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CNN Live Sunday

South Florida prepares for Hurricane Michelle

Aired November 04, 2001 - 17:16   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Preps well under way in South Florida as hurricane Michelle closes in. CNN's John Zarrella joins us from Hollywood Beach with a look at the conditions there -- John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Donna, I can certainly attest to what Jackie was saying. Within the last two hours the wind and rain have picked up here a little bit, certainly nothing at all like what they are experiencing down in Cuba or even in the Florida Keys for that matter.

But we don't need things bad here to make it any worse than it already is on the beaches. Take a look down here, the high tide coming in at about 10:00 p.m. tonight. See a lot of people out here, beach goers enjoying the blustery weather, but we are losing a lot of beach here in South Florida.

Just in the last week alone, before Michelle moved in, they lost 40 to 60 yards of beach all up and down here from a big high pressure system spinning the wind onshore and knocking the beaches down to nothing. We expect that to continue for the next couples of days here.

The situation, of course, a lot worse down in the Florida Keys where they are getting sustained tropical storm force winds. Ariel view of the Florida Keys provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, showing just the conditions down there as those tropical storm force winds are just brushing up along that island chain.

The situation, of course, one that bears serious watching and because of the situation down there, taking no chances at one hospital, Fisherman's Hospital in down in Marathon, ten special needs patients were evacuated from that hospital on a U.S. Air Force C-130 plane brought up into central Florida to get them out of potential harm's way.

We expect the closest approach to Southeast Florida from hurricane Michelle to come sometime tomorrow late morning. That would be right around the time of high tide here. It could get 1 to 2 feet of storm surge in this area, and again the continuation of what they are calling very serious beach erosion here along Southeast Florida coast. This is John Zarrella reporting live from Hollywood Beach. Back to you, Donna.

KELLEY: All right, thank you, John. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com