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Pittsburgh Could Get A Foot Of Snow; AAA: 38.9 Million Driving For Thanksgiving; Holiday Storm Slams 15 States; AAA: 3.14 Million Flying For Thanksgiving; White House Deadline On Obamacare Nears; U.S./China Tensions Over Air Defense Zone; Hazmat Spill Now Contained In Ohio; Police: Three Girls Found Imprisoned In Home; Teenage Hitman Sent Back To U.S.; Cartels Lure Teen Killers With Promises Of Money, Power

Aired November 27, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Brace yourself. More than 40 million people traveling for Thanksgiving could be bombarded with heavy rain, strong winds, snow and possibly flooding. This is a live look at Buffalo, New York.

This powerful storm is slamming the east coast right now and causing a ripple effect of travel problems. It's delayed more than 6,000 flights and canceled hundreds more. For millions of people driving home, the roads are wet, slick and dangerous. This is what it looks like in Charlotte, North Carolina this morning.

By tomorrow, every state in the United States except Hawaii will reach below freezing temperatures and up to a foot of snow could fall in some areas like Buffalo, Syracuse and Pittsburgh. CNN's team of correspondents and meteorologists are stationed all over the place this morning, but let's start in Pittsburgh, shall we, with CNN Shannon Travis. Good morning, Shannon.

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRSPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I spoke with a Pennsylvania Transportation Department - Department of Transportation, and he told me just this, we dodged the bullet here in Allegheny County. But don't get a false sense of security, the rain that fell yesterday and the enduring temperatures today right now is causing ice on the road.

They're concerned about that. He said that they've got about 63 trucks out in Allegheny County clearing some of those roads, clearing the ice off overpasses, bridges, what have you. We're actually at the intersection of some interstates right behind me. Take a look behind there.

The roads have been pretty clean and smooth. Traffic has been moving. The cars have been moving pretty slowly. Some of the people concerned about the potential for ice or what not in terms of the airport here in the area, Carol, Pittsburgh International, I spoke with a spokesman there. She told me that they're operating pretty normally.

There aren't any major cancellations or delays due to weather, but they are seeing a lot of people and except to see more. As you mentioned, today is the busiest travel day. They're expecting for not only for the traffic, but for the airport to see a lot of people, but they're ready and prepared -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I hope you have somewhere warm to go because your lips are frozen. I know how that feels. Shannon Travis reporting live from Pittsburgh. Many thanks to you.

We are seeing snow from Charleston, West Virginia, all the way up to Syracuse, New York and the east coast continues to be slammed by cold rain. Driving conditions will be anything, but pleasant today. CNN's Pamela Brown is traveling on one of the busiest interstates in the nation, if not the busiest, I-95. I understand you're near Exit 8-A for those of you who like to count exits and my husband does so that's why I mentioned that. Hi, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Carol. You know, last time we talked about an hour ago, it was smooth sailing for us on I-95 in New Jersey and now the volume is picking up and it's bumper to bumper. And it's really no surprise because 43 million people are expected to travel this holiday season, 90 percent hitting the road according to AAA and a lot of these people are hitting the road today.

And sort of compounding the misery of the traveling is the weather. And we're seeing the rain come down. Pooling and flooding on highways. In fact, a major highway in Philadelphia, I-76, Westbound Lane shut down due to an accident. The other side, only one lane open due to flooding on the road. That's really the scene all over the place as weather conditions deteriorate.

They're expected to just get worse throughout the morning. More heavy rain the further east you go and snow the further west you go. So that's really causing headaches for travelers. They're just going to have to pack their patience.

I've asked people to share their stories with me on social media. One told me that a typical drive from D.C. to Dayton takes eight hours. They said it took them 13 hours. So we are hearing a lot of those stories today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: That's awful. But there going to be reward when they finally get to their destination, right, love and turkey and all that kind of stuff.

BROWN: That's right.

COSTELLO: Pamela, thanks so much.

The storm is slowly creeping across the country so many of us going to not even feel its full effects until later today. CNN meteorologist, Jennifer Gray is in New York with that side of the story. Good morning.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning to you. That is right. We're going to see the rain continue throughout the day. Should peak later today and start to taper off. That is the good news, but this storm is basically a rain maker. That's what we're seeing hugging the coastline from Washington to New York to Boston. Most of the snow has been in interior sections. We've seen anywhere from 10 inches of snow in portions of Pennsylvania, six inches to seven inches across portions of New York. We are seeing two to four additional inches of rain in West Virginia. And then as you climb up to the north, three inches to eight inches possible in addition to what's already fallen in places in New York.

Now what we're expecting as for rain throughout the day today and later tonight, one inch to two additional inches of rain from New York, D.C., maybe even Raleigh and then Boston, up north, two to four more inches of rain. And this is what we are dealing with.

This low is going to continue to spin, make its way up the east coast and we're going to start to see this taper off by tonight. So as we get into tonight and early tomorrow morning, most of the rain should be gone. But what we'll be dealing with will be the winds.

Take a look at this, Boston 41 mile per hour wind gusts. As we get into tonight, this evening, we'll see those wind gusts about 36 in New York City and then finally starting to taper off as we get into tomorrow. Through the day on Thanksgiving, those winds should be dying down, but the big question going to be the Macy's balloons.

Now the wind gusts are expected to be about 32 miles per hour. That's right on the cusp. We'll be watching that. Hopefully those balloons will be able to fly. One other point to mention, we have seen a severe threat with the same storm system as well.

We've seen tornado reports in the Florida panhandle as well as North Carolina. So not only the rain in the northeast, we've seen snow and ice and also severe weather down in the south.

COSTELLO: A little something for everyone. Jennifer, thanks so much. Some of the biggest and busiest airports in the world are in the storm's path and passengers are trying to take it in stride.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing going to keep me from Thanksgiving table.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're very happy. Because as much as we love O'Hare, we would not like spend Thanksgiving here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looking at the weather, that big green, pink slop coming our direction, time to get out of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so let's take a look at the airports up and down the coast. Let's check with CNN's Alina Machado. She's live at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Good morning.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, we're live on the tarmac here at Hartsfield International Airport. And I've got to tell you, this is where it all happens. There are bags here. These bags are getting ready to go to their final destination. This is also where workers work nonstop to make sure the planes are ready for all of the passengers going through this airport today.

Now, so far it is cold, it is windy, but no major problems to report here in Atlanta. Thankfully no major widespread cancellations or delays so all in all, things are looking really good here even though it's very cold. Now let's go to Rene Marsh over in Reagan National Airport in D.C.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: All right, thank you, Alina. You know, things not looking too bad here either. We are seeing some delays and a handful of cancellations. We are seeing travelers make their way here as well. They are lining up. We are starting to see the security lines start to fill up there.

But everyone is not getting good news when they arrive at the airports. We do know overall nationwide according to many of the flight tracking web sites, there are roughly more than 500 delays, not all of them necessarily having to do with weather. These are the delays that we're seeing now in the hundreds.

As far as airports go, we're seeing the most delays at Charlotte's Airport. We are also seeing delays in Philadelphia. We're seeing delays at O'Hare as well as a few in Atlanta as well. As far as cancellations go, we're seeing some in Boston as well as Newark and LaGuardia in New York. For more on what's happening in New York, let's send it over to Margaret Conley.

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Rene.

Here at LaGuardia there had been scattered delays and cancellations. You can see the flight board behind me, most flights have been on time, but there have been about 50 flight cancellations. Now the airport is preparing for the worst in case people are stuck here overnight. They've stocked up on pillows and blankets.

COSTELLO: That's reality nice, but I hope the passengers don't have to use them. Thanks so much.

Whether you're hitting the road for Thanksgiving dinner or lighting the Menorah at home, so happy Thanksgivukkah. The local conditions are on the screen all day long at the bottom of the screen.

It has been the source of frustration for many Americans and a source of embarrassment for President Obama. The problem plagued launch of the Obamacare website and now to get the site up and running, the deadline approaches, White House officials are encouraging allies not to drive people traffic to the site for fear of another crash.

CNN foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty is at the White House with more on that this morning. Good morning, Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you would have to add the word yet. They don't want them to drive it yet because what they are saying and this is just -- we're getting this from a White House official who says that, yes, in a meeting Wednesday, the White House did meet with its allies, unions and groups like that that conceivably would, of course, want to be part of health care.

But they urged them, suggested that they not drive traffic to the site at least at this point in the first week, which would be next week because they want to make sure, they say, how the site can handle a large number of people. The site as you may know, was originally conceived to be able to handle 50,000 people at one time.

And the White House says for the first time they going to be able to do that. But what they're worried about is what happened back on October 1st when they had like 200,000 people overwhelming the system. They don't want to happen again because if it does happen, people have to get into a virtual waiting line and they get a message, come back later when it's quieter.

So they're not quite sure what's going to happen on December 1st and 2nd. And they do say the best time, the White House is saying, to access this. They would say the worst time would be 2:00 p.m. The best time would be off-hours, early mornings, evenings, and on the weekends - Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, so if there's a fairly good, I don't know, fix to this by the end of the month that would be a good thing because according to a new CNN poll, Americans are keeping an open mind on the law itself. They're waiting to see if things can be fixed.

DOUGHERTY: Yes, this new poll actually is interesting because it shows that there's kind of a jury is out approach among a lot of Americans. In fact, if more than half of the people surveyed say that the current problems can be solved, almost four in ten say it's a failure, 53 percent say it's too soon to tell.

And there are some other interesting things in this CNN/ORC poll. Will the current problems be eventually solved? Fifty four percent say they're optimistic and 45 percent say that it will never be fixed. And one more thing, when you look at younger people, they seem to be more accepting of this.

Twenty five percent of 18 to 34 year olds believe that it's a failure. The overall picture of this is although there have been a lot of really bad problems connected with the health care site, you do have some people who are saying, give it a try and maybe it can work out.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Jill Dougherty reporting live from the White House this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a 14-year-old boy worked as a contract killer for a Mexican drug cartel. And now he's a free man. Guess where he is? Right here in the United States of America. More on that after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 17 minutes past the hour. China has moved to declare a new air defense zone over part of the East China Sea. It's prompting a swift response from the United States, which sent two unarmed B-52 bombers to fly through the area. Tensions have been on the rise ever since Japan purchase the string of islands from a private owner in the East China Sea last year, angering Chinese officials.

A hazmat leak putting an Ohio town on edge, this is Warren, Ohio. A 26,000 pound tanker car derailed late last night. More than 400 homes have been evacuated. Officials say that the spill is now contained and being cleaned up and people are expected to be allowed to go back into their homes over the next few hours.

A Tucson couple has been arrested after three girls were imprisoned in their homes for over two years. The three are siblings ages 12, 13 and 17. Two of them escaped yesterday and ran to a neighbor's home to call 911. The girls were fed one meal per day and had not showered in more than four months. Their mother and stepfather are facing child abuse charges.

Edgar Lugo was known as the cloak, an American teenager who confessed to killing four people. He worked as a hit man for a Mexican drug cartel when he was 14 years old. Now after three years in a Mexican prison, he's back on American soil and he is a free man. Ed Lavandera has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even in a country ravaged by years of drug cartel-fueled violence, it was a shocking scene. In Mexico, three years ago, a baby-faced American teenager accused of working as an assassin for the South Pacific drug cartel was paraded in front of reporters.

Edgar Jimenez Lugo was just 14 years old when this video was filmed. Jimenez Lugo is known by the nickname "El Ponchis." He laid out gruesome details of his life in organized crime. He said he was 11 years old when he started killing and slit the throats of four victims himself.

He said that drug cartel leaders picked him off the street and forced him into carrying out the assassinations and that he was high on drugs when he killed drug cartel rivals. He was convict as a juvenile and sentenced to three years in prison. Now he's 17 and was released from prison Tuesday in Mexico.

News camera captured the release. He was quickly deported back to the United States and flown to San Antonio, Texas, where he disappeared back into American society. U.S. Customs and Border Protection official say they helped to facilitate his return, but say privacy laws prohibit the agency from releasing more details.

He was born in San Diego. He's a U.S. citizen. He served his prison sentence and does not face any criminal charges in the United States. So he's free to move around like anyone else. He isn't the only American teenager lured into the violent world. CNN told the notorious stories of two American drug cartel assassins in an jailhouse interview a few months ago. (on camera): In all, how many people did you kill?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea.

LAVANDERA: Gabriel Cardona is serving a life sentence in Texas. He and a childhood buddy, Rosalio Ureta (ph) worked as assassins for the infamous Zetas drug cartel as teenagers. Their stories highlight the frightening trend of cartel leaders luring young kids with the promise of money and power to carry out the cartels' dirty work.

After he was arrested, the teenage Rosalio Ureta told the Lorado, Texas police detective that killing made him feel like superman. Today he knows his life is wasting away in prison.

ROSALIO RETA, CARTEL HITMAN: The first time I take somebody's life, that's a day I'll never be able to forget. After that, I have no life.

LAVANDERA (on camera): But you kept on killing after that first time at that ranch.

RETA: I had to. That's what a lot of people don't understand.

LAVANERA: They are locked away for life, but this kid is El Ponchis is getting a second chance. Ed Lavandera, CNN, San Antonio, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Still to come in the "NEWSROOM", a behind the scenes look at the preparation for the annual "CNN Heroes Awards." We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As we enter the season of giving, we at CNN are preparing for a very special holiday tradition, "CNN Heroes." It's a celebration of the top ten heroes of the year voted on by you. The star-studied event airs on Sunday, December 1st at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Here is Nischelle Turner with a behind the scenes peek at preparations for the big night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, everybody, I am Nischelle Turner. I am going to give you a back stage look at what it takes to put this CNN Heroes award show together. You ready for this? This is going to be cool. Come with me.

(voice-over): This year we're back in New York, baby, at the American Museum of Natural History where the very first CNN Heroes took place seven years ago.

KELLY FLYNN, SENIOR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, CNN HEROES: I can't believe it has been that long. We're thrilled to be back here. It is iconic and beautiful.

TURNER: The first stop of the night for the everyday heroes and celebrities, the red carpet.

(on camera): Wow. Look at it in here. Look at all of these lights. Work like this takes hundreds of people to set up, working around the clock.

(voice-over): And then the centerpiece of the evening.

(on camera): This year's CNN Heroes will be honored here in the Whale Room where one of the museum's biggest treasures will be watching over us all night, talking about this lady here.

(voice-over): But that's not all that has to be done to get ready for this special event, 51 tables to set up, nine cameras in place, and one giant video monitor.

JEFF KEPNES, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: You wouldn't believe what it takes to put something like this on. You know, we had two days to bring it in and set it all up.

TURNER: Transforming this beautiful room from this to this, all to honor ten everyday people who are changing the world.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN'S "AC 360": It is a nice thing to honor these people, they don't get the limelight, don't get honored, don't have celebrities saying their names, praising their work. It is a nice thing for them, a nice pat on the back.

TURNER: A pat on the back from CNN and becomes a very special night of inspiration.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: "CNN Heroes an All-Star Tribute" hosted by Anderson Cooper premieres this Sunday, December 1st, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. So mark your calendars.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the massive storm impacting 15 states is moving east and causing quite the travel nightmare for some. We'll show you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)