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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Snow Storm to Hit New York; Gov. Chris Christie Talks about Storm Preparations; Gov. Andrew Cuomo Holds News Conference

Aired January 26, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are facing most likely one of the largest snowstorms in the history of this city, in the recorded history of this city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is going to be an incredibly difficult storm for us to fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One side of the street could have a few inches on the ground and across the street could have five feet the way the wind goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Welcome to New York City. This is not the place you want to visit right now unless you like cold. It may not look like a blizzard right now, but mark my words, things are about to get worse, much worse. And in the words of the mayor, possibly the worst they've ever been in this city. We're expecting a crippling blizzard. You heard, blizzard. Very serious conditions. It's not just in convenient, it can be deadly. And that's exactly what all the concern is about right now.

This could be historic. Let me give you a couple of statistics. There are 20 million people in the United States right now who are in the path of a blizzard warning. This is sort of coastal New Jersey, all the way up to coastal Maine. So just imagine the population there.

And that's not all. There's an additional 36 million people who are right now under a winter storm warning, watch or advisory. And all of those four are serious. Eleven million people along the coast are under a coastal flood watch with this system coming through.

Want to give you just a sample of what's in store right now and what the weather service is telling people. Often you'll hear that things can be dangerous. But life threatening, that's the words that are being used right now. Life threatening, whiteout conditions. So bad that people who good outside, they say, could become lost or disoriented. The winds close to the coast gusting 40 to 60 miles per hour. Some reports saying possibly even up to 75, peaking, of course, that would be at hurricane-force winds. So as if a nor'easter with snow isn't bad enough, add hurricane-force winds to that.

If you have anyone you know who is flying, if you your have a plan to fly, well, get yourself some hot chocolate and settle in because there are thousands upon thousands of flights that have already been canceled. Here are the stats. Just 2,500 cancelled today. But over the course of today and tomorrow, closer to 4,000 flights that are now off the books and off the TV screens. Amtrak is also warning about delays and also cancellations. Major highways will most certainly be closed. In fact, the governor of Connecticut has already put a travel ban in place starting at 9:00 p.m. tonight. Travel ban meaning no one is to get on those roads. Another strong warning from the National Weather Service. Travel will be impassable and life threatening across the entire region.

I want to get right to my team that's been working this story and looking and advancing this story as well. Chad Myers, chief meteorologist is here with me in New York City. And then also Alexandra Field is standing by live in Boston.

So, Chad, give me the lowdown and just how bad is it expected to get?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think if you're stuck on the highway in a snowstorm, in a blizzard and it's 20 degrees and the wind is 60, your life is in danger. That's the threatening part of this storm. If you're at home and you have power, it's not going to be that bad. It's just going to be a snowstorm. It's the people that have to work outside, have to be outside or are stuck outside, those are the ones that are really going to be in trouble.

With a lot of wind, a lot of snow - but the problem - we may see the ground tomorrow and there still may be eight foot drifts somewhere.

BANFIELD: Eight foot drifts?

MYERS: Sure. Easy. And so somewhere in there there's 20 inches of snow but you don't see it because it's either zero or, you know, at 96. So that's the problem that we're going to have is blowing. They're going to be some blowing and drifting snow. It will close roads that get plowed and they'll be closed in an hour.

BANFIELD: Let me jump in just for a moment because the officials always trump us and the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, speaking live right now about the preparations for his state. Let's listen in live.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Due to the forecast so that our response and our transportation officials to do their work in an unimpeded way.

You know, this is a different kind of storm than we've had before. And it's going to affect our state in different ways. Down in the southernmost part of the state, especially the southeast, we may have accumulations only as much as six inches. But we could have as much as two feet with blizzard conditions in our northeastern counties, as well as our coastal counties and (INAUDIBLE) Ocean and in Middlesex County.

The worst conditions will be overnight tonight from 9:00 until around noon tomorrow with lighter snowfall afternoon tomorrow expected until about midnight. Again, this is going to present some very dangerous and difficult conditions on our roadways. There's going to be extremely colder temperatures than we're experiencing right now. And the real potential for blowing and drifting snows giving the winds -- this is the first weather event of this magnitude this season, thank goodness. So I want to make sure everyone in New Jersey knows what steps we're taking to be ready and what we need from them.

First, it's our expectation that with state offices and early school dismissals as well, the rush hour is probably going to be early this afternoon. So prepare yourself accordingly. It will not be, I think, the normal rush hour. As you're leaving work, picking up your children from school, getting home, get off the roads as quickly as can you. Obviously, drive safely. Drive cautiously. We want you to do that all the time, but particularly now. Road crews are going to be out working to clear and salt the roads. So we need everybody to get through the storm safely. If do you not have to drive, please remain home and remain off the roads.

Since yesterday, DOT, transit, turnpike, parkway, South Jersey Transportation Authority have been preparing equipment, putting staff and contractors on alert. It's a full statewide mobilization that's been ordered. We're prepared to clear snow and ice from the roadways and transit facilities in every part of the state and we believe we have the manpower to be able to do so.

And NJDOT, the turnpike, parkway and South Jersey Transportation Authority have nearly 3,700 trucks ready to roll. They started spreading salt on the roads yesterday and continue to do so as conditions warrant. DOT is working with the state police to have tow trucks available to help clear disabled vehicles more quickly. In addition, DOT safety service patrols will be out there to help travelers and vehicles in distress.

New Jersey Transit, of course, has equipped locomotives with plows and is tested and readied 750 switch heaters to allow trains to access all tracks and perform all usual movements. Obviously, our top priority is passenger safety. Anyone planning to travel during the storm is urged to allow extra time, be extremely careful traveling in and around stations and on platforms and onboard trains, buses, light rail vehicles and our access lane vehicles. Transit plans to operate a regular weekday schedule today through Wednesday and across honor - and cross honoring, obviously, is in effect. Due to the predicted severity of the storm, we're going to have some shutdowns. We'll probably start shutting down transit at about 10:00 tonight. And I don't expect that we'll have transit tomorrow. But, again, it's as conditions warrant as we go forward. Customers are advised to regularly check njtransit.com for the latest service information.

Residents should be prepared for potential power outages mostly due to the high wind conditions. BPU President Morose (ph) has been on conference calls with all of the power and utility companies and their leadership. They have begun to assemble essential personnel and additional crews here in New Jersey to be ready to respond to outages as they come forward.

Residents should prepare themselves, though, as usual, for the possible outages, including supplies of water, nonperishable food items, personal hygiene items, cold weather clothing and supplies, a cell phone, et cetera. And from all the reports I've seen, you all seem to have been to the supermarket in the last 24 hours. And don't know why the rush on bread, but what the heck. If you want more bread, I'm sure, you know, you're able to get it. If you have a member of your family that's dependent upon medications or electric powered health equipment, make sure you have a plan in place as a backup to assist them. If your power does go out, your first contact should be to the power company so you're identified as an outage and they can work to restore your service as quickly as possible.

BPU is also activating its storm cloud reporting system for power companies to collect outages and other information. BPU is posting on its website links to the utilities storm web pages for reporting of outages and obtaining outage information.

We expect many schools to be closing early today. And many schools to be closed tomorrow due to the weather. As always, in these situations, you should check with your local school districts, watch TV for specific times on early dismissals today and for your district's plan for tomorrow's school day regarding closure.

The overall message is this, everybody, we've been through this plenty of times before. I was at a hockey game yesterday in Bayone (ph) of my son Patrick's and had a resident of Bayone come to me and said, are you worried about the storm? And I said, this is my sixth winter as governor. I've had double digit states of emergency imposed for snow. We've had Hurricane Irene. We've had Hurricane Sandy. For better or for worse, we know how to deal with these situations. And I feel completely confident that the folks behind me and all the people that work for them are prepared. But you never know how bad these conditions are going to be.

Here's one thing we know for sure. Starting later this afternoon, you should stay home if you can. You should only go out in the case of an absolute emergency or necessity. And the same goes for all day tomorrow. We do not need people on the roadways. It makes it much more difficult for us to do our job. And if we get anywhere between 18 and 24 inches of snow, that's a lot of snow to move, to make roadways passable and safe.

We would like to make Wednesday productive for everybody. And the only way for us to make Wednesday productive is for you to give us the opportunity to do our job on Tuesday and this evening. So please stay off the roads. It's not only for your own safety, it's for the operation of the state for us to be able to have the state be as fully operational as we can be on Wednesday and for the rest of the week. You should feel confident that myself and the lieutenant governor are engaged with all of the leadership throughout the state and local government. OEMs throughout every town in New Jersey have been engaged with by the BPU and by DOT and all of the other leadership that we have. The emergency operation center is activated by the state police and was activated last night to exchange information.

So we all feel like we know how to do this. This is going to be a lot of snow no matter how you add it up and so we're going to be challenged. But we feel like we're prepared and we're ready. And if you all stay home and help, that will make things significantly safer for you and your family and significantly easier for the men and women who are going to be working hard to try to restore New Jersey to normalcy after the storm is over. So I thank all of you for your time and I can take a few questions. Or not. Fabulous, no questions.

Yes.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) will there be more snow up north than down south? How does that affect the planning? Is it (INAUDIBLE)?

CHRISTIE: Sure, because we're aware of it, David, and so, you know, we'll have more of our equipment available in the places where we expect the largest accumulations of snow. And so it definitely affects us and, obviously, we have to continue because this storm is an offshore event that can change rather rapidly, so we're having regular conference calls every few hours with the National Weather Service, with our leadership to make sure that we have --

BANFIELD: All right, as Governor Christie warns his state about the state of emergency he's just declared, let's move up the coast into New York where Governor Cuomo is now holding a news conference about the New York state preparedness and plan. Let's listen in live.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: Jim Malatras to my right, state director of operations, Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, and Joseph Demico, superintendent, New York State Police.

I am sure everyone who can hear my voice knows that we are looking at an impending snowstorm. Mother Nature has decided once again to come visit us in an extreme way. And you've heard the predictions and the National Weather Service and our own information has confirmed that this is going to be a blizzard. It is a serious blizzard. It should not be taken lightly. And it could affect health and safety.

The blizzard brings with it very high winds, gusts up - gusts up to 55 miles per hour. And that's what makes the situation dangerous and difficult from our point of view. It's the snow combined with the wind. It affects visibility, snowdrifts. This is supposed to be a very light snow. So they will be dangerous and difficult conditions, difficult to clear, difficult for the plows, et cetera.

We've been preparing for it over the past three days or so. We have deployed assets from across the state to the New York City metropolitan area. We're focusing Rockland, West Chester, New York City, Nassau and Suffolk. We have 750 plows from across the state that are coming down. Ironically, a few weeks ago we had seven feet of snow in Buffalo. Seven feet of snow. And we had to do the reverse. We had to ask all the plows in down state New York to go up to Buffalo. So now we're asking the reverse and the upstate plow operators are coming down, quote/unquote down state, to help. Fifty thousand pounds of salt. We have several hundred National Guard who have been called out. And we'll be stations in New York City, in the long island area primarily.

Few measures that we are going to put into effect. Number one, I'm declaring a state of emergency effective immediately from Sullivan, Ulster counties south, Rockland, West Chester, New York City and Long Island. The declaration of a state of emergency allows me to waive certain laws and certain regulations. So it actually allows the government to move faster. State employees who are nonessential will be released at 3:00 p.m.

The New York City subway system will continue to run until 7:00 to 8:00 on the usual schedule. At that point, there will be limited service on the subway system. So as we've been saying for the past few days, you should plan to leave work early, or wherever you are, to try to get home on the early side because 7:00, 8:00 the expression is they want to start to put the trains away. They want to put the subway cars in a place where they're not going to be hurt by the snow so they'll be available quickly. To protect the subway cars, we have to close down the subway system earlier.

Metro North, Long Island Railroad, we are -- we'll have early service and we are anticipating at this time closing the Metro North and LIRR service at 11:00 p.m. That is the current plan. We will confirm these after the 4:00 weather advisory. But if nothing changes, we plan to stop service at Metro North and the LIRR at 11:00 for the same reason, so the trains can be put in a place that is safe from the weather. The path will operate on the usual schedule. At 9:00, the path will go on weekend schedule. So a reduced time frame currently set for 9:00.

We will have a tractor-trailer ban on the main state roads 84, 287 thruway south of exit 17. That will go into effect at 4:00. Tractor- trailer ban on those roads. The -- we are considering at this time a travel ban on all main roads starting at 11:00 tonight. Again to be confirmed after the 4:00 weather advisory when we have the most updated weather.

The closing of the roads is a safety precaution. It's never an easy decision. You close the roads, people can't travel. Some people find it an inconvenience. If you leave the roads open, people can get stuck on the roads. We've had some potentially dangerous situations where people have gotten stuck on the roads during the course of a storm. And we haven't had any tragedies, but very close to it. So this is not a storm to take lightly. And we're taking what we believe are prudent measures.

The times I gave you today again are based on the information we have at this time. As you know from the weather reports, they change from time to time. 4:00 we'll get the most recent update and then we'll confirm or adjust these times at that time, about 4:15, 4:30, right after we get the 4:00 broadcast.

With that, I'll turn it over to questions.

QUESTION: Governor, at what point after the 4:00 p.m. (INAUDIBLE) shut down (INAUDIBLE) subways, (INAUDIBLE), Metro North (INAUDIBLE)?

CUOMO: Well, the subways we're talking about operating until 7:00, 8:00, I'll ask Chairman Fermdagast (ph) if he wants to expand on that. And at that point have a limited service. But again, depending on what we hear at 4:00, Metro North, Long Island Railroad, 11:00 at this point closing the system down to protect the trains. But, Tom, do you want to speak to that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure, governor.

We're going to put a plan five in affect, which occurs when we have a storm of this magnitude.

BANFIELD: We are hearing states of -- so there you have it, state by state, we're hearing emergencies declared. First, New Jersey, then the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, saying the same thing and going even further in a city of eight million plus people, there will be closed down mass transportation. The subway system is going to be severely curtailed and eventually may -- the decision may be made to close it down. And then those all-important commuter rail lines, the Long Island Railroad and then the Metro North Railroad that brings all of those millions of commuters in and out of New York City, well, that's going to be shut down by 11:00 tonight. Hence the reason it was said from yesterday on, if you don't need to be in this beautiful city today, stay home. And hopefully the number of people who have heeded that warning will make it a lot easier on the people who need to deal with the mess that is on its way.

You can already see the flurries in the air right now. What you can't see is the 23-degree temperature and the feels like temperature of about 9 degrees. The temperatures is dropping. The snow is falling. It's a dangerous time.

I want to bring in Irwin Redlener, who's an emergency response adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio here in New York City, but he's also the head of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness.

I'm so glad you're here right now because we're actually waiting on a news conference that will start any moment now by the mayor of New York City. They're updating this on a regular basis. When you're preparing for these emergencies for this many million people and you need to update it by the hour, what you are telling the mayor?

IRWIN REDLENER, EMERGENCY RESPONSE ADVISER TO NYC MAYOR: Right. Well, first of all, this is a massive complex task at hand here and they have to start early and they have to get into all of the details of what's going to matter. And, Ashleigh, the work on this storm actually began Friday night in earnest, although it's been planning, Ashleigh, for months before. So they have a tremendous workforce out there. They're going to have more than 2,000 sanitation workers per shift out on the streets making sure they stay clear.

BANFIELD: Twenty-four hundred?

REDLENER: Yes.

BANFIELD: Working a 12-hour shift?

REDLENER: Yes.

BANFIELD: And swapping to the next 2,400 working the next 12 hour shift?

REDLENER: Yes. Yes. It's absolutely incredible.

BANFIELD: Wow.

REDLENER: You know, and so you're talking about 1,800 plows and 300 more available. And, you know --

BANFIELD: Five hundred salt spreaders.

REDLENER: Right.

BANFIELD: One hundred and twenty-six thousand tons of salt all on the ready?

REDLENER: Right. Right. I don't think there's more of a prepared city in the country than New York City is right now, but it's incredibly complex with a lot of people.

BANFIELD: There's something new that just in the last several years came into being, and that is the snow emergency. When you declare a snow emergency, it means, off the streets.

REDLENER: Right.

BANFIELD: Because several years ago we had people who were absolutely paralyzed in the middle of New York City streets and they'd abandon their cars so no clearing could happen. Emergency vehicles couldn't get anywhere. Ambulances were stuck. People were dying.

REDLENER: And it's a deadly - it's a deadly condition is what the reality is.

BANFIELD: So is that going to happen?

REDLENER: Well, I -- so much work going on now that the cars will be cleared. People, I think, will heed the warnings and be off the streets. But it's a very dangerous situation. Children, the elderly, anybody really is going to be in harm's way seriously if they're caught out in this storm.

BANFIELD: So do you think - (INAUDIBLE), you know, Governor Dan Malloy up in Connecticut, which I'm sure is about the next state that we're, you know, going to hear has a state of emergency -

REDLENER: Yes.

BANFIELD: If that hasn't already happened while we've been talking -

REDLENER: Yes.

BANFIELD: He has already said travel ban in place, no cars on those roads and freeways after I believe 9:00 p.m. tonight. Are they going to suggest that the snow emergency declared in New York City to keep everyone off?

REDLENER: I think that's going to happen and needs to happen really because people need to be in shelter, in their homes and staying there until the emergency is cleared. It's a really deadly situation, Ashleigh. This is - this is the big one.

BANFIELD: You know, I ask you, doctor, the - annually, New York City counts the homeless one day per year. And as the bad luck would have it, it was supposed to be tonight. And they have canceled that.

REDLENER: Yes.

BANFIELD: But in the meantime, there are so many homeless people in this city who will not be able to weather this. What do they do about trying to get those people up off the streets and into shelters?

REDLENER: Well, they're trying to find as many as possible. And also people are advised to call 311 if they see a homeless person who needs shelter and they'll send somebody out right away to get them and put them into shelter. It's really dangerous for people who are living on the streets, as you can imagine. But there are provisions being made. There is plenty of shelter room. But we have to make sure that we find them, people call the 311 number and get people into shelter.

BANFIELD: Well, Dr. Redlener, it's great for you to be here. I appreciate it. I know you have your work cut out for you, as the mayor has probably been tapping your insights regularly but we hope you'll keep us up to date on the changes and what happens.

REDLENER: Thanks, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And, thank you. And, be safe also. Hope you get to go home too.

REDLENER: Thanks. You too. Thank you.

BANFIELD: Thanks so much.

I also want to show you some picture out of Boston because, as you probably already heard, all the way up the East Coast, 250 miles is a blizzard warning. City of Boston already getting prepared for what's headed that way as well. Up to two feet there. But I'll be honest with you, you might hear two feet, you might hear three feet. But as Chad Myers has said early and often, it just depends where you are. It could be anywhere. The amount of snow that you're going to get where you are could range. So be prepared for the worst of it. We're going to take you live into a lot of these different areas after the break and also update you as to the number of flights and what's happening in the air, next on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Historic blizzard is one way to put it. Here's another way to put it. Look at your TV screen. States of emergencies are being declared one by one. The dominos are falling all the way up the East Coast as a 250 mile stretch of property all the way from New Jersey to Maine is falling under a blizzard warning. And if you don't know what a proper blizzard feels like, well don't visit here. This is New York City where a light snow has begun to fall. The winds are starting to kick up. A beautiful Central Park behind me, it's not so beautiful. In fact the mayor is saying no one go in the park, it's too dangerous when the wind gust up to 70 miles an hour and you're expecting up to three feet of snow.

So Central Park is supposed to be off-limits. Nobody wants to get injured in this kind of weather warning. And that is the seriousness of this. It is a warning to everyone that New York may not see a storm like this or certainly may not have ever seen a storm like this. And that's sort of the story as you head right up the East Coast as well.

We have a number of reporters who are standing by. Alexandra Field is out and checking out the roads for us. She won't be doing that for long, though, because roads are supposed to be off-limits for a lot of people in this whole eastern corridor. And then we also have Rene Marsh, who's standing by at LaGuardia Airport. She's watching the skies for us. And Jennifer Grey, our meteorologist, has got the job, like I do, standing on the terra firma, the very cold, snowy terra firma of Boston.

So, all right, let me do this. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Alexandra Field, why don't I start with you. Tell me about the roads and tell me you're going to get off them pretty soon, too.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Ashleigh. We're in our rolling coverage vehicle right now. We've got this rigged up so that you can take a look at what we're seeing in real time.