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Tracking the Thanksgiving Storm; Web Fix on Schedule; Insurers Fear More Obamacare Trouble; White House Thanksgiving; Turkey Talk; Weather Outlook; Storm Causes Cancellations and Delays

Aired November 27, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: And we're going to start with the weather. It's impossible to avoid it. Seemingly everywhere you look, it is either raining, sleeting or snowing. And all that is making travel home for Thanksgiving difficult. Thousands of flights have been delayed or canceled because of that weather.

And for those of you deciding to drive, well, that's no picnic either. We're keeping an eye on all of it for you. Our Shannon Travis is in Pittsburgh, Alina Machado is at the airport in Atlanta, Margaret Conley at LaGuardia Airport in New York, and our Jennifer Gray is at the Weather Center in New York as well.

Let's go now to our Shannon Travis in Pittsburgh. Shannon, I've been looking at pictures from there seeing a lot of snow. What's it like in western Pennsylvania?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. The snow is coming down but take a look at the road that we're on right now. It's a side road not too far from the airport. This road is as clear as ever. As we've been driving around today, this is about what the roads have been looking like. But the problem of course is, as I just mentioned, the snow. How much will it come down? How long will it come down? And much will it add to the already accumulated snow that is on the ground? We've got a few inches in this region.

Of course, the other question is, how much will this and what's happening now affect what's happening out there? We've been on this road for most of the day watching the traffic jam. It's been sparse with cars. The cars seem to be going slower but it has been moving fairly steadily across the region. We've been talking with transportation officials here in Allegheny County about how the road conditions are. They tell me they have over 60 trucks out there salting the roads, putting -- removing the snow or what have you to make sure that all those holiday travelers get to where they need to go.

But the problem again, of course, they say that they are watching what will accumulate today and how that will affect the travelers. Obviously, 39 million, an estimate, are going to be traveling all across the country. A lot of them right here in the Northeast in Pennsylvania -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes, it looks like those salters and plows doing a pretty good job there in western Pennsylvania. Thanks very much to Shannon. We're going to go to down Margaret Conley. She's at LaGuardia Airport in the New York where the weather conditions are getting worse. Margaret, I've been in that airport during bad weather. What's it like there today?

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, there are scattered delays and cancellations here at LaGuardia. You can see the flight board behind me. Most flights are on time. But the Port Authority says that if there are delays, expect at JFK and here at LaGuardia, 50- minute delays and at Newark 30-minute delays. So, check those flights before you get to the airport. Not everybody's been doing that that we've talked to and they've had to wait around here for hours. The TSA is the expecting another surge of travelers this afternoon and the airport here, they're also preparing for the worst. Jim, they've stocked up on pillows and blankets in case people have to spend the night.

ACOSTA: Not the place you'd want to spend the night during the holidays, I'm sure. But 15, 30-minute delays, not too bad. It could be worse.

We're going to go now to Alina Machado who is at the busiest airport in the world at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. How is it handling the volume today?

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. It's actually not looking too bad. This is the main security checkpoint here at the airport. You can see there's a 10 to 20-minute delay. That's how long it's going to take you to get through this checkpoint. Lines are building here though. You can see more people are showing up trying to catch their flights. And that's to be expected. This is, in fact, the busiest travel day of the year. The good news though here is that we've only seen a handful of delays so far, mainly to flights to Pennsylvania and also to New Jersey. Overall though, no widespread delays or cancellations to report on from this airport -- Jim.

ACOSTA: That's great to hear. The country's busiest, that has a big carry on effect, I imagine, around the country as well.

We're going to go for the latest weather to meteorologist Jennifer Grey who's tracking the storm for our New York Weather Center. Jennifer, where is being hardest hit now? I get the sense that it's in that northeastern area of Pennsylvania going north from there?

MACHADO: You're exactly right. And the good news about it is most of it is rain. We are still seeing some snow but a lot of the snow is tapering off. So, we could see an additional maybe two to four inches, maybe isolated higher amounts say in upstate New York and some of these interior locations. But if you look right along the coast, New York, Washington, Boston, that's where we're seeing basically rain. And we could see two to four additional inches before it's all said and done. But this low is going to continue to move on out of here.

So, by tonight, this is tonight at 8:00, you can see New York looking much drier as well as D.C. Still a little bit of rain in Boston but that's going to move on out. It looks like Thanksgiving is going to be nice for the majority of the east coast. Sunshine will come back out. Temperatures though will be very, very cold and it's also going to be windy. The wind is what we'll be talking about tomorrow. Around 2:00 this afternoon, wind gusts in the low to upper 30s.

And then, as we go into the wee hours of tomorrow morning, 36 mile per hour wind gusts in New York City. And then the winds should start to taper off. Of course, all eyes on that Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. If the wind gusts top 34 miles per hour, those balloons won't be able to fly. The forecast right now has it at possible 36-mile- per-hour wind gusts. So, it looks like it's going to be a last-minute decision tomorrow on whether those balloons will fly or not. Thirty two degrees, your forecasted high. When you factor the wind chill in, it's going to feel like the low 20s tomorrow.

ACOSTA: Wow. Yes, let's hope those balloons get up. The parade is not the same without it. All right, thanks to all of you, Shannon Travis, Margaret Conley, Alina Machado, Jennifer Grey out across the northeastern seaboard giving us the latest on the weather there.

Back here in Washington, the Obama administration says it is on track with improvements to the HealthCare.gov Web site. But insurers are worried there may be bigger problems coming ahead. The worst case scenario, people thinking they have insurance when they really don't. Details when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: New poll numbers out today suggest Americans have an open mind about Obamacare despite all of its problems. In the CNN ORC poll, 40 percent are in favor of the health care law, 58 percent are opposed. But those numbers don't tell the whole story. 14 percent of those opposed to the law says it's not liberal enough and doesn't go far enough. And when asked whether the problems facing Obamacare will eventually be solved, 54 percent say yes and that includes seven out of 10 younger American who think the problems will be fixed.

Kathleen Sebelius says improvements to the HealthCare.gov Web site are the definitely on track to meet this Saturday's deadline. The Health and Human Services secretary promises the site will work much better but a White House official says there are concerns about too sudden a spike in Web traffic. The site will be able to handle 50,000 users at once as it was originally supposed to do, but the official says they want to wait a week to gauge Web traffic before encouraging too many people to visit the site.

And while the administration works to improve the Obamacare Web site on the front end, insurers are worried about problems on the back end. Our Investigative Correspondent Chris Frates is digging into that story. So, Chris, explain that difference between how it's working on the front end or may work on the front end but not on the back end.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, right, Jim. What insurers are worried about is this idea that once the Web site's working and people can actually go on and sign up, that their personal data won't get transmitted correctly to insurance companies. Insurance companies need that data to enroll people. And when I talked to officials in the insurance industry, they're telling me that that information that's coming across, it's inaccurate, it's duplicative and, in some cases, they're not getting it at all.

ACOSTA: OK, that sounds like a major problem to me. Does that mean that people who thought they were insured when they sign up actually don't have coverage?

FRATES: Well, that's the concern. And the insurers need this information. They need good data to make sure that people get enrolled. They need to know where people live. They need to know who their dependents are. And without this information, there's big trouble brewing. And insurers are worried that the worst case scenario here is somebody goes to the Web site, they click sign up, they think they have insurance but the insurers never got that information so that when they go to the doctor, they're not actually enrolled in a plan. And it's a little bit like going to Amazon, hitting the buy button and then not having Amazon send that information to the warehouse and then you never receive your product.

ACOSTA: That's a big -- that's a big problem to say the least. So, how do insurers know they aren't getting the information? Have they been testing it out?

FRATES: Well, you know, I asked that same question. How do you prove a negative? How do you know you're not getting that information? And what insurers tell me is two ways. One, they're receiving calls from people who think they signed up and are asking, where's my insurance card? Or I haven't received my policy number yet and realizing that they, in fact, have no information for that person who is trying to get insurance through them. The other way is that insurance companies are testing the system. They're sending John Doe records through the system and trying to track if they come out in the back end. And some folks aren't receiving those records and that's how they know that they still have a problem here.

ACOSTA: That's incredible. Now, when you go to the White House with this, how are they responding? Are they saying -- are they acknowledging it? Are they saying they're going to fix it?

FRATES: They are acknowledging it and they're saying that they are working on this and they want to reiterate that everybody who signs up by December 23rd and pays the premium by December 31st will have coverage. They emphasize that when you get to the end of the process, you'll see a big orange screen that says you still need to pay for your insurance in order to be enrolled.

And once they see that orange screen, they should be contacted by an insurer that they chose to -- for their coverage. If they're not contacted by that insurer, officials are telling me the customers and the consumers need to call their insurers and get in touch with insurance companies to make sure that their information was transmitted and that they will, in fact, be able to pay and get covered by January 1st.

ACOSTA: All right. So, for Obamacare, one big test this weekend, another to follow on the back end. Thanks very much to our Chris Frates in Washington digging into this.

The merger of American Airlines and US Airways gets the green light. A short time ago, a federal bankruptcy judge dismissed a suit brought by a group of passengers that could have blocked the deal. The combined company will be the world's largest airline. The merger becomes official on December 9th, so not far away.

Switching gears here, something foul is going on at the White House today. We're not talking scandal. We're talking turkey. President Obama continues a White House tradition, the pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back on this day before Thanksgiving.

So will it be Caramel or Popcorn? President Obama is expected to reveal the official national Thanksgiving turkey in just a few minutes. These pictures live from the White House now. But even the runner-up is likely to get a reprieve from ending up on someone's table tomorrow. Jeanne Moos looks at the pomp and circumstance of presidential pardons that keeps some turkeys from getting gobbled up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What did one clumsy turkey say to the other at a Washington photo opportunity? Pardon me.

There they were in the ballroom of the posh Willard Hotel amid dang chandeliers, their snoods dangled as the press tried to get them to talk. It's Caramel versus Popcorn. The White House is running a contest asking people to vote on which should be the national Thanksgiving turkey. Some are comparing it to "The Hunger Games."

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ACTRESS, "THE HUNGER GAMES": There's 24 of us and only one comes out.

MOOS: But in this case, both come out alive, though only one gets the presidential pardon publicly.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You are hereby pardoned.

MOOS: The other is an alternative.

MOOS (on camera): Our money's on Popcorn. Plumper with a more robust gobble.

MOOS (voice-over): Caramel and Popcorn join other illustrious duos.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Pumpkin and Pecan.

Biscuits and Gravy.

OBAMA: Cobbler and Gobbler.

BUSH: Flyer and Fryer. MOOS: Caramel and Popcorn come from a Minnesota farm where 20 finalists were trained in this cottage. John Burkel practiced lifting them on to this table so they wouldn't do this when their big day came. But Popcorn and Caramel seem more relaxed than their human owners. The kids taught the photographers to whistle and trill to get the turkeys to gobble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you know how to speak turkey.

MOOS: The turkeys made the 1,500 mile drive to Washington in 27 hours. They've already outlived most of their compatriots.

JOHN BURKEL, RAISED CARAMEL AND POPCORN: The truth is, on my farm, I've never raised them past 14 weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, wow.

BURKEL: Because we eat them.

MOOS: Occasionally a pardoned bird gets peckish. The pardoner-in-chief expresses ambivalence.

OBAMA: Thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha, because I was planning to eat this sucker.

MOOS (on camera): And then there was the turkey that didn't get pardoned. The one that met his demise behind Sarah Palin's back.

MOOS (voice-over): It happened as she was giving an interview at a turkey farm shortly after she and John McCain were defeated. We'll spare you the gruesome part.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Oh, well this was - this was neat (ph).

MOOS: The people will decide whether Popcorn or Caramel gets the glory this year. At least this government website is working. It's no turkey.

Jeanne Moos, CNN. New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Well, that ceremony is supposed to get underway any minute now at the White House. And as soon as it begins, we're going to bring it to you live.

Meanwhile, back to the holiday travel jumble. We've got some tips to get you through the airport mess, plus a look ahead at what to expect when you're trying to get back from Thanksgiving at grandma's house.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Back to the weather now and the mess that is getting home for Thanksgiving this year. The worst of it is along the eastern seaboard and into the northeast. Snow, ice and heavy rains are making for a rough trek for millions of you. The good news? Some airports are getting back on schedule. But not all of them, which means delays and cancellations for some of you. And if you are driving, be careful, roads can be a dangerous mix of flooding and ice. Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is tracking the storm from our New York Weather Center.

Jennifer, we talked a little bit earlier about how it was getting a bit better over the next 24 hours. How is it looking now?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: About the same. It will continue to improve over the next 12 to 24 hours. By tomorrow morning, all of this should be out of here and we will be looking much, much better.

As for the ice and snow, most of it, as you can see, has tapered off, looking at mainly just a rain event across the East Coast into the northeast. Boston still getting very heavy rain. New York still getting heavy rain, as well as D.C. But it should be pushing out over the next couple of hours, so we'll steadily improve throughout the late evening hours into the overnight.

This low will continue to track up to the north. This is tonight at 8:00 in New York City. Should be looking much, much better. Still be dealing with some rain in Boston, but by tomorrow morning, we'll see the sunshine come back out. So Thanksgiving should actually be really nice across the northeast. It is just going to be very cold and windy. But at least there won't be any rain or snow to deal with.

So, wind gusts will be one of the issues we'll be dealing with as we head into Thanksgiving. Right now, 37-mile-per-hour wind gusts in Washington, D.C. New York about the same. And then we'll be peeking out by the wee hours of the morning, 37-mile-per-hour wind gusts here in the city. And the, by tomorrow, those wind gusts will be steadily dying down throughout the day.

Of course the big question, when is that going to happen? Will it happen in time for the Macy's Day Parade to fly those balloons? Well, the threshold is 34-mile-per-hour gusts. Right now forecasting possible 36-mile-per-hour gusts. I think it's going to be a last- minute decision.

SCIUTTO: Well let's hope we see Snoopy and Woodstock and all their friends up in the air over New York tomorrow. Sounds like good news. If you're going through it out there right now, hang in there, it looks like the next 24 hours are going to be much better.

Our own Ted Rowlands is at the United Airline Operation Center in Chicago. This is where they're directing a lot of this traffic around the country.

Ted, major wrench in holiday air travel. I imagine it's pretty busy where you are today.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely, Jim. Yes, as you can imagine, all hands on deck.

This is a really fascinating facility. You don't think about it when you're just traveling. Thirteen hundred people work here. We're in the Sears Tower, the Willis Tower, on the 27th floor. And it's a 24/7 operation. Of course, all hands on deck on a day like today, one of the busiest travel days of the year. And they're tracking literally every United flight that's in the air. There's a map up here. All the planes, obviously, are planes that are in the air. Most of the action, most of the concentration has been on the eastern seaboard because of the weather issues. But so far so good. Only about 30 flights were canceled today. And by and large, most passengers, there have been some delays, but most passengers have been able to get where they are going, whether it's grandma's house or someone else.

This is Jim Deyoung (ph), operations manager here.

And, basically, it was good news because there was a lot of worry earlier.

JIM DEYOUNG, OPERATIONS MANAGER: Yes. So, Ted, actually the system's running a little bit better than we anticipated. Weather on the East Coast, while still a little sloppy, a little windy, a little rainy, not as bad as we thought. So delays are a little bit less. Now we're seeing some snow starting to move into the D.C. area, so we'll be watching that really closely.

ROWLANDS: And they have their open weather department, maybe not as nice as the CNN Weather Center, but, look, their own weather forecasters and they're monitoring the weather in detail.

Jim, as you were saying, there's the potential for some ice. We've seen some planes already coming in with ice on the wings. They had to be de-iced.

DEYOUNG: Yes. So just minor de-icing at this point. Not a full scale, large scale de-icing that you would see in a big snowstorm, but it's something we're going to watch. And it does lead to some delays, but we'll manage through it today.

ROWLANDS: And one of the things that's very interesting, Jim, on this map over here, this board here, it's called a "taxi monitor." There are no planes up there, which is a good thing. When there were, and there have been throughout the day, that means you're sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off. And, you know, when you're sitting on the tarmac you think nobody cares. Well, they do care here, doing everything they can to get you up in the air.

It is really fascinating all of the behind the scenes work that goes on with ever flight whether it's crew scheduling, de-icing, taxiing, getting these planes to where they want to be. And the bottom line, the headline, I guess, Jim, is that so far so good today. The weather was not as bad as they predicted and all the flights are getting in on time, at least for now.

SCIUTTO: That's good to hear, Ted. I know any of us who have been in that position, you always feel like you're on your own there. No one cares when you're delayed or stuck on your plane somewhere. That's nice to hear.

ROWLANDS: Yes. SCIUTTO: Do they - as you're watching it there -

ROWLANDS: They forgot about us.

SCIUTTO: I just wondered, do they - when they see a plane delayed, do they have the ability to send another plane? How do they respond when these flights get canceled and delayed and you're stuck on the runway? How do they make it better?

ROWLANDS: Well, they're jockeying different resources from place to place. You know, when they have a cancellation, they'll put planes in areas where they can get them in. They added a few routes today because they were figuring that there was going to be problems on the East Coast. So they put some planes in place to accommodate those passengers.

I mean, they're literally doing everything. When something comes up, they know about it. With -- if somebody gets sick on an airplane, they know about it. They'll deal with it. They have doctors on standby. Anything, any problem you can think of that you have as a passenger, they know about it. And if you're dealing with it, they're dealing with it here.

SCIUTTO: That's great. Well, that's our own Ted Rowlands at the United Airline Operations Center in Chicago, mission control for Thanksgiving holidays. Thanks very much, Ted.