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Severe Weather in the Northeast; Gwen Ifill Has Her Say
Aired April 15, 2007 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: This may be the worst nor'easter in 15 years and it's zeroing in on the northeast after creating havoc in the southeast and the Mid Atlantic states. So, how's it going to affect you? That's why we're here.
Also, Don Imus once called her a cleaning lady, now she gets her day and she points the finger not only at Imus but at Tim Russert to his face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GWEN IFILL: They decided this culture of meanness was fine until they got caught. My concern about Mr. Imus and a lot of people and a lot of the debate in this society is not that people are sorry that they say these things. They're sorry that someone catches them. When Don Imus said this about me when I worked here at NBC, when I found out about him, his producer called and said Don wants to apologize. Well now he says he never said it. What was he apologizing for? He was apologizing for getting caught, not apologizing for having said it in the first place. And that to me is the debate that we need to have.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Also a mother's worst nightmare. It's called the choking game, and it's a deadly trend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His head snapped forward and smashed into the desk that was next to the bed, and I knew, and then I noticed his eyes were open and blind and staring, I knew that this wasn't a joke.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: How does something that crazy become a fad? This and more next from the CNN NEWSROOM.
Hello again everybody, I'm Rick Sanchez right here at B control in the CNN Center. What a weather system. Is this winter, is this the beginning of the tropical season? What is it? Well, whatever it is, it's going to be affecting millions of us tonight. All across and moving through the Atlantic states and considering this high tide right now along some of the places like Delaware and New Jersey, this is going to have a serious effect. It's already dumping a lot of rain. We're already getting pictures of flooding along the region. Well, you say maybe it doesn't affect you, I don't live there, think again. We're going to tell you how travel and business across the country are going to be severely impacted. We're going to be covering this from all angles. Jacqui Jeras of course is going to be our headliner, she's going to be keeping us up to date from the weather center. Atlanta reporter Heather Thompson is at one of the busiest airports in the world, she's going to be joining us live. And Rally Caparas of flightexplorer.com is going to be joining us as well. He's going to be telling us how the storm might be affecting you no matter where you are.
Now, our Jim Acosta is also going to be following the storm, he's in Long Island. Jim, let's start with you. What have you been seeing there over the course of the last couple of hours?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Rick, this scene behind me I think tells much of the story right now. We're out here on Jones Beach on Long Island, and I'm standing in front of what was Jones Beach, the Atlantic Ocean has started moving in this tidal storm surge that the forecasters have been talking about, we're now seeing it. This beach behind me, 200 yards of this beach behind me was clear up until about an hour ago, and then it started creeping in and now it's basically at the last steps of the sidewalk here right in front of the beach.
If you just take a look at this foam behind me. All of this foam is rolled up and basically the water has come up around this lifeguard stand where they sell chairs and that sort of thing during the summertime, and you can see how the foam is now covering up the bottom third of that door over there. And you might ask the question, well, does this happen all the time here during a storm? No. We talked to a park police officer who was out here just a few moments ago, and he said, no, this is very unusual and that's what we're hearing about this storm, that this might be the most powerful nor'easter to hit this part of the country in 15 years.
We're talking about a tidal storm surge in the area 3 to 5 feet. Rainfall totals in the New York metropolitan area somewhere between 4 to 6 inches. The sustained winds could be anywhere between 20 to 40 miles per hour where you live, and then there's gusts. We've heard about gusts already at JFK International Airport at close to 50 miles per hour. But speaking of this beach behind me, you can't walk around on this beach anymore, but earlier this evening we did talk to some of the folks who were walking around here. Your average storm watchers, talked to one young man who says he was out here for a good reason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: I understand you have a special interest in being out here today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do. I'm actually enrolled in an oceanology course with Professor Glen Williams at Nassau Community College. And we've recently been covering tidal patterns and storm patterns, and, you know, I wanted to see, I figured firsthand you know, I would come down here today.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: And where that young man was standing is no longer a beach, it's all covered by water, and if you just spin around here, can you see how the water is really just coming ashore and making its way on to this sidewalk behind me. I mean, the sand has already been pushed up here, and sooner or later the folks here at this Jones Beach pavilion here will have to start worrying about whether or not this water is going to be getting a little too close for comfort. There are some employees inside who may have to seek higher ground if this becomes a problem. But this is going to be the issue for people on Long Island for the next several hours. From what we understand, the full brunt of this storm has not even made its way into the New York area yet, so this is going to be a long night for residents here. People in these low-lying flood-prone areas are being urged to be careful, stay inside or seek higher ground if they need to. Rick?
SANCHEZ: I've got some bad news for you, Jim. High tide for you, about an hour-and-a-half away, so we're going to be checking back with you throughout the course of this newscast. Obviously that means tide goes up, things are going to be worse and certainly from a coastal flooding standpoint.
Preparation is key to anything like this, as you might imagine, weathering a storm like this. In New York City and state officials have been planning for days since this system first showed up on some of the radars. They were hoping it would weaken but it hasn't. Joining us by phone now is James Callahan who heads up the Nassau County Long Island office of emergency management. Mr. Callahan thanks so much for joining us sir. You see some of our pictures there from Long Island show that you're going to get a little bit of coastal flooding. What are you preparing for specifically?
JAMES CALLAHAN, NASSAU COUNTY EMERGENCY MGMT. COMM.: We've been preparing since actually Wednesday we got the head's up on this storm. We're preparing for coastal flooding on both our south shore and our north shore, although we expect the north shore to have worse flooding.
SANCHEZ: You got a pretty good buffer there though, don't you? The key is coastal flooding in terms of erosion or coastal flooding in terms of actually affecting some of the residents who live there near the water?
CALLAHAN: Both actually. We'll get coastal erosion on our beaches on the barrier islands like Long Beach and Jones Beach where you were. But we'll actually get flooding in the back bays, especially in the Freeport, Massapequa area, and then on the north shore in the Bayville and in the Center Island area. Those actually will get cut off with flooding.
SANCHEZ: So you think it's going to possibly have an effect not only on transportation but maybe on utilities as well, power outages, you think?
CALLAHAN: Sure, yeah. We've already experienced some minor power outages but utilities are definitely an issue as well as transportation. We're worried about some causeways that run in the Bayville and Center Island area on the north shore. We're worried that those may flood out so actually those two municipalities had actually done voluntary evacuations earlier.
SANCHEZ: All right, we're going to be talking to you throughout the night but for right now give us the best message that you can send to the people who live there, not only there in New York, but you know, we're talking all the way from Delaware through Cape May, through New York because this thing is going to be affecting the entire coast tonight. What do you tell people who live along the coast tonight?
CALLAHAN: We tell them just to hunker down, to make sure that they don't go into flooded areas. We really try to remind them that only six inches of water can knock them off their feet. We try to tell them the phrase turn around, don't drown.
SANCHEZ: Good information. We thank you Mr. Callahan for joining us tonight. We're going to be checking with you throughout the night as we will with other officials who are up and down the Atlantic seaboard and along the northeast coast as well.
(WEATHER REPORT)
SANCHEZ: The massive storm has made its way across much more than just Dixie before heading into the Atlantic coast as well. Here's video out of Sumter County, this is South Carolina where a tornado touched down killing one person and injured four. The National Weather Service has yet to confirm that three other suspected tornadoes in the palmetto state. No deaths but plenty of damage from a suspected tornado in suburban Orlando, Florida. You can see what it did there to a mobile home park which can be, well, usually pretty vulnerable to high winds. We've covered these kind of stories in the past. It's not high winds but high water that's a main problem in Apalachicola. This video is out of southern West Virginia as well, Logan County to be specific. Authorities are searching for at least two people who are still unaccounted for. There's late word out of Charleston, Governor Joe Mancin is going to declare the flooded counties disaster areas either tonight or sometime tomorrow morning.
We've been getting some great eye reports as well, these pictures that we get from all over the country when we get situations like this. It's from people who've been right in the middle, right in the thick of it, you might say. Let's see what we have here. These pictures were sent in to us from James Hundley, this is from Logan, West Virginia. Look at some of those pictures and you can really get a sense for what kind of flooding they've already been getting there. And we're not getting when we say storm surge. James Hundley is on the phone with us now I understand. Mr. Hundley thanks so much for being with us sir.
JAMES HUNDLEY, I-REPORTER: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Wow, it's funny when you look at these pictures, you really see just how much of an impact you guys have. You know it all depends on where you're taking the picture from, but how many people were affected by this flooding? HUNDLEY: Hundreds and hundreds.
SANCHEZ: Really?
HUNDLEY: Yeah, I would say this is the worst flooding this area has probably seen since 2003-2004.
SANCHEZ: Are these homes we were just looking at those pictures. Were those businesses that we saw with the water creeping up about halfway? Oh, look at that. Are those homes or businesses we're looking at right there?
HUNDLEY: You're looking at both.
SANCHEZ: A combination of homes and businesses. Is this like the central part of the town or what?
HUNDLEY: Yes, it's the county seat. That's actually in the western section of Logan and there's a lot of businesses in that area as well as a lot of homes.
SANCHEZ: So, where is this water coming from? Is this river water? Is this coming in, is this coastal water, what is it?
HUNDLEY: Actually the water that you're looking at there is coming off Island Creek. When it gets into flood stage it backs up Island Creek and holds it in that one area. It comes out of Mud Fork and Island Creek of the county.
SANCHEZ: I'm just trying to figure out, are you close enough to the ocean that this would be brackish water or freshwater or what?
HUNDLEY: No.
SANCHEZ: This is all freshwater?
HUNDLEY: Yes.
SANCHEZ: There's also some flash flooding then as a result of something like this. Is that what you're concerned about now?
HUNDLEY: Yes. Actually we crested at 26.7 feet this afternoon.
SANCHEZ: Wow!
HUNDLEY: It's my understanding it's about 3 or 4 feet above flood stage for Logan.
SANCHEZ: Is that as high as it's been as long as you can remember?
HUNDLEY: Yes. I've lived here 20 years, and that's the deepest I have seen the (INAUDIBLE).
SANCHEZ: What are people doing about this? HUNDLEY: Taking the high ground. I mean, people in communities such as Whitman, they're putting them in shelters. In Boone County they're going to the city civic centers. In Mingo County, as a matter of fact, for the first time in a long time, they have raised a section of the flood wall. I mean, it's pretty vast and spread out throughout surrounding counties as well as Logan.
SANCHEZ: James Hundley, we thank you sir, for taking time to bring us these pictures and then, you know, put a story behind them as well which is equally important. We'll be checking back with you, and we certainly wish you and your family the best, sir.
HUNDLEY: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: We've go our reporters all over the worst of the severe weather going on tonight. We're going to keep you up to date all night long on how the storm system develops. And keep in mind it's not stopping where we are. The storm is way ahead of us at this point. We're trying to keep tabs of it as we bring you the latest information. That's why we depend on you no matter where you are to give us a call here, keep us informed and send us pictures when you can. We're going to have the latest on travel as well, serious delays already being caused, may last for days, and then later this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Kids are getting high by cutting off their oxygen supply to their brains.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Child's play is getting a little more deadly these days. We're going to tell you about something that's called the choking game. It shocked us when we heard about it. It's coming up in about 20 minutes. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Oh boy, welcome back to "B" control. Busy night tonight, I'm Rick Sanchez. A lot has been said about Don Imus and his comments about the Rutgers basketball team, but today we heard from someone with a unique perspective on the controversy. When PBS journalist Gwen Ifill was a reporter at the "New York Times" in the 1990's, Imus allegedly referred to her as the cleaning lady who covers the White House. On NBC's "Meet the Press" for the very first time she talked about how she sees this controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GWEN IFILL: My concern about Mr. Imus and a lot of people, and a lot of the debate in the society is not that people are sorry that they say these things, they're sorry that someone catches them. When Don Imus said this about me when I worked here at NBC, when I found out about it, his producer called and said Don wants to apologize. Well now he says he never said it. What was he apologizing for? He was apologizing for getting caught, not apologizing for having said it in the first place. And that to me is the debate that we need to have. People did not cover themselves with glory in this. They waited until the heat was off and then said this is a terrible thing, I'm talking about people in our business and politicians as well.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: She continued, as a matter of fact, on that vain. It was courageous, you might say for Tim Russert to have her on his own show because Ifill didn't miss words. She also pointed an accusing finger at Tim Russert himself and others who've appeared on Imus' show for their silence.
Tonight New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is still in critical condition but he is for the first time responding to visitors and recognizing his son at the hospital. As you know Corzine was critically injured in a car crash three days ago after his SUV was struck by another vehicle. He was on his way to that meeting with Don Imus and the players at the college, Rutgers, of course. Paramedic Scott Quattrone helped rescue Corzine. He sent us i-Reports from the scene and we understand he's now joining us on the phone, he's in Toms River, New Jersey, and he's good enough to be able to talk to us about this. Thanks so much for joining us today. What did you see at the scene there?
SCOTT QUATTRONE: Well, the first thing, Rick I saw was the governor's SUV, the back end of it, was up on the guardrail. And when I approached it the lift gate in the back of the cargo area was open, and one of his aides was attending to him holing pressure on his head and supporting his head.
SANCHEZ: How seriously injured was he?
QUATTRONE: Well, I think, if we can determine by all the reports from the doctors at Cooper, that he was seriously injured.
SANCHEZ: You know, I'm wondering, as I look at this, as you came upon the scene, did you know that it was the governor's caravan?
QUATTRONE: I had no idea it was the governor until I was walking -- I was approaching the vehicle, and one of the firefighters told me that it was the governor.
SANCHEZ: And these are some of the pictures that you took yourself that we're looking at right here. I'm being told that this is the picture that you gave us right there. That's from inside the governor's SUV?
QUATTRONE: Yes it is. You can see on the picture there, you can see his right shoe on the floor, right underneath the glove compartment and that is the guardrail.
SANCHEZ: What's the guardrail? I'm not sure, I don't get it.
QUATTRONE: The guardrail along, you know, the sides of the highway. SANCHEZ: I see, and that's where he hit?
QUATTRONE: You can see from the other picture, from the left side of the vehicle that the guardrail entered the wheel well and went up through the firewall underneath the gas and brake pedals.
SANCHEZ: Wow, so it went through.
QUATTRONE: It went through the vehicle yes and entered there.
SANCHEZ: Ok I get it. Hold that picture. What he's saying is that's the guardrail right there on the left that actually went through the car and ended up in the middle of the car. You see that at the bottom sticking out there, it looks like that piece of mangled metal. That makes sense now. That's amazing.
QUATTRONE: That's what hit him and that's what pitched him into the back of the SUV.
SANCHEZ: Wow. He was unconscious?
QUATTRONE: No, he was absolutely -- he was completely conscious, alert and oriented. You know, he wasn't talking very much except to say how much pain he was in, but other than that, the governor was a real trooper. He was absolutely wonderful. He was very calm.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
QUATTRONE: And he knew that, you know, we obviously had a job to do to cut him out of the vehicle, and he was just great and so were his people.
SANCHEZ: Scott Quattrone, man you're good to join us and bring us information that nobody had seen before, and thanks for sharing it with us. We certainly appreciate it and job well done, by the way. You guys do great work.
QUATTRONE: Thanks very much Rick, I appreciate it.
SANCHEZ: All right, we've got another developing story that we've been telling you about and that's of course the weather. We were going to do this a little earlier, but we're told now that we do have a reporter, because of the effect that this weather system is having on travel all over the country, we want to take you to what is generally considered one of the busiest airports in the country, that's Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta. Heather Thompson is joining us now to bring us up to date on what's going on there. These delays really have a domino effect all over the country, and they say anything that happens anywhere certainly affects Atlanta. Is that the case tonight?
HEATHER THOMPSON: Yes, Rick. I can barely hear you because of the airlines taking off here, so that's good news. Some flights are getting out. We are looking at delays and cancellations. Delta canceling flights to La Guardia and JFK. Those airlines that have not cancelled are backed up about two hours. We're also looking at delays to Philly and Newark up to two hours. Several of the airlines heading to Boston, none of those flights cancelled at this time. We are looking at one to two-hour delays there as well. And then flights to Washington, believe it or not, all the airlines heading to DC are on time, and that is the case with Chicago's O'Hare as well.
SANCHEZ: What are the airlines telling people? I saw you just put your hearing device back on so now -- can you hear me?
THOMPSON: I sure can.
SANCHEZ: Perfect. What are the airlines telling passengers at this time that they should do, suppose somebody who is sitting at home right now, their flight isn't for another couple of hours? Should they forget about it, should they show up or should they just call?
THOMPSON: At this time they need to call the airline and check, because it depends on which airline you're flying. Delta, for instance, cancelled a 7:10 flight to JFK, but Air Tran is flying two hours behind schedule. So just depending on which airline they're flying you really need to call and check with that particular airline. You are going to experience several hours of delays here, especially if you're heading to the northeast.
SANCHEZ: Some are on, some are off and just about everybody is delayed in one way or another. That sounds like the message at this point.
THOMPSON: Yeah, bring a good book and be ready to sit and pass the time.
SANCHEZ: Heather Thompson, we thank you for bringing us up to date. Hopefully we'll be catching up with you from time to time throughout the night to let viewers know what's going on travel-wise.
THOMPSON: We'll be here.
SANCHEZ: Let's talk about this now, Jackie Robinson, he smashed the color barrier 60 years ago, what a great ballplayer, what a gentleman. Well today players across the major leagues are honoring him. Details next in the NEWSROOM. And then later --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was blue and he was all shades of purple.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Levi had had a heart attack while playing the choking game.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I grabbed his hand, I said stop, stop, this is not funny, this isn't a joke.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: This is a story we spent a couple of weeks preparing for you, it's a mother's worst nightmare. Your son plays a dangerous game and almost loses, others have. Find out what you can to do to prevent it from happening to your child. You're watching CNN and we're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Let's do this now and try and bring you up to date on some of the places that are going to be affected by this storm tonight.
Too many to show you all of them, but we've got a bunch of them at least now that we can start with.
Let's start right here. This is Boston, Massachusetts. High tide there expected sometime tonight about, oh, probably between 8:00 and 9:00, maybe even a little closer to 9:00. Let's go over here now. We've got another monitor. This is Portland, Maine. Obviously as we bring you our next newscast later tonight around 10:00, you'll be seeing the brunt of the storm surge here front and center because they are probably going to get their impact later into the night.
Let's go a little further south. This is, Roger, this is New Haven, Connecticut, right. New Haven, Connecticut, over here. You see some of the pictures we've got set up, live signals from all the places that are going to be affected by the storm.
Let's take you across now, right, Roger, all the way to the side? This is Cape May. Cape May, New Jersey. We've been talking a lot about Cape May, New Jersey. This is south, by the way, of where Jim Acosta has been reporting to us from. You saw him at the beginning of the newscast earlier tonight reporting from the Long Island area, and finally we've got over here Portsmouth, New Hampshire as well. We've got our signal there, and you can see as well, it's kind of tough to tell, obviously it's a little dark there already.
But we just wanted to give you a sense of where we've got live pictures. Hopefully throughout the course of the night anything that happens there we'll bring it to you, and we'll be able to bring you reports from the area as well. Let's do this for you now. Let's talk about this.
Today no ordinary Sunday, not at the ballparks all over America. Exactly 60 years ago Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. Becoming the first African American to play in the Major Leagues. To mark the anniversary, this is interesting, more than 250 Major League baseball players and coaches wore Robinson's famous number 42. The jersey will be sold with proceeds going to Jackie Robinson's foundation.
And what's interesting about that story is that one player asked to do it, the commissioner said, all right, let's go ahead and do it and then another player asked to do it and before it was over almost the entire league, for example, the Los Angeles Dodgers, every player on the team will be wearing number 42 tonight.
Nature is bearing down on the Northeast, and we're going to take a look at where things stand, and in some cases where they don't. That's next from the NEWSROOM.
Also a warning for parents ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The game has been around for generations, but what's so dangerous about it now is kids are doing it alone, more often, using ropes or nooses and in some cases never waking up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Yeah. This is called the choking game, and if you have children of any age, you just should know about it. It's one of those crazy things that's happened to some people. The information that you need to protect your kids. It's ahead from THE NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back to THE CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rick Sanchez. Let's start with these pictures. That is New Haven, Connecticut, right, and from that lets go a little further south and Long Island. That's where Jim Acosta has been following conditions throughout the course of the evening.
Jim, what are you seeing now? We're talking about high tide possibly coming there about, well, pretty close to about now. What are you seeing as far as the tide is concerned and any possibility of a storm surge?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's funny that you mentioned that because, I mean, the storm surge and the high tide is right behind me. I mean, if I were to step off this step, I would literally be standing in what is the Atlantic Ocean. There's some foam, some sea foam that's washed up here, but basically Jones Beach is no more, at least for the time being.
What was 200 yards of sand behind me where those waves are crashing, that is now totally covered with water, and as we start walking this way, I mean, you can see how the water has really just moved up all around these dunes behind me, and has completely flooded out most of this area.
High tide, as you said, is happening right now, and the sun is going down, which is why we're trying to lighten things up here, but this is expected to get worse overnight. We're not seeing really the full effects of this storm. The rains are supposed to intensify. The winds could pick up even more, and so people who live in those coastal flooding-prone areas should be paying attention and taking cover and staying inside or at least moving to higher ground, and that is the situation from here, Rick.
It's going downhill at this point.
SANCHEZ: Jim, we thank you for bearing the conditions just to be able to give us a sense of what's actually going on. We'll be checking in with you from time to time. Thanks for hanging in there. Let's get the latest on the storm's progress now, and for that let's go to Jacqui Jeras. We've been trying to get a sense -- you know what I was thinking about, Jacqui, as I was watching him standing there on the beach?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What?
SANCHEZ: Let me go to you with this idea first. Imagine what it would be like to be a boater out there. There must be a huge marine warning out there tonight, right?
JERAS: Oh yeah. Absolutely. You don't want to be out in a boat anywhere near this storm if you can happen it, absolutely not, and I'm sure all the mariners are steering clear of this system. And some of the new forecast model runs are coming in, too, by the way, and it looks like the intensity of this storm is going to be even stronger than we thought and may now be beating the storm, the nor'easter that happened back in 1961, so this is really incredible for those of you around during that time.
And another thing, Rick, because I knew you would love this, by the way, this is affecting four different countries. Look how big this storm is.
SANCHEZ: Really?
JERAS: It's enormous. Way down here in Cuba, it's bringing rain showers into the Bahamas ...
SANCHEZ: Where I was born.
JERAS: Back to the U.S. here. I know, that's what I mentioned it, and then we've got the Canadian Maritimes just starting to get in, so this is a very extensive storm. The worst of it, of course, right here in the northeastern corridor, and then also we don't want to forget about our friends here in the Carolinas that still have a shaving left of the tornado watch. Some of the storms moving through here are very strong, and that includes the Raleigh area, a little bit of rotation is possible still within the next couple of hours, but we think that threat is going to be diminishing by the time you go to bed tonight, and you can see all that rain across the Northeast. You mentioned the high tide coming into the Long Island area right now, and you also mentioned Boston, by the way. That will be coming in with high tide at 10:30 tonight. We think that is going to be very vulnerable, as we think the intensity of the storm is going to be pushing in midnight through the early hours tomorrow and, of course, the Boston Marathon tomorrow morning.
SANCHEZ: Thank you for correcting me on that. I had said between 8:00 and 9:00. It's 10:30.
JERAS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Stand corrected. You know more about this than I do.
JERAS: I double check it. SANCHEZ: About the only people who are not being affected by this storm are your relatives in Minnesota. I thought you'd like that.
Let's do this now. The three big New York area airports cancelled over 400 flights today, and tomorrow is shaping up with another travel nightmare. Rally Caparas of flightexplorer.com is keeping an eye on air traffic for us. Rally, we brought you here because we want to give people a sense of what's going on with the travel as it's going to be affecting people tomorrow. Can you give us a sense of what it's going to do?
RALLY CAPARAS, FLIGHTEXPLORER.COM: Sure thing, Rick. I can tell you this. The 400 you're talking about, the New York metropolitan are airports have cancelled so far, it's now up to 550 airplanes cancelled headed into the three metropolitan areas.
Take a look at flightexplorer.com and this will help you understand what is happening right now and how it is going to affect you if you're traveling tomorrow. This area up here is Boston Logan Airport. The white airplanes are headed to or from there and the New York City metro is represented by the yellow flights headed to and from there, this is actual traffic in the skies at the moment and the red down here is Philadelphia International traffic to and from.
They have already cancelled 150 flights into Boston Logan today, 550 flights into the three metropolitan airports in New York City, and then Philadelphia now saying 150 cancellations also.
The areas you see underneath these airplanes, the strong gusting winds are identified by light-to-moderate turbulence here in the green area. Significant turbulence here in the blue areas. Very significant turbulence in the ice blue and then the big purple area, it's severe turbulence where the winds are reaching as much as 50 miles per hour.
It's the wind and it's the reduced visibility caused by the wind blowing that rain around that's causing these delays. You're going to see lots of folks all over the country, whether it be Atlanta, which happens to be the busiest airport in the world. Chicago, Minneapolis- St. Paul, as you joked just a moment ago, Rick. They are going to see people sitting tin the terminals trying to get to the East Coast because of this. I would advise you if you're flying today, tomorrow or even the next day, if you have flexibility in your itinerary, please, contact the airlines and make alternate arrangements to travel later on. The people that are stuck in those airports today will appreciate it.
The agents at the gates will appreciate it, Rick. I'll be back in about 20 minutes or so with the rest of the story on this situation.
SANCHEZ: That's amazing. Here I am kidding Jacqui about Minnesota and you're saying actually they will be affected at least in terms of travel as well. CAPARAS: Unfortunately, everybody is going to get hit by this, when you talk about 850 flights cancelled to some of the largest airports in the world, it touches just about every city in the country.
SANCHEZ: Wow, especially when it hits places like the Northeast and along the Atlantic Coast. Rally Caparas, thanks man, we'll be checking back with you throughout the course of the night and certainly you're going to be here for us at 10:00 p.m. as well.
A lot of kids are playing a deadly game that's all over the Internet. Kids are actually choking themselves or other kids to get high. Many kids aren't making it the fun part though.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): For many kids this is how the choking game is played. In this YouTube video you can see the young man leaning over and hyperventilating and then his friends push on his chest to knock even more breath out.
We won't show you what happens next, but he passes out and lands on his head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check out his nose, and there's the bump.
SANCHEZ: All the while his friends laughing hysterically. CNN found dozens of video clips just like it on YouTube, kids are getting high by cutting off their oxygen supply to their brains.
OFFICER SCOTT METHENY, UPPER MORELAND, PENN. POLICE: Same thrill they get on the amusement park on their favorite ride and they don't realize getting that rush is actually from them killing off brain cells in massive numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With this tube right there.
SANCHEZ: Police and parents monitoring this disturbing trend say the game has been around for generations, but what's so dangerous about it now is kids are doing it alone, more often, using ropes or nooses, and in some cases never waking up.
CARRIE DRAHER, SON PLAYED CHOKING GAME: I saw him suspended from the black nylon rope, and he had -- he was in a strange, surreal triangulated pose.
SANCHEZ: Carrie Draher found her son in the dorm of his Texas military school last October.
C. DRAHER: That was a very bad, horrible, no good day.
SANCHEZ: She was visiting that weekend and went up to her son's room to get him for dinner.
C. DRAHER: He had strung a nylon climbing rope underneath the bunk bed, not a noose, it was just a sling, and there were several mattresses on the bottom bunk and he was kneeling, and I'm standing looking at him saying -- disbelief is what I wanted. I didn't want to believe this, that he was blue and he was all shades of purple.
SANCHEZ: Levy had had a heart attack while playing the choking game.
C. DRAHER: And I grabbed his hand and said stop, stop, this is not funny. This isn't a joke, and I yanked all 160 pounds of him forward using just my hand, and I was registering that his hand was cold and that it, too, was blue, and it was limp.
SANCHEZ: His mom says he had no pulse, no respiration. No heartbeat. She let out a scream and tried to resuscitate him. Another cadet followed minutes later with CPR. When the paramedic's arrived Levy's body started to have violent seizures. He was in a coma for three days. The nurses asked his mom to consider signing a do not resuscitate order.
C. DRAHER: I kissed his forehead and I said, hey, buddy, I live for you. You live for me and then we -- and maybe he heard me.
SANCHEZ: On the fourth day Levy finally responded to his mother.
C. DRAHER: And all of a sudden his eyes opened and he had this terrified look in his eye and his hands came up to the tube in his mouth and I took his hands and I said, honey, no. It's OK. There's been an accident, and this machine is breathing for you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (on camera): So why would he do something like this? Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't do drugs, get in trouble for that get kicked out. Alcohol, you get in trouble for that. So I still wanted to get high.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: We're going to hear more from him and we'll talk about some of the signs that all parents need to know about, something like this. You're watching CNN.
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SANCHEZ: Before the break we told you about a mother whose son tried playing a deadly game of roulette, cutting off his own oxygen supply with a rope just so he could get high.
Some call it the choking game, others call it a game of pass-out. Kids have been playing for generations but now the stakes are much higher. Why do kids do it? You're about to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SANCHEZ (voice-over): Carrie Draher's 15-year-old son Levy spent three days in a coma last October after playing the choking game, and then on the fourth day with his mother at his side he woke up.
C. DRAHER: And all of a sudden his eyes opened, and he was -- and he had this terrified look in his eye and his hands game up to the tube in his mouth and i took his hands and I said, honey, no, it's OK. There's been an accident, and this machine is breathing for you.
SANCHEZ: It took several months for Levy to regain his motor skills. His speech was jumbled. He had tremors, and his balance was off.
Six months after the choking game almost killed him, he's taking anti-seizure medication every day. He's 16, but can't get his driver's license until he's gone six months without any seizures, and his dreams of flying in the military are done.
His mother worries about him, constantly.
C. DRAHER: Would you do me a favor and please cross the light.
LEVY DRAHER, NEARLY DIED FROM GAME: Oh, I don't do that though.
SANCHEZ: Levy's mother says he's more impulsive than he used to be.
L. DRAHER: I am sorry for doing this, but I can't turn back time.
SANCHEZ: Levy was in his first year at a Texas military boarding school when it happened. He was excelling in all honors classes, band, Rotary Club, and he was trying to do everything he could to move up in the ranks.
L. DRAHER: You weren't supposed to smoke cigarettes, get in trouble for that, you can't do drugs, you get in trouble and kick out and alcohol, you get trouble for but I still wanted to get high. I don't know why.
SANCHEZ: He was the kid who seemed to have everything going for him, but something was missing.
L. DRAHER: Boredom, big role in this. If I was bored or stressed out or whatever, pretty much boredom and stress and made it a choking game for me.
SANCHEZ: He was looking for an escape, and he didn't have to look any further than down the hall. Some of his fellow cadets played the choking game and showed him how to do it.
L. DRAHER: Like the noose, the hangman's noose and the slip knot one time and then final time with the sling, yeah, and then the other times people did it to me.
SANCHEZ: His mother made a promise to the doctors who were shocked Levy survived.
C. DRAHER: The neurologist and the neuropsychiatrist said we have to do something about this. He had just -- there had been a Brownsville youth that had died in August and I said I promise.
SANCHEZ: She's joined the board of a group, GASP, Games Adolescents Shouldn't Play. It was founded by a mother who lost her son to the game. The group collects the names of kids who die playing the game.
C. DRAHER: These are all the names.
SANCHEZ: Last year they counted more than 250 names, and they think that's just the tip of the iceberg.
METHENY: The Center for Disease Control lists that in the past several years, adolescent suicide by hanging has skyrocketed. I believe they have one word wrong. I don't believe they have all been suicides. I believe a lot of them are the choking game that just aren't recognized.
SANCHEZ: Now Levy has joined his mom and anti-drug abuse officer Scott Metheny speaking to kids around the country about the problem.
L. DRAHER: A, this game is going to kill you, not now, but later, one of these times, B, do you really want your family to find your body?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (on camera): It's crazy to think that any of our kids would do something like this, right? Nonetheless, probably a good idea to know what some of the warning signs are, so let's go over them. If you see bloodshot eyes, complaints of frequent headaches, obviously any marks on their necks, you might be a little concerned.
Learn more about the game. Can you talk with your kids about it as well or do this. Go to the Web site, it's called gaspinfo.com. G- A-S-P. Gaspinfo.com. Talk a little more about that dangerous weather that's been affecting parts of the Northeast. It's not letting up, won't let up. We're going to be on it all night long. Our team is still on top of it. We'll update the situation next from THE NEWSROOM.
Then at 8:00 p.m., Dr. Sanjay Gupta goes "Chasing Life." Do you want to live to be 100? Why stop there? CNN's SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT tells us what you can do to extend your life. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez here in B control. If you've been watching us all day long, you know that the big story today is the weather. We're going to get two facets of the whether for us. First Jacqui Jeras, she is going to let us know exactly what's going on with the system, where it is, how big it could still get. Jacqui, take it away.
JERAS: Well, this is pretty much the worst of the worst of what's going on across parts of New Jersey and into New York City at this hour. The storm is still going to be intensifying tonight but since we're coinciding with high tide at this hour that's when the worst of the coastal flooding is. You saw those pictures earlier from Jim Acosta and you saw all the water that moved onshore. That is going to sweep back into the ocean and bring all that sand with it, so a lot of beach erosion expected.
And there you can see the winds coming in out of the east southeast, there is Boston, a due east wind, 24 miles per hour, but we're getting wind gust reports between 30 and 41 miles per hour, so that's getting really strong, and that can cause some minor damage across the area.
Also, looking at this storm moving offshore tonight and stalling out over Long Island, so this really has a long way to go before this event is over and done with. Rick?
SANCHEZ: All right. Thanks so much, Jacqui. Emergency officials are there in the northeast watching things, transportation officials are watching this all over the country because as Rally you're about to tell us, this could really have a domino effect on airports all over the place.
CAPARAS: Well, Rick, as you can see, flightexplorer.com still showing us 5,131 airplanes over the United States airspace system. The light blue colored airplanes are all planes that are traveling and are on time.
However, we see this domino effect reach all the way out here to the west over Denver where some of the yellow planes are headed to or from the New York City metros and the reds to Philly and the whites spattered about going to or from Boston Logan.
This is going to have a dramatic effect on tomorrow. Tomorrow, as we've seen, about 800 or so flights cancelled to and from the Northeast. I can guarantee by 10:00 tonight I'll be able tell you where the delays are going to take place tomorrow and how many cancellations so make sure you're with us. Rick, back to you.
SANCHEZ: All right. Thanks so much, Rally. We certainly appreciate you bringing us up to date on that. And we'll be watching that all night long.
We'll bring you the very latest of what's going on in the weather.
Is there a secret to long life? We'll look at that for you tonight. I'm Rick Sanchez. We'll see you soon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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