[Holmes:] And welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Nate. The fast-moving category 1 storm making a second landfall near the U.S. Gulf Coast near Biloxi, Mississippi. This is the third hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in just the last six weeks. Nate's first landfall coming at the mouth of the Mississippi River a few hours ago, it could be a long, anxious night for people along the Gulf Coast. A big concern is the storm surge from Nate. The rising water lapping at the doors of the Golden Nugget casino in Biloxi. Casinos and hotels there did close ahead of the storm. The people got out. And you can see that was probably a smart move. Let's get an update on Nate's strength and position. Let's get a view from the ground now. Ed Lavandera has been following all of this from Mobile, Alabama. Last time I saw you pop up it was pretty quiet. What's going on there now? How has it been?
[Ed Lavandera, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, the winds have intensified here, Michael, and the rain coming down, not heavily but steadily and you can get a sense of the storm surge as well and that power and the wind is pushing the water up north. What you see behind me might be rather hard to make out, we're up on the edge of Mobile Bay on this harbor. And just over this railing, that water is moving at a strong clip from south to north back over this way and that is that storm is moving north, pushing a lot of the water here back inland. And that is what that storm surge is about. It's what that storm surge is being monitored and watched very closely in communities all along the Gulf Coast here, not only in Alabama and Mississippi as well, even with the winds not as I don't even think we're close to experiencing hurricane force winds here in Mobile. But it is definitely strong enough to get that water pushing north. The rain fall is what creates the potential for flooding situation at least for roads to get covered up with water. Obviously, all of this taking place in the darkness of this evening. which is obviously of great concern for first responders. Throughout the day there's been a sense of complacency, perhaps but at least at the very minimum, a very relaxed sense of the need to prepare and take a whole lot of precautions for this storm. From a lot of people we saw across Mississippi and Alabama as well, so even though it is the overnight hours, there's always that concern that people might try to venture out, going to themselves into difficult situations. That's the kind of that first responders very nervous about, given that not many people were extremely worried about this storm and the magnitude of this storm coming ashore. That is what we're seeing here, rather steady winds over the last few minutes, definitely not as strong as the hurricanes we have seen over the last months. But definitely something that emergency responders here concerned about as this storm continues to push its way north and moving rather quickly Michael.
[Holmes:] Yes, and thousands of people without power as well. Ed, thanks so much. Appreciate that. Ed Lavandera there in Alabama. Let's bring in Michael Beyerstadt now. He is the fire chief of Gulfport, Mississippi. Thanks so much for being with us. First of all, just give us a situation report on what you have seen there.
[Michael Beyerstadt, Gulfport Fire Chief:] OK, well, we had storm surge and the wind gusts. We have reports of one gust up around 70 mile an hour. So it's not quite as bad as we feared, but our motto is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. And at this point, it seems like in Gulfport here, for the most part, we have gotten that.
[Holmes:] Right, what have been your concerns and what remain your concerns?
[Beyerstadt:] You know, we had a structure fire that we had to go out and fight right in the height of the storm, when we were seeing some very there's a lot of 45, 40, 50 mile-an-hour gusts. That's a very dangerous situation to have wind-driven fire like that. We do have flooding here in Gulfport Highway 90, which is impassible for several areas, we're getting reports some of the other roads that are prone to flooding that are impassible at this time.
[Holmes:] When you compare it to the possibilities, I suppose if this storm had hung around in the Gulf and picked up some more activity from the warm waters, are you feeling something of a sense of relief at the moment?
[Beyerstadt:] Oh, definitely. We feel blessed that it looks like at this point it hasn't been near as bad as what it definitely could have been. So we're definitely feeling blessed this time.
[Holmes:] What's your message to people in your area who might be listening right now?
[Beyerstadt:] One, I'm very proud of them. The people that were in low-lying areas appear to have largely gotten out and people have obeyed the curfew and we haven't had to go out and rescue people who've gotten themselves in bad situations during the height of the storm too much. So very happy with them and just be careful. We are getting a lot of reports of wires down. And so electricity is a very dangerous thing for people to be delaying with as they go out and start looking around in the morning.
[Holmes:] Good advice. Michael Beyerstadt, the fire chief of Gulfport, Mississippi, thanks. Appreciate it. All right, coming up here on the program, a massive fireball in Ghana's night sky sends people running for their lives. We'll have a look at that. We'll have the latest on this for you after the break.