Tropical Storm Beryl Hits New England
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Rockets once again raining down on northern Israel. Pictures there from Haifa. Several injuries as that port city in the north is hit once again. Israel, meanwhile, locked and loaded at the border, ready to invade. The winds of war also carry a stern warning from Lebanon's president. All that ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING. Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. We're reporting to you live from Jerusalem this morning. North of here in Haifa, as you mentioned, Miles, the rockets continue to rain down. Let's get right to Fionnuala Sweeney. She's live for us this morning -- Fionnuala, good morning.</s>FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad. Well, about an hour-and-a-half ago, we heard the first air raid sirens of the day. And shortly after that, at least four Katusha rockets fell on the past couple of hours here, in and around it. Nineteen people were injured, at least one critically. And just about 15, 20 minutes ago, the air raid sounded again, which, of course, is the indication that another attack is incoming. And police sources telling us that three rockets fell in and around Haifa, two in open areas, one in an inhabited area, which is now being checked by the ambulance services and police for injuries -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: So what's the mood like? What's the tone there in Haifa? I know there -- it's been a short while since there has been a rocket attack before this.</s>SWEENEY: Well, of course, the last major fatality in a rocket attack was last Sunday night here, when eight people were killed. And what seems to be the pattern here is that there is a barrage of rocket attacks across all of northern Israel. And, for example, we were in Nahariya, which is a town just 20 minutes north of here, closer to Lebanon. And the streets were practically deserted. There was nobody on the streets. The beaches were empty, all the shops were closed and the mood here in Haifa when we got here seemed to be pretty much business as usual because there haven't been any attacks. And this morning when we went out and about in the city, which, of course, is Friday, the day of the Jewish Sabbath, people were out and about having coffee, preparing for the weekend. But I would say now that these last two strikes in the last couple of hours have made people go back into their homes, which is usually what the authorities say, go back inside to your homes. Each building here, of course, in Israel has at least one room which is completely reinforced. And that is usually the area to which people go. But, of course, there will be people out on the streets. And once these air raid sirens sound, you only have about 30 seconds to get indoors, into a place of safety. The Katusha rockets take about two minutes to come from Southern Lebanon. It's a distance of about 20 kilometers. So a 30 second warning is cutting the warning time by giving you about 25 percent warning that there is an attack on its way. Thereafter, it depends on whether you're lucky to be inside or unlucky to be outside -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it certainly does. Fionnuala Sweeney for us this morning right there in Haifa as those rockets fall. Fionnuala, thanks. Paula Newton is further north. She's right on the border between Israel and Lebanon with the very latest of what's happening there -- does it sound, Paula, as if there are preparations underway now for a ground war, troops to enter into Lebanon?</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is a big mobilization toward this Israeli-Lebanese border, Soledad. We've seen some of it ourselves. They've called up as many as 5,000 Reservists. It seems evident to everyone that the air strikes can only go so far. And if they want to try and hit some of those Hezbollah positions deep within Israel that are hitting Katushas, they're going to have to go in on foot. Soledad, we've said many times that these missiles, these rockets, these launchers are deep within, buried within tunnels and caves. And the only way they're going to be sure that they knock them out is to go in and figure that out with forces on the ground. We're going to speak with Shalom (ph) here, who's been -- he is from a farm here in the village. And they have a bird's eye view of the war going on. And he has a Katusha. They continually get sprayed into the countryside here. And, Shalom, when did you find this, sir? SHALOM</s>NEWTON: How far did it fall from him? SHALOM</s>NEWTON: Thirty meters. It must have -- how did you feel when you saw that? What were you thinking? SHALOM</s>NEWTON: So, as you can see, that's the kind of people that we're finding here right now, Soledad. It is a bit of a dangerous place to be. Like Shalom, many people have sent the families away and they're here to just continue to take care of their livelihoods on these farms around me -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Paula Newton for us, right on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Paula, thanks. If, indeed, Israel is preparing for a ground war into Lebanon, well, Lebanon is responding by saying the Lebanese military will protect its border. That's coming from the Lebanese president. Let's get right to Anthony Mills. He's in Beirut for us today -- Anthony, good morning.</s>ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there. As you said, the Lebanese here are bracing for suggestions or following suggestions of a possible ground assault</s>PRESIDENT EMILE LAHOUD, LEBANON: Of course, the Army is going to defend its land. And inside Lebanon, they can do a lot. They cannot be strong enough to be against Israel on the frontier, because they have much more stronger material and weaponry. But inside Lebanon, they know the land. And, of course, they will fight the invading force of Israel if it tries to come inside.</s>MILLS: Lebanese President Emile Lahoud there saying that the Lebanese Army will fight Israel if it launches a full scale ground invasion, saying they can't fight them, maybe, on the border, but they know the terrain. And, indeed, Hezbollah itself knows the terrain, especially in South Lebanon, where it fought Israelis for years. And so the question is, to what extent will the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah coordinate? And, quite ironically, if they were to fight together against the Israelis, then, in fact, they'd be doing the exact opposite of what Israel wants them to do, the Lebanese Army, and that is take Hezbollah on -- back to you.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Anthony Mills reporting to us from Beirut this morning. A look, Miles, at some of the action that we are seeing here in Israel and also in Lebanon, as well -- back to you in New York.</s>M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Soledad. Back with you in just a bit. Back here in the U.S. Nantucket Island shrugging off Tropical Storm Beryl. I'm not going to repeat my limerick this time, just to spare Rob Marciano the embarrassment. But he joins us now from the eastern tip of the island -- hello, Rob.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Miles. You'll be sparing our viewers, as well.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Yes.</s>MARCIANO: So we all appreciate that. Nantucket a lovely island, as many folks know. We came here because it's really the southeastern most point of New England, to catch this storm. And, indeed, Tropical Storm Beryl made landfall around 3:00 in the morning and rolled right over the top of this island, an island that during the wintertime has about 10,000 residents. That population swells in the summertime to about 40,000. And I don't know of one that evacuated last night in anticipation of this storm. Behind me, you can see a lighthouse. This is on the eastern tip of the island, an area called Sconset. This bluff stands about 20, 30 feet above the ocean, eroded by water and wind over the years. And that's really been a big deal here with this storm and all the other storms that rolled through, not only in the summertime with tropical storms, but also in the wintertime with nor'easters. Right now, the ocean is laying down pretty flat. We have winds that have switched to the northwest now almost feel westerly, which is kind of pushing the water out and laying down these waves which, about four or five hours ago were curling in here and breaking in here at 10, 12, even 15 feet. So amazing to see the power of the wind, even only at 45, 50 miles an hour. The direction will completely dictate how that ocean acts. Earlier today, there were tropical storm warnings out. Those have all been discontinued. Forty-five mile an hour wind gusts is really all we found as far as the peak winds here. That took down a few power -- a few tree limbs, but no power lines. The power is not out here and the rain pretty much has stopped. You gave me a limerick about an hour ago, Miles. I'll give you a little math quiz.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Oh, boy.</s>MARCIANO: Back in 1954, Hurricane Edna was a major hurricane that made landfall here. Nantucket averages -- or, I should say, Massachusetts averages a major hurricane landfall every 52 years. So what does that mean about this year? What are our odds of seeing a major hurricane this year?</s>M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.</s>MARCIANO: Pretty good.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Doing the math, I would say, I would say, on average, this could be a year to watch.</s>MARCIANO: It could be.</s>M. O'BRIEN: All right.</s>MARCIANO: We'll see.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Rob Marciano.</s>MARCIANO: You bet.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Let's get a little bit more on Beryl and what else is going on in our weather forecast. Clearly, we've got a big heat wave. Our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, has been up all night watching this thing because that's what he does. He couldn't sleep while this was happening, could you?</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I couldn't sleep anyway, right.</s>M. O'BRIEN: That's right.</s>MYERS: You know what, Miles? I've got another question for you.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Yes?</s>MYERS: If you buy 50 lottery tickets one week and you don't win and you buy 50 the next week, are your odds better or the same?</s>M. O'BRIEN: Either way you're going to lose.</s>MYERS: They're the same.</s>M. O'BRIEN: You're going to lose.</s>MYERS: Good morning. There goes Beryl. It's headed on up toward Halifax now. In Halifax, you probably could still see winds of about 45 miles per hour.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, America's role in resolving the war in the Middle East. The U.S. is ignoring Syria, even though it holds a lot of sway over Hezbollah. Would talking to the Syrians make matters worse or end scenes like this? We'll ask a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria about that ahead.