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American Morning

Bumming' in Brooklyn; Trapped on the Tarmac

Aired December 29, 2010 - 06:00   ET

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


KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And thousands of air travelers are still stranded. A lot of them forced to sit on tarmacs for hours after long overseas flights. We're live this morning at New York's JFK airport where the only constant since Sunday has been chaos.

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: And in the New York area, many streets still have not been plowed, the mayor simply taking a beating for the city's slow response. And in New Jersey, they're fuming. The governor and lieutenant governor are both on vacation while the state desperately tries to dig out.

CHETRY: Well, they cleared all the snow in Philly and finally had a chance to play some football where Tuesday night game, the first one since the 1940s in the NFL and it was an upset. A brief scare also for Michael Vick. All of the highlights and the headlines with Jamal Anderson ahead.

JOHNS: Ten thousand and counting, that's how many flights have been canceled since Sunday. The blizzard of 2010 stranded thousands of holiday travellers. Many of them forced to spend hours sitting on tarmacs or standing on long lines inside terminals desperately trying to find a way home this morning.

CHETRY: It's certainly been a nightmare for many passengers who found themselves stuck on planes or sitting on the tarmac at places like JFK up to 11 hours in some cases. That would be on top of a long, overseas flight.

So in all, many people ended up spending close to 20 hours cooped up on a plane before finally being allowed off of their flights. Listen to one dad who went through it with his two kids. Every parent can relate to what a nightmare that would be and a passenger rights advocate who says what happened to these passengers is simply inexcusable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAX ASCUI, STRANDED ON JFK TARMAC FOR 11 HOURS: We were told we'd have to wait for an hour. Then the hour passed and the pilot came on saying sorry, it looks like it might be another two hours.

Two hours had pass and then he's saying, you know, bad news, I'm sorry to keep giving you bad news. This time it looks like it might be six hours to eight hours. It ended up being a full 11 hours.

KATE HANNI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLYERSRIGHTS.ORG: The terminal has 14 passenger mover buses, they have 14 sets of portable stairs, and anywhere an emergency vehicle can go, those buses can go, and they could have de-planed them. Problem is the Port Authority did not appear to be motivated to make that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: A lot of these people were in tears as the hours dragged on. They say they were stranded on tarmacs and had little food or water and now, you know, many are calling for an investigation into exactly what happened.

JOHNS: Well, for sure. That is so wrong. I mean, could you imagine with your kids?

CHETRY: No.

JOHNS: And there's no relief in sight this morning. Passengers on at least five international flights spending hours stranded on the tarmac at JFK after landing last night or early this morning.

CHETRY: You know, Lufthansa 404 coming from Frankfurt still on the tarmac this morning. Air France 8 from Paris, Aeromexico flight 404 from Mexico, all of them spending more than six hours on the tarmac after touching down. Two other flights from Tel Aviv and San Salvador have finally reached their gates. This after a landing around 1:00 a.m. this morning.

JOHNS: Now, New Yorkers are a tough breed, but the blizzard of 2010 pushing a lot of them to the brink. Streets still need to be plowed and some people still can't even get to work.

CHETRY: You know, our Mary Snow is live on the streets of Manhattan this morning and we'll ask you what a lot of New Yorkers are asking us. Have you seen the plows out there?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kiran and John. You know, there is actually one plow across the street. But here's the thing, Kiran. You know, you look at these streets here in Manhattan, and they look like they're getting back to normal, traffic is moving.

But it's once you get outside Manhattan is where the problem is. Streets are still blanketed and snow plows nowhere to be found and this has prompted so much anger in a storm of its own.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): In Manhattan, streets are still blanketed with snow, leaving New Yorkers like Lance Owen of Brooklyn on edge.

LANCE OWEN, BROOKLYN RESIDENT: Years and years and years I've lived here and never have I seen it like this.

SNOW: Emergency crews like this fire truck in Manhattan face challenging conditions. Hundreds of buses were still stuck and stranded by Tuesday morning and there was this videotape of cars damaged by a plow. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My God.

SNOW: The Department of Sanitation says the incident is now under investigation. City Councilwoman Letitia James, a Democrat of Brooklyn and chairwoman of the Sanitation Committee has scheduled a hearing into what happened. She gives the city's response a failing grade, starting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

LETITIA JAMES, NYC COUNCILWOMAN: New Yorkers are angry. New Yorkers are angry there's a disconnect between those in the outer boroughs and the mayor of the city and his administration. And to me it's just another reflection of a mayor who is basically out of touch.

SNOW: Asked about the response from angry New Yorkers, the mayor said he's angry the too. Adding the city is doing the best it can.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, (I) NEW YORK: We won't get to everybody every time. We will make mistakes, but we have to continue plugging ahead. Yelling about it and complaining doesn't help.

SNOW: But Bloomberg wasn't the only politician under fire. In neighboring New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie a rising star in the Republican Party gained attention for the fact that he's on vacation while the state was hit with a blizzard and his lieutenant governor was vacationing, as well leaving the state in the hands of the state Senate president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They've both been gone. I mean, shouldn't they be taking care of the state?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard for me to talk bad about the governor because he's one of the greatest governors we've ever had, but I'm sure he's been in communication and the state's getting cleaned up.

SNOW: The governor's office answered criticism saying the response to the storm has been the same as it would be in other circumstances, adding, we are a north eastern state and we get plenty of snow, including heavy hits like this and we'll get through this just as we always have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: Now, there's one other New Jersey politician who has been gaining attention for a different reason, and that's Newark Mayor Cory Booker. He's been responding to people's Twitter messages. People who need plows and Kiran and Joe, in some cases, he's been out there shoveling himself.

CHETRY: And I know it's amazing. We have the pictures of it. I mean, obviously it's on a smaller scale. Michael Bloomberg would not actually be able to get out there in every borough and --

JOHNS: Campaign ad in the making.

SNOW: Absolutely.

CHETRY: Mary Snow for us this morning. Thanks so much.

JOHNS: In the next half hour, we'll be joined by Carl Krueger. He's a state senator from Brooklyn, New York and he says someone needs to be held accountable for the city's failed response to the blizzard.

CHETRY: Yes, and we're also going to take you out there to some of the streets in Brooklyn who have not seen a plow 72 hours after this storm. Meantime, Jacqui Jeras is in the Extreme Weather Center for us this morning with a look at what we can expect weather wise. A little bit of rain in the south, as well. Hey, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Yes , the good news is no, no weather-related delays expected today in the northeast. Things are great. It's going to be sunny. Temperatures are going to get up there above the freezing mark so a slow melting process can be expected across the northeast throughout the rest of the week. That's the good news.

The bad news is we've got a new storm we're going to have to deal with. The most potent one is out west. We will expect to see some showers and thundershowers across the lower Mississippi River Valley, across state of Texas, so placed like Dallas up towards Memphis, we'll get the wet weather.

But the worst of it will be the heavy snow across parts of the west and the Colorado and Utah and California and more flooding rains can be expected. Fog delays possible in Chicago, Milwaukee this morning, Dallas and Houston because of the rain and showers.

Phoenix and Las Vegas can expect to have delays because of the rain. Snow in Salt Lake City. We could see up to 10 inches or so in the benches today. Los Angeles and San Francisco we'll see rain and wind. This could be the strongest wind event that we've seen in the Los Angeles area, in the last couple of years not to mention the flood concerns.

As the ground is already very saturated, mud slides are going to be a possibility, as well today. Temperatures heating up in the plains. We'll end it on a good note, guys, where temperatures will be about 10 to 15 degrees above average.

CHETRY: All right. Jacqui Jeras for us this morning, 10 to 15 degrees --

JOHNS: Yes, that's what I'm talking about.

CHETRY: Well, any given Tuesday?

JOHNS: I love that line.

CHETRY: That's right. The Eagles and the Vikings played the first Tuesday NFL night game since 1946 last night. It was a game that was postponed Sunday in anticipation of the northeast blizzard. That's when Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who was critical of that move, had a little fun with him at the link. JOHNS: Yes. The seat next to him stuffed with snow and reserved for non-wussies as the Vikings upset the Eagles who will be in the playoffs anyway, 24-14, Michael Vick got hurt in the game first play of the game, still stayed in. Brett Favre was a bench warmer there.

CHETRY: Yes, we've got to talk to Jamal Anderson former running back in about 20 minutes. He's going to join us. He once led the Falcons to a Super Bowl. So can they do it again and will Michael Vick stand in his old team's way?

The other interesting thing, I mean, they kept him playing, they didn't need to win this game to be in the playoffs.

JOHNS: For sure, you would think they would bench him, as well. Well, anyway.

In the news, a terrifying ride for skiers. Several ski lift riders plummet 30 feet to the ground after a chair lift fails at a ski resort in Maine. We will speak to one of the skiers. Actually a CNN employee who was left dangling in mid-air next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, still a lot of questions this morning about what happened at the ski resort in Maine that caused a chair lift to derail. It happened at Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Resort.

Five chairs pulling people up to the mountain crashed about 30 feet to the ground yesterday. Eight people, three of them children had to be taken to a hospital. Another 150 people were left stranded on the lift. Some for as long as two hours dealing with 25-mile-per-hour wind gusts.

JOHNS: It's really hard to imagine on the holidays sitting on a chair lift heading up a mountain when suddenly the skiers in front of you are gone.

CHETRY: That's exactly what happened yesterday to Robb Atkinson. He's a CNN employee and joining us this morning by phone. Thanks for being with us this morning.

ROBB ATKINSON, RESCUED FROM CHAIR LIFT (via telephone): Thanks for having me.

CHETRY: So you were one of those people who were literally riding up the ski lift with your wife and you're seeing chairs in front of you literally fall to the ground. Describe what that was like.

ATKINSON: It was pretty scary. We were -- we were on the spillway chair lift and it was about -- it was windy and it was obviously very cold, 8 degrees, so with the wind gust it was freezing temperatures and we're up on the spillway chair and it was a series of stops and starts.

And so we'd been on there a while before the actual derailment happened and when the derailment happened, all of a sudden there was a gust of wind and it -- it was a bump. We felt a little bump, a strange bump you don't feel on chair lifts.

And we looked up and we saw the five chair lifts fall to the ground and a big puff of white powder snow came up and people then started screaming in horror that, you know, they couldn't believe what they saw and we were worried that we were five chairs behind the tower -- everything after the tower collapsed.

So we weren't sure if our section was going to hold or not. So, you know, there were some definite moments of fear wondering exactly if our chair lift's going to hold and what happens if it doesn't? You go through a safety checklist of do I talk my legs in? Throw my skis out? What do you do 40 feet up in the air?

JOHNS: So you're still attached to the cable. Give us some idea, was this a slow descent or did everybody go crashing down?

ATKINSON: It was a crash. You know, the main ascent, the main board of elevator and tram way safety to inspect the accident. They're the governing body over the ski lifts here up in Maine and what they're looking at is this thing called a cable derailment.

And the cable derailment is essentially the cable attached to a series of pulleys. The pulleys pull the chair lift up the mountain. What happened was -- and through witnesses the ground have been able to piece together the rest of the story is. There was a maintenance worker on the tower trying to figure out what was going on with that cable when it happened. The cable slipped off the pulley and that's when it lost tension crashing those five into the ground. The others were bouncing like yo-yos.

JOHNS: Wow.

ATKINSON: So imagine being in the chair lift and, you know, bouncing like a yo-yo 30 feet from the ground, it could throw you out of the ground, and I believe that's what happened to a couple.

CHETRY: Yes.

JOHNS: Yes.

CHETRY: Well, they say it's extremely unusual. They've never had this type of lift derailment in the six-year history of Sugar Loaf. The other thing that was interesting and perhaps a saving grace for the people that were sent to the hospital, because they had some fresh powder, their fall was relatively cushioned.

ATKINSON: Yes, they got 22 inches of snow up here the night before - all powder, so that definitely cushioned it. And remember, safety is a big priority in skiing. You're wearing helmets and goggles. A few of the people who smashed into the ground were fortunate enough that, you know, they were wearing their helmets and their goggles, because when they hit the bar on their lap, it, you know, impact - it took a little bit of the impact away from their face.

CHETRY: That's great.

JOHNS: Scary, scary time.

CHETRY: I mean scary, but great that no one -

JOHNS: You bet.

CHETRY: -- was seriously hurt. Eight people did go to the hospital, though.

When you were there to witness all of it, will you ski again, Robb?

ATKINSON: I'm going this morning.

CHETRY: All right.

JOHNS: All right.

CHETRY: Well, you fall off the horse and get right back on. Well, thank goodness this ended the way it did.

Robb Atkinson for us. Thanks so much.

ATKINSON: Thank you, guys.

JOHNS: All right, man.

CHETRY: A tourist stampede - so many people showing up at Disneyland that they actually had to stop selling tickets at the California theme park.

JOHNS: That's crazy.

CHETRY: Wait - Disneyland ran out of room?

JOHNS: No. Come on. Yes.

CHETRY: We're going to have details on -

JOHNS: And those tickets aren't cheap.

CHETRY: Yes. Exactly. Our "Morning Talker" is coming up.

Sixteen minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Nineteen minutes past the hour right now. "Morning Talker" time.

It's not a small world after all. It's a very large, large world apparently. For the second straight day, Disneyland had to close its turnstiles.

JOHNS: I just don't believe that.

CHETRY: I know, because it was packed to capacity. I guess it's that time of year. JOHNS: Yes. I guess. Well, isn't that - no, it was Disney World where one very well-known governor -

CHETRY: Well, where some of the - some of the governors are vacationing just dealing with the snow.

JOHNS: During the storm.

CHETRY: What are you going to do? You know, you've got to take your family to Disney. They're off school.

Well, anyway, a parks spokesperson says it's not unusual this time of year. Most of the kids are off from school for Christmas break. So, there you have it.

JOHNS: Well, they're going to get their royal hands dirty for a little while anyway, doing their own cooking, cleaning, shopping. England's Prince William and fiancee Kate Middleton say they won't be using any butlers or servants when they begin their lives together. Royal sources say they'll be staying in their weekend cottage off the Coast of Wales, at least until William finishes his three-year tour of duty with the Royal Air Force.

CHETRY: Right.

JOHNS: Also, they'll have a little bit of privacy.

CHETRY: Yes. So they'll bring their butlers and their servants in once they move to the Royal Palace.

JOHNS: Right. Exactly, yes. Because I can't imagine in the Royal Palace, that place is a size of a couple of football fields.

CHETRY: Yes.

JOHNS: You'll probably need a little help.

CHETRY: Either that or they'll be traveling around on segues through the palace halls.

JOHNS: I'd love to see that. They could tweet each other.

CHETRY: Yes, they could. That's cute.

All right. Well, he found out that she was cheating, right? So he could go to prison now because of it.

JOHNS: This is a crazy story.

CHETRY: A man in Michigan who is now facing felony charges for reading his wife's Gmail account to confirm his suspicions that she was sleeping with someone else. So we're going to be talking more -

JOHNS: Right.

CHETRY: -- about this at 8:40 Eastern with our attorney Paul Callan, should this really be a prosecutorial offense here when -

JOHNS: There's probably a few spouses out there who've actually thought about doing that.

CHETRY: Yes. They say 45 to 50 percent of contested divorces involve some sort of, you know, people -

JOHNS: Oh, yes.

CHETRY: -- reading or checking up on phone messages or e-mails.

JOHNS: Diaries.

CHETRY: Yes.

JOHNS: You know.

CHETRY: So is everyone going to jail now?

JOHNS: It's hard to resist. I know.

CHETRY: Well, we're going to be talking about that.

JOHNS: All right. Take a look at this video on YouTube that has gone viral. More than 400,000 hits at the expense of a poor girl on a school bus who finds herself in the wrong end of a speed bump. Oh, man.

CHETRY: Wait, let's see it one more time.

JOHNS: Yes, come on. Let's go with the laughter again.

CHETRY: Can we see it again?

JOHNS: All right. All right. The girl just got tossed like a rag doll. She gets up. There we go. And as if nothing ever happened, she sits back. No bruises, just a little embarrassed, perhaps.

You know, those school buses -

CHETRY: I know.

JOHNS: They don't have good shocks.

CHETRY: Not at all.

JOHNS: Yes.

CHETRY: Especially when you sit in the backseat.

JOHNS: Oh, yes. I know.

CHETRY: Embarrassing stuff can happen to you. Geez.

Well, maybe he was chasing a small cartoon animal. Take a look at this. Somehow this poor German shepherd managed to squeeze his head through the hole in the wall -

JOHNS: Poor pooch.

CHETRY: -- and then couldn't get back out. He does not look happy there, does he at all? This is not one of those things where you stick your head through the hole and get your picture taken, although it did happen to him. Poor little thing.

JOHNS: I - he must have been chasing food or something.

CHETRY: Yes.

JOHNS: Don't you think?

CHETRY: So, what - the officer smartly tucked back his little ears, pushed from one side, pull from the other, he's out and he is OK.

JOHNS: Oh, that's great.

CHETRY: His name is Rebel, by the way. He's a rebel.

JOHNS: That's a good name.

All right. Up next, the Vikings stun the Eagles in Tuesday night football. Former NFL star Jamal Anderson joins us live with his review of Michael Vick's performance, the good, the bad, and the ugly, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Twenty-five minutes after the hour.

A man arrested at the airport in Miami for having ammo in his luggage that went off. The FBI says primer caps for bullets ignited as baggage handlers were unloading the roll-on bag. There were hundreds of them and they all went off in a chain reaction, but no one was hurt.

The man faces five years in prison if convicted. His flight started in Boston. And now the question is, how did he get that stuff on the plane?

CHETRY: Yes. That's a big question.

JOHNS: Yes.

CHETRY: A man arrested for allegedly punching a teen on a plane because that teen refused to shut off his cell phone. Happened last night on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Boise, Idaho. The 68-year-old man was arrested when he walked off the flight. He was charged with misdemeanor battery.

Police say the teen was playing games and listening to music on his iPhone after flight attendants told everyone to shut off their electronics.

JOHNS: That's right. It's the flight attendant's job to punch him -

CHETRY: To slap - yes.

JOHNS: -- in the face.

CHETRY: So hog tie and send you off the plane. But anyway, this guy's in a little bit of trouble.

JOHNS: At least.

CHETRY: You get frustrated.

JOHNS: You do. Absolutely.

CHETRY: But you can't -

JOHNS: I know. But, come on. That's going all too far.

A lot of people in Brooklyn are bumming this morning. Two and a half million New Yorkers live in the borough, and a lot of them are still looking for snowplows.

CHETRY: Yes. Thousands are still stranded, unable to dig out of their cars, of their snow drifts. You know, the front page of both the dailies today - "New York Post," "This street has not been plowed like thousands of others." And - and this is a street in Brooklyn where it literally looks like the snow just fell.

JOHNS: That's incredible. It looks like a glacier.

CHETRY: It does.

And our meteorologist Chris Knowles is live in Brooklyn for us this morning. So, we said as soon as sanitation and you guys are out there, maybe they'd be bringing the plows. What did you see?

CHRIS KNOWLES, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Kiran, they'd have to bring more than one and a whole armada of plows. You know, we are 48 hours out now from the storm. The last snowflakes fell at 6:16 in New York City.

And here's what it looks like in Park Slope. The cars are buried up to their rooftops and these cars are going nowhere fast. The only problem is the snow now has become so much harder and impossible to plow. The snow - again has fallen 48 hours ago. But the issue is, now these cars are encased in ice.

They have power this morning out here in Park Slope, and they do have street lights. We want to show you these for a minute. Yes, they are working. Red lights and green lights. But the problem is, well, they're not needed.

Here's what you're facing on the side streets. Mounds and mounds of icy snow. Now, we've been seeing guys like our friend - what's your name again, sir?

MIRAD (ph): Mirad (ph).

KNOWLES: Mirad (ph) who has been out here for the second day in a row. You've lived here since '72. How does this stack up in terms of the snowfall?

MIRAD (ph): This has got to be one of the worst ones we've had in a quite a while. Well, as far as taking care of it, this is one of the worst.

KNOWLES: It's unbelievable. Good luck. I know this isn't your first time trying to get your car out today.

MIRAD (ph): Yes. It's actually my second.

KNOWLES: All right. Good luck.

MIRAD (ph): Thank you.

KNOWLES: You got plowed in again. And he's not the only one. Thousands upon thousands of people in Park Slope trying to dig out to go somewhere. Needless to say, they're beyond frustrated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going down there. They're passing through that block and it's already done. Look how clean that street is and they want to go and do it again. Come down this block. You see what I mean? They're cleaning the streets that are clean already.

And now we've got to do this on our own. If not, I'll stay here all day. I can't leave my car there because there's people behind me. You see, beeping the horn. They don't want to get out and help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of them don't do their job (ph). They've got plow trucks stuck in the middle of small blocks. No - no buses running, no nothing. I mean, years ago, all of this would have been done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KNOWLES: That's the problem, I guess, that people are feeling like New York has somehow changed with this snowstorm.

We're next to one of these mini icebergs out here in Park Slope. The mayor urging patience, telling people complaining wouldn't solve the problem. The problem is, they don't know what will solve this problem and when they're going to get out of their apartments.

Live in Park Slope in Brooklyn - Kiran and Joe.

CHETRY: What a mess.

JOHNS: Wow.

CHETRY: What a mess. And still many say they haven't gotten an adequate explanation from the city as to why this is continuing to be the case in places like that. As Chris said, 48 hours since the last flake fell.

JOHNS: I know. It's amazing. I've seen that myself, though. It seems like they were plowing streets that are already plowed. It's - well, the snow just got -

CHETRY: It's easier that way. That's less to do.

JOHNS: I guess so. All right. Thanks so much, Chris.

CHETRY: Poor people.

JOHNS: All right. It is now 30 minutes after the hour, time for this morning's top stories.

Thousands of passengers still stranded after this weekend's powerful East Coast blizzard and the fallout causing a ripple effect across the country, triggering delays, cancellations at airports from San Francisco to Atlanta to North Carolina and Philadelphia. Close to 10,000 flights have been canceled since Sunday, and global travelers also affected. International airports in the New York area shut down, combined with last week's snowstorms in Europe.

CHETRY: Well, in Alaska, the Senate race is finally over. I feel like we said this last week. But no, now it really is.

A federal judge dismissing a lawsuit challenging Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski's write-in victory. Murkowski launched that write-in campaign after she lost to Tea Party favorite in the Republican primary, Joe Miller. In his lawsuit, Miller claimed that many of the write-in ballots had Murkowski's name spelled wrong and thus should not be counted.

Her election will be certified tomorrow and she'll be sworn in next week for her second hard fought and hard-won term.

JOHNS: Unbelievable.

CHETRY: Murkowski will become the first person since Strom Thurmond back in 1954 election of the Senate as a write-in candidate.

JOHNS: A truly historic election there in Alaska.

CHETRY: What a comeback.

JOHNS: Absolutely.

Representative Charles Rangel says he's started raising funds for -- a trust to pay his legal bills. Rangel, who was formally censured by the House this month for rules violations, is saddled with legal fees. The New York Democrat says a House committee has authorized his fundraising plan.

CHETRY: Well, there's still no relief in sight this morning at New York-area airports where passengers on at least five more international flights have spent the night on the tarmac at JFK after landing either last night or early this morning. JOHNS: Lufthansa flight 404 from Frankfurt, Air France flight 008 from Paris and Aeromexico flight 404 from Mexico City all spending more than six hours on the tarmac after touching down. Two other flights from Tel Aviv and San Salvador have finally reached their gates after landing around 1:00 a.m.

Susan Candiotti now joins us on the phone from JFK.

What's the situation, Susan?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Good morning, Joe.

Well, we're trying to find some of these passengers of some of the -- had, in fact, made it to baggage claim. It will be key to try to find out from them what in the world they thought was going on and what it has been like for them. But the information that we've been reporting is coming to us from Web sites from various airlines, as well as listening to air traffic control. So, it would appear as though, like yesterday, after landing, there were no gates available for these planes to pull up to and deplane.

Therefore, passengers spending the night after spending, in some cases, probably as much time in the air as they are on the ground off the tarmac without even being able to pull off to the gate and get off the plane. What a horrible night.

But, of course, it's going to be a difficult situation again today to try to find out why this is still going on. As you all recall, there was a lot of finger-pointing that went on yesterday as the Air Transport Association, as the airports, as various institutions were telling us that it's up to the airlines to make sure that there is a gate available before they headed to JFK. It would appear as though that hasn't been done as yet.

But, of course, once they get in the air, the air traffic controllers have to put them down safely and that's what's occurred. So, we'll try to get to the bottom of it this morning and get back to you -- John.

CHETRY: Susan, I was just wondering, is it a gate issue? Or is it a customs issue? Yesterday, at this time, they were saying that some of the customs officers are gone. They leave, you know, that night shift. And so, they don't have anybody to clear these passengers on these international flights through customs.

CANDIOTTI: Well, of course, Kiran, that's what a lot of people would like to know. Customs saying that, you know, as the day went on, that they did have manpower there at the terminal. But if the people can't get off the plane and to the gates, then that's another issue altogether.

So, clearly, the finger-pointing is still going on. We have to try to figure out exactly who is responsible for this and what action, if any, they're taking so that this can be avoided. Clearly, the situation is still a problem. CHETRY: Susan, we'll check in with you later.

JOHNS: A lot of angry people.

CHETRY: You think all the heat they took yesterday and the day before that this would have been solved --

JOHNS: Right. Well, it's just cascaded. It's just gotten worse and worse, and they still haven't literally been able to extricate themselves.

CHETRY: I know.

JOHNS: It's incredible.

And why do so many streets remain impassable in Brooklyn? We're trying to get answers. We'll talk next to the State Senator Carl Kruger live.

CHETRY: Also, it's an amazing story. The mayor of Newark, there he is, Cory Booker, literally using Twitter to really, really deliver for his constituents. He is out shoveling doorsteps.

Thirty-five minutes past the hour.

JOHNS: And it's great cardio, too.

CHETRY: It sure is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour right now.

We've been talking about how it's a tough week in the Big Apple. Thousands of New Yorkers can't get to work. Their cars literally buried from Sunday's blizzard that have not been touched, snow plows are nowhere in sight. There's a lot of frustration.

JOHNS: Yes, you would say. We just showed you how bad it is in Brooklyn -- 2.5 million New Yorkers live there and many of them in a bad mood this morning, including State Senator Carl Kruger who says someone needs to be held accountable for New York's failed response to the storm.

Thanks for joining us, Senator.

CARL KRUGER, NY STATE SENATOR (via telephone): It's my pleasure.

JOHNS: So, I guess I just want to start with the mayor of the city. He's said a lot of things. He said that complaining doesn't help. He said that the city seems to be doing OK still. Oh, and then he sort of went back on all of that and said, yes, we've got a big problem here.

So, in your view, which is it? And do you think the question of accountability sort of starts at the top right now? KRUGER: Well, certainly we have a big problem. And right now, we have to dig out, start putting things back on an even keel. But more particularly, sometimes good management says it take some blame.

Things should have done that weren't done. It's the first time ever that buses leave the posts without chains on their tires. With the first sign of the snow flake, we weren't solving. The plows weren't out trying to keep up this. Equipment wasn't placed strategically throughout the borough to try to anticipate the emerging situation.

And even when that happened, when the fire department asked to declare a state of emergency, OEM denied that.

So, at the end of the day, Councilwoman James is going to be holding hearings. We wanted to see exactly how we can do this better again.

Rather than whining, we have to recognize that, you know what? Streets are impassable. Communities in my district like Garrison Beach and Manhattan Beach and the landlocked communities have literally no way out. Bus service disappeared. Subways dried up. Three-hour delays for critical response from EMS.

CHETRY: Right.

KRUGER: Thirteen hundred pieces of emergency equipment stalled, dead in the snow.

We have to look at our city in the broad sense. You know, if we're supposed to be prepared for any kind of an attack and any kind of emergency, what kind of message are we sending to my folks here in southern Brooklyn where we can't even get ourselves through a snowstorm?

CHETRY: Right. And so, what I'm wondering right now is -- as we've said, it's been 48 hours since the last snow flake fell, why are these streets not being plowed right now in Brooklyn? I mean, why aren't they -- I mean, they don't really have anything else to clear in the places in Manhattan that have been cleared -- why aren't they deploying those plows to these areas that haven't been touched?

KRUGER: Well, as you point out, you know, Manhattan was well taken care of and the boroughs have always been the stepchildren. But, now, I think sanitation is faced with a new problem. If you come out in my neighborhood, this isn't snow anymore, this is calcified rock.

CHETRY: Right.

KRUGER: This snow is now petrified. Ordinary plows are just not going to handle it until it gets very, very warm and this thing starts mashing up. So, there's a whole new problem. This is not a question of moving snow anymore. It's how you move compacted ice and solid, virtually rock.

JOHNS: Yes. Well, the one thing I wonder, though, and a lot of people have said, it was the power of the storm, you know, less than any response by any government official or people who worked in the city. Just clearly, this was a huge storm. And it was just --

KRUGER: It was a huge storm, but it was a storm that was not anticipated. Everyone's talking about gale force winds for a week. Everybody had this storm on their radar screen.

CHETRY: Right.

KRUGER: And all I'm saying to you is that rather than stand up and say, we took pride in the fact we used to have salters out at the first sign of the flake. We didn't see plows in Brooklyn until yesterday late morning. I mean, the borough president Markowitz pointed out that something really bad happened here.

CHETRY: Right.

KRUGER: Well, you know what? We just have to -- the city administration should take some blame, suck it up, said we made mistakes and we're not going to make sure it doesn't happen again.

CHETRY: Yes. And one of the things also is the fact that they had to -- you know, the budget cuts called for letting go of a lot of these sanitation workers and more planned -- hundreds more planned to be let go through attrition.

(CROSSTALK)

KRUGER: You know, as the chairman of the senate finance committee, there's one thing that we are trying to do right now is that we're talking about necessary cuts and belt tightening. It shouldn't be in direct services. There's a lot of ways to cut this massive budget problem without dealing on the streets of New York.

CHETRY: All right. Well -- all right, well, I know that you're holding hearings. So, we'll see if we can get to the bottom of it. State Senator Carl Kruger from Brooklyn, thanks.

KRUGER: Thank you.

JOHNS: Wow.

CHETRY: He's right, though, now they can't get in there because the plows aren't capable.

JOHNS: Absolutely. And you're right by bringing up the budget cut issue, too. Four hundred sanitation workers short in the city. That's a lot of people.

CHETRY: It sure is.

JOHNS: Some cities don't have 400 sanitation workers.

CHETRY: Well, in Newark, maybe, they didn't need them. They have the mayor. Cory Booker is taking the matters into his own hands, actually hitting the streets with a shovel.

JOHNS: And he's using his Twitter feed to rescue the stranded. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR CORY BOOKER (D), NEWARK: We're in a state of emergency here in New Jersey. Are you trying to go straight? Stop. Go ahead.

I also have a great Twitter feed. Residents letting me know what's happened, letting me know if they need help.

We've gotten diapers to people, delivered food. One pregnant woman who was going into labor -- thought she was, we were able to get there before the ambulance could and we got the ambulance unstuck.

We got a major snowplow here stuck. They're urgently needed on streets throughout the city. So, this is a real point of leverage here. And it looks like we're making progress. This is one heavy guy. If we can get this one truck out, he can go on and help dozens of other blocks tonight.

If you want to get a lot done, you've got to give up something to get it. So, tonight, today, what I'm giving up is sleep and also functioning back probably after a few more days. I'm sure I won't be able to get out of bed as easy as I used to.

I'm just inspired, frankly, because whenever you see a crisis, you see the best in people. And so many people are coming together in Newark. Every time we stop to help people out, more and more people jump to help push a car, help get someone unstuck, and that's very inspiring.

Maybe there's a lesson in snowflakes. Individually, we're a little weak, but when we stick together, there's a lot of strength there.

Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Well, he's still got a lot of digging to do, I would say.

CHETRY: They do. But a tale of two cities, Newark and New York right now.

JOHNS: Wow. As the northeast continues to dig out from the snow, a new storm is clobbering the west and heavy rains move through the south. Jacqui Jeras is tracking it all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Shot from Atlanta this morning. We would all love to soak up a little bit of sun, but actually, Atlanta is 28 right now.

JOHNS: You can forget how cold Atlanta gets, you know? You think it was in the sunny south (ph), but it's just not so sunny or warm.

CHETRY: No. And today, it's going up to 51. So, in most parts of the country, we'd take that because it is chilly.

JOHNS: For sure. Jacqui Jeras is in the Extreme Weather Center, fortunately, inside right now. Good morning, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. I still have a snow man in my front yard, so --

JOHNS: Wow.

CHETRY: Wow.

JERAS: I know.

CHETRY: It's probably going to get washed away today, though, right?

JERAS: Well, it's kind of big.

(LAUGHTER)

JERAS: So, it might stick around for a little while, but yes, lots of melting with all of the snowmen are starting to do this, kind of leaning a little bit. Anyway, yes, warmer temperatures are on the way, and part of it due to this system that we're watching here across parts of the south, and this is bringing in some heavy rain at this hour. Pretty light around Dallas, but you get up towards I-40, outside Oklahoma City into Port Smith over towards Little Rock.

That's where that rain is going to be a little bit heavier. And don't be surprised if you hear a few rumbles of thunder to go along with that, as well. Now, that system's kind of weak. It's going to pull on up to the north, and it's going to hook up with our main storm out west. This is a real doozy, guys. In fact, this is going to cause an incredible amount of rain and incredible amount of snow and winds that could be gusting up to 65 miles per hour.

You've got that subtropical connection once again. So, lots of warmth and moisture feeding in ahead of that storm, bringing copious amounts of rain. We could be talking about two to four inches maybe into the foothills here once again today and into the valley, maybe about up to an inch and a half. You can see along I-5, south of San Francisco pushing down into Los Angeles with that front now. That rain will continue to move in, and it's going to be a steadier rain throughout much of the day for today.

Now, there you can take a look at the watches and warnings which are in effect. We mentioned the rain, well, the winds gusting up to 60, the snow one to three feet into the Wasatch. We're also looking at heavy snow pushing eastward with this storm. As we head into the Wasatch range, maybe a foot plus into the higher elevations, down in the valley floor including Salt Lake City, looking at 4 to 10 inches, up to a foot, maybe, in the mountains at Arizona and blizzard warnings with the system in southwestern parts of New Mexico.

So, there's a lot of energy with it, and it's going to be making its way all the way across the country. The best thing I can tell you about this storm is that ahead of it as it heads across the Rockies, it's going to start to pick up a little bit more warmth and the southerly wind. So, temperatures today already pretty good, maybe 10 degrees above average into the plains. Still cool out east, but watch for that warm air to move this way.

And we'll be seeing temperatures as much as 25 degrees above average by the end of the week. So, we'll continue to track that storm out west. We're expecting to cause a lot of travel delays. We'll talk more about that in the 7:00 hour. Back to you Kiran and Joe.

CHETRY: Jacqui, thanks so much.

This morning's top stories just a few minutes away, including what rights do you have? A lot of us are wondering, wait a minute, are they allowed to keep you stuck on a tarmac for 11 hours? I mean, isn't there some recourse?

JOHNS: Unless, they open the door and you jump out.

CHETRY: We're going to look at the passenger bill of rights and see if it really is making anything better.

JOHNS: Plus, the Vikings stun the Eagles in Tuesday night football. Former NFL star, Jamal Anderson, joins us live with his review of Michael Vick's performance.

And, up next, the iPhone death grip. The two so-called iPhone killers. The top tech fails of 2010.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's our busy control room this morning.

JOHNS: Real busy.

CHETRY: Yes.

JOHNS: Yes.

"Minding Your Business" and signs of a double-dip slump to the end of the year of the housing market shows home prices fell by 1.3 percent in October. Six cities hit their lowest level in four years.

CHETRY: Not good news.

Well, spying, there's an app for that? Two new lawsuits filed against Apple and also some iPhone and iPad app developers who are accuse of secretly collecting personal information. Some of the apps named in the suit include Pandora, which is we talked about yesterday, last week, dictionary.com. I'm scared because I have all of these, and the Weather Channel. CNN did try to contact Apple about this. A message said that its press department is closed for the holidays.

JOHNS: Move over beta max and the segue, it's time for the top tech fails of 2010 according to the CNN.com. The number one on the list, iPhone Antennagate, the so-called death grip that would kill any phone call. It forced Apple to offer free bumpers and other cases.

CHETRY: Number two was 3D television. It costs too much money and too few channels were out. Two phones also coming in at 3 and 4. Microsoft Kin, you remember that one? Nexus one from Google, and the Facebook privacy backlash came in at number five. But, why are we calling the segue a fail?

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNS: Right.

CHETRY: And (INAUDIBLE) from all over those things.

JOHNS: I love those things. Yes. My kids love them. They want one.

CHETRY: But your kids?

JOHNS: They haven't tried it.

CHETRY: A 3-month-old wants a segue.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: Five-year-old.

Top stories are coming your way right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)