Hurricane Jeanne Sets Sights On Central Florida
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN center in Atlanta. Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Here's what's happening now in the news. Florida residents are facing no. 4: Hurricane Jeanne is threatening the Sunshine State after 3 other hurricanes made landfall in Florida this summer. Jeanne has intensified with 115 mph winds. It is expected to make landfall tonight or early tomorrow. A week after being hit hard by Jeanne, chaos is escalating in Haiti. U.N. forces fired tear gas into crowds of people clamouring desperatetly for food and water. More aid is expected to arrive today. The death toll in Haiti, more than 1,300. Muslim clerics are in Baghdad trying to gain the release of a British hostage. The delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain arrived in Iraq today. There is no word of the status of hostage Kenneth Bigley. The contract worker was taken from his Baghdad home 9 days ago along with 2 Americans. The Americans were beheaded this week. Let's begin with yet another huge storm closing in on Florida. Just over 2 months left in the hurricane season, and after Charley, Frances, Ivan and now Jeanne, Floridians must be counting the days until it's all over. But first they have to get past Jeanne. We begin our coverage with CNN's Susan Candiotti. And she's in West Palm Beach, Florida.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fredricka. And let's remember we are only halfway through the hurricane season which is not over until the end of November. Of course, September, October being the busiest months. As you know, forecasters have been talking about tropical storm force winds stretching out about 200 miles from the eye wall of Hurricane Jeanne. And certainly at this time, we're starting to feel the outer bands of that storm. They're also talking about 5 to 10 inches of rain. And throughout the day, we have cris-crossed Palm Beach County which is well within the possible projected path of Hurricane Jeanne going from the west side of town and now we're over at the marina here in the intercoastal waterway. Perhaps you can see the the world famous Breakers Hotel in the distance over my shoulder here. Again, one of the places we stopped was 1 of 15 shelters that are operating here in Palm Beach County. There is a mandatory evacuation order in effect here for people living in flood-prone areas, as well as in mobile homes. I am told that five of those 15 shelters are now near capacity. They're opening up another one and about 11,000 people are there so far. However, the capacity is about 27,000 people, and so authorities are wondering, well, where is everybody? About 19,000 showed up for Hurricane Frances. And possible answers? No one knows for sure, either people might be unwisely trying to ride out the storm, or they have found another safe place to be. One of the people who sought shelter at this high school we visited is Carlos Francisco who came there with his wife and his little baby. They came to the shelter, even though he boarded up his home.</s>CARLOS FRANCISCO, FLORIDA RESIDENT: This time, there's a lot of debris that they haven't picked up around the house and branches and big trunks of trees are still out in the streets. So it's kind of more hectic. Don't know what's going to happen with that. You've got winds coming that are coming that are higher, so that could cause a missile.</s>CANDIOTTI: Another spot where he visited was a Home Depot, a home improvement store that was opened for three hours this morning. A steady stream of business there as people were picking up plywood and other last-minute items. But after three hours, even that store closed down to give its employees time to prepare for Hurricane Jeanne, turning away a lot of customers. We're also seeing long lines at gas stations throughout the county. If you can find a gas station that is still selling gasoline. And of course the governor promises they will have more supplies at the ready, once the storm passes, unlike the last time. Remember, 90 percent of the people in Palm Beach County, we are told, lost their power for Hurricane Frances. And so people here are certainly prepared to face that possibility when Hurricane Jeanne flies on through. Fredricka, back to you.</s>WHITFIELD: Well, Susan, I wonder, you mention the suspicion that a lot of folks are not going to the shelters, and maybe they are staying in their homes. Do you know whether there is going to be an effort in any certain jurisdictions to go physically knock on doors, to make a final plea to people to get out of those homes and seek higher ground?</s>CANDIOTTI: Well, I'm afraid -- Fredricka, I think they're past that point. There is the standard rule of thumbb here, that if you choose to stay behind, that's up to you. They don't usually drag people out of their homes, nor arrest them for not leaving despite the fact there is an evacuation order. And of course, even emergency personnel will not go out when tropical storm force winds reaches a stage, usually around 50, 55 miles per hour, because then it puts them at risk. So these are all of the things that people have been educated about, they have heard it time and again. That's a real possibility. They could in trouble, and if they want to leave, it might be too late.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes. It should be engrained in everybody's minds by now. Thanks so much, Susan Candiotti. Well, millions of Floridians have been told to get off on Jeanne's way. Portions of Brevard County are included in the manditory evacuation orders involving 9 Florida counties. And that's where we find Kevin Oliver from affiliate</s>WFTV. KEVIN OLIVER, WFTV: Fredricka, out here in the coast, we've been watching the waves grow larger and larger here along the Cocoa Beach Pier. In fact, we saw earlier today a pilon that looked like it had broken free already, underneath the pier. The waves have been actually hitting the underside of the pier all morning, and it's only expected to grow higher as the surf gets more rough, as Jeanne approaches. Now off in the distance here, you can still see a number of people coming out to the beach here and check out the scene. A lot of these people have been asked to leave Cocoa Beach, but they are not, they are not moving inland. In fact, we are not seeing the same numbers of people moving to shelters and moving away from the coast, as we did during Frances and even during Charley. A lot of people, as we heard earlier, have what they've been calling hurricane fatigue here on the coast. They're simply tired of being evacuating and a lot of people saying they want to stay home. Some people are even saying they can't afford to leave, and so they are just staying in their homes and hoping for the best at this point, despite all of the earlier warnings. We did hear that about 4,000 people are in shelters across Brevard County at this point, but they were really hoping those numbers would be higher, considering the threat that Jeanne poses to this part of the county. Reporting live from Cocoa Beach, Kevin Oliver for</s>CNN. WHITFIELD: And, Kevin, are you finding from some of the residents who are deciding to stay there that they are just so annoyed at this diluge of hurricane activity along the Florida coast that they just don't feel like taking the trouble of leaving?</s>OLIVER: A lot had left and gone so long for Frances. As you might remember, a lot of the people that left here were waiting for Frances to hit, and Frances started moving slower and slower, so a lot of them were in shelters before days before that hurricane came through. And then they had to wait another two days to be able to come back home and check out their property and see what was damaged and what wasn't damaged. A lot of the people here also saw that there wasn't much damage to their homes even though some of their neighbors lost everything and so they decided, a lot of people have decided, they're just going to chance it and see what happens with this storm.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Kevin Oliver of our affiliate WFTV, thanks so much. Well, let's find out exactly where Hurricane Jeanne is right now. Our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is tracking the storm from the weather center -- Jacqui.</s>JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, about 100 miles away from Vero Beach right now. But this is not the storm to take likely. We've heard a lot of talk about people being complacent about this storm. I give up. We've just had storm after storm. This is category three hurricane with winds of 115 miles per hour. This is a major hurricane, not something to taken lightly. We're going to have big problems with storm surge, with flooding, five to ten inches, possibly a little more than that. And the hurricane force winds extend out 70 miles from the eye of this storm. This is going to be affecting a lot of people, a lot of populated areas from West Palm Beach, Miami up towards Melbourne, in to Orlando. Then it will head its way up to Jacksonville and then head into the Carolinas. So this is not something to sit at home and just say, I don't care, we will see what happens with this one. We want to pay attention. Now, rain is going to be one of the biggest threats. You can see right now, those rain showers are kind of spotted across the area, but the intensity of them are starting to pick up as some of these outer bands move in. The forecast rainfall's what's very impressive. Take a look at these numbers between now and Sunday evening, about 9.5 inches possible around Orlando, Ft. Pierce about 4 and a half inches, well over 4 expected in West Palm Beach. And even Miami getting in some of this action. As you can see, as we extend across the northeast, as we head towards Savannah into Charleston, also expecting to see about 3 to 6 inches of rainfall. We'll have more on the forecast track. Fredricka, back to you.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much. Well, as Jeanne barrels towards the east coast of Florida, Governor Jeb Bush has been urging people to evacuate. Let's listen in to him right now.</s>GOV. JEB BUSH, (R) FLORIDA: ...work in anticipation of this storm has been demanding, certainly, and a lot of people have been working very hard. But without that support, a lot of Floridians tomorrow and the next day would not be receiving any assistance at all. And it's important to pause and to reflect on our disaster response efforts and how effective they have been, and how appreciative we are as Floridians that work being done today and yesterday and the day before in anticipation of Hurricane Jeanne will make a difference in the lives of many people. Now, as you've listened to Ben and Craig talk, now is the time to stay in place on the east coast. The tropical force winds have started up along the east coast. Soon, at some point, the highway patrol will be leaving to go to safety, maybe in the next few hours, depending on how the winds pick up. This is not the time to be traveling. The evacuations should have occurred already and now is the time to find a safe place and stay there. We are -- Jeanne's westward movement means that our west coast is now under hurricane watches as well. And for the residents along the western coast from Sarasota to Levy County, they should begin to complete their preparation plans right now. The same goes for our inland residents. I wish I could just tell you that the storm hits the coast and all of a sudden, it magically goes away or it drops its power, but that's not the case. We've already seen how this works with Frances, with Charley and with Ivan, and we know that our inland areas also have significant issues. And as been mentioned, the hurricane force winds will go as its projected now, all the way up to north, central Florida. And so people -- and the threat of tornados as we've seen in the last six weeks are also very real. So people in the inland areas, the time is running out for them as well to prepare their houses or to evacuate, should they be in a mobile home park or a low-lying area. This is the time to act. Sustained hurricane force winds are expected all wait through north central Florida. I want to repeat that, because I think there's some notion that these storms are only going to hit the coastal areas. They do. But there won't be storm surges necessarily, but could be significant flooding and significant wind damage. This is a time that we in Florida have become all too familiar with in the past 6 weeks, which is to wait for the storm. The storms have also made us familiar with something else, which is resilience and resolve. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be governor of a state whose people have met the challenge in the last six weeks. If you have followed what has gone on, there have been acts of courage, of love, of compassion, of helping a neighbor, making sure that family is safe, and while we tragically have seen a loss of life, because of the efforts not just of the first responders and FEMA and the National Guard and the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and thousands of people that are acting on their sense of consciousness to help others, neighbors helping neighbors have saved lives as well. And made it possible for us to be able to get through these storms. That's what makes Florida a very special place. And while we've seen tremendous damage and while, you know, you go to these briefings and you kind of -- it gets a little depressing, I guess. I can assure you that a week from now, Florida's going to be a better place than it is today and I can assure you a month from now it'll be even better place than it is today, and I can assure you a month from now it's going to be even better, and a year from now from the lessons learned, and the ability to rebuild, which we will do, Florida will continue to be the best place to live in the United States. And so there is support, and there is hope coming for the people that are going to be impacted by this storm. And it'll come quickly, and it'll be sustained. With that, I would like to say a few words in Spanish.</s>WHITFIELD: Governor Jeb Bush saying, if you haven't evacuated by now along the Florida east coast, then stay put. It's just entirely too dangerous to try and hit the roads now. Now with Hurricane Jeanne only a few miles away from the coast, and possibility going to hit the coast sometime around midnight. But where exactly might it hit? Let's return to Jacqui Jeras who has a better idea of just what cities along the coast might be targeted -- Jacqui.</s>JERAS: Well, Fredricka, we've been putting the track here on the eye wall. Right now the center of circulation is about 120 miles east/southeast of Vero Beach. And it's moving just slightly north of due west. And the eye wall, you can see it right there, and check out that rotator there, that's an indication of a possible tornado. So that eye wall, the worst part of the storm, is moving in toward the west and likely making landfall there sometime around the 9:00 hour for tonight. Now, we still might see some changes in the forward speed. And keep in mind, that this is the eye wall. The eye itself will likely take a couple of hours after that. So anywhere likely between maybe 10:30 until 1:30 in the morning is when we are really looking that the likely making landfall. Forecast track has it pushing almost due west, and then taking more of a turn up to the north. It will be weakening after it makes landfall, but at that time, we're still concerned that additional strengthening will be possible before it does make its way onshore. Weakens to a tropical storm, and then heads up through the Carolinas. But the good news is, we were initially considered, Fredricka, that this might be just scraping right along the coast line. It looks like it should be staying over land. And that is some good news -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much. In the weather center. Well, Haiti after Jeanne, the number of death rises. And the U.N. fights to keep order at food distribution points. And some in Florida are asking is living there these days worth the stress?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe, next summer, by then, we'll be happy to be here again, but no, right now, it's -- it makes you think about Flagstaff and anywhere but here.</s>WHITFIELD: Some Floridians, bottom line: not here, not again. And, they're the first thing I read when I get up in the morning and the last thing I read at night. Who said that? And what was he talking about?