Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Nightmares on JFK Runways; Ski Lift Stuck in Maine; Ski Lift Stuck in Maine; People Fell "20 or 30 feet" When Lift Lurched to a Halt
Aired December 28, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Tony Harris.
Good morning.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Alina, good morning. It means that the Eagles potentially are looking at three games in like a 10- day span. It's ridiculous.
CHO: Don't ask me about details. I don't know about this stuff.
HARRIS: Oh. See you a little later, Alina.
CHO: Bye.
HARRIS: Sorry.
Good morning, everyone. Live from Studio 7, I'm Tony Harris.
The big stories for Tuesday, December 28th.
Snowed-in passengers are flying out of New York today, but it may be Friday before airlines clear the blizzard backlog. The latest snag, arriving international passengers held on the tarmac at JFK overnight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRISTOBAL ALEX, STRANDED PASSENGER: We just deplaned and are coming into Customs after six-and-a-half hours on the tarmac. Basically, what happened was we were running out of food and water, and the pilot came on to say he had been arguing with the folks at the airport to at least let the police come on board to deliver some food and water. And I guess he lost that fight. Nobody came on, and we moved up to a gate and spent another couple of hours at the gate thinking we were going to come off and never did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: So, in New Jersey, hundreds of travelers who got stuck on the Garden State Parkway are out of that jam today. That includes two buses full of gamblers. They were headed back to Manhattan from Atlantic City. The buses were kept running overnight to keep the passengers warm. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, some people were freezing. We ran out of gas, no heat. People outside their cars doing what they had to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It did get scary. You know, when you're there at the eight-hour mark to the 12-hour mark to the 14-hour mark --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Investigators believe carbon monoxide killed five teenagers in a Miami area motel room. The boys left their car running in a garage below the room to keep the battery from dying. A stairwell door was ajar, allowing the gas to seep upstairs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
They left the engine running, the garage door closed. The room probably got filled with carbon monoxide poison. It doesn't appear that there is much ventilation other than the huge front door which you drive the vehicle through. But that door was closed already.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The victims between 16 and 19. One was celebrating his birthday.
Stuck on the tarmac for hours. Stories from stranded passengers are really starting to pile up now. Several planes were forced to remain on JFK's runways because of the blizzard.
Josh Levs is handling that angle of the story for us this morning -- Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, unbelievable. I mean, look, these people make it part way across the world, they make it to New York, they make it all the way to JFK, only to find that they're sitting on the tarmac, in some cases throughout the entire night.
Now, we know that there have been problems for a while. The New York airports were closed down, and clearly that's part of it. But it's not clear why all these passengers couldn't deplane for so long.
Some were on the tarmac at JFK for about seven hours, and we know what was happening in a lot of cases because of Twitter. Take a look here.
People have been following this story on Twitter. Here's Matthew Bishop, who is a journalist, who happened to be one of the flights. Look here.
"At last, seven hours, 35 minutes after landing at JFK" -- he was on a British Airways flight -- "183 reaches its gate! Now just a brief wait for start of immigration early shift." Take a look here. This is another one from Christine McGuire (ph). "Six hours on the tarmac at JFK, but now we are third in the queue for an available gate in our terminal," she wrote.
Airline officials are directing questions to the port authority. Here's what the port authority said.
Now, the airlines were referring questions about all this to the Port Authority. And earlier, on "AMERICAN MORNING," we spoke with a spokesman for Port Authority. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE COLEMAN, SPOKESMAN, PORT AUTHORITY: That's not acceptable, and like I said, we are still looking into it, because we don't know if these airlines contacted us for help. We typically have buses and ways to move passengers from planes to terminals if we are given notice that they're out there. But a lot of times the airlines don't inform us of the problems. So we have to check in to see exactly what happened here, and that's what we're going to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And we have been getting all sorts of stories. One passenger told us that some passengers were asking for food and that people on the plane, the officials, the pilots and others, were saying that they were fighting with the airport to try to get some food for people, but that police were not coming on and bringing food.
We're also hearing from a lot of people this suggestion that what had happened here involved Customs, that the Customs officials had been allowed to go home for a block of time. Then we also have been hearing stories about what happened after.
Some passengers got off the plane. One of them, Cristobal Alex, spoke with our Alina Cho earlier. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX: We couldn't go to the normal gate where the Customs terminal is because I guess they had shut down for the day. And then we ended up spending a good -- well, I'm still at the airport. I mean, we finally got off the plane, but now there is no baggage. So --
CHO: There's no baggage?
ALEX: We spent six and a half, seven hours out there, and now it's like mob rule down here in terminal one. There's no bags coming out, and people have been waiting for hours for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Mob rule. These stories just keep piling up.
By the way, we at CNN have contacted the Customs and Border Protection to find out if Customs officials were actually allowed to go home for a block of time, if that had anything to do with why these planes were stuck on the tarmac for so long. We have not gotten a call back.
I will let you know, British Airways, one of the airlines that had people stuck on the tarmac for so long, gave us a statement. And we have it right here. I've got a piece of it for you. And this is what they're saying in the statement.
They're saying, "We fully apologize to customers for this delay, but it is outside our control what parking stands we are allocated."
We want to hear from you. Some of you are actually watching us in airports right now. Some of you are probably watching us as JFK.
Here's where you can reach me. I'm at Twitter and Facebook. I'm at JoshLevsCNN. Go ahead and let us know your stories. Let us know what you have been through. Let us know what the experience is like and anything you are finding out as well as it goes.
And Tony, I'm going to end on a tweet I have up for you right here. This is one of the women who was on one of the flights that was stuck overnight. Look what she says.
"The hour and a half I just spent in the taxi line because all public transport is down was the worst of this trip. My toes might fall off."
We are wishing everyone a safe arrival at home. And in the meantime, we have a lot of questions, Tony, about what went down here, and we are all over it today at CNN.
HARRIS: Yes, but, you know, Jacqui and I were just talking just a moment ago. If you were on the other side -- we know the people are going through all kinds of nightmare scenarios, right?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
HARRIS: If you -- can you imagine being on the other side just for a moment?
JERAS: No.
HARRIS: Just for a moment. And I know it's very frustrating. But imagine for a moment being on the other side of the counter, having to deal with upset people.
JERAS: Every single person is mad at you.
HARRIS: Everyone is upset.
JERAS: Everyone.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Hey, Jacqui, if you would, stand by for just a second here. We've got a report, and you can help me work through this, some of the reporting on this.
We have got a ski lift --
JERAS: An iReport.
HARRIS: Yes. No, no, no, no.
JERAS: Oh, OK.
HARRIS: A bit of a developing story. We have got a ski lift in Maine that is in a bit of distress right now. A lot of people obviously on that lift. That's part of the problem here, Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine.
JERAS: OK.
HARRIS: And Robb Atkinson is one of our CNN employees.
And apparently, Robb, you're there. Can you describe the situation for us, please?
ROBB ATKINSON, CNN NEWSOURCE (via telephone): Hi, Tony. I'm here.
HARRIS: Hey, what's the scene? What's going on? Do a little bit of reporting if you would for us.
R. ATKINSON: Well, about 11:00 Eastern Time, there was a big gust of wind on a chairlift here up in -- we're on the Spillway chairlift in Sugarloaf, Maine. And there was a gust of wind, and apparently the wire came off the cable and sent people crashing to the ground.
At least three of the chairlifts are down. I'm told there are several people injured.
I see one right now being brought down the mountain right now. I can't tell their condition, but ski patrol told me a while ago that they are injured. Not seriously, but injured.
There's approximately about 100 of us trapped on the chairlift. And wind conditions are -- it's pretty gusty and about 8 degrees outside. So it's not too fun sitting up here.
But an entire lift of the chairlift came down, and it looks like they're going to have to rescue us one by one, and we're going to have to be taken down off the chairlifts. And we're not told when that's going to happen.
HARRIS: Right. So let me take this apart a bit, Robb. And stay with me as we do this together.
So, first of all, give me an idea of how far a drop you are essentially describing here. You are talking about a couple of people, maybe three people have actually fallen. What kind of distance are we talking about? R. ATKINSON: It's possible as many as six people were sent down to the ground. We're parallel to the height of the trees right now, so, you know, 20, 30 feet down. I'm sure it was quite a ride down.
HARRIS: And if you would, sort of walk us through the moments as this was unfolding. What happened? And then what happened next?
R. ATKINSON: OK. So we got on the chairlift about 11:00. The chairlift was going slow.
The wind started picking up. It was stopping then starting, stopping then starting. One of the times where it started again, all of a sudden there was a bump, and we could feel a jerk. And we heard screams from skiers down below yelling that the chairs are off the lift, and we've been trapped ever since.
HARRIS: I'm not much of a skier at all, and so I don't even know what the procedure would be to rescue you and everyone else who is trapped at this point. How would that rescue play out?
R. ATKINSON: Well, according to employees of the mountain who came by, it's a lot like rock climbing. As you can imagine, they're going to get a rope system up to each of the different chairlifts, and we're going to have to belay down, skis and all.
HARRIS: Are you kidding me?
R. ATKINSON: No.
HARRIS: And have you or anyone else who is in this particular predicament right now been able to contact anyone who would be a part of that rescue effort to find out how long this might take before you can get down there?
R. ATKINSON: Well, stand by.
Did you say they're starting to bring people down?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they were throwing a rope up there.
R. ATKINSON: It looks like the section in front of us -- as I mentioned, right before where the accident happened, it looks like they are starting to work a rope up for people to belay down. But there's no timeline on when it's going to happen.
The only thing that they said to us is try to bundle up and stay warm. It's going to be a while.
HARRIS: It sounds like it's pretty simple once -- it probably is risky getting the rope up. I'm not sure. Maybe you can describe what that would look like, but it sounds like once you get a rope up to the places where you guys are stuck right now, it's a pretty simple process to get down.
Is that correct? Is that accurate? R. ATKINSON: I believe so, yes. Anybody who has done any type of rock climbing, I believe you strap a harness on to yourself, secure the rope off to the chairlift, and then you'll be lowered down gently.
So that part is going to be fine, I guess. But it's going to take a while for them to get to each individual chairlift. And as I mentioned, there are at least 100 people on this chairlift, so it's going to be quite a while before they get everybody down.
HARRIS: So I'm trying to paint a visual, and you can help me do that, Robb. The image that comes to mind is the group of folks sort of precariously hanging here. Is that the scenario? And if not, describe it.
R. ATKINSON: You know, the one thing I was worried about, because I'm on the chairlift right now, is whether or not this cable is going to support us. Because I don't want to have happen to us what happened to the people in front of us.
The cable is dipped quite low. You can tell that there's a lot of slack in the system.
But, apparently, what they said is they blocked it off so they can, you know, at least keep it safe. And I do see someone below us right now with a rope system trying to get to our location right now.
HARRIS: Hey, Robb, where exactly in Maine are you?
R. ATKINSON: Well, we're in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, which is about two hours north of Portland, Maine. It's a great mountain.
And we just got 22 inches of snow last night, so the skiing is great. I'm looking forward to that when I get down off this. But it's kind of tense at the moment.
HARRIS: Yes. Then let me do this -- let's do a bit of a reset here for folks who are just joining us.
Fifteen minutes after the hour of 11:00 Eastern Time. And Robb Atkinson is one of our CNN employees, and he's out enjoying the holidays up in Maine, he's doing some skiing with friends, no doubt.
And Robb, you were on a lift, ready to take on a hill. And what happens?
R. ATKINSON: I got on a lift. It started slowly starting and stopping, and all of a sudden, there was a huge gust of wind -- a gust of wind, and there was a bump. We felt something like a bump, something like almost like the chairlift had hit something.
But what happened was the cable came off the pulley and sent about three people crashing down to the ground, at least three chairlifts crashing down. I know several people are hurt, and I do see rescue crews right now bringing the injured down right in front of me. I see two people come down so far, all in neck braces. And now we are told that they're going to have to evacuate the remaining people on the chairlift, which is about 100 people. And then they're going to do it individually, through a belay system, where they will get the ropes up. They're going to throw a rope up to each individual chairlift and then they're going to secure it, and we'll belay down.
HARRIS: What is concerning to you in your situation right now, as you are one of the hundred or so people who are stuck right now? What is your greatest concern right now?
R. ATKINSON: The two big concerns for us -- and one I think has been addressed -- is that we're afraid that the entire cable system would come down. But we're told that's not going to happen.
Tony, I do see a third person coming down off the mountain at this moment. So that's three people in total are confirmed hurt here. Maybe another one as well, I'm told.
But the immediate concern for us now that we're told that at least the cable is safe, is that 100 people are trapped up on this chairlift, and it's about 8 degrees outside with a 20, 30-mile-an-hour wind. So it's cold.
HARRIS: I think we're looking at video from your location from yesterday. I don't know if you shot this. Did you shoot this video?
OK. This is on the Web site that we're actually taking a look at the resort where you are right now.
Hey, Robb, hang on a second. We don't want to lose you.
Let's bring in Jacqui Jeras.
And Jacqui, if you would, let's talk about the weather conditions. And Robb has made mention a couple of times of the winds.
JERAS: The winds are a huge issue. I'm not sure what kind of restrictions there are on chairlifts, what's the max winds and what's safe in these kinds of conditions. But we knew very well what an intense low-pressure storm system this was and the kind of winds we would be dealing with.
And I just checked observations near there, and winds on average have been gusting between 30 and 50 miles per hour. So, depending on how high up the mountain you are, the higher up you go, the stronger the winds are going to be.
You know, you get up there towards Mount Washington, and winds are gusting right now at 96 miles per hour. So I'm not sure what the elevation is where Robb is there to know exactly how strong they are, but certainly winds, a big problem, and would be challenging to help get these people down.
HARRIS: Yes. Well, Robb, obviously, you're on CNN right now, and so everyone in that area knows of the plight you and the other folks on that lift are going through right now.
Josh Levs is standing by.
And Josh, you've been able to pull up some information on Sugarloaf?
LEVS: Yes. We can stay on this video. That's fine.
I mean, I want everyone to have an understanding of, right now, some basics about Sugarloaf. And I was just reading up on it.
For those of you who aren't familiar with it, who don't know how big this place is, Maine's second highest peak at 4,237 feet. It's the only lift service above tree line skiing in the entire East. So we're talking about a particularly high mountain here, a vertical drop of 2,820 feet.
Getting all this information from the Web site of Sugarloaf in which they have the video that you're seeing right here. Let's emphasize to our viewers here, these are videos that they put up there just to show what the skiing is like. It's not about today's conditions, it's about what this mountain is like.
And it's in the section of Maine in which a lot of people go to. It is a very, very popular attraction for those who want to ski and who care about skiing.
So, what you see, especially at this time of year, and especially after you're hearing about snowstorms, is lots of people turning out to this. And this would be the exact week, Tony, when huge crowds would be turning out to major skiing conditions and major skiing sites.
So let me give you some of the stats just one more time.
The second highest peak in all of Maine, at 4,237 feet. The only lift service above tree line skiing in the East. A vertical drop of 2,820 feet.
Obviously, the focus right now is on everyone's safety, everyone's security. And of course it's also important to keep in mind that major attractions like this do have backup plans. They do have people who are trained in emergency work, they do have people who go through routines, what if something were to happen, and usually you find that places will have routines even for something like this.
If something were to happen to a lift, if something were to happen that was knocking out all power all together, what would be done? They do have systems in place. So, certainly, there's reasons to be very positive, very hopeful about what would happen here. But in the meantime, the focus immediately is on everyone's safety right there.
HARRIS: Hey, Robb, are you still on the line with us?
R. ATKINSON: Yes, I am. And we're getting some action here.
The people on the mountain are throwing up -- it's kind of like a stick with a rope. And they're throwing it up over the chairlifts and preparing to start belaying people off the lifts behind us.
HARRIS: Hey, Robb, are you able to take any video with your cell phone?
R. ATKINSON: Yes. It's kind of buried under my helmet and my gloves at the moment. I've taken a few pictures of the accident immediately following. And yes, I can try to take some video right now of this rescue taking place, but I'd have to get off the phone.
HARRIS: All right. I want to keep you on the phone for just a bit longer.
I want Jacqui to talk to you as well, and I want Josh to relay any information that he's getting. And, of course, our national desk is working on getting an update as to how this rescue effort is going to actually play out, and a time frame for it as well.
But how far off the ground are you right now?
R. ATKINSON: I'm about 30 feet off the ground, maybe more. The whole section that I'm a part of is about 30, 40 feet of the ground.
HARRIS: OK.
JERAS: And how far up the mountain are you, Robb? I mean, are people going to have to be taken down to the base after this as well?
R. ATKINSON: Yes. We're on the Spillway chairlift, which is one of the highest lifts that's going up the mountain, and I'm about, I would say, three-quarters up the mountain.
HARRIS: Yes. Hey, Robb, let's do this -- Josh has got a statement from Sugarloaf.
Josh, hang on just a second.
Robb, can you talk to other folks maybe who are with you or folks who are around you? And let's have everyone do the same thing, which is to take some video with their cell phone cameras or their iPhones, whatever they have, their smartphones, and send it to us.
You probably know the best address. I was going to have you send it to me, but I guess there is a more appropriate address, and you know what that is since you are in the system, an employee here. So let's see if we get some video going of the rescue.
And in the meantime, Josh has got a statement from Sugarloaf.
LEVS: Right. I mean, obviously, if you are in a position to absolutely safely take those videos, just send it to iReport.com. It's that easy.
HARRIS: Perfect.
LEVS: You can just post it to me at Facebook and Twitter, JoshLevsCNN.
Here's what I have, Tony, a statement now from Ethan Austin (ph), communications manager for Sugarloaf Ski Resort. Here's the information we're getting from him.
They just experienced a derailment on one of the towers on one of their chairlifts. A cable skipped over the edge of one of the trains.
All the attached -- all the chairs that were attached fell. A couple of them hit the ground.
He's not saying how many hit the ground. Five chairs were hanging lower than they are supposed to be. Not clear how many are on the lift, but it is more than 100.
We are hearing -- and we're hearing this as well from the scene -- reports of some injuries. No confirmation right now on what types of injuries or how many.
And this is breaking just over the past hour. We're told that this happened between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m. this morning, so all in the part hour.
And it's not clear yet how many people are stuck up there. Here's what's happening right now.
Ski patrol is evacuating the lift, says that generally should take between an hour and an hour and a half, that evacuation process that is already undergoing right now. So we'll be following that here. And when asked if they had something like this happen before, the spokesman told us at CNN no, at Sugarloaf, to the best of his knowledge, they have not had something like this happen before.
But as I was just mentioning before, Tony, these are the kinds of things that at major ski attractions, they do prepare for. They have a lot of systems that they go through to watch out for safety, to watch out for security.
Here I am holding my BlackBerry, by the way, just getting the latest from the folks there at Sugarloaf.
And I want everyone to understand that this is a major place where a lot of people go travel, hours. Some people who are really into skiing will spend time there while they're traveling across the country.
And it would certainly make sense that a place like Sugarloaf would have a system in place right now to do everything that is necessary to protect everyone. And we are being told by a spokesman that that's the system that's going on right now. Now, exactly why this happened, what caused this kind of malfunction, that's the kind of thing that you work on after you get everybody off.
HARRIS: OK. Let's do this -- let me play a little bit of traffic cop here.
Robb, are you still on the line with us?
R. ATKINSON: Yes, I'm still here, Tony.
HARRIS: Perfect. Perfect. And let's get you over to Jacqui Jeras now.
Because, Jacqui, you have got a little Google Earth that can help us better identify the area where Robb is right now.
JERAS: Yes. It gives you a good idea of where it is.
So this is our Google Earth. And there you can see it. And we'll zoom in on that.
There we go. And it will take you down into the mountain, and there you can see all of the ski runs throughout the area, and you can see how tall this mountain is. Josh mentioned over 4,200 feet.
And they're near the top. You know? So they're not at the base. So they could have as much as 3,000 feet to have to bring them down once they actually get them off those chairlifts.
The winds are going to continue to be a real issue here. I would think, 30-to-50-mile-an-hour gusts easy, maybe even up to 60.
So you can see that this is a large resort, lots of trails that they have. Our report here from Sugarloaf is telling us that the base depth, between 20 and 40 inches. I mean, we just had our big blizzard, we had the big snowfall, so there is over 20 inches of fresh snow. And that might be a good thing, that we have got a little more give, I guess, so to speak, to the snow there today.
HARRIS: Right. Yes.
Hey, Robb, we're talking a lot about the wind speeds and the gusts. Is the wind to your face or to your back right now?
R. ATKINSON: The wind is on my face and my back. It's kind of blustery and all over the place. It's cold. The wind is strong, I will say that.
JERAS: Are you swinging around in the chairlift? I mean, what is the mood? Are people scared? Are you scared, Robb?
R. ATKINSON: You know, Jacqui, I've got to be honest with you, I was scared until they told me the lift wasn't going to fall.
But, you know, when we did see -- when the -- the cable dipped pretty severe in front of us, and I have to say, out of the corner of my eye, I did see the three chairlifts fall down to the ground. And when people start screaming in horror down below you, I'll tell you, it's not a good thing. I'm with my wife right now, and we're both kind of --
HARRIS: Well, Robb, if you wouldn't mind, we heard your account of this. Put your wife on the phone. What's your wife's name?
R. ATKINSON: My wife's name is Maureen.
HARRIS: Put Maureen on the phone. We'd like to talk to her. Not that you're boring us, but we --
R. ATKINSON: Hold on. Here's Maureen. Hold on.
HARRIS: OK.
MAUREEN ATKINSON, ROBB ATKINSON'S WIFE: Hello?
HARRIS: Hey, Maureen.
M. ATKINSON: Yes?
HARRIS: Hey. It's Tony Harris, Jacqui Jeras and Josh Levs. How are you?
M. ATKINSON: Freezing. It's cold. It's really cold, you know.
We're just sitting up here and it's -- you can't move around too much. But yes, we are cold. They have got a whole bunch of people throwing ropes over the lift right now. We kind of look like we are last in line at the moment.
HARRIS: What are they doing with those ropes? All right. So they're throwing ropes over your lift right now. What are they going to do?
M. ATKINSON: They're throwing the rope over the cable, and it looks like they are tying it off so they can belay people down.
HARRIS: OK.
M. ATKINSON: The people in front of us are starting to just drop their poles and stuff. And it looks like people are focused on staying warm, mostly.
HARRIS: So what are you going to have to do? Are you going to have to shimmy down the rope? I'm just trying to visualize this. Help me.
M. ATKINSON: Sure. It's a real concern, to tell you the truth, because, of course, we have got skis on and boots on and poles and all sorts of stuff. But I haven't seen anybody actually get on the rope and get out yet. So --
HARRIS: Hey, Maureen, if you would, I want you to stay on the phone. You know the business. You're married to a man who's in the business.
We need to take a commercial break, make a little money. And stay where you are. It's not like you're not going anywhere in the immediate future, so stay where you are, stay on the line, and we'll get back to you in just a second.
Let's take a quick break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: We're following breaking news out of Maine right now. And it's the Sugarloaf Ski Resort where they've had a real issue with one of the lifts. I know you have to statement from Sugarloaf. Why don't you go through that as we do a complete reset here.
LEVS: OK, so if you're just joining us, this is Sugarloaf inside Maine. What we've been doing is we've been showing you some video of what it looks like in general because this is a major and critical ski attraction, one of the highest in Maine. I believe the second highest there, more than 4,000 feet up there.
Let's take a look there. There you go. You're getting a basic sense of what the conditions are there. Here's what we're hearing from Sugarloaf, that they've experienced a derailment on one of the towers on one of their chair lifts. And what happened, according to a spokesman there, a cable skipped over the edge of a train, and all of the chairs that were attached fell. A couple of them then hit the ground. We're not hearing how many hit the ground but five chairs were hanging lower than they are supposed to be.
We don't know how many total chairs are on the lift. We do know it's more than a hundred. We also know it's crowded today. A lot of people out skiing this week. This is one of the biggest skiing weeks in America of the entire year. We have reports of injuries, and no confirmation of what type of injuries or how many.
Let's do a little bit of timing here. It's 11:33 Eastern. This happened less than an hour ago. We are told it happened between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m. Eastern Time this morning. I'm not sure how many people are stuck up there. But ski patrol is currently evacuating the lift. And this is what I've been talking to you about, Tony, that when you have conditions like this, even though a spokesman is saying they haven't experienced this before, we do have reason to believe they've prepared for this kind of thing. And we have someone on the phone with us now, Tony, who's there.
HARRIS: Before we get to Robb, and Robb's been with us since this happened. Robb was actually on the lift and he experienced all of this and saw a couple of folks fall to the ground from 30 feet.
Jacqui Jeras, of course, if with us, as well. Jacqui, you can help us identify Sugarloaf, put it up on the map here so that everyone can see it.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. There you can see it's northwest of the Portland area, about two hours away. We can zoom in and show you the mountain, and, you know, some of the big weather concerns that we've been talking about with those people up there is that the winds are very strong and gusting between 30 and 50 miles per hour. And the temperatures down into the single digits and low teens. And you add the strong winds and it feels like below zero.
So, 45 minutes up there. I know they're dressed in ski clothes, right, they should be dressed for this weather. But you also expect to have a little trip to the chalet now and then, as well, don't you?
HARRIS: Yes.
JERAS: Yes. So they're cold. And if anything is exposed, they could be getting frostbite anytime, really.
HARRIS: Yes. And Robb Atkinson (ph), is one of our CNN employees. He's there, actually, enjoying -- it's an amazing resort from everything I've been told.
Robb is there with his wife and he has been on the line with us for the last 40 minutes or so.
Robb, if you would, take a look around and give us an assessment, the latest information on how things are going for you and everyone else at this time.
ATKINSON: Well, Tony, I can report they have evacuated two skiers. They have evacuated two skiers -- they've gotten them -- they've belayed them down to the ground. It looks like there's two more coming down in front of me so that's a total of four.
Most concerning, though, and, I guess the best news is we did see those three injured people go down the mountain and I haven't seen any more go down since. So it looks like there's only been three people injured.
LEVS: Robb, if I may, this is Josh, let me clarify something with you. You're saying three people go (sic) down. They were carried down? They were --
ATKINSON: Let me correct that. My wife corrected me and said she saw two more while we were on the phone. So a total of five people down to the ground.
LEVS: And you're seeing them being carried away. There are officials there. You said, they are working right now to help evacuate people. How many they are there? How many officials are you seeing from the resort? How many rescuers are up there helping people?
ATKINSON: Well it looks like there are teams of three to five working on each individual chair lift, to get the rope up to the chair lift and belay the person down to the ground. (INAUDIBLE). I see as many as one, two, three, four different teams working to get people down on the ground. The evacuation is now really well under way. I see all four of those teams with ropes over the lift and getting people down to the ground. LEVS: Listen. I'll tell you and I'll tell Tony. What we're hearing from Sugarloaf itself. I got this on my BlackBerry here. They're saying that it should take about an hour to an hour and a half to get everyone out. Stay warm as well as you can and sit tight, obviously. Anyone who may be following our coverage also. I know you have Smartphones, you're following us on CNN.com. So, sit tight.
But, we are told, Tony, by officials there, between an hour, an hour and a half, to get everyone off.
HARRIS: Hey, Robb, I'm going to ask a silly question just because I don't understand the terminology. You are using a term to describe, is it belay, delay? Something to --
ATKINSON: Oh, belay. If anybody is familiar with mountain -- rappelling on a mountain -- it's a series of ropes and pulleys that you attach to yourself -- you strap yourself into a harnesses and then those pulleys go over the chair lift and then they're going to lower you down. They do this in teams of, as I said, three to give people to get you down and off the chair lift.
HARRIS: All right. Let's do this. Is Maureen -- obviously, Maureen is still there. If you would, Robb, give the phone back to Maureen, being that she's not going anywhere, you're not either for some time to come.
ATKINSON: OK. Hold on. Tony wants to talk to you.
HARRIS: Hey, Maureen?
MAUREEN ATKINSON: Hello.
HARRIS: How are you doing? Are you hanging in there?
M. ATKINSON: Hello.
HARRIS: Are you OK?
M. ATKINSON: Yes.
HARRIS: Are you hanging in there?
Let me ask you this question. I asked Robb to describe the earliest moments when you realized something was going on here and you had some difficulties. I want you to describe it. Describe what happened and what did you feel and what kind of trouble did you think you were immediately in?
M. ATKINSON: Well, I didn't. It just -- you know, kind of a big bump and all of a sudden we said, wow, I didn't like that. And then the chair lift stopped and two seconds later we kind of looked up and saw a big pouf of powder up ahead and heard people screaming. So then we realized something. Then we looked at the cable that our car is on, and it's sagging. I mean, it looked -- you can tell that it's not right. So we kind of realized after we felt the bump and the car stop that something was very wrong. HARRIS: Maureen, hang on a second. I want to -- Josh is with me, and Jacqui Jeras, as well. So we're all going to be asking you questions.
Josh has one for you.
LEVS: Maureen, talk to me. Listen, and you guys are doing great. It's good to hear that everyone is staying put and that this evacuation is happening, it seems to be at a nice, swift pace.
Talk to me about what it's like for the skiers who are there. Since we can't see you, how far apart are all the skiers from each other? Are people calling out to each other? Are they saying things to each other? Encouraging each other?
What kind of communication is going on among people on the lift?
M. ATKINSON: Yes. Well, you know, mostly we're encouraging the people who are trying to rescue us to effectively get the rope -- they've got to throw a rope over the cable. So, the several tries, and, you know, not getting it over. There's a great deal of encouragement to the people trying to rescue us to get that rope over the cable so that they can get to us.
LEVS: OK. We were just hearing a descriptions of groups of about five rescuers who are there. When they come up, are they bringing things with them? Is it just them on skis or do they have giant packs of stuff that they're using? What equipment are they bringing to do this evacuation?
M. ATKINSON: Well, they've sent about three CATs up, which are the giant snowmobiles that groom of trails. So there's CATs all over the place bringing equipment up to the rescuers. And then the rescuers are kind of along the hill with the ropes and pulleys, you know, working one car at a time, one chair lift at a time.
HARRIS: Well, Maureen, hang on a second. Jacqui's got a question for you.
JERAS: Maureen, do you know what trail you were riding down or the name of this lift so we can give our viewers a better idea where on the mountain you might be?
M. ATKINSON: We're on Stowaway (ph) Lift East. There are two Stowaway chairlifts. We're on the left side. I think it's Stowaway East, which goes all of the way up to the top.
HARRIS: OK. We are trying to track it again, but there was a little interference when you were naming the run.
What is it again?
M. ATKINSON: Stowaway chair.
JERAS: Stowe away east.
(CROSSTALK)
JERAS: I also wanted to ask you, you are watching these people which are being let down now ahead of you. How far in the pecking order are you? How many more people until it's your turn?
M. ATKINSON: They've got two ahead of us. So hopefully they're lowering someone down right now. It looks like they're wrapping a rope around their chest and then belaying them down. You kind of have to shimmy out of the chair lift which takes a little bit of nerve. But I think we've got one more group in front of us and then hopefully we'll get down, too.
JERAS: You don't have to do a lot of work, other than tipping yourself out of that chair there? They do all of the work for you and you just have to hang onto the rope? Can you kind of describe that?
M. ATKINSON: I'm sorry. I'm having a hard time hearing you because one of the CATs is going by.
JERAS: That's OK. I was asking if you can kind of describe from your perspective what it looks like, and what these people are going through as they're belaying down. They're basically just holding onto the rope and it's a ride down?
M. ATKINSON: Yes. You're putting the rope underneath both armpits and you've got to scooch out of the chair lift. It looks like a couple in back of us weren't too thrilled about scooching out of the chair lift 30 feet above the ground. But it looks pretty safe, and I have to say, they are organized. The people here are really -- they're good. They know what they're doing.
JERAS: And it went down fast? Are they going down pretty fast, seconds?
M. ATKINSON: Yes. When you belay down, the person at the bottom of the rope has the control about the speed. So it's a pretty, you know, reasonable ride down.
HARRIS: OK. Maureen, put your husband back on the phone, if you would, please.
M. ATKINSON: OK. Keep your gloves on.
HARRIS: Hey, Robb?
R. ATKINSON: Yes, Tony.
HARRIS: Give me an update.
R. ATKINSON: What's that?
HARRIS: Give me an update. What do you see?
R. ATKINSON: They're moving now -- they're sliding. Once they've got the rope over the cable, they're now sliding the belay system to the next chair lift, which is directly in front of us. And then, as Maureen was just describing, it's -- they -- it's kind of a -- almost like a swing, if you will, where you climb into the swing, and you scooch off the chair lift and they lower you down 30, 40 feet down.
It's quite a scene out here at the moment. I have been able to take some pictures which I'll send to you as soon as I get down to the ground.
HARRIS: OK.
R. ATKINSON: But it's quite a scene. They're lowering people down. And I do have to say, I agree with Maureen that it's incredibly organized, very calm. They really know what they're doing. They're putting the people at ease. I'm impressed with the way they're handling this. It's very impressive.
HARRIS: So Robb, let me just say this to you. Jacqui and the entire weather team are working on all kinds of Google maps.
So how far up the hill are you? I think we can pretty much show folks exactly -- or pretty -- or we can approximate where you are.
How far up the hill are you?
R. ATKINSON: We're three-quarters of the way up the hill, up to the top of the mountain.
HARRIS: Three-quarters of the way up to the top of the mountain.
Yes, we can get pretty close. We can do that. So, Robb, go ahead.
(CROSSTALK)
JERAS: Hey, Robb, I just want to confirm. You said Stowaway East. Not Stillway?
R. ATKINSON: Spill-away.
(CROSSTALK)
JERAS: We found this on the Google Earth to give people a better perspective. Here you can see it along the mountain. And this is the trail right down here and that's where we think the lift is, right in this area. He said about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. I'm sure it's still way up here where they are. But you can see it's rather centrally located. But it looks pretty steep. Not the steepest part, but she was talking black diamonds, right?
HARRIS: Yes, yes.
JERAS: So that's got to be a pretty incredible incline. The mountain 4,200 feet about so if you're about three quarters way up, you're about 3,000 feet or so. So that's a little bit of a ride down.
HARRIS: Did you want to add something very quickly, Robb, before we go to break?
R. ATKINSON: Yes. The people in front of us are being evacuated and they are about to scooch off the chair lift and down to the ground. They are being lowered down to the ground, it's kind after scene.
HARRIS: OK, so what is your ETA? What are you guessing, another 10 minutes, another five minutes before they get to you?
R. ATKINSON: I guess, 15 minutes to us.
HARRIS: Another 15 minutes to you guys?
R. ATKINSON: Yes.
HARRIS: All right, so I want you to do this. We are going to sneak in another break. I want you to sort of watch the scene and when we come back to you, we want you to describe in great detail what's going on. Let's take a quick break. Josh is here with me. Jacqui is here with me as well. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: We have an amazing rescue that's under way right now and we're talking about the Sugarloaf Ski Resort. That's in Maine. Josh, I know you were in touch with the folks at Sugarloaf and you are getting updates on conditions and the rescue effort.
We've got Jacqui Jeras with us as well and she's giving us great images of the ski resort and the particularly run where our employee, Robb Atkinson and his wife are stuck right now, but they are minutes away from - yes, they should be next to be rescued and Robb is on the line with us.
Robb, before the break, we asked you to take a look at the group that was being rescued just ahead of you and give us a detailed description of what that rescue looks like. So let's hear it.
R. ATKINSON: Well, they are now -- both of them are off the chair lift and lowered down to the ground. We're told we're next and so they are going to be moving the cable to our location in the next minute or so.
There are teams of three to five people down below. They are really moving quite quickly getting everybody of this lift. I would say they have evacuated at least half of the chair lift by now. They are moving incredibly fast and doing an incredible job getting people down to the ground, considering we're 30, 40 feet off the ground.
LEVS: Hey, Robb. It's Josh here. A spokesman is telling us they've never had anything like this. To the best of this knowledge, they never experienced this, but as we've been saying now, ever since we got news of this.
This is the kind of thing that major ski resorts prepare for, a loss of power, something going wrong with a cable and what we are told happened here in this case was that there has a derailment on one of the towers, on one of the one of the chair lifts which led to some chairs toppling.
I wanted to point out the most serious part of this story, which is that we have reports of several people injured. We don't know how seriously injured. I know you saw what appeared to be up to five people who may be injured.
But what we have been hearing from you since that moment, is an effective and organized rescue on this massive mountain. Let me set out the scene for all of those who are joining us here. This is the second highest peak in all of Maine, over 4,200 feet. The only lift service above tree line skiing in the entire east, with a vertical drop of 2,800 feet.
So a major mountain from upstate New York, everyone who's a big skier will go to Sugarloaf, very packed today, more than 100 cars in that area. What we're waiting to hear is how many people are being rescued.
HARRIS: So Robb describe what is going on now?
R. ATKINSON: The cable is being slid directly overhead right now. The wires are coming to us, and we're preparing to be rescued.
HARRIS: So --
R. ATKINSON: I'm going to have to take a break for a second, because the cables are actually -- I actually have to do a little bit of work to get myself down.
HARRIS: Terrific. All right.
JERAS: Safety first, Robb.
HARRIS: Yes, safety first.
R. ATKINSON: We are being rescued right now.
HARRIS: Call me back. You have my number. Call me back.
R. ATKINSON: All right.
HARRIS: So, Jacqui, when we come back -- let's take a break. When we come back, show us again the particular run, and Robb and Maureen talk about being about three quarters up that run to the top of the mountain.
JERAS: Yes, we're going to have to ask them, once they're getting them off the lift and on the ground, how are they getting them to the base? Ski down, caterpillars, what?
HARRIS: Let's do this. Let's take another break. We've got a story today. Let's take a break. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: I think Josh is getting some additional information. Josh, I know you're in touch with the folks at the Sugarloaf Ski Resort that's in Maine, that's where we have this amazing drama playing out for us right now.
We've got an employee. You know what? I've been saying that Robb is an employee. He's kind of an important employee for us. He's the senior director of Sales and Affiliate Relations, keeping relations good between CNN and our affiliates across the country.
Robb Atkinson and his wife, Maureen, are among the people stuck on this lift, some 30, 40 feet above the ground right now. But the good news is, the rescues have been proceeding in a very orderly and in double time speed, it sounds like. They really are working efficiently to get the folks off that.
LEVS: Four or five teams, four or five rescuers --
HARRIS: So working really efficiently to get folks down off that lift right now. We believe, even as we speak, Robb and his wife are being extricated from that situation and being brought down. I have given him a strict order to call me the moment he gets down, as soon as he's safe.
We understand that he's also taking some pictures and he'll be sending those pictures to us. We believe there are some other folks who have been taking some video of the rescues and we'll be getting some of that in ireport.com. Right, Josh?
LEVS: I-Report or go ahead in Facebook or tweet me and we're heading there as well, yes.
HARRIS: And Jacqui, give us a sense now of the mountain.
JERAS: Right.
HARRIS: And the particular run where so many of these people are stuck right now, but good progress in getting them back down.
JERAS: Yes, that's some good news. It's been over an hour now, you know, so in rough conditions.
HARRIS: And the weather conditions as well, yes.
JERAS: Yes, winds 30, 50-mile-per-hour or so and our wind-chill index is well below zero. So it's extremely cold for these people up there on that mountain somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 feet.
Let's go ahead and show you on Google earth to give you a better idea where this is. You know, Portland is down here. We'll zoom in to Sugarloaf Mountain. This peak is about 4,000 feet in elevation. They are on the spill away east lift and so there's two of them there, spill away east, spill away west and they're on the east one. Apparently all of the other ones are working just fine and operationally. A testimonial from Robb and his wife tell us, the winds were strong. They felt a big jolt then all of a sudden they saw the chairs in front of them begin to come down, but they were hanging lower than they should have been.
There you can see multiple runs all across the area. This is about the middle of the slope, the east side of the mountain, and you can see that the vertical steepness here, quite steep, actually.
They said they were on a black diamond so we'll wait until we hear back from Robb to find out once they're on the ground, how they're getting down? Are they getting down snow paths or have to ski or sleds or what they're doing into that situation. But I would think that weather is kind of, you know, hampering, we have to hear how steady that was coming down.
HARRIS: If they describe to you, answering your question specifically, what it's like to sit in one of those chairs. They describe being blown around and winds swirling. Right?
JERAS: Yes.
HARRIS: So -- yikes. So, let's do this. Guys, do we have the particular sound loaded up of Robb describing what the process is for getting down out of that chair and back down to the ground? Do we have that loaded up? We're getting there?
OK. So what we asked is, Robb, describe what it's going to be like because he was able to see some of the rescues take place ahead of him to describe what is going to happen to him as he and his wife make their way down back out of that chair and down to the ground. So let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
R. ATKINSON: They're moving now. They're sliding, once they got the rope over the cable, they're now sliding the blade system to the next chair lift, which is directly in front of us, and then as Maureen was just describing, that's -- it's kind of a -- almost like a swing, if you will, where you climb into the swing and then scooch off the chair lift and they lower you down 30, 40 feet down to the ground. There is -- it's quite a scene out here at the moment. I have been able to take some pictures, which I'll send to you, as soon as I get down to the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK and, Josh, you've got all of the statements that are coming from the folks in Sugarloaf and I know you're in contact.
LEVS: I'll emphasize the video we've been showing you during this that's posted on their web site because we all want you to have a good sense how important this mountain is. How tall it is? How crowded it is because this is one of the most populous skiing weeks of the entire year. So obviously it's going to be packed right now. We want you to have a sense what skiing is like in general. This video is on their web site. Not live right, but you will be seeing the live pics first here as they come in.
