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Coverage of Winter Storm Jonas. Aired 12-1a ET.

Aired January 23, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:14] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And hello, everyone, this is breaking news. We are live from Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. We're with you for the next couple of hours, and then some for the storm.

I'm Natalie Allen.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And I'm George Howell. We are following the breaking news, this historic and deadly storm that is hitting the U.S. East Coast, and so far at least 8 people have been killed by the massive storm system, some 85 million people are in its path.

ALLEN: And we want to bring you the latest that we're hearing. Right now, more than 130,000 customers are without power in freezing temperatures, many of them dealing with the blizzard conditions and several major cities are facing snow totals up to 40 inches or more than a meter.

The county's air traffic is practically at a standstill with close to 8,000 flights canceled through Sunday.

HOWELL: Look in there at that image there. The U.S. Catholic can barely see it with all the snow coming down on Washington, D.C. And there, police are urging people to stay indoors and to stay off the roads. Virginia State Police tell us they have responded to nearly a thousand traffic accidents so far.

And our CNN Meteorologist tell us, "The worst is yet to come". So let's bring in Derek Van Dam to talk about the situation there ahead. So in the next couple of hours will pretty critical ...

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. We actually expect it to really ramp up in the overnight period and gets to its most severe state by early tomorrow morning, meaning Saturday local time on the eastern seaboard.

ALLEN: We were just getting going.

VAN DAM: Exactly. Exactly. Well, I mean, if this is a sign of things to come, then what we say is complete truth. That is Baltimore and it is whipping. And that's the major concern going forward, is when we combine the strong dusty winds with the heftier snow squalls that will come through. This is the latest radar at the moment. And really it's an impressive storm, but we do expect these areas that are kind of dotted about in terms of the snowfall to start to fill in. Once the storm system starts to materialize going forward over the next 3, 6, 12 and 24 hours, let me explain why.

We've zoomed into -- the major is Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. The area of low pressure that is starting to transfer its energy to the coast is still inland. But once we start to see that move to the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean, we're going to start to see what is called the bomb cyclogenesis, that's where we start to drop our millibar pressure by 24 millibars in a 24-hour period.

And that's significant because that will allow for the strengthen to occur, the gradient, and the winds, and the pressure starting to pick up in intensity. And we start to drive those snow bands inland including the New York area. That's the latest updates that we've been talking about. All the computer models starting to come and see agreement that New York City, the Big Apple, should see somewhat more snow than what we were talking about even 6, 12, 24 hours ago.

Here's the latest computer models, let's not pay attention too much to the exact totals here. We're anticipated anywhere from 10, perhaps to 15 locally higher amounts in the greater New York City area.

But any amount over 8 inches is crippling to a city like that with so many people millions people trying to get about their daily business. This is the latest advisories across the country, 31 million people under a blizzard warning. Remember, a blizzard constitutes not the amount of snowfall but it's the reduction in visibility, and the strong gusty winds over 35 miles an hour for three-hour periods.

That stretches from Washington to Baltimore, and into the greater New York City as well as Long Island. We talk about low pressure system, intensifying off the East Coast. This is the dynamics that are play here. We're starting to see that energy transfer from inland to the gulf's stream water, that's the warm water that's drawing that energy along the coast.

And once that happens, we see the load deepen, the strengthening of the winds occur and we almost get the equivalent of lake effect snow but along the ocean. This is called ocean effect snow. We'll start to see that bonding take place, some of those heavier snow squalls really only about five miles wide. Buy they could easily produce snow fall raise between 2 to 3 inches an hour.

So take a lot at this wind that we're anticipating. They will ramp up over night and especially into Saturday morning, along the eastern seaboard. Look at ocean's city, Atlantic City, easily wind gust between 60 to 70 miles per hour, add in this significant amount of snow that will be falling at that time and we're going to see the reduction in visibilities, making it extremely difficult to see outside.

How much snow? That's on everybody's mind. Well, let's answer that question for you. Look at the latest computer models. We all know that the bull's eye still lands from Philadelphia, points south westward, towards Washington, D.C. But as we travel a little further up the I-95 Corridor, that all important interstate that connects the major cities across the eastern seaboard.

[00:05:03] That area is going to get pummeled with easily 1.5 to upwards of 2 feet of snow depending on where you're located. And we have now included the greater New York City area, where we could, again, see to 10 to upwards of 16 inches of snow. That's a significant amount.

And what you're looking at now on the screen is visibility, so you can already see that we've dropped to a quarter or even half a mile into the nation's capital. So we're starting to enter into the first parts of what truly is the definition of a blizzard.

HOWELL: You know, Derek, even here in Atlanta, we saw a little snow on the back end of the storm.

VAN DAM: Yes, started to see those flurries in Atlanta but nothing like what they are going to experience.

HOWELL: No, that's the focus right now there in Baltimore, D.C. New York, and we're all over there. Thank you.

ALLEN: And I guess the danger, too, Derek, is that this snow is going to go on 'till tomorrow afternoon, and people are going to want to get out.

VAN DAM: Let's not forget, it's not also the snow, but it's also coastal erosion which we'll talk later on in the show, and also just the blinding visibilities and subfreezing temperatures.

HOWELL: Derek, thank you.

VAN DAM: Thanks.

ALLEN: See you again soon. And we have correspondents up and down the East Coast in the impacted areas. From New York to Virginia, Jason Carroll is with us from New York right now. And Chris Welch is live from Washington.

Chris, let's start with you, because we continue to hear, and Derek just pointed out, Washington is now set in for many, many hours of snow, what is it like?

CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, it began about, oh, was it 9 or 10 hours ago now. We saw it, just start to come down as flurries. But over the course of the afternoon and this evening, we have seen it slowly but steadily increase.

Now, I would say right now, the winds are not as bad as they were a couple of hours ago. We have been seeing some pretty big gusts and actually some of these flakes are getting bigger as well.

Take a look at what we've got on the ground here. We're standing along the national mall. And I would say probably where we are right now, maybe four or five, maybe even a tiny bit more than that right here along the mall.

But these winds are going to be a real big problem as the night goes on. The National Weather Service tweeted just a short time ago, that between 1:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, that's when we're really going to see things picked up. We're talking about sustained winds of probably 30 miles per hour here. But gusts as you guts have already alluded to, going to be taking up in part of Maryland and other parts of the coast.

So things are going to get pretty bad. Now, thankfully, one thing we've seen change over the last few hours in that the cars behind me have really disappeared for the most part. That's one thing that we saw earlier today, that was a bit concerning because that mayor here in D.C. ask everyone to be off the streets as of 3:00 p.m.

We already know the government offices all closed, shut down. The national mall, parks shut down at noon. But 3:00 p.m. is when they ask people to get off the road. And for several hours after that 3:00 p.m. deadline, we were seeing numbers of cars come by here. We were seeing groups of people still wondering by.

Now, we're still seeing the occasional passer by but now thing what we saw earlier. So that's one good sign because we know the storm is going to get worse as the night goes on, and we know we have seen the incidents that have happened so far. The fatalities that have happened so far, as the result of this storm, have been due to traffic accidents.

So the roads are not good out there. That's one reason to stay off of them. But the other reason is to emergency crews can get out and do their jobs.

ALLEN: All right. And, Chris, Washington metro slows about an hour ago, how long is it prepared to stay shut down?

WELCH: Well, things have been picking up pretty steadily here. But here, we could really start to see accumulations overnight into tomorrow. It will continue 'till tomorrow night. We could see a record broken here. We could see 2.5 feet, and that would break a record that was set back in 1922 of 28 inches.

And a few hours ago, the mayor and other city officials had said, things were looking to continue on that same track, those predictions of possible reaching 2.5 feet so this really could be one for the history books here in D.C.

In terms of airports here, of course, the similar story all along the eastern seaboard reports here, essentially shut down a few hours ago. And they're really not expected to open up again, until this ends, Sunday evening, with limited flights going out Sunday night, Natalie.

ALLEN: All right. Chris Welch for us live there in the nation's capital, thank you. Over to George.

HOWELL: And as Chris suggested there, the big question, will this storm break records?

Let's go live to Times Square, Jason Carroll there on the streets of New York. Jason, good to have you with us.

So, you know, we are hearing from our meteorologist, they are expecting more snow than first predicted. Anywhere from 10 to 15, maybe even 18 inches of snow. What are you seeing there?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, let's talk about records. We're not going to be seeing records here in New York City.

[00:09:59] Throughout the day, actually, George, we've been hearing about that prediction about 1 foot to 1.5 foot of snow likely here in New York City, whether here in Manhattan, maybe a little bit more out in some of (inaudible) like Brooklyn.

But right here in Times Square, you can see gentle snow falling, it's been falling steadily now for about the past hour or so, New York City under a blizzard warning until about 4:00 a.m., once again, expecting about 1 foot to 1.5 of snow.

We're also under a towards a winter weather emergency. That's until about 8:00 a.m. the reason for that is because about at that hour, that's when we're expecting to see most of the significant snowfall at least in our area. The mayor encouraging people to stay off the roads so emergency vehicles can get through.

Some 2,300 sanitation workers are working 12 hours shifts, some 600 snowplows out in the road. We've seen out here on the streets, a number of salt spreaders that have been out here in the streets, keeping the streets clear.

In terms of people being out here, in Times Square, basically at this hour, they've just been out here enjoying it, George and Natalie, because, once again, we're not expect to receive the worst of the snow in this area until tomorrow morning.

Again, we're waiting to see what the predictions will hold. Will it be a foot, will it be a foot and a half? About 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, we should know, George and Natalie.

HOWELL: Jason, interesting to see you and your live shot there. And people in the background, the Yorkers just going out there. Their night, it's not a problem until it's a problem for them.

But what is the sense of people that you've spoken to about the storm that's coming? Is there a concern? Are people prepared to stay indoors as this thing passes through?

CARROLL: Well, George, you know, New York City. New City has seen its fair share of winter storms unlike a place like Washington, D.C. or Baltimore for example.

So New Yorkers are used to this. City officials are used to dealing with snowstorms. It's January, it's New York City. So they're expecting to receive snowstorms like this. Again, 1 foot and 1.5 is significant in terms of historic storms. Does it rank in terms of historic storms? No.

So New Yorkers are prepared for snowstorms like this. The city is prepared. The state is prepared as well. The governor speaking earlier about this, saying, look, we're going to evaluate the situation, we're going to pull back on our resources if need be. If we need to beep up, in terms of resources, ready for that as well.

HOWELL: New Yorkers prepared, Jason Carroll, live for us in New York. Thank you so much for your reporting.

ALLEN: We have correspondents up and down the eastern seaboard. Wen we comeback here, we'll check in with Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Live reports as we push on in our breaking news here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:11:47] HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world, looking at a live picture in Baltimore from Washington. Affiliate WJLA and, again, we are actually seeing the White House here, D.C. You see the snow on the ground there.

And this area really in the bull's eye, as this storm system hits the East Coast. The worst is yet to come, the snow will continue coming down through Saturday.

ALLEN: White House doesn't even look too white, does it? The snow there is out whiting the White House. And welcome back, everyone.

Weather experts say the storm will explode as well. Once it picks up moisture over the Atlantic Ocean, some areas can expect up to 40 inches or 1 meter of snow. Travelers can forget about really getting anywhere in these regions. More than 7500 flights have been canceled so far this weekend, and a number of major highways are shut down.

HOWELL: Here is the thing there, there have already been deaths reported from this storm. At least eight people have died due to the weather and in related traffic accidents.

We're covering this story from all angles. We have meteorologist following the weather events and reporters in the field in various cities that will be hardest hit.

Let's start in Fairfax, Virginia. That's where our Nick Valencia is on the ground for us. Nick, good to have you with us.

So if you could tell us about the situation there. We understand that Virginia police, they responded to nearly 1,000 traffic crashes on Friday. What's the situation on the roads now?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And miraculously none of those crashes were really major crashes, George. No fatalities to report here in the state of Virginia. I just come to phone to Virginia Department of Transportation. And they do tell us, this is the hour they were really concerned about, this midnight hour when that heavy snow is starting to fall. It's been a light dust really all day long. But that snow has started to accumulate as we pan our cameras over here.

You can see this is Route 50, connector with Interstate 66, any of those folks watching at home, familiar with this area, the D.C. area, Northern Virginia. This doesn't usually look like this at all. I mean you have some emergency vehicles and folks towing some equipment there, you also see are a lot of plows on this interstate.

The operative word I think here is preparation. Virginia really did so much to repair, training the contractors that work with VDOT for a condition like this for a storm system like this.

The real extensive preparations started late last night around 7:00 p.m. The thousands of plows, these thousands of heavy equipment, heavy machinery that the officials here are using to treat the roads started to get the salts and brines are just stage in the areas right before the storm settled in around this afternoon.

We've been out here all day, George. And what we've seen between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. Eastern is that snow really started to pick up on the back half (ph) at 6:00 p.m. until about 9:00 p.m. That wind really started to settle in, really made it uncomfortable for anyone know is outside including our news crew.

But the story of the day, of course, is the snow. And let's get down in here. Look at all this accumulation. We hear from our local affiliates, about 7 inches of snow accumulating here on the ground.

Charlotte here in Virginia, we have a reporter, local affiliate reporter over there I just spoke to. They said they got up to 1 foot of snow. They're expecting more and more of this to come throughout the weekend.

Of course, Natalie was talking about the estimation of up to 40 inches over the next three days.

[00:20:03]That's early into Sunday and it's just insane when you think about it that this snow is just going to be nonstop.

The concern for local officials is that, folks are going to get really comfortable and they're going to start to come out and check out the scene around them. See what the snow fall did to there area. That's exactly what the officials don't want you to do.

So if you are watching us, better heed the advice of these local officials. They know what they're talking about. We see here the snowplows are still coming. Those roads are going to be treated, all these hours overnight. We'll send it back to you in the studio.

HOWELL: Nick, always interesting to see, you know, in a situation like this, the only thing you see on those roads are the snowplows. Busy highway like that, no one's really out and about.

VALENCIA: Yeah. You know, that's the interest thing. You know, when you look at these roads, George. I mean this is a big connector, a major connector in throughout this area, throughout this region. You look across this, you know, four-lane highway, the other side, clear the other side, the only vehicles that we're seeing come and go are the snowplows, are those energy vehicles.

I mean, we could walk right on out there if we wanted to. Of course that's not the safe thing to do. But really, you know, it is quite impressive to see a state that is used to getting a severe weather, severe winter weather deal with it.

You know, the preparation is leaps and bounds ahead of some other states. And the south that we've seen prepared, specifically Atlanta, where we're located. You know what happens there when we get just an inch or two of snow.

Here, the preparation, well under way, these plows coming through here every couple of minutes. Just incredible to see this sight, and to see how well and how coordinated the effort is here to keep the residents safe, George.

HOWELL: Happy to tell you, the Mayor Kasim Reed and Governor Nathan Deal are very prepared this go around. Had basically businesses close early. State government workers leave early and the city was really a ghost town before 5:00.

Nick Valencia, though, thank you so much for your reporting live in Fairfax, Virginia.

ALLEN: All right. Well, now we're going to take you to Philadelphia. That's where we find our Sara Ganim. She's out to the conditions there. We've been had all of our news guys come on. 22 minutes in the hour and a half time for hardy news chick for CNN.

And you've been out there for a while, how are the conditions?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Natalie. Great to talk to another female anchor as well. Well, you know, we're out here, this is the kind of snow, it hit me right away when we got out here. This is kind of snow you can hear it when it falls on your jacket, because it's wet. This is the fun kind of snow, the kind that you want to make snowballs with.

Take a look over here, the accumulation didn't start falling here until about 7:00. So it that just a few hours, you've got a solid three inches here. And like I said, this is the hard stuff. This isn't -- oh, well, that's a little light and fluffier. But when you hit, you get it off the ground, it is certainly wet and sticks to everything. And that includes, of course, the streets, we could see the streets over here actually pretty empty right now.

But all evening, we've been seeing people in Philadelphia continue to enjoy their Friday night. So you still see cars on the road. You still see people walking through the streets. Not exactly heading home quite yet, although it's a little quieter out now than it was before. Because as the people have drive down, what's been dialing up is those wind gusts. It's not too bad out here right now, but when they hit you, as you can see, they can really hit you hard. They hit you in the face and the eyes. And the snowflakes really stick to you.

Take a look if you can at some of the flags out here, just to give you an idea of what the wind has been like out here. When those gusts of wind hit, it can really hurt.

Now, Philadelphia, of course, prepared for this. They started brining these streets on Wednesday knowing that this storm would come. They have 400 plows that are out in the city right now, another 450 out in the suburbs.

They are expecting between 12 and 22 inches in just a 24-hour period, which is more than this city typically gets in the entire month of January. So in preparation, they've got 600 crew members out in the city working. They're really harping on people to go home tonight and stay home for the next 24 to 36 hours.

Get a book, watch a movie. Because this is going to only get worse. It looks kind of fun out here right now, that's going to end pretty quickly overnight.

They're also doing things like making sure cars are off the streets so they can probably plow. And also have they put into effect a code blue. If you see a homeless person out on the streets of Philadelphia, call the police so they can get them to a shelter tonight.

You know, starting at 4:00 a.m., the subways are going to shutdown. The airports have already -- the airport here in Philadelphia already shutdown. There will be no flights leaving here tomorrow. This is really a town, they're prepared for it, of course, but they're also bracing for a lot of snow, George and Natalie.

[00:25:04] ALLEN: Yeah. An emergency vehicle going right through your live shot is a reminder that people need to stay off the streets, because those vehicles will need access as we push on here through the weekend.

Sara Ganim, for us try and stay warm, Sara, we appreciate. Now , it's George.

HOWELL: Sara says, "Get a book, read a book, stay indoors," not a bad idea.

Let's go now to neighboring New Jersey, though. CNN's Ryan Young on the shores for us there. Ryan, good to have you with us.

I see you are dressed ready for this storm that's coming in. I know that New Jersey is mostly concerned though about the hours to come. The storm surge and the possibility of coastal flooding, how are officials preparing for all of that?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George, how you doing? You know, we talked earlier this evening as we talked during the dinner hour, I told you there was not a lot of snow here on the ground.

Now that has changed. As you look behind me, look at the winter wonderland that's been left behind. At least make about two inches accumulated here on the ground.

We've seen heavy crews come through here. Clearly snow at some points where now, you can see, it's starting to collect.

But the real warning that you talked about. The flooding, the coastal flooding that they're worried about. There's a full moon, a high tide, that combination has worried about water levels the same as like Hurricane Sandy..

Now, we'll take you back this direction. We have a light position towards the water, George. So, you can see how high the water is. This is what they're concerned about. When Hurricane Sandy hit this area, this entire pier was washed away.

In fact, an officer came over here to talk to us today and told us the water was at this level during that Hurricane Sandy period. I'm about six feet tall. It was more than waist deep. In fact, the water flooded this entire area, knocking out the first floor to all of these buildings down here.

Fire truck actually got stuck right there behind that black SUV, that was the area where the fire truck was stuck before. So, that's what they're concerned about.

On top of that, there is a wind warning. After mid-night, they were telling us, we could experience wind gusts above 60 miles per hour. So, you put that together in a combination, George, and people are obviously worried about the condition.

The snow -- they're not worry about just yet, because obviously, it doesn't collected enough, but the water and the fact that he could not kind of hear again or recreate that costal flooding, that's something they're obviously concerned about.

HOWELL: Ryan Young live for us in New Jersey. And Ryan, yeah, we did speak around 6:00, you describe the situation as picturesque. What a difference a few hours make, right. Ryan, thank you.

YOUNG: Not, I mean, look -- differently.

ALLEN: Well, coming up here. We continue to push on in our coverage. The White House and the U.S. capital getting buried right now, yes, that is the capital doom barely the (inaudible) type of all there in our live shot.

A giant blanket being thrown at the Washington right now, and spreading along the eastern seaboard. We will talk with emergency officials about what the dangers are in the hours ahead.

We've got more live coverage for you right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [00:31:22] HOWELL: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN: And I'm Natalie Allen. This is a live picture from Baltimore, Maryland. As you can see, the storms kind of bearing down and the snow is going a bit sideways, because the wind is really doing a number as far as compiling this snowy night much in the East Coast.

Thanks for joining us for our special coverage on this storm now hitting the eastern U.S. It's barreling up the seaboard right now.

HOWELL: It is a big, big storm. Some 85 million people are in its path, facing heavy snow, gusty winds and bitter cold. It's also a deadly storm. At least eight people have died so far in weather- related traffic accidents.

ALLEN: There's a live picture of the White House right now. Officials are urging people to stay off the roads. Some areas could get as much as 40 inches in the next several hours. That's more than a meter of snow before this is done.

There's an example of the problems that they've seen on the streets already. Also, of course, airplanes are parked. They're not going anywhere. More than 7,600 flights have been canceled. That's through Sunday. Many airports in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region are completely shut down.

HOWELL: Right now, the storm has knocked out power to more than 130,000 customers across the southeastern part of the U.S. That means they're facing blizzard conditions with no electricity or heat, but additional crews are being deployed to get the lights and the heat back on for those folks.

The storm could dump 2.5, nearly a meter of snow on the nation's capital. Chris Welch is live in Washington and joins us to talk about the situation there.

And Chris, we just saw a picture of the White House and the visibility is greatly reduced. What's the situation from what you see?

WELCH: Yeah, George. The visibility is reduced, that's for sure. We're actually just a few blocks away from the White House where we're standing along the national wall here in Washington, D.C.

The Washington monument just behind us here, you really probably can't see it through our camera at this point because of visibility issue. That has -- the snow has really continued to pick up. It's a fine snow, but it's blowing pretty heavily and every so often will get a gust that comes through here and picks up the snow that sort of accumulated on the ground here, maybe about 5 inches or so.

But when that gust comes through and it hits you in the face, you can really feel how wet this snow is. And that's one of the concerns, just one of many of the concerns with this massive storm, that heavy wet snow that combined with the ice. Of course, we talked about the concerns over power outages. That's what happens when you have this kind of snow and ice together on the power lines and downing trees. It leads to a pretty nasty situation.

You know, we've seen a couple of cars still going by us here, but by and large, this time of the night, thankfully, we have sort of seen that stop at this point. And that's what officials wanted to see. Because they had asked everyone to be off the roads here at 3:00 p.m. in Washington, D.C.. And by and large, we're only seeing a few plows go by.

Here's a couple coming by us at this point right now, a few cars as well. But that's again, that's something that officials are urging everyone not to do.

They actually asked people here in Washington to stock up with enough water and enough food and enough to last them 72 hours, so, a few days. Because they really are predicting and asking people to plan for the worst here, because it could be a few days before you could get out.

If we do get that record snowfall that 2 1/2 feet would be a record here for D.C. It was 1922 when we saw 28 inches.

[00:35:02] I also just want to point out, George, here in D.C., the metro system, the underground transit system here in D.C. shut down just over an hour ago.

The airports here, both national and Dulles shut down roughly around 6:00 p.m., depending on which airline you talk to.

So, at this point, transportation, public transportation airlines essentially shut down here in Washington. And they were also-- It was the Washington Capitol's hockey game and for a while, look like it was possibly going to still happen today.

They'd moved it up to 5:00 p.m. But it sounded like at the urging of city officials because of this 3:00 p.m. deadline that they wanted people to be inside by, sounds like that had a big influence on the rescheduling of that game, so that has been postponed today.

HOWELL: Chris Welch, seems like no one there on the streets. They're in the nation's capital. But I'm sure a lot of people are thinking back to the blizzard of 2010, you know, hoping that they don't see, you know, the same type of bad conditions that they saw back then. Chris Welch, thank you so much for your reporting for us.

ALLEN: New York City could be in the storm's bull's eye as well. It may get as much as 16 inches of snow. That's more than 40 centimeters.

Jason Carroll is live for us in Times Square. And, Jason, we've been live to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, D.C., and the snow is coming down. And it's starting to come down there as well in Times Square. How's it going? CARROLL: Yes, Natalie. You've been live everywhere. Now, you're live here in Times Square where you can see, even though New York City is under a blizzard warning, tough to tell from what we're seeing out here, folks trying to have a snowball fight.

But as of yet, barely enough snow to be able to gather up and make a snowball. But if these guys are out here at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, it'd be much easier. That's when we're expected to receive most of the snow here in the city about a foot to a foot and a half.

Don't throw those snowballs over here, people. About 1 foot and 2.2 foot of snow is what we're expecting here in New York City.

We're also basically under a weather emergency. The mayor asking people to stay off the streets, that way allowing emergency crews to get out on the streets, plows as you can see keep salt spreader out there.

The streets are looking pretty good right now, Natalie. Once again, that's because we're not expected to see most of the snow for several hours yet. Probably around 8:00 a.m. is when New York City is going to see the brunt of the storm. The reason why so many people are still gathered out here in Times Square is because we don't have the wind.

The wind that they've been experiencing for their self, again, we're not expecting that until about several hours from now. So, things that right here in the city now looking pretty good. Folks out here at Time Square, having a good time and wondering what is going to look like here in Times Square tomorrow morning. Probably be a much different story.

ALLEN: Yeah. I would imagine. And are the bars and the restaurants there in that area, are they open right now or are they shut down?

CARROLL: As you can imagine, it's the city that never sleeps. And apparently it doesn't sleep even when it's under a blizzard warning.

We were coming up here, we noticed that a number of restaurants and bars were full.

And, in fact, Natalie, when we were downtown several hours ago with my producer, Yan (ph) and I, we noticed one of the liquor stores, the line was actually out the door and down the block. People stocking up on not just groceries, but apparently liquor as well.

ALLEN: Right. Forget the milk and the eggs and the bread. Get the booze, if they're going to be stock.

All right, Jason, good luck dodging those little lame snowballs, I know they're going to get bigger as the hours push on. Thank you, Jason.

Well, let's get an update on where the brunt of the storm is now. Derek Van Dam. Derek, you know, I know that you've got a big job ahead of you. But we can kind of just look at our correspondents in the different states.

VAN DAM: And I'm a bit jealous.

ALLEN: Yes. Someone then like -- like you said, Jason said he's not getting the win yet. The others have, and they look like they're freezing.

VAN DAM: But the storm is just ramping up, Natalie. And that's what we want to convey to our viewers tonight as you watch and get your updates throughout the course of the evening.

Now, this storm is just really beginning, and I'll explain why. But what I want to do is just kind of break down the impacts that we are anticipating that are already happening from this epic northeastern.

We've got our flight cancellations. Over 8,000 already littered across the eastern seaboard. Of course, multiple delays and that's going to have knock-on effects through the course of the weekend, even into the work week next week. So, plan ahead.

Road closures, obviously impacts from the ice and the snow. Coastal erosion, something that we haven't really honed in too much, which we'll cover in this weather bulletin and the power outrages. You get winds in excess of 50 to 60 miles per hour, and you've got the hefty snow or ice or a combination of both. And you can imagine what that actually adds up to.

Here's the infrared satellite. Now, just to give you an idea how expensive this storm is. It developed across the gulf coast states.

[00:40:01] It picked up moisture from the gulf of Mexico. And the actual low pressure system located right here in Tennessee and the Carolinas. But, we're going to start to see that energy transferred to a coastal load. That's when the traditional nor'easter symptoms or synoptic setup starts to begin. That's when we're going to start to see this thing really ramp up as it taps into Atlantic moisture and we see the gradient and the pressure.

And then all of a sudden, the winds pick up and that's when we start to see the banding of the snowfall and the extremely heavy snow take place.

Obviously temperatures are extremely crucial for a storm like this. You can see that rain/snow cutoff where temperatures are below of above freezing. Washington to New York, they are certainly below freezing. So we'll keep these all snow for you. But again, we are wrapping in the cold air as that energy transfers to our low pressure system.

Here's the coastal erosion concern as we go forward as the storm continues to deepen, the most intense part of the storm, 2:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. local time along the -- eastern seaboard. This is coinciding with not only high tide, which occurs early on Saturday morning, but also a full moon.

So the normal sea levels are going to be exaggerated by this strong on-shore wind and the full moon as well as the regular high tide. So it's possible we could see three to four feet of additional storm surge once the storm really gets cooking overnight, where the possibility of moderate to major coastal erosion especially some of those dune areas across this region from -- anywhere from Long Island to the Coast of New Jersey and Delaware.

We were going to be covering the storm all night. That's a little update from me for now and, Natalie, back to you.

ALLEN: Right. We know that some of those areas that you have highlighted there got hammered in Sandy and they're hoping for not for a repeat.

VAN DAM: I think it's important that we don't classify it like that, although we'll see similarities in some respects, it won't be as intent.

ALLEN: Right. They've build up there coast lines though for that storm surge that's expected, Derek, thank you. Over to George.

HOWELL: Derek Van Dam telling us from 2:00 a.m. until 8:00 a.m. the most critical time of course, we'll be covering it all. So more than 100,000 people, they lost power across the southeastern part of the U.S. as we told you earlier.

Joining us on the phone now, Randy Willis from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is the spokesman for the power company Duke Energy. Good to have you on the phone with us at this hour, sir.

So, first, let's talk about the situation with your crews and the work ahead to restore power to these many, many customers.

RANDY WILLIS, SPOKESMAN, DUKE ENERGY: Yeah. Right now, we've got about 130,000 customers without power. And it's fairly been an all day storm here through the Carolina's but we've got more than 7,000 workers who will be in the fields starting tomorrow morning. We can make big impact on these outages and get people back up.

HOWELL: So what's the situation on the roads now as your crews go out and about? Are you finding that it's pretty treacherous to get to these areas, or do you feel at the roads have been treated pretty fairly?

WILLIS: No, the roads are OK. I mean there's still a lot of areas where they're a little bit treacherous and we try to be as safe as we battled as we can but we battled many storms before. We know our employees know how safe on the roads and get to the areas that need power restoration and get people back without power.

HOWELL: Randy Willis, I know that there are some people who are watching this right now, hearing your voice. You know, and wondering, you know, maybe they know neighbors or people who may be out of power. What would you advice folks to do if they are out of power waiting for your crews to get there and restore power?

WILLIS: You know, when it gets a certain time of night and you have to make that decision of where you want to sleep at night, if you don't have power. Maybe there is a friend or a relative who does have power, you can sleep there. And conversely, maybe there neighbors or family members who are without of power and you have power. So it's always good to have a plan ahead of what happens if I don't have power and it's getting to be late at night and I need to do something.

HOWELL: Randy Willis on the line with us for Duke Energy. Randy, thank you so much for what's happening there in your state.

And we continue for all the breaking news coverage here on CNN. Ahead, we have a live report from the state of Virginia where crews are struggling to clear roads and police are on nonstop accident cleanup. Stay with us

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[00:45:00] HOWELL: Welcome back to the viewers in the U.S. and around the world. We continue to follow this massive storm that is hitting the U.S. East Coast right now. Bring you a lot of snow and a lot of wind.

ALLEN: Washington, D.C. already has 6 inches and they've got many, many more hours to go.

Let's go now to Northern Virginia. That's where our Nick Valencia is standing out in the snow. And it looks to us, Nick, that conditions are worsening there. What can you tell us?

VALENCIA: Yeah. This is the peak hour from what we're told from the local officials here that they are really concerned about it. We want to walk through some fresh powder here just to show you just how deep this is. It's pretty, well, it's pretty miserable to kind of walk through this area.

We're just off the shoulder of Route 50 and Interstate 66. A main thoroughfare through this artery of the state and you could see, the only cars that are on the road, like this guy right here, this plow. These plows have been working around the clock.

I spoke earlier to Michelle Holland with the Virginia Department of Transportation. She tells me more than 4,300 vehicles are out on those roadways right now. They started prepping sometime around 7:00 p.m. last night, takes between 12 and 18 hours to get those vehicles already dissolved and brine those roads.

And they didn't start right away. They waited to that snow started falling initially otherwise the salt would have been kick off and it would have no traction on the interstate we're told. So, they waited, they staged and then they gotten to those hard head areas. Really wasn't teared system (ph), they just hit really everything all at once.

We spent the majority of the day there at the Virginia Department of Transportation talking a lot about, you know, the conditions that those folks, the drivers that are out on those roadways that had to deal with braving those conditions to make sure residents here in this area were safe if they were on the roads.

The great part about all of this, I guess, the good news in all of this here in Virginia is that people really listen. By about 2:00 to 3:00, we were noticing some of the lingering elements of these cars still on the roads, still on the interstate heading home. But by about 4:00 to 5:00, these interstate started to clear up. And now here, just after midnight, locally, it's empty by and large.

These roads getting well-treated throughout the morning hours, afternoon hours and this is going to continue overnight. Again, thousands of vehicles there out on those roadways, and if you are on the roadways, probably better to get back inside. Everyone, though, seeming to listen to the local officials here and take precautions. And it works.

ALLEN: Yeah. Until the flood come out tomorrow, there is really no reason to be out tonight when you say blizzard.

Nick Valencia, we appreciate you staying with us.

[00:50:00] And I guess, if you can stay anything positive about this blizzard, George, is that it's hitting on the weekend.

HOWELL: That's true.

ALLEN: And everyone had a chance to go inside.

HOWELL: As opposed to 5:00 p.m. like rush hour traffic, that would be bad. So, this is good in that sense. We to continue to follow the breaking news of this historic winter storm in the U.S.

Up next, we'll check with our Derek Van Dam at the weather center who is following what you could expect in the hours ahead. Stay with us.

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ALLEN: Well, coming up on 1:00 in the morning on the East Coast and if you're one of the 85 million people ...

HOWELL: That's a lot of people.

ALLEN: ... who could be impacted by this, we hopefully, you're under blankets and in front of the fire and you have power as you watch the storm.

HOWELL: And watching CNN as well and good to have you, Derek Van Dam, with us to give us the very latest. So, you're saying between 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast, the most critical, right?

VAN DAM: That's when we think that the storm is really going to ramp up. That's when we have the potential for strongest winds the unsure bending of snow, especially along the coast of New Jersey, Long Island and to Delaware as well as Maryland. Here's our winter storm warnings, 30 million people under a blizzard warning, OK. 33 million people under a winter storm warning.

[00:55:00] That stretches across the Carolinas and into Kentucky as well. And there are also over 20 million people under a coastal flood warning.

So there's just a multitude of dangers associated with this power outages, certainly a concern. So, who's going to get the most snow? That's on everyone's mind. Our bull's eye still centered over Washington, D.C. and points around that area. Philadelphia, you'll experience the potential for 18 to 24 inches of snow.

But what I've highlighted here is that, the new computer models, including New York City in that 10 to perhaps upwards of 16 inches of snow. This is the forecast, differences between the global model and the European model for the "Big Apple".

And we're talking about sweet inheres (ph) here really but it does look pretty solidly that we'll get at least a foot of snow, which is quite crippling for a city that size.

Washington, D.C., you double that and you've got major problems. That's obviously our concern that we've been talking about for the past several days. Philly, you're also on the some of those big snow totals as well. We'll monitor the storm for the rest of the night.

ALLEN: Yes.

HOWELL: Derek, thank you and we'll stay in touch with you, you know. So, it can be really hard to think of a storm like this as mesmerizing if you're out shoveling the snow or you're out in the middle of it, that's no fun ...

ALLEN: And we have ...

HOWELL: ... to look at this.

ALLEN: We've a picture that shows that how mesmerizing this storm is. I think, U.S. satellite took this incredible image of the blizzard n Monday as it barreled toward the East Coast. So, that is what people are sitting under right now.

HOWELLL: Derek, it's such a big storm.

VAN DAM: It is. And you can actually see how it was gathering some of that Gulf of Mexico moisture, all of that, the shading of white, it's almost making a line. That's the cold front associated with low. And it's kind of wrapping in the moisture as it eventually making its way to the East Coast.

You can see the East Coast too by all the lights there. There's clearly New York City all the way to D.C.

HOWELL: And not done with this yet. Derek Van Dam, thanks. We'll stay in touch and we thank you for being with us this hour. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN: Natalie Allen. We're back in just a few minutes with another hour of live coverage as the blizzard presses down.

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