Dangerous Storms Closing In; Power Still Weeks Away in Louisiana
BLITZER: There's a new update just coming out from the National Hurricane Center on Hurricane Ike, at last report a very, very dangerous category four storm, along with Tropical Storm Hannah. Both closing in on the U.S. coast right now. Hannah coming in before Ike. Let's go to our severe weather expert, Chad Myers. He's in the CNN Hurricane Headquarters. What's going on -- Chad? Give us the latest.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hannah is going to make a run at North Carolina and South Carolina, almost right there op the border. That happens tomorrow night, after midnight, probably 2:00 a.m. for a landfall, but as a tropical storm. That big thing out there is Ike. That will make landfall somewhere as a big time hurricane. There's Hannah, kind of disorganized right now because there's dry air wrapping its way into the storm. That's good news. The dry air kills it. Hurricanes want moist air. Dry air just spins it and basically cuts it off from strengthening. So, a 70 mile per hour storm, 2:00 a.m. tomorrow. So what is that, you know, like 29, 30 hours from now. That's Hannah. It could be a little bit left, it could be a little bit right. If it's a little bit left, it's quicker, because it's a shorter distance to get to Myrtle Beach. You get the idea. It's still tomorrow night. But this is the storm that we have to worry about. This is Ike, a category four, 135 miles per hour. It was 140 earlier, so it's down five miles per hour. That's because there's going to be a little bit of a shift. There's going to be a little bit of a wind coming in from the north and the northeast that's going to push it to the south. Then that wind is going to stop and it's going to turn back up toward the northwest. And that right there, boy, that's a terrible cone, no matter where you live, from Cuba all the way up into the Carolinas. As a category three, very dangerous -- the third major hurricane of this season already -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: So, we have a lot of viewers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. How worried should they be right now?</s>MYERS: Well, you know, probably not worried yet. We're still five days away. This cone distance is 500 miles either side of the middle. So it could be way up here. It could be well into Cuba, killing itself in the mountains of Cuba, by Monday into Tuesday. But if you're not watching the TV on Sunday and Monday in South Florida, you're doing yourself a disservice. You need to know. Maybe you need to get out of there. And there may be a mass evacuation in Florida somewhere or maybe through the Carolinas. You have to get out of the way of a category three, no matter what you do.</s>BLITZER: And we're thinking it could be Tuesday afternoon or so when this hits Florida?</s>MYERS: Yes. You know, Wolf, that's 120 hours out and sometimes you can't forecast these things 12 hours out -- or at least we do our best. But the best case scenario, this thing misses the U.S. and turns to the right and gets to the ocean. Probably a 10 percent chance of that. Maybe a 15 percent chance of it hitting Cuba. But somewhere in the middle of this cone is South Florida, at 125 miles per hour on Tuesday.</s>BLITZER: All right. Thanks for that update, Chad. Meanwhile, 829,000 homes are still without power three days after Hurricane Gustav roared through Louisiana. And in some areas, electricity could be weeks away. Susan Roesgen is joining us now live from New Orleans. What's going on? Why so long -- Susan?</s>SUSAN ROESGEN, GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: You know, apparently the power company's trucks are just out there. They just didn't get in here soon enough. And in Baton Rouge, Wolf, nearly every power company customer lost power. Now, we're here in New Orleans, where people are just now today being allowed to come home. And some of them are in for a big shock. Can you imagine, Wolf, coming home and finding this? This is a house under renovation. You can see that the green paint is still fresh. And it just didn't have the interior support to withstand the wind of Hurricane Gustav. But the deal is that Hurricane Gustav really just sort of grazed New Orleans. So people here in New Orleans are absolutely furious, because they want to know why, if this hurricane was not so bad, do they not have power? No lights, no air conditioning now. Long lines here for ice, for generators, for the gasoline to power the generators. And even Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has come out a couple of times in the past couple of days and said step it up. He wants the power companies to get in there and restore the power. As far as this house goes, well, she's sort of like New Orleans -- she's battered and bruised, but a survivor. The owner says she can be pulled back up -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Susan Roesgen watching heartbreaking story for us, as well. Thanks very much. Meanwhile, the Mayor of a major American city has resigned in disgrace and he's facing jail time. Details of the felonies to which he has now pleading guilty. That's coming up. Plus, subtle and not so subtle digs at Barack Obama from the GOP podium here in St. Paul -- his experience, his work as a community organizer. His senior adviser, Robert Gibbs, is here to respond. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.