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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Hurricane Charley Roars Ashore Near Ft. Myers, Florida

Aired August 13, 2004 - 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.


BLITZER: We have a new forecast. And we have reporters standing by all over the region. Stand by for hard news on a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Charley, a major hurricane hammers the Florida coast. Millions were urged to flee. Now it's too late.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not the time to be getting on the interstate. It is time to seek a safe place to be with family or friends.

BLITZER: Storm surge. The wall of water could reach 15 feet.

Caught off guard, cities to the south are forced to scramble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll ride it out, that's all we can do.

BLITZER: Far from Florida, hundreds of miles isn't far enough when a hurricane moves inland.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Friday, August 13, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Hurricane Charley has roared ashore, a category four storm, that's the second most dangerous. It's lashing Florida's West Coast with winds up to 145 miles an hour. But perhaps even more deadly, it's pushing a wall of water potentially, get this, as high as 15 feet. The betting was that Charley would land further north, but a slight turn has put the area around Ft. Myers right at ground zero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are in a designated evacuation zone, you should make plans to evacuate immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Those who did not heed the calls to evacuate can only hunker down, and hope for the best. But the governor expects the worst.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. JEB BUSH (R) FLORIDA: This morning, I have requested from the president of the United States a presidential disaster declaration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I'll speak live with the governor this hour.

Cities at risk include: Ft. Myers, Venice, Tampa and Orlando. We have reporters standing by live in each location. But we begin with Chris Cifatte of our affiliate WINK who filed this report just a short while ago from Ft. Myers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CIFATTE, WINK CORRESPONDENT: We wanted to kind of show you what that looks like from up here. These are the 60 or 70 mile an hour gusts. I can tell you what that sound was that you heard in the studio a few minutes ago. We lost a satellite dish up here. We're about to lose an antenna over there. The wind gusts are fierce.

I can't even put into words what the rain feels like here in a roof. We're in a sheltered spot so we're kind of sheltered from the wing, the rain is just coming down horizontally right at us.

The good news is -- there's a big gust, the good news is I can see Billy's Creek from here, and the storm surge does not appear to have raised the water level too much at this point. But, if you can -- obviously if you can stay inside at this point you want to be inside.

And the sheets you heard Abby talking about them, the sheets of water a little bit ago, Dan Bowens in our Charlotte news room talking about -- you can't even see because of the water's blowing horizontally. That's exactly what's happening here.

You can hardly see 30 or 40 feet in front of you, especially when winds gust. So, we wanted to give you an idea of what it's like to be out in this, not that anybody should be. And we'll send it back downstairs to you and get inside ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Chris Cifatte from our affiliate WINK filed that report a few moments ago.

CNN's John Zarrella is also in Venice, Florida. He's joining us now live. John, you've covered a lot of hurricanes over the years. Give us some perspective on this one.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from our vantage point here, and certainly to preface that, a category four is a rare event. You don't see very many of these category four hurricanes, certainly historically. But here in Venice, we don't have that driving wind- driven rain that stings like sand hitting your face. We have some rain, some wind. But we don't have, you know what you would call anything dramatically deteriorating as far as conditions. You can see the trees blowing here.

We're out at a Holiday Inn and the people are on the balconies trying to stay safe. A lot of people evacuated off of the area beaches in Venice. And most of them have taken shelter. A lot of them here at this hotel others have gone inland.

Driving in Venice Beach, completely deserted this afternoon, as is most of the downtown area. Everybody boarded up and shut down. You know, clearly what you get a sense of, Wolf, is that people here, at least this far north, took this storm very, very seriously and they are not out venturing out into it today -- Wolf.

BLITZER: John, how far are you from Captiva which is where this storm hit landfall?

ZARRELLA: I would say we are probably about an hour's drive, maybe 40 or 50 miles to the north of Captiva. We're on the weaker side of the storm. And granted in 145 mile an hour hurricane, the weaker side of the storm is not necessarily that weak. But the left side of the hurricane is traditionally the weaker side of the storm. And winds are blowing, as you can see, pretty much from the east to the west which is indicative of a storm when you are on that weaker side of the hurricane.

But it is still getting closer to us. We can certainly tell that. The winds have picked up considerably in the last half hour since I was last on the air. And the trees are blowing in a steady motion now. So these are pretty much sustained winds. But again, we are not experiencing anything near hurricane force winds and probably just barely at tropical storm force winds at this point -- Wolf.

BLITZER: But it could get worse, that is right, John?

ZARRELLA: Oh, it certainly could. I don't think there's any question that the conditions here will probably get markedly worse during the next two hours, because it is still on the track that is going to be coming closer to us as it moves to the northeast and inland -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. John Zarrella, we'll be checking back with you in Venice.

Let's move up further north in Tampa. CNN's Anderson Cooper is standing by there. Anderson, they were bracing in the Tampa Bay area for landfall right there. It's not going to happen there, but what's -- what do they expect to happen where you are?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well Wolf, the winds have just started to pick up more, a little bit of heavier rains right now. But without a doubt, Tampa is a city which has dodged a bullet today. They were expecting just a really bad scenario here.

In this, the harbor area, they were expecting a water surge of up to 15 feet here. They were expecting this whole area to be flooded. That is not happened. It's not likely to happen as the storm has moved further eastward. Still, it is some nasty weather. The evacuation order is still in effect, they have asked up to 3 million people to evacuate this entire area. The largest evacuation of Floridians since Hurricane Floyd in 1999 when some 2 million people were urged to move inland.

The numbers of people who actually have evacuated are not known right now, because a lot of people, though they have sought shelters in government facilities, some are just staying with friends, staying family members in other towns. So it's hard to keep track of exactly how many people have moved.

Here in Tampa, as the weather worsens, you do not see people walking around. This is a city boarded up. This is a city where the electricity has been shut off. We're working off a generator. And the water, in many parts of the city has been shut off as well, all a precaution in anticipation of the storm as it was supposed to hit -- Wolf.

BLITZER: But even though Tampa has dodged a major bullet, as you say, Anderson, it's going to get wet. And there could be plenty of potential still for flooding in that area, is that right?

COOPER: Absolutely. I mean, it's going to get worse as the storm moves up here. It is still further south of us in the Ft. Myers area, that's about 60 or 70 miles south of us. Yes, it is definitely going to get worse here, but nowhere near as bad as people expected.

BLITZER: Well, that's good news for folks in Tampa -- in the Tampa Bay area. Anderson, thanks very much. Anderson will be back reporting for us throughout the night including on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

For the latest on where Charley may be heading, let's go to our meteorologist Orelon Sidney, she's at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta. She's tracking this deadly storm -- Orelon.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Thanks a lot, Wolf. This officially from the National Hurricane Center, Charley makes landfall as a category four hurricane near Charlotte Harbor, Florida. Captiva Island is the official point of landfall.

I'm going to give you the very latest information from the National Hurricane Center now. Bear with me a second, because I'm reading this for the first time as I tell this to you. The latitude now 26.9 degrees north, longitude 82.2 degrees west. It's now 30 miles West-Northwest of Ft. Myers. also 115 miles South-Southwest of Orlando.

It's now moving North-Northeast at 22 miles an hour. And they're expecting it to continue to increase in speed tonight and on into Saturday.

Maximum sustained winds, get this, still 140 miles an hour. That is still a category four storm. It is expected to weaken of course during the next 24 hours. Hurricane force winds are expected across Florida in the path of the storm as it moves across the region. So, we still have a very potent storm on our hands without a doubt. And look how symmetrical it is, too. That's an indication that it's still a very, very strong storm situation. We'll keep an eye on this throughout the night.

And guess what? We've gotten new storms to talk about, tropical depression four and five have formed in the Atlantic. We'll talk about those later on -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Orelon, I'm going to speak to the Mayor of Ft. Myers in a moment. What do we expect happening right there, right now, and in the next hour or two?

SIDNEY: Well, in the next hour or two things are going to be getting better, especially the next 2 1/2 to 3 hours. For now, we've seen wind gusts at hurricane force up around 90 mile and hour, I believe, Dave Hennen is looking at some amounts there and he just gave me some indication in the 80 to 90 mile an hour wind gusts.

So, they are right in the brunt of the storm now. They are going to be seeing weather improve through the night, but it's going to take a couple of hours yet before all of this moves out -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Orleon Sidney, we'll be checking back with you, as well.

Let's speak with the mayor of Ft. Myers right now Jim Humphrey. He's joining us on the phone.

Set the stage for us Mayor. What's happening in your city?

MAY. JIM HUMPHREY, FT. MYERS (via telephone): Well, it is very serious. And please, Mr. Blitzer, tell everyone to the north, take this storm very seriously, because as you said it has roared ashore. And we are in ground zero. And I can tell you it's taking trees in fact, the oak tree along our historic McGregor and in the park just coming down.

And, of course, the sheets of wind and the rain it's just coming across. It's very serious, frightening, frankly, and devastating to us. We have not experienced a storm like this in -- in fact, I lived here since 1970 and I've never experienced a storm like this.

BLITZER: Well, these winds, 100 miles an hour, maybe as much as 145 miles an hour, in certain parts of the West Coast of Florida, is it enough to blow off the roofs of houses?

HUMPHREY: Oh, yes. In fact, even hospitals. Our Cape Carl hospital has lost much of its roof. One of the other hospitals has lost numerous number of its windows.

So I mean, it is serious. We are just losing so much of, not only our structures. As we talked earlier, we are, of course, also worried about some of our historical structures. We have not been able to even get to the Edison home to see how it's doing. There was a fire close to it, but it -- because of a transformer coming down, but thankfully we did get to that and it was quickly extinguished.

But we are very concerned, because I'm looking at the Edison parking lot right now. Just trees are all down and across. So it's -- it is something that has taken this area by storm.

BLITZER: Obviously, indeed. Mr. Mayor, we know that the storm, Hurricane Charley, killed people in Jamaica and Cuba as it crossed over those islands earlier. Any fatalities yet in Ft. Myers or in your area?

HUMPHREY: None that has been reported yet. But where we have our concern is that it happened so quickly to us and that for a while it was proceeding north and somewhat northeast. Then all of a sudden -- I mean northwest. Then it started moving northeast and instead of Tampa, as you said earlier, it moved into Captiva, which is in our county and moved across into Charlotte Harbor.

And so a lot of people thought it will stay along the outside, so we'll stay in our homes. We tried our best to go around to get everyone to evacuate. But at one stage, it was too late and all of our emergency crews had to go into shelters. So that's something we're very concerned about. And that's why I want to stress everyone to the north, please evacuate if you can.

BLITZER: Good advice from Jim Humphrey mayor of Ft. Myers. Once again, thanks very much for joining us. Good luck to all of the people in your community.

HUMPHREY: Thank you very much.

BLITZER: Back to the Southwest part of Florida in the area south of Ft. Myers, Trey Radel from our affiliate WINK filed this report from Naples just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TREY RADEL, WINK CORRESPONDENT: We are in Naples. We are south of Ft. Myers. Right now we are feeling some of those bands of Charley as it rips through the southwest part of Florida out here. You can see some debris in the parking lot that has been strewn about and a lot of the city of Naples is like this.

Power lines are down. Parts of Naples has electricity out and debris all over the roads. If we could take a look here, and you can see some of the palm trees blowing in these extremely powerful winds.

Let's take a look, though, at some video that just came in to our news room, if we can, from Goodland. That area is next to Marco Island, even further south of us. There you see some of those canals flooding and heading into people's front yards, a very dangerous situation.

As a matter of fact, certainly most deaths within hurricanes are drownings. When this stuff creeped into people's yards, when it floods the streets. And here in Naples, we are bracing for some of the surge to come up. Here where we are at right now, we are about ten blocks from the beach. We had to leave there, because it just got entirely too dangerous to stay there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Troy Radel filing that report just a few moments ago from our affiliate WINK.

We're also getting some new pictures in from downtown Ft. Myers. I want to show our viewers what seeing right now. These are live pictures. You can see the high rise buildings in Ft. Myers. This is an area, we just spoke to the mayor, Jim Humphrey. They're taking a pounding right now. But they're going to be taking an even bigger pounding slightly to the north of Ft. Myers. But this is an area being hit heavily. These are live pictures coming in from Ft. Myers now.

If you want to take a look at the situation from the sky, we've got some images that we've also received from NASA. Take a look at this. This is a wide, clearly a very, very wide picture of the area. If you can see, if you can see what's going on, this is an area that will certainly have enormous repercussions in the coming hours and days.

Landfall likely won't be the end of this dangerous storm, by any means. CNN's Brian Todd is over at the Hydro Meteorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland just outside of Washington, where officials are deeply concerned about what might happen next. Brian, tell us their deepest concerns.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the main job of the meteorologist here is what you just said, their main job is to track these storms once they hit land and turn into tropical depressions. Now, the meteorologists here are now looking at Charley and its projected path with some concern.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): With most eyes on Florida's west coast and Charley's approaching storm surge, some very important eyes are watching what comes next.

JIM HOKE, NOAA: This is going to be a storm that could be extremely dangerous when it makes landfall, and after landfall.

TODD: At the Hydro Meteorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland the task is to track these storms over land. As they follow Hurricane Charley, these meteorologists are worried about the rain that will come and the rain that's already hit.

In the areas in Charley's path, the ground is already saturated from two storms that have just moved through. That means high winds can uproot trees more easily, farmland and other rural areas can absorb next water, rivers expand and seemingly areas can become more dangerous. HOKE: Approximately two-thirds of the deaths associated with hurricanes occur in inland counties, 80 percent of the deaths are associated with flooding and about half of the deaths are associated with inland flooding.

TODD: Officials here say some of the worst inland flooding ever caused by a hurricane was in 1972, when storms from Hurricane Agnes devastated parts of Pennsylvania and New York, killing more than 50 people.

But the danger doesn't end with fresh water flooding. Officials say a storm with Charley's size and potential can also spawn tornadoes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: And we are back here live at the Hydro Meteorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland. They're going to staff this place overnight tonight. They always do. It's a 24/7 tracking center.

We are joined by Dr. Jim Hoke. He is the director of the center. he has just come from what they call a hurricane hotline with the National Hurricane Center and the various agencies of the National Weather Service.

Jim, what is your latest projection on Charley's track?

HOKE: Well, we do have the latest, it's straight from the National Hurricane Center, and it shows a very serious situation. Charley made landfall within the last hour near Ft. Myers and is now proceeding northward across the state of Florida as a hurricane.

It will re-enter the Atlantic Ocean overnight and proceed north and reach a point right around the North Carolina/South Carolina border tomorrow at around 2:00 in the afternoon.

So, it will have fairly long track of being a hurricane over water. Once it crosses back into land again, and it will diminish in its intensity to tropical storm strength. It will then continue north from 2:00 tomorrow afternoon through along the East Coast of the United States, up into central New England and be in central New England on Sunday around 2:00. And then continue northward up into the Canadian provinces.

Now, an important thing to remember about this forecast is that there is a cone of uncertainty around it. The track could be as far east as what I'm drawing here, out into the atlantic, the storm could actually, because of the uncertainty in hurricane predictions, could be actually east of Cape Hatteras and go east of Cape Cod to the east. On the West Side, the cone of uncertainty extends into Georgia up through Central North Carolina, Central Pennsylvania, and up into Canada.

So there is this area that the storm actually could pass in. It doesn't necessarily have to follow that one track. Anyone living in the -- within this cone of uncertainty needs to pay attention to their local media, such as CNN or the NOAA Weather Radio or whatever their most popular media outlet is. And they also pay strict attention to the advice that comes from their emergency managers.

TODD: And get ready for a lot of rain and possible flooding in those areas.

So, Wolf, clearly, you know, what Dr. Hoke says, a cone of uncertainty that you can project here on the path. Everybody's got to watch it very closely. Dr. Hoke, thank you very much for joining us. Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: And thank him for us, as well. Brian Todd reporting from outside Washington, D.C. We're getting a live picture once again from Fort Myers taking a big hit right now. Fort Myers on the coast, the west coast of Florida, the Gulf coast, as it's called, getting a big storm, big impact from Hurricane Charley right now.

This hurricane is creating what we call this wall of water. It's a surge of waves. Sometimes more than a story high. We'll show you some of the worst case scenarios for some of these tourist towns in southwest Florida when we come back.

Flooding, high winds, roofs flying off homes. I'll speak live with Florida's Governor Jeb Bush. He'll tell us what's happening now and what the state is doing.

We're also following the day's other important news, including a standoff in Najaf that was billed as the final battle. But will the U.S. let a renegade cleric off the hook? Much more coverage. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As we mentioned, Charley expected to move inland in a northeasterly direction. CNN Meteorologist Dave Hennen joins us now with some insight on one of the major dangers of this hurricane, mainly storm surge. We're just looking, by the way, Dave, at some live pictures of Fort Myers taking a big hit right now. But explain this storm surge phenomenon to our viewers.

DAVE HENNEN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What we're looking at is basically a wall of water. Think of it as shoveling the snow in a shovel. You're basically pushing the snow forward, you're doing the same thing with a hurricane. It is a tremendous wind machine and especially in a category four storm with the winds upwards of 145 miles per hour. You're driving the ocean with those winds forward. As the storm motion goes forward it's driving that wall of water, if you will, that's the storm surge, draws that forward as well. Let's show you -- I'm sorry, we're going to break here.

BLITZER: I want to interrupt you just for a moment. I want to get back to the storm surge, Dave, in just a moment. But there's a story that we've been following, another important story up in New Jersey. James McGreevey, the governor of New Jersey announcing yesterday he's gay, had an extramarital affair, a homosexual affair. The man with whom apparently he had this affair, an Israeli, Golan Cipel is speaking right now. This is his lawyer speaking. But I want our viewers to just get a little flavor of what they're saying.

(BEGIN LIVE EVENT)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...While we regret that the governor felt compelled until yesterday to lead a double life, the fact remains that he used his official position to repeatedly victimize my client. It was only at the insistence of the governor's representatives that I agreed to meet with them before filing a lawsuit. To hear their unfounded and baseless allegations of the supposed and I quote extortion made by the governor's representatives to make my client a double victim first, his sexual harassment by the governor and now as a victim of an attempted smear campaign.

Our only goal is to obtain justice. In fact, it was Mr. McGreevey's representatives who, without provocation, offered a sum of money to make my client go away. But money was never the ultimate goal in my client's search for justice. He was hearing the governor's words and I quote, given the circumstances surrounding of what the governor self-servingly refers to as the affair I have decided the right course of action is to resign, that my client felt somewhat vindicated. What the future will hold with regard to filing a lawsuit or any other actions is something only time will tell. That's all I have to say at this point. Thank you.

(END LIVE EVENT)

BLITZER: The attorney representing Golan Cipel, the Israeli with whom apparently, apparently, the governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey was having some sort of affair, who was threatening to file some sort of sexual harassment lawsuit against the governor. As our viewers know, the governor announced yesterday he was resigning effective in the middle of November.

This affair with Golan Cipel who was hired by the governor to work in some sort of homeland security department after meeting him in Israel a couple years ago. We'll continue to watch that story for our viewers.

I want to go back though to Dave Hennen, our meteorologist in Atlanta. I'm sorry I interrupted, Dave. I just wanted to get that out of the way for our viewers who are interested in that story.

But explain once again what this threat from a storm surge throughout the coast of the Gulf coast of Florida is right now.

HENNEN: Wolf, let's take a look at our keyhole graphic. I want to show you kind of what we're looking at. Remember that the hurricane tracked in a motion something like this, it came up and moved over the Havana area. It went very near Havana and then it has hooked back now towards the Florida coast.

And let me take you in a closer look at this. We're talking about a couple of factors here. First of all, this is one of the worst areas that you could get storm surge because of the ocean waters right along the Gulf coast are very shallow. That's another factor. The water piles up in the shallow waters, gets pushed forward. The landfall is actually very near this area, right here, which is Captiva Island. The storm has now moved inland into this harbor and you have this tremendous amount of wind that blows and pushes all of this water forward.

So these are the worst areas up in the northern part of the harbor for now. But remember, this storm moving very quickly and it's going to continue to move off in this direction. What that allows the wind to do is come back in this direction so you get the storm surge around the counterclockwise flow to back up onto the other side. So we're not out of the woods yet. We're probably seeing the worst storm surge at this hour. That accompanies the eye wall as it continues to move inland.

One more factor I just wanted to point out here very quickly. In Cape Coral, we'll zoom you in here, notice all these little areas. These are canals which are nothing but water. That all leads back to the Gulf of Mexico. See, you have this tremendous wind blowing in all of this water. Much of that area under water at this hour, Wolf, and as the storm continues to move northward, we're very concerned about areas like Orlando, where the winds are expected to be hurricane force later.

BLITZER: All right. Dave Hennen, thanks for that explanation. We'll be checking back with you. Clearly, the worst not yet over by any means. Almost 3 million people living in a wide area from the Florida Keys up the Florida Gulf coast have already been strongly urged to evacuate their homes. Most of the evacuations were in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. And roads leading out of that area were literally, as you can see, filled with cars.

Congressman Jim Davis represents the region here on Capitol Hill. He's in Tampa. He's joining us on the phone. It looks like the people in the Tampa Bay area in your district, Congressman, didn't get the worst of it, as so many had expected only a few hours ago, is that right?

REP. JIM DAVIS (D), FLORIDA: That's correct, as we speak, Wolf. But we're not out of the woods yet. As we learned earlier, this hurricane can take unexpected turns and it could happen again.

BLITZER: So what is your fear right now if you're in the Tampa Bay area?

DAVIS: Well, there'll still be uncertainty as to whether the course might become more northward as distinguished from how it's going now and we're still going to have some storm surge and some high winds and tornadoes and so I think it's too soon to really judge exactly what we're going to experience here.

BLITZER: Have people basically heeded the advice to get out of town, to evacuate? Did that work relatively smoothly the way it was supposed to work?

REP. JIM DAVIS (D-FL): You know, it did, Wolf. Yesterday, the counties from Sarasota up through Hillsborough and Pinellas made some decisions to be cautious. They got the word out. The media cooperated. The states have been working very closely with the emergency management officials. A lot of people heeded the evacuation orders and left, particularly on the coastal islands.

BLITZER: So what is happening right now, just set the scene a little bit, in Tampa, where you are? If you look out your window, what do you see?

DAVIS: I'm looking out the window now at the Tampa Bay Bucs stadium. And it's just like the middle of the night, except it's daylight. There's hardly a soul stirring. It's very quiet, except for the rain and the wind, which is intensifying. And, like everyone else, we're in a wait-and-see mode to see if we're going to be fortunate to be spared the brunt of this that our neighbors are experiencing to the south, or whether there will be another unexpected turn in this hurricane.

BLITZER: So the next two, three, four hours, those are the critical moments for people in the Tampa Bay area. Is that right?

DAVIS: That's right. The one thing that's certain about hurricanes, Wolf, is the path is uncertain.

BLITZER: Congressman Jim Davis, good luck to you.

Good luck to all of the people over there in Tampa Bay. We'll be checking back, obviously, in the hours, indeed, in the days to come. We're going to have extensive, live coverage, here, by the way, on CNN, not only tonight but throughout the day tomorrow. Throughout the weekend, we'll be following up on Hurricane Charley.

Wind speeds in the triple digits. It's the hurricane that could spread catastrophe to the Florida coast. We'll speak live with Florida's governor Jeb Bush, get his sense of what needs to be done. And we'll also track Charley with our CNN reporters and radar. All that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Florida Governor Jeb Bush is speaking in Tallahassee right now. Let's listen in.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

BLITZER: All right, so we're just getting an update from the governor. We'll be speaking live with the governor shortly coming up soon. I'll get him on the phone. We'll get some more information on what's happening with Hurricane Charley.

Right now, let get back to our immediate coverage of this hurricane. Let's take a look at these pictures taken from the International Space Station as it flew over Florida, where Charley has been dumping heavy wind-driven rain. That's the picture now, the category four storm came ashore near Fort Myers at 3:50 p.m. eastern with winds of 145 miles an hour. Utility company officials say the storm has already knocked out power to half a million people. Venice and Tampa also are feeling some of the storm's effects already. Further inland, Orlando, clearly bracing for trouble. For the latest on where Charley may be headed, once again, let's go to our meteorologist Orelon Sidney at the CNN weather center in Atlanta for an update -- Orelon.

SIDNEY: Thanks a lot. We've got hurricane warnings in effect, Wolf, now on the eastern coast of Florida as far northward as Cape Lookout, North Carolina. The storm is expected to continue moving as it is now to the north-northeast, moving now about 22 miles-an-hour, expected to accelerate. It's going to head off the coast of Florida later on tonight. By 2 a.m. in the morning, it's expected to be off the coast.

The center of the storm, you can see now on the very latest radar, is just to the north of Port Charlotte. And it looks like the center's beginning to fill in a bit, which would be indicative of weakening, but not by much. One hundred and forty mile-an-hour winds are still what they were showing the last time.

I did want to show you real quickly out in the Atlantic, we have two new tropical depressions. I apologize for the edge of this. This is the GO satellite that ends right before you hit the African coast. So, unfortunately, you don't have a very good view of tropical depression number four and number five, respectively. Number five is expected to develop further. It may make its way into the Caribbean as a significant hurricane by the five-day period, which would be sometime in the middle of next week. We'll worry about that one, hopefully, later -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Orelon. Lots to worry about in the immediate hours ahead. We'll take care of the other ones down the road. Let's check in with our reporters now covering this hurricane. Let's move up Florida's gulf coast to Tampa Bay. CNN's Anderson Cooper standing by there.

We spoke a little while ago. Does it seem to be getting worse in Tampa right now, Anderson?

COOPER: Well, the winds are definitely picking up and the rain is continuing. You were talking about a lot of people being worried today here in Florida. Some people, the ones who were most worried, are some of the boat owners. As you see some of the boasts here in the Tampa harbor, the water is pretty calm. There had been a lot of concern about that storm surge, about the rising waters, anywhere up to 15 feet had been predicted here in Tampa. That does not seem to be the case now, likely will not happen here. Though waters are expected to rise somewhat.

And as the congressman from Tampa just told you a short time ago, Wolf, it is too soon, by far, to call an all-clear here in Tampa. It is going to get worse before it gets better. Though, as I said before, Tampa has definitely dodged a bullet. This storm has not tracked as was expected. It was supposed to hit Tampa directly. So there is a sense of relief here in Tampa at this hour, though expectations and a sense of waiting to see what the storm will bring in the coming hours -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Is it sort of like a ghost town downtown, not far from where you are right now, Anderson?

COOPER: Yes, it really is. I mean, there's a mandatory evacuation in place. And people really have heeded that here. As many as 3 million people were asked to evacuate. It's not clear exactly the number of people who have evacuated, but I can tell you the streets are pretty much deserted. There are no businesses. There is no electricity. The water has been shut down.

Even the hotel where I'm staying, when I checked in, the people behind the counter literally checked out. They left, just gave me the keys to my room. And we're in the hotel basically by ourselves. So people really heeding the emergency, the mandatory evacuation. They have really gotten out of Tampa, sought higher ground, sought safety with friends and relatives -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Anderson. No room service for you tonight. Thanks very much, Anderson Cooper. We'll check back with you throughout the night. Anderson will have a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360 coming up a little bit more than an hour or so from now, 7 p.m. eastern. Anderson Cooper on the scene for us down in Florida.

Orlando is one of the inland cities experiencing the dangers of this Hurricane Charley. Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti, she is standing by in Orlando. What's happening there, Susan?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, Wolf. Well, understandably, there's a sense of relief in Tampa, as Anderson just said. But here it's the opposite. People here are very worried about the possible impact from Charley because it is on the way here, according to forecasters, later tonight.

In fact, according to the mayor, Buddy Dyer, he tells me, quote, "We are very prepared." We're in the midst of a thunder and lightning storm right now, but the weather kind of ebbs and flows. Here they have opened evacuation centers. In particular, they have asked for a mandatory evacuation for people who live in mobile homes and manufactured homes. Some of the shelters, of course, are equipped for those with special needs, equipped with generators in case they need to plug in their medical equipment.

They are very concerned here, not only about the possible impact from wind, but flooding as well, because there are a lot of low-lying areas and the area is already saturated, of course, in part, from the recent rains from Bonnie. There is also a heavy canopy of oak trees. They expect that to be heavily damaged here as well. And coincidentally, Wolf, very recently, according to the mayor, they had a tabletop exercise here with this kind of scenario where people evacuated from another coastal region to this area and now having the hurricane come this way. We'll see how things work out as the night goes on.

Back to you. BLITZER: And, Susan, Disney World, I take it, that's all shut down for the time being?

CANDIOTTI: Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, they are all closed today. And it's unclear, of course, when they'll be open again.

BLITZER: All right, with good reason. Thanks very much. Susan Candiotti reporting for us.

Seeking safety from Charley's wrath. Coming up, we'll go live to an evacuation shelter near St. Petersburg to see how people are coping.

Also a battleground state hit very hard by a powerful hurricane. I'll speak about Charley's political ramifications with our political analyst Carlos Watson. And we're also standing by to speak with the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're continuing our extensive coverage of Hurricane Charley that's pounding the Florida coast right now, the gulf coast of Florida. Many people who have fled their homes are seeking safety in evacuation shelters.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is at one shelter near St. Petersburg. Give us the mood, the scene over there, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN: Well, Wolf, here in Dunedin, Florida, there's a lot of smiles, quite frankly, as word is starting to spread through here that the worst of the storm is going to miss this area. People are starting to pack up. There were about almost 800 people who had come to this shelter. And many of those people have already started to stream out of this particular shelter. There are almost 200 shelters opened up statewide. They've taken in more than 16,000 people, we understand, and in other parts of the state, those people are probably still in those shelters. But here there are smiles and the word is spreading that the worst is probably going to spare this area. So you might say that in Dunedin, they're done waiting. So they're getting ready to go home, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Good for them. Thanks, Ed Lavandera, very much.

Let's check in with our other reporters in Florida, John Zarrella, he's in Venice. What's the latest there, John?

ZARRELLA: Well, Wolf, just a few minutes ago, we had some police officers show up back here at the Board of Realtors' office in Venice with their guns drawn. You know, that's an indication, of course, you know, as we are all too familiar with, of potential for looting in the aftermath of storms. Don't know what this is all about, but it certainly is reminiscent of that.

Now, we noticed that the winds have actually died down a little bit here. The rain is just spitting at us now. In fact, the sky has actually lightened. I have no idea whether that means that the storm is passing us by. Clearly, it is off to our right. But whether it will get any worse here before it actually clears up, I have no idea. But right now, folks are still very thankful that it appears that the storm is not coming right over them here in Venice. You can see the wind is still blowing, but certainly not to any great degree. It appears as if the storm, for the most part, is going to pass us by here as well -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, category four hurricane, at least, Venice looks like it's going to be okay. Thanks very much, John Zarrella, for that.

Coming up, more hurricane coverage, including some political analysis of what's happening, as well. Among other things, I'll speak live and get the latest on the disaster from the Florida governor, Jeb Bush. And we'll talk about the politics of disaster relief with our analyst, Carlos Watson. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: That was the scene earlier today, earlier this morning, Key West, when that storm began to have an affect on southern Florida. The Florida governor, Jeb Bush, calls Hurricane Charley a "devastating storm" and he's asked his brother, the president of the United States, for a presidential disaster declaration. The governor, Bush, is joining us live from Tallahassee right now.

Has the federal government declared this a disaster area yet, Governor?

BUSH: Yes, they have, Wolf. About 15 minutes ago, Director Brown from FEMA called me and said he had spoken to the president, and our declaration request had been granted. And federal support, which has been planned for and people have been working on it already, is already being moved to the proper places to provide immediate support, along with state support tomorrow.

BLITZER: We know there's going to be extensive damage and destruction. As far as you know, any fatalities yet? We know that some people died when this hurricane crossed Cuba and Jamaica earlier.

BUSH: We've only, in conversations with the local emergency operation centers, we have heard of accidents based on damage done to homes, a roof collapsing, but no fatalities that I'm aware of. A child overdosed taking her mom's medication in the middle of the storm. Those are the two incidents that I'm aware of. But we'll have a lot more information later on tonight and, better yet, tomorrow morning.

BLITZER: Is it my impression, Governor, that as bad as it is, it could have been a lot worse, had the storm stayed on track towards Tampa Bay?

BUSH: Well, the fact is, it's not past tense. This storm, unlike other storms, has hurricane-force winds that will, in all likelihood, cut across the entire state. So, based on its current direction, and that could change, of course, it will go directly through the central Florida area and come out in the Atlantic ocean in Daytona. So it's still work in progress. And people on the East Coast, as well as central Florida, need to take this storm very, very seriously.

These winds will be category two winds by the time they reach central Florida. Those are still powerful winds. And so we can't make a total assessment of whether or not it could have been worse, I don't think. I don't think it's fair to the people that are preparing and bracing for the storm yet to come.

BLITZER: What about the flooding, the flooding throughout your state. We take it that that's a very serious problem right now.

BUSH: Well, we've had so much rain in the last two months that this hurricane has created, you know, a chance for flooding. Plus on the coastal areas, you know, we've got major storm surge based on the models. We've not gotten an assessment, for example, at Charlotte Harbor and Charlotte County, which is where there could be significant storm surge. But, based on early indications, south of there it's been okay. But north of there, we're concerned that there will be serious flooding in the coastal areas.

And then low-lying areas during, in the path of the hurricane, there's definitely going to be flooding, which is why we're asking people to listen to their local operation centers and local leaders, if there's mandatory evacuations, to move to shelters that are safe and to move to high ground before it's too late.

BLITZER: So the critical hours are -- how many hours now for your state will be critical, in terms of the worst of this, Governor?

BUSH: Well, we probably have five more hours of a storm that will -- the eye of the hurricane will be probably be gone by in that period of time, which is far faster than what was projected. This is a fast-moving storm. But there will be, you know, ramifications for this, for many families in our state, for months ahead. And we're going to be prepared to provide support.

BLITZER: Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, good luck to you. Good luck to all of the people of Florida. Thanks very much for joining us.

BUSH: Thank you, sir.

BLITZER: With Florida, of course, being a key battleground state, Hurricane Charley has some serious political implications down the road. Here to talk about that, our political analyst, Carlos Watson. He joins us every Friday. He's in Mountain View, California, right now.

Florida, by the way, if we take a look at the latest Quinnipiac poll, has Kerry at 47 percent, Bush at 41 percent, Nader at 4 percent right. How everyone, the federal government, the state government responds to this hurricane could have an impact on the election, couldn't it, Charley -- Carlos?

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Carlos, which is Charley in Spanish. No doubt about it, Wolf. We saw that, in fact, in 1992, Hurricane Andrew, another major hurricane, where the response was not as rapid and not as well-coordinated, and that's believed to have hurt the first President Bush.

Conversely, we saw that for the current President Bush, his response immediately after 9/11 helped increase his standing in the polls. People saw him as not only competent but caring. And similarly for Bill Clinton in 1995 with the Oklahoma City bombing, another disaster, a different kind, of course. We also saw that when people saw him as someone as empathetic, and caring, and strong, it also helped him in the polls. So, clearly, no one planned on this, but how a leader reacts certainly can improve their standings in the poll.

BLITZER: Carlos, you're from Florida. You've lived there most of your life. You were there during the Hurricane Andrew. As you see the Florida state of politics right now, the polls that we're seeing, which are simply a snapshot, as we all know, what goes through your mind?

WATSON: Well, one of the things that's happening right now, Wolf, is part of the area that the hurricane has really devastated is some of the most reliably Republican parts of the state. Some of the suburban southwestern parts, counties like Lee county, Republicans enjoy more than a 50 percent lead, in terms of registration, than Democrats, counties like Charlotte, again, almost a 50 percent lead for Republicans in registration. That's obviously a very difficult thing to have happen.

And again, this is a place that was decided by less than 1 percent. So if for any reason people aren't able to get things back on track in a very rapid fashion, that certainly could have an impact on turnout and, ultimately, perhaps on the election.

BLITZER: So Governor Bush and President Bush, I think it's fair to say, will be on their very, very best behavior, as far as Florida's concerned, over the coming days and weeks?

WATSON: They will. And you would expect them to do it, whether it was Democrat or Republican. The fact, obviously, that they know each other very well keeps them close. One other thing to watch is the August 31st Senate primary, could affect that as well there in Florida, open seat.

BLITZER: Carlos Watson, not Charley Watson, but Carlos Watson, our political analyst. Thanks very much for that analysis. Our live coverage of Hurricane Charley will continue right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's recap the breaking news we've been following all afternoon. A very strong Hurricane Charley made landfall at 3:50 p.m. eastern, just over two hours ago, coming ashore at North Captiva Island with 145 mile-an-hour winds and a ten-foot surge of waves, a full category four storm. At last report, half a million people were without power. Governor Jeb Bush just announced on this program that his brother, the president of the United States, has declared this area a disaster area in Florida. The White House has just confirmed it.

That's our coverage for this hour. LOU DOBBS TONIGHT starts right now.

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


Aired August 13, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BLITZER: We have a new forecast. And we have reporters standing by all over the region. Stand by for hard news on a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Charley, a major hurricane hammers the Florida coast. Millions were urged to flee. Now it's too late.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not the time to be getting on the interstate. It is time to seek a safe place to be with family or friends.

BLITZER: Storm surge. The wall of water could reach 15 feet.

Caught off guard, cities to the south are forced to scramble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll ride it out, that's all we can do.

BLITZER: Far from Florida, hundreds of miles isn't far enough when a hurricane moves inland.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Friday, August 13, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Hurricane Charley has roared ashore, a category four storm, that's the second most dangerous. It's lashing Florida's West Coast with winds up to 145 miles an hour. But perhaps even more deadly, it's pushing a wall of water potentially, get this, as high as 15 feet. The betting was that Charley would land further north, but a slight turn has put the area around Ft. Myers right at ground zero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are in a designated evacuation zone, you should make plans to evacuate immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Those who did not heed the calls to evacuate can only hunker down, and hope for the best. But the governor expects the worst.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. JEB BUSH (R) FLORIDA: This morning, I have requested from the president of the United States a presidential disaster declaration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I'll speak live with the governor this hour.

Cities at risk include: Ft. Myers, Venice, Tampa and Orlando. We have reporters standing by live in each location. But we begin with Chris Cifatte of our affiliate WINK who filed this report just a short while ago from Ft. Myers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CIFATTE, WINK CORRESPONDENT: We wanted to kind of show you what that looks like from up here. These are the 60 or 70 mile an hour gusts. I can tell you what that sound was that you heard in the studio a few minutes ago. We lost a satellite dish up here. We're about to lose an antenna over there. The wind gusts are fierce.

I can't even put into words what the rain feels like here in a roof. We're in a sheltered spot so we're kind of sheltered from the wing, the rain is just coming down horizontally right at us.

The good news is -- there's a big gust, the good news is I can see Billy's Creek from here, and the storm surge does not appear to have raised the water level too much at this point. But, if you can -- obviously if you can stay inside at this point you want to be inside.

And the sheets you heard Abby talking about them, the sheets of water a little bit ago, Dan Bowens in our Charlotte news room talking about -- you can't even see because of the water's blowing horizontally. That's exactly what's happening here.

You can hardly see 30 or 40 feet in front of you, especially when winds gust. So, we wanted to give you an idea of what it's like to be out in this, not that anybody should be. And we'll send it back downstairs to you and get inside ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Chris Cifatte from our affiliate WINK filed that report a few moments ago.

CNN's John Zarrella is also in Venice, Florida. He's joining us now live. John, you've covered a lot of hurricanes over the years. Give us some perspective on this one.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from our vantage point here, and certainly to preface that, a category four is a rare event. You don't see very many of these category four hurricanes, certainly historically. But here in Venice, we don't have that driving wind- driven rain that stings like sand hitting your face. We have some rain, some wind. But we don't have, you know what you would call anything dramatically deteriorating as far as conditions. You can see the trees blowing here.

We're out at a Holiday Inn and the people are on the balconies trying to stay safe. A lot of people evacuated off of the area beaches in Venice. And most of them have taken shelter. A lot of them here at this hotel others have gone inland.

Driving in Venice Beach, completely deserted this afternoon, as is most of the downtown area. Everybody boarded up and shut down. You know, clearly what you get a sense of, Wolf, is that people here, at least this far north, took this storm very, very seriously and they are not out venturing out into it today -- Wolf.

BLITZER: John, how far are you from Captiva which is where this storm hit landfall?

ZARRELLA: I would say we are probably about an hour's drive, maybe 40 or 50 miles to the north of Captiva. We're on the weaker side of the storm. And granted in 145 mile an hour hurricane, the weaker side of the storm is not necessarily that weak. But the left side of the hurricane is traditionally the weaker side of the storm. And winds are blowing, as you can see, pretty much from the east to the west which is indicative of a storm when you are on that weaker side of the hurricane.

But it is still getting closer to us. We can certainly tell that. The winds have picked up considerably in the last half hour since I was last on the air. And the trees are blowing in a steady motion now. So these are pretty much sustained winds. But again, we are not experiencing anything near hurricane force winds and probably just barely at tropical storm force winds at this point -- Wolf.

BLITZER: But it could get worse, that is right, John?

ZARRELLA: Oh, it certainly could. I don't think there's any question that the conditions here will probably get markedly worse during the next two hours, because it is still on the track that is going to be coming closer to us as it moves to the northeast and inland -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. John Zarrella, we'll be checking back with you in Venice.

Let's move up further north in Tampa. CNN's Anderson Cooper is standing by there. Anderson, they were bracing in the Tampa Bay area for landfall right there. It's not going to happen there, but what's -- what do they expect to happen where you are?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well Wolf, the winds have just started to pick up more, a little bit of heavier rains right now. But without a doubt, Tampa is a city which has dodged a bullet today. They were expecting just a really bad scenario here.

In this, the harbor area, they were expecting a water surge of up to 15 feet here. They were expecting this whole area to be flooded. That is not happened. It's not likely to happen as the storm has moved further eastward. Still, it is some nasty weather. The evacuation order is still in effect, they have asked up to 3 million people to evacuate this entire area. The largest evacuation of Floridians since Hurricane Floyd in 1999 when some 2 million people were urged to move inland.

The numbers of people who actually have evacuated are not known right now, because a lot of people, though they have sought shelters in government facilities, some are just staying with friends, staying family members in other towns. So it's hard to keep track of exactly how many people have moved.

Here in Tampa, as the weather worsens, you do not see people walking around. This is a city boarded up. This is a city where the electricity has been shut off. We're working off a generator. And the water, in many parts of the city has been shut off as well, all a precaution in anticipation of the storm as it was supposed to hit -- Wolf.

BLITZER: But even though Tampa has dodged a major bullet, as you say, Anderson, it's going to get wet. And there could be plenty of potential still for flooding in that area, is that right?

COOPER: Absolutely. I mean, it's going to get worse as the storm moves up here. It is still further south of us in the Ft. Myers area, that's about 60 or 70 miles south of us. Yes, it is definitely going to get worse here, but nowhere near as bad as people expected.

BLITZER: Well, that's good news for folks in Tampa -- in the Tampa Bay area. Anderson, thanks very much. Anderson will be back reporting for us throughout the night including on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

For the latest on where Charley may be heading, let's go to our meteorologist Orelon Sidney, she's at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta. She's tracking this deadly storm -- Orelon.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Thanks a lot, Wolf. This officially from the National Hurricane Center, Charley makes landfall as a category four hurricane near Charlotte Harbor, Florida. Captiva Island is the official point of landfall.

I'm going to give you the very latest information from the National Hurricane Center now. Bear with me a second, because I'm reading this for the first time as I tell this to you. The latitude now 26.9 degrees north, longitude 82.2 degrees west. It's now 30 miles West-Northwest of Ft. Myers. also 115 miles South-Southwest of Orlando.

It's now moving North-Northeast at 22 miles an hour. And they're expecting it to continue to increase in speed tonight and on into Saturday.

Maximum sustained winds, get this, still 140 miles an hour. That is still a category four storm. It is expected to weaken of course during the next 24 hours. Hurricane force winds are expected across Florida in the path of the storm as it moves across the region. So, we still have a very potent storm on our hands without a doubt. And look how symmetrical it is, too. That's an indication that it's still a very, very strong storm situation. We'll keep an eye on this throughout the night.

And guess what? We've gotten new storms to talk about, tropical depression four and five have formed in the Atlantic. We'll talk about those later on -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Orelon, I'm going to speak to the Mayor of Ft. Myers in a moment. What do we expect happening right there, right now, and in the next hour or two?

SIDNEY: Well, in the next hour or two things are going to be getting better, especially the next 2 1/2 to 3 hours. For now, we've seen wind gusts at hurricane force up around 90 mile and hour, I believe, Dave Hennen is looking at some amounts there and he just gave me some indication in the 80 to 90 mile an hour wind gusts.

So, they are right in the brunt of the storm now. They are going to be seeing weather improve through the night, but it's going to take a couple of hours yet before all of this moves out -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Orleon Sidney, we'll be checking back with you, as well.

Let's speak with the mayor of Ft. Myers right now Jim Humphrey. He's joining us on the phone.

Set the stage for us Mayor. What's happening in your city?

MAY. JIM HUMPHREY, FT. MYERS (via telephone): Well, it is very serious. And please, Mr. Blitzer, tell everyone to the north, take this storm very seriously, because as you said it has roared ashore. And we are in ground zero. And I can tell you it's taking trees in fact, the oak tree along our historic McGregor and in the park just coming down.

And, of course, the sheets of wind and the rain it's just coming across. It's very serious, frightening, frankly, and devastating to us. We have not experienced a storm like this in -- in fact, I lived here since 1970 and I've never experienced a storm like this.

BLITZER: Well, these winds, 100 miles an hour, maybe as much as 145 miles an hour, in certain parts of the West Coast of Florida, is it enough to blow off the roofs of houses?

HUMPHREY: Oh, yes. In fact, even hospitals. Our Cape Carl hospital has lost much of its roof. One of the other hospitals has lost numerous number of its windows.

So I mean, it is serious. We are just losing so much of, not only our structures. As we talked earlier, we are, of course, also worried about some of our historical structures. We have not been able to even get to the Edison home to see how it's doing. There was a fire close to it, but it -- because of a transformer coming down, but thankfully we did get to that and it was quickly extinguished.

But we are very concerned, because I'm looking at the Edison parking lot right now. Just trees are all down and across. So it's -- it is something that has taken this area by storm.

BLITZER: Obviously, indeed. Mr. Mayor, we know that the storm, Hurricane Charley, killed people in Jamaica and Cuba as it crossed over those islands earlier. Any fatalities yet in Ft. Myers or in your area?

HUMPHREY: None that has been reported yet. But where we have our concern is that it happened so quickly to us and that for a while it was proceeding north and somewhat northeast. Then all of a sudden -- I mean northwest. Then it started moving northeast and instead of Tampa, as you said earlier, it moved into Captiva, which is in our county and moved across into Charlotte Harbor.

And so a lot of people thought it will stay along the outside, so we'll stay in our homes. We tried our best to go around to get everyone to evacuate. But at one stage, it was too late and all of our emergency crews had to go into shelters. So that's something we're very concerned about. And that's why I want to stress everyone to the north, please evacuate if you can.

BLITZER: Good advice from Jim Humphrey mayor of Ft. Myers. Once again, thanks very much for joining us. Good luck to all of the people in your community.

HUMPHREY: Thank you very much.

BLITZER: Back to the Southwest part of Florida in the area south of Ft. Myers, Trey Radel from our affiliate WINK filed this report from Naples just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TREY RADEL, WINK CORRESPONDENT: We are in Naples. We are south of Ft. Myers. Right now we are feeling some of those bands of Charley as it rips through the southwest part of Florida out here. You can see some debris in the parking lot that has been strewn about and a lot of the city of Naples is like this.

Power lines are down. Parts of Naples has electricity out and debris all over the roads. If we could take a look here, and you can see some of the palm trees blowing in these extremely powerful winds.

Let's take a look, though, at some video that just came in to our news room, if we can, from Goodland. That area is next to Marco Island, even further south of us. There you see some of those canals flooding and heading into people's front yards, a very dangerous situation.

As a matter of fact, certainly most deaths within hurricanes are drownings. When this stuff creeped into people's yards, when it floods the streets. And here in Naples, we are bracing for some of the surge to come up. Here where we are at right now, we are about ten blocks from the beach. We had to leave there, because it just got entirely too dangerous to stay there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Troy Radel filing that report just a few moments ago from our affiliate WINK.

We're also getting some new pictures in from downtown Ft. Myers. I want to show our viewers what seeing right now. These are live pictures. You can see the high rise buildings in Ft. Myers. This is an area, we just spoke to the mayor, Jim Humphrey. They're taking a pounding right now. But they're going to be taking an even bigger pounding slightly to the north of Ft. Myers. But this is an area being hit heavily. These are live pictures coming in from Ft. Myers now.

If you want to take a look at the situation from the sky, we've got some images that we've also received from NASA. Take a look at this. This is a wide, clearly a very, very wide picture of the area. If you can see, if you can see what's going on, this is an area that will certainly have enormous repercussions in the coming hours and days.

Landfall likely won't be the end of this dangerous storm, by any means. CNN's Brian Todd is over at the Hydro Meteorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland just outside of Washington, where officials are deeply concerned about what might happen next. Brian, tell us their deepest concerns.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the main job of the meteorologist here is what you just said, their main job is to track these storms once they hit land and turn into tropical depressions. Now, the meteorologists here are now looking at Charley and its projected path with some concern.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): With most eyes on Florida's west coast and Charley's approaching storm surge, some very important eyes are watching what comes next.

JIM HOKE, NOAA: This is going to be a storm that could be extremely dangerous when it makes landfall, and after landfall.

TODD: At the Hydro Meteorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland the task is to track these storms over land. As they follow Hurricane Charley, these meteorologists are worried about the rain that will come and the rain that's already hit.

In the areas in Charley's path, the ground is already saturated from two storms that have just moved through. That means high winds can uproot trees more easily, farmland and other rural areas can absorb next water, rivers expand and seemingly areas can become more dangerous. HOKE: Approximately two-thirds of the deaths associated with hurricanes occur in inland counties, 80 percent of the deaths are associated with flooding and about half of the deaths are associated with inland flooding.

TODD: Officials here say some of the worst inland flooding ever caused by a hurricane was in 1972, when storms from Hurricane Agnes devastated parts of Pennsylvania and New York, killing more than 50 people.

But the danger doesn't end with fresh water flooding. Officials say a storm with Charley's size and potential can also spawn tornadoes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: And we are back here live at the Hydro Meteorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland. They're going to staff this place overnight tonight. They always do. It's a 24/7 tracking center.

We are joined by Dr. Jim Hoke. He is the director of the center. he has just come from what they call a hurricane hotline with the National Hurricane Center and the various agencies of the National Weather Service.

Jim, what is your latest projection on Charley's track?

HOKE: Well, we do have the latest, it's straight from the National Hurricane Center, and it shows a very serious situation. Charley made landfall within the last hour near Ft. Myers and is now proceeding northward across the state of Florida as a hurricane.

It will re-enter the Atlantic Ocean overnight and proceed north and reach a point right around the North Carolina/South Carolina border tomorrow at around 2:00 in the afternoon.

So, it will have fairly long track of being a hurricane over water. Once it crosses back into land again, and it will diminish in its intensity to tropical storm strength. It will then continue north from 2:00 tomorrow afternoon through along the East Coast of the United States, up into central New England and be in central New England on Sunday around 2:00. And then continue northward up into the Canadian provinces.

Now, an important thing to remember about this forecast is that there is a cone of uncertainty around it. The track could be as far east as what I'm drawing here, out into the atlantic, the storm could actually, because of the uncertainty in hurricane predictions, could be actually east of Cape Hatteras and go east of Cape Cod to the east. On the West Side, the cone of uncertainty extends into Georgia up through Central North Carolina, Central Pennsylvania, and up into Canada.

So there is this area that the storm actually could pass in. It doesn't necessarily have to follow that one track. Anyone living in the -- within this cone of uncertainty needs to pay attention to their local media, such as CNN or the NOAA Weather Radio or whatever their most popular media outlet is. And they also pay strict attention to the advice that comes from their emergency managers.

TODD: And get ready for a lot of rain and possible flooding in those areas.

So, Wolf, clearly, you know, what Dr. Hoke says, a cone of uncertainty that you can project here on the path. Everybody's got to watch it very closely. Dr. Hoke, thank you very much for joining us. Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: And thank him for us, as well. Brian Todd reporting from outside Washington, D.C. We're getting a live picture once again from Fort Myers taking a big hit right now. Fort Myers on the coast, the west coast of Florida, the Gulf coast, as it's called, getting a big storm, big impact from Hurricane Charley right now.

This hurricane is creating what we call this wall of water. It's a surge of waves. Sometimes more than a story high. We'll show you some of the worst case scenarios for some of these tourist towns in southwest Florida when we come back.

Flooding, high winds, roofs flying off homes. I'll speak live with Florida's Governor Jeb Bush. He'll tell us what's happening now and what the state is doing.

We're also following the day's other important news, including a standoff in Najaf that was billed as the final battle. But will the U.S. let a renegade cleric off the hook? Much more coverage. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As we mentioned, Charley expected to move inland in a northeasterly direction. CNN Meteorologist Dave Hennen joins us now with some insight on one of the major dangers of this hurricane, mainly storm surge. We're just looking, by the way, Dave, at some live pictures of Fort Myers taking a big hit right now. But explain this storm surge phenomenon to our viewers.

DAVE HENNEN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What we're looking at is basically a wall of water. Think of it as shoveling the snow in a shovel. You're basically pushing the snow forward, you're doing the same thing with a hurricane. It is a tremendous wind machine and especially in a category four storm with the winds upwards of 145 miles per hour. You're driving the ocean with those winds forward. As the storm motion goes forward it's driving that wall of water, if you will, that's the storm surge, draws that forward as well. Let's show you -- I'm sorry, we're going to break here.

BLITZER: I want to interrupt you just for a moment. I want to get back to the storm surge, Dave, in just a moment. But there's a story that we've been following, another important story up in New Jersey. James McGreevey, the governor of New Jersey announcing yesterday he's gay, had an extramarital affair, a homosexual affair. The man with whom apparently he had this affair, an Israeli, Golan Cipel is speaking right now. This is his lawyer speaking. But I want our viewers to just get a little flavor of what they're saying.

(BEGIN LIVE EVENT)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...While we regret that the governor felt compelled until yesterday to lead a double life, the fact remains that he used his official position to repeatedly victimize my client. It was only at the insistence of the governor's representatives that I agreed to meet with them before filing a lawsuit. To hear their unfounded and baseless allegations of the supposed and I quote extortion made by the governor's representatives to make my client a double victim first, his sexual harassment by the governor and now as a victim of an attempted smear campaign.

Our only goal is to obtain justice. In fact, it was Mr. McGreevey's representatives who, without provocation, offered a sum of money to make my client go away. But money was never the ultimate goal in my client's search for justice. He was hearing the governor's words and I quote, given the circumstances surrounding of what the governor self-servingly refers to as the affair I have decided the right course of action is to resign, that my client felt somewhat vindicated. What the future will hold with regard to filing a lawsuit or any other actions is something only time will tell. That's all I have to say at this point. Thank you.

(END LIVE EVENT)

BLITZER: The attorney representing Golan Cipel, the Israeli with whom apparently, apparently, the governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey was having some sort of affair, who was threatening to file some sort of sexual harassment lawsuit against the governor. As our viewers know, the governor announced yesterday he was resigning effective in the middle of November.

This affair with Golan Cipel who was hired by the governor to work in some sort of homeland security department after meeting him in Israel a couple years ago. We'll continue to watch that story for our viewers.

I want to go back though to Dave Hennen, our meteorologist in Atlanta. I'm sorry I interrupted, Dave. I just wanted to get that out of the way for our viewers who are interested in that story.

But explain once again what this threat from a storm surge throughout the coast of the Gulf coast of Florida is right now.

HENNEN: Wolf, let's take a look at our keyhole graphic. I want to show you kind of what we're looking at. Remember that the hurricane tracked in a motion something like this, it came up and moved over the Havana area. It went very near Havana and then it has hooked back now towards the Florida coast.

And let me take you in a closer look at this. We're talking about a couple of factors here. First of all, this is one of the worst areas that you could get storm surge because of the ocean waters right along the Gulf coast are very shallow. That's another factor. The water piles up in the shallow waters, gets pushed forward. The landfall is actually very near this area, right here, which is Captiva Island. The storm has now moved inland into this harbor and you have this tremendous amount of wind that blows and pushes all of this water forward.

So these are the worst areas up in the northern part of the harbor for now. But remember, this storm moving very quickly and it's going to continue to move off in this direction. What that allows the wind to do is come back in this direction so you get the storm surge around the counterclockwise flow to back up onto the other side. So we're not out of the woods yet. We're probably seeing the worst storm surge at this hour. That accompanies the eye wall as it continues to move inland.

One more factor I just wanted to point out here very quickly. In Cape Coral, we'll zoom you in here, notice all these little areas. These are canals which are nothing but water. That all leads back to the Gulf of Mexico. See, you have this tremendous wind blowing in all of this water. Much of that area under water at this hour, Wolf, and as the storm continues to move northward, we're very concerned about areas like Orlando, where the winds are expected to be hurricane force later.

BLITZER: All right. Dave Hennen, thanks for that explanation. We'll be checking back with you. Clearly, the worst not yet over by any means. Almost 3 million people living in a wide area from the Florida Keys up the Florida Gulf coast have already been strongly urged to evacuate their homes. Most of the evacuations were in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. And roads leading out of that area were literally, as you can see, filled with cars.

Congressman Jim Davis represents the region here on Capitol Hill. He's in Tampa. He's joining us on the phone. It looks like the people in the Tampa Bay area in your district, Congressman, didn't get the worst of it, as so many had expected only a few hours ago, is that right?

REP. JIM DAVIS (D), FLORIDA: That's correct, as we speak, Wolf. But we're not out of the woods yet. As we learned earlier, this hurricane can take unexpected turns and it could happen again.

BLITZER: So what is your fear right now if you're in the Tampa Bay area?

DAVIS: Well, there'll still be uncertainty as to whether the course might become more northward as distinguished from how it's going now and we're still going to have some storm surge and some high winds and tornadoes and so I think it's too soon to really judge exactly what we're going to experience here.

BLITZER: Have people basically heeded the advice to get out of town, to evacuate? Did that work relatively smoothly the way it was supposed to work?

REP. JIM DAVIS (D-FL): You know, it did, Wolf. Yesterday, the counties from Sarasota up through Hillsborough and Pinellas made some decisions to be cautious. They got the word out. The media cooperated. The states have been working very closely with the emergency management officials. A lot of people heeded the evacuation orders and left, particularly on the coastal islands.

BLITZER: So what is happening right now, just set the scene a little bit, in Tampa, where you are? If you look out your window, what do you see?

DAVIS: I'm looking out the window now at the Tampa Bay Bucs stadium. And it's just like the middle of the night, except it's daylight. There's hardly a soul stirring. It's very quiet, except for the rain and the wind, which is intensifying. And, like everyone else, we're in a wait-and-see mode to see if we're going to be fortunate to be spared the brunt of this that our neighbors are experiencing to the south, or whether there will be another unexpected turn in this hurricane.

BLITZER: So the next two, three, four hours, those are the critical moments for people in the Tampa Bay area. Is that right?

DAVIS: That's right. The one thing that's certain about hurricanes, Wolf, is the path is uncertain.

BLITZER: Congressman Jim Davis, good luck to you.

Good luck to all of the people over there in Tampa Bay. We'll be checking back, obviously, in the hours, indeed, in the days to come. We're going to have extensive, live coverage, here, by the way, on CNN, not only tonight but throughout the day tomorrow. Throughout the weekend, we'll be following up on Hurricane Charley.

Wind speeds in the triple digits. It's the hurricane that could spread catastrophe to the Florida coast. We'll speak live with Florida's governor Jeb Bush, get his sense of what needs to be done. And we'll also track Charley with our CNN reporters and radar. All that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Florida Governor Jeb Bush is speaking in Tallahassee right now. Let's listen in.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

BLITZER: All right, so we're just getting an update from the governor. We'll be speaking live with the governor shortly coming up soon. I'll get him on the phone. We'll get some more information on what's happening with Hurricane Charley.

Right now, let get back to our immediate coverage of this hurricane. Let's take a look at these pictures taken from the International Space Station as it flew over Florida, where Charley has been dumping heavy wind-driven rain. That's the picture now, the category four storm came ashore near Fort Myers at 3:50 p.m. eastern with winds of 145 miles an hour. Utility company officials say the storm has already knocked out power to half a million people. Venice and Tampa also are feeling some of the storm's effects already. Further inland, Orlando, clearly bracing for trouble. For the latest on where Charley may be headed, once again, let's go to our meteorologist Orelon Sidney at the CNN weather center in Atlanta for an update -- Orelon.

SIDNEY: Thanks a lot. We've got hurricane warnings in effect, Wolf, now on the eastern coast of Florida as far northward as Cape Lookout, North Carolina. The storm is expected to continue moving as it is now to the north-northeast, moving now about 22 miles-an-hour, expected to accelerate. It's going to head off the coast of Florida later on tonight. By 2 a.m. in the morning, it's expected to be off the coast.

The center of the storm, you can see now on the very latest radar, is just to the north of Port Charlotte. And it looks like the center's beginning to fill in a bit, which would be indicative of weakening, but not by much. One hundred and forty mile-an-hour winds are still what they were showing the last time.

I did want to show you real quickly out in the Atlantic, we have two new tropical depressions. I apologize for the edge of this. This is the GO satellite that ends right before you hit the African coast. So, unfortunately, you don't have a very good view of tropical depression number four and number five, respectively. Number five is expected to develop further. It may make its way into the Caribbean as a significant hurricane by the five-day period, which would be sometime in the middle of next week. We'll worry about that one, hopefully, later -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Orelon. Lots to worry about in the immediate hours ahead. We'll take care of the other ones down the road. Let's check in with our reporters now covering this hurricane. Let's move up Florida's gulf coast to Tampa Bay. CNN's Anderson Cooper standing by there.

We spoke a little while ago. Does it seem to be getting worse in Tampa right now, Anderson?

COOPER: Well, the winds are definitely picking up and the rain is continuing. You were talking about a lot of people being worried today here in Florida. Some people, the ones who were most worried, are some of the boat owners. As you see some of the boasts here in the Tampa harbor, the water is pretty calm. There had been a lot of concern about that storm surge, about the rising waters, anywhere up to 15 feet had been predicted here in Tampa. That does not seem to be the case now, likely will not happen here. Though waters are expected to rise somewhat.

And as the congressman from Tampa just told you a short time ago, Wolf, it is too soon, by far, to call an all-clear here in Tampa. It is going to get worse before it gets better. Though, as I said before, Tampa has definitely dodged a bullet. This storm has not tracked as was expected. It was supposed to hit Tampa directly. So there is a sense of relief here in Tampa at this hour, though expectations and a sense of waiting to see what the storm will bring in the coming hours -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Is it sort of like a ghost town downtown, not far from where you are right now, Anderson?

COOPER: Yes, it really is. I mean, there's a mandatory evacuation in place. And people really have heeded that here. As many as 3 million people were asked to evacuate. It's not clear exactly the number of people who have evacuated, but I can tell you the streets are pretty much deserted. There are no businesses. There is no electricity. The water has been shut down.

Even the hotel where I'm staying, when I checked in, the people behind the counter literally checked out. They left, just gave me the keys to my room. And we're in the hotel basically by ourselves. So people really heeding the emergency, the mandatory evacuation. They have really gotten out of Tampa, sought higher ground, sought safety with friends and relatives -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Anderson. No room service for you tonight. Thanks very much, Anderson Cooper. We'll check back with you throughout the night. Anderson will have a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360 coming up a little bit more than an hour or so from now, 7 p.m. eastern. Anderson Cooper on the scene for us down in Florida.

Orlando is one of the inland cities experiencing the dangers of this Hurricane Charley. Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti, she is standing by in Orlando. What's happening there, Susan?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, Wolf. Well, understandably, there's a sense of relief in Tampa, as Anderson just said. But here it's the opposite. People here are very worried about the possible impact from Charley because it is on the way here, according to forecasters, later tonight.

In fact, according to the mayor, Buddy Dyer, he tells me, quote, "We are very prepared." We're in the midst of a thunder and lightning storm right now, but the weather kind of ebbs and flows. Here they have opened evacuation centers. In particular, they have asked for a mandatory evacuation for people who live in mobile homes and manufactured homes. Some of the shelters, of course, are equipped for those with special needs, equipped with generators in case they need to plug in their medical equipment.

They are very concerned here, not only about the possible impact from wind, but flooding as well, because there are a lot of low-lying areas and the area is already saturated, of course, in part, from the recent rains from Bonnie. There is also a heavy canopy of oak trees. They expect that to be heavily damaged here as well. And coincidentally, Wolf, very recently, according to the mayor, they had a tabletop exercise here with this kind of scenario where people evacuated from another coastal region to this area and now having the hurricane come this way. We'll see how things work out as the night goes on.

Back to you. BLITZER: And, Susan, Disney World, I take it, that's all shut down for the time being?

CANDIOTTI: Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, they are all closed today. And it's unclear, of course, when they'll be open again.

BLITZER: All right, with good reason. Thanks very much. Susan Candiotti reporting for us.

Seeking safety from Charley's wrath. Coming up, we'll go live to an evacuation shelter near St. Petersburg to see how people are coping.

Also a battleground state hit very hard by a powerful hurricane. I'll speak about Charley's political ramifications with our political analyst Carlos Watson. And we're also standing by to speak with the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're continuing our extensive coverage of Hurricane Charley that's pounding the Florida coast right now, the gulf coast of Florida. Many people who have fled their homes are seeking safety in evacuation shelters.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is at one shelter near St. Petersburg. Give us the mood, the scene over there, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN: Well, Wolf, here in Dunedin, Florida, there's a lot of smiles, quite frankly, as word is starting to spread through here that the worst of the storm is going to miss this area. People are starting to pack up. There were about almost 800 people who had come to this shelter. And many of those people have already started to stream out of this particular shelter. There are almost 200 shelters opened up statewide. They've taken in more than 16,000 people, we understand, and in other parts of the state, those people are probably still in those shelters. But here there are smiles and the word is spreading that the worst is probably going to spare this area. So you might say that in Dunedin, they're done waiting. So they're getting ready to go home, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Good for them. Thanks, Ed Lavandera, very much.

Let's check in with our other reporters in Florida, John Zarrella, he's in Venice. What's the latest there, John?

ZARRELLA: Well, Wolf, just a few minutes ago, we had some police officers show up back here at the Board of Realtors' office in Venice with their guns drawn. You know, that's an indication, of course, you know, as we are all too familiar with, of potential for looting in the aftermath of storms. Don't know what this is all about, but it certainly is reminiscent of that.

Now, we noticed that the winds have actually died down a little bit here. The rain is just spitting at us now. In fact, the sky has actually lightened. I have no idea whether that means that the storm is passing us by. Clearly, it is off to our right. But whether it will get any worse here before it actually clears up, I have no idea. But right now, folks are still very thankful that it appears that the storm is not coming right over them here in Venice. You can see the wind is still blowing, but certainly not to any great degree. It appears as if the storm, for the most part, is going to pass us by here as well -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, category four hurricane, at least, Venice looks like it's going to be okay. Thanks very much, John Zarrella, for that.

Coming up, more hurricane coverage, including some political analysis of what's happening, as well. Among other things, I'll speak live and get the latest on the disaster from the Florida governor, Jeb Bush. And we'll talk about the politics of disaster relief with our analyst, Carlos Watson. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: That was the scene earlier today, earlier this morning, Key West, when that storm began to have an affect on southern Florida. The Florida governor, Jeb Bush, calls Hurricane Charley a "devastating storm" and he's asked his brother, the president of the United States, for a presidential disaster declaration. The governor, Bush, is joining us live from Tallahassee right now.

Has the federal government declared this a disaster area yet, Governor?

BUSH: Yes, they have, Wolf. About 15 minutes ago, Director Brown from FEMA called me and said he had spoken to the president, and our declaration request had been granted. And federal support, which has been planned for and people have been working on it already, is already being moved to the proper places to provide immediate support, along with state support tomorrow.

BLITZER: We know there's going to be extensive damage and destruction. As far as you know, any fatalities yet? We know that some people died when this hurricane crossed Cuba and Jamaica earlier.

BUSH: We've only, in conversations with the local emergency operation centers, we have heard of accidents based on damage done to homes, a roof collapsing, but no fatalities that I'm aware of. A child overdosed taking her mom's medication in the middle of the storm. Those are the two incidents that I'm aware of. But we'll have a lot more information later on tonight and, better yet, tomorrow morning.

BLITZER: Is it my impression, Governor, that as bad as it is, it could have been a lot worse, had the storm stayed on track towards Tampa Bay?

BUSH: Well, the fact is, it's not past tense. This storm, unlike other storms, has hurricane-force winds that will, in all likelihood, cut across the entire state. So, based on its current direction, and that could change, of course, it will go directly through the central Florida area and come out in the Atlantic ocean in Daytona. So it's still work in progress. And people on the East Coast, as well as central Florida, need to take this storm very, very seriously.

These winds will be category two winds by the time they reach central Florida. Those are still powerful winds. And so we can't make a total assessment of whether or not it could have been worse, I don't think. I don't think it's fair to the people that are preparing and bracing for the storm yet to come.

BLITZER: What about the flooding, the flooding throughout your state. We take it that that's a very serious problem right now.

BUSH: Well, we've had so much rain in the last two months that this hurricane has created, you know, a chance for flooding. Plus on the coastal areas, you know, we've got major storm surge based on the models. We've not gotten an assessment, for example, at Charlotte Harbor and Charlotte County, which is where there could be significant storm surge. But, based on early indications, south of there it's been okay. But north of there, we're concerned that there will be serious flooding in the coastal areas.

And then low-lying areas during, in the path of the hurricane, there's definitely going to be flooding, which is why we're asking people to listen to their local operation centers and local leaders, if there's mandatory evacuations, to move to shelters that are safe and to move to high ground before it's too late.

BLITZER: So the critical hours are -- how many hours now for your state will be critical, in terms of the worst of this, Governor?

BUSH: Well, we probably have five more hours of a storm that will -- the eye of the hurricane will be probably be gone by in that period of time, which is far faster than what was projected. This is a fast-moving storm. But there will be, you know, ramifications for this, for many families in our state, for months ahead. And we're going to be prepared to provide support.

BLITZER: Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, good luck to you. Good luck to all of the people of Florida. Thanks very much for joining us.

BUSH: Thank you, sir.

BLITZER: With Florida, of course, being a key battleground state, Hurricane Charley has some serious political implications down the road. Here to talk about that, our political analyst, Carlos Watson. He joins us every Friday. He's in Mountain View, California, right now.

Florida, by the way, if we take a look at the latest Quinnipiac poll, has Kerry at 47 percent, Bush at 41 percent, Nader at 4 percent right. How everyone, the federal government, the state government responds to this hurricane could have an impact on the election, couldn't it, Charley -- Carlos?

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Carlos, which is Charley in Spanish. No doubt about it, Wolf. We saw that, in fact, in 1992, Hurricane Andrew, another major hurricane, where the response was not as rapid and not as well-coordinated, and that's believed to have hurt the first President Bush.

Conversely, we saw that for the current President Bush, his response immediately after 9/11 helped increase his standing in the polls. People saw him as not only competent but caring. And similarly for Bill Clinton in 1995 with the Oklahoma City bombing, another disaster, a different kind, of course. We also saw that when people saw him as someone as empathetic, and caring, and strong, it also helped him in the polls. So, clearly, no one planned on this, but how a leader reacts certainly can improve their standings in the poll.

BLITZER: Carlos, you're from Florida. You've lived there most of your life. You were there during the Hurricane Andrew. As you see the Florida state of politics right now, the polls that we're seeing, which are simply a snapshot, as we all know, what goes through your mind?

WATSON: Well, one of the things that's happening right now, Wolf, is part of the area that the hurricane has really devastated is some of the most reliably Republican parts of the state. Some of the suburban southwestern parts, counties like Lee county, Republicans enjoy more than a 50 percent lead, in terms of registration, than Democrats, counties like Charlotte, again, almost a 50 percent lead for Republicans in registration. That's obviously a very difficult thing to have happen.

And again, this is a place that was decided by less than 1 percent. So if for any reason people aren't able to get things back on track in a very rapid fashion, that certainly could have an impact on turnout and, ultimately, perhaps on the election.

BLITZER: So Governor Bush and President Bush, I think it's fair to say, will be on their very, very best behavior, as far as Florida's concerned, over the coming days and weeks?

WATSON: They will. And you would expect them to do it, whether it was Democrat or Republican. The fact, obviously, that they know each other very well keeps them close. One other thing to watch is the August 31st Senate primary, could affect that as well there in Florida, open seat.

BLITZER: Carlos Watson, not Charley Watson, but Carlos Watson, our political analyst. Thanks very much for that analysis. Our live coverage of Hurricane Charley will continue right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's recap the breaking news we've been following all afternoon. A very strong Hurricane Charley made landfall at 3:50 p.m. eastern, just over two hours ago, coming ashore at North Captiva Island with 145 mile-an-hour winds and a ten-foot surge of waves, a full category four storm. At last report, half a million people were without power. Governor Jeb Bush just announced on this program that his brother, the president of the United States, has declared this area a disaster area in Florida. The White House has just confirmed it.

That's our coverage for this hour. LOU DOBBS TONIGHT starts right now.

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