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Massachusetts Flooding; Blizzard 2015; Long Island Update

Aired January 27, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon. I am Brooke Baldwin, live here in Boston. And I want you to stay with me because for the next two hours we'll be live in the thick of it here in the conditions. We will show you what people are facing, not just here in the city of Boston, all up and down the New England corridor, and really the people who are really getting hammered. It sounds like the south shore area of Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Nantucket. We're going to be talking with a woman who actually gave birth overnight in a hospital with a generator power, essentially. We'll set the scene for you as far as what people need to know. The biggest headlines here in Boston, stay indoors, travel ban still in effect here in Boston, in the surrounding region.

But before we talk about some really serious situations happening down on the south shore area with some of the flooding, which, keep in mind, high tide happening in this show. Steve Sorgam (ph), I'm just going to talk to my photojournalist, pan over this way, if we can. We're here at the Boston Harbor.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: All right, and we are having just a little technical difficulty there where Brooke Baldwin is, but we'll be taking you back to Boston as soon as we can. Obviously, that's one of the hardest hit areas.

And I am Brianna Keilar. I'm in New York.

There are states of emergency still in effect right now for seven states. That's 58 million people who are in the path of this storm. Here are the numbers that we're getting right now. The largest snowfalls in Framingham, Massachusetts, 30 inches. In Orient, New York, that's on Long Island, there are 28.5 inches of snow. So just outside of New York City. And then in Worcester (ph), Mass., 25 inches. Some areas in Boston looking at 30 inches.

And we are getting reports of at least two deaths in Suffolk County, New York. One of the worst hit parts of the state. One of those killed, an elderly man with dementia who wandered outside into the conditions.

And then there are the high tides. The worst of it expected to hit very soon. Millions of people now under a coastal flood advisory or warning.

Also in Scituate, Massachusetts, in Marshfield, Mass., a seawall breach causing some pretty significant flooding there. As you can see, there are homes damaged. The National Guard has been helping with evacuations. There's more than 4 million people who are under a coastal flood advisory or warning.

And as you can expect with a storm of this magnitude, there are power outages. Trees, heavy snow, blowing winds. The entire island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, right now lost power.

Let's go live now to Alexandra Field. She's in Massachusetts.

Tell us where you are, Alexandra, and tell us about some of the conditions that you're seeing.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna. We're in Scituate. This is on the south shore, so south of Boston as you head out toward the Cape. And you can probably see, we're just sort of taking a beating out here right now. And the big concern is really when the high tide comes in because I want to show you what happened when the last high tide came in.

This is seawater. This breached the seawall, which is back this way. But it whipped around, came through between these houses. There's water on the other side here. And this is where the flooding started.

If you look at this water now, you look at the wind whipping off of it, there are chunks of ice and chunks of debris in this water. This was a storm surge that people around here haven't seen in a very long time. Neighbors say that it came up over this fence. The basement is flooded. That flood water actually moved all the way across this street.

This street now covered in snow, to a large extent. This has happened over the last couple of hours since we've been out here. This is when the wind and the snow has really picked up. But the big concern is still all of the water that's out here. This road behind me, impassable. And there are people who are inside these houses.

The National Guard did come through earlier today. They did help some people to evacuate. But there are others who want to stay here. Certainly they face some danger in deciding to stay here, but there are people who want to weather it out in their houses.

And what you see behind me, if you can see it because visibility is pretty poor here, there is a power line that has come down here. And this is something that's on a lot of people's minds right now. I spoke to a couple in one of the homes here and they tell me that they still have power, which they appreciate. However, there are concerns about the dangers of things like downed power lines. In fact, here in Situate, a decision was made last night to voluntarily just cut off power to part of the town. They were concerned about electrical fires and the inability of first responders to cut through flood water and rescue people in need or put out fires if that was the case.

Down this road, again, that's where the seawall is that was breached during high tide. That's where the water came from. When we got here, we're just about a block away from the beach, and you can see almost the whole way there. At this point, almost impossible to see. But, Brianna, there have been people who have been out here walking around. One person even on a bicycle. And I talked to some people who did go down to the beach. They said that the waves are really pretty tremendous right now. Everyone knows that the high tide comes in here just around 5:00 tonight and that's when these homeowners say they're really concerned about the water that they could see come through here yet again, Brianna.

KEILAR: And I saw, Alexandra, a man over your left shoulder just a few moments ago. So you're saying that even though there are downed power lines there, the power has been turned off so there really isn't perhaps as much danger. I mean that would really concern me with a man walking near downed power lines in standing water there.

FIELD: Right. Right, in some areas of Scituate, the power has been turned off. In some places, obviously, people are experiencing power outages. But on this block where I am, people are telling me that they still have power, at least in one house where I spoke to homeowners. In another house I can see an outdoor light on. So, you know, no one should take for granted the idea, it would be just pure folly at this point, that they are safe if they see a downed power line. It's something that you've really got to be careful about because you just do not know at this point who has power and where there could be live wires.

We've seen police out here. The National Guard has been out here. They've been in these high axle vehicles sort of roaming around. But they can't be everywhere at once. They're trying to get people out who need to get out. They're trying to assess, you know, which situations could be the most dangerous right now and what needs to be dealt with. But people, you know, they're being told to either get or stay inside, you know, and not be walking around on streets where you have things like downed power lines.

And, Brianna, this is just a very small sort of snapshot of what people out here in Scituate are experiencing. They're on the coast. Again, this is the south shore area, just south of Boston, and this is a place where they do experience flooding. I've been here for other storms where they have seen, you know, the seawall breached or they have seen some of this water come into their basements or even across the streets but nothing quite like this.

You can't really see it because of the visibility is so bad right now with the snow and the wind, but if you look down this street, and if we pan over a little bit, there is flood water in these backyards down here. And it stretches across the next street and then into those homes. So you've got water on three sides of this street and then you've got this flood water that's come through into these backyards and into these basements.

Here's some of the water that you can see. We're a little bit closer now. you can see where it's come into these people's backyards. And you can see that there are just pieces of debris that have been sort of swept up with it and that are out here right now. That's what we're seeing in the streets as well. These streets, if they weren't impassable because of the water before, which many of them were, it is now the snow, which is such a problem. We have seen some plow come through, but certainly these are not streets that you could drive down in your own car at this point, Brianna. KEILAR: No, certainly not. And this is why we've been so concerned

about that flooding on the coast there. Alexandra Field for us in Scituate, Massachusetts, thank you so much.

I want to give you the latest now on the relief efforts. Joining me now is Dana Rosengard (ph). He's the spokesman for the American Red Cross.

Dana, tell us about some of the things that the Red Cross has been able to do, some of the conditions that some folks you're coming into contact with are dealing with.

Dana, can you hear me? It's Brianna Keilar.

All right, we're having a little problem connecting there with the American Red Cross, but we're going to try to re-establish that connection and bring that to you.

I want to bring in now Brooke Baldwin, back in Massachusetts. We have her signal up there in Boston, along with CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray.

Brooke, tell us what you're seeing there. And, obviously, very grim conditions that you just heard about from where Alexandra is there in Scituate, Massachusetts.

BALDWIN: Yes, actually let me just begin there. And it's great to be back. Let me just say -- obviously because of this, you know, cords are snapping. It's incredibly cold and we're dealing with a lot of snow. So let me just preface all of that by that.

Jennifer Gray is with me. And I just want to spring board off of just the pictures and the situation in Scituate, Massachusetts, because, you know, there were fears of coastal flooding, you know, case in point what's happening here. She mentioned high tide at 5:00. Well, the thing that you and I heard was downed power lines -

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

BALDWIN: Mixing with the flooding. That's a potentially lethal combination.

GRAY: Yes. Yes. And I think they did turn off the power, which would be super beneficial in this case. So let's hope that is the case.

BALDWIN: Yes.

GRAY: But as far as the coastal flooding is, I mean, spot on, we expected coastal flooding in that area. We're protected here in Boston, so it's not going to be the case. Where she is, incredible pictures. High tide is coming up in the next two to three hours.

BALDWIN: Yes.

GRAY: The good news, though, is, winds are starting to shift. So we are starting to get more of a northwest wind. I was looking at some buoy data before we came out here. That's going to kind of work against the current coming in. And so there will be flooding, there will be a high tide, but with that northwest wind pushing it back out, hopefully it's not going to be quite as bad as we've seen before and we can start to improve as we go through the next couple of hours.

BALDWIN: Good. Good, because the wind was really the concern when we were hearing 60, 70-plus, you know, gusts of winds.

GRAY: Yes.

BALDWIN: That's hurricane force, just to put in perspective for people who don't live in this part of the country.

GRAY: Yes.

BALDWIN: So that's a situation we'll stay close with, obviously Alexandra Field, to see how that develops over the next couple of hours.

But then here in Boston -

GRAY: Yes.

BALDWIN: I mean I can't believe -- you and I were out in this until the wee hours of the morning, back at it this morning, and it continues to come down. We're right at around snow totals, what, 20 inches or so?

GRAY: Yes, 20.8. And that was about an hour ago. And I bet it's even more now, obviously, with the snow coming down. But it has been coming down at this rate pretty much since, what, 6:30, 7:00 yesterday evening. And so we have to get to about 27.3 to start breaking those records.

BALDWIN: That's what people keep talking about. Just for perspective for you, you know, it's 2003 and that was the biggest snow total at just north of 27 inches. When you're really walking around, I've been in Boston all week, and, I mean, all the talk is about the blizzard of '78. That was just the worst in terms of damage and fatalities because people then didn't have the head's up.

GRAY: Right.

BALDWIN: But a lot of people who can remember '78 know that will hopefully never ever happen again. But this could. We should know in the next couple of hours -

GRAY: Yes.

BALDWIN: Whether this surpasses '03.

GRAY: Yes. And if it snows like this until, you know, 6:00, 9:00, midnight, yes, we'll definitely get those totals very, very close.

BALDWIN: OK. Thank you so much.

GRAY: Yes.

BALDWIN: Stay with me, because the conditions are going to continue to change. You're watching the wind speed out here in Boston.

GRAY: Yes.

BALDWIN: And stay with me here as we continue coverage in Boston and beyond. Again, this is not just a Massachusetts story, although we're getting a lot, a lot of snow. Seven different states here in the New England area under state of emergencies. And we really want to focus coming up on the island of Nantucket. We saw Alexandra Field down on the south shore. If you continue out on the tiny, tony (ph) island of Nantucket, that is really a huge story. Power outages. The island is off the grid. Stay with me, live coverage here in Boston. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, we've just walked away from our live location. The snow is hitting. It hurts. So I've got to -- I'm wearing my shades. But walk with me and you'll see the roads totally covered. No one is out, and they shouldn't be. It's a statewide travel ban other than emergency vehicles, the nurses and doctors who need to get in to head to work at the hospitals.

(INAUDIBLE) over here. And we have seen a fair amount of, you know, plows, salt trucks. Boston knows how to do this. The issue really has been power outages. So we're watching for that. Coastal flooding down the south shore and the cape and the islands like Nantucket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We're back here live in Boston. You can see the snowfall again just about to my knees. But I mentioned Nantucket a second ago. I want to take you to Nantucket because quickly that's a huge, huge story right now. When you think of this tiny island, this is a gorgeous, luxurious little island here off the coast of Massachusetts. This is where the Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, and Secretary of State John Kerry have homes. And the situation now, according to the power company here, 13,000 people approximately zero power.

And think about that, too, as we tell you that there was a woman who had a baby on generator power here, with the help of generator power at a hospital. And thanks to some wonderful nurses and a physician, they're calling this the blizzard baby. We're going to talk to that mom here a little later live on the show.

But I want to bring in Greg Henson. Greg Henson is with me in Nantucket.

Greg Henson, you are one of the some 13,000 people on that beautiful little island without power. Tell me what it looks like right now.

GREG HENSON, NANTUCKET RESIDENT (via telephone): That's right, we've been unplugged since about 11:30 last night. It's - you know, it's a blizzard. I mean it's -- it's white-out conditions still. It's been relatively nonstop since, I think, about 10:00 last night.

BALDWIN: So when I think of Nantucket, I definitely think of, you know, spring and summer and fall and a lot of people there vacationing. I mean I imagine, are you a - are you a year rounder? How many people are actually on the island? Do you have any idea right now?

HENSON: Well, that number from the national grid about the power outages is probably a fair estimation of the year-round population. Somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 people. So when they say there are 13,000 of us without power, that's all of us.

BALDWIN: And I'm being handed hot chocolate live on TV. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoo, hoo, what's up? That's from your friends.

BALDWIN: Thank you. OK, thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Hello, America.

BALDWIN: All right, forgive me.

HENSON: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Listen, this is live TV and I now have - I now have hot chocolate. People - people, I think, taking pity on me. Let me follow up with you. So here you are without power. What's the situation as far as winds? Because I was looking at numbers and I saw something like 78-mile-an-hour winds. Could you hear that howling through the night and into the day today?

HENSON: We heard it loud and clear through the night. And we had a - we have a tree that's partially down up against the house. Now, fortunately, it doesn't look like there's any damage, but the wind has been scratching it back and forth against the side wall all night long. So we had a pretty good version of the wind speed by that tree. But it seems - it seems even now that the wind is not that much different. I read that there was a 63-mile-an-hour gust in the past hour. So it's not letting up too much yet.

BALDWIN: What about issues, Greg, with just flooding? Were people boarding up homes? I know that that was a huge issue down the coast.

HENSON: I walked into town this morning at around 9:00, which should have been at a fairly low tide, and along the harbor, along the waterfront there, it was standing water. At a place where normally you would jump four or five feet down the seawall to get to water, the water was up and above that into some of the local businesses and things of that effect. So those roads were closed off.

We're also quite worried about what this storm is going to be doing to our shores out east, (INAUDIBLE), where there's a big bluff and a lot of homes that are already in peril, even before the storm. UNIDENTIFIED MALE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right, seems like we're

having a few technical difficulties, obviously. This is a storm of such great magnitude that I think really in Boston, we're looking at least another 10, possibly 12 hours still to go with the snowfall.

Now, as long as we can get this system continuing to move to the north-northeast, things will improve. However, the snow is going to get heavier. And with that weight, there will be more in the way of broken branches and downed power lines, power outages. But maybe even roof collapses, because with another 10 hours of some heavy snow, we're starting to see what's called banding moving into the area. That means if you're in maybe a little bit of a lull or the snow is lightened somewhat, look for it to intensify and easily drop several more inches within an hour or two before the next band moves in.

But a lot of our problems right now are all of the coastlines that are facing northeast. The winds right now are kicking those waves that are four, even five feet above average. More on that in a minute.

These are the latest in totals, if you can see these. We have Springfield, 7.3. Framington's (ph) at 30 inches. Boston now 20.8. Let's add on at least six to 10 easily with that. Littleton's up at 28. Sandwich, 18. Plymouth, 21 inches. Charlestown, 15. Again, it's going to continue to be this way until we get this wind shift.

Now, let's talk about these winds right now because you can see where they're still gusting 36, 29, 46 in Nantucket, finally down a little bit. Every hour, for the past several, the pressure has been dropping, which means the storm has been intensifying until just the last hour. Now, here is our issue right now. The winds right now are coming in north-northeast. This is why we've had the problems, of course, with some of the storm surge. High tide is at 5:00 p.m. That's when it will be at its worst.

But I've got to tell you now, even though the storm will lift out and move out, our problem is going to be all of the water that has made its way onshore. We're not going to find all that water flowing back out into the ocean. So with that water there, we're going to have some problems with freezing. In fact, we're looking temperatures down to about 14 degrees overnight.

And, Brooke, with that, wind chills below zero. So there's going to be a lot of icing. Of course, that'll create additional problems.

BALDWIN: Incredible. And it's also typical - and I'm looking at someone with the Boston firefighters right now. We'll be talking to the commissioner momentarily. I mean they really had to beef up manpower. When you think about pulling hoses and ladders and everything else to attend to some of these - to some of these issues in homes around this city, it's a struggle. It's a challenge. We'll talk to the commissioner of the fire department here in a minute.

But coming up on the other side of the break, we'll have a correspondent and crew on the far tip of Long Island. This is one of the areas hardest hit in the state of New York. We will go live to Montauk. Don't move. I'm Brooke Baldwin live here in Boston. Our special continuing coverage. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin live here in Boston.

And the snow definitely continues to come down here. (INAUDIBLE) Governor Charlie Baker here said just a little earlier this afternoon here. In it, could see in addition to the 20 or so inches that have already fallen in the city of Boston, could see another five to 10 inches. So keep in mind, that absolutely would be record setting. The last record set, 2003, just a little bit more than 27 inches.

But the story is not just Boston. Let's go to New York to our (INAUDIBLE) Montauk, which is the far eastern tip of Long Island, where the story obviously is snow, but it is also flooding.

Ana, I see the snow. It's still coming down where you are.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This area has been hammered over the last 24 hours, Brooke. In fact, you mentioned the flooding. The good news is, Montauk seems to have dodged a bullet when it comes to that. We know high tide out here was about an hour ago. And you can see that that water did not work its way all the way up to the homes behind us. But you can see it came pretty close because we're just about 20 meters or so from the water where we understand waves have been recorded up to 16 feet high. And, of course, the high tide was higher than normal for this time of year and during the day.

Now, the other big story has been the snow. You can see it is still coming down. And it really is piling up in some areas. We know just across the bay from Montauk, in Orient, they recorded 28.5 inches at 9:00 this morning, and the snow has not let up. We know just down the road about 20 miles from here in Montauk, in the south Hampton area, they recorded 22 inches. So safe to say we're over a foot here where we are.

So far, though, the good news is, power is staying steady for the residents. That's, of course, one of the big concerns with the heavy snow.