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Massive Snowstorm Hits East Coast

Aired January 26, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour now. I am Brianna Keilar.

And we're outside the Time Warner Center here in New York City, where, within the next several hours, we're expecting a crippling and potentially deadly blizzard. You see the snow already started. Well, this is nothing compared to what we're expecting. So far, thousands of flights already canceled. Highways are closed.

This city is now under a state of emergency, as is New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and with a blizzard and winter warnings, winter storm warnings, I should say, in effect from Maryland all the way up to Maine and right into Canada.

People here in New York and Boston could see up to three feet of snow by tomorrow, and that would be a record, a snowstorm unlike any seen since record-keeping began back in 1880.

So here's what's expected at this point, freezing rain. We're talking whiteout conditions, hurricane-force winds, and forecasters say cities that are no stranger to nasty winter weather. Well, they likely haven't seen anything like this. We have our reporters following all of the latest developments from across the region, Miguel Marquez here in New York. Jennifer Gray is for us live in Boston. George Howell is in Rhode Island, and Chad Myers with all of the details of the forecast that we're so curious about.

But, first, let's go to Miguel Marquez.

And, Miguel, tell us a little bit about what people in New York are going to be expecting. I know that, where I am, I see people walking around, but certainly the hope is that this is not the case even in the next several hours, because even walking around the city is very dangerous.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, people are bracing for the worst, certainly.

The stores here are overwhelmed with people getting into to get food. We're seeing a few bikers along the West Side here. We should be able to see downtown New York, the World Trade Center. It is nothing. As we're out here longer and longer, the weather gets thicker and thicker, that snow heavier and heavier and we can see less and less of downtown. This is the West Side Highway here, and in just the last couple hours

that we have been here, it's gotten much thicker on the ground there. The snow is starting to stick, despite the many, many trucks that they have, the plows. This is what it looks like here, the sort of slush that we're starting to see on the roads right now.

It's 27 degrees here. So this is going to be very, very difficult to keep up with. Before we go over, I want to show you this. This building houses tens of thousands of tons of salt. And there are thousands of sanitation workers working 24 hours a day, thousands of snowplows and modified dump trucks working 24 hours a day trying to keep those streets clean.

We can now see over this way about halfway across the Hudson River to New Jersey. We were able to see a little bit of New Jersey earlier. This snowstorm is starting to come on incredibly strong. If I can just show you, the quality of the snow has changed in the last, say, hour or so. It was almost icy about an hour ago. Now it's very, very light, bigger flakes, very heavy. This is coming down very, very hard -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, it is coming down and it's coming down to stay. All right, Miguel Marquez, thank you so much for us.

I think we're going to head now to Jennifer Gray. Is that right?

All right.

(CROSSTALK)

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Brianna, we are here in Boston.

KEILAR: Sorry, Jennifer, go ahead. You're looking at things there in Boston, which is really expecting the brunt of this storm, talking about measuring this thing in feet.

GRAY: Exactly.

People are comparing this to a storm in 1978, and in 2003, we had close to 27 inches of snow, give or take, and it looks like we may not see quite as much, but worst-case scenario is, we could. And so that's what we are worried about here in Boston.

We could see snow between my knees and my waist by the time we get to tomorrow afternoon. The snow is coming down lightly. It has been off and on throughout the last couple of hours, but the winds have started to pick up. You can definitely tell there's been a drop in temperature, and it is cold. When that snow blows, it just blows all around, and when the snow starts coming down very, very heavy, late tonight into tomorrow morning, that's when we're going to talk about whiteout conditions, because those winds at 50, 60, even 70 miles an hour, you are not going to be able to see a thing with all of that drifting snow.

The snow is going to be up to my waist possibly. We could see drifts above my head. So those snowdrifts are going to be a lot of trouble across the city. We're also talking about strong winds that are going to create power outages across the city as well. There is a driving ban in place beginning midnight tonight.

They're saying if you're parked on those major roads by 8:00 tonight, they're going to start towing, but they are trying to offer up a couple of municipal parking lots for people to park their cars at a discounted rate and possibly even free. Check on that if you are in the city.

Behind me, you can see the traffic is moving. There hasn't been a whole lot for today. But folks are going to try to get home in the next couple of hours and just hunker down. Hopefully, you have your supplies and you are ready because we have an estimated 400,000 power outages possible across the city over the next 24 hours.

That's what some of the electrical companies are forecasting, and they're saying that power could be out for a week if you lose power, worst-case scenario. So we are here for the long haul, Brianna. We are going to watch it over the next 24 hours.

Expected to get really bad later this evening. That blizzard warning goes into effect around 7:00 tonight here in Boston.

KEILAR: All right, Jennifer Gray. If you don't have your supplies, go out, get them now, get home. All right. Thanks so much, Jennifer, with us there in Boston.

GRAY: Yes.

KEILAR: And Rhode Island facing this as well. The governor there is asking residents to think about more than their own safety during the storm. She also wants them to think about their friends and their neighbors. This is so important, to keep everyone safe.

CNN's George Howell is in the capital, Providence. He's joining me now.

George, tell us what else the governor is saying.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, right now between New York and Boston, what we're seeing is similar to what Jennifer was talking about, light snow coming down at the moment, but don't be fooled. There's plenty of snow on the way. The governor says officials here are ready.

They're asking people to get off the roads after 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. And there is a midnight curfew, a travel ban in effect. And drivers could face being arrested if they're on the road after midnight. They're all preparing for what we're expecting here, at least two, maybe three feet of snow, the heaviest snow in the western part of the state.

And then on the coastline, that's where, Brianna, like you were talking about, those heavy, those strong winds, winds anywhere there 60 to 70 miles per hour, whiteout conditions in many cases. Again, we did hear from the governor earlier. And she did declare a

state of emergency here for the state of Rhode Island. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GINA RAIMONDO (D), RHODE ISLAND: I have a simple message for the people of Rhode Island. Use today to prepare. The snow is coming. The storm is coming.

It's going to be the most severe storm that we have seen in years, maybe decades. And I need you to keep yourselves safe and keep your loved ones safe. We have today to prepare. So hunker down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And, you know, she reiterated that, telling residents here today, Brianna, today is the day to prepare. Tomorrow is the day to hunker down. This will be a multiday event. There will be many, many people without power, possibly for several days, and just to make sure that you have what you need and also to check on neighbors, just to make sure that they're doing OK, Brianna.

KEILAR: Sure, especially if you have a neighbor who is elderly or who is immobile. If you're going out to get supplies, go check on them. See if they need anything. Make sure their heat is working.

HOWELL: Absolutely.

KEILAR: Just lend a hand. George Howell, thank you so much. Very good advice there coming from Rhode Island.

And the weather models, let's talk about these. They're really are all over the map for this storm. It's making it pretty tough to predict just how bad this is going to be.

We have meteorologist Chad Myers, who is keeping an eye on everything for us.

What are we looking at, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, models are all over the map from New York City to six inches on one model, to over 24 inches on another. And that's the rub.

Normally, by this time, the models start to agree and they say, OK, you were right, we will go with you. They are not coming together like that and you see the demarcation of what is 24 inches on that map we have been showing you there on the right side of the screen, 24 inches down to about six inches in about 50 or so miles.

Depends on what side of that line you are going to be on, how much snow you're going to get. But you will get wind, you will get wind of 50 miles per hour. I'm expecting about 10 to 14 here in the city. That's a pretty good number, I think, somewhere in between the two models. Now, if it continues to snow like this at about one inch per hour, and

at times two inches per hour, we're looking at 20 hours of snow. I can do the math on that one. This could be a very significant snowfall even here in the city, but I expect a lot of that snow, the heaviest snow to be into parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, because that's the way the wind will be coming off the ocean, Brianna.

It will be a little bit drier by the time it gets back here, but this isn't over. It's just starting. And it's going to get slick because we already have about two-and-a-half inches out there. I just walked through the park, about two-and-a-half inches of new snow on the ground. It's snowing as hard as it's snowed all day right now, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Chad Myers, thank you so much.

And CNN.com is keeping up with all of the very latest updates and the changes in the forecast. You can set your CNN.com home page to show the weather in your area by going to CNN.com/weather.

And just ahead, more than 6,000 flights canceled as passengers are left stranded across the country. This is going to impact your entire week. We will be taking you live to La Guardia. Plus, I will speak live with someone here in New York who makes sure that homeless kids are off the streets as this storm moves in.

And after demanding ransom for two hostages, ISIS appears to execute one, but makes a new demand for the other. This one involves a female terrorist.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: As this massive blizzard looms, the airlines really are not taking any chances. They have already canceled thousands of flights through tomorrow, not surprisingly, New York's La Guardia Airport hit the hardest along with Newark, JFK, and Philadelphia International.

CNN's aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh, joining us now live from La Guardia.

And, Rene, what are things looking like there now? And how long do you expect these disruptions to really affect us into the week?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, take a look for yourself. You can see on the boards there it's pretty much lit up and all you can see is red at this hour.

It didn't look like that hours ago, but now we're getting into the period of the day where nothing but cancellations, the only word that we're seeing there, canceled, canceled, canceled, a couple of delays sprinkled in between. In a word, it's pretty bad if you're trying to travel by air here, especially here at La Guardia Airport. From the Port Authority today, we just found out roughly 50 percent of the flights canceled, and tomorrow they do not expect any flight operations going in and out of this airport.

A couple of other airports that are having a rough time, Newark's airport, Philadelphia's airport, JFK also having a rough time as this storm now makes its way in. You know, there are a few people earlier today who, if you looked here, you would see them lining up at the TSA checkpoint, now not so much. Most of the people that you're looking at are employees here at the airport.

You could essentially zip through. I'm looking at the board, a couple of delays. But the moral of the story is here we are starting to see more of a dusting on the ground here at La Guardia, and many of the airports here in the Northeast, Brianna.

So what we're seeing is that now the operations as far as flights go, it's slowing down significantly.

KEILAR: Yes, and I had a flight going out of La Guardia tomorrow morning. I pretty much knew that wasn't going to happen, but it was canceled and rescheduled for tomorrow night. It's now already been canceled again, and been pushed to Wednesday.

In a way, Rene, I wonder if it isn't a good thing that you have these advanced cancellations because it gives travelers time to prepare. They're not showing up at the airport waiting and waiting and then being frustrated as their flights are canceled.

MARSH: Absolutely.

I mean, we are not seeing at the airport people sleeping in chairs who have been here for days. We're not really seeing those scenes, because, as you said, many of the flights have been canceled before the storm even arrives. Of course, you have some surprise cancellations popping up, but for the most part, passengers got the word that their flight was not going to take off.

That being said, you still find a few people in between who get here and they get the bad news. I spoke with one lady. Her flight was canceled three times within a 15-minute span. How does that happen? Well, she was rebooked and as soon as the agent rebooked her, it was canceled. Rebooked again. Canceled. Rebooked a third time and canceled. That lady is now hoping to at least get out by Wednesday.

So those are some of the stories that we are hearing. But to put this all in context, you know, how does this stack up to prior storms and last winter, for example? We do know, according to masFlight, which is another agency that does all the tabulations for these sort of cancellations, they say that this winter so far is 70 percent less cancellations than last winter.

And, you know, when you think about it, we have been pretty lucky until now. Now we're getting hit with a big one. That being said, even though we're tracking the below last year, today is still a very bad day for travelers, Brianna. KEILAR: Yes. It certainly is. All right, Rene Marsh at La Guardia

Airport, thank you so much.

And I want to bring in now CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. He's with here me here in New York.

Thank you for chatting with me about this. One of the things I'm really curious about is when you look at the model...

MYERS: Yes.

KEILAR: ... how much -- before because we're thinking the brunt of this comes tonight.

MYERS: Sure.

KEILAR: How much can this change between now and then?

MYERS: Here's my rub today. I really don't like the fact that my most accurate forecast in the past is saying 25 inches of snow.

But the new models that have been so-called updated are saying about nine to 10 inches of snow. Do I believe my old faithful? Or do I go with the new ones that are theoretically better than old faithful? You just don't know. There still could be times here in New York City where you get two to three inches of snow per hour. If that happens for three or four hours, all of a sudden you have an extra foot on top of the 10 inches that I'm expecting.

So all of a sudden, you're to the old model right back to that 20 inches. And this town looks a lot different in 22 inches than 12 inches.

KEILAR: Yes.

MYERS: Twelve inches, it gets scooped, it get plowed. We're good in a day.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: It's doable for dealing with this, yes.

MYERS: Absolutely. You get 24 or 26 on these streets, they have to push it into the river, they have to melt it all down, and this place comes to a standstill.

KEILAR: Yes. And there are really hours and hours are where nothing can really be done and it's just a total mess.

MYERS: Yes. And even when we get it cleaned up, the winds are going to blow 50.

KEILAR: Yes.

MYERS: Any east/west road is going to be shut down by the drifting. We have that to look forward to. KEILAR: Let's talk about some of the repercussions here, because,

obviously, I mean, Central Park, and a lot of parks...

MYERS: There's one repercussion there.

KEILAR: We already saw someone just fall down.

MYERS: Crashing on the ground

KEILAR: She's OK. She's all right. But even walking, I mean, that's the point. Walking is very dangerous.

The park is being closed. Parks are being closed because wind, heavy snow, and trees do not mix. And then that also is what we're going to see happening , causing power outages.

MYERS: I think we could see 500,000 without power. And the temperature is going to be 20. And the wind is going to blow 50. All of a sudden, your house gets very cold very quickly when that furnace can't turn on.

And so check on your pets, check on your elderly, all your neighbors to make sure they're doing OK. And don't let the pets outside when the windchill is 20 below zero. It's that simple.

KEILAR: Don't do it.

MYERS: Right?

KEILAR: Yes.

OK. So, what do people do if they're anticipating they would lose power? What are the smart things they can do to prepare for that?

MYERS: In the winter, it's worse losing power than in the summer. In the summer, you can just kind of deal with it.

KEILAR: Yes.

MYERS: If you really get cold, you have to get to a shelter, some place that's warm.

How do you get there if there's 25 inches of snow on your street? So it's huddling together, make sure you have all the things you can prepare for now, maybe some firewood in the garage if you have a fireplace, things like that. And make sure that you can find some place on your block that might have power or invite people if you do into your home and you're the warming shelter, because it's tough to go very many miles when the snow is not plowed.

KEILAR: Yes. Bring some firewood inside. Bring all those blankets maybe in from storage if you have them. You don't want to be going through the snow to get them. All right.

(CROSSTALK) MYERS: And don't go crazy with the generator with that carbon monoxide. More people die with carbon monoxide poisoning than usually do in the snow itself. Be careful when you do that.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: All right, Chad Myers, thanks so much.

And we're obviously tracking every development of this major blizzard that's bearing down on the Northeast. We're watching this here at CNN, live in cities directly in the bullseye.

Plus, what it's like for drivers -- we are actually live on the road as this storm kicks off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Hi there. I am Brianna Keilar reporting live from a very snowy New York.

And behind me, this is Central Park. I will tell you, this scene has really changed just in the 90 minutes that we have been on air so far. You can already see these whiteout conditions beginning to come in. We're actually starting to see the conditions change before our eyes. We have been seeing people slip and fall on the sidewalk, two people just right behind me here in the last 20 minutes or so, proof that even walking in these conditions that we're seeing with this blizzard, the brunt of which we haven't even gotten yet, these conditions are very serious.

And this is a time certainly where politicians are keeping a close eye on what is going on here. Leaders of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, they have all declared states of emergency ahead of this blizzard. Their collective message is that this is not just another snow day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: This is not a storm to take lightly.

GOV. DANNEL MALLOY (D), CONNECTICUT: If you're without power, you are going to be without power for a period of time, all likely -- in all likelihood, several days. So -- and I will just give you my advice. If you have a fireplace that's usable, have some wood ready.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Starting later this afternoon, you should stay home if you can. You should only go out in a case of an absolute emergency or necessity. And the same goes for all day tomorrow.

BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: This literally could be one of the top two or three largest storms in the history of this city, and we need to plan accordingly.

So my message to all New Yorkers is prepare for something worse than we have seen before. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And people are preparing for just that kind of disaster on Long Island. In places like Montauk on the tip of Long Island, this blizzard could lead to all kinds of problems.

That's where we find CNN's Ana Cabrera.

And, Ana, what are really the kinds of problems that people are worried about there? I know that some of the surge and flooding is a possibility along Long Island.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's just one of the issues the folks here are preparing for. In fact, this is a hotel just behind me.

And you can see not a soul in sight, Brianna, because they're preparing to take the brunt of this storm here on what is considered the end of Long Island, the most eastern tip. We're just 20 miles from the southern coast of Connecticut, and here's where they're expecting 55 to 65 mile-per-hour wind gusts.

So, what we're seeing now, while it's breezy and a bit gusty, is nothing compared to what we're anticipating in the next few hours. And I'm standing next to a shrub about three feet high. This is how high the snow is expected to accumulate out here.

And on top of that, then you have got to worry about the ocean and what Mother Nature could bring here. As you look down below, you can see the waves really rocking and rolling on the shoreline here. It's already a little bit violent out at sea, but they're anticipating some time around 2:00 a.m. this morning that that is when we're going to see high tide, and the high tide this time is going to bring waters two to four feet above normal.

So they are expecting coastal flooding. They're also expecting large waves that could batter the shoreline and also cause some erosion. On top of all of that, then the folks out here have to worry about power outages, which is a very big concern, if you want to take a listen to Governor Andrew Cuomo addressing that issue earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: What happens on Long Island is, you have overhead wires and many trees on Long Island, and the trees get heavy from the snow and the wind blows and a branch breaks and it hits the wire, and the wire is down and the power is out.

We have made a lot of changes to the system, improvements, mechanical improvements, et cetera, but Mother Nature is still Mother Nature.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So people have stocked up on supplies. I can also tell you that there are some 600 snowplows that have embarked upon this region, are standing by ready to move some of that snow to try to make accessibility a little bit better.

There's also National Guard personnel at the ready to try to get to people should they become stranded -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Ana Cabrera. And that's really the hope, is that everyone is prepared on an individual level and also that these localities are ready to deal should the -- this power go out.

Ana, thank you so much there on Long Island for us.

And, you know, this snow, this storm, it is affecting everyone here in the northeast. Even the people without a roof over their heads.

My next guest is making sure that they are taken care of. We'll talk about what's being done for the homeless, especially homeless children here in New York, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)