Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Monster Storm Across United States; Snow Slams Boston; Flights Still Canceled At LaGuardia; Will ISIS Collapse By Itself?

Aired February 02, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Sixty-five million people, 18 states, and 1,000 miles of misery. A monster storm is unfurling across the United States from record snowfall in the Midwest to wintry assault on the New England and the northeast. In New York, the big concern today is ice. But as you can see from this picture, Boston is already getting for more snow and when I say more snow, I say a lot of snow. It's snowing at a rate of what - two to four inches per hour now. They are expecting possibly more than a foot. That may be enough to delay the Patriots return home and a citywide celebration of their thrilling Super Bowl win.

It's like Groundhog Day. A blizzard chased the Patriots out of Boston last week and this week's storm may put their parade on home. Across Massachusetts, road crews have been struggling to clear the mountains of snow left over from the last week's blizzard, now add in today and those driving conditions will turn down right treacherous. CNN's Brian Todd is braving the roadways right now. He's just north of Boston in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is something that Boston residents and residents of this part of Massachusetts just didn't need less than a week after that last blizzard. It is really getting worse just in the last hour since I spoke to you. We're on Lowell Street. You are just outside Lawrence, Mass. Whiteout conditions everywhere you look. The snow has really started to fall at a rapid rate. We're pretty much at the peak of the snowfall now as we look this way and the snowplows are out and trying to do the best they can. They got it up 3,000 vehicles out on the roads.

The state - the state transportation authorities have told us they have got about 3,000 vehicles out on the roads trying to clear the roads, spreaders, plows, salt trucks. As I look into our dash camera kind of giving you a lay of the land here, we can also now switch inside and try to get on Interstate 93, which is one of the major thoroughfares here and we'll give you an idea of just what it's like to try to get in and navigate these roads. It is very dangerous. And really, Carol, visibility is the issue here.

Getting - pulling out on Lowell Street now and our photo journalist Khalil Abdallah who just videotaped me outside is now driving. He's pulling double duty today. We're pulling up to an exit for route 93 right now. This is again one of the major interstates in the state of Massachusetts. As we exit here - now, at the dash cam you can see out here. Look at this. Visibility is absolutely horrible. You can't see - I mean it's less than a quarter mile and really realistically when you're out and navigating these roads, it's only about maybe 150 feet in front of you that you can see. A state police official has just told me that what they're concerned about is with no travel ban in effect, that a lot more people will be out on the roads now than there were last week.

Now, here we are. And you can see it. If you look out this dash cam, look at the volume of vehicles on the road. Still quite a few. And we're, you know, were at the tail end of rush hour, of course. But rush hour is going to be obviously extended today, Carol. Check this out. We're just - we are behind an 18-wheeler now who is slowing down.

And if you can see the visibility here, this really gives you an idea of what people are up against on the roads. It's really treacherous out here. A state police official just told me there are spinouts all over the place. No serious injuries yet. But a lot of people have been in need of getting their cars removed from the roads and, of course, when you have to do that that clogs up the roads. It really delays the work of the snowplows and salt spreaders. So, it's a real problem out here on Interstate 93 in Massachusetts, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Brian Todd, stay safe. Thanks so much. Brian Todd reporting live from near Boston. And actually, I was in Boston over the weekend to visit my husband, and this is how big the snow piles are on the side of the road. This is on Traymond Street (ph) in Back Bay. It was like climbing a mountain. I felt victorious when I got to the top. And it was very hard to get down, make no mistake. But the thing I was wondering is if it snows another foot in Boston, where are they going to put all of the snow? I'm telling you, it's insane. Alexandra Field is out on the streets of Boston. She has the answer to my question. Good morning.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. They have got to do double duty during the storm because usually your focus would be just on treating these roads and getting the plows out, but during this storm they also have to deal with what's already here. I mean take a look at this snow bank that's been here since this blizzard hit last week. They got two feet of snow.

And they did do a pretty good cleanup job. They had schools closed for three days, but they got a lot of snow out of the streets. It's still piled high on the sidewalk and you have got, you know, inches of snow that have fallen this morning. And this thing is going to persist here in Boston until well after midnight. You know, Brian Todd was pointing out that there is not a travel ban.

And here in downtown Boston you can see that there are some cars out on the road this morning, but people have to move pretty slowly because a lot of these roads, you know, they have gotten a pass or two from the plows, but it isn't enough to keep up. We're looking at a snowfall rate of about one to three inches per hour at times this morning. Again, the whole area looking at maybe ten to 14 inches of snow before this day is done. That's why these piles are growing so quickly. And Carol, beyond picking up this snow and carting it off to snow farms, which is what the city has to do, they have got to bring it to these parking lots, where they just sort of plow over it and leave it there until it melts on its own out of the way.

Beyond this issue of dealing with the snow, it's really the temperatures that people here are concerned about. It's been brutally cold here this morning. Temperatures are going to plummet here today and that's when you get a serious problem with the snow turning to ice. These are conditions that are really going to be very tough for people later today and into tomorrow, Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, it's dangerous just to be outside because it was very cold over the weekend too. It was hard to breathe. You know, it hurts your lungs when you breathe in very cold air. It's going to be worse today, right?

FIELD: Yeah. It sure is. And I think we are all really feeling it. We woke up here and it was about 14 degrees and then people do know that the temperatures are going to continue to drop. And, you know, not just in Boston, but across the state so people get this sort of, you know, a double hit between the snow and the temperatures. But, Carol, on this very cold day in Boston, there is some comfort in last night's victory. I think that's keeping a lot of spirits very high here today. A lot of people, they would take last night if they had to deal with today, it's not even a question. They'll take it.

COSTELLO: And you know the good thing schools are closed. Universities are closed. Many workplaces are closed. If you had a Super Bowl party and - a little too much, you can sleep in this morning. Fantastic.

FIELD: Yes, for kids in New England this is a dream come true when the Super Bowl stay home today.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Alexandra Field, thanks so much. And try to stay warm.

For millions of snow weary Americans, today's storm feels like Groundhog Day at the movie. For this chubby cheek rodent, it's literally Groundhog Day. Yes, it is Groundhog Day today. It was a chance for Punxsutawney Phil to deliver new hope that the end of winter is near, but alas, in Pennsylvania this morning, Punxsutawney saw his shadow and he predicted six more weeks of dreaded winter. So does meteorologist Chad Myers agree?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, of course.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: Spring starts in March.

COSTELLO: A rodent can't be wrong.

MYERS: No, of course, he has a fur coat. Why would he be wrong? You know, we know when spring starts, it's on the calendar. It's all we get. We are still in the winter. But you know what, it's 29 degrees and raining here, Carol. This is going to be an ugly evening for parts of New York State, New York city especially. People didn't really take this seriously because they knew it was going to rain for a while. But they don't realize, it's going to be 11, 11 degrees tonight.

All of the snow that we are seeing across parts of upstate New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, yes, it's coming down and it's coming down hard, but this place is going to freeze up like a hockey rink later on today. That's the big problem here. The snow was spread out from Nebraska with crashes on I-80 between Lincoln and Omaha, through Chicago all of the way to Detroit, Cleveland, Punxsutawney had rain and then a little bit of snow and then mixed in back cold again and all of the way to Boston.

This is a widespread snow event. Not the one like we had last week where it just kind of missed New York with a foot and then got three feet into Boston. This is a long duration, long spread storm. So many more people affected this week than last, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, at least we're not alone in our misery. We take small comfort in that. Chad Myers, thanks so much.

Still to come in the "NEWSROOM," today's winter snowstorm is not only a problem for people in the northeast, it is snarling air travel across the country. The latest on the thousands of flight delays and cancellations next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This morning's massive winter snowstorm sabotaging travel plans across the country. According to flightaware.com, more than 3,600 flights in the United States have already been canceled or delayed today. CNN's Jean Casarez joins me live from New York's LaGuardia Airport with more. Good morning, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Carol, those numbers keep going up. I mean the weather seems to be getting a bit better out there than it was in the early morning hours, but the flights are still being canceled. And here at LaGuardia I think more passengers are arriving. But let's look at the boards. That tells the true story. It's still not good here. You see a lot of flights are delayed, but a lot of them are still canceled. If you are flying to Phoenix at all or the West Coast, there are a lot of flights that are canceled out to the West Coast today.

So, people are just sort of sitting around. You know, I spoke with a ticket agent from American and they told me that they hope to get flights off the ground at 11:30 this morning, but those flights are already booked, and so the people who already have had their flights canceled are going to have to be fit in today or tomorrow and that's why passengers just continue to sit around and wait and hope to get on that flight. But a lot of people haven't even come to the airport because they knew ahead of time that they weren't getting off the ground. Carol. COSTELLO: The only thing that makes me feel a little better is that what - there's only a month and a half left of winter and then we're in the spring, right?

CASAREZ: Maybe.

(LAUGHTER)

CASAREZ: Maybe.

COSTELLO: I hear you. I do, Jean. Jean Casarez reporting live from LaGuardia. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the "NEWSROOM," ISIS continues its brutal killing spree murdering a second Japanese hostage. But is the terrorist group's strategy a failure? Could ISIS soon become a thing of the past? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Japan's prime minister outraged and vowing to make ISIS pay after learning that the second of two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto, has been beheaded. Goto's death coming just days after an ISIS video showed him holding a picture of the corpse of another man, Haruna Yukawa. The two caught up in a $200 million ransom demand to secure their safety and demand that Japan refused. And the men are the latest hostages to be killed by ISIS. Seven in all in recent months. The U.S. maintains that airstrikes in that region have halted ISIS' gains, but may not get rid of the group all together.

Now, a former CIA operative says the last days of ISIS could actually be ushered in by a group of people who currently live near the organization.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: I've asked people in Anbar province in Syria what to do about them and people that actually live side by side by the Islamic State and they said these people are going to collapse. They can't govern. It's a matter of time. They're not quite sure that the bombings are going to speed up their demise, but they don't give it, you know, more than months they think the thing is going to fall apart, simply because they are so crazy. And they can't govern, as I said. And you're going to see a lot of Sunni Muslims. They are Sunni Muslims turning against them and this will eventually happen and we should be patient.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Kimberly Dozier is a CNN global affairs analyst, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling is a CNN military analyst and Yuki Tatsumi is a senior associate. Senior associate in the East Asia program at the Stimson Center. Welcome to all of you.

YUKI TATSUMI, SENIOR ASSOCIATE EAST ASIA PROGRAM STIMSON CENTER: Thanks for having me. COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So, General Hertling, is Bob Baer right? Is ISIS soon going to fall because it's just crazy?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: He's partly right, Carol. I believe that they will implode from the various factors that they're involved with that they can't govern. They can pay people to do things. They certainly have the treasury to do that. But they cannot govern. They're going to infuriate the people amongst whom they live right now and you'll see the continued kind of strategic mistakes that they made, which were some of the same mistakes that al Qaeda made before the awakening movement. And everyone claims that the awakening was something the U.S. military did. Absolutely not. That was driven by the sheikhs of Anbar providence, which spread because people in Iraq were sick of the atrocities of al Qaeda much like they are sick of the atrocities of ISIS now.

COSTELLO: So, Yuki, by pulling Japan into this mess, you know, Japan doesn't really have a dog in this fight, right, because it's just sending humanitarian aid. It's not militarily fighting ISIS. And some experts say that it was a huge miscalculation by ISIS and it just makes them look even worse and may pull Japan militarily into the fight. Do you agree?

TATSUMI: For the - in the short-term, I disagree. I think - I don't think a military option is in Japan's card. Japan's assistance and engagement with the Middle East has always been primarily humanitarian and the grassroots in its nature and even with this tragic, tragic incident, I don't think that approach fundamentally will not change. And the Prime Minister Abe, I believe, has already indicated that he fully - his government fully intends to expand, if anything, humanitarian assistance to the Middle East countries.

COSTELLO: But the prime minister, Yuki, is speaking in a way we don't often here Japanese prime ministers speak. He says, you know, he's vowing revenge against ISIS.

TATSUMI: Carol, you're absolutely right. That's not the type of speech that we're used to hearing from Japanese leader. However, the term make those who are responsible pay has a lot of meanings here, I believe, and then I do think that Prime Minister Abe's intention is that to demonstrate that Japan will not cease its humanitarian aid that has already - it has already been providing. It speaks larger than anything of Japan's resolve against terrorism threat.

COSTELLO: So, Kimberly, these two Japanese hostages have been killed. Still no proof of life, you know, from that this Jordanian pilot is still alive. What do you make of that at this point?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, at this point for the short-term, the ISIS strategy is working. The focus on hostages from the international media has kept us from talking about the fact that they have just staged a strategic retreat from the town of Kobani. That's a town that we were all writing about last fall saying that the fact that ISIS was holding it showed that the coalition air strikes weren't working and the overall strategy wasn't working. Well, ISIS itself admitted on its own media platforms that the

bombardment was so intense it had to withdraw. We're talking about hostages that's helping to drive the funding, that's still helping drive recruiting. I agree, however, with Mark that in the long-term it will be ISIS' ability to govern that's going to spell their longevity or failure.

At this point, they can keep sustaining recruits, but with the more hostages that they take and kill, international aid groups are going to stop providing the kind of aid that's keeping pockets of Syrians in places they rule alive. The responsibility is going to fall to them and eventually governing is hard, supplying food, water electricity consistently is hard and the people within those areas will start to ask for help. That's what happened in Kobani.

COSTELLO: Well, General, they might also rebel against ISIS, right?

HERTLING: I believe so, and to follow along with what Kimberly just said, about their ability to continue to draw recruits, I think they're beginning to falter in that area, too. And they will do more of that. One of their major draws is from Jordan. Jordan is infuriated by what's going on about the reluctance to show proof of life of Muath al-Kasasbeh, the lieutenant, the pilot, and it has actually turned in Jordanians that might otherwise support ISIS and there are a good percentage of those in that country that do support ISIS against it.

They have a tribal affiliation and then governmental. But they are beginning to back the Jordanian government because they see Lieutenant Muath al-Kasasbeh, they are calling him, to be one of their own and that's driving their recruitment efforts of ISIS Jihadis down significantly in Jordan. This was a strategic mistake on many different levels. And I think we're beginning to see the extermination of the path that ISIS has taken in the past.

COSTELLO: General, I hope you're right. Kimberly Dozier, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and Yuki Tatsumi, thanks to all of you. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the "Newsroom" from deflated to pumped up, MVP Tom Brady and Patriots coach Bill Belichick getting ready to talk about their big win live from Phoenix. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Let's go briefly to Phoenix, shall we. You see a podium set up there. It's awaiting Tom Brady and then Bill Belichick. Chris, as you know, Tom Brady was the MVP from yesterday's big Super Bowl win. When they both take the podium, of course, we'll take it live back to Phoenix. So, stick around. We have to talk about the weather first.

The record snow is bearing the Midwest, Detroit seeing its snowiest day in 40 years. Here is the total breakdown. The Motor City seeing 13.7 inches on Sunday. In the meantime, more than 16 inches helped Chicago reach its fifth largest snowstorm of all-time. Just over seven inches recorded in the city of Cleveland. The slush there is now refreezing and creating an icy and chaotic nightmare. Martin Savidge is in Cleveland this morning. Good morning.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. No record breaker here as far as snowfall, that's for sure. But it's an absolutely brutal day and that is because of the extreme cold and the wind. Let me show you something of real concern. The wind is bringing down power lines like these. This one is no longer charged so don't worry about it, but as a result, traffic signals in the major downtown area in some cases are out. That means that humans, police officers, have to stand in this brutal element and deal with the cold as they try to deal with the traffic as well. You've also got big drifts that build up. This is Public Square, the center of downtown Cleveland.