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New York Escapes Worst of Blizzard; Mayor de Blasio: Better Safe Than Sorry; Winter Storm Coverage Continues

Aired January 27, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Hear that sound? That would be the sound of millions of New Yorkers grumbling. I've heard from many fellow New Yorkers who are upset that the city overreacted by essentially shutting it down overnight.

Here's why. New York escaped the brunt of the overnight blizzard. As you can see in these snowfall totals, the worst of the blizzard spared the heart of the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: We'll be redeploying much of the equipment from the New York City area, Mid-Hudson area to Long Island and specifically to Suffolk. We are lifting all the traffic bans on the roads at 8:00. Nassau, Suffolk, New York City, Westchester Rockland, Ulster, the 13 county area that was affected will all be lifted at 8:00.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But the forecast spot on as you head north. Montauk about two hours northeast of the city is buried under as much as 18 inches of snow. Continuing up the coast. New London, Connecticut, under a state of emergency along with the rest of Connecticut under more than half a foot of snow.

Like most of the northeast, schools and businesses remain closed. This is Plumb Island, Massachusetts. Much of the north shore seems to be taking the brunt of the storm with up to two feet of snow expected. This will likely go down as one of the top five storms in state history. Power outages are a big concern now because it could take days to make the repairs.

CNN crews are fanned out across the northeast as this storm churns its way up the coast and dumps even more snow along the way. So let's head straight to Massachusetts.

Check out this picture we found on Twitter. You can see Boston's DOT, Department of Transportation, alerting drivers to the -- I knew I couldn't do this.

(LAUGHTER)

Wicked big storm coming. There I got it.

Jennifer Gray is in Boston this morning. Hi, Jennifer.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol. Yes, conditions are deteriorating quickly. And they have been like this for the past couple of hours. But the wind gusts is what we're noticing. Really picking up. And you can see behind me, the snow is just blowing. When you have one of those gusts coming, picks up this light powdery snow that's on the ground and it just takes it away.

It has been a delicate balance, though, because it is keeping that snow off the power lines. So we haven't had many power outages here in Boston. But in Nantucket, it's a different story. They had wind gusts of 78 miles per hour and they have about 13,000 power outages. So we have our weather station here that I bring with me every time I go on the road.

And we've had wind gusts of about 30 miles per hour here where I'm standing, but I have a feeling that now we're getting some a little bit higher. So I'll have to go check it.

We've also been measuring the snow. And you can see how fluffy it is. It's hard to measure because with all this snow blowing around it's definitely hard to pick a place that's going to be 100 percent accurate.

Where we are, we are definitely over a foot, though, and the official word just in the last few minutes is Boston has picked up about 14 1/2 inches of snow. We could pick up another foot or so before this is all said and done.

A lot of people coming out, though, to start checking it out. I shouldn't say a lot. A couple of people. The dogs look like they're having the most fun out here. But this is one of the roads that has been plowed over and over since we've been out here. And you can see just looking at it, it barely looks plowed at all. So just gives you an indication of how fast the snow is coming down and how these crews are going to have trouble keeping up with -- keeping these roads clear.

That's why that travel ban is in place in Massachusetts, Carol. And that is going to remain in effect until -- for the time being. I don't see that lifting at any time soon. We're going to be in this for another 12 to 18 hours at least.

COSTELLO: All right. Jennifer Gray, thank you so much. I know your mouth -- your lips are starting to freeze. I know exactly how you feel. Thanks so much.

Let's head to Connecticut now. One of the seven states issuing a state of emergency in response to the storm. Heavy winds overnight pushing snow into massive drifts. Burying streets, sidewalks, and cars. Governor Dan Malloy calling in the National Guard.

CNN's Rosa Flores joins me now from New London, Connecticut. Hi, Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good morning, Carol. Take a look around me. It looks like a beautiful winter wonderland but do not be fooled. The temperature about 20 degrees, the wind chill about four degrees. Now from talking to the mayor of this town, I'm in New London, Connecticut, he was ready for about 30 inches of snow, and here is the key. He told me, Rosa, we don't want to lose the roads. That has happened in the past and we do not want that to happen.

Now I want you to take a look at a yard stick that I have right there in the snow because that gives you an idea of what we've seen here, the snowdrifts. Yes, the street has been plowed a bit so that's probably some of the accumulation there. Last I checked it was about 26 inches a few minutes ago. It still is.

But, Carol, here's the deal. If you -- if we take a wider look here, you can see this street has been plowed overnight and probably in the past hour, but take a look. You can't see the street anymore. So that's what we're dealing with, this constant, constant snow that if you stop plowing just for half an hour, the roads will completely snow over and that is why the National Guard, you mentioned the National Guard, that is why the National Guard is on standby.

I talked to an official in New Haven who told me, look, Rosa, in the past we have had emergencies where we have had to transport people in Humvees to the hospital.

That, Carol, is what they're trying to avoid.

COSTELLO: Well, they're doing a good job so far because, man, it looks like a ghost town in New London this morning. That's a police vehicle. That's it. People are obeying that travel ban.

Rosa Flores, thanks so much.

Now let's turn to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. And, Chad, you know what a lot of people are asking this morning especially here in New York City.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

COSTELLO: It wasn't that bad.

MYERS: You know what?

COSTELLO: We're kind of angry that the mayor shut the city down because, you know, we had stuff to do.

MYERS: You know what, the National Weather Service said 24 to 30 inches. That's a big storm. And I'll show you why they had 24 to 30 inches, but I'll tell you what, that's good news. It's like test driving a brand new car.

We have a brand new computer model that the Weather Service spent millions of dollars on to beat the European model, and this model did well. We just didn't know to trust it yet because it's the first time you take the car out for a spin, you don't want to step on the gas too hard.

This was the computer model that was right yesterday. The GFS, the brand-new GFS model. This didn't get listened to very much because the old standby, this was listened to. 24 inches plus, New York all the way over to Boston. So look how different that was.

COSTELLO: Wow.

MYERS: For the first model, the real good model, now the new one, is about eight to 12. That's what we got. That's exactly what we got. Didn't get the 24. That's how this storm got mis-forecast. That's exactly how it happened.

Now we know that we can take our new model out for a test drive and it's going to do well.

COSTELLO: I like that.

MYERS: So that's it. So we have done very well. The Weather Service has advanced it. We're still not done with the storm. We're still going to get a lot of snow. And the storm -- and the old model didn't do badly for Boston and Providence and New Haven and all of those places that are still getting pounded. It just didn't get the forecast right for New York City.

COSTELLO: Yes. And, you know, Mother Nature is hard to predict. I know you just showed me that great new model that you had but, still, it could be wrong, too, because you can't predict the weather. I mean, you have the toughest job, right? Everybody says you can be wrong and you still keep your job, but it's really not that as simple as that, is it?

MYERS: Computer models aren't perfect. And they will never be perfect until we have the fastest super computer that you could possibly buy. The computer models separate the atmosphere into a number of layers, maybe like 10 or 12 or 15. Well, the atmosphere isn't 10 or 12 or 15 layers, it's an infinite number of layers. We can't put an infinite of information into a forecast. It would take you five days to make a 24-hour forecast if you put everything in it.

The computers aren't fast enough to get everything in it. When we can get everything in it, it will be better. But for now we got what we got.

COSTELLO: OK.

MYERS: You get what you get.

COSTELLO: That's right. Darn it.

Chad Myers, thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Our team coverage is just getting started. Before we head to break, blizzard tweets are piling up faster than the snow. Twitter storm hashtags. And it's not just the northeast as you can see -- as you can see from this heat map. It seems everyone is getting in on the conversation including South America and even Hawaii.

I don't know exactly what that looks like but it's kind of cool. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK: Better safe than sorry. We had a consensus from the meteorologists across the board that this thing was going to be easily two feet. That's what we're hearing until late into yesterday. It was still being projected to be close to two feet. Two feet of snow would have paralyzed this city. So we did what was necessary to keep people safe.

And by the way, by getting everyone off the road, the Sanitation Department could get out there and clear the way. So now we'll get back to normal much more quickly. The same with the state. By closing those roads, by holding back the subways so they would be safe, now they'll get the lines up and running quickly. This is a better safe-than-sorry scenario.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So take that, complainers. The travel ban has been lifted in New York City and the subway will start running again at noon today on a holiday schedule so life is going to slowly get back to normal. But I must tell you, I've heard a lot of grumbling from New Yorkers today that the city went way overboard in shutting down the entire city.

Let's head out to Central Park. That's where Jason Carroll is.

People are starting to get out. They're sledding and having fun. And that's good. Also Errol Louis is here, CNN political commentator and New York 1 political anchor, to talk about the political aspects of deciding what to do when you're expecting a giant snowstorm and that doesn't happen.

But I want to start with you, Jason Carroll. What are people saying?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, not everyone's complaining. I mean, take a look where we are right here. We're in the middle of Central Park. This is a spot where folks typically come out and do a little bit of sledding. Today no exception since it is -- see, wave there, hello. Since it is a snow day. The kids are not in school.

And again, Carol, not everyone is complaining. I've got Mike and Bridgette here and their three lovely children who decided to come out.

We were talking about the mayor's response, the governor's response to this storm and, Mike, you were basically saying a good thing in terms of the response and the way things were handled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, absolutely. The roads were all clear so the plows could come through. There was no obstructions. People were off the streets and we wake up this morning and all the sidewalks were cleared by the buildings. It was easy to get to the park.

CARROLL: Easier for you to get the kids out.

Now, Bridgette, I was just mentioning last year, Carol, we were having a conversation. I remember last year about this same time the mayor was criticized for not plowing the streets right around this area where we are now. This time the mayor criticized again except this time for doing too much?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I personally don't think it's too much. Last year I know there were a lot of buses that couldn't get around, cars couldn't get around on the streets, but I think it's -- they were being safe this year. I think that was a smart decision.

CARROLL: Smart decision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially after Buffalo.

CARROLL: Exactly, especially after what happened up in Buffalo.

Obviously a snow day. Kids not in school. Have they been enjoying it? I see they got their sleds out here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're ready to go. Ready to sled.

CARROLL: Carol, that's the way you have to do it. They're out here. Everyone doing a lot of sledding.

We'll show you what they're going to do. A giant hill, there they go, this giant hill that you see down here, famous here in central park. Don't ask me to get on the sled, Carol. It's not happening.

But there you go. That's the way to enjoy the day. I know you've heard about a lot of complaints here in New York City but, again, not everyone complaining about the mayor's response, the governor's response as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I'm sure the mayor's very happy about that. For the people who had to go to work today and they had no transportation and they had to schlep through the snow and they woke up and said, why has bus service been canceled?

CARROLL: That was me.

COSTELLO: Exactly. You know what I'm talking about.

CARROLL: That was me. No subway. You have to do it on foot. It's the only way to get around.

We know that the subways are going to be open at about noon. They'll be about 60 percent. Not ideal. A lot of the stores, even the smaller stores we have something called bodegas here, Carol, the small tiny supermarkets. Usually they're open all the time. We saw a few of them open, not many of them open. I'll tell you what the biggest problem was for a lot of the New Yorkers here, it was actually yesterday when you tried to go into the supermarkets. You know from living in New York City but I think a lot of people around the country don't realize how small our supermarkets are.

Trader Joe's, the line outside wrapped around. It was like being at Six Flags trying to get on Batman. You had to like go in and out. It took me almost an hour just to pay for my food. That was a complaint. That's a complaint.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Jason Carroll.

CARROLL: OK, I'm done.

COSTELLO: OK. You're done -- done complaining. That's it.

Errol Louis, I want to talk to you about this. The mayor was highly criticized last time. He didn't cancel schools. He endangered children. So, now, he shuts down the city. No deaths, nobody hurt, streets can be plowed and people are still complaining.

ERROL LOUIS, NY1 NEWS: Well, as your viewers across America and around the world may be realizing, New Yorkers like to complain a lot. They complain when there's snow. They complain when there's no snow.

But on a serious note, four years ago we had a hurricane heading near here and it had never hit New York before. A lot of people said it won't be a big deal.

Well, it was a big deal. We lost 53 people's lives, a quarter of a million cars, $18 billion worth of damage after the Storm Sandy hit New York city. Abundance of caution is the only way to go. And a mayor or governor who didn't take it seriously would be in a whole lot of trouble if there were any serious problems.

COSTELLO: Yes, because this is the kind of thing that can ruin your political career forever, right, if you make the wrong decision?

LOUIS: Sure. Sure. It's a staple of not just New York but American politics. 1969 the mayor of New York City, John Lindsey, fails to clean up an unexpected 16 inch snowstorm. A lot of people took his name in vein.

It was an election year. He almost lost. He lost his party's nomination that year.

1979 the Mayor Bilandic of Chicago lost because he couldn't clean up a storm. Real serious business. You can lose your job if you're the mayor if you don't get this right.

COSTELLO: All right. Errol Louis and Jason Carroll, thank you for your help. On Twitter and Facebook, I've been asking you how you're staying warm.

Gail tweeted this picture from Nantucket this morning. She says her husband is outside he's plowing.

Check out this Instagram video from Shaw. Showing just how deserted the streets of New York City were overnight.

Keep the pictures coming. It's CarolCNN, #CNNsnow.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: So, New York City was largely spared but you can't say that about Long Island, 22 inches of snow fell there.

Deborah Feyerick has been trying to drive around, as safely as she can. Let's head out to Long Island check in with Deborah.

Hi, Deborah.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Carol. We do want to tell you that there is a media exemption on driving. However, now technically the travel ban has been lifted in Suffolk County. This is 40 miles outside of Manhattan.

But, look what you're seeing, snow and virtually no cars. This is Main Street that you're looking at, east Main Street and people are staying indoors. We did found a Dunkin Donuts. They were open all night. Very few people came in.

We did speak to a sanitation worker who was clearing the streets. They said strategically it was a good idea to have a travel ban because they were able to clear the roads a lot more quickly. We pulled over at the side at one point and the plow had to make their way around. That's what officials really wanted to avoid. They wanted to avoid the possibility that there would be accidents, that there were going to be unnecessary rescues putting other people in danger.

So that, and just to keep people safe. That's one of the reasons that the travel ban did go into effect.

We spoke to a man out at the 7-Eleven. We're finding a lot of gas stations, convenient stores, even a diner that we're passing here on our right, that appears to be open. So there are a couple of places where people are going to get coffee and some breakfast, but mostly it's just workers who are out trying to clear the road.

But as you can see, 9:25 on a main road on long island on what should be a very busy Tuesday. In fact, it is deserted. When you open up the window, Carol, it is very quiet and it is actually very peaceful and it is very snowy. So people are taking advantage of a little bit of the karmic effect of snow that has a gentle, soothing effect as long as you're not out in the middle of it.

COSTELLO: That's such a nice way to look at it, Deborah. When we're on a break I'm going to go outside and enjoy the quiet.

Although I can't wait until the noise comes back. Deborah Feyerick, thanks so much.

FEYERICK: When you hear the birds, you know the snow is over.

COSTELLO: It's like, what's that? Thank you, Deborah.

Let's go to Montauk now, because it's a better illustration of the snow still coming down in many parts of this area.

Cristina Alesci has been braving the storm all morning long. Hi, Cristina.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. That's right.

The storm is just getting underway here. Just to give you an idea, if you look at this, there was virtually very little snow on this deck this morning. Now, it's completely covered. We have at least 20 inches on the ground. It's tough to say because the wind is just whipping the snow everywhere, so in certain parts it's even deeper than that.

You know you've been talking about the travel ban they're lifting it in Long Island at 8:00 a.m. But it's still very dangerous out here.

And there are two pieces of evidence of that right now. Two blizzard related deaths here in Suffolk County, one a 17-year-old that was tubing outside. Another, 83-year-old elderly person who had dementia. Oops, I just slipped. That had dementia, wandered outside and died because she froze to death.

So, very dangerous. Officials still telling people despite the fact that the travel ban is lifted, do not go outside. Visibility is still somewhat murky out here. We are able to see the beach.

If you look at the waves coming in, they're pretty high. About 10 to 12 feet and the community here is very worried about how those waves will impact the beach. Beach erosion a big issue here. This is a community that really relies on tourism and having its beaches beautiful throughout the summer.

This isn't even the worst of it. A few miles east we have the town beach which is just getting rehabilitated from Superstorm Sandy, and that beach is taking a pounding. We're hearing from local officials. Not to mention the fact the wind is really strong. We're hearing that anything over 30 miles an hour could affect power lines.

In fact, we found out that at least 122 people in Suffolk County are without power right now. We're going to stay on top of it and bring you the latest on that front. That is an issue. It was an issue during Superstorm sandy right now. Though the community fighting several front.

Best advice, stay inside, Carol.

COSTELLO: That is good advice. Hope you can go inside and keep warm for a little bit.

Cristina Alesci, thank you so much.

New York City dodging the worst of the blizzard, but if you go up the East Coast the situation goes from bad to worse. The Boston area, specifically Cape Cod, they're taking the brunt of this massive swirling storm.

Here's a live image from Boston where winter heart residents can take cold comfort in this revised forecast. Instead of the 30 inches predicted, the city will be buried under 25 inches or less.

Here are the latest snowfall totals for you now, the heart of New York receives just a fraction of the 20 inches first predicted, but as you head north from the city the numbers climb. And speaking of numbers, airlines have canceled about 7,000 flights since yesterday.

Here are some stranded travelers at New York's JFK airport trying to steal a few winks of sleep. Outside here are the run ways at JFK. Airliners parked at all angles like some kind of crazy parking lot.

So, let's get the latest on the weather from CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. Hi, Chad.

MYERS: Hi, Carol.

There is still a storm still spinning around just east of Cape Cod. That's where the low is centered. That's where we're going to see the spinning snow for the next couple of hours.

The next couple of hours for Boston where our Jennifer Gray is, she'll be getting another 10 inches of snow. Parts of long island still going to get hit. Rhode Island, Connecticut, parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, and of course Maine.

There is the snow heaviest from Islip and east into New York City so it's still snowing in the city, just not coming down at a big, big clip. There is the heaviest snowfall rates to the north of Plymouth. Not that far from Boston coming in. It's an ocean enhanced snow now because the air is coming off the ocean just like going over Lake Eerie. You know what that's like, Carol. You see lake-effect snow, ocean-enhanced snow. The humidity enhancing the snow falls there.

So, there's noon. There's 2:00 still snowing. There's 4:00, still snowing. And finally we start to taper it off by 6:00, by 8:00, and by 10:00 it's still gone.

So, hours and hours of this to go. Still another foot to two feet in the Eastern part of this forecast area. And this is the new, good model, by the way.

COSTELLO: Oh, good.

MYERS: Yes, we put the new good model in there for you.

COSTELLO: Good. MYERS: And not use the old one, which seems to be now outdated.

COSTELLO: That's cool. New technology to start the day, Chad.

MYERS: That's right.

COSTELLO: Good going.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: OK, so our other meteorologist, Jennifer Gray, is standing in Boston in the snow. I'm glad you got to come indoors, Chad, because he's actually still thawing.

MYERS: That's right.

COSTELLO: Jennifer Gray is still frigidly cold, though. She's out in Boston. She's been talking to some people.