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American Morning

Thousands of Travelers Stranded Across Nation

Aired February 18, 2003 - 08:03   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our big story this morning. They are calling it the blizzard of the century. We are in code white here along the Northeast. Thousands of people stranded at airports from Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. At least 24 deaths are related to the storm and a quarter of a million homes and businesses are without power.
Maryland expects to spend $20 million to $30 million on the cleanup and New York's mayor estimates it will cost $1 million per inch of snow to clear. And the city got nearly 20 inches.

Meanwhile, thousands of travelers are stranded this morning across the nation as airports canceled flights.

Bob Franken is standing by at Washington's Reagan National Airport. Rally Caparas is standing by in Atlanta, tracking the airport delays.

We're going to get started with Bob, who is still -- oh, we moved you indoors.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

ZAHN: You were tired of the flurries outside?

FRANKEN: I was tired of the flurries outside.

ZAHN: You've had too much snow over the last 24 hours?

FRANKEN: Tired of the flurries days ago.

ZAHN: So what's going on there? It looks like there is no one there?

FRANKEN: So, imagine your life if your life is waiting and waiting for days, waiting to stand in long lines, which is what's happening right back there. They keep us away from the long lines, probably because they figure that people are probably surly enough already, you know, surly to bed, surly to rise, and they've been going to bed and getting up each day hoping to get out of Washington and not being able to.

The airport here, Reagan National Airport, is theoretically open, and, in fact, some flights are supposed to be taking off, although it's still kind of a mess out there. But you can see some planes taxiing now. Baltimore-Washington Airport, another of the region's airports, has one runway open, we're told. But it's going to only be used for several hours for departing flights, none that are going to be incoming. Dulles Airport, which is the international airport here, has been theoretically opened for the last couple of days, one runway. But traffic there has been limited.

And, as you pointed out, there was a flurry of flurries this morning, Paula.

Remember that I've told you before, I think, Paula, that my daughter calls me Cliff Clavin (ph) for putting out useless information. Well, you can decide how useful or useless this is. The Virginia Department of Transportation says it's already $20 million over its budget and the biggest accumulation of snow in this area was in Garritt County (ph) Maryland, which is around Cumberland. They got 49 inches -- Paula.

ZAHN: You're better than Cliff Clavin, Bob.

Thank you.

No surly to bed surly to rise here this morning.

We'll see you in the next hour.

Now, back to Rally Caparas, who has his eyes on the sky and all the travel delays. It must be a mess at most airports today.

RALLY CAPARAS, TRAVELOCITY: Well, Paula, it's absolutely a mess. I used to be a controller at Reagan National Airport, where Bob was just at, and the problem there is that all of the inner, the runways intersect with one another, so you can't use a parallel runway configuration. Everybody departs and arrives on basically the same runway or has to cross to the other runways. With the snow on the ground, they can't do that. So it's going to be long waits at Reagan National, just as it's been for the last two or three days now.

But here's how it's going to affect the rest of you in the Northeast. Boston, Newark and JFK, long delays, lots of cancellations. I've already seen over 1,100 cancellations into the Northeast today. LaGuardia is not opening until 11:00 a.m., optimistically. We'll see if that happens. Philadelphia open. Long waits into and out of that airport. A high level of cancellations there. Baltimore-Washington, as Bob told you, is open, but they're only allowing departures out of there to clear gates. There won't be any arrivals until after 3:00 p.m. Reagan National open, kind of. Nobody's moving, just taxiing right now. Dulles, two runways. They'll have a better opportunity to get airplanes in and out.

If you're trying to find out the status of your flight, go to your airline's Web site and check there. You may not get satisfied by that, but if you're flexible and you have a couple of days when you can stay where you are, do yourself and everybody else a favor. Relax, have some coffee, stay with your relatives, go to a hotel and stay there if you need to. You'll be better off and you'll save a lot of stress on yourself and others.

Paula, I'll be back in the next half hour with more. ZAHN: Thanks, Rally.

Appreciate it.

CAPARAS: Sure.

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 - 08:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our big story this morning. They are calling it the blizzard of the century. We are in code white here along the Northeast. Thousands of people stranded at airports from Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. At least 24 deaths are related to the storm and a quarter of a million homes and businesses are without power.
Maryland expects to spend $20 million to $30 million on the cleanup and New York's mayor estimates it will cost $1 million per inch of snow to clear. And the city got nearly 20 inches.

Meanwhile, thousands of travelers are stranded this morning across the nation as airports canceled flights.

Bob Franken is standing by at Washington's Reagan National Airport. Rally Caparas is standing by in Atlanta, tracking the airport delays.

We're going to get started with Bob, who is still -- oh, we moved you indoors.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

ZAHN: You were tired of the flurries outside?

FRANKEN: I was tired of the flurries outside.

ZAHN: You've had too much snow over the last 24 hours?

FRANKEN: Tired of the flurries days ago.

ZAHN: So what's going on there? It looks like there is no one there?

FRANKEN: So, imagine your life if your life is waiting and waiting for days, waiting to stand in long lines, which is what's happening right back there. They keep us away from the long lines, probably because they figure that people are probably surly enough already, you know, surly to bed, surly to rise, and they've been going to bed and getting up each day hoping to get out of Washington and not being able to.

The airport here, Reagan National Airport, is theoretically open, and, in fact, some flights are supposed to be taking off, although it's still kind of a mess out there. But you can see some planes taxiing now. Baltimore-Washington Airport, another of the region's airports, has one runway open, we're told. But it's going to only be used for several hours for departing flights, none that are going to be incoming. Dulles Airport, which is the international airport here, has been theoretically opened for the last couple of days, one runway. But traffic there has been limited.

And, as you pointed out, there was a flurry of flurries this morning, Paula.

Remember that I've told you before, I think, Paula, that my daughter calls me Cliff Clavin (ph) for putting out useless information. Well, you can decide how useful or useless this is. The Virginia Department of Transportation says it's already $20 million over its budget and the biggest accumulation of snow in this area was in Garritt County (ph) Maryland, which is around Cumberland. They got 49 inches -- Paula.

ZAHN: You're better than Cliff Clavin, Bob.

Thank you.

No surly to bed surly to rise here this morning.

We'll see you in the next hour.

Now, back to Rally Caparas, who has his eyes on the sky and all the travel delays. It must be a mess at most airports today.

RALLY CAPARAS, TRAVELOCITY: Well, Paula, it's absolutely a mess. I used to be a controller at Reagan National Airport, where Bob was just at, and the problem there is that all of the inner, the runways intersect with one another, so you can't use a parallel runway configuration. Everybody departs and arrives on basically the same runway or has to cross to the other runways. With the snow on the ground, they can't do that. So it's going to be long waits at Reagan National, just as it's been for the last two or three days now.

But here's how it's going to affect the rest of you in the Northeast. Boston, Newark and JFK, long delays, lots of cancellations. I've already seen over 1,100 cancellations into the Northeast today. LaGuardia is not opening until 11:00 a.m., optimistically. We'll see if that happens. Philadelphia open. Long waits into and out of that airport. A high level of cancellations there. Baltimore-Washington, as Bob told you, is open, but they're only allowing departures out of there to clear gates. There won't be any arrivals until after 3:00 p.m. Reagan National open, kind of. Nobody's moving, just taxiing right now. Dulles, two runways. They'll have a better opportunity to get airplanes in and out.

If you're trying to find out the status of your flight, go to your airline's Web site and check there. You may not get satisfied by that, but if you're flexible and you have a couple of days when you can stay where you are, do yourself and everybody else a favor. Relax, have some coffee, stay with your relatives, go to a hotel and stay there if you need to. You'll be better off and you'll save a lot of stress on yourself and others.

Paula, I'll be back in the next half hour with more. ZAHN: Thanks, Rally.

Appreciate it.

CAPARAS: Sure.

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