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Don Lemon Tonight

Northeast Slammed by Blizzard; Aaron Hernandez Trial Delayed

Aired January 26, 2015 - 22:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's going to be a long evening for a lot of people here in the northeast. I'm standing outside here on the west side of Manhattan and I'm going to do my best to show you around, just to show you what people are dealing with here.

It is really unbelievable what the city of New York and really cities all over the country, all over the northeast, I should say, are dealing with right now. In about -- just over an hour from now, this will be illegal, what we're doing, unless you are an emergency vehicle because the mayor and the governor, they have ordered everyone off the roads unless you are emergency personnel.

The tunnels and bridges, most of them into and out of Manhattan, they have been shut down. Virtually shutting down the island of Manhattan. It is essentially that, an island, and there's virtually no communication, at least, no transportation going in and out of Manhattan.

If you are caught on the roads here, even if you are a delivery person on a bicycle, you could face a fine of up to $300 and you'll have to go to court. It is a misdemeanor. But all up and down the East Coast, some 60 million people affected by this. And we're talking more than 7,000 flights that have been canceled from LaGuardia, to Newark Airport, to JFK and on and on and on. Logan in Boston as well.

And as we drive around here, this city, which is usually bustling, the city that really rarely ever sleeps, is pretty darn sleepy right now. As we take you, we're going right across the park here. We're on Central Park south, and we're going to go right across the park. We're just going to show you just how desolate the city is. And usually in Manhattan, you can get anything you want delivered. You can get to and fro any time.

Amtrak is shut down here on the northeast corridor. New Jersey transit shut down as well. As well as most of the major transportation in the area. And as we're driving here, we're heading towards Seventh Avenue and we're going to take you down to Times Square, which is usually bustling with people, tourists, especially this time of year, people coming to -- because they want to see winter in Manhattan, as we turn right here, as we're looking down Seventh Avenue.

And there right in front of us, you can see Times Square. And it is usually lit up, as it is now, but you can see it more clearly and usually there would be people out here on the streets. But again, some 60 million people affected by this. And here in New York, the amount of personnel that they have put out, the mayor ordering new personnel, more ambulances out on the street, more salt trucks out on the street, and on and on and on.

And telling everybody, if you don't have to be at work, then you should not come in. And you should stay home.

At 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, which is just probably about 55 minutes from now, the New York City subway, which is the single -- the largest single transportation mode in this country, will be shut down. Usually you can get anywhere you want to in Manhattan, any hour of the day you can go. If you want to go from -- you know, if you want to get to the airport, you can get to the airport. If you want to go to another borough, you can go to another borough.

If you want to go to New Jersey, you can go to New Jersey. Right now you cannot do any of that. And so getting through Manhattan usually at this hour, especially where we are on Seventh Avenue headed towards Times Square, usually we would be stuck in traffic. Sometimes even this late you can't even get a taxi, but look at it now, a virtual ghost town as we pass -- we're passing Rosy O'Grady's here.

We're on Seventh Avenue and -- where are we? Near Forty?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 52nd.

LEMON: 52nd Street. Thank you very much. And so it will be a couple more blocks before we head down and get into Times Square.

But I just want to show you what it is like in a city this big, when you're dealing with, at first they said maybe about three feet of snow. They have now since dialed that back to 12 inches to 24 inches of snow. That's the difference of a foot. Let's hope that it's not that big. But we're hoping for 12 inches or less here in New York City.

Our meteorologist Chad Myers has been covering this, as well as our entire meteorology department here at CNN. But I cannot believe that I am looking at the city of Manhattan, at the city of -- New York City and the borough of Manhattan right now and it is virtually shut down.

Another interesting fact, usually Broadway is dark on Monday nights, but there -- Monday nights but there are several shows, a handful of shows, "Phantom" and some of the big shows, especially when they have anniversaries now, they will -- they will have shows on Monday nights. They don't have a show tonight. It has been shut down.

And the mayor now again saying shutting down the subway system and they're not exactly sure when they're going to open it back up. And so some people are not sure when they're going to be able to get into work.

We're going to pull over here, let's pull over right in the middle of Times Square here, and I'm going to walk around in front of the car and we'll show you. Here we go. Middle of Times Square, which is usually bustling right now. I'm going to get out and walk around the car. You can see, hardly anybody out. And these cars that you see right here, these folks who are out on the road, pretty soon they won't be here.

They won't be allowed on the road, because again, at 11:00 p.m. eastern time, every single car, except for emergency vehicles, that means police officers, ambulances, fire trucks, and some members of the media, you have to be inside. You cannot be on the road, and including delivery people.

But again, to be able to stand in the middle of Seventh Avenue right here at the crossroads of the world, and 47th Street, is virtually unheard of.

I want to talk now to -- go to Chad Myers, CNN meteorologist. Chad Myers who joins now. He's standing right in the middle of Columbus Circle.

Chad, this is unbelievable.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is.

LEMON: And the major time for this is -- should be between, what, like midnight and 6:00 a.m. you're saying?

MYERS: Yes. For us, it's going to be somewhere around there. We still can get that thunderstorm. We still could get some pretty significant accumulations. Maybe six to 12 inches.

But we talked about these models all day, Don. We said that the one model was saying about eight to 12. And then two models were saying over 24 inches.

LEMON: Want to park right here.

MYERS: What do you possibly believe? How do you go from 24 to eight? Well, now those models that were seeing so much snow have backed off New York a lot, but they have not backed off for Boston.

This is going to be a Connecticut, Long Island, Boston, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts and Maine storm. We're going to probably see tonight at least another eight inches, but the problem is still going to be the wind. It always was going to be the wind.

About 15 minutes ago, I was on top of this building with Anderson Cooper, and I was frozen. I couldn't feel my toes. I had a bean cap on. I had hand warmers on my hands, trying to keep them warm. Now I'm out of the wind, I feel 50 degrees warmer. It is a windchill factor issue with this storm that we haven't seen like this in a long time. We haven't seen winds of 40 or 50 miles per hour at all with any of these latest snowstorms.

This is a snow maker, yes, but it's a wind event and those winds will bring down power lines. And that is going to be, I would say, at least a half million people at some point in this storm or another, will be without power. And it's a cold night, or a couple of cold nights to be without power -- Don.

LEMON: And, Chad, I've heard you call it and I've heard other experts call this life-threatening, historic. Why are you saying life- threatening and historic?

MYERS: Well, you know, I'll tell you what, the governors have done a fantastic job. If you put 50,000 people on the roadways like Atlanta had with the last three-inch snowfall that they had, and you put them in blizzard conditions and windchills of 20 degrees below zero, it would have been and still is a life-threatening situation. It is much less life-threatening now that the governors did what they did, the mayors are doing what they're doing, the boroughs have shut things down here.

This is a much less dangerous storm when people do what they're asked to do. Had those warnings not gone out and the blizzard and whiteout conditions happened overnight, we would have people stranded on the roadways. Now there will be nobody out there because they're not allowed to be out there.

This is still going to be -- don't get me wrong. This is still going to be a big deal for Boston, for Providence, for New Haven, for all of Long Island, it just not going to be -- not such a significant snowmaker here for New York City.

We already have about five inches on the ground. Another eight inches coming, that's 13 total.

LEMON: Yes.

MYERS: And that's pretty close to where we were earlier today.

LEMON: Thanks, Chad.

How amazing is it? I mean, you know New York City just as well as any of us. To be standing up here and to see virtually, you know, no vehicles on the road except for the vehicles we just saw some salt trucks just couple of moments ago. And if you stay with us, you'll see some police vehicles.

But listen, my colleagues are all over the northeast. Up in Connecticut, in Massachusetts, and also in New Jersey.

I want to get to my colleague Brooke Baldwin. Brooke Baldwin has been , standing by, she is in Boston. She's been doing a heck of a job there reporting.

Brooke, when last I saw you, you had a (INAUDIBLE) there with you and they've gotten lots of snow. I'm not exactly sure how much there now. But what are you seeing, my friend?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I got to hold on to my hat, Don Lemon. It is really, really the wind has really started to pick up. And this is the hour, this is the beginning of the real, real snow. It's been coming down. We've been out here for a couple of hours.

We're here in Boston Harbor. And I mean, when you look around, it's such a gorgeous city, the water's over this way, if you know Boston. The North End is this way. A lost people out and about, taking in some drink and some dinner for sure. But it's very, very quiet here as well.

I spy one woman walking that way in the last couple of hours that we've been here. I'm seeing a fair amount of traffic, but by now there's one cab. Really it's been cabs and it's been plows. If I may have my prop here. Lindsay Perna, thank you very much. My producer.

You know, you are asking Chad, well, why would this be historic? And so here in Boston, a lot of people are talking about 2003, and that was the record setting 27-inch-plus snowstorm.

I pulled this out because this is three feet, right? So I'm five- nine, here you go. This is where I would come up on to me. And that's the big question. If it would be potentially historic and record-breaking here in Boston. As we know, this is just the beginning of really this snow beginning to pelt this city.

But when you've been talking to people as we have and our crews here in Boston have, people here in Boston, so far they're just not that worried about -- you know, they know the schools are closed tomorrow, they know you can't get on The T tomorrow. So they're just all hunkering down and I think, quite honestly, some of them enjoying it.

I think the big concern, Don, is power outages. Right? And making sure people are off the roads. The governor here, statewide travel ban at midnight tonight. So get off the roads if you can. But we'll be out here riding the storm with you for the next couple of hours -- Don.

LEMON: Absolutely, Brooke. And thank you very much.

Brooke, stay right there because we're going to -- Brooke is going to be there. And here's a concern. I'm not sure how much you can see. This is -- right now, this was fresh snow a little while ago. Now it is slush, and it's going to get a lot colder here. And the concern is that this is going to freeze over, all of that is going to freeze over and people will be slipping and sliding all over the roads.

I want to go over now to CNN's Brian Todd. Brian Todd has been following this storm for us. He's at Asbury Park, New Jersey.

And Brian, I've been seeing you, the wind was whipping there and snow and ice really --

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, the wind is really -- really very devastating right now. If you want to get a sense of just how bad it is, I'll have our photojournalist, Oliver Janney, point up towards the light at the top of the light pole here. And it is really picking up, it is getting much, much more intense.

This is as much a wind event right now as it is a snow event but you can see, if Oliver can train his camera toward that light, just how strong this wind is and what it's going to the snow here along the boardwalk in Asbury Park. The tide is also coming in and in less than two hours, it will be high tide. So that is fueling concerns about flooding here as well. They're saying that they're expecting maybe one to two inches of snow per hour here. Starting right about now. In less than one hour, there will be a travel ban for any non-

essential personnel on the streets of this region of New Jersey. Actually throughout the entire state of New Jersey, there's a travel ban in less than one hour.

This is causing whiteout conditions, this wind. And that's the real concern. The lack of visibility with whiteout conditions, just fueled by this gale-force wind that is over 30 miles an hour now. It feels like it's a lot stronger right now, Don, but -- and we're told that just inland here, even though the snow is being blown off the boardwalk, an you can see the boardwalk, that's not the case just a few feet inland where the side roads are really, really bad.

We just talked to a police officer, he said they're not going to be able to get to plow these roads until at least 4:00 in the morning because the snow is really accumulating on every side road here in Asbury Park, New Jersey -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Brian Todd, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Brian, make sure you stay -- stay safe out there.

Again, as I've been saying, we've got reporters covering this story all up and down the East Coast. I'm actually in a mobile weather vehicle now, our blizzard vehicle here at CNN, and as we are going through the streets of Manhattan, we're making our way through Times Square now. And as you can see right here in front of me, one of the snowplows right there and that's pretty much all we've been seeing.

People who are in emergency vehicles. Some tourists out and about, most of them heading home now. And again, not even a delivery person on a bicycle. The governor -- the governor as well as the mayor of New York saying the same thing.

Broadway, dark tonight. Broadway, it's usually dark on Monday nights except for a handful of shows. Even those shows are not playing tonight. And then it could be the same -- a repeat for tomorrow night. And when, if ever, have you heard of the New York City subway system being shut down. And the last time that happened was during, of course, Hurricane Sandy, and that was a couple of years ago.

I want to go now to CNN's Ana Cabrera. Ana joins us now, she's on the tip of Long Island. She's out in Montauk. Usually people go out there for the summer because their beach homes are out there, but now it's bearing the brunt of the storm -- Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There are residents who live here year-round. This is a very big fishing community. And so we have talked to residents who say they are preparing tonight to hunker down, to perhaps be in their homes for days before they're able to get out again. Some people attaching snowplows to the front of their trucks, so that they can perhaps get out of their house. And when we see the two to three foot of accumulated snow by the end of this storm.

Here along main street, you can see it's pretty quiet out here. We've seen multiple passes of the snowplows coming and going. I know the Department of Transportation has about 600 snowplows stationed just on the Long Island area alone, with some 1300 personnel working around the clock to try to keep these roadways open and passable.

Of course that's a big concern especially for the folks who are living in this far-out region from New York. While it's only a couple of hours outside of the big apple, it is a little bit more removed. And so they have fewer resources out here. And power outages is one of the main concerns out here because we saw during Superstorm Sandy that this is an area that lost power for weeks at a time.

We understand that the power company has made some improvements, made some changes to the infrastructure out here since then, so they're hoping that power outages do not become the main story. But again, the wind gusts have just been brutal and continuing to pick up over the last few hours that we've been experiencing this storm with the snow coming down harder and harder.

We're going to see perhaps such as 70-mile-per-hour winds in this area. It could be the strongest wind gusts of the entire region. Along with coastal flooding, a huge concern. And you can see why, it's that wind that's going to push the water into the rest of the inland area where they're expecting to two to four feet above tide level for the general water level and then some waves up to 15 feet can be crashing upon shore and cause some beach erosion.

So that's really the gamut of the concerns that the folks in Montauk and eastern Long Island are facing moving forward here -- Don.

LEMON: Ana Cabrera out of Montauk.

Usually the Hamptons are desirable, but certainly not right now with a major blizzard rolling through.

Ana, thank you very much. We'll get back to you.

I've been watching, I'm driving through the streets of Manhattan here, watching people trying to get taxi cabs, not going to happen. It's not going to happen. You were warned by the governor, by the mayor, by CNN, by the National Weather Service, to get off the streets of New York City because you won't have any services and that's what's happening right now.

I'm seeing people on corners, almost every corner, coming up from Times Square, we're headed up now Eighth Avenue back towards the Columbus Circle and the Time Warner Center where CNN is, and also towards Central Park. And the people who are out here, they have to find their way home, as best they could. Probably going to have to walk at this point.

Listen, don't go anywhere. We've got the best storm coverage on television right now. We're going to take you all over Manhattan, we're going to take you to Massachusetts, we'll take you to New Jersey as well. Also Pennsylvania, wherever the storm is happening, CNN is all over it. We're back right after a very quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're back now here on CNN. You're watching CNN TONIGHT and CNN's special coverage of the blizzard of 2015. And I'm Don Lemon.

I want to show you where we are now. I'm out in a roving vehicle out in this blizzard in Manhattan. We're going up Eighth Avenue -- now we're going up Broadway, excuse me. Broadway, we're on the Upper West Side and you can see these are the salt trucks and the sanders that are out here on the roads. And they have been out through the city, the entire city.

And according to the Office of Emergency Management and the mayor, what they're going to do is judge by how the elevation of your street and whether or not your street is curved or flat or what have you, as to how much sand and how many trucks come out on the street. It is really done by that.

And, you know, this, between midnight and 6:00 a.m., at least according to our meteorologist, it should be the brunt of the storm coming through. And again, as we are rolling through with the vehicles now, you can see the trucks in front of us as they spread salt.

They're not doing a lot of it right now because the snow isn't coming on that heavy. But what has happened, though, it is -- it is becoming slushy. And they don't want it to freeze over, because then people will be slipping and sliding. 2300 vehicles out on the street now, trying to get all of this under control.

And the interesting part is, is that there won't be that many vehicles out on the street because the mayor has asked that everybody get off the street except for emergency vehicles.

I want to go now to Chad Myers, our meteorologist.

Chad, I understand that, you know, we're getting new information in by the second. What are the models showing you now?

MYERS: Well, you know, Don, earlier today, we had two models that said 24 inches for New York City and 30 for Boston. You know, wow. And then we had the new model, the new GFS with brand new data, brand new computer that was saying no, that's about 11 inches. So, you know, try not to get into the -- throw three models together divided by three and see what you get.

We had to believe the new model. The new what we thought is the new best model so the forecast here for New York City was about 10 to 14 inches with the possibility of a whole lot more if it exploded like the two older models said. Well, now the older models are coming back into line with the new and improved, saying a good eight more inches here in New York, but this is not going to be a 30-inch snowfall here for the city.

Probably will not even a 20-inch snowfall for the city. But that big number, those big -- that foot, foot and a half, two feet, that will be east of the city, probably about 30 miles. So anywhere from West Port, on up -- Connecticut, on up into parts of central Massachusetts, all the way through New England. That's where those 20 to 30 inch snowfall totals.

One to two and a half foot snowfall totals will be. Not here in the city. That's great news for the city here. It can handle another eight inches. It's already got about five now on the ground. That's a total of 13. That's a pretty good number where the models were earlier today. At least I think we can take a big sigh of relief that when we wake up tomorrow, it will be windy, it will be cold, but there's not going to be two and a half feet of snow to move off the sidewalks -- Don.

LEMON: Hey, Chad, I have a quick question for you. As I've noticed earlier when I was out, it was very fluffy, and it was --

MYERS: Yes.

LEMON: You know, kind of -- a hard snow, right? It wasn't slushy. Now it is -- now it's -- now it's slushy. Is that because of the temperatures? Is that because of the -- what they're putting out on the streets? What's going on?

MYERS: It's because it hasn't snowed a lot for a while. Yes, earlier today when it was snowing -- it was coming down probably an inch and a half an hour for a little while. That's when we started to see that stuff get really stuck to the roadways. It's still here around Columbus Circle. They're still on the road. They didn't clear that out yet and that's why we know there's about five inches. There's even some areas around eight with ruts. But anyway, but now because the snow haven't been down coming hard for a while, it has started to just melt.

Yesterday, Don, I walked up here, I walked up to the Fairway Market on 74th Street. When I got into town, it was 42 degrees and sunny. The ground is just a little bit warm and now that's melting underneath just a little bit from that residual heat.

LEMON: Chad Myers, thank you very much, Sir Chad.

We're out in the storm. Our meteorologist Chad Myers is with us. He's back at the Time Warner Center. He's covering things there. We've got a lot of people out in the field for you, reporters that are based all over the northeast. I'm in Manhattan and I'm going to show you what's happening with the storm in real time as it happens.

We're going to take a quick break. We're going to be back here on CNN in just a moment. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Back now here, I'm Don Lemon in the blizzard mobile, CNN's blizzard mobile, and we are out showing you what's happening in Manhattan live as it -- as it happens. I want to show you this.

This emergency alert just came over on the cell phone, and it says all non-emergency vehicles must be off all roads in NYC by 11:00 p.m. until further notice. So that -- people are getting those notices on their cell phone.

And what I want you to see is that this is what the -- residential streets are looking at. We're at 84th and Columbus now. And we're about to cross Columbus -- here comes an ambulance out front you can see. And that ambulance is supposed to be out. The car behind it in about 30 minutes will be breaking the law and because they're not supposed to be out.

I just want to tell you what's happening as you can see here in Manhattan people are walking their dogs. There is a sanitation department car passing right now.

But just -- just to let you know, that New York City subway, which is virtually always working, shut down at 11 p.m. Metro-North, shut down. The Long Island Railroad, shut down, MTA bus service suspended at 11 p.m. everything tonight.

Again, as you can look here -- listen, this is just the beginning of this, because it's supposed to get worse between -- maybe now and 6 a.m., if the models of the forecast is right. And you can see -- you know, some of the drifts starting to pile up now where they've been shoveling some of the snow.

I want to get now to CNN's Rene Marsh. Rene Marsh has been at LaGuardia airport. And Rene, we know there have been 7,000 flights that have been canceled all over the country. LaGuardia, really probably leading the way with cancellations and delays, what do you have right now for us?

RENE MARSH, CNNA'S AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, take a look behind me, you can see it's deserted and the same story inside. And I can tell you, at many of the country's busiest airports along the northeast, and looks a lot like this, because we're talking about thousands and thousands of cancellations today because of this terrible storm. And unfortunately, it's going to get worse before it gets better, because tomorrow we're talking about thousands of cancellations again. Already, we're seeing more than 4,000 canceled flights and then we're also seeing cancellations start to stack up for Wednesday.

So it's a bad deal if you are trying to get some place by plane, I can tell you that most of the major airlines, they tell us that they have suspended flights into their northeast hubs because of this weather. And you know I spoke with a lot of people inside here at LaGuardia today who say, I had my flight canceled and rebooked and canceled, then rebooked and canceled again. They're so frustrated that they said, well, maybe I should opt for the train. Well, bad news there too, because on Amtrak they're seeing cancellations as well, specifically, on the trains going from New York to those northeastern regions like Boston. Don?

LEMON: Yeah, it's tough out there, no matter if you're on a plane, a train, or an automobile. Thank you very much, Rene Marsh. We're going to get back to you Rene, watching the situations at the airport. And again, CNN correspondents, reporters and producers are stationed all over the northeast from Maine all the way down to Jersey, and really way out in Long Island.

I'm going to get to my colleague Ana Cabrera in just a moment. But I just want to show you, this is -- what you're looking at now is Central Park West and usually this is my route home at night. Usually I take the subway in and I'll take Central Park West in a taxi back home at night. And usually this is -- you know, filled with people there coming from the theater, they may have gone to the museum or what have you. Because by 11 p.m. that's when people are usually off, the Broadway shows are letting out with have you and this is just virtually desolate right now.

And again, as the emergency officials here have been telling people to stay off the roads and it looks like people are heeding the warning. And if they don't, again, a $300 fine for anyone who is out on two wheels or four, anywhere between 2 and 4, how are many, if you shouldn't be out on the street, you're going to get a fine, you're going to get ticketed.

Speaking of the -- you know, the tip of Long Island and parts as far as we can this storm is going to reach, I want to get now to Ana Cabrera, she's out on a tip of Long Island in Montauk, Ana and she's got some new information for us. What do you have, Ana?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, this is one of the areas expected to be hardest hit, and of course we've seen the snow already starting to pile up here. We're expecting two to three feet of additional accumulation before the storm is over. I want to step over and bring in a guest here who is with me, who happened to just pop on by our live shot.

This is Steve Lynch is the superintendent of highways for the town of East Hampton, which includes Montauk, which is one of the five harmless (ph) in this region. Steve, thank you so much for braving this cold weather and blustery condition to talk with me, what are you anticipating tonight and how have you prepared?

STEVE LYNCH, EAST HAMPTON TOWN HIGHWAY SUPERITENDENT: We started preparing yesterday -- I think we can over (ph) on everything so, we got everything. We got 70 guys right now, (inaudible) with private contractors, and we're just going to stay up with it. Hopefully the weather forecast is a little bit wrong and we don't get as much as they say it is. But, we're just going to keep at it all night and see how it plays out.

CABRERA: What is your biggest concern at this point?

LYNCH: Well, the drifting. You know, we're out here in Montauk, and that stretch, we get a lot of drifting. So the big thing is to keep that open, so if any emergency vehicles have to get out there, and the whole thing is, we're available. All the fire departments and ambulance personnel, they have our telephone numbers. They can get us on radio. If there's any calls, we escort them. Got to make sure they can get --

CABRERA: Yeah.

LYNCH: Get to where they've got to go.

CABRERA: That was the bore (ph) end, thank you so much Steve Lynch for joining us again. These (inaudible) of hi-way here in the town of East Hampton, really appreciate your time, Don back to you.

LEMON: All right, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I want -- the people on Twitter to know I am wearing a seat belt it's here, so relax. Thank you very much for that. But listen, here's what we're doing, we're going to go to the park here and show you what's happening in Central Park. Again, we're in the CNN Blizzardmobile and we're driving through Manhattan where it's virtually no one out on the road right now. Because at 11 p.m., 11 p.m. it will be illegal to do what we're doing, unless you are an emergency vehicle or you are a member of the media, we have got a permission to do this. But otherwise you will face a fine of $300 or worse, if you happen to call on accident or you know, an undo emergency and that's the last thing they need right now. But again, as we go through here, through the transverse we're going, through Manhattan, we'll continue to cover this.

You're watching CNN. I'm Don Lemon, out in the Blizzardmobile here on CNN. The best coverage, we're taking you through it all up and down the east coast. Don't go anywhere. We're back after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, back now here on CNN, I'm inside the Blizzardmobile and I'm going around Manhattan and we're showing you exactly what is happening right now. We're at the transverse going through the park, which means we're going across the park and not down. Anyway, but we're going from east to west, rather than north to south here. And I just want to tell you, there's a lot of equipment here out on the road as we look at. This looks beautiful but it can be very dangerous, as we're watching people walking home -- those people I don't know if you were able to see them, they can't get a taxi.

And then we saw someone zooming by just a moment ago, probably trying to get out of Manhattan and home -- or out of New York City and home before the 11 o'clock curfew, really when everyone was ban. I just want to tell you the mayor says 1,800 snowplows, 2,300 vehicles ready to go. They added 40 percent more ambulances. The fire department added 500 staff members to duty tonight, NYC -- 6,000 miles of street to cover and again, if you're on the road, a $300 fine. So now we have gone from the west side to the east side, we're at Fifth Avenue and where are we? 84th?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

LEMON: We're Fifth Avenue and now -- I want to goes -- speaking of all that equipment that's out and all the sand and all the salt and all of that, I want to go now on CNN's Miguel Marquez who is at the sanitation department, really the hub of all of this, making sure that the streets stay as passable as they can. Miguel Marquez, what do you have?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we actually left that location where there were many trucks going from there. They were -- they had several hundred thousand tons of salt that they have to spread over the city here. We're at 23rd and Broadway I want to show you the streets here which are becoming a ghost town. The city that never sleeps is stopped in tonight. There are a few people on the street, but for the most part, the only vehicles out here are snowplows. Those sanitation workers who are the heroes of the city so far, you can see the roads are fairly clean, we drove all over the city.

The main thoroughfares are fairly clean. The side streets are more packed with snow. But we're starting to feel some of those winds on occasion now. And we expect that as the night wears on, the snow will get heavier and by morning, there will be more snow here in Manhattan. The question is how much and how much it will affect the city. It seems at this point though we have missed the brunt of this big storm. Don?

LEMON: All right. Miguel Marquez, thank you very much.

Again, I said -- we're on 79th street not 84 street, that's probably not important to most of you at home. But again, as you watch you can see the emergency vehicles out on the road, we just saw an ambulance pass here. And again, we're out in the CNN Blizzardmobile, as we're calling it, because that's exactly what -- what it is, the blizzard and we're out in it. And we have been watching the streets get really calmer and calmer and more desolate and more desolate as the moments go by.

What you're looking at now which is interesting, because usually this is a beautiful shot down Park Avenue. Right -- and you could see straight down to Grand Central station, and usually you can see -- you know, all the beautiful buildings, but you can't really see it right now because of the snow and the lights are off because, a not much is happening in the city of Manhattan right now. Again, we are covering this from Maine to New Jersey, all over the northeast wherever this storm is happening. We're going to keep you covered. And again, the brunt of the storm is supposed to happen overnight.

We'll be on the air. We'll bring it to you. We'll be back right after this quick break. Don't go anywhere.

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LEMON: We're back now with the special live coverage of the blizzard of 2015. I'm Don Lemon, I'm out in the Blizzardmobile for CNN TONIGHT. We're keeping you covered on that.

We've got a lot to talk about tonight. Our Susan Candiotti is in Rhode Island, she's doing double duty for us. She's going to tell us about the weather there and also a trial coverage for Aaron Hernandez. Susan, what's the weather there like first?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a mess here tonight. The snow is blowing in every direction. The streets are barren here. And like I said, those flakes are coming down relentlessly and it's a wet snow, it's not terribly cold of course, I'm wearing a million layers under this. But, there is going to be a lot of clean-up because there's no end in sight. And we've seen the street cleaners out trying to do the best they can, Don, here in Providence, Rhode Island, to keep the streets clear. And the reason we are here tonight, instead of Fall River, Massachusetts, where the trial of Aaron Hernandez is just getting under way is because the roads are simply too treacherous to may -- have driven back there tonight. As a matter of fact, that courthouse in Fall River is closing for the next two days. So that is putting the trial at a standstill right now. Don?

LEMON: So, Susan, and the trial is at a standstill, but -- as far as new information or anything coming in, is there anything behind the scenes that you can tell us, how they're trying to work this case about Aaron Hernandez. Any sort of strategy with the prosecution or the defense?

CANDIOTTI: You know, sure can -- a few things actually. Today, they made some real head way. A jury was finally selected. And this is a process that's been going on for quite some time. We can tell you that 18 people have been selected, including 12 jurors and six alternates. 13 of the jurors are women, and five are men. There is one black male gentleman on the panel. And we can tell you not much more, because in the state of Massachusetts, all the jurors are questioned at side bar. In other words, only by the judge and prosecutors listening in as well as defense attorneys and Aaron Hernandez, so everything they say is really a secret and will be kept a secret until possibly when a trial is over. So, we don't know the usual details about -- for example, what people do for a living.

Now, opening statements are scheduled to begin this Thursday weather permitting. But again, because the roads are so bad, they don't know whether that -- the opening statements will begin on Thursday. And when they do, we understand that one of the first witnesses will be, once the state begins its case, will be the mother of murder victim Odin Lloyd. Of course, Aaron Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in this case. And Don, we also learned something else. Among the people on the states witness list, there are about 300 people listed. We don't know how many of them will actually come to the witness stand but, they include the patriots' owner, Bob Kraft and Bill Belichick, the coach -- head coach. Now, will they actually take the stand? I don't know. But we've learned this, they do have some crucial information according to a law enforcement source, about conversations they had face to face with Aaron Hernandez just a few days after the body of Odin Lloyd was found. And according to our source, the coach and the owner said that Hernandez flatly denied that he had anything at all to do with Odin Lloyd's murder. Don?

LEMON: Susan Candiotti, thank you very much. We appreciate that. I want to get to my expert panel now which includes radio hosts and two former NFL players. Joining me now is Izelle Reese and also Donte Stallworth and Michael Holley. Thanks to all of you.

There's a bit of a delay, so please bear with me. And if you can keep your comments brief, that way I can get everyone in. So Michael, I'm going to start with you. Robert Kraft spoke at a press conference in Arizona. About -- we're talking about deflate gate right? We're talking about the patriots and -- football. I want you take a listen to this press conference and then we'll talk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT KRAFT, OWNER NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: Is not able to definitively determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure in the footballs. I would expect and hope that the league would apologize to our entire team and in particular, Coach Belichick and Tom Brady for what they have had to endure this past week. I am disappointed in the way this entire matter has been handled and reported upon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So Michael, Kraft said that he's also confident that this investigation will get to the bottom and uncover the science of how footballs react to changes in the environment. What's your reaction?

MICHAEL HOLLEY, AUTHOR: Well, two quick things Don, two important things Number one, this is what a lot of people in New England wanted to hear from Bob Kraft. He had been very silent up to this point. He released a pretty bland, corporate-sounding statement last week. This is a very impassioned, very real heartfelt Bob Kraft. And the second thing is, this is a little different than the usually Bob Kraft, Roger Goodell kind of relationship. You know, Richard Sherman of the Seahawks called out Kraft for being a little too cozy with Roger Goodell but, as you heard there Kraft was very pointed at his -- talking about the league, and that seems to be -- seems to me the a veiled shot at Roger Goodell.

LEMON: So I have to ask you, because Fox Sports is reporting tonight that a locker room attendant has been identified as a person of interest in deflating these balls, just to deflate gate. What's your reaction?

IZELLE REESE, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Well, I think a -- I mean a lot of investigation is taking place right now. And I think we're hearing bits and pieces as time goes on. I mean, that remains to be seen, I don't know if that's actually factual just yet. But if it is true, I mean, it is definitely concerning if the balls were taken into another room before they were taken to the field, and this is a serious allegation. I mean, this is something that's not to be taken lightly.

No, Kraft's said also in his interview about the NFL is force taking too much time on this and want an apology. But, these are serious allegations. We're talking about allegations going in before the Super Bowl, so we're talking about potentially rules being broken, so it remains to be seen. But I'm really interested in knowing more about it, knowing more about the details.

LEMOM: Michael, do you think that a locker room attendant would do something like this, like deflate a football without being told to do so?

HOLLEY: Without being told to do so, absolutely not. So, it really would have to come down to somebody telling that locker room attendant to do it, and that goes against what Robert Kraft was saying today about Belichick and Tom Brady. So, I -- don't know what happened, I just want to point out that Fox report says, those balls were either taking into a bathroom or a closet. Now, they went into a bathroom, how long was he in the bathroom? Did the kid have to go to the bathroom? Or was it doing something sinister in there? That's what we got to find out.

LEMON: Dante, it's -- it's not a good look -- is it really to have someone like a locker room attendant take the fall for all of this, let's be honest.

DONTE STALLWORTH, FORMER PATRIOTS RECEIVER: Well, I think at the end of the day, I think a locker room attendant could also be a part of the ball boys that are associated with the team on game days. There are not enough equipment personnel guys to go around. So, they have locker room attendants that are shuffling the balls in and out of the locker room to the field. But, I think the thing that also to point out to is that, you know how much time before -- before he was supposed to hit the field, did he leave from the referees after they weighed the balls? There's a lot that's going into this thing that we don't know. So, I think everyone should reserve judgment for now until the NFL comes up with their investigation and we'll make conclusions once they do that.

LEMON: Gentlemen, I thank all -- I thank all of you for coming in. Unfortunately, I have to cut it - it's going to have to be brief tonight because of the Breaking News. But again, we will have you all back. Appreciate it all very much, Donte, Michael and Izelle. Thank you very much.

When we come back, more on our Breaking News, we're covering the storm that's happening here on the east coast. The blizzard really of 2015, it is being called dangerous by experts, and many cities across the region have been put on emergency mode, under states of emergency. We're going to take you deeper New England to show you exactly what's happening with this storm. We're going to do it live as it's happening in real time. We'll do it from the Blizzardmobile right here in New York.

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