Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Snowstorm Coming to Northeast; Empty Shelve in Stores as People Stock Supplies; Floods, Winds and Snow Hitting Northeast; Drone Crashes On White House Lawn; New York Governor Talks Storm Prep

Aired January 26, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The waves are now starting to pick up on the coast. Winds are also a big concern. I'm certainly feeling them here. I can't even imagine what they are like on the coast. They really have an effect when it comes to power outages, of course. Perhaps even just as much as the snow with power lines coming down.

CNN's Brian Todd has had the job of being on the road all day and he now joins me live from Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

Brian, how have the conditions changed as the day's gone on for you?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They've gotten much more violent. It is really a violent storm in Point Pleasant right now. We are a little confused. Are we covering a snowstorm or hurricane?

Look at this tidal surge behind me. Our photojournalist Oliver Janney will take you right into it.

This wind is really kicking up, it's really getting much stronger. This is what's going to cause the whiteout conditions that officials here in the region are so concerned about. This is why they are telling people do not come on to the roads. This right now is making the storm not fall vertically but horizontally, whipping it from the Northeast even though the system is moving in that direction, this wind coming into the northeast, hitting us square in the face horizontally. I'm going to take you down here to the street in Point Pleasant as the road conditions here are getting much, much worse. The storm is -- the snow is starting to stick and as it gets to nighttime, more frozen conditions.

It's starting to get a little more icy. Here's our vehicle that we have even kind of - coming up and down the coast of New Jersey in all day. And Oliver is going to come with me over here while our other photojournalist (INAUDIBLE) switches to our dash cam and I will talk into that for just a second here.

As we prepare to move a little bit further north here in New Jersey, we just got off the phone with the New Jersey state police, captain Steven Jonas (ph) is telling people again, do not go out in this stuff. It is getting much more violent here. The snowstorm really coming toward us just with incredible force right now and it is starting to stick. The state police are telling us again, they are telling people do not leave your vehicles on the roadways because that's when it gets much more dangerous. We are going to strap in here and start to move in our vehicle here a little bit, Jake, along this road in Point Pleasant, start heading north. But again, that the roads are getting much more treacherous here. People in Point Pleasant at least where we can show you now out the dash cam as we start to move, people here in Point Pleasant have taken heed of some of these warnings that officials have issued and stayed mostly inside.

But again, you can see the visibility is getting much worse and the roads are getting much more icy. And this is really when we are going to hit the brunt of the storm. The transit system in New Jersey, Jake, is going to shut down here in about five and a half hours.

TAPPER: All right, Brian Todd in the usually aptly named Point Pleasant, not so much today, thanks so much. Let's go now to CNN's Ana Cabrera. She's live at the tip of Long Island in Montauk. Flooding, a huge concern there right now, right?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Flooding, winds, snow, it's a three- fold problem out here. Yes, we are just at the very tip, what a lot of people call the end of Long Island. Rather rural, very popular tourist community here in the New York area. Couple of hours outside the Big Apple. You can see the wind's already picking up. We are now hearing up to 70 mile per hour wind gusts are expected here in the next few hours. Ken, keep walking with me, because I want to show we already have some snow accumulation here. And as I bend down, it's really the thick stuff right now. I mean when - right now, we are around 31, 32 degrees so this snow is rather heavy.

And as it piles up, believed to reach two to three feet before this is all done, power outages are a huge concern in this rather isolated community. And then you've got the waves already crashing on the shore here where you can see down below as the tide moves in, expected to peak around 2:00 in the morning is when they also expect that storm surge to really bubble up, pushing the tide levels two to four feet above normal. That's where the coastal flooding is a big concern. Not just the flooding but also erosion, because they are expecting seven foot waves to be thrashing upon the shore and you can see there are hotels, restaurants, homes, just off of this shore and so these folks have mostly really just packed up and left to make sure that they don't end up out here stranded as this storm really hits hard. Jake?

TAPPER: Ana Cabrera on the shores of Long Island, thank you so much. Chad, oftentimes we hear about lake effect snow but you say there is actually something called an ocean effect?

MYERS: There is ocean enhanced snow. Because the wind is going to blow so much and the wind is 20 degrees, the water out there is 47, so the same idea that when you blow wind from Cleveland to Buffalo, you get a snowstorm in Buffalo. If you take that wind and you blow it around the ocean at 47, you are going to get a snowstorm in Montauk, you are going to get a snowstorm in Boston, you are going to get a snowstorm in Maine because of the wrap-around as the low comes in, I will do it the other way for the viewers, as the low goes this way, you are going to blow all of that air on to the shore and it all contains rain, snow, moisture and it's all going to come down as this time because it's cold enough, this time it's all snow. No mixing today.

TAPPER: I hope Ana heard that.

MYERS: Hey, you have got - you have one-third of a snowman.

TAPPER: I have a little snowball here. It's very thick snow. Excellent. I don't want anybody to go outside, but it is excellent snowball snow. We are waiting for a live update from the New York governor and we will have that live as soon as Governor Cuomo starts talking. Even if you are not living in the immediate area of this storm, this blizzard is still going to have a major impact across the country. More than 6,000 flights have already been canceled for today and tomorrow. Your travel plans could be affected even if you're not going anywhere near the northeast. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to "THE LEAD." I'm Jake Tapper in a very snowy New York City. In our money lead, a blistering bite for airlines right now. You can blame this blizzard for more than 6,000 flights canceled today and tomorrow, 6,000. That number sure to grow. Let's go to our aviation correspondent Rene Marsh. She's live at LaGuardia. Rene, what is the financial fallout from airlines with this massive storm?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, it's pretty big. I mean when you talk about domestic flight, you're talking according to mass flight which is one company that tabulates these sort of statistics, they say for domestic flights, $6,000 per passenger and for an international flight, way more, maybe $40,000 or so. That's just one estimate from one company, but I want to show you the situation here at LaGuardia. I mean take a look down there. There's no line at the TSA checkout point, the checkpoint, because there really aren't many flights going in and out. Actually, none at all at this point based on this board. I mean there's one there, but you can see the red all the way down the line. Those are all cancellations and you can see the orange, those are delays. We can tell you at this hour that many of the major airlines, they are suspending operations or are beginning to suspend operations at the New York area airports as well as in Boston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: At LaGuardia airport, Kathy Hick was already rebooked twice only to hear that dreaded word, canceled, again.

Three of your flights canceled all within 15 minutes this morning?

KATHY WICK, STRANDED TRAVELER: As I was at the ticket counter. As we were talking about the flight, that was, she said oh, that's canceled, that's canceled, that's canceled.

MARSH: Some of the busiest airports in the country hit the hardest. Newark, JFK, Philadelphia and LaGuardia top the list. "The New York Port Authority" says half of the flights at LaGuardia were canceled Monday. Tuesday, all flights here are expected to be suspended.

What you don't see at these airports are masses of stranded passengers.

SETH KAPLAN, AIRLINE WEEKLY: It used to be airlines really tried to fly as long as it was safe to fly. And then you just - the storm hit, you had people and planes stranded everywhere. They don't do that anymore.

MARSH: Airlines started canceling flights before the storm arrived and that can actually help.

KAPLAN: They don't want us stranded in their terminals any more than we want to be there. So, you know, once they realize look, after a certain time, things are going to get pretty bad, they start to proactively cancel those flights.

MARSH: With flights suspended at many of the northeast major hubs, there will be an impact around the country and around the world, even international travelers could be stuck. For passengers like Kathy Wick, who hoped to avoid cancellations, it may be days before she gets out.

WICK: At this point it looks like Wednesday at 2:00 in the afternoon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: All right, well, that same company, mass flight, says that they estimate more than 200,000 passengers have already been impacted. The financial cost to all of this for the passengers, more than $100 million. Jake?

TAPPER: My stars. Rene Marsh live at LaGuardia, thank you so much. You can get a sense of this storm's impact right from your Facebook or Twitter feed. CNN's Tom Foreman has been inside, cozy, warm, snuggly, all toasty and nice. He has been monitoring social media all day. Tom, what are you finding?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people who aren't cozy and nice. Look at this, this is the west side highway where you are. A lot of people have been posting various images of things like Boston from the air with the snow there before the new layer comes in. Warnings on the road, expect high winds, low visibility, avoid travel out there. That was from the Queens -- Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. And a lot of pictures like this. Look, this is the Whole Foods. People packing the place trying to buy things up and this is the result of all that. Lot of places already with empty shelves out there and this is one of my favorite pictures.

Look at that. That's up in Yonkers north of town, there are 5500 tons of salt ready to go out on to the roads. And then, of course, there are some other images out there. This is from our AC-360 folks, 90 minutes apart, the view from up there above in our offices of Central Park. That's Penn Station packed with people and I have to tell you, Jake, my favorite tweet of the entire day came from comedian Jim Gaffigan, who has a gig there in New York tomorrow night. He's tweeted this afternoon, "I'm going to come up here. I'm already out of food."

(LAUGHTER)

FOREMAN: People try to keep their humor.

TAPPER: Yeah. It's sad to see that they are out of kale at the Whole Foods.

FOREMAN: Yeah, exactly.

TAPPER: People will suffer through that. Tom Foreman, thank you so much.

When we come back, the snow is getting heavier as this storm moves in, but the worst is yet to come. How will this blizzard compare with some of the biggest storms in the history of New York City? That's ahead.

But first, a secret service scare in the dark of night after a drone crashes on the White House grounds. We are now learning new details about who was flying it and what exactly he was up to. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. You're looking at live pictures right now from Central Park, snow dropping down, whiteout conditions taking hold here in New York City. We continue to wait for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to give his press conference talking about how the state plans to handle what could be the biggest storm in the city's history.

Brianna Keilar is out in the middle of this mess with me. Brianna, this is the first ambulance we have heard, but obviously, people in New York City, all the emergency responders on edge, want to make sure there are as few accidents as possible. This is treacherous out here. You have seen a number of people fall.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We heard even some of the governors and mayors talking about how walking was going to be perilous. Which you sort of think, that's probably the best kind of transportation, but we have actually seen a couple of people eat it, if I can say that, and really almost hurt themselves here.

But, you know, I think you see that ambulance there and these road conditions are pretty crazy, pretty grim. This is one of the reasons why here tonight in New York, come 11:00 p.m., if you're not an emergency vehicle, you need to be off the road, and that's why the governor is saying that.

TAPPER: Get a hotel room. Brianna, stick around. I want to shift to one other quick story. To the actual fortress on Pennsylvania Avenue, the big white one where the president lives. It's looking more and more insecure in light of the fact that this morning, a drone breached the White House perimeter and then crashed on the south lawn.

It might sound at first blush kind of a silly story, but believe me the U.S. Secret Service is not laughing at this, nor is anyone else. Thinking seriously about what drones might possibly mean in this post- 9/11 world.

CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is live at the Pentagon with the details. Barbara, the Secret Service has been investigating and they are interviewing a person of interest. What do we know about this right now?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it is looking now like possibly, just possibly, this drone may have traveled for blocks before getting to the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): At first light, Secret Service personnel walked the White House lawn. This is the two-foot wide drone they found. The Secret Service said an individual called them early Monday to report flying the drone that crashed on the White House grounds.

All indications are the incident occurred as a result of recreational use of the device, authorities said. The president's spokesman was all about calm.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: A device that has been recovered by the Secret Service at the White House. The early indications are it does not pose any sort of ongoing threat right now to anybody at the White House.

STARR: But there are security issues.

DANIEL BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: This is a really big deal. Regardless of what anyone in the arena is saying.

STARR: It was 3:08 a.m. when a uniformed Secret Service officer on the south grounds of the White House complex heard and saw a so-called quad copter device flying at a very low altitude and ultimately crashing on the southeast side of the White House complex.

The White House was immediately placed on lockdown until the device was examined and an all-clear sounded. This was just the latest security breach. In September, an Army veteran jumped the fence and got into the east room of the White House before being tackled.

In November 2011, a man fired a semiautomatic rifle at the mansion. Drones like these are widely available commercially, but all airborne traffic over Washington, D.C. is banned unless a flight plan is filed and it's under FAA control.

Authorities have been struggling for months on how to integrate drones into U.S. air space so they don't interfere with commercial air traffic or cause a security threat. What if it carried explosives? Shooting a drone down is not practical.

BONGINO: You are in a residential and commercial area in downtown D.C. so that eliminates that possibility.

STARR: What about jamming the drone's radio signal?

BONGINO: The only way to mitigate the threat from a drone carrying a camera or explosive is to attack it on the radio frequency side, which actually guides the drone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: You know, these kinds of devices are now so widely available, you can go out and buy them. Most experts will tell you it's high time the government needs to develop some rules about how they are used -- Jake.

TAPPER: These drones, I'm telling you. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you so much.

Coming up, we are still, of course, waiting for New York Governor Cuomo to start talking about the blizzard here, perhaps an historic blizzard and all the preparations taking place in the Empire State. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back. The governor of New York is speaking. Let's listen in.

GOVERNER ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK: -- nothing really changed. To the extent it changed, it got worse. The winds on Long Island have actually increased the estimate for the speed of the winds. Gusts up to 70 miles per hour, which is a significant issue for the eastern end of Long Island.

Again, the track of the storm is passing New York City, Westchester, Mid-Hudson and then along Long Island and up towards Connecticut, and the worst of it on Long Island. So the estimates that we reached earlier, we are going to now firm up.

The MTA and Port Authority will be closing the facilities at 11:00. If you have to use those facilities, you should plan to use the facilities and get wherever you're going by 11:00 because that's going to be a hard stop time.

We are also restricting travel on all roads in the 13 counties from Ulster, Sullivan South, including Orange and Putnam, New York City and Long Island. That's 11:00, a travel restriction for all roads, state roads, local roads, city roads, town roads, except for emergency personnel.

This is a serious situation. If you violate this state order, it's a possible misdemeanor. It is fines up to $300 and that will go into effect at 11:00 also. The two lessons we have learned dealing with the situation more times than we would care to, getting the subways and the railroad cars in a safe position is key so that when the weather does leave, we are in a position for the system to start back up. We saw that under Hurricane Sandy, so that's what we're trying to do here with the 11:00 closing down. And number two, in terms of keeping people off the roads, the roads are very dangerous. We have just been out to Long Island and driven around the metropolitan area.

The roads are already very, very dangerous. They are going to be very hard to clear at the rate of snowfall we expect with the wind gusts we expect, so it's dangerous to be out there now. It's only going to become more dangerous.

At one point it's irresponsible. So 11:00 for all roads to close. I'm going to ask pat to give us an update on the airports and what he hears from the airlines and then we will take it from there.

PAT FOYE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT AUTHORITY, NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY: Governor, very extensive delays and cancellations, even more extensive cancellations than we reported in the earlier press conference. Virtually all flights at LaGuardia tomorrow will be canceled and significant cancellations at JFK as well.

The typical advice we give is call your carriers if you are planning on leaving tomorrow when the roads have been reopened, whenever that time is. But very extensive cancellations at all airports, expect significant delays.

CUOMO: OK, anyone have anything else? Superintendent? Commissioner? Questions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, can you explain, every bus, make it crystal clear --

CUOMO: Exactly right, it is the entire system. We started talking earlier this afternoon about people should leave earlier to get home. We talked about a soft close time for the system of about 10:00, so get where you were going by 10:00. The hard close time is 11:00.

It will start to slow -- the service will slow up until 11:00 and it will stop at 11:00 because we will be moving the trains, subway trains, as well as the railroad cars to safer locations. On the roads, in that 13 county area, it is a total travel restriction ban.

If you are in your car and you are on any road, town, village, city, doesn't matter, after 11:00, you will technically be committing a crime, a misdemeanor, and a summons up to $300, and we will issue those summons. That will be in effect until we see what happens tomorrow. Those counties are Mid-Hudson, Westchester Rockland, New York City and Long Island.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

CUOMO: We will monitor tomorrow morning early. Remember, the storm is supposed to pick up tonight, go through tomorrow, so we will watch it as it goes. Also, we have emergency personnel who need to get places. I can tell you already, cars are getting stuck on the highways and it only takes two cars to get stuck and the traffic backs up and that's it. And it is phenomenally difficult and time-consuming to then get the right equipment in there to move cars, et cetera. And it is no joke to have people stranded on a highway. We have gone through that before. It is frightening how quickly a simple trip --

TAPPER: That's New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warning the people of New York to stay off the roads.

That is it for THE LEAD for today. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. Stay safe, everyone. Stay inside.