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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Isabel Makes Landfall

Aired September 18, 2003 - 17:00   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.


WOLF BLITZER, HOST: It's just beginning here in the nation's capital. The rain has arrived definitely, wind gusts approaching 30 miles an hour. It's going to get a lot worse in the coming hours.
Here in the nation's capital where the streets are virtually empty the federal government has virtually shut down.

Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Isabel arrives.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is not a good place to be right now.

BLITZER: Crashing ashore, sweeping inland putting cities under siege. The nation's capital waits nervously, a ghost town. President Bush is headed to the hills.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Of course I'll be monitoring the situation.

BLITZER: And even when the worst has passed it's the day after that has most people worried.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People driving out in what they thought was two or three inches of water and end up in a ditch six feet deep.

BLITZER: From storm surge to blackouts to air travel alert.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ...ran outside and saw the roof of the hotel next door flying off.

BLITZER: Convoy attack, troops under fire and a pipeline on fire, we're on the scene in Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, EYE OF THE STORM, ISABEL STRIKES.

BLITZER: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington where the rain is now only just beginning. It's about to get a whole lot worse here in the nation's capital. There were pounding rains, fierce storms all along the North Carolina coast as well as in Virginia. Here's what this huge storm has done so far.

Isabel unleashing monster waves against the Atlantic Beach and other areas along the North Carolina coast. The storm made landfall around 1:00 p.m., four hours or so ago. This storm has also triggered high surf and widespread flooding. Most beach homes built on stilts escaped the flooding but not those on ground level.

Isabel's top winds of 95 miles an hour are knocking down power lines as the storm marches inland. Tens of thousands are without power in Virginia Beach and other areas of Virginia.

We have correspondents covering the story up and down the coast of North Carolina and Virginia. We'll be getting to all of them shortly.

Here's some additional information, the very latest on what we know right now on Hurricane Isabel, this coming in from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The center of Isabel is about 40 miles east southeast of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. It's moving toward the northwest about 24 miles an hour. Isabel is expected to turn to the north northwest and move across eastern Virginia toward western Pennsylvania over the coming 24 hours Isabel, as I said, packing top winds of about 90 miles an hour.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve right in the middle of things right now, she's joining us live from Virginia Beach, Virginia -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we can certainly feel her getting closer here. The winds and the rain have really picked up. The head of emergency operations in the city of Norfolk has worked there 32 years. He says he has never seen hurricane conditions in his city as bad as he has seen them today.

The picture tells the story. We can show you the surf here has really been quite amazing. Ordinarily the water is about 50 to 75 yards away. The tide has been going down for four hours. The water is pressing up here against the sea wall and the storm surge is yet to come.

We've seen some roofs blow off here on the waterfront. We've seen some windows blown out and the damage hasn't only been right here along the coast. We have some footage to show you, property a little further inland, lots of trees down, some power down.

It's so bad that the city of Virginia Beach has ordered its emergency responders off the street. Police, fire, EMS are not responding to calls except life threatening one and even those are being evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The city says they may not be back out on the street until after midnight because it is simply too dangerous here. That has not stopped some people from coming out, however. We see constantly people walking up and down this boardwalk and people going out into the water to try and experience the surf, quite amazing -- Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: Jeanne Meserve in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Jeanne be careful over there. We'll be getting back to you throughout this hour, indeed throughout the night.

In North Carolina lots of water, lots of flooding already, lots of lights already out. CNN's John Zarrella joining us now live from Elizabeth City via videophone -- John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Wolf.

Well it's about as bad as it has been here all day. It started to really come in on us at about three o'clock this afternoon. We have been under the gun here in Elizabeth City ever since.

Part of the side of this bank building that we are in came -- that we are hiding under came off shortly after three o'clock. There are tins roofs on a lot of buildings that have come off, the aluminum and the tin flying through the streets.

The bank sign is off. Mailboxes are tipped over. Windows are broken. There are power lines down. There is aluminum stuck in power lines swinging through the air and now the water, as we thought would happen here, from the Pasquotank River is beginning to overflow.

I don't know if you can see it on the shot put. The water is blowing right in off the Pasquotank River on to the streets. Waves are pounding against the boardwalk there and against the pilings.

It has really deteriorated here on two fronts. We have the wind damage now, some fairly substantial wind damage, and we also have some fairly substantial flooding that's beginning to occur here in Elizabeth City -- Wolf.

BLITZER: John, about an hour or so ago you startled, you scared a lot of us when we saw a two-by-four flying across the road. You were obviously very concerned about your photographer, your cameraman. How dangerous is all the debris that seems to be flying around where you are right now?

ZARRELLA: It's considerably dangerous. We are underneath, for the most part, this drive-thru bank but if you're out on the street there is razor sharp pieces of aluminum flying and actually that piece of wood was a piece of plywood that someone had used on the side to protect their windows that had been ripped off by the wind and was flying through the air that piece of plywood.

But, yes, it's considerably dangerous for anyone to be out here right now and now compounding this wind problem, as I mentioned is this growing danger of the rising water as the storm pushes the Pasquotank River in on top of us -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's John Zarrella covering the story for us in North Carolina. John, be careful over there, thanks very much.

Let's go out to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. CNN's Susan Candiotti joining us now from Kill Devil Hills, she's on the scene for us -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf.

Well, we are seeing some traffic out here driving along Route 12 which goes along the ocean north and south here on the Outer Banks.

Just behind me you can see houses like these seem to have made out all right, many of them around here built on stilts, but of course it's far too early to have a damage assessment. We did hear about one house where just the A-frame is down on the ground in a neighborhood about ten miles north of here.

I'm going to cross the street here just in front of this car to get across to tell you that we've had driving rains and strong winds, of course, throughout the day as Hurricane Isabel said hello here to Kill Devil Hills. Not much flooding, there is no flooding on this street here.

Well, we took a drive earlier today. I'm going to roll some of that videotape for you now where we saw at least a foot if not more of water covering Route 12 just about a mile north of where we're located here and we saw a lot of debris.

You really had to pick your way through there, be very careful. If you're driving a car, forget it, of course you shouldn't be out to begin with but four-wheel drives are about the only thing that could get through.

Back here at the motel where we're staying they lost power. Of course, they've lost power throughout much if not all of Kill Devil Hills but here too. But as I make my way across the parking lot here I can show you that this motel too did not escape damage.

Take a quick look over here. You can see a lot of the siding from the building fell off giving a lot of people quite a bit of a scare but everyone has made their way through it and just have to get through the rest of it having lost power but it appears that really the storm, the worst of it is over with now, just a matter of assessing the damage and cleaning up -- back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Susan Candiotti in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Even if the worst is over with still plenty of dangers out there from flooding from downed power lines. Don't necessarily go out yet.

CNN's veteran hurricane correspondent Jeff Flock on the scene for us as he always is during these natural disasters. He's in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. He's joining us live -- Jeff.

FLOCK: Indeed, Wolf, we were among the first to get it here as it began to roll in and fortunately now, just like for Susan Candiotti, the worst, most of the worst is over and the worst fortunately is not so bad. Another camera kind of gives you some indication of the kind of damage out here. That includes shingles off of roofs, some siding ripped off of buildings, the skirts off of mobile homes, that sort of thing, no catastrophic damage but then we wouldn't have expected that in a category two storm.

I want to take you out to this pier. We've been having an eye on this all day because there have been some tremendous breakers out there. I don't know if you can see out there, Wolf, is a wooden pier here in Atlantic Beach did withstand all of the pounding of the surf and I'll tell you there was some incredible waves.

We walked out there earlier today. There were waves completely over washing that pier and I'll tell you one more thing before we get away sort of interesting to look at if Steve is able to get it. I don't now if you're able to follow me along but because so much white water whipped up, take a look at this stuff.

This is sort of like, I don't know if it's called flotsam or what it is but it's sort of like jellylike stuff and it's everywhere on the beach here, the remnants of Isabel as she moves on to the north from here. It was quite a ride today, though, in Atlantic Beach and again, Wolf, the good kind of hurricane so far the one that hasn't done catastrophic damage -- back to you.

BLITZER: Jeff, you've covered a lot of these hurricanes for our viewers on CNN around the world. Give us a little comparison. How does this one, Isabel, compare with some of the other hurricanes you've covered?

FLOCK: Well, I would liken this to kind of a Hurricane Bertha, another category two storm that gave you a lot of good wind. I mean, you know, something if you like hurricanes you like to experience the power of nature but you don't want to be in a Hurricane Hugo or Hurricane Andrew, a catastrophic storm that does all sorts of that damage.

We wouldn't all be standing out here and reporting in the way that we have today in a storm like that. We would be hunkered down somewhere and we'd be reporting on the aftermath. These are the fun kind of hurricanes to cover that don't do any real harm to anybody, at least they haven't -- this one hasn't so far.

BLITZER: All right, Jeff Flock doing a super job for all of our viewers. Jeff, as usual, thanks very much.

The storm's effects are being felt all up and down the eastern seaboard. Millions of people lie in the path of Hurricane Isabel. Let's get the latest on where this tropical storm, unless it's still a hurricane, is moving right now.

CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano joining us from the CNN Weather Center. What exactly is it right now Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, it's still a hurricane, Wolf, winds to 90 miles an hour, so still a strong category one hurricane and we anticipate it to continue to be that for the next couple of hours.

It will decrease in intensity quite rapidly as now it is heading over land. These latest stats at the hurricane center and, of course, we'll highlight to you where the center of this thing is.

It is onshore, 40 miles to the east southeast of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. That's right on the border and this thing is picking up steam and as it is moving to the northwest at 24 miles an hour.

We do anticipate tropical storm force winds to be extended all the way to Pennsylvania at least in wind gusts and the other issue with this thing is that we have a tornado watch out up and down to the right quadrant of this particular storm. That is typical for hurricanes. The right side of them could produce tornadoes, at least for tonight.

It will weaken throughout the day tomorrow but could see wind gusts in D.C. tomorrow to 30 miles an hour. We're seeing them right now to close to 50 miles an hour in Washington, D.C. but what we're seeing also is a pretty strong southwesterly component in the upper level of the atmosphere.

That is what's picking up this thing. That is why it is moving rapidly to the northwest now at 24 miles an hour and that is good news, Wolf, because the heaviest rains will not remain over one period for a long period of time.

So we shouldn't see as drastic amount of flooding as we originally thought. We just hope it continues to pick up steam but folks in the path of this thing in the next 24 hours, D.C., even Philadelphia and New York will feel the effects of this as well.

BLITZER: CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano, even though this hurricane is clearly going down, downgraded a little bit, it's still very dangerous. Don't take any chances to our viewers out there.

Here's your chance to weigh in on this important story right now. Our web question of the day is this. "Who should pay for rebuilding homes and businesses damaged by Isabel, property owners, insurance companies, government"? We'll have the results later in this broadcast but you can vote right now at cnn.com/wolf.

While you're there I'd love to hear directly from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also where you, of course, can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.

Isabel has now arrived with a flourish. It's beginning to cause serious damage in North Carolina, Virginia, will be moving northward as we know. Just ahead, we'll get you up to the minute forecasts for the entire area of Isabel's path from two CNN meteorologists, the state of Virginia taking it on the chin from this storm. I'll speak live with Virginia Governor Mark Warner.

And your host in his element, I hit the streets of D.C. earlier today as you can see, not very gracefully, my adventures just ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Washed out in North Carolina, indeed all the way up the coast to Atlantic City, New Jersey this hurricane is moving. Here in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital it's happening right now Isabel's wrath only beginning to make its punch felt.

What weather will the major metropolitan areas along the eastern seaboard face? We'll have that and much more, all of that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at Hurricane flags. They're flying over Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina still packing quite a punch.

With Isabel on the way, President Bush and the first lady wasted no time heading for the hills literally, the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland. That's where Camp David is. He's at the Camp David retreat right now where he met earlier today with Jordan's King Abdullah.

The president says he's monitoring the storm situation. Washington, D.C., of course, usually a bustling city with traffic, tourists, TV cameras, lawmakers today it's anything but.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Now, a virtual ghost town as citizens and visitors prepare for Isabel. The federal government is shut down. Only essential personnel required to show up for work.

The Metro subway system locked up. Many commuters, some high profile, relying on Amtrak trains to get them out of town but those trains are heading only in one direction, north, away from Isabel.

GEORGE MITCHELL, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: With the storm coming I was scheduled to leave later today but I decided to move it up as was everyone else leaving town.

BLITZER: The streets increasingly quiet. Shops in fashionable Georgetown closed. Paddleboats usually full of tourists float empty, tied down to weather the storm. The runway at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland silent, even Air Force One moved inland.

(on camera): Normally the parking lot here at the tidal basin would be packed but look at this, no cars, no tourists, no government workers, no politicians, no nobody, everyone in the nation's capital, including me getting ready for Isabel.

(voice-over): Still, there was some activity including a few brave or foolish tourists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We buy (unintelligible)...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A kite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A kite. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wants to buy a kite to fly the kite during the hurricane.

BLITZER: Construction crews building barricades along the Washington Harbor business district. The owner of Jack's Boathouse on the Potomac finishes his preparations saying the worst trouble will come after Isabel passes.

FRANK BAXTER, JACK'S BOATHOUSE: And we're anticipating a real flood which is going to be probably two days after the storm from up river.

BLITZER: At the D.C. Department of Public Works a fairly disorganized attempt to hand out free sandbags.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's coming. I can feel some of the wind now. It's coming. So, I'm already prepared for it. I got my camera. I got my flashlights and my batteries and everything at the house. I got plenty of water and juices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have sandbags?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got plenty of sandbags too. You know I got that.

BLITZER: The line of cars stretching as far as the eye can see, each waiting for the allotted seven half full sandbags.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And right now, the rain beginning to come down quite seriously here in Washington, D.C. It's going to get a lot worse in the coming hours. Isabel's impact has already been felt all up and down the eastern seaboard. North Carolina and Virginia coasts already hit hard.

Now she's inland as well and I'll speak live with Virginia Governor Mark Warner on how his state is responding.

The most riveting images of the hurricane's wrath, we'll have incredible pictures to show you.

And, a group of U.S. soldiers venturing into dangerous territory in Iraq, they come under attack. We'll tell you where it was, what happened, all that and much more. Stay with us. Our special coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Think it wasn't a day to play with sandcastles on the beach? Think again. These kids did it in Wrightsville Beach. That's in North Carolina. I don't know what their parents were thinking at the time.

All day long we've been showing you dramatic images of this hurricane, this Hurricane Isabel coming ashore. I want to bring our viewers up to speed. Here's a sample of what we saw throughout the day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: As I'm sure our viewers can tell, the situation has progressively gotten worse during the last two or three hours here in Elizabeth City. The few cars -- watch out for the piece of wood! Watch out!

Plywood flying down the street now, I just want to make sure that my cameraman John Cowles (ph) is out of the shot there. I didn't know which way that piece of plywood was flying but as you folks can tell, I'm sure quite graphically now the situation here is that certainly we are under the gun now in Elizabeth City from Hurricane Isabel.

FLOCK: It could be that there's this either secondary wall, eye wall at the back of it which looks like perhaps as intense or maybe even perhaps more intense than what we're dealing with right now. As we were saying throughout the morning it certainly could have been a lot worse.

But right now a category two storm really with the most intense part of the eye wall (unintelligible). It is all that you want to have out here on the beach in North Carolina.

KOCH: The winds right now are well over 70 miles an hour. That's my best guess. I don't have any instruments to measure them right now but the worst is yet to come. We're on the northeast side of the hurricane.

As we have already seen pieces of debris from roofs flying off. We have reports from the Virginia Beach fire department that a pier ten blocks from here, the end of a pier has been ripped off. It's being battered by the high seas. We also have reports a couple of roofs being peeled back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: I want to thank all of our intrepid correspondents for their excellent and very courageous reporting throughout this day, this hurricane far from over. If you've been thinking about traveling today, especially on the East Coast of the United States, you might want to think again about it.

It's probably not going to happen and there could be, already has been a serious ripple effect in other parts of the country, in the Mid West, even in the West Coast, of course even in the south.

CNN's Patty Davis is covering these stories for us. She's over at the FAA headquarters in nearby Herndon, Virginia -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This is the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Herndon, Virginia and, in fact, they're feeling the effects of the hurricane. They just took a power hit. The lights flickered but they are back on.

Now, here's what air traffic control command is trying to do right now to route these planes. You can see Hurricane Isabel on this screen. They are rooting traffic now around the west of Hurricane Isabel. When the hurricane moves more inland they plan to then start moving traffic at least from New York to Florida back around the east over the water when it becomes safe once again.

Now, there are delays out there because of this hurricane. We see DSW, that's unrelated that actually at Dallas Fort Worth as a thunderstorm affecting that area and we're seeing delays, in fact a ground stop in place right there. No flights allowed to come in.

Also, delays at LaGuardia and Philadelphia. We're also seeing a few airports with few flights. We're talking airports like Norfolk, Raleigh-Durham, Newport News, Richmond, Washington Dulles, and Baltimore Washington International Airport. Many of those airports have no commercial flights taking off or coming in.

Now, we are also told that Reagan National Airport is closed and that airport authorities say that it soon may be closing Dulles Airport as well. Now, if you do have a flight later today or tomorrow, the FAA and the airlines are advising you make sure you call your airline to make sure that that flight is still happening -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Patty Davis covering air traffic for us. She's in Herndon, Virginia. That's just outside Washington, D.C.

Isabel hammering the East Coast of the United States whipping up the sea and shore but this isn't the end. Tornadoes, yes tornadoes may be spawned in the aftermath. We'll have the latest forecast.

And, as Virginia takes a beating, we'll talk to Governor Mark Warner about plans to help residents.

Later, we'll go live to Baghdad as attacks against coalition troops are stepping up. Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER (voice-over): Suspect killer, Swedish police have results from DNA testing that they hope will link a jailed suspect to the killing of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. Lindh died after being stabbed while shopping in a Stockholm store last week. A memorial is set for tomorrow.

Fast plane, slow ride, things started going wrong for a Concorde jetliner when it experienced a scary backfire over the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from New York to Britain. It then dropped from supersonic to subsonic speed. Next was an unscheduled landing in Wales because of low fuel. Passengers finally arrived in London by bus 10 hours after taking off on a flight that normally takes about three hours.

Stripped down Beatles. That's what Paul McCartney says about a new digital version of a Beatles classic, "Let It Be." It features most of the same songs but the music is stripped of the lavish production effects after the songs were recorded in 1969.

"Let it Be Naked" is to be released in November. Virgin dance. More than 10,000 Zulu virgins took part in the ancient royal reed dance in South Africa. Young women presented their reeds to Zulu king goodwill. Legend has it if the reed breaks the girl is not a virgin. On this festive occasion, none broke.

And that's our look around the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The pier at Virginia Beach in Virginia, so far holding up under the hurricane. We're continuing to watch this pier.

Welcome back to our special coverage of Hurricane Isabel. We'll take you back out to the eye of the storm in a moment.

First, though, let's get a look at some other news making headlines right now.

At least two American soldiers were wounded in Iraq when their Humvee drove over an explosive device. The U.S. force then came under heavy small arms fire. The area north of Baghdad is a stronghold of Saddam Hussein loyalists.

The FAA is investigating a near collision between an American Airlines jetliner and three military fighter jets. It happened 29,000 feet over Oklahoma Tuesday.

When the collision alarm system sounded on American flight 490, the pilot dropped the plane about 100 feet. Four people onboard were slightly injured. Flight 490 landed safely at its destination, St. Louis.

CNN's parent company has a new name. The board of AOL-Time Warner voted to drop AOL. It will now be called Time Warner Inc., as it was before the merger was announced in 2000. The chief executive says the new name will avoid confusion between the corporate name and the AOL brand name.

Powerful Hurricane Isabel pounding North Carolina and Virginia. Heavy winds, fierce winds all up and down the East Coast.

As it moves inland, this Hurricane Isabel roared on land earlier today, about four and a half hours or so ago, kicking up huge waves, huge waves, as it pounded the shores up and down the coast.

For the latest, we have correspondents standing by in all key locations. Let's begin, though, with CNN's Jeanne Meserve. She's joining us once again from Virginia Beach, Virginia -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's probably won't surprise you to hear that a lot of people -- the latest number we have heard -- in the Hampton roads area are without power. Power lines are coming down all over, in some cases trees are coming down on top of those power lines.

The winds here have gotten incredibly intense. The rain almost feels like -- on your skin. It's coming in hard. We are on the boardwalk here, but many people are wearing eye protection, either snorkel masks or ski goggles, to protect their eyes from the force of the rain and wind here, which is really -- we're told by authorities in Newport News that they had a situation today where there was structural damage to a 14-story apartment building that held elderly and disabled people.

BLITZER: All right. It looks like we've lost Jeanne Meserve. We'll try to get her back, obviously, when we can.

But let's go on the phone now to Richmond, Virginia. That's the capital of the commonwealth of Virginia. The governor is joining us once again, as he did earlier today, Mark Warner.

Governor Warner, tell us exactly how much damage this Hurricane Isabel has already done to your state.

GOV. MARK WARNER, VIRGINIA: Well, we're seeing damage reports come in, particularly from the eastern end of the state, and the Hampton Roads area where the reporters were making their calls. And we still haven't seen the final storm surge, along with the high tide, that may result in some major flooding in cities like Norfolk and Portsmouth.

We're continuing to get out our responders. We're approaching, quickly, close to a million people without power in the state, and we are still -- got through the worst period of the storm, which will process from about now in Hampton roads into the early evening in Richmond.

BLITZER: So, is it worse than you expected, not as bad as you expected, or about what you expected?

WARNER: It is about what we expected, having -- sitting through with some of these emergency responders who have been through 10, 20, 30 of these storms. They say this is a bad one, but they say that's what they expected.

We will end up seeing, particularly with the storm surge in Hampton Roads, whether we end up with high water that surpasses the 1933 hurricane of record. That's still a very, very real possibility.

BLITZER: What's the most dangerous part of this hurricane right now, Governor?

WARNER: The most dangerous part is the threat of the storm surge down in Hampton Roads. Both along the shorelines and along communities along the bay, the Elizabeth River, the York River and the Potomac, even, in terms of high tides and storm surge together.

That's a clear and present danger, and then we also will have danger in terms of flash flooding in low-lying areas in the central part of the state.

BLITZER: A million people already without power in the commonwealth of Virginia. Governor Warner, good luck you to. Good luck to everybody in Virginia. Thanks very much for joining us. We'll check back with you when we can.

Let's check in with our other correspondents, our reporters up and down the eastern seaboard.

CNN's Ed Lavandera. He's joining us live from North Carolina.

Ed, first of all, tell us viewers where you are and what's happening?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are on the northern edge of Topsail Island, North Carolina.

This part of North Carolina has always been on the -- what was supposed to have been the southern edge of Hurricane Isabel, and quite frankly, perhaps the best place to be as Hurricane Isabel continues to move north up through Virginia.

These dunes are in place along these islands, for example, to keep the storm surge away from flooding into the homes that are on this island. This is a very thin island. And of course, flooding had been a concern.

A lot of people were boarding up windows here in preparations for the storms and taking things off the lower levels of their homes, moving then upward. But that fear has subsided here as the storm surge not quite breaking over these dunes.

We have driven northward from here, back up toward Morehead City and also toward Newbern (ph), checking out the scene today. We saw a few downed power lines, some streets littered with debris, a few areas that were slightly flooded, as well.

But by all means, I think the people in this part of North Carolina feel very lucky that they have been able to escape with very minimal damage at this point. In fact, many of the towns that we drove through, the street lights were still working. So whereas a lot of people are without power tonight, this part of North Carolina seems to be holding up very well, Wolf.

BLITZER: At least in that part of North Carolina, it could have been, obviously, a lot worse. CNN's Ed Lavandera on the scene for us. Thanks very much.

CNN's Kris Osborn is joining us now, live from Richmond. That's the capital of Virginia.

We just heard from the governor, telling us that this is a hurricanes that's already caused a lot of damage, about what they expected. What else are you hearing, Kris?

KRIS OSBORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And in fact, the damage that the governor talked about is evident on streets here.

I'm in a residential area in Richmond. And as you can see, there's a large tree that has gone across this street here. It's very much indicative of what we've been seeing throughout this neighborhood: a lot of downed power lines, a lot of fallen debris, some sporadic gusts of wind, carrying at times small twigs and sometimes acorns, things of that nature.

Trucks have been driving through the neighborhood to try and find downed power lines. Some roads have been closed. Of course, an abundance of caution here. Something, of course, the governor talked about as well.

And I'm joined here by Sean Carithers, who lives in the neighborhood. And perhaps the toughest hurricane dweller of them all, his dog Chance. Hello and welcome.

SEAN CARITHERS, RICHMOND RESIDENT: Hi, how are you?

OSBORN: How are things going for you?

CARITHERS: It's windy, but it's a storm. It's the strongest storm we've seen in a while.

OSBORN: Did you board up your home, your cellar, anything of that sort?

CARITHERS: Most of the homes are brick. So, they've been around for a long time.

OSBORN: What about work. Did you miss work today and have more time to spend with Chance?

CARITHERS: I went to work for half the day and then came home and took care of the dog.

OSBORN: It seems by and large that people, at least in this community, are holding up pretty well.

CARITHERS: Yes. Most of the houses here, again, are all brick. And the biggest threat we have is the trees, because we had such a wet summer. And a lot of the trees like the one down the street are falling down.

OSBORN: What about Chance? Is she holding up well, too?

CARITHERS: Yes. She's having a great time.

OSBORN: Thank you very much, and thanks, as well, to Chance for joining us live.

So Wolf, that's the latest from here in Richmond. Back to you.

BLITZER: Kris Osborn. With that, Kris, thanks very much.

I want our viewers to pay attention what's behind me. You see a street. That's H Street. Normally at this time, that street would be bumper to bumper rush hour traffic. Look at it right now. You see no cars virtually on the streets of Washington. Even in the past 40 minutes we've been on the air live in Washington, the rain beginning to come down seriously, the wind now beginning to have an effect on this area. Already parts of suburban Washington and Bethesda Maryland, in particular, power down at least in some residential areas.

We're watching what's going on in the nation's capital now. We have a lot more news coming up, including flooding along the Potomac River, not far from where I am right now, another possible effect from Hurricane Isabel. We'll take you live to the river's edge.

Plus fresh attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. We're live in Baghdad. Stay with us. Much more coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Look out below. Pieces of the Seahawk Hotel roof went airborne as Isabel hit Virginia Beach this afternoon.

Welcome back to our continuing coverage. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington, D.C., where things are beginning to get nasty here in the nation's capital.

I want our viewers to take a look. Not far from me, along Washington, I want our camera to focus in on a roof. This is an office building not very far away. You can see problems beginning to develop right there, as some of the shingles, some of the top of that roof looks like it could blow any time soon. We're going to continue to watch that roof.

We're going to continue to watch all of the developments, but let's get the latest on the storm. Our meteorologist, Rob Marciano and Brad Huffines, joining us now live from the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta.

Let's begin with you, Rob.

MARCIANO: Wolf, winds are picking up in D.C. but across Norfolk as well. Here is the center of the storm, and as we look toward the circulation, winds out of the north right now in Washington, D.C., at 58 miles an hour. That is the official wind gust. And we expect that to pick up as we go on throughout the night.

All right. The track of this thing remains the same, off to the northwest. But it is moving quickly now at 24 miles an hour, still a hurricane. The most powerful part of the storm will be in the right- hand quadrant. Well, tonight there could be some tornadoes. There's a tornado watch out for that part of the storm.

And also the threat for flooding. We have seen already a four to five inches of estimated rainfall in extreme northeast North Carolina, but we expect less flooding as this thing picks up steam, Wolf. The other issue is going to be storm surge.

BLITZER: All right. Rob Marciano, thanks very much.

Brad Huffines is also following, tracking this hurricane. Let's -- tell us what you know right now about it -- Brad.

BRAD HUFFINES, CNN METEOROLOGIST: An air photo from Keyhole.com, Wolf, shows an interesting thing. Let's go ahead and show that now. In fact, you can see it now. You're seeing the winds out of the southeast approaching and going to the northwest up the Potomac River.

As this storm continues to blow towards Washington, what's going to happen is the Potomac, which normally flows this way past and through Washington, D.C., and down into the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac might actually and will slow down. And as the Potomac slows down the flow and tries to drain all of the rain that is falling, it may surprise a lot of you that parts of Constitution Avenue, just in front of the White House, are only about 11 feet or so above sea level in this area. That means that what's going to happen is as the rains continue to fall, the rains are going to have trouble draining out of the city, Wolf.

So traveling in and around Washington is going to be tough tonight, because of the heavy rains keeping the Potomac very high.

BLITZER: Do we know that from first-hand experience already. It's about to get worse here in the nation's capital. We'll all be very careful as we monitor the effects of Hurricane Isabel here in Washington.

Brad Huffines, thanks very much.

Our other meteorologist, Rob Marciano, thanks to you, as well.

We'll be checking in with both of you throughout the evening here on CNN.

When we come back, we'll also check in on what's happening in Iraq. Right now, it's not pretty. Once again, a U.S. convoy ambushed, Iraqis dancing in the streets. We're live in Baghdad.

And this powerful storm brings, of course, powerful images. We'll take a closer look at Isabel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

This just in to CNN. President Bush has just declared a major disaster in North Carolina. As a result, he's ordering federal aid to supplement existing aid from the state for local communities.

President Bush declaring a major disaster in North Carolina. We'll see what he does in Virginia and elsewhere in the coming hours.

We're going to get back to Hurricane Isabel in just a few moments, but let's check some other important news developing today around the world, especially in Iraq, where there was a major gun battle involving U.S. troops and Iraqis and other Iraqis. As a result Iraqis were dancing in the street.

Let's bring in our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson. He's joining us live in Baghdad -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, an attack in the middle of the so-called Sunni triangle, the area that's become one of the most dangerous for U.S. troops in Iraq.

The attack took place on a day when some Iraqis in the area had accused U.S. troops of shooting up a funeral, killing a young boy and injuring four people. The coalition certainly doesn't confirm that incident.

The shooting today, however, took place right between the restive towns of Fallujah and Ramadi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): On fire and taking fire, a rare glimpse of a now common event, a U.S. convoy under attack in the so-called Sunni triangle.

Hours later, after a rescue, reinforcements pull out of the town of Kaldir. Immediately after, with pictures of Saddam Hussein carried aloft, young men rushed forward to claim victory, although not in the name of Saddam Hussein.

"These attacks are not from outside the country, and are not from Saddam's army," local resident Shakir (ph) says. "They are by honorable people from around this area."

From firing weapons, to showing charred remains of U.S. trucks, everyone finding their own way to celebrate.

(on camera) Over the last few weeks, incident after incident appear to have fueled an already volatile situation, making it increasingly tense. Just a few days ago, the police chief in this town was murdered.

(voice-over) Those in the crowd claimed several U.S. soldiers died in this firefight. But the coalition says only two soldiers were wounded.

This attack on the convoy apparently sophisticated. Faifel Haisan's (ph) truck was damaged in the firefight. He says there were several explosions.

"After 15 minutes," he says, "I tried to move. Then the soldiers were hit again, and that's when they started to shoot at everybody."

From high on a bank, providing a vantage point over the site of the ambush, more jubilation. For townspeople, the rationale of the attack simple.

"When the occupying force came, they promised a lot," says this Sheikh Ali (ph), "but it was all lies."

Such is the mood in the heart of the Sunni triangle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: One of the things that made this particular event interesting was the fact that we didn't see any Iraqi policemen. The coalition's erstwhile allies too afraid from recent intimidation, we're told.

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

BLITZER: ... killed today near Tikrit just north of Baghdad in this gun battle. Three U.S. soldiers dead. The latest casualties from Iraq. We'll continue to monitor that development as well.

And our hot web question of the day is this -- who should pay for rebuilding homes and businesses damaged by Isabel? Property owners, insurance companies, government? Vote right now at CNN.com/Wolf. We'll have the results when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here are the results of the web question of the day. Remember this is not, repeat, not a scientific poll.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington, where the weather now is getting a whole lot worse. We'll be monitoring this situation throughout the night. Lou Dobbs tonight coming up next. But we leave you right now this hour with dramatic images of the sights and sounds Isabel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This is a quote from the hurricane center. Isabel made landfall at 1 p.m. Eastern time near Drum Inlet. That's between Cape Lookout and Ocracoke island, North Carolina. At the point of landfall, I know Ocracoke was reporting a wind speed of 105 miles an hour sustained.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The situation has progressively gotten worse. The few cars -- watch out for that piece of wood. Watch out! Plywood flying down the streets now. I just wanted to make sure that my cameraman John Cowells (ph), was out of the shot there. I didn't know which way that piece of plywood was flying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just looking at the ocean, see what's going on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had nothing better to do. We have no electricity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you realize that the roof just blew off the Seahawk Hotel there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 18, 2003 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: It's just beginning here in the nation's capital. The rain has arrived definitely, wind gusts approaching 30 miles an hour. It's going to get a lot worse in the coming hours.
Here in the nation's capital where the streets are virtually empty the federal government has virtually shut down.

Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Isabel arrives.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is not a good place to be right now.

BLITZER: Crashing ashore, sweeping inland putting cities under siege. The nation's capital waits nervously, a ghost town. President Bush is headed to the hills.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Of course I'll be monitoring the situation.

BLITZER: And even when the worst has passed it's the day after that has most people worried.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People driving out in what they thought was two or three inches of water and end up in a ditch six feet deep.

BLITZER: From storm surge to blackouts to air travel alert.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ...ran outside and saw the roof of the hotel next door flying off.

BLITZER: Convoy attack, troops under fire and a pipeline on fire, we're on the scene in Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, EYE OF THE STORM, ISABEL STRIKES.

BLITZER: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington where the rain is now only just beginning. It's about to get a whole lot worse here in the nation's capital. There were pounding rains, fierce storms all along the North Carolina coast as well as in Virginia. Here's what this huge storm has done so far.

Isabel unleashing monster waves against the Atlantic Beach and other areas along the North Carolina coast. The storm made landfall around 1:00 p.m., four hours or so ago. This storm has also triggered high surf and widespread flooding. Most beach homes built on stilts escaped the flooding but not those on ground level.

Isabel's top winds of 95 miles an hour are knocking down power lines as the storm marches inland. Tens of thousands are without power in Virginia Beach and other areas of Virginia.

We have correspondents covering the story up and down the coast of North Carolina and Virginia. We'll be getting to all of them shortly.

Here's some additional information, the very latest on what we know right now on Hurricane Isabel, this coming in from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The center of Isabel is about 40 miles east southeast of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. It's moving toward the northwest about 24 miles an hour. Isabel is expected to turn to the north northwest and move across eastern Virginia toward western Pennsylvania over the coming 24 hours Isabel, as I said, packing top winds of about 90 miles an hour.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve right in the middle of things right now, she's joining us live from Virginia Beach, Virginia -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we can certainly feel her getting closer here. The winds and the rain have really picked up. The head of emergency operations in the city of Norfolk has worked there 32 years. He says he has never seen hurricane conditions in his city as bad as he has seen them today.

The picture tells the story. We can show you the surf here has really been quite amazing. Ordinarily the water is about 50 to 75 yards away. The tide has been going down for four hours. The water is pressing up here against the sea wall and the storm surge is yet to come.

We've seen some roofs blow off here on the waterfront. We've seen some windows blown out and the damage hasn't only been right here along the coast. We have some footage to show you, property a little further inland, lots of trees down, some power down.

It's so bad that the city of Virginia Beach has ordered its emergency responders off the street. Police, fire, EMS are not responding to calls except life threatening one and even those are being evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The city says they may not be back out on the street until after midnight because it is simply too dangerous here. That has not stopped some people from coming out, however. We see constantly people walking up and down this boardwalk and people going out into the water to try and experience the surf, quite amazing -- Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: Jeanne Meserve in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Jeanne be careful over there. We'll be getting back to you throughout this hour, indeed throughout the night.

In North Carolina lots of water, lots of flooding already, lots of lights already out. CNN's John Zarrella joining us now live from Elizabeth City via videophone -- John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Wolf.

Well it's about as bad as it has been here all day. It started to really come in on us at about three o'clock this afternoon. We have been under the gun here in Elizabeth City ever since.

Part of the side of this bank building that we are in came -- that we are hiding under came off shortly after three o'clock. There are tins roofs on a lot of buildings that have come off, the aluminum and the tin flying through the streets.

The bank sign is off. Mailboxes are tipped over. Windows are broken. There are power lines down. There is aluminum stuck in power lines swinging through the air and now the water, as we thought would happen here, from the Pasquotank River is beginning to overflow.

I don't know if you can see it on the shot put. The water is blowing right in off the Pasquotank River on to the streets. Waves are pounding against the boardwalk there and against the pilings.

It has really deteriorated here on two fronts. We have the wind damage now, some fairly substantial wind damage, and we also have some fairly substantial flooding that's beginning to occur here in Elizabeth City -- Wolf.

BLITZER: John, about an hour or so ago you startled, you scared a lot of us when we saw a two-by-four flying across the road. You were obviously very concerned about your photographer, your cameraman. How dangerous is all the debris that seems to be flying around where you are right now?

ZARRELLA: It's considerably dangerous. We are underneath, for the most part, this drive-thru bank but if you're out on the street there is razor sharp pieces of aluminum flying and actually that piece of wood was a piece of plywood that someone had used on the side to protect their windows that had been ripped off by the wind and was flying through the air that piece of plywood.

But, yes, it's considerably dangerous for anyone to be out here right now and now compounding this wind problem, as I mentioned is this growing danger of the rising water as the storm pushes the Pasquotank River in on top of us -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's John Zarrella covering the story for us in North Carolina. John, be careful over there, thanks very much.

Let's go out to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. CNN's Susan Candiotti joining us now from Kill Devil Hills, she's on the scene for us -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf.

Well, we are seeing some traffic out here driving along Route 12 which goes along the ocean north and south here on the Outer Banks.

Just behind me you can see houses like these seem to have made out all right, many of them around here built on stilts, but of course it's far too early to have a damage assessment. We did hear about one house where just the A-frame is down on the ground in a neighborhood about ten miles north of here.

I'm going to cross the street here just in front of this car to get across to tell you that we've had driving rains and strong winds, of course, throughout the day as Hurricane Isabel said hello here to Kill Devil Hills. Not much flooding, there is no flooding on this street here.

Well, we took a drive earlier today. I'm going to roll some of that videotape for you now where we saw at least a foot if not more of water covering Route 12 just about a mile north of where we're located here and we saw a lot of debris.

You really had to pick your way through there, be very careful. If you're driving a car, forget it, of course you shouldn't be out to begin with but four-wheel drives are about the only thing that could get through.

Back here at the motel where we're staying they lost power. Of course, they've lost power throughout much if not all of Kill Devil Hills but here too. But as I make my way across the parking lot here I can show you that this motel too did not escape damage.

Take a quick look over here. You can see a lot of the siding from the building fell off giving a lot of people quite a bit of a scare but everyone has made their way through it and just have to get through the rest of it having lost power but it appears that really the storm, the worst of it is over with now, just a matter of assessing the damage and cleaning up -- back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Susan Candiotti in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Even if the worst is over with still plenty of dangers out there from flooding from downed power lines. Don't necessarily go out yet.

CNN's veteran hurricane correspondent Jeff Flock on the scene for us as he always is during these natural disasters. He's in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. He's joining us live -- Jeff.

FLOCK: Indeed, Wolf, we were among the first to get it here as it began to roll in and fortunately now, just like for Susan Candiotti, the worst, most of the worst is over and the worst fortunately is not so bad. Another camera kind of gives you some indication of the kind of damage out here. That includes shingles off of roofs, some siding ripped off of buildings, the skirts off of mobile homes, that sort of thing, no catastrophic damage but then we wouldn't have expected that in a category two storm.

I want to take you out to this pier. We've been having an eye on this all day because there have been some tremendous breakers out there. I don't know if you can see out there, Wolf, is a wooden pier here in Atlantic Beach did withstand all of the pounding of the surf and I'll tell you there was some incredible waves.

We walked out there earlier today. There were waves completely over washing that pier and I'll tell you one more thing before we get away sort of interesting to look at if Steve is able to get it. I don't now if you're able to follow me along but because so much white water whipped up, take a look at this stuff.

This is sort of like, I don't know if it's called flotsam or what it is but it's sort of like jellylike stuff and it's everywhere on the beach here, the remnants of Isabel as she moves on to the north from here. It was quite a ride today, though, in Atlantic Beach and again, Wolf, the good kind of hurricane so far the one that hasn't done catastrophic damage -- back to you.

BLITZER: Jeff, you've covered a lot of these hurricanes for our viewers on CNN around the world. Give us a little comparison. How does this one, Isabel, compare with some of the other hurricanes you've covered?

FLOCK: Well, I would liken this to kind of a Hurricane Bertha, another category two storm that gave you a lot of good wind. I mean, you know, something if you like hurricanes you like to experience the power of nature but you don't want to be in a Hurricane Hugo or Hurricane Andrew, a catastrophic storm that does all sorts of that damage.

We wouldn't all be standing out here and reporting in the way that we have today in a storm like that. We would be hunkered down somewhere and we'd be reporting on the aftermath. These are the fun kind of hurricanes to cover that don't do any real harm to anybody, at least they haven't -- this one hasn't so far.

BLITZER: All right, Jeff Flock doing a super job for all of our viewers. Jeff, as usual, thanks very much.

The storm's effects are being felt all up and down the eastern seaboard. Millions of people lie in the path of Hurricane Isabel. Let's get the latest on where this tropical storm, unless it's still a hurricane, is moving right now.

CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano joining us from the CNN Weather Center. What exactly is it right now Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, it's still a hurricane, Wolf, winds to 90 miles an hour, so still a strong category one hurricane and we anticipate it to continue to be that for the next couple of hours.

It will decrease in intensity quite rapidly as now it is heading over land. These latest stats at the hurricane center and, of course, we'll highlight to you where the center of this thing is.

It is onshore, 40 miles to the east southeast of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. That's right on the border and this thing is picking up steam and as it is moving to the northwest at 24 miles an hour.

We do anticipate tropical storm force winds to be extended all the way to Pennsylvania at least in wind gusts and the other issue with this thing is that we have a tornado watch out up and down to the right quadrant of this particular storm. That is typical for hurricanes. The right side of them could produce tornadoes, at least for tonight.

It will weaken throughout the day tomorrow but could see wind gusts in D.C. tomorrow to 30 miles an hour. We're seeing them right now to close to 50 miles an hour in Washington, D.C. but what we're seeing also is a pretty strong southwesterly component in the upper level of the atmosphere.

That is what's picking up this thing. That is why it is moving rapidly to the northwest now at 24 miles an hour and that is good news, Wolf, because the heaviest rains will not remain over one period for a long period of time.

So we shouldn't see as drastic amount of flooding as we originally thought. We just hope it continues to pick up steam but folks in the path of this thing in the next 24 hours, D.C., even Philadelphia and New York will feel the effects of this as well.

BLITZER: CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano, even though this hurricane is clearly going down, downgraded a little bit, it's still very dangerous. Don't take any chances to our viewers out there.

Here's your chance to weigh in on this important story right now. Our web question of the day is this. "Who should pay for rebuilding homes and businesses damaged by Isabel, property owners, insurance companies, government"? We'll have the results later in this broadcast but you can vote right now at cnn.com/wolf.

While you're there I'd love to hear directly from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also where you, of course, can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.

Isabel has now arrived with a flourish. It's beginning to cause serious damage in North Carolina, Virginia, will be moving northward as we know. Just ahead, we'll get you up to the minute forecasts for the entire area of Isabel's path from two CNN meteorologists, the state of Virginia taking it on the chin from this storm. I'll speak live with Virginia Governor Mark Warner.

And your host in his element, I hit the streets of D.C. earlier today as you can see, not very gracefully, my adventures just ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Washed out in North Carolina, indeed all the way up the coast to Atlantic City, New Jersey this hurricane is moving. Here in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital it's happening right now Isabel's wrath only beginning to make its punch felt.

What weather will the major metropolitan areas along the eastern seaboard face? We'll have that and much more, all of that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at Hurricane flags. They're flying over Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina still packing quite a punch.

With Isabel on the way, President Bush and the first lady wasted no time heading for the hills literally, the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland. That's where Camp David is. He's at the Camp David retreat right now where he met earlier today with Jordan's King Abdullah.

The president says he's monitoring the storm situation. Washington, D.C., of course, usually a bustling city with traffic, tourists, TV cameras, lawmakers today it's anything but.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Now, a virtual ghost town as citizens and visitors prepare for Isabel. The federal government is shut down. Only essential personnel required to show up for work.

The Metro subway system locked up. Many commuters, some high profile, relying on Amtrak trains to get them out of town but those trains are heading only in one direction, north, away from Isabel.

GEORGE MITCHELL, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: With the storm coming I was scheduled to leave later today but I decided to move it up as was everyone else leaving town.

BLITZER: The streets increasingly quiet. Shops in fashionable Georgetown closed. Paddleboats usually full of tourists float empty, tied down to weather the storm. The runway at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland silent, even Air Force One moved inland.

(on camera): Normally the parking lot here at the tidal basin would be packed but look at this, no cars, no tourists, no government workers, no politicians, no nobody, everyone in the nation's capital, including me getting ready for Isabel.

(voice-over): Still, there was some activity including a few brave or foolish tourists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We buy (unintelligible)...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A kite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A kite. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wants to buy a kite to fly the kite during the hurricane.

BLITZER: Construction crews building barricades along the Washington Harbor business district. The owner of Jack's Boathouse on the Potomac finishes his preparations saying the worst trouble will come after Isabel passes.

FRANK BAXTER, JACK'S BOATHOUSE: And we're anticipating a real flood which is going to be probably two days after the storm from up river.

BLITZER: At the D.C. Department of Public Works a fairly disorganized attempt to hand out free sandbags.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's coming. I can feel some of the wind now. It's coming. So, I'm already prepared for it. I got my camera. I got my flashlights and my batteries and everything at the house. I got plenty of water and juices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have sandbags?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got plenty of sandbags too. You know I got that.

BLITZER: The line of cars stretching as far as the eye can see, each waiting for the allotted seven half full sandbags.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And right now, the rain beginning to come down quite seriously here in Washington, D.C. It's going to get a lot worse in the coming hours. Isabel's impact has already been felt all up and down the eastern seaboard. North Carolina and Virginia coasts already hit hard.

Now she's inland as well and I'll speak live with Virginia Governor Mark Warner on how his state is responding.

The most riveting images of the hurricane's wrath, we'll have incredible pictures to show you.

And, a group of U.S. soldiers venturing into dangerous territory in Iraq, they come under attack. We'll tell you where it was, what happened, all that and much more. Stay with us. Our special coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Think it wasn't a day to play with sandcastles on the beach? Think again. These kids did it in Wrightsville Beach. That's in North Carolina. I don't know what their parents were thinking at the time.

All day long we've been showing you dramatic images of this hurricane, this Hurricane Isabel coming ashore. I want to bring our viewers up to speed. Here's a sample of what we saw throughout the day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: As I'm sure our viewers can tell, the situation has progressively gotten worse during the last two or three hours here in Elizabeth City. The few cars -- watch out for the piece of wood! Watch out!

Plywood flying down the street now, I just want to make sure that my cameraman John Cowles (ph) is out of the shot there. I didn't know which way that piece of plywood was flying but as you folks can tell, I'm sure quite graphically now the situation here is that certainly we are under the gun now in Elizabeth City from Hurricane Isabel.

FLOCK: It could be that there's this either secondary wall, eye wall at the back of it which looks like perhaps as intense or maybe even perhaps more intense than what we're dealing with right now. As we were saying throughout the morning it certainly could have been a lot worse.

But right now a category two storm really with the most intense part of the eye wall (unintelligible). It is all that you want to have out here on the beach in North Carolina.

KOCH: The winds right now are well over 70 miles an hour. That's my best guess. I don't have any instruments to measure them right now but the worst is yet to come. We're on the northeast side of the hurricane.

As we have already seen pieces of debris from roofs flying off. We have reports from the Virginia Beach fire department that a pier ten blocks from here, the end of a pier has been ripped off. It's being battered by the high seas. We also have reports a couple of roofs being peeled back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: I want to thank all of our intrepid correspondents for their excellent and very courageous reporting throughout this day, this hurricane far from over. If you've been thinking about traveling today, especially on the East Coast of the United States, you might want to think again about it.

It's probably not going to happen and there could be, already has been a serious ripple effect in other parts of the country, in the Mid West, even in the West Coast, of course even in the south.

CNN's Patty Davis is covering these stories for us. She's over at the FAA headquarters in nearby Herndon, Virginia -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This is the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Herndon, Virginia and, in fact, they're feeling the effects of the hurricane. They just took a power hit. The lights flickered but they are back on.

Now, here's what air traffic control command is trying to do right now to route these planes. You can see Hurricane Isabel on this screen. They are rooting traffic now around the west of Hurricane Isabel. When the hurricane moves more inland they plan to then start moving traffic at least from New York to Florida back around the east over the water when it becomes safe once again.

Now, there are delays out there because of this hurricane. We see DSW, that's unrelated that actually at Dallas Fort Worth as a thunderstorm affecting that area and we're seeing delays, in fact a ground stop in place right there. No flights allowed to come in.

Also, delays at LaGuardia and Philadelphia. We're also seeing a few airports with few flights. We're talking airports like Norfolk, Raleigh-Durham, Newport News, Richmond, Washington Dulles, and Baltimore Washington International Airport. Many of those airports have no commercial flights taking off or coming in.

Now, we are also told that Reagan National Airport is closed and that airport authorities say that it soon may be closing Dulles Airport as well. Now, if you do have a flight later today or tomorrow, the FAA and the airlines are advising you make sure you call your airline to make sure that that flight is still happening -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Patty Davis covering air traffic for us. She's in Herndon, Virginia. That's just outside Washington, D.C.

Isabel hammering the East Coast of the United States whipping up the sea and shore but this isn't the end. Tornadoes, yes tornadoes may be spawned in the aftermath. We'll have the latest forecast.

And, as Virginia takes a beating, we'll talk to Governor Mark Warner about plans to help residents.

Later, we'll go live to Baghdad as attacks against coalition troops are stepping up. Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER (voice-over): Suspect killer, Swedish police have results from DNA testing that they hope will link a jailed suspect to the killing of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. Lindh died after being stabbed while shopping in a Stockholm store last week. A memorial is set for tomorrow.

Fast plane, slow ride, things started going wrong for a Concorde jetliner when it experienced a scary backfire over the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from New York to Britain. It then dropped from supersonic to subsonic speed. Next was an unscheduled landing in Wales because of low fuel. Passengers finally arrived in London by bus 10 hours after taking off on a flight that normally takes about three hours.

Stripped down Beatles. That's what Paul McCartney says about a new digital version of a Beatles classic, "Let It Be." It features most of the same songs but the music is stripped of the lavish production effects after the songs were recorded in 1969.

"Let it Be Naked" is to be released in November. Virgin dance. More than 10,000 Zulu virgins took part in the ancient royal reed dance in South Africa. Young women presented their reeds to Zulu king goodwill. Legend has it if the reed breaks the girl is not a virgin. On this festive occasion, none broke.

And that's our look around the world.

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BLITZER: The pier at Virginia Beach in Virginia, so far holding up under the hurricane. We're continuing to watch this pier.

Welcome back to our special coverage of Hurricane Isabel. We'll take you back out to the eye of the storm in a moment.

First, though, let's get a look at some other news making headlines right now.

At least two American soldiers were wounded in Iraq when their Humvee drove over an explosive device. The U.S. force then came under heavy small arms fire. The area north of Baghdad is a stronghold of Saddam Hussein loyalists.

The FAA is investigating a near collision between an American Airlines jetliner and three military fighter jets. It happened 29,000 feet over Oklahoma Tuesday.

When the collision alarm system sounded on American flight 490, the pilot dropped the plane about 100 feet. Four people onboard were slightly injured. Flight 490 landed safely at its destination, St. Louis.

CNN's parent company has a new name. The board of AOL-Time Warner voted to drop AOL. It will now be called Time Warner Inc., as it was before the merger was announced in 2000. The chief executive says the new name will avoid confusion between the corporate name and the AOL brand name.

Powerful Hurricane Isabel pounding North Carolina and Virginia. Heavy winds, fierce winds all up and down the East Coast.

As it moves inland, this Hurricane Isabel roared on land earlier today, about four and a half hours or so ago, kicking up huge waves, huge waves, as it pounded the shores up and down the coast.

For the latest, we have correspondents standing by in all key locations. Let's begin, though, with CNN's Jeanne Meserve. She's joining us once again from Virginia Beach, Virginia -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's probably won't surprise you to hear that a lot of people -- the latest number we have heard -- in the Hampton roads area are without power. Power lines are coming down all over, in some cases trees are coming down on top of those power lines.

The winds here have gotten incredibly intense. The rain almost feels like -- on your skin. It's coming in hard. We are on the boardwalk here, but many people are wearing eye protection, either snorkel masks or ski goggles, to protect their eyes from the force of the rain and wind here, which is really -- we're told by authorities in Newport News that they had a situation today where there was structural damage to a 14-story apartment building that held elderly and disabled people.

BLITZER: All right. It looks like we've lost Jeanne Meserve. We'll try to get her back, obviously, when we can.

But let's go on the phone now to Richmond, Virginia. That's the capital of the commonwealth of Virginia. The governor is joining us once again, as he did earlier today, Mark Warner.

Governor Warner, tell us exactly how much damage this Hurricane Isabel has already done to your state.

GOV. MARK WARNER, VIRGINIA: Well, we're seeing damage reports come in, particularly from the eastern end of the state, and the Hampton Roads area where the reporters were making their calls. And we still haven't seen the final storm surge, along with the high tide, that may result in some major flooding in cities like Norfolk and Portsmouth.

We're continuing to get out our responders. We're approaching, quickly, close to a million people without power in the state, and we are still -- got through the worst period of the storm, which will process from about now in Hampton roads into the early evening in Richmond.

BLITZER: So, is it worse than you expected, not as bad as you expected, or about what you expected?

WARNER: It is about what we expected, having -- sitting through with some of these emergency responders who have been through 10, 20, 30 of these storms. They say this is a bad one, but they say that's what they expected.

We will end up seeing, particularly with the storm surge in Hampton Roads, whether we end up with high water that surpasses the 1933 hurricane of record. That's still a very, very real possibility.

BLITZER: What's the most dangerous part of this hurricane right now, Governor?

WARNER: The most dangerous part is the threat of the storm surge down in Hampton Roads. Both along the shorelines and along communities along the bay, the Elizabeth River, the York River and the Potomac, even, in terms of high tides and storm surge together.

That's a clear and present danger, and then we also will have danger in terms of flash flooding in low-lying areas in the central part of the state.

BLITZER: A million people already without power in the commonwealth of Virginia. Governor Warner, good luck you to. Good luck to everybody in Virginia. Thanks very much for joining us. We'll check back with you when we can.

Let's check in with our other correspondents, our reporters up and down the eastern seaboard.

CNN's Ed Lavandera. He's joining us live from North Carolina.

Ed, first of all, tell us viewers where you are and what's happening?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are on the northern edge of Topsail Island, North Carolina.

This part of North Carolina has always been on the -- what was supposed to have been the southern edge of Hurricane Isabel, and quite frankly, perhaps the best place to be as Hurricane Isabel continues to move north up through Virginia.

These dunes are in place along these islands, for example, to keep the storm surge away from flooding into the homes that are on this island. This is a very thin island. And of course, flooding had been a concern.

A lot of people were boarding up windows here in preparations for the storms and taking things off the lower levels of their homes, moving then upward. But that fear has subsided here as the storm surge not quite breaking over these dunes.

We have driven northward from here, back up toward Morehead City and also toward Newbern (ph), checking out the scene today. We saw a few downed power lines, some streets littered with debris, a few areas that were slightly flooded, as well.

But by all means, I think the people in this part of North Carolina feel very lucky that they have been able to escape with very minimal damage at this point. In fact, many of the towns that we drove through, the street lights were still working. So whereas a lot of people are without power tonight, this part of North Carolina seems to be holding up very well, Wolf.

BLITZER: At least in that part of North Carolina, it could have been, obviously, a lot worse. CNN's Ed Lavandera on the scene for us. Thanks very much.

CNN's Kris Osborn is joining us now, live from Richmond. That's the capital of Virginia.

We just heard from the governor, telling us that this is a hurricanes that's already caused a lot of damage, about what they expected. What else are you hearing, Kris?

KRIS OSBORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And in fact, the damage that the governor talked about is evident on streets here.

I'm in a residential area in Richmond. And as you can see, there's a large tree that has gone across this street here. It's very much indicative of what we've been seeing throughout this neighborhood: a lot of downed power lines, a lot of fallen debris, some sporadic gusts of wind, carrying at times small twigs and sometimes acorns, things of that nature.

Trucks have been driving through the neighborhood to try and find downed power lines. Some roads have been closed. Of course, an abundance of caution here. Something, of course, the governor talked about as well.

And I'm joined here by Sean Carithers, who lives in the neighborhood. And perhaps the toughest hurricane dweller of them all, his dog Chance. Hello and welcome.

SEAN CARITHERS, RICHMOND RESIDENT: Hi, how are you?

OSBORN: How are things going for you?

CARITHERS: It's windy, but it's a storm. It's the strongest storm we've seen in a while.

OSBORN: Did you board up your home, your cellar, anything of that sort?

CARITHERS: Most of the homes are brick. So, they've been around for a long time.

OSBORN: What about work. Did you miss work today and have more time to spend with Chance?

CARITHERS: I went to work for half the day and then came home and took care of the dog.

OSBORN: It seems by and large that people, at least in this community, are holding up pretty well.

CARITHERS: Yes. Most of the houses here, again, are all brick. And the biggest threat we have is the trees, because we had such a wet summer. And a lot of the trees like the one down the street are falling down.

OSBORN: What about Chance? Is she holding up well, too?

CARITHERS: Yes. She's having a great time.

OSBORN: Thank you very much, and thanks, as well, to Chance for joining us live.

So Wolf, that's the latest from here in Richmond. Back to you.

BLITZER: Kris Osborn. With that, Kris, thanks very much.

I want our viewers to pay attention what's behind me. You see a street. That's H Street. Normally at this time, that street would be bumper to bumper rush hour traffic. Look at it right now. You see no cars virtually on the streets of Washington. Even in the past 40 minutes we've been on the air live in Washington, the rain beginning to come down seriously, the wind now beginning to have an effect on this area. Already parts of suburban Washington and Bethesda Maryland, in particular, power down at least in some residential areas.

We're watching what's going on in the nation's capital now. We have a lot more news coming up, including flooding along the Potomac River, not far from where I am right now, another possible effect from Hurricane Isabel. We'll take you live to the river's edge.

Plus fresh attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. We're live in Baghdad. Stay with us. Much more coverage.

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BLITZER: Look out below. Pieces of the Seahawk Hotel roof went airborne as Isabel hit Virginia Beach this afternoon.

Welcome back to our continuing coverage. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington, D.C., where things are beginning to get nasty here in the nation's capital.

I want our viewers to take a look. Not far from me, along Washington, I want our camera to focus in on a roof. This is an office building not very far away. You can see problems beginning to develop right there, as some of the shingles, some of the top of that roof looks like it could blow any time soon. We're going to continue to watch that roof.

We're going to continue to watch all of the developments, but let's get the latest on the storm. Our meteorologist, Rob Marciano and Brad Huffines, joining us now live from the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta.

Let's begin with you, Rob.

MARCIANO: Wolf, winds are picking up in D.C. but across Norfolk as well. Here is the center of the storm, and as we look toward the circulation, winds out of the north right now in Washington, D.C., at 58 miles an hour. That is the official wind gust. And we expect that to pick up as we go on throughout the night.

All right. The track of this thing remains the same, off to the northwest. But it is moving quickly now at 24 miles an hour, still a hurricane. The most powerful part of the storm will be in the right- hand quadrant. Well, tonight there could be some tornadoes. There's a tornado watch out for that part of the storm.

And also the threat for flooding. We have seen already a four to five inches of estimated rainfall in extreme northeast North Carolina, but we expect less flooding as this thing picks up steam, Wolf. The other issue is going to be storm surge.

BLITZER: All right. Rob Marciano, thanks very much.

Brad Huffines is also following, tracking this hurricane. Let's -- tell us what you know right now about it -- Brad.

BRAD HUFFINES, CNN METEOROLOGIST: An air photo from Keyhole.com, Wolf, shows an interesting thing. Let's go ahead and show that now. In fact, you can see it now. You're seeing the winds out of the southeast approaching and going to the northwest up the Potomac River.

As this storm continues to blow towards Washington, what's going to happen is the Potomac, which normally flows this way past and through Washington, D.C., and down into the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac might actually and will slow down. And as the Potomac slows down the flow and tries to drain all of the rain that is falling, it may surprise a lot of you that parts of Constitution Avenue, just in front of the White House, are only about 11 feet or so above sea level in this area. That means that what's going to happen is as the rains continue to fall, the rains are going to have trouble draining out of the city, Wolf.

So traveling in and around Washington is going to be tough tonight, because of the heavy rains keeping the Potomac very high.

BLITZER: Do we know that from first-hand experience already. It's about to get worse here in the nation's capital. We'll all be very careful as we monitor the effects of Hurricane Isabel here in Washington.

Brad Huffines, thanks very much.

Our other meteorologist, Rob Marciano, thanks to you, as well.

We'll be checking in with both of you throughout the evening here on CNN.

When we come back, we'll also check in on what's happening in Iraq. Right now, it's not pretty. Once again, a U.S. convoy ambushed, Iraqis dancing in the streets. We're live in Baghdad.

And this powerful storm brings, of course, powerful images. We'll take a closer look at Isabel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

This just in to CNN. President Bush has just declared a major disaster in North Carolina. As a result, he's ordering federal aid to supplement existing aid from the state for local communities.

President Bush declaring a major disaster in North Carolina. We'll see what he does in Virginia and elsewhere in the coming hours.

We're going to get back to Hurricane Isabel in just a few moments, but let's check some other important news developing today around the world, especially in Iraq, where there was a major gun battle involving U.S. troops and Iraqis and other Iraqis. As a result Iraqis were dancing in the street.

Let's bring in our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson. He's joining us live in Baghdad -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, an attack in the middle of the so-called Sunni triangle, the area that's become one of the most dangerous for U.S. troops in Iraq.

The attack took place on a day when some Iraqis in the area had accused U.S. troops of shooting up a funeral, killing a young boy and injuring four people. The coalition certainly doesn't confirm that incident.

The shooting today, however, took place right between the restive towns of Fallujah and Ramadi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): On fire and taking fire, a rare glimpse of a now common event, a U.S. convoy under attack in the so-called Sunni triangle.

Hours later, after a rescue, reinforcements pull out of the town of Kaldir. Immediately after, with pictures of Saddam Hussein carried aloft, young men rushed forward to claim victory, although not in the name of Saddam Hussein.

"These attacks are not from outside the country, and are not from Saddam's army," local resident Shakir (ph) says. "They are by honorable people from around this area."

From firing weapons, to showing charred remains of U.S. trucks, everyone finding their own way to celebrate.

(on camera) Over the last few weeks, incident after incident appear to have fueled an already volatile situation, making it increasingly tense. Just a few days ago, the police chief in this town was murdered.

(voice-over) Those in the crowd claimed several U.S. soldiers died in this firefight. But the coalition says only two soldiers were wounded.

This attack on the convoy apparently sophisticated. Faifel Haisan's (ph) truck was damaged in the firefight. He says there were several explosions.

"After 15 minutes," he says, "I tried to move. Then the soldiers were hit again, and that's when they started to shoot at everybody."

From high on a bank, providing a vantage point over the site of the ambush, more jubilation. For townspeople, the rationale of the attack simple.

"When the occupying force came, they promised a lot," says this Sheikh Ali (ph), "but it was all lies."

Such is the mood in the heart of the Sunni triangle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: One of the things that made this particular event interesting was the fact that we didn't see any Iraqi policemen. The coalition's erstwhile allies too afraid from recent intimidation, we're told.

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

BLITZER: ... killed today near Tikrit just north of Baghdad in this gun battle. Three U.S. soldiers dead. The latest casualties from Iraq. We'll continue to monitor that development as well.

And our hot web question of the day is this -- who should pay for rebuilding homes and businesses damaged by Isabel? Property owners, insurance companies, government? Vote right now at CNN.com/Wolf. We'll have the results when we come back.

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BLITZER: Here are the results of the web question of the day. Remember this is not, repeat, not a scientific poll.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington, where the weather now is getting a whole lot worse. We'll be monitoring this situation throughout the night. Lou Dobbs tonight coming up next. But we leave you right now this hour with dramatic images of the sights and sounds Isabel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This is a quote from the hurricane center. Isabel made landfall at 1 p.m. Eastern time near Drum Inlet. That's between Cape Lookout and Ocracoke island, North Carolina. At the point of landfall, I know Ocracoke was reporting a wind speed of 105 miles an hour sustained.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The situation has progressively gotten worse. The few cars -- watch out for that piece of wood. Watch out! Plywood flying down the streets now. I just wanted to make sure that my cameraman John Cowells (ph), was out of the shot there. I didn't know which way that piece of plywood was flying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just looking at the ocean, see what's going on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had nothing better to do. We have no electricity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you realize that the roof just blew off the Seahawk Hotel there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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