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Coverage of aftermath of the huge winter storm affecting millions and millions of people; New poll shows Donald Trump surging far ahead of Senator Ted Cruz in that crucial state; 5-6p ET

Aired January 24, 2016 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Thousands of flights are canceled today. 17.8 inches of snow fell at Washington Reagan's national airport. The fourth largest snowfall ever recorded there. 28.3 inches falling on Virginia's Dulles international airport. The second largest snowfall there. And in Baltimore's airport, new record, 29.2 inches of snow fell.

Our live team of reporters across the nation's capital, aviation correspondent Rene Marsh, meteorologist Jennifer Gray both in Washington.

Rene, let me begin with you. Usually I'm happy to see an airport that's completely empty. Today not for a good reason.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You're right, not for good reasons. I mean, the TSA line doesn't exist. There is no one in this airport besides us and a few airport workers.

Poppy, flights are still grounded in the Washington, D.C., area. You can see canceled all up and down the boards here. We are still waiting for official word as to when things will start to get up and running here in the Washington, D.C., area. The belief is that possibly tomorrow. We just don't have any clarity on that that's definitely happening and, if so, what time it will happen.

But I do have some good news for some passengers. If you're in the New York City area or traveling to that area, there is limited -- there are limited operations out of New York City airports. When you talk about Philadelphia, same situation, limited operations. Baltimore also seeing limited operations.

But you know, everyone wants to know when are things going to be back to normal? What the airlines are saying is they have been able to rebook a lot of these passengers. Some of them will get out tomorrow at some of these airports we just listed, but some of them will have to wait throughout the week before their flights are able to get them to their destinations.

So moral of the story, patience, patience, patience because it really is going to take some time for them to get back up to speed, Poppy.

HARLOW: No question, patience the operative word here, if you're trying to fly just about anywhere along the east coast.

Thank you so much, Rene. Appreciate it.

To Jennifer Gray now for us. When you look at the difference a day makes, Jennifer, I mean, no more whipping winds, no more snowfall but now it's all about the big dig. And a lot of people point to Washington and they say, they always seem to struggle so much with a little bit of snow let alone a lot. How are they doing?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, they are not used to it, you know. Mid-Atlantic. They're almost up there in the northeast with some of the cities that deal with it quite a bit, but they really don't, you know. And kudos to the city officials and the crews are out all night plowing these streets because a lot of the major thoroughfares are looking much, much better. But it's all those secondary roads and roads in the neighborhoods, those are the ones that are going to take a while just to get this city back up and going.

This is a big city. And so, it is going to take a while. The other concern, Poppy, will be the temperature. It was beautiful today. Blue skies, temperatures got right above freezing, but we did see some melting. And so, on the sidewalks, the streets especially. That's all going to refreeze overnight. And so, we are going to see its icy conditions in morning. So I know people are antsy to get back to work, get back on the roads. But just keep that in mind. You'll see black ice before the morning. And so, it is going to be extremely dangerous. That's part of the reason why they canceled school tomorrow. Of course, we have that press conference there. We are going to be taking live any moment now. So we'll hear from the mayor and get more updates.

But this is a huge snowstorm for D.C. We had areas that received almost 30 inches of snowfall. And so, we have Dulles ranked at number two, and then Reagan ranked number four in snowiest storm ever recorded.

So I think D.C. handled it very well. There were no fatalities here. Only a handful of people this morning without power. And so, it could have been much worse. So I think that the big dig is getting under way and they'll recover quickly.

HARLOW: And what about the public transportation? Because I was reading a little bit earlier, still very limited bus service, metro service for the commute tomorrow.

GRAY: Yes, metro service is going to be on a very limited basis once again tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll find out more when we hear from the mayor, but as far as we know just limited service again on Monday. Maybe Tuesday things will be back up and running a little bit smoother, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Maybe get the day off work. Not the worst thing.

Jennifer Gray, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Again, we are watching this press conference about to begin with Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. We'll bring that to you as soon as we have it.

Before I do that, though, I want to go to Nick Valencia. He is in Fairfax, Virginia.

Nick, quite a night there last night. I mean, we were talking about fatalities. I believe you said five fatalities in Virginia because of this storm, is that right?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Five fatalities, four of them for hypothermia. It was just so cold here overnight, the bone chilling cold that really those wind gusts picked up later in the evening, 40, 50-mile-per-hour winds, 30 inches of snow in Fairfax, Virginia, 1400 accidents. More than 2,000 disabled vehicles. And there would have likely been a lot more had it not been for individuals like this.

Crew guys out there putting stuff like this on the roads, a nice mixture of sand and salt to make sure that those roadways were manageable for those that weren't paying attention to government officials, who weren't staying off those roads.

It wasn't necessarily too big of a problem here in Virginia. Majority of those accidents that I mentioned were minor fender benders. But of course, you know, it really was 34 hours of constant downfall of snow. It got really chilly after a while. That snowfall just got pretty annoying actually after a while.

The big concern today, of course, is among the power crews. We were talking to power companies yesterday. They said today they were worried that trees would not start getting saturated with water, falling down into power lines and that would eventually cause power outages.

We haven't seen too many of those happened around the area here in where we are in Fairfax. We did have majority of the damage felt in the commonwealth of Virginia about three hours south of us here. The good news now, it is about 15 degrees warmer than yesterday. That is, of course, happy news here for residents that just got socked really, really hard by this winter storm. And it was a fatal one here. You know, five people dying across the state, Poppy.

[17:06:31] HARLOW: Yes. Well now it's the cost, right? The cost of the cleanup. What are they looking at?

VALENCIA: Well, the governor spoke about that earlier. And he said it was between $2 million and $3 million per hour. He said this could very well be the most expensive storm that's in the history of Virginia, perhaps upwards of $100 million. And I'm sure a lot of that money is going to provide services for these subcontractors, 4,000 pieces of heavy equipment. That includes those spreaders, the snow plows, just heavy machinery out there on the roads trying to make sure that they're drivable.

Schools closed tomorrow, lots of businesses remain closed. We did see some of the businesses really hit hard. In fact, even the professional football team here, the Washington Redskins had their practice facility in Virginia. The roof of it deflated just from the pressure of the snow that piled on top. It could have been much worse. There was a strip mall that also collapsed due to that heavy snowfall. Today, though, again, better news, sun stopped and snowing, or sun stopped falling I should say. And it is a little warmer out here today -- Poppy.

HARLOW: I'm glad to hear it. For everyone there and you and your crew who are working so hard through the thick of it last night. Thank you so much, Nick. I appreciate it.

I want to go to Tom Sater in the CNN severe weather center.

And Tom, when you look at this, I mean, the big concern now is the commute. Driving into work here today in New York, none of that black ice that I saw on the highway, but I know they're really worried about it in Washington, D.C. and going into tomorrow when the temperatures get below freezing again.

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And Poppy, it's not just going to be tonight into tomorrow morning, it's going to be for some places when you look at the mass of real estate that's been covered in snow, this is going to happen every night for the next possible five nights. And so because of that, schools in some cases, as you look at Kentucky down into Carolina, south and North Carolina, parts of rural Virginia, this could be closed for days because of the freezing.

Now, the sun is going to do us a lot of good. There is no doubt about it. This is the actual snowfall that fell and everything in this fuchsia color is, you know, two feet or more. So again it's not just the ice and the roads and the sidewalks, if it looks wet just think of it as wet. But the ice is going to fall off roofs and buildings at least for the next couple of nights.

But the sun will really do us a lot of good even though 90 percent of the sun's ultraviolet rays get reflected back because of the high albito (ph). When you have totals like, there is a big concern. We had our first confirmed fatality just from a heart attack shoveling snow. That was in the D.C. area in Prince Georgia's County. Again, that happens more than to the most people know because the heart is just beating faster to keep warm.

But it is really amazing, Poppy. You came so close to the all-time record, just a tenth of an issue. We do have drone video I hear. That is of Staten Island. I'm not sure if we're able to grab it just yet. But again the concern will go on for a while. Because even though there's cleanup on parts of the eastern shore, I should say the jersey shore, there were some areas that it was worse than super storm Sandy. There are areas that have to be have been move around.

HARLOW: Tom, let me jump in.

SATER: I see we have a press conference.

HARLOW: Yes. Standby. And let me get to this press conference there. Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. MAYOR MURIEL BROWSER (D), WASHINGTON D.C.: On D.C.'s dig out from the

blizzard of 2016. Let me start by saying we're making a lot of progress. We are nearing the end of day one of the dig out. Which started shortly after the snow stopped early this morning. Our crews worked all night and all day, and we have deployed most of the 400 new pieces of equipment that I mentioned to you this morning. And much of it dispatched from RFK stadium.

Some of you have started to see blacktop and that's good. It's mostly on our major roadways and we're beginning to get into the secondary roadways and into the neighborhoods as well. While we have made some progress, there is still a lot more to do. And we will work to continue to clear our major arteries. A lot of the blacktop you're seeing in many cases we still have restricted width on those lanes. So we either we don't have the full number of lanes that we should or we have some -- also some concerns about how we get through intersections and turn intersections and sightlines and the rest. So there is still work to be done on the major arteries.

At the same time we're gaining access to the secondary roads and residential streets. We are evaluating our ability to collect trash right now for this week. But we have determined that we will not pick up trash on Monday or Tuesday. We will not pick up trash on Monday or Tuesday. And we will advise on the remainder of the week just as soon as possible.

We -- Director Gelhart talked to you earlier about the forecast for the rest of the week which will have an impact on our cleanup but it will also have an impact on our ability to get into alleys. So that is why we will come and talk to you when we have a clearer picture of what the rest of the week will look like.

We expect that with the temperature dropping tonight and for every night this week, that we will see continued slick and dangerous roadways. So continue to stay off of the road.

Let me say something else about shoveling. We saw a lot of people out today. I got the chance to get out today and talk to neighbors as well. And we want to remind all of our folks to please go out as you are able and shovel your walkway and sidewalk. Please remember the safety tips for shoveling. Remember to stay hydrated and to take breaks and to do it in shifts.

Let me also thank all of the residents, volunteers who stepped up to help us with the D.C. snow resident team, 3100 volunteers have stepped up to the plate and 1,000 folks spread out across the city to help people with shoveling. It is an all-volunteer effort. And so I want to thank them.

Let me also thank the many people who didn't call us to tell us they were volunteering to help a neighbor and who just stepped up and helped anyway. So just look at your blocks. If you see a sidewalk that hasn't been shoveled or a walkway to a house that hasn't been shoveled, that's a sure sign of someone in need. So please try to help a neighbor. Let me also remind business owners, people want to come and patronize

your businesses, but they can't do it if they can't get there safely. Please shovel your walks. We want all our commercial corridors to be open for business.

Let me turn now to our operational status. I announced earlier that D.C. public schools will be closed tomorrow. So D.C. public schools is closed Monday. I am now announcing that we're going to close D.C. government tomorrow, Monday. We want to have tomorrow to continue to keep cars off the road so that we can clear those major arterials and also clear the places where many people who come to our downtown would normally park.

Metro announced that it will have limited service beginning tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. Underground stations on three lines including green, yellow and orange will be in operation until midnight. And metro representatives are here and can provide additional information about that.

We will also are happy that in ten locations across the city we're going to offer tomorrow school lunches and breakfast, breakfast and lunch for kids at ten locations.

[17:15:03] HARLOW: All right. There you have it. The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser updating her city and her citizens on the latest.

A few headlines. Government offices across Washington, D.C., will be closed tomorrow. We also know the schools will be closed tomorrow. She said they are making quote "a lot of progress in terms of the cleanup with 400 pieces of gear." There are still those some restricted roads there. She said very dangerous road conditions with all the freezing that is expected tonight. So be careful if you're driving in Washington. If you work for the government or you're planning to go to school tomorrow, you get a snow day. That's the headline from mayor of Washington, D.C.

Much more ahead this hour. Sometimes it is not the depth of the flood water but the frequency that does the most damage. I will take you to a New Jersey town that this blizzard has put under water once again.

Also, in Iowa, they're caught up in a political storm with presidential candidates vying to win those crucial Iowa caucuses. The state of the race in Iowa next.

And it is a working vacation for Hollywood stars and studio execs in Park City, Utah. We're live from the Sundance Film Festival, all right here this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:18:55] HARLOW: That blizzard that pummeled the east coast caused major flooding and major damage in some parts of New Jersey. Other spots did not get hit as hard. The problem is, though, they got hit again. We're talking about all the damage once again after what they went through with hurricane Sandy. Our Boris Sanchez is in Ventnor, New Jersey along the coast where it

has been quite a headache.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Poppy. The cleanup continues in Ventnor City in New Jersey. You can see behind me the street is somewhat clear right now. Just a few hours ago this was totally covered in water, ice and trash, debris that had washed up into this neighborhood.

This is a coastal community. And this neighborhood specifically is cut through by a canal. I want to show you right behind -- through this garage. There's water right behind us. And as the storm came in, right as the storm was peaking, it just so happened that there was a full moon. And so, the high tide brought in all the water to this neighborhood. You can see the high water mark here. This neighbor told us that there was some damage to his garage, minor water damage, but he was prepared. He was able to put his stuff in the garage up. Others not quite as prepared for the storm. Many people didn't put on sandbags outside their homes. Others simply just left.

I asked several of those neighbors why they didn't put up sandbags. Many of them told me the sandbags really don't do much because when you live in a coastal community like this, the water is going to do what it's going to do. Obviously, it came into this neighborhood.

We have also seen several homes here, important to note, that are on stilts. They are essentially being raised right now. Part of that is because many of these communities were hit by super storm sandy. This storm doesn't compare to that. Super storm Sandy brought about four feet of water into this neighborhood specifically. Today we are looking at about a foot or so. And as these communities begin to clear up, we get a clearer picture of the full extent of the damage -- Poppy?

[17:20:52] HARLOW: All right. Boris Sanchez, thank you so much live for us there in Ventnor, one of the hardest hit towns along the jersey shore.

Coming up next, officials here in New York City, 2,000 of them are out right now trying to get the Long Island railroad back up and running. As you see some of the trains frozen there, the tracks covered in snow and ice. This is a major way that millions of people get in and out of the city every work day. And that begins in commute tomorrow morning. We will have a live report on the status of that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:24:07] HARLOW: Right now Baltimore also trying to clean up from quite a blizzard yesterday. The airport there pretty limited in terms of its operations. The city's mayor just spoke. With an update on the storm, let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE (D), BALTIMORE: As we work to clean up from this historic snowstorm, I have ordered Baltimore city government offices closed on Monday, January 23rd -- 25th, excuse me, 2016. Essential employees and employees who are designated as emergency essential for this current snow event must report to work or remain at work as scheduled for the duration of this event unless informed otherwise by their agency head, their designee or immediate supervisor.

Given the condition of many of our street, I believe it is safest for all citizens to minimize traffic on our roads. Everyone keeps saying this is a historic snowstorm. We say that so people can have a clear understanding that this is not business as usual. This is an unusual response and recovery of a historic event. So I'm asking for residents to continue to be patient. While we want to get to as many neighborhood streets as we can as quickly as we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:25:25] HARLOW: Working overtime trying to get those streets cleaned before the Monday commute.

Also here in New York City, 2,000 crews right now working nonstop trying to get the Long Island railroad up and running before tomorrow's rush hour. The rail yards, many of them still buried in about two feet of snow, stranded trains blocking some tracks and many switches are frozen. They still need to be thawed out.

Our Ryan Young is at Penn station in Midtown, Manhattan. That's where they all come into. So many people rely on the Long Island railroad. Last time we spoke, not up and running. Any update now?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're doing is we're waiting for that 6:00 news conference to see if we get any more information about idea whether they will be up and running tomorrow.

But think about this. You're talking about a historic storm. And we are already expecting all these services to be back online so very quickly. You can see all the people who decided to come out to Penn station. We have seen nothing but New Yorkers kind of mulling through the areas and getting back to their normal lives as they wanted to get out. But you have to pay attention to this.

You walk around in this direction, Poppy. You can see the signs for tomorrow. The Long Island railroad is here. And you can see all those services (INAUDIBLE).

You already talked about it, 2,000 crew members who had to get out to work today to start working on these lines to make sure those rail lines were back open for service. They're desperately trying to do that. Some 300,000 people use those lines to come into work. And we know Monday is going to be packed as people try to make it back into the city.

As we drove around the city, you can see all over the snow that's just packed on the side streets. The main streets are open, but you know they are having to deal with some patience when it comes to all the snow that's left over when you talk about a historic storm. HARLOW: No question, Ryan. Patience is something we could all take a

lesson this. And I think we are all going to need it trying to get around the city this week, why not?

Thank you so much.

Coming up next this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People try to venture out. We've had issues relative to cars. But by and large our citizens helped very much in making our ability to attack this storm in the way in which we did, the fourth largest storm in the city's history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Philadelphia officials there thanking residents for helping the city cope with, you just heard it, one of the biggest blizzards on the books.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:36] HARLOW: All right. This just into us here at CNN, the death toll from this blizzard has now risen to 15. Washington, D.C.'s medical examiner announcing just moments ago the district's first fatality related to the storm. An 82-year-old man suffered cardiac arrest while he was shoveling at his home.

To Philadelphia now. Flights in and out of Philadelphia international airport slowly resuming today, but you see a lot of red. A lot of canceled flights. Operations were completely shut down yesterday during the blizzard. Some of the runway there's have reopened. Airlines are operating on a very limited schedule. And the storm was over the city had more than 22 inches of snow. The fourth highest one-day total in the city's history. That is how much snow the city normally sees in an entire winter. But it came in 24 hours.

Sara Ganim live for us in Philadelphia. Sara, there you are, you don't have your goggles on anymore. I couldn't see you in your goggles for the whole blizzard yesterday. What a nice day it is behind you.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, I just lost you for a second, but I'm just going to start talking about how it is cleanup day here in Philadelphia. You got street cleaners on the streets, plowing, putting snow into dump trucks.

But right off the top I want to tell you. There's some good news for those motorists who are stuck on the Pennsylvania turnpike, some of them for almost 24 hours. The turnpike has now reopened. Everyone who was stuck is either on their way home finally or in a shelter. You know, when the storm began Friday night, some tractor trailers jackknifed causing a more than five-mile-long backlog. Thankfully no one was injured, but still a disaster that the Pennsylvania turnpike commissioner says he apologizing for. He is sincerely sorry for those people stuck for so long. Imagine that, Poppy, 24 hours in your car during a blizzard.

Some other news in Pennsylvania, there was -- you can see live pictures from -- I'm sorry, not live, but pictures of an airport hangar where snow caused the hangar's roof to collapse. Officials also working to clean that up today.

And here in Philadelphia, in addition to the cleanup, some good news for kids. Schools will be closed tomorrow, which brings us to our live location here today. We're at the art museum, Poppy, where the kids who have been hunkered down inside all weekend are finally able to release some of that energy sliding down the "rocky" steps at the art museum in Philadelphia, Poppy. Quite a happy way to end this quite miserable weekend here in Philadelphia. They got 20 inches. The fourth largest storm the city has ever seen. But I think this is an adequate way to celebrate the end of that. What do you think?

HARLOW: I think it's great. I want you to do your next live shot sledding down those stairs because you'll definitely end up on "the daily show" if you do that. OK?

GANIM: Thank you. I will take that into consideration. And I'll think about it for the next hour or so.

HARLOW: All right. Have fun, Sarah. Thank you so much. Sarah Ganim in Philadelphia there for us.

Coming up to politics, we go in the final sprint in Iowa with just days to go before the first presidential votes are cast, a new poll shows Donald Trump surging far ahead of Senator Ted Cruz in that crucial state. Democrats Clinton and Sanders duke it out for that key voting bloc. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:37:04] HARLOW: One week from tomorrow, the people of Iowa will cast the first official votes of the 2016 presidential race. A brand- new FOX News poll shows Donald Trump with a strong lead over Senator Ted Cruz. Trump getting 34 percent support among likely Republican caucus goers. That's an 11-point bump from just two weeks ago. Cruz coming in at 23 percent, slightly down from 27 percent in the last FOX News poll.

A top Clinton ally who runs her super PAC tells CNN today quote "I may have spoken too soon when predicting in December that the Democrats would face Cruz in November. I now believe the GOP nominee is likely to be Donald Trump. I don't agree with some Democratic thinking that Trump would be easy to beat. He has rewritten all the rules, and I would expect a tough race with Hillary."

Let's talk about all of it with Kathie O'Broadovich, political columnist for "the Des Moines Register."

Yesterday, Kathie, thank you for being here. Yesterday, your paper endorsed Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio for president. Just a couple of weeks ago, the poll from the register, had Trump trailing Cruz. Now Trump seems to be surging by 11 points. Why do you think that is? KATHIE O'BROADOVICH, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, THE DES MOINES REGISTER: I

think that people are making up their minds at the very last minute, Poppy. And I actually think that the polls might fluctuate again here before Monday -- before a week from Monday. We have a situation where we have people really deciding late. I was just at a Ted Cruz event yesterday (INAUDIBLE) and the people that I talked to there, they were cheering for Ted Cruz but they still had other candidates in mind.

I really do think that one thing that will be important is for people -- campaigns to have people that are well spoken for the candidates at every single caucus. Because people will be making up their minds on February 1st.

HARLOW: Yes. A lot of them still undecided, that's for sure.

Let's have on the Democratic side, right. You have Bernie Sanders out with a new ad. It is airing in Iowa right now. They just started airing it in Iowa and New Hampshire. There's no one speaking in it or talking about Bernie's message. It is simply a bunch of images set to the Simon & Garfunkel single "America." let's roll it.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

HARLOW: All right. There it is. No attacks. Just a collection of images to that famous song. How effective, Kathie, is something like that in your state?

O'BROADOVICH: Well, you know, ads by themselves don't necessarily move people to the caucuses. You know, we like to talk about the ground game and face-to-face contacts. But this is a really interesting ad. It wouldn't be talking about it if it was a typical ad, right? And the interesting thing, I think, is you know, Bernie Sanders has really been mostly appealing -- not mostly, but in a large way appealing to younger voters.

"America t "Simon & Garfunkel it hitting a much older generation. And the way I read this is, you know, he is hitting back I think at Hillary Clinton talking about reality and which candidate has the most realistic plan. Bernie Sanders is about idealism. And I think he's reminding voters my age and older of a more idealistic time tp.

[17:40:44] HARLOW: Yes. It's interesting. I mean, that sort of theme of pragmatism versus idealism has been playing out across this campaign, hasn't it, on both sides. When you look at the latest polling, it has Hillary Clinton trailing Sanders in Iowa by eight points. This is among likely democratic caucus goers. One voting bloc that Clinton is really hitting hard is younger women. She had stars like Demi Lovato, Lena Dunham stumping for her. There's campaign swag they're giving out including a, quote, "girls just want to have fundamental rights." That's a tote bag. There's a throw pillow even. It says a woman's place is in the White House. There you go. So how key is that voting bloc when it really comes down to it for her?

O'BROADOVICH: You know, younger women have been harder to get out to the polls. And, you know, I think that Hillary Clinton is trying, you know, to appeal to the -- you know, the fact that she could make history being the first woman president. And you know, this is a Democrat that may be sort of untapped. And so, you know, it's interesting that she's working hard for younger women in particular.

Bernie Sanders overall does better with younger voters. But they're also, you know, a little bit harder to get out to the caucuses. They're going to be in college. They might be concentrated in their college towns instead of spread out around a state like any democratic candidate wants their support to be. So, you know, she's trying to maybe peel away this younger woman demographic from Bernie Sanders.

HARLOW: Right. Well, and isn't that sort of a demographic that can sort of rally the troops, if you will. Because on the Democratic side, to be honest, there's been an issue of enthusiasm especially, some would argue, for Hillary Clinton. When you look at this new CBS/"New York Times" poll that found 47 percent of Republican voters are more enthusiastic about this election season than the Democratic voters. Only 32 percent of Democratic primary voters are sort of reared up to go and enthusiastic. Why do you think that enthusiasm is lacking on the democratic side?

O'BROADOVICH: Well, I think that there has been just a lot of excitement and interest generated by Donald Trump and all of the media attention to Donald Trump. This is something truly new. On the Democratic side, you have a known quantity in Hillary Clinton. You have an outsider in Bernie Sanders, but he's not a brand-new type of animal in politics. And then Martin O'Malley who just hasn't made it competitive. And so, I think that part of the real outsider energy has been on the Republican side. That does not mean, though, that people won't get excited about caucusing for the Democrats. A close race will get people into the game and going out to their caucuses.

HARLOW: No. It is a good point.

All right. Kathie O'Broadovich, good luck to you this week. Busy week ahead for you in Iowa, no question.

O'BROADOVICH: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: I do want to go to Hillary Clinton speaking live in north liberty, Iowa.

CLINTON: They're just making small talk. We said well, you know, how long have you worked here? She told us. We said, well, is this a good job? She said, well, I have two jobs. I work 7:00 to 7:00 at one of my jobs and then I come here and work till 3:00 a.m. and I have two kids and I'm raising them alone. And we are just going to keep trying as hard as I can to make it.

I met a woman in Tama last week who has three minimum wage jobs working about 65 hours a week, and is so worried she's not going to be able to help her daughter go to college. She introduced me to her daughter who is in high school. And I said, well, I'm going to make it possible for her to go to college. And I'm also going to work as hard as I can to get wages up and get more economic security for people. HARLOW: All right. We'll continue monitoring Hillary Clinton.

Obviously, she and her competitors on both sides spending a lot of time in Iowa this week as we are just about one week away from this critical Iowa caucuses.

Interesting to know, you heard Kathie O'Broadovich said, but our most recent CNN/ORC poll found in Iowa right now, you have 20 percent of likely Democratic caucus goers still deciding who they're going to support. Those undecided voters, those are the ones who the candidates are going after right now and tomorrow night at this event our CNN Iowa Democratic presidential town hall, our very own Chris Cuomo will moderate. That's tomorrow night 9:00 p.m. eastern only on CNN.

Coming up, it is game day, as if I needed to tell you that, football fans. It is game day. And not even the biggest blizzard that North Carolina has seen in quite a long time can stop the NFC championship in Charlotte. A live report from the stadium next.

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[17:48:48] HARLOW: Snow and ice from the east coast blizzard that we all lived through have basically shut down Charlotte, North Carolina. That was then. This is now. And you know what today is. Today is game day. It is the NFC championship. And the weather in Charlotte pretty sunny and mild.

On Friday, the Carolina Panthers predicted -- well practiced, I should say, there you see it, in frigid snowy weather. Plows went to work immediately clearing the practice field. A different kind of snow emergency plan went into effect, making sure conditions won't be a factor when they take on the Arizona Cardinals a little bit later on today.

Polo Sandoval joining us from Charlotte, North Carolina. It is game day. No one there is excited at all, clearly.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Poppy. Less than an hour before game time. That's why we've seen many of the tail gators actually make their way out of this parking lot here making their into the stadium back of America stadium but will serve as the venue for this huge and very significant matchup here between the Cardinals an and Panthers. And I have to say, Poppy. People were seriously concern that this game would be possibly be cancelled or at last postponed because of the weather, but obviously mother nature is cooperating as people are still pouring in from across the country.

I'm going to take you over the edge of this parking garage that we're up on the sixth floor level. You can see this stream of people now making their way towards the stadium. The snow, all of the ice was actually shoveled away and of course the main concern here was that people would at least be able to walk to the game since there is still that layer of ice. Of course, the main number that counts here is zero, Poppy. And that is the chance of precipitation for tonight.

Back to you. [17:50:31] HARLOW: All right. Have fun. Go to the game. Have a

great time.

Polo, thank you very much.

Now, I want to go to one person deeply affected impacted by this blizzard that hit the east coast, the New Jersey store owner who says this monster blizzard for him and his business worse than super storm Sandy.

Joining me on the phone now Keith Laudeman. He owns the popular Cape May restaurant, a lobster house. Thank you so much for being with me, sir.

KEITH LAUDEMAN, OWNER, CAPE MAY RESTAURANT (on the phone): Thank you.

HARLOW: I'm so sorry. I spent a lot of time out there on the jersey shore covering Sandy in the aftermath. To think that for you this is worse than Sandy, I'm so sorry. Walk me through what has happened.

LAUDEMAN: Well, it was worse than Sandy because we actually had -- we got flooded. There was much more water than Sandy. Seemed to be more wind, and we just had a lot more damage.

HARLOW: So what happens now? I mean, you own this popular restaurant. I know how hard it is to get any kind of flood insurance where you're located. What's going to happen? Do you have the insurance? Do you have the help you need?

LAUDEMAN: Yes, we have -- well, its federal flood insurance so we do have the insurance. And we are just starting to clean up, and it shouldn't take us too long to get, you know, fixed up and back open again.

HARLOW: Now, what about the government response? We saw now presidential candidate governor Chris Christie leave the trail for a bit in New Hampshire, go home to New Jersey, hold a press conference there this morning. How would you assess the government response so far in this storm?

LAUDEMAN: I think the government response was good. I mean, they gave us plenty of warning. They told us how bad it would be. You know, originally I didn't think it was going to be that bad, and they kept saying that, you know, we're going to have as much water as Sandy, if not more. And they were right. So, you know, we got to prepare as much as we could, and they did a good job.

HARLOW: Can you -- we're look at these images of some people walking through what is waist-high water there in wildwood, New Jersey, so not that far away. What about your neighbors, neighboring towns? How are they coping?

LAUDEMAN: I don't know. I really haven't talked to too many people just because we have been so busy trying to get cleaned up. But as you can see the pictures there, I mean, almost the whole coast -- everybody was affected, and it was bad. It was a bad storm. HARLOW: No question about it. Keith Laudeman, we he wish you, your

business, your neighbors all the best. Good luck, sir.

LAUDEMAN: Thank you very much.

HARLOW: You got it.

All right. You never know, changing gears here, who you might run into at the Sundance Film Festival. I'm going to take you live to Park City, Utah, where Hollywood is convening right after this.

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[17:56:50] HARLOW: Sundance Film Festival showcases 123 feature films, independent films, documentaries, and movies from all over the world. A lot of Hollywood celebrities and studio execs descending this week on Park City, Utah.

Stephanie Elam is there. Stephanie, how do you always get this assignment?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It helps to live in L.A. now and no longer New York, Poppy. That I can attest to. But, you know, it's been great. We have been having great conversations. And one of the great conversations I just had was with Viggo Mortensen and Matt Ross who Viggo is the star of "Captain Fantastic," and it is a movie I saw last night. And we had a conversation about it.

It's an interesting movie. It makes you think about the role of parents play in the life of your children. When you want sort of an idealistic life for them but also what challenges come along with that. So it focuses on the father of six children played by Viggo Mortensen. And then we talked about what it meant for him to raise his children in this way and how it affects them to go out in real life outside of their ideals like way of the country's life style. Take a listen to what they had to say.

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MATT ROSS, DIRECTOR, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC: Is he a great parent? Is he the best dad in the world? Or the worst? And I think there's a lot of information for perhaps both answers.

VIGGO MORTENSEN, ACTOR, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC: When they come into so- called civilized society, what he didn't count on is that these kids, even though they're much smarter physically stronger and healthier than they run into, they don't know how to interact with them socially. They are awkward. They are in many ways immature. They are like from another planet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And what was interesting is that both Matt and both Viggo were talking about how the movie, what they wanted to do was make people think a bit about their choices when raising kids. How do you feel watching this movie and interpreting that through your own lens? And it definitely happens. There were times where I was laughing. There were times where I definitely felt sadness watching those. But it takes you sort of array of feelings and give you something sort to discuss and think about your life. And that's something that means a lot to Matt Ross and Viggo Mortensen. They have put something out there that allows people to think about things differently, Poppy.

HARLOW: Sure. What overall, Steph, is the vibe there? I mean, what is the buzz? What are people talking about?

ELAM: Well, a lot -- one of the biggest things about Sundance, Poppy, is that this is a place where debut all kinds of films, you can have your documentaries, you can have feature films, you could do comedies that are a little offbeat. And we have talked to all kinds of people who are saying that.

And so, documentaries, this is really the one place where you can do that but you can also bring feature film, something like "Captain Fantastic" that may be coming through a different lens and show it here. So that's one of the things that people keep talking about here, is this idea that a documentary here can go on and change the way people look at things. Remember "Blackfish." That was a good example of that. But also, a lot of people that act, screen-write, directors from these movies, and maybe a year from now, they may be up for an Oscar. And that is actually a really big deal for the industry as well. So this is a huge pipeline for that.

HARLOW: No question. Stephanie, have fun out there. It is certainly a gorgeous setting. Enjoy it.

ELAM: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right.