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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Blizzard 2015; Dow Plunges

Aired January 27, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The wind is whipping up. It's getting stronger and stronger.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is relentless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Better safe than sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And our big breaking story, the blizzard that is walloping the northeast. States of emergency still in effect for seven northeast states, up to 58 million people impacted by this monster storm.

Here are some of the largest snowfall totals. In Framingham, Massachusetts, 30 inches. In Orient, New York, 28.5. And in Wooster, Massachusetts, 25 inches. And you can see the others on your screen in descending order.

We're getting reports of at least two deaths in Suffolk County, New York. One of the worst-hit parts of the state. A 17-year-old male and an 83-year-old man. That elderly man with dementia apparently wandered outside and was found frozen in his backyard. The 17-year-old from a snow tubing injury.

More than 4 million people are under a coastal flood advisory or warning. And, in fact, in Marshfield, Massachusetts, a seawall breach has caused significant winter flooding. Several homes were damaged and the National Guard has been called out to help with the evacuations there.

A lot of power outages, as you would expect. The entire island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, normally a lovely vacation retreat, well, now it is entirely without power. The winds have been gusting overnight up to 78 miles per hour. And, yes, that is hurricane force strength. Couple that with winter weather and it is just plain bad.

In the air, it is bad, too. Checking the flights, the major airports are open, but not many planes are using them. They're just not flying, folks. More than 4,600 flights in or out of the United States have been canceled. We're bringing you comprehensive coverage of this active storm.

Meteorologist Chad Myers is standing by here with me live in New York. I also have Rosa Flores in New London, Connecticut. And Brian Todd is in a car. He is on his way to that seawall breach in Marshfield, Massachusetts. Brooke Baldwin is also live in Boston.

But I want to take you live right now to the governor of Connecticut, Dannel Malloy, who is updating on the emergency situation in that state.

GOV. DANNEL MALLOY (D), CONNECTICUT: We expect some more moderate bands to pass through during the next couple of hours. But we are through the worst of the storm. The state will resume normal business operations to the extent possible as residents dig out from the storm. Third-shift, non-essential state employees should not report to work this evening but all state employees should report to work as scheduled tomorrow.

I want to thank Connecticut residents again for staying off the road since the travel ban went into effect. Since the ban went into effect, we have only had 15 accidents on our state roads. That is remarkable. Under slight storm conditions, we could expect upwards of several hundred accidents. And so the system has worked because the people of Connecticut have responded.

DOT plow crews are continuing to work around the clock. They are beginning to provide roads a second treatment after clearing them of snow. Therefore, I am announcing that we will be lifting the statewide travel ban as of 2:00 p.m. Residents traveling to Massachusetts -- or anyone traveling to Massachusetts or Rhode Island should be advised that their travel bans are still in effect for most counties in their states. While the ban is lifted here in Connecticut, you should assume that this is a normal storm condition or snow condition. So we're not saying that the roads are -- that we want you to get on the roads. They are - you know still will have -- be as they would be in a normal storm as opposed to a storm, the likes of which we have just come through. We are -- on the other hand, we understand that people need to get to places and get to jobs and the like.

There are parts of the state that may have reached record snowfall in the -- particularly in the northeastern portion of Connecticut. The EOC will remain open to monitor and provide necessary assistance to cities and towns that they may request. We have a couple of other announcements. Metro North will resume Sunday service as of 1:00 p.m. Full service will resume tomorrow and parking lots will be cleared for commuters, we are informed.

Amtrak currently remains closed north of New York but will likely resume service tomorrow, we are told. State bus service will resume tomorrow morning and please check with your local schools on closures for tomorrow, as well as with state and private universities.

With that, I'll take your questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, are there any sections of eastern (ph) Connecticut, excuse me (ph), northeastern (ph) Connecticut that are closer to (INAUDIBLE), Massachusetts, than are (INAUDIBLE) that you know of?

MALLOY: Our main highways - and that's why we're saying that we'll open the travel ban at 2:00 p.m. -- will be passable. What speed that's passable at remains to be a question. Right now, traffic on some of those roads is very, very slow, even for our own vehicles. However, by 2:00, we believe we'll have product on all roads, on all of the major roads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what happens if you were going northbound on 395 and -

BANFIELD: The governor of Connecticut announcing a significant change in the ban in that state in terms of the driving. By 2:00 p.m. statewide, driving will once again not be illegal. Many parts of Connecticut have lifted the travel ban on the freeways, the driving ban, but there were several parts of Connecticut in which it remained in place and now you're hearing the governor saying that by 2:00 p.m. it will be OK to drive everywhere.

Another big thing that the governor mentioned, that by 1:00 p.m. today, Metro North, if you're not familiar with this area, that's a line that brings hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of commuters in and out of New York City to work every day and everything else. And so by 1:00 p.m., a Sunday-like service, which is a limited service, will be reinstated. So people will be able to get back and forth once again into New York City.

It certainly wasn't walloped with the same amount that east of New York City and north of New York City got hit with this blizzard. And, in fact, in New London, Connecticut, our Rosa Flores is standing by live where there are places near her that got 20 inches of snow. And the snow, I can see, Rosa, is still falling. You're with the mayor there?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am. And we were -- I was actually just letting him know what the updates were from the governor. So the travel ban lifted at 2:00 p.m. What does that mean for municipalities like yours, smaller cities within Connecticut that - I mean you and I were talking about this. You want people off the roads because you still need those plows to go out and clean up the mess.

MAYOR DARYL FINIZIO, NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT: Well, we still have our local travel ban in effect and it will remain in effect. And we encourage all residents to stay at home and shelter in place. People being out on the roads only endangers themselves and gets in the way of our clean-up efforts.

FLORES: Now, you were mentioning that one of the key things here is power and having access to these roads, the main arteries in this particular city, so that emergency vehicles can get to the hospital, for example. Talk to us about that. Where are you in making sure that those arteries are clear?

FINIZIO: Sure. Well, first, we do have full power in the city. We maintained it throughout the storm and we're very fortunate for that. But we also kept the plows running all night. We never shut down. And we kept our main arteries open. I just drove down a few of them myself. They're not pretty. It's still a mess. But we can get our crews around the city. And that's the key. Because as the storm abates, that will allow us to move our crews to the areas they need to get to, to clear up the rest of the city, which will take a day or more, but we'll have the ability to do that because we've kept the main arteries open.

FLORES: Mayor, thank you so much.

Now, Ashleigh, just to give you an idea, the governor of Connecticut was expecting about 120,000 people to be without power in this particular state. I checked moments ago. There's only about 1,600 people without power. So that just gives you an idea of the conditions. And why? You've got to take a look at the snow. And this is why. It's very fluffy. It's not that wet snow that will attach to power lines, that will attach to trees that creates that destructive measure in cities and towns around the state.

BANFIELD: Well, I hate to speak too soon, but that's relatively good news, especially because neighboring Massachusetts really got walloped with a lot of power outs. Rosa, I think just from a couple of measurements right now, I'm looking at about 35,000 people at least, at the very least. These are two companies reporting in, 35,000 people in Massachusetts without power. So, Rosa, if you could stand by for a moment, I want to go to Massachusetts where, in fact, our Brian Todd is en route to a place called Marshfield, Massachusetts, where there's been a breach in the seawall.

What do you know about it and how many people are affected by this, Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ashleigh, we know that the seawall breached this morning after high tide. High tide was about 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time this morning. An official at the fire department there in Marshfield told me that a couple of hours after high tide, the seawall breached. It was about 100-foot breach on the seawall and they had significant flooding and several people were stranded in their homes and are requiring some evacuations, some kind of rescue with the help of the National Guard. The fire department is there pulling them out of their homes with the help of the National Guard is what we're told.

We are told there are no injuries that they know of in the fire department there, but that there was significant flooding, that a lot of homes were damaged by this flooding. This was one of the fears that officials in Massachusetts and also throughout the eastern seaboard had because of potential of tidal surges from this storm. It wasn't just the wind and the snow but the potential for some storm surge and that's what they had in Marshfield, Massachusetts, this morning.

BANFIELD: And then 5:00 tonight, Brian, is another high tide. What are they going to do about that?

TODD: They are really bracing for that, Ashleigh. They are worried about high tide. You're right, it hits right at about 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. And if a lot of these homes are still compromised then or maybe even in worse shape than they were this morning, that could be a real danger. They're trying to get a head count of how many people they need to, you know, insure are in a safe place right now. And we're getting that information from them. We hope to have more a little bit later. But right now they say it's a few people. No injuries. Several people stranded that they had to pull them out of their homes. They don't really have a count right now on the number of people stranded. But, again, that high tide coming back at 5:00 p.m. is a major concern. There could be the potential for more people to become stranded in their homes.

BANFIELD: All right, Brian Todd reporting for us live, thank you, en route. He's in Milford, Connecticut.

You probably heard, there is travel bans still in place in some areas of Connecticut. The media has been given an exemption in many cases to do this kind of information gathering and dissemination as well. CNN has been very clear and careful to get that kind of exemption before we venture out on the roads like that.

And, by the way, Chad Myers is standing by live, our chief meteorologist.

So one of the things I'm concerned about is that we all sort of thought, Chad, that this weather emergency might be over by today or midday.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sure.

BANFIELD: And, in fact, there's still blizzard warnings, as I understand it, in effect till tomorrow morning.

MYERS: The wind will still blow. I don't think the snow continues, but because it's so light and fluffy, the snow blows across and it's a ground blizzard.

BANFIELD: OK.

MYERS: You know, like - you know, Winnipeg, in Calgary, you know about that.

BANFIELD: I remember it well.

MYERS: The snow gets so light that the wind blows it and just sends it down. And that's what --

BANFIELD: I tell people, if they ever saw the movie "Fargo," that's what it's like. When you see that -

MYERS: Yes.

BANFIELD: It just -- you can't see any road at all.

MYERS: Right. Blizzard means either snow coming down or snow that's already on the ground creating visibility less than a quarter mile. Winds of 35 miles per hour or more for three or more hours. And that's still in effect for tonight. BANFIELD: And then these -- these totals beside you are just

remarkable. I mean we thought New York City would get hit by this and we were not hit.

MYERS: And here's the rub. Orient (ph), New York, is about 90 miles east of New York City. The computer model that we ran and so did the National Weather Service in Washington, D.C., in New York City, in Boston, said the storm was going to be 90 miles per hour - 90 miles closer than it was. So if we're 90 miles closer and that's 90 miles away, that's what New York City, in here, city, should have picked up, almost 30 inches of snow.

BANFIELD: I know the -

MYERS: Didn't because the storm moved a little bit farther away.

BANFIELD: And the mayor's taking it on the chin. But, I mean, honestly, it's so easy to blame someone for being careful, really. It's not - is it fair to be so tough or was he truly heeding honest warnings from honest people who see models that change?

MYERS: The Weather Service has a model, a couple of them, that we looked at. One is the European model. It's typically a fantastic model and has done better than the U.S. model for a long time. The U.S. improved our model over the winter and now it would have blown away the forecast. A much better forecast from the U.S. model, but we didn't know to believe it because we hadn't tried it out. Now we know it works. Now we'll be using the U.S. model, not the European, for these big, big events.

BANFIELD: USA! USA!

MYERS: There you go.

BANFIELD: OK, Chad, thank you for that.

MYERS: All right, fair enough.

BANFIELD: I would be so thrilled about the USA if it weren't for the Dow today.

MYERS: Oh.

BANFIELD: And I don't know if it's the weather story or if it's other things afoot. I certainly know there are many other things afoot. But if you're looking at your TV screen right now, those numbers don't lie. The Dow is down just three hours into trading, 344. We're going to check in and find out if the weather had anything to do with this or if it's oil, oil, oil.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Another breaking story we're following right now, it's the money. The snow isn't the only thing falling. The Dow is taking a dive, just walloped, in fact, dropping more than 350 points. I want to bring in our CNN business correspondent Sam Burke.

Listen, Samuel, I get it that the subways weren't up and running to get people to Wall Street in time for the commute this morning, I get it that New York's economy has taken a big hit because the city effectively shut down, but is that having any effect on these dropping numbers?

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I wish - Ashleigh, I wish it were just the snow but it looks like it's something bigger that's happening in the markets. In fact, let me just put this in context, the Dow hasn't dropped this many points since June of 2013. And it looks like what set it off was a weak earnings report from Caterpillar. You know they make machinery and equipment goods. They had an earnings report far lower than expected. And the CEO said that it's looking not so great for the upcoming year, 2015.

So what is driving this? Well, be careful what you wish for. Low oil price. Yes, it feels great when you and I are pumping up at the gas station, pumping up our cars. But what's happening is, those big oil and energy companies aren't buying manufacturing goods, goods from companies like Caterpillar. So on the one hand, yes, it feels great for us at the pump, but it's having reverberations throughout the economy. If they're not getting as much money as before, then they can't buy the machinery that they were buying before, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And what about the strong U.S. dollar? I'm Canadian, so it's a thrill for me to be able to go back to Canada and see a big 20 percent off ticket effectively with a strong U.S. dollar, but it really does hurt you every so often.

BURKE: It's another case of unintended consequences. It's great if you want to plan a trip to Canada or Europe, now's the time to do it. Your strong dollar will really help you out if you're on vacation. But it hurts companies that are American, like McDonald's and Coke, because they're selling our goods overseas and now all of a sudden they cost more for other people because the dollar is so strong so people are buying less. That's why we see the market down about 350 points -- 354 points right now, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: OK, Samuel, if you can keep an eye on that for us and update us as things change hopefully for the better but we will hopefully see you throughout the day with better news. Samuel Burke reporting for us live.

Back to the other big story, the snowstorm. Our reporter, Sara Ganim, has been out checking things in Providence, Rhode Island. I can see you're still amidst the falling snow. I think, Sara, the forecast is for somewhere around 25 inches. And the Rhode Island governor just went on television live to say, don't go out on the roads, don't expect that this thing's over, the travel ban is still in place. Does it seem as bad from your perspective?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ashleigh, we actually just talked to the mayor. And I have to say, it is remarkable how well the city is handling this given the conditions. I know that you can see them. The snow is still falling, like you mentioned. It's been falling all morning. It has not let up. And, more importantly, the guests - the wind gusts have not let up at all. As you can see, we've been taking a pelting.

And I just want to give you a good example of how much snow is falling and how hard it is for crews here to keep up with it. I'm standing in the middle of a main road here that runs through the main plaza in town, Kennedy Plaza. This would normally be an area that's bustling with commerce, with tourists and people going to work. It's a ghost town.

Take a look down there. That's a streetlight that we can almost barely see at times. We're standing right in the middle of the road. And even though the plows are coming, because the wind is so strong, Ashleigh, they cannot keep up with the drifts that are constantly blowing wind - the wind is constantly blowing the snow back into the roads. But given that, I thought it was remarkable that the mayor here told me, there have been zero car accidents, zero, since the travel ban was put into place at midnight last night. So people are heeding the warning. They are not going out. Where you see in other cities, people are coming out, they're looking around, they're even playing in the snow, we've seen maybe a handful of people here who have come out. They're really listening to people, to the officials here who are telling them not to come out.

The city has also seen very few power outages. Less than 90 customers are out of power. So it's really quite remarkable, Ashleigh, how few problems Providence, Rhode Island, has had given, as you can see, we're out here taking a pelting in this wind. The conditions have absolutely not let up.

BANFIELD: OK, Sara Ganim, thank you for that. Stand by. I want to take us live to the Massachusetts governor. Governor Charlie Baker just announcing that the travel ban has been lifted in some places, but not all. Let's listen in to the rest of his announcement.

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER, MASSACHUSETTS: West of Wooster that appears to be relatively moderate, manageable and pretty well dealt with. And there's a storm, Wooster east, which in some parts of eastern and central Massachusetts is putting down as much snow as it has at any point since it started at midnight last night. And we fully expect that there are parts of eastern and central Massachusetts where people may get as much as another five to 10 inches of snow on top of what they already have. And that there are areas around eastern Mass at this point that you would probably describe as being in a white-out type condition. So for those parts of Massachusetts, we would like people who have been terrific today to continue to cooperate with respect to the travel ban and to let our emergency personnel continue to do the work that they've been doing.

We've also been in touch with many of the hospitals in and around Massachusetts. We've had conference calls with them and direct conversations. And their workers have been able, as a result of the travel ban, to get in and out of their institutions, which has obviously been important as well.

The drifting continues to be an issue, the blowing. there are drifts now as high as four, five, six feet in many places. And we would urge, now that we've been at this for over 12 hours, the people who can and have the opportunity and the ability to look in on their neighbors, that they do so, especially those who are living alone.

The two final things I would say, if you have transportation questions, you can always call 511 and people will be there to answer them. We'll have more to say about transportation issues, especially as they relate to the T at our briefing later today. Folks are continuing to determine and scenario plan for tomorrow with respect to that.

And if you have shelter or service questions, continue to call 211. Those folks have been on the phone since this all began last night and will continue to be there for people going forward.

With that said, be happy to take questions for me or anybody else who's up here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, you expect the T to remain down through today? Is that what I'm hearing?

BAKER: Where's Stephanie (ph)? Yes, we do expect the T to remain down today.

BANFIELD: Governor Charlie Baker updating local residents in Massachusetts that some of the driving bans have been lifted in that state. But listen, if you are anywhere near Cape Cod or on the eastern edges of that state, it is still very ugly. Some of the wind gusts, take a look at your screen, you can just hear it. The gusts have been upwards of 78 miles per hour. Storm surges are a real problem for several million people along the eastern seaboard. So, while the governor is saying things are eased in some areas, they're certainly not eased in others.

And don't forget, 5:00 p.m., high tide comes back again. This is your shot from Plum Island, Massachusetts. And, by the way, to the folks in Framingham, Massachusetts, they've been walloped with 30 inches of snow. So far in our news gathering, that looks like the highest total. So it is unpleasant to say the very least.

We're going to take you to Massachusetts and get an update on a number of other issues there as well. And if you think 78-mile-an-hour wind gusts on the coast is bad, try doing something like 50-miles-an-hour gusts in the cities.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Some breaking news for you. I want you to see some pictures that are just rolling in to CNN from Situate (ph), Massachusetts, on the coast. Just remarkable pictures of coastal flooding. We began this show with the warning that 4 million Americans are still under a flood warning or flood advisory, the coastal flood warnings or coastal flood advisories. And sure enough, the pictures have come in to prove that that is a serious problem. We've already been told that there was a breach in a seawall. That was

at Marshfield. That's our Alexandra Field who's getting ready to report live for us. We're just getting a couple of bug-a-boos sorted out but some incredible pictures of what happens when that happens. And I'll tell you what, they've got evacuations already happening in Massachusetts. The National Guard has joining up with the local fire department in that area where the seawall was breached in Marshfield, Massachusetts. But you can see the heavy equipment coming in and showing that -- how deep that flooding has already become.

And the worst of it may be later because at 5:00 Eastern, that's four and a half hours from now, high tide is expected again. And that is a concern for the millions of people who are under those advisories and warnings.