Hurricane Headed Toward Florida Panhandle, Florida Keys
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Explosions, gunfire and billowing smoke -- U.S. forces launch a major offensive in the Iraqi city of Najaf this morning. It is Thursday, August 12. This is DAYBREAK. And good morning to you. From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello. Now in the news, thousands of U.S. troops part of a major offensive in the Iraqi city of Najaf. It is happening right now. You're looking at new pictures just into us this morning. You see the helicopter gunship there. We're going to have a live report for you from that embattled city in just about two minutes. Also, fighting under way in the city of al-Kut. That's about 100 miles south of Baghdad. Iraqi security forces are battling insurgents who attacked city hall, police stations and national guard barracks. Hundreds of firefighters also battling a fast moving blaze near northern California's Shasta Lake. The fire has already destroyed 40 structures and is threatening at least 300 more buildings. Residents have been evacuated from that resort area. And the problem in Florida is not fire, but water. Residents are boarding up as tropical storm Bonnie heads toward the Florida Panhandle and hurricane Charley is aiming for the Keys. Chad is live in Panama City Beach, Florida this morning. He has an update on Bonnie.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You didn't see an awful lot of plywood being bought here yesterday, but we did go to the Wal-Mart just to kind of check it out. The beer was gone. Bottled water was gone. Rope was gone. There was no rope at all in the marine section whatsoever. People out there are obviously retying their boats, tying them, spider tying them in the mangroves, whatever, getting them out of the way. And everything else really doing pretty well. Batteries were a little bit in short supply. But people really realize here the problem with Bonnie is that if the water comes in, the water is the problem, and that's when you lose fresh water. And so they were out there buying bottled water. A lot of folks just put water in their sink. Here is what Bonnie looks like right now. It lost a lot of intensity overnight. But we still have some flare-up on the east side of the storm this morning. Already seeing some of that orange area there right along to the Apalachicola area. And the eye wall itself, if there is an eye wall, just the center of a tropical storm, should move right over our location here in about eight hours or so. We had a lot of rain overnight, even some street flooding out there. The signs were already out yesterday -- caution, high water. And it hadn't even started to rain yet. But then more rains obviously coming in, especially from Panama City down to Mexico Beach and then right on back into about St. George's Island and the points east of there. Here is Panama City. Here's the rain. Another batch of rain coming onshore here at this hour and a lot more rain back out to the west. Charley got stronger overnight, unlike Bonnie, that got weaker. Charley now 85 miles per hour, expected to be a category two. It's going to go over Cuba, then over Key West and then very close to Tampa. And this is the problem. It could go all the way from Naples right on up to Cedar Key. But we're not going to focus on the center of Charley. We have to focus on what Charley can do to the major cities. And, Carol, that could be a lot. We'll get into that in 15 minutes. But Charley's impact on the west coast of Florida will be more significant, obviously, than Bonnie's impact on this part of Florida -- back to you.</s>COSTELLO: And we will get into that later, Chad. We'll have a live report with more on Bonnie and Charley from the National Hurricane Center in Miami. That's about five minutes away. It has begun. In Najaf, a major offensive under way to take control of that city. Some 2,000 U.S. troops and 1,800 Iraqi security men are now deployed around the city. There is gunfire and there is thick smoke. Let's head live to Najaf and Matthew Chance, who is with the U.S. Marines. Bring us up to date -- Matthew.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, thank you. In this sweltering heat, well above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, U.S. forces battling with the Medhi Army, loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf. Much of that fighting concentrating around the central area of the old city near, of course, the Iman Ali Mosque, which is one of the holiest shrines in Shia Islam. It's been a constant thorn in the side of the U.S. forces as they attempt to get those militants out of the area. Only a few hours ago, we're told by the U.S. military, 25 mortars were fired from inside that mosque, from the inner compound of that mosque out toward an Iraqi police station, causing significant damage and significant injuries, and really underlining the kind of threat and the kind of problems U.S. forces are faced with as they try to tackle the Medhi Army. now, the mosque and the other holy sites in the city are basically seen as safe havens by the Medhi Army because they understand that the U.S. forces see them as a red line. They're very reluctant to go in because they understand the offense that would cause to the local Muslim Shia population. They don't want to provoke any kind of widespread backlash. They're liaising very closely with the Iraqi government to try and work out a way to bring this crisis to an end. What they're coming up with is a situation where they're saying well, if we do have to go into the mosque, we'll use Iraqi forces to do it, the hope being that that would cause much less offense -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Matthew Chance reporting live from Najaf this morning. This is very much a guerrilla war. So a question this morning? Is there any way to sin such a war? And what is the objective here for U.S. troops? Let's head live to London and Richard Beeston. Actually, Richard Beeston is not there. He is the diplomatic editor for "The London Times" and we're going to get to him as soon as we get him up live from London. Are we going to the National Hurricane Center in Miami now? Ed Rappaport is joining us live from there. Good morning, Ed.</s>ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Good morning.</s>COSTELLO: Let's talk about hurricane Charley. It's taken a slight turn. So where do you think it's going to hit, if it does, in the United States now?</s>RAPPAPORT: Yes, that's correct. We're seeing a slight turn now in our forecast tracks off to the left or to the west. And we still have quite a risk, though, up for the Florida Keys and the southern Florida Peninsula, mainly in the next 36 hours or so, 24 to 36 hours, beginning on the west coast of Florida and in the Florida Keys.</s>COSTELLO: How severe do you think it'll be? Is there any way to tell?</s>RAPPAPORT: Right now we have a category one hurricane. That's expected to strengthen. The center of the hurricane is going to be passing over warm water for the next 24 hours. And we have a relatively light, sheer environment. What that means is continued strengthening. We expect to have a category two, perhaps a category three hurricane at landfall.</s>COSTELLO: So if you're there now, should you get out?</s>RAPPAPORT: Well, it's very important to follow the recommendations of local emergency management officials. We've been working closely with them. There is now a hurricane warning up for a portion of the Florida Keys and the southwest peninsula of Florida and a hurricane watch extending northward from there.</s>COSTELLO: So should you get in your car and leave right now? I guess that's what I'm asking. What are you advising people to do if they're still there?</s>RAPPAPORT: I'm advising them to pay close attention to what local emergency management officials are telling them for their local communities.</s>COSTELLO: Let's talk about tropical storm Bonnie. Is she a bust, so to speak? Or may she pick up steam and become a factor once again?</s>RAPPAPORT: It's a tropical storm with winds of about 50 miles per hour. That's significant in that it'll bring heavy rain with the possibility of flooding and some storm surge as it comes ashore later this morning and this afternoon. It's still a fairly large area of thunderstorms and precipitation here. We're going to have some flooding problems as it moves inland.</s>COSTELLO: How unusual is it to have two such storms developing at the same time?</s>RAPPAPORT: It's not really very unusual to have two storms in the Atlantic at one time. In fact, we've had as many as four and five at one time. What makes this unprecedented is to have two storms focused on the United States at the same time and, in fact, making landfall in or near Florida at the same time.</s>COSTELLO: Ed Rappaport live from Miami from the National Hurricane Center. Thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning. For more on the double dose of storms heading Florida's way, click onto our Web site, cnn.com/weather. You've got computers? At 15 after, AOL is getting ready to make a very nice offer to some customers. But there is a catch. We'll have a live report for you out of New York. At 25 minutes past the hour, why is the Buckeye State so crucial to both presidential candidates? And why has it become a joke? We'll have a live report for you out of Dayton, Ohio. And at 50 minutes past, if you're looking for a career makeover, you need to stick around. We'll tell you what the hot jobs are and where to look for them. But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Thursday morning.