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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Hurricane Ivan Now A Tropical Storm; Authenticity Questions Still Plague CBS News; Atlanta Hartsfield Airport Shut Down

Aired September 16, 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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now. The next wave. Ivan marches north to northern Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee and won't stop there. The winds are still strong but the big worry is torrents of rain that are dumping throughout the south and these pictures just coming in now giving us a sense of the terrible weather that is coming across the south right now.
And at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country, a ground stop, terrible weather causing all kinds of delays. Take a look at these live pictures now from our Flightexplorer.com tracking capability as we zoom in on the Atlanta area. All of the aircraft, many aircraft that were slated to arrive and depart from Hartsfield are either on the ground or going in the opposite direction. Many of these flights now turning around, some of them coming in that direction, many of them headed the other way. We're tracking a monster storm Ivan that remains that way even as it comes ashore. Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): A monster moving in. Hurricane Ivan pummels the Gulf Coast. Heavy rain and flooding in Alabama and Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a rough night.

O'BRIEN: Deadly tornadoes in the Florida Panhandle and a stern warning from the governor.

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: Stay safe. More deaths occur after a storm than during a storm.

O'BRIEN: Could the worst lie ahead? Ivan is likely headed toward an area already devastated this hurricane season. From inside a storm-tracking nerve center, we'll show you who needs to watch out.

Rather concerned. The CBS anchor says he wants the truth even if it contradicts his own story about the president.

Unguarded and now missing. Two Americans and a British citizen snatched from inside their home in Baghdad.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, September 16, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien at CNN Center in Atlanta. Wolf is off today. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate it. Ivan is here and for much of the southeast it is terrible. The former hurricane, now a tropical storm left a big swathe of damage along the Gulf Coast and is now causing widespread severe flooding as it turns inland.

Take a look at these aerial pictures shot by our affiliate WWL out of New Orleans as they took a chopper tour from Gulf Shores, Alabama, which as we've been telling you was ground zero, the bull's- eye for the eye of Hurricane Ivan, which was category 4 and then quickly a 3 as it came ashore, as they move down the coast from Gulf Shores to Pensacola, evidence of beach erosion, structural damage and just overall a big mess for a lot of people to clean up.

We're tracking it in every way we can. We have reporters all over this story. Gary Tuchman in the hard-hit Gulf Shores, Alabama, where the water is high, the damage severe and some zoo animals are on the loose.

Sean Callebs in Birmingham where the rain is relentless, the winds strong right now, flood waters are rising, and Rick Sanchez in Panama City, Florida, where the beach is buried under pounding surf and where tornadoes left a trail of tragedy.

CNN's Dave Hennen is in the mix as well. He's at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport where there's a full-scale ground stop right now as Ivan comes through this area, bringing one of the nation's busiest airport to its knees. Dave, what do you know?

DAVE HENNEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, nothing moving here. In fact, in the last 20, 30 minutes we have not seen any planes at all. Just beginning to see some activity, we saw our first plane land here just a moment ago so maybe conditions are improving here a little bit. But I can tell you that for 30 or 40 minutes we were socked in, our pilot Jeff telling us winds gusting up to 50 to 60 miles an hour, which he tells me is pretty close to, as far as the aircraft control tower can take, so I think we got dangerously close having to evacuate the tower here. It sure looks like conditions though are improving at least for now, Miles.

O'BRIEN: As a matter of fact, even as you speak, I'm pulling up our Flightexplorer.com which offers us a real-time radar capability. I just want to point out, it's hard to see those little blue dots all through there are aircraft. There's a series of aircraft there, Dave, that appear to be on final approach for Atlanta now, and a little while ago when I looked there were no airplanes headed in that direction. Do you see planes landing right now?

HENNEN: Just a few, Miles. Our pilot, Jeff, telling me also that you get to about 2,500 feet or so and you run into some pretty good wind shear.

So they're having some trouble landing. I think that taking off is a little easier, the departures may begin to pick up but certainly planes having trouble getting in, and as you know at Hartsfield, they're lining up about 80 planes or so an hour to land here. I don't know what the number is now, but it's only a few straggling in -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. I see just a couple airplanes on final approach. Of course, this would be a very busy time for Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, expect a ripple effect all throughout the nation as Hartsfield Airport is impacted by this storm. Arrivals and departures at one point weren't happening at all, now just a trickle as a result of the winds and rain in the wake of Ivan. Dave Hennen, one of the victims of that, Dave Hennen's colleague, Jacqui Jeras up at the weather center right now. She has been watching Ivan. A lot of times we think a hurricane comes and gets over land, not to worry about, but in this case, the danger is very real, isn't it, Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. More damage and destruction to come. We still have some tornado warnings in effect for Stevens and northern Franklin County. The warnings that we had earlier for south Atlanta have now expired, but we may see some more warnings issued. You can see this line right across the metro area. Of course, this is the height of rush hour right now, an extremely dangerous time to be out across the Atlanta metro area. Ivan has weakened a little bit. It's still a tropical storm, winds around 60 miles per hour. We may have some major flooding problems as well. In Atlanta the rainfall rates are averaging about 2 to 4 inches per hour in this very strong line right now. We'll talk more about the flood potential where Ivan's going and the latest on tropical storm Jeanne all coming up in just a bit -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much.

Here's where we stand at this hour. At least seven U.S. deaths blamed on the hurricane. Ivan killed of course killed 68 others in the Caribbean. More than 1 million people in three states are without power as we speak. As for damage estimates, one insurance company puts it as high as $10 billion. But officials really are just beginning to grasp the scope of Ivan's destruction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): A harrowing night gives way today and the extent of Ivan's destruction is revealed. Gulf Shores, Alabama, taking a direct hit, much of the thin barrier island under as much as six feet of water and devastated.

Nearby Mobile, widespread damage and flooding still not nearly as extensive as feared.

Not the case in Florida's Panhandle, particularly hard-hit. This Pensacola hospital, one of four damaged by Ivan. Nearby, Interstate 10 over Escambia Bay washed out, just as a truck passed over the bridge, the fate of the driver unclear.

In downtown Pensacola, streets are flooded, and throughout the area, you can see buildings damaged or destroyed by Ivan's awesome power. Similar scenes of devastation litter this stretch of coast. Boats tossed aside like toys, roads impassable, and everywhere water where there should be land. Ivan also spun tornadoes, one of which killed at least four people 50 miles west of Tallahassee. Another one claimed two lives in Panama City, which suffered not only the kind of hurricane damage you'd expect, but also a devastating fire that jumped through multiple mobile homes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): The president of the United States is fairly far away geographically from all that damage but today at a campaign stop in Rochester, Minnesota, just a few moments ago, as a matter of fact, he had some words for those victims of Hurricane Ivan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, as I travel through your state on the bus, I've been on the telephone getting updates on the devastation being caused by Hurricane Ivan in Florida and Alabama and parts of Mississippi and Louisiana. Federal teams are there to do everything possible to help the folks down there. I know all my fellow Americans join me in sending our prayers and concern for the families who lost loved ones, and for those whose lives are being affected by this devastating storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Let's focus on some key places now. We begin where Ivan's eye moved over land. Probably while you were sleeping last night. Morning light revealed Gulf Shores, Alabama, a beautiful resort community, now soaked by the rain and a towering mound of water that blew in with the storm. CNN's Gary Tuchman and his crew rode the storm out there last night. He's knee-deep in water, debris, and believe it or not, alligators today -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the barrier island of Gulf Shores Beach, Alabama looks a lot different from exactly 24 hours ago when we were here doing live reports. We were about six blocks behind us here doing those live reports. The water started coming up to our knees, then we decided to evacuate, because we thought it would be too dangerous, the flooding potential and here's what you see now.

This is -- at six blocks away from the Gulf of Mexico, this is the major street here in town, Route 59, at least to the beach now under water. The water nine to ten feet deep. People's furniture floating through the streets. It looks like a rapids. And this is what happened (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 14 hours of torrential rains, winds of up to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) has left most of this barrier island underwater.

And it's also done something else. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to this part of the street which is under water is a zoo here in Gulf Shores, a very famous tourist site for people who want to come to the beach and you can see, too, the zoo is under water, the zoo is virtually destroyed. Now most of the 275 animals who were here were evacuated before (UNINTELLIGIBLE) but they weren't able to evacuate all the animals. Some deer here and some alligators.

As we speak, 13 deer are missing and six alligator are missing. Zoo personnel are walking around with tranquilizer guns and regular guns. The tranquilizer guns (UNINTELLIGIBLE), the regular guns for the alligator. They have already tranquilized one deer. There was another deer hours ago bounding up the street in the water trying to swim, looking frightened but one of the alligators whose still missing weighs 1,000 pounds, is 12 feet long and is considered (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Gary Tuchman in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

And we should tell our viewers those hits you saw, those temporary gaps in his report are the result of the bad weather here in Atlanta right now, causing some havoc with our satellite transmission. We apologize for that, but we're sure you understand why.

Across the border in the Florida Panhandle, Fort Walton Beach, the damage was also severe. Here's a look just in to CNN from Preston Rudy from our affiliate WTSP.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got a tree in your house?

PRESTON RUDY, WTSP CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before the winds had even died down, people in Fort Walton Beach were out to check on the damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been in the area 35 years now, and this is the worst I've seen it.

RUDY: Mike Kaluda (ph) surveyed his neighborhood and found the Gulf water still splashing at his friend's back door.

(on camera): Where's the water usually at?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you see the top of those poles out there? It's usually six feet below that.

RUDY: Up and down the Gulf, boats were parked in streets like cars, power lines cut in half, in this case causing a fire. Trees were either snapped or pushed over, and some homes flooded out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It did come in the middle of the night, and just crashed through the doors.

RUDY: Ivan the terrible lived up to his billing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was awful last night. At 3:00 this morning, it sounded like a freight train.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never been in a house that really just vibrated the whole time.

RUDY (on camera): Now to give you another perspective of how strong this hurricane was, take a look at this. This rock is easily several hundred pounds, but the combination of wind and water deposited this rock right in the middle of this driveway, and it had been located right over here, at least 20 feet away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The curfew has been extended indefinitely. Please clear the roadway.

RUDY (voice-over): Meantime, residents were told to stay off the streets for another 24 hours as officials prepare for a clean-up that is sure to take weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a lot of damage, tremendous amount of damage. But you know, if you want to live in paradise, this is the price you pay. That's all there is to it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That report from Preston Rudy with our affiliate WTSP out of Tampa-St. Pete. We thank him for that.

While Fort Walton Beach and the others tally the damage they are breathing easy in the Big Easy tonight. New Orleans officials were fearing a direct hit or even a sideswipe by Ivan would result in massive and casualties, mostly because the city lies below sea level, largely, and aside from rain and some power outages though the city was unscathed. Now officials are bracing for a massive influx of returning evacuees.

The danger from Ivan is still far from over as we told you right at the top of this program. Millions inland are bracing for potential flooding. We'll go live to the danger zones.

Also there's this. The full fury of a hurricane, we'll show you Ivan at its worst.

And latest details on new kidnappings in Iraq including two Americans.

Plus, Dan Rather speaking out to Howard Kurtz about the political firestorm over his reporting. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Even though Ivan is now over land and no longer a hurricane, a tropical storm is nothing to take lightly. Forecasters are warning of heavy rain and severe flooding in places like Alabama. CNN's Sean Callebs joining us live now from Birmingham -- Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, indeed perhaps one of the more amazing features, we are 210 miles from Mobile, a long way from where the hurricane really made land, but look behind me. You'll see this is what (UNINTELLIGIBLE) five-mile creek, at this intersection of the city. Residents here say usually it's just trickling. You can't even see it from the street. But now it's just a torrential muddy mess. You can see trees, basketballs, even appliances washed down this area. Residents say that they fear the water could continue to creep up, perhaps reaching that window level on the house over there. Flooding a major concern and they expect this kind of rain to continue to come down in this city for several hours.

Also, something like 200 trees have been knocked down, power is out to some 200,000 people. Miles, one note, there is not a curfew in this area, they do not expect to have one. They want this bad weather to move up and begin doing initial damage estimate before nightfall comes.

O'BRIEN: All right. Sean Callebs in Birmingham. Thank you very much. As a result of all this, weather forecasters are not downgrading their efforts to track Ivan and issue warnings as trouble starts brewing. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, is the primary weather-watching organization in the U.S. and its prediction center in Camp Springs, Maryland is an important nerve center at a time like this. And that's precisely where we find CNN's Brian Todd -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, more specifically this is called the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center. It's a branch of NOAA, government agency just outside Washington that is charged with tracking hurricanes and tropical storms once they are moving inland and moving around.

Right now Ivan is yet another storm that's keeping them very busy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Wave after wave, in a devastating hurricane season, as Ivan moves inland, its winds die down, but forecasters make clear this is a threat in transition.

JIM HOKE, NOAA PREDICTION CENTER: Now that the storm is inland and churning its way through Alabama, it's got a different kind of danger, and that is primarily associated with flooding.

TODD: At NOAA's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, a concerned look ahead. Experts say Ivan is moving into the southern Appalachians already devastated by flooding from Hurricane Frances earlier this month. Parts of western North Carolina got historic proportions of rain, up to 20 inches in some places.

It's when Ivan slows down, forecasters say, that it causes prolonged rainfall wherever it passes. And as the storm moving from the low flatlands of the Gulf Coast northward, topography comes into play.

JIM HOKE, NOAA: Air that is being forced over mountains can't hold as much water, and as a result, rain falls out, there can be copious amounts of rain, especially on the upward side, the eastward side of the Appalachian Mountains.

TODD: And as devastating as Ivan's tornadoes have been to the Florida panhandle, a warning from forecasters: look for more of them in Alabama, then possibly into Georgia and the Carolinas, a dire sign- off from an unwelcome visitor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Back now live at the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, they are staffed here 24/7, and not just in hurricane season. We're joined by the director Jim Hoke. Jim, you've got some updated information on Ivan's path inland. Where's its going? And when's it going to get there?

HOKE: That's right. Brian, the storm right now is in Central Alabama, and it's making a beeline toward the Appalachian Mountains. It should be there tomorrow. And then after tomorrow afternoon, will continue eastward.

Now the problem becomes that there is a certain amount of uncertainty as to the storm's track. It could possibly go as far north as up into Virginia, and as far south as South Carolina. So there is a large area that will -- the storm could actually go through. That's also an area that will be heavily affected by precipitation.

The bad news is that this is the same area that was hit very hard by earlier hurricanes, hurricanes such as Charley and Frances.

TODD: OK. Jim, thanks very much. That dreaded cone of uncertainty that's so unpredictable. They're keeping a close eye on it here, Miles. Back to you.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Brian Todd, thank you very much. Presidential politics and damaging documents, were they forged? We'll hear from the journalist at the center of the controversy. Also, Hurricane Jeanne, yes, there's another one, the gathering storm and possibly the next big threat to the U.S.

But not to forget Ivan. You've seen the damage, but we'll show you the full fury as it happened. Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right live pictures. Actually these are taped pictures, I apologize. This is through the good graces of our affiliate WWL, based in New Orleans, a chopper ride that they took from Gulf Shores, Alabama all the way towards Pensacola.

As we have been telling you, the right side of the eye is the dangerous side to be, the place where most of the damage occurs because of the counterclockwise rotation of a hurricane. Ivan as we know, was a hurricane 4 -- category 4, ultimately a category 3. A little glimpse there, kind of hard to see the damage, but nevertheless that is part of the hard-hit area along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Shifting gears now, that CBS, Bush, National Guard story still stirring up a hornet's nest of controversy today. The question is, were documents used by the network to support its contention that the president got special treatment in the guard in fact fakes? CNN's Jeanne Meserve brings us up to date on what's being called Memogate -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, another unanswered question, where did CBS get these disputed documents? An examiner hired by CBS to authenticate the documents, but who did not says 2 curried to her home were evidence of having been faxed at an earlier date.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a line at the top of the questioned ones that says -- it's partially cut off, but you can read enough it says Kinko's of Abeline clearly on one, and less clearly on the other.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MESERVE: It has not been determined who did that faxing from Kinko's, in Abilene, but Abilene is not far from the home of Bill Burkett. Burkett has alleged very publicly that potential damaging information was purged from President Bush's National Guard record.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BURKETT, NATIONAL GUARD (RET): Yes. I can't answer the question why those documents would be thrown away. A personnel file contains all of the positive and any potential negative things. It's an administrative file as old as it is, but it contains every history. It's the pure paper trail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Joe Alba, the former Bush aid, who Burkett says orchestrated the document purge, called the charges nonsense. Burkett also sued at one point, charging that he was denied medical care he needed while in the National Guard. The suit was thrown out, but in an article on the Web site of Veterans for Peace, Burkett put the blame on then Texas governor George W. Bush. Burkett said Bush was mad that Burkett had refused to alter Bush's official personnel records.

Was Burkett the source of the disputed documents? Burkett is not talking. Meanwhile, CBS is standing by the substance of its story, though it has acknowledged for the first time, that there are legitimate questions about the authenticity of the documents. Last night it named two experts who it says continue to attest that they are real. Neither is accredited by the highly regarded American Board of Forensic Document Examiners. One of them, Marcel Matley is accepted as an expert witness in forensic document examination, but his resume and writings also show a background in graphology which analyzes handwriting to determine character traits.

Another forensic document expert with extensive experience in federal crime labs told me graphology is akin to crystal ball gazing and palm reading. In his words, graphology is to forensic document examination what astrology is to astronomy. Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve in Washington, thank you very much.

Howard Kurtz, the media reporter for "The Washington Post" and the host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" spoke with Dan Rather about the document controversy. He wrote about it in the paper today, "The Washington Post." He joins us from Washington with more on all this. Howie, good to have you with us.

HOWARD KURTZ, WASHINGTON POST: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Give us the gist of what Dan Rather had to say. I noticed a little change in his tone in your piece.

KURTZ: Well sure. CBS and Rather have gone from 100 percent absolute confidence in the story, to acknowledging there may be serious problems. Here's what Rather said last night, "if the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to break that story. Anytime I'm wrong, I want folks to know it." Well, the reason Rather is saying this, is because of the surfacing of this 86-year-old woman, Marion Knox, former secretary to George W. Bush's squadron commander in the Texas Guard who was at the side of the squadron commander and says I didn't type those documents, I don't think they're real. CBS to its credit, put her on the air, but has blown a pretty major hole in their account.

O'BRIEN: What's your thought on this? I mean, this is clearly a story, it's a scoop, it's a competitive business, you want to get it on the air, nevertheless this is one of those stories that needs to be vetted and then vetted once again. Do you think there was something that broke inside CBS in that vetting process?

KURTZ: It's increasingly hard to understand why CBS put this on the air last week when it did. We now know from the document experts, Jeanne Meserve mention, serious questions were raised by people, these were people that CBS had hired to vet these documents? Were they real? Could they have been typed on a government typewriter in 1972?

We now know that others have raised questions about the story. Sure, it's a very competitive environment, but the entire focus now has shifted from what George W. Bush did or didn't do in the Texas Guard, to the credibility of Dan Rather and CBS and "60 Minutes." And one other interesting note, Miles, Rather kind of threw it back at the White House in his interview with me saying, instead of all these reporters asking me and CBS questions, they ought to be asking the president about his military service.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now there's one quote in here that is particularly stinging. Bernard Goldberg, former CBS correspondent, who has become over the years very, very critical of the Tiffany network, saying specifically, "CBS News is acting the way the Nixon administration did during Watergate. I'm really sad to say that Dan Rather is acting like Richard Nixon. It's the cover-up. It's the stonewalling."

Those are very harsh words. Is there any truth to those?

KURTZ: Well, that's a pretty harsh characterization, as you observe.

And I think CBS yesterday, to continue the Watergate analogy, did a kind of modified limited hangout, did put out some information on this, did answer questions, and did acknowledge for the first time these serious questions. But I've talked to some veteran people in CBS today who are still frustrated that CBS can't seem to put this controversy behind them, and we'll have to wait to see whether CBS can do that in the coming days.

O'BRIEN: Howard Kurtz, who writes about the media for "The Washington Post" and hosts our program "RELIABLE SOURCES," thanks for your time, as always. Appreciate it.

Here's your turn to weigh in on this story. Our Web question of the day is this: Should there be an investigation into the authenticity of President Bush's National Guard documents, the ones that are in that report? You can vote right now. CNN.com/Wolf is the place to do it. We'll have the results a little later in this broadcast.

Ivan's arrival. We'll look back at the moment the big storm first hit land.

And Ivan is already here, but there's another one on the way. Hurricane Jeanne wreaking havoc in the Caribbean already. Could Florida be next?

Also ahead, a new terrorism indictment is unveiled. And what it has to do with jihad, we'll explain all that to you as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back. Ivan comes crashing into the Gulf Coast. We'll show you the full fury of the storm as it happened, but, first, a quick check of stories now in the news.

A new 10-count indictment for two jailed terror suspects. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the mean are accused of providing financial support for terrorists and recruiting members for terror groups around the world. One of the men is in custody in Florida, the other in Egypt.

Michael Jackson's lawyers demanding the judge toss out certain evidence they say was illegally seized during a raise of his Neverland Ranch. They want the judge to rule the items inadmissible in that child molestation case he faces.

Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

Now more on our top story, Hurricane Ivan. We've been showing you the extensive damage the storm unleashed on parts of the Gulf Coast. You might have been sleeping as Ivan first made landfall overnight near Mobile, Alabama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you're looking at is Lake Pontchartrain, which had overflowed its banks here. The water is coming in, pretty steady gusts of wind here.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: This storm is coming, and it is coming on fast.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Wolf, holy smokes. Saddle up, kids.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Still, boy, this is going to be a really long night for folks across the Southeast.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can only imagine how the barrier island looks right now when it was already flooding 10 hours ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see how frothy all this water is that's being whipped up by this wind as it comes down the beach here.

MARCIANO: If the eye is in the Gulf Shores, which is less than 30 miles about 30 miles away, the eye itself is -- we're getting the northwestern eye wall now. So this is -- when it's getting bad, and it will be bad for the next half how, maybe even 45 minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: From the Panhandle to the fire. Floridians once again took a big hit as a result of a hurricane. Ivan was the third unwelcomed visitor to make a mockery of the slogan Sunshine State.

CNN's Rick Sanchez rode out the storm in Panama City. He has more for us from there.

Hello, Rick.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting, Miles, all these hurricanes seem to have their own peculiar elements.

If you think back, Andrew was small, but very powerful. Charley earlier this year was somewhat shifty. Think of Frances. It's slow and extremely ponderous. This hurricane, Ivan, is going to be known for having an extremely tough outer core. It's amazing to see the numbers as they have come in, but it seems that that outer fringe of this hurricane, sometimes as far away as 100 to 130 miles away from the eye of the hurricane, is where most of the deaths have occurred.

Seven people have died in the area of the eastern fringe of the Panhandle. Five of them -- or pardon me -- four of them in just one community alone called Blountstown, where suddenly a tornado just blew through a trailer park community. Also not far from there, here in Bay County, in Panama City Beach, there were two more deaths associated with tornadoes, and also a third, a young girl who died as well, with a tree falling on her, also associated with a tornado.

So really the story or headline here has been tornado, tornado, tornado, in the outer fringe of a hurricane that many expected would do most of its damage closer to, as you mentioned earlier in your report, the area of New Orleans instead.

In Panama City Beach, I'm Rick Sanchez -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Rick Sanchez, thanks very much.

There's more trouble brewing out in the Atlantic, dare we say it. Tropical Storm Jeanne graduated to hurricane level today as it sweeps through the Caribbean and eyes perhaps the Bahamas.

Here's a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Jeanne was only a tropical storm when it hit Puerto Rico, but still strong enough to turn roads into rivers, topple trees, and cut power. It was stronger than forecast here, dumping more than a foot of rain, sending rivers over their banks, standing water waist-deep in some places, wind gusts up to 80 miles an hour. Dozens of roads were blocked, sometimes by floodwaters, in other cases by downed trees.

Nearly everyone lost power and thousands lacked running water. More than 3,000 Puerto Ricans sought refuge in shelters. Government offices remain closed Thursday. And authorities asked those who were not at work to help with the cleanup. After leaving Puerto Rico behind, Jeanne reached hurricane strength as it approached Hispaniola, the Caribbean island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both of those countries are still on the mend after Hurricane Ivan.

Forecasters say it's too early to predict where Jeanne is headed next, but the storm could reach the U.S. East Coast sometime next week. It could hit the Carolinas, Georgia or being the fourth hurricane of the season to attack Florida.

MICHAEL BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: It has just been a one-two-three punch and now we have got Jeanne out in the Caribbean right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Taken hostage. What's the fate of three Westerners seized from their Baghdad home?

Also ahead, a startling new government report on the future of Iraq.

And hear from some of the people who refused to evacuate. Their stories of survival in Ivan are coming up, but, first, a quick look at other news making headlines all around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Afghanistan's interim president, Hamid Karzai, aborted a campaign trip after a rocket attack narrowly missed his helicopter. The Taliban claimed responsibility. And some candidates want to delay the October 9 election. After landing in Kabul, Karzai said his American security detail overreacted.

A call to disarm. The leaders of Britain and Ireland are appealing to the Irish Republican Army to turn in its weapons and disband. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, are leading three days of talks at Leeds Castle in England. The Catholic-Protestant power sharing in Northern Ireland depends on IRA disarmament.

Royal divorce. Denmark's Prince Joachim and his wife, Princess Alexandra, are planning to end their marriage. A spokesman for the royal family says Prince Joachim's mother, the queen, deeply regretted the decision.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup polls shows Minnesota's voters equally divided. Thus, President Bush campaigned there today. He talked about taxes during a stop in Blaine, Minnesota. Mr. Bush says that while Democrat John Kerry talks about raising taxes on the wealthy, Kerry would end up raising taxes on the middle class.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... tax the rich, be careful. The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, because they don't want to pay. And you get stuck with the tab. But we're not going to let him stick you with the tab. We're going to carry Minnesota in November and win a great victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: John Kerry let loose with one of his strongest attacks yet on President Bush's Iraq policy. He accused the president of not leveling with the American people what Kerry called the mess in Iraq. Speaking to National Guard in Las Vegas, Kerry noted that many National Guard troops have been called to duty in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So today, respectfully, I'd like to ask the president a simple question. When our Guardsmen and women are fighting the same war as active-duty troops, when they're facing the same dangers and coming home in the same wheelchairs, the same stretchers and flag-draped coffins, how can we refuse to give them the same resources and the same respect that we give to the regular troops? I believe we can make better choices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: John Kerry was speaking to the National Guard Association, which President Bush addressed two days ago.

U.S. officials say they're working with Iraqi police trying to track down two Americans and a Briton who were kidnapped from their residence in Baghdad. Details are just beginning to emerge about what appears to have been a highly planned, sophisticated operation.

CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel has the latest for us -- Andrea .

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Miles, no claim of responsibility as yet, but one indicator that most believe is a pretty clear indication that this was highly planned came from a neighbor who said that the night guard, who is usually there, didn't show up for duty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL (voice-over): U.S. troops stood guard outside the two- story home located in this upscale Baghdad neighborhood, where only hours earlier two Americans and a Briton were kidnapped at gunpoint.

An Iraqi police official told CNN that, at about 6:00 a.m. Thursday morning, 11 kidnappers dressed in civilian clothing drove up to the residence in a mini bus and a sedan.

"I peeked around the door and saw a car," said this neighbor, "but I didn't know there was something good on, because it was so quiet. There was no shooting, nothing going on."

The Americans have been identified as Jack Hensley and Eugene Jack Armstrong, both employed by Gulf Services, a company based in the United Arab Emirates with numerous Iraq-related contracts from the Pentagon. The State Department said it's working to contact family members and is also helping with what is now an Iraqi-led investigation.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: The United States obviously collects every piece of information we can on the welfare and whereabouts of American citizens who might have been taken hostage, and others as well, and the operations and groups that might be taking people hostage.

KOPPEL: In recent months, militants have seized scores of hostages, Westerners, Arabs and non-Muslims alike; 12 Nepali cooks and cleaners working for a Jordanian company in Iraq were killed in August by kidnappers. Most recently, an Islamic group took two Italian aid workers in Baghdad hostage, while a militant Islamic group has threatened to execute two French journalists seized last month unless France drops its head scarf law.

Security experts say militants realized their attacks against American troops are having little impact.

KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: But if they can prevent people from going to work, if they can prevent roads from being built, if they can prevent power being turned on, if they can prevent water from flowing, then they can keep instability going and potentially create the conditions for civil war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: Among the many reasons the State Department announced this week it intends to shift close to $3.5 billion of its Iraqi aid budget out of reconstruction projects, Miles, and into security -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Andrea, in that piece, Ken Robinson, our security analyst, mentioned civil war. And that phrase has been bandied about a little more of late. How much concern is there inside the halls there in Foggy Bottom about it devolving into civil war?

KOPPEL: Oh, there is tremendous concern here at the State Department. As we've seen, whether you're talking about the Sunni Triangle or down south where the Shias are, this is a situation that could rapidly spin out of control.

And that is why the State Department wants to move money into security, more money into security, getting more Iraqi police officers on the ground, National Guardsmen to patrol borders to try to keep the insurgents from coming into the country and to try to get more of an Iraqi face on the security situation on the ground there.

O'BRIEN: Andrea Koppel at the State Department, thank you very much.

More violence and tougher challenges. A new top secret intelligence report paints a pretty bleak picture for Iraq's future. Senior intelligence officials say the security and political outlook for that country will depend heavily on economic recovery. In the worst case, the report speculates a civil war, as we just mentioned, could break out before the end of 2005.

Ivan's fury. Hear from some of the residents who weathered the storm.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras has been busy all day and actually for the last month, really, busy, watching these storms. And she joins us now from the Weather Center with the latest on Ivan -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. I'm never going to get any sleep, Miles. But that's all right. It's been very exciting.

We haven't run down the latest statistics on Iraq. The 5:00 advisory did come in, so we do want to bring that information to you, 25 miles south-southwest of Birmingham. It has continued to weaken. So maximum sustained winds now are at 60 miles per hour. So we're still at tropical storm status. It is moving north-northeast at 14 miles per hour. We've been seeing some very nasty weather across the Atlanta area in the last hour to hour and a half.

And you can see, the radar imagery now is showing that it really has started to push off into the eastern suburbs right now and starting to push to the east of the loop area as well. We still have a ground stop in effect for Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. And that's been extended now another hour, until 6:30 Eastern time. And there you can see this dangerous line. There's still a couple tornado warnings in effect, but they're up in the northeastern parts of Georgia.

There are also a member of airports that are closed at this hour besides Atlanta. And here's a couple of them for you, Pensacola, Gulfport and Mobile are also closed. And we'll watch for that flooding threat as this continues to move north and east. And Jeanne is a tropical storm, by the way, Miles. And that may one become a hurricane once again, though, as it heads towards the United States -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much.

Hurricane Ivan painted a bullseye on Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Dave McNamara of CNN affiliate WWL talked to people who weathered the storm there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE MCNAMARA, WWL REPORTER (voice-over): The power, the height, and devastation of Hurricane Ivan's storm surge shocked even longtime Gulf Shores residents. They've ridden out storms before, but they've never seen the water get this high.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Mother Nature is something not be messed with. That's for sure. People are -- they come here and they build and they expect insurance or something will pay for it, but it's fragile.

MCNAMARA: As the hurricane surge pounded homes and businesses on this Alabama resort island, ice chests, furniture, and parts of buildings are piled up at the crest of Ivan's waves.

(on camera): What do you think is left out there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything's underwater. The beach is gone. I had a friend of mine, I moved part of his stuff out of his place. He's on ground level on West Beach. I told him, you better get what you can. And he loaded up some stuff in the van, not much, clothes, TV, and a bicycle, and that's it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That report from Dave McNamara with our affiliate WWL out of New Orleans. Thanks very much for that.

Results of our Web question of the day up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: And there's the Web question of the day. Should there be an investigation into the authenticity of President Bush's National Guard documents? It's a toss-up. You have evenly divided.

That's all the time we have for WOLF BLITZER REPORTS today. Thanks for joining us. I'm Miles O'Brien, on behalf of Wolf Blitzer, who is off today.

Up next, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT."

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


Aired September 16, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now. The next wave. Ivan marches north to northern Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee and won't stop there. The winds are still strong but the big worry is torrents of rain that are dumping throughout the south and these pictures just coming in now giving us a sense of the terrible weather that is coming across the south right now.
And at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country, a ground stop, terrible weather causing all kinds of delays. Take a look at these live pictures now from our Flightexplorer.com tracking capability as we zoom in on the Atlanta area. All of the aircraft, many aircraft that were slated to arrive and depart from Hartsfield are either on the ground or going in the opposite direction. Many of these flights now turning around, some of them coming in that direction, many of them headed the other way. We're tracking a monster storm Ivan that remains that way even as it comes ashore. Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): A monster moving in. Hurricane Ivan pummels the Gulf Coast. Heavy rain and flooding in Alabama and Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a rough night.

O'BRIEN: Deadly tornadoes in the Florida Panhandle and a stern warning from the governor.

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: Stay safe. More deaths occur after a storm than during a storm.

O'BRIEN: Could the worst lie ahead? Ivan is likely headed toward an area already devastated this hurricane season. From inside a storm-tracking nerve center, we'll show you who needs to watch out.

Rather concerned. The CBS anchor says he wants the truth even if it contradicts his own story about the president.

Unguarded and now missing. Two Americans and a British citizen snatched from inside their home in Baghdad.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, September 16, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien at CNN Center in Atlanta. Wolf is off today. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate it. Ivan is here and for much of the southeast it is terrible. The former hurricane, now a tropical storm left a big swathe of damage along the Gulf Coast and is now causing widespread severe flooding as it turns inland.

Take a look at these aerial pictures shot by our affiliate WWL out of New Orleans as they took a chopper tour from Gulf Shores, Alabama, which as we've been telling you was ground zero, the bull's- eye for the eye of Hurricane Ivan, which was category 4 and then quickly a 3 as it came ashore, as they move down the coast from Gulf Shores to Pensacola, evidence of beach erosion, structural damage and just overall a big mess for a lot of people to clean up.

We're tracking it in every way we can. We have reporters all over this story. Gary Tuchman in the hard-hit Gulf Shores, Alabama, where the water is high, the damage severe and some zoo animals are on the loose.

Sean Callebs in Birmingham where the rain is relentless, the winds strong right now, flood waters are rising, and Rick Sanchez in Panama City, Florida, where the beach is buried under pounding surf and where tornadoes left a trail of tragedy.

CNN's Dave Hennen is in the mix as well. He's at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport where there's a full-scale ground stop right now as Ivan comes through this area, bringing one of the nation's busiest airport to its knees. Dave, what do you know?

DAVE HENNEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, nothing moving here. In fact, in the last 20, 30 minutes we have not seen any planes at all. Just beginning to see some activity, we saw our first plane land here just a moment ago so maybe conditions are improving here a little bit. But I can tell you that for 30 or 40 minutes we were socked in, our pilot Jeff telling us winds gusting up to 50 to 60 miles an hour, which he tells me is pretty close to, as far as the aircraft control tower can take, so I think we got dangerously close having to evacuate the tower here. It sure looks like conditions though are improving at least for now, Miles.

O'BRIEN: As a matter of fact, even as you speak, I'm pulling up our Flightexplorer.com which offers us a real-time radar capability. I just want to point out, it's hard to see those little blue dots all through there are aircraft. There's a series of aircraft there, Dave, that appear to be on final approach for Atlanta now, and a little while ago when I looked there were no airplanes headed in that direction. Do you see planes landing right now?

HENNEN: Just a few, Miles. Our pilot, Jeff, telling me also that you get to about 2,500 feet or so and you run into some pretty good wind shear.

So they're having some trouble landing. I think that taking off is a little easier, the departures may begin to pick up but certainly planes having trouble getting in, and as you know at Hartsfield, they're lining up about 80 planes or so an hour to land here. I don't know what the number is now, but it's only a few straggling in -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. I see just a couple airplanes on final approach. Of course, this would be a very busy time for Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, expect a ripple effect all throughout the nation as Hartsfield Airport is impacted by this storm. Arrivals and departures at one point weren't happening at all, now just a trickle as a result of the winds and rain in the wake of Ivan. Dave Hennen, one of the victims of that, Dave Hennen's colleague, Jacqui Jeras up at the weather center right now. She has been watching Ivan. A lot of times we think a hurricane comes and gets over land, not to worry about, but in this case, the danger is very real, isn't it, Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. More damage and destruction to come. We still have some tornado warnings in effect for Stevens and northern Franklin County. The warnings that we had earlier for south Atlanta have now expired, but we may see some more warnings issued. You can see this line right across the metro area. Of course, this is the height of rush hour right now, an extremely dangerous time to be out across the Atlanta metro area. Ivan has weakened a little bit. It's still a tropical storm, winds around 60 miles per hour. We may have some major flooding problems as well. In Atlanta the rainfall rates are averaging about 2 to 4 inches per hour in this very strong line right now. We'll talk more about the flood potential where Ivan's going and the latest on tropical storm Jeanne all coming up in just a bit -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much.

Here's where we stand at this hour. At least seven U.S. deaths blamed on the hurricane. Ivan killed of course killed 68 others in the Caribbean. More than 1 million people in three states are without power as we speak. As for damage estimates, one insurance company puts it as high as $10 billion. But officials really are just beginning to grasp the scope of Ivan's destruction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): A harrowing night gives way today and the extent of Ivan's destruction is revealed. Gulf Shores, Alabama, taking a direct hit, much of the thin barrier island under as much as six feet of water and devastated.

Nearby Mobile, widespread damage and flooding still not nearly as extensive as feared.

Not the case in Florida's Panhandle, particularly hard-hit. This Pensacola hospital, one of four damaged by Ivan. Nearby, Interstate 10 over Escambia Bay washed out, just as a truck passed over the bridge, the fate of the driver unclear.

In downtown Pensacola, streets are flooded, and throughout the area, you can see buildings damaged or destroyed by Ivan's awesome power. Similar scenes of devastation litter this stretch of coast. Boats tossed aside like toys, roads impassable, and everywhere water where there should be land. Ivan also spun tornadoes, one of which killed at least four people 50 miles west of Tallahassee. Another one claimed two lives in Panama City, which suffered not only the kind of hurricane damage you'd expect, but also a devastating fire that jumped through multiple mobile homes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): The president of the United States is fairly far away geographically from all that damage but today at a campaign stop in Rochester, Minnesota, just a few moments ago, as a matter of fact, he had some words for those victims of Hurricane Ivan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, as I travel through your state on the bus, I've been on the telephone getting updates on the devastation being caused by Hurricane Ivan in Florida and Alabama and parts of Mississippi and Louisiana. Federal teams are there to do everything possible to help the folks down there. I know all my fellow Americans join me in sending our prayers and concern for the families who lost loved ones, and for those whose lives are being affected by this devastating storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Let's focus on some key places now. We begin where Ivan's eye moved over land. Probably while you were sleeping last night. Morning light revealed Gulf Shores, Alabama, a beautiful resort community, now soaked by the rain and a towering mound of water that blew in with the storm. CNN's Gary Tuchman and his crew rode the storm out there last night. He's knee-deep in water, debris, and believe it or not, alligators today -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the barrier island of Gulf Shores Beach, Alabama looks a lot different from exactly 24 hours ago when we were here doing live reports. We were about six blocks behind us here doing those live reports. The water started coming up to our knees, then we decided to evacuate, because we thought it would be too dangerous, the flooding potential and here's what you see now.

This is -- at six blocks away from the Gulf of Mexico, this is the major street here in town, Route 59, at least to the beach now under water. The water nine to ten feet deep. People's furniture floating through the streets. It looks like a rapids. And this is what happened (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 14 hours of torrential rains, winds of up to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) has left most of this barrier island underwater.

And it's also done something else. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to this part of the street which is under water is a zoo here in Gulf Shores, a very famous tourist site for people who want to come to the beach and you can see, too, the zoo is under water, the zoo is virtually destroyed. Now most of the 275 animals who were here were evacuated before (UNINTELLIGIBLE) but they weren't able to evacuate all the animals. Some deer here and some alligators.

As we speak, 13 deer are missing and six alligator are missing. Zoo personnel are walking around with tranquilizer guns and regular guns. The tranquilizer guns (UNINTELLIGIBLE), the regular guns for the alligator. They have already tranquilized one deer. There was another deer hours ago bounding up the street in the water trying to swim, looking frightened but one of the alligators whose still missing weighs 1,000 pounds, is 12 feet long and is considered (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Gary Tuchman in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

And we should tell our viewers those hits you saw, those temporary gaps in his report are the result of the bad weather here in Atlanta right now, causing some havoc with our satellite transmission. We apologize for that, but we're sure you understand why.

Across the border in the Florida Panhandle, Fort Walton Beach, the damage was also severe. Here's a look just in to CNN from Preston Rudy from our affiliate WTSP.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got a tree in your house?

PRESTON RUDY, WTSP CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before the winds had even died down, people in Fort Walton Beach were out to check on the damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been in the area 35 years now, and this is the worst I've seen it.

RUDY: Mike Kaluda (ph) surveyed his neighborhood and found the Gulf water still splashing at his friend's back door.

(on camera): Where's the water usually at?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you see the top of those poles out there? It's usually six feet below that.

RUDY: Up and down the Gulf, boats were parked in streets like cars, power lines cut in half, in this case causing a fire. Trees were either snapped or pushed over, and some homes flooded out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It did come in the middle of the night, and just crashed through the doors.

RUDY: Ivan the terrible lived up to his billing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was awful last night. At 3:00 this morning, it sounded like a freight train.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never been in a house that really just vibrated the whole time.

RUDY (on camera): Now to give you another perspective of how strong this hurricane was, take a look at this. This rock is easily several hundred pounds, but the combination of wind and water deposited this rock right in the middle of this driveway, and it had been located right over here, at least 20 feet away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The curfew has been extended indefinitely. Please clear the roadway.

RUDY (voice-over): Meantime, residents were told to stay off the streets for another 24 hours as officials prepare for a clean-up that is sure to take weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a lot of damage, tremendous amount of damage. But you know, if you want to live in paradise, this is the price you pay. That's all there is to it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That report from Preston Rudy with our affiliate WTSP out of Tampa-St. Pete. We thank him for that.

While Fort Walton Beach and the others tally the damage they are breathing easy in the Big Easy tonight. New Orleans officials were fearing a direct hit or even a sideswipe by Ivan would result in massive and casualties, mostly because the city lies below sea level, largely, and aside from rain and some power outages though the city was unscathed. Now officials are bracing for a massive influx of returning evacuees.

The danger from Ivan is still far from over as we told you right at the top of this program. Millions inland are bracing for potential flooding. We'll go live to the danger zones.

Also there's this. The full fury of a hurricane, we'll show you Ivan at its worst.

And latest details on new kidnappings in Iraq including two Americans.

Plus, Dan Rather speaking out to Howard Kurtz about the political firestorm over his reporting. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Even though Ivan is now over land and no longer a hurricane, a tropical storm is nothing to take lightly. Forecasters are warning of heavy rain and severe flooding in places like Alabama. CNN's Sean Callebs joining us live now from Birmingham -- Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, indeed perhaps one of the more amazing features, we are 210 miles from Mobile, a long way from where the hurricane really made land, but look behind me. You'll see this is what (UNINTELLIGIBLE) five-mile creek, at this intersection of the city. Residents here say usually it's just trickling. You can't even see it from the street. But now it's just a torrential muddy mess. You can see trees, basketballs, even appliances washed down this area. Residents say that they fear the water could continue to creep up, perhaps reaching that window level on the house over there. Flooding a major concern and they expect this kind of rain to continue to come down in this city for several hours.

Also, something like 200 trees have been knocked down, power is out to some 200,000 people. Miles, one note, there is not a curfew in this area, they do not expect to have one. They want this bad weather to move up and begin doing initial damage estimate before nightfall comes.

O'BRIEN: All right. Sean Callebs in Birmingham. Thank you very much. As a result of all this, weather forecasters are not downgrading their efforts to track Ivan and issue warnings as trouble starts brewing. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, is the primary weather-watching organization in the U.S. and its prediction center in Camp Springs, Maryland is an important nerve center at a time like this. And that's precisely where we find CNN's Brian Todd -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, more specifically this is called the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center. It's a branch of NOAA, government agency just outside Washington that is charged with tracking hurricanes and tropical storms once they are moving inland and moving around.

Right now Ivan is yet another storm that's keeping them very busy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Wave after wave, in a devastating hurricane season, as Ivan moves inland, its winds die down, but forecasters make clear this is a threat in transition.

JIM HOKE, NOAA PREDICTION CENTER: Now that the storm is inland and churning its way through Alabama, it's got a different kind of danger, and that is primarily associated with flooding.

TODD: At NOAA's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, a concerned look ahead. Experts say Ivan is moving into the southern Appalachians already devastated by flooding from Hurricane Frances earlier this month. Parts of western North Carolina got historic proportions of rain, up to 20 inches in some places.

It's when Ivan slows down, forecasters say, that it causes prolonged rainfall wherever it passes. And as the storm moving from the low flatlands of the Gulf Coast northward, topography comes into play.

JIM HOKE, NOAA: Air that is being forced over mountains can't hold as much water, and as a result, rain falls out, there can be copious amounts of rain, especially on the upward side, the eastward side of the Appalachian Mountains.

TODD: And as devastating as Ivan's tornadoes have been to the Florida panhandle, a warning from forecasters: look for more of them in Alabama, then possibly into Georgia and the Carolinas, a dire sign- off from an unwelcome visitor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Back now live at the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, they are staffed here 24/7, and not just in hurricane season. We're joined by the director Jim Hoke. Jim, you've got some updated information on Ivan's path inland. Where's its going? And when's it going to get there?

HOKE: That's right. Brian, the storm right now is in Central Alabama, and it's making a beeline toward the Appalachian Mountains. It should be there tomorrow. And then after tomorrow afternoon, will continue eastward.

Now the problem becomes that there is a certain amount of uncertainty as to the storm's track. It could possibly go as far north as up into Virginia, and as far south as South Carolina. So there is a large area that will -- the storm could actually go through. That's also an area that will be heavily affected by precipitation.

The bad news is that this is the same area that was hit very hard by earlier hurricanes, hurricanes such as Charley and Frances.

TODD: OK. Jim, thanks very much. That dreaded cone of uncertainty that's so unpredictable. They're keeping a close eye on it here, Miles. Back to you.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Brian Todd, thank you very much. Presidential politics and damaging documents, were they forged? We'll hear from the journalist at the center of the controversy. Also, Hurricane Jeanne, yes, there's another one, the gathering storm and possibly the next big threat to the U.S.

But not to forget Ivan. You've seen the damage, but we'll show you the full fury as it happened. Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right live pictures. Actually these are taped pictures, I apologize. This is through the good graces of our affiliate WWL, based in New Orleans, a chopper ride that they took from Gulf Shores, Alabama all the way towards Pensacola.

As we have been telling you, the right side of the eye is the dangerous side to be, the place where most of the damage occurs because of the counterclockwise rotation of a hurricane. Ivan as we know, was a hurricane 4 -- category 4, ultimately a category 3. A little glimpse there, kind of hard to see the damage, but nevertheless that is part of the hard-hit area along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Shifting gears now, that CBS, Bush, National Guard story still stirring up a hornet's nest of controversy today. The question is, were documents used by the network to support its contention that the president got special treatment in the guard in fact fakes? CNN's Jeanne Meserve brings us up to date on what's being called Memogate -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, another unanswered question, where did CBS get these disputed documents? An examiner hired by CBS to authenticate the documents, but who did not says 2 curried to her home were evidence of having been faxed at an earlier date.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a line at the top of the questioned ones that says -- it's partially cut off, but you can read enough it says Kinko's of Abeline clearly on one, and less clearly on the other.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MESERVE: It has not been determined who did that faxing from Kinko's, in Abilene, but Abilene is not far from the home of Bill Burkett. Burkett has alleged very publicly that potential damaging information was purged from President Bush's National Guard record.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BURKETT, NATIONAL GUARD (RET): Yes. I can't answer the question why those documents would be thrown away. A personnel file contains all of the positive and any potential negative things. It's an administrative file as old as it is, but it contains every history. It's the pure paper trail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Joe Alba, the former Bush aid, who Burkett says orchestrated the document purge, called the charges nonsense. Burkett also sued at one point, charging that he was denied medical care he needed while in the National Guard. The suit was thrown out, but in an article on the Web site of Veterans for Peace, Burkett put the blame on then Texas governor George W. Bush. Burkett said Bush was mad that Burkett had refused to alter Bush's official personnel records.

Was Burkett the source of the disputed documents? Burkett is not talking. Meanwhile, CBS is standing by the substance of its story, though it has acknowledged for the first time, that there are legitimate questions about the authenticity of the documents. Last night it named two experts who it says continue to attest that they are real. Neither is accredited by the highly regarded American Board of Forensic Document Examiners. One of them, Marcel Matley is accepted as an expert witness in forensic document examination, but his resume and writings also show a background in graphology which analyzes handwriting to determine character traits.

Another forensic document expert with extensive experience in federal crime labs told me graphology is akin to crystal ball gazing and palm reading. In his words, graphology is to forensic document examination what astrology is to astronomy. Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve in Washington, thank you very much.

Howard Kurtz, the media reporter for "The Washington Post" and the host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" spoke with Dan Rather about the document controversy. He wrote about it in the paper today, "The Washington Post." He joins us from Washington with more on all this. Howie, good to have you with us.

HOWARD KURTZ, WASHINGTON POST: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Give us the gist of what Dan Rather had to say. I noticed a little change in his tone in your piece.

KURTZ: Well sure. CBS and Rather have gone from 100 percent absolute confidence in the story, to acknowledging there may be serious problems. Here's what Rather said last night, "if the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to break that story. Anytime I'm wrong, I want folks to know it." Well, the reason Rather is saying this, is because of the surfacing of this 86-year-old woman, Marion Knox, former secretary to George W. Bush's squadron commander in the Texas Guard who was at the side of the squadron commander and says I didn't type those documents, I don't think they're real. CBS to its credit, put her on the air, but has blown a pretty major hole in their account.

O'BRIEN: What's your thought on this? I mean, this is clearly a story, it's a scoop, it's a competitive business, you want to get it on the air, nevertheless this is one of those stories that needs to be vetted and then vetted once again. Do you think there was something that broke inside CBS in that vetting process?

KURTZ: It's increasingly hard to understand why CBS put this on the air last week when it did. We now know from the document experts, Jeanne Meserve mention, serious questions were raised by people, these were people that CBS had hired to vet these documents? Were they real? Could they have been typed on a government typewriter in 1972?

We now know that others have raised questions about the story. Sure, it's a very competitive environment, but the entire focus now has shifted from what George W. Bush did or didn't do in the Texas Guard, to the credibility of Dan Rather and CBS and "60 Minutes." And one other interesting note, Miles, Rather kind of threw it back at the White House in his interview with me saying, instead of all these reporters asking me and CBS questions, they ought to be asking the president about his military service.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now there's one quote in here that is particularly stinging. Bernard Goldberg, former CBS correspondent, who has become over the years very, very critical of the Tiffany network, saying specifically, "CBS News is acting the way the Nixon administration did during Watergate. I'm really sad to say that Dan Rather is acting like Richard Nixon. It's the cover-up. It's the stonewalling."

Those are very harsh words. Is there any truth to those?

KURTZ: Well, that's a pretty harsh characterization, as you observe.

And I think CBS yesterday, to continue the Watergate analogy, did a kind of modified limited hangout, did put out some information on this, did answer questions, and did acknowledge for the first time these serious questions. But I've talked to some veteran people in CBS today who are still frustrated that CBS can't seem to put this controversy behind them, and we'll have to wait to see whether CBS can do that in the coming days.

O'BRIEN: Howard Kurtz, who writes about the media for "The Washington Post" and hosts our program "RELIABLE SOURCES," thanks for your time, as always. Appreciate it.

Here's your turn to weigh in on this story. Our Web question of the day is this: Should there be an investigation into the authenticity of President Bush's National Guard documents, the ones that are in that report? You can vote right now. CNN.com/Wolf is the place to do it. We'll have the results a little later in this broadcast.

Ivan's arrival. We'll look back at the moment the big storm first hit land.

And Ivan is already here, but there's another one on the way. Hurricane Jeanne wreaking havoc in the Caribbean already. Could Florida be next?

Also ahead, a new terrorism indictment is unveiled. And what it has to do with jihad, we'll explain all that to you as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back. Ivan comes crashing into the Gulf Coast. We'll show you the full fury of the storm as it happened, but, first, a quick check of stories now in the news.

A new 10-count indictment for two jailed terror suspects. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the mean are accused of providing financial support for terrorists and recruiting members for terror groups around the world. One of the men is in custody in Florida, the other in Egypt.

Michael Jackson's lawyers demanding the judge toss out certain evidence they say was illegally seized during a raise of his Neverland Ranch. They want the judge to rule the items inadmissible in that child molestation case he faces.

Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

Now more on our top story, Hurricane Ivan. We've been showing you the extensive damage the storm unleashed on parts of the Gulf Coast. You might have been sleeping as Ivan first made landfall overnight near Mobile, Alabama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you're looking at is Lake Pontchartrain, which had overflowed its banks here. The water is coming in, pretty steady gusts of wind here.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: This storm is coming, and it is coming on fast.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Wolf, holy smokes. Saddle up, kids.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Still, boy, this is going to be a really long night for folks across the Southeast.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can only imagine how the barrier island looks right now when it was already flooding 10 hours ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see how frothy all this water is that's being whipped up by this wind as it comes down the beach here.

MARCIANO: If the eye is in the Gulf Shores, which is less than 30 miles about 30 miles away, the eye itself is -- we're getting the northwestern eye wall now. So this is -- when it's getting bad, and it will be bad for the next half how, maybe even 45 minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: From the Panhandle to the fire. Floridians once again took a big hit as a result of a hurricane. Ivan was the third unwelcomed visitor to make a mockery of the slogan Sunshine State.

CNN's Rick Sanchez rode out the storm in Panama City. He has more for us from there.

Hello, Rick.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting, Miles, all these hurricanes seem to have their own peculiar elements.

If you think back, Andrew was small, but very powerful. Charley earlier this year was somewhat shifty. Think of Frances. It's slow and extremely ponderous. This hurricane, Ivan, is going to be known for having an extremely tough outer core. It's amazing to see the numbers as they have come in, but it seems that that outer fringe of this hurricane, sometimes as far away as 100 to 130 miles away from the eye of the hurricane, is where most of the deaths have occurred.

Seven people have died in the area of the eastern fringe of the Panhandle. Five of them -- or pardon me -- four of them in just one community alone called Blountstown, where suddenly a tornado just blew through a trailer park community. Also not far from there, here in Bay County, in Panama City Beach, there were two more deaths associated with tornadoes, and also a third, a young girl who died as well, with a tree falling on her, also associated with a tornado.

So really the story or headline here has been tornado, tornado, tornado, in the outer fringe of a hurricane that many expected would do most of its damage closer to, as you mentioned earlier in your report, the area of New Orleans instead.

In Panama City Beach, I'm Rick Sanchez -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Rick Sanchez, thanks very much.

There's more trouble brewing out in the Atlantic, dare we say it. Tropical Storm Jeanne graduated to hurricane level today as it sweeps through the Caribbean and eyes perhaps the Bahamas.

Here's a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Jeanne was only a tropical storm when it hit Puerto Rico, but still strong enough to turn roads into rivers, topple trees, and cut power. It was stronger than forecast here, dumping more than a foot of rain, sending rivers over their banks, standing water waist-deep in some places, wind gusts up to 80 miles an hour. Dozens of roads were blocked, sometimes by floodwaters, in other cases by downed trees.

Nearly everyone lost power and thousands lacked running water. More than 3,000 Puerto Ricans sought refuge in shelters. Government offices remain closed Thursday. And authorities asked those who were not at work to help with the cleanup. After leaving Puerto Rico behind, Jeanne reached hurricane strength as it approached Hispaniola, the Caribbean island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both of those countries are still on the mend after Hurricane Ivan.

Forecasters say it's too early to predict where Jeanne is headed next, but the storm could reach the U.S. East Coast sometime next week. It could hit the Carolinas, Georgia or being the fourth hurricane of the season to attack Florida.

MICHAEL BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: It has just been a one-two-three punch and now we have got Jeanne out in the Caribbean right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Taken hostage. What's the fate of three Westerners seized from their Baghdad home?

Also ahead, a startling new government report on the future of Iraq.

And hear from some of the people who refused to evacuate. Their stories of survival in Ivan are coming up, but, first, a quick look at other news making headlines all around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Afghanistan's interim president, Hamid Karzai, aborted a campaign trip after a rocket attack narrowly missed his helicopter. The Taliban claimed responsibility. And some candidates want to delay the October 9 election. After landing in Kabul, Karzai said his American security detail overreacted.

A call to disarm. The leaders of Britain and Ireland are appealing to the Irish Republican Army to turn in its weapons and disband. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, are leading three days of talks at Leeds Castle in England. The Catholic-Protestant power sharing in Northern Ireland depends on IRA disarmament.

Royal divorce. Denmark's Prince Joachim and his wife, Princess Alexandra, are planning to end their marriage. A spokesman for the royal family says Prince Joachim's mother, the queen, deeply regretted the decision.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup polls shows Minnesota's voters equally divided. Thus, President Bush campaigned there today. He talked about taxes during a stop in Blaine, Minnesota. Mr. Bush says that while Democrat John Kerry talks about raising taxes on the wealthy, Kerry would end up raising taxes on the middle class.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... tax the rich, be careful. The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, because they don't want to pay. And you get stuck with the tab. But we're not going to let him stick you with the tab. We're going to carry Minnesota in November and win a great victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: John Kerry let loose with one of his strongest attacks yet on President Bush's Iraq policy. He accused the president of not leveling with the American people what Kerry called the mess in Iraq. Speaking to National Guard in Las Vegas, Kerry noted that many National Guard troops have been called to duty in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So today, respectfully, I'd like to ask the president a simple question. When our Guardsmen and women are fighting the same war as active-duty troops, when they're facing the same dangers and coming home in the same wheelchairs, the same stretchers and flag-draped coffins, how can we refuse to give them the same resources and the same respect that we give to the regular troops? I believe we can make better choices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: John Kerry was speaking to the National Guard Association, which President Bush addressed two days ago.

U.S. officials say they're working with Iraqi police trying to track down two Americans and a Briton who were kidnapped from their residence in Baghdad. Details are just beginning to emerge about what appears to have been a highly planned, sophisticated operation.

CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel has the latest for us -- Andrea .

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Miles, no claim of responsibility as yet, but one indicator that most believe is a pretty clear indication that this was highly planned came from a neighbor who said that the night guard, who is usually there, didn't show up for duty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL (voice-over): U.S. troops stood guard outside the two- story home located in this upscale Baghdad neighborhood, where only hours earlier two Americans and a Briton were kidnapped at gunpoint.

An Iraqi police official told CNN that, at about 6:00 a.m. Thursday morning, 11 kidnappers dressed in civilian clothing drove up to the residence in a mini bus and a sedan.

"I peeked around the door and saw a car," said this neighbor, "but I didn't know there was something good on, because it was so quiet. There was no shooting, nothing going on."

The Americans have been identified as Jack Hensley and Eugene Jack Armstrong, both employed by Gulf Services, a company based in the United Arab Emirates with numerous Iraq-related contracts from the Pentagon. The State Department said it's working to contact family members and is also helping with what is now an Iraqi-led investigation.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: The United States obviously collects every piece of information we can on the welfare and whereabouts of American citizens who might have been taken hostage, and others as well, and the operations and groups that might be taking people hostage.

KOPPEL: In recent months, militants have seized scores of hostages, Westerners, Arabs and non-Muslims alike; 12 Nepali cooks and cleaners working for a Jordanian company in Iraq were killed in August by kidnappers. Most recently, an Islamic group took two Italian aid workers in Baghdad hostage, while a militant Islamic group has threatened to execute two French journalists seized last month unless France drops its head scarf law.

Security experts say militants realized their attacks against American troops are having little impact.

KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: But if they can prevent people from going to work, if they can prevent roads from being built, if they can prevent power being turned on, if they can prevent water from flowing, then they can keep instability going and potentially create the conditions for civil war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: Among the many reasons the State Department announced this week it intends to shift close to $3.5 billion of its Iraqi aid budget out of reconstruction projects, Miles, and into security -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Andrea, in that piece, Ken Robinson, our security analyst, mentioned civil war. And that phrase has been bandied about a little more of late. How much concern is there inside the halls there in Foggy Bottom about it devolving into civil war?

KOPPEL: Oh, there is tremendous concern here at the State Department. As we've seen, whether you're talking about the Sunni Triangle or down south where the Shias are, this is a situation that could rapidly spin out of control.

And that is why the State Department wants to move money into security, more money into security, getting more Iraqi police officers on the ground, National Guardsmen to patrol borders to try to keep the insurgents from coming into the country and to try to get more of an Iraqi face on the security situation on the ground there.

O'BRIEN: Andrea Koppel at the State Department, thank you very much.

More violence and tougher challenges. A new top secret intelligence report paints a pretty bleak picture for Iraq's future. Senior intelligence officials say the security and political outlook for that country will depend heavily on economic recovery. In the worst case, the report speculates a civil war, as we just mentioned, could break out before the end of 2005.

Ivan's fury. Hear from some of the residents who weathered the storm.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras has been busy all day and actually for the last month, really, busy, watching these storms. And she joins us now from the Weather Center with the latest on Ivan -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. I'm never going to get any sleep, Miles. But that's all right. It's been very exciting.

We haven't run down the latest statistics on Iraq. The 5:00 advisory did come in, so we do want to bring that information to you, 25 miles south-southwest of Birmingham. It has continued to weaken. So maximum sustained winds now are at 60 miles per hour. So we're still at tropical storm status. It is moving north-northeast at 14 miles per hour. We've been seeing some very nasty weather across the Atlanta area in the last hour to hour and a half.

And you can see, the radar imagery now is showing that it really has started to push off into the eastern suburbs right now and starting to push to the east of the loop area as well. We still have a ground stop in effect for Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. And that's been extended now another hour, until 6:30 Eastern time. And there you can see this dangerous line. There's still a couple tornado warnings in effect, but they're up in the northeastern parts of Georgia.

There are also a member of airports that are closed at this hour besides Atlanta. And here's a couple of them for you, Pensacola, Gulfport and Mobile are also closed. And we'll watch for that flooding threat as this continues to move north and east. And Jeanne is a tropical storm, by the way, Miles. And that may one become a hurricane once again, though, as it heads towards the United States -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much.

Hurricane Ivan painted a bullseye on Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Dave McNamara of CNN affiliate WWL talked to people who weathered the storm there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE MCNAMARA, WWL REPORTER (voice-over): The power, the height, and devastation of Hurricane Ivan's storm surge shocked even longtime Gulf Shores residents. They've ridden out storms before, but they've never seen the water get this high.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Mother Nature is something not be messed with. That's for sure. People are -- they come here and they build and they expect insurance or something will pay for it, but it's fragile.

MCNAMARA: As the hurricane surge pounded homes and businesses on this Alabama resort island, ice chests, furniture, and parts of buildings are piled up at the crest of Ivan's waves.

(on camera): What do you think is left out there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything's underwater. The beach is gone. I had a friend of mine, I moved part of his stuff out of his place. He's on ground level on West Beach. I told him, you better get what you can. And he loaded up some stuff in the van, not much, clothes, TV, and a bicycle, and that's it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That report from Dave McNamara with our affiliate WWL out of New Orleans. Thanks very much for that.

Results of our Web question of the day up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: And there's the Web question of the day. Should there be an investigation into the authenticity of President Bush's National Guard documents? It's a toss-up. You have evenly divided.

That's all the time we have for WOLF BLITZER REPORTS today. Thanks for joining us. I'm Miles O'Brien, on behalf of Wolf Blitzer, who is off today.

Up next, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT."

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