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Sunday Morning News

Florida Panhandle Prepares For Hurricane Gordon

Aired September 17, 2000 - 8:31 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with an update of our top story. Hurricane Gordon, the hurricane is howling toward the Florida panhandle this morning. Forecasters say Gordon is carrying heavy rains and top winds of 75 miles an hour. Residents along the Gulf Coast are taking nothing for granted. Some are stocking up on supplies and this morning mandatory evacuations were ordered for about 7,500 residents of a coastal region west of U.S. Highway 19, including Hernando Beach and Bayport, Florida.

All of this is making Jill Brown rather busy up in the Weather Center. What is the latest from there, Jill?

JILL BROWN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Miles, we do have the eight o'clock update from the Hurricane Center now and as expected, there have not been a lot of big changes here. It is centered now 155 miles south-southwest of Cedar Key in Florida, which is around the Big Bend area, and the reason why we say it's centered there, because that is the point with the center of the hurricane. The hurricane force winds do extend out 45 miles from the center, mainly on the northeast side. So you can see that the hurricane force winds may be much closer to the coast and as this does get in closer to the coast, we may feel them long before it actually makes landfall. So that's an important factor.

It is headed to the north-northeast. It's picked up a little bit of speed, moving at 16 miles per hour now. The big question really is is high pressure to the north going to hold this up somewhat? If that does happen, we may see it move more slowly. That's really bad news. It would have more time to strengthen. It would mean more rain for Florida. That's going to be one of the big concerns for today.

But the track does take it up into the Big Bend area. I can't tell you exactly where at this point but it should be some time this evening if it stays on this track and that's something that could change somewhat. So we'll have to watch it closely.

Hurricane Gordon, hurricane warnings are from Anna Maria Island to Ochlockonee River in the panhandle. Again, so there's your area expecting hurricane force winds and landfall with this later today.

We also have, of course, the very heavy rain and the severe thunderstorms that will be an immediate concern. That's going on right now. So anywhere across the state of Florida, if you're traveling today, what a nightmare. Interstate 75, it's heading right up there. So about north of Opa Locka now and continuing pressing up toward the Florida-Georgia state line.

Two tornado watches in effect. This is typical when you have a land falling tropical system. We have had some warnings. Orlando to Vero Beach, you're now in it, Sarasota to Naples, you've been in the tornado watch through the morning and will likely see this throughout the day as well.

So flooding and severe storms the immediate threat. With landfall we'll have the storm surge and, of course, the strong hurricane force winds. That may be this evening.

We'll keep you up to date on any changes. The next update is at 11 o'clock Eastern Time.

Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, thanks very much, Jill.

Folks in Tampa keeping a close eye on Gordon, which is already throwing some heavy rains at the city. We've been looking at the view from 22,000 miles up. Let's go to sea level where we find CNN's John Zarrella.

John, how's it looking?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, I think the folks here in the Tampa Bay area are actually beginning to breathe a little of a sigh of relief. Although they'll be on the right side of the storm, which is the stronger side of hurricanes in general, it may be they may be far enough to the south of the center that they won't get much more than some tropical storm force winds later in the day and the heavy rains.

We had a squall line go through here about half an hour ago. It's dropped off a little bit. Starting to pick up a little bit again. A big concern, though, here, as you can see behind me, it's all so low lying in the Tampa Bay area, the hotels back there and the businesses, the buildings back there built right along the Tampa Bay and that's the big concern because of storm surge. Of course, they're predicting that this hurricane could bring inland up to 10 foot of storm surge. That, of course, would be to the right of where the center makes landfall, considerably north of here, at least that's the estimate right now.

But they did do some sand bagging along the coastal communities. There are yesterday and continuing this morning, there are mandatory evacuations to the north of us up around the Crystal River area and the community of Inglis. There are about a dozen shelters open in the Tampa Bay area and more shelters opening further to the north in the counties where mandatory evacuations are now underway.

It's not a powerful hurricane, only a category-one storm, but it certainly still has the potential to do some very, very serious coastal damage as it moves up into that big bend area and brings that water in with it -- Miles. O'BRIEN: John, I remember covering Hurricane Elena (ph) back in 1985 right where you're standing and that hurricane, it never actually hit the area but caused a tremendous amount of damage. Are folks cognizant of that and are they -- or are they just going to ride this one out?

ZARRELLA: Well, they're very much cognizant of the fact that water is always the biggest problem here. In '92-'93 when they had the winter storm, the great winter storm, piling water up. But they haven't seen a major hurricane in the Tampa Bay area, a major storm, in more than 70 years. A lot of close calls and brushes, but they've been exceedingly lucky over the years. And they really didn't have a whole lot of action at the Home Depots around town last night. Watched a couple of local news reports last night at 11 Eastern Time and they were all talking about how surprised they were at how empty the stores were.

It would be a far different cry on the east coast of Florida because the folks there, of course, still fresh in their memories Hurricane Andrew and any time anything pops in the Caribbean or the Atlantic, the folks on the East Coast, particularly in the Miami area, start moving and they move pretty quickly.

It was a little slower here yesterday -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, they're painful memories, but sometimes that can actually help take, prompt some good action.

All right, CNN's John Zarrella, who is watching things in the Tampa area for us and of course we have reporters up and down the coast and we will, of course, be keeping you posted as Gordon progresses.

O'BRIEN: There you see from 22,000 miles in altitude Hurricane Gordon bearing down on the Florida coast. Jill Brown has been watching Hurricane Gordon closely for us, still a category-one storm, not expected to strengthen too much.

BROWN: Right.

O'BRIEN: Nevertheless, shouldn't be taken so lightly, should it, Jill?

BROWN: No, actually, no. Miles, if you've ever been anywhere close to a hurricane or maybe right afterward, you can see that even a category one can do some pretty serious wind damage. And with this one out here in the Gulf of Mexico, it's about 155 miles from Cedar Key in Florida that those tropical storm force winds and the hurricane force winds are a bit closer than that. So keep it in mind. And it is heading up toward the big bend area.

This area is especially prone to storm surge, which can be the most deadly part of a hurricane. The tides could be seven to 10 feet above where they normally are. So anywhere close to the coast you should be getting away in anticipation of the land fall coming at this point some time this evening. That may be adjusted somewhat so let me give you the latest stats and we'll talk about what may change that.

Seventy-five mile per hour winds moving north-northeast at 16 miles per hour, 155 miles south-southwest of Cedar Key, Florida. High pressure to the north could hold it up somewhat, may slow it down. We could see more problems in Florida if it stalls out or at least slows down over the Gulf.

In the median time, tornado watches are in effect. That includes the Orlando-Tampa area. And we also wanted to mention that with all of this rain out here, look at that, flash flood watches in effect.

Miles, ugly, ugly day in Florida. It'll get worse by this evening. That's when we're anticipating land fall. Back to you.

O'BRIEN: OK, we'll be watching it. Thank you, Jill.

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