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CNN Live At Daybreak

Winter Wallop: Beantown Blizzard

Aired February 18, 2003 - 06:17   ET

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


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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so we have to talk more about the snow and the big blizzard of '03.
We want to head up to Boston and Michael Okwu where it's been nasty.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nasty, but you know, Carol, have you ever heard of the term pure as the driven snow? Well, I think I finally know what pure as the driven snow actually is.

If you want to take a look at this, we're on Newberry Street here in Boston. I am actually standing...

COSTELLO: Wow!

OKWU: ... in what appears to be about 12 inches of snow, but I am not at the bottom of the sidewalk. There is sort of a sheet of ice underneath me so I am actually not at the bottom of this thing.

Now the governor here in Massachusetts called this a whopper, and you can see why. I'm walking through a snowdrift here in parts of the state the snowdrift is actually about four feet high. You can see that they've actually plowed this street, but this is why the governor wants people to stay off the roads. Right here some poor guy is going to have a hell of a shoveling job. There's a car underneath this snow. And if you woke up this morning in Boston, you could see live pictures on local television showing cars just like this.

The governor has not called a state of emergency, but he's asking people throughout the state to stay off the roads. He's even told nonessential personnel to stay away from work today.

About 18 inches fell in Boston last night. And again, I want to show you this snowdrift here just to give you a sense of what it looks like. That yellow color there, that thing that's poking out of the snow is actually a hydrant, Carol, to give you a sense of just how deep this is. In some parts of the state about two feet of snow fell and even more than that in some of the surrounding areas beyond Boston. At Logan Airport, about 23.5 inches fell then, 300 flights were cancelled, but apparently one of the runways were open so people were able to get in and out of the airport. But still, lots of stranded passengers here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, I know the...

OKWU: Back to you. COSTELLO: ... ironic thing is it's been so cold in Boston lately, now that the snow has fallen the temperatures are going to go up into the 20s and people are actually happy about that.

OKWU: The temperatures are going to go in the 20s. It actually feels a lot better than it did last night. They even said there's going to be about one to three inches more of snow, if you can believe that, today. So they're going to be flurried throughout the course of the day. This thing is not over yet.

COSTELLO: I just can imagine people's heating bills. It's just unbelievable.

Michael Okwu, thanks very much. Try not to sink too deeply in the snow.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 18, 2003 - 06:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so we have to talk more about the snow and the big blizzard of '03.
We want to head up to Boston and Michael Okwu where it's been nasty.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nasty, but you know, Carol, have you ever heard of the term pure as the driven snow? Well, I think I finally know what pure as the driven snow actually is.

If you want to take a look at this, we're on Newberry Street here in Boston. I am actually standing...

COSTELLO: Wow!

OKWU: ... in what appears to be about 12 inches of snow, but I am not at the bottom of the sidewalk. There is sort of a sheet of ice underneath me so I am actually not at the bottom of this thing.

Now the governor here in Massachusetts called this a whopper, and you can see why. I'm walking through a snowdrift here in parts of the state the snowdrift is actually about four feet high. You can see that they've actually plowed this street, but this is why the governor wants people to stay off the roads. Right here some poor guy is going to have a hell of a shoveling job. There's a car underneath this snow. And if you woke up this morning in Boston, you could see live pictures on local television showing cars just like this.

The governor has not called a state of emergency, but he's asking people throughout the state to stay off the roads. He's even told nonessential personnel to stay away from work today.

About 18 inches fell in Boston last night. And again, I want to show you this snowdrift here just to give you a sense of what it looks like. That yellow color there, that thing that's poking out of the snow is actually a hydrant, Carol, to give you a sense of just how deep this is. In some parts of the state about two feet of snow fell and even more than that in some of the surrounding areas beyond Boston. At Logan Airport, about 23.5 inches fell then, 300 flights were cancelled, but apparently one of the runways were open so people were able to get in and out of the airport. But still, lots of stranded passengers here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, I know the...

OKWU: Back to you. COSTELLO: ... ironic thing is it's been so cold in Boston lately, now that the snow has fallen the temperatures are going to go up into the 20s and people are actually happy about that.

OKWU: The temperatures are going to go in the 20s. It actually feels a lot better than it did last night. They even said there's going to be about one to three inches more of snow, if you can believe that, today. So they're going to be flurried throughout the course of the day. This thing is not over yet.

COSTELLO: I just can imagine people's heating bills. It's just unbelievable.

Michael Okwu, thanks very much. Try not to sink too deeply in the snow.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com