Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Coverage of Mayor Updating NYC Response to Snowstorm; Blackout Looms for Packers; From the Frontlines of the Storm

Aired January 03, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. In this New Year, you've got a new mayor in New York and his first nor'easter. Mayor Bill De Blasio right now in Queens talking about the storm impacting millions. Let's listen in.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY: -- but I can also tell you, they're servicing their vehicle as we speak.

I can also tell you and I talked about it around the time of Sandy but I want to repeat it again publicly. In the days and weeks after Sandy, wherever I went all over the city, people who were affected by Sandy talked about all of the first responders that helped them. But there was a special love and appreciation they felt for the sanitation workers who did such an extraordinary job helping people get their lives back to normal. So I just want to thank you every one of you for what you're doing to help the city.

I want to thank Commissioner Dorothy for his extraordinary leadership. It would have been nice to have talked about how to handle a snowstorm in like an abstract exercise. But we didn't get to do that, we've got the real thing. And I want to thank you Commissioner for your great leadership and team work with all the other agencies.

I want to thank my good friend Harry Nespotli (ph) of Local 831 representing all the sanitation workers of this city. I want to thank him for his friendship and leadership. I want to thank council Member Liz Crowley. Now this is your district yes.

LIZ CROWLEY, COUNCIL MEMBER: Yes.

DE BLASIO: Yes right on the border. OK right on the border with Council Member Van Bramer the two good friends I worked with for many years. I want to thank them for their leadership and for being here today as we update the people.

The city council members and I can say this from personal experience, council members are one of the front line leaders -- council members are out there in the communities informing people of what's going on. I can tell you, during any crisis like this, people call their local council office looking for help, looking for directions. So I want to thank you for the leadership that you're showing.

All right. Well, we can safely say we've had our first significant snowfall of the New Year. It appears at this moment that storm has passed. It's left us just a little short of 10 inches of snow. But obviously a lot of dislocation has been caused and we're doing a lot to make sure that we are responding as we speak.

You know even though the snow has ended, the travel conditions are obviously still very, very difficult. So I want to pick up where we were yesterday. I want to say that the most important thing is that people should not be on the roads today if there's any way they can help it. I want to emphasize that for several reasons. Before, I just talk about the safety reason, I want to reference back these good people who are working so hard to clear the roads and keep things safe.

I also had the honor last night of stopping by my home garage at BK6 garage in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. And you have to realize how hard these guys are working. And we can help them by getting out of their way so they can clear the streets.

So I want to say to my fellow New Yorkers, if you want safe, clear streets, stay home and let these good folks at sanitation do their job to clear the streets. Obviously, the other reason to stay home is for safety. It's very slick out there. It's hard to drive out there. The wind, the ice, there's a lot of blowing snow still, so that's going to affect visibility.

If you do not need to travel today, please stay home. I'll say it again. If you do not need to travel today, please stay home. If you do have to travel, take mass transit. Yes, there will be some delays, but it will be safe and it will help us to get the city 100 percent back in full running order.

So we want people to stay off the streets. But in the meantime, I have to tell you the extraordinary work of the sanitation department. I am so appreciative to all the members of New York's strongest for what they've been doing. It's working. You can see as you go out there the ex-extraordinary impact they've had already.

Members of the Sanitation Department are now continuing to work 12- hour shifts. And it's tough work let me assure you. And they will continue 12-hour shifts until snow removal is complete. They have a pretty daunting task 6,200 miles of roadways to cover. But they're doing a great job of it.

As of 4:00 a.m., and I'm an expert at the conditions as of 4:00 a.m. because we had a 4:00 a.m. conference call to discuss the school situation. I was one of the most informed people in New York City at 4:00 a.m. this morning. As of 4:00 a.m., there are nearly 2,500 sanitation, DOT, DEP and parks plows out on the streets. I want to thank all those agencies for their cooperation and making their equipment available under the leadership of the Sanitation Department.

Again, the snow began to taper off around 8:00 a.m., but there will be the problem of blowing snow. The wind conditions are substantial. We're going to definitely see some serious gusts so there will be blowing snow throughout the day. And that blowing snow, of course, makes the work of sanitation and other agencies harder because they move snow. And then in some cases it blows right back onto the street so they have to keep going over again and again. But that being said, the statistics of what they've done so far are entirely -- entirely impressive and every New Yorker should be grateful when you hear this -- 100 percent of primary roads have been plowed; 92 percent of secondary roads; 93 percent of tertiary roads. So those are extraordinary level of performance under tough conditions. Sanitation Department --

WHITFIELD: All right New York Mayor, Bill De Blasio with his first big challenge in his term with the big nor'easter dumping about 10 inches of snow. He said, he said while the snow has ended, travel conditions continue to be difficult. So he is of course imploring people, if you don't need to venture out, just simply stay home instead and let the workers do their jobs.

But if you have to head out, he is encouraging people to use that mass transit. We'll keep a close watch on New York City and all of the northeast as it endures a big winter storm barreling in, in this 2014. Much more from the NEWSROOM, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. Is this what you are facing this morning? It is for about 100 million Americans. Nearly one in three of a in fact a howling nor'easter plowing across the eastern half of the country. Dumping a whole lot of snow causing many, many problems including thousands of flights have been canceled. And a major metro areas throughout the northeast really at a standstill.

Laurie Segall is braving some beautiful, it is beautiful out there but it is you know difficult and treacherous as well extreme weather in Chatham, Massachusetts. So Laurie, there have been a lot of trucks that actually have been able to make their way behind you. But then there have been a few tech issues that you too have been experiencing?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Absolutely, you know, it's funny Fredricka, I joke I always wanted to visit Cape Cod. And this is not exactly how I envisioned it. But it is beautiful now that the sun has come out and you know but the winds are pretty bad last night, they're not as bad here at Chatham Massachusetts. I mean we are in a coastal town.

But you know, the snow, now that the sun has come up and we look at the snow, it got a lot of snow -- we got a lot of snow here -- about 15 inches.

And I actually want to show you this store front behind me because this store front behind me looks like this. But we were actually able to dig up a picture of what it looked like in the summer. And if you look at that, you can just there's such a difference. And you know we've also been taking some behind the scene shots with our crew and our producer and our photo journalist.

Everything from our frozen satellite truck which earlier we were having some technical issues as you mentioned because our satellite trucks essentially froze. We couldn't go live, we had to figure out how to go live with a mi-fi card and a laptop. We also -- I think there might be a photo of our photo journalist is not going to be happy of his sleeping. Because in between these live shots, is what you do and you probably notice better than a lot of folks what you got to do is you just got to take a nap.

And then we also look at our truck. And if you were to look at our truck right now, I'm standing right next to it, you can actually see icicles forming all over. And I'll tell you this, we spend a lot of time in here and between. And we were actually thinking, we've got to move this pretty soon. Because even though the weather is getting a little bit better, it's still cold we're still seeing that snow come in because it is a coastal town -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Oh boy, oh, yes. You know the perils of covering some nor'easter. It's not good, not comfortable. But you know you are giving some perspective of how difficult it is to really carry on business out in the elements.

So have you seen any passersby -- have you seen anyone who lives in the area who has actually ventured out?

SEGALL: You know we're right now actually beginning to see it. At first, we only snow plows coming through. And now we're seeing a couple of locals from the town. They have this tradition where last night they all go to the same bar and celebrate a storm. It was actually very interesting to go and they are all just sitting there drinking and celebrating and they said this is New England. You know we can handle this.

And apparently they did. Everybody is kind of beginning to come out, you know. I still am kind of one of the only people on main street. But we are seeing more people -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: I'm sure you'll have company soon. Laurie Segall thanks so much. You and the crew stay toasty as best you can.

All right still to come, Green Bay Packers fans have to step up today. But they need to buy unsold seats for Sunday's playoff game at Lambeau Field if, you know, they want to watch it on television for those who don't have tickets.

All right we'll have much more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right.

The Green Bay Packers making the playoffs. One month ago it didn't look possible. But Aaron Rodgers returned from injury to help lead the Packers to a win against the Chicago Bears Sunday and suddenly the team was playoff bound.

Just one problem for you fans in Green Bay in the Milwaukee area. If you don't have a ticket to Sunday's game at Lambeau Field, then you may not get to see it. The game will be blacked out locally unless the final 3,000 tickets are sold by today. Jay Sorgi from WIsports.com and the Packers radio network joining us now. So Jay there's been talk that Sunday's game could be the coldest ever for an NFL game. Probably in large part why people are not buying those tickets so quite a quandary now. What are fans to do?

JAY SORGI FROM WISPORTS.COM: It is quite a quandary but we've just gotten an update in fact in the last few minutes from Packers.

WHITFIELD: What?

SORGI: They're now down to less than 1,000 tickets that are still unsold for this game. So they still have six hours to sell that fewer than a thousand tickets. I believe they'll probably get it down without much of an issue.

But there are many people who normally would be willing to go to a football game. But when you tell them that the wind chills may be 20 to 30 below, the temperature should reside around zero or potentially lower. They're not as willing to sit for four hours outside and in many cases, drive two to three hours from the Milwaukee area to attend a game.

WHITFIELD: I wonder what it's going to boil down to. Some people are willing to take one for the team they'll buy the tickets and just won't show up just so they can stay home and everybody would be able watch the game on television. What do you think about that equation?

SORGI: That's a possibility in some cases. But I do think that there are everyone from just individuals to corporate entities who are going to potentially make sure this game gets on television so that the millions of people in the Milwaukee Green Bay area will be able to watch.

WHITFIELD: Meantime this just might be one of the coldest, if not the coldest, right, NFL game on record. This too might be considered a real ice bowl?

SORGI: It could get close to that level. The latest forecast that we've seen for kickoff is actually now above zero, about two degrees. Nowhere near as cold as the ice bowl of what you're seeing on your screen right there; 13 below the temperature was at kickoff for that game. The wind chills; nearly 50 below.

There are stories of the cowboys players when they woke up that morning, one of them threw a glass of water at the window in his hotel room and the water froze before it reached the window. That's how cold it is. And fans are going to have to somehow be able to deal with that let alone the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers who don't play in that type of whether -- shall we say that.

WHITFIELD: Insane. All right. Jay Sorgi -- thanks so much. Keep us posted on all of that. And all the best to the fans and players, no matter what ends up happening out there.

SORGI: Absolutely. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. More than 100 million people in 22 states are fighting bitter cold; below zero wind chills and near whiteout blizzard conditions. But some of them like CNN iReporter Megan Tracy here at a snowy Chicago sue are braving the conditions to take amazing photos to share with the world here. How the animals are enduring.

And check out these pix that the viewers are tweeting into us. A rather rough start to the day in the Bronx -- New York there; and then in Brooklyn, a little dog exploring the snow this morning on his morning walk -- hopefully his owner is nearby. Don't leave your pets outside.

And do you have a great picture of the storm that you want to share? Send them to us at #cnnweather.

All right. New this hour, the Obama administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court not to extend an exemption for religious non-profit groups opposed to Obamacare's contraception coverage. CNN Justice Reporter Evan Perez joining us live now. A deadline has come and gone?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Right. The Justice Department just in the last hour filed their legal brief. And they're asking the court not to extend a temporary injunction that had prevented the administration or prevents the administration from fining groups that don't provide the contraception coverage.

Now, this is a fight between the administration and a Catholic charity in Colorado called the Little Sisters for the Poor. It doesn't sound like very good optics for the administration. But they say it's a simple fight over what it means to fill out a government form.

The way the government sees this, is what they're asking these affiliated -- these religious organizations to do is simply decline to cover contraception because they have religious objections to it. And that allows their insurance provider to then provide the contraception coverage to provide birth control coverage or not. The way the Little Sisters view it, they view it as something of a permission slip. This is, again, a fight over whether this is -- this is a religious freedom issue or whether it's a health care issue, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then is it clear whether the Supreme Court could have a ruling on it as early as today or will this take some time?

PEREZ: Well, it's not clear. They may well decide today whether or not to extend this injunction for a longer period so that they can then, you know, have this entire legal fight be completed. But it's not clear whether or not they're going to decide that today. So we're keeping an eye on that. And we'll probably hear some more later today.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. Evan Perez, I appreciate that. And we'll have much more in the NEWSROOM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: For about 100 million Americans, a massive nor'easter slamming the Atlantic coast is both miserable. The snow is expected to taper off later on today as it heads into Canada. Some areas like New York Central Park got about six inches. Other areas, such as northern Massachusetts are digging out from two feet. And for some of our correspondents from CNN affiliates across the region covering the storm has been both exhilarating and exhausting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Temperatures been just about three below here in wells. Sustained wind out of the north about 20 to 30 miles an hour and that means we have wind chills about 30 below. That's not even taking into account the big gusts that that come right through here and blow all the snow right into us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That blizzard warning past but it still feels very much like blizzard, conditions here. Light snowing continuing to fall here and Hampton Beach and the wins omnipresent in New Hampshire, continuing to whip up the snow here and people also dealing with that bitter cold. Wind chill that are about minus 20 degrees below zero.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course, we are waiting for that noon high tide. But you know, it's hard to think that far ahead when you're out here dealing with this wind and this amount of snow right now. It really just is kind of miserable out here to be honest with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: At least she's honest about it. What a sport.

All right. So what was your reaction the first time you saw snow? Ever wanted to see that joy through the eyes of a child? Here is one very happy 12-year-old celebrating his dream come true with an iReport his family sent in to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOU FERNANDEZ (PH), IREPORTER: Reporting live from Indianapolis, Indiana, you can see we're in a major snowstorm. Snow piling up in this parking lot. You can barely see the ground as you may well know. This is Lou Fernandez signing off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABRAHAM: All right. I think he's got a future. That future is right now.

All right, check out these iReport photos from New Jersey where feels like 16 degrees right now. Big bur.

All right. Thanks so much for joining us. Stay warm as best you can. Happy Friday, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: Hi everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to a very chilly New York City. On Friday, January 3rd. We are live out on Columbus circle in the heart of New York City.

Hello, Columbus circle from our tower cam. That is one pretty picture. It's nice when you look at it from the bird's eye. Central Park couldn't look cleaner and more beautiful for a walk in the park. But trust me, the New York City skyline is lovely. It's what in between all of those buildings that is problematic. There are 1,700 plows working it.

5,000 sanitation workers working it -- trying to clear all of this with 7,000 tons of salt to try to melt all the snow.