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CNN Live Sunday

Tropical Storm Jeanne Targets Gulf Coast Of Florida; Interview with Paul Bigley

Aired September 26, 2004 - 15:00   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.


FREDRICK WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A look at our top stories. Jeanne is losing its punch as it plows across central Florida. It's been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm. Widespread damage is being reported. Residents on Florida's Gulf coast are urged to seek higher ground as the storm heads their way. Live reports from Florida in a moment.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says U.S. and Iraqi forces are ramping up their efforts against rebels in Iraq. According to Powell, multinational forces will move into no-go zones, areas which have been strongholds for the insurgents. The plan, he says, is to stabilize the country in time for legitimate elections in January.

In the Iraqi city of Fallujah a military offensive is underway. The town has been a constant scene of rebel violence. U.S. aircraft blasted a reported insurgent stronghold there for a third time in the last 24 hours. The targets -- militants loyal to terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

We begin this hour in Florida. Already under way, the all too familiar task of assisting victims and assessing the damage after a hurricane. What's now Tropical Storm Jeanne came ashore as a hurricane overnight on Hutchison Island, on Florida's east coast. This is just some of the destruction it left behind. In some places it's difficult to differentiate the damage caused by Jeanne or from the three previous hurricanes to hit Florida in the past six weeks.

Hurricane Jeanne sent huge waves crashing into buildings. Sections of roads were washed out, and water rushed in to homes. In one condominium building, piles of sand, kitchen cabinet high, inside first floor units. Across the state on the Gulf coast, officials are urging residents to make their way to higher ground as Jeanne passes over. The storm is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa before making landfall again.

Back on Florida's east coast now, one emergency management official says Vero Beach was devastated like never before. At least a foot of water rushed through some streets in the city and 100 mile- per-hour wind gusts slammed the area. Florida Governor Jeb Bush briefed reporters on the storm a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This has been a -- as we know, a historic six-week period. Never before since -- I guess 19 -- or 1880 has there been a state that has received four hurricanes at once, and back in 1880, in Texas, where the last time it happened there were probably 100,000 people that lived there. We're a state of 17 million, and just about everybody's been impacted by the storm in one way or the other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: We have reporters stationed all along the storm's path. Let's begin with CNN's Sarah Dorsey on Hutchison Island, which ccan be considered kind of ground zero for this latest storm -- Sara.

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Fredricka. It was a one-two punch for the people here. And you can see here at the Ocean Rise condominiums that there was significant damage both from Frances and then from Jeanne. This used to be a sand dune that was across here, protecting these condominiums just a little bit with palm trees and things like that, and you can tell that now the water has washed all those palm trees in. In fact, I'm told the water was about up to your waist here last night. And you can see by looking in these apartments the damage that was brought in. There's feet of sand in there, and all the furniture was pushed to the back of those apartments, ripping off the side of the walls. You can even see animals in there. We saw some crabs and things like that. So really leaving these open to the elements.

And you know, you may wonder why anyone would ever choose to stay here. That's a big question, because this is a barrier island and this is exactly the area that people are told first to leave. And I'm joined now by Jay Stone.

And Jay, you along with three other people decided to stay here. And we know a lot of people now have been through hurricanes because in have been so many, but most people ride it out inland if they chose to stay in the state. Tell me what it was like for you all here when it came in.

JAY STONE, HUTCHINSON ISLAND RESIDENT: It was concerning. Scary, I wouldn't say so, but concerning, yes. To watch the windows breathe, if you will. The noise was quite loud. But the concerning part was wondering when the windows were going to shatter.

DORSEY: And you, luckily, did not listen to some of the warnings that were put out. You went ahead and boarded up your windows. So your home is safe. But that wasn't the case with Frances. You all didn't board up. How was that for you all?

STONE: Pretty much devastating. Frances, we lost all of our furniture, a lot of personal belongings. We lost everything in Frances.

DORSEY: So you're going to board up next time if another one comes through this area?

STONE: Oh, yes, definitely.

DORSEY: OK, Jay Stone, thank you very much. And you can just see, there is a lot of devastation in this area. This was exactly where the eye came through. And they were telling us, the interesting part is, that the eye itself was very calm, it's the winds that surround the eye that caused all of this damage and brought in so much sand. But absolutely sand the worst issue here, there's a lot of beach erosion. They're sure it's going to take a long time for them to get this stretch of beach back to normal -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Sara, are there any estimates as to how many people on Hutchison Island did decide to stay and ride out the storm?

DORSEY: We haven't gotten exact estimates. We've seen some people back in their homes now, and a lot of those we believe have -- did decide to stay because they kind of have many of the areas blocked off down here. In this particular building there were only four. And I asked, would you do it again? And the question that they posed back to me is -- What kind of hurricane are you talking about next time? And I said a category 3. They say yeah, we'll stay for a category 3, but a 4 they say you're going to be stupid and they'll get out if a category 4 comes through this area.

WHITFIELD: All right. They have to consider themselves lucky even for a category 3, however.

DORSEY: Yes they do.

WHITFIELD: Sara Dorsey, thanks so much, from Hutchison Island, Florida.

Let's check in with our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, for the latest on where the storm, now a tropical storm, is heading -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, METEOROLOGIST: Well Fredricka, it's right around Brooksville, Florida at this time. You can still kind of see the swirl or the center of circulation there. It has weakened considerably to a tropical storm and is still expected to continue to weaken over the next 24 hours. However, keep in mind we're still looking at 70 mile-per-hour winds, so that is nothing to sneeze at. And that can still cause power outages and also flooding will be a big concern as we head into the afternoon and evening hours.

We've see very little in way of tornados so far, but there have been a couple of warnings on and off throughout the late morning, early afternoon hours, and a tornado watch does remain in effect across much of northern Florida, extending up into southern parts of Georgia. And we may see that moved a little bit, we think, later on this afternoon, might even bump into parts of South Carolina.

The forecast track staying on put remaing a tropical storm and kind of scraping along the coastline, here. It might make it all the way into the open waters, but even if it does that, we don't really expect it to intensify back to hurricane strength. So, we're still looking at a tropical storm if it makes landfall again to the east of Tallahassee, then curving on up into Georgia, and then back into the Carolinas.

I want to give you a little bit of information, what you can still expect from a tropicical storm. Winds in a tropical storm range between 39 and 73 miles-per-hour. When winds are between 39 and 46 twigs begin to break off of trees. At 47 to 54 you start seeing some slight structural damage. From 53 to 63 small trees can be uprooted, and keep in mind, the ground where Jeanne is moving through is already very, very saturated. So you might see small to medium size trees being uprooted in this kind of wind. Sixty-four to 74 miles-per-hour we're looking at widespread structural damage. So this is still a significant storm, even though it's no longer a hurricane -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jacqui. Good reminders. Thanks so much.

Well, this is one of the worst hurricane seasons for one state to endure, and still just over two more months before the season officially ends. CNN's Anderson Cooper and Chad Myers rode out the storm in Melbourne, Florida as Jeanne came ashore, pounding them with heavy winds and rain. Here's a glimpse now of what it was like for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

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

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

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

COOPER: Please, Chad!

(LAUGHING)

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

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

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

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. That was a look of Melbourne, Florida with our Chad Myers and Anderson Cooper last night. Now take a look at what Melbourne looked like this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, welcome to the morning after. We're at the intersection of 192 and A1A. Take a look behind me here. You can see the officers out patrolling the area. The intersection itself did not fare that well. The lights are down all over this place, especially along A1A. They're dangling, and if they're not dangling, they're laying on the road.

As far as the buildings go, that's probably the good news here, because you can take a look. Eckerd's is still standing over that way, and a very popular surf company over here, the Long Board House, continues to stand although the sign is slightly disrupted. Over here is another surf shop, as well, but the windows are still intact. It appears from our initial outing here that a lot of buildings are still up, although a lot of awnings are down and a lot of roofs are down, as well.

This is the boardwalk at Indian Landing. We're taking a look at the Atlantic Ocean, obviously. This is obviously still standing. But the winds continue to be ferocious out here at 9:30 in the morning. There's plenty of beach erosion to be seen. We're looking at some docks that have been damaged, but some are still standing. There's a lot of debris out there on the beach. It's going to take a long time to start cleaning all of this off.

Melbourne Beach is another community that has been hit hard by this hurricane. Joing us now is the deputy fire chief, Dave Micah.

And Dave, tell us what you've seen out there so far.

DAVE MICAH, MELBOURNE DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF: Lots of downed trees, lots of roofs off houses. Typical of what we saw from Frances, maybe a little more damage. Downed power lines around town, lots of people out driving around that need to stay home. Please encourage your viewers to stay home, if they don't have an emergency, stay in their houses. They make it dangerous for themselves and for us because they're out drifgs around and there's a lot of hazards on the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What about calls? Have you guys gotten a lot of calls over the last 15, 20 hours?

MICAH: Not too bad. A lot of it, I think, is because the power lines are down, people are having trouble communicating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And is the power out everywhere you've been so far? MICAH: It's sporadic. That's why it's so dangerous to be out right now, because there's sections with power and sections without. Just because you don't have power where you are doesn't mean just down the street doesn't, or they don't have power do, and the lines that are down in there are hot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good. That's Dave Micah. That's the deputy fire chief here in Melbourne Beach. Again, it's been hit really rough, this beachside barrier island, and of course we're going to continue on and see what else we can find.

Of course some people are battling this with a little bit of humor. One of those is Raymond Haney (PH) here in Melbourne Beach.

And Raymond, you rode out the storm last night right here beachside. What was that like?

RAYMOND HANEY, MELBOURNE RESIDENT: Oh, it was noisy, is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: just noisy?

HANEY: Yeah, that's all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see some damage around here, as well.

HANEY: Well, I tell you, most of it was caused by the first hurricane. It just loosened everything up and you know, it just -- we tried to repair it as good as we could and you know. Wow. Worked all day yesterday. My nephew come over all the way from Denver Hills and tried to do emergency repairs. All that work, and we didn't get water in the house too much. We got some but mostly the garage. The water was pouring down in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it worth staying all night?

HANEY: Oh, god, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

HANEY: We (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the first hurricane, we handled that. The news had us -- you know, that everything on the beach was destroyed. We expected to come back to nothing, you know? And so we decided we're going to stay here and find out for ourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good. All right, I'm going to let you go. That's one of the many people that have stayed here despite that evacuation order. They're just tired of evacuating every time there's a hurricane. Of course we'll have much more as we head on down the beach.

And this was the real fear of emergency operations directors, because of scenes like this. Downed power lines and mobile homes completely destroyed. It is quite a scene to be seen around here along A1A. This is just south of Melbourne Beach, and you can see what these high winds did to a lot of these modular homes. They say some of this damage was done before, but not near to this extent. And you can see that the power lines, as well, have been knocked off of their poles and are laying all over the roadway. It is a mess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

That was a look at Melbourne, Florida. From there then hurricane Jeanne headed inland, made its way to Orlando. When we come right back, a look at Orlando, now today. You're looking at a live shot right now. With Eric Phillips when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hurricane Jeanne just grazed Orlando earlier today, bringing its gusty winds and heavy rains to that city. CNN's Eric Phillips joins us from Orlando with a look at the damage -- Eric.

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are continuing to feel some of those gusting winds now, although emergency management officials tell us the worst of the storm has indeed passed. There was a hurricane warning that was in effect until 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. Of course, that has now passed. Some teams are just starting to get out and try to survey and see what type of damage has been done.

Our own CNN team did go around town just a few minutes ago to take a look around and see what we saw and what we saw was some downed trees. Some streets blocked by tree limbs, tree branches, that type of thing. A few downed power lines, not too many of those, however, and that really jives with what emergency management officials have been telling us, that there are some 120, 130,000 people in the entire Orange County area that are without power at this hour. And most of them are in South Orange County, which is south of Orlando. So we haven't really seen much structural devastation here. The main concern was flooding. That hasn't been too much of an issue, at least, not that we've seen, and not that officials have been reporting to us. However, it is still too early really to tell. They have not had a chance to take a thorough look at the situation, but they can say from the outset that it already is better than they were expecting it to be.

They did say in a recent press briefing that there are teams organizing, teams of 35 that will be going out primarily to the coastal areas, the hardest-hit areas of Florida, those who have taken a beating from both Jeanne, Charley, as well as from all of the -- Ivan and all of the storms, all four of them, as a matter of fact. Sending those teams in sort of a rescue, search and rescue missions. Those will start to be dispatched over the next 12 to 24 hours, we're told.

Again, Jeanne is now a tropical storm. The worst of it, officials saying, we've seen here of course, moving on now to the Tampa Bay area. And now they're starting to sort of see what the storm left behind -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And I suppose, Eric, it'll still be some hours before the weather can clear up a little bit so that those teams can get out in a safe manner?

PHILIPS: I'm sorry. If you can repeat that, please? WHITFIELD: Does it seem as though it may be yet a few more hours before the weather dissipates some so that those teams can get out to do the jobs they're looking to do?

PHILIPS: Well, you know, the wind is still blowing here, and so -- and it feels -- it feels at some times there's longer periods -- it's kind of funny, Fredricka, how it's happened today. We've been out here since 6:00 this morning. What we've seen is the winds have been blowing pretty much all day long, and the rain's been falling, although it's not quite as bad now as it had been before. But in the beginning it started off where there were longer periods of peace in between the gusts of wind and the falling rain. And then toward the middle of the day, mid to late morning into early afternoon, the gusts were just coming every five minutes, every ten minutes, you'd feel it. And there were -- you know, it was the heavy rain and hard wind -- you know, coming much more often. Now we're seeing it start to go back to where it was earlier today, where the wind is still blowing and we'll still get gusts and the rain will still fall, but there's longer periods of lull in between. So I think they're waiting really for it to pass for those gusts to really die down and go completely before they send those teams out so they can really do the best job possible.

WHITFIELD: All right, makes a whole lot of sense. Thanks so much. Eric Philips in Orlando.

While thousands of Floridians obeyed evacuation orders there, were lots of others who decided to ride out the storm by staying at home. Andrea Hasburgh owns two homes in Indialantic, Florida, that's just south of Melbourne. She and her daughter toughed it out at home, and she joins us on the telephone -- Andrea.

ANDREA HASBURGH, INDIALANTIC RESIDENT: Yes.

WHITFIELD: What was your last night look?

HASBURGH: It was quite exciting. It was different than Frances, and it was just much, much stronger.

WHITFIELD: So during Frances, just three weeks ago, you stayed in your home then, as well?

HASBURGH: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Why didn't you decide to head the warnings both times now to evacuate?

HASBURGH: I guess I can -- I just felt safer at home. I felt that my house was built well and I had nothing to fear.

WHITFIELD: You're right there on the coast near the barrier islands, there.

HASBURGH: I'm within a block of the beach, yes.

WHITFIELD: OK. And you know, clearly, that alone makes it to be a very vulnerable spot. Knowing it was a category 3, why did you feel that your home was more likely to be able to withstand any kind of damage and it was safer for you to be at home?

HASBURGH: Possibly the way that the houses were built a long time ago. Sometimes when they were built out of the concrete block they would pour concrete down into the block areas and it would fill it up and make them very strong. And not only the exterior walls but the interior walls, also.

WHITFIELD: When you made your decision to stay, did any emergency workers come by knocking on the doors of your home or even neighbors to make a last-ditch plea to folks to move inland, to higher ground?

HASBURGH: No. As a matter of fact, a few of the neighbors decided to stay for this one.

WHITFIELD: And what was their experience like? Have you talked with them today?

HASBURGH: I did. And they found it very exciting. It was nerve-wracking, of course. Because when the wind comes across your (UNINTELLIGIBLE) across roofing and you're sitting inside, it sounds like horses running across your roof. It's quite amazing. It can be very scary, but at the same time I had faith that it would -- it would be OK.

WHITFIELD: Was there ever a moment overnight when you heard that howling wind...

HASBURGH: Oh, yes.

WHITFIELD: And the rain that you thought, "Uh-oh, I wish we would have moved?"

HASBURGH: No. I never thought that. I really never did, during either storm.

WHITFIELD: All right. Andrea Hasburgh, are you concerned now that perhaps given the next threatening storm that you may take it for granted, as well?

HASBURGH: I doubt it.

WHITFIELD: Because of your successful experiences, so far?

HASBURGH: No. No, I don't think so. I think I have to go on faith and I really believe that I was protected by god through this whole thing, so.

WHITFIELD: All right. Andrea Hasburgh in Indialantic. Thanks so much for joining us.

HASBURGH: Sure. Thank you. Bye.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, Nancy Alvarez is with WKMG and we join her report, right now. NANCY ALVAREZ, WKMG: Well, I'll tell you just a few minutes ago we had a break from the rain. We were so relieved, we were so happy. We took off our rain jackets and now we've learned our lesson the hard way because not three or four minutes later we are just getting pounded again with another band of rain and very strong winds.

Let's give you a live look at where we are here in Indialantic. Coco Beach is just to the north. The city of Melbourne is just to the west. You're look at the beach here once again in the small town of Indialantic, here on the coast. Significant beach erosion in this area, and you can actually see as the wind just carries the sand from one direction to the other as the wind continues to shift.

What you're looking at here use to be a boardwalk. It used to be a beautiful walkway where people would walk and look out into the ocean, of course not anymore. The wind and rain and waves that we had last night just pounded this boardwalk here and crushed it right into the sand, as you can see. A lot of devastation in this area in terms, again, of beach erosion and of damage to these walkways. But I'll tell you, that's not stopping people from coming out. A lot of people are very curious. They're tired from being cooped up in their homes all night. And they're working their way out to the beach to see the damage for themselves. We bumped into Mike here, who I actually found riding his bike through this.

Mike, you did not evacuate, correct?

MIKE, INDIALANTIC RESIDENT: I did not. I left for Frances and came back to much of the same thing. I decided to stick it out here with the community this time. A lot of other people were staying. I knew that was probably a dangerous situation, but I just felt compelled to stay this time.

ALVAREZ: Are you suffering from what we're all suffering from, hurricane fatigue?

MIKE: Yeah, two in a row in the same place. That is staggering. I think people are just stunned. I'm stunned. It's a phenomenon that just can't be explained. I don't know.

ALVAREZ: You've worked your way around this area quite a bit, I know. And, tell me what you're seeing in terms of damage. I'm hearing from emergency managers and law enforcement that we were lucky, again. Not a lot of structural damage.

MIKE: Not a lot of major structural damage. I see a lot of roofs peeled back, a lot of tiles gone, power lines down, transformers knocked over, signs for businesses that have shattered and missing. So yeah, not a lot of major damage, but look at the beach. My gosh, it's going to take a tremendous amount of money and work to get this anywhere close to what it was before.

ALVAREZ: It really is. Thank you, Mike. And the beach is certainly a very sad sight for the people who know this area and love these beaches because I'll tell you, you know, this is what Florida is famous for, and this is not what it usually looks like, folks. This is really a nightmare out here in terms of the beach erosion, as I said.

The damage he was talking about is just what is making it really dangerous for people to be working their way on the streets out here. Again, people are curious, they're tired, they want to get some fresh air. But the message is for people to stay home because the driving conditions are really dangerous right now and again, something else we want to bring up is the causeways here. There are five major causeways that are really the major arteries for the barrier islands and the mainland. We know that who have reopened so far, officially. The rest we're still checking the integrity of those causeways for safety before all those people that evacuated can come back to the barrier islands to see -- for their homes, to see about their businesses and to see what Jeanne did to us. Of course, round 2 after Frances did much of the same just over two weeks ago. Back to you all.

WHITFIELD: A lot of weary Floridians. Thanks so much, Nancy Alvarez of WKMG in Indialantic.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Residents in Fort Pierce, Florida were still cleaning up the widespread damage from Hurricane Frances when Hurricane Jeanne made landfall just north of that city. CNN's Gary Tuchman has ridden out both storms in and around Fort Pierce, and he joins us now by phone with the very latest. And Gary, this is deja vu all over again for you, isn't it?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Fredricka, it really is. And when you say ridden out the storm, we're literally doing it now. We're riding out, checking out in our car what has gone on, surveying the damage. And you pointed out something very interesting, that this is so unusual in the sense that when we're looking at the damage even though we were here in the exact same spot in Fort Piece three weeks ago for Hurricane Frances, it's not immediately clear if the damage that we see comes from Hurricane Frances, comes from Hurricane Jeanne, or comes from both.

In a lot of cases when we ask it definitely does come from both. Right now we're driving past a mobile home park. And the heavy damage to the roofs of this mobile home park, we're asking people when and where did the damage occur, and they're saying during both hurricanes. This is so unusual because this is something to consider, that we have the eye of Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne pass over the exact same point in Martin County, Florida near Stewart three weeks apart almost to the exact hour, the eye crossed.

This area has never before in recorded weather history gotten the eye of a hurricane. And then twice in three weeks the same area gets it. And not only that, but the practical concern people have here is they have damage twice. And I can tell you the damage that we're seeing as we're driving around here in St. Lucy County, Florida just north of Martin County -- by the way, this is where the northern part of the eye went over, so it was virtually calm here for 2.25 hours last night, and then the winds picked up again.

But what we're seeing is extensive damage but not a lot of catastrophic damage and that's something we've said over the last three hurricanes over the last six weeks, that there is limited catastrophic damage, and frankly the reason for that is because of the relatively strict construction standards that you see here in the state of Florida since Hurricane Andrew passed through. We've seen what's happened in Haiti, and Jeanne was only a tropical storm when it went through Haiti.

The station, obviously because the construction standards and other kinds of standards are different in Haiti. Here the standards are very strict, and that in cooperation with the fact that people have been listening to the warnings from the National Hurricane Center, from members of the news media like us has kept the death toll relatively low. Obviously, there have been deaths and injuries from the four hurricanes but it's a lot lower than it would have, could have been without all the things I just mentioned -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Gary, while you made the distinction that it's difficult to discern the damage between what Frances may have done and Jeanne may have done, your experience overnight, how different or similar was it from the experience three weeks ago?

TUCHMAN: This was a more powerful hurricane than Hurricane Frances. And I estimated it lasted 17 hours, we had hurricane force winds or tropical storm force winds, picked up tropical storm force winds about 5:00 in the afternoon, didn't end until 10:00, 11:00 this morning. The only part of that 17 hours where we didn't have winds of over 40 miles per hour was when the eye came through here for 2.25 hours between about midnight and 2:15.


Aired September 26, 2004 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICK WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A look at our top stories. Jeanne is losing its punch as it plows across central Florida. It's been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm. Widespread damage is being reported. Residents on Florida's Gulf coast are urged to seek higher ground as the storm heads their way. Live reports from Florida in a moment.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says U.S. and Iraqi forces are ramping up their efforts against rebels in Iraq. According to Powell, multinational forces will move into no-go zones, areas which have been strongholds for the insurgents. The plan, he says, is to stabilize the country in time for legitimate elections in January.

In the Iraqi city of Fallujah a military offensive is underway. The town has been a constant scene of rebel violence. U.S. aircraft blasted a reported insurgent stronghold there for a third time in the last 24 hours. The targets -- militants loyal to terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

We begin this hour in Florida. Already under way, the all too familiar task of assisting victims and assessing the damage after a hurricane. What's now Tropical Storm Jeanne came ashore as a hurricane overnight on Hutchison Island, on Florida's east coast. This is just some of the destruction it left behind. In some places it's difficult to differentiate the damage caused by Jeanne or from the three previous hurricanes to hit Florida in the past six weeks.

Hurricane Jeanne sent huge waves crashing into buildings. Sections of roads were washed out, and water rushed in to homes. In one condominium building, piles of sand, kitchen cabinet high, inside first floor units. Across the state on the Gulf coast, officials are urging residents to make their way to higher ground as Jeanne passes over. The storm is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa before making landfall again.

Back on Florida's east coast now, one emergency management official says Vero Beach was devastated like never before. At least a foot of water rushed through some streets in the city and 100 mile- per-hour wind gusts slammed the area. Florida Governor Jeb Bush briefed reporters on the storm a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This has been a -- as we know, a historic six-week period. Never before since -- I guess 19 -- or 1880 has there been a state that has received four hurricanes at once, and back in 1880, in Texas, where the last time it happened there were probably 100,000 people that lived there. We're a state of 17 million, and just about everybody's been impacted by the storm in one way or the other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: We have reporters stationed all along the storm's path. Let's begin with CNN's Sarah Dorsey on Hutchison Island, which ccan be considered kind of ground zero for this latest storm -- Sara.

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Fredricka. It was a one-two punch for the people here. And you can see here at the Ocean Rise condominiums that there was significant damage both from Frances and then from Jeanne. This used to be a sand dune that was across here, protecting these condominiums just a little bit with palm trees and things like that, and you can tell that now the water has washed all those palm trees in. In fact, I'm told the water was about up to your waist here last night. And you can see by looking in these apartments the damage that was brought in. There's feet of sand in there, and all the furniture was pushed to the back of those apartments, ripping off the side of the walls. You can even see animals in there. We saw some crabs and things like that. So really leaving these open to the elements.

And you know, you may wonder why anyone would ever choose to stay here. That's a big question, because this is a barrier island and this is exactly the area that people are told first to leave. And I'm joined now by Jay Stone.

And Jay, you along with three other people decided to stay here. And we know a lot of people now have been through hurricanes because in have been so many, but most people ride it out inland if they chose to stay in the state. Tell me what it was like for you all here when it came in.

JAY STONE, HUTCHINSON ISLAND RESIDENT: It was concerning. Scary, I wouldn't say so, but concerning, yes. To watch the windows breathe, if you will. The noise was quite loud. But the concerning part was wondering when the windows were going to shatter.

DORSEY: And you, luckily, did not listen to some of the warnings that were put out. You went ahead and boarded up your windows. So your home is safe. But that wasn't the case with Frances. You all didn't board up. How was that for you all?

STONE: Pretty much devastating. Frances, we lost all of our furniture, a lot of personal belongings. We lost everything in Frances.

DORSEY: So you're going to board up next time if another one comes through this area?

STONE: Oh, yes, definitely.

DORSEY: OK, Jay Stone, thank you very much. And you can just see, there is a lot of devastation in this area. This was exactly where the eye came through. And they were telling us, the interesting part is, that the eye itself was very calm, it's the winds that surround the eye that caused all of this damage and brought in so much sand. But absolutely sand the worst issue here, there's a lot of beach erosion. They're sure it's going to take a long time for them to get this stretch of beach back to normal -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Sara, are there any estimates as to how many people on Hutchison Island did decide to stay and ride out the storm?

DORSEY: We haven't gotten exact estimates. We've seen some people back in their homes now, and a lot of those we believe have -- did decide to stay because they kind of have many of the areas blocked off down here. In this particular building there were only four. And I asked, would you do it again? And the question that they posed back to me is -- What kind of hurricane are you talking about next time? And I said a category 3. They say yeah, we'll stay for a category 3, but a 4 they say you're going to be stupid and they'll get out if a category 4 comes through this area.

WHITFIELD: All right. They have to consider themselves lucky even for a category 3, however.

DORSEY: Yes they do.

WHITFIELD: Sara Dorsey, thanks so much, from Hutchison Island, Florida.

Let's check in with our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, for the latest on where the storm, now a tropical storm, is heading -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, METEOROLOGIST: Well Fredricka, it's right around Brooksville, Florida at this time. You can still kind of see the swirl or the center of circulation there. It has weakened considerably to a tropical storm and is still expected to continue to weaken over the next 24 hours. However, keep in mind we're still looking at 70 mile-per-hour winds, so that is nothing to sneeze at. And that can still cause power outages and also flooding will be a big concern as we head into the afternoon and evening hours.

We've see very little in way of tornados so far, but there have been a couple of warnings on and off throughout the late morning, early afternoon hours, and a tornado watch does remain in effect across much of northern Florida, extending up into southern parts of Georgia. And we may see that moved a little bit, we think, later on this afternoon, might even bump into parts of South Carolina.

The forecast track staying on put remaing a tropical storm and kind of scraping along the coastline, here. It might make it all the way into the open waters, but even if it does that, we don't really expect it to intensify back to hurricane strength. So, we're still looking at a tropical storm if it makes landfall again to the east of Tallahassee, then curving on up into Georgia, and then back into the Carolinas.

I want to give you a little bit of information, what you can still expect from a tropicical storm. Winds in a tropical storm range between 39 and 73 miles-per-hour. When winds are between 39 and 46 twigs begin to break off of trees. At 47 to 54 you start seeing some slight structural damage. From 53 to 63 small trees can be uprooted, and keep in mind, the ground where Jeanne is moving through is already very, very saturated. So you might see small to medium size trees being uprooted in this kind of wind. Sixty-four to 74 miles-per-hour we're looking at widespread structural damage. So this is still a significant storm, even though it's no longer a hurricane -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jacqui. Good reminders. Thanks so much.

Well, this is one of the worst hurricane seasons for one state to endure, and still just over two more months before the season officially ends. CNN's Anderson Cooper and Chad Myers rode out the storm in Melbourne, Florida as Jeanne came ashore, pounding them with heavy winds and rain. Here's a glimpse now of what it was like for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

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

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

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

COOPER: Please, Chad!

(LAUGHING)

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

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

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

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. That was a look of Melbourne, Florida with our Chad Myers and Anderson Cooper last night. Now take a look at what Melbourne looked like this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, welcome to the morning after. We're at the intersection of 192 and A1A. Take a look behind me here. You can see the officers out patrolling the area. The intersection itself did not fare that well. The lights are down all over this place, especially along A1A. They're dangling, and if they're not dangling, they're laying on the road.

As far as the buildings go, that's probably the good news here, because you can take a look. Eckerd's is still standing over that way, and a very popular surf company over here, the Long Board House, continues to stand although the sign is slightly disrupted. Over here is another surf shop, as well, but the windows are still intact. It appears from our initial outing here that a lot of buildings are still up, although a lot of awnings are down and a lot of roofs are down, as well.

This is the boardwalk at Indian Landing. We're taking a look at the Atlantic Ocean, obviously. This is obviously still standing. But the winds continue to be ferocious out here at 9:30 in the morning. There's plenty of beach erosion to be seen. We're looking at some docks that have been damaged, but some are still standing. There's a lot of debris out there on the beach. It's going to take a long time to start cleaning all of this off.

Melbourne Beach is another community that has been hit hard by this hurricane. Joing us now is the deputy fire chief, Dave Micah.

And Dave, tell us what you've seen out there so far.

DAVE MICAH, MELBOURNE DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF: Lots of downed trees, lots of roofs off houses. Typical of what we saw from Frances, maybe a little more damage. Downed power lines around town, lots of people out driving around that need to stay home. Please encourage your viewers to stay home, if they don't have an emergency, stay in their houses. They make it dangerous for themselves and for us because they're out drifgs around and there's a lot of hazards on the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What about calls? Have you guys gotten a lot of calls over the last 15, 20 hours?

MICAH: Not too bad. A lot of it, I think, is because the power lines are down, people are having trouble communicating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And is the power out everywhere you've been so far? MICAH: It's sporadic. That's why it's so dangerous to be out right now, because there's sections with power and sections without. Just because you don't have power where you are doesn't mean just down the street doesn't, or they don't have power do, and the lines that are down in there are hot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good. That's Dave Micah. That's the deputy fire chief here in Melbourne Beach. Again, it's been hit really rough, this beachside barrier island, and of course we're going to continue on and see what else we can find.

Of course some people are battling this with a little bit of humor. One of those is Raymond Haney (PH) here in Melbourne Beach.

And Raymond, you rode out the storm last night right here beachside. What was that like?

RAYMOND HANEY, MELBOURNE RESIDENT: Oh, it was noisy, is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: just noisy?

HANEY: Yeah, that's all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see some damage around here, as well.

HANEY: Well, I tell you, most of it was caused by the first hurricane. It just loosened everything up and you know, it just -- we tried to repair it as good as we could and you know. Wow. Worked all day yesterday. My nephew come over all the way from Denver Hills and tried to do emergency repairs. All that work, and we didn't get water in the house too much. We got some but mostly the garage. The water was pouring down in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it worth staying all night?

HANEY: Oh, god, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

HANEY: We (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the first hurricane, we handled that. The news had us -- you know, that everything on the beach was destroyed. We expected to come back to nothing, you know? And so we decided we're going to stay here and find out for ourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good. All right, I'm going to let you go. That's one of the many people that have stayed here despite that evacuation order. They're just tired of evacuating every time there's a hurricane. Of course we'll have much more as we head on down the beach.

And this was the real fear of emergency operations directors, because of scenes like this. Downed power lines and mobile homes completely destroyed. It is quite a scene to be seen around here along A1A. This is just south of Melbourne Beach, and you can see what these high winds did to a lot of these modular homes. They say some of this damage was done before, but not near to this extent. And you can see that the power lines, as well, have been knocked off of their poles and are laying all over the roadway. It is a mess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

That was a look at Melbourne, Florida. From there then hurricane Jeanne headed inland, made its way to Orlando. When we come right back, a look at Orlando, now today. You're looking at a live shot right now. With Eric Phillips when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hurricane Jeanne just grazed Orlando earlier today, bringing its gusty winds and heavy rains to that city. CNN's Eric Phillips joins us from Orlando with a look at the damage -- Eric.

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are continuing to feel some of those gusting winds now, although emergency management officials tell us the worst of the storm has indeed passed. There was a hurricane warning that was in effect until 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. Of course, that has now passed. Some teams are just starting to get out and try to survey and see what type of damage has been done.

Our own CNN team did go around town just a few minutes ago to take a look around and see what we saw and what we saw was some downed trees. Some streets blocked by tree limbs, tree branches, that type of thing. A few downed power lines, not too many of those, however, and that really jives with what emergency management officials have been telling us, that there are some 120, 130,000 people in the entire Orange County area that are without power at this hour. And most of them are in South Orange County, which is south of Orlando. So we haven't really seen much structural devastation here. The main concern was flooding. That hasn't been too much of an issue, at least, not that we've seen, and not that officials have been reporting to us. However, it is still too early really to tell. They have not had a chance to take a thorough look at the situation, but they can say from the outset that it already is better than they were expecting it to be.

They did say in a recent press briefing that there are teams organizing, teams of 35 that will be going out primarily to the coastal areas, the hardest-hit areas of Florida, those who have taken a beating from both Jeanne, Charley, as well as from all of the -- Ivan and all of the storms, all four of them, as a matter of fact. Sending those teams in sort of a rescue, search and rescue missions. Those will start to be dispatched over the next 12 to 24 hours, we're told.

Again, Jeanne is now a tropical storm. The worst of it, officials saying, we've seen here of course, moving on now to the Tampa Bay area. And now they're starting to sort of see what the storm left behind -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And I suppose, Eric, it'll still be some hours before the weather can clear up a little bit so that those teams can get out in a safe manner?

PHILIPS: I'm sorry. If you can repeat that, please? WHITFIELD: Does it seem as though it may be yet a few more hours before the weather dissipates some so that those teams can get out to do the jobs they're looking to do?

PHILIPS: Well, you know, the wind is still blowing here, and so -- and it feels -- it feels at some times there's longer periods -- it's kind of funny, Fredricka, how it's happened today. We've been out here since 6:00 this morning. What we've seen is the winds have been blowing pretty much all day long, and the rain's been falling, although it's not quite as bad now as it had been before. But in the beginning it started off where there were longer periods of peace in between the gusts of wind and the falling rain. And then toward the middle of the day, mid to late morning into early afternoon, the gusts were just coming every five minutes, every ten minutes, you'd feel it. And there were -- you know, it was the heavy rain and hard wind -- you know, coming much more often. Now we're seeing it start to go back to where it was earlier today, where the wind is still blowing and we'll still get gusts and the rain will still fall, but there's longer periods of lull in between. So I think they're waiting really for it to pass for those gusts to really die down and go completely before they send those teams out so they can really do the best job possible.

WHITFIELD: All right, makes a whole lot of sense. Thanks so much. Eric Philips in Orlando.

While thousands of Floridians obeyed evacuation orders there, were lots of others who decided to ride out the storm by staying at home. Andrea Hasburgh owns two homes in Indialantic, Florida, that's just south of Melbourne. She and her daughter toughed it out at home, and she joins us on the telephone -- Andrea.

ANDREA HASBURGH, INDIALANTIC RESIDENT: Yes.

WHITFIELD: What was your last night look?

HASBURGH: It was quite exciting. It was different than Frances, and it was just much, much stronger.

WHITFIELD: So during Frances, just three weeks ago, you stayed in your home then, as well?

HASBURGH: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Why didn't you decide to head the warnings both times now to evacuate?

HASBURGH: I guess I can -- I just felt safer at home. I felt that my house was built well and I had nothing to fear.

WHITFIELD: You're right there on the coast near the barrier islands, there.

HASBURGH: I'm within a block of the beach, yes.

WHITFIELD: OK. And you know, clearly, that alone makes it to be a very vulnerable spot. Knowing it was a category 3, why did you feel that your home was more likely to be able to withstand any kind of damage and it was safer for you to be at home?

HASBURGH: Possibly the way that the houses were built a long time ago. Sometimes when they were built out of the concrete block they would pour concrete down into the block areas and it would fill it up and make them very strong. And not only the exterior walls but the interior walls, also.

WHITFIELD: When you made your decision to stay, did any emergency workers come by knocking on the doors of your home or even neighbors to make a last-ditch plea to folks to move inland, to higher ground?

HASBURGH: No. As a matter of fact, a few of the neighbors decided to stay for this one.

WHITFIELD: And what was their experience like? Have you talked with them today?

HASBURGH: I did. And they found it very exciting. It was nerve-wracking, of course. Because when the wind comes across your (UNINTELLIGIBLE) across roofing and you're sitting inside, it sounds like horses running across your roof. It's quite amazing. It can be very scary, but at the same time I had faith that it would -- it would be OK.

WHITFIELD: Was there ever a moment overnight when you heard that howling wind...

HASBURGH: Oh, yes.

WHITFIELD: And the rain that you thought, "Uh-oh, I wish we would have moved?"

HASBURGH: No. I never thought that. I really never did, during either storm.

WHITFIELD: All right. Andrea Hasburgh, are you concerned now that perhaps given the next threatening storm that you may take it for granted, as well?

HASBURGH: I doubt it.

WHITFIELD: Because of your successful experiences, so far?

HASBURGH: No. No, I don't think so. I think I have to go on faith and I really believe that I was protected by god through this whole thing, so.

WHITFIELD: All right. Andrea Hasburgh in Indialantic. Thanks so much for joining us.

HASBURGH: Sure. Thank you. Bye.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, Nancy Alvarez is with WKMG and we join her report, right now. NANCY ALVAREZ, WKMG: Well, I'll tell you just a few minutes ago we had a break from the rain. We were so relieved, we were so happy. We took off our rain jackets and now we've learned our lesson the hard way because not three or four minutes later we are just getting pounded again with another band of rain and very strong winds.

Let's give you a live look at where we are here in Indialantic. Coco Beach is just to the north. The city of Melbourne is just to the west. You're look at the beach here once again in the small town of Indialantic, here on the coast. Significant beach erosion in this area, and you can actually see as the wind just carries the sand from one direction to the other as the wind continues to shift.

What you're looking at here use to be a boardwalk. It used to be a beautiful walkway where people would walk and look out into the ocean, of course not anymore. The wind and rain and waves that we had last night just pounded this boardwalk here and crushed it right into the sand, as you can see. A lot of devastation in this area in terms, again, of beach erosion and of damage to these walkways. But I'll tell you, that's not stopping people from coming out. A lot of people are very curious. They're tired from being cooped up in their homes all night. And they're working their way out to the beach to see the damage for themselves. We bumped into Mike here, who I actually found riding his bike through this.

Mike, you did not evacuate, correct?

MIKE, INDIALANTIC RESIDENT: I did not. I left for Frances and came back to much of the same thing. I decided to stick it out here with the community this time. A lot of other people were staying. I knew that was probably a dangerous situation, but I just felt compelled to stay this time.

ALVAREZ: Are you suffering from what we're all suffering from, hurricane fatigue?

MIKE: Yeah, two in a row in the same place. That is staggering. I think people are just stunned. I'm stunned. It's a phenomenon that just can't be explained. I don't know.

ALVAREZ: You've worked your way around this area quite a bit, I know. And, tell me what you're seeing in terms of damage. I'm hearing from emergency managers and law enforcement that we were lucky, again. Not a lot of structural damage.

MIKE: Not a lot of major structural damage. I see a lot of roofs peeled back, a lot of tiles gone, power lines down, transformers knocked over, signs for businesses that have shattered and missing. So yeah, not a lot of major damage, but look at the beach. My gosh, it's going to take a tremendous amount of money and work to get this anywhere close to what it was before.

ALVAREZ: It really is. Thank you, Mike. And the beach is certainly a very sad sight for the people who know this area and love these beaches because I'll tell you, you know, this is what Florida is famous for, and this is not what it usually looks like, folks. This is really a nightmare out here in terms of the beach erosion, as I said.

The damage he was talking about is just what is making it really dangerous for people to be working their way on the streets out here. Again, people are curious, they're tired, they want to get some fresh air. But the message is for people to stay home because the driving conditions are really dangerous right now and again, something else we want to bring up is the causeways here. There are five major causeways that are really the major arteries for the barrier islands and the mainland. We know that who have reopened so far, officially. The rest we're still checking the integrity of those causeways for safety before all those people that evacuated can come back to the barrier islands to see -- for their homes, to see about their businesses and to see what Jeanne did to us. Of course, round 2 after Frances did much of the same just over two weeks ago. Back to you all.

WHITFIELD: A lot of weary Floridians. Thanks so much, Nancy Alvarez of WKMG in Indialantic.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Residents in Fort Pierce, Florida were still cleaning up the widespread damage from Hurricane Frances when Hurricane Jeanne made landfall just north of that city. CNN's Gary Tuchman has ridden out both storms in and around Fort Pierce, and he joins us now by phone with the very latest. And Gary, this is deja vu all over again for you, isn't it?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Fredricka, it really is. And when you say ridden out the storm, we're literally doing it now. We're riding out, checking out in our car what has gone on, surveying the damage. And you pointed out something very interesting, that this is so unusual in the sense that when we're looking at the damage even though we were here in the exact same spot in Fort Piece three weeks ago for Hurricane Frances, it's not immediately clear if the damage that we see comes from Hurricane Frances, comes from Hurricane Jeanne, or comes from both.

In a lot of cases when we ask it definitely does come from both. Right now we're driving past a mobile home park. And the heavy damage to the roofs of this mobile home park, we're asking people when and where did the damage occur, and they're saying during both hurricanes. This is so unusual because this is something to consider, that we have the eye of Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne pass over the exact same point in Martin County, Florida near Stewart three weeks apart almost to the exact hour, the eye crossed.

This area has never before in recorded weather history gotten the eye of a hurricane. And then twice in three weeks the same area gets it. And not only that, but the practical concern people have here is they have damage twice. And I can tell you the damage that we're seeing as we're driving around here in St. Lucy County, Florida just north of Martin County -- by the way, this is where the northern part of the eye went over, so it was virtually calm here for 2.25 hours last night, and then the winds picked up again.

But what we're seeing is extensive damage but not a lot of catastrophic damage and that's something we've said over the last three hurricanes over the last six weeks, that there is limited catastrophic damage, and frankly the reason for that is because of the relatively strict construction standards that you see here in the state of Florida since Hurricane Andrew passed through. We've seen what's happened in Haiti, and Jeanne was only a tropical storm when it went through Haiti.

The station, obviously because the construction standards and other kinds of standards are different in Haiti. Here the standards are very strict, and that in cooperation with the fact that people have been listening to the warnings from the National Hurricane Center, from members of the news media like us has kept the death toll relatively low. Obviously, there have been deaths and injuries from the four hurricanes but it's a lot lower than it would have, could have been without all the things I just mentioned -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Gary, while you made the distinction that it's difficult to discern the damage between what Frances may have done and Jeanne may have done, your experience overnight, how different or similar was it from the experience three weeks ago?

TUCHMAN: This was a more powerful hurricane than Hurricane Frances. And I estimated it lasted 17 hours, we had hurricane force winds or tropical storm force winds, picked up tropical storm force winds about 5:00 in the afternoon, didn't end until 10:00, 11:00 this morning. The only part of that 17 hours where we didn't have winds of over 40 miles per hour was when the eye came through here for 2.25 hours between about midnight and 2:15.