Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Airports Reopen After Blizzard; The Big Dig: 30 Inches of Snow Smother New Jersey; $5 A Gallon Gas?; Proving the President's Nationality; It's A Breeze
Aired December 28, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. It is Tuesday, December 28th, one day after the "Brrr-icane" of 2010. I'm Jim Acosta.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. What a difference a day makes. At least we could get to work this morning and not fear for our lives.
ACOSTA: Exactly. That's right.
CHETRY: Far more people are here today. Welcome, everyone, it's Tuesday.
ACOSTA: It's like we have the whole gang here. It's --
CHETRY: The whole gang is all here.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: A lot of people are upset though in the New York metropolitan area. They said that they didn't think that, you know, the city did a good enough job getting the snow out of there.
ACOSTA: Yes. Yes.
CHETRY: In some of these neighborhoods, they say it's still not plowed.
ACOSTA: That's right. And we'll be getting through all of that this morning. Lots to talk about, especially out at the airports where it's still not a pretty picture out there.
CHETRY: Oh, no. When we were here yesterday at this time, we were talking about 2,000 flights canceled.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: It's double that. People still waiting to get out. Major airports are playing catch-up after they were shut down for over a day. So there's still a lot of people stranded, snowed-in, waiting, and in some cases losing patience this morning. In fact, there are reports that some flights have been sitting on the tarmac for hours simply waiting for a parking spot. There's a picture at the airport live at LaGuardia outside where they're digging out from under 30 inches of snow in some places this morning as well.
ACOSTA: So when the airport says it's open, that's a relative term at this point.
Meanwhile, on the roads, tires spinning, subways are stranded below those roads. City trucks, yes, plowing into cars instead of plowing the snow. There's a nice picture right there of a New York City vehicle getting plowed over or at least sideswiped by a plow. I think that happened in Brooklyn yesterday. We're going to be talking more about that this morning. In a video surfacing on YouTube, basically hammering the point home that you probably ought to be careful where you park and how you park right now as the city digs out.
CHETRY: Yikes.
Also, one governor says that we've become a nation of wusses because of the NFL's decision to postpone a football game because of the weather. He's an Eagles fan. He says that they would have played in China and they would have done calculus on the way to the games, he said. Eagles fan and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell uncensored ahead.
ACOSTA: He doesn't beat around the bush very much. So, yes, that's no surprise there from the governor.
But first, getting moving again following a Christmas weekend blizzard that paralyzed the northeast after more than 4,000 canceled flights, 32 inches of snow and 80-mile-per-hour wind gusts in some parts. There is finally some progress at the airports.
CHETRY: All three of New York City's major airports are now open. But as Jim said, a relative term this morning. Because even though they're open, it doesn't mean you're necessarily going to be able to get a flight out today. The waiting is not over for everyone. Airlines are warning that it could take days for them to be able to catch up and to get everyone home.
Allan Chernoff is live for us at LaGuardia airport this morning. And not much of a surprise, but it is noteworthy that yesterday we were talking about 2,000 flights canceled. When all is said and done, they canceled more than double that.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kiran, and we can start counting once again today. So far here at LaGuardia, we have 91 cancellations. That number will rise through the day. When we talk about airplanes being able to go in and out of an airport, but the airport is open, it's all theoretical. OK?
As of this very minute, 6:00 a.m., right now, LaGuardia airport has both of its major runways open. How many flights have actually gone in and out? Ten. Since the airport opened yesterday at 4:00 p.m., 10 flights. Arrivals and departures on the ground right now. There are 17 airplanes. At this time normally, there are 90 planes on the ground. So obviously, we've got to get a lot of planes coming in before we can get more planes going out. That means plenty of people will still be sitting here, even perhaps sleeping here. Say good morning to Charles Watson. Charles, where did you sleep last night?
CHARLES WATSON, STRANDED PASSENGER: I slept here at the airport.
CHERNOFF: How were the accommodations?
WATSON: Not bad. Not bad.
CHERNOFF: We're very proud of that as New Yorkers. You know, we're putting up a lot of people here. They're doing OK. I have not had many complaints in that regard. Now, Charles, where are you trying to go? Do you think you get out today?
WATSON: I'm trying to go to Chicago, but I don't think I'll get out today. I hope to stay until tomorrow.
CHERNOFF: They've already told you, it's not happening today?
WATSON: I got up early and went down to the counter and they told me I wouldn't get out until tomorrow night.
CHERNOFF: As a result, another night at the hotel LaGuardia?
WATSON: Yes, I counted a blessing. It's been real nice, though. It's been good.
CHERNOFF: Well, thank you very much. As a native New Yorker, we'll all take that as a compliment. The cots, once again, were out on the corridor and we will send you fresh videotape of that. The corridor between the main terminal and the garage. We actually have two corridors like that over here at LaGuardia. But -- so guys, as you can see, the airport open, the runway's open. It is busy this morning. But in terms of the number of flights departing and arriving, well, we're going to have to ramp up. It is going to take a few days for the airlines to get everything back to normal -- Jim, Kiran.
CHERNOFF: Allan, every time I hear you ask a traveler there, where did you sleep last night? I feel like saying, that's a leading question, your honor, because there's a lot of folks sleeping at the airport. And I'm guessing that a lot of these folks who you're running across are not folks who are just getting to the airport this morning for a flight but are folks who are just sort of milling around waiting for something to break loose.
CHERNOFF: Yes. There are a lot of people that are getting to know the bookstore here very well, the fast food court, the ins and outs of LaGuardia airport. Yes, people are becoming intimate with this place.
ACOSTA: Like Tom Hanks and "The Terminal." We'll take it from there. Allan Chernoff at LaGuardia. Thanks Allan, appreciate it.
CHETRY: Thanks, Allan.
So this developing story at the JFK airport, as well, this morning. ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: British Airways flight, it's been sitting on the tarmac for seven hours now, after arriving from Heathrow Airport in London.
ACOSTA: Yes. A British Airways spokesman says JFK officials couldn't find a parking space for the plane because of all the snow. Keep in mind, those passengers have already been on a transatlantic flight before the seven-hour delay on the tarmac. And so we are monitoring the story and we'll bring you up to date throughout the morning and keep you posted on how that one develops.
CHETRY: And that's even worse. You think you're doing it right. You've got your flight, you landed.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: You think you're getting off the plane and then you're stuck at your destination.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: So, tough one. Well, you know, a lot of New York City residents, especially those living right outside of Manhattan and some of the boroughs, they want to know why they still can't get to work this morning. And they want some answers from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The city last night said it may need another 24 hours before it can clear all of this snow. A lot of the cars still lie abandoned. And even the city's normally reliable subway system was crippled yesterday with as many as 500 people stuck on a disabled A- train for hours without food, water, or bathrooms. Ended up having to bring out an old diesel engine to get people out of that situation.
ACOSTA: That's right.
CHETRY: And also, the LARR, this is the train that services the Long Island Railroad that services Long Island, still not up and running.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: And there was the Staten Island Lines.
ACOSTA: Yes. A lot of people are asking the question, you know, what does this say about our cities? And is our infrastructure prepared, you know, to deal with these kinds of disasters? And if you think it looks bad in the Big Apple, there is a back-breaking task across the river in New Jersey where they got 30 inches of snow and some four- foot high snowdrifts. Chris Knowles is live for us in Lyndhurst, New Jersey this morning. And, Chris, there's one of those four-feet snowdrifts right next to you there.
CHRIS KNOWLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you what. It's more like an igloo out here this morning.
Good morning. Lyndhurst, 25 degrees this morning. That's your actual air temperature but it feels like temperature is 11 degrees. So that 29-plus inches of snow received here is not going anywhere fast.
Now, most of the main arteries are OK. The roads are not so bad, but the side streets are a completely different story. Lots of slush and lots of black ice. So even though the snowstorm is over, we are still under a winter weather advisory just because of the black ice and the blowing snow.
Take a look at the snowdrift over here. Imagine if your car is up on this bad boy. It's about 6 1/2 feet tall and there are plenty of cars over here in New Jersey that are buried underneath this morning. Now our forecasted temperature today is going to be in the middle 30s. So this snow may be melting just a wee bit.
Businesses starting to reopen. Some were even open yesterday. We're going to be talking to one of them now. Joe Spiekermann.
Good morning, Joe. Joe is from Mazur's Bakery. Now, Joe, your bakery, I'm sure you were so glad that this didn't happen on Christmas morning.
JOE SPIEKERMANN, OWNER, MAZUR'S BAKERY: Oh, absolutely. That would have been a disaster for us. If it would have come like a day and a half, two days early, we would have been really, you know --
KNOWLES: We're talking about a lot of money, right? I mean, how much --
SPIEKERMANN: We're talking about a lot of money. We had like $30,000, $35,000 worth of cakes and pastries, and all kind of Christmas novelties, gingerbread houses, German fruits, (INAUDIBLE). You name it, we had it.
KNOWLES: All the good stuff. And boy, you can smell it out here this morning, by the way. Real quickly, Joe, tell us where you slept on Sunday night.
SPIEKERMANN: Well, actually I slept in the bakery. And in fact, I was even sleeping on the flour bags for a while next to the ovens where it was nice and warm.
KNOWLES: So we've got Joe sleeping in the bakery and a lot of folks sleeping in the airport and the train station. So over here in New Jersey, still plenty of snow. We're hoping that the temperatures in the 40s later in the week start to melt some of this feet of snow. Back to you, Jim and Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. You know what I thought was interesting yesterday, we were all happy that the sun was shining because we're thinking oh, wow, you know, the roads are -- you know, the roads are wet. At least they're not covered in snow. Of course, overnight that turns into black ice. So what should people do today?
KNOWLES: Well, they should definitely be slowing down, Kiran. We saw on the way here, coming on I-95 one of the off ramps was closed. Police shut it down. There's a tractor-trailer that went sideways. Four-wheel drive stuff OK, but that doesn't mean you can go the speed limit today. Still very dicey conditions on the streets in and around New York City.
CHETRY: All right, Chris, thanks so much. We'll check in with you a little later.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Twenty-nine inches in Lyndhurst.
ACOSTA: Wow.
CHETRY: Boy, I wouldn't want that shoveling job.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Thanks, Chris.
ACOSTA: And when the plow -- you know, when the plows come through and make the drifts even higher, you know --
CHETRY: Right.
ACOSTA: And they freeze over, you've got that glaze to work through.
CHETRY: I saw some of that coming up this morning down 58th Street and I'm thinking all you can see are the two windshield wipers poked up.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: They were careful to poke the windshield wipers up.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Of course, they didn't move their car off the street.
ACOSTA: Oh, man.
CHETRY: God bless you if you have that task this morning.
Well, from zero to 32 inches in 30 seconds, take a look at this. This is pretty cool. This is from our I-reporter Michael Black. What he did is he set up a camera in his backyard in Belmar, New Jersey. This is down, you know, near the Jersey Shore during the snowstorm on Sunday. And he took a photo once every five minutes for 20 hours.
ACOSTA: Look at that, wow.
CHETRY: There we see the clock ticking by. This is really cool. He put together some of the time lapse video of the blizzard.
ACOSTA: And you can see the clock disappearing there. Well, I guess he must have moved the clock higher --
CHETRY: Yes.
ACOSTA: Or cleared the snow around it so we can actually still see the clock moving and then the yardstick slowly disappearing there. So that's one way to show the impact of this big blizzard.
Jacqui Jeras is down in the extreme weather center this morning. And, Jacqui, I mean, you've got to take your hat off to that guy. I mean, that's pretty creative.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know.
ACOSTA: That is some pretty nice photography there.
JERAS: I loved it. And I can't believe he kept getting out there and, you know, moving that clock. Keeping that going until he knew just how long it took for all that snow to fall.
Well, the good news is that the snow is done falling for the most part. But we're still feeling the impacts from the storm. The low way up there moving into Canada, but the strong winds are going to be prevalent today. And this is really going to be part of our weather story with temperatures in the low 20s to the upper teens. It's going to be feeling like single digits throughout much of the morning. And with all of that snow that we have on the ground, as much as a couple of feet, some blowing and drifting can be expected. So that will be a concern. And so we will still see some icy conditions throughout the day.
It's also going to be rough for your travel on those east/west roadways in particular. Look at those winds in Boston around 30 miles per hour right now, off Long Island, about 35. We could still see some gusts around 50 miles per hour, so that in and of itself could cause some power outages and brings down some tree branches so the danger remains throughout the day today.
Winter weather advisories include you in New York City until 9:00 this morning, primarily because of that blowing snow and the black ice that's expected for that morning commute. We do have one airport that remains close. That's Teeterboro, just outside of New York City in New Jersey. That is closed. But we're expecting more delays in the northeast because of those winds. So still rough travel. A new storm out west. We'll talk more about that coming up when I see you, guys, again. Jim and Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: Jacqui, thanks.
ACOSTA: OK.
CHETRY: We want to give you an update right now. We told you about that plane that was stuck on the tarmac. That British Airways flight?
ACOSTA: Yes. We're hearing from a passenger on that flight. Matthew Bishop, the U.S business editor and New York bureau chief for the "Economist" magazine. He's been tweeting this ordeal all morning since what -- about 1:00 in the morning --
CHETRY: Yes.
ACOSTA: -- after he landed at JFK.
CHETRY: When it was safe to turn on your devices, of course.
ACOSTA: When it was safe to turn on your devices. And as of 5:50 a.m., he was starting to tweet at seven hours and 35 minutes after landing, he says his flight reached its gate.
CHETRY: Unbelievable.
ACOSTA: And that they were just starting to wait for the immigration folks to process all the passengers through.
CHETRY: Right. So after waiting on the tarmac for nearly eight hours, they're waiting for the shift to start so they can finally get to their destinations. Well, we're going to try to find out more answers about why all of this was happening.
ACOSTA: I think we're trying to get him on the horn if we can.
CHETRY: Yes.
ACOSTA: That would be great.
CHETRY: And hear from him.
ACOSTA: Yes.
Well, and speaking of this blizzard and all of the different lingering effects, you know, the NFL made this very controversial decision to move the game from Sunday between the Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles to Tuesday. Well, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, he threw the flag for unnecessary wussiness and said we're becoming a nation of wussies. Is he right? You decide.
CHETRY: Also a tow truck mess. We had the video, YouTube video that was shot from an apartment balcony showing a New York City snow removal crew attempting to tow a front end loader and an SUV certainly suffered in the process.
ACOSTA: Wow.
CHETRY: We'll more of that video coming up. Thirteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: Welcome back to the "Most Snow in the Morning".
Critics have called the NFL the No Fun League. Well, as Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, you can add him to that list. Rendell went off on the NFL for postponing Sunday's Eagles-Vikings game because of the nor'easter heading up the coast at that time.
CHETRY: It's really five inches of snow on the ground, although they knew what was coming.
ACOSTA: They knew what was coming.
CHETRY: The blizzard had been forecasted well in advance of the scheduled kickoff time. But Ed Rendell did not like it.
(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)
GOV. ED RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA (voice-over): I'm saying we've become a nation of wusses. Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. And Will Bunch is right. Did you read what Will Brunch wrote?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Will Bunch is full of crap. I read that story, yes.
RENDELL: I think it's a Pulitzer-prize winning story. If this was in China, do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? He's right, the people would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down.
(END AUDIO TAPE)
CHETRY: Well, the game will be played tonight in Philadelphia. It is the first NFL game played on a Tuesday night since 1946. People are going to watch. I mean -
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: -- it's going to be a good game. But maybe he was - maybe he had good tickets.
ACOSTA: Maybe so.
CHETRY: And he really - and he really - and he had a scheduling conflict tonight.
ACOSTA: And it might have something to do with the governor is pretty close to leaving office. He's days away from leaving office of governor. And we're going to miss, you know, that - that punchiness that he brings to the table.
CHETRY: Yes. He's very - he's very candid, as well, you know, when he was a big Hillary supporter and -
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
CHETRY: -- on and on, he was very interesting to talk to because he just told you what he really thought, which -
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: -- you don't always hear in a politician.
ACOSTA: You don't always hear that.
Well - and speaking of politicians, folks are steaming mad at New York City's politicians over the stumbling response to the blizzard of 2010. It's coming under fire this morning. And to add insult to injury, a video surfaced on YouTube showing a New York City Sanitation Department tow truck in Brooklyn Heights trying to free a snow-bound front loader. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. Are you out of your mind?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Oh, man. Look - look, look in the - the front end there -
ACOSTA: Oh, man.
CHETRY: -- just gets its final whack on that SUV. Not exactly textbook towing.
Now, of course, it was - the weather was just ridiculous, so it was very hard. But anyway, that was a parked Ford Explorer getting crunched, reportedly belonging to New York City's Buildings Department. So we put a call into the City Sanitation Department to try to get a comment this morning. A spokesman for the commissioner says they're investigating that incident.
ACOSTA: So, who is having a blast with this blizzard? Up next, we will show you great video of a dog's encounter with the snow. And guess what? He plows right through it. No problem whatsoever. No tow - tow truck needed. Stick around for that.
CHETRY: So cute.
Also, Natalie Portman pregnant and engaged. We have some celeb news in our "Morning Talker", still ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-two minutes past the hour. "Morning Talker" time right now, stories that got us talking in the newsroom this morning.
Elton John -
ACOSTA: Wow.
CHETRY: -- is a dad. Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born to a surrogate on Christmas Day. That's a long name.
ACOSTA: That is a long name.
CHETRY: I don't know if that'll fit on, you know, one of those baby announcements. He might have to shorten it.
ACOSTA: He might have to shorten it. That - that's probably a good idea.
CHETRY: A publicist tells us - "US" Magazine that the 62-year-old rock star and his partner, David Furnish, are overwhelmed with happiness and they plan to keep the identity of the surrogate mother private.
ACOSTA: So fair to say they have a tiny dancer in the - in the family.
CHETRY: They do now, pretty soon.
That was corny.
ACOSTA: Sorry.
CHETRY: That was corny.
ACOSTA: Natalie Portman is putting away her ballet shoes - speaking of tiny dancers - and getting ready for bottles and diapers. The 29- year-old actress is pregnant and engaged to her husband-to-be, Benjamin - can you help me with this? It is French.
CHETRY: Millepied.
ACOSTA: Millepied. Is that like Assange?
Anyway, while preparing for her role as a ballerina in the film "The Black Swan," Millepied was the choreographer for the movie. He was - he has also performed with the New York City Ballet, which is not too shabby.
Portman is revealing when her baby is due in -
CHETRY: Well, she's not.
ACOSTA: She's not. She's not -
CHETRY: Or is she?
ACOSTA: Well, maybe she will at some point. I guess we'll all know -
CHETRY: At some point we'll know. I love when they - I love when celebrities wouldn't say when their baby's going to be born, but some time we'll know.
ACOSTA: Yes. Exactly.
CHETRY: All right. Well, guess which man and woman are the most admired in the world? According to Gallup surveys, President Barack Obama, 22 percent of the vote for most admired man.
ACOSTA: Oh, wow. There he is.
CHETRY: And easily topping the list - oh, he easily topped the list for the third year in a row, but for the woman, can you guess this one?
ACOSTA: I'm going to guess Hillary Clinton.
CHETRY: You got it right. You must have heard about this.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Hillary Clinton, most admired woman for the ninth straight year. So, take that.
ACOSTA: Wow. Take that, President Obama.
CHETRY: That's right.
ACOSTA: Yes.
Well, you think your dog knows a few tricks? He probably doesn't know this. Can he climb a ladder?
Check this out. This is Bubba. He supervises work on Phoenix area rooftops. Wait a minute - he supervises work. Isn't that - that sounds like a union violation of some sort.
CHETRY: That's -
ACOSTA: While his owner does construction work.
CHETRY: He's the top dog.
ACOSTA: Ah, he's the top dog. That's what it is.
CHETRY: There he goes.
ACOSTA: Look at that. Wow.
CHETRY: That's pretty amazing.
ACOSTA: Nice job.
CHETRY: Nice job, Bubba. He looks like a Staffordshire terrier. He's really cute, actually.
ACOSTA: He is. I have - I have trouble on ladders, but yet this dog can do it.
The owner says Bubba just showed up one day on the roof and it wasn't until later that they figured out he had climbed up on the ladder by himself.
CHETRY: Look, I love dogs, and I love that dog stories, but that looks like an accident waiting to happen. He's playing catch on the roof, OK?
ACOSTA: Yes. Don't - don't do this at home with your dog.
CHETRY: Exactly.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: A couple of feet of snow can be a good thing. This video was sent to us by iReporter Andrea Wallick. Check out her dog. This is Jack, burrowing himself through the snow in Short Hills, New Jersey. ACOSTA: Adorable little guy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREA WALLICK, IREPORTER: Yikes. Bye, Jack.
Holy God. Jack? Jack? Jack? Sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: OK. For a second there I wasn't sure that was going to have a happy ending, but it does.
CHETRY: They love that.
ACOSTA: Jack resurfaces.
CHETRY: He's burrowing himself in the snow. Dogs love it.
ACOSTA: I love it. Yes.
While most of the East Coast is still dealing with this snow, some Massachusetts families are waking up to a nightmare up - up in those parts, flooding as a big issue, if you can believe that, after this - this big blizzard. We're going to have a live report, coming up.
CHETRY: And also, how much higher can gas prices go? Well, $5 a gallon cannot really happen. There is some talk, actually, from -
ACOSTA: Yes. It could definitely happen.
CHETRY: Well, yes, from a - from an oil company -
ACOSTA: You know it is.
CHETRY: -- CEO. Brace yourself.
Christine Romans breaks it down for us, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: All right. So this next segment is so controversial, we were arguing about it before we came up here.
CHETRY: Yes, now we're all mad at each other.
ACOSTA: No. That can't be - that can't be possible.
Well -
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm not mad.
ACOSTA: $5 a gallon gas. That's what we're talking about.
ROMANS: Yes. ACOSTA: And that's the prediction as to how much we're going to be shelling out in 2012, according to former Shell CEO or president John Hofmeister, who does like to stir up controversy every now and then.
ROMANS: Right. Look, he made this comment and it's really getting a lot - it's really resonating this week. He said in the next couple of years, you could see $5 a gallon gas. Within the next two years, by 2012.
You're at $3.04 right now. Imagine $5 a gallon in two years, that would really hurt. It would hurt the U.S. recovery.
And - and, look, the problem here is not the U.S. and big demand from the U.S., it's Brazil, Russia, India, China. It's huge demand from the rest of the world gobbling up supplies as their tens of millions of people are entering middle - are in the middle class all over the world, they start to drive, factories start to get humming, and they use oil to do that.
And so that's one of the things here. You still have supplies that are the same amount of supplies you always had -
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: -- makes sense for this to happen? If the economy comes back, I mean, the price of oil will follow that. It'll - it'll trend along with the stock market back up again as the economy goes up. So doesn't it make sense then that--
ROMANS: And you're already seeing oil by the barrel above $90.
ACOSTA: Yes.
ROMANS: It went down a little bit because China raised interest rates, so that - the only thing that would slow China, presumably, would slow the - the use of oil.
But, look, what Hofmeister is so concerned about. He's concerned about if we stay within our course within a decade, we're into energy shortage in this country big time.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: This is what he said it would look like, "Blackouts, brownouts, gas lines, rationing -- that's my projection based on the current inability to make decisions."
He's talking about politics, too. He's saying that the government's response to the BP disaster was a problem. He's saying that the way that the companies -- these big companies work because they think three years out. If they don't have the certainty that they're going to be able to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, even though that moratorium has been lifted --
CHETRY: Right. But the thing is
ROMANS: -- they're going to go someplace else and that's going to mean higher prices.
CHETRY: But that's also -- that's also finite. I mean, what about, you know, people who were starting to get it and move toward energy efficiency and buy hybrids.
ACOSTA: And electric cars, yes.
CHETRY: And look for electric cars.
ROMANS: And he's actually worried and others are worried that if you had a big spike in gas prices, that that would just encourage other countries to just rely on the fossil fuels. It actually sends them back ward again because fossil fuels are still the cheapest, easiest, dirtiest thing to burn quickly to get an emerging economy rushing again. So, he says he's concerned that you -- he said that United States, we're just frittering around the edges of normal energy. That we still have a schizophrenic view of what we're going to do here and that that still a problem.
He wrote a book about this. And, you know, it's got a lot of places, why do we hate the energy companies?
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: Why do we hate the energy companies? It's for things like this.
ACOSTA: Let me count the ways.
ROMANS: Yes, $5 gas. Now, look, your take away is $5 gas if it comes now, if it comes in 10 years. I talk to some analysts who say they don't think it's not going to happen in two years. They think it's going to happen maybe in 10 years. But, you know, you've got to talk about your own energy consumption and figure out how you're going to mitigate what could be higher energy prices.
CHETRY: That's right. You have to start with yourself and look outward and see what happens.
ROMANS: Yes.
ACOSTA: I we can get our car out of the snow, we're glad if --
CHETRY: We're saving gas. We're saving gas.
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: Saving a lot of money right now.
CHETRY: Thirty-two minutes past the hour, time to look at our top stories.
We're trying to move tons of snow and thousands of people through the busiest airports in the country. The New York area airports are open again this morning after the blizzard. But there are still many canceled flights as we heard from our Allan Chernoff. He's at LaGuardia. Newark, JFK airports all starting the slow process of trying to get things back on schedule -- 4,000-plus flights canceled as hurricane-force winds and the near-record snowfall hit the New York City area.
ACOSTA: And we have an update now via Twitter on that British Airways flight that's been sitting on the tarmac at JFK for seven hours after arriving from Heathrow Airport in London. Several tweets say the plane has just found a suitable parking spot and passengers are closer to finally getting off that plane. And we actually heard from one of those passengers writes for "The Economist." So, it sounds like things are --
CHETRY: He was tweeting, Matthew Bishop. He said they were just waiting to get for the customs lines to open. So, they could finally -- their ordeal could end.
ACOSTA: Yes. That is good news. Now, keep in mind, those passengers had already been on a transatlantic flight for hours and hours before the seven-hour delay.
CHETRY: Right.
ACOSTA: So, we'll keep you posted on those updates throughout the morning. And in case anybody else gets stuck out there, we'll also bring that to you.
CHETRY: Thank goodness they can still reach the world via Twitter.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, it's still a mess out there this morning. The snow combined with hurricane-force winds whipping up chaos on the roads. Cars still abandoned on city streets and highways. And, in fact, in New Jersey, they say it had to help -- the state had up 2,500 drivers, many of them post-holiday travelers, who just were not ready for all of that snow.
ACOSTA: Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, he's also an Eagles fan. He didn't think the storm was bad enough to postpone Sunday night's Eagles/Vikings game. An article in "The Philadelphia Daily News" by Will Bunch titled, quote, "The Wimps Who Stole Christmas," really got the governor going. He blasted the NFL for its decision and said it's part of a much bigger problem.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GOV. ED RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA: And saying that we've become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. And Will Bunch is right. Did you read what Will Bunch wrote?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Will Bunch is full of crap. I read that story, too.
RENDELL: I think it's a Pulitzer Prize-winning story. If this was in China, do you think this game would have been called off? He's right. The people would have been marching down to the station, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ACOSTA: All right. So that call is definitely under review by the governor there. The game will be played in Philly tonight. It is the first NFL game played on a Tuesday since 1946.
CHETRY: Yes. And Will Bunch, from "Philadelphia Daily News" was saying that back in 1948, I think, it was, yes, they won the NFL championship in the midst of a blizzard and 36,000 fans marched out there and braved the temperatures. So, what happened?
ACOSTA: The games in the snow were the best ones to watch on TV. So --
CHETRY: To watch on TV. I hear you.
ACOSTA: Yes, to watch on TV. Yes, I'll have that caveat.
CHETRY: As the first family vacations in Hawaii, the state's governor, Neil Abercrombie, said that he plans to do everything he can to prove that the president was actually born in his state.
ACOSTA: Yes, that's because the so-called birthers, the people who challenge the president's citizenship, saying he wasn't born in this country, they're hoping to keep him off the ballot in 2012.
Ed Henry has more from Honolulu.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran and Jim, what's really interesting is that Governor Abercrombie told me in this inclusive interview that he's so fed up with the birthers. Not just because they've been attacking President Obama and, in his words, the office of the presidency, but that they're also attacking essentially Barack Obama's deceased parents. And Governor Abercrombie actually knew both of them. Both Barack senior and Anne Dunham back at the University of Hawaii in the early 1960s.
And he said their names have been sullied here. That basically the birthers are suggesting that Barack Obama's parents lied about his birth and that he was born in Kenya or somewhere else, and that they covered it up and made it look like he was born here in Hawaii. And he wants to clear their name as well as bring some respect and dignity back to the president and the presidency.
And when I asked him whether or not he would stop if President Obama wanted him to, he basically said no. He's going to move forward anyway. That this is his decision and he has a couple of cabinet officials here on the state level investigating what documentation he could legally release to sort of clear this up. And so, he said, basically, it's not up to whether or not President Obama wants to release his actual birth certificate, it's up to the governor here to figure out what legally he can do.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. NEIL ABERCROMBIE (D), HAWAII: It's not up to the president. It has nothing to do with the president. This has to do with the people in Hawaii who love him, the people who loved his mom and dad, this has to do with the respect of the office of the president's entitled to, and it has to do with the respect that every single person's mother and father.
HENRY: So, do you envision the possibility that you could release the birth certificate without his permission as governor?
ABERCROMBIE: Obviously, I'm going to do what is legally possible. I have the attorney general and the director of the Department of Health looking at what we can do to try and see what we can do in turn for an open process that will put those who want to disrespect the president and his parents in the proper light, which is to say they have a political agenda not worthy of any good American.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: It's very interesting, White House officials are not commenting on my interview with Governor Abercrombie. It appears they just don't want to bring more attention to the birthers.
But Governor Abercrombie told me, look, essentially, he doesn't care if the White House wants him to stop here. He basically believes this is a matter of principle and he wants to settle it once and for all, in part because there are some lawmakers on the state level -- states like Texas and Arizona -- that are pushing legislation that would try to keep President Obama off their state ballots in 2012 unless he produces a copy of his actual birth certificate, not just the certification of live birth, which is what he's produced already.
So, Governor Abercrombie is saying he wants to settle this once and for all -- Kiran, Jim.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Ed Henry, braving the elements in Honolulu for us this morning.
CHETRY: Yes, poor guy. He's got a tough assignment.
ACOSTA: Now, getting back to the Eagles, there's this controversy about tonight's game in Philadelphia. But there's this other controversy, sort of a controversy that's cropping up now about President Obama -- he is praising the Philadelphia eagles for signing Michael Vick. "Sports Illustrated's" Peter King says the president called the owner of the Eagle, Jeffrey Lurie, last week to congratulate him and the team for giving Vick a second chance, saying too many prisoners never get one, or ex-prisoners never get one.
Vick has been back in the league for almost two full seasons now and he's having an MVP caliber season. So, many critics are saying the president waited for a safe time to pick up the phone but, obviously, you know this is not without controversy because of what Vick went to prison for.
CHETRY: Yes, a lot of people --
ACOSTA: All those dog fighting problems.
CHETRY: right. There are a lot of people that, you know, express very loudly. They feel that you shouldn't get a second chance if you abused or killed animals. And there are other people who say, look, I mean, this is a true redemption story.
ACOSTA: Yes. It's interesting that the president would weigh into that one.
CHETRY: Yes.
Well, it's not snow, but heavy rains that are causing massive problems this morning along coastal Massachusetts. With this system came coastal flood advisories. And now, families are being evacuated from their homes because of the rising waters. We're going to check in with a live report coming up.
It's 39 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: There was a salmonella scare in 14 states and Canada this morning that we need to tell you about. It involves parsley and cilantro -- 7,000 cases have been recalled and they were sold between November 30th and December 6th under the brand name Little Bear. The states affected: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Illinois -- are there any states left?
CHETRY: Are you sure? Are you sure that's it? I was just thinking though --
ACOSTA: You might just want to throw it out --
CHETRY: Yes. If you have it -- I mean, come on, if you're cooking with cilantro or parsley, you're probably not keeping it, right? November 30th to December 6th? And we're almost at the New Year?
ACOSTA: These are old spices instead. They'll be fine.
CHETRY: Well, Easter eggs at Christmas sounds a little strange, right? Well, that's what customs officials thought at Los Angeles International Airport when they found Easter egg candies in a passenger's luggage. So, on a hunch, they cut the candies open and inside the eggs they found 14 pounds of cocaine. A Miami resident named Esteban Galtes returning from a week in Colombia has now been charged with importing a substance. Maximum penalty for that is life in prison.
ACOSTA: And this YouTube video called security at San Francisco International Airport, quote, "a farce" and caused a national uproar. Now, the self-described patriot pilot has come forward, revealing himself to be Chris Liu, a pilot who has flown for American Airlines. Liu tells CNN his goal is to expose faulty airport security by showing discrepancies between screening procedures for passengers and those for airline personnel.
CHETRY: Well, most of the Northeast was dealing with snow. People along the Massachusetts coast were being forced from their homes in a cold rain.
ACOSTA: Yes, the blizzard triggered huge waves that crashed onshore and flooded streets.
Todd Kazakiewich from affiliate WCVB joins us from Scituate, Massachusetts, this morning.
Todd, I hope I have that right. It's hard to believe that, you know, we're talking about a blizzard here. But yet, we have this massive flooding to deal with. Tell us about it.
TODD KAZAKIEWICH, WCVB REPORTER: Yes, a major problem with coastal flooding. And to give you an idea, I was just talking to the man who lives in this house a short time ago.
He told me that back in 1976, they raised up their foundation. They had flooding back in '78 with the blizzard of '78. And yesterday was only the second time that they've actually had water in the house despite having an elevated foundation. He said the water came right up to the glass of this lantern. So, a big mess here.
And just a few streets over from where we were, there was a house fire, there was an electrical fire and the wind spread it to a second house. And this was in the neighborhood that was completely flooded. So, the firefighters actually had to bring in divers from their department to bring the hose close to the house and spray down the other homes as a means of hoping to prevent the fire to spreading to those homes, as well.
So, again, the water has receded quite a bit. It was up to here. We now just have a little bit of salt water here that is not frozen despite the temperatures which are now in the 20s and the winds.
So, it's a big mess here. And, hopefully, things are going to get back to normal later today.
Back to you.
ACOSTA: And Todd, that is frozen flood water behind you? All of it?
KAZAKIEWICH: You know, some of it is. Some of it is.
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: And this is pretty extraordinary to look at.
KAZAKIEWICH: Yes. Yes, this is -- some of it -- it's sort of -- it's not really frozen, you know, it's very slushy. It's sort of like a hard slush because most of this is salt water, so it's not actually cold enough out here to freeze it. But, again, it's enveloping the entire neighborhood here as far as the eye can see and the ocean just down there.
CHETRY: Yes. Snow you, guys, can deal with, that type of coastal flooding, what a mess. Todd, thanks so much this morning. We appreciate it.
KAZAKIEWICH: Absolutely.
CHETRY: And the northeast blizzard that we've been talking about is moving out, but there's now another storm out west.
ACOSTA: Please say no.
CHETRY: That's expected to make it coast-to-coast. Jacqui Jeras bearing (ph) some bad news this morning. Forty-six minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Hey, yesterday, we remarked that -- look at Columbus Circle, it's frozen. There's no one ground and no one's there (ph). Repeat. 6:48 right now in New York.
ACOSTA: There's a car.
CHETRY: OK. There's one car going by this morning. It still looks like people are reluctantly getting themselves up and out of bed and ready to work. Not quite sure what they're going to find. It's 27 degrees and clear. A little bit later today, it's going to be mostly sunny and 36 here in New York. So, that's a good thing, but some of the public transportation still not up and running the way that you need it to. The subway is still experiencing some delays.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Long Island railroads, Staten Island, and metro north, which was my way home yesterday. And they were -- they were shut down.
ACOSTA: Yes. At least, the skies were clearing there over Columbus Circle. So, that is good news, and we will take that. But Jacqui Jeras who is in the Extreme Weather Center is about to tell us that our skies may be darkening again on the East Coast? Say it is not so.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, you know, it's days away. You know, the storm is on the West Coast right now. It's not going to get to the East Coast by the end of the week, and the good thing is there's not going to be another blizzard. It's actually going to be a rain event, believe it or not. Our temperatures are going to warm up. So, it's not all gloom and doom. How about that?
In the meantime, we're still dealing with the impacts of our storm that creates the blizzard into the northeast, our low way up into Canada right now and our winds offshore. So, that's pulling in that cold air, but it's also pushing the water away from the coastline. So, no more of that coastal flooding like you saw in that live shot. Just incredible pictures there.
It's also going to be driving our wind chill factor down. So, we're looking at the teens and 20s at this hour, but it's feeling like single digits and teens. Now, look at this snowfall totals. Just incredible. We tried to find some big numbers for you this morning. Rahway, New Jersey takes the cake at 32 inches, 26 in Jersey City. They can see South Boston at 19 inches and 16 in Stratford, Connecticut.
Let's talk about some of those wind chills into see. It feels like 5 in Boston right now, 16 in New York City, 18 in D.C., and this cold air stretches all the way down into the southeast too, by the way, 15 in Nashville, 15 in Atlanta, and freezing temperatures across much of Florida. So, lots of frost and freeze advisories here. We are going to stay on the chilly side across parts of the east, but we will see those changes as I mentioned later on the week.
Let's talk a little bit about travel. This is our flight explorer system and showing you all of the airplanes that are out there at this hour. And you can see a bunch of them, about 1,300 in the air, which is a little bit on the low side for this time of day. But if we put our filter on here and show you just the planes, for example, flying into LaGuardia, there's just a handful of them. Usually, we see a few more. We did check the arrivals, and there were still some cancellations especially in those earlier morning flights. So, make sure you do check with your airline.
In terms of airport delays right now, we've got the one closure. That's at Teterboro. We are expecting some delays today, still, primarily because of those winds into the northeast. So, New York City metros as well as Boston could get over an hour again today. Philadelphia, 30 to 60 minutes. Dallas, you might have some delays late today because of some rain and then also some rain into the San Francisco area.
And showing you that storm system, by the way, across parts of the west, this is going to be a big problem, more flooding expected in parts of California. We're talking one to three feet of snow in the sierras by Wednesday. Jim and Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: All right. So, it's not going to be another blizzard, Jacqui. We're no longer worried.
ACOSTA: We'll take that.
CHETRY: Not in the east, anyway.
CHETRY: Thanks.
Sleeping at the airport, stranded on the tarmac, and stuck underground for eight hours. We're going to talk to someone who spent the entire night on the A-train at the subway line in New York City. Thanks to that blizzard of 2010. ACOSTA: Yes. And a calf stuck on a frozen pond getting some help from above. Wait until you see this. Those stories and more beginning at the top of the hour. There's good reason why that little calf was sliding there, slipping and sliding. And we'll show you in just a few.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: All right. Day two after the blizzard of 2010, and I hoofed it in this morning. I have to tell you --
CHETRY: Starbucks opened or Starbucks closed?
ACOSTA: Starbucks was closed, which I don't want to go into right now, but this is pretty --
CHETRY: Dunkin Donuts managed to be open for me this morning.
ACOSTA: Yes. America runs on Dunkin. What's that in there? Hello. There's still lots of snow to check out in New York City. Check out this iReport that I filed. Yes, I even filed an iReport. Here's what it looked like on the way in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: All right. This is an example of how the city is not quite back to normal yet. This delivery truck has had to pull into a snow drift to deliver his supplies to this convenience store. And then, look at this. I've got to climb over a 2 to 3-foot snow drift just to get across the street. And this is on a pretty major thoroughfare through Manhattan, 8th Avenue and 58th Street. So, this city, obviously, has a long way to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: You could actually save that. Your kids are what? 2 1/2 and 7? And say, dad had to walk to work in the snow uphill both directions.
ACOSTA: I've carried blocks of ice on my back and everything.
CHETRY: It was a much smoother ride this morning from Westchester, not the -- in from work that everyone was making fun of me yesterday.
ACOSTA: You didn't have to dig out the car?
CHETRY: No. But, it was my same buddy who picked me up, Victor, and he was much more relieved this morning and relaxed. He got stuck in Brooklyn for five hours yesterday, as well.
ACOSTA: Wow.
CHETRY: But anyway, so, here was our -- we went to the same onramp, didn't have to be plowed this morning, check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: What a difference a day makes. Here we are getting on the same exit as we were yesterday. Still see the snow obviously piled up in the sides where was plowed, but the roads are wet, but no snow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Your voice sounded a little more animated.
CHETRY: Yes, because I got made fun of so much yesterday --
(LAUGHTER)
ACOSTA: Well --
CHETRY: For sounding tired.
ACOSTA: Yes, but look at that video. The roads look pretty good up there.
CHETRY: Yes. Cruised right in.
ACOSTA: Absolutely. New York's city roads and rails are still reeling from the records of their fall. Don't let that one exit ploy (ph), but how are all of those folks trying to get from point "A" to point "B" this morning? How are they holding up?
CHETRY: Yes. Might look better than you might expect. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought we were going to clean up everything a little quicker, but, you know, it's not so bad
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very bad. I'm from Alabama. So, I'm not used to this at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the people of the city are coping a lot better than the actual city is, the infrastructure, the city is. I think that they could be doing a lot more for it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like it. I think it's beautiful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's freezing, but, you know, it's great before it changes to slush. I heard that some people just left their cars in the middle of the street because they can't do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They always do a good job, New York City, they know how to deal with the snow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from South Africa, and snow's like really new to me. But the snow is like amazing. Like, it's crazy, this is crazy if you see how many buses are like stuck in the snow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They can only do what they can do, really, you know? So, I'm actually surprised that it, you know, doing so well right now. It looks great. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no snowplows. I mean, it's interesting. The city's on lockdown for a little while and just crazy like such a big city gets shut down by snow.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: A big snowball. It's freezing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, why are you still here?
UNIDENTIFIED KID: Because I'm just spending a little more time out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: He's falling back in the snow and nothing better than being a kid.
ACOSTA: I tell you. At least, somebody's having a good time out there. Our top stories are coming your way right after the break. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
