don't you just call Robert Novak in and say hey, look, you know, there's a potential crime here. Who's the source? Is it just that simple?
COFFEY: It could start out that simple but it gets real complicated once you start looking at what's being said. Let's talk a little bit about Rove.
HARRIS: OK.
COFFEY: In the initial interview with the FBI and in his grand jury appearance, apparently he acknowledged that he spoke to Novak, but when he was asked whether he spoke to any other reporters, he said no, left out July 11, 2003 conversation with "Time" magazine Matt Cooper, and that single discrepancy is the single thing that's got Karl Rove the most worried as we're talking.
HARRIS: I see. OK. Here's the thing, Kendall. This prosecutor is building a really big case. It's not the underlying charge anymore. It's not that charge anymore. It's really something bigger than this. It is conspiracy, it is obstruction of justice. So if, we're headed in that direction, what are the underpinnings of a conspiracy charge, of an obstruction charge?
COFFEY: Well one of the single things that really has to be proven is that it a conspiracy to violate the law. It's not a crime to conspire to do spin control or damage control in the political arena. What they're going have to show is that the people that could be targeted in the indictment -- whether it's Rove, whether it's Libby, whether it's neither -- knowingly did something that's a crime.
And what's going to be critical is we can see that there are differences, contradictions between what Rove and Libby said under oath, but were those mistaken lapses in memory or were those contrived lies as part of a cover-up scheme? That's what's before the special prosecutor right now and, obviously, that decision is going to have enormous ramifications. HARRIS: Well, I mean, come on. This is the kind of work you've done. I mean, you know the ins and outs of this thing. What do you expect?
COFFEY: Well, here's where I think it's going. Rove is so far essentially targeted for the Matt Cooper discrepancy.
HARRIS: Right.
COFFEY: Rove is going to say it was a brief conversation. I forgot. I speak to reporters all of the time and that can be an innocent explanation which could be expected. So what I think what the Rove case is going to come down to is whether, apart from the Matt Cooper discrepancy, there are other indications in the record, a record haven't seen that show he was acting to cover up. He was less than candid. He was not they playing it straight with the special prosecutor.
With respect to Libby, there appear to be some multiple contradictions between what he was saying he said to reporters and what reporters said he said to reporters. And so I think from Libby's standpoint it's more than one or two things that he's going to have to explain to the satisfaction of the special prosecutor.
HARRIS: OK, real quickly. Do you expect indictments?
COFFEY: I expect that we're going to have a decision this week, more probably than not there are going to be indictments.
HARRIS: Kendall Coffey. Kendall, thank you.
COFFEY: Hey, thanks, Tony.
HARRIS: Wow. Good to see you.
NGUYEN: All right. I am being told that we have, is it a governor? The governor of Cancun on the phone with us. His name is Feliz Gonzalez to talk about the situation there. Mr. Gonzalez, are you on with us?
VOICE OF GOV. FELIZ GONZALEZ, CANCUN, MEXICO: Oh yes. We are going through a very difficult situation. This hurricane is like no -- never in our history have we seen something like this. We've had more than 25 hours of continuous winds, hurricane winds, a lot of destruction in the area in the north of the state, in Cozumel, in Macares (ph), in Cancun.
Fortunately, we have no reports as of this hour of any more than two people dead. And in Playa del Carmen, two of the inhabitants of the place of Playa del Carmen. The house, in the local house, a tank exploded and there were seven injuries and two of them passed away, but all of the rest of the people are fine. They are in different safe places.
All of the tourists that we have in the state are more than 35,000 people from different places of the world are safe, are in Cancun. (INAUDIBLE) we still have a lot of wind. We expect at least 10 more hours of wind in the state. The eye of the hurricane at this moment is near Cancun. So the very worst thing is the time that we're receiving the hurricane winds.
NGUYEN: And Governor, you've been mentioning just the death toll. So far two people dead, but the good news is you say some 35,000 people are safe despite the slow-moving storm and that has been the problem here. It's just moved so slowly sitting over the Yucatan Peninsula. What kind of damage have you been able to see and how wide spread is it?
GONZALEZ: The damage is basically everything, the streets, the avenues, some of the -- the roofs of many of the houses, the difficult damage you see on the hurricane, the energy lines are down. Some here in Cozumel are down. All the typical things you see when a hurricane strikes but this time was dangerous.
NGUYEN: Governor, also you mentioned Cozumel and we have been told that that particular island has been really locked off from any kind of communication simply because of all the damage there. Have you been able to get any information as to possible deaths or damage on that island?
GONZALEZ: Oh, yes, in Cozumel we have communications because of the telephone. The telephone works.
NGUYEN: They are working, OK.
GONZALEZ: We are in continuous communication. Cozumel was the first place that was hit by the hurricane. As of now there are no reports of dead in Cozumel. We have a good support in that sense, in the island. But there's a lot of destruction, a lot of destruction on the infrastructure, the highways, on the streets, on some public buildings and the waterfront. Some of the stores that are on the waterfront have been hit very hard especially by the ocean.
NGUYEN: You mentioned that of the two deaths in Cancun they were ...
GONZALEZ: Playa del Carmen. It's not Cancun, Playa del Carmen. In Cancun we have no reports of dead.
NGUYEN: I understand. There are locals there. So are you saying that the evacuations that did take place were successful, that people did indeed get out of their homes and into shelters or are people remaining in their homes and trying to wait out the storm?
GONZALEZ: (INAUDIBLE) the people that were in fragile homes. The accidents where two people died was because a gas tank exploded. The wind pushed a gas tank when the explosion happened. These people were in the area nearby and that's when the accident happened. But that's the only deaths that we have at this hour. In Cancun, there are no reports of dead, in Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, we're in the same, on the same situation. The people are safe.
NGUYEN: That is good news to hear. Felix Gonzalez, the governor of Kintanaro (ph) which also includes Cancun. We appreciate your information and giving us just a real detailed description of what's going on. Best of luck to you. As you mentioned, there's 10 more hours of harsh winds and rain. We do want to wish you well.
HARRIS: Just to the east of the Yucatan peninsula, Cuba. Cuban authorities are evacuating half a million people from coastal areas. Heavy rains fell on the capital of Havana and in the western part of the island, forecasters say Wilma will not make a direct hit on Cuba, but a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning is in effect. CNN's Havana bureau chief, Lucia Newman joins us live with the latest. Lucia, good morning. What is the latest?
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. Well, as you can see, Mexico's loss has been Cuba's gain because it's given this country lots of time to prepare. Farmers here are taking the opportunity to bring in crops. They're harvesting bananas and everything else they can in advance of the storm.
Now in Pinar del Rio (ph), which is on the far western tip of this island, it has been raining pretty steadily. That part of the country already getting some of the outer bands of Hurricane Wilma. As you mentioned, preparations have been underway now for days to evacuate people from low lying areas and coastal areas, some 300,000 people already are in shelters or they've been moved to the homes of friends or relatives who live in the houses that are considered to be fairly sturdy structures.
Now right now in Havana, the sun is actually shining. There's just a very light wind. But we aren't expecting to get the really serious weather here until Sunday at the earliest. Overall, Tony, there has been some light flooding already from the outer bands that I had mentioned on the far western tip of the island, Tony.
HARRIS: Lucia, just a quick question. This is an island, obviously that has endured, suffered through hurricanes in the past. The systems that are in place there, do they run pretty efficiently to move people as you mentioned from those low lying areas to higher ground?
NEWMAN: Cuba has a very good track record in this sense, Tony. They evacuate people with what I would call military precision. The government here owns and runs everything. So they're in a very, very good position to put everything at the disposal of the civil defense organization, the health ministry, the construction ministry.
Every bit of -- every bus, every vehicle is put at the disposal of these people to evacuate people very, very quickly. They use, of course, the mass communications and the government television, radio station except when they tell people what they have to do, when they have to do it. So they have a pretty good -- a lot of experience rather getting people out of harm's way and very quickly, Tony.
HARRIS: CNN's Havana bureau chief, Lucia Newman for us. Lucia, we appreciate it. Thank you.
NGUYEN: Well, the Pentagon is taking no chances when it comes to Hurricane Wilma. The Navy is moving three ships toward Florida today in anticipation of the storm making landfall in the U.S. And FEMA, determined to prevent a repeat of hurricane Katrina is also gearing up for the worst. CNN's Gary Nurenberg joins us now live outside FEMA's headquarters in Washington. How is FEMA going to change things up a little bit this time, Gary?
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes and the White House is making it clear that it wants the message out. The president is staying on top of this, told reporters a few minutes ago that the president received an updated Wilma briefing earlier today and said that the Federal government is keeping in very close touch with Florida authorities as the storm approaches.
Acting FEMA Director Paulison says that it is important residents listen closely to local officials and heed evacuation orders if and when they come in a particular area. He says it's important for families to have three-day supply of food and water, a full tank of gas, radio, batteries, important family documents ready to go and says it is particularly important that families have a plan to stay in touch with one another after the storm strikes.
As Florida residents prepare, FEMA is busy. It has so far pre- positioned 30 truckloads of food, water and ice at two different military bases in Florida. Four urban search and rescue teams are in place, as are nine national disaster medical teams with another line on standby.
As you said, just a moment ago, Betty, the military is prepositioning ships and aircraft to be of use after the storm strikes and because failed communications was such a problem in Katrina, FEMA has shipped 300 satellite phones to the area so officials can keep in touch and share information. Paulison says simply knowing what's going on is key.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did not have in Katrina was a good situation of awareness of what was happening on the ground. So we're try to make sure that we do know what's happening. Our job is really to assist the state when they need help. The state of Florida like I said earlier really has their act together and but, we want to be ready with all the supplies, our food, water, ice, medical teams, urban search and rescue teams. If the state needs us, we want to have them on the ground and ready to go when they ask for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NURENBERG: As you know, Washington is involved in a postmortem to see what went wrong in Katrina and administration officials said yesterday one of the early findings is that this lack of communications was one of the most important problems. That's why those satellite phones are on the way and that's why they're making such a real effort to make sure that communications are intact after this one strikes.
NGUYEN: CNN's Gary Nurenberg outside FEMA's headquarters, Gary, thank you.
A lot of talk these days about Katrina, Wilma, flooding, all that comes with Mother Nature's wrath. When we come back, I'm going to take you half way across the world to Vietnam where they're dealing with their own case of flooding.
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NGUYEN: While people in Florida are bracing for the flooding Wilma can bring, half a world away in Vietnam where I'm from, they too, are dealing with rising water and the devastation it causes. I recently took a trip there to see the destruction and help in the recovery. I must warn you, some of the images are graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN (voice-over): The sun rises over Ho Chi Minh City. It will always be Saigon to me. This is where I was born shortly before the communists took over and my family fled to the United States as the Americans pulled out of the war. Today, it's a place that's familiar in the most foreign sort of way.
I'm like a stranger in my own homeland which is why I come back, to reconnect. This time it comes by way of a six-hour journey south of Saigon where annual monsoons are destroying homes and putting lives in danger. We're bringing humanitarian aid donated through Help the Hungry, a charity my family founded. It's our way of giving back.
(on-camera): Now that this boat has been loaded with supplies, it's already started to rain and we're going to cross this river to get to flooded homes. I can only begin to imagine what we're going find.
(voice-over): One thing is sure, the water stretches for miles, drowning rice fields which are key to Vietnam's economy. It's deep, it's dirty and happens every year filling up what are little more than grass huts with dirt floors. I am shocked at how many are still living in flooded homes. From the very old who say there's nowhere to go, to the young who have lost more than many adults could endure.
These children are on their own. They're not even sure what illness killed their parents. All they have is each other in a hut with three walls. The oldest is 15. This frog will be their dinner. Cooked in a makeshift kitchen next to a pole where their clothes hang.
Not only do these orphans live in this grass hut, the floodwaters just inches below them, this is where they sleep, on this wooden platform. No mattress, there's no blanket, and this is their only toy, a broken gun. We gave them enough food, medicine and money to sustain them for a while, maybe even a little hope, but I hated to leave not knowing what will become of them.
From flooded homes to uncertain futures, this homecoming of sorts is never easy. When you see children who should be in school digging through the dirty water fishing out pieces of plastic to sell, you can't help but hurt inside. (on-camera): It's raining once again. It makes me wonder what kind of night the people that we met today are going have with the monsoon season here.
(voice-over): The people, the situations, it makes me wonder also about what my life would have been like had I not left with my family after the war. Would that have been me? I don't think I'll ever know the answer to that which is why I come back, I guess, searching for answers, trying to find a way to give back, a sense of purpose, to make a difference.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: And you know, in that piece which wasn't in what you just saw was a shot where the little girl that was the 15-year-old that was caring for her brother and sister she has this enormous sore on her elbow that is blackened and it's infected and I think it just really speaks to the nature of how not only poor these people are, but there's lack of help, there's lack of sanitary water to cleanse it and then you've got the natural disaster with all the flooding so many problems compiled on top of each other and a lot of people wonder why don't they just leave? It's not that easy. This is all that they have. Where would they go?
HARRIS: Betty, you were talking about the yearly flooding. How long does it last?
NGUYEN: It lasts somewhere between April and May is when it starts all of the way through October. So there's a lot of time there for the water to come in and literally change lives, destroy lives.
HARRIS: And you've made, what is this five trips now?
NGUYEN: This is the fifth trip. And you know, every year I see a little bit of progress.
HARRIS: You do?
NGUYEN: I do and that's the good news, but it's slow. It is so slow, Tony. Roads are being built so that there is access to these forgotten people, really and also that that - I will tell you the last time that we went this year, there were day care centers that were was set up which was good news because many times these children are left home alone while their parent goes out to try to find some kind of food and some kind of money to support them and when the floodwaters rise, there's no one home to save them.
HARRIS: What does it do to your heart? I think we got a sense of it. What does it do to your heart?
NGUYEN: It's hard, it's really hard, but I think the thing that really strikes me is that there's still hope, despite all that they have and the situations that they face. There are still smiles on their faces and they're just like you and me. They have wants. They have wants dreams. They have desires and there is still hope. If you don't have hope, what else do you have? HARRIS: Wow! Great trip!
NGUYEN: Well, thank you.
HARRIS: Will we see more?
NGUYEN: We have another piece coming up tomorrow so you want to stay tuned for that, gives you another little slice of life over there.
HARRIS: Good work, good work.
NGUYEN: Thank you.
HARRIS: Up next this morning, he wanted to do something for those so devastated by hurricane Katrina. So he's running. He's been running and he is running -
NGUYEN: Again.
HARRIS: Some more. Yes. Meet the man on a cross country jog all in the name of generosity.
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HARRIS: You know, you could call him the Forrest Gump of 2005. Look at him with his cart. That's his cart there, logging 20 miles per day, Betty. Twenty-five-year-old Jonathan Prince is sprinting his way across the United States to raise awareness and money for people affected by hurricane Katrina. Prince laced up his shoes in Los Angeles earlier this month and already he's made it to Phoenix, Arizona, his final destination, Atlanta, some 1800 miles from where he is right now, from where he is now. Jonathan Prince joins me from Phoenix this morning. Jonathan, good talk to you, my friend.
JONATHAN PRINCE: Thanks, man. How are you doing, Tony? How you doing Betty?. You know, Betty, he says how are you.
NGUYEN: Good morning. I'm sorry, our producer was talking about a hurricane watch that we needed to talk about.
HARRIS: Jonathan...
NGUYEN: Jonathan, you have my full attention now. Good morning to you.
HARRIS: Jonathan, let me ask you, did you start this thing? Are you a runner originally? Is this something recreationally. Are you a jogger?
PRINCE: Well, I've been an athlete all my life.
HARRIS: There's a difference, you know that right?
PRINCE: There definitely is a difference. I have long distance blood in my family. You know what? HARRIS: What?
PRINCE: The training for run for relief ...
HARRIS: You can't train for this.
PRINCE: You really can't.
HARRIS: You really can't train for this right?
PRINCE: The desert and the road conditions, there's no training that can prepare you for anything this monumental, but luckily one of my sponsors came through and Drinkables. They provided this liquid supplement that enabled me to keep my muscles healthy.
HARRIS: Good.
PRINCE: So that definitely helps me rest at night. You know?
HARRIS: Hey, Jonathan, let me ask you, what was it in particular, specifically about what you were seeing, the reporting you were watching on Katrina that led you down this path?
PRINCE: Well, run for relief in general is just, there was so much going in this past world and I just wanted to do my part in the relief effort. First it was tsunami. Then after Katrina I was, just, like, you know what, these people have it so much worse than everybody else. So I just wanted to do my part and seeing all the graphic footage and everybody losing everything. I just wanted to do my part, you know?
HARRIS: What's in the cart there? What do you have in the cart?
PRINCE: In my cart, I'm prepared for any conditions. I have a sleeping bag, a blanket, I have my mane and tail shampoo to keep me -- to keep my personal hygiene ...
NGUYEN: Wait, wait, hold up. Mane and tail shampoo. They've come to the table to help me with personal hygiene throughout the duration of my trip. They're a wonderful product.
HARRIS: Because he's running through the desert Betty. It can get a little hot, steamy through the desert.
NGUYEN: It sounds like something that you know ...
HARRIS: A personal story?
NGUYEN: Yes.
PRINCE: You know what? I just hope -- honestly I just hope to do my part to inspire as many people as possible.
HARRIS: That's great.
PRINCE: Hopefully people will get involved and run with me. I'm asking for corporate America to get involved. I have a minimum ...
HARRIS: What would you like to see? Would you like to have an army of runners with you Jonathan, just alongside you making this trip with you?
PRINCE: I would love for as many people as possible to come run with me. Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, (INAUDIBLE) Ludacris, anybody, anybody who's involved.
HARRIS: Now before we run out of time, just give me the Web site very quickly.
PRINCE: OK, you can go to run4relief.org and donate. Everybody can donate one dollar today to donate to run4relief.org and my minimum of $100,000 can be established today this afternoon.
HARRIS: Jonathan, good luck to you and when you get to Atlanta come look us up, all right.
PRINCE: Definitely. Thank you so much.
HARRIS: All right Jonathan.
NGUYEN: All right Tony. I told the producer was talking to me about this new hurricane watch that is out. So let's get to it. Jacqui Jeras, she's got the latest on all of this. Jacqui, what do you know?
JERAS: Well, hurricane watches have been issued now for all of the Florida keys. That means hurricane conditions are possible in 36 hours. The 11:00 advisory just coming in. We're still sorting through some of the information, but here's what we do know. The winds have decreased a little bit further. We are down to 115 miles per hour.
That still makes it a Category 3 storm, but we're getting on the lower end of the Category 3. And additional weakening will be expected as the center of circulation still remains over land. It is very near Cancun right now, basically just a smidge to the south and west of there and so we do expect to still see unbelievable conditions across the Cancun area.
They got a little bit of a break in some of these squall bands that pushed on through, but don't be fooled by that. It's still an extremely dangerous storm right now. Here are the watches. Put it on a map for you. This includes the dry Tortugas, by the way, all of the keys here and also all of Florida Bay is under the hurricane watch.
We are expecting conditions to deteriorate probably by midday tomorrow. That's when the tropical storm force winds should be arriving. The storm is drifting just up to the north right now and then a very quick turn to the north and to the east and also notice the time of arrival has been bumped up a little bit more. This is just offshore as a Category 2 on Monday morning at 8:00 a.m.
So we would be looking at late morning when a possible landfall could take place. So again, we now have a Category 3 hurricane with 115 miles per hour winds and hurricane watches have been issued for all of the Florida keys and we anticipate watches to be posted farther north later on today. Back to you, guys.
NGUYEN: All right, we're going to be watching. Thank you, Jacqui. We're also awaiting the latest advisory on Wilma.
HARRIS: And we will have it when CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues after a quick break.
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